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 mostly cloudy with a high near 43 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 31 degrees. Tomorrow will be partly sunny with a high near 46 degrees.
Top story
Ravinia announces return of concerts this summer
The Ravinia Festival announced today it will reopen in July with a slate of outdoor concerts including a six-week residency by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Festival organizers noted that all concerts will take place in the pavilion with reduced seating capacity to adhere to state and local health guidelines amid the pandemic. All seating will incorporate reserve-in-advance ticketing and social distancing in the pavilion, lawn and dining facilities. The number of artists on stage will also be reduced to allow for social distancing between performers, today’s announcement said.
Conductor Marin Alsop will lead seven concerts by the CSO in her first season as Ravinia’s chief conductor and curator.
The full lineup of summer concerts will be announced in April along with protocols for attendance.
Ravinia canceled its entire 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and closed the park for the first time in its history since the Great Depression. It remains the oldest outdoor music festival in the country.
Read Miriam Di Nunzio’s full story here.
More news you need
- Police found a car today wanted in connection with the shooting of an off-duty officer in Calumet Heights. The possible suspects’ black Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross was found abandoned near 92nd Street and Williams Avenue.
- A Berwyn woman found tied up and dead in a West Side alley last weekend had been released from a suburban jail just days earlier. She was released from Will County Jail on March 8, six days before her body was found, according to Will County records.
- With the latest 78,287 shots reported by public health officials today, about 12% of Illinois residents have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But it was the third straight day the state failed to top 100,000 administered doses after record-setting totals last week.
- Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his public health team are poised to release a retooled plan to reopen Illinois and end the majority of the COVID-19 restrictions as soon as adequate numbers of residents are fully vaccinated. That plan, which includes continued mask-wearing, may be announced this week.
- With many Chicagoans working from home, Ald. Gilbert Villegas wants to relax rules on home businesses, but a proposed ordinance to do that stalled in a City Council committee today. Villegas hopes the issues get sorted out quickly to pave the way for approval by the full City Council next month.
- The city continued to kick the can yesterday on its decision to permit or deny General Iron’s proposed move to the Southeast Side. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has requested more information about the cumulative air pollution around the proposed scrap-metal shredding operation.
A bright one
Sister Jean will join Loyola team in Indianapolis for March Madness
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt will travel to Indianapolis to root Loyola on as the Ramblers try to make another Final Four run, the school confirmed today.
The beloved 101-year-old team chaplain, who became a national celebrity during Loyola’s March Madness breakout three years ago, had been pushing the NCAA and Loyola to approve her travel since the Ramblers clinched their spot by defeating Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game.
But there was uncertainty over whether that would happen given the coronavirus protocols implemented for March Madness, which brings together 68 teams from around the country.
Loyola, in its 10th season under head coach Porter Moser, earned a No. 9 seed in the bracket after an impressive 24-4 campaign. The team led the nation in points allowed per game and won both the MVC regular season and conference tournament titles.
From the press box
The White Sox are bringing in speedy outfielder Billy Hamilton on a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.
Will there be an NFL team out there that thinks Mitch Trubisky’s capable of more than he showed with the Bears? Free agency has a chance to be a defining moment in the quarterback’s career, Mark Potash writes.
And our Ben Pope offers up a couple of Blackhawks breakdowns: How Kirby Dach’s return will impact the team’s center depth chart, and 10 bad contracts the Hawks could potentially get compensated to take on using LTIR cap space.
Your daily question ☕
If you could travel back in time to the start of the pandemic, what would you do differently?
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: How did you adjust to daylight saving time over the weekend? Here’s what some of you said...
“I did not and I have not. I hate DST. It is so hard on children to make this change and on older people as well. We should just listen to the sun and follow its pattern.” — Connie Doud
“Running on empty until I slowed down and resigned myself to the recalibration. It pays to go easy on oneself when there aren’t enough hours in the day.” — Judy Panko Reis
“The clocks and I both adjusted automatically.” — Michael Kaplan
“Love it! Just wake up like normal when my alarm goes off and snooze for a while like normal and then good to go!” — Adriana Maria Perez
“We changed all the clocks on Saturday morning and then went about everything like it had already changed. No issues!” — Holli Anzalone
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