Death beater. Pfizer is seeking federal approval for a COVID-19 pill that it says cut hospitalization and fatality rates by almost 90% in high-risk adults.
■ Chicago Public Schools are canceling all classes for next Friday—the day after the Veterans Day holiday—declaring it “Vaccine Awareness Day” …
■ … triggering parent complaints about little notice.
■ But the schools are offering $100 gift cards to families of kids who get their first dose at a site run by the school board or the city.
■ 11 states are filing suit against President Biden's requirement that companies with 100 or more workers require them to be vaccinated—or wear masks and undergo weekly tests.
■ Pandemic or not, companies were hiring bigly last month—adding half a million jobs nationwide.
‘Expecting a level of sacrifice from others that they themselves refuse to consider.’ Sun-Times columnist and union member Neil Steinberg explains “why I’m so unsympathetic to the Fraternal Order of Police and its endless battle against vaccine mandates.”
■ Five more drug convictions tied to a corrupt, imprisoned Chicago cop have been tossed, with another 83 pending.
■ The Onion: “Police Honor Beloved Officer Lost In Line Of Due Process.”
Joking matter. A juror’s been tossed from the Kenosha murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse after making a joke about a white Minneapolis cop’s shooting of a Black man …
■ … an incident that experts tell the AP demonstrates the implicit bias compromising the criminal justice system.
■ The judge in the case is among inaugural winners of columnist Irv Leavitt’s Ganef of the Day Award.
■ The Rev. Jesse Jackson—back in action following a trip to the hospital after a fall in Washington—joined University of Illinois at Chicago law students to demand the firing of a law prof accused of racism.
Schools cleaning house. Awash in complaints of dirty schools, Chicago Public Schools’ facilities chief has been dumped.
■ A Sun-Times editorial: Chicago Park District board president Avis LaVelle “has more explaining to do, and she needs to do it fast.”
‘You have no clue what it’s like to live on the South Side and West Side, in the trenches, where it gets real treacherous … just to protect your children.’ The mom of a 7-year-old girl shot and killed in a McDonald’s drive-thru demands a meeting with the company’s CEO, who’s under fire for a tone-deaf text about her to Mayor Lightfoot.
■ Residents fighting relocation of a scrap-metal operation to Chicago’s Southeast Side have new ammunition in the city’s finding of sharp disparities between the quality of life on the North and South Sides.
‘I have blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail.’ Yeah, the woman who tweeted that after joining the Jan. 6 insurrection is indeed going to jail.
■ CNN: “Deposition video shows Trump allies under oath discussing debunked election fraud claims.”
■ Politico documents how what began as an idealistic climate campaign wound up as just a group in a parking lot yesterday chanting “F— Joe Manchin.”
News Back Better? At least one version of the Democrats’ Build Back Better Act includes a tax credit for local news organizations that employ journalists.
■ Illinois Rep. Chuy Garcia is one of three lawmakers threatening to kill the bill if it doesn’t include immigration reforms.
Evanston RoundTable is, like Square,
a member of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.
You’re welcome. The return to standard time means you get an extra hour this weekend.
■ Here’s a tried-and-true 2005 step-by-step guide to falling back.
■ Things to do with that extra hour include composting your pumpkins, studying Newcity’s new Best of Chicago roundup and watching Chicago Tribune, RedEye and WFLD-TV veteran Ernest Wilkins on Sunday’s edition of Supermarket Sweep.
■ Scott Lincicome at The Dispatch: “Changing the clocks is anti-health, anti-science, and anti-family.”
■ In 2012, Smithsonian Magazine laid out the case for putting the whole world in the one time zone.
If all you want for Christmas is All I Want for Christmas Is You … Streaming music service AccuRadio has you covered with a channel playing nothing but versions of Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff’s classic tune …
■ … which brings to mind this 2014 explanation of the song’s appeal.
■ Ready to shop? Consumer Reports rounds up 46 products on deep discount this month and top gifts under $50.
Readers Mike Braden, Charlie Pajor, Lora Engdahl and Ron Schwartz made this issue better.