Daywatch: CPD brass accuse Johnson's budget office of delaying paychecks
Chicago Police Department brass accused Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration of deliberately slowing down paychecks for dozens of employees this summer in a fiery email that warned the city was jeopardizing its compliance with the federal consent decree.
Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons emailed multiple officials in Johnson's budget office June 2 to alert them of the department's overdue A-forms, paperwork required to process paychecks for new hires and promotions. After following up the next day to confirm that police recruits were not getting their first paychecks, he sent an additional message June 10 saying Johnson's budget office was purposely sitting on the forms.
'Given that we discussed at length via email and on our meeting on May 8th the need for timely approval of A-Forms, it would appear that OBM is pursuing a pattern of practice to delay the approval of A-Forms with the functional result of not paying employees on time and delaying compliance with the Consent Decree,' Fitzsimons wrote. 'What is OBM's plan to systemically approve or deny A-forms?'
Read the full story from the Tribune's Alice Yin.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including: what Gov. JB Pritzker said at a climate change conference, why aldermen are debating gambling in Chicago's neighborhood bars or international airports and how Dennis Allen's defense is coming together as Bears training camp opens.
Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History
Gov. JB Pritzker shared his fears about the future of climate policy under President Donald Trump — and his thoughts on how Illinois can stick to its climate goals amid federal funding cuts — at a climate conference last night in Chicago.
Gambling could soon come to Chicago's neighborhood bars or international airports as aldermen eye legalizing video gambling machines as a way to add tax revenue.
If Ald. William Hall gets his way, the gambling machines will be broadly legalized across the city next year, popping up in places like bars and restaurants to help address the city's budget woes.
A Cook County jury convicted a man of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Chicago police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso following a weeklong trial marked by difficult body camera footage of the 2023 slaying.
Longtime criminal defense attorney Thomas Anthony Durkin, known as a tireless advocate for his clients who enjoyed holding the government accountable for overstepping authority in everything from terrorism investigations to electronic surveillance, died yesterday after a brief hospitalization. He was 78.
On this day in 1934: Chicago was in the grip of a weeklong heat wave, and the mercury that day reached 101. Twenty-three people died of the heat, but the death that drew the most attention was that of John Dillinger — a 31-year-old Indiana man who, on his birthday a month earlier, had been declared Public Enemy No. 1 by the FBI.
In the heat of that July, movie houses advertised that they were 'air-cooled.' Perhaps that's what made Dillinger decide to take a prostitute named Polly Hamilton and Hamilton's landlady, Anna Sage, to the Biograph Theater (now known as Victory Gardens Theater) at 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., to see 'Manhattan Melodrama,' a gangster movie starring Clark Gable.
It wasn't a massive overhaul, but the Bears made a few key changes on defense heading into 2025. General manager Ryan Poles and coach Ben Johnson focused much of their effort on the trenches, adding two starters to the defensive line.
With the Bears starting training camp, the Cubs at home against the Kansas City Royals in the heat of a pennant race and the White Sox on a rare three-game winning streak, yesterday was one of those days that reminds us why we never can leave.
While we await the next heat dome, Paul Sullivan has some other observations on the world of sports.
Amy Lechelt is a sort of modern-day Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl of 'My Fair Lady.' She is in the same business and has had, so far, a full, interesting and rewarding life, writes Rick Kogan.
She is part of the city's floating outdoor economy, which includes, most obviously, food trucks, but is nowhere near the vibrancy and variety in such places as Paris or New York.
About a month after her top-three finish on Bravo's 'Top Chef,' Bailey Sullivan, free of cameras and in her comfort zone, was back to working as executive chef at Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio. For the past few months, diners at the West Loop restaurant have received their bill with a glowing portrait of Sullivan, celebrating her appearance on the show.
Sullivan's personal style is memorable — ever-colorful hair, large glasses and rotating patterned bandanas. It seems to tell you everything about her on first look: quirky and easily creative. But that belies a scholarly understanding of Italian cooking history, techniques and terminology, and a serious competitor.
In this one-woman play, British writer Dennis Kelly (a Tony Award winner for the book of 'Matilda the Musical') manages a tricky balancing act, tackling an extremely dark subject in almost surgical detail while softening its harshest blows for the audience and maintaining some sense of hope in humanity. Oh, and the show is also hilarious, writes Emily McClanathan.
