A bike lane street sweeper travels on Milwaukee Avenue. [Chicago Department of Transportation]

Bike safety advocates are calling on the city to release public schedules for its fleet of street sweepers used to clear protected bike lanes that keep riders safe. 

The street sweeping vehicles are meant to clear snow and debris from Chicago’s nearly 40 miles of curb protected bike lanes, which gives bikers more protection from motorists. The Chicago Department of Transportation plans to build additional protected bike lanes this summer. 

The city recently increased the number of dedicated bike lane sweepers from three to nine, but the department responsible for the vehicles does not currently keep a regular sweeping schedule throughout the city. 

Advocates and alderpersons say the city should publish a schedule for the bike lane sweeping the same way it publishes a schedule for regular street sweeping, 

The Cook County Board of Commissioners met to discuss a paid parental leave measure during the Cook County Finance Committee meeting Wednesday.The resolution would expand paid parental leave for Cook County employees for up to 12 weeks. The proposed measure aligns with the county’s commitment to fostering an inclusive environment for its employees, according to the meeting agenda.

The City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights met Wednesday. [City of Chicago livestream]

City leaders gave alderpersons an overview Wednesday of how Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is responding to the migrant crisis as buses continue arriving in Chicago and the city looks for a longer term response to helping migrants. 

The latest report published by the Office of Inspector General found the Chicago Police Department’s tracking of search warrant files is incomplete, making it impossible to track wrongful raids. And Cook County wants residents to participate in a solar installation program that uses group purchasing power. 

The City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will meet Wednesday for the first time under the leadership of Ald. Andre Vasquez (40) to consider a proposal to meet regularly to discuss the migrant crisis in Chicago.

Cook County Comm. Kevin Morrison (D-15), Comm. Maggie Trevor (D-9) and Comm. Frank Aguilar (D-16) are pictured during a county board meeting in March 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners will hold committee meetings Wednesday, during which they will vote on measures to support and protect the LGBTQ+ community and hold hearings on the county juvenile detention facility and systemic concerns with the treatment of gender-based violence survivors.

Cook County Comm. Donna Miller (D-6) speaks during a press conference alongside Cook County Department of Public Health COO LaMar Hasbrouck in April 2023. [Michael McDevitt/The Daily Line]

The Cook County Board of Commissioners’ Health and Hospitals Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday to learn about the county’s maternal morbidity and mortality rates and their contributing factors.

City officials unveiled a strategy to employ more youth this summer. Mayor Brandon Johnson and budget officials launched information on the city’s upcoming budget roundtables. 

City Budget Director Annette Guzman and Ald. Jason Ervin (28) during a committee meeting last week. [City of Chicago livestream]

While the annual rigorous city departmental budget hearings are still about four months away, Mayor Brandon Johnson and his budget leaders last week gave a look into how the new administration plans to handle crafting the city’s 2024 spending plan. 

Budget leaders over the course of the past two weeks have said they hope to incorporate input from residents and alderpersons ahead of Johnson’s budget address to avoid multiple last-minute amendments to next year’s spending plan. 

A woman runs on a trail in the Cook County Forest Preserves [File photo]

Commissioners for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County board will convene Tuesday to consider code amendments that would raise the maximum fines for littering and polluting on forest preserve property and will consider the appointment of a new treasurer.

Comm. Bridget Degnen (D-12), left, is pictured during a December 2022 meeting of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

Cook County commissioners will consider a resolution to allow expanded parental leave for county employees and an amendment to a federally funded small business grant program during a county Finance Committee meeting Wednesday. 

The Finance Committee will meet at 9:30 a.m. in the board chambers on the fifth floor of the Cook County building. 

Members of the City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced a wide range of proposed ordinances and resolutions during Wednesday’s meeting, ranging from a measure that would prohibit most vehicles from idling and another that would change the process for selecting the city’s inspector general. 

New Cook County Comm. Tara Stamps is appointed on June 20, 2023 by local county Democratic committeepersons in Oak Park. [Cook County Democratic Party livestream]

Tara Stamps, an activist and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) employee, was sworn in Tuesday night as the next Cook County commissioner for District 1 after winning the unanimous vote of local county Democratic committeepersons. 

Stamps is succeeding Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who represented the district for just over one term. She has some of the same attributes as Johnson, in that she extolls progressive politics, brings an organizing and teaching background to the role and has ties to the CTU.

Despite wider concerns about the city’s process for approving payments related to police-related settlements and dissent from 15 aldermen on one $1 million payment, the City Council on Wednesday approved more than $9 million in settlements.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35) speaks during a news conference Wednesday. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Restaurant workers, advocates and more than 10 alderpersons made a call Wednesday for the city to get rid of a sub-minimum wage for tipped workers, saying such a wage makes it hard for workers to “make ends meet” and opens them up to sexual harassment.