Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeff Levine (right) and Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) speak during the Monday finance committee meeting.

Aldermen on Monday approved nearly $2 million in payments to settle three lawsuits brought against the city for incidents related to the Chicago Police Department. 

Hacked emails offer a rare glimpse at the grinding process by which civilian police oversight went from a lofty campaign promise to an ordinance on the brink of passage to a political dead end, leaving the issue open for more than a year.  [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

Aldermen over the weekend appeared within striking distance of a deal with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on a blueprint to establish civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department, an agreement that has eluded the parties for more than a year. 

Aldermen in the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Government Operations approved the allocation of $113.4 million in new grant funding. The city’s Deputy Inspector General for Public Safety briefed aldermen on CPD’s delay in responding to a report that found “gaps of constitutional proportion” in how well-equipped the department is in producing documents. And the council's license committee is set to consider a cap on third-party delivery fees.

Ald. David Moore (17) speaks after a June City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

Thursday’s meeting of the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations came to an abrupt pause after Ald. David Moore (17) took issue with a community organization being tapped to receive federal grant money to help the city with “health literacy.” 

From left: Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29), Ald. Harry Osterman (48) and Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38) during the June public safety committee hearing. 

Proponents of a grassroots-backed police oversight ordinance have been inching toward an agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office over a long-delayed plan to establish an independent commission to oversee the Chicago Police Department, multiple aldermen told The Daily Line on Thursday.   

Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough is ready to start calculating property tax rates after initially refusing to do so, her office announced. And City Council committees are set to take up ordinances on a range of issues, from remote administrative hearings to car impoundments. 

Plan Commissioners are set to consider the next phase of the Roosevelt Square mixed-income development on Thursday. 

The Chicago Plan Commission is set for a marathon meeting Thursday as commissioners prepare to consider approving the next phase of the Roosevelt Square mixed-income development, a controversial luxury housing development in Uptown and nearly a dozen additional development proposals combining for more than 1,000 new homes across the city.

Aldermen are scheduled on Wednesday to consider the sale of the former Michael Reese Hospital site for the ultimate development of the "Bronzeville Lakefront" campus.

Aldermen on Wednesday are set to consider the sale of the former Michael Reese Hospital to the developer planning to build a 48-acre housing, office and life sciences campus on the Bronzeville property.  

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Edith Makra speak Tuesday during a virtual event on a regional climate action plan. 

National and local leaders including Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday agreed a regional approach is the best way to tackle the impact of the climate crisis that Chicago and its surrounding suburbs continue to see. 

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 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. 

Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown during an August 2020 news conference [Chicago Police Department] 

Updated Wednesday 12:54 p.m.: Nearly half the City Council used a legal maneuver on Wednesday to trigger a special meeting designed to probe Chicago Police Department leaders about their plans to head off summer violence ahead of the July 4 weekend.

The virtual council meeting, now scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, follows through on a letter signed on Tuesday by 25 aldermen threatening to convene the special meeting if a powerful committee chair did not act this week to schedule a wide-ranging meeting to review police policies.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a news conference on Monday.

Surrounded by other city and community leaders, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a program on Monday to bring 250 new affordable homes to North Lawndale as part of wider INVEST South/West initiative. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks in a news conference on Friday, after aldermen delayed a vote on a portion of her business recovery package involving sign permitting. [Erin Hegarty/The Daily Line]

Despite unanimously approving most of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s sweeping business recovery package, aldermen delayed a vote on a siphoned-off section of the ordinance in order to retain their power over permitting storefront signs — for now. 

Linda Tortolero (left) and Stephanie Love-Patterson speaking during a subject matter hearing on domestic and gender-related violence. 

Leaders of organizations that serve survivors of domestic and gender-based violence are asking the city to set aside $50 million in its 2022 budget to help meet demand in staffing and resources needed to help Chicagoans suffering abuse. 

Ephraim Martin details a compromise on the renaming of outer Lake Shore Drive during a news conference Thursday.

The City Council will try again Friday to get through its agenda originally planned for earlier this week after Wednesday’s meeting ended prematurely amid rancor and parliamentary maneuvering.  

Wednesday’s City Council meeting was derailed after Ald. Raymond Lopez (15) (left) joined Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20) to delay a mayoral appointment. [The Daily Line/Don Vincent]

Any semblance of routine was lost from the beginning of Wednesday’s City Council meeting as aldermen tussled to temporarily block a mayoral appointment, approve another, then adjourn before any additional agenda items could be considered. 

Ald. David Moore (17) said he has the votes to pass an ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable. [The Daily Line/Alex Nitkin]

One month after a vote on their proposal was blocked, sponsors of an ordinance to rename Lake Shore Drive after Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable plan to call their proposal back for a vote Wednesday. And they believe they have the votes to pass it. 

Aldermen agreed to spring two-dozen measures out of the City Council Committee on Committees and Rules, putting them back on track. And Cook County commissioners signaled they’re moving full-steam on a plan to ask county voters to raise their own property taxes to fund the Cook County Forest Preserve District.