The report cites overcrowding at the center for the rampant spread, with 500 people said to be crammed into a single room. The majority of the cases — 72 percent — were among unvaccinated people, the CDC said.

The request from the AG’s Charitable Trust Bureau earlier this month follows reporting last month about a potential conflict of interest and spending issues at the nonprofit foundation while it was pursuing an expanded partnership with the county’s public health system.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland said the new “Recent Arrivals Docket” will aim to process single adults through the immigration process in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta within 180 days.

Rochelle Jackson, of North Lawndale, recently saw police arrive on her block less than three minutes after she heard gunshots. That response time is shorter than any she’s seen after making a 911 call, she said. “We usually had to wait 45 minutes to an hour if they even showed up for stuff like that. Our community truly needs this.”

CEO of the Harris Poll: “In our polling, Chicagoans consistently rank taxes neck and neck with public safety as their top concern. Two-thirds think Chicago’s tax situation is worse than in other places, and half think it has deteriorated further in the past year. The real solution is to expand Chicago’s tax base, refilling vacant buildings and neighborhoods with more people and businesses. It’s either that or continuing to pray for a miracle.”

“The lack of affordable housing, loss of jobs, and closed schools and mental health clinics have impacted many of Chicago’s communities, and disproportionately hurt Black Chicagoans in particular,” he said.

“Northwestern is one of the worst examples of administrative negligence in protecting Jewish students. (Michael) Schill allowed the pro-Hamas occupation to stand this spring and failed to go after protesters who called for violence against Jews. “

It was “a political misjudgment” not to have worked with Springfield on the plan, “when Springfield ultimately was needed. It looked to me like the whole thing was set up on the notion that a fastball could be thrown through the car wash without getting wet because we had people in City Hall that really could be rolled on this,” Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza called it “unbelievable, yet sadly completely believable.” She posted to X, “This @KimFoxx policy will help keep illegal guns in the hands of criminal offenders, rather than getting them off the streets. … Looking forward to a new States Attorney who’ll follow and enforce the law.”

According to the Census Bureau, data it compiled was used to determine funding for more than 350 federal assistance programs in fiscal year 2021, and was integral to efforts like COVID-19-related relief programs. The agency reported this week that Chicago lost approximately 0.3 percent of its population between July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023.

“We are sort of stabilizing at a historic high, but the fact that it is not continuing to go up is reassuring,” Dr. Jenny Hua, of the Chicago Department of Public Health. But some numbers lately are not reassuring at all. From May 10 to May 15, there were a total of 242 opioid-related EMS responses.

Subpoenas served in recent weeks to the two municipalities led by Tiffany Henyard – the village of Dolton and Thornton Township – name Henyard, her political committee, her cancer charity, her boyfriend, two of her relatives, four trustees who are allies, her deputy police chief and even her defunct burger business as subjects of federal investigations.

RCP co-founder Tom Bevan predicts how protests could overshadow the 2024 Democratic Convention, which will be held in Chicago in August, during a conversation with Andrew Walworth and Carl Cannon on Friday’s edition of the RealClearPolitics radio show.

“We are going to see ghost towns created all across the southern and southwestern suburbs,” said attorney Mario Reed. “You have thousands of homeowners who won’t be able to afford their bills, they will lose their homes and there won’t be anyone behind them because the taxes are unsustainable.”

The bill also will permit the installation of cameras by the Illinois Tollway Authority for the purposes of enforcement, citing a need to properly allocate law enforcement manpower around the airport. Anyone in violation of the law would be subject to a citation and a fine of $100, according to state lawmakers.

Ridership has increased 13 percent year-to-date, the CTA announced Thursday. The transit system recorded its busiest day since 2020 on May 8 with more than a million rides.

The office has most recently been hunting down county employees suspected of federal Payroll Protection Program fraud. In past years, it investigated the scandal involving the removal of toilets from then-candidate JB Pritzker’s home in a scheme to receive a property tax break, nepotism and hints of patronage practices at the county’s Board of Review, and a Cook County commissioner pushing cops to scrap a friend’s parking ticket.

According to a draft policy document, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office would “decline to prosecute” cases that are “solely the product of a non-public-safety traffic stop.”

“I have no intention with collaborating with a city that is inherently racist, that bolsters their police state, which in turn aids the genocide of my people in Gaza,” said Jenin Alharithi, with Students for Justice in Palestine.

Last year’s population drop was the third-worst of any city in the nation, with only New York (-77,763) and Philadelphia (-16,294) losing more residents.

“When aldermen as far left as Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Daniel La Spata are aligned on an issue with council members as conservative, or at least centrist, as Ray Lopez and Bill Conway, that covers the spectrum when it comes to Chicago politics. They are among the 20 resolution backers openly questioning the mayor’s judgment on this issue.”

Though the city of Chicago has lost residents in recent years, the suburbs in Cook County have lost more, while suburbs far from the city are booming, new U.S. census estimates show.

“In comparison to, say, his other problems — solving crime, for instance — he is much further along on the school agenda,” said Dick Simpson, professor emeritus of politics and a former alderman. The speed with which Johnson can deliver on his education promises is important because he will soon lose exclusive control over the Chicago Board of Education, as the school board begins to transition to a partially elected body this November.

In a letter to faculty, staff and students early Thursday, DePaul President Robert L. Manuel said that since the encampment began, “the situation has steadily escalated with physical altercations, credible threats of violence from people not associated with our community, an inability for the other members of our community to take part in the core academic experiences on our campus, and an ever-growing series of threats to the people involved in the encampment and our community members.”

Willie Wilson: “Prioritizing struggling communities with jobs, trade schools, union certification, education and other opportunities could expand the tax base and reduce government reliance on fines and fees. Unfortunately, red-light and speed cameras have become one of the city’s most addictive sources of income.”

Despite a 5 percent overall decrease in crime, authorities noted troubling upticks in aggravated batteries and burglaries. “We will have zero tolerance for any partying or car caravanning in the streets,” Commander David Harris said.

“I have people stop me all the time, asking me, ‘well, I don’t like it because it’s a surveillance system.’ But it’s not. It’s a gunshot detection, sound alert system, and I think that’s part of the problem,” Johnson said.

“Asked to select their top three from among a list of problems affecting the district, most respondents, including parents, put ‘students not learning enough academically’ at the top of the list. When asked to grade the district, 54 percent gave CPS a C. The next most common grade was D. “

Headquartered in Munster, Indiana, Land O’Frost said it’s the country’s largest family-owned packaged meats manufacturer and it has about 1,500 employees. It has a plant in Lansing as well as plants in Madisonville, Kentucky, and Searcy, Arkansas.

Jareli Reyes, who resigned from the sheriff’s office last year, obtained approval for a $20,833 PPP loan in April 2021 and for another loan in the same amount the next month — a total of $41,666, according to records from the federal Small Business Administration. On her application, she said was the sole proprietor of a security guard and patrol business.

After a few hundred union members clad in red flooded the Capitol, several described a shortage of English as a second language teachers and paraprofessionals who work with students with disabilities, the need for school employees who specialize in helping children who’ve experienced trauma, and a lack of resources for homeless students.

As the DePaul encampment enters its third week, student protest leaders said their message and mission will last longer than their tent encampment in support for Palestine as the Israel-Hamas war continues.

While police officers would no longer be working in schools, each school must have at least one security officer and should utilize security cameras on their campus, the draft policy states. There is also an emphasis on training in the draft policy, as all schools must incorporate “climate, trauma-responsive, and social and emotional learning training into their annual school-wide professional development plans.”

U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer rejected nearly all of the demands made by the coalition of police reform groups behind the consent decree, the federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s push to send about 650 teachers and staff members to lobby lawmakers May 15 in Springfield could cost Chicagoans up to $141,000 in substitute teacher salaries.

If Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU get the additional $1.1 billion, CPS’ spending could reach more than $32,000 per student, well above the nearly $22,400 average total spending per student currently in Illinois’ 10 largest school districts. Meanwhile, only one-fourth of CPS students could read at grade level in spring 2023.

“But a year ago today, our city itself needed treatment — treatment from the trauma experienced through a lack of hope and faith in institutions entrusted to protect and provide. Chicago needed treatment, not trauma.”

Since inauguration May 15, 2023, the current Council has held 23 regular meetings, totaling roughly 52 and a half hours of official business. Under Mayor Brandon Johnson, the body has spent roughly 17 hours on honorary, non-binding resolutions, and just under 36 hours on binding legislation.

“On one hand, critics argue Johnson won’t do enough to dissuade bad actors from coming to the city in the first place. On the other, protest groups are taking the city to court, complaining that it has denied their permits to march close to two main convention sites: the United Center and McCormick Place.”

“National political conventions are now an anachronism. They are expensive taxpayer subsidized infomercials. The last major party convention where there was some doubt regarding who the nominee would be occurred in 1976, when Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan were competing for the Republican nod.”

Four robberies or beatings occurred on the Red Line from May 6-10, carried out by at least four young women and a male, Chicago police said in a community alert.

While studies have shown stadium projects like these tend to fall short when it comes to perks for city residents, the mayor and Bears brass have been touting a number of benefits, including expanded green space and a state-of-the-art field that would be accessible to the city’s youth for games and tournaments.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson took office on May 15, 2023. One year later, none of the $800 million in new taxes have passed. But expect a big taxpayer impact during his second year: he’s negotiating a contract with his former employer, the Chicago Teachers Union.

Only a combined 28% of likely Chicago voters polled said they approve of Johnson’s performance in office, while a majority (57%) disapprove and 41% strongly disapprove, according to a new poll by M3 Strategies.

One section of downtown where restaurants have soared is Fulton Market. In 2023, 515,000 square feet of the neighborhood’s retail space was devoted to food and beverage, up from 430,000 two years earlier.

Cicero town spokesperson Ray Hanania said, “It’s not unusual to have people who’ve been drinking to be outside firing weapons, we had something like that about a week ago. They fired 10 Shots, the police are being burdened by this problem.”

