“People make a 311 request for a city service, go look at the status of their online request and see that it has been coded ‘completed.’ But then, they look out their front window and they see that the pothole is still gaping in their street,” outgoing Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. “If people are asking the government for help, and they are not getting the help that they need, and they’re not able to get any information about why they’re not getting help, or when it might come, we are risking public trust in the provision of city services.”

As it stands, the Chicago mayor’s presiding and veto powers reduce the institutional separation between the executive and legislative branches, undermining the council’s ability to check the executive.

In a statement, Fitch said the downgrade is due to disagreements between the Johnson administration and the City Council, adding that the disagreements have “impeded decision timeliness and the development of a credible and comprehensive plan to restore structural balance.”

This is an unprecedented move by the school district that will disrupt the education of some 545 students. Eighteen-year-old Angeline Melody Solis said, “We don’t control the money and where the money goes so it really sucks that at the end of the day, we face the most consequences. … There’s just so many things that should have been taken into account, besides the money.”

The 50-year-old man was on his porch as he warmed up his car around 7:25 a.m. Tuesday when he yelled at a speeding red vehicle to “slow down,” according to Chicago police reports. The red vehicle then circled back around, and an armed individual opened fire, striking the man and his dog, police said. Eight spent shell casings were recovered from the scene.

The downgrade reflects mounting concern about the city’s reliance on borrowing and one-time revenue — and serves as a “wake-up call,” said one municipal finance expert, that political infighting is compounding Chicago’s long-standing structural deficit.

“CTU’s campaign is deliberate, coordinated, and transparent—yet largely ignored by state and local leaders who depend on union support and by much of the mainstream media, which often uncritically repeats the union’s talking points.”

President Barack Obama “argued he was doing a favor to the South Side by bringing development, as if development is something good, disregarding the shakeup that these places do to that area and of course the displacement of the most vulnerable households,” said John Betancur, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago who has studied gentrification locally.

Police said multiple suspects got out of a vehicle and started shooting around 7:12 p.m. Wednesday before fleeing the scene in the same vehicle. Police said several persons of interest are being questioned and multiple guns were recovered at the scene.