Another discrimination lawsuit filed over Chicago firefighters exam
A physical abilities test the city is using to hire African-American firefighters in settlement of a race discrimination lawsuit is discriminatory against women, a suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court charges.
Godfrey et al vs. City of Chicago was filed by 20 female plaintiffs …
O’Hare to extend its people mover 2,000 feet to rental-car campus
O’Hare Airport’s 2.7-mile people mover system will be upgraded to accommodate more passengers and extended 2,000 feet — to a rental car campus and parking garage with access to an existing Metra station, a top mayoral aide disclosed Thursday.
Obama coming to town as homicide tally ready to surpass 2011’s
Chicago’s 2012 homicide count is closing in on 2011’s 12-month total with more than two months left in the year, and President Barack Obama might be here to see the key statistic tick above last year’s number.
Republicans could use the coincidental timing of Obama’s …
Top cop McCarthy defends strategies in face of City Council grilling
Five months after being hailed for his handling of the NATO summit, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy was grilled Wednesday by aldermen demanding more police hirings, arguing for the redeployment of existing officers and questioning his vision for ending the bloodbath in Chicago’s streets. “When you get on TV and say in the month of July and August, shootings decreased or whatever you say, we don’t feel that. Not at all,” said Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th). But McCarthy insisted that his anti-gang strategies are taking hold and that Chicago has enough police officers to maintain that progress.
3 City Colleges to prepare students for jobs in growth industries
Three more City Colleges will prepare students for 80,000 jobs over the next decade in three growth industries — culinary and hospitality; information technology, and advanced manufacturing — in the latest chapter of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s colleges-to-careers makeover.
Outgoing Streets and San chief acknowledges ‘growing pains’ in new trash pickup system
Outgoing Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne on Tuesday acknowledged “growing pains” in the switch from ward-by-ward to grid-based garbage collection, but said he’s working through those problems. A handful of aldermen have complained about overflowing baskets on commercial strips, missed pickups and rotten working conditions in the switch to a system Mayor Rahm Emanuel is counting on to save $20 million this year and up to $60 million a year once it’s implemented citywide.
Time to ‘get to bottom’ of whether there was cover-up in bar beating, Emanuel says
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he has no idea whether the Chicago Police Department engaged in a cover-up to conceal the brutal beating that burly former Police Officer Anthony Abbate inflicted on a diminutive barmaid, but it’s time to “get to the bottom” of it …
City to borrow $78.4 million to pay for firefighter settlement
Chicago will borrow the $78.4 million needed to compensate nearly 6,000 African-American would-be firefighters bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 entrance exam, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday, compounding the cost of a settlement that’s already twice as high as anticipated.
Nokia to move 150 jobs from Itasca to Chicago office
Chalk up another incremental victory in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s drive to portray Chicago as the “digital capital of the Midwest.” Nokia is relocating its Mobile Phones Xpress Internet Services group from suburban Itasca to Chicago, bringing 150 jobs along with it.
Nearly 600 veteran firefighters and paramedics may retire by end of year
The Chicago Fire Department stands to lose nearly 600 graybeards in 2012 — veteran firefighters and paramedics who will max out in their pensions and retire — paving the way for more diverse replacements, but a continued surge in overtime, a top mayoral aide said Monday. Testifying at City Council budget hearings, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago disclosed the impending wave of retirements as he defended a proposed, $504.9 million Fire Department budget that includes a 50 percent increase in overtime spending — from $13.5 million this year to $20 million in 2013.
X-ray ‘virtual strip search’ machines going away at O’Hare
Most passengers flying out of O’Hare Airport will no longer be subjected to what the American Civil Liberties Union calls a “virtual strip search” while passing through security checkpoints.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is removing 23 of the 29 X-ray body scanners at O’Hare …
Alderman accuses Chick-fil-A of ‘lying,’ renews threat to block store
Ald. Proco Joe Moreno (1st) on Friday renewed his threat to block Chick-fil-A from opening its first free-standing store in Logan Square after accusing company officials of “lying” to him.
African-American businesses’ slice of city contracts jumps to 21%
African-American businesses got 21 percent of the $1.2 billion in city contracts awarded through Aug. 31, compared with just 8 percent during the same period a year ago, putting out a perennial political firestorm.
City watchdog vows not to run for mayor for at least two years after leaving office
Inspector General Joe Ferguson has a strained relationship with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but the two men will apparently not be facing off against each other in the 2015 mayoral election.
Under questioning Thursday at City Council budget hearings, Ferguson promised not to run for any …
City to revamp how police respond to 911 calls
After years of discussion and delay, Chicago is finally ready to usher in a revolutionary change in 911 dispatch to free police officers to respond to the most serious crimes, a top mayoral aide said Thursday.
