A rendering of the 36-story apartment tower proposed for 301 S. Green St. in the 27th Ward [

A 36-story apartment tower is the largest of more than a dozen new planned development applications introduced to the City Council last month, promising to toss more than 350 new homes into the West Loop’s gushing development pipeline.

The proposal by Golub & Company is one of five new developments proposed to the council last month that would combine for more than 600 units, joining plans for a more than 427,000-square-foot data center in Bronzeville, a 120,000-square-foot medical building in Kenwood, a brewery in Back of the Yards and a cannabis dispensary in the South Loop.

Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights speaks during a Cook County Board of Commissioners Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.

A decade-old firewall designed to prevent the U.S. Office of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from getting ahold of Cook County data hasn’t stopped the federal agency from trying anyway, and county officials are straining to reinforce confidence that some data won’t slip through the cracks.

In Fiscal Year 2020, ICE issued more than 1,000 detainer requests to Cook County, which Cook County law enforcement agencies rejected due to the county’s sanctuary policies. The Cook County Board of Commissioners’ Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee met for a hearing Wednesday to investigate whether ICE is bypassing the county’s sanctuary protections through the use of data brokers.

A speed camera warning on Archer Avenue. [Casey Cora/DNAinfo]

The same day City Council shot down Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9) proposal to raise the speeding threshold for drivers to be issued tickets by speed cameras, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) introduced a proposal to lobby Springfield to allow Chicago to put the speed camera revenue toward pension payments.

Reilly’s proposal came amid a flurry of newly introduced legislation before the City Council’s August break. Other proposed measures would create a program to publicly fund elections, establish a pilot program that would allow robots to deliver food and to examine a potential tax on vacant properties. A package of proposed measures aimed at improving police officer mental health was also introduced during the July council meeting.

Related: Aldermen introduce legislation to improve police officer mental health, examine possible tax on vacant properties

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison speaks during a news conference in Fulton Market Tuesday. [City of Chicago/Facebook] 

The Democratic Party is looking for a 2024 convention host that will positively “showcase” the party’s values and diversity, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said during his visit to Chicago Tuesday. He also emphasized the role of convention logistics and downplayed the importance of a swing-state locale, both signs pointing to Chicago’s status as a serious contender to host the event.

Cook County Budget Director Annette Guzman speaks during a preliminary budget hearing with the county Board of Commissioners Finance Committee on July 18.

Nearly 15 percent of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s labor force has quit in the past year. More than one-quarter of positions at Stroger Hospital remain unfilled as nursing shortages stretch the limits of patient care. The county’s finance bureau needs to hire dozens of people to help get hundreds of millions of federally sourced dollars into the right hands. And Cook County Board of Review staffers are working mandatory evenings and weekends, prompting fears that the veteran appeals officers who haven’t already quit are being pushed to their breaking point as they try to make up time from late tax assessments.

On its face, the $263 million year-end budget surplus Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declared last month would portend an easy upcoming budget season, a sharp turnaround from the painful cuts forced by pandemic-driven revenue shortfalls just two years ago. But the extra money also exposes a major dilemma for the county: system-wide staff shortages that threaten some of the county’s most basic functions.

Related: Cook County boasts $263M year-end surplus, $18M preliminary gap as budgetmakers brace for recession

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) speaks during a news conference last week. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

Last week marked one year since the City Council approved an ordinance creating a civilian commission empowered to oversee the Chicago Police Department. But the city has blown past multiple deadlines laid out in the ordinance, and members of the commission have yet to be confirmed.

A group of police reform advocates and aldermen held a news conference Wednesday morning urging Mayor Lori Lightfoot to choose the seven people she wants to serve on the commission from a list of 14 aldermen handed to her in May. But Lightfoot said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that her office is still reviewing the candidates, as the City Council’s selection process didn’t represent a “full vet” of the applicants.

Architect Jerry Walleck shows plans during a Chicago Plan Commission hearing for the 23-story senior apartment building planned at 4030 N. Marine Dr.

One day after the City Council green-lit an initiative to spur denser housing construction near public transit lines, city planning officials pushed forward a massive North Side development they called a model of the plan’s principles — including for how to get hundreds of new apartments with relatively few parking spots past neighboring homeowners who would typically be opposed.

