Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot met after their public battle over no charges being filed in a high-profile West Side shootout. The State’s Attorney held a rare press conference to address comments made by the mayor, calling it “inappropriate” and “wrong” for Lightfoot to publicly push for criminal charges in the shooting “without the benefit of all of the evidence.”
“I was quite honestly mortified by what happened (Monday), particularly because the mayor is a former prosecutor (and) knows that what she did yesterday was inappropriate,” Foxx said.
The clash between the mayor and the county’s top prosecutor stems from a shootout that left one man dead and others injured in the Austin neighborhood last Friday.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown appeared before a heated City Council hearing to defend an expanded budget for the Chicago Police Department.
Before Brown could answer a single question about the department’s proposed budget of $1.9 billion, Ald. Chris Taliaferro called the shooting in his 29th Ward and the fact that those involved would not face felony charges “very horrific” and predicted that those involved would soon commit other violent crimes.
Meanwhile, a report on CPD’s compliance with the federal consent decree shows errors in foot pursuit reporting and missed deadlines.
The Chicago Police Department has reached some level of compliance with a slight majority of its requirements thus far under its ongoing consent decree, but it must “significantly improve” its data collection, specifically regarding foot pursuits, according to an update from the team charged with monitoring progress.
Through the end of June, the CPD has hit either preliminary, secondary or full compliance with 266 out of 519 possible paragraphs under the consent decree, Independent Monitor Maggie Hickey said in a new status report published Friday.
This marks the first time the police department has been in some level of compliance with a majority of paragraphs, through four semiannual reports.
Chicago billionaire and civic donor, Ken Griffin, likened Chicago’s violence to Afghanistan, and threatened to move his hedge-fund companies, Citadel LLC and Citadel Securities out of the state, after revealing that his security detail was attacked by an attempted carjacker, the Sun-Times reported.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said her security detail is safe after they were also the target of attempted carjackers, as first reported by CWB Chicago.
Meanwhile, President Biden arrived in Chicago to tout large company vaccine mandates as more than 25,000 Illinoisans dead from COVID-19 and the U.S. has already surpassed the 2020 COVID death toll -- with near three months left in 2021.
Chicago Public Schools announced a shortened quarantine time from 14 days to 10 days.
The policy change, which applies to unvaccinated students and takes effect Saturday, comes after more than 15,500 students were forced to quarantine during the first four weeks of the school year, but only 1.6% tested positive for COVID-19 after being exposed to the virus, said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. That should reassure parents that Chicago’s schools are safe for their students, Arwady said.
However, an Axios Chicago reported that masking is lacking in crowded CPS hallways. Meanwhile, Pfizer is seeking approval for its vaccine for children ages 5-11.
In sports, the Chicago White Sox are on the brink of playoff elimination, down two games to the Houston Astros. Bears coach, Matt Nagy, completely reverses himself and names Justin Fields the Bears starting quarterback moving forward. And, the Chicago Sky advance to the WNBA finals for the second time in team history.
Guests
Laura Washington, ABC 7 News, Chicago Sun-Times | @MediaDervish, @ABC7Chicago, @SunTimes
Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune | @RAP30, @ChicagoTribune
Monica Eng, Axios Chicago | @MonicaEng, @Axios
Mike Mulligan, WSCR | @mullyhaugh, @670TheScore
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