Residents and community leaders gathered in Englewood on Tuesday for the opening of the new Go Green Community Fresh Market. It’s designed to be as convenient as a neighborhood corner store but with fresh produce, a variety of healthy options, and meals cooked on site. 

Chicago Public Schools students will have the option of whether to wear masks, starting next week. The district’s mandate was originally maintained under a contract agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union — despite Illinois dropping masks for schools statewide last week. But Monday, the district announced it’s dropping that mandate.

The study, published Monday in the journal “Nature,” is believed to be the largest of its kind. It found that the brains of those who had COVID-19 had a greater loss of grey matter and abnormalities in the brain tissue compared with those who didn’t have COVID-19. 

The milestone is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses are reopening. The death toll, compiled by Johns Hopkins University, stood at 5,996,882 as of Sunday morning and was expected to pass the 6 million mark later in the day.

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.

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.

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. 

It’s a neighborhood, not just an airport, and unofficially the second hub of Ukrainian Americans in Chicago. We get the latest on efforts locals are making to assist in Ukrainian defense back home and on preparations to welcome refugees.

Suburban officials are worried the proposed merger of two major rail companies would mean more frequent freight trains, which they say could take as long as 10 minutes to clear an intersection.

In all, the plan could be more than $10 billion over time. It calls for members of the Sackler family to give up control of the Stamford, Connecticut-based company so it can be turned into a new entity with profits used to fight the opioid crisis.

Cook County is now at the lowest level of COVID-19 risk, under new guidance set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Illinois’ top doctor and the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, will step down on March 14, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday.

Getting a full night’s sleep could help one lose weight, according to a recent study by University of Chicago and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

As expected, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday issued a new executive order that lifts the requirement for masking in most indoor public settings, citing a “vast improvement” in COVID-related hospitalizations and transmissions.