Afternoon Briefing: Real ID ‘supercenter' will open to handle rush
Rancor among the staff at the Civilian Office of Police Accountability was the driving force behind the recent effort to remove the agency's former chief administrator, Andrea Kersten, records obtained by the Tribune show.
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability — the city body overseeing the leaders of COPA, the Chicago Police Department and police board — wrote Kersten on Jan. 28 to tell her of a planned no-confidence vote regarding her overseeing COPA.
Persistent complaints and concerns about oversight within COPA, the agency's workplace culture, the quality of investigations, as well as Kersten's own public statements and appearances were chief among the reasons highlighted by CCPSA.
Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit chicagotribune.com/latest-headlines and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices.
Real ID 'supercenter' opens in Loop this week to handle rush ahead of May 7 deadline
The Illinois secretary of state's office is opening a Real ID 'supercenter' in Chicago's Loop to meet a growing demand for the document ahead of a federal May 7 deadline. Read more here.
Housing authorities look for solutions as voucher recipients fail to lease units with rental subsidies
From the tiny North Chicago Housing Authority to the behemoth Chicago Housing Authority, local housing agencies are seeing their voucher recipients struggle and fail to find housing. Read more here.
More top business stories:
Big Ten Tournament preview: Illinois heads to Indianapolis on a roll — while Northwestern sneaks into field
After a bumpy patch in mid-February, the Illini finished the regular season with three straight convincing victories: against Iowa, at then-No. 15 Michigan and the finale at home against the Boilermakers, who had won five straight in the rivalry. Read more here.
More top sports stories:
Chicago White Sox notes from camp: Evaluating shortstop options — and Sean Burke's 'sharp' breaking stuff
5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks' 3-0 loss, including Artyom Levshunov's debut and Spencer Knight's chin music
With a major new donation, the MCA will ramp up live performance in its theater
Thanks to a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art says it plans to greatly expand its live performance offerings in its 300-seat Edlis Neeson Theater, a much-admired performance space with a substantial seating capacity and an enviable location off the Magnificent Mile. Read more here.
More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories:
Lyric Opera's 2025-26 season includes 'Madama Butterfly' and Billy Corgan revisiting 'Mellon Collie'
Out of Space and ARC music fests announce their 2025 lineups
The president says the increase of the tariffs set to take effect tomorrow is a response to the price increases that the provincial government of Ontario put on electricity sold to the United States.
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Ex-Wisconsin players say in lawsuit that former coach Marisa Moseley psychologically abused them
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Chicago Tribune
15 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Illinois' rental assistance program has restarted. Here's what you need to know.
Struggling to pay your rent? Need to get paid for rent you are owed? There's a solution for those issues again after a two-month hiatus: Illinois' court-based rental assistance program reopened on July 31. While the program saw a third of its funds wiped away for the 2026 fiscal year that began July 1, $50 million in state funds are available. The reduction came as rents in Chicago keep rising and after the state grappled with serious fiscal challenges when balancing its budget this year, issues exacerbated by a federal government focused on axing spending. State lawmakers cut spending in various areas beyond housing as well. The state rental assistance program was previously funded by federal aid distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused on helping tenants experiencing COVID-19-related hardships and at risk of eviction. The program has helped tens of thousands of renters and landlords since its inception in 2020. In the 2025 fiscal year, the inaugural year as a state-funded effort, more than $63 million in aid was distributed to help more than 7,680 families facing eviction. Around 39% of aided households were extremely low income, earning less than $36,000 a year for a household of four, the state said. The need was greater than the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the group in charge of administering the funds, expected, the agency said, which is why the program closed about three weeks before the end of the last fiscal year. Eviction filings in Cook County have hovered around pre-pandemic levels since 2022. Here's what you need to know about the state's court-based rental assistance program: Eligible tenants have to make 80% or less of the area median income and do not have to be facing a COVID-19-related hardship. For a household of four in Chicago, the income eligibility threshold is $95,900 or less, according to the Chicago Department of Housing's area median income calculations. For this year's round of assistance, the state said tenants will be ineligible if they have received aid in the last 18 months. Renters do not have to