Cook County leaders revel in elimination of cash bail, see path to further shrinking jail population 

The leaders in charge of Cook County’s multibillion-dollar jail and courts system praised state lawmakers’ vote this week to phase out the use of cash bail, saying the new law will push forward bail reform efforts they have already pursued for years. 

Prohibiting judges from assigning money bond starting in 2023 was a key plank of the sweeping criminal justice reform package approved by the General Assembly on Wednesday. The bill (HB3653), which Gov. JB Pritzker has indicated he will sign, also ends the practice of “prison gerrymandering” and includes a host of measures aimed at reining in police abuses. 

News in brief: Lightfoot nudges Pritzker on reopening bars, restaurants;  Aldermen OK open space projects in Lincoln Square, South Deering; Andersonville dispensaries set for Zoning Board approval 

Some older Chicagoans could start getting vaccines as early as next week, top doc says 

Chicago could begin pivoting toward the next phase in its mass vaccination campaign as early as next week, but the larger timeline will likely stay murky until President-Elect Joe Biden’s administration takes a firm grip over the federal rollout, the city’s top health officials told aldermen on Wednesday. 

Speaking during a four-hour subject matter hearing hosted by the City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations, Chicago Department of Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady said the city will “likely sometime next week” advise hospitals and other vaccine providers to start vaccinating selected “high-risk” patients over the age of 65 — but only if the hospitals have leftover doses that have gone unclaimed by health care workers, she said.

Aldermen to consider proposal to increase fines for industrial air polluters 

Aldermen are scheduled Thursday to consider a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot to increase fines for large industrial air polluters and to hold a hearing on the environmental and health impacts that designated industrial districts have on neighborhoods. 

Lightfoot’s proposal (O2020-6200) would pave the way for the Department of Public Health to enforce higher fines on “industrial facilities and demolition contractors that create dust and risk the health and quality-of-life of residents.” 

News in brief: Austin slapped with $145K ethics fine; Proposed legislation could target Trump Tower sign sign; Chicago’s travel order ‘simplified’ to two-tier system

‘Puppy mill’ ordinance stalls again, 6 months after committee passage; aldermen to grill health officials on vaccinations

An ordinance designed to crack down on commercial pet breeders will be put on hold for at least one more month, more than six months after the proposal failed to reach the finish line in the City Council. 

The council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations had been scheduled at 10 a.m. Wednesday to take up the ordinance (SO2020-2827) before holding a subject matter hearing to quiz city health officials about their efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Skeptical aldermen interrogate CPS, public health officials over reopening plan

On the same day the first wave of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students returned to in-person learning for the first time in more than 300 days, aldermen took turns posing searing questions  to  school district officials and the city’s Department of Public Health over their reopening plan. 

The City Council’s Committee on Education and Childhood Development’s subject matter hearing drew aldermen who were frustrated with CPS’ plan to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic to question schools and health officials for more than seven hours Monday.

News in brief: @chicagosmayor, City Council rip @FOPChicago7 prez; Brookins to sue over ethics fine; @ChicagoDCASE sets announces $750K for ‘Artist Response Program’

Aldermen to dive into school reopening debate as teachers’ union tensions flare

Members of the City Council will get a long-awaited chance on Monday to publicly challenge Chicago Public Schools and city health officials over their controversial plan to send some students back to school.  

The council’s Committee on Education and Childhood Development is scheduled to hold a subject matter hearing at 10 a.m. to discuss the district’s reopening plan, at the same time preschoolers and special education students are invited to return to in-person learning for the first time since last March. 

News in brief: Watchdog follow-up finds CDPH implementing recommendations to ‘mitigate risks of excessive emissions;’ ethics board to consider Brookins fine, ‘prayer session’ social media posts 

Experts, officials say there’s time to establish independent remap commission but ‘the train is leaving the station’ 

If city leaders want to fulfill Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2019 promise to tap an independent commission to redraw boundaries of Chicago’s 50 wards, time is running out to make it happen,  some advocates say. 

Campanelli throws in for another 6 years as ‘check and balance’ against ‘horribly racist criminal justice system’ 

When it was Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli’s turn last July to beg county commissioners for mercy from a crushing wave of budget cuts, she warned them taking an ax to her office could make it impossible to meet the county’s constitutional obligation to give every defendant access to a lawyer. 

News in brief: Lightfoot, Preckwinkle, Foxx condemn D.C. ‘insurrection;’ Aldermanic hearing on CPS’ reopening plan scheduled for Monday; Lightfoot statement on Georgia elections 

News in brief: Lightfoot, Preckwinkle, Foxx condemn D.C. ‘insurrection;’ Aldermanic hearing on CPS’ reopening plan scheduled for Monday; Lightfoot statement on Georgia elections

 

Nearly 30 percent fewer Cook County property owners filed appeals with the Cook County assessor’s office last year than in 2019, even as the county’s Board of Review braces for a familiar surge of taxpayers contesting their assessments.

County Assessor Fritz Kaegi lauded the sharp downward trend in requests to his office as a sign that more homeowners than ever trust the accuracy of his team’s valuations. But some real estate professionals believe the opposite: that disillusioned property owners have lost faith in Kaegi’s methods and are simply taking their chances with the more binding Board of Review instead.