Chicago police released surveillance video of the shooting, resulting in two men being charged with first-degree murder. Two weeks ago, a judge found one of them not guilty in a bench trial. Prosecutors immediately dropped all charges against the second man. And a third man authorities identified as a shooter in the case has never been charged.

“A million Chicagoans draw upon Medicaid for essential services; even more are eligible…With the federal government providing 65 cents of every dollar spent on Medicaid in Illinois, Medicaid is uniquely positioned to provide a financial foundation for critical services, particularly as Chicago, Cook County and Illinois all face generational budget challenges.”

CPS is experiencing a shortage of teachers districtwide, including a shortage of Spanish-speaking teachers. “Our school district has not put an emphasis — over time — on making sure that we have multilingual teachers in our school communities,” Davis Gates said, “and we are feeling the pain of that right now. … What’s different this year than it has been in years past, is that there is an overall acknowledgement of the need to recruit more multilingual teachers to the Chicago Public Schools.”

The city of Chicago faces a pension crisis, heightened crime and a failing school system. But beyond a couple of notable firings and hirings, plus concessions to the CTU in the form of expanded parental leave, city residents still know next to nothing about the mayor’s plans.

“We’ve trained about 400 outreach workers, over 100 police officers, close to 50 case managers across the city in 40-plus neighborhoods,” said Vaughn Bryant, executive director of Metropolitan Peace Initiatives. “The outreach work has been around longer here than in New York and L.A., but they invested long term and significantly. Here, the city, county, and state are now funding the work by community outreach groups in significant numbers, but because we were late to innovate and push that, it’s going to take us some time.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson has signed off on a compromise plan to raise the real estate transfer tax on home sales over $1 million to generate $100 million in annual revenue to combat homelessness, but in a way that will reduce the tax for homes sold for less than $1 million. Zoning Committee Chair Carlos Ramirez-Rosa predicted overwhelming voter approval. “People who are purchasing homes for the first time are likely spending less than $1 million, and they will now see a decrease. So effectively, we’re asking the average Chicagoan, ‘Do you want to pay less in real estate transfer taxes?’

“To salvage the program, it should be realigned with its initial mission: to function as an investment tool for blighted areas while generating returns for taxpayers.”

Edward “Ed” Siskel previously served on the White House Counsel’s team during the Obama administration, including as deputy counsel. In that role, Siskel oversaw the White House’s legal responses to congressional oversight on matters such as the Benghazi attack and the rollout of the Affordable Care Act website.

Among them, the district has worked to absorb migrant students from last year’s 5,300 last year, with an estimated addition of nearly 2,000 more this year. Last year’s total enrollment of 322,000 students continued a 5-year decline for CPS. But CEO Pedro Martinez said “more teachers than ever” are in CPS classrooms. “The smallest class sizes we’ve seen in a long time,” the CEO added.

Over the last week alone, the number of new arrivals sleeping on the floors of Chicago police stations has increased 6% — to 1,100 — even though Johnson has made it a priority to “decompress” police stations. Another 170 new arrivals have taken up residence at O’Hare International Airport. There is $150 million in migrant funding that “the feds have not appropriated,” and City Hall is “trying to make the case that we should