“Look, my goal is to make sure we never shut down again,” Lightfoot said. “It was devastating on our economy, on small-business people, on employees. If we have to do that, certainly I’m not going to take that off the table, but my goal is that we never get to that place.”

The inspector general’s office said it alerted CPS to the overlapping government funding in a September 2020 memo that led to written agreements for bus vendors to repay CPS about $3 million. The district has since recouped just over $2 million, according to the inspector general report, which summarized alleged CPS fraud, employee misconduct and financial mismanagement in the last fiscal year.

“As in much of the rest of the world, where keeping kids in school has been the top priority, the vast majority of Chicagoans are willing to play their part to keep public schools open. The union must be willing to do the same and neither prey on often irrational fears, nor exploit this moment for its own political gain.”

“I think the level of crime that is occurring in the city of Chicago right now is really pushing families to move elsewhere,” said Gwendolene Newton, president of the Dearborn Realtist Board. “There’s a migration of people that are moving to the suburbs – the south suburbs have seen an uptick. There’s also been some forms of relocation where, you know, folks are actually looking out of state and applying for jobs out of state and have decided to relocate.”

“I am convinced we can come up with a solution before we get to that point (of a walkout),” CEO Pedro Martinez said. “I think we can develop metrics, where we can be nimble at a school that is struggling with COVID cases, where we have a lot of staff under quarantine…And I just feel that in a district our size that is the best way to manage.”

“But the new mandate is raising confusion. Vaccinated persons are being hit with Omicron, the latest COVID strain. While they may be able to show proof of vaccinations, their passports do not assure anyone they are safe to be around or that they could spread COVID-19.”

“A dynamic adaptive reuse presents a wonderful opportunity to return this prominent lakefront building and a portion of the lakefront to use by Chicagoans and compensate for decades during which it has been reserved largely for out-of-town conventioneers. Additionally, the Rivers Chicago McCormick plan would likely help boost McCormick Place’s ability to attract and retain major conventions, which Las Vegas has slowly eroded over the past few decades.”

Most businesses said as long as they’re not dealing with capacity limits – which really impact their businesses – everything else is manageable right now.

“In July 2020, the head of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (said) charter school operators needed the forgivable loans to help pay for new expenses related to remote learning, including spending on computers and to connect students to the internet. But ultimately, the inspector general found that the money was not needed to prevent layoffs, and there’s evidence that some of the charter schools used it to build cash reserves. The inspector general found that at least eight charter schools had more than $1 million in reserves and that a handful had double the amount of cash on hand

“In neighborhoods like West Garfield Park — those with high levels of poverty and mostly minority residents — the level of violence has likely never been worse…Meanwhile, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her City Council critics are at odds over what to do to stem the violence, and experts say the city will need to confront a history of disinvestment that has for decades left the same pockets of the city facing nightmarish levels of bloodshed.”

In 2021, 86 homicides were recorded with victims under the age of 18. Of those, 12 were under the age of 10.

Chicago’s speed cameras in 10 months churned out nearly as many tickets as the prior 3 years combined, handing every city household 2.2 tickets. The 8-fold spike came immediately after the city started ticketing at 6 mph over the limit.

The West Side man, who is in his 30s and has convictions for car thefts, spoke on the condition of anonymity: “Mainly, most of it is [because people are stealing cars to use in] drive-bys or joyriding, No. 1 being drive-bys — whether they want to do drive-by shootings or whether they want to do kidnappings, hold somebody for ransom or just do simple robberies.”

This action is likely to trigger a showdown between the union and the school district, which could lock teachers out of their remote classrooms and prevent them from teaching. This would effectively shut down the school district.

“On Tuesday, the CTU plans to call a meeting of its House of Delegates, elected members who represent their schools, to discuss a citywide action. The union will also hold an electronic vote of its members on whether they approve of working remotely without CPS permission. If both are in favor, the union plans to take action and do so starting Wednesday, demanding better COVID-19 safety protocols, including increased testing and access to better masks.”

Two of the victims were under the age of 18.