Stories by Matt Masterson

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of cutting off negotiations by issuing a “final offer.” He said the union is “deeply disappointed” by that decision.

A Wisconsin judge will hold a hearing next week on whether to arrest or increase bail for an Illinois teen accused of opening fire during a police brutality protest in Wisconsin last summer after he allegedly failed to update his address with the court.

The stakes for the country and economy were amplified on Friday morning by the release of the government’s jobs report for January, which showed that hiring had stalled to a pace that could hinder a return to full employment for several years. 

Each year advertisers pull out all the stops to entertain the crowd of 100 million viewers expected to tune in to the CBS broadcast on Sunday. This year there are more than 20 newcomers as well as old favorites. 

More than 153,000 residents of the country’s nursing homes and assisted living centers have died of COVID-19, accounting for 36% of the U.S. pandemic death toll, according to the COVID Tracking Project. 

The tepid increase followed a decline of 227,000 jobs in December, the first loss since April. The unemployment rate for January fell sharply from 6.7% to 6.3%, the Labor Department said Friday.

The coronavirus means Sunday’s Super Bowl will be different this year. But something else about this year’s matchup is new: You don’t have to travel to Las Vegas to legally bet on it. 

Gage Park sits within two ZIP codes that have consistently seen some of the highest COVID-19 positivity rates in the city, yet the vaccine rollout has been criticized for not reaching the Southwest Side like it has the North Side.

The Obama Presidential Center can be built in Jackson Park after a federal review that lasted nearly four years concluded the $500 million project will have “no significant impact” on the federally protected park.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was safe and offered strong protection against moderate to severe COVID-19, according to preliminary results from a massive international study. 

Dianne Durham, the first Black woman to win a USA Gymnastics national championship, died Thursday in Chicago following a short illness, her husband said. She was 52.

Located roughly 7 miles southwest of the Loop, many of Gage Park’s bungalows were built between 1924 and 1927. 

The variant, known as B.1.1.7, was identified in samples of COVID-19 positive tests taken outside of Chicago and suburban Cook County for the first time, according to a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

If the mayor insists on keeping the libraries open, employees should be eligible for the vaccine along with teachers and other front-line essential workers, union leaders, employees and aldermen said.

Geoffrey Baer explores the past, present and future of a historic West Side garden in North Lawndale.

Amid a surge in carjackings, drivers for ride-hailing companies have been working in close contact with other people during the pandemic. Meanwhile, those companies are gearing up for a fight over whether gig workers should be classified as employees.

The request from House impeachment managers does not require Donald Trump to appear — though the Senate could later subpoena him — but it does warn that any refusal to testify could be used at trial to support arguments for a conviction. 

Four city-run COVD-19 test facilities will be closed from Friday through Wednesday as an arctic blast bears down on the city, officials announced Thursday. The facilities require staff members and volunteers to work outside to test people inside their cars.

Watch the Feb. 4, 2021 full episode of “Chicago Tonight.”

Those who have taken sanctuary have enlisted lawmakers to ask President Joe Biden for relief, pushing to cancel deportation orders and reviving the use of private bills — measures to protect a person or group.

“We are deeply disappointed to announce that we still have not reached a deal,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday.

Winter has arrived with a vengeance. The next 48 hours will bring a one-two punch of snow and plunging temperatures.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined to 779,000 last week, a still-historically high total that shows that a sizable number of people keep losing jobs to the viral pandemic.

“We are disappointed to report that at this time, no deal has been reached between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union leadership,” the school district said in a tweet late Wednesday.

The tug of war between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools is still on, as the vaccine rollout bumps along. Our politics team of Amanda Vinicky, Paris Schutz and Heather Cherone weighs in on that story and more in this week’s roundtable.

Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which thousands clashed with police in a bloody confrontation that horrified a nation watching live on television, has died.