Jitu Brown of the education advocacy group Journey4Justice is set to testify at a City Council committee hearing on violence prevention on Tuesday [Facebook/Journey 4 Justice]

Aldermen are scheduled Tuesday to quiz city officials and nonprofit leaders on how Chicago can head off an anticipated surge in gun violence this summer without leaning on its traditional law enforcement playbook.

The City Council Committee on Public Safety and Committee on Health and Human Relations will convene at 1 p.m. for a subject matter hearing to mull strategies for tamping down gun violence, which has surged amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The city saw about a 34 percent spike in homicides between January and March this year compared to the same period one year earlier, making it the city’s deadliest year so far since 2017.

Janice Jackson will step down as the city’s schools chief on June 30. Scott Olson / Getty Images

Janice Jackson, whose three-and-a-half year tenure was marked by record high graduation rates, a pandemic, and a tumultuous teachers strike, will step down as head of the nation’s third largest school district when her contract expires in June.

Jackson, who frequently called the CEO of Chicago Public Schools role her “dream job,” confirmed the news Monday in a letter to staff. She said she chose not to renew her contract after a challenging year full of issues that required round-the-clock attention and took her energy away from her school-age children.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said ComEd and its competitors “have to step up their game” if they want exclusive rights to power the city’s electric grid. [Facebook/ComEd]

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is opening the door to dumping Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) as the city’s sole electric utility provider, cranking up the pressure on the mega-firm to meet a host of the city’s environmental and equity demands.

The city’s Department of Assets, Information and Services issued a Request for Information on Friday to solicit “ideas and expressions of interest” from suitors looking to replace ComEd, whose 30-year franchise agreement with the city expired at the end of last year. “The City is currently evaluating whether to enter into a new franchise with the incumbent or to explore awarding a franchise to new franchisee(s)” with the City Council’s approval, according to the document.

City health officials will update aldermen on city’s pandemic response as COVID-19 case numbers decline. Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined other Great Lakes mayors in calling for federal dollars to help replace lead water pipes. And Senate President Don Harmon weighed in on elected school board negotiations.

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) during a February 2020 City Council meeting [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11) vowed to defend himself against a federal indictment entered on Thursday, blaming “inadvertent tax preparation errors” after prosecutors said he repeatedly and knowingly lied to federal tax collectors and banking regulators.

The 10-page indictment, published late Thursday afternoon by U.S. Attorney John Lausch, alleges that Thompson lied twice in 2018 to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) by understating the outstanding loans he had taken out from the now-insolvent Washington Federal Bank for Savings. Prosecutors additionally allege the alderman, who is also a practicing attorney, knowingly undershot his income on every annual tax return he filed between 2014 and 2018.

Ald. Howard Brookins and Ald. David Moore during Thursday’s transportation committee meeting.

A proposal to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable advanced to the City Council floor with unanimous support Thursday after a tumultuous meeting packed with heated discussions, confusion over legal language and one alderman’s extended showcase of a State Farm road atlas. 

Members of the City Council Committee on Transportation and Public Way met for more than two hours Thursday to consider the proposal (SO2019-7918) that had stalled for 18 months after Ald. David Moore (17) introduced it.

Chicago health officials released more details of a city reopening plan. The Civilian Office of Police Accountability wraps its investigation of the Anjanette Young police raid. And Cook County Health officials detail plans to get food service workers vaccinated.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez

Five months into the job, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Martinez has fallen short on some key initiatives to make the sprawling record-keeping office more efficient and transparent, according to a report published by a coalition of watchdog groups on Wednesday.

Ald. David Moore speaks during a December meeting on renaming Lake Shore Drive.

After months of listening to advocates urge the change, aldermen on Thursday will consider renaming the outer portion of Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, the city’s first non-Indigenous permanent resident.

The City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Public Way is set during its 1 p.m. meeting to take up the ordinance (SO2019-7918), which is sponsored by Ald. David Moore (17) and backed by groups including the Black Heroes Matter coalition.

Chicago Department of Public Health officials announced on Tuesday a $9.6 million Request for Proposals for a “vaccine engagement program” among other ways the city plans to drum up interest in COVID-19 vaccines.

Chicago public health Comm. Allison Arwady announced the request for proposals during a news conference on Tuesday among other plans on tap to offer vaccinations at new locations this summer, including at block parties and festivals. The city is also working to partner with barbershops and salons to offer incentives for getting the shots.

A bollard-protected bike lane on Washington Street downtown [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Chicago transportation officials are hailing the first stages of their five-year, $3.7 billion infrastructure plan as a boon to the city’s long-spun efforts to build out pathways for people who don’t drive.

“These investments prioritize making it easier to get around the city as sustainably and affordably as possible,” transportation department Comm. Gia Biagi said during Monday’s news conference kicking off the “Chicago Works” plan.

Chicago Department of Transportation Comm. Gia Biagi speaks during a news conference announcing the “Chicago Works” capital plan on Monday.

Chicago will nearly double its typical roster of street makeovers and spend hundreds of millions in additional dollars on bridge replacements, building renovations and technology upgrades by the end of next year, city leaders announced Monday.

Flanked by a handful of key aldermen and agency heads, Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a news conference to detail the first steps of “Chicago Works,” the five-year infrastructure program getting underway this spring. Funded by General Obligation bonds issued by the city last year, the $3.7 billion program aims to catch the city up on decades’ worth of deferred maintenance on streets and other city-owned assets.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot made donations to some aldermanic campaign funds in the first three months of 2021.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s political action committee brought in more than $245,000 in campaign donations during the first three months of 2021 and contributed donations of at least $250 each to five aldermen.

State board of election filings show Light PAC made $250 donations to Ald. Pat Dowell (3) on March 4, Ald. Michele Smith (43) on Feb. 10, Ald. Samantha Nugent (39) on Feb. 18, Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10) on Feb. 18. The committee also made two donations of $250 each to Ald. David Moore (17) on Jan. 19 and Feb. 8. The donations all marked tickets that Lightfoot's organization had purchased to aldermen's fundraising events, Dave Mellet, political spokesperson for Lightfoot told The Daily Line Monday.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) speaking during an April 21 rally for the Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance

Passing the Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance through City Council without support of the mayor would mark an “extremely rare” event, but advocates for civilian oversight of the police department say the city “can’t wait any longer,” they said on The Daily Line’s Cloutcast.

Coalitions previously behind the competing proposals for Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) earlier this year introduced their compromise Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, which sponsors said will be filed as a substitute of the GAPA ordinance (SO2019-4132), and are urging Mayor Lori Lightfoot and aldermen to pass the measure.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt is opposed a bill backed by her fellow commissioners Larry Rogers and Michael Cabonargi.

Members of the Cook County Board of Review are divided over a proposed state House bill that would bar candidates from running for the elected tax office unless they’re licensed to practice law in Illinois.

The two senior members of the three-member board are promoting the bill as a way to ensure its leaders are held to a higher professional standard in their work reviewing thousands of tax assessment appeals each year. But the newest member of the group has joined the ranks of critics who call the bill a ploy to thin the political field before all three commissioners run for reelection next year.