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Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on a pledge to end Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees, is counting on a big increase in city collections from speeding tickets and other violations to balance her 2021 budget. And she wants part of the boost to the bottom line to come from speed cameras across Chicago issuing speeding tickets to drivers caught going as little as 6 miles per hour over the posted limit. Under the mayor’s proposal, as part of her 2021 budget package, anyone caught by a camera driving from 6 to 9 mph above the limit would get a...

Mayor Proposes Cutting 614 Positions From Chicago PD If Federal Stimulus Doesn’t Get Approved Holly Matkin Chicago, IL – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has proposed a budget plan that includes eliminating over 600 positions within the city’s police department as part of an effort to offset the unprecedented $1.2 billion shortfall anticipated for next year. Lightfoot said that eliminating 1,921 vacant positions within city government would save a total of $106 million, WBBM reported. Over half of the jobs she plans to slash would be tied to the Chicago Police Department (CPD), which would see a loss of 614 positions...

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a business curfew will begin Friday in the city of Chicago. Citing a “surge” in coronavirus cases in the city of Chicago, Lightfoot said indoor bar service will be suspended and non-essential business will close nightly at 10 p.m. Liquor sales will end at 9 p.m. Gatherings will be limited to six people or less. The restrictions will be in place for two weeks.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is considering a $94 million property tax increase, layoffs for more than 300 city workers and a gas tax hike as part of her plan to close a $1.2 billion budget deficit, sources told the Tribune. Lightfoot also is considering about $500 million in refinancing city debt to help close the deficit, sources said.

According to Chicago Police records, Hollingsworth has been arrested nine times since 2014. In 2016, he served jail time for a felony gun possession charge. He was also arrested for domestic battery in Will County in September 2019. Hollingsworth faces a jury trial on Nov. 24, according to the Will County Clerk. A July 6 Chicago Tribune profile of Hollingsworth reported that he has worked most recently as a boxer and exotic dancer. He is paid $1,000 per day under the contract with WBC. Hollingsworth, 33, drew the attention of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after he attended a series of...

As a candidate and then mayor, Lori Lightfoot has spoken often of her ambition to fully reinvent Chicago’s approach to combating its stubborn violence problem. Key to those plans are anti-violence organizations, including those that intervene in disputes or toss lifelines to people likely to kill or die. She said last year that those outreach groups were “fundamentally critical to what we’re doing,” as she seeks to treat violence as a public health crisis. “We will make sure they have the resources they need to be successful,” she said. More than 16 months into her term, however, Lightfoot’s plan to...

Concerned about the use of the word "riot" to describe the property destruction, assaults, and looting that have emerged amid the so-called "mostly peaceful" protests in many of this country's major cities, the Associated Press' "Stylebook" wants reporters to stop using the word. According to the newly revised Stylebook, "the word 'riot' connotes a wild, disorderly, and unfocused violence and mayhem. Use of this word doesn't do justice to the underlying grievances that led to the violence and mayhem. A better word would be to describe these occurrences as 'unrest.' Unrest is a vaguer, milder and less emotional term for...

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired back at President Trump on Tuesday night after he skewered her city as a hotbed of crime and violence during a presidential campaign debate against Joe Biden. The Windy City had 58 shootings and eight deaths during a single recent weekend, the president argued.

https://twitter.com/WGNNews/status/1311738109978173440

I keep seeing on Facebook that the economic carnage is not the fault of Lightfoot or Gov Fat Boy per libs because it was done in the name of "safety". That its the virus that did it. I do not understand that line of thinking nor willing to figure out where they think that is correct. Its insane. I argue back with no luck.

Chicago Police officers have waited more than three years for a new contract and the retroactive pay raise that comes with it. The first substantive offer they got from Mayor Lori Lightfoot was hardly worth the wait, according to their fiery union president. Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said he stormed away from Tuesday’s long-awaited negotiating session after the mayor’s team offered his members the same 10% pay raise over four years already awarded to Chicago firefighters in exchange for higher health care contributions — but tacked on 17 pages, including 40 disciplinary reforms. Catanzara was so insulted...

