‘A crime wave unlike anything we’ve seen this century.’ The Atlantic analyzes a nationwide surge to the highest rates in 30 years …
■ … manifested even before mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, where the suspect in Boulder’s shootings was due in court today (updating coverage).
■ A witness quotes him: “I surrender. I’m naked.”
■ The Washington Post: Even during the pandemic, 2020 was the deadliest year for gun violence in decades.
■ The AP: What is it about Colorado and mass shootings?
■ Journalist Lyz Lenz: “The violence that America is experiencing right now is … not random and unexplainable. It grows in the hate we foment on Facebook posts and in the words said in a community center, where … no one objects when you say, ‘If you don’t like it, move.’”
■ Intercept essayist Judith Levine blames Christian fundamentalism for the shootings at Atlanta-area massage parlors—because dogma at the suspect’s church casts desire as a sickness.
■ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet: New gun controls remain “a long shot” …
■ … but President Biden’s on board.
■ The Onion’s sadly evergreen headline is back: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
‘The hospital was supposed to be giving the vaccine to underprivileged people in a struggling community.’ A state representative is calling for an independent investigation into the West Side’s Loretto Hospital—to figure out how it wound up giving coronavirus immunization shots to exclusive clientele.
■ As Politico notes, that investigation could put the awfully quiet Rep. Camille Lilly in the hot seat because she’s also the hospital’s “chief external affairs officer.”
■ An ER tech tells WTTW Loretto had “VIP” vaccination lines.
■ About those judges Loretto jabbed: A statement from Cook County’s chief judge says, “The vaccines … would be destroyed if not used by the end of the day” and “judges under 65 who have been able to get these shots violated no ethical rules.”
‘Completely unacceptable behavior.’ The City of Chicago is cutting off an urgent care clinic that it says gave other people 6,000 vaccines meant for Chicago Public Schools workers.
■ White House numbers show almost half the nation’s elementary schools were open full-time last month—but most nonwhite kids were still learning online.
■ A pediatrics professor answers five questions about kids and coronavirus vaccines.
Fresh shots. Cook County was set to release about 16,000 new COVID-19 vaccine appointments at noon today.
■ Chicago’s top doc says the prospect for weddings is looking up—especially outdoors, or indoors with masks …
■ … but (as of now, anyway) guests from Michigan may be delayed …
■ … and beware a spring surge in coronavirus cases.
| Is Chicago Public Square worth $1? Hit the tip jar. |
Cereal chiller. TV writer and podcaster Jensen Karp has sounded the alarm about shrimp tails, bits of string and rat feces he says he found in a box of General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
■ The contents were off to a lab for analysis …
■ … but, in fairness, what did he expect from a product whose mascot looks like this?
■ General Mills’ unconvincing response was to describe what clearly look like shrimp tails as “an accumulation of the cinnamon sugar.”
Illinois’ most dangerous jobs. Columnist Neil Steinberg checks the numbers. (No. 2: Construction worker.)
■ Headed to the Chicago City Council: A zoning change that could sound the death knell for the iconic Thompson Center.
■ Aldermen could give final approval today to plans for a massive South Side esports gaming stadium.
‘Aldermen’ no more? A Chicago alderman who, in a previous career, rapped homophobic and misogynistic lyrics is proposing to replace Chicago’s sexist legislative title with just “alder.”
■ Another aldertype is proposing to prevent removal of any allegedly racist “statue, monument, plaque or similar carved or cast artwork” without an OK from the City Council.
‘A major step forward.’ A package of Illinois reforms aimed at ending racist economic practices is becoming the law …
■ … including a cap on predatory payday loan interest rates.
■ Mayor Lightfoot has a plan to boost Chicago’s stock of affordable housing.
■ 1,000 Illinois inmates are close to early freedom under settlement of a federal lawsuit filed over the spread of coronavirus through state prisons.
■ The Conversation: U.S. museums hold the remains of thousands of Black people.
‘On the day that I was fully vaccinated against COVID-19, I decided to take a trip.’ Tribune columnist Mary Schmich marked the occasion by doing something she hadn’t done in a year: Ride the CTA.
■ Fully vaccinated old folks are partying on—and out …
■ … fulfilling your Square columnist’s December vision.
Chicago Public Square supports the Chicago Headline Club.