Stories by Heather Cherone

Nearly five years after former President Barack Obama picked Jackson Park for his presidential library, Chicago and Illinois leaders celebrated as work finally began to transform the historic South Side park. A formal groundbreaking is expected in the fall.

Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine will remain in limbo for a while longer after government health advisers declared Wednesday that they need more evidence to decide if a handful of unusual blood clots were linked to the shot — and if so, how big the risk really is.

More than 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in suburban Cook County. While the pace of vaccinations is ramping up, infections are rising, keeping contact tracers busy doing vital work to stop the spread of the virus, officials say.

Policies governing the Chicago Fire Department—which is 90% male and 66% white—may comply with federal, state and local laws but they “are insufficient,” according to an audit released Wednesday by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.

Vaccination rates have grown, warmer weather has returned, and the public and business owners have become increasingly vocal about reopening schools and loosening restrictions around social gatherings.

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said “adequate progress” hasn’t been made at the bargaining table with CPS after union delegates voted over the weekend to approve Wednesday’s remote-only work action. 

In anticipation of potential outcry over the video of Adam Toledo’s shooting, and in the wake of the Daunte Wright shooting, police have taken precautions “to maintain the safety of our city and its residents,” like canceling scheduled days off for detectives and members of strategic policing teams.

When Avelino Maldonado started his spice distribution company in Chicago, the biggest waves of Latino immigrants had yet to arrive. Sixty-four years later, Latinos comprise nearly 30% of the city’s population, and La Criolla’s new owners hope to bring their Latin flavor to another generation of cooks.

The DOJ says the city is required to install accessible pedestrian signals that give audio or tactile cues when it’s safe to cross the street. According to the suit, Chicago has just 15 of those signals out of 2,700 crosswalks with visual signals.

President Joe Biden has ordered a study on overhauling the Supreme Court, creating a bipartisan commission Friday that will spend the next six months examining the politically incendiary issues of expanding the court and instituting term limits for justices, among other issues.

The family of Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old shot and killed by a Chicago police officer last month, viewed body camera footage of the shooting Tuesday evening. But those materials will not be “immediately” released publicly.

In 2012, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration closed half of the city’s clinics. Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on reopening the centers but has focused her tenure so far on investing in organizations that provide mental health services.

Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Now, President Joe Biden is facing new calls to cancel $50,000 or more of loan debt per student. But critics say it would put an undue burden on Americans who never went to college.

The U.S. on Tuesday recommended a “pause” in use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of rare but potentially dangerous blood clots, setting off a chain reaction worldwide and dealing a setback to the global vaccination campaign.

Former Officer Derek Chauvin was justified in pinning George Floyd to the ground because he kept struggling, a use-of-force expert testified for the defense Tuesday, contradicting a parade of authorities from both inside and outside the Minneapolis Police Department.

Health officials said they were acting “out of an abundance of caution” following six cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A white police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb resigned Tuesday, as did the city’s police chief — moves that the mayor said he hoped would help heal the community and lead to reconciliation after two nights of protests and unrest.

With tens of thousands of Chicagoans working from home for the first time and thousands more becoming entrepreneurs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City Council is poised to ease the rules governing the operation of home businesses.

U.S. health officials on Tuesday recommended pausing vaccinations with J&J’s shot as they look into reports of six clots out of nearly 7 million doses given in the country.

Chicago employers would be required to give workers time off to get vaccinated against COVID-19 under a proposal advanced Tuesday by aldermen. Firms that violate the measure could face fines ranging from $1,000 to $5,000.

A pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Local groups protest a police-involved killing in Minnesota. Canceling student debt. And a lawsuit to install pedestrian signals for the visually impaired.

The Chicago Public Library has filled a gap in the legacy of former Mayor Harold Washington by digitizing scores of his written speeches, available to the public in a searchable online collection, library officials announced this week.

Cash Johnson, 26, is facing a first-degree murder charge after he allegedly stabbed a 75-year-old man to death “for no apparent reason” last month in a gangway in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

The Chicago Cubs are concerned about a possible COVID-19 outbreak after two coaches tested positive for the virus and three relievers were placed on the COVID-19-related injured list.

Illinois’ General Assembly is charged with drawing new political maps every 10 years following the census. But exactly what the latest census shows about Illinois’ residents is still unknown. 

Islamic leaders are using social media, virtual town halls and face-to-face discussions to spread the word that it’s acceptable to be vaccinated for the coronavirus during daily fasting that happens during Ramadan, the most sacred month of the year for Muslims.