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Businesses requiring patrons, including children as young as five, to show proof of vaccination is now “necessary,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) declared this week. “Despite our diligent and equitable vaccine distribution efforts throughout this year, unfortunately, our city continues to see a surge of COVID-19 Delta and now omicron cases,” the Democrat mayor said on Tuesday, announcing the city’s new vaccine requirement, which goes into effect January 3.

"If you're going into that coffee shop to pick-up and go, you don't need to show proof. But if you're gonna linger, you're gonna eat that muffin, you're gonna sit down with your laptop, you gotta show proof of vaccination." Clip...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced new COVID mitigations Tuesday, including a vaccine requirement for indoor dining at restaurants for patrons and workers. People going out to eat will have to bring in more than just their masks and wallets starting January 3. The city of Chicago will start requiring customers and restaurant workers to also provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID test. This new mitigation effort is aimed at stemming the spread of the omicron variant, which the CDC now says is responsible for 73% of all new COVID cases. "I think it'll make...

Joe Perillo, a high-end car dealer in Chicago, claims Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s and Cook County Attorney Kim Foxx’s lax law enforcement policies are building a “network of thieves.”Perillo’s Gold Coast Exotic Motors, which includes an elite fleet of vehicles, including Bentleys, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris, was the target of a smash and grab robbery on Saturday, and the thieves allegedly stole over a million dollars worth of luxury watches.The Chicago City Wire reported on the crime and Perillo’s reaction:Perillo had just left and was visiting another location in Downers Grove when the smash-and-grab happened. He has gained some renown after a...

The Chicago Tribune has obtained many of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) text messages that reveal combative interactions with aldermen and city workers while shedding light on how the Democrat mayor runs the crime-ridden Windy City. The outlet obtained upwards of two and a half years of the mayor’s text messages through Freedom of Information Act requests. “Her staff failed to comply… until the state attorney general admonished them and the Tribune threatened a lawsuit,” the outlet reports. The admonishment and lawsuit threat led to Lightfoot’s office producing hundreds of pages of documents, including the mayor’s text messages.

A Chicago bus driver landed in the hospital after he was beaten on the streets Saturday night, resulting in a 15-year-old boy being arrested. The bus driver, 49, was inspecting his bus at about 9 p.m. after he heard a loud sound. He was reportedly pushed and punched by both a male and female, police said. An unidentified 15-year-old boy was charged with a felony count of aggravated battery of a transit employee and disorderly conduct in connection. Footage allegedly showing the incident has spread on social media. A large group of youths is seen surrounding the bus driver and...

Anyone who’s ever quit a job has probably dreamed of writing a delicious “kiss my *ss” email to the companywide distribution list and hitting “send” just before they walk out the door for the last time. But a veteran Chicago police leader pretty much did it for real, although he opted to withhold actual names in favor of not-so-subtle hints about who he was writing about. The author of the red-hot communique is Melvin Roman, who was unceremoniously dumped as commander of the police district that includes Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home after “someone” became displeased with protests that closed down...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) attributed the recent uptick in violence in the United States’ major cities such as hers to the coronavirus pandemic. Lightfoot claimed there was “no question” there was a “COVID-related impact on the public safety system.” She also emphasized the need to fight the root causes of violence in cities like Chicago, which she said was poverty, lack of jobs and lack of hope.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was mercilessly booed off a stage during a plumbers’ union fundraiser amid fallout over the city’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers, video shows. A 25-second clip posted to Twitter shows the moment the Democratic mayor was loudly jeered Sunday as she was introduced to Plumbers Union Local 130 – the Windy City’s first union to endorse her in the 2019 runoff election. “I knew that was going to happen,” one attendee said just as the crowd drowned out Lightfoot’s introduction.

Townhall tipsheet Julio Rosas Indiana Senator Has an Offer for Chicago Police Officers Who Are Punished Over Vaccine Mandate Julio Rosas Julio Rosas | @Julio_Rosas11 | Posted: Oct 20, 2021 2:10 PM Indiana Senator Has an Offer for Chicago Police Officers Who Are Punished Over Vaccine Mandate Source: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) told Fox News the state of Indiana is more than ready to hire any Chicago police officers who are punished or fired for refusing to comply with the vaccine mandate. "Our police do the hardest job in the world, and they deserve respect —...

