The Latest Breaking News from Lori Lightfoot

CHICAGO — With days to go before Chicago’s mayoral election — and a virtual certainty that no one will win the seat outright — candidates are focused on turning out their political bases to secure a spot in the April 4 runoff.

For years, Republicans have sought to win over voters by depicting Democratic-led cities as lawless centers of violence that need tough-on-crime policies

The city’s first crisis response teams together have handled fewer than two calls a day. New 911 protocols are expected to lift that number.

Sneed: At 98 years old, America’s moral compass is in hospice care.

Today’s update is a five-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

A joint statement from Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Roberta Lynch, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, said the agreement would “improve the economic security and working lives of thousands of dedicated frontline” employees in about a dozen city departments.

If the vote total is close to the 556,758 mayoral ballots cast in 2019, the two hopefuls making the runoff are likely to get 20% each. But the four top-polling contenders each have a different formula to reach that benchmark.

It is historically significant that America’s four largest cities have Black mayors. Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and Sylvester Turner of Houston run municipalities where 18 million of us live. They are chief executives in charge of some of the most…

As thousands of Chicagoans took to the streets during 2020′s nationwide racial reckoning on policing, one word captured the fury of that summer: “Defund.”

CHICAGO — Since losing the 2019 mayor’s race, Paul Vallas has been a prolific poster on social media.

David Axelrod has helped to elect mayors, senators and the nation’s first Black president. While not ready to “write the epitaph” of incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot, he said: “She definitely has a very, very steep uphill climb.”