Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige will now be asked to deliver on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s vision of public health for Chicago — while coping with the continuing pandemic.

It was expected that during the first week of the longtime 14th Ward alderperson’s landmark racketeering trial a 12-person jury would be seated, opening arguments would be given and witness testimony would begin. Instead, none of those things happened.

A key vote by the Chicago City Council’s Rules Committee could come as soon as Thursday on a measure that would ask voters during the March primary whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city.

Since January 2020, the numbers of homeless veterans have fallen 11% and have gone down 55% over the past 13 years, according to a government count. That's in sharp contrast with the general homeless population.

A powerful alderperson gets stripped of plumb roles after confrontation with his colleague. And jury selection underway in the Ed Burke trial as COVID-19 sidelines proceedings for a week.

The Biden administration has started to grant temporary protected status to almost 500,000 Venezuelan migrants who are already in the country — quickly making them eligible to work. Meanwhile, advocates are pushing for work permits for more than 180,000 undocumented immigrants in Chicago who have been in the city much longer.

President Joe Biden put on a red United Auto Workers shirt on Thursday as he celebrated a labor deal that will reopen the Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced plans to expand health care coverage to those enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But the proposed change has yet to be finalized, leaving thousands of young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children in limbo.

Once the proposal takes effect Dec. 31, Chicago workers will be able to take more sick leave than workers in New York City and Los Angeles. They will also be able to take time off for any reason, not just if they or a family member falls ill, unlike workers in any other U.S. city.

Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd Ward) posted a tweet Thursday morning to X, formerly known as Twitter, that read: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.”

State Sen. Rob Martwick, the measure's author, praised Mayor Brandon Johnson for confronting Chicago’s pension woes. The bill ensures that all retired Chicago police officers get a 3% annual cost-of-living increase, regardless of whether they were born before or after Jan. 1, 1966.

Approximately 1,500 men, women and children are sleeping in thin tents outside police stations across the city, officials said.

Donors receive state income tax credits for their contributions to the Invest in Kids program, which helps some 9,600 students across Illinois attend private and trade schools. But barring last-minute legislative action, authorization for the program runs out at the end of 2023.

The racketeering trial of former Ald. Ed Burke is on hold for at least a week after an attorney in the case tested positive for COVID-19, the judge in the case said Thursday.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is backing the creation of a new subcommittee to study reparations and is agreeing to earmark $500,000 in his 2024 spending plan to fund the panel’s work.

The newly created Department of Reentry would have a budget of $5 million and four employees charged with helping formerly incarcerated individuals in Chicago get what “they need to thrive in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.