Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Chicago Sun*Times’ Category

Obama Presidential Center helped by $123 million in public infrastructure improvements

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Cook, County, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Look For The Union Label, Politics, Taxes on May 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The former Cornell Drive, which ran between the Obama Presidential Center’s museum tower and the lagoon, was removed as part of the campus’ publicly-funded infrastructure improvements. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

By Lee Bey | Chicago Sun*Times

When the Obama Presidential Center opens next month, and its funders are honored and congratulated, there are two major financial contributors worthy of a bow or two: Chicago and Illinois taxpayers.

The Chicago Department of Transportation said it has spent $123.3 million since 2022 on capital projects aimed at remaking the roadways and green space in Jackson Park and around the center.

And there’s still more work to be done. The final public infrastructure costs are likely to approach $200 million.

The costs are not part of the presidential center’s privately-funded $850 million price tag.

“The Chicago Department of Transportation has delivered a series of roadway and mobility improvements in and around Jackson Park in coordination with the Obama Presidential Center,” CDOT said in a statement to the Sun-Times.

One major change included ripping up a half-mile of Cornell Drive between Midway Plaisance and Hayes Drive. The center’s landscape architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, turned what was an obtrusive six-lane highway ripping through Jackson Park into walkable green space that links the Obama campus to the park’s historic lagoon to the east.

Other projects included adding a third southbound lane on DuSable Lake Shore Drive between 57th and Hayes drives; reworking Hayes Drive east of Stony Island Avenue that involved reconfiguring intersections at Cornell, Richards and DuSable Lake Shore drives; and adding a pump station to help fix flooding at the 59th Street pedestrian underpass.

Article continues here.

Read Full Post »

Mayor Johnson determined to block Bears’ move to Arlington Heights

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Dumb Bunny, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, Overhead, Politics, Property Taxes, Public Safety, Real Estate, Springfield, Taxes, The Chicago Way, Unions on May 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Rendering of the proposed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights. | Provided by Manica Architecture

By Fran Spielman | Chicago Sun*Times

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.

Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.

“If we’re asking anyone to tighten the belt, we should look at whose belt is exploding — and that’s the ultra-rich. As their bellies get fat and our people are starving, this is not the time to balance the budget off the backs of working people,” the mayor said at his weekly news conference.

“The type of tax structure that they would set up for large corporations and billionaires without a clear pathway to provide certainty as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that’s a mismatch there. And quite frankly, the infrastructure they’re even discussing in the suburbs — those infrastructure needs have been present on the lakefront for a very long time.”

Hours before joining fellow Chicago-area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House on April 22.

Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to Northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.

Article continues here.

Read Full Post »

Top Illinois Democrats call U.S. Supreme Court ruling on voting rights a ‘crushing blow to our democracy’

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Elections, Immigration, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Springfield on April 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Gov. JB Pritzker is speaking out about the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a voting map in Louisiana, which opens the door for other states to redistrict their maps. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said on Wednesday that a proposed state constitutional amendment on redistricting will not advance this legislative session so that legal experts can review the ruling and evaluate the best response for Illinois.

By Tina Sfondeles | Chicago Sun*Times

Former President Barack Obama and key Illinois Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker and Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, are condemning Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to dilute a Voting Rights Act provision, which is likely to lead to redistricting across the country and could help Republicans continue to control the House.

The Supreme Court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, diluting a Civil Rights-era law aimed at increasing minority representation in Congress and elsewhere. In the 6-3 ruling, the court’s majority found the Louisiana district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields relied too heavily on race. Justice Samuel Alito called the map “an unconstitutional gerrymander.”

The ruling is likely to impact elections in 2028, since many filing deadlines for this year’s elections have passed, including in Illinois. Louisiana may have to change its redistricting plan to comply with the ruling, however.

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said on Wednesday a proposed state constitutional amendment on redistricting will not advance this legislative session so that legal experts can review the ruling and evaluate the best response for Illinois.

Obama said the ruling “effectively guts a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act, freeing state legislatures to gerrymander legislative districts to systematically dilute and weaken the voting power of racial minorities — so long as they do it under the guise of ‘partisanship’ rather than explicit ‘racial bias.’”

The former president said in a statement that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court is “abandoning its vital role in ensuring equal participation in our democracy and protecting the rights of minority groups against majority overreach.”

Article continues here.

Read Full Post »

The Academy Is… releases first new album in 18 years, gears up for Warped Tour

Posted in Barrington High School, Chicago Sun*Times, Entertainment on March 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Out March 27, “Almost There” is the Barrington pop-punk band’s first album in 18 years, and a lot of the tracks memorialize the moments when the city felt like the band’s oyster.

By  Selena Fragassi | Chicago Sun*Times

The Academy Is… has a new album, “Almost There,” coming out March 27 on indie label I Surrender Records. | Jonathan Weber

As William Beckett took the stage at Madison Square Garden in 2024, it all came rushing back.

