With Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration now in power at City Hall, Chicago Gig Alliance organizer Lori Simmons is hopeful that change may be on the way, adding that CGA was recently invited by the mayor to take part in a hearing where a new committee of rideshare drivers, mail carriers and bus drivers worked on safety solutions.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which offers a program called, “The Chicago Public Schools Project,”has come under scrutiny over its alleged ties to and support of the terror organization Hamas. The White House in October condemned comments made by CAIR’s director, who said he “was happy to see” Palestinians break out of Gaza Oct. 7. CAIR also was identified as a co-conspirator helping the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development – a former Islamic charity labeled a terrorist group by the FBI in 2001 – shower Hamas with millions of dollars.

The race’s financing so far is a fraction of what the top Democrats raised in the 2020 state’s attorney primary. This time, the primary winner will advance to the general election this November and face former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti, the race’s lone Republican, and attorney Andrew Charles Kopinski, a Libertarian.

“It’s conspicuously absent any affordable housing strategy beyond depositing revenue from the tax increase into a new fund. What the mayor is proposing would not address the homelessness crisis and would have an adverse impact on city businesses, homeowners and renters alike.”

“Chicago has the opportunity to lead the way in creating a more equitable and sustainable nonprofit ecosystem. Those who live and work in these communities understand the value of homegrown community-based organizations.”

“Recent changes to state law will give the union the legal right to bargain over a wider array of issues than before, including class sizes and the hiring of nurses and other adjunct staff. Johnson will be handed a long list of demands, no doubt. He’d better get comfortable quickly with telling his friends they can’t have everything on that list — or even a majority of it.”

From Oct. 23 to Jan. 17, a total of 47 migrants were arrested in Oak Brook, Illinois, mostly for alleged property crimes, according to Brian Strockis, the chief of police for the Oak Brook Police Department.

Streamwood plans to use its home rule authority to opt out, and Village Manager Sharon Caddigan questioned the reason for a county law that excludes exemptions the state considers appropriate. The villages of Schaumburg and Buffalo Grove are using home rule powers to not only opt out for themselves but all employers within their borders.

“The city’s favorite word for everything is ‘temporary,’ ” said Vianney Marzullo, a volunteer who has helped migrants staying at O’Hare International Airport. “It’s their new choice of Band-Aid word. Everything is temporary, temporary, temporary.”

Wynne Transportation, one of multiple companies enlisted under Abbott’s $11 billion Operation Lone Star border security initiative to shuttle migrants from Texas, filed the lawsuit against Chicago earlier this month. In Chicago, the ordinance restricting bus arrivals has resulted in at least 95 lawsuits against as many as 24 bus companies since it was implemented in December, according to Michael Kozlowski, who represents Wynne and several other charter companies.

In the letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Federal Transit Administrator Nuria Fernandez, the 12 members of Illinois’s Congressional delegation outlined what going over a transit fiscal cliff would look like for mass public transit systems. The consequences of inaction could include dire cuts to service, fewer safety inspections, and less communal mobility within cities and suburbs.

Chicago Public Schools is struggling to navigate a severe shortage of bus drivers.

The presidential center is expected to open in 2025 but began driving up prices in the neighborhood even before breaking ground in 2021. Woodlawn — first a community of Dutch farmers in the mid-19th century, then home to Black migrants from the South starting in the early 1900s — is just west of the presidential center’s Jackson Park site. Stroll through the rapidly gentrifying community to see stately greystones and brick houses from a bygone era coexisting with modern low-rise condominiums.

“Black, brown alike, we are all getting this resource,” said Fr. Brendan Curran with Resurrection Project. “We need to get back to the table. We can’t have more tragic stories like Saint Frances of Rome. Let’s get it done. Let’s get this program back.

The group made its way to I-55 southbound and Harlem, when the situation escalated. Authorities were called after receiving reports of pedestrians illegally walking onto the expressway. The protest was put on by the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine and the US Palestinian Community Network. It is one of several in the Chicago area in recent weeks. The USPCN says they gathered to call for the end of U.S. and U.K. airstrikes against Yemen and to stop the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza.