Afternoon Edition: Feb. 28, 2022

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 sunny and breezy with a high near 54 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low around 34. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a high near 45.

Top story

Maskless Monday no reason to celebrate, some say

Not everyone was celebrating “freedom-from-masks Monday” by showing their faces and pocketing their masks and vaccine identification cards.

A coalition of community groups, public health advocates and parents of Chicago Public School students accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker of caving to political pressure to lift the mandates — and putting Black and Brown lives in danger in the process.

Erykah Nava is the mother of a CPS first-grader and an organizer for Illinois Raise Your Hand.

Nava said she’s concerned that CPS may soon yield to pressure from “many white wealthy parents” to lift the safety measures included in an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union. That deal ended a dispute that had canceled classes for five days in January.

“Those parents do not represent our community’s most vulnerable and oppressed in the Chicago Public Schools. Nor do they represent the care we have towards our disabled, immuno-compromised, low-income unvaccinated in our Black and Brown communities,” Nava said.

Nava articulated the lingering risks.

Many CPS parents are front-line workers “consistently exposed” to COVID. They either have children age 5 or younger not yet eligible to be vaccinated; kids ages 5 and 11, a group that still has a low vaccination rate; or are parents of students ages 12 to 18, nearly half of whom remain unvaccinated.

“We cannot leave those children and their families to fend for themselves in the middle of a pandemic,” Nava said.

Read Fran Spielman’s full story here.

More news you need

1. A 16-year-old boy fatally shot near a downtown Red Line station early this morning had lost his older brother to gun violence in 2018. Emmanuel Camarillo and David Struett have more on the tragic shooting of Vadarrion A. Knight, who was from the West Lawn neighborhood.
2. A state senator’s embattled CBD business has paid back more than $144,000 to investors as part of a settlement agreement stemming from an investigation by the state. Many investors who paid to set up “dispensaries” through Patricia Van Pelt’s company have made an average of just $200.
3. Will Chicago’s convention business bounce back coming out of the pandemic — if we can ever confidently get there? Plans for a comeback for facilities like McCormick Place can’t be separated from the debate over where to put a casino, David Roeder reports.
4. Back to the topic of masks, the United Center announced today that fans will be able to catch a game or event at the venue without a mask starting tomorrow. The home of the Bulls and Blackhawks will still require either a negative COVID-19 test or proof of full vaccination to enter the arena.

A bright one

Michael Jordan’s Bulls debut game ticket sells for nearly half-a-million

A ticket from Michael Jordan’s debut Chicago Bulls game sold for nearly half a million dollars at an auction Sunday morning.

Thirty-eight years ago, the ticket to the Oct. 26, 1984, game cost $8.50 — today, it made the seller, Michael Cole, $468,000.

Robert Wilonsky from Heritage Auctions, where the ticket sold, said the Jordan ticket nearly beat the record for the priciest ticket ever sold at auction. But, in the same morning, a ticket from Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers debut in 1947 sold for $480,000.

Heritage Auctions

A then-Northwestern student, Cole attended the 1984 game alone after he couldn’t find a friend to join him. With two tickets waiting for him at will call, he used one and kept the other as a keepsake — making it the only known intact ticket from the game today, according to Heritage Auctions.

“I’m incredibly excited by the outcome and in some ways relieved that it’s over,” Cole, 55, said.

He watched the virtual auction until 2:15 a.m. Sunday morning, celebrating with his family and friends.

Katie Anthony has more on the record-breaking sale of a piece of Chicago sports history here.

From the press box

• Patrick Finley provides an early preview of a Bears offseason where new leadership will have money to spend, but no first-round pick to add a marquee young talent.
• As the state basketball playoffs continue this week, Joe Henricksen makes his predictions for the Class 3A and Class 4A brackets.
• The All-Area team and Sun-Times Player of the Year will be revealed later this week. Here are the candidates for the All-Area team.

Your daily question ☕

Baseball fans: How does the ongoing MLB lockout impact your excitement for the upcoming season?

Send us an email at newsletters@suntimes.com and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

On Friday, we asked you: What’s your favorite novel by a Black author? Tell us why. Here’s what some of you said...

“Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May. He presents a compelling picture of Black middle class Chicago on the South Side in the post-World War II period. It’s a witty and wise work.” — Craig Barner

“Learning Tree by Gordon Parks.” — Mike Coy

“A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It shows times for black people haven’t changed much.” — Patricia Smith

“The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. It takes place in Georgia just after the end of the Civil War where two freedmen who are brothers are trying to find their place in life.” — Leon Judy

“The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. It was heart warming and real.” — Timothy Steigerwald

“Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. [The book] illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma.” — Gretchen Liesl

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