Stories by Heather Cherone

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday blasted Attorney General William Barr for claiming that President Donald Trump’s decision to send approximately 100 federal agents to Chicago was responsible for a drop in homicides.

The City Council on Wednesday approved a $4.5 million package designed to prevent the planned Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park from supercharging gentrification in Woodlawn.

The Chicago City Council voted 46-4 Wednesday to ban the sale of most flavored liquid nicotine products in Chicago, after an effort to prohibit the sale of all flavored tobacco products failed to advance.

An effort by city officials to finish a project to expand cargo operations at O’Hare Airport by borrowing $55.6 million stalled amid objections from aldermen angry that the company that would benefit from the funds failed to hire enough Chicagoans.

Starting Friday, Chicago’s quarantine order will apply to 21 states, but visitors from California and Puerto Rico will no longer be required to quarantine for two weeks, officials announced Tuesday. 

Aldermen advanced an agreement Thursday that would give Chicago firefighters $95 million in back pay, but puts off fraught negotiations over how fire stations should be staffed.

Aldermen agreed Thursday to settle four lawsuits that alleged police misconduct, including two lawsuits prompted by the deaths of two Black men shot by Chicago police officers.

Spurred by a surge in vaping by teens, the measure set for a vote by the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations would ban the sale of all flavored nicotine products — except those that taste and smell like tobacco, according to the proposal.

“The unintended effect may be that people will feel less safe,” Alicia Tate-Nadeau, former brigadier general of the guard, said of deploying troops to Chicago. “It could stigmatize areas of the city for years to come.”

“I'd like to give you all a trial date, but I'd like to give you one we think will stick,” Judge Robert Dow said Wednesday, noting delays caused by the pandemic as well as a massive amount of evidence to sort through in this case.

City officials Tuesday defended their efforts to help Chicago’s small businesses struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic and recover from unrest touched off by police brutality protests, even though only 20% of a $100 million loan fund has been spent.

Former Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski, who also served as mayor of the tiny west suburban city of McCook, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal corruption charges, acknowledging that he engaged in multiple extortion and bribery schemes while in office.

Visitors to Chicago from Hawaii, Nebraska and North Carolina will be required to quarantine for two weeks starting Friday, city officials announced Tuesday. Indiana is also on the verge of being added to the quarantine order that includes 21 states and Puerto Rico.

City officials shut down five restaurants and clubs for violating rules designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.

The man, who has not yet been identified, died at Stroger Hospital after being shot by at least one officer who opened fire after their police cruiser was shot at by a group of people standing on a sidewalk in the Pilsen neighborhood.

On top of that colossal shortfall, the city’s financial picture worsened significantly during the past three months because of an “economic catastrophe caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” according to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

In 2018, the City Council’s most powerful committee spent approximately $2 million — the most of any of the legislative committees. The following year, the committee spent $1.1 million. The difference? Ald. Ed Burke resigned as chair on Jan. 4, 2019. 

It would likely cost the city nearly $9 billion if Chicago wanted to cut ties with Commonwealth Edison and form its own electric utility, according to a city study released Friday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot took the first step Thursday toward making the long-planned Chicago casino a reality, asking firms interested in building and operating “a unique entertainment and gaming experience” to make their pitch to city officials.

Chicago health officials will continue to recommend that anyone exposed to someone diagnosed with the coronavirus be tested for COVID-19, despite new guidance from the CDC that ignited a firestorm of controversy.

Thousands of Chicagoans who lost their jobs or found their paychecks scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic asked the city for help paying their rent or mortgages, officials said.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 2,157 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and another 37 virus-related deaths — including a teenage girl from Cook County.

Even though the Obama Presidential Center has yet to receive final approval from the federal government to break ground, Woodlawn’s real estate market is already bubbling, with the median sale price rising 106% from 2016 to 2020.

Two Chicago men will face federal charges that they looted three Northwest Side pharmacies on May 31 during the protests triggered by the death of George Floyd.

The measure includes a ban on short-term rentals that last only one night in an effort to block huge parties that have become a regular nuisance in some neighborhoods.

The measure approved Tuesday by a City Council committee would revise the law that requires women to cover their nipples with “pasties” or latex while performing topless at a bar or club that has a liquor license.