Newsroom intelligence

On Our Radar

We read every Kankakee County land sale, the village, city and county board agendas, and the local news archive, and watch for money moving before a project is announced. This page shows what we're watching and why, with the public record behind every line.

Track record: records first, headlines later

Checked out and cleared

Resolved as routine

Leads we ran down that turned out not to be a development story. We keep them here so nobody asks twice.

    Corrections

      How this works

      What we watch

      Not wired in yet: .

      Rules we follow

      • Deeds over rumors. Every land lead cites the county document number. Anything we infer is labeled as inference.
      • Agenda ≠ outcome. An item "on the agenda" is not "approved" until there is a recorded vote.
      • Buyer, not tax roll. The county tax roll lags sales by months, so we key every lead to the buyer named on the deed.
      • No private homes. We track companies, trusts buying commercial land, and public bodies, not families buying houses or farms.
      • Leads, not accusations. Most leads turn out to be routine. When one does, we move it to the cleared list and say so.

      Know what's going in?

      Surveyors, dumpsters, a "sold" sign, a rumor at the counter: tips are how deeds become stories.

      Send a tip →