“If we have interest earned to help balance the budget, I don’t know why we’re not doing that,” Lenert said. The budget already planned for the use of about $10 million of savings before deciding to forego the tax hike. Both decisions go against the advice of Kane County CFO Kathy Hopkinson and a policy the board adopted earlier in the year to either cut spending or find new revenue sources to balance the budget.

Ald. David Moore claimed in his letter that warming centers will “essentially turn the 17th Ward’s library and public parks into migrant shelters” and that he “vehemently reject[s] any plan that would displace my residents and threaten the safety of their children.” But it’s not true, Johnson’s office said Friday.

Beginning at 7:20 a.m., a group of men zipped across Chicago, occasionally jumping out of a blue sedan with rifles and pistols to rob people on the street, police said in a community alert Thursday afternoon.

Just before 12:30 p.m., police shut down the southbound lanes of Michigan Avenue for the crowd that swelled to about 1,000 to march through the signature shopping district. “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” pro-Palestine activists said, handing out pamphlets laying out statistics about the civilian death toll.

This real estate transfer tax will be another burden added to Chicago’s suffocating state and local taxes. Chicago’s commercial property taxes have increased by 93% from 2012 to 2022.

In a recent Lincoln Poll of Chicago voters, 64% disapproved, of Johnson’s handling of the migrant crisis. Only 23% said they approved. The mayor has also faced criticism from aldermen, frustrated that they and constituents have had little or no say in where the city plans to put migrant shelters within their districts.

According to the Illinois Report Card, Dyett, Goode, Curie and Prosser have chronic absentee rates of 70%, 49%, 69% and 64%, respectively. Even prestigious schools like Northside College Prep and Payton College Prep have unacceptable chronic absenteeism of 25%.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “Conduct in office need not be illegal in order to be wrong — as Burke’s track record makes abundantly clear…Chicago’s long, sorry track record indicates other corrupt actors will emerge, with the lack of conscience and willingness to abuse the public trust, unless we prevent them from doing so.”