Stories by Heather Cherone

Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not respond to a question from WTTW News about whether she thought it was appropriate for her appointees to reject the inspector general’s recommendation to fire an employee of the Chicago Department of Public Health and punish two other employees of the Department of Buildings responsible for approving and overseeing the implosion of the smokestack.

Deputy Mayor John O’Malley told members of the Chicago City Council’s Public Safety Committee that Lightfoot’s plan had been narrowed in response to criticism from members of the Chicago City Council, civil rights groups and police reform advocates. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to lead the agency charged with probing misconduct by members of the Chicago Police Department failed to advance Friday, even as she apologized again for releasing a report that recommended that Officer Ella French, slain in August, be disciplined for conduct during the botched raid of Anjanette Young’s home in February 2019.

Attorneys from the attorney general’s consumer fraud division are probing allegations that those who sought a COVID-19 test at pop-up sites run by the Center for Covid Control did not get their results as promised.

The state law, which applies in Chicago as well as the rest of the state, took effect Jan. 1. 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that she has fully recovered from her bout with COVID-19, and said it felt like “a bad cold.”

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) looked on as his attorney Adolfo Mondragon urged the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn decisions by the Illinois State Board of Elections as well as lower courts to toss out his complaint against his predecessor, disgraced former Ald. Danny Solis.

Chicago's COVID-19 test positivity peaked at 19.6% on Jan. 1, Arwady said, and hit 12.6% on Tuesday, the lowest rate since Dec. 28, according to city data. 

Each business was issued two citations, which will trigger a hearing before fines ranging between $100 and $10,000 can be imposed.

The unreleased report attempts to tell the “full story — thoroughly documented and sourced — of how the city’s government worked to prevent a victim of what was plainly either official misconduct or error from obtaining video proof of the raid on her home, thereby frustrating her efforts to secure redress for the injuries inflicted on her, however unintentionally, by government actors.”

The first report from interim Inspector General William Marback disclosed that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration declined to fire an employee of the Chicago Department of Public Health or punish two other employees of the Department of Buildings responsible for approving and overseeing the implosion of the smokestack.

Surging COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant will not delay the trial of Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson (11th Ward) on seven charges that he lied to federal bank regulators and filed false tax returns, a judge ruled Friday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot will renew her push for a new city law designed to fight crime by suing gang leaders in civil court on Friday, prompting opponents of the revised proposal to form a coalition determined to convince the City Council to reject the measure they say would target Black and Latino Chicagoans and do nothing to stop violent crime.

When the scooters return to Chicago's streets in the spring, they'll be banned from the Lakefront Trail, the 606 Trail, the Riverwalk and O'Hare Airport, city officials said.

The likelihood that the June 28 primary election ballot will ask voters to decide what Chicago ward map should look like for the first time in 30 years increased this past week as the acrimony between the Black and Latino caucuses over the map escalated. 

As COVID-19 hospitalizations surge, more than 2,000 health care workers will be sent to hospitals to help care for those who are ill. 

Efforts to use COVID-19 testing to ensure outbreaks could be stamped out before they catch fire was at the heart of the dispute between school officials and union leaders.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing cold-like symptoms.

Adam Gross will help launch the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability after serving as the director of the police accountability program area for BPI, a public interest law firm.

Any hope that a holiday break could reset the raging dispute over the map that will shape Chicago politics for the next decade and determine the balance of power between Black, Latino and Asian Chicagoans was extinguished Friday as members of the City Council clashed during the first of four public hearings scheduled this month.

“COVID is very real, it’s merciless, and unless you are fully vaccinated, your defenses against it are pretty low,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. 

The former Little Village alderperson's sentencing on charges of wire fraud and money laundering will be delayed by more than a month due to the latest surge of COVID-19.

“I fear the climb will continue” with the surge accelerated by post-holiday gathering infections, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.

The 48-21 vote returns the former Chicago mayor to public life more than three years after he announced he would not run for a third term in office amid the continuing uproar over the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago Police officer in 2014.

Some Chicago Public Library branches added Sunday afternoon hours beginning in December 2019 after Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed — and the Chicago City Council approved — an $18 million property tax hike as part of the city’s 2020 budget to fund the expansion.

The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill includes $15 billion to fund lead service replacement efforts, and $3 billion will flow to states and cities in 2022, officials announced.