In April, after Evans’ office assumed responsibility for the countywide electronic monitoring program, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke told her staff in a memo that the chief judge’s office was not prepared for the job, making the program “a serious threat to public safety.” As of Nov. 21, there were 3,191 individuals on electronic monitoring with the Adult Probation Department.

Both Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez and Judge Ralph Meczyk are serving six-year terms as judges on the Cook County bench. Molina-Gonzalez will next go before voters in 2026 and Meczyk in 2030 during so-called “retention” election. If judges fail to secure 60 percent “yes” votes, they would be removed from the bench.

Carolyn Sanford said she’s upset because she warned the school about the kids for months and she says nothing was done. The same group of kids who attacked Corshawnda Hatter and her son outside Orville T. Bright Elementary School this week also brutally attacked Sanford’s son this past summer, leaving him unconscious on the ground for half an hour.

“Is it too taxing on the mayor to understand Econ 101?”

“Some of the most provocative ads portray (Mayor Brandon)Johnson as a property tax hiker and progressive caucus co-chair Ald. Andre Vasquez as a President Trump puppet. The ad battle underscores how personal the head tax issue has become, how political action committees are fueling the fight and how desperately we need fact-checking of social media.”

Each with 18%, but 31% still undecided.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved $7.5 million for the program through its FY 2026 budget, which totals $10.12 billion. Both Cook County and Chicago’s programs relied heavily on federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Last year, Mayor Brandon Johnson ended Chicago’s guaranteed income program to fill the city’s 2025 budget gap.

“… (O)verall crime at CTA locations is down slightly year over year, but the most serious violent offenses are rising — homicides are up 40 percent and shootings have increased by 33 percent, according to police data. … A woman sitting on a bench at the UIC-Halsted Blue Line stop Nov. 10 was stabbed in the chest by a man wielding a large knife. In July, a 56-year-old man was beaten to death in the Loop at the Clark and Lake CTA stop. The list goes on.”

“The time to back up the truck and clean house in Chicago and the rest of the state has long passed. Start with the so-called reformers.”

Of the 123 cases that have been reviewed, one case did not result in an indictment, or a finding of probable cause by a judge, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Ald. Samantha Nugent told the City Club of Chicago she previously worked in intergovernmental affairs, but she would have been fired if she were as bad at her job as the mayor’s team is. “We are not communicating with the governor of our state. We do not have a legislative agenda. We don’t know what we’re asking for when we’re down there, and we’re sure not getting it,” Nugent said.

“I’m a little taken aback by, you know, some of the pushback from the corporate head tax. Because when I talk to CEOs, it doesn’t come up. They talk about community safety,” Johnson said. The mayor is also not budging on union concessions, something one alderman suggested Wednesday.

“… (W)e need a full picture of just which city vendors are putting their own finances over the well-being of our city. I’m calling for a full-scale audit of all city contractors to see which ones are taking part in this operation.”

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “In its way, what we’re seeing in city government is a sign of progress: The City Council for a second year is acting independently and setting its own agenda for the city budget. The next step would be to start building, or helping build, a budget that represents its agenda, not just the mayor’s.”

Thirty Illinois House Democrats have urged the City Council to spike Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to tax online sports betting for fear that it would invite other municipalities to do the same, drive online sports betting underground and send state revenue on a tailspin.

Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to take out $283 million in loans to pay for police settlements, but his plan has left aldermen wondering how a lot of the money will be spent. “It’s really challenging for me to go to my community and say, ‘I think we should spend $42 million on interest payments alone for costs that we knew were coming,'” Ald. Matt Martin said.

Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison (R-17th) announced Thursday he will not run for reelection next year, saying he believes “public service should be a season of contribution, not a lifetime occupation, and it is important that I lead by example.” Morrison, the lone Republican on the 17-member Cook County Board, also said the Democratic party’s supermajority was a factor in his decision not to seek another term in office, saying his fellow commissioners’ “ideological priorities diverge sharply from my own deeply held personal, ethical, and spiritual convictions.”

“We hear they’re huddling with representatives of the business community, leading civic organizations like the Civic Federation and the Commercial Club, and, yes, even people from unions representing city workers. … From what we are given to understand, the head tax will not be part of the (Ald. Pat) Dowell plan. Not at any level. But we are likely to see some of those ‘efficiencies’ the mayor and his supporters on the council keep deriding as impractical or impossible.”

Illinois has a shortage of about 142,000 housing units and must build 227,000 in the next five years to keep pace with demand, a number that would require recent annual production rates to double, according to a joint study published this summer by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.