Chicago News
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JAN 30, 2019
With potentially record-breaking cold enveloping the city, some county offices and the courts will close — but others will be open, officials announced. The the deputy CEO for finance and strategy at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System announced his retirement, and the city clerk is looking for some feedback on fines and fees.
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Arrestees at Illinois jails would be afforded three phone calls within an hour of being detained, if a push from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Public Defender Amy Campanelli and First Defense Legal Aid is successful.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said she's backing a new state law to ensure the rights of. arrestees are protected. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]
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The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners — responsible for next month’s municipal elections — “cannot assure the public that it would be able to maintain election operations in the event of an attack or disaster,” according to an audit by Inspector General Joe Ferguson.
Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners employees assist a voter Tuesday at the Loop Super Site. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
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Early voting finally started Tuesday after being delayed by numerous ballot challenges — but then was frozen in place by the Polar Vortex. Meanwhile, requests to vote by mail surged, and the mayor’s biggest contributor backed several aldermen running for re-election.
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez answers reporters questions. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
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JAN 29, 2019
UNLOCKEDAld. Danny Solis (25) resigned Tuesday evening as chairman of the City Council's Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and building standards, less than 12 hours after the the Sun-Times reported he received sex acts at massage parlors, the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra and campaign contributions in exchange for ushering deals through City Council.
Ald. Danny Solis (25). [Darryl Holliday/DNAinfo Chicago]
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement that Solis "made the right decision" by resigning.
“Alderman Danny Solis has recognized that he cannot effectively preside over the matters before the Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards, and he has communicated with my office his intent to resign as chairman," Emanuel said. "I commend him for making the right decision for the City Council and the City of Chicago.”
Solis will be replaced by the committee's vice chairman, Ald. James Cappleman (46) under the City Council's rules of procedures.
It will be up to Cappleman to shepherd the mega-projects fueled by $1.6 billion in subsidies through the City Council during Emanuel's final weeks in office.
Solis is the second close ally of Emanuel's to be forced from a powerful perch by the spiraling investigation that has upended politics as usual at City Hall. The Sun-Times reported that Solis wore a wire as part of the investigation into Ald. Ed Burke (14), who was forced to step down as chairman of the Finance Committee after being charged with attempted extortion. Burke maintains his innocence.
Solis, who is not running for re-election, has not been charged with wrongdoing.
Two of the candidates running to replace Solis — Hilario Dominquez and Alex Acevedo — reiterated their calls Tuesday for the alderman to step down, although window for Emanuel to appoint a replacement before Solis' replacement is elected is closing quickly.
At a City Hall news conference, mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot called for Emanuel to issue an executive order to rein in aldermanic prerogative, as she called for in her platform, and audit zoning decisions going back to 2014.
Rival Paul Vallas also headed to City Hall — brandishing another broom — to blast opponents’ past ties with Solis and Burke.
"I think I’m going to need a bigger one to clean up City Hall,” Vallas said, who has an ethics plan. "This is a new low."
Mayoral candidate Amara Enyia, who released a good governance plan several weeks ago, noted her lack of ties to Burke or Solis.
"This is just the tip of an iceberg that could entangle more public officials who've been part of the political machine for years," Enyia said.
“I think I’m going to need a bigger one to clean up City Hall,” Paul Vallas said “This is a new low.” [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line] -
City officials are on the cusp of approving $1.6 billion in city subsidies to fuel two massive developments that will transform Chicago’s landscape with 16,000 new apartments and condominiums — but barely put a dent in Chicago’s affordable housing shortfall or reduce the economic or racial segregation plaguing the city.
A rendering of the proposed Lincoln Yards development. [Sterling Bay]
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JAN 29, 2019
With early voting — finally — starting in Chicago’s elections, the race for 13th Ward alderman ended up in federal court Monday, with challenger David Krupa alleging that Ald. Marty Quinn and House Speaker Michael Madigan broke the law in working to keep him off the ballot. In the mayoral race, rivals Toni Preckwinkle and Susana Mendoza traded barbs over ethics. Meanwhile, Gery Chico made a play for the votes of snow-weary Chicagoans.
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Donors to the best-funded Chicago mayoral candidates are hyper-concentrated in the Loop and its surrounding neighborhoods, along the Lakefront, on the city's North and Northwest Side and around Hyde Park and Kenwood, according to an analysis by The Daily Line.
Big bucks are also flowing into Chicago’s mayor’s race from donors clustered around New York, Washington D.C., Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles, the analysis shows.
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The fallout over the news that Ald. Danny Solis (25) wore a wire as part of the investigation into Ald. Ed Burke (14) continued Thursday, as mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza donated $141,500 to a group of African American Marines hoping to pay off tax debt and keep their chapter hall.
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While Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said his office has decommissioned the regional gang database his office maintained, freshman Cook County Board Comm. Alma Anaya (D-7) and activists called Thursday for more information about its dismantling and an accounting of its impact on those listed.
Comm. Alma Anaya (D-7)said she still wants to hold public hearings on the county's gang database. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]
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The Plan Commission endorsed the massive Lincoln Yards development Thursday over the vehement objections of neighbors as well as Ald. Scott Waguespack (32) and Ald. Michele Smith (43) — who likened the development poised to transform the North Side to the much-loathed parking meter deal.
A rendering of the proposed Lincoln Yards. [Department of Planning and Development]
