The Must List for Monday, May 12, 2014

UNO paid fired teacher $150K to settle case, records show

The taxpayer-funded charter school network run by the clout-heavy United Neighborhood Organization paid a fired physical education teacher $150,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed he was wrongly fired for reporting the assault of a student at UNO’s Major Hector P. Garcia M.D. High School on Chicago’s Southwest Side, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

Property tax hike for pensions? Voters echo Quinn’s ‘No can do.’

Chicago aldermen have been searching under every rock for alternatives to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to raise property taxes by $250 million to save two of four city employee pension funds. They had better dig harder, according to a new poll conducted for Early & Often, the Chicago Sun-Times’ political portal.

New path into Midway Airport doesn’t fly for South, SW Side areas

Folks in Bridgeport have been looking to the skies in recent weeks, wondering why they are suddenly hearing hundreds of planes some days headed into Midway Airport about 7 miles away.

Flap not stopping Dorothy Brown from seeking court fee hikes

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown has endured withering press coverage lately – mostly relating to a state-government grant program that she and her husband may have benefitted from courtesy of the Quinn administration.

But the onslaught of questions hasn’t dampened Brown’s ambitions for a cash infusion into her office, which as the repository of millions of court documents is the bureaucratic arm of the court system.

Rahm Emanuel wears denim shirt to Blackhawks game, Twitter reacts

During Sunday night’s playoff game between the Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild, television cameras spotted Mayor Rahm Emanuel sitting in front of the glass, sporting some Blackhawks gear under an unbuttoned denim shirt.