Chicago Public Schools leaders confirmed they are giving more than 600 teachers and staff members a paid day off to lobby.

Chicago remains worse off than Illinois and the U.S in joblessness for Black and Latino 16- to 19-year-olds and 20-to-24-year-olds, the report found. The highest percentages of joblessness in Chicago, recorded at 92.8 percent, were found around the South and West side neighborhoods of Pilsen, Bridgeport, McKinley Park, Fuller Park and Back of the Yards.

“The second option is to figure out how to get more social good out of what the city is already spending every year on social programs, public schools, infrastructure, economic development, police, etc. The way to do that is boring but vitally important: using data to manage operations and ensuring that the best people are hired and promoted (and well-trained) and that policies and programs are selected based at least in part on what actually works.”

“The money for the Red Line is probably one of the leading factors. … Carter has connections and influence. He’s somebody who has Washington ties. He can make that kind of introduction easier for Brandon,” said veteran political consultant Delmarie Cobb.

But it remains to be seen if the proposal will earn support from Mayor Brandon Johnson, who hasn’t pushed for ethics and transparency reforms as speedily as his predecessors.

One business owner said they have been targeted numerous times. “Nothing seems to be stopping,” said Scott Hoffman. “Everything seems to be, if nothing else, escalating.”

The scene at Daley Plaza served as a prelude to the Democratic National Convention, serving as a test for law enforcement’s ability to manage potentially volatile situations in the city.

“From policies on public safety, Chicago Public Schools, migrants and handling businesses, Johnson has followed through on what he said he would do. Unfortunately, that’s come at the expense of making citywide problems worse, especially for poor Black communities Johnson claims to represent.”

“Our small business community members have been, and continue to be, the backbone of our great city. The economic benefits yielded from the convention provide a prime opportunity to keep uplifting our ma-and-pa shops.”

Convention leaders have brushed off concerns that an influx of arrivals would affect the massive event, but Johnson said his administration is planning as best they can: “We are clearing out and decompressing shelters to create more room. We will have spaces if we have to, at a moment’s notice, open. We’ll be prepared to the best of our abilities. Now, look – there are some things that are beyond our control. We don’t know how many buses are going to come.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson says he wants to focus more on the root causes of violence. But, former Schools Chief and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas says you can not do that without improving and using the schools.

When Chicago hosted it’s last convention in 1996, the police department here was comprised of 13,032 sworn officers. This August the number will be far fewer: nearly 1,500 fewer officers available to keep the peace than in 1996. The last official count of CPD sworn officer is 11,591. That is 1,150 below what the city is budgeted to hire.

Similar situations have occurred in other parts of town recently. But this was the first time it had happened in the 50th Ward – and in a predominantly Jewish community in West Ridge.

The Dolton trustees opposed to Mayor Tiffany Henyard said she has missed 25 of the special meetings and refuses to allow some business to be put on the agenda for the village’s regular meetings. Trustee Brittney Norwood said, “Where we have an entire quorum here, and we’re waiting while the administration adds makeup and gets dressed, and it’s just not fair.”

“The union wants to preserve a school system, in terms of number of schools and amount of jobs, built to serve a far larger student population than it does.”

Researchers noted that parents and others don’t blame teachers but rather see the lack of learning as an effect of poverty and other challenges affecting students. Some 71 percent of Chicago Public Schools students come from low-income families. Still, poll respondents say leaders are more caught up in petty political battles than on what is best for children. They are not confident money is being spent effectively.

There were not big differences in opinions between races and ethnicities, though parents were more supportive of school choice than nonparents.

Over the weekend, more than a dozen Northwestern students worked together to put up 1,200 flags for roughly each person who died in the Hamas attack on October 7, and marking Israel’s Memorial Day. Jewish student Samuel Feldman said when he returned to see the flags hours later, he saw someone ripping them out.

“Has it been a challenge? Well, Congress can’t get their act together. The governor of Texas is determined to create chaos. We have brought calm structure to a very volatile situation,” he said.

FEST is a festival celebrating of the end of the academic year at DePaul – open to all students with limited guest tickets for sale. An announcement on social media said: “Given the campus environment, FEST 2024 cannot proceed as planned.”

Conyears-Ervin is accused of firing two employees who warned her not to misuse city property for personal reasons. The two employees fired by Conyears-Ervin also alleged the treasurer used her assistant to run personal errands, including planning her daughter’s birthday party, and that the treasurer asked BMO Harris Bank, which does business with the city, to offer a mortgage to the owner of a West Side church who also rents space to her husband’s aldermanic office.

The charges are the first from an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into Loretto’s COVID-19 vaccination program, after the hospital admitted to giving hundreds of COVID shots to people who were not yet eligible to get them.

Northwestern established its Qatar campus (NU-Q) in 2008 including a branch of Medill – its Evanston-based journalism school. The report, compiled by alumni affiliated with the Coalition Against Anti-Semitism at Northwestern, says that Northwestern’s relationship with Al Jazeera potentially violates U.S. law and national security interests under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“To the Medill students and journalists within ear shot, I say to you: our work is not about objectivity,” Journalism instructor Steven Thrasher said. “Our work is not about ‘scooping’ one another. Our work is about you putting your brilliant minds to work, and opening your compassionate hearts, and linking your arms together understanding all of our fates are interconnected.”

Ald. Brian Hopkins wants to know how many CTA buses will be shuttling delegates to and from the United Center, whether dedicated bus lanes will be used, and whether a transit agency that has struggled to find enough drivers to meet its daily schedule will be able to recruit enough employees without “adjusting service.”

The City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously approved the mayor’s two-year plan to offer nearly $2.4 million in financial relief to homeowners and business owners drowning in water bills tied to leaks in underground service lines repaired on or after Jan. 1, 2023.

“(Mayor Brandon) Johnson was here asking for $100 million+ and the Chicago Public Schools have asked for $50 billion. They are asking for $50 billion from the state of Illinois to prop up the school district in Chicago,” said state Rep. Dan Caulkins. “I don’t think the people in our districts really care to do that, not when students can’t meet reading and math proficiencies.”

“The teachers unions-induced school closures harmed students academically, mentally, and emotionally, with virtually no reduction in overall coronavirus transmission or child mortality. … In Chicago, home of the nation’s third-largest public school system, the local union took to Twitter to demonize those who favored reopening schools…”

The largely symbolic measure highlights more than a dozen reasons why the CTA is in need of change and follows Gov. JB Pritzker’s comments that the agency was due for an “evolution” of leadership.

The shelter’s February 2023 opening inspired residents to help their new neighbors and led neighborhood leaders to call for “collective liberation” and a united front between Black and Latino residents of all tenures in the city. Organizers with the Chicago4All initiative have held numerous events over the last year, seeking to integrate Wadsworth residents and other resettled migrant families living in Woodlawn with longtime neighbors.

Last weekend, at least 31 people were shot, six fatally, in gun violence across Chicago, police said.

“We’re going to stay here until DePaul either divests fully [from Israel] or forces us out,” student protester Henna Ayesh said Sunday. “And seeing people in Gaza recognize us as the college revolution has really inspired us to keep going. We’ve found community here.”

The incident happened after 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the 100 block of N. Dearborn Street. The victim, a 15-year-old boy, was approached by four male suspects on the sidewalk when the situation escalated.

The village would need to find another revenue stream comparable to raising property taxes by 10 percent or cutting costs equivalent to 11 firefighters or police officers, per Village Manager John Lockerby’s memo to the Board. “(The grocery tax) has financing ramifications for every municipality in the state. I’ve talked to my peers and we’re all concerned,” Lockerby said.

“Among the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas, metro Chicago owns the highest level of Black unemployment at 13 percent, according to census data spanning the five-year period from 2018 to 2022. With a nearly three-to-one ratio, metro Chicago also has the widest gap between Black and white unemployment among the nation’s 30 largest metro areas.”

A press liaison for the protesters said that in any scenario, demonstrators want to embody what she calls the “resilience and resistance” of the Palestinian people.

A large police presence amassed on the Lincoln Park campus of DePaul University Friday night, as protests grew at the pro-Palestinian protest encampment that has been in place since last week.

“The leadership has been taking funds from much needed areas, and they’re getting a lot of flack for it. And all of a sudden, those resources that they never had, for the homeless problems that they’ve already been faced with, they’re now being made available,” Brook said. “I understand when people, from Chicago or other areas start to really question the fact that now we have these resources, and they’re going toward individuals who sometimes are not even legally here, and we never had an opportunity to get those resources ourselves.”

Jason McGrath, a Chicago-based strategist and pollster, said Mayor Brandon Johnson should be concerned about these “calls coming from inside the house.” He said, “It’s a very, very hard job, and I think he’s finding now that it’s a lot easier to throw bombs from the sideline than it is to be in the ring and actually defuse them. Right now, there are too many people who are openly criticizing him who should be with them. And if that’s not a flashing red light yet, it certainly will be soon.”

“There’s already a joke going around Democratic strategist circles that the main difference between 2024 and 1968 is that the Chicago mayor this year will be on the side of the protesters, not the cops.” Brandon Johnson was an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union and “has yet to fully make the jump from activist to mayor of one of America’s largest cities.”

“Chicago’s activist mayor is sympathetic to the pro-Palestinian protesters and likes to refer to the police as an entity separate from himself rather than under his control. Thus, he cannot be counted on to protect the convention and the party’s prospects. … From Chicago’s point of view, if the city is reduced to little more than a drone shot and minimal live activities, that’s bad for the city and us. People will figure out why.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson joins Rev Al Sharpton to discuss the current status of college protests in Chicago as well as upcoming DNC Convention and Johnson’s work this week in Springfield. Johnson quoted W.E.B. DuBois when he said, “We’re just simply demanding that Springfield do their part and fund our education system.”

City officials and the Police Department have pushed to downsize this year’s Pride Parade — which is set for June 30 — with fewer participants, citing safety and logistical concerns.

