Mandate’s end? Gov. Pritzker reportedly planned to begin rolling back the state’s mask mandate …
■ … for most indoor settings but not schools …
■ … which Politico Illinois Playbook’s Shia Kapos says means “the mask wars” will continue.
■ You can see the governor’s remarks live here at 2 p.m.
■ The Conversation: “Pandemic-related school closings likely to have far-reaching effects on child well-being.”
■ A suburban Catholic school principal is out after defying the Archdiocese and ending the school’s mask mandate.
■ Chicago’s daily COVID case count is lower than it’s been since November …
■ … but, Bloomberg warns, keep an eye on the BA.2 sub-variant, which “appears to be even more transmissible than the original omicron strain, and … might prolong the wave.”
‘Nobody believed those teenagers.’ A Washington Post investigation traces an alleged pattern of misconduct by ex-National Women’s Soccer League coach Rory Dames back two decades, to his time coaching girls in Arlington Heights.
■ Separate shootings in Bronzeville and near the University of Chicago campus left two teenage boys dead …
■ … on a day in which Chicago gunfire left at least two others dead and eight wounded.
Flashback 2020. CWBChicago updates what happened to people arrested during the wave of unrest that washed over the city almost two years ago.
■ Politico’s Jack Shafer: How conservatives learned to love Saul Alinsky, the Chicago organizer they once demonized.
16 shots … and $1,800+ in fines. Nine people arrested in a protest to demand federal charges against newly released killer Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke have been fined $200 apiece …
■ … plus an extra $50 for one of them who took a megaphone into the Dirksen federal courthouse …
■ … a woman who ran unsuccessfully last year for Oak Park village president (2021 link).
■ Chicago cops have charged a suburban man they identify as the “ringleader” in a series of retail thefts …
■ … that in one case left cash registers strewn across Gov. Pritzker’s block.
‘The mayor’s frustrating tendency.’ A Sun-Times editorial condemns Mayor Lightfoot for asserting “with no real proof at all” that “carjackings were largely the work of public school kids who … should have been at home participating in remote learning.”
■ The mayor’s created a 23-member committee to reimagine Chicago’s lakefront campus—with or without the Bears at Soldier Field.
Dibs deadline. The Chicago plans to begin on Friday tossing junk residents have been using to save shoveled-out on-street parking spots.
■ Axios Chicago’s Monica Eng, noting that this is one of the earliest such notices the city’s ever served: “I’ve … never dealt with a more thoughtful Streets and San commissioner.”
‘Zucker’s … sins against the republic.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch says CNN anchors weeping over the loss of their scandal-scarred leader, Jeff Zucker, seem unaware that he wrecked the U.S.
■ After Popular Information’s revelation that a top exec at the College Board—the outfit that brings you the SAT and AP classes—played a central role in advancing legislation to “limit what teachers can say regarding race, history, and politics in Indiana classrooms,” the Board is cutting him loose.
‘A political hit job.’ Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan says his critics are “taking all this stuff I’ve ever said that’s wrong and smushing it all together.”
■ In a long and insightful Daily Show segment Monday, Trevor Noah shot down Rogan’s claim that he wasn’t being racist when he called Black people apes: “I’m not saying you were trying to offend Black people … but you knew that offending Black people would get a laugh out of those white friends who you were with.”
■ CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter: Traffic to Spotify’s cancellation page nearly tripled at the end of last month.
■ The Associated Press: Like Facebook and Twitter, Spotify is learning the limits of a hands-off approach to what gets said on its platform.
■ Reader columnist Ben Joravsky is “through with Eric Clapton.”
‘Nothing else I do today, including write this column, will draw a splendid.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg writes in praise of the online game Wordle.
■ Here’s today’s puzzle.
