Chicago Budget Director Annette Guzman speaks at a press conference at City Hall on April 1, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The city launched new debt relief initiatives Tuesday that will allow many vehicle owners and businesses to pay off ticket debt without having to worry about late fees or other penalties.

Ald. Maria Hadden (49) asks Environment Comm. Angela Tovar questions at a budget hearing on Dec. 3, 2024. [Livestream]

The City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy will meet Wednesday to hold a hearing on environmental regulation enforcement and to set up a future hearing on single-use plastics.

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

Cook County Comm. Anthony Quezada (D-8) is pictured at a press conference in May 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

More than a week after applications closed to fill the forthcoming 35th Ward vacancy on the City Council, the city disclosed the names of six people that applied to fill the seat but said only two applications were valid. 

A selection committee will either recommend Cook County Comm. Anthony Quezada (D-8) or Daniel Tobon, CEO of iVIK Holdings Ltd. and a U.S. Army veteran, fill the seat.

Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Olusimbo "Simbo" Ige speaks at a press conference on Jan. 29, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) learned last week that the federal government had cut $125 million in COVID-19 pandemic-era grants, imperiling infectious disease prevention work by the city’s public health department.

Renderings for the rooftop of the 79 W. Monroe St. project are pictured. [Provided]

Mayor Brandon Johnson and city officials on Thursday celebrated the groundbreaking for the city’s first conversion of office space to residential units under an initiative to reuse vacant commercial space downtown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayor also used the opportunity to announce a new all-encompassing economic development strategy.

Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry speaks at a news conference flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson on Oct. 9, 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A government watchdog group said current state law doesn’t prevent the passage of reforms to the city’s law department that are the subject of current negotiations between the chair of the Committee on Ethics and Government Oversight and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. But the city’s law department has argued that the law is already on its side when it comes to existing practices.

Mayor Brandon Johnson holds a press conference on March 18, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

As Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration awaits a $175 million pension payment to cover the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) employees in the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF), a group of City Council members issued a letter this week calling for the mayor and his finance team to work with the council on a solution as the end-of-month deadline approaches.

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas attends 2024 budget hearings in October 2023. [Livestream]

The Cook County Treasurer’s Office has unveiled new data showing how wealthy, white homeowners tend to end up with a disproportionate say over property tax ballot measures each election.

“Rising property taxes always anger property owners,” County Treasurer Maria Pappas said in a news release. “Despite that, most don’t vote in referendums that determine whether their taxes go up or down.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) and IPI Chicago Policy Center Executive Director Austin Berg are pictured at the Chicago Charter Symposium on Monday, March 24, 2025. [Jess Plowman/Chicago Policy Center]

Civics nerds, good government advocates and some members of City Council attended a symposium at Northwestern University School of Law Monday morning to hear about the push for Chicago to establish its own charter, an endeavor that bills itself as at least part of the solution to some of city government’s recurring issues, such as dysfunction and corruption.

The symposium was organized by the Illinois Policy Institute’s Chicago Policy Center.

The former Abbey Pub location at 3420 W. Grace St. is pictured in application materials submitted by Stadium Sports Inc. [Zoning Board of Appeals website]

The Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) on Friday approved measures to accommodate a live music venue in Irving Park, an affordable housing development in Woodlawn, a hair salon in Logan Square, a residential development in Lake View and a new seafood restaurant in Back of the Yards.

Mayor Brandon Johnson holds a press conference on March 18, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The Chicago Board of Education on Thursday did not vote on a budget amendment that could have provided some of the funding necessary to pay Chicago a $175 million pension fund payment for non-teacher Chicago Public Schools (CPS) employees, nor did it vote on an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) amendment to finalize the payment to the city.

Exterior renderings for the mixed-use development Sterling Bay plans to build at 350 N. Morgan St. are shown. [Chicago Department of Planning and Development presentation]

The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved rezonings and planned development amendments to accommodate mixed-use developments in the Loop, Fulton Market and Edgewater.

Ald. Julia Ramirez (12), vice chair of the health and human relations committee, top right, addresses the committee about her resolution on anti-hate trainings on March 19, 2025. [Livestream]

The City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations on Wednesday approved appointments to the Chicago Board of Health and a measure to prohibit discrimination based on someone’s actual or perceived association with a person from a protected class.

Mayor Brandon Johnson holds a media availability on the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund contribution from CPS on March 18, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The city’s finance team is recommending that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) engage in short-term borrowing to cover its required contribution to the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF), the pension fund that mostly includes CPS non-teacher employees.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and the leaders of his finance and budget offices participated in a press conference Tuesday to lay out the case for how the school district should come up with the funds to cover the payment and other labor-related costs facing CPS.

Health and Human Relations Committee Chair Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33) is pictured at a City Council meeting on Feb. 26, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations on Wednesday will consider appointments to the Chicago Board of Health and a measure to prohibit discrimination based on someone’s actual or perceived association with a person from a protected class.

The health and human relations committee, which will meet at 10:30 a.m. in council chambers, will also hold subject matter hearings on hate and discrimination in Chicago and on the federal detention of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.