With his latest appointment to the Regional Transportation Authority board, Mayor Brandon Johnson is apparently honoring a Chicago tradition: picking someone who is politically connected but has no apparent expertise in the work at hand.

“The drastic increase in fleeings we’ve seen in recent years is a level of lawlessness I haven’t seen in my 23 years in this profession,” Naperville’s police chief said at a press conference promoting legislation aimed at deterring such behavior and punishing those who commit it.

“We’re going to be here in full solidarity and we again are publicly asking the university president to continue the dialogue and asking the mayor of the City of Chicago to refrain from using the Chicago Police Department in any of these demonstrations, because they are peaceful they are moral and they are the right thing to do,’ Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said Saturday night.

The dangers of insolvency are real, but just as with the exploding federal debt, too much focus has been put on the possibility of a single disaster and too little on the more obvious cost: deepening decline. Chicago could keep paying off its bondholders and retirees by bleeding public services, hiking taxes, and driving out still more residents, but it would become a shell of its former self.

More broadly, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson turning tail and ditching reporters following his remarks in Englewood and allowing his press office to spread obvious fabrications provides a remarkable glimpse into how Johnson will manage City Hall as Chicago enters what is expected to be one of the most turbulent periods in recent history.

In 2023, ridership on CTA buses recovered to 68 percent of 2019 ridership. On CTA trains, recovery was 54 percent, on Metra trains it was 43 percent, for Pace buses it was 56 percent and for Pace paratransit buses it was 73 percent.

The plan is for each school in CPS to send one Chicago Teachers Union member on the lobbying trip to Springfield.

“The unlawful pro-terror encampment, dubbed the ‘Northwestern Liberated Zone,’ disrupted campus life and became a hotspot for pervasive antisemitic harassment and hostility,” writes North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. “Rather than enforcing University rules and disciplining those who violated them, Northwestern’s leaders surrendered to the violators in a shameful agreement.”

“These students, many of whom come from low-income households and foster care, have shown exceptional talent and dedication to the game of chess. … The decision to withhold this opportunity from them is not only unfair but also goes against the spirit of inclusivity and equity that we strive to uphold in our educational system.”

The suit alleges that that the now defunct “Quiet Time” transcendental meditation program, organized by the David Lynch Foundation for World Peace in partnership with CPS and the University of Chicago, violated the constitutional rights of minor students by incorporating Hindu religious rituals into public schools.

There are more than 40 tents set up in the quad and security is tight. On Wednesday afternoon, things were peaceful and quiet on campus. Students were reading and studying in the grass.

“Politics is different than it was in the ‘60s. You also have the Chicago Police Department, while certainly not perfect, the Chicago Police Department is not the Chicago Police Department of 1968,” said convention executive director Alex Hornbrook. “We have great confidence and a great partnership in the superintendent and the mayor.”

The Environmental Protection Agency granted Chicago Public Schools more than $20 million to purchase 50 clean buses as part of its 2023 Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition. But another $500 million would be needed to buy another 1,250 electric buses to fulfill CTU’s demand.

Why so far from the main convention locations of the Loop, where the delegates are booked in eight hotels; the McCormick Place complex, the site of daytime meetings and press briefings; and the United Center, where President Joe Biden will be nominated for a second term? Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, “You want to be far enough away from the event so that if something were to occur it doesn’t affect your ability to command and control your response.”

Chicago Public Schools leaders are giving more than 600 teachers and staff members a paid day-off so they can go to Springfield to lobby lawmakers for more money.

“What we’re doing right now is making the best with the number of officers that we have,” Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said. “We’re down close to 2,000 officers.”

“There are frustrating moments that I do have where you … just wish you could address everything at the same time,” Johnson said. “That’s just unfortunately not where we are — just because the damage has been so severe and it has been so widespread,” especially in “historically marginalized” communities.

David Greising, of the Better Government Association: “A cardinal rule in any negotiation is to avoid getting to ‘no.’ Once that word slips out, getting to yes gets much harder. (Gov. JB) Pritzker hasn’t entirely written off the possibility of a stadium deal, perhaps somewhere down the road, so the question now is what it might take to resuscitate an idea that nearly died on arrival.”

The building’s vacancy rate stands at 69 percent, far worse than the city average of just over 25 percent, which marked a record high in Chicago last quarter. The property was 92 percent leased when MetLife bought it in 2013.

For the first phase, recipients could live anywhere in the city. This time they’ll be limited to one section of the Fifth Ward, where there’s a concentration of children living in poverty. A total of 150 low-income residents will get money from a pool of $900,000 in federal funds.

“This resolution — fragile though it might be — was possible because we chose to see our students not as a mob but as young people who were in the process of learning. It was possible because we tried respectful dialogue rather than force. And it was possible because we sought to follow a set of principles, many of which I would argue are core to the tenets of Judaism.”

“If we’re going to get what we need, we must push for it. We need you to come to Springfield with us next Wednesday, May 15, to advocate for more school funding,” the email read. Teachers can partake in political advocacy on their own time, but this day of action would be during regular school hours and at taxpayer expense.

The resolution – signed by over 1,000 students, alumni, and faculty members, as well as officials from Northwestern’s admissions and civil rights compliance offices – also criticized the university for creating an “Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism” and a “Committee on Free Expression” to address anti-Semitism on campus.

Chicago tows all 121 days the ban is in effect – regardless of whether there is snow. Between December and April, just 15 out of that total of 121 days had measurable snowfall, but a total of 7,745 vehicles got hauled off the streets, facing at least $235 for tickets and tow and storage fees.

A handful of downtown office buildings with lots of empty space are in position to be sold or seized by lenders at sharp discounts to their pre-pandemic values, more data points showing the malaise of the local office sector.

The spontaneous gatherings, in which crowds block off intersections to watch drivers spin donuts in the streets, were headline news a couple of years ago. Coverage has waned as fewer incidents occur downtown, but sideshows are still nearly weekly occurrences in other neighborhoods.

The MIT/Argonne report modeled a hypothetical scenario in which public transit disappeared from the region entirely. It found that travel times would increase by 35 percent, 2 million trips each day would be canceled, and the region would lose $35 billion in annual direct economic activity – to say nothing of ripple effects from lost jobs, shuttered businesses and higher cost of living.

The main campus in Hyde Park has been quiet since the encampment was removed. Some students were pleased to see it go, even if protests continue. “This encampment was illegal, obstructive disruptive and incredibly dangerous we had people from off campus populating our quad for days on end,” student Declan Hurley said.

University of Chicago “represents an especially pernicious problem in higher education: the active influence and interference of state political actors within the university itself….. The campus protests there have all the hallmarks of the same sources of finance and organizational assistance that enabled black lives matter (BLM) and the 2020 election riots—and the upcoming DNC convention in Chicago will be subject to a number of irregular influences.”

The move to consolidate follows a December “plan of action” report by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning that highlighted a $730 million annual budget shortfall bearing down on the metro region by 2026. That amounts to about 20% of the transit system’s annual operating costs.

But according to Pritzker’s office, state funding for CPS has increased by 14 percent or $264.8 million from 2019 to 2024. And over the last five years, Chicago Public Schools has received an increase of $1,542 per student.

Micky Horstman, of the Illinois Policy Institute: “The 2024 CTA budget is already the largest ever, as was Metra’s. Instead of finding ways to make the city more affordable and attractive to new residents and businesses, the city wants to continue spending as if nothing has changed. “

Ald. Nicole Lee told constituents last week that she had been notified that the administration was considering plans to build a new temporary shelter in her ward to replace a shelter downtown “before the Democratic National Convention” in August.

A trip to Chicago for a fundraiser with wealthy donors for President Joe Biden spurred protests that snarled rush hour traffic in the Loop Wednesday afternoon.

During Mayor Brandon Johnson’s closed-door meetings, the Illinois Senate Executive Committee quietly cleared an education measure that Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union had opposed. It included a moratorium on all Chicago school closings until 2027 — and it would also stop the Chicago Board of Education from changing standards of admission for selective enrollment schools.

According to Chicago Police Department data, there were 302 hate crimes recorded in the city in 2023. That marked a 48 percent spike over the previous year’s total and represented the most hate crimes recorded in any single year in Chicago since at least 2012. Already there have been 90 hate crimes in Chicago reported in 2024.

Chicago already has a congestion tax of sorts that went into effect in January 2020 that applies to rideshare vehicles. It adds upwards of $3.00 to fares in a zone bounded by North Avenue, Roosevelt Road, Des Plaines Avenue, Ashland Avenue and the North Branch Canal. The program also helped close an $838 million budget deficit.

When Ald. Scott Waguespack questioned Rev. Ira Acree about what he thinks the RTA needs to do to address a looming $730 million shortfall once federal COVID-19 relief funds run out after 2025, Acree couldn’t provide an answer. “This is my first time hearing about a $735 million shortfall. So I wouldn’t want to respond to that today without doing the research,” he said.

The organization that put together Wednesday’s protest is the same group that plans to march during the DNC this summer.

“If you want transformation in the state of Illinois you have to pay for it. It’s just that simple,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “As far as the specifics of how we generate revenue to ensure that, that’s an ongoing conversation.”

“By design, these committees are doomed to fail. While valuable in a campus environment to include a variety of identities and perspectives, Jewish voices are too often minimized as non-Jewish ideas about the experience of antisemitism are given equal weight.”

“We’ve been through these type of challenges before,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “But the difference is who’s in charge right now,” he said, adding that he had been part of “countless peaceful demonstrations” throughout his life.

The proposed sites, the former U.S. Steel plant on the South Side and the former Texaco refinery in Lockport, are both under final review, with a decision expected soon. The initiative would initially create about 1,000 construction jobs and up to 500 direct jobs, including positions for hardware and software engineers. The project is designed to be accessible, with many positions requiring only associate’s degrees and specialized training.

The proposed ban comes after years of issues with rowdiness, public partying and in some cases, shootings and other crime near or directly related to late-night bars on commercial strips in Wicker Park and Logan Square.

