The appeals court said a Cook County judge was wrong to shut down a court challenge to Cook County’s 2023 budget, in which road and transportation builders have accused the county of illegally siphoning money that should be reserved for transportation projects to pay for other county expenses in at least 12 other county departments and agencies.

The debacle was a high-profile mark on the progressive mayor’s stated values of environmental justice and his mission to prove Chicago’s welcoming city reputation with limited resources. “We made remediation that was suited for this temporary site,” he said. “Now as far as moving forward, those conversations are going to be strengthened. I’m very much committed to making sure that there’s a clear understanding for everyone as we move forward to address this mission.”

The new law will exempt nonprofits with budgets of less than $5 million, and only require lobbyists who spend a certain number of hours and earn a certain amount of money to register. The measure defines lobbying as asking for new resources or programs for their own nonprofits, and not asking for city services or information.

“They knew as they were building this shelter, before the environmental report came in, that it was possible the environmental report wouldn’t allow the building – the completion, rather – of the shelter. And so they understood that, and they were willing to take that liability on,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. The governor said GardaWorld will help the state set up other shelters, including rehabbing brick-and-mortar shelters to better accommodate migrants.

The Chicago Association of Realtors reported that 5,352 city homes were listed for sale as of Dec. 2. That’s down nearly 25% from the same time a year ago and the lowest figure in the association’s records, which go back to January 2007.

“Decentralizing the Chicago Public Schools will allow local schools to dictate how best to spend their finances. It would allow for personalized ways of educating students. It would allow elected local school councils and local school principals to have real input on how best to serve their neighborhood – meaning even changing their school model to a more flexible one providing autonomy over budgets, staffing and school calendars.”

“At some point over the past five decades, this stopped being a story of politicians fleecing their constituents and became a story about the residents of Cook County and ultimately greater Chicagoland playing Patty Hearst to the Chicago Democrats’ Symbionese Liberation Army. (Michael) Madigan and (Ed) Burke were getting property tax relief in the billions for their corporate clients while Joe Punchclock and Sally Housecoat saw the property taxes on their bungalow launched upward like a Space X satellite…The Joes & Sallys of Cook & the Collars consistently re-elected Madigan’s & Burke’s city and suburban loyalists.”

The board found the registered lobbyists appeared to violate a mayoral executive order by giving money to Brandon Johnson, according to probable cause findings issued at a recent meeting. The violations do not carry a penalty for the mayor, but could mean those lobbyists lose their ability to work at City Hall.

The security firm has been patrolling Bucktown, Back of the Yards, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park and Fulton Market to “supplement” the work of Chicago police and address the spike in crime, said P4 president Steve Vitale. Chicago Police crime data shows robberies are up 61 percent this year over the same period last year in the Near West Police District, which stretches from Ukrainian Village through the West Loop and down to Pilsen.

The delay means that Illinois workers outside Chicago will have more flexibility to take paid time off than those in the city. Starting Jan. 1, a measure signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker will require employers statewide to give their workers at least one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked. Until the new ordinance takes effect, Chicago employees will earn one hour of paid sick leave, not paid time off, for every 40 hours they work, or at least five days every year.

CTU’s tremendous spending on Chicago politics lends credence to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2021 prediction: CTU would “like to take over not only Chicago Public Schools, but take over running the city government.” To that end, Brandon Johnson was the leading Chicago recipient of teachers union money.

For decades, big investors profited off neglected buildings at the expense of predominantly Black neighborhoods. Now, the Community Receiver Program is working to ‘right historical wrongs’ by empowering residents to use receivership in a new way. Since 2020, the program has trained about 520 people and helped rehabilitate 16 buildings, contributing nearly $4.5 million in restored property value, according to the program’s website.

Rommell Kellogg was convicted of collecting payments from Arnie’s Idle Hour in Harvey in exchange for the city not closing the club, where prostitution flourished. According to a federal criminal complaint filed in 2019, Eric Kellogg, while mayor, led the efforts to shake down the club, approaching the owner in 2003, demanding $3,000 a month, later doubling the amount. But Eric Kellogg wasn’t charged.

Said Joe Ferguson, the city’s inspector general from 2009 to 2021, “All of these regular standards and practices, on the basis of what we can see, have been left to the wayside. This raises questions about the bounds of emergency authority and whether they’ve been exceeded.”

The district wants to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools,” the resolution says. The Board of Education says the school choice system, as it exists today, “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression.”