The Latest Breaking News from Lori Lightfoot

Chicago City Council members can select who they want on committees and who should lead them. State law and the city’s own rules clearly spell out they have that power. They just have always opted out and have given the mayor their blessing to do their bidding.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled a plan Monday to revive the LaSalle Street corridor, a key downtown office district that suffered the double whammy of COVID-19 and the loss of several large firms to new towers rising farther west along Wacker Drive and in Fulton Market.

While Mayor Lori Lightfoot has touted the new school to serve Chinatown and other neighborhoods, CPS alumni and even staff inside CPS fear it will do damage to existing schools that serve predominantly African American students.

The Lightfoot administration is offering tax incentives to developers who want to change the “monoculture” of office buildings by converting some to residential use.

Oversight of how the summary closure ordinance is enforced after a violent crime and its overall effectiveness is greatly needed if this program is to continue forward.

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

The Better Government Association published a policy statement Friday renewing its call for the City Council to shed its reputation as a rubber stamp for Chicago mayors.

Since 2015, the Chicago Police Department has shut down at least 58 businesses, most on the South Side and West Side, after shootings at or near their premises even as violence surged downtown.

“If a voluntary resolution can’t be reached, HUD may initiate administrative proceedings or refer this matter to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement,” the agency says.

Ald. Jim Gardiner — a Chicago firefighter on a leave of absence — is accusing the mayor, with whom he has clashed repeatedly, of scrapping a CFD promotion list because he was second in line to be promoted to lieutenant.

The name was part of an emotional and potentially high-risk coming out for Timmy Knudsen after he graduated law school and joined a buttoned-down Chicago firm he was not at all certain would welcome an openly-gay attorney.