Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle stands in front of the six finalist designs for the next official flag of Cook County. [Twitter/Commissioner Scott Britton]

Cook County leaders took a step on Thursday toward closing a years-long process to give the county its first new flag in more than half a century. It was one of dozens of actions taken by the county’s Board of Commissioners during its monthly meeting, including the approval of a controversial new contract for debt collection and authorization of tens of millions of dollars in additional American Rescue Plan Act-backed relief money.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved a proposal to build a 28-story 305-unit residential building at 1353 W. Fulton St.

The Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday approved two new towers — a 28-story 305-unit residential building and a 25-story commercial building — for the Near West Side during its monthly meeting.

Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) has violated county ethics rules by hiring her first cousin Todd Thielmann as her chief of staff, the Cook County Board of Ethics ruled. [Facebook/LinkedIn]

A week after Cook County Board of Review Comm. Tammy Wendt (D-1) was ordered by an ethics panel to fire her first cousin, whose employment as her chief of staff violates county anti-nepotism rules, the man remained on her payroll as of late Thursday.

The former Northtown branch of the Chicago Public Library could be sold to Yachad Chicago. [Joe Ward/Block Club Chicago]

A group of West Ridge neighbors is criticizing plans to sell the former Northtown Library building, saying the process lacks transparency and poses ethical questions.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) and Ald. Pat Dowell (3) speak during a committee meeting on Wednesday.

An alderman’s proposal to establish separate legal counsel for the City Council faced its latest delay on Wednesday when it was held in committee to give aldermen more time to review new amendments to the ordinance.

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is set to approve more than $12 million in legal settlements on Thursday. [stock]

The Cook County Board of Commissioners is poised to approve payment of nearly $12.3 million in legal settlements during its monthly meeting on Thursday, including nearly $5 million each for two men who spent more than 20 years behind bars for a murder of which they were later cleared.

Belray Limited Partnership is proposing to renovate the single-room occupancy building at 3105 N. Racine Ave. in Lakeview.

The Chicago Plan Commission is set to meet at 10 a.m. Thursday to consider a slew of development proposals including plans to renovate a Lakeview single-room occupancy building and to build a 305-unit residential building on the Near West Side.

A special meeting of the City Council designed to ease the city’s vaccination rules ended before it started due to lack of quorum. And aldermen advanced an ordinance to carve a loophole into the city’s stringent rules for food truck operators.

Aldermen who support the “Chicago United Map” drawn under leadership of the rules committee attend a press conference on Tuesday. [Alex Nitkin / The Daily Line]

Chicago voters will have two ward map proposals to choose from when they go to the polls during the June 28 election, unless a last-minute compromise can be brokered between two groups of aldermen supporting them.

Department of Planning and development program director Maggie Cassidy shows a map of vacant or abandoned properties owned by the city of Chicago (in blue) and by the Cook County Land Bank Authority (in red) during a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday.

A City Council committee unanimously endorsed a proposal on Tuesday designed to make it easier for the city to breathe new life into abandoned properties — but only after aldermen pushed for assurances that they’ll be a part of the process.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks during a news conference on Tuesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]

The City Council is poised for an impromptu meeting at City Hall Wednesday afternoon as a group of about a dozen police-allied aldermen try to force open a path for the city to soften its employee vaccination requirements. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot will not attend the special meeting, which she called an act of bad faith, and it was unclear Tuesday whether enough aldermen would attend to make a quorum.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9) speaks during a City Council meeting. [Don Vincent / The Daily Line]

A proposal to establish separate legal counsel for the City Council is set on Wednesday to be discussed in public for the first time since it was introduced nearly nine months ago.

Aldermen are set to take up a proposal in committee on Wednesday to loosen rules for charity food vendors as well as a resolution calling on credit agencies to go easier on Chicagoans. And a City Council committee meeting was postponed on Tuesday due to a lack of quorum.

Chicago Department of Aviation Comm. Jamie Rhee speaks to members of the City Council Aviation Committee on Monday.

Aldermen voted unanimously Monday to advance a land deal designed to smooth the path for a new expressway along the west edge of O’Hare Airport, a decades-in-the-making project one key official said has “national significance.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36) speaks during a committee meeting on Monday.

A proposed ordinance that cleared a key City Council committee on Monday would bar people who are charged with or convicted of hate crimes and treason from doing business with the city.