Ald. Maria Hadden (49) speaks about the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance during a news conference in January 2024. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

Alderpeople will have a chance Wednesday to ask questions about a proposal to essentially require building electrification in new construction and effectively ban most forms of natural gas in new developments. 

The City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy will hold a subject matter hearing on the Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO), a proposal that would set new indoor emissions standards for new buildings and additions to prohibit the use of natural gas heating systems and natural gas-powered appliances. 

The environment committee is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. in council chambers at City Hall.

The mayor announced his pick to replace his retired chief of staff, and the city opened applications to buy hundreds of lots for housing and other community amenities.

The Chicago Police Department emblem is pictured in this file photo.

Both members and non-members of the City Council Committee on Police and Fire expressed support for the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology during discussion on a measure that seeks to allow individual wards to keep the technology ahead of an upcoming citywide contract termination.  

But alderpersons also said more data should be shared by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to give a better picture of the overall success of the program — data which the order would also promulgate.  

Additionally on Monday, the committee voted to raise the mandatory retirement age for police officers, sending the final decision to the City Council.

A progressive alderperson survived a challenge to his committee leadership role, and the mayor announced the city’s first chief homelessness officer.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro chairs the Committee on Police and Fire. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Police and Fire will meet Monday morning and consider an ordinance to raise the mandatory retirement age for police officers and an ordinance that would allow individual wards to decide whether they would like to remove ShotSpotter technology from their specific wards instead of citywide.

The police and fire committee will meet at 10 a.m. in council chambers.

Eileen O'Neill Burke files her candidacy for Cook County State's Attorney in December 2023. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

After ten days of vote tabulation, former Illinois Appellate Court Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke declared victory in the Democratic primary for Cook County State’s Attorney late Friday afternoon with a razor-thin margin over her opponent, former prosecutor and University of Chicago lecturer Clayton Harris III, who conceded after the Associated Press called the race.

She will face former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski this November. She is favored to win in the county that typically sides with Democrats.

Ward committeepeople are elected to unpaid positions to work on behalf of a local political party in their respective wards. Committeepeople help recruit potential candidates for office, organize voting efforts in their wards during elections, help fundraise for the party, vote to appoint officials to vacant elected positions and help decide which candidates the local party will endorse each election cycle.

In Chicago, 50 Democratic and Republican ward committeeperson seats were up for election March 19. Here are the results so far. An (I) will signify an incumbent candidate in a contest. Winners of each race will be listed in bold text accompanied by the percent of the overall vote they earned.

City Hall is pictured in this file photo.

Alderpeople on the City Council’s immigration committee approved an ordinance Thursday that compels the city’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to publish regular tallies of migrant evictions from the city’s temporary shelters under the 60-day shelter stay policy.

A group of elected officials are asking the governor to donate a state-owned site to house a new police district, and the mayor waded into the current controversy surrounding Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez's (25) presence at a left-wing rally where a U.S. flag was burned.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) attends a council meeting in November 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Fifteen alderpeople are calling for Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) to lose his position as chair of the housing committee as a consequence of speaking at a pro-Palestine protest last week where a protester burned an American flag.

The alderpeople have called for a special City Council meeting on April 1 to vote on a resolution to amend the City Council Rules of Order and Procedure to rescind his chairpersonship if the 25th Ward alderperson doesn't resign first.

Bring Chicago Home Advocates gather in front of the Illinois Appellate Court in March 2024. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

Following the defeat of the Bring Chicago Home referendum, which would have allowed the City Council to retool the real estate transfer tax structure, the City Council Progressive Caucus said they understood and heard the message voters sent through their votes and will commit to improving trust in city government.

The ballot question, which would have raised the transfer tax on property sales above $1 million and decreased it on sales lower than $1 million, was defeated last week with 52 percent voting against the proposal.

As the Democratic Party primary for Cook County State’s Attorney comes down to the wire, a recount appears possible. The City Council’s immigration committee will consider legislation to make data on migrant shelter evictions public, and Chicago Park District workers authorized a strike amid contract negotiations.

Mayor Brandon Johnson holds a news conference on the 60-day migrant shelter stay limit policy in January. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Five Chicago Park District facilities currently serving as temporary shelters for migrants will be closed and returned to their intended use beginning March 30, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Monday.

The Committee on Finance holds a hearing on March 22, 2024. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

Alderpeople got their first chance to ask questions about a proposal for the city to issue $1.25 billion in general obligation and Sales Tax Securitization Corporation bonds and use the proceeds to fund myriad investments in housing, cultural and economic growth citywide, but in a way that addresses historic disinvestment.

The county assessor released the first data from the reassessment of Chicago properties on Friday, and the City Council’s public safety committee chairperson is calling for city laws to crack down on the sale of unregulated Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products.