In response to an ongoing contract fight, an increasingly under-resourced school system and unfair labor practices, the Chicago Teachers Union launched a one-day strike on April 1, 2016, organizing pickets at every CPS school, and holding rallies of support across Chicago.

In the course of doing so, the CTU has ventured into murky legal waters by staging a strike that may be illegal, getting sued in the process. (Rarely do American unions strike when such strikes could be illegal.) The union has referred to such charges as "bogus" and has continued to seek funding and justice for Chicago schools and Chicago children.

See more photos

A government whistblower's tip and a year-long campaign by a law professor and two independent journalists to retrieve the dash-cam video of the shooting of a black teenager by Chicago police has led to the highly-publicized release of the video. The video has spurred ongoing protests that have rocked Chicago and the Chicago political establishment, brought murder charges against the offending officer, and claimed the job of Chicago's police superintendent.

On October 20, 2014, at 41st and Pulaski, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times at point-blank range. Video from a Chicago police car dash camera confirms the killing, and a still-anonymous whistleblower informed attorney and law professor Craig Futterman as well as Chicago journalist Jamie Kalven to the video. Amid pursuing the investigation, Futterman and Kalven called on the city to release the video.

Another independent journalist -- Brandon Smith -- joined the fray, filing an Illinois Freedom of Information Act request, and then suing the city (with pro-bono legal help) to release the video when no other media outlets did. Meanwhile, the Chicago City Council paid Laquan McDonald's family $5 million dollars in a settlement.

The case ground on and finally, on November 19, 2015, the city was ordered by a Cook County judge to release the video of McDonald's killing no later than November 25th. On Tuesday, November 24th, Chicago police released the video.

The impact of the release was swift and potent. That evening, thousands took to the streets in protest`, leading to a number of arrests including felony charges against a prominent poet and activist; the charges were subsequently dropped. Protests continued for the rest of the week, including a massive protest on the Friday after Thanksgiving that blocked many Holiday shoppers and caused noticeable reductions in holiday sales at downtown Chicago stores.

The case now grew to national and international attention, becoming the latest chapter in the BlackLivesMatter movement, and in the midst of hardball drawing ever-louder calls for reform and resignations of three of Chicago's leading political power brokers: Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Weak-kneed reform efforts were announced to stem the criticism, to no avail.

One week after the release of the Laquan McDonald video, Emanuel fired Superintendent McCarthy. Alvarez faces a primary election in March 2016, and has laid blame squarely on Emanuel. Emanuel has been heatedly fending off calls to resign. (Chicago has no impeachment protocol for its elected officials, absent a criminal conviction.) Calls for a federal probe into Chicago's police are growing.

Meanwhile, the issue rages on. In the wake of the Laquan McDonald video release, attempts to release additional videos of asssassinations by police have gathered fresh energy and attention. The McDonald case itself still has a great many unanswered questions. And calls for additional reform for policies regarding Chicago police and Chicago politics have been given new life. How that unfolds remains to be seen, but as Rahm Emanuel himself said, "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste".

Residents of Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood have struggled for years to halt and reverse the neoliberal assault against the open-enrollment Dyett High School. A Request for Proposals process for Dyett, whose own rules were violated by Chicago Public Schools (CPS), was the proverbial last straw. In response, twelve activists launched a liquid-only hunger strike on August 17, 2015, not to conclude until a number of demands for reopening and restoring the school are met.

Labor Day 2015 marks the 22nd day of the Dyett 12 hunger strike. The hunger strike has galvanized the community, earned local and national media coverage, and widespread buzz on social media. At least three of the Dyett 12 have received medical care during the hunger strike.

Officialdom's response has been lukewarm: Mayor Emanuel agreed to a meeting with Dyett 12 activists, and was chased off the stage of a budget hearing by activists. On September 3, 2015, CPS announced that Dyett will reopen as an open-enrollment, arts-themed high school. The Dyett 12 have rejected the proposal, saying the proposal doesn't fulfill public demands, and have vowed to continue the hunger strike.

Additional Coverage: Democracy Now! | Teachers for Social Justice coverage | Labor Beat (video): The Fight for Dyett High School, 4th Quarter | Think Progress | The Real News Network | The New York Times

For the first time since Chicago switched to non-partisan mayoral elections in 1996, Chicago will have a runoff for the mayor's office. The two remaining contenders are Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia and incumbent politico Rahm "Voldemort" Emanuel.

Emanuel held many advantages to help avoid a runoff and secure early victory: name recognition, connections, a wide array of endorsements, the lowest turnout in recent memory, and a budget far greater than the combined opposition to pay for the saturation of Chicago's radio and TV airwaves with dubious advertisements. But Chicago voters were slapped around by Rahm's policies, including sweeping mental health clinic closings, the largest school closing in American history, the maintenance of a draining Tax Increment Finance system, and a criminal police apparatus. Voters denied Rahm his majority to win.

Garcia is a former Chicago alderman, member of the staff of former mayor Harold Washington, and current Cook County commissioner. Garcia has nowhere near the business connections that Emanuel has, which Garcia has touted to his advantage, and has received the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union that defeated Emanuel in the CTU's famous 2012 strike. Garcia has the potential to fuse the votes that didn’t go to Emanuel, that could shape the majority needed to win. As the Chicago weather is bound to warm up, the number of voters heading to the polls in a runoff are expected to increase, thus improving Garcia's chances.

Political commentators are mixed regarding the outcome, and early polling has deemed the race a “dead heat” with nearly a fifth of polled voters deemed undecided.

UPDATE: Emanuel may have had his first public meltdown moment.