Good morning, Chicago.

After someone is charged with murder and their case heads to a courthouse, you might assume it takes about a year — maybe two — to work out whether they are actually guilty.

That may be true in other places, but not in Cook County.

Here, we have a system where delay is the norm. The typical murder case lingers more than four years before reaching resolution. Delays were growing before the pandemic, then got even worse.

Our investigation, “Stalled Justice,” takes an exhaustive look at those delays, outlining their root causes and telling the stories of the people most affected when court cases take so much time.

Defendants wait years for their days in court. Victims’ families wait years for some type of closure. Taxpayers must spend tens of millions of dollars a year in extra jail costs.

This problem isn’t new. For half a century, experts and advocates have been pointing out what’s wrong.

At the same time, the problem has never been worse. Judges and lawyers in New York and Los Angeles told us they are surprised at how lengthy Cook County’s delays are. One set of experts said the issue has gotten so out of control that the state should consider a takeover of the Cook County courts.

We’ll explore all of that in the coming days, starting with a look at how the courts are failing at their most essential function: ensuring fair and timely justice.

— Joe Mahr and Megan Crepeau

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

Subscribe to more newsletters | COVID-19 tracker | Compare home values by ZIP code | Puzzles & Games | Daily horoscope | Ask Amy | Today’s eNewspaper edition

There are currently about 5,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline in the United States, much of it in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming.

But that figure could increase rapidly, due to efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and prevent the worst effects of climate change. According to one study, the United States could have up to 69,000 miles of CO2 pipeline by 2050.

After increasing for six years, the national homeownership rate for single women ages 25 to 35 declined to 24.5% in 2022, down from 28.6% in 2021, according to new data from Zillow. Homeownership among single men of the same age range increased by 2.7 percentage points to 33.1% in 2022.

In four weeks of testimony, jurors in the “ComEd Four” bribery trial have heard from a top staffer to ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan, current and former legislators from Madigan’s Democratic caucus, and a ComEd executive at the center of an alleged plot to bribe the once-mighty speaker and help advance the utility’s agenda in Springfield.

But as the prosecution’s case comes to a close this week, jurors are expected to hear the earthiest view yet of Madigan’s vaunted political organization — from a guy who never would have been pegged by anybody as a government witness.

Equal treatment for men’s and women’s sports teams is part of complying with Title IX, the 50-year-old federal law banning sex-based discrimination in government-funded education programs.

Of the three requirements to comply with Title IX regulations, Northwestern fares far better than some schools in the Big Ten and nationally, but data the university provided shows a lack of financial investment in women’s programs.

A new record store is coming to South Side Chicago.

Incubated under the Rebuild Foundation’s Creative Entrepreneurship Program, Miyagi Records will open in April in the Washington Park neighborhood’s Arts Block, a group of cultural and commercial spaces along Garfield Boulevard.