Stories by Heather Cherone

The Chicago City Council could vote on the deal as soon as March 1 – one day after Mayor Lori Lightfoot and City Council members ask voters for new four-year terms in office.

The measure, backed by 18 members of the City Council, won the unanimous endorsement of the City Council’s Public Safety committee and heads to the full City Council on Wednesday for a final vote.

When Chicagoans go to the polls to vote for mayor, there’s a crucial piece of information missing from their ballots: the candidates’ political parties. WTTW News Explains tells you the reasons why. 

During the past seven days, an average of 31 people have been hospitalized each day in Chicago from COVID-19, down more than 40% during the past week, according to city data last updated Wednesday.

At least 168 teachers received the email from Megan Crane, whose LinkedIn page identifies her as the deputy campaign manager for Lightfoot, starting at 8:33 a.m. on Jan. 11 and continuing for several hours, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

All Chicagoans can cast their votes early at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners supersite at 191 N. Clark St. and the board’s office at 69 W. Washington St., 6th floor. An early voting location will open in each of Chicago’s 50 wards on Feb. 13.

A spokesperson for the Jesús “Chuy” García campaign told WTTW News the ad was revised out of an “abundance of caution.”

A majority of candidates hoping to oust Mayor Lori Lightfoot from City Hall’s fifth floor office have pledged to reopen public mental health clinics. Lightfoot said her network of nonprofit Trauma-Informed Centers of Care provide better and more accessible service. 

The facility includes a “scenario village” that features multiple two- and three-flat residential brick buildings complete with fences, curbs, alleys, sidewalks, yards, back stairways, porches, basements and garages. It will also include a new 18,000-square-foot location Boys & Girls Club and two restaurants. 

The Chicago Board of Ethics first asked the city's watchdog to probe Gardiner in 2021 after complaints he used his power as an alderperson to retaliate against critics.

The Chicago Board of Ethics voted unanimously to ask both the Chicago inspector general and the Chicago Public Schools inspector general to probe emails sent by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign to CPS teachers and City Colleges instructors.

Twice in the past three months, probes by the city’s watchdog have uncovered ties between members of the Chicago Police Department and far-right extremist groups that have clashed with the United States government.

A years-long effort by the Norfolk Southern Railway to double the size of its storage yard in Englewood failed to pass the Chicago City Council after Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) blocked a vote. 

Lori Lightfoot’s bid for reelection has been weighed down by a growing amount of evidence that she has governed at times more like an old-school machine politician than a reformer.

The Chicago City Council could vote on what the mayor’s office called a “small scale” pilot program as soon as Feb. 1 — less than a month before Election Day.

The Chicago Commission on Human Relations now has the authority to investigate complaints of housing discrimination or retaliation. The commission will work with the city’s Office of Labor Standards to probe complaints of workplace discrimination or retaliation, according to the new law.

Early voting sites will open to all Chicago voters and voter registration services will be available.

Mayoral challenger U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García took direct aim at Mayor Lori Lightfoot Friday, blasting her for failing to prevent a tide of crime and violence in the city. 

The Oath Keepers organization is considered by the FBI to be a “large but loosely organized collection of individuals, some who are associated with militias” who have vowed to “not obey unconstitutional (and thus illegal) and immoral orders.” 

The first email to City Colleges instructors urging them to ask their students to volunteer for the Lightfoot campaign was sent on Aug. 19, according to an email obtained by WTTW News. The second was sent Monday.

The email from the campaign “is inappropriately coercive and raises First Amendment concerns. The Supreme Court has made clear that government officials cannot use their office or power to coerce participation or to punish for lack of participation in political campaigns,” according to a statement from the ACLU of Illinois.

“We’re looking for enthusiastic, curious and hard-working young people eager to help Mayor Lightfoot win this spring,” according to an email obtained WTTW News that was sent to Chicago Public Schools teachers’ work email addresses.

With the unanimous endorsement of the City Council’s Health and Human Relations Committee, the full City Council is scheduled to consider the measure, backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, at its meeting scheduled for Jan. 18. 

Delores McNeely, 76, Gwendolyn Osborne, 72, and Janice Reed, 68, died May 14 after temperatures soared into the 90s for several days.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is set to celebrate his 82nd birthday while on trial for orchestrating a criminal enterprise for a decade while serving as Illinois’ most powerful politician.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners removed Frederick Collins from the Feb. 28 ballot on Friday, ruling that the Chicago police officer had not collected at least 12,500 valid signatures from registered Chicago voters to qualify for the contest.