The Latest Breaking News from Tom Tunney

“I’ve been here for two-and-a-half years. It feels like 10,” Brown tells alderpersons at a City Council budget hearing.

“There should be a team dedicated to this district, in the area of the entertainment districts for Halsted and Clark streets,” said Maureen Martino, executive director of the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is pushing for a final City Council vote on her financing plan before Dec. 31 to meet the requirement for federal matching funds. But it could be a rough ride, judging from the earful Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox got about the project while testifying at…

She succeeds David Axelrod. Two things you didn’t know: Heidi isn’t her real first name. And she grew up in a town so small that “my family was one-tenth” its total population.

Adam Gross, executive director of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, told City Council members that out of 14 positions in the 2022 budget, only one other person besides Gross is “hired and on staff.”

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.

The 36-11 vote came after a debate over the project’s merits in an area beset by poverty and whether the land could be better used for public housing.

With seven alderpersons absent, the zoning committee votes it down but is expected to try again Wednesday,

Ald. Andre Vasquez is not one of 17 council members who have declined the latest pay raise. But he’s not oblivious to the pre-election dilemma. In fact, he’s proposing a cap of 5% or the inflation rate, whichever is yes.

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

The owner of Ann Sather’s Restaurants who was Chicago’s first openly-gay alderperson is leaving the workplace he called “not a good place to work these days.”