From left: Chicago Police Officer Bob Long, Deputy Chief Thomas Mills and Cmdr. Sean Loughran speak during a virtual committee hearing on Tuesday.

Chicago Police Department leaders pledged Tuesday to push forward with a long-promised overhaul of its controversial gang member database but defended sticking with their existing system in the meantime, even as they faced a barrage of criticism from aldermen and advocates over its inaccuracy and disorganization.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) alleged during a virtual public hearing on June 29 that the board regularly violates the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

A bitter internal dispute at the Cook County Board of Review has widened to include State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as both offices have been enlisted to weigh in on accusations from one commissioner that the board routinely violates state transparency laws.

A rendering of the six-story development proposed for 4730 W. Irving Park Road. [Novak Construction/MG2 Architects]

A 208-unit redevelopment of the closed Sears building in Portage Park, a 316-unit apartment tower in Fulton Market and a nearly 40,000-square-foot Uptown theater building were among more than a dozen new planned development applications submitted to the Chicago City Council last week.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez would be open to presenting a “status report” on her efforts to overhaul the beleaguered office, she told commissioners Wednesday.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez is on track to avoid the mistakes of her predecessor in a scheduled technology upgrade aimed at making the court’s sprawling network of records more accessible to everyday users, she assured commissioners this week.

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans speaks during a county budget hearing on Wednesday.

Therapists could be more a “far superior tool” than ankle bracelets at preventing people from committing new crimes while under pre-trial home confinement, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans told county commissioners this week.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks in a news conference after Wednesday's City Council meeting. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

A series of key legal restrictions designed to control the proliferation of new pot dispensaries in Chicago would be lifted under a new ordinance proposed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday, one of dozens of new ordinances and resolutions tossed into consideration in advance of the City Council’s August recess. 

The Chicago Police Department and Chicago Public Schools were among the least-popular city institutions identified in the latest Chicago Index quarterly poll. [Colin Boyle Block Club Chicago]

Fewer than 40 percent of Chicagoans are satisfied with the performance of the city’s police department and barely one-in-four are happy with Chicago Public Schools, according to the latest quarterly findings of The Chicago Index poll sponsored by Crain’s and The Daily Line.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Comm. John Daley (D-11) during a preliminary budget hearing on Tuesday

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx asked commissioners on Tuesday to fund a boost to her office’s payroll next year, saying the crush of cases facing prosecutors as the courts return to pre-pandemic capacity will be “unlike anything we’ve seen in the history of Cook County.”

Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell was one of a handful of county officials who faced county commissioners on the first day of their preliminary budget hearings on Monday.

Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell plans to ask county budget officials for dozens of new positions so his office can attack a backload of criminal court cases that has mounted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he told commissioners on Monday.

The City Council finance committee approved a $60 million infrastructure deal surrounding the Michael Reese site on Monday, priming it for zoning and land acquisition approval on Tuesday.

A five-year back-and-forth over how to reactivate one of Chicago’s most prized slices of publicly-owned property is on track to culminate on Tuesday, as City Council committees consider zoning approval and a redevelopment agreement for the sprawling “Bronzeville Lakefront” mega-development on the former site of Michael Reese Hospital.

Aldermen advanced a measure on Monday designed to give restaurants more flexibility in their dealings with third-party delivery apps. And the City Council’s rules committee is set to resuscitate stalled proposals to establish a guaranteed income program and a permanent shared e-scooter network.

A proposal by city Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin to fight inequitable home lending, an infrastructure agreement surrounding the Michael Reese Hospital site and a $1.2 million police settlement are among multiple big-ticket items on tap for approval by the City Council Committee on Finance during its 10 a.m. meeting on Monday.

Renderings of the 34-story apartment tower proposed for 1215 W. Fulton St. [Department of Planning and Development]

Nearly one-third of apartments in a towering new Fulton Market development could be set aside at below-market rents, representing a “model” for a coming wave of residential development in a section of the neighborhood that has thus far banned it, members of the Chicago Plan Commission said Thursday.

Chicago Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara reviewing a map of applications from the last round of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

Aldermen advanced two measures on Wednesday designed to prevent a wave of renters from being displaced as state and federal moratoria on evictions are on track to expire at the end of this month.

Ward-level officials who oversee garbage pickup and street cleaning should not be immune from court-mandated hiring restrictions, according to a city watchdog. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Aldermen are violating federal hiring rules by hand-picking the officials responsible for trash collection and street sweeping in their own wards, a city watchdog declared in a report published Wednesday.

More than 2,000 Cook County workers represented by SEIU Local 73 went back to work on Tuesday after an 18-day strike. [Facebook/SEIU Local 73]

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle lashed leaders of the SEIU Local 73 union on Tuesday as they returned to work after an 18-day strike, saying their work stoppage accomplished nothing but to hobble county operations and hurt county leaders’ relationship with one of their largest labor groups.

World Business Chicago CEO Michael Fassnacht speaking during a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday

2021 is shaping up to be the “best year ever” for Chicago’s growing technology sector, a top city marketing official declared on Tuesday during a wide-ranging presentation aimed at wooing out-of-town tech firms to set up shop in Chicago.

Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough (left) and Assessor Fritz Kaegi are locked in a public battle over property tax calculations.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office must double-check all 144,000 property tax exemptions it has granted low- and middle-income seniors before county Clerk Karen Yarbrough and Treasurer Maria Pappas prepare to send out the next round of property taxes this summer, Yarbrough and Pappas wrote in a letter to Kaegi on Monday.

Aldermen are scheduled Tuesday to advance a pair of tax incentives and probe World Business Chicago leaders on how they’re marketing the city. Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Monday the recipients of Neighborhood Opportunity Fund grants. And the Chicago Board of Ethics issued a new round of advisory opinions.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot (left) and budget committee chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3)

A growing chorus of aldermen and organizers are pushing for the City Council and Mayor Lori Lightfoot to begin doling out the windfall of federal cash the city has received from the American Rescue Plan Act, saying the city needs all the help it can get to quell the surge of summer violence gripping the city. But Lightfoot and a powerful committee chair are urging patience, saying they need time to crowdsource the best use of the funds.