With more than a dozen charter schools waiting for the Board of Education to renew their contracts, the Chicago Teachers Union is calling on the school district to rein in spending on charter management overhead and the stockpiling of public money. About 50,000 Chicago Public Schools students attend 119 publicly funded, privately run charters.

“We’re talking about decades of disinvestments. It’s going to take all of us as a collective to respond to decades-old problems,” Johnson said. The CTA said, beginning June 23, its going to give 250 students and young adults a 7-week paid summer internship. The Chicago Park District said they’re bringing back late-night basketball and soccer games to provide a safe nighttime activity for youths.

“Yes, you read that right: $1.1 billion a mile. And a further increase is not at all out of the range of possibility.”

“Philadelphia’s experience is a cautionary tale. One recent estimate suggests that home values near transit could fall by nearly $7 billion; that means a slashing of tax revenue that funds schools, parks and public safety. More cars on the road will mean more traffic, more pollution and more stress on working families.”

A state bill requiring companies to provide an itemized list of fees before a purchase — or include it in the total advertised price — sailed through the House of Representatives and a key Senate committee Tuesday. And Wednesday, a City Council member pledged to hold a hearing into Uber’s overcharging of the city’s Downtown congestion fee — while rideshare drivers rallied for more workplace protections.

City Hall requires every developer to supply an economic disclosure statement that forces all parties involved in the project to show proof that their companies have no history of making money from slavery prior to the U.S. Civil War. This requirement is a terrible cost to the developers because if forces them to do an inordinate amount of historical research into their subsidiaries.

Some alders say race is playing a shrinking role in voter choice as Black alders lead at least four plurality white wards. “I think people are now voting based on the quality of the service that you give them, not your ethnicity,” Black Ald. Walter Burnett, who represents the plurality white 27th Ward, said. “Maybe we’re starting to get into Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream when people are judged not based on their race.”

Some educators and experts think no-zero grading — and a broader push to avoid giving F’s — is one reason why CPS has experienced two seemingly conflicting trends since the pandemic: High absenteeism among high school students and increasing graduation rates.

Four senior law enforcement officials reported that a man opened fire outside Washington, D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum, hitting a man and woman. The man shouted, “Free Palestine” while he was being arrested, three senior law enforcement officials said.

The mayor replied, “Well, first of all, I reject the idea and the premise that somehow that’s an actual legitimate question.”

Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson dismissed the probe as a “divisive tactic” and continued his pushback Wednesday, accusing Trump’s administration of being threatened by diversity. “As far as, you know, the president’s animus towards women, people of color, working people, we have always known who he has been. This is not a surprise. He’s a monster,” Johnson said.

“To explain Chicago’s population loss, look to its crime rate. The Windy City last year led the nation in murders – 653 – almost twice the number of Baltimore, the city with the second-highest number. Instances of gang violence have spread from the low-income South Side to the ‘miracle mile’ of downtown’s Michigan Avenue. Yet for the privilege of being subjected to high crime, Chicagoans have paid more and more – and more – in property taxes.”