Daywatch: Tornado cleanup continues in suburbs, child tax credits arrive next month and Chicago UFO buffs await release of Pentagon report

Nicole Stock, Chicago Tribune
·3 min read

Good morning, Chicago.

Yesterday the U.S. recorded an encouraging milestone: coronavirus deaths dipped below 300 for the first time since March of last year. We also hit a vaccine benchmark yesterday, with 150 million Americans now fully vaccinated.

There was vaccine news close to home too. The University of Illinois announced yesterday that it will require students who plan to study in person at any of its three campuses this fall to get the shot. The decision comes after large private colleges in Chicago and the suburbs already moved to mandate the shots.

— Nicole Stock, audience editor

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‘Like a sonic boom.’ Overnight tornado — with winds over 135 mph — roars through Naperville, Woodridge, Darien. Hundreds of structures damaged, but no fatalities reported.

Authorities said least eight people were injured and at least 225 structures were damaged, many severely, from a tornado that tore through Naperville, Woodridge and Darien late Sunday. Meteorologists said the damage was consistent with an EF-3 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, meaning it had wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph.

CPS laying off 443 teachers and support staff. CTU vows to fight cuts.

Outraged by the layoffs of more than 440 teachers and support staff, Chicago Teachers Union officials on Monday questioned why the city was cutting jobs in underserved communities during the pandemic, as nearly $2 billion in federal education funds were awarded to Chicago Public Schools.

  • A strange and challenging year of pandemic learning is almost over as CPS breaks for summer: ‘I don’t take things for granted anymore.’

Child tax credits arriving next month, but study finds pandemic likely erased post-recession gains for Illinois families

As the White House spreads the word this week about the new child tax credit slated to begin next month, a study released Monday finds that post-recession gains for struggling Illinois families could be reversed by financial hardships wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ben Zobrist lawsuit alleges his pastor had an affair with his wife Julianna and defrauded the former Cubs player’s charity

Ben Zobrist, the former Chicago Cubs utility player and 2016 World Series MVP, has filed a lawsuit accusing his former minister of having a sexual relationship with his wife Julianna and defrauding Zobrist’s charity foundation.

‘If we’re right, it is the biggest secret in history’: Chicago UFO buffs await release of Pentagon report into unexplained sightings

Chicago-area UFO aficionados are buzzing in anticipation of a Pentagon report into strange aerial phenomena, but not T.J. Japcon. He doesn’t need the government to validate what he recorded hovering above Tinley Park almost 17 years ago.

Japcon, who still lives in the southwest suburb, is the foremost chronicler of what has come to be known as the Tinley Park Lights — a trio of color-shifting orbs, seemingly connected, that slid across the horizon before a crowd of witnesses.