Steve Warmbir

Steve Warmbir has more than two decades of experience in investigative journalism, first as a reporter, then as an editor.

He's produced dozens of investigations over the years for the Chicago Sun-Times, including the Hired Truck series. In those stories, Steve and colleague Tim Novak exposed how the city of Chicago rented out private dump trucks, many owned by people with political clout or ties to organized crime, which were paid to sit and do nothing at city job sites. The series killed off the city program, which had cost taxpayers $40 million a year, and federal prosecutors charged more than 40 people in the ensuing scandal. The series won a George Polk Award, among others, for local reporting.

More recently, as an editor, Steve oversaw many of the Sun-Times most prominent, recent investigations, including the series of stories that detailed the federal investigations of former House Speaker Michael Madigan and Ald. Ed Burke.

After working in a variety of editing positions, Steve was named the managing editor of the Sun-Times in January 2019 and became interim editor-in-chief in September 2020, a position he held for nearly two years. During Steve’s tenure as interim editor-in-chief, staff members won more local, state and national awards for the Sun-Times than in recent memory, including 17 Lisagor awards and three National Headliner Awards. The Sun-Times shared in several awards in partnership with the BGA for their drug court series.

A lifelong Chicago resident, he lives on the Northwest Side with his family.