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Tag: chicago mayor brandon johnson

  • Chicago prepares for WNBA All-Star Weekend with a pitch to local investors and businesses: ‘Do a little more’

    The explosive growth of women’s sports has been a well-documented phenomenon over the last four years.

    But when Chicago hosts the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend in July, Kara Bachman — the executive director of the Chicago Sports Commission — wants the city’s investors and businesses to do more than just cheer from the sidelines.

    “Do a little more,” Bachman said Friday during a launch event in Fulton Market. “Put your money where your mouth is.”

    The league’s All-Star festivities will return to Chicago for the second time from July 23-25, with the game scheduled for Saturday, July 25 at the United Center. Those dates are more than six months away — but planning already has begun for a cornerstone of the WNBA calendar.

    The latest step of that process took place Friday in a launch event headlined by Gov. JB Pritzker, mayor Brandon Johnson and part-owner Dwyane Wade as the Sky and the city made their pitch to local investors and business leaders to take part in the weekend.

    According to a report by Front Office Sports, Chicago was the only city to bid for hosting the 2026 All-Star weekend. The reticence from other teams? Hosting duties are split between the host team and the league, making the weekend an expensive affair as the standard for logistics such as hotels, parties and activations rise meteorically with the sport as a whole.

    Sky co-owner and operating chair Nadia Rawlinson spearheaded the pitch for Chicago to land the event. She said the Sky are embracing the responsibility as an opportunity to highlight Chicago as a whole. While some features — a welcoming event, sponsor activations featuring star players, an invite-only party organized in collaboration with the players union — will be familiar from past iterations, Friday’s launch outlined a series of plans and initiatives to expand the event’s footprint.

    This includes a series of VIP roundtable dinners in the months leading up to the event and an innovation summit to highlight and support advancements in women’s sports. During All-Star weekend, Rawlinson said the Sky will host a radio row to highlight prominent sports and business shows. The Sky also plan to partner with the city for a series of community initiatives around the weekend, including a project to add the WNBA 3-point line to basketball courts at every public park in Chicago.

    Throughout the weekend, Rawlinson emphasized that the Sky and the WNBA will seek to highlight the diversity of the league’s fanbase.

    “The WNBA is (a place) where everyone can find their person,” Rawlinson said. “They can find connection. This is a place where typically people who don’t have a natural community can find community. This is our chance to highlight that.”

    Chicago hosted the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game at Wintrust Arena — home of the Sky. For the first time in franchise history, the team last season played two regular-season games at the United Center. The home of the NBA’s Bulls and NHL’s Blackhawks has nearly double the capacity of Wintrust’s 10,380.

    Julia Poe

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  • President Trump calls for jailing of local leaders fighting National Guard deployment

    President Donald Trump is calling for the jailing of Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor amid growing backlash to his deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois. On his social media page, Trump said, “Chicago mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responded, “It’s certainly not the first time that Donald Trump has called for the arresting of a black man, unjustly. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay firm as the mayor of this amazing city.”National Guard troops from Texas have arrived in Illinois, preparing to patrol in and around Chicago. The Federal Aviation Administration has restricted flights over the base where the troops are stationed through December, indicating a potentially extended stay.The White House says the deployment is part of a “crime crackdown” in cities where it claims local leaders have not done enough to stop violence or protect federal buildings. This move comes as protests have escalated outside a federal immigration building near Chicago. State and city officials are suing to block the deployment, arguing there is no need for troops and it is unconstitutional. A court hearing is set for Thursday. The federal judge in that case is demanding that the Trump administration explain the details of that deployment by midnight on Wednesday. Separate judges in California and Oregon have already blocked similar deployments.The president says if courts or local leaders stand in his way of deploying troops, he is willing to invoke the Insurrection Act. Critics argue that this would cross a line, as it would involve federal troops in domestic law enforcement roles. The president’s plan is expanding, with police in Memphis saying commanders are already on the ground, planning for troops to arrive by Friday.The president has talked about expanding this deployment to other cities he says are “out of control,” including Baltimore, Oakland, New Orleans, and St. Louis. Local leaders in each of those places have pushed back, saying their police departments can handle their own streets.A president can invoke the Insurrection Act, but it is rare. The last time was in 1992 when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots. Before that, Lyndon Johnson utilized it in the 1960s to enforce civil rights orders and quell riots, and Dwight Eisenhower employed it in 1957 to integrate schools in Arkansas.More coverage from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump is calling for the jailing of Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor amid growing backlash to his deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois.

