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FEB 23, 2024
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A file photo of voting booths.
A Cook County judge on Friday sided with real estate and commercial groups that had sued the Chicago Board of Elections to keep the Bring Chicago Home referendum off the March 19 primary election ballot. While voters might still be able to vote on the ballot question, the results could be suppressed if a higher court does not reverse the decision on appeal.
The fight to raise the real estate transfer tax was supported by Mayor Brandon Johnson while he campaigned for office. In a statement Friday evening, the mayor’s office said the city was disappointed, believed in the referendum’s legality and was exploring “every legal option available” to ensure voters remain the final say on the question.
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FEB 22, 2024
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Mayor Brandon Johnson is pictured at a press conference in January. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
The City Council approved millions of dollars in police-related legal settlements, two mayoral appointments and a bag tax amendment Wednesday. But Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal for a $1.25 billion borrowing plan is in limbo.
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FEB 21, 2024
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Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf walks through the Illinois Capitol on Tuesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]
Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf took a trip to Springfield on Tuesday to pitch lawmakers on a reported plan to devote $1 billion to help the team build a new ballpark in The 78 just south of the Loop in Chicago.
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FEB 21, 2024
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Chicago’s mayor announced a massive lawsuit against multiple oil and gas companies and an oil industry trade association. And Cook County has received additional philanthropic dollars for a criminal justice reform program.
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FEB 15, 2024
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Cook County Appellate Court Judge Jesse Reyes, left, and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham, right, are running for the First District Supreme Court seat. [Reyes Campaign & Illinois Supreme Court]
What is the right mix of experience and diversity? That’s the question Cook County Democratic primary voters are being asked as Appellate Court Judge Jesse Reyes and incumbent Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham try to win over voters in the 1st Supreme Court District.
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FEB 13, 2024
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Illinois Republican Party Chair Don Tracy speaks at Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair last August. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]
Early voting and mail-in voting is OK and might even help Republicans win elections, the leader of the Republican Party told a large gathering of Illinois Republicans on Friday night as part of the party’s new embrace of practices to make voting more accessible.
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FEB 09, 2024
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Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) attends a City Council meeting in October 2023. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
The mayor and 15 alderpeople are backing legislation (O2024-0007305) that would effectively ban current forms of natural gas energy from being used for heating or appliances in new construction.
Advocates say it’s a necessary first step, as about 68 percent of Chicago’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the built environment. While having a limited effect on existing buildings, the legislation is seeking to make sure the emissions share doesn’t increase with new developments.
But another group representing more than half the City Council is supporting a measure that calls for a cost analysis of the proposal before any decisions are made.
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FEB 09, 2024
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Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) speaks at a news conference on Thursday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]
It’s been nearly a year since the Morgan County coroner discovered major issues with misidentified and mishandled human remains at a Carlinville funeral home, which quickly led to dozens of families around the country learning the cremated remains they received from Heinz Funeral Home weren’t actually the remains of their loved ones.
Investigations into what happened at the funeral home and identifying the correct remains for about 80 families around the country continues, especially for Sangamon Coroner Jim Allmon who had to exhume a fifth set of misidentified remains from Camp Butler Cemetery in Springfield on Thursday before he attended a news conference at the State Capitol.
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FEB 07, 2024
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Ald. Anthony Beale (9) said he's opposed to the Bring Chicago Home ballot measure because he's worried it could stymie investment in Black communities like those in his ward. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]
A Far South Side alderperson and a member of the Cook County Board of Review spoke out against the Bring Chicago Home proposal during a virtual meeting hosted by the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance (NBOA) on Tuesday.
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JAN 26, 2024
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Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Caledonia) speaks at a news conference earlier this month. The graphic on the right shows which counties in Illinois are most deprived of local news, according to the task force report. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]
More than 200 newspapers and 86 percent of journalism jobs in Illinois have disappeared since 2005. Some counties don’t have any sources of news. The decline of journalism is leaving residents across Illinois more uninformed about what is happening in their local governments and that’s a problem the General Assembly should consider fixing, according to a report from a state task force.
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