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Well, yesterday’s snow was a winter wonderland if you work from home and not ideal if you had to commute. Get cozy with these stories from WTTW News.
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(Credit: Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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Patty Wetli: It’s budget season in Chicago and we tuned into Streets and Sanitation’s session in front of City Council on Wednesday. Commissioner Cole Stallard was in the hot seat for more than six hours and alderpeople peppered him with questions, only a handful of which were related to the department’s proposed 2025 budget (all $352.9 million of it).
Among the themes that emerged, one of interest here on the nature beat is Streets & San’s still-controversial decision to convert to a grid system of tree trimming. Stallard staunchly defended the switch. In the past, he said, crews were “running around god’s green earth” to trim trees in response to 311 requests. This inefficiency, he said, resulted in just 40,000 trees trimmed a year, with a significant backlog.The shift to more methodical trimming by grid has led to a big jump in the number of trees reached: 134,000 trimmed to date since 2023, according to Stallard, with a goal of 90,000 trees per year.
That’s great for the grids that were first in queue, but not for those last in line, alderpeople said. There are trees that need service sooner than later, and council members said they’re hearing about it from constituents.“If you’re getting those calls,” Stallard said, “we’ll work with you.” But pre-grid, he pointed out, the backlog meant people were waiting two to three years anyway to have a request filled. And there were inequities in the old system, he said: Trees weren’t trimmed unless it was requested. “We have areas where people called constantly, and there’s areas where trees haven’t ever been trimmed in 50 years,” Stallard said.
Still, he didn’t deny that there are pain points as crews work their way, grid by grid, through the city’s entire inventory of some 600,000 trees. This first pass should take roughly seven years, with trees then on a regular trimming schedule.
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A file photo of the southern border. (CNN)
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Local attorneys and community advocates are bracing themselves for a second Donald Trump presidency.
The president-elect said he’ll carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history — and has even promised to use the military to help that effort.
“There’s federal law that basically explicitly states that the military is not to be used domestically to enforce laws within our own country,” said Carla Casas, attorney with Casas Immigration. “If he does try to do that, there’s going to be lawsuits filed, I can imagine immediately, because that would be illegal.”
Community advocates are advising people how to interact with ICE and other law enforcement agents if they are targeted.
“If someone knocks on your door, you don’t necessarily have to open the door,” said Nubia Willman, chief programs officer of Latinos Progresando. “Limiting information that you’re giving out freely is always helpful. If you’re in a mixed-status family, you have to make sure that you’re prepared, so that if you are having to engage with an ICE agent or you are detained, you know what your next steps are going to be. Do you have an immigration attorney? Does your family know how to contact them? Those are the things that folks really need to get prepared for.”
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Ald. Danny Solis, 25th Ward, appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Nov. 26, 2018.
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Danny Solis — the disgraced former 25th Ward alderperson who became a government informant who wore a wire and recorded his colleagues — took the witness stand Thursday in the corruption trial of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan. Madigan, 82, and his longtime friend and confidant Michael McClain, 77, are charged with racketeering, bribery and wire fraud. They have each pleaded not guilty.
Solis is expected to testify over the next several days about a pair of schemes Madigan allegedly orchestrated. In one, prosecutors claimed the longtime speaker sought to help Solis secure a position on a state board in exchange for Solis referring legal business to Madigan’s law firm. The other involves Madigan allegedly and illegally steering business to his law firm amid efforts to develop a state-owned parcel of land in Chinatown — which was in Solis’ aldermanic ward — into a commercial development.
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Outdoor (and Indoor) Activities From Patty Wetli
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Every Friday, WTTW News highlights the best things to do outside.
Because it’s beginning to feel a bit like winter, we picked indoor/outdoor events.
Here’s a timely program: “Changing Seasons” at River Trail Nature Center in Northbrook. Hear how nature prepares for winter, and then hike the grounds to see these adaptations in practice. Sunday, 1:30 p.m.
Learn about wild turkeys during a drop-in event at Edward L. Ryerson Welcome Center in Riverwoods. Follow a self-guided trail, then tackle a turkey-themed craft project. Saturday, 1-3 p.m. Click here for details.
Join a guided tour of the Kline Creek Farm farmhouse in West Chicago and discover how families prepped for the holidays back in the 1890s. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., tours start on the hour. Click here for details. The farm is surrounded by the Timber Ridge forest preserve, with loads of acreage to explore.
Bonus: Chicago’s Christmas tree will be lit Friday at 6 p.m. Check out the 53-foot blue spruce in Millennium Park.
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November 22, 1999 - One North LaSalle Building Added to National Register of Historic Places
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The roaring ‘20s coincided with an architecture boom in Chicago, bringing several Art Deco-style buildings gracing Chicago’s skyline like the Civic Opera House, the Clark Adams Building and the Carbide and Carbon Building. One of my favorites is the stately One North LaSalle Building, which opened in 1930 months after the Wall Street crash of 1929. Designed and built by architects Vitzthum & Burns, it stands at the corner of LaSalle and Madison. It boasts a jaw-dropping, clean silhouette and a lavish lobby, and at the time it was Chicago’s tallest building — a title it kept for 35 years until the Richard J. Daley Center opened in 1965. On this day 25 years ago, One North LaSalle was added to the National Register of Historic Places — one of more than 350 places in the city to earn the designation.
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The Chicago Bulls are almost a month into their NBA season. How do you feel about the team so far? Tell us what you think and why.
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to say:
I have not been able to see a Bulls game since they are no longer available on my TV. I have been following them for many years. I cannot pay for another special channel. Thank you. —Lois H.
The Bulls are another example of the existential terror that is being a Chicago sports fan right now. I guess we have to imagine Sisyphus (Ayo) happy. -Jack Bouman, Rogers Park
Sell the teams, Jerry [Reinsdorf]! — Danny S. |
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