Chicago News

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    Metra trains sport messages urging Cook County residents to complete the Census. [Twitter/@Metra] 

    The coronavirus pandemic instantly scrambled the city, county and state’s coordinated multimillion-dollar campaign to pump up responses to the U.S. Census. But if early results are any indication, those efforts may already be paying off.

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    The busy lakefront trail Wednesday. JUSTIN LAURENCE/ BLOCK CLUB CHICAGO

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned Chicagoans who flocked to the Lakefront Trail to stay home, saying she was prepared to shut down the city’s trails and parks to enforce Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order designed to stop the spread of coronavirus.

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    Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas obtained a court order to delay the county’s annual tax sale for delinquent properties until further notice, she announced on Tuesday.

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    Tammy Wendt campaigns in a picture posted to her Facebook page on March 7. [Facebook]
    On paper, Tammy Wendt was never supposed to win the Democratic primary for a seat on the Cook County Board of Review.

    The Palos Heights attorney and first-time candidate faced Abdelnasser Rashid, a rising star in the Cook County Democratic Party, who boasted the near-unanimous backing of high-ranking elected officials, regional unions and newspaper editorial boards.

    But she won anyway.

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  • Cook County judges will speed up bond hearings in an effort to reduce the number of detainees clustered inside the county’s jail — but that may not be enough to stop the spread of coronavirus now that people inside are already sick, lawyers and activists said.

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    Mayor Lori Lightfoot addresses the news media. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced her administration would house as many as 5,000 Chicagoans who are sick from coronavirus or awaiting test results in five hotels across the city, as she said she had lost confidence that the federal government will help cities cope with the pandemic.

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  • A New York federal appeals court affirmed a ruling on Monday that prohibits elected officials from blocking people or deleting critical comments on social media, bolstering rules from the Chicago Board of Ethics that regulate regulate how aldermen use Facebook and Twitter.

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  • Approximately 300 Chicago business owners applied for emergency loans in the hours after Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new program designed to keep small businesses afloat while the city is under a statewide stay-at-home order, officials said.

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  • Local government reform fixture Michael Shakman answers questions from reporters. [A.D. Quig/The Daily Line]
    When employees in the Cook County Clerk’s office report back to their offices after the coronavirus pandemic, they could be under the microscope wielded by a new federal watchdog.

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  • Fresh off a win in the Democratic primary in her bid for a second term, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced her office will not prosecute people charged with non-violent, low-level drug offenses amid the spreading Coronavirus pandemic.

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  • Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi told property owners on Thursday not to worry about their assessments for the next tax year — for now, at least.

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    Mayor Lori Lightfoot sought to reassure Chicagoans Thursday that she and her administration were taking steps both to protect residents from the spread of the Coronavirus and soften the economic crash it caused.

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  • Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot addresses the news media. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
    Chicago officials will stop ticketing, booting and impounding cars that do not pose a public safety threat through April 30 as part of an effort to help Chicagoans facing a cash crunch caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday.

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  • Ald. Ed Burke (14) listens at the May 29 City Council meeting. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line] 

    When State Rep. Aaron Ortiz (D-Chicago) was born in 1991, 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke had been the highest-ranking Democratic Party official in the Southwest Side ward for 23 years.

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  • From U.S. Congress to the Illinois House and the Cook County court system, women dominated the Democratic Primary on Tuesday.

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