Lakeview Pantry client Eustorgia Alcarav receives her first dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the vaccination site next to Wrigley Field on April 5, 2021. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

"As cases climb across the country, I encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible," Gov. JB Pritzker said.

CHICAGO — The state will send 50,000 doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to Chicago as the city suspends using its Johnson & Johnson doses.

The city and state announced Tuesday morning they’d temporarily halt vaccinating people with Johnson & Johnson doses “out of an abundance of caution.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration are investigating if the doses are linked to reports of extremely rare but potentially dangerous blood clots found in a small number of women.

The pause is only expected to last several days, officials have said.

Lincoln Towing, based at 4882 N. Clark St. in the 47th Ward, has kept its business license despite attempts by state regulators to shut it down.

Aldermen are poised on Wednesday to consider an ordinance designed to rein in towing companies that have long been accused of predatory or duplicitous behavior against drivers.

The City Council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection is scheduled during its 2 p.m. meeting on Wednesday to consider an ordinance (O2020-4817) introduced late last year by Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) that would require towing companies to apply for licenses with the city.

People gather to receive vaccines at the COVID-19 mass vaccination site at Chicago State University on April 7 [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

Aldermen swiftly and unanimously advanced a proposal by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday designed to prevent workers from having to choose whether to keep their jobs or get a COVID-19 vaccine.

In addition to making it illegal for employers to punish workers who get shots during work hours, the ordinance (02021-1219) that cleared the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development includes a handful of late revisions designed to sharpen the measure’s teeth.

Cook County Board President joined leaders of the Cook County Land Bank Authority on Saturday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at an Englewood home

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is set to introduce a measure on Thursday that would tighten her administration’s oversight of the Cook County Land Bank Authority, which is in search of a new executive director following the departure of Rob Rose last month.

The ordinance (21-2677) would empower Preckwinkle to appoint Rose’s successor, whose confirmation would still be subject to a vote by the land bank’s board. Existing rules say the director should be appointed by the land bank board, whose members are appointed by Preckwinkle.

Chicago Housing Initiative executive director during a virtual news conference on Wednesday; Chicago Department of Housing Comm. Marisa Novara during a virtual committee hearing

A long-promised bid by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to overhaul one of the city’s signature affordable housing policies is set to meet its fate on Thursday, as stakeholders on all sides press to finesse last-minute concessions.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas’ proposal to license tow truck operators stalled in committee Wednesday.

A proposal from Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) to license towing companies in the city will sit in committee for at least one more month to allow for more discussion after the measure hit a wall on Wednesday.

Villegas told members of the City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection during its Wednesday meeting that the ordinance (O2020-4817) he introduced last October to combat “rogue towers” has been “a labor of love.”

A Metropolitan Water Reclamation District staffer, a college sports administrator, a radio commentator, a political communications professional and a former state government worker are set to vie on Thursday for the chance to fill the Illinois House seat vacated by Rep. Andre Thapedi (D-Chicago) last month.

Thapedi signaled in January that he would step back after 12 years representing the serpentine 32^nd District, which winds from Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood out to suburban Hickory Hills. But the representative submitted his formal resignation on March 17, opening a 30-day window for local Democratic Party officials to pick his replacement.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot responds to results of the Chicago Index survey during a news conference on Wednesday

The city is headed in the wrong direction and its political leaders likely aren’t helping, according to the results of a new statistical survey of more than 2,000 Chicago-area residents published Wednesday.

With just 16 percent of respondents rating her “good or excellent,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot got the poorest marks of almost any public official included in the inaugural report of the Chicago Index, a quarterly sentiment index produced by The Daily Line, Crain’s and ABC7.

Party leaders voted 51-5 to support elected school board legislation during a meeting of the Cook County Democratic Party’s Central Committee.

Dozens of top Cook County Democratic Party officials threw their support on Wednesday behind a legislative effort to democratize Chicago’s school board, giving the effort a powerful symbolic boost and handing a defeat to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The county party’s Central Committee voted 51-5 on Wednesday to endorse a resolution sponsored by 35^th Ward Committeeperson Anthony Quezada voicing the party’s official support for an Illinois House of Representatives bill (HB2908) that would end Lightfoot’s power to hand-pick members of the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education. The House bill and its Senate counterpart — also named in the party resolution — would direct the state legislature to draw 20 districts whose voters would populate the board.

