Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Chicago Sun-Times: New property tax increases hit Hispanic wards hardest in Chicago
Most Cook County property owners will see a larger tax bill this year, but owners in gentrifying Latino neighborhoods in Chicago will see some of the biggest hikes.
Some will see tax bills three times as large.
WTTW: Lightfoot Hit with Ethics Complaint After Taking $25K Donation from Chicago Fire Owner Involved in Training Facility Land Swap
Mayor Lori Lightfoot should be investigated for accepting a $25,000 contribution to her re-election campaign from Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto, according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Chicago Board of Ethics and the Chicago Inspector General’s Office.
That donation came 57 days after the Chicago City Council approved a proposal Lightfoot backed to turn over some 26 acres of Chicago Housing Authority land to the Chicago Fire Football Club.
The Center Square: SAFE-T Act amendments include denying pretrial release for serious crimes
Changes to the SAFE-T Act’s no-cash bail provision set to take effect Jan. 1 have been filed and Illinois state lawmakers are aiming to get it across the finish line on the final day of veto session Thursday.
The measure was passed in early January 2021 along with other provisions of the SAFE-T Act. While there have been several trailer bills since then, concerns have been raised about conflicting language leading to its implementation as well as what crimes are and are not eligible for pretrial release.
Chicago Sun-Times: Ald. Lopez wants probe into Fire owner’s $25K contribution to Mayor Lori Lightfoot
Former mayoral challenger Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) on Wednesday asked Chicago’s Board of Ethics and inspector general to investigate Mayor Lori Lightfoot for accepting a $25,000 contribution from the owner of the Chicago Fire two months after she muscled through a zoning change allowing the soccer club to build an $80 million training center on Chicago Housing Authority land.
In a letter to IG Deborah Witzburg and Ethics Board Executive Director Steve Berlin, Lopez, who dropped his mayoral bid last week, said he believes the contribution from billionaire Joe Mansueto, founder and majority owner of Morningstar Inc., “represents a gross & familiar abuse of power and, at minimum, a potential violation” of the city’s ethics ordinance.
Capitol News Illinois: Contempt citations against DCFS director reversed by appellate court
An appellate court on Wednesday reversed several contempt of court citations that were filed in recent months against Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith for failing to comply with court orders to place state wards in appropriate settings.
The court found that Smith did not willfully ignore a Cook County judge’s order to move children who were discharged from psychiatric hospitals into group homes or residential settings. He was just unable to do it.
Chicago Tribune: 4 things driving up Chicago property tax bills
Tax bills are landing in mailboxes across Cook County — you can also find yours online — meaning home and business owners will finally know how much of the county’s $16.7 billion bill they’ll be picking up.
That overall figure is about 4% higher than last year. In its annual analysis of all 1.8 million bills, Treasurer Maria Pappas’ office — the one that sends those bills out — sought to identify what was driving those taxes up.
Chicago Sun-Times: CPD whistleblower: ‘I did what was right and I got screwed.’
Senior leadership of the Chicago Police Department were largely silent as detectives argued over whether or not to charge an unarmed autistic teenager with assaulting an off-duty officer who had shot the teen early on an August morning in 2017. But that changed more than a year later when they demanded case reports back up the officer’s claim he’d felt threatened before opening fire, veteran officer Isaac Lambert testified Wednesday.