Annette Nance-Holt's pending confirmation will be “yet another crack in that glass ceiling,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.
Chicago Fire Department
The inspector general released an audit earlier this week that found that the department’s rules designed to prevent discrimination and sexual harassment are “insufficient.”
Policies governing the Chicago Fire Department—which is 90% male and 66% white—may comply with federal, state and local laws but they “are insufficient,” according to an audit released Wednesday by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was disappointed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law that gives a subset of Chicago firefighters the same retirement package as their peers, saying it will “result in a deeper financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago.” Days earlier, he signed another law Lightfoot had pressured him to reject.
Some retired firefighters could see their pensions grow after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a measure to boost the annual cost-of-living increase added to their checks. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the measure would create an “unfunded mandate” that would force Chicago officials to raise taxes or cut services.
Aldermen advanced an agreement Thursday that would give Chicago firefighters $95 million in back pay, but puts off fraught negotiations over how fire stations should be staffed.
The family of a 55-year-old Chicago man who died five hours after paramedics were called to his West Garfield Park home but left without treating him should be paid $200,000, city lawyers recommended.
More members of the Chicago Police Department have become ill than any other city department during the pandemic, with 414 officers testing positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, according to city data.
While most Chicago residents are staying home to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19, the city’s first responders are as busy as ever – and they’ve been hit hard.
The Chicago Fire Department has long been overwhelmingly white, but that’s changing, in part due to discrimination lawsuits and, more recently, with the help of group that mentors and trains young first responders.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel says there could be “serious consequences” after five Chicago Fire Department paramedics filed a lawsuit alleging ongoing sexual harassment in the workplace.
A federal discrimination lawsuit filed Tuesday against the city demonstrates what five women describe as a “culture” of sexual harassment and discrimination within the Chicago Fire Department.
Paris Schutz and his panel discuss the disciplining of 22 Chicago police officers for dash-cam violations, calls for a federal probe of the Chicago Fire Department and the mayor’s reversal on an investigation into the City Law Department.
Chicago's black firefighters and paramedics are calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to replace Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago. The group, represented by the African-American Firefighters and Paramedics League, is also asking the U.S. Department of Justice to expand its investigation into the Chicago Police Department to include the Chicago Fire Department.
Smoke filled the streets and skies of Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood this morning as an extra-alarm fire engulfed Harry’s Lumber Company in flames for the second time in 25 years.
The Chicago City Council has ordered the Chicago Fire Department to investigate an apparent shortage of ambulances and paramedics. We talk with former Chicago firefighter Ald. Nick Sposato (36th) about the order. Read an interview with Better Government Association investigative reporter Patrick Rehkamp about the implications of fewer ambulances in the city.