Advocates of an elected Chicago Public Schools board rallying downtown in January [Justin Laurence/Block Club]

Chicago-area power brokers are poised on Wednesday to take two symbolic but potentially meaningful votes, setting up a test of the Cook County Democratic Party’s influence.

The party’s Central Committee is set to meet virtually at 5 p.m. Wednesday to vote on a resolution in support of a long-fought state bill (HB2908) that would transition the mayoral-appointed Chicago Public Schools Board of Education into a fully elected body. They will also vote on whether to publicly admonish Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) for endorsing a Republican in a competitive partisan race last year.

News in brief: Pritzker signs Chicago firefighter pension bill.

News in brief: Pritzker signs Chicago firefighter pension bill; Pritzker promotes program to combat learning loss

Dozens of new ordinances introduced Wednesday include a measure aimed at preventing employers from retaliating against workers who take time off to get a COVID-19 vaccine. [Colin Boyle/Block Club]

A measure aimed at protecting workers who take time off to pursue vaccinations and a tougher set of rules for “scofflaw” building owners were among dozens of new ordinances and resolutions introduced to the City Council on Wednesday.

The measures join Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long-awaited proposal (O2021-1226) to revamp the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance by cranking up requirements for many developers while offering them more ways to satisfy city affordable housing rules.

A controversial proposal by Ald. Sophia King (4) to tighten regulations around house-based museums and cultural sites is set to meet its fate on Tuesday as King steps up her defense against critics — who on Monday included Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

The ordinance (O2020-6185), as introduced by King last December, would have banned property owners from opening “libraries or cultural exhibits” in most residential zoning districts. She softened her proposal ahead of last month’s meeting of the council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards by limiting the ban to single-family residential districts, while applicants would need permission from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals to open the so-called “home museums” in multi-unit zoning districts.

News in brief: New mass vaccination site launched in Forest Park; land bank director resigns to “pursue other opportunities” 

Cook County health officials had vaccinated 300 jail detainees by Friday with hundreds more in line for shots, as county officials look to crush the coronavirus inside a facility widely blamed for helping spread the virus across the county.

With the first round of doses getting to detainees last Monday, more than 5 percent of the jail’s population had received Moderna shots by Friday, according to a spokesperson for the Cook County Health system, which is overseeing the immunization effort at the jail.

Aldermen are scheduled on Monday to consider an anti-gentrification measure, revisit where the city invests its savings and approve more than a dozen separate tax-increment financing disbursements during a marathon meeting of the City Council Committee on Finance.

The agenda includes an ordinance (O2021-746) introduced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot last month that would charge a fee on anyone applying to demolish a residential building in Pilsen or near the 606 Bloomingdale Trail. The measure is cosponsored by Ald. Daniel La Spata (1) and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35), who have both long advocated for demolition fees as a tool to slow displacement in their gentrifying wards.

Ald. Maria Hadden (49) was an unlikely champion of Indian religious minorities, until a groundswell of her South Asian constituents alerted her to human rights abuses perpetrated at the hands of India’s government, she said. Her months-long effort culminated on Thursday, when her colleagues voted to advance her resolution (R2020-583) condemning religious violence in the world’s largest democracy.

Even less likely was that her predecessor, former Ald. Joe Moore (49), would become one of her fiercest adversaries in the effort.

Aldermen overwhelmingly approved a proposal allowing Mayor Lori Lightfoot to remake the Chicago Board of Health, overcoming concerns from multiple members of the City Council’s Democratic Socialist caucus who said the measure should be amended to carve out more room for public participation.

The ordinance (O2021-458) vacates all nine seats on the board and allows the mayor to re-nominate them or replace them. The reconstituted board would have nine members each serving three-year terms, staggered so that three members’ terms expire each year.

Aldermen are scheduled Thursday to consider a series of new rules and requirements that would expand Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s control of the Chicago Board of Health, an advisory body that dates back to the city’s founding.

Introduced by Lightfoot last month, the ordinance (O2021-458) set for a vote by the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations during its 10:30 a.m. meeting would vacate all eight seats on the board and allow the mayor to re-nominate them or replace them. The reconstituted board would have nine members each serving three-year terms, staggered so that three members’ terms expire each year.