Good afternoon! Right here’s the place you may have a good time Eid al-Fitr within the Chicago space subsequent week. And right here’s what else you have to know right this moment.
Seven of 20 Board of Training members say they oppose reimbursing the town for a disputed pension fee, dooming the price range’s possibilities of passing, my colleagues Nader Issa, Sarah Karp and Fran Spielman report.
“We can not in good conscience make funds in direction of issues for which now we have no sustainable technique of elevating income,” the board members wrote in a letter first reported by Chalkbeat Chicago.
A postponed vote would have amended the CPS price range to incorporate three extra prices: the pension fee, which additionally covers CPS workers who aren’t lecturers; a CTU contract that’s nearing settlement; and a not-yet-settled settlement with the brand new principals union.
The mayor has pushed for CPS to pay all three bills utilizing what’s left of a report practically $300 million tax-increment financing surplus, offered by his workplace, and different strategies, equivalent to short-term borrowing or debt restructuring. Johnson’s workplace stated yesterday it could preserve working with the board to discover a answer and “continues to count on CPS” to make the pension fee. The mayor has not offered a Plan B.
If the town doesn’t get the cash from CPS by March 31, Johnson can have three dangerous selections: shut the books on 2024 within the pink, discover the $175 million elsewhere within the metropolis price range or dip into reserves. [Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ]
Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a regulation to revive Shabbona State Park, about 1,500 acres in DeKalb County, to the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, my Solar-Instances colleague Violet Miller studies.
The regulation’s passage makes an attempt to appropriate what state lawmakers known as a “historic injustice” from 175 years in the past, when the U.S. authorities auctioned off practically 1,300 acres of Prairie Band land whereas Chief Shab-eh-nay was visiting kin in Kansas. Illinois established the state park after it bought the land with federal grant funds between 1969 and 1978.
Prairie Band Chairman Joseph Rupnick, the fourth great-grandson of Chief Shab-eh-nay, stated the transfer confirmed that “therapeutic and reconciliation are potential.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
3. Chicago’s upcoming Small Enterprise Expo will provide free assets for entrepreneurs
The town will maintain a free on-line convention for small companies Thursday, throughout a time when authorities assets are in flux due to federal restructuring, Amy Yee studies for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
The convention features a webinar on native, state and federal authorities assets for small companies and can function audio system from Prepare dinner County Small Enterprise Supply, Illinois Division of Commerce & Financial Alternative and U.S. Small Enterprise Administration.
One other webinar will focus on small enterprise funding in the local people, together with grants, low-interest loans and microloans. Panelists embody neighborhood enterprise improvement facilities equivalent to Allies for Neighborhood Enterprise, Ladies’s Enterprise Improvement Heart and Rating.
Attendees can register at Chicago.gov/BizExpo. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Kokandy Productions was honored with 5 Non-Fairness Jeff Awards final night time, main the pack of award winners on the 51st annual celebration of the town’s Non-Fairness dwell theater productions, my colleague Miriam Di Nunzio writes for the Chicago Solar-Instances.
The corporate’s staging of Into the Woods was honored as greatest manufacturing (musical or revue), greatest ensemble (musical or revue), greatest course (musical or revue), greatest musical director (musical/revue) and inventive specialization (orchestrations).
In the meantime, the award for greatest manufacturing of a play went to Metropolis Lit Theater Firm for its staging of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, which additionally netted the award for greatest performer in a supporting position (play) for Robert Howard.
You may see the complete record of winners within the hyperlink. [Chicago Sun-Times]
5. ‘The Listeners’ casts a soprano from Chicago to guide its convention-shattering story
A charismatic cult chief, lurid affairs, weed and ample cursing: It could sound like the kind of bingeable plot you’d discover on Netflix or a podcast feed. However these are the makings of a buzzy new opera, The Listeners, which can have its Chicago premiere this week, my colleague Courtney Kueppers studies.
On the heart of all of it is the main girl, a fancy 40-something instructor, spouse and mom named Claire. In opera, that character too is a novelty.
“Each opera relies on some younger ingénue or a male position who’s heroic in some kind of means,” stated Nicole Heaston, the soprano from Chicago who performs Claire. “There are not any roles written for middle-aged ladies.”
Till now, that’s. In loads of methods, The Listeners is a course correction for opera, a 400-year-old artwork type that tends to lean on the hits, largely created centuries in the past by white, male composers. [WBEZ]
Right here’s what else is going on
- Trump administration officers texted dwell assault plans to a gaggle chat in a safe app that included a journalist. [AP]
- United Airways will increase charges for its lounges and rewards bank cards. [CNBC]
- A progressive TikTokker has launched a bid to unseat ninth District Rep. Jan Schakowsky. [Chicago Sun-Times]
- For the second 12 months in a row, Naperville was named America’s greatest metropolis to dwell in. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Oh, and yet another factor …
Requested in regards to the new dance work ABORT, Kierah/KIKI King doesn’t mince phrases.
“I used to be impregnated after I was 17 and didn’t know I used to be pregnant till actually in a while, so I ended up having a late-term abortion,” the dance and motion artist informed WBEZ.
King brashly titled their work ABORT, which premieres at Hyperlinks Corridor on Thursday, double-billed via the weekend with a solo theater piece known as Reward Music Sonogram.
ABORT, which runs below an hour, attracts from membership tradition, with audio from the DJ Professor Wrecks. King stated the work celebrates the sonic legacy of Black ladies in rock, in addition to the urgency of reproductive justice. [WBEZ]
Inform me one thing good …
I used to be simply in India and noticed the Taj Mahal, and it completely lived as much as the hype as one of the lovely buildings on the planet. That has me questioning, what’s one thing that left you in awe whereas touring, whether or not it’s an iconic landmark or a singular expertise?
Nancy writes:
“A landmark that left me in awe: you see photos of the St. Louis Arch and it seems fascinating. Standing beneath it you may’t imagine it’s potential to go up within the little elevator (not for the claustrophobic!) and truly stroll round on the high — I used to be amazed!”
Brian writes:
“Essentially the most wonderful factor I’ve seen was the Northern Lights, on the banks of the Yukon River simply outdoors of Whitehorse. The lights shimmered and dimmed, then exploded in all the colours, and this went on for practically 3 hours. It was mid-September and by midnight when the present was over my toes had been (actually) frozen to the bottom.”
And Louise writes:
“Everytime I see the Grand Tetons I’m in awe. So majestic & lovely however sadly as a result of international warming the mountains now have much less, if no snow in any respect.”
Be at liberty to electronic mail me, and your response could also be included within the publication this week.