The lead vocalist of The Academy Is… was there to join old pals Fall Out Boy for a special cover of the Barrington pop-punk band’s song “Slow Down.” But despite playing the holy grail of concert venues, Beckett was thinking about the small suburban Chicago basements, VFW halls and Fireside Bowl where the two groups spent many nights during a time when the emo/pop-punk scene felt like the actual soundtrack of the city.

“It was just so cool to reconnect with them and to see how much hasn’t changed from the VFW Hall days,” Beckett recently said during a Zoom call from his home in Barrington, where the band is getting ready to release its new album “Almost There.” Out March 27, it’s the band’s first album in 18 years, and a lot of the tracks memorialize the moments when the city felt like the band’s oyster.

He’s not far from Barrington High School, where The Academy Is… was founded in 2003 and soon wound up on a roller coaster of MTV and Warped Tour loops with aughts hits like “About a Girl” and “We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands.” In fact, a lot of it is thanks to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, who championed The Academy Is… early on and helped to get the band signed to tastemaker label Fueled By Ramen. The two acts have been closely associated ever since. But for Beckett, that scene still feels as raw as day one. “It still exists in this way that is almost untouchable, like it exists beyond time.”

It’s a feeling that he and his The Academy Is… bandmates (bassist Adam Siska, guitarist Mike Carden and drummer Andy Mrotek) bottle up in their daydreamy new single “2005.” The lyrics throw it back to that summer, with Beckett singing about driving downtown while listening to Saves The Day’s 2001 opus “Stay What You Are.” At the same time, he wonders about bringing “TAI back from the dead,” which they effectively do with “Almost There.”

The seeds for the album were planted during a series of recent reunion shows, including Riot Fest 2022 and the elder millennial gathering When We Were Young in 2023 — the band’s first since calling it quits in 2015. And the band members found themselves looking back at the good ol’ days and wondering if they ever really appreciated it all.

Article continues here.

Read Full Post »

Family launches fundraiser for woman set on fire on CTA Blue Line

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Crime, Fundraisers on November 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The family of a 26-year-old woman attacked and set on fire on a CTA Blue Line train Nov. 17 has started a GoFundMe to help with her recovery. | GoFundMe

The 26-year-old woman suffered severe burns after the Nov. 17 attack near the CTA Clark and Lake station. The fundraiser had raised nearly $230,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.

By  Sun-Times Wire

The family of a 26-year-old woman attacked on a Blue Line train this month has launched a fundraiser as she faces “a long road ahead” toward her recovery.

Bethany MaGee is being treated at a hospital for severe burns she suffered when a man poured gasoline on her and set her on fire Nov. 17 near the CTA Clark and Lake station, according to the GoFundMe and prosecutors.

The fundraiser had collected nearly $230,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, more than halfway toward its $330,000 goal.

“Many of her immediate medical expenses are covered by insurance and a victims fund, but with such a long road ahead of her, the freedom from financial worries would be a tremendous blessing,” her family said in the fundraiser post. “No gifts are expected, but any that are given will go directly to Bethany.”

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Many Chicago suburbs not meeting state’s affordable housing requirements, report finds

Posted in BACOG, Chicago Sun*Times, Cost of Living, Politics, Real Estate, Springfield, Taxes on November 24, 2025| 1 Comment »

The Illinois General Assembly passed the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act in 2003 to help create more affordable housing in the state.

By Lizzie Kane | Chicago Sun*Times Contributor

Suburban communities in Illinois are failing to meet the requirements set out for them in a 22-year-old law aimed at increasing the state’s affordable housing supply.

The Illinois General Assembly passed the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act in 2003 to “address the shortage of affordable, accessible, safe, and sanitary housing,” the law says. It requires eligible municipalities to submit reports to the state every five years, detailing their plans to build more affordable housing units.

A new report found only around a quarter of submissions were compliant, according to Impact for Equity, a nonprofit focused on legal and policy issues in Illinois. All but one of the 44 jurisdictions that need to submit plans are in the Chicago area.

Article excerpt: “A 2021 amendment clarified that home rule municipalities — communities of over 25,000 residents with greater authority over their own governance from the General Assembly and the governor — are required to submit plans under the law. Many communities had previously argued that they didn’t have to comply with the law due to the home rule, the report said.

The communities that didn’t submit plans this year include: Barrington Hills*, Campton Hills, Elmhurst, Inverness, Lake Forest, Oak Brook, Prairie Grove, South Barrington*, Geneva, Hawthorn Woods, Lily Lake, River Forest and Third Lake. The majority of these communities also didn’t submit plans in the last cycle, which was 2020.

The jurisdictions whose plans were noncompliant include: Deerfield, Deer Park*, Frankfort, Glencoe, Glenview, Homer Glen, Lake Bluff, Lakewood, Lincolnshire, Lincolnwood, Long Grove, North Barrington, Spring Grove, Timberlane, Tower Lakes*, Wayne, Western Springs, Wilmette and Winnetka.”

Read the full article here.

*Two-thirds of BACOG community members didn’t submit plans or their plans were noncompliant. Barrington and Lake Barrington do not appear on the list.

