Hearing aids may soon be available over the counter. Last week the FDA issued a proposal to allow hearing aids to be sold directly to consumers, without a medical exam or fitting by an audiologist.

The U.S. moved a step closer to expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for millions more children as a panel of government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer’s shots for 5- to 11-year-olds.

The city is poised to get nearly 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for kids during the first week after the vaccine is authorized, officials said. 

City officials removed Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and Mississippi from the travel order, joining Florida, Hawaii, California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Suburban Dixmoor residents went more than a week without water. Could other places face a similar water emergency?

Chicago artist Brandon Breaux says in a media-driven world, where there is a lot of false information, he wanted to use his art to educate. “We use art as a mechanism to cut through the noise.”

More than 96,000 people died of drug overdoses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – that’s an increase of almost 30 percent in just one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Cook County Judge Cecilia Horan on Monday evening denied a request seeking to extend a temporary restraining order against John Catanzara, who had repeatedly urged Fraternal Order of Police members not to give their vaccination status to Chicago officials.

Authored by Alds. Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward) and Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), the measure to give alderpeople the final say over whether employees could be disciplined for flouting the vaccine mandate was sent to the legislative purgatory of the City Council’s Rules Committee.

Illinois will have a “robust supply” of COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 as soon as they receive approval, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “Parents should be able to breathe a sigh of relief they’ve been holding in for 18 months,” he said.

League rules say vaccinated individuals who are asymptomatic can return to the practice facility once they have two consecutive negative PCR tests taken at least 24 hours apart. 

Moderna hasn't yet gotten the nod to offer its vaccine to teens but is studying lower doses in younger children while it waits. Researchers tested two shots for the 6- to 11-year-olds, given a month apart, that each contained half the dose given to adults.

Kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine appear safe and nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in 5- to 11-year-olds, according to study details released Friday as the U.S. considers opening vaccinations to that age group.

The Supreme Court is allowing the Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in place, but has agreed to hear arguments in the case in early November.

All licensed day care center staff in Illinois must receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 3, according to an executive order issued Friday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Staff who are not fully vaccinated by Dec. 3 must, at a minimum, undergo weekly testing until they’re fully vaccinated.

The southwest suburb is home to several racetracks and is the birthplace of Dairy Queen. The area also has two prisons – one of which closed in 2002 and recently opened as a haunted house.