Chicago News
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NOV 02, 2021
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that the Fraternal Order of Police is not “serious about getting a deal done” to get their members vaccinated.
A Cook County judge hit pause Monday on a requirement for Chicago’s police officers and supervisors to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, staking a partial but powerful legal victory for the Fraternal Order of Police in its challenge of the city’s vaccination rules.
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NOV 02, 2021
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Bike advocates talked about bike lanes and bike share programs on The Daily Line’s CloutCast podcast. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
Chicago workers are pushing toward the city’s goal to add or improve 100 miles of bike lanes between this year and 2022, but some transportation advocates are warning not all bike lanes are created equal and that improving bike safety is critical to getting more people to try travel on two wheels.
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NOV 01, 2021
Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26) was one of 25 aldermen who spoke up on the city’s vaccination rules during a special City Council meeting on Friday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
The City Council voted overwhelmingly on Friday to reject an insurgent push to revoke Chicago’s vaccination mandate and tighten the council’s control of city human resources policy after more than two hours of impassioned debate over the measure’s legal, practical and moral implications.
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OCT 29, 2021
Cook County Forest Preserve District Supt. Arnold Randall speaks during a Forest Preserve District board meeting on Oct. 5
The $136.6 million proposed budget for the Cook County Forest Preserve District will allow county officials to rebuild forest trails, repair picnic shelters and restore thousands of acres of natural habitat. But financial storm clouds will keep gathering on the district’s horizon while leaders wait to hear if voters throw it a financial lifeline next year, district Supt. Arnold Randall told county commissioners on Thursday.
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OCT 29, 2021
Dozens of people gathered outside City Hall on Monday to rally against the vaccine mandate for city workers. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]
The City Council is set to meet Friday for a special meeting at the behest of aldermen leading the effort to repeal Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccination mandate for city employees.
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OCT 29, 2021
Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki and Toni Preckwinkle chief of staff Lanetta Haynes Turner speak during a county budget hearing on Thursday.
Cook County leaders are leaning on an “executive leadership council” made up of department heads and consultants to iron out the details of how the county will spend its $1 billion windfall from the American Rescue Plan. But the ideas won’t be presented for public approvals until December — and even then, only “near-term initiatives” will be ready for consideration, county finance officials told commissioners Thursday.
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OCT 27, 2021
Cook County Comm. Brandon Johnson (D-1) questions Sheriff Tom Dart during a budget hearing on Wednesday
Police districts are stretched thin across Cook County, and the county Sheriff’s office is straining to keep them covered, Sheriff Tom Dart told county commissioners during an hours-long budget hearing on Wednesday.
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OCT 27, 2021
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 spending plan was approved on Wednesday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
Aldermen approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion so-called “recovery budget” for 2022 with plenty of votes to spare, as many aldermen touted the spending plan as a “progressive” use of the federal stimulus money that sets standards on how the city should allocate dollars in the future.
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OCT 27, 2021
County leaders are hoping the 2022 budget for the Cook County Forest Preserve District is the last annual appropriation before voters approve a tax hike to shore up the district’s finances. [Facebook/Cook County Forest Preserve District]
Cook County commissioners will get a long-awaited chance on Thursday to grill county finance officials on their still-developing plans to spend the $1 billion on tap from the American Rescue Plan as the county’s annual budget hearings wrap up on Thursday.
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OCT 26, 2021
Clockwise from top left: Cook County Health CEO Israel Rocha, Comm. Donna Miller (D-6), Cook County Health Chief Strategy Officer Andrea Gibson and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Shannon Andrews speak during a virtual budget hearing on Tuesday.
The Cook County Health system is set to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic on solid financial footing and will even grow its offerings after years of cutbacks and financial uncertainty, officials told county commissioners during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt aired objections to the board’s proposed budget during a Tuesday hearing.
Nearly a year of internal tensions at the Cook County Board of Review exploded into the open during a contentious budget hearing on Tuesday as accusations of nepotism and secrecy flew between the tax board’s elected commissioners, drawing a rebuke from the county leaders charged with voting to approve their budget.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office is set to be allocated 179 new full-time employee positions next year, mostly accounting for new court bailiffs.
Leaders of Cook County’s two largest court offices will be on the hook Wednesday to explain how they plan to use new funding and extra employee positions to guide the county’s justice system into a post-pandemic era, all with lower staffing allocations than either agency had in 2020.
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OCT 26, 2021
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 budget proposal is set for a final vote Wednesday.
The City Council is set Wednesday to take its final vote on a freshly amended version of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed 2022 budget, potentially setting next year’s spending plan one month ahead of the city’s normal schedule.
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OCT 26, 2021
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Aldermen attend Monday’s City Council meeting at City Hall.
Aldermen seized on a relatively short City Council meeting on Monday to banish their colleagues’ vaccine mandate-related proposals to the rules committee, delaying votes on the contentious proposals.
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OCT 26, 2021
Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki [left] answered questions from Comm. John Daley (D-11) and others during budget hearings on Monday.
Cook County commissioners signaled plans on Monday to give a thorough vetting to the nearly 1,600 new positions that county board President Toni Preckwinkle is proposing to add to the county’s payroll next year — especially as the county leaders look to fill an untold backlog of vacant positions already on the books.
