Chicago News
-
An investigation by the city’s watchdog found that vehicles with placards issued by the Chicago Police Department parked illegally near City Hall and blocked fire lanes, posing a safety hazard in “blatant disregard” of rules.
The alley at 140 W. Court Place, where Chicago Police officials parked illegally near City Hall, according to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
-
Nearly two years after Argyle Street in Uptown became Chicago’s first shared roadway for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians, aldermen will weigh a measure to make the experiment permanent.
Shared street sign at the corner of Argyle Street and Sheridan Road. [DNAinfo/Josh McGhee]
-
OCT 09, 2019
Metra will use its $1.45 billion share of the mammoth capital plan passed in Springfield this year to order hundreds of new train cars, update transit stations and replace rail bridges along the system’s 500-mile network, agency leaders announced Tuesday.
The Metra Electric and South Shore lines. [Airbus777/Flickr]
-
The Cook County Assessor’s office has made “modest” progress on a court-ordered overhaul of its hiring practices, but staffers need to take the policy changes more seriously before the office can be free of its 7-year-old federal monitor, according to a legal filing from a government watchdog.
Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi. [A.D. Quit/The Daily Line]
-
The Illinois State Police is working to clear the DNA testing backlog at Illinois’ crime lab — which last year the agency said could take up to five years to get through — but Illinois’ precarious financial history is complicating the process, according to an ISP report published last month.
-
-
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to chair the Chicago Housing Authority board (A2019-67) sailed through a hearing of the City Council Housing and Real Estate Committee on Monday, setting her up for final confirmation by the full council next week.
Angela Hurlock greets reporters as she prepares for her confirmation hearing as CHA Board chair. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
-
OCT 07, 2019
Most homeowners in Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs learned this year that Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office determined the assessed value of their property spiked during the past year.
But the increases were a fraction of the potential tax hike faced by owners of office, apartment, retail and industrial buildings. And that likely means big changes for the way property taxes are collected while Kaegi is in charge.
-
Aldermen dealt Mayor Lori Lightfoot another setback Thursday as they refused to confirm her pick for health commissioner amid questions about whether the city should reopen six mental health clinics closed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011.
Health and Human Relations Chair Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6) meets with Dr. Allison Arwady, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's pick for health commissioner before Thursday's confirmation hearing. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
-
The City Council’s Budget Committee advanced a proposal Wednesday that will allow any alderman to request that the City Council’s Office of Financial Analysis examine a proposal’s impact on the city’s budget.
“There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen,” Budget Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3) said. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
-
When Dr. Allison Arwady last appeared before the City Council, she repeatedly clashed with aldermen as she defended former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close six mental health clinics in 2011.
When Arwady returns to the City Council Chambers Thursday, she will ask those same aldermen to confirm her appointment as health commissioner.
-
OCT 03, 2019
A scrum of city and federal officials gathered Wednesday morning to congratulate one another for reaching the official start-line for the Red Purple Modernization project, which is set to speed up service and expand rush hour capacity by more than half for the system’s busiest train line.
City officials celebrate the launch of the $2.1 billion effort to modernize the Red and Purple CTA train lines. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
Angela Hurlock [Submitted]
