CPS reported that it plans to address the FY2025 budget shortfall through several methods, including asking the State of Illinois for additional revenue support in addition using the remaining $300 million in federal relief dollars to partially fill the budget gap. The District has received a total of $2.8 billion in COVID relief dollars since FY2021 and used $1.82 billion, or 65% of the funds through FY2023.

It’s unclear whether cold weather, a lack of shelter space or alternative housing is behind the drop in migrants sleeping in police stations and airports. There are still more than 2,200 awaiting shelter space. Despite signing a $29M contract with Garda World in September to construct large winterized tents for migrants, not a single tent stake has been driven into the ground.

When Chicago area businessman James W. Bracken III was going after a $61.7 million city contract from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration in 2016, he placed William M. Mahon, a deputy commissioner with the city Department of Streets and Sanitation, at the top of his list of references. Now, Mahon faces up to eight years in prison for his role in the collapse of a crooked Bridgeport bank, Washington Federal Bank for Savings, and Bracken has come under scrutiny by federal investigators in the ongoing bank investigation

In announcing $160 in state aid, Gov. JB Pritzker dinged “bottlenecks” in Chicago’s shelter system that he said must be smoothed out so migrants do not freeze to death this winter. But he also revealed that the state will begin cutting off a rental assistance program for new arrivals not already in the shelter system and reduce the

The first part of the city’s multi-pronged effort in partnership with the state, is to increase personnel at a new arrival landing zone to help migrants from the time they get off the bus either find shelter here or get to their next destination. Second, the city is regulating rogue buses; the new regulatory tools will allow the city to cite and fine bus companies that disregard curfews, landing zone locations and loading or unloading protocols.

Voters were also asked if they would like to see a larger or smaller police presence in the city than at present. Nearly 3 in 4 voters, or 73%, said they would prefer a larger police presence in the city.

Samir Mayekar, managing director of the Polsky Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago: “We are living in an era of transformative public investment in research and industrial policy that can further position Chicago as our country’s hub for scientific breakthroughs. So let’s keep going — together.”

The FY2024 budget proposal represents an increase in spending of $356.8 million, or 4.1%, from the FY2023 adopted budget of $8.8 billion. While the budget cuts 414 vacant personnel positions, expenditures are increasing due in large part to salary increases driven by collective bargaining agreements.

To pay for the new $100 million emergency fund dedicated almost entirely to asylum-seekers’ health care, the county will shift planned spending around, tapping leftover funds from 2022 to seed it. While that money was initially supposed to shore up pensions, the county will draw down

A pro-Palestinian protest at Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., that turned violent is sending a jolt through political circles in Chicago, which plans to host the party’s presidential nominating convention this summer.