prove their citizenship status and must have an active eviction case due to nonpayment of rent to qualify. Housing providers are not allowed to evict tenants during the grant's coverage period for nonpayment of rent. For tenants whose landlords are unwilling to participate in the program, the state offers up to two months of future rent payments to help them find a new place to live. Renters in Chicago and Cook County maintain the right to stay in their homes if they pay their debts in full to their landlord at any time before an official eviction order is filed. Tenants and landlords can receive up to $10,000 in rental assistance per eviction case. This is a reduction from last year's $15,000 ceiling when the program was better funded. Kristin Faust, the Illinois Housing Development Authority's executive director, previously told the Tribune this decision was made based on data from last year's program and conversations with legal aid, tenants and landlords. The average grant amount last year was around $8,300, or eight months of rent. The authority estimates about 6,500 households will be able to receive assistance this year. The money can go toward paying past-due rent, up to $700 in court costs — up from $500 last year — and up to two months of future rent. To apply for the Illinois Court-Based Rental Assistance Program, go to The court-based rental assistance program is just one aspect of the state's eviction diversion program, known formally as the Early Resolution Program. Tenants and small landlords can also receive legal aid to help settle eviction cases before they go to trial. Those resources can be found at or by calling (855) 956-5763. The central hub for eviction help in the state is a website called Eviction Help Illinois: There are also separate rental assistance dollars allocated to the Illinois Department of Human Services, with $89.5 million total (including the $50 million court-based program) earmarked to support those efforts this fiscal year, the state said. More information for IDHS housing support programs can be found here: A three-year Chicago pilot program aiding low-income households with legal representation was recently extended through the end of the year thanks to carryover funds from its initial grant (federal stimulus money from the pandemic era) and city dollars, said Michelle Gilbert, legal and policy director for Law Center for Better Housing, one of the organizations involved in the program. The city will need to appropriate more funds in next year's budget (starting Jan. 1, 2026) for the program to continue.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
A look at consumer prices 6 months into the second Trump administration
It's been a little over six months since President Donald Trump assumed office for his second term. In that time, the economic landscape has shifted quite drastically: The new administration has implemented broad tariffs on U.S. trade partners, the stock market has both plummeted and soared to historic heights, hiring is down, fears of a recession are on the rise and, perhaps most notably for everyday Americans, consumer prices are changing. Now $6.34, the cost of ground beef hit all-time highs for the sixth consecutive month, jumping another 4% since June. But it's not just backyard barbecues and ballpark dogs that are getting more expensive — bananas, electricity and chicken also remain at or less than a cent away from their record prices, according to the latest data from the Consumer Price Index. Across the board, consumer prices are about 2.7% higher than they were this time last year, an increase economists largely attribute to the president's sweeping tariffs pushing costs higher. And with even greater import taxes on more than 90 countries taking effect last week, it may not be the last time the price of consumer goods and services tips the scale. What US consumers can expect from new tariffs on imported goodsThe Tribune is tracking 11 everyday costs for Americans — eggs, milk, bread, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, chicken, ground beef, gasoline, electricity and natural gas — and how they are changing, or not, under the second Trump administration. This tracker is updated monthly using CPI data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor prices have dropped for a fourth month straight, tumbling another 18 cents from June to July. According to the latest data, the average cost of a dozen large Grade A eggs is $3.60 nationwide. The sharp decline in egg prices is likely due to a decrease in bird flu cases in commercial and backyard flocks since the start of the year. In the first two months of 2025, tens of millions of birds were affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza across 39 states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. As of July, the virus was detected in only one flock in Pennsylvania — representing less than 30,000 U.S. birds. Currently, the cost of eggs is about 13% less than it was in December 2024, before Trump took office. The cost of milk, meanwhile, is trending up again, jumping 13 cents month-over-month. There are a number of factors that could be driving this price increase. Like egg-laying hens and poultry flocks, dairy cows have been affected by bird flu. In April and May, the number of reported cases shot up again, so shoppers could be seeing the lingering effects of that disruption on the supply