Good morning, Chicago. Yesterday, Illinois recorded 943 new cases of COVID-19 and 24 additional deaths. This was the second time in a week that the state had fewer than 1,000 daily cases, after previously not recording such a low number of cases since mid-March. Officials also reported 60,746 doses of the vaccine were administered Saturday, and the seven-day rolling average of daily doses was 75,546.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added another change to its virus guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated. Its new guidance says that people who are two weeks out from their vaccine shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms can largely skip getting tested — even if exposed to someone infected.
How do the changing guidelines make you feel? If you’re fully vaccinated, have you changed how often you’re getting tested for COVID-19? Send me an email at [email protected] and let me know.
— Nicole Stock, audience editor
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A year after most legislative initiatives were sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois lawmakers are approaching the end of this year’s spring session facing a backlog of significant and as yet unresolved issues.
Paramount on the list is a new state budget, as legislators look for ways to close a $1.3 billion deficit. But of more political and long-lasting importance is the redrawing by Democrats of state legislative and congressional districts to reflect population changes over the last decade.
Democrats offer new legislative district boundary maps in effort to control Illinois General Assembly for another decade
Although Mike Polisky stepped down as Northwestern’s athletic director after being swept up in a wave of protests, the difficult questions provoked by his selection are anything but settled. One former running back says the university has an opportunity to rebuild trust in the Black and brown communities based on whom it picks for leadership roles.
A year ago, the baiduhai published a series, “Faces of Change,” that looked at ordinary people who answered the call for social justice. Today, in a country where Derek Chauvin was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, it seems little else has changed. But how does it feel for these same people?
Here are the first three entries in an effort to answer that question. On the same day that Chauvin was convicted, Ma’Khia Bryant was killed by police in Columbus, Ohio. Even though there aren’t protests in dozens of American cities, the emotions and the trauma are still all too real. Find out more in “Faces of Change: One Year Later.”
As wave of students return from pandemic gap year, another round prepares to leave
Nationwide, roughly three to four times as many students as usual took a gap year during the 2020-21 school year, according to Ethan Knight, executive director of the Gap Year Association. With international travel — often a staple of traditional gap year programs — on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, more students than ever made an independent itinerary for their year off from traditional school.
The number of students doing a traditional gap year program is trending back to ordinary levels for the 2021-22 school year. But Knight said the number of students doing independent gap years remains higher than normal.
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The 2021 beach season — traditionally beginning Memorial Day — looks like it’s starting on a brighter note with COVID-19 mitigations becoming less strict and water levels also on the dropping. Many beaches will be closer to normal than 2020. Here are the public beaches from Michigan City, Indiana, to Zion along with hours, directions and helpful links.