Chicago Public Square is back.* And now the news:
Hey, kids! Vaccines! The FDA says Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 shots are safe for humans as young as 12 …
■ … setting the stage for their availability in Chicago and elsewhere as soon as Thursday.
■ Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens shares advice for helping kids swim through vaccination disinformation.
■ A Michigan State law prof explores schools’ authority to require that kids be vaccinated. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ Chicago Park District camps are looking more normal for this summer.
■ Coming to major downtown buildings next week: Free vaccination clinics.
■ Indiana Girl Scouts are giving out free cookies at vax sites.
‘I felt like I might cry, but I didn’t.’ Award-winning Chicago author Jonathan Eig reflects on his first visit to a performance venue in more than a year.
■ Illinois COVID-19 cases and deaths have been on the wane.
Hall hacked. Mayor Lightfoot says hackers tried unsuccessfully to blackmail her administration into paying ransom to keep them from releasing City Hall staffers’ email …
■ … whose legitimacy the mayor is questioning …
■ … as her administration condemns reporters for, you know, reporting on the story.
Rahm in noodles. President Biden’s picked ex-Mayor Emanuel as his U.S. ambassador to Japan …
■ … in which case Chicago Public Square sends sympathy to Japanese journalists.
Chicago biking’s ‘major milestone.’ Seven years after groundbreaking, the Lakefront Trail’s Navy Pier Flyover—the state’s most expensive bit of bike infrastructure ever—is open.
■ The alderman championing the renaming of Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable is running for secretary of state.
‘The state doubled down on the hate.’ Architecture critic Lee Bey condemns an Illinois request for developers’ proposals that “doesn’t even suggest finding a reuse” for architect Helmut Jahn’s iconic Thompson Center.
■ A Sun-Times editorial honors Jahn, who died in a bike crash Saturday, as “a man of exceptional talent … nurtured by Chicago’s history of architectural greatness.”
■ Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield: Don’t victim-blame Jahn for that fatal accident.
Good News Dept.
■ The Wall Street Journal: “Americans are paying down their credit-card debt at levels not seen in years.”
■ Thanks to a strong stock market, a lot of professional workers who kept earning through the pandemic, and a progressive income tax structure reliant on its wealthiest residents, California is sitting on a record surplus that could send cash back to its residents.
■ Broadway’s biggest shows return in September.
You take it for granted, but … A map of broadband internet access across the U.S. shows vast areas of the U.S. don’t have it.
■ The overwhelming majority of “public comments” the FCC considered before rolling back “net neutrality” rules in 2017 were fake.
■ The Federal Trade Commission is condemning manufacturers’ restrictions on your right to repair stuff you’ve bought.
Civil rights showdown. Updating coverage: Senate Republicans today were readying what The Associated Press calls “an all-out assault on sweeping voting rights legislation, forcing Democrats to take dozens of politically difficult votes.”
■ Senate Majority Republican Leader Mitch McConnell calls the For the People Act—which has already passed the House—a “one-party takeover of voting laws and elections.”
‘Did Fox News host Tucker Carlson … actually get vaccinated by Dr. Anthony Fauci while high-fiving President Joe Biden?’ Trib columnist Rex Huppke: “Americans deserve to know the answer to a question I made up.”
■ The Daily Beast: Lumber conspiracy theorists are citing videos of some lumber.
‘I wish I didn’t say that.’ A Blackhawks announcer is apologizing for a suicide allusion that triggered objections on social media last night …
■ … during the finale of a “strange season.”
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