Chicago is staring at the possibility of an unprecedented municipal shutdown after a bitter clash over the city’s 2026 budget, as Mayor Brandon Johnson considers rejecting the spending plan approved by the City Council.
The mayor has sharply criticized the package that cleared the council over the weekend, blasting it as “morally bankrupt” because it omits his preferred per-employee corporate “head tax.”
If Johnson exercises his veto power, council members would be forced back to the drawing board to assemble a revised budget that could win the mayor’s signature before the December 30 deadline. Failure to do so could leave city government without an approved spending plan.
The standoff is unfolding entirely within the political left. Chicago’s City Council has no Republican members, consisting of 48 Democrats and two independents, making the dispute an intraparty fight rather than a partisan one.
One of the mayor’s Democratic critics is Alderman Gilbert Villegas, who represents Belmont-Cragin on the city’s Northwest Side and is closely aligned with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Reacting to the veto threat, Villegas said he would “work hard to see if we can get 38-40 votes to override the veto,” noting that the budget initially passed by a 30–18 margin.
At the heart of the disagreement is Chicago’s looming fiscal problem. The city is facing a projected $1.2 billion deficit for 2026. Johnson has argued that policies under the Trump administration tilt the scales toward corporations and away from working families, insisting that businesses should “put more skin in the game.”
Not all Illinois Democrats are on board with that approach. Governor JB Pritzker has spoken out against Johnson’s proposed $33-per-worker, per-month head tax, warning that it would “penalize the very thing that we want, which is more employment.”
Johnson has also pushed back against national media criticism. He took aim at The Washington Post after it published a harsh editorial titled, “Chicago Has Lost Its Mind,” which warned that the head tax and other business-related measures could choke off economic growth. Responding to the paper, Johnson remarked that it “wouldn’t be the first time a publication got something I’ve done wrong.”
The council-approved budget attempts to close revenue gaps through a mix of new and expanded levies. Proposals include allowing video-gambling machines in restaurants and at Chicago-Midway Airport, increasing the city’s shopping-bag tax, and creating a first-of-its-kind tax on social media companies. That plan would charge platforms $0.50 per active Chicago user above 100,000 users, a move expected to generate $31 million if enacted.
Although a full-scale shutdown would be unprecedented, Chicago has seen budget brinkmanship before. In the 1980s, Democratic Mayor Harold Washington vetoed multiple budgets, often triggering tense, last-minute negotiations that ultimately produced agreements.
Washington, the city’s first Black mayor, rejected four budgets during his four-and-a-half years in office before his sudden death in 1987, shortly after winning re-election at age 65.
Within the current council, a key Johnson ally is Alderman Pat Dowell of the South Side, who is spearheading efforts to rally support for the budget, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Dowell acknowledged the plan’s shortcomings but said it is “not perfect but is a good budget and one we can work with.”
Progressives aligned with the mayor have been far more caustic. West Side Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez backed Johnson’s head-tax proposal and condemned the council’s alternative as an “immoral, bankrupt, ‘Michael Sacks’ budget.”
Sacks, a billionaire financier who heads asset manager GCM Grosvenor, has ties to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and donated to several aldermanic campaigns ahead of the budget fight, according to WGN.
Defending Sacks, Alderman Bill Conway III — a former military intelligence officer who represents the Loop — told WGN, “Michael is someone who cares about the future of the city, and he tries to work with those who are like-minded.”
{Matzav.com}It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the passing of Rav Shlomo Weisberg zt”l, a noted talmid chochom whose life was devoted entirely to Torah and avodah.
Rav Shlomo z”l was a distinguished talmid muvhak of Rav Nochum Partzovitz zt”l, from whom he absorbed not only vast iyun and clarity in learning, but a deep reverence for mesorah. Those who learned alongside him or heard him speak recall a mind of precision and depth, coupled with an innate humility that defined his bearing.
He came from a home steeped in Torah greatness. His father, Reb Yaakov Weisberg, was among the early talmidim of Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l at Beth Medrash Govoha, part of the founding generation that helped establish Lakewood as a world center of Torah. Rav Shlomo carried that legacy forward with dignity and constancy, forging his own path as a true talmid chochom whose every step reflected the values he had inherited.
Rav Shlomo was named after his father’s rebbi, Rav Shlomo Heiman zt”l, a name he honored throughout his life through his unyielding commitment to Torah lishmah and integrity.
He leaves behind a family that continues his legacy. His son, Rav Yosef Weisberg, serves as the rav of Bais Medrash of Pine Lake Park in Manchester.
The levaya is taking place at Beth Medrash Govoha’s Bendheim Bais Medrash. Kevurah will be in Eretz Yisroel.
Yehi zichro boruch.
{Matzav.com}
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Five days after Lebanese officer Ahmad Shukr vanished, investigators say they have found no physical or technological evidence showing that he remains inside Lebanon, a gap that officials believe supports the possibility that he was taken out of the country.
A senior Lebanese legal source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday that one working theory under examination is that Shukr was seized by Israel as part of an “intelligence entrapment operation.” The assessment stems from suspicions tied to his alleged links to the 1986 abduction of Israeli airman Ron Arad in southern Lebanon.
According to reports circulating within Lebanese intelligence circles, Shukr, who previously served in the Lebanese General Security apparatus, may have been abducted by Mossad after “falling victim to a sophisticated recruitment operation” in the Bekaa Valley.
Investigators also disclosed that two Swedish citizens — one of them of Lebanese origin — had traveled to Lebanon shortly before Shukr disappeared. One of the two reportedly departed the country on the same day Shukr went missing, a detail now being scrutinized as part of the inquiry.
Shukr was last seen after visiting the town of Nabi Sheet in the northern Bekaa region, after which all contact with him was lost.
Family members have pointed to Shukr’s background and relatives as relevant context. He is the brother of Hassan Shukr, a Hezbollah operative killed during the IDF’s “Law and Order” operation in 1988, a period marked by Israeli raids on Hezbollah and other militant bases. Hassan Shukr belonged to the group that carried out Ron Arad’s abduction and later transferred him to an unknown location, after which his trail vanished.
Ahmad Shukr is also related to Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s chief of staff, who was killed in an Israeli strike approximately a year and a half ago.
{Matzav.com}
British authorities revealed that a terror plot described as potentially catastrophic was narrowly stopped, following the conviction of two men who had spent months preparing an attack inspired by the ISIS organization.
Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Potts said the planning stretched over a long period and had reached an advanced stage, noting that the suspects were alarmingly close to putting their plans into action.
Prosecutors and police warned that the scheme, had it been carried out, could have resulted in “one of the deadliest terror attacks in the history of the UK, if not the deadliest.”
The men, identified as Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty of plotting a terrorist assault in Britain. Testimony showed that they intended to launch a mass killing spree, using automatic weapons with the explicit aim of murdering as many Jews as possible.
{Matzav.com}