Stories by Heather Cherone

People identified as close contacts to someone suspected or confirmed with monkeypox are being offered the vaccine, as well as treatment with antiviral medication for those with more severe illness, according to city health officials.

Abortion will remain legal in Illinois, thanks to a law signed by former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017 that rolled back a measure that would have automatically banned abortion in Illinois if Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, was overturned. 

An effort to overhaul Chicago’s ethics rules will remain stalled for at least another month, even as Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she has begun negotiating with Ald. Michele Smith, who introduced the measure in April. 

One week ago, federal officials lowered the risk warning level to high for Cook County. But even as confirmed cases of COVID-19 continued to drop, hospitalizations rose just enough across Cook County to trigger an increase in the warning level by federal officials.

Cook County budget officials will only have to close an $18.2 million budget shortfall in 2023, the smallest gap in a decade, avoiding tax hikes and layoffs. Thebudget has been boosted by sales taxes, corporate income taxes and revenue generated by the construction boom. 

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward) led the push to prevent a vote on the measure Wednesday, using a parliamentary procedure to delay a vote until the City Council’s next meeting, scheduled for July 20. That tactic is often used by members of the City Council to push back an up-or-down vote when the outcome is uncertain.

Authored by Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) and Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward), the measure would give employees of the Department of Finance — not just members of the Chicago Police Department — the authority to order the vehicle blocking the bicycle lane to be ticketed and towed.

The proposal now heads to Wednesday’s meeting of the full Chicago City Council, where its prospects are uncertain at best.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s second appointment to the Chicago City Council advanced Monday on a unanimous vote of the City Council’s Rules Committee during a meeting that lasted less than five minutes.

The proposal was prompted by the deaths of three Rogers Park women, who died after temperatures in their apartments rose to dangerous levels during a mid-May heat wave. The revised measure, which is set for a final vote at the full City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday. 

Former state Sen. Tom Cullerton will spend a year in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling funds from a labor union. The DuPage County Democrat was charged in 2019 with one count of conspiracy to embezzle from a labor union and employee benefit plans, 39 counts of embezzlement from a labor union and one count of making false statements. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to bless the creation of another City Council familial dynasty comes as she is running for re-election.

Officials granted double the number of COVID-19 vaccine exemptions to members of the Chicago Police Department than they did to members of any other city department, according to a WTTW News analysis of data provided by the mayor’s office.

Chicago Park District officials acknowledged to WTTW News that it had not been able to hire enough lifeguards to allow its 49 outdoor pools to open as scheduled on June 24, blaming a “national shortage” and “several other factors.” 

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.