The Chicago Police Department could be undermining its over efforts to boost diversity in its ranks, according to a new report. [Jake Wittich/Block Club Chicago]

The Chicago Police Department is undermining its own efforts to diversify its ranks with an 18-month application process that disproportionately purges Black applicants, a city watchdog office wrote in a report published Thursday.

Cook County Board President announcing $1.5 million in new spending on anti-violence programs in North Lawndale on Thursday

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle seized on an event Thursday to turn the tables on the Chicago Police Department, deflecting Supt. David Brown’s criticism of the county court system and instead implicating low police arrest rates for Chicago’s stubbornly high crime rate.

Participants during a public meeting led by the Chicago Advisory Redistricting Commission last month outline what could be considered the Greater Chinatown community. 

As growth in Chicago’s Asian American population outpaces other demographics, the absence of an alderman of Asian descent in the City Council is more glaring than ever as aldermen prepare to draw new ward boundaries this year.

Chicago Ald. George Cardenas (12) formally rolled out his candidacy for Cook County Board of Review. Aldermen pressed city planning officials on potential tax incentives for a new 400-unit development in the Illinois Medical District. And a report suggests administrators of a Chicago affordable housing program are cleaning up operational problems.

A CTA train rushes above Wells Street near the 100 block of West Randolph Street in downtown Chicago on June 30, 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Like many mothers in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods, Tarmara Felton struggles against the influence of the “wrong people” in her children’s lives.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a ribbon-cutting event for a new track and field facility in Gately Park on Tuesday

Mayor Lori Lightfoot spotlighted youth programming, called out the federal government and teased a forthcoming victim support program on Tuesday, pivoting away from blaming the Cook County court system during her first appearance after more than 100 people were shot in Chicago during the Fourth of July weekend. But Chicago Police Supt. David Brown held the line on his criticism of judges, and multiple aldermen sprung up with a range of their own ideas to stem the violence.

The first floor lobby in City Hall on Wednesday, February 19, 2020. [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

This article was first published in Block Club.

City Hall has reopened to the public after more than a year of being closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) (left) and Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown during a special City Council meeting on Friday [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown spent a free-wheeling six-hour special City Council hearing on Friday sticking by his assertion that lenient judges own at least part of the blame for the city’s stubbornly high rates of violent crime, even as multiple aldermen challenged the data underlying his claims.

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is set to step down in October, capping three four-year terms in office. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson will step down from his post this fall after 12 eventful years overseeing investigations of waste, fraud and abuse in city government, he informed Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a letter Thursday evening.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot held an event on Thursday to celebrate Chicago’s minimum wage hitting $15 per hour.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took advantage of Chicago’s scheduled bump to a $15 per hour minimum wage on Thursday to brandish the raft of pro-labor legislation passed on her watch, including ordinances designed to regulate workers’ schedules and crack down on wage theft. But labor groups have pushed the city to go even further, in part by hiking lower minimum wages allowed for tipped and disabled workers.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34) appearing alongside Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a 2019 event

Ald. Carrie Austin (34) and her chief of staff accepted home appliances and renovations as bribes in return for plying a developer’s project with city funding, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment handed down on Thursday.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown speaks during a news conference on Thursday. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

The City Council is set to meet Friday for the third time in 10 days for a special meeting aldermen forced to hear the Chicago Police Department’s plans to handle potential summer violence — but Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling the purpose of the meeting into question.  

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Corporation Counsel Celia Meza and Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine talk during the June 23 City Council meeting. 

Following multiple City Council meetings during which aldermen called into question Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s enforcement of rules and procedures, more than 25 aldermen added their names to an order introduced last Friday asking the city’s corporation counsel for details on the City Council’s authority to retain its own parliamentarian. 

The tax “equalizer” is a key input that helps determine how Cook County officials calculate property taxes.

A new set of Cook County property data released by a state agency this week suggests the county assessor’s office and Board of Review collectively gave excessive breaks to a range of properties across the county, raising a fresh round of finger-pointing over fairness as officials prepare to calculate this fall’s round of tax bills.

Aldermen will gather virtually for a special City Council meeting Friday to probe Chicago Police Department leaders on their summer anti-violence strategy. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle made a rare joint appearance to unveil a new monument to journalist Ida B. Wells. And a trio of freshman alderman emphasized their support for efforts to create a citywide network of bike lanes.