“It’s going to come up in the next 6-8 years, that they’ll be unable to fully pay the pensions that has been promised in this city to the police and fire.,” said Savage a nationally syndicated financial columnist and author.

As of Monday, the number of robbery reports filed citywide is flat compared to the same time last year. However, the police districts where last night’s crimes occurred are experiencing significant increases, according to CPD’s latest statistics.

School of the Art Institute officials asked police to disperse the encampment following five hours of talks with protesters, requesting they move to another location on campus. Protesters at the encampment blocked emergency exits at the museum campus, shoved a security officer and escalated protest actions on Michigan Avenue, school officials said.

“How dare you think you can come into someone’s town and do work,” Henyard said, saying trustees who voted to hire Lightfoot an an April 8 meeting overstepped their authority.

An analysis of state data shows that 17 percent of all police officers hired by the Robbins Police Department since 2000 came on board directly after they were fired from previous law enforcement jobs, the most of any department in Illinois. Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said that “sometimes we take what we can get” when it comes to the difficult task of hiring part-time, low-paid police officers.

“Our ‘not in my backyard’ rules place strict limitations on density. They say that buildings can’t be too tall, individual lots can’t be too small and you can’t have multi-unit residential structures in most places. Imagine if we wrote a set of ‘yes in my backyard’ rules.”

A longtime Democratic lawmaker said of CTU that “clearly they lack credibility, but they don’t need it because they use intimidation. … Nobody’s telling them to stop it.” The lawmaker asked not to be identified so they could speak candidly about the union’s tactics without retribution.

“We’re underfunded for pensions,” Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said. “We don’t have a dedicated funding for capital. So we’re not a fully funded district. So therefore, we don’t have fully funded schools.”

“People don’t trust it,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner. “Listen, if you want a system to work, if you want a transit system to work in a city like Chicago, you have to make the system irresistible.”

“I’m a little surprised that we have four attorneys in here who think it’s okay to silence freedom of speech,” Ald. Nick Sposato said. “Little unclear to me why we are singling out abortion clinics instead of other places.”

“What is the impact of taking attention and resources away from the Park District and local parks? … Where are the details? There’s a lot of, ‘Just trust me’ going on,” said Gin Kilgore, of Friends of the Parks.

The report also rips state officials for not prioritizing intercity bus travel. Illinois’ bus network lags more than any other Midwestern state “due to a lack of planning, branding, and marketing of state-supported bus services,” the authors write. Five of 10 most heavily traveled routes in Illinois lack direct bus service, according to the report.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed back on the idea that this summer will resemble 1968. “I’m not the mayor of the city of Chicago if a generation ago, and a generation before that, did not protest,” said Johnson. “I want to assure people that it’s not 1968. I am not the mayor of 1968.”

“It’s amazing to me that the city has known about this for years and they’ve done nothing,” said one frustrated neighbor. “Why?”

Beaming in a new video, Tom McKone waves his arm and proudly states that the CTA has established “a pilot program with a couple of outreach agencies” across a few lines to provide “outreach services for individuals experiencing homelessness.” Because of CTA’s status as a makeshift shelter since the pandemic, McKone decided that the CTA should formalize this designation.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said, “I’m proud of this city and I’m honored to represent it. And I want to make sure that at the end of the week for the Democratic National Convention, people have a positive feeling about this great city. ” He said police should step in as soon as there are threats of violence, vandalism or looting.

Paul Alivisatos is president of the University of Chicago: Students demanded that we side against Israel, violating the core principle of institutional neutrality.

Johnson has been under fire for months now from Democrats and Republicans alike over his disastrous handling of the Windy City’s illegal immigrant crisis, with a citizen-led effort to put an initiative on the November ballot that would allow Chicago residents to recall their mayor currently in the works, a measure which now has the support of a powerful local police union.

“You know, we can’t just simply put forward policies that detract from our ability to make sure that young people are seen and felt and heard,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “As far as this particular policy is concerned, it’s not in line … with my vision for the future of Chicago.”

“Protest is a strongly protected form of speech in the UChicago culture, and the demonstrators had multiple opportunities to express their views,” university President Paul Alivisatos said. “But many aspects of the protests also interfered with the free expression, learning, and work of others. Safety concerns have mounted over the last few days, and the risks were increasing too rapidly for the status quo to hold.”

“Of cities carrying more than $5 billion of outstanding CMBS office debt, Chicago took the cake with a distress rate of 75 percent — meaning 75 percent of the city’s CMBS balance collateralized by office debt is distressed.”

“It’s what we see in virtually all the Democrat-run big cities. Businesses are leaving. Residents are leaving. The migrant flood never stops. City finances are in a shambles. Schools are overwhelmed. But in Chicago, there is no sign of any policy reversal. Same old, same old. Not sustainable.”

A disproportionate number of Black- and Latino-owned properties are targeted for tax sales, but to say that is because of race is “too big an inferential leap,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois ruled.

The Cook County Bureau of Economic Development has created a Manufacturing Apprenticeship Accelerator, funded with $810,000 from federal American Rescue Plan Act taxpayer funds. Wirepoints reports that manufacturing employment in Illinois has dropped nearly 5 percent over the last five years.

“We’ve already seen the results of CTU’s activism. Math and reading scores are plummeting. Just one in four students can read at grade level within Chicago Public Schools. It’s even worse in math. It’s even worse for low-income students,” Illinois Policy Institute Director Mailee Smith said. “Chronic absenteeism is rising. Enrollment is dropping as people are leaving CPS, and this has all been while a radical slate of CTU leaders have been at the helm.”

Student protesters linked arms in a standoff with U of C police dressed in riot gear around 5 a.m. outside the encampment, which was installed over a week ago. Cook County Sheriff’s officers were also seen at the encampment.

Johnson said there’s a lot more work to do over the next three years but expressed hope that leaders will be able to build off a foundation laid in his first year in office. That foundation, he said, was about “creating real economic stability within our communities while also addressing root causes of trauma in this city.”

A spokesperson for the city of Milwaukee confirmed that they will be sending about 75 officers in support of the DNC in Chicago. Gov. JB Pritzker said the convention will have an “extensive security apparatus” that also includes the Secret Service, the FBI and the Illinois State Police.

“Over the last several days, the presidents of Northwestern and Rutgers have made shocking concessions to the unlawful antisemitic encampments on their campuses,” committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx, of North Carolina, said in a statement. “They have surrendered to antisemitic radicals in despicable displays of cowardice.”

President Manuel emphasized the “need for a timely resolution” and that he requested a meeting with the Divestment Coalition tomorrow, May 7, through the engagement team formed in response to the encampment. In the introduction, Manuel said that the administration hopes the DePaul community recognizes the “deliberation, thought, and care invested” in responding to the Divestment Coalition’s demands.

Said Sequoiah Brown, a member of the local school council at Poe Classical School on the Far South Side, “You should be trying to bring up the others to that standard, not taking from one to give to the other. That is not how equity works.” Poe is a selective enrollment elementary school that is 85 percent Black; about 40 percent of its students are from low-income families.

Mayor Brandon Johnson created the position in an executive order last October, and last month Chicago-native Sendy L. Soto became the city’s first person to occupy that role. The position was made possible through funding by a multi-year grant from Funders Together to End Homelessness.

“There are a host of things that I will be requesting on behalf of the people of Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. That includes public funding for a new football stadium, school funding, and stopping legislation that would prevent the Chicago Board of Education from closing schools or making changes to selective-enrollment campuses until an elected Board is fully seated in 2027.

This report details the true causes of Chicago’s pension problem, how state law made matters worse, recent attempts to address Chicago’s pension funding crisis, and CTBA’s proposal for responsibly re-amortizing the pension debt to generate roughly $11 billion in savings.

Tax revenue from Medinah Temple has consistently fallen short of the city’s projections. The budget anticipates $35 million in local tax revenue from Bally’s, averaging out to $3 million a month. As of the end of March, Medinah Temple has generated about $3 million in tax revenue this year for Chicago.

Two decades ago, people who were shopping for new homes “had over 1,000 developments to choose from,” said Erik Doersching, CEO of Tracy Cross. “Now it’s under 250.”

After letting the house sit empty for nearly two decades and racking up violations with the city’s Department of Buildings, CHA officials say they’ll move forward with “alternative plans” for the home, after an assessment found needed repairs could total nearly $500,000.

The second Black man to serve as Chicago mayor, Johnson tapped more Black Chicagoans to serve in positions of authority than Chicagoans of other races, according to an analysis. Johnson tapped an equal number of men and women.

About 120 faculty and staff stood in solidarity with student protestors during a press conference. “As educators, it’s our responsibility to nurture not only the intellectual, but the moral development of our students. When they choose to stand up for what they believe in, they’re applying the lessons of history, ethics, governance and social justice,” said Jessica Darrow.

Talks between protesters and the school have been “suspended” as the University called the protesters’ requests “inconsistent with the University’s principles.” The statement says, in part, that the school has not agreed to “reduce” campus security or police presence based on negotiations.

The Chicago Fire Department also responded to the scene near Cermak Road and Washtenaw Avenue, but they found no one with injuries to take to the hospital.

“The clear implication of such leave is elected leaders – such as Mayor Brandon Johnson – who are bankrolled by the union into office can then appoint union friends to office without those friends having to permanently step away from their CPS jobs. In the meantime, those friends can continue to accrue teacher pension credit while working other jobs.”

The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding in its 142-page list this: “BOARD shall coordinate with the City of Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority to secure free CTA fares for all CPS students and employees.” Here’s the math: 176 school days of round trips for 323,251 students at a $0.75 per ride plus 176 school days with an additional 12 employee days for 43,919 workers at $2.25 a ride is 130,297,896 trips at a cost of $122,493,738.

The Illinois Gaming Board reports that the number of video gaming machines in the state has quickly increased by more than 50 percent — from 31,481 in March 2019 to 47,570 in March 2024. The state takes 34 percent in taxes, keeping 29 percent for itself and giving 5 percent to the municipalities where the devices are located.