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Chicago Tribune
40 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: With a month to go before CPS must approve a budget, leaders' lack of seriousness is on display
When can a budget crisis not fairly be called a crisis? Perhaps when the crisis is something that's been obviously coming for months, if not years, and demanded action long ago. Members of the Chicago Board of Education appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, as well as the interim Chicago Public Schools CEO hired out of Johnson's administration, are calling for Gov. JB Pritzker to order a special session of the legislature to bail out a district facing what it says is a $734 million budget hole for the coming school year. The requests for the special session came this week, a little over a month before the Aug. 28 deadline for the school board to finalize its budget. Needless to say, there won't be a special session. Pritzker and the Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate have made it clear repeatedly that the state itself is tapped out and can't furnish hundreds of millions to bail out CPS. That school board President Sean Harden, who serves as the mayor's chief CPS mouthpiece, would seek a special session at this late stage is revealing of how unserious Johnson and his allies are about properly managing a system that by any measure is tremendously bloated. The time for legislative sessions, special or otherwise, was months and months ago. The mayor, in fact, didn't include a CPS bailout among his requests for help from Springfield in the past spring session — precisely because he knew it would go nowhere and might jeopardize his other asks. So, as Johnson has demanded in vain for over a year, Harden and other mayoral allies on the board once again are talking about taking on hundreds of millions more in high-priced debt just to get through the next school year without having to make meaningful budget cuts. And, unlike in the spring, when a minority of school board members took advantage of a supermajority requirement for budget amendments and rejected Harden's request for authority to go deeper into debt, this time around Harden needs only a simple majority to add more liabilities to the balance sheet of the nation's largest municipal junk-bond issuer. Meeting that threshold likely won't be a problem. Eleven of 21 board members are Johnson appointees. Of the 10 elected in November, seven consistently have resisted Johnson and Harden's reckless financial maneuvers to date. But that's not enough opposition to stop CPS from lurching substantially further toward insolvency if Harden and interim school Superintendent Macquline King choose that route. For CPS, there's a short-term issue and there's a long-term issue. Both should concern every Chicagoan. Over the longer haul, the district will have to consolidate a large number of schools and rationalize its workforce. As it stands, CPS is sized for a student population far larger than the 325,000 actually attending Chicago's public schools today. We will have more to say on that larger matter later. The short-term problem — next year's shortfall — can be addressed in part by forcing the city of Chicago to pay the $175 million Mayor Johnson has insisted CPS should shoulder for the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund, a pension fund serving nonteaching employees of CPS, as well as some workers for the city and other agencies. By state law, that pension plan is the city's obligation, but Johnson and his predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, strived to get CPS to take on some of the plan's funding responsibility. CPS did so in years when it was flush with federal pandemic cash, but refused to do so last year so that it could pay for teacher raises negotiated as part of a new four-year collective bargaining agreement. Given the district's financial strains, there's no good reason to float junk-rated debt to cover that cost now, especially when not obligated by law. So without the $175 million pension payment, the true deficit should be more like $559 million. That's not a small amount to cut, even in a budget well exceeding $9 billion. But, still. This predicament could be seen a mile away, and Johnson — backed by his former employer and erstwhile ally, the Chicago Teachers Union — has insisted since taking office on generous yearly raises for teachers who already are among the nation's highest-paid while also opposing the consolidation of any schools and associated job reductions. About a third of CPS schools are at less than half of student capacity, and many are at a third or lower. The CTU/Johnson strategy from the beginning has been to do next to nothing about a foreseeably dire budget situation — in fact, make it significantly worse — and wait until the crisis got so acute that the state or some other benefactor would swoop in to the rescue. That's fiscal and managerial malfeasance. Why should it be rewarded? Oh, yes. The children. Perhaps the most pernicious facet of this game-of-chicken strategizing is that hundreds of thousands of Chicago students rely on CPS, and the city's future depends in no small part on giving those kids a good education. By now, a majority of Chicagoans have caught on to CTU's true purpose, which is to bolster its membership ranks no matter how low CPS' student population drops. That doesn't stop union leaders, of course, from attempting to paint those who reject the never-ending requests for hundreds of millions or even billions in tax increases as cold-hearted opponents of educating Chicago's kids. But the rhetoric increasingly doesn't land, especially given how CTU's very own former organizer sits on the fifth floor. We feel terrible for the families who will bear the brunt of the likely cutbacks to come. But this challenging upcoming school year unfortunately is the price we will have to pay for epic mismanagement. Once they see no knight in shining armor coming to the rescue, these unserious people tasked with running our schools finally must take some accountability and begin the process of making difficult decisions about the future of CPS within the means available to support it.
