“I love this city, even though I left skidmarks and blood on the ground as I left the Tribune. The fact is I love this city and I love the politics of the city,” Kass said

Judge Joan Lefkow ruled that was reasonable for lead attorney Jon Loevy to demand the city compensate him for his time at a rate of $1,500 per hour, citing his “exceptional record as a trial attorney, and his unique role as a market leader within the context of civil rights litigation. … In the end, plaintiffs won handily, the city lost badly, and the city spent 3,000 more attorney hours than plaintiffs in the process,” Lefkow wrote.

State law requires that school districts inside cities with more than 500,000 people develop recommendations and strategies to improve outcomes for Black students — but the state provides no funding for the plans. And a few months after CPS announced its initiative last year, the Trump administration denied the district nearly $6 million in funding for refusing to abandon this plan and other equity-focused policies, including protections for transgender students.

“It would be easy to dismiss this as mere political expediency. Yet, it represents the latest example of a troubling pattern of behavior and rhetoric that borders on anti-Semitism, the byproduct of which is the further demonization of the Jewish community.”

Issues around AI and kids are driving lawsuits, statewide education protocols and even a petition to curb the technology’s use in CPS — one that has already been signed by half of school board candidates. Last week, teachers learned CPS scrapped plans to give high school students Gemini chatbots on their Google Classroom accounts this year.

“We’re also going into a season where we have to demand more from those who have the ability to give more to actually do more,” he said at George Leland Elementary, adding that throughout his tenure as mayor, he’s released more than $1 billion in Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) dollars into CPS. “I’ve done my part, the state of Illinois has to do theirs.”

“With teen takeovers spreading and youth apathy running at what looks like an all-time high, the devil’s workshop shouldn’t be the only trade Chicago’s public schools have left to offer. Two things used to exist in a Chicago public school that don’t anymore: an officer whose face a kid knew before anything went wrong, and a shop class that led somewhere.”

With a moratorium on Chicago school closures soon to end, the first fully elected school board will have the opportunity to address the district’s over 250 underused schools.

Chicago-area homeowners are facing another outsized property tax hit this year as the pandemic’s lingering effects on commercial buildings keep reshaping who picks up the tab for local government.

“The union accuses a think tank of defamation. Yeah, that will help the children.”

Nearly all taxing agencies across the county raised their property tax levies this year, the analysis found. About 60 percent increased them by more than the 3.1 percent rate of inflation.

“Why can’t I find anybody who supports the CTU’s side?”

In northwest suburban Northlake, the average homeowner would save more than $2,000 on their annual tax bill — a difference of almost 30 percent — if local data centers did not receive valuation reductions and incentives, according to the analysis.

This is the fifth year in a row that the increased tax burden has fallen mostly on homeowners, as commercial property values have declined or grown at a much smaller pace than those for homes, according to the Office of Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

Thousands marched along Chicago Avenue in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village Community on Sunday afternoon, one day ahead of Ukrainian Independence Day.