The Latest Breaking News from Maria Hadden

CHICAGO — Days before aldermen were set to vote on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s controversial plan to sue gang members as an anti-violence strategy, she texted an impassioned message to several City Council members seeking their support.

CHICAGO — Chicago public health officials reported 173 monkeypox cases on Monday — up from 105 last week — and with vaccines scarce and hard to find, alarm is growing among doctors and those in the gay community that the city is not doing enough to address the spread.

The Chicago City Council has passed new cooling requirements for residential buildings after three women died in their stifling hot apartments during a brief heat wave last month

The ordinance, backed by Ald. Maria Hadden, is aimed at preventing a repeat of the tragedy at James Sneider Apartments, where three residents died in mid-May.

Experts say cities are failing to grapple with the deadly threat after discovery of bodies in senior housing facility

The discovery of the bodies of three women inside a Chicago senior housing facility after a brief heat wave this month raises questions about whether officials and residents are prepared for the kind of brutal heat that killed more than 700 people in the city nearly three decades ago

A manager of the building where three women died during a stretch of warm temperatures said city rules required them to provide heat through June 1. “Nobody is going to freeze to death in Chicago in May,” said Ald. Brian Hopkins, who introduced an ordinance to ease that requirement.

One step would be to adjust the deadline in the city’s heating ordinance to a date earlier than June 1.

Janice Reed, 68, was among three women found unresponsive Saturday at the James Sneider Apartments, 7450 N. Rogers Ave. Gwendolyn Osborne, 72, and Delores McNeely, 76, also died.

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s long-delayed review of Chicago monuments still isn’t completed, but the mayor has restated her controversial pledge to return a Christopher Columbus statue to its prominent pedestal in Grant Park — the site of a bloody battle between police and demonstrators nearly two years ago.

CHICAGO — Anjanette Young is working to ensure no others have to endure what she experienced in Feb. 2019 when Chicago police carried out a botched raid on her home while following up on a bad tip.