    On his social media page, Trump said, “Chicago mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responded, “It’s certainly not the first time that Donald Trump has called for the arresting of a black man, unjustly. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay firm as the mayor of this amazing city.”

    National Guard troops from Texas have arrived in Illinois, preparing to patrol in and around Chicago. The Federal Aviation Administration has restricted flights over the base where the troops are stationed through December, indicating a potentially extended stay.

    The White House says the deployment is part of a “crime crackdown” in cities where it claims local leaders have not done enough to stop violence or protect federal buildings. This move comes as protests have escalated outside a federal immigration building near Chicago. State and city officials are suing to block the deployment, arguing there is no need for troops and it is unconstitutional.

    A court hearing is set for Thursday. The federal judge in that case is demanding that the Trump administration explain the details of that deployment by midnight on Wednesday. Separate judges in California and Oregon have already blocked similar deployments.

    The president says if courts or local leaders stand in his way of deploying troops, he is willing to invoke the Insurrection Act. Critics argue that this would cross a line, as it would involve federal troops in domestic law enforcement roles. The president’s plan is expanding, with police in Memphis saying commanders are already on the ground, planning for troops to arrive by Friday.

    The president has talked about expanding this deployment to other cities he says are “out of control,” including Baltimore, Oakland, New Orleans, and St. Louis. Local leaders in each of those places have pushed back, saying their police departments can handle their own streets.

    A president can invoke the Insurrection Act, but it is rare. The last time was in 1992 when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots. Before that, Lyndon Johnson utilized it in the 1960s to enforce civil rights orders and quell riots, and Dwight Eisenhower employed it in 1957 to integrate schools in Arkansas.

    More coverage from the Washington News Bureau:

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  • Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez speaks out after school board shakeup

    Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez speaks out after school board shakeup

    CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez spoke out for the first time Wednesday after all members of the Chicago Board of Education resigned and Mayor Brandon Johnson made his new appointments.

    Meanwhile, the Chicago City Council met Wednesday ahead of a now-canceled special meeting in the afternoon, where city leaders had planned to address the recent Board of Education shake up.

    ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

    Martinez spoke to ABC7 Wednesday, responding to criticism that he has no CPS funding plan and is relying on proposed cuts. He was also asked if he thought the mayor’s picks for a new school board could end up firing him.

    “I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m being sincere,” Martinez said. “I will say what’s great right now is that, you know, it’s very transparent what my contract says.”

    Martinez told ABC7 there has been a plan in place for months that Mayor Johnson was well aware of. The plan included using the city’s TIF surplus dollars to help fund CPS. Martinez said there a formal ask on April 30 for $462 million dollars in TIF funding to pay for pensions and union contracts, including one for the teachers union that included 4% raises.

    “At that time, we didn’t get an answer. We continued to ask. Eventually what we were told over the summer was that instead they wanted us to take out a loan,” Martinez said. “I was making a case to really solidify more TIF funding. I was surprised. So was our board. The response was instead borrow, and of course everything since then.”

    The previous school board was not willing to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez or secure a short term, high interest loan to help pay for a new teachers’ contract, which led to their mass resignation last week.

    “I did not expect for this to escalate to the way it did,” Martinez said.

    Using TIF funds is the same idea the Chicago Teachers Union presented in plan Wednesday.

    The Chicago Teachers Union, community leaders and CPS parents gathered near City Hall earlier Wednesday to propose what they are calling the “Revenue Recovery Package.”

    CTU leaders said the plan provides more than $1 billion in immediate revenue for city schools by redirecting TIF funds from developers to CPS.

