Good morning, Chicago. Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 3,581 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 40 additional fatalities — the highest number of daily fatalities in a month. Officials also reported an additional 129,755 coronavirus vaccine doses were administered in Illinois on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 7,612,405.
Meanwhile, also on Thursday, the CEO of Pfizer predicted that people who have received the company’s COVID-19 vaccine will “likely” need a third booster shot within a year to maintain protection against the virus.
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It happened in seconds: the pause in a dark Little Village alley, the officer’s shot fired, the 13-year-old crumpling to the ground. Video of Adam Toledo’s fatal shooting by police was released to the public Thursday (warning: link contains graphic content), more than two weeks after the teen’s killing left the neighborhood in anguish and Chicago on edge.
Authorities released extensive video from body-worn cameras, surveillance footage, gunfire detection data and 911 recordings. Taken altogether, the video appears to show Toledo with a gun that he discards as he turns toward the officer with his empty hands raised.
Op-ed: We are Adam: For many youth across Chicago’s South and West sides, Adam Toledo’s life trajectory is too familiar
The scene of 13-year-old Adam Toledo’s death was marked by quiet displays of sorrow Thursday after the release of body camera video of a Chicago police officer shooting him.
People stopped by the scene in the Little Village neighborhood to leave votive candles and flowers. An embroidered cross with the teen’s initials adorned the fence in front of a small makeshift altar in his memory near the alley where Officer Eric Stillman shot the teen late last month.
Chicago Public Schools has announced that it has reached a tentative deal with the Chicago Teachers Union to reopen high schools on Monday for the first time in more than a year.
The pending agreement was announced following a work action by the union during which high school staff members refused to report for in-person work Wednesday and Thursday, despite the union reporting significant progress toward a deal.
On the new frontier of legalized marijuana, old problems lurk. What’s emerged in the year since the legalization is a parallel world where some are able to enjoy marijuana without consequence, while others continue to suffer from the policies of the drug war era.
Critics point out what they see as a troubling double standard: At the same time the state’s legal weed industry is making millions and white smokers are enjoying the boutique experience with designer weed in clean, fashionable North Side dispensaries, Black and brown people are left out of the windfall and continue to be arrested for selling weed illegally.
Illinoisans are using terms like “good wait” these days as the state deals with an unprecedented backlog of expired driver’s licenses, plus a lesser crunch as the latest deadline for federal Real ID certification, October, approaches.
But we found one suburban facility where patrons breezed in and out, and later, we’ll offer some other tips for avoiding the crush. That crush, though, is no exaggeration, and the biggest reason is all the personal and official deadline postponements going on since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.
