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He says a presidential run will depend on if he has enough energy, original ideas and the ability to get them done. “Not say it, not think it, not articulate it, but execute it and if I can think I can do that, I’ll do it. If I can’t, I won’t,” Emanuel said.
According to CPD, one person was arrested for battering a Chicago police officer.
“There’s a lot more work to do. I don’t want to suggest to you that we’re done. We’re not,” the governor said. “And that’s why, once again, we continue to make the investments here.”
In a lawsuit filed Thursday that includes salacious details about investigations into Chicago Public Schools principals, a longtime school district investigator is alleging she was fired as she delved into politically and racially charged cases and refused to change reports, despite pressure from high-level officials.
“We should have a remote learning plan in the event of an emergency. But if the governor does not call a state of emergency, we do not have the ability to just send the district into remote learning,” Interim Supt./CEO Macquline King said. She encouraged school board members to lobby the state.
Davis Gates said that she aims to be a unifying force as students and teachers continue to face challenges with funding uncertainties and the ramping up of immigration raids in the city. “Just today, a 16-year-old American-born student at one of our high schools here in the Chicago Public Schools was detained by ICE. We have bigger fish to fry. We have to keep young people safe,” she said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget for 2026 sets aside just $82.5 million to cover the cost of resolving police misconduct lawsuits, even though the city has already agreed to spend $90 million next year to resolve 176 lawsuits tied to former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts and his team. Chicago taxpayers have spent at least $267 million to resolve other misconduct lawsuits so far this year,
State lawmakers are expected to include battery storage as part of an energy omnibus bill at the Illinois Capitol next week, but questions remain over who will pay for it.
Noah Finley, of the National Federation of Independent Business: “Last week, a memo circulating around the capitol included a potential $2.7 billion statewide service tax, euphemistically dubbed as ‘Sales Tax Modernization.’ … It would apply to everyday services that working families and seniors depend upon, such as home repairs, haircuts, pet care, accounting, tax services, landscaping, and vehicle repairs.”
Walking out on students has become a go-to strategy for many affiliates of Illinois Federation of Teachers – the AFT state affiliate – and the Illinois Education Association, the two biggest teachers’ unions in Illinois.
Since 1996, residential property taxes have grown by 232 percent. Most of the growth in property taxes can be attributed to the massive growth in pension obligations that local governments can no longer afford.
A new report by the Federal Reserve paints a bleak hiring outlook for Chicago over the next 12 months. The Fed is projecting hiring to be down 39.75 percent. That the lowest it’s been since March of 2020 during the pandemic, when it was down 47.8 percent.
“We have a right to compile that information and put together a profile of each of those agents who have allegedly committed a crime. This is not about doxxing them,” Lightfoot said. The federal agents have so far remained anonymous because of what the Department of Homeland Security said has been a 1,000 percent increase in threats against them.
“Already, Mamdani has told the New York business community, Politico reported, that he endorses a ‘team of rivals’-style approach’ when it comes to hiring his inner circle. … Few observers in the Second City look at the fifth floor of Chicago’s City Hall and see a team of ideological rivals. They see a team with the same defensive worldview.”
The cases include multiple shoplifting and domestic battery allegations, battery, and driving without a license twice in March 2024. Anthony Vasquez Guedez, age 26, received a 32-day sentence earlier this month for felony shoplifting and failed to appear in court for the driving matters, according to court records. Prosecutors dropped all of the other cases.
While Senate GOP Leader Curran later issued a joint statement with Senate President Don Harmon condemning political violence more broadly, the testy back-and-forth between Gov. JB Pritzker and House Leader Tony McCombie occurred just two days after Charlie Kirk’s death, as Republicans and Democrats across the nation debated, discussed and denounced political violence while at the same time accused the other side of perpetuating it.
The company is the on-site manager of the 130-unit South Shore Drive complex where Border Patrol agents swept up dozens of occupants late last month. The raid exposed deplorable conditions that residents say they have complained about for years, including bug-infested hallways, feces smeared on walls, elevators not working, piled-up garbage and crime.
The executive order establishes the “Illinois Accountability Commission,” which is a board of nine people appointed by the Governor, focused on creating a public record of the conduct of federal law enforcement agents.
The big energy bill currently in committee in the House seeks to put requirements on energy efficiency, allow for new nuclear reactors in the state, tighten labor standards in the solar industry and incentivize battery storage. Sen. Sue Rezin, who serves as the co-chair of the Task Force for Energy Supply, has some concerns with the bill, particularly as it relates to what she calls the “AI Economy.”
Bryan Zarou, of the Better Government Association: “Transparency is an essential part of governing that allows our democracy to function. But creating an open and accountable government is work that is never truly done. (Clerk Mariyana) Spyropoulos has made concrete changes and shows us what is possible when a public official chooses to prioritize transparency and accountability.”
According to a social media post by the Bailey Campaign, the crash happened in Carter County Montana, which is the southeast corner of the state, bordering South Dakota and Wyoming.
The administration has been barred from deploying guardsmen in Illinois since U.S. District Judge April Perry’s temporary restraining order Oct. 9. But that 14-day order was set to expire Thursday evening.
Jon Banner, McDonald’s Corp.’s executive vice president and global chief impact officer: “McDonald’s pays taxes in every state and every country where we operate. But the proposals being made in Springfield and Chicago are making Illinois an outlier — one of the few places choosing to disincentivize growth by targeting its most globally competitive and recognized companies.”
“I don’t think any of it is good. I don’t want to do it for the state of Illinois,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “I don’t think we should redistrict here. I have to say though that we live in, I mean, the most dangerous times that I can remember when it comes to preserving our democratic institutions. They are breaking them down everywhere.”
The Chicago Public Schools system leaped into the national spotlight over the weekend after Lucy Martinez, a K-8 STEM teacher at Nathan Hale Elementary School, was seen on video during the “No Kings” protests antagonizing a Charlie Kirk supporter by pointing an imaginary gun to her neck and shouting, “Bang, bang.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $16.6 billion 2026 budget would reduce the supplemental pension contributions that had lifted the city’s credit stature.mThe budget, released Thursday, calls for new revenues, but avoids the property tax hikes that fell flat with City Council last year. The mayor’s budget would cut the advance pension payment to $120.2 million from the originally planned $238 million.
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