Chicago News

  • Up to $500,000 in open space impact fees would be spent on a new Eco Orchard in Garfield Park, pending approval from the city’s Special Events, Cultural Affairs and Recreation committee Monday at noon.

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  • The City Council’s Committee on Finance has a packed agenda for its meeting set to start at 10 a.m. Monday, including a $147 million tax break for the developers of the Old Main Post Office, a $20 million settlement for the families of two men killed in a car crash by drunken off-duty police detective Joseph Frugoli and a package of laws designed to change the way the city deals with stray or abandoned animals.

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  • On the same day City Council passed an ordinance expanding sexual harassment protections to constituents, lobbyists and business owners that come in contact with elected officials, Ald. Pat O’Connor (40) suggested the state party should wait until after the primary to decide whether House Speaker Mike Madigan should step down as its head.

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  • Of the dozens of mailers circulating in Illinois in these past few weeks, the one sent to us most was one pointing out that an incumbent commissioner likes ketchup on his hotdogs. Welcome to the final primary stretch.

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  • Eight businesses won multi-year rights to set up shop along Chicago’s riverwalk Thursday. The license agreements approved by City Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee will help the city pay back a 35-year, $99 million Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded in 2013. But some nearby residents worried the city was cementing a deal with a bad neighbor.

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  • Morning Briefing: Dart Warning about Gun Offenders, Labor Rally Ahead of Janus

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  • The fate of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library is now in the hands of city officials, with the City Council’s Zoning Committee sending the $300 million project to the Plan Commission for consideration.

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  • Aldermen will wade back into the controversy swirling around allegations of sexual harassment at City Hall at the meeting of the City Council’s Workforce Development and Audit Committee set for 9:30 a.m. Friday.

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  • After commissioners raised a ruckus over the Cook County Health and Hospitals System’s uncollected bills during last year’s budget negotiations, the system put out a request for proposals to sell its accounts receivables. The due date, Feb. 16, came and went with no takers.'

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  • Four South Side aldermen – one a committeeman – gathered to endorse Frederick “Fritz” Kaegi for Assessor Wednesday afternoon. Ald. Danny Solis (25), Ald. Toni Foulkes (16), Ald. Rick Muñoz (22), and Ald. George Cardenas (12) cited the impact unfair assessments have on their communities, including declining property values, bankruptcy and foreclosures.

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  • The Committee on Human Relations took aim — again — at President Donald Trump, blasting him for giving nearly 60,000 Haitians with provisional legal residency in the United States 18 months to leave.

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  • Ald. Marty Quinn (13) was the center of attention Wednesday morning at City Hall, as reporters clustered outside the meeting of the Committee on License and Consumer Protection hoping to ask him about the imbruglia that has swamped Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and led to calls for his resignation as the head of the Illinois Democratic Party.

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  • The Committee on Human Relations will meet at 9:30 a.m. Thursday to consider new 10-year agreements with five Riverwalk venues.

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  • The City Council’s Zoning Committee at 10 a.m. Thursday will consider approving two West Loop skyscrapers, a new transit-oriented development in Lakeview and start the ball rolling on the approval process for the Obama Presidential Center.

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  • A full day of committee hearings is on tap at Chicago City Hall — Transportation and Public Way heralds the coming of spring, with dozens of sidewalk cafe permits expected to be approved starting at 11 a.m., while License committee considers more home sharing bans. 

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