Good morning, Chicago.
Just when we were getting a handle on the delta variant, mu is here. The strain accounts for a tiny fraction of all coronavirus cases in the U.S. right now, but like delta, it has properties that could make it more transmissible. Here’s what we know.
Meanwhile, just before the long weekend, Illinois officials reported 81 outbreaks in schools — more than triple the number from the previous week. Some people, however, have taken issue with the fact that state health officials tightened the criteria of an outbreak from five related cases to two. Read more here from my colleague Karen Ann Cullotta and keep up with the latest on Chicago-area school cases using our tracker.
— Nicole Stock, audience editor
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Shortly after arriving in Chicago to celebrate Labor Day weekend, 4-year-old Mychal “MJ” Moultry Jr. was getting his hair braided when bullets shattered the large picture windows of a Woodlawn apartment late Friday, striking the Alabama boy in the head.
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Authorities confirmed the child, who loved trips to the beach and the movie “Cars,” was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m. Sunday after being removed from life support at Comer Children’s Hospital.
In a telephone interview with the Tribune on Monday, his mother, Angela Gregg, described her son as gifted. She pleaded for help from the public, asking anyone with information about her son’s killer to contact police.
At least 58 people shot over Labor Day weekend
Chicago aldermen are up for their biggest raises in 15 years. Will any of them turn it down?
While many Chicagoans continue struggling to make ends meet amid the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the city’s aldermen are currently facing their own struggle: whether to accept a nearly 5.5% pay raise for next year that will kick the highest-paid among them to a salary topping $130,000.
Though City Council members make this decision individually each year, they face a particularly fraught choice this time, given the financial difficulties lots of residents are facing and the unusually large pay bump they would be giving themselves.
After the COVID-19 pandemic kept travelers home for much of 2020, visitors are starting to return to Illinois’ tourism attractions. But while summer tourism picked up around the state, particularly at outdoor destinations, in many cases it still fell short of 2019 levels, and some hotels and restaurants struggled to hire enough workers.
Meanwhile, the delta variant of the coronavirus and rising cases nationwide are adding a new hurdle to tourism’s rebound.
Starting as a teenager, Amer helped the U.S. military as a translator in Afghanistan. Although he and his family have lived in Chicago since 2015, he’s still dealing with the consequences of his involvement.
After reuniting with some family members at O’Hare, he can’t stop thinking of others left behind.
Louisa Chu review: Milk Money Brewing stakes its name on the beer, but its food is the true marvel
Milk Money Brewing in La Grange is not what it appears to be, according to Tribune food critic Louisa Chu. After tasting a Hot Pockets-inspired Tomato Pocket — precise puff pastry, stuffed with the essence of summer, topped by a tangle of charred greens — she had to confront mild-mannered chef and co-owner Matt Bumba. Read her full review here.