City Council
Leonardo Guerrero, 44, died at an Uptown hospital on Aug. 31, 2022, after his heart stopped in a Chicago Fire Department ambulance.
Nine cases alleging Chicagoans were hit or killed during a police chase that violated department policy cost taxpayers more than $75 million to resolve between Jan. 1 and July 31, according to WTTW News’ analysis.
Botched raids by the Chicago Police Department have cost taxpayers more than $5.5 million since 2020, according to a WTTW News analysis.
Eric Blackmon was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Tony Cox, who was killed on the West Side in what police believed was a gang-related shooting.
If approved, it would bring the total amount spent by taxpayers in 2025 to compensate those wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police officers to $164.2 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.
Chicago firefighters and paramedics — who are prohibited from striking — have been working under the terms of a contract that expired in 2021.
Even though Chicago’s 2025 budget included $500,000 for the program, the effort will not move forward after the City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee, meeting in a joint session with the Transportation Committee, rejected officials’ plan to plow sidewalks in two small parts of the city.
A budget forecast for 2026 projects a $1.15 billion deficit for the city, driven by the end of one-time federal pandemic aid and continued uncertainty over pension payments for Chicago Public Schools employees.
The measure reverses the city’s 68-year ban on tiny homes but creates a patchwork of regulations that could significantly differ from ward to ward in order to uphold the decades-old tradition known as aldermanic prerogative.
Chicago taxpayers will pay $90 million in the first-ever global settlement of lawsuits tied to a single Chicago police officer, under the agreement approved Thursday, to 180 people who spent nearly 200 years in prison.
The 29-year-old, who is better known as Red, was immediately sworn in to office on a Bible held by his father, who represented parts of the West Side and the West Loop for 30 years on the Chicago City Council before he stepped down in July.
The unanimous vote by the City Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee means a yearslong fight to prevent longtime residents from being pushed out of South Shore is one step away from victory.
A compromise proposal to allow Chicagoans to build basement, attic and coach house dwellings across the city would still give alderpeople the final say over whether the tiny homes could be built in their wards, officials said.
The report offers “89 preliminary options to improve operations, generate new revenue, and pursue strategic opportunities, all while preserving city services” that could add between $1 billion and $2.1 billion to the city’s bottom line.
A final vote on both proposals, which would create 786 new homes, including 237 units of affordable housing, is set for the Sept. 25 City Council meeting.
The first global settlement of lawsuits tied to a single officer is now set for a final vote by the full Chicago City Council on Sept. 25.