Stories by Aida Mogos

Pandemic inequities and how health care systems contribute to them are the focus of the latest selection in our “Black Voices Book Club” series, “The Emergency: A year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER.”

In collaboration with Lurie Children’s Hospital, young researchers with the racial justice organization Communities United conducted a study focused on the mental health and well-being of Black and Brown young men in Chicago. 

A Chicago-based cannabis company is now working to expose harsh sentences for recreational marijuana use as it becomes legal in several states. Cresco helped produce a short film on the sentencing of Michael Thompson, a Michigan man who was given 42 to 60 years in prison for a marijuana-related arrest.

A person of interest was taken into custody after Friday night’s shooting at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago mall in Rosemont, a village just northwest of the city, Rosemont police said. Police did not release a motive for the shooting that happened just after 7 p.m. near the mall’s indoor food court.

Chicago City Council voted this week to extend an ordinance aimed at slowing gentrification and displacement in Pilsen and areas near the 606 trail. The measure imposes a fee on permits for the demolition of buildings with residential units.

A 2021 measure intended to slow gentrification in Pilsen has been extended. A new book examines why many Latinos still lack health insurance. An exhibit explores the life of a Chicago activist.

Through extensive personal interviews conducted over three years, a new book takes a deep dive into what keeps Latinos feeling locked out of health care access. It’s called “Uninsured in Chicago: How the Social Safety Net Leaves Latinos Behind.”

Rudy Lozano’s life is the subject of a new exhibit at UIC’s Richard J. Daley Library. It brings together a collection of papers, photos, and other items to tell the story of the activist and community organizer. It’s a story that some say is integral to the story of Chicago’s Latinos as they forged an identity in the city.

Millionaire philanthropist Pete Kadens has created two college-scholarship programs — Hope Toledo, in his Ohio hometown, and Hope Chicago, which he co-founded with investment-management executive Ted Koenig and launched in September. The goal: provide debt-free college to public-school graduates. 

Normally, airlines that fail to use their assigned rights, or “slots,” at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, and Reagan National Airport outside Washington, risk losing them. However, regulators waived that rule in March 2020 when airlines cut flights due to the pandemic.

Illinois will close its community, free COVID-19 testing sites within the next week. The Illinois Department of Public Health cites a “sharp increase in demand” that dropped “precipitously in recent weeks” as its reason for closing the testing locations, as well as an “anticipated end of federal funding.”

Chicago casino proposal final three. City Council to consider replacements for 11th Ward alderperson. Will Congressman Mike Quigley make a bid for mayor? And Senate grills Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Based on the 2014 memoir by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, the opera’s title is drawn directly from the biblical story of Jeremiah, the severely persecuted “weeping prophet” known for his tender heart. But it is a deeply personal and contemporary story.

Earth Hour started as a simple “lights out” message to draw attention to climate change but has become a global call for environmental action.

Parties on Friday presented a stipulation to U.S. District Judge Robert Dow that will extend the current five-year window out to eight years and add in a new agreement that police search warrants will now fall under the purview of the consent decree.

As coronavirus infections rise in some parts of the world, experts are watching for a potential new COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — and wondering how long it will take to detect.

The United States is expanding efforts to help Ukrainian refugees. It has agreed to accept up to 100,000 people escaping from the war and to increase support for Eastern European nations that have taken in most of the people fleeing Russian forces. 

A new study led by the Field Museum shows that a number of bird species are laying their eggs nearly a month earlier than 100 years ago, likely due to climate change.

Millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief have come to Chicago. We hear from a recipient. How contact tracing efforts may change. And babies born to surrogates in Ukraine, we hear a Chicago couple’s story.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, city and county officials hired hundreds of contact tracers to help stop the spread of the coronavirus as the sheer number of cases overwhelmed local health departments. But as the coronavirus pandemic enters an endemic phase, contact tracing will become more targeted, according to officials.

In the last five years, Ukraine has emerged as the second-most popular destination for surrogacy, only behind the United States, in part because some nations outlawed surrogacy.

The Chicago Community Trust and the United Way of Metro Chicago have partnered with community leaders to invest $35-million in neighborhood businesses and pandemic resources as part of a COVID-19 relief and recovery effort.  

When COVID-19 shutdowns left a record number of people suddenly out of work, Illinois saw record applications for unemployment benefits. That increase drained the state fund that pays out those benefits, the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

At a virtual meeting of the task force working on the overhaul, members of the Redefine the Drive team outlined a study of how the different potential layouts would affect travel times for transit passengers and drivers under different weather conditions during morning and evening rush hour. 

If confirmed on Monday, Nicole Lee would become the first Chinese American to serve as an alderperson.

The American Bar Association’s standing committee on the federal judiciary has afforded its highest rating, “well qualified,” to the Harvard-educated Jackson. A junior high school friend gushed over the “supernova” debate team champion. Skeptics, including Alabama’s attorney general, warned that her views on crime and policing are “outside the mainstream.”