Does anyone in Chicago really believe that the best thing for our city’s school kids is another 21 politicians?

“CTU remained a constant challenge for Jackson, dealing with a teachers strike in the fall of 2019, despite teachers receiving a generous contract proposal from the beginning; the union pushing for an elected school board, which if passed by lawmakers and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker will make the job of the next CEO even more treacherous; and the union winning from Pritzker the right to strike more easily, locking kids out of school buildings. For Jackson, it had to be difficult to focus on kids’ educations when the adults in the system kept prioritizing themselves.”

The chosen developer must commit to keeping the Clark/Lake CTA station agreement with the city and the mass transit agency and commit to naming at least a portion of the development in honor of the late former Gov. James “Big Jim” Thompson, who died last year.

The groups say a study of Chicago police data found that over a nearly 22-month period ending in mid-April, almost 90% of ShotSpotter alerts didn’t result in officers reporting evidence of shots fired or of any gun crime. “These deployments create an extremely dangerous situation for residents, prompting unnecessary and hostile police encounters, and creating the conditions for abusive police tactics that have plagued Chicago for decades.”

Said Gov. JB Pritzker: “Selling the property provides a unique opportunity to maximize taxpayer savings, create thousands of union jobs, generate millions of dollars in real estate taxes to benefit the City of Chicago and spur economic development.

The department insists those numbers may be artificially low because they aren’t tracking officers who received the vaccine outside of city-hosted vaccination sites. Experts say a low vaccination rate for officers who interact with people throughout the city everyday is dangerous for public health.

“It’s all part of the dishonest media narrative to paint cops as bad, even when they’re doing good, and it’s killing the Department, the City of Chicago, and members of the community.”

Catlyn Savado, a youth organizer with the Cops Out Of CPS campaign, called on CPS to establish “school environments that don’t leave students behind…“We have been told the only solution is being back in the building and normalcy, [but] normal doesn’t work, it’s never worked.”

The vacancies leave Chicago Public Schools without three key leadership positions. Chief Operating Officer Arne Rivera also is stepping down. The departures come only months after Chicago schools’ No. 2, LaTanya McDade, announced she would be leaving Chicago to lead Virginia’s second largest school district.

As part of her Invest South/West effort, the city has posted requests for proposals involving 11 stretches of well-traveled commercial streets with more to come. Areas covered include Bronzeville, New City, Englewood and South Chicago. Some properties the city owns; others are in private hands. All could be put to better use.

Elaine Allensworth, the director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, said, “We don’t know at this point the extent to which students might be behind where they otherwise would be. It’s really elevated this concern, but it’s elevated it to the point where people are saying this is a fact that all of these students are really far behind, and we have this lost generation, when we don’t actually know that that’s the case, and there are reasons to think that’s not the case.”

As a federal moratorium gets set to expire, experts fear many homeowners could lose their residences.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has lost key players in the police reform arena as she grapples with fallout from multiple CPD controversies, blown consent decree deadlines and simmering debate in the City Council over civilian oversight of the police.

Senate President Harmon says his intention is to enact an all-elected plan this spring, perhaps after a transition period—the mayor’s objections notwithstanding.

Two of the deaths were stabbings, Chicago police said.