Chicago News
-
SEP 25, 2020
A proposed series of tweaks to Cook County’s ethics ordinance backed by county board President Toni Preckwinkle would add rules to crack down on nepotism, improper gift-giving and sexual harassment but would not place limits on outside employment the way the county’s Board of Ethics proposed earlier this year.
-
SEP 24, 2020
The Affordable Requirements Ordinance is one of the city’s most important tools for chipping away at endemic racial segregation, Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara said during a hearing on Wednesday.
Developers had a message on Wednesday for aldermen and city housing officials who want more deeply affordable and accessible housing units to be included in high-end new developments: don’t expect us to pay for all that by ourselves. -
SEP 24, 2020
The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to renew Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s emergency COVID-19 budgeting and procurement powers through December, accept a proposed $3.4 billion 2021 budget plan for the Cook County Health system and lay the groundwork for choosing a successor to Independent Inspector General Patrick Blanchard during its regular board meeting on Thursday.
-
SEP 23, 2020
City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy chair Ald. George Cardenas (12) and Department of Assets, Information and Services Comm. David Reynolds during a committee meeting on TuesdayComEd must implement ethics reforms, end late fees and non-payment disconnections and commit to drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 as preconditions for the city to sign a new franchise agreement with the utility giant, according to a letter Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent to leaders of the company on Monday. -
SEP 23, 2020
A long-promised amendment to the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance is on track to come before the City Council later this fall.
Aldermen on Wednesday will offer ideas on how to rewrite the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, a months-in-the-making project to stamp Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s imprint on a controversial and evolving housing policy. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison-Butler speaks during a committee meeting on Monday.
The city’s overwhelmed network of homeless shelters is ill-prepared to handle the long-term fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic devastation, a top city official warned aldermen on Monday. -
SEP 22, 2020
A report commissioned by the city found last month that it would be “financially infeasible” for the city to take control of its electric utility system.
Aldermen will get the chance on Tuesday to ask city officials and researchers for more details about a recent report that threw cast doubts on the idea of wresting control of the city’s electric utility away from Commonwealth Edison. -
SEP 22, 2020
Chicago Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett speaks during a meeting of the City Council finance committee on Monday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will propose raising the city’s tax on computer leases but likely won’t budge on her opposition to two progressive business taxes as potential tools to bridge the $1.2 billion budget shortfall the city faces heading into 2021, the city’s top financial official told aldermen Monday. -
SEP 21, 2020
A floor plan for NuEra’s proposed dispensary during a virtual meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.
Cannabis firm NuEra on Friday became the first company to score city approval for a new dispensary since March, beating out competitor Dispensary 33 for the right to sell pot on a coveted block in the Fulton Market district. -
SEP 21, 2020
Aldermen hear presentations from advocates of reparations during a June meeting of the City Council health and human relations committee
Aldermen will reckon with the city’s historic revenue shortfall, chew over the state of the city’s homelessness crisis, populate three new mayoral-appointed advisory boards and push forward an exploration of potential reparations for Black Chicagoans during committee meetings scheduled for Monday. -
SEP 18, 2020
Chicago Budget Director Susie Park gives a presentation on the Chicago Police Department’s $1.7 billion budget during a hearing on Thursday.A city financial analyst pinpointed about $55 million he said can be shaved from the Chicago Police Department budget as the city faces a combined $2 billion budget deficit for 2020 and 2021. But as the city works to negotiate a new contract with its rank-and-file police union, most of those savings likely can’t be realized next year, officials said Thursday.
