A city development panel on Tuesday signed off on plans to give developers a $9.65 million tax subsidy to rehabilitate the shuttered Congress Theater and also $10 million for a Shop ‘n Save in South Shore.

The Community Development Commission approved the funding measures Tuesday afternoon. The City Council still has to give final approval.

A city panel today threw a $10 million lifeline to a prominent South Side shopping center that has struggled since losing a Dominick’s grocery store there in 2013.

The tax-increment financing approved by the Chicago Community Development Commission will help finance the acquisition and redevelopment of Jeffery Plaza, a 113,000-square-foot retail property in South Shore. The shopping center’s new owner, a venture led by the Jakubowski family, plans to fill the empty Dominick’s space, totaling 62,000 square feet, with a new Shop & Save market, according to a report prepared for commission members.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday defended his decision to tax Chicago’s burgeoning home-sharing industry yet again — this time, to bankroll a 50 percent increase in shelter capacity and support services for domestic violence victims.

“I totally reject the notion that, somehow, we’re picking on the home-sharing industry. Airbnb is one of the companies that’s best known,” the mayor said at the WINGS domestic violence shelter in Chicago Lawn, which was built with $500,000 in city land and $1.8 million in disputed back taxes and legal fees paid by a Chicago strip club.

Two days into its revised schedules on the BNSF Line, Metra is asking passengers to be patient about crammed trains.

“Please accept our apologies for the crowded conditions on some trains under the new BNSF line schedule,” officials said Tuesday.

Investigations into allegations that Chicago school employees sexually abused students should be conducted by the district’s independent watchdog, the school board president said Tuesday as officials try to manage the fallout from an ongoing abuse scandal.

Chicago Board of Education President Frank Clark said he will propose that district Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s office take over responsibility for sexual abuse investigations. Clark’s plan also would “require monthly reporting to the board,” including the number of claims under investigation, some details about the schools and employees involved, the nature of the allegations and the employment status of the involved school worker.

Construction is expected to begin immediately on an ambitious plan to redevelop old Cook County Hospital, a project that board President Toni Preckwinkle said will be an “anchor” for redevelopment in the Medical District and Near West Side of Chicago, officials said Tuesday.

The plan to redevelop the county hospital, empty since 2002, is valued at more than $1 billion, and the developer has secured about $135 million in financing, Preckwinkle’s office said. Developers will first do interior, nonstructural demolition for the project, and begin restoring the building’s facade in July, officials said.

The Maine Township Town Board violated the Illinois Open Meetings Act when it allowed an audio recording of a meeting to be destroyed without a vote from three of its trustees, the Attorney General’s Office ruled.

In a formal decision dated May 18, Assistant Attorney General Teresa Lim of the office’s Public Access Bureau wrote that the Maine Township Board “did not follow the proper procedure” when three sitting trustees were told last November that they had to abstain from voting on a motion to destroy the recording of a closed-session meeting held in 2016. The board also erred when it allowed Township Clerk Peter Gialamas, who is not a voting member, to cast a vote on the motion for destruction, Lim said.

Chaos reigned at Tuesday evening’s Lakewood Village Board meeting.

More than 100 angry residents turned out to tell Village President Paul Serwatka what they thought of his efforts to remove two appointed village trustees and express deep concerns about his place of residence.

Taxpayers in 58 suburban school districts spent a combined $820,980 last year to cover state penalties for dozens of teachers and administrators whose annual pay raises exceeded 6 percent.

Those penalties are only expected to rise after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation a week ago that lowers the threshold to 3 percent and makes school districts responsible for any increase in pension costs triggered by pay raises higher than that. The lower limit goes into effect for new teacher and administrator contracts.

Nearly $14 million in improvements will be made at Crystal Lake High School District 155’s four high schools now through the summer.

Construction projects include renovations to water lines; roofs; asbestos abatement; track resurfacing; installing clock intercom systems; replacing parking lots, doors, windows, tennis courts; and installing new air conditioning.

Facilities were on the Morton School Board’s plate Tuesday.

Board members discussed their possible support of an effort to place a 1 percent Tazewell County school facilities sales tax on the Nov. 6 ballot after they heard options for making urgently needed improvements at Morton Junior High School from district architect Jeff Keach.