“A group of leftist students at the University of Chicago is demanding their university pay over $1 billion in reparations to Chicago’s South Side residents for displacing black people living in the area…The student activists did not provide any evidence for how the university is currently displacing black residents, and that’s because it isn’t. While the university supports the Obama Presidential Center, the true cause for the ongoing gentrification of the South Side is Barack Obama.”

“To the extent that Johnson and his allies on the city council attempt to deliver, they will incur a phalanx of resistance. Reactionary forces may have lost the election, but they retain enormous power to coerce both policymakers and the general population…The ultimate outcome in Chicago will depend on whether progressive forces continue to deepen their capacity for mass militancy outside the electoral realm, as the Chicago Teachers Union has been doing since 2010.”

The back-to-back-to-back incidents occurred in Chicago, Lansing and Calumet City. It’s not yet known if the robberies are related.

“But most significantly, Johnson brings a teachers union-friendly perspective that rejects many of the education ideas that once dominated Democratic politics and defined (Paul) Vallas’ career: a focus on accountability for schools, teachers, and students; market-based school choice; and top-down decision-making from the mayor. Support from Democrats for those ideas began to erode years ago, making Johnson’s

A measure that would curb the influence of the Chicago Teachers Union and other labor groups in city elections could be introduced soon after a new City Council begins its term in May. Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, is crafting an ordinance capping contributions from labor unions to candidates for city office at $1,500. Although he initially planned to introduce the measure this month, he told Crain’s on Wednesday he will do so in May or June after his labor allies reached out and asked to “provide input” about the ordinance.

As the board OK’d the requested fee hikes, commissioner Jose Munoz thanked the museums for “not doing it on the backs of Chicago residents.” At the same time, commissioners emphasized to museum leaders the need to continue to focus on providing free admission to Chicago students and to expand the attendance figures of residents from the South and West sides.

Some of the key findings include that pedestrian impressions were higher on State Street compared to the same period in 2021.

“My drivers are often worried about who we’re picking up, what we’re picking up, what they might have,” Keith Hill said. “We’ve had a large rash of people getting on the bus carrying guns, because they feel the need to protect themselves.”

“Mark down Tuesday, April 4, as the night Chicago died. That’s when we learned that Second City voters narrowly elected Brandon Johnson as their next mayor.”

The private Catholic school, which said it typically makes budgetary decisions in the fall, moved that date to March to get ahead of the sizable deficit, which DePaul said is a result of “slowing enrollments, increasing financial aid, rising costs and the loss of COVID-related federal funding.”

“When digesting the recent results of the Chicago mayoral election, it is clear that the new mayor and his supporters are hostile to capitalistic enterprises. They view local corporations as community property, and a piggy bank. They do not view those companies as engines of economics that benefit the citizens from engaging in business activities which benefit shareholders.”

“I’m not going to accept inevitability, and I’ve asked ownership to give me an opportunity to be able to assess, and then we can make a collective determination together,” Johnson said. “The reason why I don’t ever accept inevitability: Like, I come from a family of 10; We had one bathroom. I am the baddest negotiator in the world, and I mean bad in a good way. Like, I know how to leave the house clean. The type of deals that I make to get there, don’t judge a brother.

He’s vowed to add 200 detectives, shut off ShotSpotter, expand crisis teams, create trauma centers and beef up domestic violence efforts. One of many problems with these promises is that 65% — about $20 million — of the city’s recent domestic violence funding came from federal COVID relief dollars.

“The Windy City has been run by Democratic mayors for 93 consecutive years. The 50-member City Council currently includes zero Republicans. The Cook County Board of Commissioners has 17 seats; 16 are filled by Democrats…So what has all this unobstructed Democratic governance produced? Population flight, for starters. From a peak of 3.6 million residents in 1950 the city has tumbled down to an estimated 2.7 million in 2021.”

Retired police chief Tom Weitzel: “Improving the public defense system will require better pay, investment in new technology and ensuring that caseloads are realistic and manageable.”

In its recent strategic plan, RTA calls attention to the threat of the fiscal cliff and the necessity to untie transit’s funding from its ridership. The plan rejects raising fares and cutting service, and instead identifies 11 potential revenue streams at the regional and state level, noting that several sources – which include sales and fuel taxes, congestion pricing, and tolls — will be necessary to sustain the system into the future.

“To understand Chicago, then, is to understand the Democratic Party brought to the national stage. A good starting point for the right would be to understand how April Perry, the former chief ethics officer under Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, has been nominated to be the next U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois.”

Even when he becomes mayor, Johnson will have little direct control over the search process for a new superintendent: The civilian-led Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, by municipal code, is responsible for finding and selecting a list of candidates. Commission members have been explicit about their desire to break from past searches steered or sidestepped by previous mayors.

“‘What’s the bigger concern: sirens drowning out nominating speeches or what items attendees must leave at home to make room for their bulletproof vest in their suitcase?’ said Will Reinert, a spokesman for the Republican committee, in a statement — previewing the tenor of G.O.P. messaging to come. Democrats have preferred to emphasize the city’s 1996 convention, which is often remembered as a success, and a good experience for convention-goers.”

“The majority of murder cases in Cook County take four years or longer to resolve, a length that would be unthinkable in other big-city jurisdictions…It can take years for prosecutors to track down and turn over relevant potential evidence, from police reports to forensics. Lawyers file requests that judges don’t rule on for months or years — sometimes because police officers simply do not show up in court, and sometimes for no clear reason at all. County doctors blow past deadlines to perform defendants’ mental health examinations. And as cases drag on, it becomes more likely that an attorney or