Good morning, Chicago.
COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Illinois as the state prepares for another indoor mask mandate and more mandatory vaccinations. On Friday, there were the most daily cases recorded since January, with officials reporting 4,942 new cases. However, it’s not all entirely bad news: though the daily cases continue to grow, the pace has slowed down.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools students are returning to classrooms today — for some of them for the first time since March 2020. Here are answers to your questions about fall in-person learning.
And, in Bears news, after winning their final preseason game of 2021 with rookie QB Justin Fields starting, attention turns to the roster. Cuts from 80 players to 53 are due by Tuesday at 3 p.m. The Tribune’s Brad Biggs makes his roster projections. Want to get his 10 thoughts first? Sign up here
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Gov. Pritzker basing stronger mandates on science but pandemic politics also comes into play
As much as Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he has based his COVID-19 response on science, pandemic politics also comes into play.
His recent vaccine and mask orders were a direct shot primarily at Republican conservatives in pockets of the suburbs and throughout rural Downstate who oppose vaccinations and masking just as they sought to fight his early mitigation efforts, including stay-at-home orders and closed business and entertainment venues, as a restriction of their personal freedom.
COVID-19 cases continue climbing as Illinois prepares for indoor masking and more vaccine mandates
A spate of shootings shines a fresh and brutal light on the perennial problem of violence on Chicago’s expressways, an extension of the gun violence that has ravaged the city’s disinvested South and West sides for decades. And shootings on area expressways have risen each year since 2018, spurring Chicagoans to clamor for solutions.
More toxic lead pipes than any other region of the country. An unmatched legacy of abandoned, highly polluted industrial sites. Dozens of corporations chronically in trouble for poisoning air and water.
All of these maladies face whomever President Joe Biden picks to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office that oversees Illinois, five other Midwestern states and the Great Lakes.
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In 1870 there were 600 fires in Chicago, most started by lamps overturning in barns. During the first week of October the next year more than 30 fires sprang up, the last one on the night of the seventh, wiping out four blocks and causing $750,000 in damages (nearly $1.7 million today). It was on that same night that eccentric businessman spoke to a crowd in Farwell Hall at Clark and Madison streets, and prophesied that a “terrible calamity” was impending for the city.
Nick Kindelsperger review: Lardon has the expertly crafted charcuterie Chicago deserves
Lardon not only knows how to make salumi and charcuterie, but cares deeply about serving them, Tribune food critic Nick Kindelsperger writes. Forget about cold, dried-out slices of salami pulled straight from the fridge. Each selection arrives at your table at the optimal temperature, so the sopressata originale tastes so luscious, it seems to dissolve in your mouth. Read the full review here.