Lake Forest College economics professor Robert Baade said such “pie in the sky” projections are often illusory. “We see white elephant stadiums and developments all over. It’s glamorous and seductive, but the economic realities are almost always disappointing.”

The proposed new tax would add a 10 cent charge on all bags regardless of material or thickness. This would include plastic, paper and compostable bags. All retailers would be required to charge the tax regardless of size, a change from the current bag ordinance that began in 2015 and only applied to retailers with square footage larger than 10,000 square feet.

Google’s move was welcomed by city and state leaders, who have faced several recent business departures, including Boeing’s corporate headquarters, hedge fund Citadel and Caterpillar’s global base. The developers will work with Jahn’s namesake firm on the Google-led redesign — an alliance that has placated some preservationists.

“I’d love to have a conversation with Gov. Abbott, I have a long list of things on my agenda, but I’ve been speaking, obviously, to him publicly about let’s just treat each other with respect,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “There’s a way to do it. It’s real simple: Pick up the phone, send me an email, work through third parties. I’d love to see that. Because that to me would show that he’s importantly, that he’s regarding these folks as human beings who are deserving of respect and dignity and not treating them just like freight to be shipped across

“We anticipate having more licensed educators than last year at this time – and more teachers than at any point in this past decade,” said Mary Fergus, Media Relations Executive Director for Chicago Public Schools (CPS). “We’ve added more than 500 new teacher positions for this school year and 1,000 school-based positions overall.” But even with these gains, Fergus estimates CPS will see a slight uptick, possibly to 4% or 5%, in CPS’ vacancy rate over last year’s 3.5% figure. Fergus explains, “Because we created more positions and our final year-over-year attrition rates are expected to be higher.”

“Governor Greg Abbott’s decision has exposed the hypocrisy of sanctuary city mayors and driven them mad…In the meantime, Mayor Lightfoot is driving everyone to the suburbs including the fabled Chicago Bears, who are packing up and moving on.”

District officials promote the truckloads of sludge-based compost they donate to community gardens in low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods and the piles they leave outside sewage treatment plants for anyone to shovel into buckets or pickup beds. Those same officials have repeatedly failed to tell the public what they’ve known for more than a decade: Every scoop of sludge is contaminated with toxic forever chemicals linked to cancer and other maladies, a Chicago Tribune investigation has found.

Chicago police reported nearly 4,000 catalytic converter thefts through July of 2022 compared to 1,400 thefts reported in the same time period last year. “We need federal laws on this, because all of this stuff is being transported across state lines,” Ald. Scott Waguespack said. “Somebody is getting those ounces of metals that are very expensive.”

“Such an ill-advised comment exemplifies the combativeness the Governor’s office has shown anyone who questions the actions of the State – from the lengthy closure of the state during the pandemic without the Legislature’s concurrence and now the disrespectful manner his office is treating the Village and its residents,” Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said.

Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said of Lori Lightfoot, “She wants to probably say politically: ‘I’m a sanctuary city. I welcome you with open arms.’ But when reality checks, if five bus loads shows up in her city, she can’t handle it. So let’s give them to Elk Grove Village. That’s wrong.”

“Employee A declined to be interviewed,” attorney Kelly Warner said. “In addition, we were unable to review data stored on the cellphone issued to Employee A by the board due to Employee A’s inability to recall the passcode for the phone.” Warner said the firm’s investigation was further limited by a lack of subpoena power and a subsequent inability to obtain things like personal bank records or data from personal email accounts or cellphones.

Political analyst Ameshia Cross said the mayor has “a lot of work to do to regain the ground she lost” and her message that the Black community may struggle if they don’t vote her may not resonate “when you’re in a sea of Black candidates…Lori Lightfoot has a problem and it’s interesting for a Black woman to have a Black problem. It is a large part of her own doing.”