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It's Thursday. Today's newsletter has more than one update on trains. |
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File photo of a Metra train in Chicago in 2023. (Boarding1Now / iStock) |
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State lawmakers lifted the curtain on a long-anticipated plan to reform Chicago-area transit on Wednesday, just days from the end of the spring session and after lengthy rounds of negotiations.
The bill would replace the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees CTA, Metra, and Pace, with a new entity called the Northern Illinois Transit Authority. It would be charged with creating a universal fare system and ensuring coordination of service and capital projects. Under the plan, CTA, Metra, and Pace would essentially be left to focus on delivering bus and rail service.
Then late Wednesday night, lawmakers touted new sources of revenue for the system aimed at staving off a fiscal cliff that could have sent transit into a death spiral.
More about the reform bill:
The plan borrows elements from the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act — a proposal filed last year that would have created a single, regional transit agency — and the United We Move framework pitched by a coalition of labor unions earlier this year.
Throughout more than a year of hearings and negotiations focused on transit, unions had been staunchly opposed to the idea of a merger. Leaving CTA, Metra and Pace in place as operating divisions will preserve existing collective bargaining agreements and prevent the potential headache of merging a pool of employees represented by an array of different unions and contracts.
Given the likely complexity of the change, the plan features a runway to put the new governance system into place. A transition working group must be seated by April 30 of next year and comprise members from the NITA, at least one labor group, and CTA, Metra and Pace.
More about the funding bill:
The measure, filed late Wednesday night, features a new menu of revenue sources that include an electric vehicle charging station fee, a tollway surcharge, and extending money rideshare fees and real estate transfer tax to the Cook County suburbs and collar counties. It also calls for some of the interest earned on the state’s road fund to go toward transit capital projects, and bars Metra from its past practice of redirecting operating revenue toward capital efforts.
State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) cautioned that while the savings and revenue amounts are based on estimates, lawmakers believe the measure will be enough to address the anticipated $770 million fiscal cliff next year, and then some — but likely not meet the $1.5 billion benchmark of public investment many transit advocates have been calling for. |
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Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke appears on "Chicago Tonight" on May 27, 2025. (WTTW News) |
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At her swearing-in ceremony six months ago, Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke promised a tougher approach to tackling violent crime. Key to that approach has been asking her prosecutors to seek pretrial detention for more suspects — especially those charged with felony firearm cases and other violent crimes.
Since Burke took office, the population of Cook County Jail has grown from around 5,200 at the end of predecessor Kim Foxx’s term to just under 5,800 now. But critics say violent crime was already trending down in the city and the country — and question the need for Burke’s tougher approach to crime. In an interview on “Chicago Tonight,” Burke defended her push for more pretrial detention and noted “significant problems” with the county’s electronic monitoring system.
On electronic monitoring:
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“The problem is pretrial officers within the chief justice’s office do not have arrest authority,” said Burke. “So if someone cuts off their band or goes AWOL on electronic monitoring, those pretrial officers do not have the authority to go and arrest someone. They don’t have the authority to come and ask for an arrest warrant. You need law enforcement personnel to do that.”
On violent crime on public transit:
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A CTA Purple Line train is pictured in a file photo. (Albert Pego / iStock) |
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The Chicago Transit Authority has paid out more than $1 million over the past five years to vault operations employees for remote work, despite the fact that their work cannot be done remotely, a new watchdog report has found.
The state of Illinois’ Executive Ethics Commission on Wednesday published a series of inspector general reports, including one centered on CTA “time abuse,” which revealed some employees had been getting paid to complete no work.
“Giving away over a million dollars is significant waste, but it is equally concerning that multiple managers knew this was taking place,” the Office of Executive Inspector General (OEIG) report states.
A CTA spokesperson said the agency took “immediate action” once it was notified of the issue and “fully cooperated” with the OEIG investigation, agreeing to implement “all the resulting recommendations to strengthen its policies and practices.”
