Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week painted a grim picture ahead of her Oct. 21 budget address as the city tries to close a massive budget gap. Our politics team tackles those stories and more in this week’s roundtable.

Chicago officials now have the power to strip multimillion-dollar tax incentives from companies that “betray the public’s trust” — but lawyers for the city have determined the new rules cannot be used to punish the firm that botched a demolition in April.

Vice President Mike Pence and his Democratic challenger, California Sen. Kamala Harris, are set to face off in a debate that will offer starkly different visions for a country confronting escalating crises.

The Trump administration is pressing for $1,200 stimulus checks and a new wave of aid for airlines and other businesses hard hit by the pandemic.

In November, Illinois voters will be making a choice about how the state taxes income. But a last-minute lawsuit claims the ballot itself is flawed and is raising questions about how it may impact retirees.

Two proposals to spend $9.1 million to repair the CTA’s Lake Street bridge and the Dearborn Street subway stalled Tuesday amid objections from aldermen about efforts to hire firms owned by female, Black and Latino Chicagoans.

What’s the difference between absentee voting and mail voting? There really isn’t any difference. 

Aldermen sided with the mayor on Tuesday in a dispute over a proposal to build a 48-unit affordable housing complex in Jefferson Park, turning back an effort by Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) to block the development.

Why is it that one candidate can win the popular vote but another wins the electoral vote and thus the presidency? Because that’s how the framers of the Constitution set it up.

City officials are working to craft a plan to fill a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall in the 2021 fiscal year — without the hope of more aid from the federal government.

President Donald Trump abandoned COVID-19 relief talks on Tuesday. The unexpected turn could be a blow to Trump’s reelection prospects and comes as his administration and campaign are in turmoil.

The funds will allow “tens of thousands more patients served, better access to care for the underserved and integrated care for the whole person,” officials said.

The warning about the increase in confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Indiana is designed to give Chicagoans who routinely cross the border time to prepare for the state to join the other 22 states now on the quarantine order, officials said.

Matthew Beaudet would become the first Native American commissioner in the city’s history. “I’m humbled by it,” Beaudet told WTTW News before his confirmation hearing.

In an op-ed, DePaul University history professor Tom Mockaitis says the president’s failure last week to recognize and condemn violent, far-right groups like the Proud Boys could encourage clashes on Nov. 3.

Efforts to transform a Northwest Side tax program created in the 1980s amid the racist panic that greeted the election of Chicago’s first Black mayor are stalled — nearly two years after new leadership promised a fresh start.