“What we are going to do is to make sure that every single visitor, delegate or not, will be safe. We’re going to make sure that those who are going to engage in the full expression of their First and Fourth amendment rights are going to be safe,” said John Roberson, the city’s chief operating officer. “And we’re going to do that against the backdrop of providing public safety for 2.7 million people in the city of Chicago.”

But the CTA still has a way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels. In fall 2023, the CTA had slashed schedules on some train lines by as much as 25 percent to 30 percent compared with 2019 service levels. Since then, the CTA has added 788 weekly rail trips. The CTA said it will need to boost service by another 19 percent to reach pre-pandemic levels

“It is a matter of life and death,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “The best way to achieve a better, stronger, safer Chicago is by investing in people. So that’s what I’m doing.”

Both Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker have reaffirmed their support for Joe Biden, as other Democrats, including Illinois congressmen Brad Schneider and Mike Quigley, have called on him to step aside. Johnson said of Donald Trump, “This person has made it clear he has not accepted the results of the Civil War, and he wants a rematch. They are literally trying to bring back the Confederacy.”

State Rep. John Cabello is also a member of the law enforcement community. It’s Democrats who are in control in Chicago and Cook County and they need to lock criminals up, he said. “And we must prosecute the people that are committing the violent crimes, that are committing these forcible felonies, that are committing bank robberies and so on and so forth. And not just saying, ‘oh you had a bad day today, we’ll let you out.’”

While the lunch itself was expected to bring in less than $1 million for the campaign, the mood of the participants – many of whom had given millions to Biden’s 2020 campaign and associated entities – serves as a warning sign among some deep-blue corners of the donor class.

“The practice of using one-time revenue sources, particularly federal pandemic funding, operating reserves and TIF surplus, further exacerbates this deficit and leaves the City particularly vulnerable in the event of unexpected costs or economic downturns.”

The “tent city” sandwiched for years between the Dan Ryan Expressway and the 1100 block of South Desplaines Street will be cleared out Wednesday and permanently cordoned off. Nearly all of the 22 people who have been living there have agreed to move to a city-operated shelter of 60 beds in the former Tremont Hotel. This year’s inaugural summer shelter arrangement has been funded through Aug. 31.

Samantha Walton bought the Wolfson building, 2678 W. Washington Blvd., last fall and plans to repurpose it into a community space. The Walton Family Foundation, a separate entity for which Samantha’s husband, Lukas Walton, is a board member, is a founding sponsor of East Garfield Park business incubator The Hatchery, about a mile west of the Wolfson building.

Some of the items were believed to be stolen directly from Chicagoland stores. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said other items may have been stolen from trains. The store owner and an employee have been charged with felony theft.

“After months of stating that Chicago can’t ‘police its way’ out of its violent-crime disease, Johnson finally crossed the first threshold to getting a handle on this mayhem, and that was to point the finger of blame where it belongs — at criminals, not some systemic conspiracy.”

The $100 million in private donations is part of a target of $400 million in spending to increase the number of participants in anti-violence programs to half, and then three-quarters, of all Chicago residents who are considered at the highest level of risk of shooting someone or being shot themselves. The public-private effort is called Scaling Community Violence Prevention for a Safer Chicago or SC2.