Stories by Heather Cherone

Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said safety protocols in place for the massive four-day festival are sufficient to allow it to go forward despite a surge in COVID-19 cases. “I’m certainly hopeful that we won’t see a significant problem,” she said.

More than 100,000 fans are expected to attend the massive four-day music festival that starts Thursday. “We’ve been having large-scale events all over the city since June without major problems or issues," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

The mayor announced Monday that negotiators had reached an eight-year deal that offers more than 11,000 Chicago police officers annual average raises of approximately 2.5% — while imposing new rules on officers suspected of misconduct.

Ushering in a new era of police oversight and reform, the board will be charged with building trust in officers and police brass and putting an end to repeated allegations of misconduct.

A “racial healing and historical reckoning project” launched by Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she removed the city’s three statues of Christopher Columbus has stalled, and the statues remain in storage a year after they were wrenched from their pedestals.

As the battle over control of business sign permits concludes, a new front in the struggle over aldermanic prerogative opened Wednesday over the future of the city’s ward superintendents. 

With just two votes to spare after a contentious debate of nearly two hours, the Chicago City Council voted 36-13 to create an elected board of Chicago residents to oversee the Chicago Police Department, enacting the most far-reaching police reform ordinance in the country.

Chicago is on the brink of enacting the most far-reaching police reform ordinance in the country after a proposal to create an elected board of city residents to oversee the Chicago Police Department cleared a key city panel late Tuesday. A final vote is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The site of the long-defunct hospital is poised to be transformed into a new Chicago neighborhood offering 4,800 homes, plus offices, research facilities and stores as part of a $4 billion redevelopment. “This has been a long time coming,” said Ald. Sophia King.

The more transmissible delta variant now accounts for approximately 44% of all confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Chicago, said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Department of Public Health.

A proposal to create an elected board of Chicagoans to oversee the Chicago Police Department is likely to pass easily, now that it has the backing of a coalition of community groups and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, several aldermen told “Chicago Tonight” on Monday.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, 56, has announced he will run for a second term as Illinois governor and put his response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the center of his bid for reelection.

Pierre Loury was shot and killed by police Officer Sean Hitz after a brief chase in April 2016. The City Council’s Finance Committee voted Monday to advance the proposed settlement, which is set for a final vote Wednesday by the full City Council.

The agreement could end years of contentious debate over how best to ensure that the Chicago Police Department no longer routinely violates the constitutional rights of Chicagoans.

The state’s ban on most evictions will have lasted more than 17 months after the governor in 2020 ordered Illinois residents to stay home to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The deadline to apply for rental assistance grants of up to $25,000 from the state is Sunday, officials said.

Supporters of a long-stalled plan that would put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department said Friday they are close to an agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot that could pave the way for a final vote next week.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly cannot solicit campaign funds for candidates running in state contests as the head of the Democratic Party of Illinois, the Federal Election Commission ruled Thursday. Instead, the party can create a separate committee to seek campaign cash.

Aldermen should have input on who gets hired as their ward superintendents — but cannot have the final say, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson determined.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged that the rise in shootings and murders concentrated on Chicago’s South and West sides has forced her to reset her agenda as mayor. “We have experienced too much bloodshed in this city,” she said Thursday.

Supporters of the plan told aldermen Wednesday that it will benefit young residents of the West Side and bring much-needed investment to one of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. If the plan is approved, it will end a ferocious controversy that has raged for nearly four years.

It won’t be smoke-filled, but members of the Chicago City Council will head to a backroom at City Hall later this month to start crafting new ward boundaries that could shape Chicago politics for the next decade.

Chicago officials have reinstated the city’s COVID-19 travel advisory as cases spike with the spread of the delta variant of the virus in Missouri and Arkansas. The order had been suspended for 42 days.

The city is conducting additional environmental studies after the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said the proposal raises “significant civil rights concerns.”

Determined to convince tech companies to trade in views of the Golden Gate Bridge for the City of Big Shoulders, Mayor Lori Lightfoot spent Wednesday and Thursday wooing Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, even as the city reeled from the most violent weekend of 2021.

The 34th Ward alderperson is the second-longest serving member of the City Council — and the third sitting member to be charged with federal crimes. She faces one count of bribery conspiracy, two counts of using interstate facilities to promote bribery and one count of lying to the FBI.

Chicago owes $32.9 billion to its four employee pension funds representing police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers, according to the 2020 Certified Annual Financial Report — an increase of nearly 3.5% from 2019.