The Chicago City Council on Wednesday recognized Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, but stopped short of making June 19 an official city holiday.
Aldermen signed off on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to spend $1.13 billion in federal funds designed to help the city cover the cost of responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
,
An ordinance that would terminate the $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department failed to advance Wednesday, but supporters of the measure vowed to continue their campaign.
The report emphasizes a few core concerns, including the financial management of more than $2 trillion in new spending and protecting the health and safety of government workers deemed essential during the pandemic.
,
Illinois has spent close to $600 million so far on COVID-19 relief, much of it going to personal protective equipment.
Various businesses, religious organizations and even legislators have sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But the Illinois Republican Party says its lawsuit is different. 
Scooters will soon return to Chicago streets as part of a second pilot program despite the coronavirus pandemic and an initial run that ended with “mixed results,” city officials announced.
,
The Illinois attorney general says he began self-isolating after experiencing minor symptoms over the weekend. He is the most prominent politician in the state to test positive for the novel coronavirus. 
A new Illinois law is designed to considerably expand the number of voters who cast their ballot in the 2020 presidential election by mail. Gov. J.B. Pritzker called it perhaps “the safest method to cast a ballot in November.”
Chicago’s most famous empty hole is set to get new life, in the latest massive development that will alter Chicago’s skyline in the midst of a global pandemic.
In Rose Garden remarks, President Donald Trump stressed the need for higher standards and commiserated with mourning families, even as he hailed the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants and held his law-and-order line.
,
The conditions under which Chicago police officers can use force will be reviewed by a new community working group, but even before its work begins in earnest the group itself is under a degree of scrutiny.
,

New statewide totals: 132,543 cases, 6,308 deaths

Illinois’ statewide positivity rate for the coronavirus fell to 3% this weekend – down from last Saturday’s rate of 5.5%.
The fatal shooting of a black man by a white Atlanta police officer and the death of another black man found hanging from a tree outside a city hall in California ignited new anti-racism protests over the weekend.
Chicagoans who lost their jobs or found their paychecks scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic would be protected from evictions for an additional two months after the state’s ban ends under a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Companies that win multimillion-dollar tax incentives to bring industrial jobs to Chicago could be stripped of those benefits if they “betray the public’s trust” under a plan set to be considered Wednesday by the Chicago City Council.
 

Sign up for the WTTW News newsletter

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors