‘Stunning.’ Critic Chris Jones says Chicago’s clearance for a full-capacity Lollapalooza “isn’t a gradual reopening, it’s a go-for-broke, knock-down, roaring-back, defiant declaration of summer normalcy”—rendering all other pandemic restrictions nonsensical.
■ Want to go? You’ll need to be fully vaxxed or test negative.
■ Confused by Chicago’s new mask rules? You’re not alone …
■ … but you’d not be wrong if you boiled it down to “the honor system.”
■ Now available to Chicagoans 65 and over—and their family members and caretakers: At-home vaccinations.
Welcome back, Hoosiers. Effective Friday, people arriving in Chicago from Indiana need not quarantine or test negative for COVID-19 …
■ … meaning, as the Trib notes, “none of Illinois’ neighbors are subject to additional coronavirus restrictions, although … Minnesota and Michigan are still on the list.”
■ Chicago tourists will be welcome back at a Navy Pier set to fully reopen by Memorial Day weekend …
■ … and two of the city’s biggest hotels are planning to reopen in June.
■ Vaccinated? European Union countries may be ready to let you in.
■ But the suburbs’ Ribfest is a no-go again this year.
‘Israel risks turning Judaism into merely another brand of oppression.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg: “I’ve picked over the Torah, looking for the part that says it’s OK to oppress people who live on land you want, and haven’t found it yet.”
■ … as President Biden called on Israel’s prime minister for “significant de-escalation” by the end of the day. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ As Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers wage war for the fourth time in 12 years, children are paying a steep price.
White reporters need not ask. As Mayor Lightfoot nears her two-year anniversary, her staff tells NBC 5 she’ll be granting one-on-one interviews only to “Black or Brown” journalists.
■ Politico (middle of today’s Illinois Playbook): “There are few minorities—and zero women of color—who cover the mayor on a daily basis.”
■ Block Club Chicago: The city will build a public database of complaints going back two decades against Chicago cops.
■ As Lightfoot’s administration waffles on what to do about a polluting metal scrap processor’s plans to move from the North Side to the South Side, the company’s suing the city for more than $100 million.
‘Fraud, embezzlement and outright stealing.’ With lawmakers considering a plan to elect Chicago’s school board, Sun-Times columnist Phil Kadner recounts tales of elected boards he’s covered over the decades.
■ Patch: A college professor says U.S. Rep. Marie Newman violated a contract for to give him a job on her staff if he dropped out of the March 2020 primary.
‘Right these wrongs.’ Illinois’ two senators are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to crack down on carcinogenic industrial air pollution.
■ The Conversation: “We’re a step closer to figuring out why mosquitoes bite some people and not others.”
‘The single most important leap forward our country could make toward becoming an electric car country.’ MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is really, really excited about Ford’s debut tonight of an all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
■ Biden took it for a spin yesterday: “This sucker’s quick.”
Comic hooks. A new Batman animated series—from the people responsible for the groundbreaking ’90s version—is in the works.
■ From the Meyerson audio interview archives: Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy in 1993.
■ Also: A new Superman cartoon series.
■ Now on Hulu: Marvel’s MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)—a star-studded animated series that critic Daniel Fienberg says embraces “quirky, cartoonish, oddly relatable villainy.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel ridiculing broadcast TV yesterday: “NBC is planning to move forward with the Olympics this summer, even if they have to kill every last person in Japan to do it. … Just move the Olympics to Chicago like they do every other show.”
$8,000. That’s the mark the Chicago Independent Media Alliance’s second annual “Save Chicago Media” campaign passed in its first week. Split that among 43 organizations (yes, including Chicago Public Square) and you can see the need for more support. Pick your favorites or make a single donation to be distributed equally among them all here.
■ Thanks to Al Solomon and Mike Braden for making this edition better.