Stories by Heather Cherone

COVID-19 posed a high risk in Chicago and Cook County for 21 days, but neither state, county nor city officials imposed new restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Chicagoans should consider the CDC’s medium level of risk warning as “a yellow light of caution,” Dr. Allison Arwady has said.

Chicago Police officers found to have committed misconduct face “inconsistent” and “unfair,” discipline, according to an audit released Thursday by the city’s watchdog.

Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle and Oak Park lawyer Richard Boykin clashed over whether Preckwinkle’s efforts to reform the county’s criminal justice system is fueling the surge of crime during a debate held Wednesday evening on “Chicago Tonight.”

“We’re in a state of emergency,” Ja’Mal Green told “Chicago Tonight” on Tuesday. “This city is in huge disarray.” 

The Chicago Board of Ethics will not punish Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) for violating the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance by appearing in photographs used on his social media page on city property.

Chicago Board of Ethics Chair William Conlon said the package of reforms — which has been stalled since April without Lightfoot’s backing — should be “swiftly” passed by the City Council and signed into law.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday that her strategy to fill the “significant gaps” in Chicago’s mental health care system that she inherited by expanding city funding for nonprofit organizations — but not reopening city-run clinics — is succeeding.

“While the risk in Chicago remains low, CDPH wants the public to be able to make informed choices about gathering in spaces or participating in events where monkeypox could be spread through close or intimate contact,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Natashee Scott, the former alderperson’s wife, is set to pay $8,000 for two city-owned vacant lots adjacent to her family’s home along Albany Avenue across the street from Douglass Park in North Lawndale on Chicago’s West Side.

Chicago’s effort to address reparations for the descendants of enslaved people stalled as suburban Evanston became the first city in the nation to offer reparations.

Whoever the mayor picks to fill the 24th Ward seat and is confirmed by the City Council will have a leg up if they run for a full term in the next municipal election, set for February 2023.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot began her campaign for a second term as mayor on Wednesday with a whistle-stop tour focused on the South and West sides, vowing to battle the forces that continue to segregate Chicago and exclude Black and Latino residents from getting their share of city resources and investment.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s opening argument in her bid to be the first woman to be re-elected as Chicago mayor acknowledges that much of her term in office has been marked by bruising and at times deeply personal confrontations. “Change doesn’t happen without a fight,” Lightfoot said in the video.

Late last week, another candidate got into the race for mayor: 6th Ward Ald. Roderick Sawyer. Sawyer has a long history with City Hall; his father Eugene Sawyer – served the city of Chicago as mayor for a brief period after the death of Harold Washington. And in 2011, the younger Sawyer was elected to lead the ward where he was born and raised.

Patrick Daley Thompson was convicted on seven charges in February, forcing his removal from the Chicago City Council. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 6 by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Valderrama.

Once considered the heir to the political empire built by his grandfather, former Mayor Richard J. Daley, and his uncle, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, Daley Thompson’s conviction meant he was longer eligible to serve as a member of the Chicago City Council.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Dow’s 194-page ruling paves the way for Burke and his co-defendants, longtime aide Peter Andrews and Portage Park businessman Charles Cui, to stand trial together in 2023, more than three years after they were indicted and pleaded not guilty.

In a 63-page ruling, a federal judge rejected the former alderperson’s bid for a new trial or an outright acquittal. Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 6.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward) became the fifth candidate to challenge Lightfoot’s expected bid to be the first woman to be re-elected as Chicago mayor on Thursday, slamming Lightfoot as “mean-spirited” and blasting what he called her “uncollaborative” style of governing in a series of interviews.

The first probable case of the rare disease was discovered on Wednesday in a man who recently returned to Chicago from Europe, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Chicago Department of Public Health.

The proposal crafted by Ald. Michele Smith (43rd Ward), chair of the City Council’s Ethics and Government Oversight Committee, and the Chicago Board of Ethics would hike the maximum fine for violating the city’s ethics ordinance from $5,000 to $20,000 as part of an effort to grapple with Chicago’s seemingly intractable legacy of graft and mismanagement.

Paul Vallas’ announcement emphasized his years of public service, which included stints as former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s budget director and schools’ chief. 

A federal judge said Tuesday that he is preparing to issue a nearly 200-page ruling in the corruption case against Ald. Edward Burke (14th Ward) that could determine whether federal prosecutors can use thousands of hours of the powerful politician’s telephone conversations.

Chicago officials will not immediately reimpose an indoor mask mandate because the city’s hospitals are not being strained by the number of people seriously sick with COVID-19.

The city’s curfew now starts at 10 p.m. seven days a week and applies to 17-year-olds. The vote, delayed Monday by a parliamentary procedure amid a deluge of criticism, came over the objections of the ACLU of Illinois, which warned city officials that the change would “exacerbate tensions between the police and young people.” 

The $1.73 billion proposal now heads to the Illinois Gaming Board, which must license Bally’s to operate the Chicago casino set to be built along the Chicago River near Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street.