The Hill
40 minutes ago
- The Hill
GOP leaders submarined by Epstein uproar
House Republican leaders who have tried to contain the furor over the Jeffrey Epstein files lost their grip on the matter this week — and surrendered control of the wider operations of the lower chamber. A bonanza of subpoenas for Epstein-related materials and testimony erupted in the House Oversight Committee. A House Appropriations Committee markup was postponed amid threats of Democrats forcing more Epstein-related materials. And a rebellion on the House Rules Committee over Epstein amendments thwarted plans for House votes, prompting leaders to begin August recess one day early. Hanging over the whirlwind of a week is a discharge petition that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is vowing to spearhead for his bipartisan resolution — co-sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — calling for the release of the Epstein files. The mechanism will not be ready for action until September, given the House's strict rules, meaning the Epstein saga will still be a live issue on Capitol Hill when lawmakers return from their August recess. Supporters of the effort say they have no plans to relent. 'I think it'll grow,' Massie said when asked if he thinks the Epstein controversy will still be of interest when the House returns in September. That prediction runs counter to the posture of House GOP leaders, who had hoped that the coming August recess would give the Epstein saga time to fade. The Speaker this week argued that the courts need time to work through the process, giving deference to the administration to release information on its own terms before the House compelled it to do so. In a sign of that position, House GOP leaders acquiesced to members of the House Rules Committee who wanted to avoid taking more votes on Democratic amendments on Epstein, putting the panel into an indefinite recess and delaying bills that were scheduled to come up for a full floor vote — though Johnson publicly said the move was to avoid playing Democrats' 'political games.' President Trump made an overture to members of the Rules Republicans at another White House event on Tuesday amid the drama, inviting a group of them into the Oval Office. But Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said that Trump thanked them for their work on the 'big, beautiful bill' of his tax cut and spending priorities without mentioning the Epstein holdup. Not every Rules panel member was there — with Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), one of those calling for more Epstein action by Republicans, saying he was not made aware of the gathering. While the moves made by Republicans were shocking, they were not surprising for some: Leaders had been warned that another Epstein eruption could be coming in other corners of the House. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he had told Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last week that if the House was in session this week, he would not be able to stop Republicans from making moves for more Epstein information. 'I told Speaker Johnson last week that if we were in session this week that Republicans on the Oversight Committee were going to move to be more aggressive and try to get transparency with the Epstein files,' Comer said on Thursday. Comer's full committee on Tuesday approved a motion from Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex offender and longtime Epstein associate. Johnson subsequently raised doubts about Maxwell's credibility and usefulness of her testimony. 'Can we trust what she's gonna say, even if she raises her hand and says that she'll testify under oath?' Johnson said. 'Is that something that can be trusted? You know, that's a reasonable question. Is that credible evidence?' Comer, bound by the rules of the committee, issued the Maxwell subpoena and hopes to depose her from prison on Aug. 11. But that wasn't all. On Wednesday, an Oversight subcommittee greenlit a motion from Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to subpoena the Department of Justice on materials relating to Epstein — with three Republicans joining Democrats to approve the subpoena. Softening the blow from the Democratic motion, the subcommittee also approved by voice vote a motion from Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) to approve a swath of subpoenas to high profile former Democratic officials, including the former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who knew Maxwell and Epstein. 'I'm surprised that the Democrats went along with subpoenaing Bill and Hillary Clinton and others that were involved with that,' Comer said Thursday. 'I never thought we would be questioning the Clintons and others on — with respect to the Epstein files, but the Democrats voted in a bipartisan manner yesterday to do that.' The drama didn't end there. The House Appropriations Committee postponed a markup for a bill to fund the Justice Department and other agencies that had been scheduled for Thursday, as Democrats were planning to force more amendment votes on Epstein. A source told The Hill that Democrats were 'absolutely' going to bring more votes on Epstein amendments, adding: 'We think that may be one of the reasons they canceled.' Markups in the past have been shifted due to changes in the House calendar, and the Appropriations Committee noted that votes were canceled on Thursday when postponing the markup. The wave of action on Capitol Hill comes as the Trump administration is taking steps to try and quell the anger — but those efforts that are already running into roadblocks. Last week, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move to release relevant grand jury transcripts from the Epstein case. On Wednesday, however, a federal judge in Florida declined that entreaty, rebuffing their attempt at releasing information from the Sunshine State's 2005 and 2007 federal investigations into Epstein. And this week, a top Justice Department official was expected to meet with Maxwell in Florida. Massie said the administration's efforts won't be enough to quell the outcry among GOP lawmakers. 'They're gonna do drips and drabs,' he said of the administration's attempts to release information, 'and so the drips and drabs aren't gonna get it done.' If that is the case, more House action could be on the horizon. Johnson said if the administration does not provide enough information, the chamber would take matters into their own hands come the fall. 'This information should have come out a long time ago,' Johnson told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday. 'I've been an advocate of that, we all have. But that process is underway right now, and we've got to zealously guard that and protect it and make sure it's happening. And if it doesn't, then we'll take appropriate action when everybody returns here. But we have to allow the court process to play out, that's how it works.'
