A school official accused state Sen. Willie Preston of slapping his hand, causing a pen to fly out of it, after the lawmaker refused to sign his name in a log at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in order to retrieve a cellphone that belonged to a relative who was a student at the school, according to sources and a police report.

“Nobody asked us, nobody told us. We have a few thousand people here who signed their signature and said ‘no!’ We said ‘no!’” one Chicago resident said during the Tuesday meeting. “We have concerns about our students, our children who walk on this street every day, how do we ensure their safety,” another community member said.

“As City Council considers this paid leave ordinance, we urge them to also consider the despair this policy would inflict on Chicago neighborhoods as it will leave large, mid-sized, small businesses and non-profits alike with no choice but to take their operations elsewhere and incentivize employers to keep their employees out of Chicago,” according to a statement from a coalition of business groups led by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

The proposal calls for the city to spend $1 to purchase the 67,000-square-foot vacant former grocery store and the surrounding 6.5 acres of land on the border between Morgan Park and West Roseland. The land set to be purchased by the city

Burke entered politics as one of the youngest City Council members in Chicago history, eventually becoming its most powerful and longest-serving alderperson. “He’s an extraordinary figure in Chicago history, but wrapped in Greek tragedy,” said former City Hall Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. “How much more he could have done. His strengths became his weaknesses.”

“’Plan? There is no plan, only chaos,’ said Ted Dabrowski of Wirepoints.org on The Chicago Way podcast…(Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s problem is that there just might be enough Chicago residents who don’t want to shut up and take it anymore. It’s enough to make a mayor want to scream.”

“We will definitely need to continue to deliver our message about how much more resource intensive this work is — particularly in the interior cities,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson’s deputy chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 budget proposal would reopen the Department of Environment with $1.8 million from the city’s general fund; the department would work to mitigate climate change impacts, address environmental harm in Chicago’s most overburdened communities and help the city reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent before 2040. But department officials would have no authority to enforce environmental laws.

There are several businesses operating inside an industrial building, but residents said they were told a 3,000-square-foot vacant space inside would be converted to a migrant shelter next month. “The governor’s emergency declaration allows us to retrofit spaces because of this humanitarian crisis and not have to fall within all the zoning restrictions,” Cristina Pacione-Zayas, the city’s deputy chief of staff, said.

La Spata’s ward twists and turns through neighborhoods plagued by a seemingly endless wave of robbery sprees for months on end: parts of Logan Square, West Town, Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park, Ukrainian Village, and East Village. Community groups from those neighborhoods signed off on a letter this week that calls on city and county officials to take action to reverse the relentless violent crime problem.

That data shows Chicagoans working full-time, year-round face poverty rates of only 2.3%. Those who work only part-time or part-year face poverty rates of 20.7%. Those who do not work at all face poverty rates of 31.3%.

The city estimates that costs associated with migrants since August 2022 could reach above $360 million by the end of 2023. Faith-based groups are pooling their resources. But no volunteers are currently allowed inside city-run shelters, and questions remain about what will happen as winter approaches and thousands

The prosperity along Oak Street may bring some relief to the Magnificent Mile, which is struggling with a number of empty storefronts, said John Vance, principal at Stone Real Estate Corp. The Magnificent Mile’s retail vacancy rate is about 25%.

The Church of the Epiphany, nicknamed the People’s Church, “was an important gathering place,” said Leila Wills, executive director of the Historical Preservation Society. “It wasn’t just the Illinois Chapter [of the Black Panther Party] that held meetings there. They had anti-draft meetings there. They fed the homeless there.”