Justin Bull: Good morning. Happy Friday. I'm Justin Bull in for Erin Allen, and this is The Rundown. Tensions were high at a mayoral forum yesterday that featured five of the nine candidates for Chicago mayor. My colleague, Mariah Woelfel reports that it was one of the most fiery debates thus far, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot defending her record on police reform, budgeting and more.

Lori Lightfoot: You are not the only one who has actually passed a budget. He doesn't know the facts, or it makes them up when they're not convenient. The consent decree is at 80% compliance congressman.

Justin Bull: The debate was hosted by radio station WCPT and if you're like me, you still want to know some more about where each of the candidates stand on certain issues. I do recommend checking out each candidate's website to see what their priorities are. But if you're like, "no way that's way to tedious for me," WBEZ is hosting all of the candidates on February 8th and 9th. And we're asking many of the questions that you submitted to us through the People's Agenda. You can sign up to go in person for these forums on our website or listen to our midday talk show Reset. And if you have questions about how to actually cast your ballot for the upcoming election, you can find a helpful guide at WBEZ.org.

Changes are coming at Chicago public schools in terms of how students advance to the next grade. The big one CPS will consider science and social studies grades instead of standardized tests. This is according to reporting by my colleague Nader Issa at the Chicago Sun-Times. He's reporting that starting next school year, students will be measured for promotion or retention at the end of the second grade, fifth grade and eighth grade. In second grade, students need at least a C in reading. Then in 5th and 8th grades, students will need a C in reading math, and then for the first time science and social studies. There are some workarounds involving intervention plan's and summer school. One more interesting part to this Chalk Beat Chicago first reported on a draft of this policy last month and they cited research that showed holding kids back has harmed kids more than helped. Possibly even increasingly a student's chances of dropping out of high school.

Next time you go out to dinner here in Chicago, take a closer look at your receipt. Bob Chiarito at the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that some Chicago restaurants are still adding COVID era surcharges of up to 20% to people's bills and that's not illegal. In fact, in Chicago restaurants can keep those surcharges as long as they follow two rules. One, disclose it prior to purchase, and two don't try to pass it off as a tax. That's according to the city Office of Business Affairs and consumer protection. Chiarito talked with a few people who told him that the surcharges are a turn off for those participating in Chicago's restaurant week, which runs through February 5th.

Yesterday, I mentioned that additional SNAP benefits tied to the COVID pandemic are ending. That means for those who used the food aid program, they will get between $95 and $250 less per month starting March 1st. Well, food banks are already preparing for increased demand. Here's Jennifer Lamplough, the Chief Impact Officer at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, who says some SNAP recipients haven't known anything other than the increased amount.

Jennifer Lamplough: So, we might have a senior and older adults who is used to getting $190 a month or something like that. And when the change happens, I could go as low as $23 per month for them. So it's going to be a huge huge change.

Justin Bull: Lamplough also says rising food price is will make it particularly hard for people to lose those additional benefits. And now for some quick hits. U.S. Rep Jesus “Chuy” Garcia has stepped down from a congressional committee that oversaw the Cryptocurrency industry. Garcia is a candidate for mayor and his opponent's have criticized him for accepting donations from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former crypto magnate now facing federal fraud charges. A spokesperson for Garcia says the congressman stepped down for other reasons that mostly involved the democrats loosing the house majority.

The former Whole Foods that closed in Englewood in November will become a Save A Lot and that has angered some community leaders there. The CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood told the Chicago Tribune, "you never hear about to Save A Lot in Lincoln Park."

And if you're looking to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, there's a Lunar New Year parade in Uptown tomorrow and in Chinatown on Sunday. Both begin at 1p.m. And in things to do that my four-year-old niece would go bonkers for. The United Center has Disney on Ice, Frozen and Encanto all weekend. I was fully expecting tickets to be outrageous, but they do start at a somewhat modest $25. Evelyn, I hope you're not listening to this.

And as for weather, big swings today. Frigid in the morning with temps in the high teens to low twenties, much warmer in the evening in the high thirties. And then overnight it drops again back into the low twenties. Also a chance of snow today and a likely one to three inches of snow tomorrow. And speaking of snow, I don't know if y'all are on Next Door, but I was scrolling around yesterday and I saw some photos of dibs being claimed out there with, you know, about an inch of accumulated snow on the ground. There were some pretty great comments. So Chicago was one of them. The word gratuitous was another. I'm no authority on this, but I think you should have to at least dig your car out before you start propping up your traffic cones, and your folding chairs and your generic household waste.

And that is it for The Rundown. On the afternoon show today, a love letter of sorts to Pilsen. That's today at 2p.m. If I don't catch you then, just let me quickly say thank you for listening this week. Erin is back in on Monday after a much deserved vacation. She wakes up very early to bring you this show every day and by very early, I mean, I very very early. I don't know how she does it. And I just did it wrap your head around that. All right, have a great weekend. I'm Justin Bull. Thanks again. I'll talk with you soon.

Heidi Goldfein