chain. Additionally, rising costs may be a result of lower milk production and fewer dairy products being imported into the country in recent months, according to Tribune analysis of USDA data. A gallon of fresh, fortified whole milk cost $4.16 in July. That price is 1.5% higher than it was in the last month of the administration of President Joe Biden and up 4.5% from a year ago. The average price of white bread fell for the third month straight, landing at $1.85 per pound in July to mark a nearly three-year low. Shoppers can expect to pay more for their next bunch of bananas. The staple fruit cost a record-breaking $0.66 per pound in July — just a fraction more than the previous high set two months ago. Inflated prices are likely due to Trump's trade war, with tariffs imposed on the country's top banana suppliers. Imports from Guatemala and Honduras are levied at 10%, while Ecuador and Costa Rica's tariff rates are set at 15% and Mexico is subject to a 25% tax. No data on orange prices was available for July. In June, the cost of navel oranges went up more than 4% for an average price per pound of $1.63 nationwide. Is it a fruit? Is it a vegetable? Wherever you fall on the tomato debate, they may be getting more expensive. In July, the cost of field-grown tomatoes was approximately $1.79 per pound. That's 5 cents higher than the previous month but down roughly 13% since Trump took power. These changes, however, are largely tied to the harvesting season. Tomato prices vary depending on the time of year, rising through the late summer and fall, peaking in the early winter months and then plummeting in the spring. But there may soon be price movement outside the standard seasonality. Last month, the Trump administration announced it was placing a 17% tariff on most Mexican-grown tomatoes, which make up the vast majority of all tomatoes sold in the U.S. As a result, agricultural business experts anticipate American grocers will start charging more for the staple food. The average cost of fresh, whole chicken fell slightly month-over-month to $2.08 per pound. Prices remain less than a cent off June's all-time highs and are the second highest on record — going back more than 45 years. So why the elevated prices? It could be a result of rising feed costs, the lingering effects of bird flu on the supply chain or that more measurable increases in beef prices are driving a shift in consumer demand toward cheaper meat options like chicken. The cost of ground beef is climbing up, up and up. In July, prices again notched record highs, with a pound of 100% ground beef chuck setting you back about $6.34. The rising cost can be attributed to a confluence of factors. The U.S. cattle inventory is the lowest it's been in almost 75 years, and severe drought in parts of the country has further reduced the feed supply, according to the USDA. Supply challenges and rising feed costs stateside mean the country is importing more. But beef and cattle sourced from other nations isn't necessarily a cheaper alternative. New tariff rates on top beef importers like Canada and Brazil took effect in August, raising the countries' already steep import taxes to 35% and 50%, respectively. Plus, last month the U.S. suspended all live cattle imports from Mexico due to concerns over a flesh-eating parasite, further straining the country's supply of beef and cattle. With increased costs both locally and abroad, this may not be the last time shoppers see record prices this year. From Laos to Brazil, President Trump's tariffs leave a lot of losers. But even the winners will pay a approximately 19 cents per kilowatt-hour, the current price of electricity is one fraction of a cent off last month's record. Month-over-month changes in electric costs typically register at less than a cent, but that doesn't mean consumers won't feel it in their pocketbooks. Prices have been steadily increasing throughout the year, and in fact, July was the first month since January that the national average didn't notch a new high. As for Chicago, ComEd, the city's primary electric utility, announced earlier this year that a massive supply rate increase would hit this summer, warning that the cost for an average residential customer was expected to go up by $10.60 per month. For some Chicagoans, that supply increase translated to triple-digit hikes on their latest bills. Since December, the average price per kilowatt-hour has increased by more than 7%, and with long, hot summer days ahead, most Americans won't see lower rates anytime soon. Planning an end-of-summer road trip? You'll be happy to know gas prices are falling again — albeit only slightly. A gallon of regular unleaded costs $3.29, dropping 2 cents month-over-month. Prices in Chicago tell a different story. Now $3.52, the cost of gas in the city went up from the previous month and currently hovers about 7% higher than the national average, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nationally, gasoline prices are up 4.5% under the Trump administration — a difference of 14 cents per gallon. The nationwide cost of piped utility gas, or natural gas, has fallen for the first time in a year. From June to July, the price dropped 1 cent to $1.64 per therm. Yet, on average, Americans are paying close to 8% more to heat their homes, ovens and stovetops than when Biden left office. Year-over-year, that difference is even more drastic: a roughly 17% change.
