The latest figures from the City of Chicago’s spending dashboard shows the city has spent more than $400 million over the past two years on migrants – with the bulk of that money going to private companies that helped forge lease agreements or provided staffing for migrants shelters.

Among its responsibilities during the convention period, the city “shall” provide “security for an appropriate demonstration area in or in close proximity to the Venue Licenses Premises (United Center and McCormick Place) “for groups and organizations exercising First Amendment rights and a parade route within appropriate proximity” to the venues.

“The prevailing progressive ethos of second, third and fourth chances for violent criminals is wearing thin on a public grown more than tired of feeling vulnerable as they they walk city streets. … (Mayor Brandon) Johnson said ‘we’re not pointing a finger at anybody,’ on Tuesday. Yes, by all means, point some fingers, Mr. Mayor.”

Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, said the Illinois Commerce Commission approved last year’s rate hike largely due to the replacement program. Since then, the state paused spending on the program until an investigation could determine if it was worth it.

“Let’s not act like we don’t know how previous administrations got down,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We have been as intentional and strategic as we have been because we have turned the page on the type of patronage and overly deferential system that has been used by some mediocre bureaucrat who just happens to be the nephew, son, or cousin of someone.”

The law at stake is Illinois Public Act 103-0416, enacted August 2023. It prevents charter schools from actively opposing their teachers’ efforts to unionize. “The act … is a state regulatory measure that seeks to advance Illinois’ chosen labor policies in direct contravention of the rights guaranteed to charter schools and their employees under the National Labor Relations Act,” the charter school networks wrote in their 26-page complaint.

The Legler library branch is one of the busiest distribution sites for the overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan, and it’s one of three library branches where mental health services are offered. Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown said, “The reality is, we don’t have a built environment for mental health spaces all throughout the city. But we do have 81 libraries in all 77 neighborhoods.”

Approximately 125 union members were underpaid, a union spokesman said, while around 800 were overpaid. The overpayments, he estimated, cost somewhere between $2.7 and $2.9 million. One member was overpaid close to $31,000. “The mistakes were so apparent that I finally lost it… I had a guy who worked one hour. He was supposed to get $1.03 in retro. They paid him $1,125. I’m a good negotiator, but I’m not that good,” the spokesman said.

South Side GOP Chairman Devin Jones said that city, county and state politicians are giving migrants money that should be spent on Chicago taxpayers. “I think the best way going forward is to not take the citizens’ money and further exacerbate the problem, when we have terrible roads, terrible schools,” he said. The South Side Republican organization has drafted an ordinance to repeal the city’s sanctuary city policy.

The current CTU contract already places a moratorium on adding charter schools and capping enrollment. CTU’s demands for the new contract would further limit enrollment at charter schools, and that the school board adopt a clear transition procedure for charter and contract school closures and reabsorptions. The union is obviously preparing for the ultimate shut-down of charter schools in Chicago.

Just 58 percent of scheduled Blue Line trains showed up on Sunday — and only 31 percent were on time. The agency blamed a “high number of unscheduled call-offs.”

Mbekeani, who had never worked as a line prosecutor before her appointment to the Conviction Review Unit, rankled some of her more senior peers in the office, who noted her prior work on a website intended to connect incarcerated people to free legal support for wrongful conviction claims. She also drew the ire of a judge at the courthouse, who believed her involvement with the website conflicted with her role in the prosecutor’s office.

“One-point-five million pedestrian impressions on State Street for an average week,” said Chicago Loop Alliance President and CEO Michael Edwards. And yet, according to the latest vacancy rate data from Stone Real Estate, the Loop faced a fourth-straight annual vacancy rate increase in 2023, jumping to more than 30 percent vacant. In fact, vacancy rates have doubled from the pre-COVID levels of only about 15 percent.

“What is going to take is this administration and certain policies to uncuff… take the handcuffs off our police,” Ald. David Moore said. “We have to make sure that they have the tools, including the item called ShotSpotter. … We need to stop listening to all of these activists… where White progressives are making a whole bunch of money to tell Black people what to do in their community and telling them to stop things like car stops in order to get guns and drugs off the street.”

City Council candidates would get as much as $200,000 in public funds linked to small contributions if a new ordinance proposed by Ald. Matt Martin passes. The legislation aims to dampen the oversized influence of wealthy donors, he said.

Effective June 2025, the county plans to give 5 percent cost-of-living adjustments to employees and as salaries increase, so do the pension contributions the county expects to make. This is driving the estimated $218 million budget gap next year.

In response to a question about what challenges his time as an organizer may have not quite prepared him for, Johnson cast a stern eye on previous mayors, saying they had been running the city “into the ground” with “clear disinvestment” and systemic racism. “It was intentional. Schools were closed. Public housing was shut down. Pensions were raided. You had the parking meters sold off. You had the Skyway sold off, right? So you had real intentional disinvestment from previous administrations,” he said. “And so, of course, the challenge is undoing forty years of systemic racism.”

The city cited the Juneteenth holiday for closing all but one cooling center for vulnerable residents Wednesday. City officials have also advised people to seek shelter at Chicago’s more than 80 public libraries this week, but all those locations will be closed for the day as well.

“We pick the amount that we would like out of check, and that money is supposed to go to Nationwide, but that is not been happening,” firefighter Adam Farej said. “It has been going on for more than six months. … Some people are not putting money into it because of the situation.” The difficulties come as firefighters in Dolton have been working without a contract for nearly five years.