A Chicago economics professor has questions about the potential effectiveness of the city’s new budget restrictions.

City Budget Director Annette Guzman outlined the changes this week, after Mayor Brandon Johnson projected a budget deficit of nearly a billion dollars in 2025.

Three members of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s City Council leadership team and the police union president are demanding that Johnson fire a top mayoral aide for calling police “f—ing pigs” and talking openly about defunding and even “abolition” of police.

Kennedy Bartley is the former executive director of United Working Families, which worked to elect Johnson and a more progressive City Council and defeat more conservative members who might oppose the mayor’s agenda.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration announced Wednesday that a recent hiring freeze across city government would not apply to police and fire employees, following backlash and confusion from pro-law enforcement aldermen.

Johnson’s budget team spokesperson, LaKesha Gage Woodard, told the Tribune in a phone call that public safety positions are in fact exempt from the hiring freeze enacted Monday but maintained that was always the plan.

Despite passionate opposition from some residents, the Sugar Grove village board on Tuesday approved the controversial mixed-use The Grove development.

The board voted 4-2 to annex 761 acres at I-88 and Route 47, and create a planned development district with housing, offices, stores and businesses that could include warehouses and data centers.

The University of Illinois welcomed a record-breaking number of students back to campus this fall.

University officials said total student enrollment for the fall of 2024 stands at a record number of 59,238. This number consists of 37,140 undergraduates and 20,765 graduate students who attend in-person, on-campus classes and classes online.