City briefings: A gruesome scene of murder in Gage Park

Six wooden crosses in the front yard of a home on Chicago's Southwest Side mark the gruesome scene where six family members were murdered - including a mother of two boys who was shot to death and five others who were beaten, stabbed or both.

The victims - two men, two women and the boys, ages 10 and 13 - were three generations of the same family

They were found slain Thursday afternoon in 5700 block of South California in the Gage Park neighborhood after police checked on the well-being of Noe Martinez Jr., who had not shown up to work for two days.

Family members have identified the victims as: Noe Martinez Sr. and his wife, Rosa; their adult children, Noe Jr. and Herminia; and Herminia's sons, Alexis and Leonardo.

Autopsies by the Cook County Medical Examiners office found the boys suffered "sharp force" injuries, which a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office defined as either a stabbing or cutting wound or both.

Herminia died of gunshot wounds. Noe Martinez Sr. died of "sharp force" wounds. And his wife and his son, Noe Jr., died of "multiple sharp and blunt force injuries," autopsies showed.

Teachers reject contract offer

The Chicago Teachers Union's "Big Bargaining Team" voted unanimously to reject a four-year contract offer, the union announced last week.

Union representative Monique Redeaux-Smith said the union rejected the offer from Chicago Public Schools officials in part because it was "not convinced" the CPS board would approve "vague and unclear" proposals.

The teachers bargaining team also was concerned about what it called "undue pressure" being put on veteran teachers to resign.

As the team of 40 negotiators - made up of teachers, social workers and other school staffers - discussed the proposal, it also became clear there was a lack of trust in Mayor Rahm Emanuel to follow through on commitments to setting limits on charters, as well as promises about school funding, that had been made in the offer, a source told the Sun-Times.

Immigrant police applicants to get pay

Chicago taxpayers will spend $3.1 million to compensate 47 immigrants seeking to become police officers who were denied that chance because of a rule that required applicants to have lived in the United States for the previous 10 years.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city that stems from hiring practices that occurred as long as a decade ago.

Chinese investors

to buy city exchange

The Chicago Stock Exchange, founded more than a century ago, said it has agreed to be acquired by a Chinese-led investor group.

The buyers are considering opening a stock exchange in southwest China and also hope to list Chinese stocks in the U.S., Chicago Stock Exchange CEO John Kerin said. The exchange needs the cash to launch its new trading products and platforms, Kerin said.

Leading the investor group is Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group, a holding company based in Chongqing, China.

Aldermen seek to boost mental health

Chicago will see more shootings by police that trigger multimillion dollar settlements unless steps are taken to strengthen mental health services devastated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2012 decision to close six of the city's 12 mental health clinics, aldermen argued last week.

One week after Emanuel stepped up crisis intervention training for Chicago Police officers and 911 call takers to dramatically improve the city's response to emergencies involving people suffering from mental illness, eight aldermen argued that the mayor's response was nowhere near enough.

A so-called "mental health safety net" ordinance would give the city's Department of Public Health six months to join three managed care networks. The ordinance would further require the city to "vigorously recruit" and hire enough psychiatrists to satisfy demand at its six remaining mental health clinics.

Mayor ripped over O'Hare jet noise

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused last week of withholding information from Northwest Side residents affected by O'Hare Airport jet noise.

Alderman Anthony Napolitano demanded to know why Emanuel made no mention of the $1.3 billion deal he had cut with major airlines to build the final runway at O'Hare when he met just two days before that deal was announced with the anti-noise Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition.

Emanuel ruled out saving two diagonal runways slated for demolition that FAIR wants the city to keep and use at night and during off-peak hours to soften the blow of dramatic O'Hare flight-path changes that hit in October 2013.

NU to study red-light cameras

Northwestern University will be paid $311,778 to study red-light camera enforcement and chart a path forward for a program built on a $2 million bribery scandal that paid a convicted bureaucrat $1,500 for every additional intersection.

The Chicago Department of Transportation promised to engage a team of academics with expertise in traffic engineering and traffic safety to conduct a "comprehensive review" of the red-light camera program after examining "best practices" across the nation to determine criteria for future removal and placement of cameras.

The contract calls for Northwestern to take the lead on a review that also will include traffic-safety experts from Texas A&M and Florida State Universities.

• This week's City Briefing was collected in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For complete versions of the items, check chicago.suntimes.com.