Stories by Matt Masterson

A Cook County judge won’t throw out Chicago’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate entirely, but in a ruling Monday he has put a hold on a Dec. 31 deadline for members of the Chicago Police Department to get fully vaccinated.

"We will do what it takes, individually and collectively, to address the immediate violence on our streets and invest in fighting the underlying causes that cause too much despair, too much addiction, too little mental health treatment and too few opportunities,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.

An update on the FOP versus city vaccine mandate. Three companies submit Chicago casino bids. A local shelter struggling to house Afghan refugee children. The Supreme Court hears arguments in a landmark abortion case.

The resignation of Deborah Witzburg as the deputy inspector general for public safety comes 15 days after former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson left office at the end of his third term in office.

Anticipating a green light from vaccine advisers, President Joe Biden's administration is assembling and shipping millions of COVID-19 shots for children ages 5-11. The first could go into kids' arms by midweek.

All those green tomatoes still on the vine are in for a shock as November kicks off with a string of overnight temperatures dipping below freezing, according to the National Weather Service.

Those killed included a 22-year-old woman and two men who were fatally shot in separate incidents on Halloween, the Chicago Police Department announced.

Union workers at Deere & Co. would get wage increases of 10% in the first year and 5% each in the third and fifth years under a tentative contract reached between the farm-equipment maker and the United Auto Workers union.

The $555 billion plan for climate spending is the centerpiece of a sweeping domestic policy package Biden and congressional Democrats presented Thursday, hours before the president traveled to Europe for another summit ahead of the climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

As U.N. officials gaveled the climate summit to its formal opening in Glasgow, the heads of the world’s leading economies at the close of their own separate talks in Italy made pledges including stopping international financing of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants by next year. 

Leaders of the world’s biggest economies agreed Sunday to stop funding coal-fired power plants in poor countries and made a vague commitment to seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” as they wrapped up a Rome summit before the much larger United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

COP26 is making global headlines as leaders from around the world meet to confront climate change. What exactly is this gathering and what makes it different from other summits?

Chicagoans are fortunate to have many options for moving about the city — from cars, buses and trains to bikes, scooters, and our own two feet. But the infrastructure for those transportation methods is not offered in equal measure to all of Chicago's communities.

What a basic income program could do for low-income families. The latest at the El Milagro plant as workers protest conditions. And we break bread for Dia de los Muertos. 

What the city’s new budget could mean for Black Chicagoans. Efforts to get some of the city’s youngest residents vaccinated. Artistry pays off. And The Last Word on community mobility.

Chicago health officials say they’re ready to roll out a coronavirus vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 now that the FDA has given emergency use authorization for kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine

Chicago’s newly approved 2021 budget includes a yearlong basic income pilot for 5,000 Chicago households. We discuss what the city is hoping that money can do to help low-income Chicagoans financially recover from the pandemic.

Key components include a universal basic income pilot program, $6.3 million to hire employees at the city’s public mental health clinics, $5 million to expand efforts to renovate single-room occupancy hotels to help prevent homelessness and investments in affordable housing, violence prevention and job programs.

Production line workers at the El Milagro tortilla factories have been organizing walkouts and rallies to call attention to what they say are unsafe working conditions, unfair labor practices, intimidation from management, and incidents of sexual harassment. Arise Chicago’s Laura Garza gave Latino Voices an update.

Dozens of Chicago artists are receiving a total of nearly $1 million in cash grants from the Chicago-based nonprofit, 3 Arts. One of those recipients is violinist Caitlin Edwards, who shared her passion for music and the violin with us.

Thursday evening’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra program opened with “Coincident Dances,” a fascinating 2017 work by Jessie Montgomery, the orchestra’s current Mead Composer-in-Residence. She never fails to enthrall with her rhythmically complex, richly orchestrated, highly original pieces.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger plans to call it quits after the remap. Springfield lawmakers take on abortion. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s big spending budget gets approved. And the Chicago Blackhawks are reeling from a sexual misconduct investigation. 

Approximately 130 employees — most of whom are members of the Chicago Fire Department and the Department of Water Management — were not likely to succeed on any of their claims, the judge ruled.

Members of the coalition that sprung up to save Bell Bowl Prairie from demolition by the Rockford Airport are allowing themselves a brief victory lap to celebrate a temporary suspension of construction.

The Chicago City Council voted 13-30 Friday to reject a push to reverse Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s order that all city employees disclose whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 — and get fully vaccinated by Dec. 31.

The FDA cleared kid-size doses — just a third of the amount given to teens and adults — for emergency use, and up to 28 million more American children could be eligible for vaccinations as early as next week.