With terms that last 10 years, having two competitive Illinois Supreme Court contests in a single election cycle – as is the case in the suburbs outside of Cook County this November – is rare and the results potentially significant.

Roseland Community Hospital promises the “best quality care” for Chicago’s South Side, but a whistleblower complaint and a rash of fatalities, lawsuits and negative federal inspection reports suggest the situation had become dire during COVID-19. 

A look at the candidates for Illinois Supreme Court. A national housing museum finally breaks ground in Chicago. Plus, the latest in Ukraine, federal spending on children and the Chicago Lowrider Festival.

A new report by the Urban Institute found federal spending on children reached a new high during the pandemic in 2021, but researchers project that level of increased spending won’t last.

The museum has been in the making for some 15 years and will be the only cultural institution devoted to telling the story of public housing in the United States, according to museum organizers.

Air raid warnings sounded throughout the country for a second straight morning as Ukrainian officials advised residents to conserve energy and stock up on water. Strikes in the capital and 12 other regions Monday caused power outages and pierced the relative calm that had returned to Kyiv and many other cities far from the war’s front lines.

“These races often fly under the radar but these are the two most important races on our ballot in November,” said lawyer Trisha Rich, who is on the board of the abortion rights group Personal PAC. “And even though that might sound like an overstatement, it’s not.”

A coalition of progressive groups has been working for nearly a year to prevent Mayor Lori Lightfoot from being re-elected by uniting behind a single candidate. Nothing in the Lightfoot’s spending plan is likely to alter that determination — and may give them more ammunition to use against the mayor.

The high stakes races for Illinois Supreme Court seats. An interview with the mayor of Highland Park three months after the Fourth of July shooting. One-on-one with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. And private booting companies push to expand.

It has been three months since seven people were killed and 48 others were injured in a shooting at Highland Park's Fourth of July Parade.

A vote on a measure that would strip members of the Chicago City Council of their authority to ban commercial property owners from hiring a firms to patrol their parking lots and swiftly immobilize cars that are parked there illegally was delayed. A familiar lobbyist and campaign cash factor into the debate. 

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx believes the federal pardons send a message across the country, “... that we need to move towards decriminalization and ultimately vacating convictions like we have done here in Illinois” 

Some organizations and governments are changing how they observe the holiday, if at all, while many still gather for the annual parade.