“My children’s due process is not a part of their bargaining agreement,” said Sarah Sachen, mother of four CPS students. “I believe this is political theater to appease the CTU and it dangerously sends the message that schools aren’t safe. … (N)o longer will I allow my children’s rights to a free and appropriate mask-free education and their mental health be damaged by baseless mask mandates.”

“We have exhausted all avenues to get to a position where the data and the Voting Rights Act can be followed. There has been no true negotiations around trying to take that into account. Unfortunately, we’ve come to an impasse. So we’ve decided to let the voters decide,” Ald. Gilbert Villegas said. “From here forward, we’re in campaign mode.”

“We will not give up this fight. We are filing the lawsuits and we are naming names,” one parent said at a meeting of the Board of Education.

One Board member said, “Masks are not oppressing anyone. Oppression and systemic inequality is what has actually caused the disproportionate impact of COVID along lines of race and class.”

At last count, more than 80 police personnel were stripped of their police powers and put on no-pay status for refusing to comply with the mandate. The mayor says that members who are not yet vaccinated will be provided a timetable by which they will need to get their first and second COVID shots.

Many city council members expressed concern the ordinance is too vague and doubt that it will lower crime.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the announcement after the most recent City Council meeting, saying she hoped the decision would serve as a “signal for those members who are not yet vaccinated to get vaccinated.”

Chicago students will remain masked because the Chicago Teachers Union has a safety agreement with city schools that carries more weight than state laws or elected leaders’ dictates.

Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin and several aldermen have introduced an ordinance to mandate that the city divest its funds from fossil fuel companies. Conyears-Ervin had already made it office policy—the measure introduced today would make the change permanent going forward. Conyears-Ervin compiled an “exclusion list” of 225 companies that are coal, oil and gas reserve owners that will be barred from investment. Her office has already removed $70 million in fossil-fuel associated bonds from the city’s portfolio through “maturities or sales” in the past 18 months, she said in a release.

“The tragedy of this for giving and philanthropy is not just that the truth is coming out. It’s that the actions of a very few — that have nothing to do with the mission of the organizations they are affiliated with — are starting to tear at the fabric of boards and cultural institutions in Chicago and beyond.”

The petition, with close to 1,000 signatures, was started by former District 86 board president Kay Gallo, who wrote in part, “through her deliberate misrepresentations, Superintendent Prentiss attempted to advance her extreme DE & I agenda by ‘equity shaming’ District 86 and creating a false media narrative that damaged the reputation of Hinsdale and all other the communities comprising D86.”

In his latest challenge of state and county COVID-19 rules, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson on Tuesday announced plans to establish a municipal health department that could elude future mandates. The village board endorsed Johnson’s recommendation.

Contending with pandemic capacity limits at congregate shelters, the city has been renting 175 rooms at Hotel Julian on downtown Michigan Avenue since February 2021. About 450 people have come through its doors since. Chicago officials have touted increased stability, better mental health outcomes and quicker transitions to permanent housing among participants, who stay in their private room for an average of about four months.

Broadway in Chicago and the League of Chicago Theatres, announced plans to continue with masking and vaccination requirements for audiences.

For the first time this year, the entire U.S. is not on Chicago’s travel advisory. Maryland was removed from the city’s list this week, leaving 48 states and four territories still on the advisory.

The mayors of Bartlett, Bensenville, Elgin, Itasca, Hanover Park, Roselle, Wood Dale, and Schaumburg say the merger will lead to a 300-percent increase in freight traffic on Metra’s Milwaukee West line. They also say some trains could be two-miles long.

No successor has been named, but the organization has begun conducting a search. Welsh—the one-time general counsel for Northern Trust, Ameritech, and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and former lawyer to Mayor Richard M. Daley—said that, at age 69, it’s time to move on to other things.

Masks will still be required in some spots, like Chicago public schools, health care facilities and public transportation. And individuals may continue to keep wearing masks, just as venues can require them, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

“I feel it’s a sign,” resident Mary Ceron said. “Of hope and moving forward.”