In a little-noticed development, consultants from Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co., working through a Chicago civic organization, have effectively staffed working groups that draft proposed rules and submit them to Gov. J.B Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot for final approval.

All three of the metro area’s transit agencies have lost millions of dollars as a result of ridership drops, and expect to receive about $1.4 billion in federal aid under the cororavirus relief package.

Among other things, the resolution states “Cook County shall redirect money from the failed and racist systems of policing, criminalization, and incarceration that have not kept our communities safe, and will instead invest that money in public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably across the County, but especially in Black and Brown communities most impacted by violence and incarceration.”

Lightfoot added that she doesn’t support changing the city’s observance of the Columbus Day holiday by renaming it Indigenous People’s Day, and wants to “not try to erase history, but to embrace it full-on.”

“This is something that I have been advocating for for some time, but we’ve not been able to make progress with the state, which is unfortunate,” she said.

The Criminal Registration Unit, located inside Chicago Public Safety Headquarters, has been closed since March 13. Sonvicted sex offenders do not have update their registration until it reopens. Chicago Police officers have also been directed not to arrest an individual solely for being late to register “due to the present circumstance.”

More people may take their own vehicles to work. As businesses reopen, freight traffic has increased with up to 50% more deliveries being made. For the seventh straight week, gas prices have jumped, with Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois reporting the highest spikes in the country.

The rules were included in a package of ethics reforms backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot that were approved by the City Council 50-0 in July as federal investigations shadowed City Hall.

The layoffs amount to 1.3% of all teachers and 4.2% of support staff across the district. CPS said it has opened far more positions and will now begin hiring to fill more than 1,900 open spots across the district before classes resume in the fall.

The union tweeted the image hours after a measure to remove police officers from Chicago Public Schools and end the district’s $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department failed to advance in City Council.

Under Southwest Side Ald. Matthew O’Shea’s push, the department’s budget could never be cut below the $1.8 billion it received in 2020 without a binding referendum approved by Chicago voters. O’Shea’s ward includes Mt. Greenwood, Morgan Park and Beverly, home to many city employees including police officers.

Ald. George Cardenas (12th), chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy, also called on City Council to have a hearing or hearings where it would look at solutions for combatting the urban heat island effect.

“This part of the contract was in place for the better part of 4 decades, now they’re making a decision on current environment. Current public policy. That’s not the way contractual rights are supposed to work. They’re basically bending to the will of current sentiment,” Chicago FOP President John Catanzara, Jr., said.

“Lightfoot may be a goddess of memes, and the media treats her well, but Chicago is all but broke. Aldermen are getting restless. They squawk among themselves, but they see Lopez push her, and Lightfoot knows the others will become bolder.”

Chicago is understaffed in this area of operating traffic lights, according to a new report from Inspector General Joe Ferguson. The city has four traffic signal engineers while federal recommendations say it should have 28, the report said. Also, Chicago has 27 traffic signal technicians, compared with a federal recommendation of 71.