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Chicago Citing Businesses for Failing to Check Vaccination Status of Patrons

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The city of Chicago is citing businesses for failing to check the vaccination status of patrons and has issued over two dozen citations in the last three weeks.

Chicago vaccine rules went into effect January 3, requiring indoor dining establishments, fitness centers, and entertainment and recreation venues to demand proof of vaccination for everyone ages five and older. 

“You must not permit entry to anyone 5 and older who has not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless an exception applies. Businesses that do not comply with this policy will be subject to fines,” the city’s website warns. The fines vary but can be as much as $10,000.

According to the AP, Chicago officials have handed out 32 citations to 16 businesses thus far.  Cited businesses include several restaurants, a child’s play place, and a handful of fitness centers, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Other blue areas across the country are also requiring businesses to discriminate against unvaccinated individuals. New York City was one of the first places in the nation to do so, implementing the Key to NYC Pass under former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D). 

“And if you’re vaccinated, all of that’s going to open up to you. You’ll have the key, you can open the door. If you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things,” de Blasio said at the time, expressing his sincere belief that it is time for people to “see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life.”

The Supreme Court took action against one of President Biden’s vaccine mandates last week, rejecting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule, which would have affected roughly 84 million workers. The Court did, however, uphold the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate on healthcare workers, although it made clear that there are exceptions for religious or medical reasons. 

Chicago Parents Turn to Catholic Schooling amid Public-School Shutdowns

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A sign hangs outside of Pulaski International School after Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, said it would cancel classes since the teachers’ union voted in favor of a return to remote learning, in Chicago, Ill., January 5, 2022. (Jim Vondruska/Reuters)

Last week’s five-day shutdown of public schools in Chicago on account of teachers’-union demands has put a new spotlight on area Catholic schools as a superior alternative. Per the Chicago Tribune:

After the latest battle between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union led to canceled classes for 330,000 students, the phone lines at many of the city’s Catholic schools were jammed with calls this week from weary parents, inquiring how to enroll their children.

Greg Richmond, superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools, said it’s too early to gauge the impact of the latest CPS shutdown on enrollment at the 157 archdiocesan-run schools in Cook and Lake counties, including 85 Catholic elementary schools and high schools in the city.

But in fall, months before the latest standoff between CPS and the CTU shuttered city schools for five days, the archdiocese schools reported a 5% jump in student enrollment — the first increase the school system has seen in 40 years.

“I know from talking with parents that there’s a lot of frustration right now,” Richmond said.

The Tribune notes that some of this reconsideration preceded the most recent instance of teachers’-union malevolence (and even preceded the pandemic itself), and also that Catholic-school enrollment is still declining in the area and nationwide.

But still, many parents are finding it hard to resist the promise of education that returned to in-person instruction at the beginning of the 2020–2021 school year while the area’s public schools have been hostage to teachers’-union demands.

As a proud product of Catholic schooling myself, I am heartened by this news. But more important are the parents who are now receiving reliable in-person instruction for their children. The more the merrier.

At Least 29 Shot During Weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago

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At least 29 people were shot, four of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) Chicago.

ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times reports the first fatal shooting of the weekend occurred around 11:30 p.m. “in the 3100 block of West Chicago Avenue.” A 39-year-old man was sitting in his car at a gas pump when two people exited another and opened fire, shooting him “multiple times in the chest.”

The 39-year-old was a taken to a hospital, where he died.

A 30-year-old man was sitting in a vehicle ” in the 9200 block of South Normal Avenue” Saturday around 7:45 a.m. when gunmen approached and opened fire, shooting him multiple times.

The 30-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

The third fatal shooting of the weekend was discovered Saturday about 12;45 p.m. when a 24-year-old with gunshot wounds was found in Austin. The 24-year-old was “unresponsive” when found. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

CBS Chicago reports the fourth fatal shooting of the weekend occurred at 12:44 a.m., when a 20-year-old was shot and killed while walking in “the 200 block of West 43rd Street.”

Breitbart News noted homicides surged in Lightfoot’s Chicago during 2021, making the year the deadliest in a quarter of a century.

The Hill pointed out Chicago police confirmed the city witnessed 797 homicides during the course of 2021, while the Chicago Sun-Times observed that Cook County medical examiner’s records show 836 homicides for the city.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at [email protected]. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

Smart University of Chicago Students Challenge Their Authoritarian Administrators

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A woman walks through the Main Quadrangle at the University of Chicago in Chicago, 2015. (Jim Young / Reuters)

Like most American college and university administrators, those at the University of Chicago have gone to extremes in their response to Covid. Sadly, the students usually just accept whatever the officials decree.

But not at the University of Chicago. The editorial board of Chicago Thinker student newspaper has thrown down the gauntlet with a lengthy, well argued attack on the school’s booster mandate. Read it here.

Will the university’s leaders listen to their students? Will they respond? Or will they keep acting the way authoritarians like to–just pushing ahead in the unshakable belief that they are always right.

Hat tip: Don Boudreaux

Hundreds of Chicago students orchestrate school walkout and crowded protest to demand safer COVID-19 conditions, relief stipends, and laptops

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Students in Chicago staged a walkout on Friday to demand safer school conditions during the surge of COVID-19 cases. The students also participated in a crowded protest where they made demands for remote learning, laptops, and COVID-19 relief stipends.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools agreed to reopen schools with in-person classes. However, hundreds of students participated in a walkout on Friday afternoon. The district-wide walkout of at least 500 students was organized by the Chicago Public Schools Radical Youth Alliance (Chi-Rads) – a self-described “organization of allied, radical CPS high schoolers from every corner of the city to organize to create an education system that best serves us.”


The Chicago Public Schools Radical Youth Alliance issued a list of 39 demands for the Chicago Public Schools. The organization demanded that schools shift to remote learning for two weeks. The group called on Chicago Public Schools to increase the “remote workforce” for staff members and “students whose presence isn’t necessary in the building.”

The organization ordered the public school system to make accessible COVID-19 testing for all students, “sufficient N-95 masks along with the other face coverings PPE & medical grade masks.”

The group requested mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing, and no spectators at sporting events.

The students are also demanding Chicago Public Schools provide “every student with their own personal laptop,” and the organization emphasizes that the laptops must have “4GB RAM & 512GB storage, and at least 8 hours of battery life.”

The group said the students should be able to keep the laptops “during their entire duration as students, virtual or not.” They also petitioned for “access to high speed wifi, that has at least 10 Mbps of download speed and 1 Mbps of upload speed.”

The group also requests “personal tutors outside of school hours in every school.”

The Chi-Rads claim, “There are many aspects of our everyday lives that hinder certain students from receiving quality education from inequitable structures and oppressive systems within the city.”

To remedy the “inequitable structures and oppressive systems,” the group demands the school to “reload EBT cards” and hire “one full-time therapist/psychologist for every 30 students.”

The students also require COVID-19 relief stipends.

“Much like Covid Relief packages, students should receive covid relief stipends to help cover the necessities that families are going through during these times beyond food,” the list of demands states. “Many families are living paycheck to paycheck and this pandemic affects people’s ability to work; that, unfortunately, affects our ability to live.”

The group also said teachers should have the decision of whether they want to teach remotely or in the classroom. The students said teachers should be able to “take a leave of absence regarding concerns of Covid.”

The Chicago Public Schools Radical Youth Alliance also called for “spaces of healing and community building.”


To show that they were serious about their demands for safer COVID-19 conditions, the hundreds of students participated in a crowded protest outside of the headquarters for Chicago Public Schools.


The students railed against Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot by chanting, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Lori Lightfoot’s got to go!”