The absence of an agreement on how best to protect teachers and students from COVID-19 sets the stage for a strike or lockout — the second work stoppage in Chicago schools in 15 months.

Negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union have failed to produce a deal to allow approximately 70,000 Chicago students to return to schools Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news conference late Friday night.

“I am optimistic that we will be able to increase capacity soon, but it would be irresponsible and dangerous to rush our reopening and undo the incredible progress we have made as a city,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement.

A commission charged with reviewing Chicago’s more than 500 public monuments as part of a “a racial healing and historical reckoning project” has identified 40 that are problematic for a variety of reasons, the group’s co-chair announced Friday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that reversing the spike in carjacking “was top of mind,” as it has continued through the first weeks of 2021, with 166 carjackings through Jan. 22, according to Chicago Police Department data. 

As of Thursday night, a deal to get teachers back in school remained elusive. “We would have expected by now to make a lot more progress,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

In killing a proposal from one of her City Council allies to allow cannabis to be sold legally downtown and in the Loop, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters “we’re not turning Michigan Avenue into the pot paradise.”

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday wasted no time in symbolically turning the page on the Trump administration by voting to expand protections for undocumented immigrants that had been stalled by the former president’s crackdown.

In a letter to parents, Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson said the district has “no choice but to ask parents to keep your children home” after the teachers union instructed its members not to report for in-person work Wednesday ahead of a possible strike.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised President Joe Biden’s inaugural address Wednesday, telling WTTW News she was “grateful” to hear him deliver a soaring defense of democracy two weeks after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The mayor on Wednesday updated the order for the fourth time to allow it to expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Meanwhile, the city is poised to meet state requirements to move from what officials call Tier 2 to Tier 1 on Thursday.

The advisory, which has now been extended by the mayor three times, is scheduled to be in effect until two days before Chicago Public Schools elementary school students are scheduled to go back to in-person class.

City officials are taking precautions ahead of potential unrest, though they're not aware of any "actionable activity" being planned in Chicago on Inauguration Day.

Aldermen are set to consider a revised proposal backed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday that would expand protections for immigrants by blocking Chicago police from cooperating with federal immigration agents.

Officers who lounged, slept and snacked in the burglarized South Side office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in the early morning hours of June 1 as unrest swept the South and West sides of the city have been disciplined, the Chicago Police Department announced Thursday.

Drivers will get one written warning before they have to pay $35 to resolve the infraction after March 1, when the new law will take full effect, officials said.