Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended her record on police reform at the WTTW News mayoral forum and accused her challengers of throwing “bombs from the cheap seats.”

The race for mayor is heating up and the attack ads are beginning to fly but in a nine-candidate field, how do you stand out from the crowd? Political analyst Jason DeSanto says math, message and money should be the focus. 

It is nearly unprecedented for City Council committee chairs to urge the defeat of the mayor that hand-picked them for their high-profile positions, which comes with power at City Hall and an annual budget of nearly $200,000.

Sean Estelle told WTTW News they believed they were “politically targeted” because their remarks angered Mayor Lori Lightfoot. 

The former Wadsworth Elementary School had been set to open as a shelter in early January, but an uproar forced Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to delay her plans for nearly a month as she and other city officials sought to address concerns from residents.

Tensions rose at this week's Chicago mayoral forum. Our politics team weighs in on that story and more.

A years-long effort by the Norfolk Southern Railway to double the size of its storage yard in Englewood finally got signal clearance.

The unsigned advisory opinion, issued Monday by the Chicago Board of Ethics, was prompted by a spate of campaign ads showing uniformed Chicago police officers and several complaints, officials said.

In a joint statement with ComEd released hours before she officially presented the massive deal to the City Council, Lightfoot touted the agreement as “a big win for Chicago” that will “accelerate an equitable transition to clean, renewable energy.”

Paul Vallas is a Democrat, but acknowledged that the Democratic Party has moved away from him on some issues, including charter schools.

The Chicago City Council could vote on the deal as soon as March 1 – one day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot and City Council members ask voters for new four-year terms in office.

At least 168 teachers received the email from Megan Crane, whose LinkedIn page identifies her as the deputy campaign manager for Lightfoot, starting at 8:33 a.m. on Jan. 11 and continuing for several hours, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

A spokesperson for the Jesús “Chuy” García campaign told WTTW News the ad was revised out of an “abundance of caution.”

A majority of candidates hoping to oust Mayor Lori Lightfoot from City Hall’s fifth floor office have pledged to reopen public mental health clinics. Lightfoot said her network of nonprofit Trauma-Informed Centers of Care provide better and more accessible service. 

The facility includes a “scenario village” that features multiple two- and three-flat residential brick buildings complete with fences, curbs, alleys, sidewalks, yards, back stairways, porches, basements and garages. It will also include a new 18,000-square-foot location Boys & Girls Club and two restaurants. 

The Chicago Board of Ethics voted unanimously to ask both the Chicago inspector general and the Chicago Public Schools inspector general to probe emails sent by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign to CPS teachers and City Colleges instructors.