The changes would have required any item directly introduced to committee to be publicly posted and forwarded to alderpersons at least 48 hours before a committee hearing, along with an “unbiased summary” of the legislation and a “statement explaining the urgency.”

The bikers’ motives are not clear, but the woman reportedly believed they were trying to carjack her.

Among the parents’ allegations are that a white student told a Black student her skin was “the color of poop;” a white student told fellow students that when Donald Trump became president of the United States, all Black people would be removed from the country; white students have referred “to children of color using racial slurs, including the use of the ‘n-word;’ ” and a white student “made derogatory comments about Martin Luther King Jr. to a group of Black students.”

Nearly 1,500 faculty and staff at seven campuses will strike next week if a contract isn’t reached. The union wants smaller class sizes, greater access to remote learning and student support, increased wraparound services and salary increases.

Urban Prep is the city’s only all-male charter school operator, once celebrated nationally for getting all its seniors into college year after year. But CPS laid out an extensive case against Urban Prep in a board report Monday: only one-third of teachers are certified; a failure to provide special education services for disabled students; financial turmoil and mismanagement, among other offenses.

A photo project named “After Demolition,” by David Schalliol, a sociology professor at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, found that nearly every demolished North Side building photographed had been replaced within 10 years, while most on the South and West sides were left as vacant lots.

A letter that seemed to call for pushing Ukraine into negotiations with Russia made waves from Capitol Hill to Chicago’s mayoral campaign trail Tuesday, with U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia trying to explain how and why his signature ended up on a letter to President Joe Biden that the congressman now concedes is months old. Garcia’s effort, which was joined by a group of progressive Democrats, sparked “furious” opposition from both the left and the right.

“I don’t think we know what’s coming from this,” Mayor Keith Pekau said. “I think we can project that if criminals are allowed to run free and police officers can’t protect citizens, citizens are going to start protecting themselves and take the law into their own hands.”

Fitch upgraded Chicago’s credit one notch to BBB with a positive outlook. The analysis by Fitch said the rating upgrade “reflects Chicago’s improving pension funding practices, its commitment to maintaining a sound reserve position, and ability to institute structural budget measures that improve its capacity to respond to future cyclical challenges.”

Nationally, the pace of housing-price gains fell by the largest amount in history in August, topping the previous record for deceleration set in July, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index. But the the Chicago area, which avoided the boom in other cities, home prices posted an 11.3% year-over-year gain in August, compared to a 12.7% gain in July.

Board President Toni Preckwinkle and others have warned in recent years the district was in dire financial straits. Recent budgets have drawn down millions from rainy-day funds to make ends meet. In 2022, that figure was $17.1 million; for 2023, Preckwinkle proposes $16 million. Referendum revenue would help the district chip away at an estimated $78 million in unfunded maintenance needs over the next four years and “solve” the current pension shortfall, county officials say.