Politics
The city of Chicago spent $250.8 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during 2025 — 151% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s annual budget, according to records published by the city’s watchdog.
Reps. Casten, Jackson Condemn Trump Administration Attack on Venezuela and Capture of Nicolás Maduro
Administration officials say Maduro’s capture was a law enforcement action that merely used military resources and therefore did not require congressional approval, referencing a drug trafficking indictment issued by the Department of Justice in March.
Gov. JB Pritzker and Democrats who control the state legislature have mostly shied away from renewing their graduated income tax push — all while managing to balance the books under the existing tax structure, largely thanks to a strong economy and federal aid in the years after the pandemic.
The proposals, set for a vote at the 10 a.m. Wednesday meeting of the Public Safety Committee, were prompted by the killing of 14-year-old Armani Floyd on Nov. 21 during a large gathering downtown after the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting. Eight others were injured in a separate shooting just blocks away.
A defiant Nicolás Maduro declared himself the “president of my country” as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty on Monday to the federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be forced to answer from some in their own party over whether to reassert the legislative branch’s role in war-making alongside critical votes on health care and government spending.
Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.
Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that he could no longer devote the energy necessary to win another term, even as he expressed confidence that he could win.
The report published by the Chicago Police Department acknowledges that the number of times officers used force against members of the public “continues to trend upward.”
The United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in an extraordinary nighttime operation that was accompanied by a flurry of strikes.
Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” he wrote.
Chicagoans will get a small break on their grocery bills but be forced to pony up to cover a host of tax and fee hikes that a deeply divided Chicago City Council approved to fill a massive budget shortfall over the objections of Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park is set to become the largest quantum development in the United States. Some Southeast Side residents have voiced concerns over gentrification, environmental impacts and energy use.
President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to two impeachments, is trying to keep history from repeating — and doing so in ways his opponents say are intended to manipulate next year’s election landscape.
Previous winners include “Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow,” “Casimir Plowaski” and “Snower Wacker.”
The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is a generous amount that will maintain the United States’ status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.