Of the 250 responses from contractors returned by the close of business Friday, 62 agreed to cut their already-negotiated prices by 3 percent, while 59 others rejected the mayor’s request. The remaining 129 want to have “more conversations” with Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts. At least 750 others did not respond at all within the five-business day deadline Roberts established.

CTU and CPS are $9 million and 10 minutes apart. That is 10 minutes of planning time and $9 million in pay bumps for veteran teachers. That time and money are in the CPS proposals, but the CTU said it is not structured in a way that works for them.

Every taxpayer in Chicago would need to contribute $40,600 to pay down the city’s total debt, according to Truth in Accounting’s 2025 State of the Cities report. Add in the debt Illinois state leaders grew last year, and Chicago taxpayers owe nearly $80,000.

Crain’s analysis of 18 prominent office properties in and around downtown that were sold during that span found they traded for a combined $712 million, which is a staggering 72% — or more than $1.8 billion — less than they were collectively worth when they changed hands in the years before COVID. “The Johnson administration must do everything it can to remove roadblocks that these investors might encounter as they consider what to do next.”

“If you want a textbook example of teachers union corruption, look no further than the gold standard for scandal and failure: the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).”

“Chicago is on deck.”

At one point, a fan pours a large circle of gasoline in the middle of the intersection. Spectators hurry to get inside the ring of fuel, and one of them lights it on fire. Drivers begin spinning circles around the crowd, which is surrounded by flames.

In a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices agreed with Patrick Daley Thompson, the grandson and nephew of two former Chicago mayors and himself a former city alderman, that the federal law under which he was convicted does not apply to statements that are misleading but not false. But Friday’s decision left open the possibility that when the case returns to the lower courts, Thompson’s conviction could nonetheless stand because his statements were false.

Chicago is home to 94 data centers, with Digital Realty’s Cermak Road center being one of the world’s largest facilities — and one of three data centers in the South Loop and Near South Side.

The Chicago Skyway is no longer owned by the city; it was sold first in 2005 and then again in 2022 to private operators.

The unions’ collaboration is a “natural gathering,” Patrick Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Local Union 2, said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “We both have public safety issues where the schools are in dire need, firehouses are in dire need and the vehicles at the Chicago Fire Department … are falling apart.”

Selling the village land could provide a few million dollars that would make no more than a 2 percent dent in funding the village’s pensions, according to Village Administrator Rachell Entler. “It’s going to put us in a positive direction, but it’s not going to dig us out of a huge hole,” she said. Last May, the police pension fund was underfunded by over 60 percent, or $41 million.

The CTA is facing the largest budget gap. It warns that it could close or scale back service to more than 50 train stations, end service on all or some of four out of its eight lines and cut up to 74 out of its 127 bus routes.

Just minutes before its monthly meeting, the school board called off the votes that would pave the way for Chicago Public Schools to issue or repurpose $242 million in debt and ink an agreement making the district responsible for its pension obligation. School board President Sean Harden cited contract negotiations as the reason for the delay.

Former Chicago corporation counsel Steve Patton and former United States associate attorney general John Schmidt: “Under Illinois law, these dangerous offenders should be held in pretrial detention after arrest, except possibly in unusual cases in which a judge finds there is some innocent explanation for carrying an enhanced weapon. But the record of Burke’s first 100 days in office does not show all Cook County judges responding to those basic facts.”