CPS said the breach was a result of a ransomware attack on a technology vendor for CPS, Battelle for Kids, and occurred on a server used to store the CPS student and staff information. “There were no Social Security numbers, no financial information, no health data, no current course or schedule information, no home addresses, and no course grades, standardized test scores, or teacher evaluation scores exposed in this incident.”

“This is a very big decision,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference. However, Lightfoot made it clear that if the City Council wants to avoid having to hike property taxes in an election year, they should act fast.

Initial estimates put the deficit at $866 million; city finance officials are now saying that gap will only be $305.7 million. Much of the money will come from increased revenue from real estate taxes in 2021; Federal COVID funds also are contributing to the additional funds.

That would be enough to cover the annual salaries of about 24 officers making $82,458 each, the city’s going rate for cops with 18 months on the job. But the $2 million annual payment will be cut in half once the permanent site in River West opens, according to the draft host agreement, with half going toward public safety and half to “​​community service projects” picked through the local alderperson’s office.

Steve Huntley: “Word is that Mayor Lori Lightfoot is leaning toward restoring two statues of trailblazing sailor-explorer and history-maker Christopher Columbus to city parks…Monuments pay tribute to Columbus for the qualities that made him stand out from the savagery of that time — and also for exemplifying the best attributes of that era, most notably the quest for knowledge manifest in the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration.”

CPD Supt. David Brown rejected the idea the Millennium Park limits on youths played into the shooting or the moving of the gathering place for younger people downtown. He noted the corner has been a “longstanding” problem spot. “This is a gun crime crisis in our city and our country,” Brown said. Because someone in the crowd who was involved in the argument had a weapon, gunfire erupted.

It’s not the first time security checkpoints have been used at Downtown parks, but it’s typically for large events — not for every day life. While the checkpoints received backlash from Chicagoans online (One user wrote: “What an utter embarrassment and shame for our city.”), most visitors in the park said they didn’t mind the extra security measures.

Early indications of a problem came around 9:45 p.m. when 911 callers reported a group of about ten teens fighting near the intersection of Rush and Chicago. Officers who went to the area said they dispersed a crowd of about “30 youths” who had been “running around” the intersection of State and Wabash.

It started when Ald. Ray Lopez, a mayoral challenger, asked Chicago Police Lt. Mike Kapustianyk how many curfew citations CPD has issued. The precipitous decline was staggering — from 2,453 in 2018 to 1,804 in 2019 to 635 in 220 to just 364 citations last year and 98 so far this year.

“As bad as the process has been in terms of transparency, even more offensive is taxpayer-funded administration mouthpieces presenting the casino as a solution for the city’s seemingly intractable financial problems. It’s history repeating itself. The mayor and her allies are outright lying about the two claimed important benefits of the casino: that it provides a solution to the city’s worsening pension crisis and that it will enable the city to avoid a property tax increase. It will do neither.”

Alisa Kaplan, executive director of Reform for Illinois, whose board Lightfoot previously served on, said “it’s not surprising that Mayor Lightfoot hasn’t followed through on all her ambitious campaign promises — few politicians do. Things always look different once you get to an office — your own sense of self-protection kicks in, and you realize it’s not as easy as it looks to make change.”

Police said the mass shooting took place just after 10:40 p.m. outside of the McDonald’s at Chicago Avenue and State Street. A McDonald’s window was shattered during the shooting.