Cook County Board President announcing $1.5 million in new spending on anti-violence programs in North Lawndale on Thursday

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle seized on an event Thursday to turn the tables on the Chicago Police Department, deflecting Supt. David Brown’s criticism of the county court system and instead implicating low police arrest rates for Chicago’s stubbornly high crime rate.

The Chicago Police Department could be undermining its over efforts to boost diversity in its ranks, according to a new report. [Jake Wittich/Block Club Chicago]

The Chicago Police Department is undermining its own efforts to diversify its ranks with an 18-month application process that disproportionately purges Black applicants, a city watchdog office wrote in a report published Thursday.

Chicago Ald. George Cardenas (12) formally rolled out his candidacy for Cook County Board of Review. Aldermen pressed city planning officials on potential tax incentives for a new 400-unit development in the Illinois Medical District. And a report suggests administrators of a Chicago affordable housing program are cleaning up operational problems.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a ribbon-cutting event for a new track and field facility in Gately Park on Tuesday

Mayor Lori Lightfoot spotlighted youth programming, called out the federal government and teased a forthcoming victim support program on Tuesday, pivoting away from blaming the Cook County court system during her first appearance after more than 100 people were shot in Chicago during the Fourth of July weekend. But Chicago Police Supt. David Brown held the line on his criticism of judges, and multiple aldermen sprung up with a range of their own ideas to stem the violence.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) (left) and Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown during a special City Council meeting on Friday [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown spent a free-wheeling six-hour special City Council hearing on Friday sticking by his assertion that lenient judges own at least part of the blame for the city’s stubbornly high rates of violent crime, even as multiple aldermen challenged the data underlying his claims.

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is set to step down in October, capping three four-year terms in office. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson will step down from his post this fall after 12 eventful years overseeing investigations of waste, fraud and abuse in city government, he informed Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a letter Thursday evening.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot held an event on Thursday to celebrate Chicago’s minimum wage hitting $15 per hour.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took advantage of Chicago’s scheduled bump to a $15 per hour minimum wage on Thursday to brandish the raft of pro-labor legislation passed on her watch, including ordinances designed to regulate workers’ schedules and crack down on wage theft. But labor groups have pushed the city to go even further, in part by hiking lower minimum wages allowed for tipped and disabled workers.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34) appearing alongside Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a 2019 event

Ald. Carrie Austin (34) and her chief of staff accepted home appliances and renovations as bribes in return for plying a developer’s project with city funding, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment handed down on Thursday.

Aldermen will gather virtually for a special City Council meeting Friday to probe Chicago Police Department leaders on their summer anti-violence strategy. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made a rare joint appearance to unveil a new monument to journalist Ida B. Wells. And a trio of freshman alderman emphasized their support for efforts to create a citywide network of bike lanes. 

The tax “equalizer” is a key input that helps determine how Cook County officials calculate property taxes.

A new set of Cook County property data released by a state agency this week suggests the county assessor’s office and Board of Review collectively gave excessive breaks to a range of properties across the county, raising a fresh round of finger-pointing over fairness as officials prepare to calculate this fall’s round of tax bills.

Pot entrepreneurs with social equity licenses would be able to open downtown under a proposal from Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36). [budding via Unsplash]

Cannabis dispensaries with “social equity” licenses would be allowed to bypass many of the city’s built-in zoning restrictions under a new ordinance introduced by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) last week designed to help minority-owned firms break into the city’s fledgling legal weed industry.

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Chicago’s Grant Park

A broadly backed push to rename Cook County’s official Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day remains stuck in neutral as supporters struggle to whip up support from a majority of the 17-member Cook County Board of Commissioners.

A rendering of the proposed school renovation and senior living tower at the intersection of Marine Drive and Irving Park Road [KGiles/46th Ward] 

A new 22-story Uptown senior housing facility, a 150-unit apartment complex near McCormick Place and a 357-unit apartment and townhome development in Irving Park represent some of the highest-profile proposals among nearly a dozen planned development applications submitted to the City Council this month. 

Up to three companies would be allowed to operate e-scooters in Chicago under an ordinance set to be proposed by an alderman and city transportation officials on Friday. [Hannah Alani/Block Club Chicago]

Reinstated renter protections, a permanent citywide e-scooter program and two proposals meant to combat systemic racism in home lending are among the dozens of new measures set for introduction at Friday’s City Council meeting. The raft of new legislation was set to be rolled out on Wednesday, until the meeting abruptly adjourned following a dispute over the appointment of Corporation Counsel Celia Meza.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle during the Board of Commissioners’ first semi-in-person meeting in 15 months on Thursday

Cook County leaders plan to use their $1 billion in new funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to boost the county’s existing safety net programs, expand worker benefits and help the county’s 100-plus municipal governments use the new resources to the fullest, officials said Thursday.

Cook County Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15) speaking during a virtual news conference Monday to promote his “Gender Inclusive Documents and Forms” ordinance [Facebook]

Ordinances designed to make Cook County paperwork more sensitive to genderqueer people and help suburban workers secure time off to get vaccinated are among dozens of measures set to be taken up by the county’s Board of Commissioners during its first semi-in-person meeting in 15 months Thursday.

The $121 million budget shortfall faced by Cook County represents a sharp decline from gaps ripped open by the COVID-19 pandemic last year. [Cook County Bureau of Finance]

Cook County leaders will have to close a $121.4 million budget shortfall this fall as they prepare to pass a 2022 budget that leaves the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the rear-view mirror. They’ll do so with the help of a $1 billion allotment from the federal government via the American Rescue Plan, a windfall that county budget officials will work to weave into their budgets during the next three years.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44) (left) and Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) during a zoning committee meeting on Tuesday

A City Council committee moved on Tuesday to effectively quash a controversial apartment complex proposed next to the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station, overriding the advice of city attorneys who said the move may invite a legal challenge.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) speaks during a Right to Recovery news conference in Daley Plaza Tuesday morning [Facebook/Chicago Democratic Socialists of America]

A dozen progressive aldermen rolled out a pitch on Tuesday to spend $1.9 billion in incoming federal aid on childcare supports, housing assistance, non-police violence prevention and a host of other city resources designed to help the city’s most vulnerable.

A proposal to set an upper limit on surge pricing could come up for a vote next month after being reassigned to a new committee on Tuesday. [Uber] 

A proposal designed to rein in price-gouging by ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft is among two dozen ordinances set to be put back on course Tuesday, a month after they were diverted to a committee where legislation can languish indefinitely.