As mask mandates are lifted, local doctors on where we go from here. Plus, firsthand accounts from entrepreneurs on how they got started. And La Ultima Palabra on women in trade industries. CBS Chicago’s Marissa Parra guest hosts.

This week seems to have marked a turning point in the COVID-19 pandemic with the lifting of masking mandates and vaccine checks in Chicago. But as spring approaches, it’s also a reminder that we’ve been here before. 

The Associated Press got exclusive access over two days to the first 12 inmates enrolled in the largely privately funded gang-cessation and jobs program at the DuPage County Jail and to their cellblock. For their safety, they’re isolated from the jail’s 500 other inmates, half of whom are in gangs.

New York City, which has long prided itself as having the nation’s toughest COVID-19 safety protocols, will do away with several of its mandates next week, including required masking in public schools and vaccination requirements at restaurants, entertainment and cultural venues, the mayor announced Friday.

Even though the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is of a different design than Chernobyl and is protected from fire, nuclear safety experts and the International Atomic Energy Agency warn that waging war in and around such facilities presents extreme risks.

The feds nab Madigan on 22 corruption counts. Lightfoot's provocative statements. Arne Duncan says no to mayoral bid. And President Biden gives State of the Union amid Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) teams — which are comprised of police officers trained in crisis intervention, a mental health professional and a paramedic — fielded 134 separate mental health crisis calls between Sept.13, 2021 and Wednesday, according to new city data.

Russian troops Friday seized the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe after a middle-of-the-night attack that set it on fire and briefly raised worldwide fears of a catastrophe in the most chilling turn in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine yet.

Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox anchor who has worked to ban arbitration clauses since she sued Roger Ailes, then the network’s CEO, for sexual harassment, attended Thursday’s signing ceremony.

The deal, which must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, requires the Sackler family to pay as much as $6 billion, with $750 million for victims and their survivors. Most of the rest will go to state and local governments to fight the crisis. 

Employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, the largest monthly total since July, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%, from 4% in January, extending a sharp decline in joblessness to its lowest level since before the pandemic erupted two years ago.

Two Chicago police officers are in fair condition after being shot outside a West Garfield Park restaurant.

COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black and Latino Chicagoans prompted state and local officials to prioritize hardest hit communities. But a new report finds that despite efforts to address racial inequities, vulnerable communities’ needs remained unmet. 

For nearly 40 years, former Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party chairman Michael Madigan was at the epicenter of politics in Chicago and Illinois. Now, he’s at the epicenter of a corruption investigation. The news has Springfield reeling.

Get ready to experience spring, a brief dalliance with summer, and then a return to winter – all in the coming weekend.