Afternoon Edition: Nov. 25, 2020

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be rainy, with a high near 50 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 43 degrees. Thanksgiving Day will start off cloudy but gradually become sunny, with a high near 48 degrees.

Top story

He’s fought for his country in the Army and FBI. Now, he’s fighting for himself, other vets.

James “Jim” Rudisill has jumped into dangerous situations his entire career.

During two stints in the Army that included two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

And later as an FBI counter-terrorism agent, helping build cases against white supremacists and ISIS supporters.

He sees his latest mission as no less important, even if it is set in a far less threatening locale — a federal court, where he sued the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in a case his lawyers say could result in additional GI Bill benefits for potentially 1.7 million veterans seeking to further their educations.

Rudisill’s court case centers on whether the government can force veterans like himself — those who have served in the military long enough to have earned benefits under more than one GI Bill — to give up their Montgomery GI Bill benefits in order to tap the more generous benefits available to them under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Veterans who qualify can reap the benefits of both laws. But the federal government has imposed a cap on those benefits in a way that ends up shortchanging some vets. That’s the argument Rudisill’s case makes — successfully so far.

In winning the civil case, his lawyers argued that the U.S. government wrongly cut short his educational benefits under the GI Bills — and that it also denies some of the nation’s longest-serving vets benefits collectively worth potentially billions of dollars to put toward college or graduate school.

For Rudisill, the difference in what he was entitled to and what he was allowed was enough that it meant having to say no to going to Yale Divinity School because of the cost.

“It felt like I’d been punched in the solar plexus,” he said. “It was immediately just like the door slamming shut.”

The story doesn’t end here. Take a deep dive into Stephanie Zimmermann’s report.

More news you need

1. Illinois’ coronavirus numbers took a slight step upward today as public health officials announced COVID-19 has killed another 155 residents and spread to 11,378 more. That’s the second-highest daily death count the state has suffered during the pandemic’s second wave, and the fifth-worst day for coronavirus fatalities overall.
2. Chicago health care workers could begin getting vaccinated against the coronavirus as early as mid-December, city officials said today. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she expects “all adults to be able to get vaccinated sometime in 2021.”
3. South Side residents suffering from gunshot wounds, car crashes or other serious injuries have seen significantly shorter trips to the emergency room since the University of Chicago’s adult trauma center opened in May 2018, new research shows. An analysis of over 27,300 ambulance trips in the years before and after the center opened showed travel for patients from predominantly Black ZIP codes cut by more than half in some cases.
4. A veteran police lieutenant was reassigned last week after a one-day trip to Chicago by Attorney General William Barr caught Chicago Police Department leadership and Lightfoot’s office by surprise. Just one day before the nation’s top law enforcement officer was scheduled to arrive in the city, Lightfoot and police leaders were told about the visit.
5. A construction worker has sued Ald. James Gardiner and the city, claiming he was wrongfully arrested and subjected to harassment after picking up and attempting to return a lost cellphone that belonged to an ally of the Northwest Side ward boss. The lawsuit alleges Gardiner, his ward superintendent and multiple cops “abused their authority.”

A bright one

Obama, in surprise appearance, gives 105,000 CPS students free digital copies of ‘A Promised Land’

High school students and teachers at Chicago Public Schools received an email Monday morning that didn’t tell them exactly who would be at their virtual assembly that afternoon, but gave some strong hints: The speaker had “strong ties to Chicago,” “millions of Twitter followers” and “made history multiple times throughout their career.”

Hours later, those who tuned in to the live-streamed assembly were greeted by former President Barack Obama, who surprised CPS’ 105,000 high schoolers and thousands of teachers with free digital copies of his new memoir, “A Promised Land.”

Zoom

“I wrote this book with you in mind,” Obama told the star-struck students, some of which put their hands on their mouths and couldn’t stop smiling. “I want young people to understand that the ability for you to have an impact on this world — to make a difference, to improve your communities, to improve schools, to make it possible for people to have health care, to create better jobs, to clean up our environment — that you have that power in you.“

Obama also praised CPS students for following through with their schoolwork during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I just wanted to say how proud I am of all of you for continuing your efforts, your studies, your focus, your commitment to your education in the midst of, let’s face it, a pretty tough situation,” the former president said.

Read Nader Issa’s full story here.

From the press box

The college basketball season gets underway today. But as the disrupted college football season has shown, there’s no guarantee that anything will go as planned during the coronavirus pandemic. Columnist Steve Greenberg looks at the challenges schools are facing.

Bulls rookie Patrick Williams showed perfect timing by turning pro this year, according to Joe Cowley.

White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson got into the holiday spirit by giving away more than 200 Thanksgiving turkeys in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Bears running back David Montgomery is out of the concussion protocol and expects to play Sunday against the Packers. “I’m ready to go,” he said today.

And the usual suspects (Alabama, Notre Dame, Clemson and Ohio State) are at the top of the season’s first College Football Playoff rankings. But unbeaten Northwestern is in the mix at No. 8.

Your daily question ☕

What are you cooking for Thanksgiving this year? How does it differ from previous years?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What’s your favorite Thanksgiving tradition? Here’s what some of you said…

“I watch ‘The Blues Brothers’ every year. It was my mom’s favorite.” — Angie Mamrot

“Making pancakes and watching the Macy’s parade with my family.” — Lauren Orozco

“We decorate the Christmas tree because it’s the earliest day my fiancé will allow it!” — Alesia Royem

“Going around the dinner table and saying what we’re thankful for one by one.” — Bridget Braid Schisler

“Eating canned cranberries and playing board games. Oh, and my mother doesn’t allow us to smoosh up the cranberries, so it stays the same shape as the can when it sits on the table.” — Cheryl Rybka

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