Good morning, Chicago.
Yesterday, Chicago Public Schools welcomed students back to classrooms as the district resumed full-time in-person learning for the first time since March 2020. Parents expressed excitement and fear on the first day, which came amid the city’s rising COVID-19 cases and the spread of the delta variant. Here’s a look at how the day unfolded across the city.
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Meanwhile, DuPage Medical Group notified 600,000 patients that their personal information may have been compromised during a cyberattack in July. If you were affected by the breach and are trying to figure out what to do, my colleague Lisa Schencker put together a guide for what patients should know.
And, Illinois lawmakers are returning to Springfield today with three of the main issues from their spring legislative session still unresolved: an energy policy overhaul, new legislative district maps and a revamp of government ethics laws. Read more here from the Tribune’s Dan Petrella.
– Nicole Stock, audience editor
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Last US troops depart Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war after 20 years
The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war.
Logansport, Indiana, mourning Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, killed during Afghanistan bombing
The cost of America’s longest war: Thousands of lives, trillions of dollars
Rex Huppke column: A ‘herculean’ Afghanistan evacuation: Why we should pause to appreciate what our military accomplished
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Monday was investigating a viral video that appears to show a uniformed Chicago police officer grabbing and physically restraining a woman he apparently ordered to leave North Avenue Beach over the weekend.
Chicago police Superintendent David Brown placed the officer on paid desk duty for at least 30 days while COPA continues its investigation, a police spokesman said.
Can Bernie Sanders sell Democrats’ $3.5T budget to Trump voters? Here’s how he tried in Indiana.
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Bernie Sanders faces a challenge as he tries to gain new support for the Democrats’ agenda from disaffected white voters who backed Trump: Even if he can get some to listen, it remains a tall task to pull them across the nation’s deep political divide.
In many cases, the best Sanders can hope for is that some Republicans like a few of the individual policies enough to drive up poll numbers, allowing Democrats to argue — as they did with COVID relief money — that some Republicans and independents support their ideas, even if none of them vote on Capitol Hill.
Cannabis smoking lounges, slow to open in Illinois since marijuana was legalized last year, are starting to get off the ground, as two have opened and more are planned across the state.
The lounges provide a legal place for adults 21 and over to smoke or vape — and create social gatherings to share the experience with friends or acquaintances. The lounges operating so far can’t sell cannabis, so users bring their own.
Al Capone’s vaults inside a decrepit Chicago hotel were embarrassingly empty in 1986. The real riches of the legendary boss of Chicago’s organized crime syndicate have been located more than 2,000 miles west in northern California, quietly occupying the homes of his four granddaughters — Veronica, Diane, Barbara and Theresa.
Now, almost 75 years after the death of their grandfather, the three surviving sisters are parting with these pieces in a highly anticipated auction taking place in October.
Growing up Capone: An interview with a granddaughter of the legendary Chicago Outfit boss