Coulda been worse. Illinois is one of seven states in line to lose a U.S. House seat under new U.S. Census numbers, but Politico’s Shia Kapos sees a silver lining or two.
■ The state’s one of just three to see their populations fall in this census …
■ … setting the stage for a political game of musical chairs.
■ Nationwide, the shifts favor Republicans.
■ U.S. population growth has slowed to its lowest level since the ’30s.
‘You’re vaccinated, guess what? You get to return to a more normal lifestyle.’ The U.S. Health and Human Services secretary has been previewing new pandemic masking guidelines due today.
■ Illinois is launching a $60 million program to persuade laggards to get their shots.
■ Running behind in updating your ID to the new federal Real ID standard? The Oct. 1 deadline’s been postponed again for the pandemic.
We’re No. 4, 26, 57, 70, 79 … Chicago’s landed five high schools among the nation’s top public 100, as rated by U.S. News & World Report.
■ Find your school’s ranking here.
■ An appeal to Chicago families who don’t need the $450 per student they’re getting in pandemic relief: Pay it forward.
Your home’s flood risk. Enter your address on a free website to learn your chances of getting flooded over the next 30 years.
■ The Tribune: Storms fueled by climate change raise flooding risks in Chicago and Evanston neighborhoods.
■ Near-record warmth’s on tap for the region today.
‘That doesn’t even make sense.’ Residents and business owners tell Block Club Chicago a City of Chicago plan to avert political unrest after the verdict in the murder trial of ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin left them confused and sleepless.
■ Chicago’s going to court against an Indiana store, complaining it’s the biggest out-of-state supplier of guns used in crimes here.
‘I don’t think the cop meant to do that.’ Eddie Bocanegra—a convicted murderer now running what journalist Alex Kotlowitz, writing in The New Yorker, calls “one of the most innovative violence-prevention programs in the country”—reflects on the Chicago police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.
■ From 2011: A one-minute radio profile of Bocanegra.
■ As students return to Chicago’s public schools, cops won’t.
Mum’s the word. Chicago-based software company Basecamp has drawn scorn on Twitter for banning “societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account.”
■ Company partner David Heinemeier Hansson elaborated: “Bring all your political advocacy to whatever personal spaces you have. Twitter, Facebook, your local advocacy group, all of it. Just don’t bring it into the internal communication platforms we use for work.”
■ A Hammond man’s “F––k Biden” flag poses First Amendment challenges for the city’s code enforcement team.
■ After retweeting a comment that tagged the media as “the enemy of the people,” Tribune columnist John Kass is at odds with the union representing his coworkers.
Bye, Lester Holt’s mustache. The Illinois Supreme Court’s Illinois Judicial Conference has approved a new jury orientation video to replace the old ’80s-era version featuring then-local TV news guy (and now NBC Nightly News anchor) Holt.
■ The new version features NBC 5’s Lisa Parker, even though Holt years ago offered to cut a new one.
‘Go Green On Racine.’ Activists say one of the simplest ways to improve transit on Chicago’s South Side would be to reopen a CTA station closed for 28 years—but preserved for its historic significance.
■ Historian John Schmidt’s new book, Unknown Chicago Tales, airs city secrets like “Why the Kennedy curves at Division Street.”
■ Historian John Schmidt’s new book, Unknown Chicago Tales, airs city secrets like “Why the Kennedy curves at Division Street.”
‘If you don’t mind … a storyline that effectively adds up to one step forward and one, perhaps one-and-a-half, steps backward … then yes, watch.’ Critic Aaron Barnhart is less than enthusiastic about Season 4 of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
■ A professor and student who met at Columbia College cowrote the Chicago-centric screenplay for a Liam Neeson movie arriving on digital platforms today.
‘Get ready to start tapping Ask app not to track whenever you see it. Especially in places you never saw coming.’ Wired’s Lily Hay Newman: Apple’s iPhone software update lets you stop ads from tracking you …
■ … but maybe wait a few days to see if bugs surface.
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Thanks to reader Patrick Olsen for making this edition better.