CPS’ proposed $9.5 billion budget bolstered by COVID relief funds – Chicago Tribune

Good morning, Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools has released its proposed $9.5 billion budget for the next school year, a spending plan that’s $200 million more than this year even though the district continues to experience enrollment declines. The Tribune’s Tracy Swartz reports the projected budget, which awaits approval from the Chicago Board of Education at its June 22 meeting, is bolstered by $730 million in federal coronavirus relief money.

On Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has officially announced she’s running for a second term in Chicago’s City Hall. “Change doesn’t happen without a fight. It’s hard. It takes time,” Lightfoot said in a video announcing her bid for reelection.

Take a look at who’s in, who’s out and who’s undecided in the mayor’s race.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

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Patricia Sanchez, 44, said she was one of the last of a group of employees to stop working for their employer after they went “weeks and weeks and weeks” without getting paid. She was hired by Ultio Crati Inc. in April 2020 to help produce cloth face masks in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, and did so until September of that year. She said in the beginning, “everything was fine,” and she got her first couple of paychecks for her work, but then the payments stopped.

Sanchez is one of 15 former employees of Ultio Crati who filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the company alleging several violations of state and federal law as well as a city ordinance relating to minimum, overtime and earned wages.

The contrasting scenes playing out almost daily in the 7th Congressional District race highlight the ideological and generational divide facing the Democratic Party in Illinois and across the nation. Two major candidates — one younger and more progressive; the other an establishment politician who had been at the forefront of liberal politics but whose time might be coming to a close.

Kina Collins is endorsed by several progressive groups, including Justice Democrats, a leading left-wing political action committee that backed U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York in 2018 and Marie Newman in Illinois in 2020. Rep. Danny Davis, meanwhile, works closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team, a message underscored by Jeffries’ presence on a series of visits to city churches.

Federal prosecutors asked for up to 18 months in prison for ex-state Sen. Thomas Cullerton, revealing for the first time that another state senator’s recommendation helped Cullerton land a do-nothing job with the Teamsters union.

Cullerton, 52, a Democrat from Villa Park, was charged in 2019 in an indictment alleging he pocketed more than a quarter of a million dollars in salary and benefits from the Teamsters union despite doing little or no work. He pleaded guilty to embezzlement in March, two weeks after abruptly resigning from office.

Jeanette Taylor joined the city’s waitlists for affordable housing in 1993. Last month, her son — who wasn’t even alive when his mother first sought affordable housing — handed her a letter from the Chicago Housing Authority. It said Taylor’s family could finally apply for a Housing Choice Voucher. “I sat on my bed for an hour. I’m like, ‘God, you got a sick sense of humor,’ ” said Taylor, who now represents the 20th Ward on the City Council.

She shared her story with a picture of the letter in a tweet that went viral last week. But Taylor says her experience isn’t unique and affordable housing activists agree. Thousands of Chicagoans struggle with decadeslong lulls on waitlists that keep affordable housing out of reach, they say.

Steve Stone still is going strong at 74, and on Tuesday celebrated the 40th anniversary of his broadcasting debut on ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball.” Stone basically has gone through four metamorphoses while partnering with Harry Caray, Chip Caray, Harrelson and Jason Benetti. He played the role of amiable sidekick to Harry Caray, provocateur to Chip Caray and second fiddle to Harrelson.

Now he has found his perfect match in the 38-year-old Benetti, a sharp-witted play-by-play man who doesn’t mind letting Stone get in a word (spoiler alert: Stone likes to get in a word).

When Nick Kindelsperger noticed a new pizzeria called Shy Slice with approximately zero details about the owner online, he needed to learn more.

Shy Slice serves square-cut, tavern-style pizza, and although you can get whole pizzas, you can also order it by the slice. Fortunately, you aren’t paying for each individual square (an especially complicated proposition considering those edge pieces are smaller than middle ones). Instead, you get a quarter of an 18-inch pizza.