How do you rank? A New York Times feature uses your answers to four quick questions to tell you how many people are ahead of you in line for a vaccine in the nation, your state and county.
■ A Tribune editorial warns politicians: “Don’t dare jump the vaccine line.”
‘The religious affiliation of the wedding party … is not germane.’ CBS 2’s website explains why it stripped that information from a report about hundreds of maskless people who gathered in a suburban hotel ballroom Wednesday for a celebration that violated Illinois’ coronavirus restrictions …
■ … but the video makes it easy to guess …
■ … and coverage of other such events around the country hasn’t shied away from identifying participants’ faith (Nov. 23 link).
■ Gov. Pritzker calls the wedding “irresponsible.”
■ … and the hotel’s owners say they’re sorry.
■ An emeritus editor of The Jewish Daily Forward wrote in October: It’s not anti-Semitic to call out ultra-Orthodox Jews who flout pandemic restrictions.
‘It’s safe to keep schools open.’ University of Chicago Medical Center Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Daniel Johnson tells the Sun-Times Illinois pandemic data reveals relatively few cases of significant spread in educational settings.
■ Chalkbeat Chicago: Chicago plans to reopen schools and ask teachers to return in January, even if most kids stay home.
‘People are not going to be able to believe this one day.’ After reading The Atlantic’s report on Iowa’s “complete abandonment of the public health,” Esquire’s Charlie Pierce concludes, “This is the place to which we’ve been heading since … Ronald Reagan made that joke about, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
■ The chief U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says that when Joe Biden asked him to serve as his chief medical officer, “I said yes right on the spot.”
■ The AP’s data analysis: Americans couldn’t resist Thanksgiving travel.
■ The Onion jokes: “CDC Introduces New Expedited Quarantine Period Of 3-5 Business Days For $29.99.”
Pardon party. With President Trump reportedly considering a rush of pardons for friends and allies …
Time’s (almost) up? Mayor Lightfoot didn’t call for scandal-embroiled Illinois State Rep. Michael Madigan to quit the speaker’s job, but it’s not hard to connect the dots in a strikingly vague statement: “Our democracy depends upon the people believing in leadership. … That doesn’t happen when there is a cloud that hangs.”
■ Ex-Ald. Ed (“Fast Eddie”) Vrdolyak faced the prospect today of getting sentenced to another turn in prison.
■ Under fire for what prosecutors call “his involvement with an unregulated and opaque ‘slush fund’ [that] provides ample opportunity for self-dealing and fraud,” one of the lawyers for Kenosha murder suspect Kyle Rittenhouse is backing away from the case.
‘Isn’t this what you’re NOT supposed to do? Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, a victim of that widespread pandemic unemployment fraud, says freezing his credit—as one is supposed to do after such a crime—required him to give his personal information to strangers on the phone over and over: “It’s like asking mugging victims to hit themselves in the head and empty their pockets, to keep it from happening again.”
■ New unemployment numbers: U.S. companies last month cut hiring dramatically.
‘Warner Bros. to movie theaters: Drop dead.’ That’s ZDNet’s take on the studio’s unprecedented decision to send all its 2021 flicks to its streaming corporate sibling HBO Max on the same day they open on the big (out-of–home) screen.
■ Theater chain AMC is urgently concerned.
■ Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings on Twitter: “RIP movie theaters 1905-2020.”
■ Polygon: Even though parent company AT&T has offered HBO Max free to anyone with AT&T’s cellular or internet service, 20 million potential customers have yet to do so take the deal.
■ Medium editor-at-large Steve LeVine back in May: “Our Economy Was Just Blasted Years Into the Future.”
Passing the (magician’s) hat. One of Chicago’s last magic shops has conjured up an online fundraiser to stay in business.
■ A historic Near West Side building has been spared from the wrecking ball—at least for three months.
■ The first Chicago-area Amazon Fresh grocery store opens Thursday.
■ Delayed more than a year, a Checkers fast-food restaurant has finally opened in Chicago.
■ Chicago-born actor Harry Lennix (The Blacklist, Man of Steel, Dollhouse) plans “the Black version of Lincoln Center” for the city’s South Side.
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