Mayor Brandon Johnson said state officials have not worked fast enough to help migrants move out of Chicago’s shelters into permanent homes, or fulfill promises to open 2,000 new shelter beds.
City Council
The full Chicago City Council is set to vote Wednesday on the proposal crafted by Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th Ward), who has been fighting the proliferation of dollar stores for nearly a decade.
Two Chicago Fire Department paramedics found the former Marine “face down on the floor” but failed to provide emergency medical care or take him to a nearby hospital, according to the lawsuit filed by his family.
Mayor Brandon Johnson will not evict migrants from city shelters until at least Feb. 1, suspending the 60-day limit he imposed for the second time in less than a week, a city spokesperson said.
“The next few days are a threat to the families and children you are sending here” because of the bitterly cold weather, Gov. J.B. Pritzker told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“I’d like to think it will serve as a deterrent,” Elmhurst University professor Constance Mixon said. “But none of the other 37 convictions served as a deterrent. It ought to make people think twice. But I don’t know. I’d like to be optimistic.”
The tally, which includes all invoices paid through Dec. 15, defies predictions released by city officials in mid-October that the cost of the migrant crisis to taxpayers would top $361 million by the end of 2023.
The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance allowing officials to impound buses bringing migrants to the city outside official hours and landing zones. It’s led multiple suburbs to follow in Chicago’s footsteps by passing similar emergency policies.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first budget, which took effect Monday, includes no new taxes, fees or service cuts. Johnson now must make good on his promise to use the city’s $16.7 billion spending plan as a down payment on investments in working-class Chicagoans.
Chicago firefighters rescued multiple people from a fire that broke out on the sixth floor of an Uptown high-ride Friday morning.
Former Ald. Ed Burke (14th Ward) was convicted Thursday of 13 of 14 counts of racketeering, bribery and extortion, bringing his landmark corruption trial to an end with a verdict that delivered a searing indictment of Chicago’s political system, which Burke used to amass power for half a century.
The jury asked two questions on Tuesday and none on Wednesday. In all, they have deliberated for approximately 18 hours across three days and are set to resume Thursday morning.
The first communication from the jury came approximately an hour into deliberations on Tuesday and focused on one of the charges facing one of Ed Burke’s codefendants, businessman Charles Cui.
The report from Lisle-based A3E Consulting recommends “additional investigation” of the 6.5 acres of land surrounding a vacant Jewel-Osco grocery store on the border between Morgan Park and West Roseland.
Deliberations began Monday afternoon after U.S. District Court Judge Virgina Kendall spent more than three hours reading more than 300 pages of jury instructions.
By contrast, Burke’s attorney portrayed the former alderperson as a “good man” and a dedicated public servant who relished his ability to move the city’s bureaucracy and “thrived on connecting the right people.”
