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WTTW News: Monday, June 30
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Monday, June 30, 2025


Daily Chicagoan — WTTW News

It’s a new week and it will soon be a new month. Ease into July with these stories from WTTW News. 

As Hearings Start on How to Fill Chicago’s Projected $1.2B 2026 Budget Gap, Officials Won’t Say How Much City Spent on Overtime in 2024

Mayor Brandon Johnson addresses the news media on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)

Mayor Brandon Johnson addresses the news media on Monday, April 21, 2025. (Heather Cherone / WTTW News)

As Chicago officials warned that the city is facing one of the “most difficult budget years in recent memory,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has yet to detail how much the city spent on employee overtime in 2024. Nor has the city detailed how much it spent on overtime during the first three months of 2025, records show.

In addition, Johnson’s finance team, led by Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski and Budget Director Annette Guzman, has yet to account for a $175 million pension payment the city made for Chicago Public Schools employees who are not teachers in the city’s 2024 spending plan. The Chicago Board of Education refused to reimburse the city for that payment, despite the mayor’s repeated requests.

Despite those missing pieces of the city’s financial condition, which could add up to $700 million, officials held the first of four “budget engagement roundtables” designed to gather feedback about the city’s 2026 budget on Saturday in Uptown.

Representatives of Johnson, Guzman and Jaworski did not respond to detailed questions from WTTW News about why the city has yet to disclose how much it spent on overtime in 2024 or how it covered the pension payment for CPS employees, even though 2025 is half over.

More context: 

During the first six months of 2024, the city spent $129 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department — nearly 30% more than the total amount set aside by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2024 budget, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

That put the city on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of 2024, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.

In 2023, the Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime, 40% more than in 2022, records show.

A detailed accounting of the $524 million Chicago spent on overtime for employees in all departments in 2023 was available to the public by mid-March 2024, records show.

That means the city is more than three months behind schedule in providing that data for 2024 to the public, without explanation.

In October, Johnson told WTTW News that he had been unable to reign in overtime spending.

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Illinois Congress Members Push Back After Being Denied Access to ICE Facilities

U.S. Reps. Delia Ramirez, Danny Davis, Jesus “Chuy” García and Jonathan Jackson are denied entry at an ICE processing center in Broadview on June 18, 2025, according to Ramirez. (repdeliaramirez / X)

U.S. Reps. Delia Ramirez, Danny Davis, Jesus “Chuy” García and Jonathan Jackson are denied entry at an ICE processing center in Broadview on June 18, 2025, according to Ramirez. (repdeliaramirez / X)

Some members of Congress are saying they’ve been turned away from local Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, facilities as they seek transparency on the conditions detainees are experiencing. Federal appropriations law allows members of Congress to perform oversight of these facilities, unannounced. But now, the Trump administration says congressional visits have to be approved in advance by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

After being turned away from an ICE facility in the South Loop earlier this month, Democratic U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jonathan Jackson are asking for full access to the center. Krishnamoorthi said he and Jackson went to the center to figure out what happened to the 10 individuals who were reportedly arrested on June 4 after coming in for appointments at the facility. After making it to the lobby, Krishnamoorthi said, an ICE officer who refused to identify himself called the police to evict them for trespassing.

Jackson and fellow Democratic U.S. Reps. Delia Ramirez, Jesús “Chuy” García and Danny Davis were also denied entry at an ICE facility in suburban Broadview last week. They went to conduct congressional oversight and investigate alleged poor conditions at the facility. Ramirez said an ICE official who wouldn’t identify themselves told the group to send an email and turned them away.

Earlier this month, ICE put out a new policy requiring a 72-hour notice for congressional visits to be approved. But the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday extended the notice period to a week.

This move comes as the Trump administration focuses its deportation efforts on Democratic cities like Chicago. ICE agents have been reported to be wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves as they carry out arrests and deportations. Advocates have raised concerns that some of the people arrested by ICE have not been heard from by their families or lawyers, and are being detained in poor conditions.

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A Wave of Japanese Art and Culture Immerses College of DuPage in ‘Floating World’ Exhibition

Artwork on display in “Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World” at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)

Artwork on display in “Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World” at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)

Enter the Cleve Carney Museum of Art this summer and you might imagine yourself in the Japanese city of Edo before it was renamed Tokyo in 1868. The exhibition “Hokusai & Ukiyo-e: The Floating World” transports visitors to a time when Japan was emerging from the feudal era and modern cities were booming.

Ukiyo-e is the Japanese phrase for “floating world,” a reference to the carefree spirit of urban lifestyle. The term emerged from the red-light district in Edo and suggested the conspicuous consumption of the newly wealthy merchant class. Artists of the time found inspiration in the interests of the public. In woodblock prints and painted scrolls they depicted kabuki actors, courtesans and ordinary people. And they created magnificent landscapes like the ones made by the master Katsushika Hokusai in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Included in the exhibit is a print of Hokusai’s famous and influential work, “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.”

The heart of the exhibit comes from the collection of Edoardo Chiossone, a 19th century Italian engraver who designed bank notes and postage stamps in Japan. The museum at the College of DuPage organized the show with the Chiossone Museum in Genoa, Italy. Some of the centuries-old prints have never been seen in the United States, and they still look vivid and freshly printed.

“Hokusai & Ukiyo-E: The Floating World” is open through Sept. 21.

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More from WTTW News: 

  • Get ready for outdoor and summery fun with our guide to neighborhood street fests, art shows, outdoor concerts, cultural celebrations and events of all sizes across Chicago and the suburbs. 

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Back in the Day: June 30, 1950 - Chicago Airport Meigs Field Dedicated 

We all know O’Hare and Midway. But along the lakefront — near Soldier Field and the Adler Planetarium — is a little strip of land that was once home to a small airport called Meigs Field. If you watch our recent WTTW News Explains video, it gives the story on how a little over 20 years ago, Mayor Richard M. Daley had the airport bulldozed in the middle of the night. It eventually became Northerly Island Park. But who is the Meigs whom the now-defunct airfield got its name from? On this day, 75 years ago, the airport's dedication ceremony occurred. Its namesake is Merrill C. Meigs, a newspaper executive and head of the Chicago Aero Commission who gave flying lessons to President Harry Truman. Before its unexpected demolition in 2003, Meigs Field became the busiest single-runway airport in the U.S. in 1955.

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This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings  

Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government. 

City Council's Committee on Education and Child Development

On Monday at 11 a.m., the Chicago City Council's Committee on Education and Child Development will meet to discuss a measure on laws and policies prohibiting violence interrupters from working within schools based on non-violent convictions, plus a subject matter hearing for the quarterly Chicago Public Schools hearing. Details and agenda can be found here

City Council's Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights

On Tuesday at 10 a.m., the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will meet to discuss ICE activities in Chicago and a subject matter hearing on the committee's recent efforts to support immigrant and refugee communities in Chicago. Details and agenda can be found here

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The Weekly Question

What’s your favorite neighborhood to visit on Chicago's West Side? Tell us why.

Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.

Tonight on Chicago Tonight
  • A roundtable discussion on Chicago's gun violence clearance rate and its impact on South and West Side communities.   


5:30 PM | 10:00 PM

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