Chicago spent $197.7 million to resolve lawsuits alleging more than 1,000 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Of that total, $91.3 million came from settlements involving 116 officers whose conduct led to multiple payouts.

Mayor Brandon Johnson joined CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates at Beidler Elementary School on the city’s West Side early Monday as kids began the 2023-24 school year.

Chief Larry Snelling, tapped by Mayor Brandon Johnson to lead the Chicago Police Department, served as an expert witness in more than two dozen civil and criminal cases involving police officers, according to court records reviewed by WTTW News.

During his campaign for mayor, Brandon Johnson promised to fire Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, and Friday night, he did just that — setting off a wave of recriminations and outrage.

Cook County residents are now eligible for assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, officials said.

“This is an extremely important day for the city,” Snelling said Monday. “For people who grew up like I did — a resident of Englewood and a student of the Chicago Public Schools — I want you to know the possibilities are limitless.”

Larry Snelling, a longtime Chicago Police Department insider with a decades-long career in law enforcement, has been tapped to lead the department as the city’s next top cop.

Dr. Allison Arwady was the public face of Chicago’s response throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the pandemic, she hosted online question-and-answer sessions twice a week and frequently briefed the news media.

This weekend will mark the end of Johnson’s 30-day window to pick the next superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from a list of three finalists: Angel Novalez, the head of CPD’s office of constitutional policing and reform; Larry Snelling, the chief of CPD’s counterterrorism bureau; and Shon Barnes, the police chief in Madison, Wisconsin.

City officials announced the lawsuit had been filed Thursday against Vision Property Management, LLC, its successor FTE Networks, Inc., and other affiliates in Cook County Circuit Court.

“No one was moved as a result of Lollapalooza,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday. “We are transitioning people into shelters. As a city, do we want people living in police stations? Is that acceptable? It’s not.”

The renovation process, which is slated to begin in the coming weeks, is set to be divided into multiple phases that will extend across the next four years as the aquarium introduces new learning studios and exhibits and renovates its existing gardens and entrance points.

“We are writing enormous checks and leaving a tremendous opportunity for reform on the table,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. “It is a staggering amount of money.”

Supporters of the proposal say the change will help the nearly 66,000 Chicagoans who are unhoused by generating approximately $160 million annually — enough to address the root causes of homelessness by building new permanent housing that offers wraparound services like substance abuse counseling.

Nearly 12,000 people, most of them from Central and South America, have arrived in Chicago in the past 11 months, stretching the city’s safety net beyond its breaking point.

At the first meeting of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new Board of Education, members announced a host of sweeping changes aimed at improving transparency, community engagement and elevating issues important to stakeholders.