...The latest example of COVID hypocrisy, if you have enough hard-drive space to keep track, is a viral video of President Biden traipsing through a ritzy DC eatery with no mask, in defiance of the city’s strict rules. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was photographed at a basketball game, the only bare face in a sea of muzzled fans. This kind of thing has been so common that it is hard to stay outraged, even though we should. But there is another, deeper question at play here. Why won’t the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention update its masking guidance...

The mayor still plans to enforce Friday’s deadline for city workers to disclose their vaccination status, apply for exemptions and agree to testing if they aren’t vaccinated. But no one will be sent home immediately, even if they defy the mandate.

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday that she took her fight with the head of the city’s police officers union to court, arguing that his call for officers to ignore the order to report their COVID-19 vaccination status was illegal. The mayor said in a statement that the city’s law department filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court for injunctive relief against Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, whom she accused of “engaging in, supporting and encouraging work stoppage or strike.” Lightfoot asked the court to prohibit the union and its officers from “engaging in...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Friday there would be "consequences" for any city employees who aren’t fully vaccinated by Oct. 15, according to reports, as the city continued negotiations with labor unions. Lightfoot and the Fraternal Order of Police disagreed on whether her requirement affected its members, the Chicago Tribune reported. The union said in a statement that the deadline would apply only to coronavirus testing and no one’s pay would be affected, adding that self-reporting of vaccination status was "voluntary." But Lightfoot, a Democrat, denied there was leeway for union members. "Every employee in the City of Chicago has...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot pitched a pilot program Monday giving $500 monthly payments to 5,000 low-income households, part of the city’s proposed $16.7 billion spending plan that relies on an infusion of federal relief funds to close budget gaps for several years. Lightfoot, a first-term Democrat, characterized the proposed $31.5 million cash assistance program as a way to help “hard-hit, low-income households in need of additional economic stability.” The payments would last a year. The idea has been discussed before in Chicago, including earlier this year by city aldermen. Similar pilot efforts, called universal basic income, have been tested elsewhere...

Fifty-four people were shot, nine of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago. ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times reports six of the nine shooting fatalities occurred during a four-hour time-frame Saturday morning. A 29-year-old man and a 34-year-old man were killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday morning at 12:15 a.m. The shooting occurred “in the 1900-block of South Saint Louis Avenue,” leaving the 34-year-old dead at the scene and the 29-year-old fatally wounded. The 29-year-old died at the hospital. At 12:5o a.m. police discovered 31-year-old Marwin Sanders-Price unresponsive “in the 200-block of East 121st Place.” He...

According to a release announcing the Monday news conference, the owners believe the closures are part of an effort by Lightfoot to discourage gang members from congregating in the areas where the stores are located, according to Hassan Nijem, president of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. Store owners are also claiming that Lightfoot is specifically targeting Arab American and Muslim store owners “for racist reasons,” said Nijem.

Arab and Asian American small business owners mainly running gas station pantries accuse the City of Chicago and Mayor Lori Lightfoot of forcing them to close in the misguided belief that closing their stores will help reduce the violence that is sweeping throughout the city. Dozens of gas stations and other small businesses owned by Arabs and minorities including Pakistanis, Indian and some African Americans operating in the city’s toughest neighborhoods are being forced to close on flimsy code violation citations. Lightfoot has ordered the Chicago Police to create a Special Task Force consisting of Police Officers and City Inspectors...

CHICAGO -- At least 44 people were shot, seven fatally, acorss Chicago over the weekend, police said. A One person was killed and two were wounded outside a gas station Saturday morning in Austin on the West Side. About 2:55 a.m., a man, 52, and two women, 62 and 24, were outside a gas station with about 20 other people in the 5100-block of West Madison Street when someone in a black Dodge Charger opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The man suffered gunshot wounds to the head and leg, the 62-year-old to the head, abdomen and lower backside; and...

The city of Chicago announced Tuesday an indoor mask mandate for all individuals 2 years and older, regardless of vaccination status, beginning Friday, Aug. 20. "With the highly transmissible Delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives," said CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady in a statement. "We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the COVID curve, as we’ve done in the past." According to Arwady, masks are required in all indoor public settings, "including...