Joe Ferguson says Chicago is trimming fewer trees, more sporadically, and at a higher cost because city crews rely on 311 requests, instead of a grid system.

In August 2015, Chicago quietly shifted distracted driving tickets from administrative hearings to Traffic Court after being advised by its own attorneys that motorists caught talking on cellphones and texting behind the wheel were being denied due process.

Why, then, did City Hall continue to collect $3.2 million in fines from motorists whose tickets issued before then were “illegally” routed to administrative hearing officers and use those citations to suspend drivers licenses, deny permits and prohibit city employment for two more years?

The proposed FY2020 budget for the prosecutor’s office calls for adding 10 new positions to the unit that handles wrongful conviction claims, like the ones tied to Burge.

In total, the budget calls for about 22 new positions in the prosecutor’s office, including new positions to help with expungements based on the new Illinois law legalizing marijuana.

Comment: Yes, public unions, whatever you’d like.

Chicago Police Department detectives do not have direct phone lines or individual voicemail. Until recently, they weren’t provided with cell phones. They don’t have their own computers or even their own desks. Their offices are so far from assigned neighborhoods it might take more than an hour to reach a murder scene

Cook County isn’t far behind, though among Chicago’s metro-area counties it’s taking the smallest hit. That’s in large part because Cook County has the smallest proportion of homes whose property tax bills are over $10,000, the new limit for deducting state and local taxes on federal filings.

Of nearly 3,100 U.S. counties, Lake County ranks fifth for lost home value in the wake of the tax law changes, according to a list compiled by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and published earlier this month by ProPublica. Cook County ranks