This week, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush — co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers and longtime civil rights activist — announced he won’t seek reelection after representing Illinois’ 1st Congressional district for nearly 30 years. 🧵 But as the pundits & political profiles detail his storied career on behalf of Chicago’s Black residents, it’s also important to remember the ground-breaking reporting by the BGA over the years that prompted myriad ethics investigations into his campaign spending and finances.

Investigative reporting helps ensure governments in Illinois are more transparent, efficient and accountable, which is our mission at the BGA. In 2021, we told scores of stories from poor city oversight of unsafe buildings to unearthing secrets in billion-dollar programs. 🧵 “The Failures Before the Fires” revealed 61 people died in Chicago fires from 2014 through 2019 even though Chicago officials were warned — often repeatedly — of major fire safety issues in those buildings. bettergov.org/news/the-failu…

1/ Chicago recycling has long been trash.
But it’s not just that the city is bad at it, it’s also unfair depending on what company picks it up and where in the city it’s located. projects.bettergov.org/2018/recycling… 2/ Recycling efforts in Chicago began in the 90’s with the notorious $200 million program called Blue Bag. It was replaced in 2008 with the Blue Cart program and in 2011 @ChicagosMayor announced sweeping changes to it.