Children’s hour. Chicago-area health departments are giving COVID-19 vaccines to 12- to 15-year-olds beginning today.
■ The AP: “Some wealthy nations that were most praised last year for controlling the coronavirus are now lagging far behind [the U.S., among others] in getting their people vaccinated.”
■ The Onion: “New Program Encourages Americans To Get Vaccine To Prevent It From Going To Foreigners.”
‘Republicans think Americans are shiftless, good-for-nothing opportunists.’ But the Trib’s Dahleen Glanton says the high number of job openings proves stimulus money injected into the economy during the pandemic is working.
■ Amazon is aiming to hire 75,000 workers, with $1,000 signing bonuses in some locations—plus another $100 for those who’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19.
■ If you got unemployment benefits last year and filed your tax return before March 15, you can expect a refund from Illinois.
Crash course. A fresh revelation from that trove of hacked Chicago City Hall emails: The Sun-Times reports a “pursuit litigation analysis” prepared for Mayor Lightfoot revealed that two-thirds of the 270 Chicago police chases in 2019 ended in crashes, with eight deaths.
■ Reporter Tom Schuba’s launched a running Twitter thread tracking stories that have arisen from the email theft.
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “Lightfoot is missing chances to defuse public relations flaps simply by being more forthcoming.”
Crickets. Since just late last year, the Trib reports, at least a dozen of Lightfoot’s top aides have quit or indicated they’re on their way out.
■ Police reform advocates are sounding an alarm about Lightfoot’s choice to run the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
■ A Chicago alderman running for secretary of state is in ethical hot water for using his official Facebook page to campaign.
‘Good riddance.’ Acknowledging he’s only “semi-comfortable” sharing it after architect Helmut Jahn’s death in a bicycling accident, Neil Steinberg posts a column he’d written before getting the news—condemning Jahn’s endangered Thompson Center as a “hunchbacked beast of a building.”
■ Illinois is launching a “Time for Me to Drive” ad campaign—a play on Champaign-spawned REO Speedwagon’s Time for Me to Fly—encouraging motorists to visit the state’s tourism destinations …
■ The Romanian castle that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula is now a COVID-19 vaccination center.
‘My family and I are disappointed.’ Less than two weeks after his promotion to Northwestern University’s athletic directorship, Mike Polisky has quit in the face of controversy …
■ … including a protest by hundreds at the university president’s home …
■ … partly because he faces a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Northwestern cheerleader.
■ A Deerfield man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $831,000 from the organization he directed, the American Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled.
Chicago real estate agent sues MSNBC. Libby McCarten Andrews, who was fired after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, says the network wrongly reported she’d been criminally charged.
■ She did cop on Facebook to “storming the capital” (March 7 link).
■ The Conversation: A century ago, free speech wasn’t so free in the U.S.
#SaveChicagoMedia. For the second year in a row, dozens of independent local media organizations are teaming up for a month-long joint fundraiser through June 11—with foundations lined up to match at least the first $40,000 in donations.
■ You can check out the participating organizations and contribute—to all with one click, or just to those you select (which could, yes, include Chicago Public Square)—here.
A reader writes. Angela Mullins complains that an Atlantic piece linked from the May 4 edition of Square—“Liberals Who Can’t Quit Lockdown”—is worthy of “shame … for even suggesting that the way we react to this unprecedented trauma is political.” She recommends a counterpoint in Vice: “People Aren’t ‘Addicted’ to Wearing Masks, They’re Traumatized.”
■ Ready to dine out? The Tribune runs down what to know before heading to Chicago restaurants and bars.
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Hey, this is tonight!
