“The bottom line is a budget Lightfoot claims is on solid ground and her critics say is a house of cards certain to come tumbling down”

Chicago water bill payments are down $20 million this year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration said months after the mayor announced the city would stop shutting off households’ water because of unpaid bills.

Comment: This article is a great example of how our press bears some of the responsibility for our fiscal crisis. This author ignored the Rhode Island decision on cutting pensions, which is the only decision on the point about a pension amendment, which he got wrong. Then there’s Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, saying “it’s a rational thing to do” but only after exploring all other avenues. The author didn’t bother disclosing that CTBA is a union-funded propaganda machine, and quoted nobody else.

First, the Chicago Teachers Union demanded more makeup days for time spent on the picket line – and they got some of them, exactly as they wanted.

But now, CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov has learned that teachers won’t be at work anyway on many of those days – and the Chicago Public Schools system is scrambling to find substitutes.

The new contract continues a moratorium on school closings despite plummeting student enrollment.

Rising commercial property tax assessments spark fears of big property tax hikes.

Today, the Near Northwest Side is the heartland of the liberal Noth Side. The Chicago Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has its headquarters in Logan Square. In the 2016 Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders’s strongest wards were on the Northwest Side. Three of the City Council’s six democratic socialists represent Northwest Side wards: Daniel LaSpata of the 1st, Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez of the 33rd, and Carlos Ramirez-Rosa of the 35th.

Shannon has partly blamed the rise in uncompensated care on other hospitals that send their uninsured patients his way, especially those who need expensive treatments. In recent months, he’s been vocal about imploring other hospitals to treat more people who don’t have insurance..

Besides facing financial pressures, Shannon has been caught up in a months-long volley with Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard. In June, Blanchard released a damning report that accused Cook County Health’s Medicaid insurance business, called CountyCare, of sitting on nearly $700 million in unpaid bills owed to hospitals and doctors.