An aerial shot of the newly constructed Southside Recycling, 11600 S. Burley Ave. (Courtesy of Reserve Management Group)
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A judge’s ruling could force Chicago officials to issue the final permit sought by the parent company of General Iron to operate a metal shredding and recycling operation on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

(WTTW News)
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Broadway Armory Park is one of Chicago Park District’s largest indoor and active recreational facilities. Residents are worried this would mean youth and senior programs getting canceled or postponed and said it would be a loss for the neighborhood ahead of summer.

The United States has had a "life expectancy disadvantage" since 1950, a new study suggests. (shunli zhao / Moment RF / Getty Images)

By 2019, the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and the highest-performing nation had grown to more than six years. The COVID-19 pandemic widened that gap even more, as the U.S. had more deaths from the virus than any other country and has been slower to recover.

(WTTW News)

Toxic lead-based paint was banned in 1978, but the threat of poisoning persists. In suburban Cook County, officials say as many as half a million homes have lead paint hazards that present enormous health threats for young children.

(WTTW News)

The Department of Veterans Affairs found Black veterans may be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder than their White counterparts. However, an internal VA report shows Black veterans were more often denied benefits for PTSD.

FILE - This undated, colorized electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, indicated in yellow, emerging from the surface of cells, indicated in blue/pink, cultured in a laboratory. (NIAID-RML via AP, File)

Millions worldwide have had long COVID, with dozens of widely varying symptoms including fatigue and brain fog. Scientists still don’t know what causes it, why it only strikes some people, how to treat it -– or even how to best diagnose it.

This electron microscope image shows mature, oval-shaped mpox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, from a human skin sample associated with a 2003 prairie dog outbreak. (Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regnery / CDC)

Officials with the Chicago Department of Public Health have documented 29 cases of the virus that can cause intensely painful lesions between April 22 and Tuesday, after recording just five cases between Jan. 1 and April 15, according to city data.

(Pixelkult / Pixabay)

The U.S. surgeon general is calling for tech companies and lawmakers to take “immediate action” to protect kids’ and adolescents’ mental health on social media.

(WTTW News)

A dense green tree canopy can reduce the effects of air pollution and climate change. A 2019 study by the city found Little Village was among communities burdened by higher air pollution — and now, the neighborhood is planting the seeds for change.

(WTTW News)
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A 2022 Guardian analysis found that majority Black and Latino neighborhoods had the highest concentration of lead in their tap water. As of a few months ago, the city of Chicago had replaced fewer than 300 lead service lines out of about 390,000.

FILE - This electron microscope image provided by the National Institutes of Health shows human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) virions, colorized blue, and anti-RSV F protein/gold antibodies, colorized yellow, shedding from the surface of human lung cells. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH via AP)

RSV fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall and winter, and the virus struck earlier than usual and especially hard in the U.S. this past year.

(WTTW News)
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With Mayor Brandon Johnson vowing to reopen the city’s shuttered mental health clinics, some advocates are looking at the administration to reinvigorate and reimagine the city’s approach to providing mental health services.

(Lindsey Wasson / Reuters via CNN)

Nearly nine out of 10 adults in the U.S. say that the benefits of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines outweigh the risks – a share that’s remained unchanged since before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Mayor Brandon Johnson delivers his inaugural address on Monday, May 15. (City of Chicago)
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Capping an improbable rise and carrying the hopes of a political movement determined to remake Chicago as a more equitable place to live, Brandon Johnson was sworn into office Monday as Chicago’s 57th mayor.

(WTTW News)
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“We are going to reopen the mental health clinics,” Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson said in an interview with WTTW News, putting it first in a list of his top priorities.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle appeared on “Chicago Tonight” on May 11, 2023. (WTTW News)
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Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle was unsparing in her criticism of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for continuing to bus thousands of migrants to Democratic cities such as Chicago and New York.