Chicago Briefing: Bears concerns hold up city council vote on Lucas museum
Movie mogul George Lucas' plan to build a $400 million interactive museum on 17 acres of free land along Lake Michigan hit a last-minute snag last week: the Chicago Bears.
Chicago Sun-Times sources said a final City Council vote on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan - which had been expected at Wednesday's council meeting after votes last week by the plan commission and park board - was postponed for at least a week pending another round of negotiations with the Bears.
Sources said the Bears support the futuristic project, privately financed by the filmmaker of "Star Wars" fame. But since it's the Bears and their fans who are going to be inconvenienced, the team is holding out for a better deal.
Bogan prep player dies from injuries
A Bogan football player died Friday morning after being injured in a game at Stagg Stadium in Chicago Thursday.
Andre Smith, 17 of Country Club Hills, was injured in the final play of Bogan's game against Vocational. He died at Christ Hospital at 6:10 am Friday, according to the medical examiner's office.
Smith is the seventh high school football player in the country to die from game-related injuries this season.
60-year sentence for 1999 slaying
Calling the 1999 kidnapping and murder of a Broadview shop owner a "cold and calculated execution," Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood sentenced 48-year-old Kevin Mitchell to 60 years in prison Thursday, the maximum sentence allowed.
Mitchell was charged in 2013 with the slaying of Darryl Green after tests confirmed Green's DNA was in a van that Mitchell was driving at the time of the murder.
After he was kidnapped from his Beep the Twinz business in Broadview, Green was taken to a secluded area in Gary, where witnesses heard shots fired from the woods. Green was found with three bullet wounds to the head.
City unions spared from donation limits
Unions representing city employees should not be bound by Chicago's campaign financing law limiting annual contributions to $1,500 per candidate, the Chicago Board of Ethics has ruled.
In a confidential advisory opinion, the board ruled that a collective bargaining agreement with the city is not the same as an agreement between the city and a private company for commodities or services rendered.
Uber fights city for access to airports
A ride-hauling giant whose investors include the mayor's brother warned it would be "unable" to make pickups at O'Hare and Midway Airports if aldermen forge ahead with a plan to require Uber drivers serving the airports to get chauffeur licenses.
"We don't offer this service under those excessive mandates at airports anywhere in the country. The reason is, it would disproportionately hit the driver," said Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Uber Technologies.
Emanuel: State will continue CTA aid
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is defending his decision to roll the dice with a CTA budget that freezes fares and maintains service for the third straight year, but assumes that Gov. Bruce Rauner will roll back a 50 percent cut in transit subsidies.
The CTA uses the money to defray at least some of the cost of providing bargain fares or free service to low-income riders and people with disabilities. Rauner has proposed cutting those subsidies in half.
The plan to hold the line on fares also makes two risky assumptions: That the state budget impasse will be resolved before Dec. 31 and that the salaries of CTA employees will be frozen.
The week's city briefing was collected in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For complete versions of items, check chicago.suntimes.com.