The Fran Spielman Show

Sun-Times city hall reporter Fran Spielman welcomes Aviation Committee chairman Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) and floor leader and economic development committee chairman Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th).

Just days before her inauguration as Chicago's 56th mayor, Lori Lightfoot sat with Sun-Times City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman to discuss her first 100 days, changes in City Council and Chicago’s much-maligned parking meter deal.

The City Council’s most senior aldermen are working to reorganize themselves with a lineup that includes Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) as Finance Committee chairman, a veteran alderman said Friday.

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) said Friday he has lined up “around 25” of the 26 votes he needs to become chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee and outlined an ambitious reform agenda if he claims the job long held by Ald. Edward Burke (14th).

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is giving Lightfoot another piece of sage advice about the unwritten rule that has given the local alderman virtually iron-fisted control over zoning and permitting in the wards.

Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown and political reporter Tina Sfondeles join Fran Spielman to discuss Kim Foxx's text messages, the state of Rahm Emanuel's legacy and what Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot has in store for her.  

Inspector General Joe Ferguson said Friday he won’t hesitate to “pull the ripcord” if he thinks his friendship with Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot conflicts with his role as a city watchdog, and he refused to rule out a 2020 race for state’s attorney.

Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot on Friday accused Ald. Edward Burke (14th) of attempting to organize the City Council against her and threatened to expose aldermen who dare to conspire with him.

Eddie Johnson: It’s time to ‘turn the page’ from Smollett fiasco.

Civic Federation president urges new mayor to think big in cutting costs

Republican Ray LaHood, the former Peoria congressman who served as transportation secretary during Barack Obama’s first term, said Chicago-based Boeing should have grounded its own fleet of 737 Max jets the moment Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed into a farm field about 40 miles from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 passengers and crew.

Runoff opponents in the race for city treasurer aired their very different views on where to take the office charged with managing the city’s $8 billion portfolio. Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) and State Rep. Melissa Conyears-Ervin.

Toni Preckwinkle came out swinging against her opponent in the April 2 runoff three days after Lightfoot seemingly came out of nowhere to finish first in the field of 14 mayoral candidates.

Lori Lightfoot came out swinging hours after Preckwinkle fired campaign manager Scott Cisek for using a photograph of Nazis on trial at Nuremberg to attack Lightfoot.

The question is not whether Ald. Ed Burke (14th) can get re-elected after being charged with attempted extortion. The question is whether the election even matters to the future of Ald. Ed Burke. That’s the bottom line from David Axelrod, the former presidential adviser now serving as director and founder of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico on Friday rolled out an innovative idea to honor his promise not to put “another brick on the back” of Chicago taxpayers: a special taxing and entertainment district on the west side of O’Hare Airport.

One day after forging their politically potent, inter-generational partnership, Dorothy Brown and Amara Enyia put it to work in an attempt to blow a hole in Preckwinkle’s central argument: that she is a “boss” with the guts to use that strength to deliver for the average Joe.

Retiring Ald. Danny Solis (25th) became publicly embroiled in the federal corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke (14th) last week when the Sun-Times reported that Solis cooperated with investigators and secretly recorded more than a dozen conversations over the last two years with the powerful former chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee.

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) accused the billionaire Ricketts family that owns the Chicago Cubs of targeting him — and trying to elect a puppet alderman in his place — to pave the way for a “Disneyland” agenda that will make life miserable for Wrigleyville residents.

Calling it a “no-brainer” the City Council’s new Finance Committee chairman on Friday promised quick action to set up the structure for issuing up to $10 billion in pension obligation bonds.

Ed Burke, 75, is accused of soliciting the business of two Burger King executives who sought his support for a remodeling job at a franchise in his Southwest Side ward. When the executives declined to retain Burke’s firm to handle their tax work, the clout-heavy alderman allegedly approved a plan to play “hardball” with them.

Mayoral candidates promising to shut down Chicago’s red light and speed cameras are making a “cheap” and uninformed political play that would likely result in the death of even more pedestrians, a top mayoral aide warned Friday. “It’s a cheap political thing … It’s an easy kind of reflexive thing. But that’s coming from an uninformed perspective,” Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld tol...

If Toni Preckwinkle is elected mayor of Chicago, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson will be looking for a new job or living off his police pension. Preckwinkle said she would dump Johnson for one reason. “He refused to acknowledge that there was a code of silence in the Police Department ... I don’t think that’s an honest statement,” Preckwinkle said.

The former Obama presidential adviser, now director and co-founder of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, sat down with the Chicago Sun-Times to discuss the wide-open race to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) floated a plan to “public-tize” Chicago’s water system by selling or giving away shares to city residents and paying them dividends that would amount to universal basic income.