Read Full Post »

Metra holiday train tickets go on sale

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Entertainment, METRA on November 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Courtesy of Metra

By Sun-Times Wire

Metra’s holiday train tickets went on sale Monday.

Tickets for the decorated trains — which feature holiday characters and treats — cost $10 each and must be purchased in advance on Metra’s website.

The trains are scheduled to run throughout the day along five Metra lines on:

On the Metra Electric Line, the tickets also include a visit to the “North Pole winter wonderland” at Millennium Station.

Read Full Post »

Gov. JB Pritzker won $1.4 million via gambling, 2024 tax returns show

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Commodius Maximus, Fat Bastard, Girlie man, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Taxes, The Chicago Way on October 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Gov. JB Pritzker and his wife, MK Pritzker, greet supporters at a campaign rally at Crossing Park Field House in June. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

The governor and first lady MK Pritzker more than tripled their income in 2024 to $10.7 million, according to documents released by his campaign. A good chunk of that came at a casino.

By Mitchell Armentrout | Chicago Sun*Times

Last year brought good fortune to Gov. JB Pritzker in his investment portfolio — and at the casino, too, according to 2024 income tax returns released by his campaign Wednesday.

In his joint filing with first lady MK Pritzker, the billionaire Democratic governor reported an adjusted gross income of almost $10.7 million, more than tripling the roughly $2.8 million they reported in 2023.

The latest windfall was boosted by $1,425,000 in gambling winnings, their federal filing shows, in addition to $4.2 million in capital gains, nearly $3.9 million in ordinary dividends and more than $800,000 in taxable interest. Pritzker doesn’t take a salary as governor.

A campaign spokesman said Pritzker “had winnings and losses from a casino” in Las Vegas, but didn’t name his game(s) of chance, nor exactly where he beat the house.

Gambling options have proliferated in Illinois under Pritzker, who signed legislation in 2019 that legalized sports betting, authorized six new casinos and expanded the pool of tens of thousands of slot machines in bars and restaurants to help fund his signature $45 billion capital infrastructure upgrade plan.

Pritzker’s billionaire family, whose wealth is rooted in the Hyatt hotel chain, has held financial interests in casinos for decades. Before he was first elected in 2018, Pritzker previously invested in a company that had a 1% stake in Elgin’s Grand Victoria Casino.

The governor, with an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion, doesn’t own a piece of the action anymore, and he’s had his investments in a blind trust since taking office. That allows him to profit off the investments but removes him from decision-making in an effort to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Madigan reports to West Virginia prison

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Crime, Deception, Perjury on October 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan began serving his prison sentence Monday in West Virginia, 500 miles from Chicago.

By Jon Seidel | Chicago Sun*Times  

In West Virginia: Michael J. Madigan, the longtime former head of Illinois’ Democratic Party, is in prison. The 83-year-old surrendered Monday to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Morgantown, West Virginia — 500 miles away from Chicago and a 1.5-hour drive south of Pittsburgh — according to a source. Prison camps are known to have little to no fencing and inmates have access to a prison commissary.

The sentence: U.S. District Judge John Blakey handed Madigan a 7.5-year prison sentence in June, four months after a jury convicted him of bribery conspiracy, wire fraud and other crimes. Madigan testified in his own defense at trial, and Blakey found that he lied to the jury.

Key context: Madigan’s surrender caps a massive corruption investigation that began in 2014. But it wasn’t until Jan. 29, 2019, that the Sun-Times revealed the FBI had secretly recorded Madigan inside his private law office. About 20 people have since been charged. Madigan is the 11th to report to prison. Three others are due behind bars in the coming weeks.

Read on here.

Read Full Post »

New speed cameras drive ticket surge

Posted in Chicago Sun*Times, Cook, County, Preckwinkle's Rules of Order, Taxes on September 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This speed camera in McKinley Park issued more tickets in June than any other Chicago camera. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

By David Struett and Alden Loury | Chicago Sun*Times

Speed read: Chicago drivers are getting slammed by new speed cameras that went live in June.

The data: The 22 new cameras helped the city issue more than 91,000 speeding tickets over their first month of operation, according to an analysis of city data. In all, city data show 186 speed cameras issued more than 240,000 tickets in June, the most in any month in nearly three years.

Expected outcome: If history provides a guide, the new cameras will continue to catch drivers until motorists change their habits. Five of the city’s six highest ticketing cameras in June started operating that month.

Historic haul: The city’s highest-ticketing speed camera is attached to a light pole at 3358 S. Ashland Ave., near a McKinley Park daycare. With more than 21,000 violations issued, the camera nabbed more drivers than any other, though it only went live June 15.

Fast money?: Fines are $35 for traveling between 6 and 10 mph over the speed limit. It jumps to $100 if the recorded speed is 11 mph or more above the speed limit.

Key context: The cameras that began ticketing in June comprise nearly half of the 50 new speed cameras approved by Mayor Brandon Johnson to help fill an $11.4 million hole in the city’s 2025 budget.

Read more here.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »