Matthew Blake

Chicago’s cash-strapped city government is rejecting an easy source of revenue by encouraging insured mental health patients to get care at private facilities instead of city-run clinics, Alderman Robert Fioretti (2nd) charged Thursday. The result, Fioretti claimed, is that the city might soon close its six remaining mental health clinics – it already shuttered six mental health facilities in 2012.

Many questions were raised during a Tuesday City Council committee hearing on the latest proposal to ban plastic shopping bags throughout Chicago – including a possible fee for the use of paper bags, how soon the measure would take effect if it is approved, and whether the ban would apply to the use of compostable plastic bags.

The Cook County Health and Hospitals System expects to have in place a permanent replacement for departing CEO Dr. Ram Raju by June, according to CCHHS Board Chairman David Carvalho.

“Our goal is to wrap it up by June,” Carvalho said in an interview Friday. “It’s not a hard deadline, because you don’t want to set a hard deadline, but it’s the anticipated deadline.

Chicago Public Schools will place condom dispensers in 24 high schools starting in the fall as a pilot program.

Dr. Stephanie Whyte, chief health officer for Chicago Public Schools, announced the program Wednesday at a joint meeting of the City Council Education and Health committees. During the meeting, CPS and Chicago Department of Public Health officials detailed various city efforts to improve teen health.

Cook County officials are – again – examining what to do with the old Cook County Hospital building that has sat vacant on Chicago's Near West Side since 2002.

The Cook County Board on Wednesday approved a $2.4 million contract with Chicago Consultants Studio, Inc., which will “evaluate current needs, future needs and make sure we have the flexibility for unforeseen needs” at the county building site, according to John Cooke, director of the Office of Capital Planning and Policy at Cook County.