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
Dems ready more Epstein attacks
IN TODAY'S EDITION:— How Epstein could permeate recess town halls — Senate negotiates next week's spending bills — Senate Republicans call for probe into Obama The Jeffrey Epstein controversy could be hitting town halls across the country as House lawmakers head home over August recess. Democratic leaders have brushed aside misgivings about dabbling in conspiracy theories to broadly paint the GOP as a party intent on protecting the powerful rather than standing up for the vulnerable. 'It's all connected,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters this week. 'This administration refuses to share the truth and be transparent ... while they are simultaneously working to shut down hospitals and urgent cares and Planned Parenthoods,' said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, previewing how Democrats would combine Epstein talking points and economic messaging in the coming weeks. Some Democrats plan to leave Epstein to the wayside during recess, with especially those in purple districts more interested in using their town halls and other events to hammer Republicans over President Donald Trump's tariff and trade agenda, as well as the Medicaid cuts and other provisions in the GOP domestic policy package. 'I don't plan to bring [Epstein] up,' said swing district-Rep. Dave Min. 'It's not something that is top of mind.' This could be welcome news for Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders, who took pains to avoid Epstein-related votes in the House this week in an effort to give the administration time over August recess to release any new information on the convicted sex offender. GOP leaders are also telling rank and file members to use their recess time at home to promote the megabill, hoping their sales pitch for it will counteract the Democratic narrative against it: 'I'm encouraging our people to just talk about it,' NRCC chair Richard Hudson told reporters. Still, Democrats are making clear the Epstein issue isn't going away, especially after Democrats succeeded in getting enough Republicans to join them in a vote to subpoena the DOJ's entire Epstein file during an Oversight subcommittee markup Thursday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise in an interview this week said that Republicans are trying to 'expedite' the process of releasing information on Epstein, but acknowledged it depends how quickly the courts respond to Trump administration efforts to unseal grand jury information. 'I don't think anybody can predict what the court's going to do, but we hope that they move quickly,' Scalise said. Expect House lawmakers to return in September to confront GOP Rep. Thomas Massie's continued push to force a vote on his bipartisan bill to make Epstein materials public. Lawmakers involved also tell Meredith that Rules Committee Republicans are dead set against helping Johnson kill off Massie's bill — for now. Another post-recess headache that could hit Johnson? Any Rules member will be able to call up a vote on the House floor on a separate, non-binding resolution expressing support for releasing the Epstein files, which the GOP-led panel briefly considered advancing last week. If this happens, it will require Republicans to move to table, or kill, the resolution in the Rules Committee or on the House floor. TGIF. Email us at nwu@ meredithlee@ crazor@ mmccarthy@ and bguggenheim@ Follow our live coverage at MORNING MONEY: CAPITAL RISK — POLITICO's flagship financial newsletter has a new Friday edition built for the economic era we're living in: one shaped by political volatility, disruption and a wave of policy decisions with sector-wide consequences. Each week, Morning Money: Capital Risk brings sharp reporting and analysis on how political risk is moving markets and how investors are adapting. Want to know how health care regulation, tariffs, or court rulings could ripple through the economy? Start here. WHAT WE'RE WATCHINGWith help from Jordan Williams The House is out for August recess. The Senate is out and will return Monday. — House Ways and Means will hold field hearings today and Saturday in Las Vegas and Simi Valley, Calif. to sell the GOP's recently-passed 'big, beautiful bill.' Next week: The Senate will continue to work through appropriations bills and Trump's nominees. Pro subscribers receive this newsletter with a full congressional schedule and can browse our comprehensive calendar of markups, hearings and other notable events around Washington. Sign up for a demo. THE LEADERSHIP SUITE GOP leaders await Bondi's move on Epstein Johnson, in a CBS interview aired Thursday, claimed House Republicans are united in wanting maximum disclosure on the Epstein files and said there are 'good questions' about how Pam Bondi's Justice Department has handled the matter. The ongoing saga — now in its third week — is mounting pressure on Trump and his attorney general to produce the Epstein evidence that Bondi said the DOJ had in February. And