(WTTW News)

Illinois is the only state in the country to require behind-the-wheel road tests for seniors renewing their licenses. Proposed legislation in Springfield is looking to eliminate that mandate despite conflicting research from some national safety groups.

FILE - Comirnaty, a new Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination booster for COVID-19, is displayed at a pharmacy in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. (Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel via AP)

There are still more than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 2,000 deaths each week due to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. And people 65 and older have the highest hospitalization and death rates.

Belhaven Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, 11401 S. Oakley Ave., has amassed $118,700 in state fines and more than $879,000 in federal fines over the past four years. (Credit: Brittany Sowacke)

A data analysis by WTTW News and the Hyde Park Herald/South Side Weekly found the disparity between access to quality nursing home care for Black and White Chicagoans is stark, with highly rated homes concentrated on the city’s North Side and housing majority White residents.

This photo provided by Daniel Wilsey shows Dorothy Hoffner, 104, falling through the air with tandem jumper Derek Baxter as she becomes the oldest person in the world to skydive, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Ill. (Daniel Wilsey via AP, File)

On Oct. 1, Dorothy Hoffner made a tandem skydive that could land her in the record books as the world's oldest skydiver. She jumped out of a plane from 13,500 feet.

Dorothy Hoffner, 104, becomes the oldest person in the world to skydive with tandem jumper Derek Baxter on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023, at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Ill. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune via AP)

Dorothy Hoffner first skydived when she was 100. On Sunday, she left her walker behind just short of the Skyvan plane at the Ottawa airport and was helped up the steps to join the others waiting inside to skydive.

(WTTW News)

Delores McNeely, 76, Gwendolyn Osborne, 72, and Janice Reed, 68, died May 14 after temperatures soared into the 90s for several days.

Tina Sandri, CEO of Forest Hills of DC senior living facility, passes a COVID-19 informational sign while walking to her office on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022, in Washington. Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths. (AP Photo / Nathan Howard)

Coronavirus-related hospital admissions are climbing again in the United States, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.

High school students run at sunset as they practice for the track and field season Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, in Shawnee, Kan. (AP Photo / Charlie Riedel, File)

New research hints that even a simple exercise routine just might help older Americans with mild memory problems.

(WTTW News)

The proposal was prompted by the deaths of three Rogers Park women, who died after temperatures in their apartments rose to dangerous levels during a mid-May heat wave. The revised measure, which is set for a final vote at the full City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday. 

James Sneider Apartments (WTTW News)

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office has yet to determine the causes of death for the three women whose bodies were found in the James Sneider Apartments on May 14. But the victims’ families have already filed or plan to file wrongful death lawsuits against the companies that own and manage the buildings.

(WTTW News)

Three women were found dead Saturday at the James Sneider Apartments in Rogers Park shortly after multiple heat complaints from residents as Chicago temperatures hovered around 90 degrees last week.

COVID-19 cases and deaths at U.S. nursing homes are once again on the rise. (Pixabay)

According to CDC data, Illinois saw its highest-ever case rate for nursing home residents this month, surpassing even last winter’s surge. Cases among staff have also reached record levels. 

(Alexandra Marta / Unsplash)

While some people seem to just stay young longer, others age prematurely. Your chronological age of course can’t be changed, but research suggests the biological processes that drive aging may in fact be malleable.

This photo shows a bottle of aspirin in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo / Emma H. Tobin)

Doctors have long recommended daily low-dose aspirin for many patients who already have had a heart attack or stroke. The task force guidance does not change that advice. 

(Alexandra Marta / Unsplash)

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine are studying adults in their 80s and up with high-functioning cognitive abilities.

In this Jan. 8, 2021, file photo, a pharmacist prepares a syringe of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19, at Queen Anne Healthcare, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in Seattle. (AP Photo / Ted S. Warren, File)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans, opening a major new phase in the U.S vaccination drive against COVID-19.