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.

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.

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.

Approximately 1,500 men, women and children are sleeping in thin tents outside police stations across the city, officials said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is backing the creation of a new subcommittee to study reparations and is agreeing to earmark $500,000 in his 2024 spending plan to fund the panel’s work.

The newly created Department of Reentry would have a budget of $5 million and four employees charged with helping formerly incarcerated individuals in Chicago get what “they need to thrive in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

“I felt like I was back in the South,” said Ald. Emma Mitts, who grew up in Arkansas, during the era of Jim Crow. “I felt like everything in me was shaking.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the resolution of the fraught debate is an example of his collaborative approach to governance, and that he would continue to work with Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) and residents to address any problems that arise.

Under the version approved, Chicago employers would have to give workers five sick days and five days of paid time off for any reason.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first spending plan eliminates a $538 million shortfall and prioritizes new investments in affordable housing, mental health services and environmental justice.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa said in a statement that he allowed tensions at Thursday's special City Council meeting “to get the better of me and act in a way unbecoming of a leader.”

Former Ald. Ed Burke entered the Dirksen United States Courthouse for the first time since June 2019 accompanied by his wife, former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Burke, and a phalanx of attorneys.

For many Chicagoans, the quiet pre-dawn hours are regularly interrupted by the sound of noisy — and illegal — early morning pickups by private garbage hauling companies. A proposed ordinance aims to fix that. 

Former Ald. Ed Burke, once the most powerful member of the City Council, is scheduled to go on trial starting on Monday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on 14 charges of bribery, extortion and racketeering — charges that are usually brought against members of the mob or street gangs.

Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) said he was “highly disappointed” by the decision by the mayor’s office to open a migrant shelter in his ward, but acknowledged he could not stop the proposal.

An ordinance amendment would require library hosts to obtain a permit before setting up a “public bookcase” in the public way, and would limit permit holders to institutions.