Stories by Heather Cherone

A year after the coronavirus swept Chicago and upended life as Chicagoans knew it, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city is poised to recover after one of the most difficult years in its history, and she is optimistic that there will be an ample vaccine supply in the city in April and May.

Officials will open new appointments at the county’s five mass vaccination sites for the residents who are newly eligible at noon Friday. More than 68% of individuals 65 and older in suburban Cook County have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, officials said.

The murder of eight people Tuesday at three spas in the Atlanta area constitute a hate crime, and former President Donald Trump’s “hateful rhetoric” is partly to blame for the violence, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday.

The next phase of Chicago’s vaccination effort will allow all essential workers and those with underlying health conditions to get doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday.

Low-income residents who are in debt to the state or city won’t have their state tax return used to settle those bills under a plan announced Monday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who said she was spurred to act because “families on the edge” need their tax returns to cover overdue bills.

The revised measure is designed to tighten regulations on recycling centers and industrial operations in an effort to reduce air pollution on the South and West sides. A final vote is scheduled for the full City Council meeting on March 24.

Several aldermen on Thursday called on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to use approximately $50 million from the city’s share of the latest COVID-19 relief package to fund cash assistance payments to Chicagoans struggling to stay afloat. Lightfoot declined to support cash assistance payments to Chicagoans in a statement to WTTW News.

Aldermen on Thursday said they would do more than just talk about whether the city should pay reparations to Chicagoans who are the descendants of enslaved African Americans, but acknowledged that it had taken too long to even begin the discussion.

Twenty-five more cases of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom that is believed to be more transmissible have been found in Illinois in the past seven days, according to data released Thursday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Since March 2020, city inspectors have conducted more than 8,809 investigations and cited 462 businesses for violating COVID-19 regulations, officials said. The latest round of citations comes as city officials warned residents about St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

A new program in Chicago will offer minority-owned firms that have city contracts access to financing from the federal government as part of the city’s effort to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will two massive summer events take place this year amid an accelerated rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine — and the possible end to the pandemic? Or can Chicagoans expect another round of “re-imagined festivals” in 2021, with virtual concerts replacing in-person events?

Frustrated that the mayor and City Council have yet to back a plan to create an independent commission to redraw the boundaries of Chicago’s 50 wards, a coalition of groups determined to change the way Illinois’ legislative boundaries are drawn announced they would take matters into their own hands.

Visitors to Chicago from 26 states and Puerto Rico no longer have to quarantine for 10 days or record a negative test for COVID-19, according to the city’s travel order, updated on Tuesday.

Even as the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered Tuesday morning at the United Center, confusion swirled over how many appointments remained available, who was eligible for those slots and when they would open for thousands desperate for the life-saving shot.

Illinois housing officials are preparing to launch another round of COVID-19 emergency rental assistance grants, funded with $500 million from the federal government as part of the relief package approved in December. The funds will go directly to landlords in most cases, officials said.

With the mass vaccination site at the United Center set to open Tuesday morning, Chicago’s top doctor acknowledged that getting an appointment has been “tricky” because of changing rules and a website that crashed under high demand.

As the spread of COVID-19 slows, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Monday that fans would soon be allowed back in the stands at Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field. But the ballpark experience will be significantly different.

A variant of the coronavirus first discovered in Brazil and believed to be more transmissible is present in Chicago, officials announced Friday. The person who tested positive for the variant had not traveled outside Illinois, according to officials.

While doses of three approved COVID-19 vaccines are still in short supply, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday launched a $10 million public awareness campaign designed to encourage Black and Latino Illinoisans to get inoculated as soon as possible.

News that Target would shutter two South Side stores in February 2018 prompted deep outrage — especially since the big box retailer was in the process of opening a new store on the Far Northwest Side in a new strip mall that was getting a $13 million subsidy.

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Chicago) was elected the new chair of the Illinois Democratic Party on Wednesday evening, becoming the first Black person and first woman elected to lead the state party into a new era after the resignation of Michael Madigan. 

The largest party shut down by inspectors over the weekend took place at the Renaissance Bronzeville, where more than 100 people gathered without face coverings and violated social distancing rules, officials said.

Only two people who work or live at skilled nursing facilities in Chicago who were fully inoculated against COVID-19 have contracted the virus, showing that the vaccine is very effective, Dr. Allison Arwady told aldermen on Wednesday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has introduced a series of changes to the way the Chicago Police Department serves search warrants in an effort to douse the continuing firestorm triggered by video of a mistaken raid that left Anjanette Young handcuffed and pleading for help in February 2019.

Twenty-seven more cases of a COVID-19 variant first discovered in the United Kingdom that is believed to be more transmissible have been discovered in Illinois in the past five days, according to data released Tuesday by the Illinois Department of Public Health.