Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: COVID-19 cases in Illinois increase amid reopening, 'quarantine fatigue'
The number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois is increasing as the state reopens, more people return to work and quarantine fatigue sets in – a confluence of events that has led some public health officials to remind people about the importance of personal responsibility.
The increase in Illinois is not like the resurgence that some other states have reported. However, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for three consecutive days at the end of last week. State public health officials said Monday that the seven-day positivity rate for positive cases as a percent of total tests from July 6 to July 12 was 3.0 percent.
Crain's Chicago Business: Business leaders surprisingly upbeat about COVID recovery
The latest survey of business conditions by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago shows business leaders here are surprisingly upbeat about recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, though hiring remains very weak.
Rockford Register Star: Illinois’ largest marijuana dispensary opens in South Beloit
Illinois’ largest recreational marijuana dispensary opened Monday about 1,000 feet south of the border with Wisconsin, where marijuana use is prohibited, and 5,000 feet from a proposed casino.
The city’s mayor says the sales tax revenue from the store and the development prospects surrounding it are huge.
Chicago Tribune: Voting by mail in Illinois this year? Read this first.
Fueled by fears over the coronavirus pandemic, early voting and voting by mail in the Nov. 3 presidential election is expected to occur in unprecedented numbers.
By mid-July, Chicago election officials had received a record-high 121,000 applications for mail-in ballots, and that was before the effects of a new state law kick in that will see every Illinois resident who voted in recent elections automatically getting an application to vote by mail.
The Center Square: Statewide program providing summer jobs for youths
It is no secret that those hit hardest by the economic fallout from COVID-19 had low-paying jobs in service industries.
And those are the kinds of jobs most at-risk youths ages 16 to 24 were working in Illinois. Until suddenly they were not.
Crain's Chicago Business: Aldermen resist plan to allow coach houses, granny flats
Supporters of reversing the 63-year-old ban on building Accessory Dwelling Units, often called ADUs or granny flats, say it will “help middle-class people stay in their neighborhoods in the city and provide some of the affordable housing we need,” as Ald. Harry Osterman (48th), who chairs the City Council’s housing and real estate committee, put it to Crain’s on Monday.