“We inherited a really stagnant, just awful, abrasive system,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said of the $293 million the Chicago Police Department spent on overtime last year . “That type of spending on one particular element of city government. There has to be more equity and a more dynamic distribution of those resources in order for us to actually really get at solving crime in Chicago.”

There have now been 10 measles patients identified in Chicago in sum. One of the measles patients attended Philip D. Armour Elementary in Bridgeport, and is staying in the migrant shelter at 2241 S. Halsted St. Another is a student at Cooper Dual Language Elementary Academy in Pilsen, and is also a shelter resident.

Votes will be counted next week on the city’s ballot question, heavily supported by the Chicago Teachers Union, that could empower Mayor Brandon Johnson and his allies in the Chicago City Council to jack up city property sales tax rates, after the Illinois Supreme Court rejected a last ditch appeal from Chicago business advocates to block the ballot measure.

Cook County Judge Katheen Burke originally ruled the question on the March 19 ballot unconstitutional and invalid, but appellate justices said she was wrong to rule on a referendum that was a step in the legislative process. The Illinois Supreme Court upheld the appellate decision March 13 without offering a reason for the decision.

The Chicago Teachers Union so far has put $400,000 behind Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate tax hike and subjected itself to an ethics complaint for plans to lobby students and pull them from class to vote. CTU’s heavy investment is looking for a payoff, which it lists in its new contract demands.

The average Chicago teacher’s salary increased by $43,000 since 2012, compared to $15,217 for the private sector.

CTU Vice President Jackson Potter sent out a notice for students of voting age about an upcoming rally to lead up to casting their first vote for the Illinois primary: “On the morning of March 15, students will gather at CTU Headquarters and hear from candidates/political organizers, collaborate with young voters from other schools, and participate in engaging events including art, music, and dance. The event will culminate with a Parade to the Polls, where students will march to an early voting site—celebrating voting in their first election and making their voices heard along the way!”

Mayor Brandon Johnson said an unspecified number of the thousands of migrant shelter residents who were issued 60-day notices to vacate by Saturday will receive exemptions. “I don’t know if it’s a substantial number, but again, they can return to the loading zone,” the mayor said when asked about how many migrants must leave the shelters. “That’s one place, or they can decide to move on. You know, they don’t necessarily have to remain within the structure that we’re providing.”

Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said he’s “not looking to influence the vote” on Tuesday, if the Illinois Supreme Court allows the votes to be counted. He’s “looking to influence the landscape on the accountability on what we’re voting for. … That’s the problem. It’s insufficiently clear to people what they’re voting for. It’s insufficiently clear how this all works.”

But Johnson’s announcement was conspicuously different from those made by his predecessors in the run-up to summer: no mention of additional efforts by the Chicago Police Department to crack down on criminal behavior with additional patrols or enhanced penalties for lawbreakers. By concentrating on just 10 specific block groups, officials believe they can “amplify the impact of our investments directed at eradicating the root causes of violence in historically disinvested communities,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

The recommendations are part of a wide-ranging report on reducing building emissions from Urban Land Institute Chicago, which has 1,500 members representing all aspects of the real estate industry, including developers, property owners, investors, architects, planners, public officials and real estate brokers. Among the recommendations: Expand the city’s energy-usage reporting requirements to include more Chicago buildings, and require buildings to report carbon emissions.

“Were (the Chicago Teachers Union) simply a labor union and no more, this clarification, so to speak, might be reassuring to those not wanting their kids to be used as pawns in a broader political battle. But CTU these days essentially is a political party unto itself. It is — to employ a lexicon Chicagoans of a certain age are familiar with — the boss. So any such event hosted by the teachers union will rightfully be suspected of electioneering regardless of the use of terms like ‘non-partisan,’ ‘civic engagement’ and ‘electoral process’ to describe what it’s all about.”

State officials are moving families who have been exposed to measles from shelters to unnamed hotels, specifically pregnant women and babies who are not able to be vaccinated. Meanwhile, Cook County Health is notifying patients, visitors, and staff about possible measles exposure connected Chicago cases, which involved three Cook County Health facilities.

The question will ask the 25th Ward’s 9th precinct residents to vote “yes” or “no” to a referendum asking “should the government provide assistance if your bill increased by more than 40 percent to help pay your property tax bill with TIF funds?” Several homeowners saw increases between 40-60 percent, while others had their property tax bills triple after the last reassessment.

“We are doing everything we possibly can, but the cost of doing business in Chicago is very difficult right now,” said said John Wolf, vice president of Fettes, Love & Sieben Plumbing & Heating Contractor. “There’s no repercussions for these people.”

The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has space in more than 60 shuttered churches, schools and other buildings listed for sale or for lease, and church officials offered up more than dozen of these locations to the city. But City Hall has yet to agree on any such offers from the archdiocese, instead renting private shelter spaces at high costs. The company that leases most private shelter spaces for the city, Equitable Social Solutions, has been paid a total $45.5 million, according to a Johnson administration list of what it’s paying for the migrant influx.