Fran Spielman

Council members who oppose Brandon Johnson's proposed budget and its corporate head tax showed Wednesday that they have more than the 26 votes needed to pass their alternate spending plan, which steers clear of short-term financial fixes that threaten Chicago’s beleaguered bond rating.

Federal officials ordered the CTA to develop an enhanced security plan by next week in response to the burning of a woman aboard a Blue Line train last month.

Mayor Brandon Johnson challenged dissenting City Council members who want to nearly double Chicago's $9.50 a month garbage collection fee to see whether they have the 26 votes needed for passage. The mayor said he is open to compromise on his corporate head tax.

Virtually all of the ideas from a small group of moderate and conservative alderpersons, with help from a brain trust of civic groups and former city finance experts, were dismissed by Johnson's team as either unwise or unworkable.

Robert Smith Jr. was tortured into confessing to a double murder he didn’t commit by the “midnight crew” trained by notorious Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. Smith was released from prison in 2020 and has since been granted a certificate of innocence.

The mayor accused City Council members working on an alternate spending plan of “playing games with working people."

The plan being crafted by City Council moderates and conservatives is likely to hold the line on property taxes, but increase the $9.50 a month garbage collection fee that has been frozen since its 2015 inception.

Without city funding, group counseling programs now serving 1,400 Chicago Public School students in 33 schools will end on Dec. 31.

“This individual was charged with dozens of felonies over the past three decades," Mayor Brandon Johnson told a City Hall press conference. "He was clearly seriously mentally disturbed and was a danger to himself and to others. The system that we had failed to intervene."

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) told the City Club of Chicago Wednesday that Johnson could use his veto to thwart any budget proposal that eliminates his proposed head tax and replaces the $100 million in lost revenue with a property tax increase, higher garbage collection fees, and other alternate revenue…