Fran Spielman

By resurrecting his bid to impose a corporate head tax, Johnson is defying the line in the sand drawn by the coalition of conservative and moderate Council members who rejected the head tax a year ago.

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin said the business community will join the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club in mounting a full-court press to block the head tax and Johnson's proposed cloud tax increase.

But Brandon Johnson's aldermanic opposition appear poised to, once again, shoot down his attempt at a corporate head tax.

Thirteen candidates will vie for the right to deny Brandon Johnson a second term and become Chicago's 58th mayor, but only if they can survive cutthroat petition challenges that could narrow the field considerably.

Council members Pat Dowell, Scott Waguespack and Nicole Lee are calling the meeting to compel Johnson to use the $75 million up-front payment from the Stonepeak Partners parking meters deal as an extra payment that chips away at the city's $36 billion pension crisis this year.

With a week to go before the city's school board election, Brandon Johnson accused Sacks of leading a "nasty coalition of billionaires" seeking to elect board members who want to follow former Mayor Rahm Emanuel's lead by closing schools in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Sacks denied the charge.

All of the chatter comes as Canal Edge LLC — a company owned by White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia — released plans in September for a mixed-use development called The Railyards, which would move the Chicago White Sox to the South Loop.

Testifying Wednesday at City Council budget hearings, Acting Police Superintendent Fred Waller said he had to fight to convince the mayor's office to keep the police academy going year-round.

Two days after filing her nomination petitions to join the now fifteen candidate field seeking to deny Mayor Brandon Johnson a second term, the retiring Illinois comptroller portrayed the embattled incumbent as openly hostile to business.

Earlier this week, the Federal Railroad Administration responded to a political firestorm of protests against Amtrak's plans for a maintenance facility in Bridgeport by promising a federal environmental review. But Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) said the promise appears to be more of a placebo.