Thomas Szromba, chair of the Ethics Board, wrote in a Thursday decision that Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Tammy Wendt disobeyed two provisions: a ban on hiring relatives such as first cousins, and a requirement to avoid such violations in order to maintain a “fiduciary duty” to the county.

The mayor explained, “The vast majority of our police officers are fully-vaccinated. That is a fact. And I fully expect that many more will get themselves fully vaccinated to comply with the arbitrator’s decision [upholding the mandate]. … I do not believe that we will see any compromise in public safety.”

“Whatever comes next, I hope you barely hear from me again on this topic,” Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said during a City Hall news conference reflecting on the crisis that has killed 7,586 Chicagoans. “But know that if you do, or if we are having to put masks back on, or we’re having to put vaccine requirements back in — that is just temporary.”

The chairwoman of the City Council committee tasked with leading the remap process filed a petition Tuesday to place their map on a ballot in Illinois’ June primary election. Both caucuses are proposing maps that would create the city’s first Asian-majority ward, but the key sticking point is how many wards would be majority Latino: 15 or 14.

According to Crain’s Chicago Business, downtown rents rose more than 30 percent in 2021 after a big drop in 2020. In addition, prices are expected to go up another 5 percent this year.

The mayor said, “They’re going to do whatever they’re going to do tomorrow, but I’m not going to continue to be involved in political charades and stunts, I’m just not.”

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Dan Duffy granted Chicago’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit objecting to Amusement Tax Ruling No. 5, a 2015 revenue program imposing a 9% tax on streaming entertainment services.

Maggie Cassidy, program director for the planning department, said abandoned and distressed Chicago properties are “concentrated in communities of color” for obvious reasons. “This is a pernicious legacy of segregation, residential redlining and the 2008 foreclosure crisis,” Cassidy said.

“Even the dean of the school’s prestigious journalism school called out the action as inimical to the free press…Student government member Assem Belhadj explained: ‘This is about how to make sure student activism within ASG can be protected in a way that students can speak and have the freedom to dissent on issues without having this fear that what they say will be blown out of proportion and they will be publicly criticized.'”

Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming have all dropped below the threshold to be on the travel warning list, bringing the city’s warning list down to 18 states and one territory.

Chicago voters likely will now decide between the Black Caucus map and the Latino Caucus map, which has 15 majority-Hispanic wards — two more than now, based on a 5.2% increase in Chicago’s Hispanic population. In the 2020 census, the city’s Hispanic population increased, while its Black population declined.