Chicago and Cook County health officials announced plans to revoke pandemic masking and vaccination entry requirements by Feb. 28, the day Illinois’ statewide mask mandate will be lifted. Pritzker has warned Illinoisans to keep masks handy.

Chicago and Cook County leaders have exercised executive emergency powers for 22 months to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Why can they do that and when does it end?

Illinois courts’ long history of being friendly to plaintiffs and personal injury attorneys showed up again in a reform group’s annual ranking. Cook County, St. Clair County and Madison County together moved up in the rankings of “judicial hellholes.”