“Just as Chicago reels from a spate of shootings and carjackings, inequities exacerbated by the pandemic and high-profile corporate departures, its pension gap creates a financial burden that threatens its recovery and the mayor’s agenda. The situation makes for a cautionary tale for municipalities across the country facing long-neglected contributions and funding shortfalls.”

TTX’s decision underscores a troubling trend of high-profile headquarters losses for Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Last year major corporations such as Caterpillar, Citadel, Boeing and Tyson Foods announced relocations out of the Chicago area. Guggenheim Partners more quietly made moves to leave the city and join fellow investment firm Citadel in Miami.

Oak Park’s electrification ordinance, which will go into effect January 2024, bans fossil fuels like natural gas from use in newly built homes and commercial buildings. While Oak Park is the first city in the state and the Midwest to pass such an ordinance, Evanston is also considering going electric.

“If I had to guess, it’s in the hundreds, for sure — maybe 400 or 500 people who would normally be working on those shows,” says Jim Shearer, manager of Chicago’s Essanay Studio and Lighting. “It’s not just the people who are members of the union that are out of work. There are outside companies like caterers and lumber companies…”

Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot failed to uphold her fiduciary duty to the city, misused city property by identifying herself in campaign emails as the mayor of Chicago and solicited campaign contributions from employees she supervised, according to the city’s watchdog.

A new report from Cook County’s inspector general outlines fraud allegations against five county employees and four employees at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District accused of fraudulently obtaining Paycheck Protection Program loans between $9,000 and $82,000. The inspector general recommended all of the employees be fired. One already has resigned.

The budget roundtable will give young people age 13-24 an opportunity to speak with Mayor Brandon Johnson and share ideas regarding the city’s budget process. “There has been a lot of mischaracterization of our young people in the city of Chicago,” Johnson said. “Do we have individuals who have lived out their pain in the most violent ways, of course, but the vast majority of our young people need and want opportunity.”

The Chicago Teachers’ Union had nothing but praise for the picks. “We need board members that represent the lived experience of former [Chicago Public School] educators, graduates, advocates for educational justice and residents who fought against the racist wave of school closings,” read the union’s press statement.

The unfunded pensions have stood as one of the city’s biggest financial liabilities over the years, regularly showing up on credit service reports flagging the high carrying costs the city is paying. Timothy Schoolmaster, president of the board of trustees of the Police Pension Fund, pointed out that the city’s total required payment for 2022 to the funds would have been just over $7.1 million, but was nearly twice that – just under $15 million – because of unfunded interest payments.

Christopher Chothen, 39, has been required to register as a sex offender since 2002. He has been convicted of failure to register in 2004, 2006, 2013, and 2014; Additionally, Chothen was convicted of impersonating police in 2002; being a sex offender in a school zone in 2006; possessing a methamphetamine precursor in 2009; and intimidation in 2009. On these most recent charges of violating the sex offender registry act and presence in a children’s hospital by a child sex offender, Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered him to pay a $50,000 bail deposit to go home on electronic monitoring.

A charter is a document that specifies how a local government operates. It can be thought of as a city “constitution.” Charters are usually created by a charter commission that may be authorized by elected officials or a citizen initiative. Of the 25 largest cities in the United States, only Indianapolis and Chicago are not governed by a charter, although the State of Indiana does provide charter level direction.

All of the executives surveyed make between $199,000 and $376,000 a year, records show. “If you’re running the CTA, you should be riding it,” Ald. Andre Vasquez said. “You got to understand the experience of Chicagoans who must use it everyday to get to their jobs and around the city. … Setting that expectation starts at the top with the president.”

In a keynote address at the Netroots Nation conference, Johnson reaffirmed his campaign pledge to do away with the subminimum wage. “Because of subminimum wages, many of our young people are working full time and still find themselves living in poverty. People are working hard

Gardiner is accused of targeting Jefferson Park resident Pete Czosnyka, who has frequently criticized Gardiner and Ald. Nicholas Sposato on social media and by filing complaints with the inspector general and the Board of Ethics. In September 2019, the city slapped Czosnyka with fines totaling more than $600; The tickers were eventually tossed out by a judge.

The Ambassador, a 17-story, 285-room hotel, is nearly a century old, having opened its doors in 1926 and becoming a celebrity hotspot for a time, with guests such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe. It is not the only Chicago hotel to change hands due to litigation regarding financial distress since the pandemic evaporated travel and lodging demand, roiling real estate markets.

Having launched his civil rights career 57 years ago, Rev. Jesse Jackson is stepping down as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and “there will be a new president soon.” Jackson was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017.

A conservative student who faced media attacks after exposing a course called “The Problem of Whiteness,” at his school, said the blowback shows the left doesn’t expect conservatives to push back. “If you’re a conservative, ‘shut up, obey, don’t say anything,'” rising junior Daniel Schmidt said.

“As global investors avoid Chicago due to public safety concerns and tax uncertainty, this proposal creates even more concern,” the one-pager given to aldermen on the Chicago City Council reads, going on to note that the city has almost 32,000 properties, including small residential buildings with ground-level retail, worth $1 million or more. The coalition is the first indication that there will be organized opposition to the measure if it goes before the city council again.

Through Tuesday, 398 people had been robbed in Chicago this month—up 52% from 261 last year.