“As the state’s chief fiscal officer — and as the proud parent of a Chicago Public Schools student — I, like most Chicagoans, am outraged at the reckless fiscal course Mayor Brandon Johnson is charting at Chicago Public Schools.”

The Chicago Teachers Union confirmed that negotiations have started, for the first time this cycle, with CPS board members present. But in a cease-and-desist letter sent to the school board, Martinez’s lawyers called for the board members’ actions at the bargaining table to stop, saying their attempts, in part, “unlawfully infringe on and interfere with Mr. Martinez’s authority, as CEO, to act as the sole representative of the Board in these negotiations.”

Retired Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel believes prosecutors pursued weak cases to score political points. “Kim Foxx took ‘defund the police’ to a new level by trying to ‘re-imagine policing’ by charging police officers with crimes when they were not justified in doing so. She and her office staff were more interested in gaining national notoriety… earning her a national platform for her agenda.”

His comptroller, chief policy officer, and the head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services are all headed for the exits.

The district will usher in the new year with a new governance structure, after voters for the first time elected people to the Chicago Board of Education, and uncertainty over who will lead the district and what kind of financial shape it will be in.

Parents should be wary of CTU’s alleged “support.” Parents chose charter schools for a reason. What was offered through the district’s traditional schools wasn’t right for their children. Now, the absorbed schools will no longer be charters.

Despite repeated claims from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration that supplemental pension payments have been made beyond what is required of the city, the city budget continues to fail to make a full actuarially determined pension payment. This failure makes the city budget inherently unbalanced and means that every year the amount the city needs to pay to fully fund pensions will likely increase.

The Cook County Board approved an amendment that would move about $6.3 million out of Sheriff Tom Dart’s budget and into Judge Timothy Evans’ adult probation department. But Evans said he projected requiring nearly $37 million to run an effective program. Stakeholders said they hope to be involved, with opportunities to shape the process. They called for transparency, especially given that the court system is not subject to the same open records laws as the sheriff’s department.

Ronald Mikos was sentenced to death in 2005 after he was convicted of killing a witness in his Medicare fraud trial. The Chicago podiatrist shot a 54-year-old patient to keep her from testifying against him in 2002. Mikos was also found guilty of defrauding Medicaid out of nearly $2 million by billing for operations he never performed. Now in his mid-70s, he’ll continue to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Homan: “The mayor of Chicago says Tom Homan isn’t welcome in Chicago. Well guess where Tom Homan is going on day one? Chicago, Illinois! You don’t want me there, come get me.”

Mayor Johnson sacks the school’s chief for his teachers union funders.

“How about we just focus on what we want?” Johnson said when asked whether he’s ruled out trying to pass a future property tax hike, after aldermen threw his latest attempt back in his face. “I want you all to stay positive, OK, because the people of Chicago and the state of Illinois really require that. Look, I know it’s easy to go back and forth about this tax versus this tax, but people have sold the people of Chicago out for too long, and they have kowtowed to the interests of the ultrarich.”

“Deliberately engineering a fiscal collapse of the nation’s fourth largest public school district, which is what CTU and Johnson seem determined to do in order to force the state or the ‘ultrarich’ to bail out the system, ultimately will land at Springfield’s doorstep, something Pritzker and company also know.”