the president's allies are increasingly voicing concerns that Bondi, who has not yet addressed the controversy in a public setting, has a blind spot for the damage she has caused, Kyle Cheney, Meredith and Erica Orden report. House GOP leaders have an understanding with the White House that lawmakers will refrain from taking floor action on the matter as the administration works to unseal more documents related to the case — though many rank-and-file Republicans are skeptical. '[Bondi] has very little time to turn this around,' said one House Republican, granted anonymity to describe the view inside the conference. Across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the administration to provide a 'closed-door briefing to all senators' about 'Trump's name appearing in these files and the complete lack of transparency shown to date.' It's the latest in a string of efforts by Democrats to force some action by the administration as the Epstein issue continues to be a thorn in Trump's side. Senate negotiates appropriations package Senate GOP leaders are considering grouping three spending bills into a single package before leaving for August recess, Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Jennifer Scholtes report. Those bills would fund the VA and military construction projects; the Department of Agriculture and the FDA; and the Departments of Commerce and Justice. The package, filed Thursday afternoon by Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, would postpone consideration of the bill to fund congressional operations until some later date. That's a shift from the previous plan, but it became a necessity to switch gears after Sen. John Kennedy said he was opposed to the legislative branch funding measure. Senate Appropriations also on Thursday approved bills to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and the Interior Department and EPA. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to wait to take these up until the fall, already having his hands full with the funding measures that had previously been under consideration for inclusion in the so-called minibus. 'It's a question of, right now can, we get any of these bills into the package,' Thune told Jordain on Thursday. POLICY RUNDOWN BOOZMAN CRITICIZES USDA REORG ROLLOUT — Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said Thursday that he was 'disappointed' USDA officials didn't consult Congress on a new sweeping reorganization plan, Marcia Brown reports. Boozman's comments come as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday that her agency will move most Washington-area staff to Salt Lake City; Fort Collins, Colo.; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Mo.; and Raleigh, N.C. Boozman told Marcia that he wants to hold a hearing soon to understand USDA leadership's rationale for the move, adding that he has questions about what the relocations would mean for the department's efficiency. USDA employees, granted anonymity to speak freely for fear of reprisals, said in interviews they thought the move would allow USDA leadership to concentrate power in Washington and move potentially dissident voices out to the 'hubs.' REPUBLICANS CALL FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBE OF OBAMA — Senate Judiciary Republicans John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham are calling for Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate former President Barack Obama, his staff and members of his administration. The move comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard presented newly declassified intelligence at the White House Wednesday, which she alleged showed that the Obama administration 'knowingly lied' about Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election. Gabbard's presentation sparked outrage within the Congressional Black Caucus, with CBC Whip Kamlager-Dove leading a letter to Gabbard decrying the director's 'egregious' presentation. The 22 Democratic signers called on Gabbard to resign. 'As Director of National Intelligence, your job is to safeguard truth, not spread propaganda,' the lawmakers wrote. 'Instead, you have abused your position to promote a partisan narrative rooted in conspiracy and discredited claims.' SENATE TAX WRITERS TALK SECOND RECONCILIATION BILL — Senate Finance member Steve Daines told Benjamin Thursday that he's actively discussing a potential second party-line reconciliation bill with other members of the tax writing committee. Daines said Trump's idea to eliminate capital gains taxes on the sale of primary residences is 'a good idea' and that it should be combined with 'additional tax reform.' Daines' comments come as Finance Chair Mike Crapo indicated this week that he'd like to look at opportunities across health and tax jurisdictions for year-end legislation, though the Idaho Republican told Benjamin earlier this week he isn't sure yet about Trump's new tax proposal to rid capital gains taxes on houses. 'I gotta think about it,' Crapo said. Best of POLITICO Pro and E&E: THE BEST OF THE REST Sen. Angus King Admits His Vote For Anti-Abortion Judge Was 'A Mistake,' from Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic at HuffPost Republicans plan to use the threat of impeachment as a key midterm issue, from Peter Nicholas, Olympia Sonnier and Julie Tsirkin at NBC CAMPAIGN STOP TRUMP ENDORSES WHATLEY — Trump officially endorsed RNC chair Michael Whatley to run for Senate in North Carolina on Thursday night, which Dasha Burns scooped that morning. Whatley will enter the race to replace Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement last month. HOCHUL OPEN TO NY REDISTRICTING — Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is not ruling out a mid-decade redrawing of New York's House lines to benefit her party, as deep red Texas and Ohio move to reshape their maps through redistricting, Nick Reisman reports. Hochul's office and Jeffries have been in close touch about this possibility since Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special legislative session to reshape Texas districts, which would benefit Republicans. The move in New York would almost certainly be hit with legal challenges since state law stipulates redistricting may only be done once a decade, but Hochul is unconcerned. 'All's fair in love and war. We're following the rules. We do redistricting every 10 years,' Hochul said during an event Thursday in Buffalo. 'But if there's other states violating the rules and are trying to give themselves an advantage, all I'll say is, I'm going to look at it closely with Hakeem Jeffries.' CAUCUS MOVES — House Democrats' Lowering Costs Caucus is rolling out a new framework and planning document to help the party talk about inflation during the August recess. Members of the new coalition are urging Democrats to hold events to blame Republicans for spiking the cost of goods, from coffee to groceries. JOB BOARD Misha S. Linnehan is now press secretary for Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee. She was most recently deputy press secretary for former Sen. Bob Casey and previously worked for Maine Gov. Janet Mills and the Maine Democratic Party. Cameron Anders Clark has been promoted to director of operations for Rep. Adam Smith. Juliette Chandler is now deputy comms director for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi's Senate campaign. She most recently was digital director and press secretary for Rep. Lori Trahan. Gigi Powers has been promoted to operations director for the Senate HELP Committee. She most recently was a health research assistant for the committee. TUNNEL TALK HOUSEKEEPING UPDATE — A new closed captioning service funded by the Modernization Initiatives Account is now available to every House committee. Reps. Stephanie Bice and Norma Torres — the chair and ranking member of the subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation, respectively — announced the new service Thursday as part of the panel's effort to make the House more 'accessible to all.' The captioning service, which has a 98% accuracy rate, allows for real-time captioning on committee room screens during hearings. A committee-specific QR code will allow attendees to access real-time captions on their phones or tablets. HILL PROGRESSIVES JOIN HOUSE FOOD BOYCOTT — The Congressional Progressive Staff Association is standing in solidarity with the House food workers boycotting the chamber's new food vendors. Only two of the House's seven new subcontractors have agreed to rehire the existing workforce and acknowledge their union-negotiated base pay and benefits. The boycott includes Starbucks, Pakistani food restaurant CHA Street Food, Jimmy John's, Common Grounds, Java House and PX Tacos. 'We urge staff and allies to consider joining Unite Here's boycott until they commit to rehiring the current unionized workforce,' CPSA posted on X. 'These workers deserve respect, not replacement.' HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rep. Jared Golden … Brad Karp … Alex Nguyen of Schumer's office … Andrew Feldman of Feldman Strategies … Kirsten Sutton … Sarah Benzing … Fox News' Katy Ricalde … Daily Mail's Kelly Laco … Ella Gunn … Liz Brown of the Children's Hospital Association … Ducks Unlimited's Parker Williams … Rebecca Gale … Annie Lentz of Rep. Maggie Goodlander's office … Consumer Bankers Association's Billy Rielly … USDA's Jennifer Tiller … CNBC's Karen James Sloan TRIVIA THURSDAY'S ANSWER: Jim Weinstein correctly answered that Bud Shuster and his son Bill Shuster held the same House seat (PA-09) and chaired the same committee (Transportation and Infrastructure). TODAY'S QUESTION, from Jim: When George Washington traveled from New York during a congressional recess in 1789, he started a tradition by visiting the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. (Vermont and Maine were not yet states.) Why did he skip Rhode Island? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@ CORRECTION: Yesterday's trivia had an error; President Truman's daughter was named Margaret. Our apologies.