“The issues raised in the report were limited to a very small group of 10 individuals out of the CTA’s 11,400 employees,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The employees found to have mismanaged this group no longer work at the CTA.” |
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More From WTTW News: |
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The $22 million Navy Pier Marina is expected to officially open to the public June 14. The opening of the marina, located on the north side of Navy Pier, comes as this year’s boating season kicks off.
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President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Larry Hoover, a former Chicago gang leader serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado. Despite the commutation of his federal sentence, Hoover is still set to serve out the remainder of his state sentence stemming the 1973 murder case. He was sentenced to 150-200 years in prison following that conviction.
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Back in the Day: May 29, 2020 - George Floyd Protests in Chicago Begin |
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On this day five years ago, demonstrators took to the streets in Chicago to express their outrage over the police murder of George Floyd — the first such demonstration in the city. A Minneapolis man and father of five, Floyd, 46, was killed after he was arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a Minneapolis convenience store, prompting one of four police officers on the scene to kneel on Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine minutes, asphyxiating him. At the May 29, 2020, march, hundreds of protestors gathered near Millennium Park, holding signs that read, “Black lives matter” and chanting I can’t breathe!” as they made their way down Michigan Avenue. The demonstration was one of many around the country. Protests intensified the following day and continued until June 7, where a total of 1,519 arrests related to the protests or unrest were made between May 29 and June 7, including 1,000 on May 30 and May 31. In 2021, a city watchdog published a report that said that the Chicago Police Department botched nearly every aspect of its response to the protests and unrest triggered by Floyd’s death. |
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This Week’s Arts and Culture Events |
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Every Thursday, WTTW News highlights the week’s must-see cultural events. This week, it’s newsletter producer Josh Terry filling in for arts correspondent Marc Vitali.
Josh Terry: With our intrepid arts reporter Marc Vitali on vacation, I have big shoes to fill for WTTW News’ weekly roundup of cultural events. Though my reporting background has had me covering local music since 2012, here are some openings, screenings, and performances that will have you in the movie theater, the symphony, the art gallery and, naturally, the dive bar concert venue.
“Black Bone” — Definition Theatre
From the award-winning playwright Tina Fakhrid-Deen and director Chuck Smith comes a biting and surreal satire that tackles race, academia and self-presentation. Per the synopsis: “The play follows a group of Black academics at a predominantly white institution (PWI) who discover that one among them is "passing" as Black.” Opens Friday, May 30 and runs through June 29. Tickets and showtimes here.
"The Interview Show with Mark Bazer" — Hideout
Where else but Chicago could you get a bill that includes the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Austan Goolsbee, the iconic sports journalist Sarah Spain and a rising indie rock band in Moontype? Friday, May 30 at 6:30pm. Tickets here.
"Summer Camp“ Movie Series — Gene Siskel Film Center
Throughout June, the Gene Siskel Film Center will screen a series of movies involving “camp.” In 1964, Susan Sontag wrote that the essence of camp is “its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” From Douglas Sirk’s “Written on the Wind,” Albert and David Maysles’ “Grey Gardens,” to, of course, John Waters, expect a finely curated selection of camp. Movie times and tickets here.
“An Evening with Heather Hedley” — Symphony Center
The acclaimed Tony and Grammy-winning Broadway veteran looks back on a 25-year career through a 90-minute musical performance. One night only on Tuesday, June 3. Tickets here.
“Deborah Butterfield: New Sculptures” — Zolla/Lieberman Gallery
This solo exhibition features the latest work by the acclaimed American sculptor, who for 40-plus years has been focusing her bronze-heavy work on a singular equine subject: the horse. It opens with a reception on Friday, May 30, and will run through Tuesday, Aug. 12. |
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Chicago's beaches opened for swimming last Friday. What's your favorite lakefront beach? |
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. |
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5:30 PM | 10:00 PM |
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Want more WTTW News content? Follow WTTW on Instagram to check in with us daily, go behind-the-scenes, and more. |
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry |
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