The minimum wage in Cook County will increase from $13 an hour to $13.35 an hour for non-tipped workers, and from $7.20 an hour to $7.40 an hour for tipped employees.

Data show that between April 2012 and December 2016 — the last term of former State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez — prosecutors refused to bring charges in 108 of the CPD’s 896 cleared murders — about 12%. But etween January 2017 and April 2022 — after Kim Foxx ousted Alvarez as State’s Attorney — prosecutors declined to bring charges in 416 of 1,396 cases — about 30% of all murder cases deemed cleared by the CPD in that period.

School District 200 responded to an earlier report on this topic with a statement that reads, in part, “As part of the Board of Education’s strategic plan, the OPRFHS Grading and Assessment Committee was formed to examine national research on objective, unbiased practices for determining whether students have mastered academic content…contrary to the title of the article, the district has not implemented, and has no intention of implementing, any grading and assessment policy based on race.”

“Many young adults on our nation’s college campuses may be too busy to care or notice, but the larger institutional drift into homogeneity is one that doesn’t receive sufficient attention or critical response. The students at the Chicago Thinker have, however, established a beachhead in that critical void.”

“It all comes down to Chicago’s so-called ‘business community’ and the ‘donor class’ that were so afraid of Daley that they wet the carpets when he became angry with them…They have no confidence in Lightfoot. They already know what the Social Justice Warrior policies of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and her protégé, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx have done to the city.”

“Commissioner Wendt has flagrantly violated the Cook County Ethics Ordinance by hiring her first cousin into a senior position in her office, and she has steadfastly refused to comply with the order requiring her to correct that violation,” Thomas Szromba, chair of the Board of Ethics, wrote in a statement. “Orders from the Board of Ethics cannot simply be ignored.”

“In the past, politicians in cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have proven to be the gun lobby’s greatest asset. They have pushed ill-considered legislation and litigation that only served to create precedent against gun control. The same pattern seems to be playing out as leaders like Biden and Harris voice sweeping, unsupportable statements about guns and constitutional protections.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said she plans to run for reelection, but has not made a formal announcement. Other candidates in the running include Ald. Ray Lopez, Businessman Willie Wilson and State Rep. Kam Buckner.

Suzanne Carlberg-Racich, a DePaul University associate professor of public health, says that the incline may have stemmed from pandemic-related mental health issues tied to isolation, job losses and falling incomes.

The perception that crime is rampant is a major factor, agents and others say, but there are others, all inter-related, including the slow return to downtown offices, the decline of retail and the rise in property taxes. “It’s decimated demand,” says Dan Straus, the Dream Town Realty agent representing the Zugermans’ three-bedroom, 2,880-square-foot condo. “Seeing news reports about people getting pick-pocketed, carjackings, gangs of kids messing with people who are just walking down the street—that absolutely has started to impact home prices.”

“The nation’s single family home prices rose 20.6% in the last year, which is up from 20.0% last month. In contrast, Chicago area home prices only rose 13.0%, which is down from 13.2% last month. And that caused the Chicago area to drop to 3rd from last place among the largest 20 metro areas tracked by these folks. And places like Tampa are still registering 34.8% gains. Sad.”