‘This makes sense.’ Business owners are relieved Chicago’s requiring masks indoors again, effective Friday—because, as one puts it, “having to check vaccine cards would have been a nightmare.”
■ Lyz Lenz in the latest edition of Men Yell at Me: “I am once again sending my kids to school … in Iowa, a state that passed a law preventing schools from mandating masks.”
■ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s opposed mask requirements, has COVID-19 …
■ … a thing he revealed the day after a political dinner where The Dallas Morning News reports he “rubbed elbows” with hundreds of maskless political supporters.
■ The Florida State Board of Education moved toward punishing two school districts that imposed mask mandates in violation of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
Boosters backed. The CDC is recommending a third COVID-19 vaccination eight months after the first round of the Pfizer or Moderna shots.
■ An Indiana University professor of pediatrics: “For the sake of everyone … start vaccinating younger children as soon as possible.”
■ The Conversation: Insurance companies could charge more for customers who aren’t vaccinated—or less for those who are.
‘The United States needs a better vaccination ID.’ A Sun-Times editorial calls the present system “pathetic.”
■ The Atlantic ponders the mystery of why those cards are so fricking big.
‘Deputized … to mete out justice as they saw fit.’ A federal lawsuit filed against Kenosha police by the parents of a man killed in civil unrest last summer accuses cops of conspiring with and ratifying the actions of armed civilians.
■ Read the suit here.
‘I’ve never seen a street more dangerous than Lake Street.’ The executive director of Chicago’s Fulton Market Association is among a coalition of residents and business leaders calling for $2 billion in funding to fix the West Side obstacle course under the CTA tracks.
■ Music producer and DJ Javunte Wheeler—better known as SqueakPIVOT—was shot and killed in the West Side’s Austin neighborhood Monday afternoon.
‘Reason to hope that they’ve learned a lesson.’ Political columnist Noah Millman takes historical comparisons of Afghanistan and Vietnam a step further, wondering “How long will it take for us to follow the rest of the … script, and ally ourselves with our Taliban enemies?”
■ A veteran national security policymaker: “In Afghanistan, American hubris—the United States’ capacity for self-delusion and official lying—has struck once again, as it has repeatedly for the last 60 years.”
■ The Onion: “Critics Warn Withdrawal From Afghanistan Paints Entirely Accurate Picture Of U.S. Government.”
Guess how much the top five staffers at the Obama Foundation make? The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet runs down what it’ll cost to build and run the Obama Presidential Center for its first year.
■ Citing “the botched execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” then-President Obama’s director of global engagement writes, “President Biden needs to fire his national security adviser.”
■ Popular Information’s Judd Legum: To bolster criticism of Biden, “media outlets are relying on many of the people responsible for two decades of failure in Afghanistan.”
Pet peril. The FDA is warning that more than 300 dog deaths and illnesses have been linked to products made by Indiana’s Midwestern Pet Foods.
■ The government’s sent the company a letter flagging Midwestern’s SPORTMiX-branded food.
■ Thanks to reader Chris Koenig for making this edition better.