Good morning, Chicago.
Students in Highland Park are returning to school with worries, grief and a desire to get back to normal life more than a month after a gunman killed seven people at the city’s Fourth of July parade.
Highland Park High School has added layers of security and offered counseling to its students over the summer. But Stephanie Diaz, a 16-year-old junior, is still nervous.
“I know our school is somewhat safe, but you never know,” said Diaz, who helped form a local chapter of the anti-gun violence group Students Demand Action after the shooting.
With school about to begin, Highland Park-area parents offered differing opinions on the local schools’ security precautions. Read the full story from Gavin Good and John Keilman.
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CPS continues to struggle to comply with the terms of the latest version of the Student Online Personal Protection Act, or SOPPA. School starts Monday for CPS students.
Illinois school districts had nearly two years — until July 2021 — to meet the new requirements of the law, which regulates student data collection and use by schools, the State Board of Education and educational technology companies. Most districts banded together on a free, one-stop shop for vetting vendors’ student privacy safeguards. CPS didn’t join this group, and chaos ensued.
CPS outlines COVID-19 protocols for new school year, including expanding test-to-stay program
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Woman faces double leg amputation after Chicago ‘Playpen’ boat accident
Lana Batochir had been floating on an inflatable raft, enjoying the warm weather at Chicago’s swimmer-filled, party-friendly “Playpen.” Then a 37-foot yacht suddenly reversed, sucking her under.
Now the 34-year-old mother of two, whose feet were severed by the boat’s propeller, is scheduled to have both of her legs amputated.
Illinois, behold: Your 700-pound state fair butter cow is here.
The Illinois State Fair’s butter cow is back in all its creamy glory. Sculptor Sarah Pratt spent 90 hours over five days crafting the cow. The unsalted spectacle, first whipped up in 1922, has been a part of the state fair for a century.
The annual sculpture celebrates the state’s dairy farmers. But it’s also taken on a life of its own to become an essential stop at the Illinois fair.
For more butter bovine coverage, subscribe to the Vintage baiduhai Newsletter. This week, reporter Kori Rumore discusses the tradition that goes back at least a century.
It was 422 days at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. That’s the length of Ashburn-area resident Colette Hurd’s stay due to her idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, a condition that affects the blood vessels in the lungs and the right side of the heart and causes the heart and lungs to weaken over time.
According to Northwestern Medicine lung transplant pulmonologist Dr. Ambalavanan Arunachalam, Hurd has a rare condition where the high blood pressure in her lungs restricted her heart to the extent that it could not pump blood properly and caused a lack of blood flow to other organs, like her kidneys.
The Chicago Sky entered this season with a neon target on their backs. It’s a burden for any team that wins a title in the WNBA, a league in which teams rarely repeat — and often struggle to get back to the Finals in consecutive seasons.
Winning back-to-back titles hasn’t been accomplished in two decades since the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 2001 and 2002. But with the No. 2 seed in the playoffs after a franchise-record 26-win regular season, the Sky are well-positioned to run it back.
To see artwork by Chicago artist Ariel Sinha, look no further than this WNBA ball
First Look: Kim’s Uncle Pizza revives suburban pizzeria with Korean American Bridgeport connection
One of the best pizza makers in Chicago has unexpectedly revived a beloved suburban pizzeria through long and fortuitous family connections. Kim’s Uncle Pizza, formerly Uncle Pete’s Pizza in Westmont, is the first dedicated pizzeria by E.F. Pizza, the pizzaiolos at Pizza Fried Chicken Ice Cream and Marz Brewing in the Bridgeport neighborhood.
The new shop specializes in their Chicago-style thin crust tavern pizza, and has debuted their take on the hottest food this summer: Italian beef.