Good morning, Chicago.
The moment to see her team hold a championship parade couldn’t come soon enough for die-hard Chicago Sky fan Danielle Benninghoff.
Over the course of 10 years, Benninghoff watched the Sky cycle through multiple arenas, head coaches and noncommittal superstars before the franchise secured its first WNBA title. She came to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion 31/2 hours before the Sky’s parade Tuesday to bask in the moment.
“I’ve waited so long for this,” said Benninghoff, who wore a signed Sylvia Fowles jersey from 2014. “We knew after we went to Game 3 that they were going to win. It’s exciting to see how far this team has come since I started watching the games 10 years ago.”
Almost every seat in the pavilion was filled, while fans outside pressed to get a glimpse of the 2021 WNBA champions.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that a continued decline in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Illinois could lead him to lift “certain mask mandates” in time for the holiday season.
“We want to remove the mitigations as we approach the holidays,” Pritzker said during a COVID-19 briefing at the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop. “That’s an important marker for us.”
2 states and Washington, D.C., removed from Chicago COVID-19 travel advisory
Despite a call to suburban law enforcement agencies seeking potential help in Chicago with emergency police services during the ongoing stalemate between the city and police union over vaccines, two suburban county sheriffs said they will not send their deputies to the city.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain said he will not send any personnel to Chicago unless an officer is under “direct duress” because he does not support what he calls the “slanted agenda” of the city’s politics. DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick said while they would never withhold service in a dire emergency, this is a planned shortage and the city is choosing to send viable officers home while asking other municipal agencies, many of which do not have vaccination requirements, to step in.
Amy Le cut back on hours at the two locations of her Asian-Latin fusion restaurant Saucy Porka to make it through the pandemic. She took on more of the work herself, cooking and washing dishes. Then she’d go home and apply for every grant she could. So far, it’s kept her business afloat.
Le has seen her Hyde Park restaurant recover 90% of its business from 2019, buoyed by the return of University of Chicago students. But her South Loop location is still only bringing in about half the customers it did before the pandemic. She’s uncertain when numbers might improve, as the neighborhood’s many office buildings continue to sit empty and employees still mostly work from home.
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A re-imagined Museum of Broadcast Communications is now reopened and free to the public — including, for a limited time, a micro-gallery of three ridiculous artworks courtesy of John Oliver and HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”
The Tribune’s 2021 Holiday Cookie Contest starts Wednesday. Here’s how to enter our annual bake-off.
Haul out the KitchenAid and get those eggs beating — the 35th annual Tribune Holiday Cookie Contest has arrived.
Submit your recipes now through Oct. 31 for a chance at baking glory — and a cash prize.