A press release announcing the “Recall this Fall” petition drive to put a binding referendum on the November ballot notes that many cities in Illinois and across the country offer their voters an opportunity to recall poorly performing mayors; former Illinois governor Pat Quinn led a successful drive to allow voters to recall their governor. “Chicagoans should have the ability to do the same,” it says.

“This was not only a major loss for the CTU, it was also a strike against the increasingly divisive, angry and in-your-face approach that has been prevalent at Chicago’s City Hall, which lefty activists are now trying to bring to Springfield.”

The mayor says a fully funded district means the state owes CPS $1 billion, money he said will go toward making sure neighborhood schools have the resources they need.

Of the felony defendants charged with new crimes while awaiting trial, 4 percent (411) were charged with a property crime, and less than 1 percent were charged with a new violent crime (74) or weapons office (73).

Video shows four federal agents who entered the village hall and went right to the basement looking for records. It was not known whether the FBI presence at the Dolton Village Hall was related to Mayor Tiffany Henyard in any way.

After the votes, Johnson linked the two policies together, pushing back against opponents’ claim his administration is investing money on migrants but not long-term residents. “What people are saying is, ‘It’s our turn. When is it our turn?’ And our turn is now,” he said. “I just happen to believe that we can do both-and.”

On average, only 13 percent of sustainable community school students in third through eighth grade read at grade level and only 4 percent in 11th grade. But 63 percent of third- through eighth- and 11th-grade selective enrollment students read at grade level. It is illogical for CTU to demand 180 more of these failing schools in its 2024 contract negotiations.

“(W)e need to have elected school board members who are willing to upset the apple cart to get CPS students literate, which should include shutting down CTU’s control and power …”

Tamar Moses, 18, had been arrested for felony gun possession and fleeing police just five days earlier, after he allegedly sped away from a traffic stop and struck an unmarked squad car.

“Sometimes it feels like the only thing that’s available for us are leftovers, right?” Johnson said, nodding as he sat in a circle with dozens of students at Collins Academy on Chicago’s west side. “There’s a lot of work to be done, but unfortunately, because of a long history of systemic racism, disinvestment has left our communities in despair.”

Evans has ties to a 19th-century massacre of Indigenous Americans, but trustees argue he wasn’t directly culpable. “The institution seems more concerned with their reputation, and the name of John Evans, rather than … making sure that the Native community and other communities here can feel safe and respected,” said sophomore Olivia Bailey.

“It’s something the Legislature and I — and of course the city of Chicago — and we’re gonna have to consider the plan the CTA should have come forward with already, which we haven’t seen, but that may include changing fares and other things that will help us deal with what is clearly going to be a fiscal cliff here,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “We’re also hoping that we see help from the federal government along the way.”

But Burke, 80, has plenty of campaign cash left on hand to appeal the jury’s verdict and delay any prison sentence. His campaign account still has approximately $8 million in investments. And because the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the use of campaign funds to cover legal defense fees in March 2022, Burke did not have to dip into his annual city taxpayer-funded pension of more than $96,000.

The Chicago Teachers Union prides itself as a leader in “bargaining for the common good” – unionspeak for contract demands related to its political agenda rather than teachers’ wages and benefits. This year’s negotiations could reverberate across the nation.

The tension among Democrats at various levels of government was evident in the response Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez, chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, gave to a question about how Democrats would handle attempts to use the migrant crisis to score political points during the convention: “It’s evident that at a state level we’re doing all that we can, but we’re limited. It’s a federal issue.”

A school’s degree of need is determined by what is called an Opportunity Index score, based on a formula that includes a school’s percentage of vulnerable students and community characteristics, including poverty and historical funding. Scores across the district currently range from 14 to 52. For every Opportunity Index point above 14, the district will increase a school’s funding by $12 per student at elementary schools and $18 per student at high schools.

Dan Boland lives in Lake View, where he is currently unemployed. “You have to make the mayor accountable,” he said. “The mayor is accountable to all voters of Chicago, not just brown Chicago or Black Chicago or white Chicago.”