Good morning, Chicago.
Hundreds of miles south of Chicago in the Gulf of Mexico, a dead zone makes life perilous for aquatic organisms. Illinois is among the top feeders to the oxygen-starved stretch, as nutrients from sewage treatment plants, and farm fertilizer and manure, eventually flow into the Mississippi River.
But the state is not only missing bench marks to reduce nutrients, the problem is growing. This doesn’t bode well for reducing the dead zone’s five-year average size by thousands of square miles. Or for local waters.
Nutrients can fuel harmful algae blooms, a recurring problem in some Illinois lakes and rivers. The majority of nutrients come from agriculture, but how to encourage farming conservation practices is up for debate, even as climate change threatens more intense storms capable of sending more nutrients into water through erosion and runoff.
— Morgan Greene, Chicago Tribune reporter
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Illinois hospitals are being flooded with patients more than at any other time of the pandemic, a Tribune analysis of state data has found, with fewer beds open than during the deadliest COVID-19 surge a year earlier.
State officials urge vaccine booster shots as omicron spreads and holidays approach
Moderna says booster data shows good protection against omicron
Only about 30% of eligible U.S. adults have received a booster
When Illinois classrooms fully reopened for in-person learning this fall, teachers anticipated many of their students would need plenty of academic and emotional support to recover from 18 months of COVID-19 disruptions to their education.
But just three months into the new school year, pandemic-era quarantines and virus outbreaks have been upstaged by a surge in troubling student behavior that even veteran educators say is unlike anything they have witnessed during decades of teaching.
Remote learning makes a comeback as schools enter another holiday break with COVID-19 surging
Ambassador Rahm Emanuel: Senate confirms former Chicago mayor as U.S. envoy to Japan
The U.S. Senate voted early Saturday morning to confirm former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan, opening yet another act in a three-decade political career that has run through two White Houses, Capitol Hill, Chicago City Hall and, now, the American embassy in Tokyo.
The Senate voted 48-to-21 to confirm Emanuel, who received support — as well as opposition — from Democrats and Republicans alike.
The former mayor, the Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart writes, now will be asked to execute diplomacy at the highest levels of the U.S. government, the latest evolution in a political career often defined by a reputation he cultivated as a brash political insider with an affinity for four-letter words and a talent for raising loads of campaign cash.
The Chicago Bears have an extra obstacle Monday night at Soldier Field when they take on the Minnesota Vikings in the first of two meetings in the final four weeks of the season. As of Sunday night, the Bears had 14 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, and all three coordinators also were in COVID-19 safety protocols during the week.
Nick Kindelsperger review: Claudia is a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ of food nostalgia
Chefs love to evoke their childhood memories with food. But Claudia chef and owner Trevor Teich is looking to you for inspiration.
When completing your online reservation for the tasting menu at the Bucktown newcomer, you provide basic answers about dietary restrictions, along with thinkers such as, “What makes you feel like a kid again?”
What follows could veer so easily into contrite, half-baked theater. But Tribune critic Nick Kindelsperger says Claudia pulls it off.
