Chicago News
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Commissioners will likely hold a much speedier series of meetings Wednesday than they did Tuesday – their committee action includes routine appointments, settlements, tax breaks, and potential new sexual harassment training mandates for contractors who do business with the county.
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The Chicago Teachers Union called Tuesday for an independent task force to launch an investigation of the burgeoning sex abuse scandal swirling around the Chicago Public Schools. A rematch is set for the 39th Ward aldermanic race, and city, state and federal officials announced a massive federal grant would be used to speed rail traffic through the South Side.
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JUN 05, 2018
Another candidate joined the already crowded race to replace Ald. Ameya Pawar (47) and mayoral candidates Willie Wilson and Dorothy Brown reported significant donations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that six new federal prosecutors are on their way to Chicago — four to focus on violent crime.
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Cook County government watchers are in for two long hearings. One focuses on billing practices at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, which the county’s inspector general alleged cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in past years. The other is on whether to allow video gambling in unincorporated Cook County – an expansion Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle described as reprehensible, but one off which the county should profit.
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The odds that the only Chicago Republican to serve in the General Assembly will keep his seat grew exponentially stronger after his Democratic opponent abruptly dropped out of the race. Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he would give $150,000 to groups working in North and South Lawndale, and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas announced his first big wave of donations. In other action, City Clerk Anna Valencia made her bid for a full term as clerk official.
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Ripple effects caused by the closure six years ago of half of the city’s mental health clinics can still be felt on the city Southwest Side, a coalition of neighborhood organizations said during a City Hall news conference Thursday.
Ald. Toni Foulkes (16) said she regretted her vote to close six mental health clinics. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line] -
Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued to raise campaign cash at a blistering pace — even as two national magazines spotlighted two of his challengers. The man whom Emanuel defeated to win another term as mayor is set to appear Thursday with U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi — marking Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s ascension to the heights of national Democratic politics.
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Two months after winning the democratic primary to take over the Cook County Assessor’s Office, Fritz Kaegi sits at a plastic folding table at his campaign headquarters.
The 10th floor office’s rooms in the shadow of the Chicago Board of Exchange were once covered in stacks of challenger Andrea Raila’s petition papers. Now the office is nearly empty. Kaegi’s team is moving out of campaign mode and into transition mode. While his message of ethics and reform is much the same, the tone has changed.
In one of the most in-depth interviews he’s given since that win, Hyde Park native and wealthy Oak Park resident Kaegi refers multiple times to outgoing Assessor Joe Berrios’ graciousness despite his loss. He gives President Toni Preckwinkle’s steadfast support of Berrios during the campaign wide berth. He is optimistic about his ability to shift both the practices and the perception of the assessor’s office, even as Lake View and Rogers Park township homeowners express sticker shock, with more likely to come. -
Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday unveiled what is sure to be a major plank of the platform he hopes will win him a third term — free preschool for all 4-year-olds in Chicago. At the same time, a political action committee linked to the Chicago Teachers Union dropped the first independent expenditure in the mayoral campaign to oppose Emanuel’s re-election. Activists from the Southwest Side planned to gather at City Hall Thursday to call for more mental health services in Hispanic communities.
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The battle over city rules dictating where food trucks can dish out their savory and sweet dishes — and for how long — is headed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Cupcakes for Courage food truck owner Laura Pekarik sued the city over a 2012 ordinance. [Institute for Justice] -
