Stories by Heather Cherone

Demolishing the record set in each of the past three years, $1.3 billion poured into the city’s 127 TIF funds in 2022, according to a report from Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough.

Work will not resume Tuesday, while the review of the 800-page report by Illinois Environmental Protection Agency officials continues, said Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

New restrictions on where members of the public can sit during meetings of the Chicago City Council are “inequitable and likely illegal,” David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, warned Mayor Brandon Johnson. 

Construction began earlier this week in Brighton Park on the massive tents that will house at least some of the more than 1,000 migrants living in police stations across the city and at O’Hare Airport.

Former Ald. Ed Burke faces 14 criminal charges, including racketeering, bribery and extortion, in a case that accuses Burke of using his powerful position at City Hall to force those doing business with the city to hire his private law firm, formerly known as Klafter & Burke.

“The imminent addition of significant new shelter space,” means the Amundsen Park field house is no longer needed as a migrant shelter, Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Some of Ald. Ed Burke’s turns of phrase have already become an indelible part of Chicago’s long history of political corruption. They are also now evidence in a federal trial.

Burke is charged with what prosecutors say are four criminal schemes, three involving the former alderperson’s side hustle as a property tax attorney. Perhaps the most elaborate scheme Burke is charged with involves the Old Post Office.

A probe by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that aldermanic prerogative has created a hyper-segregated city rife with racism and gentrification.

Mayor Brandon Johnson touted what he called the “Unity Initiative” as his city officials announced that crews will start building the frame of a winterized base camp to shelter as many as 2,000 people near 38th Street and California Avenue as soon as Wednesday.

While the shelters will be a part of the city’s shelter system, state funds will be used to build the facilities, operate the shelter and provide services, including conflict resolution. There are now nearly 12,800 migrants in city-run shelters, an all-time high.

In the run up to the March primary election, the spotlight for Chicago-area voters will focus on races for state’s attorney, circuit court clerk, a key seat in the Illinois House to represent the city’s Northwest Side and two Congressional contests.

The board’s ruling could also complicate efforts to hold public officials or candidates responsible for other kinds of violations, unless the City Council acts to change the law, sources told WTTW News.

Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th Ward) said Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office informed her late Friday that work would begin Monday on the base camp over her objections and after the discovery of “toxic metals” on the site.

“The most fundamental thing is you don’t allow someone’s hatred to infiltrate how you see people,” Rahm Emanuel said. “There is a fundamental goodness in people. I have seen it, I have been a product of it. Have I had antisemitism directed at me? Yes, but I’ve also had the American story.”

The jury heard the first direct testimony from someone who prosecutors allege Burke sought to extort by weaponizing his powerful position as chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee and the longest serving member of the City Council. 

The new policy could mean more than 3,000 people will lose their beds in city shelters by early February, with the rest forced out by April.

While prosecutors said former Ald. Ed Burke was a “bribe-taker and an extortionist” who used his elected office to “line his pockets,” Burke’s attorneys said he was an “old school, hardworking public servant” devoted to Chicago and its residents.

Three people were seriously injured, nine suffered moderate injuries and 11 others were not seriously injured but were taken to a hospital, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. 

With Congress unwilling to act, Illinois has no chance to step in because lives are at stake, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.

The budget, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, includes no new taxes, fees or service cuts, making it much easier for alderpeople to back the plan touted by Mayor Brandon Johnson as a down payment on promises to invest in working-class Chicagoans.

The announcement represents Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first attempt to reduce the city resources available to the migrants currently in the city’s shelter system.

The policy approved by the commission bans officers from belonging to hate groups that promote prejudice or those that aim to overthrow the government or interfere with police duties.

Michael Dorf, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s attorney, said the board’s decision “avoided setting a dangerous precedent.”

Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige will now be asked to deliver on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s vision of public health for Chicago — while coping with the continuing pandemic.

A key vote by the Chicago City Council’s Rules Committee could come as soon as Thursday on a measure that would ask voters during the March primary whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city.