‘Illinois is different.’ Chicago Rep. Kelly Cassidy hails the General Assembly’s move to repeal a 1995 law requiring doctors to tell parents when girls under 18 seek abortions.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s indicated he’ll sign.
■ An ex-Chicago Park District lifeguard supervisor has been arrested, accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old employee.
■ A University of Oregon political science professor explains that the erosion of abortion access began in Pennsylvania in 1992.
Vote of conscience. The Illinois House is sending the Senate a bill to clarify that the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act doesn’t cover refusal of COVID-19 vaccination.
■ The Chicago City Council will meet Friday to consider reversing Mayor Lightfoot’s order that city employees disclose their vax status.
■ The city’s top doc says she doesn’t see a vaccine mandate for kids 5-11 “anytime soon.”
■ Defying Pritzker’s statewide order, a suburb has declared itself “mask optional.”
■ Northwestern University says it’s recovered 4,500 COVID test kits stolen by students.
‘It is interesting you talk about Nazis so much.’ Patch columnist Mark Konkol has a few words for Chicago’s anti-vax-mandate police union chief John Catanzara, who “just can’t stop himself from comparing the actions of a Black lesbian mayor … to Nazi Germany.”
■ The ex-president of Gary’s police union has been indicted on charges of using excessive force against a man he’d arrested and handcuffed. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.*)‘The two nonvictims who are dead … could not be reached for comment.’ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke takes issue with a judge’s ruling that those killed by teen gunman Kyle Rittenhouse can’t be called “victims.”
■ Huppke’s ex-Trib colleague Eric Zorn encourages “lefty Twitter” to ease up: “A person is a victim only when he or she is a victim of a crime, and the main issue at Rittenhouse’s trial when it begins next week will be whether or not Rittenhouse committed a crime.”
‘There are dollars here for damn near everything.’ That’s how one Chicago City Council member describes the budget passed yesterday in record time.
■ Mayor Lightfoot calls it “the most progressive and forward-looking budget in our city’s history.”
‘I would have never imagined seeing this steep of a decline.’ Chicago’s new (and newly pay-bumped) schools CEO is shocked by the district’s enrollment drop.
■ But the city’s school system is still—just barely—the nation’s third-largest.
Ch. 11 threat. A menacing call last night prompted evacuation of the building that houses WTTW-TV and WFMT-FM, just a half-hour before the TV station’s signature Chicago Tonight was to air …
■ … but then the show went on.
Evanston Roundtable is, like Chicago Public Square,
a member of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.
‘John Doe’ revealed. Kyle Beach has indentified identified himself as the player who accused a former Blackhawks video coach of sexual abuse …
■ … and he’s suing the Hawks.
■ Florida fans are outraged that then-Hawks coach Joel Quenneville is still leading the Panthers NHL team.
■ Apparently removed from the Lewis University website: A celebration of alumnus—and then-Hawks “mental skills coach”—Jim Gary …
■ … but Google’s cached the page here.
Crisis No. 1. BuzzFeed News reports Arizona is at the threshold of the West’s first major water crisis.
■ The Guardian: A global analysis concludes that every part of society is failing at the “transformational change” necessary to address global warming.■ Gov. Pritzker is headed to next week’s UN Climate Change Conference to promote Illinois’ efforts to ward off the crisis.
■ The Conversation: What Big Oil knew about climate change—in its own words.
_____
* ‘I’ve had some hard times but there are so many who are going through much worse.’ Not that you’d know it from his award-winning work over the last several months, but Keith reveals in a Facebook post that he’s been dealing with both cancer and COVID-19.