How would closing Chicago’s Greyhound station affect low-income travelers? – Chicago Tribune

Good morning, Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools will launch the district’s monthslong budgeting process Wednesday, doubling down on last year’s $240 million increase in funding provided to schools while absorbing the ballooning cost of teacher pensions and debt.

CPS will provide district-managed schools an additional $150 million in the 2023-24 school year, to increase spending per pupil for all students and target investments toward schools with the most need.

And Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave a parting gift to Brandon Johnson Tuesday: a smaller than anticipated budget gap. The outgoing mayor’s financial team said the administration is leaving Mayor-elect Johnson with a projected budget gap of just $85 million for his first year — a relative drop in the bucket compared with the city’s $16.7 billion budget.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

Subscribe to more newsletters | COVID-19 tracker | Compare home values by ZIP code | Puzzles & Games | Daily horoscope | Ask Amy | Today’s eNewspaper edition

Chicago’s downtown Greyhound bus station is at risk of closing, and that could have repercussions for low-income travelers and the city’s status as a transportation hub, according to a new report from DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot used a weekly meeting with police leaders to demand answers for why officers seemingly struggled to control crowds of young people who gathered downtown over the weekend, damaging vehicles and leading to the circulation of viral videos of the chaos, sources familiar with the situation said.

The mayhem in the city’s tourism district late Saturday sparked renewed concern about the Chicago Police Department’s ability to handle crowds of teens and young adults who were captured on cellphone cameras blocking traffic and jumping atop a CTA bus.

Afternoon Briefing

Daily

Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.

The cross-examination of former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore took a dramatic turn Tuesday when she inadvertently opened the door to questions about a 2019 interview with prosecutors where she denied knowing about the utility paying subcontractors connected to Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

A few days after the restaurant’s grand opening April 1, there was a dip in customers at L&J Food for the Soul in Dolton, said owner Melanie Holly. On April 5, after no customers came in for about four hours, her father and restaurant supervisor Donald Jones was sitting on a cushioned bench against the front window looking out at the parking lot. Jones’ other daughter, Ladonna Jones, took a video of him sitting there and posted it to TikTok.

After one hour, the video had about 4,000 views, Holly said. A few hours later, 11,000 views, she said, and by the morning the video had 1 million views.

We’re only eight days from the centerpiece event of a significant Chicago Bears offseason: the NFL draft on April 27-29 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Who will the Bears pick at No. 9, or will they trade down again — or even back up? And where does Kansas City’s famed barbecue rank among NFL cities? The Tribune’s Brad Biggs tries to answer them all in his weekly Bears mailbag.

Chicago is home to a stretch of the Great American Rail Trail, a 3,700-mile bike path from coast to coast that passes through northwest Indiana and the south suburbs.

Though supported by the national Rails to Trails Conservancy, it is really a network of more than 125 locally backed trails that is still filling out some gaps in the run from Washington, D.C., to the Pacific Ocean west of Seattle.