The nation’s largest police union, along with its Chicago chapter, has endorsed Republican President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, potentially helping to boost his law-and-order message. While the endorsement might have been expected, it further illustrates a division between law enforcement and protesters who for months have railed against police brutality and called for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The endorsement isn’t likely to hold much sway for Trump in heavily Democratic Chicago, but John Catanzara, president of the local FOP and an outspoken Trump backer, is happy to antagonize the likes...

At least 16 people were shot, two fatally, Friday through Saturday afternoon in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. NBC 5 reports the gun violence began Friday at 8:50 p.m., with a non-fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man, who was shot in the hand and back. A four-year-old boy was also among those injured Friday. He was standing outside with an 18-year-old woman in the 8600 block of South Honore “when an unknown male inside a passing Dodge Challenger opened fire” just before 11:30 p.m. The boy was shot in the leg and the woman was shot in the back. Both...

Aldermen on Wednesday took up the politically charged idea of asking Gov. J.B. Pritzker to call in the National Guard to patrol violence-plagued Chicago streets. Even if the committee and the full City Council pass the resolution, however, it’s simply a request of Pritzker to declare a state of emergency in Chicago, and he would be hard-pressed to call in the guard without Mayor Lori Lightfoot asking him to do so. Lightfoot has taken a dim view of the idea, and her hand-picked police superintendent, David Brown, testified against it Wednesday. Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, the Lightfoot critic...

An activist accused people upset over the recent looting in downtown Chicago of being upset about the wrong thing during a recent press conference. “People are worried about looting and there are literal lives being taken away? There are people who are dying and y’all are mad about looting Mag Mile? Get over it!” Alycia Moaton said at the event hosted by the group GoodKids MadCity. (Twitter/BLMChicago) (tweet not linked) She continued: These buildings are insured. Materials will come back, but we will not come back if they kill us. What do y’all not get about that? Gucci, Apple store,...

In the ongoing effort to get control of the city’s streets, Mayor Lori Lightfoot staged a news conference last Friday that was meant to make a statement. Standing on a platform in Olive Park, offset by a sapphire Lake Michigan on a topaz-sky day, the Magnificent Mile’s skyscrapers served as backdrop. Aldermen, clergy, federal and state law enforcement officials all stood as socially distanced props. Lightfoot even invited Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to stand within shouting distance of her new police superintendent, David Brown. Days earlier, Foxx had called out Brown and Lightfoot for “dishonest blame games,” after...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended the Chicago Police Department banning protesters from the block where she lives, citing her right to safety.

Four Chicago aldermen on Wednesday called for a special meeting of the City Council to consider a resolution asking Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to declare a state of emergency and deploy the Illinois National Guard to the city over recent violence and looting. Alds. Leslie Hairston, Anthony Beale, Raymond Lopez and Anthony Napolitano issued the call in a letter to Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia. The letter calls for a special meeting of the Chicago City Council at 10 a.m. on Friday to take up a resolution calling for the state of emergency and to hear from city and Cook...

Lightfoot refused to elaborate on the specific threats, but said she receives them daily against herself, her wife and her home. Comparisons to how the Police Department has protected previous mayors’ homes, such as Rahm Emanuel’s Ravenswood residence, are unfair because “this is a different time like no other,” Lightfoot told reporters.

Riding in trucks and U-Hauls, vandals came to Chicago. They jammed the Magnificent Mile, the city’s most important shopping district. They came prepared with tools to pry open gates and take all the merchandise that they could pack. It was a strike directed at the heart of the city. For months, the state’s attorney, the mayor, and the governor—have failed to condemn criminals or act with necessary force against such violence. They have contributed to a culture of impunity that tolerates mobs and hoodlums. Kim Foxx has already become nationally notorious for refusing to prosecute Jussie Smollett, a provocateur who...