One protester said it’s her way of expressing her “Latinidad” and her religious identity. “Liberation struggles all over the world are inherently interconnected, because the systems that perpetuate violence against us are connected,” she said. “Zionism is not a thing that exists only in the state of Israel or is perpetuated by Israel alone, but exists in Latin America.”

The original intent of the group was to re-hoist the American flag on the Quad’s flagpole after the University took down a Palestinian flag mounted by those participating in the encampment.

Last weekend, at least 13 people were shot in Chicago, police said.

Takeovers, also called “sideshows,” are ongoing issues for the city. They involve groups of people blocking off intersections so drivers can spin donuts and do burnouts in the intersection. Officers responding to the shooting scene in Gage Park last night said they saw 20 or 30 cars speeding away from the intersection as they arrived.

Officers lined up between the two groups, and some of the pro-Israel protesters spilled into the street, obstructing traffic. At the time, the university issued an alert urging students to avoid the area and to remain inside their buildings. In one violence clash, two pro-Israel protesters used their flag poles to attack a pro-Palestinian protester.

It’s the second time federal investigators have visited the village looking for documents in what they say is a probe that is in its early stages and has not resulted in any charges.

The parade was supposed to take off at Noon from Cemark Road from Damen Avenue in Heart of Chicago, and it was supposed to traverse a 1.2 mile route, ending at Marshall Boulevard in Little Village, just south of Douglass Park. Instead, a large fight in the area of the parade led police to issue a cancelation notice.

To put the figure into context, the total base tax receipts for the state of Illinois last year were $50.7 billion.

Under the controversial agreement, the school will admit five Palestinian students each year, support two Palestinian faculty members annually, create special housing for Muslim students, and add students to Committees to review purchases from Israeli businesses. The resigning committee members criticized NU President Michael Schill’s failure to seek advice from the committee regarding the agreement.

A series of lawsuits have been filed against the city in recent months by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Anti-War Coalition, and Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois — some of which have voiced support for the anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago.

This came after the UChicago United for Palestine protesters clashed with a group waving American flags. The Maroon reported the UChicago United for Palestine group set up wooden and plastic shields and locked arms as they faced the counter-protesters.

Speaking to former Fox News host Dan Bongino and Thinker co-founder Evita Duffy-Alfonso, Robson talked about his nuanced views on the ongoing protests and addressed the encampment, saying “The reason I am so categorically against this encampment and the encampments at many other schools is because, frankly, it has only a tangential connection to the conflict.”

The city recorded 37 homicides in April, a 30 percent drop from April of last year. Overall, police say homicides are down 12 percent so far this year. Additionally, more of the homicides that are occurring are resulting in charges. Through April, police reported a “clearance rate” of more than 76 percent, the department’s highest since 2015.

Located just blocks away from Guaranteed Rate Field, the proposed shelter would be located in a building near Canal Street and Pershing Road. “This is just insane, it doesn’t make any sense,” said resident Michelle Gusich. “Keep them downtown. I don’t know—this is not our problem.”

The plan took its first steps toward concrete action in November when Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 budget included $15.9 million to double non-police emergency response and another $5.2 million to reopen two of the 14 city-run mental health centers closed by past mayors. Nearly six months later, the clinics have yet to reopen.

Mac LeBuhn, former adviser and counsel in the Chicago mayor’s office: “Until the public trusts its elected officials, big-ticket efforts such as the Bears stadium will probably suffer the same fate as the Bring Chicago Home initiative. No matter your views on the merits of those proposals, the fact that the public doesn’t trust its leaders to execute on big initiatives is a problem for us all.”

“The revelation, unsurprising as it is, of a mayor who thinks a thriving city economy relies on the public sector — or in this case a public-private partnership, to put it euphemistically — to make multibillion-dollar investments in return for a few thousand permanent jobs (if that’s even the correct number) puts on display a lack of understanding of what generates genuinely productive business activity.”

Loop Alliance President Michael Edwards is boldly shouting from the rooftops after a new “State of the Loop” quarterly report outlines how pedestrian activity on State Street during workweek hours is now back at pre-pandemic levels while weekend foot traffic is far outpacing 2019 numbers.

The victims are the first people shot in Lakeview this year.

The reasons Ald. Nicole Lee cited for her opposition to the shelter at 39th and Canal were concerns over migrants staying on land in a heavily industrial area that she said was not fully vetted for residential use and is surrounded by train tracks. City officials plan to close the Standard Club shelter downtown before the Democratic National Convention.

Among the demands, the union wants a policy that prioritizes saving the jobs of minority teachers in the event of layoffs. Its proposal includes nothing about teacher performance.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates noted that the teachers union has ​“always used our collective bargaining table as a way to push forward policies that impact the lives of our young people. We will continue to do that. Our young people and their ability to be housed remains a subject of bargaining for us until those young people have homes.”

“He’s a snowflake, a grape who can’t take the pressure of leadership. And there are just about 100 days until the hard left tear up the Democratic National Convention. What a party it will be.”

“We are prepared for the DNC,” Johnson said. “If there is a mayor that understands the value of protests, it’s me. I’ve led many demonstrations before and I understand the value of being able to express your political belief or ideas in order to move a government. That’s why I’m mayor.”

“The encampment has created [a] systematic disruption of campus,” President Paul Alivisatos wrote. “… The encampment protesters have flouted our policies rather than working within them, despite UChicago being an institution that allows for many ways to express views.”

Of the district’s 634 schools, 39 still have at least one resource officer. Now those schools are being forced to remove their police officers by the start of the next academic year, regardless of whether the local school leaders believe officers are improving safety.

Protest camps are ongoing at the University of Chicago and DePaul University. An encampment at Northwestern University ended on Monday after a deal with administrators, though organizers say protests will continue. Students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and Roosevelt University have also participated in recent protests.

“The agreement’s substance will further entrench identity, rather than truth, as a foundation of university life. Until universities return to the business of education and reject identity politics, they will be subject to such holdups.”

About 50 students and scholars from several universities attended the keynote address, “The Fallaciously Primordial Male: Desires, Norms & Links.”

“The student demands from the University of Chicago’s anti-Israel encampment is a giant progressive wishlist that goes well beyond Gaza.”

“A $100,000 or more in overtime – that should be a never, ever, ever situation,” said Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson. “Period. That is a screaming red flag that something internally is not being tracked, and monitored, and addressed – because it simply should not happen.”

“This is a peaceful, non-violent protest that is not unlike the American pastime of similar protests that we saw against the apartheid situation in South Africa, that we saw against the Vietnam War in 1968. This is exactly the sphere in which this is happening,” said Ahmed Rehab, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Chicago.

Reporters with camera crews were waiting for a statement from the mayor on the arrest of a man suspected of killing CPD Officer Luis Huesca when the mayor is seen running for his car, flanked by his security detail and aids.

The complaint notes that the Northwestern protest, like others assembled on college campuses elsewhere in the U.S., has glorified Hamas, while attacking Jewish people, in general, with protestors routinely spouting widely known antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish chants, calling for Jewish genocide and subjugation, while celebrating Islamic terrorists.

“Access Living’s expert examined 183 developments and concluded 100 percent of them contained significant accessibility barriers. The result of the city’s neglect? Chicago is thousands of units short of the bare minimum number of accessible units required by federal law, let alone the number to meet the actual demand.”

“As organizers, we have learned the skills that are necessary in order to keep our community safe from the police, and that we’ll have numbers in people and we have a strong community support,” said Rayna A., at the University of Chicago, who asked for her last name not to be published out of fear of harassment. “We’re very interconnected with orgs across the city. We’re hoping to just grow and expand and create … a space that is as safe as it can be. Because safety is never guaranteed.”

The groups’ federal lawsuit, filed in Chicago, seeks a court order declaring the denial of the protest permit unconstitutional, and granting them a permit to march Aug. 18 “at a time and along a route that allows them to communicate their message to their intended audience of DNC delegates.”

The Jewish United Fund’s Jane Charney demanded that Chicago Public Schools clamp down on the sit-ins. “This hypocritical and selective enforcement of campus rules and capitulation to mob rule sends a clear message to Jewish students and their families that our safety and our ability to be present at our schools in the fullness of our identity is not important.”

“Chicago’s ideologue mayor, Brandon Johnson, has suffered several political setbacks in his first year in office. But rather than blaming himself, Johnson is pointing his righteous finger at ‘Right-wing extremists.'”

David Gates erroneously claimed a homestead exemption on the property while living in Chicago, effectively shorting revenue for Indiana schools. It’s an exemption which is reserved for those living in a house they own.

CTU is demanding the board identify schools with vacant and unused floors to be converted into dormitories for unaccompanied youth and to provide access to school building shower and laundry facilities for students and families in temporary living situations. The union is also demanding the board identify functioning schools with separate entrances to be used as temporary sheltering places for homeless CPS families.

A nonprofit legal organization filed a civil rights complaint against Northwestern University Tuesday, after the university announced plans to offer five scholarships exclusively to “Palestinian” students, allegedly discriminating against the rest of the student body.

CPS officials said students have a “fundamental constitutional right to free expression, and Chicago Public Schools encourages students to take an active role in civic life.”

Though the governor did not rule out more discussions, the team clearly is facing an uphill battle.

There have been a few counter protesters at DePaul, where there has been some shouting back and forth, but overall things have remained peaceful.

“We will not tolerate violence, we will not tolerate destruction. But what we will do is protect everybody’s First Amendment right,” Supt. Larry Snelling said.

Two sources said Xavier Tate Jr. had been out of state at least twice but was finally arrested this afternoon in Glendale Heights.

SEIU Local 73 represents about 11,000 school support workers, including custodians, special education classroom assistants, bus aides, security officers, crossing guards, and parent-workers. The four-year deal would create a baseline salary of $40,000 for all full-time workers, a 4 percent pay increase the first two years and a 4 percent to 5 percent increase the last two years of the contract.

