After a weekslong surge in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced an indoor mask mandate for all Illinois residents and a vaccine requirement for pre-K through 12th grade teachers and staff, among others.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker may soon make the rare move of vetoing a bill that passed both houses of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly — unanimously. The bill has to do with how private ambulance companies are reimbursed when they transport Medicaid patients. 

The mandate is likely to trigger a legal battle with the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, which represents the city’s 12,000 rank-and-file officers.

This should have been the week when the long-awaited Chicago casino project finally got up and running. Monday was the initial deadline to submit proposals to develop the much vaunted project — but after few bidders appeared interested — the city pushed back the deadline to the end of October.

City officials will have to move cautiously to extend the city’s program that earmarks a portion of city contracts for firms owned by Black, Latino and Asian Chicagoans as well as women in the face of hostile courts, officials warned the Chicago City Council.

Military troops must immediately begin to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo Wednesday, ordering service leaders to “impose ambitious timelines for implementation.” 

Congress provided hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up the nation’s election system against cyberattacks and other threats, but roughly two-thirds of the money remained unspent just weeks before last year’s presidential election.

Ald. Carrie Austin’s resignation as chair of the City Council’s Committee on Contracting and Oversight Equity comes nine days after WTTW News reported that the committee spent more in 2020 than nearly all other City Council committees while meeting only three times.

The parent company of a now-shuttered metal recycler on the North Side will pay a fine as part of an agreement to resolve charges that the firm’s operation violated the Clean Air Act, Environmental Protection Agency officials announced Wednesday.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law a pair of bills that update sex education for K-12 schools in Illinois. Supporters say the move will offer students age-appropriate information, but critics say the new standards go too far.

Striking a deal with moderates, House Democratic leaders muscled President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle Tuesday, ending a risky standoff and putting the party’s domestic infrastructure agenda back on track.

As the COVID-19 surge continues across the state and more people are hospitalized by the virus, Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned new mitigations could be on the horizon.

Chicago officials added four states to the city’s COVID-19 travel advisory on Tuesday as the number of cases continues to spike with the spread of the delta variant of the virus.

The director of the CIA met with the Taliban’s top political leader in Kabul, an official said Tuesday, as more reports emerged of abuses in areas held by the fighters, fueling concerns about Afghanistan’s future and the fate of those racing to leave the country.

In 2019, Tamara Clayton was driving to work along I-57 when she was shot and killed. Years later, a law passed in her honor that allows cameras to go up along certain Illinois expressways is taking effect — as expressway shootings are skyrocketing.

A firefight outside Kabul’s international airport killed an Afghan soldier early Monday, highlighting the perils of evacuation efforts as the Taliban warned that any attempt by U.S. troops to delay their withdrawal to give people more time to flee would “provoke a reaction.”