Daywatch: Lightfoot’s funding for anti-violence effort falls short, Chicago Marathon goes virtual and a fall getaway on Maine’s Mount Desert Island

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Good morning, Chicago. On Sunday, the Illinois health officials reported 2,727 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus, as well as 9 more confirmed fatalities. If you want to look up the cases in your neighborhood, you can search here by ZIP code.

Meanwhile, as the pandemic progresses, we’re learning more about what lingering effects COVID-19 has on survivors. Some have reported experiencing a “brain fog,” making everyday activities and work more difficult.

Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to reimagine violence response and end sole reliance on police, but outreach groups at heart of plan still struggle for funding

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has spoken often of her plans to reinvent the city’s approach to combat its stubborn violence problem, using anti-violence outreach groups that she called “fundamentally critical to what we’re doing,” and vowing to make sure they had the resources needed to be successful.

But more than 16 months into her first term in office, that plan has not developed and her administration’s spending on those groups during one of the bloodiest years in recent history is a vanishingly small part of this year’s budget.

‘Running is not canceled.’ But the Chicago Marathon is smaller, quieter and virtual because of the pandemic.

After concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic canceled marathons around the world, Chicago runners re-imagined the traditional 26.2-mile route this weekend, with groups across the city embarking on “virtual” and socially distanced runs.

The Chicago Marathon scenes from across the city were much different in 2020 vs. 2019. Take a look.

The pandemic left election officials scrambling for judges in March. But extra pay and a law that allows younger workers has them optimistic about Nov. 3.

As the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold in Illinois in the days before the March 17 primary, hundreds of poll workers backed out and left local election authorities scrambling to staff polling places. The pandemic is still going strong, but officials say they are in much better shape heading into the general election.

That’s thanks to pay raises for election judges, aggressive outreach campaigns and heightened interest among a new generation of poll workers. But Chicago-area election officials say they aren’t taking anything for granted.

How St. Malachy school beat the odds and thrives as a Catholic school on Chicago’s West Side

Many of the students in the 108-year-old Catholic school in West Town don’t know that much of their education is funded by parishioners from a suburban Catholic church 25 miles away. The success and longevity of their school — St. Malachy — has been buoyed by a decadeslong partnership with the same parish.

October on Mount Desert Island in Maine offers hiking, stunning views, sea snails and blueberry pie

For much of the year, Cadillac Mountain is the first place that sunlight hits in the United States each morning. But on an early October afternoon last year, what was hitting the peak was a shower of rain and sleet, blown by a wind so powerful it made walking precarious. Even in these conditions, the view of the Atlantic Ocean, studded with forest-covered islands, made an exceptional treat, writes the Tribune’s Steve Chapman.

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