“For the last seven months — and longer — Jewish Northwestern students have been harassed and intimated by blatant antisemitism on campus, worsening since October 7,” said three organizations in a statement. “It is clear from President (Michael) Schill’s actions that he is unfit to lead Northwestern and must resign.”

The statistics, compiled by the Chicago Police Department, show response times over the past six years were more than two minutes quicker with a ShotSpotter alert than when the gunshot detection alert was accompanied by a 911 call.

Ald. Debra Silverstein said that the city has yet to take concrete action to protect the rights of the Jewish community as antisemitic speech festers on both university and school campuses. “I too strongly support the First Amendment and the right of free expression. Students have the right to protest, but Jewish students also have the right to feel safe on campus.”

“No one is stopping at stop signs now,” Ald. Derrick Curtis said. “People know there’s not real enforcement that will cost them money.” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has continued a Lightfoot-era program to erase traffic debt for some low-income drivers, saving Chicagoans $35 million so far.

“It is the Democrats who are in power right now, and it is the Democrats who could stop this [war in Gaza],” said Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network. “This is going to be the largest protest for Palestinian rights in the history of Chicago.”

Organizers said about 100 students took part in the sit-in, but only about a dozen continued the protest outside of the school. “A sit-in which was expressly modeled on the encampments at many college campuses, including the violent encampment at Columbia University, these are activities that have no place at a public school,” said Inna Tsimerman, mother of a CPS student.

Citing a “dystopic cesspool of hate” present at the pro-Palestinian encampment on Deering Meadow, the lawsuit — brought by two graduate students and one first-year undergraduate student — alleges that NU breached a “modest core promise” to students when it opted to allow the encampment to continue throughout the weekend despite demonstration policies stating such encampments are prohibited.

“With the summer crime offensive on the horizon and Chicago hosting the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s refusal to acknowledge the truth of CPD’s encounter with Reed — an armed man attacking police — and strengthen CPD legitimacy is creating the conditions for pandemonium to flourish in Chicago.”

U.S. Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, whose district in Illinois largely represents immigrants, and other U.S. representatives called on President Biden to expand work authorizations and establish additional permits for undocumented spouses, Dreamers and long-term workers who have paid taxes.

In each of three incidents, offenders drove up to a vehicle in a dark colored SUV, broke the window, and took items from the glove compartment and trunk. It’s unknown what the thieves took from the law enforcement’s units.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s 142-page list of demands includes codifying their most recent political rally. They took students out of class, hit them with propaganda and then marched them to the polls to vote.

“Northwestern has always chosen the path of least resistance when it comes to protesters, including at times surrendering core academic functions. … Student Zachery Novicoff embodied the rising intolerance to free speech on campus. He is quoted as saying ‘There’s a limitation to free speech. That ends at overtly racist old white dudes.'”

“While the OPRF incident did not involve an active shooter — the student did not have a gun — it was initially reported that there was a student with a gun on campus and an imminent threat of a school shooting. Oak Park police responded differently (the first time) than any other police agency, not following any of the response protocols that would generally be in place. Instead, they followed the school’s bizarre procedures that prevented police from setting foot on their campus.”

“A question remains, though: What’s the plan for funding these initiatives once the pandemic money runs out?”

“Recently, nine land trusts that formed or are in the process of forming joined together as a federation called Chicagoland Owners Land Trust. Convened by the Chicago Community Loan Fund, which helps identify resources and disburses financial support, it consists of land trusts in areas as diverse as Uptown and Englewood. Each area has its own needs that collective ownership can help solve.”

The owner of a 57-story Loop office tower at 70 West Madison is facing a $276 million foreclosure lawsuit, one of the most extreme cases of distress infecting a downtown office market awash in vacant space.

Investors looking to pick up downtown Chicago office buildings at a discount have two prominent new options, 444 N. Michigan Ave. and 30 W. Monroe St.

Tents were cleared at Northwestern University Tuesday after protesters came to an agreement with the university administration; Northwestern students donated and delivered some tarps and supplies to UChicago and to a new encampment at DePaul University. The Rev. Jesse Jackson came out Tuesday to support a growing pro-Palestinian tent encampment at the University of Chicago.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling expressed little concern regarding the protests, emphasizing that they have not posed a threat to public safety thus far.

“For the most part, there are a lot of points on the agreement that I support, that the Hillel community supports as a whole,” said student Sari Eisen, president of Northwestern Hillel. “… We were also pretty disappointed to see that acts of blatant antisemitism, the chants, the signs, all of that, was not specifically addressed in the agreement. We have been voicing our concerns about antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7.”

The deal Northwestern struck with the protesters — who hung a sign showing a crossed-out Star of David on the lawn’s fence — has drawn condemnations from a variety of groups and individuals.

In one email, assistant law professor Jesse Yeh told his students to let him know if they “need to miss class or need extension on your assignment for any reason. … This includes if you need to miss class for an extended period of time to exercise your right to protest. In Solidarity.”

“We’re simply not enforcing quality-of-life laws around our shelters,” said Ald. Raymond Lopez. “Politically, we have an environment that is making excuses for those low-level offenses as something that should be forgiven or ignored without realizing that it has a very real snowball effect in our neighborhoods.”

According to a report published in June 2023, the company known as Chicago Parking Meters raked in $140.4 million in parking meter revenue in 2022, the most the company had reaped since the lease began. However, CPM in recent months has filed complaints against the city, claiming it has still been shorted tens of millions of dollars.

“We’ve spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can’t allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense,” said Frank Pine, executive editor for the MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing.

“Instead of meeting with us and working out a compromise that brings us within sight and sound of the DNC, the city has tried to shut us away in a corner,” said Liz Rathburn with Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois Chicago.

During Wednesday’s protest, Jewish students have been offered a safe place to go or the right to counter-protest. Parents are asking for more. “I feel that the Jewish students need to see that there are consequences, if there is any hate speech, in order for them to feel that the trusted adults in their life are protecting them,” parent Rachel Gigloitti said.

While Southland College Prep adopts a lottery pick system for admissions and is not a selective enrollment school, it continues to draw significant interest, with over 300 students from the south suburbs vying for the 100 annual openings. Notably, minorities constitute 97 percent of the student body.

The encampment officially began at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to an Instagram post from DePaul University’s Divestment Coalition Encampment. The schedule for Tuesday’s encampment includes speakers, prayers, a teach-in and rally.

Under federal rules, Chicago has until the end of the year to allocate what remains of the $1.9 billion in pandemic financial aid the city received in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act, and until 2026 to spend it. Money not spent must be returned to the federal government.

They have about 40 tents set up right now, including a medic tent and even an encampment library as they enter day two of their protest.

“All of these year-round attractions in the city of Chicago will generate significant new revenue that will support my commitment to invest in people, and that means more revenue for mental health clinics, youth jobs, housing, investments and our community violence interrupters. Simply put, this is going to reinvigorate the entire city of Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Luis Huesca had just gotten off a shift when he was fatally shot April 21 near his Gage Park home. Just over a year earlier, Andrés Vásquez-Lasso was shot and killed responding to a domestic incident in the same Southwest Side neighborhood. Officer Lucia Chavez said at Huesca’s funeral, “I lost my two classmates, my best friends, my brothers. This violence in this city took them away from me, from us.”

Some programs will see their American Rescue Plan Act funding scaled back or canceled so other initiatives better aligned with the mayor’s vision can instead get the money, administration officials said. That includes starting back up the guaranteed income program launched during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure, but nixing her administration’s plans for a sobering center and support for low-barrier homeless shelters run by outside agencies.

“For once again here, (Mayor Brandon) Johnson has run into the chronic problem of trying to be both an activist, prone to anti-police rhetoric and in the thrall of the far left, while also being the mayor of a city whose job it is to pay respect to the daily dangers faced by police officers…”

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the union was happy to see “more people in the first session than we have seen in previous times with direct understanding and clarity about how school works.” A CPS spokesperson said officials are reviewing the CTU’s proposals to livestream a “limited number of sessions” and to create a sign-up list for in-person attendees.

Northwestern said it has come to terms with protest representatives agreeing that peaceful demonstrations will continue on Deering Meadow through June 1 and only Northwestern students, faculty and staff can participate. Students in the encampment told reporters they were “blindsided” by the agreements, calling those who made the decision “sellouts.”

Owing to longstanding issues surrounding the university’s relationship with the community it inhabits, students also called on the school to abolish its private police force, fund South Side housing and education programs, stop new construction projects in the area, and more.

Protest organizers expect as many as 30,000 people to show up in Chicago to demonstrate against Israel’s military action in Gaza, almost triple the number of protesters who gathered in Grant Park in August 1968. Asked if he’s worried about a flashback to 1968, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin replied, “Of course.”

Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she and another state official were asked by Huesca’s “grief stricken mother” to tell Johnson “he was unwelcome at her son’s funeral.”

Kayla Hudgins, a former CPS student, said her teachers pressured her to participate in transcendental meditation as part of a “quiet time” curriculum. Hudgins on one occasion said she didn’t want to participate and was sent to the dean’s office. After quiet time, students were pressured to sign nondisclosure agreements to not tell their parents when they got home from school. Students were told if they didn’t sign the agreement it would affect their grades.

There are only 176 full student attendance days in the 2024-2025 CPS calendar. If CTU gets its way, teachers could be out of the classroom for 26 of those days for vacation time, sick days, personal days and the new medical release day. That’s nearly 15 percent of the time kids are in school.

Since they were turned on in 2013, Chicago’s speed cameras have generated $879 million for the city, sending 9,132,409 tickets to motorists. That’s more than three tickets per Chicagoan or almost a ticket for three of every four Illinois residents.

The proposal is part of a broader look at transit funding, as the region’s public transit agencies face a combined $730 million budget hole once federal COVID-19 relief funding starts running out, which could be as soon as 2025.

