Chicago News

  • Ald. Leslie Hairston (5) tells reporters she was "insulted" by a provision of the mayor's proposal. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
    Aldermen advanced the first round of funding on Thursday for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative, the centerpiece of her efforts to reverse decades of disinvestment on Chicago’s South and West sides.

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  • The candidates for Cook County Circuit Court Clerk debate. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
    Former Cook County Comm. Richard Boykin turned heads in January when he promised during a candidate forum that, if he were elected as the next clerk of the county’s courts, he would forgive millions of dollars in debt owed to the county’s court system.

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  • Ald. George Cardenas (12) blasted People's Gas for hiking residents' bills. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
    Aldermen laid into leaders of Peoples Gas on Thursday for racking up costs on its pipe replacement program and sticking customers with the bill.

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  • Aldermen are scheduled to consider a non-binding resolution Friday that calls for the creation of a commission to study how to compensate the descendants of enslaved Americans.

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  • The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has logged 90,020 applications for mail-in ballots, Chair Marisel Hernandez told reporters. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line] 
    Voting by mail is a good way for voters to limit potential exposure to Coronavirus, or COVID-19. But voting early in person is better, election officials said Wednesday.

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  • Aldermen are set to turn up the heat on Peoples Gas Thursday over high natural gas prices at a hearing designed to pressure lawmakers to rein in the utility’s pipe replacement program.

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  • The familiar clip-clop of hooves echoing along Downtown streets may soon become a thing of the past, as the Chicago City Council is one step away from banning horse-drawn carriages.

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  • Aldermen will weigh four appointments that could jumpstart the city’s $100 million Catalyst investment fund, which has yet to make a single investment in the more than three years since it was approved by the Chicago City Council.

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  • Ald. Greg Mitchell (7).


    Aldermen reluctantly approved on Tuesday a tax break to renovate the former City Colleges of Chicago headquarters, blasting the lack of information about how many Black- and Latino-owned firms will be part of the $137 million project.

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  • Legislation that would put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department stalled Tuesday amid a dispute between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her hand-picked Public Safety Committee chair over how policy should be set for the police department.

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  • A carriage from the now-shuttered Noble Horse stables rumbles down Wells Street in 2011. [Flickr/David B. Gleason]
    Animal rights activists will try again Wednesday to convince aldermen to ban horse-drawn carriages, 18 months after they fell short in their years-long push to outlaw the popular tourist attraction.

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  • Ald. Anthony Beale (9). [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
    A plan to build a massive distribution center for Amazon in Pullman cleared a key city panel on Monday, Ald. Anthony Beale (9) said.

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  • A four-year effort to complete the reforms prompted by the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald could end Tuesday with a vote by the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety to give an elected board of Chicago residents oversight of the Chicago Police Department.

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  • article-image
    Mayor Lori Lightfoot in her City Hall office. [Madison Hopkins/BGA]

    Nearly 30 years ago, Chicago’s mayor and Commonwealth Edison squared off in a high-stakes battle over how the public utility would operate the city’s power grid.

    Then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was under intense pressure to extract concessions from the company, including assistance for the poor and elderly and assurances Chicago wouldn’t suffer major power outages. To try to get his way, the administration even publicly debated the city taking over the utility’s infrastructure.

  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot endorses former Vice President Joe Biden for president as his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, looks on. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
    Former Vice President Joe Biden is the best Democratic candidate to take on President Donald Trump and defend Chicago residents, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday, spurning Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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