“Employers, not only in Chicago, but potentially anywhere in the U.S., may soon be subject to yet another coming blitz of potentially ruinous lawsuits for likely minor mistakes, business groups have warned, under a new paid time off ordinance passed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and his democratic socialist allies on the Chicago City Council.”

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez posted a tweet Thursday morning to X, formerly known as Twitter, that read: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” She followed up with a post that read: “Ppl angry abt a slogan that speaks to the liberation of colonized ppl while they watch Israel commit genocide, bomb civilians, leaving ppl of all ages from babies to elderly dismembered is some intense gaslighting. Over 10K killed & many more lost under rubble. Go find your soul.”

“In both Chicago and Springfield, the statistics virtually scream for a change in direction, and our politicians just whistle louder to themselves, hands over their ears, as they continue to do more of the things that caused the problems.”

“We really want these people to be part of our community; to find jobs; to get on their feet,” said Ald. Bill Conway. “The forms that are involved are very complicated.”

“In other words, why (would the Chicago Teachers Union) spend precious dollars on 10 extra elections if the mayor you elected will appoint your people for free?”

Around 200 hundred people marched down the streets of Brighton Park on Friday, protesting the city’s plans to use their neighborhood to shelter up to 2,000 migrants. “Things are being pushed down people’s throats without anyone having a say so. That’s my main beef, not having a chance to have a say so in what’s going on here,” Tom Draski, a longtime Brighton Park resident, said.

“I am very disappointed and at this point, I have to tell a second and fifth-grader that I don’t know if they can come back to school the next school year,” Natasha McClendon said.

Ridership and revenue have become increasingly important as the CTA braces for federal pandemic aid to run out in 2025, leaving transit agencies in the region with a collective $730 million budget gap and regional planners debating the future of public transit and how it should be funded. They have made recommendations about service, floated

Led by communication studies Professor Moya Bailey, a self-described black queer disabled woman, the “Ethical Internet?” project is part of the Illinois university’s Digital Apothecary lab. “Can this military-derived, exploitatively built, capitalistically driven, entity of the internet be reconfigured from the ground up in a way that doesn’t exploit human or natural resources? Can the internet be just?” she wrote in 2022.

A Chicago Sun-Times analysis, based on news reports, crime data and court records, identified more than 30 migrants from Venezuela who’ve been arrested in Chicago and DuPage County since April. More than half of the cases involved theft and shoplifting. Two involved violent crimes — a robbery and a stabbing. Records show that only one of those migrants, charged with domestic battery, is listed in Chicago police records as being a suspected member of the prison gang.

“Chicago is that once-great city by the lake that is now on the verge of dying from an overdose of uncontrolled, rising violent crime. It is a real place suffering real pain. Some say the city is on life support, which is a polite way of saying it is dying…This is what happens when the law is not enforced. Thugs are emboldened. And all people–black, brown and white–suffer.”

“Annually my property taxes surpass the principal of my mortgage,” protested one woman. “And also my [condo] association fees is at the highest point I know. And I have less than 1,000 [square] feet.”

So far, the county has spent more than $30 million treating 15,000 new arrivals. That breaks down to about $2.2 million dollars a month – a number expected to grow to $3.75 million in the months ahead. Looking at the budget, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says there’s wiggle room, for now.

Leading the charge is Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Fulton Market Association. With the Chicago Police Department facing a shortage of officers, Romanelli pointed to Tax Increment Financing funds – or TIF money – to fund the eyes in the sky and fill the void.

Each morning, a group of volunteers and 21 migrants sheltering at Luther Memorial Church in Lincoln Square prepare meals and hot coffee to go. They deliver the food to the nearly 200 migrants sheltering in and around the 17th District police station. Pastor Lindsay Mack said the program is possible due to the generosity of community members donating money and supplies.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “The unsavory workings of government in Springfield or City Hall absolutely can have a certain stench about them, but there’s a difference between legal and illegal behavior. And the record shows juries have a pretty good eye for seeing where the line is drawn — and when it has been crossed.”

The new allegations involve a third former city employee, who said in Conyears-Ervin’s first few months in office that they were directed to use a vacation day to accompany Conyears-Ervin and her husband, Ald. Jason Ervin,

To quote one public commenter before the November 7th meeting of the City Council, “illegal immigrants are coming in…to displace the native blacks”. If anyone needs sanctuary, he went on, “it’s black people.”

The measure approved by the Illinois General Assembly Thursday could add between $57 million and $96 million to the city’s pension bills, according to 2021 estimates. In April 2021, the governor signed a nearly identical bill boosting pensions for firefighters, over the objection of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“Once again, proponents failed to recognize the compounding effect these policies have on businesses that are already struggling to make ends meet due to an alarming number of anti-business proposals by the City, continued supply chain and labor challenges, persistent crime, and skyrocketing property taxes,” the coalition of businesses opposed to the ordinance said in a statement.

Then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an executive order in 2011 barring any mayor from taking campaign money from city contractors, and it remains in effect unless a mayor changes or rescinds it. Mayor Lori Lightfoot left it alone, as has Johnson. Christian Perry, Johnson’s political director, says taking the money was an “oversight” and that it’s being returned — roughly 30 contributions totaling about $46,500.