Under the Bears’ proposal, the 2 percent city tax on hotel stays would be used to continue paying stadium-related debt for another 40 years. “That’s a very long time for an asset that typically doesn’t last 40 years. It’s one thing for Washington, D.C., to sell century-long bonds for their sewer system, because that’s going to last. But a stadium — to tie up taxpayer dollars for 40 years is a massive bet on this being a good idea,” said Matt Fabian of Municipal Market Analytics.

Demonstrators on both sides held their flags, chanted and even clashed, but remained mostly peaceful.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling added that police need the full support of the criminal justice system. Accountability is one of the pillars of the city’s plan to combat robberies, he said.

Downtown office vacancies exceeded 25 percent for the first time ever, while Loop retail vacancies have hit a record-high 30 percent, according to CBRE and Stone Real Estate’s respective studies.

“Because of the public benefit,” Johnson said when asked how he will make a progressive case for the proposal. “Look, these pictures are miraculous. We are talking about thousands of lives that will benefit. … Think about how long people have been waiting for investments

The funding formula comes amid CPS facing a $391 million budget deficit and a dwindling COVID-relief fund.

“We are going to join hands, get signatures and make this happen, and I guarantee you we will have the 56,000-plus signatures and we will have enough for a challenge too,” said FOP President John Catanzara.

Ald. David Moore is fighting to strip Mayor Brandon Johnson of his unilateral authority to end the city’s contract with the ShotSpotter gunfire detection program.

Christopher Gonzalez, a Thornton Township Trustee, was also in attendance for Saturday’s “Take Back Our Township” rally. “I have a lot of the same questions people do, but even beyond that, we are all citizens just trying to get some answers,” Gonzalez said.

Multiple fights broke out at the carnival, but there were no reports of gunshots or injuries.

Last week, the FBI had served two subpoenas on the Village of Dolton, asking for the personnel and disciplinary files for 29 Dolton employees as well as any contracts or payments made to the mayor’s top assistant, Keith Freeman, who also serves in that role in Thornton Township.

Will Johnson, of The Harris Poll: “Less than 20 percent think the city is better off today than a year ago on fundamentals such as the local economy and health, and that percentage drops to 11 percent or lower on public safety, social inequities, the migrant situation and taxes, according to a new citywide survey by The Harris Poll.”

“To the Medill students and journalists within earshot, I say to you: Our work is not about objectivity,” he said. “Our work is about you putting your brilliant minds to work and opening your compassionate hearts.”

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said the SEIU and the Chicago Teachers Union are in a favorable position with Brandon Johnson as mayor. “The SEIU is not dumb. They’re going to ask for plenty and see if they can get it,” Dabrowski said.

In a 142-page leaked document, the Chicago Teachers Union outlines hundreds of new proposed demands for its next contract, including 41 percent raises, removing school resource officers from schools, and concealing information concerning student gender and sexuality from parents.

The Bears’ pitch for a new domed lakefront stadium came with a $4.7 billion price tag. In reality, though, Chicago and Illinois taxpayers would end up paying $5.9 billion to help the Bears build and finance the stadium and retire existing debt used to renovate Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox play. Add to that the $1 billion already paid to revamp Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, and the overall cost to taxpayers is $6.9 billion, says Frank Bilecki, of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

“It’s really sad,” one instructor said. “It’s something that we feel bad about because we know how important those summer camps are for people, especially people who have limited income or they cannot afford the other private camps.”

Cook County Deputy Clerk Cedric Giles has been selected as the interim clerk until someone is elected. The Cook County Democratic Party has chosen Cook County Commissioner Monica Gordon from south suburban Markham to be its candidate on the November ballot.

About 100 students and some faculty came out to demand the University of Chicago cut financial ties with Israel, and for the university to acknowledge the destruction in Gaza – especially the dismantling of the region’s education system – and to allocate funds to help rebuild Gaza’s higher education. The students marched from building to building, reiterating their requests at every stop.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates finally paid all her city trash, sewer and water bills after letting $5,381 in debt pile up. The pay-off came after an open records request was made.

“You may not be aware, but for the last four years the public policy of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office has been not to prosecute criminal violations tied to protests and demonstrations if the office deems those actions ‘peaceful.’ … Foxx’s office confirmed to us that the policy remains, even as aggressive protests on campuses have reached a point where some of America’s most storied universities have shut down in-person learning.”

Since Chicago moved all migrants into city-run shelters, the response team efforts have morphed into a bigger network. Last fall, volunteers created a resource group on Facebook with more than 4,000 members.

Since 2018, the Chicago Teachers Union has paid Robin Potter’s law firms nearly $320,000 – with thousands of that for unspecified purposes. CTU also steered at least two massive lawsuits directly into Robin Potter’s hands, resulting in a net pay out of $9.25 million, with Potter’s firm receiving $4 million of that amount.

“Pro stadium deals in Los Angeles, one serving two NFL teams and the other for the basketball Clippers, were privately funded, and there are signs of a taxpayer revolt elsewhere. Voters in Kansas City rejected a funding package for their baseball and football teams, even though their Chiefs won this year’s Super Bowl. Coming out of the pandemic, “Other cities don’t have the appetite or the resources to provide new money for stadiums,” (attorney David) Sunkin said.

“(T)he protesters managed to balloon from several dozen at 7 a.m. to a crowd of well nearly 1,000 by nightfall … As for Jewish students on campus, they might have been able to take initial solace in the university’s decision to bar the tents erected at the start of the protest, but that ordinance went largely unenforced. By midnight, the number of outlawed tents had swelled to roughly 80, and anti-Israel chants rang out from similarly unapproved megaphones on repeat.”

When it comes to the fallout that the struggling downtown office and retail market may unleash on other taxpayers, “generally the perception is that the impact will be greater than what we think it actually will be,” Kaegi said in an interview with Crain’s during an event his office held to discuss assessments with local real estate stakeholders.

“The phasing out of public school choice, the abandonment of standards and accountability and the redistribution of resources to failing, underenrolled schools are a race to the bottom.”

But while the union has long advocated for the end of student-based budgeting, Christel Williams-Hayes, a senior Chicago Teachers Union official and former school paraprofessional, said CPS has provided little information about the new budgets. “CTU will not stand by and allow CPS to steal from one underfunded school to shore up and give to other underfunded schools to make it even,” she said.

Goldberg-Polin, 23, was at the Tribe of Nova music festival when Hamas launched its attack from nearby Gaza. In the video, Goldberg-Polin is missing part of his left arm.

“Having the opportunity to stand with billionaires, you could not have convinced me a decade ago that I would have the opportunity to do that,” Johnson said. “The fact that a middle child, 10 siblings, from a working class family is in a position to speak to the interests of everyday Chicagoans and challenge billionaires to put skin in the game — that’s what I promised that I would make sure happen.”

“Since 2020, documented hate crimes in Chicago have increased by 275 percent. The Anti-Defamation League reported a 74 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in 2023, the worst numbers since they started tracking them in 1979. If that doesn’t demonstrate the urgency, remember that later this summer, amid this supercharged climate, Chicago will be center stage in the political world.”

Eden Macknin had at least one of her professors cancel class for the day, citing the protest. The professor said to students, “Take care of yourselves, and each other,” according to Macknin.

ACLU of Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka also noted of the way the city has thus far denied every permit applied for by those looking to stage marches during the convention. “I think there’s reason to wonder who is making the plan, where is that plan being made and when will it be made public. There ought to be a larger discussion on the part of the city as to where and what places are going to be off limits.”

Over the past 30 days, the number of unscheduled buses increased to seven per week, with some occurring in the middle of the night, according to officials. Since Dec. 31, 62 buses carrying nearly 2,500 migrants from Texas have arrived in Wilmette.

The publication describes Oak Street Beach this way: “Usually, you have to leave urban areas to find the best shorelines, but this Midwestern metropolis is one of the few exceptions”

“Demanding teacher pay rise $51,000 might be excessive, but it’s understandable for CTU to be concerned about teacher performance, evaluation, compensation and benefits. … What entitles CTU to demand a one-time, taxpayer-funded lump-sum payout to each asylum-seeking student?”

“The issue was the American flag was on his glove,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Pitchers’ gloves, they’re pretty strict about not having white on the pitchers’ gloves. Apparently, the flag had what could be a distraction to the hitter.”

“IDF, KKK, NUPD — all the same,” protesters chant.

Among the remaining questions is how the team plans to fill a $1.5 billion construction funding gap. They also need to explain how they would deconstruct much of Soldier Field, which was dedicated as a war memorial. Gov. JB Pritzker remains skeptical of any forthcoming funding plan: “There are a lot of priorities that the state has and I’m not sure that this is among the highest priorities for taxpayers.”

Chicago’s City Council on Friday approved the issuance of $1.25 billion of bonds to fund affordable housing and economic development programs after debating the measure for the past month.

“If nothing substantial has changed by the summer, what’s happening in New York carries a warning for Chicago as it hosts the Democratic National Convention, which will not be a moment to be caught flat-footed.”

“‘The Lakefront by right belongs to the people,’ (architect Daniel) Burnham wrote in the 1909 (Plan of Chicago). ‘Not a foot of its shores should be appropriated to the exclusion of the people.’ … (Mayor Brandon) Johnson, badly struggling in the first year of his term by any reasonable definition, looks to us like he’s picked this majestic facility on the lakefront, not to mention the intensity of Bears fandom, to pull his mayoralty out of the ditch.”

“At first glance, more than $2 billion in private funding is better than zero and a more credible opening offer,” Senate President Don Harmon said. “But there’s an obvious, substantial gap remaining, and I echo the governor’s skepticism.”

“I think he’s a people person. I think he is labor responsive,” Guidice said of the mayor. “I think the business community relationship is something he probably has circled for attention for the next three years.”

There are 20 of the sustainable community schools in the Chicago Public Schools district. They add social, health and other student services into the school structure, which sounds great on the surface but fails in practice.

“In Chicago, Blacks comprise 32 percent of the city’s population but almost 80 percent of the murder and attempted murder victims with over 90% percent of the assailants Black. … Largely ignored by the anti-police activists is impact violent crime is having on women, particularly Black women.”

