City briefings: State probes finances of Chicago schools

A day after Gov. Bruce Rauner accused the beleaguered Chicago Public Schools of getting special treatment from the state, his state education team launched a financial investigation that could lead to a takeover of Illinois' largest school district.

The school system must turn over detailed financial information about cash flow, bonds, payroll and major contracts by March 4. That's according to a letter sent Thursday by Tony Smith and James Meeks, the superintendent and the board chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, about the public schools' "concerning financial situation."

The board's leaders cited CPS' inclusion on the state's financial watch list since last March as justification to "initiate a proper investigation of the financial integrity of Chicago Public Schools."

Grandson convicted

of killing granddad

William Strickland, 22, was found guilty of his grandfather's murder after a jury deliberated for 2 1/2 hours Thursday night at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

He was named after his grandfather and lived with the elderly man on the South Side. But Cook County prosecutors said the young man was under the influence of another senior citizen living in the home, his grandmother.

When she suggested that he should kill off his grandfather so they could spend his money, the younger William Strickland pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.

Woman charged with O'Hare trespass

Accused serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman, arrested on charges of trespassing at O'Hare International Airport again on Wednesday, is being held on $150,000 bail.

Hartman, 64, was arrested at the airport and charged with misdemeanor counts of violating probation and trespassing on state land, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County state's attorney's office. She was ordered held on $150,000 bail in court Thursday.

Hartman has a history of arrests on charges of trying to sneak onto planes. She was arrested twice in July 2015 - once at O'Hare and once at Midway - in a period of two days.

Residents question North Side project

Lathrop Homes residents and Logan Square neighbors came out in full force Wednesday night to voice concerns over the redevelopment of a rare island of low-income housing on the North Side.

The sprawling plan, a decade in the making, would be a mixed-income development, meaning fewer than half of the units would go to low-income tenants like the ones already displaced when the Chicago Housing Authority slated Lathrop for redevelopment as part of the agency's Plan for Transformation 15 years ago.

The plan has developers working with CHA to build 1,116 units of housing, space for retail and a riverwalk "that would serve as a community mecca and a natural oasis," on the Lathrop site.

But James Carlisle, 57, questioned why developers are tearing down an apartment building where at least 14 families currently live, rather than choosing to begin the plan at already shuttered buildings in Lathrop.

Cabbie loses novel suit against city

A federal appeals court panel has dismissed a class-action lawsuit that sought financial relief for struggling Chicago cabdrivers based on a novel theory that cabbies are so heavily regulated they should be classified as city employees guaranteed the city's $10-an-hour minimum wage and compensated for overtime.

Veteran cabdriver Melissa Callahan had argued that cabbies struggling to survive in the Uber age are not coming close to earning the minimum wage after expenses such as lease fees, gasoline and insurance are deducted.

She argued that the city should make up the difference because it regulates fares and lease rates and imposes other revenue-raising constraints on the industry.

But the Appellate Court ruled Callahan "does not own any asset whose market value has been reduced by the city's regulation of taxi fares."

Judge warns not to start museum work

Chicago is tied up in a lawsuit over movie mogul George Lucas' proposal to built a $400 million lakefront museum, but a federal judge has warned City Hall of the risk it would take by breaking ground early - especially if it ultimately loses a court battle over the museum's location.

"Whatever you've done is going to have to be undone at cost to somebody other than the plaintiffs," U.S. District Judge John Darrah said.

The judge also stressed during a brief procedural hearing that he is keeping an "open mind" about the case. The hearing took place one day after the city warned that a protracted court fight over the museum "now puts the entire project at risk."

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