It may be apt that Chicago is known as the Windy City, as its government is facing significant headwinds when it comes to the city's budget deficit. So Chicago's City Hall is attempting to take measures to reduce this deficit, estimated to reach nearly $1 billion in 2025.

What is Chicago doing to reduce its deficit?
Chicago is "taking immediate steps to mitigate the projected FY2024 budget deficit and to address the anticipated budget gap for FY2025," the city's budget director, Annette Guzman, said in a statement. This includes a series of budgetary restrictions such as a "citywide hiring freeze and stringent limitations on nonessential travel and overtime expenditures outside of public safety operations." The 2025 budget shortfall, expected to be $982.4 million, is "largely driven by rising personnel, pension and contractual costs, alongside ongoing revenue challenges," said Guzman.

Notably, at the time the budget shortfall was announced, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson "did not say exactly how he planned on closing the gap, including raising property taxes, authorizing legalized video gambling in the city or approving the placement of slot machines in city airports as ways to raise new revenue," said CBS News. 

What's the bigger picture?
Johnson is "trying to make good on his progressive social and economic campaign promises while grappling with the city's challenging finances," said Bloomberg, and he's slated to outline the city's full budget in the coming months. Johnson is "confronting similar issues as his predecessor," Lori Lightfoot, who "implemented a hiring freeze when she addressed back-to-back shortfalls fueled by jumps in the city's mandated pension payments early in her term."

Chicago is not the first city to face these challenges and could take lessons from other cities in similar predicaments. In 2022, Milwaukee was "on the verge of financial collapse" with a massive deficit and "possible bankruptcy on the horizon," said consultancy EY-Parthenon. Milwaukee's "comparison with other cities and a methodical accounting of the cost-cutting initiatives the city government had already undertaken helped demonstrate to legislators, the business community and the public that the politically difficult decision to raise taxes was likely unavoidable." 

The recent killing of American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi during protests against Israeli settlements in the West Bank may prove to be a turning point in U.S.-Israel relations. The IDF has admitted it's "highly likely" their troops killed Eygi, but Israeli officials insisted in a brief press release that she had been "hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire, which was not aimed at her." Eygi's family rejected the IDF's findings, saying they are "deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional."

Failure to 'deliver accountability'
After initially framing Eygi's death as an "accident," President Joe Biden took a more strident tone. The next day, he demanded there be "full accountability" and that Israel "ensure that incidents like this never happen again."

Advocates have nevertheless "questioned the U.S. government's commitment" to the safety of its citizens, "particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories," said Al Jazeera. Critics point to a "string of high-profile killings by Israeli forces" that have historically gone unaccounted for. Following the 2022 killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces, the Biden administration's "promises to deliver accountability for the killing of an American journalist abroad proved hollow and halfhearted," said The Washington Post. 

Although National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby lauded the IDF for taking the "unusual step" of calling for an investigation into Eygi's killing, the incident has prompted the "strongest comments to date criticizing the security forces of Washington's closest Middle East ally" from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said Reuters. 

An investigative monopoly?
Several "high-ranking Democrats" have demanded more from both Israel and the Biden administration, said Politico. But so far the U.S. has relied on Israel's investigation into Eygi's killing, and it remains uncertain "whether there were any plans for a U.S.-led investigation," said NBC News. By not launching its own probe, the "conclusion to draw is clear," said The Nation. "The death of an American demands an immediate, forceful response, unless that American is killed by Israelis while protesting on behalf of Palestinian rights."