“A $2 billion-a-year public transit agency that seems to clean and run its trains and buses on a whim rather than dependable schedules, and whose riders openly fear being robbed, beaten or worse, is a failure. And with most failures, the buck stops with who’s in charge. Everyone knows this, from the riders who are routinely left ghosted and stranded by CTA, all the way up to Gov. JB Pritzker …”

Stephen Mitchell, Local School Council chair at Bronzeville Classical elementary school, said the messaging from CPS officials is disingenuous – that while the narrative is that cuts to these programs will only hurt white, affluent students, each selective enrollment and magnet school has its own story. “We are a Black school in a Black community that fought for this school and we are being harmed by these budget cuts,” he said.

Perhaps the strongest response came from Southwest Sider John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. “Some piece of sh~t predator decided that taking someone’s car wasn’t enough,” he said. “If they will do that to a Chicago Police officer, does anybody think the average citizen stands a chance in any of these situations? Because you do not.”

The document, which was first reported by the school’s student paper, The Daily Northwestern, was created by the university’s chapters of Educators for Justice in Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. It now includes more than 600 signatures by students, faculty, staff and other Northwestern community members.

The Chicago Bears have a $4.6 billion plan for a new enclosed stadium and lakefront area, half of which would come from taxpayers, sources said, but the team will have to overcome serious skepticism. All levels of government are facing financial cliffs in multiple areas — pensions, transit and Chicago Public Schools —with the end of billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 pandemic

An Illinois Policy Institute poll found only 29 percent of surveyed voters approved of Johnson’s job performance, with to 57 percent disapproving as of January 2024

“It is clear there is a domestic violence crisis in Chicago that our government seems to be ignoring. It is aggravated by the SAFE-T Act pretrial release changes, which are flooding the streets with violent offenders, as well as the deliberate withholding of information that would determine the impact of failing to keep dangerous and repeat felons off the street.”

“Our team reads hundreds of Chicago police reports every week. We can say with certainty that ShotSpotter alerts routinely result in the arrests of armed men—and they’re almost always men—after shots are fired in the city.”

“This situation developed in an environment of proliferating local governments with limited state oversight. Illinois has more local governments than any other state. … In the case of Dolton, residents pay taxes to the village, as well as a park district, a public library district, a water reclamation district, a forest preserve district, a mosquito abatement district, multiple school districts, a community college district, Thornton Township, and Cook County. That is a lot of local government entities for taxpayers to both fund and track, if they wish to demand accountability.”

Ald. Lamont Robinson wants to create a task force, with members appointed by the mayor, that would study the impacts of poverty and work with city departments to develop solutions that expand on a universal basic income program.

The $5 million fund, through a partnership between the city and Ada S. McKinley Community Services, will provide one-time grants of $500 to up to 8,000 eligible K-12 students through a lottery system.

Chicago native and political analyst Gianno Caldwell, discussing the the $70 million proposal and the growing concern for police officers’ safety, said, “As mayor, Brandon Johnson’s message, I believe, to Chicagoans has been quite clear: Get on the back of the bus. Now that’s everybody, but especially those Black voters who are the reason he’s mayor today.”

“Even during those four years on the Cook County Board, Toni Preckwinkle held his hand. (Mayor Brandon) Johnson is not incompetent, he’s inexperienced. He deserves more than a year to learn how to do his job. He deserves the four years to which he was elected, by voters who knew that he was “owned by the CTU” …

“They are all headed downhill very rapidly, and they are all being run by radical leftists…. How we raise our kids really matters. We have been failing them for decades, and now the consequences can be very clearly seen in the streets of our major cities. A horrific societal collapse is upon us, and yet this nation continues to refuse to change direction.”

“The grocery business operates under notoriously thin profit margins, and grocers must be responsive to changes in customer demands to survive. Operating on tight budgets, as well as quickness and nimbleness regarding answering peoples’ needs, are not responsibilities governments perform well. And Chicago is particularly inept among governmental bodies.”

Hotel occupancy was 51 percent, up 3 percentage points from the same period in 2023, and 11 percentage points lower than the first quarter of 2019. The retail vacancy rate in the Loop was a record-high of 30 percent, according to the Chicago Loop Alliance.

Officials from United and American airlines were at Monday’s event, but the airlines are still reviewing the mayor’s idea, and have not officially signed on to it.

The building will be rezoned into a neighborhood commercial district, allowing the Englewood organizations to build about 30,331 square feet of commercial space, a restaurant, a workforce development training space and a community garden.

All are CPS Selective Enrollment schools. Walter Payton College Prep checked in at No. 5 in the annual list of top high schools in the country. Also included among the top 100 schools in the nation were: Northside College Prep (No. 35), Whitney Young Magnet High School (No. 52), Jones College Prep (No. 53) and Lane Tech (No. 60).

Hundreds of people converged in the area of Roosevelt and Canal after 7 p.m. March 2 in response to announcements circulated on social media.

HB303 aims to prohibit the Chicago Board of Education from closing any public schools with selective admissions requirements until Feb. 2027, as well as changing the admissions criteria at such schools during the same time period. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the bill is “cynical, racist and will negatively impact all Chicago students.” She argued State Rep. Maragret Croke appears “unaware” of the harm her legislation will cause.

“If this were … a government with a history of conservative planning and fiscal practice, then you could take these numbers more at face value,” said Matt Fabian, lead analyst at the Massachusetts-based research firm Municipal Market Analytics. “But it being Chicago, [it has] a history of pushing things into the future and using very sophisticated cloaking of what it’s actually doing.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that Johnson and the city council are actually prioritizing illegal immigrants over the (taxpaying) residents of their city. In fact, in asking for federal aid, they are prioritizing illegal immigrants over other cities’ residents as well…. They have a clear path out of this but are refusing to take it….”

“Nobody is safe here right now. We have leadership in the City Council that is more worried about funding money toward illegal immigrants and getting votes for the next election than they are protecting our city and out citizens. My father had a saying, ‘when your police officers aren’t safe anymore, you’ve lost your city.’ That’s what’s going on here,” he said.

As a Democratic leader, Preckwinkle will be tasked with trying to mend division within the party. In an interview after her win, Preckwinkle didn’t have specific plans on how to accomplish that.

“Our Police Department has the tools that it needs to help us build a better, stronger, safer Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “And as I’ve said repeatedly, it can’t be policing alone. That’s a failed strategy. That is what previous administrations have relied upon.”

The first sign that Officer Huesca was in trouble came in at 2:53 a.m. Sunday, in the form of a ShotSpotter alert for four rounds fired at 5501 S. Kedzie Ave. It was not for another 4 minutes and 50 seconds that a 911 caller picked up the phone, reporting a man on the ground about a block away at 3135 W. 56th St. Police arrived at the scene sooner than if they had waited for the call.

Concerns remain about protests like the recent incident when hundreds shutdown access to O’Hare International Airport. “Our Chicago Police Department was able to get those folks off the highway faster than any other city in the United States,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “And they’re prepared for the Democratic Convention.”

The Chicago Teachers Union hosted a press conference to begin contract negotiations at one of the sustainable community schools it wants to replicate 180 times. The Ellen H. Richards Career Academy has zero students proficient in reading or math. Nearly 80 percent of students are chronically absent. And nearly one out of every 10 students drop out of the high school.

A monthly index of affordability that the Chicago Association of Realtors released last week for March shows the affordability of houses in the city hitting the lowest point in the group’s data, which stretches back to January 2007.

Chicago police arrested charged 40 people with misdemeanors after the O’Hare demonstration. In a statement, a Chicago police spokesperson said the department has been focused heavily on training to respond to “large-scale First Amendment activity” in preparation for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

“The politicization of violence on the streets of our major cities must end.”

Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, “promises were made by corporations, universities and governments around Black wellness and making sure that ‘We see you, we know these communities have been disinvested in,’” said LaVonté Stewart, of Lost Boyz Inc. “That happened for a year or two, and guess what? Now they’re wiping out [those efforts].”

Out of more than 50 appointments to the CTA board over the past 40 years, only three were transportation experts. The city and governor’s office won’t explain how they identify and interview prospective board members.

“For so long we accepted that this is how things had to be in our communities,” said Chris Jackson, who co-founded a bakery and restaurant in the South Loop with his wife. “This migrant crisis has made many people go: ‘Wait a minute, no it doesn’t.’”

“Domestic violence survivors should not be asked to rely on a system to protect them that consistently falls short.”

Last weekend, at least 43 people were shot, seven fatally, in gun violence across Chicago, police said.

The “One System Initiative” will shift a “permanent shelter management to the non-profit workforce,” Illinois Department of Human Services spokesperson Daisy Contreras said. The state’s office to prevent and end homelessness will lead the initiative with more than 25 community-based agencies participating.

The growing unrest against war has raised parallels with the 1968 Democratic Convention, also in Chicago, which was marred by protests against the Vietnam War and derailed by violent policing efforts. “Look, we believe in free speech, and we’re going to allow people to protest and say whatever it is they want to say,” Gov. JB Pritzker said. “But the reality is, we’re also going to make sure that people have ingress and egress and that they’re safe in our state.”

“That extra time is invaluable and you blissfully choose to ignore that fact,” Ald. Ray Lopez posted on X.

As Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza continues, it’s unclear whether the host city mayor and President Joe Biden see eye-to-eye on the policy issue that threatens to tear apart their party before the November election.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for “new leadership” at the Chicago Transit Authority this week, ratcheting up the pressure on Mayor Brandon Johnson to make a decision on the CTA’s embattled president, Dorval Carter. But when reporters asked multiple questions about CTA leadership during a post-City Council press conference today, Johnson dodged each one.

These task forces will be led by the federal attorney’s offices, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which will all work alongside local law enforcement officers, per the Biden administration.

A new report published by Stone Real Estate shows record-high retail vacancy of more than 30 percent. The annual report had shown a vacancy rate of about 15 percent in 2019.