The program, which is expected to include 5,000 Chicago households, will study whether a universal basic income could reduce poverty in the city. Applications will close at 11:59 p.m. May 13.

With three community meetings complete, the roulette ball bounces back to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is expected to make her decision within the next two months and pick one of three proposed Chicago casino locations. 

Back in December 2020, the Fed’s policymakers had forecast that consumer inflation would stay below their 2% annual target and end 2021 at around 1.8%.Yet after having been merely an afterthought for decades, high inflation reasserted itself last year with brutal speed.

The Edgewater location brings the total to eight area Starbucks coffee shops seeking representation. Those workers are part of a rapidly expanding nationwide effort that organizers now say numbers 176 locations, 10 of which have voted in favor of joining a union.

Skeptical members of the Chicago City Council blasted the proposal as an election-year stunt that would benefit oil companies without offering Chicagoans real relief from the pain at the pump.

Democrats, who control the General Assembly, and therefore the budget process in the House, Senate and governor’s office have each offered different proposals with various forms of tax breaks. They aim to have their differences reconciled before Friday’s end, when the spring session is scheduled to adjourn.

The hearing comes as President Joe Biden has ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. 

Last year, shoppers paid roughly 6% more for their groceries than the year before. But it’s the cost of meat in particular that is behind much of the rise in our grocery bills. Beef is now some 20% more expensive than it was, while pork is up 14% and chicken around 7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The plan calls for offering residents 50,000 prepaid cards that will cover $150 worth of gas as well as 100,000 passes that will cover $50 worth of CTA fares. 

The White House said Biden is also calling on Congress to impose financial penalties on oil and gas companies that lease public lands but aren’t producing. And he intends to invoke the Defense Production Act to encourage the mining of critical minerals for batteries in electric vehicles, part of a broader push to shift toward cleaner energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels.

President Joe Biden has moved to ease price pressures through opening oil reserves. Some governors, including Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, have called on the federal government to temporarily lift its tax on gasoline, though Illinois’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker was not a signatory to a letter making that request.

“Budgets are statements of values,” President Biden said in a statement, “and the budget I am releasing today sends a clear message that we value fiscal responsibility, safety and security at home and around the world, and the investments needed to continue our equitable growth and build a better America.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not expect to pick one of the three finalists and ask the Chicago City Council to ratify her decision until early summer, a significant delay since the fall, officials said.

The wilder action was in oil and Asian stock markets, where tightened anti-COVID measures in China are raising worries about demand for energy and about disruptions to manufacturing and global trade. Oil prices tumbled more than 8%, taking some pressure off the world’s high inflation, and a barrel of U.S. crude fell below $95 after starting the week above $109. 

Although the United States barely uses Russian oil, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still a big factor in the gas-price spike — among other reasons.

While the increase in the cost at the pump — or in the check-out line — impacts everyone, those who were already operating on a tight budget may be feeling the impact most acutely.