“Chicago is the hub of the Midwest,” one signer, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin, told me in a phone interview. “If we get high-speed rail and more investment, it’s good for us.”
The letter specifically endorses a “vision statement” Amtrak released after Biden included $80 billion for the passenger carrier and other railroads in his $2 trillion infrastructure plan. Also signing the letter were the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Illinois AFL-CIO.
Included on Amtrak s wish list are improvements on existing service from Chicago to St. Louis, faster speeds and decreased travel time between Chicago and the home of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, upgrades on lines to Milwaukee and Detroit, and new service to the Quad Cities and Rockford.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
McCormick Place will reawaken from its 14-month, pandemic-induced slumber with the July 15 return of the Chicago Auto Show and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said her goal is to get the city “fully open” by July 4.
“I am working night and day toward this goal. … I need you to continue to be on this journey with us. And that means getting vaccinated now as soon as possible,” Lightfoot told reporters Tuesday morning at McCormick Place, where details of the auto show return were announced.
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There were some tough days for Alanna Barber’s kids in remote learning the past year.
Barber’s third-grade son, Sean, lost patience at times. She had to juggle Sean’s classes with her kindergartner’s first year in school. Barber ended up leaving her job as a school cafeteria manager in another district to stay home with her children.
So when Chicago Public Schools classrooms reopened this spring with safety protocols she felt comfortable with, Barber sent both kids back to in-person learning.
But through it all, was Barber ever concerned about this being a lost school year for her children?
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Almost a third of all Illinois residents are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but the number of people signing up for shots each day has dipped by almost a third over the past three weeks.
Residents were racing to snatch up the coveted shot appointments a month ago, and just as they’ve become readily available statewide, “there are just fewer people that are seeking it out,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday.
The latest challenge in the pandemic of falling vaccine demand is one the governor’s health team anticipated, and now must zero in on to bring the state closer to herd immunity.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times file
Now is not the time to run out of stamps. On Friday, I stood in line at the Charles A. Hayes post office on the South Side for over a half hour waiting for service.
I was already disgusted since we hadn’t gotten any mail for three days.
After 20 minutes, I could feel the tensions as a dozen or so people waited and waited and waited. Most suffered in silence. Several gave up and left, shaking their heads.
The truly ticked-off complained out loud about missing packages, no mail deliveries and empty P.O. boxes.