City briefings: 22 Chicago cops disciplined over video procedures
Twenty-two Chicago Police officers have been disciplined - and there has been a dramatic increase in video and audio usage - in the month since the lack of audio in the Laquan McDonald and Ronald Johnson shooting videos prompted a warning from the acting superintendent.
Punishments ranged from a mere reprimand to a three-day suspension or loss of leave, according to Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
"The disciplines were not over a destruction of equipment, but officers failing to use the cameras properly, [i.e. syncing the audio; uploading videos at the end of their tour; inspecting the cameras to ensure they work correctly]," the spokesman wrote in an email to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Plea deal reached in museum thefts
An ex-employee charged with embezzling nearly $1 million from the Field Museum pleaded guilty to federal charges Monday. But she claims she stole less than half the amount federal prosecutors claim she pocketed, court records indicate.
Caryn Benson, 38, a former museum clerk, admitted she pocketed money whenever people paid cash for museum memberships or bought drink tickets at museum fundraisers. Benson even concedes she swiped $33,014 in a little over a year, from January 2014 to April 2015. Federal prosecutors pegged the amount Benson stole at $903,284 over seven years, but Benson only admits to taking a total of $410,000, according to a plea agreement entered in federal court.
A federal judge will decide which dollar amount is correct at a sentencing hearing in August, and the half million-dollar difference between the two sides will weigh heavily in the amount of jail time Benson could serve - as well as how much she has to pay back to the museum.
Willis Tower drops off Top 10 list
The Willis Tower has fallen off the list of the world's top 10 tallest buildings.
The Shanghai Tower - completed in November and standing 2,073 feet tall - just took over the No. 2 spot.
The resulting Top 10 reshuffle - eight skyscrapers got bumped down a notch, and the Willis Tower got the boot - was announced Thursday by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based group that maintains the list.
The new No. 10 on the list is Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, China, which stands 1,476 feet tall - only 25 feet taller than Willis Tower - formerly known as the Sears Tower - which had maintained a spot on the list for 41 years.
It was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1974, but it lost the title in 1998 to the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is 1,483 feet tall.
Charter school ally joins school board
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Wednesday the appointment of Jaime Guzman, who has served on the state's Charter School Commission and considered charter school proposals for Chicago Public Schools, to fill a vacancy on Chicago's Board of Education.
Guzman currently heads the Taproot Foundation, a not-for-profit that connects white-collar professionals with organizations in need of volunteers, and he has been one of nine Charter School commissioners tasked by the state with evaluating charter decisions made by school boards - including the one he has just joined.
Guzman joins the board weeks before Chicago Public Schools considers mass layoffs because of a $480 million deficit in its current operating budget. The district has asked for help from Springfield to plug that hole.
Hearing Tuesday on search for top cop
Chicagoans will get an opportunity to weigh in on the search for a new police superintendent and their priorities for Garry McCarthy's replacement - but only if they can squeeze their thoughts into a two-minute speech.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's revamped police board will solicit comments from everyday Chicagoans at a two-hour public hearing this week.
It's part of the effort to restore public trust shattered by the Laquan McDonald shooting video and the more recent fatal shootings by police of 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and 55-year-old Bettie Jones.
The public hearing will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12, at the Chicago Urban League, 4510 S. Michigan Ave.
• This week's City Briefing was collected in partnership with the Chicago Sun-Times. For complete versions of the items, check chicago.suntimes.com.