Chicago News

  • Commissioners approved language and fee changes in the county’s medical examiner ordinance, pushing back against criticism that those changes weakened the office after a Sun-Times investigation said the office “routinely fails to abide by a requirement that it send an investigator to the scene of every suspicious death, including all homicides and suicides.”

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  • Cook County commissioners meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday for consent calendar items, including honors for the late judge George N. Leighton and union organizer Edward Sadlowski. Three committees meet later in the day to consider new financial reporting measures, a “watered down” medical examiner’s ordinance, and court cases over false confessions and inmates who expose themselves at county lockups.

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  • Aldermen have a full slate of committee meetings on tap Tuesday, including a Zoning Committee session that promises a renewed fight over apartments on the Far Northwest Side. The City Council’s Rules Committee will consider Emanuel’s appointment of Silvana Tabares as 23rd Ward alderman — and placing three non-controversial questions before voters in November. While traveling in Washington D.C., Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the latest in a string of initiatives designed bolster the city’s stock of affordable housing. Cook County Clerk David Orr, who will retire at the end of his term, formed a political action committee.

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  • Aldermen will once again consider approving a seven-story, 297-unit luxury apartment complex near the Cumberland CTA Blue Line station Tuesday — nine months after they shelved the project because of objections lodged by 41st Ward Ald. Anthony Napolitano, triggering a lawsuit.

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  • The budget committee meets at 10 a.m. to consider former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ appointment to one of the city’s most coveted boards, to mandate city buildings are equipped with nursing rooms, and weigh bid incentives for firms with diverse workforces.

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  • The City Council’s Finance Committee put off considering most of the high-profile items that had been on the agenda for its Wednesday meeting, including a ban on the sale of flavored nicotine cartridges designed to be smoked with an electronic cigarette and an effort to close a loophole the city’s ban on puppy mills.

    Ald. Matt O'Shea (19.) [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
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  • Ald. Ed Burke’s (14) continuing efforts to crack down on tobacco use in Chicago will once again take center stage at City Hall Monday morning, with the Finance Committee set to consider a ban on the sale of flavored nicotine cartridges designed to be smoked with an electronic cigarette.

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  • Aldermen are set to expand the city’s anti-loitering ordinance for the first time in nearly 20 years, after the Public Safety Committee approved a measure authored by Ald. Jason Ervin (28) designed to crack down on prostitution.

    “We’re looking to get people some help,” Ald. Jason Ervin said. “This is another piece of the puzzle.” [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
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  • Preparing for his bid for a third term on the fifth floor of City Hall, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed widening the city’s transit-oriented development to include bus lines with high ridership. Chicago will continue to enjoy its time in the spotlight, with 10 television shows set to film in the Windy City, officials say. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis retired from the classroom, but will stay on in her union post, for now.

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  • The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois took aim at the Chicago Police Department’s use of Twitter and Facebook, filing a lawsuit demanding answers the group said city officials have refused to provide. Cook County property tax bills are online — and officials are ready to take your money. Inspector General Joseph Ferguson slammed the city’s budget office for doing a poor job keeping tabs on fees.

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  • Aldermen will once again consider a measure that would use the city’s anti-loitering laws to crack down on prostitution, two months after concerns about whether the ordinance would withstand a legal challenge prompted a delay.

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  • The redevelopment of the former Salvation Army Freedom site was the Chicago Plan Commission’s only divided vote on Thursday, with members of the public chiming in about a lack of parking and union wages for construction workers. Commissioners also pushed developers about on-site affordable units at a new building planned for the busy commercial area around North and Clybourn, and greenlit a People’s Gas facility on the city’s Southwest Side.

    Her voice thick with emotion, Zoning Administrator Patricia Scudiero paid tribute to her fellow commissioners and promised that she would not return to City Hall to lobby them on projects. [Heather Cherone/The Daily Line]
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  • Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas and President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration agree: revenues from Pappas’ office are approximately half of what county officials had been expecting to bank.

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  • The Chicago Plan Commission has a crowded agenda for its meeting set to start at 10 a.m., including a new building across from People’s Gas Training Facility on the Southwest Side, the redevelopment of an old Salvation Army Center into near West Side apartments, and a new development in the North Branch Industrial Corridor.

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  • With a plan to rename Balbo Drive for investigative journalist Ida B. Wells stalled, Ald. Sophia King (4) said she was open to renaming another major Chicago street for the Civil Rights icon — as long as it was prominent enough to merit bearing Wells’ name.

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