“You will hear our voices on things that impact our classrooms,” CTU President Stacy Davis-Gates said. “You can’t be a world-class city and your children are being shot in the streets.”

The deal to keep Lollapalooza in Chicago for the next 10 years guarantees a larger minimum payment to the city than that of the new NASCAR race beginning next year, while the NASCAR race has longer windows for both setting up and tearing down.

Despite the issues plaguing the district, the schools still receive larger amounts of funding each year, according to IPI’s Mailee Smith. “People are seeing their property taxes increase, and the schools are getting more funding because of it. Unfortunately, within CPS, that is not correlating with a better academic outcome for the students.”

“While tourists from around the world enjoy the thrill of the race, access to downtown streets will be curtailed, and not just on race day; Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office estimated that the disruption would last for two weeks. The high-decibel scream of racecars will echo through the traffic-snarled city. And everyone watching — in person and on screens — will get another high-powered suggestion that the point of cars is going as fast as possible, with streets existing simply to facilitate that endeavor. A few studies, conducted in Australia, found that road accidents and deaths jumped dramatically in the vicinity

Violent crime on Chicago’s transit system, particularly on CTA’s train lines, has been headline news for more than 18 months. The city’s police and CTA leaders have announced plan after plan to combat the problem. Yet, violent crime reports on the transit system remain stubbornly high while ridership is down about 50% compared to pre-COVID years.

Enrollment declines, staffing challenges and student mental health loom large after 2½ tumultuous pandemic years, but officials promise one of the “best years yet.”

She is the second CPD recruit to be arrested in two months.

“Public sector pensions are nothing less than a giant Ponzi scheme which threatens to crash the British economy…In America, major cities such as Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh, among many, are technically or literally bankrupt thanks to bloated pensions dished out by conniving politicians to police and fire services.”

A spokesman for The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism said, “These programs are aimed at raising up a particular group of students who are perceived to be disenfranchised; however, categorizing eligibility based on immutable characteristics grossly and offensively oversimplifies the problems the universities are trying to address. The civil rights laws were put in place to ensure that all individuals are treated equally.”

Average rents in the Chicago area have climbed almost 9% since 2021, according to online apartment listings marketplace Apartment List. A combination of inflation and climbing demand for units as consumers emerge from the pandemic has driven up rents, with little to no sign that prices will reverse any time soon.

Election officials have long complained that Chicago has too many precincts, and the new electoral map is designed to address rising costs of election operations as well as the changing behavior of voters who are increasingly voting early at central polling places or mailing in their ballots.

Last weekend there were at least 44 people shot, eight fatally, Chicago police said.

CEO Pedro Martinez said last week that the district has more teachers employed at the start of the year than at the same time last year, but he admitted overall staffing is still a worry. Mmany of the more than 500 new interventionist positions — one for every school — haven’t been filled.