Matthew Blake

Aldermen mulled over but delayed action Tuesday on two major adjustments to a city budget process not accustomed to change.

The City Council Budget and Government Operations Committee tabled a resolution examining the aldermanic menu program for infrastructure repairs. Also Tuesday, the newly-formed Council Office of Financial Analysis Oversight Committee – which falls under the purview of Alderman Carrie Austin (34th), chair of the Budget Committee – formalized its process for selecting a Financial Analysis Office leader.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was in Springfield Thursday to push pension legislation that a key union fiercely objected to at Wednesday’s Cook County Board meeting.

Preckwinkle told reporters after the board meeting that she planned to talk with House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders to drum up support for a bill expected to fully fund the county’s public worker pension system by 2034.

Cook County’s landmark Medicaid managed care program serves the old and very young, and thousands of patients who struggle to find a home, but potentially not many Hispanic residents.

Those were some findings from a CountyCare member profile survey that Steven Glass, executive director of the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, presented to the CCHHS board’s Finance Committee Friday.

In an attempt to revive a stretch of vacant land in the Roseland neighborhood and ignite development in that community, the city’s Department of Planning and Development would acquire 13 acres of property under a plan green-lighted Tuesday by the Community Development Commission.

The property in question is parcels at 11420 S. Halsted St., 11400 S. Green St., and 830 West 115th St. Part of the property is currently owned by Jewel-Osco, and part is a foreclosed upon bank-owned property, according to Edward Lewis, of the Department of Planning and Development.

In its implementation of a landmark medical marijuana pilot program, state government must get medical pot sales going in a timely way while also fielding concerns about the roll out. These issues include major fees for all involved, and questions about where stores selling medicinal marijuana will go.

State agencies are “doing very well being responsive to public comments,” said Dan Linn, executive director of Illinois NORML – the state’s chapter of a national organization dedicated to more permissive marijuana laws.