“What a horrible reflection on the elected officials and how they treat the people they claim to serve. Crime, murders, and citizens caught in the crossfire should not be the norm.”

“Rapid response teams,” as they’re known, have been making their presence felt on the streets from Brighton Park to the city’s Northwest Side and out to the suburbs. In Wheaton, rapid response teams arrived within minutes of an ICE stop and applied undeniable pressure on federal agents.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office responded Wednesday: “This bill was passed with a supermajority in the legislature and we are unaware of this input ever being given to legislative leaders. The governor’s office always appreciates this kind of input earlier in the legislative process.”

A woman was stabbed in an attack on the CTA Blue Line overnight. The attack came after three CTA workers have been attacked in less than a month, and the head of the CTA’s rail labor union said anxiety and concern among workers has turned to anger. Data shows overall violent crime is down slightly on the CTA this year, but aggravated batteries are up.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wants Illinois state lawmakers to redraw congressional district maps to offset Republican gains from mid-decade remapping in Texas. Illinois lawmakers aren’t eager to do it.

Ald. Marty Quinn’s proposed ordinance would restrict additional dwelling units in Chicago to just 20 percent of the city and add costly labor mandates. It also boosts each alderman’s power over what Chicagoans can do with their own homes.

City leaders said the move will curb the high turnover in neighborhoods. Investors, however, said it could cause a bigger problem. “Many people can’t get a mortgage, but they’re still able to pay rent, so this is preventing people from accessing housing they can afford in communities they want to live in,” said a spokesperson from Illinois Realtors.

CPD’s overtime costs have soared because officers’ salaries and benefits have gone up significantly while the number of CPD members has decreased by approximately 1,200 employees since 2019, Chicago Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons told members of the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee.

“Originally, the Obama Center was sold to City Hall and the Illinois General Assembly as a ‘privately funded’ enterprise that would require no tax dollars. … After ground breaking and construction began, it became clear that the city and state would indeed be on the hook for the cost of rerouting streets and reconfiguring local mass transit lines to support the center. The cost is expected to come to at least $200 million in tax dollars to achieve all that, according to the Washington Examiner.”

Previous Chicago school board members appointed by the mayor mostly did as the mayor asked. But now, school board members must consider what the broader public wants to see in schools, especially those who want to keep their seats through the next election in November 2026, when all 21 members will be chosen by voters.

“I get so sick and tired of people believing that the only thing that Black and Brown and poor people get to get in this city are badges,” he said. “No. It’s a sickness and we’re gonna eradicate it.”

“Springfield is not blameless in this,” said Austin Berg, of the Chicago Policy Center. “But you would think that for a bill that has this impact on only Chicago, that the mayor and the CFO would be on the phone every day talking to state representatives, state senators and the governor’s staff, but instead they were totally missing in action.”

“So we have a (public health) system that is broken and we need to fix it, and the only place where we can find the money to fix it right now is in the police department,” said Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez.