Today’s Headlines for Monday, December 23

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• Northbound driver, 20, sideswiped taxi and struck light pole Sunday around 1:45 AM in 1300 block of N. Elston, near Salt Shed music venue (NBC)

• Under the new City of Chicago budget, the pedicab chauffeur license fee will go up from $5 to $40, or a 700% increase, raising a projected $108K (WBEZ)

• Block Club: “Bally’s Casino Apologizes After Demolition Debris Spills Into Chicago River”

• Sustainable transportation-friendly Revolution Brewing brewpub cited in Crain’s as one of “5 closures that shook Chicago’s restaurant scene in 2024

• Crain’s: “Chicago Fire share South Loop stadium vision with mayor, alderman”

• Block Club looks at a new indoor playground. Without enough safe public spaces for kids in Chicago, are for-profit playgrounds the wave of the future?

• ABC: “South Side 3rd graders get new bikes from 10-year-old philanthropist”

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– John Greenfield, editor-in-chief