Stories by Heather Cherone

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the eight-month delay was not caused by her lack of support for the commission, which will have the final say on policy for the Chicago Police Department.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th Ward) is the fifth member of the Chicago City Council to announce they will not run for re-election next year, joining indicted Ald. Carrie Austin (34th Ward), Ald. James Cappleman (46th Ward), Ald. Michele Smith (43rd Ward) and Ald. George Cardenas (12th Ward.)

The city’s 2022 spending plan increased the Chicago Police Department’s budget for counseling services by 73% to allow the city to hire an additional 11 clinical therapists — enough to assign one clinician to work full time in each of the city’s 22 police districts.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, who has been the public face of Chicago’s response throughout the continuing COVID-19 pandemic as well as the outbreak of monkeypox, said she would work from home while isolating.

The first of 10 developments planned as part of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West initiative to start construction is a 58-unit apartment complex set to be built near 79th and Green streets in Auburn Gresham. 

Karol Chwiesiuk, a Chicago Police officer, is set to stand trial for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection nearly two years after he was charged.

The commission, which was formed more than two years ago in the wake of the social justice protests and unrest that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd, also recommended that the city remove the Italo Balbo monument as well as several monuments because of the way they depict Native Americans.

In a statement released by her office, Lightfoot thanked Chicago’s Native American and Italian American communities for participating in the commission’s work, but did not address the future of the statues “regarded by many members of the Italian American community as a symbol of cultural pride” but considered “a bitter reminder of centuries of exploitation, conquest and genocide” to members of Chicago’s Native American community, according to the commission’s report.

The unanimous advisory opinion issued Monday and signed by Chair William Conlon represents the first time the board has addressed the issues that surround the decision by an incumbent mayor to run for re-election.

In 2019, Chicago paid more than $1.31 billion to its four pension funds benefitting police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers. In 2023, Chicago will pay more than $2.34 billion to the same four funds.

Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th Ward), a Lightfoot ally, sent an email on June 2 to residents of his Far South Side ward that included an advertisement for the mayor’s re-election kickoff event at the Starlight Restaurant on June 8. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed two years ago Friday to confront the “the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history” by using the city’s public spaces to memorialize the “city’s true and complete history.” That promise remains unfulfilled, 729 days later.

Hyde Park Ald. Sophia King (4th Ward) announced she will run for mayor, promising to lead Chicago through collaboration — not confrontation — in an attempt to draw a clear distinction with Mayor Lori Lightfoot who has touted her combative approach while in office.

Chicago Department of Public Health officials continue to recommend that residents wear masks indoors and on public transportation to reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19 and ensure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.

Chicago’s financial picture has been buoyed by the city’s red-hot real estate market and nearly $2 billion in federal aid designed to help the city withstand the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) said the plan would be a “bad deal” for residents of Bronzeville and set a bad precedent. The proposal from Lightfoot’s administration would create a new tax-increment financing district along the southern branch of the CTA Red Line to generate $950 million for the project. 

Seventeen people applied to replace soon-to-be former Ald. Michele Smith on the Chicago City Council and represent the city’s 43rd Ward, including Timmy Knudsen, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handpicked chair of the city’s Zoning Board, the mayor’s office announced late Friday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the agreement would strike a blow against climate change that scientists say has already begun to cause disasters such as floods and strong storms.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly dropped out of the contest Friday afternoon, acknowledging her bid to serve a full four-year term as chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, known as the DPI, “will come up just shy of the necessary majority.”

The agreement represents the second largest national settlement in U.S. history, dwarfed only by the agreements with tobacco firms reached in the 1990s.

The move backs a push from progressive members of the City Council to enshrine those protections into law. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s announcement came one day after several progressive members of the City Council urged their colleagues to protect those crossing state lines to get reproductive and gender-affirming health care in Chicago.

The board voted 6-0 to reject the recommendation from Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez that teachers Lauren Bianchi and Charles “Chuck” Stark be terminated for violating safety rules involving protests and a trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Instead, they each got a warning and were directed to undergo training.

Google’s announcement that it would take the Helmut Jahn-designed structure off the state of Illinois’ hands caps a years-long effort to figure out what to do with 1.2-million-square-foot building at Randolph and LaSalle streets with its distinctive red-and-blue accented steel frame.

Former board member DwayneTruss called for the inspector general of the Chicago Public Schools to probe the deal that would allow the high school to be built at 24th and State streets, once home to the demolished CHA Harold L. Ickes homes. 

The man charged with killing seven people at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade has been charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder, three counts for each of the seven people killed in the shooting.

“While this will never heal the painful wounds of losing Ella, this is a small step toward justice for her family and all those who love her,” Chicago Police Supt. David Brown tweeted Wednesday.