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‘Lock her up!’ Egged on by right-wing media personalities, simple folk in Michigan and elsewhere have been protesting stay-home orders …
■ As coronavirus cases spread near reactionary Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell Jr.’s campus, he’s blaming critics of his decision to welcome students back.
Masks on. A growing number of suburbs are requiring that people cover their faces in grocery stores.
■ Some groceries are easing up on limits to the purchase of some necessities, the Sun-Times reports—but still not toilet paper.
You’re staying home. Anonymized data gathered by a company that specializes in geotracking of cellphones confirms Chicagoans have been doing their part to flatten the COVID-19 curve—but some more than others.
■ The city says its stern warnings saved nearly 1,700 lives.
‘Not where we need to get.’ Mayor Lightfoot says the city’s still not close to a return to normalcy.
■ Lightfoot yesterday spent a few minutes with The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah (at 23:33 in this video).
Bank struggles. As Americans check their accounts to see whether government relief money has arrived, financial institutions report their websites and phone lines are stressed out.
■ The Washington Post explains how Trump’s name came to be on relief checks.
Airports abandoned. Headline in The New York Times: “Now Arriving at La Guardia Airport: One Passenger.”
■ Metra reports commuter rail ridership has plummeted 95%.
Zoom to the future. The Chicago City Council held its first virtual meeting yesterday. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was mercifully short—as you can see here.
The nursing home problem. The Guardian explains why U.S. nursing homes have become incubators for the coronavirus.
■ In what could be Illinois’
■ A tip led police to 17 bodies at a New Jersey nursing home.
■ As hundreds of new recruits head to the Naval Station Great Lakes north of Chicago, the Pentagon won’t say how many COVID-19 cases are already present.
Lawyers stabbed. Cook County’s medical examiner has confirmed that two married lawyers found dead in their Oak Park home were stabbed to death.
■ The FBI’s getting involved.
■ A legendary Chicago lawyer—defender of alleged mob hitmen, celebrity suspects and ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, among many others—is dead after a long fight against cancer.
■ Chicago’s new police chief, David Brown, has taken the reins.
Best Buy-bye. The electronics retailer is furloughing about 51,000 of its employees …
■ … who won’t be around to sell you Apple’s cheap(er) new iPhone …
■ … which some critics say still isn’t small enough …
■ … but which will come with a cheaper insurance option.
‘De Blasio! Cuomo! Diddy! Let’s fix this!’ Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che is paying a month’s rent for all the tenant families in the New York public housing project where his grandmother lived.
■ The Chicago Headline Club is offering $500 grants to struggling Chicago-area journalists.
■ A Consumer Reports petition calls on the feds to expand a program of discounts on internet service for the poor.
More snow. Chicago could see another 6 inches tonight.
■ But weekend warmth should melt it quickly.
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Thanks, Patrick Olsen, for an enlightening discussion of the phrase “most deadly.”