Ald. Michele Smith (43) speaks at a March 2022 City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith (43) will retire from the City Council next month, capping her City Council career at 11 years and giving Mayor Lori Lightfoot her third opportunity this year to appoint a new alderman, she announced on Thursday.

The sudden announcement, citing a desire to spend more time with family and friends, comes one day after Smith scored a major legislative victory with the City Council’s passage of an ethics reform ordinance she championed.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) speaks at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

After circling in legislative purgatory for 16 months, a proposal to roll back a controversial 2021 crackdown on speeding finally earned a final verdict from the City Council on Wednesday. Aldermen rejected the push, siding with Mayor Lori Lightfoot as they called to accelerate the city’s efforts to tamp down on accelerating traffic deaths.

During its last meeting before the August recess, the City Council also voted to approve dozens of other measures, including a bid to crack down on drag racing, an update to the city’s ethics rules and Lightfoot’s “equitable transit-oriented development” ordinance to boost housing density near public transit.

Ald. Silvana Tabares (23) speaks during a news conference Wednesday morning. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Aldermen on Wednesday sent to the City Council’s rules committee nearly half of the proposals their colleagues introduced as a package billed as a strategy to bolster police officers’ mental health and head off other challenges officers face.

Prior to Wednesday’s City Council meeting, a group of aldermen led by Ald. Silvana Tabares (23), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15), Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41) and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19) held a news conference announcing the legislative package with proposals that range from a hearing on officer mental health to eliminating the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of police misconduct.

A rendering of the two-building “Thrive Englewood” apartment complex being proposed by DL3 Realty for 914 W. 63rd St. [Department of Planning and Development]

The latest proposal to build up a high-profile intersection in Englewood and a plan for a new 22-story senior housing building in Uptown are the largest of a half-dozen proposals up for consideration by the Chicago Plan Commission during its regular meeting on Thursday.

Juan Sebastian Arias, deputy policy director for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, presents details on the “Connected Communities Ordinance” to the City Council on Tuesday.

A years-in-the-making policy push to lay the groundwork for denser housing construction near the city’s transit nodes cleared a key committee hurdle after a marathon meeting on Tuesday, setting it up for final passage by the City Council during its meeting on Wednesday.

A handful of aldermen lit into the sweeping 38-page ordinance as an attack on aldermanic power and private property rights, and more were skeptical that the rule changes would accomplish their goals without added funding to back it. But the proposal ultimately cleared the committee in a lopsided 15-4 vote, portending easy passage in the City Council barring parliamentary roadblocks that could still slow it down.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot during the June City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

A more than year-long push to ease back the city’s ticketing policy for drivers who speed near some schools and parks is scheduled to come to a head during Wednesday’s 10 a.m. City Council meeting as Mayor Lori Lightfoot has already signaled she would veto the measure if it is approved by City Council.

The City Council is also set to give its stamp to dozens of other items that passed out of committee in the past month, including Lightfoot’s proposed “Connected Communities Ordinance” designed to lay the groundwork for more housing construction near transit.

Related: Lightfoot promises to push forward on ‘essential’ housing density ordinance facing uneasy City Council

Ald. Jason Ervin (28) speaks during an October 2021 City Council meeting.

While aldermen on Monday gave a first OK to nearly $100 million in bonds for affordable housing developments throughout the city, they also pushed city leaders to ensure minority-owned companies are working on the development projects.

An ordinance approved on Monday will empower city workers to tow abandoned cars on privately owned vacant lots. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

A City Council committee advanced a proposal on Monday to let city workers tow abandoned cars and trucks that are left to rust on privately owned vacant lots, but at least one South Side alderman wants the crackdown to hit even harder.

The City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations also voted to push forward a near-total ban on water shutoffs, a measure empowering aldermen to help protect against flooding and an infusion of more than $14 million in new grant funds into the city’s budget. However, aldermen punted on a proposal to establish a long-awaited legal office for the City Council as two key aldermen said they had nearly converged on a compromise plan.