Only a quarter of the district’s 205,000 preschool through 8th grade students have attended classes in person so far this year.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office said there are more than 28,000 pending cases right now — about 35% higher than the number before COVID-19 forced an end to normal court operations. She indicated that her office would be seeking plea deals to dispose of cases without trials and said she’s instructing her prosecutors to have a “laser-like focus” on violent crimes.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Mag Mile Association said they’ve lost 30 first floor store fronts between Michigan Avenue and Oak Street – some companies put out of business. On State Street and the Loop, the Loop Alliance said at least 20 businesses were lost. But people are slowly returning.

She said, in part, “We kept the engine of city government running so that we could deliver for you, in spite of and because of this once in a lifetime pandemic — enacting real change that will improve people’s lives today and tomorrow. We were determined to continue the day one mission of this Administration: shake off the status quo, and create instead a more equitable future for everyone in our city.”

The group of 13 parents said District 204’s Superintendent and board members repeatedly violated the Open Meetings Act, improperly deliberating plans for school re-opening behind closed doors. In-person-learning is currently limited to two partial-days in the west suburban district, while parents favor a full re-opening plan observing safety guidelines.

South Loop salon owner Spring Capers says her business has taken a huge financial hit because of the forced closures and social distancing that are now required. “It’s tricky. We are busy, but we are not busy like we were,” she said. “The COVID restrictions make you have to do a different type of business.”

“Crime is one of the issues already impacting a private sector exodus, albeit one that is tragically only in its early stages before a hockey stick ramp that one management consultant in the city is forecasting will come from progressive policies downstate, which includes passing the first bill in the nation at the state level to eliminate cash bail. He suggests ‘we will look back on the crime numbers in 2030 and realize what a giant mistake was made in putting felons back on the street to commit additional crimes before trial — which is happening already with alarming frequency

“While in-person attendance rates aren’t comparable to pre-pandemic levels, the district is encouraged to see an increase in school-based attendance the longer students have that option available, especially among our youngest learners and students in cluster programs,” schools chief Janice Jackson said in a statement.

Little Village second grade teacher Olga Contreras attributes her success to two things. Despite being remote, she managed to create a sense of community through daily Morning Meetings and made her students feel safe. She was also able to split the class into small groups to give them individualized help in areas where they struggle. She has the assistant teacher, the school’s bilingual coordinator, a student teacher and the special education teacher all doing small groups.

Said Geraldine Luna, medical director of the COVID-19 Response Bureau at the Chicago Department of Public Health, “Our marginalized and segregated communities face the harshest conditions based on the social determinants of health working against us. Our communities are in the middle of health care deserts, food deserts, limited access public transportation or no access at all.”

The vaccinations were done for Valley Kingdom Ministries International in southwest suburban Oak Forest — more than 17 miles from Loretto Hospital. Loretto CEO George Miller is a member of the church. In a video from Feb. 28, the church’s leader, H. Daniel Wilson, and Miller discuss having been friends for more than 40 years. They attended college together, were fraternity brothers — and are even close enough that Miller attended Wilson’s bachelor party, they say in the video.

“We reject racist reparations and demand a better, more responsive, more complete program that provides access to reparations acts of actual repair to Black folks.”

Dr. Howard Ehrman of the People’s COVID-19 Response Team noted the city has done successful vaccination campaigns in the past; In 1963, the city’s public health department vaccinated more than 300,000 people for polio within 12 hours on a Saturday by making every public school and public building in the city a vaccination site.

The mayor said, in part, “But what I also know from that experience was that we were going to have to handle this at the local level, pretty much on our own. The federal government’s handling of that travel order was really, probably the most charitable thing I can say was that it was incredibly competent. We needed federal leadership, and we didn’t get it. And so at that moment, that’s really what kind of galvanized a lot of the mayors across the country.”

The warning comes as Loretto Hospital — a small, West Side vaccine provider — is embroiled in controversy for vaccinating ineligible workers at Trump Tower, as well as ineligible Cook County judges and their spouses. Should the city cut off doses to bad actor providers, it will “make sure that residents are not left in the lurch” and can still get vaccinated, the mayor said.

The picture could get worse before it improves. More than 55 percent of hotels in the greater Chicago region have fallen behind on their loan payments, a sign that the properties could be running low on cash. By comparison, just 2 percent of hotels were more than 60 days delinquent on a loan payment at this time last year, according to data from New York-based Trepp LLC.

Thompson could face fines if found by the Chicago Board of Ethics to have failed to disclose all of his real estate holdings on the ethics statement he filed as a freshman alderman. His ethics statements show he was making money on real estate dealings even as he was failing to make any payments on a $350,000 loan from Washington Federal Bank for Savings, a Bridgeport institution that federal regulators shut down in December 2017 after discovering a “massive fraud” scheme involving more than $82 million.