“For once again here, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson has run into the chronic problem of trying to be both an activist, prone to anti-police rhetoric and in the thrall of the far left, while also being the mayor of a city whose job it is to pay respect to the daily dangers faced by police officers…”

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the union was happy to see “more people in the first session than we have seen in previous times with direct understanding and clarity about how school works.” A CPS spokesperson said officials are reviewing the CTU’s proposals to livestream a “limited number of sessions” and to create a sign-up list for in-person attendees.

Northwestern said it has come to terms with protest representatives agreeing that peaceful demonstrations will continue on Deering Meadow through June 1 and only Northwestern students, faculty and staff can participate. Students in the encampment told reporters they were “blindsided” by the agreements, calling those who made the decision “sellouts.”

Owing to longstanding issues surrounding the university’s relationship with the community it inhabits, students also called on the school to abolish its private police force, fund South Side housing and education programs, stop new construction projects in the area, and more.

Protest organizers expect as many as 30,000 people to show up in Chicago to demonstrate against Israel’s military action in Gaza, almost triple the number of protesters who gathered in Grant Park in August 1968. Asked if he’s worried about a flashback to 1968, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin replied, “Of course.”

Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she and another state official were asked by Huesca’s “grief stricken mother” to tell Johnson “he was unwelcome at her son’s funeral.”

Kayla Hudgins, a former CPS student, said her teachers pressured her to participate in transcendental meditation as part of a “quiet time” curriculum. Hudgins on one occasion said she didn’t want to participate and was sent to the dean’s office. After quiet time, students were pressured to sign nondisclosure agreements to not tell their parents when they got home from school. Students were told if they didn’t sign the agreement it would affect their grades.

There are only 176 full student attendance days in the 2024-2025 CPS calendar. If CTU gets its way, teachers could be out of the classroom for 26 of those days for vacation time, sick days, personal days and the new medical release day. That’s nearly 15 percent of the time kids are in school.

Since they were turned on in 2013, Chicago’s speed cameras have generated $879 million for the city, sending 9,132,409 tickets to motorists. That’s more than three tickets per Chicagoan or almost a ticket for three of every four Illinois residents.

The proposal is part of a broader look at transit funding, as the region’s public transit agencies face a combined $730 million budget hole once federal COVID-19 relief funding starts running out, which could be as soon as 2025.