‘A big political football.’ That’s Politico’s assessment of Gov. Pritzker’s stay-home directive in the COVID-19 pandemic now that a Downstate circuit court judge has granted a state representative’s request for a restraining order on grounds the order infringes on (clarifying) that one lawmaker’s civil rights.
■ A Jasper County Board member insists “socialists, liberals and communists” in the news business have overblown the mortality risk: “There has been some coronavirus here, but they was dying anyway.”
■ A new model outlines just how fatal Georgia’s, Florida’s and Mississippi’s decisions to end their lockdowns prematurely could be.
■ Tension between Pritzker and President Trump is back in the spotlight.
■ A former White House press secretary offers reporters advice on how to handle presidential news conferences, based on “what I was afraid of every day.”
‘Absolutely horrified.’ A Chicago alderman is outraged by a Jewish Orthodox wedding that spilled into the streets—until police broke it up.
■ Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell condemns the young people who flouted stay-home rules with a crowded house party over the weekend: “A slap in the face of a black mayor who is desperately trying to enforce social distancing without criminalizing normal behavior.”
■ The homeowner’s in trouble with the law.
■ A federal judge is ordering Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart to move most jail detainees into single cells to block the virus’ spread.
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New symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has doubled the list of symptoms for the novel coronavirus.
■ And keep an eye out for “COVID toes.”
■ Chicago’s launching a web-based app to help you track symptoms, connect with help and alert you to the availability of COVID-19 testing—including, eventually, antibody testing to “help answer the question of whether you had COVID-19 in the past and now have some immunity.”
■ New research finds patients with certain cancers almost three times more likely than those without cancer to die of COVID-19.
‘The entire industry is filled with bad actors.’ Beachwood Reporter proprietor Steve Rhodes reviews how the lack of “a functioning federal government” has compromised “the meat supply in the wealthiest, most powerful nation the world has ever known.”
■ A COVID-19 outbreak has shut El Milagro’s tortilla plant in the Little Village neighborhood.
■ In better news for the neighborhood, Chicago says air quality tests have found “no apparent health risk” from the botched demolition of a power plant smokestack earlier this month.
■ A new analysis of City Council voting patterns under Mayor Lightfoot concludes Chicago aldermen have split into four distinct blocs.
‘Virus-free Friday.’ To “offer a break for all our listeners and potentially encourage new listeners,” WGN Radio’s boss is ordering hosts (but not newscasters) to avoid mentioning the coronavirus pandemic that day.*
■ Here’s a snapshot (as of about 7:40 a.m.) of Square reader response to yesterday’s mood-gauging poll.
Ebook boom. The pandemic is pushing Chicago’s adoption of digital book technology to record levels.
■ WikiHow’s guide to ebooks for beginners.
■ A new federal appeals court ruling asserts children have a constitutional right to an opportunity to learn to read.
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Thanks, Mike Braden, for flagging a handful of words that were missing from this edition.
* To which your Square publisher says: Good luck with that (2010 link).