    First District Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps said it’s the city’s collective responsibility to care for children across Chicago.

    “What’s happening within Chicago Public Schools isn’t the responsibility of the Chicago Teachers Union, or CPS or parents. It’s all of our responsibility,” Stamps said. “How our children get educated in this city because whether you want to believe it or not, they are all our children.”

    The mayor now says Martinez is taking a page from their playbook.

    “Whatever is there that we can surplus, I’ve made a commitment. Those are my values. That’s not something that anybody had to call for me to do,” Johnson said.

    SEE ALSO | Future of ShotSpotter unclear after Mayor Brandon Johnson refuses to veto ordinance to revive system

    Meanwhile, multiple City Council members said Wednesday they have been working with the mayor’s office to have the outgoing and incoming board members appear at a hearing before the education committee to answer questions.

    City Council was supposed to hold special committee hearing Wednesday to hear from the mayor’s six new board picks.

    “We still have questions, process matter, how you do things matter and we need to make sure there is stability,” Ald. Maria Hadden said.

    The special meeting was canceled. It will be held later in the month as an Education Committee Hearing.

    At a future education meeting, City Council members want to question the mayor’s nominees appointed to be on the CPS board.

    “Right now we want to know about their biographies, we want to know about their mindsets, we want to know what they are bringing to the board as individuals and as a collective,” 15th Ward Alderman Ray Lopez said. “We know very little about these individuals and as a collective.”

    So, the agreement was to have the new appointed board members to come to a meeting and also we talk about the budget,” said 15th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor, Education Committee Chairman.

    The agreement was made with the mayor’s office, but before adjourning the regular City Council meeting Wednesday, Johnson made no guarantee the new school board members will show up.

    The mayor said the new school members are invited. He has no plans use his executive authority to make sure they attend. Alderpersons say they may subpoena the members, but the city’s law department insists the Education Committee has no subpoena power.

    Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    Christian Piekos

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  • Chicago Jewish leaders refuse meeting with Mayor Brandon Johnson on antisemitism in the city

    Chicago Jewish leaders refuse meeting with Mayor Brandon Johnson on antisemitism in the city

    CHICAGO (WLS) — Jewish leaders have declined an offer to meeting in a roundtable with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to address antisemitism, accusing him of disrespecting the city’s Jewish community.

    Ald. Debra Silverstein said the mayor’s staff reached out last week about convening a roundtable Monday with Jewish leaders to talk about antisemitism in the city. She and State Senator Sara Feigenholtz and State Representative Bob Morgan declined.

    The three sent Johnson a letter, telling the mayor, “Before calling for a roundtable on antisemitism a true leader should begin by demonstrating a modicum of empathy for the Jewish community.”

    “We need our mayor to unite us instead of continuing to divide us,” she said. “I do not feel that the Jewish community feels that he’s got our back.”

    Silverstein said the mayor has fences to mend fences with the community.

    “I think that the mayor needs to pay attention to everybody in the city of Chicago, and I do not feel that the Jewish community feels that he’s got our back,” Silverstein said.

    The letter takes Mayor Johnson to task for casting the tie-breaking vote to pass the city’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire resolution, and for not condemning what they say were antisemitic chants and flyers at a student walkout the day of the vote.

    “They were praised for walking out, but what about the Jewish kids that go to CPS, the Jewish kids whose parents call me and say my child is afraid to go to school? What are we doing about them?” said Silverstein.

    Silverstein, who is the only Jewish member of the Chicago City Council, said the mayor’s perceived silence has enabled city council meetings to, at times, devolve into chaos.

    “I think our mayor really needs to lead, and I think our mayor needs to speak out, and I and my community are not feeling safe,” she said.

    A spokesperson for the mayor declined to comment on the letter. Representatives from multiple Jewish groups were also invited to the meeting, and we’ve learned the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish United Fund also declined the invitation.

    “He has a lot of fences to mend,” Silverstein said. “I hope it’s not irreparable, but he needs to make a move.”

    Copyright © 2024 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.

    Eric Horng

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