The Chicago City Council started this morning four days of hearings
that will examine the proposed 2013 budget that Mayor Rahm Emanuel
released last week.
At a community meeting on the Northwest Side last night Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) said that, “The annual budget is the most important aspect of public policy. It tells us who we are as a city.”
Perhaps
to the chagrin of Fioretti, Chicago is a city that mostly lets the
mayor write the budget. Unlike the U.S. Congress or Illinois General
Assembly, the 50-member city council essentially plays an advisory role.
The
public also played a small role under previous mayors through community
hearings, but Emanuel scrapped those this year. So a group of six
aldermen representing the council’s progressive caucus held a public
forum last night that attracted about 200 people. Read more »
If there was any part of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed 2013
city budget that aldermen might question, it was the number of police on
the street. Murders are up this year citywide and several aldermen 
The Chicago City Council will hold hearings on what are rumored to be
80 to 120 neighborhood school closings, according to Ald. Latasha Thomas (17th),
head of the council's education committee.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel presented his 2013 budget to the city council today, profusely emphasizing that the budget contains no new taxes. 
Consumers in five Chicago Wards will be seeing new bags to carry their purchases, though they may not notice the difference unless it’s pointed out to them.
A San Francisco-based firm spent the morning trying to sell the Chicago
City Council on the idea that they can use eminent domain to seize
properties in danger of falling into foreclosure. The firm argued that the use of eminent domain, which occurs when government acquires private property in the name of the greater good, could lead to the public benefit of fewer foreclosures. Representatives from 