Joe Ferguson’s 12-year run made him Chicago’s longest-serving watchdog. Now he wants to take a deeper look at the mayor’s office, city departments, the City Council, local government agencies under the mayor’s control — all to show it is “different from everywhere else” and how those differences “tie to our chronic ills.”

Twenty years ago, Chicago became the first city in the nation to pass a law requiring firms doing business with the city to disclose whether they profited from slavery. Designed to expose the horrors of the slave trade and its foundational role in America’s economy, the ordinance requires the city’s chief procurement officer to report annually to the Chicago City Council about the disclosures made by firms that provide goods or services to the city.

“Lightfoot chose her over-the-top rhetoric out of apparent frustration with parts of the city’s criminal justice landscape she cannot control: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans and a surge in violent crime that has vexed Chicago for the last two years. Laying blame won’t help. Lightfoot knows that, too. But with too few solutions and strategies to offer, this is where she often lands.”

For the fourth time in three years, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is changing deputy mayors for public safety in the middle of a violent crime wave.

“District attorneys have unilaterally decided what they will and will not prosecute, notwithstanding the laws on the books. And the recipe has been reproduced around the country: the explosion in violence in Cook County, Illinois, home to Chicago, owes in no small part to a 2017 bail reform law and prosecutor Kim Foxx’s approach.”

Although the parking meter lease is the deal aldermen and their constituents love to hate, Clint Krislov, director of IIT Chicago-Kent’s Center for Open Government law clinic, has argued that it “pales by comparison” to the Skyway deal. If investors unload it now for anywhere near the $4 billion they hope to get, it would only rub salt in the wound of Chicago taxpayers.

As its rebuilding efforts have lagged over the last 15 years, the CHA has repeatedly let its land be developed for purposes other than housing. It has sold or leased property for a nonprofit tennis academy, a charter school, a police station, medical facilities, movie production space and a supermarket, according to agency records. Federal officials have signed off on the land transactions.

Occupancy at hotels in the central business district last month averaged 68% and room rates averaged more than $239 per night, the highest marks for both metrics since late 2019, according to preliminary May data from hospitality data and analytics firm STR.

In a filing with the Circuit Court of Cook County, the Board of Elections cited a number of circumstances that led to the vacancies, including a wave of opt-outs from traditional polling places during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as accessibility issues and summer availability.

The Chicago City Council recently adopted an ordinance amending the Municipal Code of Chicago to require employers to provide training to employees and supervisors on sexual harassment prevention and bystander reporting obligations. It also expanded the definition of “sexual harassment,” added record-keeping requirements, extended the period of time in which employees can file a complaint, and increased penalties for violations.

“However, the rest of the story is in the contract activity, which is starting to show signs of weakness and it’s a leading indicator of sales, right? May was the third month in a row of fairly significant and increasing declines in contracts written.”