Stories by Heather Cherone

Representatives of the city’s Department of Transportation and the Budget Office declined to provide WTTW News with a full breakdown of spending during 2021 and 2022 under the banner of Chicago Works.

The 16-page report was the first action of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability after it finally launched at the end of August, more than eight months behind schedule. A final vote by the Chicago City Council on Lightfoot’s $16.4 billion plan is scheduled for Monday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $170.6 million budget gap in 2023 relies on booming tax revenues that she said proves Chicago’s budget has fully recovered from the economic catastrophe caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brandon Johnson vowed to address the structural inequity that pervades Chicago and fuels violent crime, calling high-performing schools, affordable housing and health care all violence prevention measures.

Although George Cardenas will not take his seat on the Board of Review until January, he said his resignation will take effect Nov. 30, giving the mayor a chance to conduct a “thorough search for his replacement.”

The Senate candidates faced off in the WTTW studio and wrangled over gun control, abortion and inflation.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said he had “zero tolerance” for police officers who are members of hate groups or associate with members of hate groups.

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, 46, launched his campaign in Cabrini Green’s Seward Park, near Jenner Academy Elementary School where he began his teaching career.

The last time the salary paid to Chicago’s mayor changed was in 2006, under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel was paid $216,210 in each of the eight years he served as mayor, and Lightfoot will be paid the same through her first term in office.

Ald. Sophia King serves as the Education Committee’s vice chair, and was set to become chair under the City Council’s rules before Mayor Lori Lightfoot attempted to replace her with an ally.

Both Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown have defended the decision to not to terminate the officer. The officer was “thoroughly investigated” and “given a lengthy period of suspension,” Lightfoot said.

Joel Brodsky represented Drew Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, when he was convicted in 2012 of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Peterson also was a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, who has never been found.

The upgrade is likely to boost efforts by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to convince Chicago City Council members to support her budget, which she hopes to pass on Nov. 7.

More than 3,600 immigrants, most of them from Venezuela, have arrived in Chicago since Aug. 31, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent the first bus of 75 people to Chicago. 

Approximately 62% of applicants have jobs, and nearly half have sought medical attention at a hospital’s emergency room in the past year, officials said. An initial lottery will identify 10,000 applicants to verify the information contained in their applications.

During the Chicago Police Department’s annual budget hearing, under intense questioning from members of the Chicago City Council, Brown said he had “zero tolerance” for police officers who are members of hate groups or associate with members of hate groups.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA, recommended that Officer Eric Stillman be fired for shooting Toledo in the instant that the 13-year-old turned toward him and put his hands in the air, according to the video of the incident.

Thanks to a “little-known loophole,” hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate investors have “siphoned” approximately $280 million from schools, parks, libraries, fire departments and other government agencies between September 2015 and September 2022 in Cook County. 

The FBI labeled the Proud Boys as an antisemitic white supremacy organization and several current and former members of the Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

One year after the Chicago City Council approved what Lightfoot calls the Chicago Recovery Plan, city officials have spent just $130.5 million of the $1.227 billion earmarked for a host of programs including affordable housing, mental health, violence prevention, youth job programs and help for unhoused Chicagoans, according to data released as part of the mayor’s 2023 budget proposal.

The FBI labeled the Proud Boys as an antisemitic white supremacy organization and several current and former members of the Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

The Community Development Commission sent the proposal to the Chicago Plan Commission, which is scheduled to consider the issue at its meeting scheduled for Oct. 20.

A coalition of progressive groups has been working for nearly a year to prevent Mayor Lori Lightfoot from being re-elected by uniting behind a single candidate. Nothing in the Lightfoot’s spending plan is likely to alter that determination — and may give them more ammunition to use against the mayor.

A vote on a measure that would strip members of the Chicago City Council of their authority to ban commercial property owners from hiring a firms to patrol their parking lots and swiftly immobilize cars that are parked there illegally was delayed. A familiar lobbyist and campaign cash factor into the debate. 

Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett faced pointed questions from members of the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee on Thursday about the "advanced pension payment" proposal.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to close a projected $170.6 million budget gap in 2023 relies on booming tax revenues that she said proves Chicago’s budget has fully recovered from the economic catastrophe caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.