Good afternoon! If you need last-minute Mother’s Day plans, this list has you covered. Here’s what else you need to know today.

1. Some pro-Palestinian camps at Chicago-area campuses saw arrests and clashes with counterprotesters over the weekend

Nearly 70 people were arrested at the School of the Art Institute, joining about 2,500 people who have been arrested at about 50 campuses nationwide since April 18, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

At DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus, counterprotesters reportedly tried to clash with protesters.

Henna Ayesh, a student organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine at DePaul, told the Sun-Times that organizers had been hosting de-escalation training for days to prepare for counterprotests.

She said the encampment protesters remained peaceful, but counter-protesters were “not so reluctant” to restrain themselves. A video circulating on X appears to show a student being beaten with an Israeli flag. Ayesh said the protester received medical treatment and is doing well.

A similar confrontation happened at the University of Chicago on Friday, causing brief scuffles and prompting campus police to show up in riot gear. [Chicago Sun-Times]

UChicago faculty members gathered this morning in support of the encampment on the school’s Hyde Park campus. [Chicago Tribune]

Outside of Chicago, Columbia University in New York and Emory University in Atlanta changed their commencement ceremony plans after weeks of protests on their campuses. [NPR]

2. Israeli forces move into Rafah as Hamas accepts a cease-fire proposal for Gaza

Israeli leaders began striking targets in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah today hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the proposal was “far from Israel’s essential demands.” However, he said Israel would nonetheless send negotiators to continue the talks.

Details of the Egyptian-Qatari proposal weren’t immediately available and it’s unclear whether the deal will meet Hamas’s key demand of bringing about an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal.

In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials said the cease-fire would take place in stages, with Hamas releasing hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.

Israel’s allies, including the U.S., had urged Israel not to attack Rafah. President Joe Biden met with Netanyahu earlier today and told him a cease-fire was the best way to protect Israeli hostages’ lives. [AP]

3. Little Village’s Cinco de Mayo parade was cut short after shots were fired along the route

Chicago Police worked with parade organizers to reroute the celebration, which started 30 minutes late. By 1:30 p.m., Chicago Police announced the parade was canceled “out of an abundance of caution.”

Police said multiple people were arrested. No injuries were reported.

Though the celebration was cut short, the parade still featured mariachi bands, horses, Mexican flags, colorful dresses and more for Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates Mexico’s victory over Napoleon’s French army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. [Chicago Sun-Times]

4. Gas bills could skyrocket in Illinois if major utilities don’t curb their spending, a new report says

The costs of upgrades to the state’s network of thousands of miles transmission lines, distribution lines and underground storage get spread over decades.

Between 2014 to 2022, the state’s four largest gas utilities turbocharged their spending on gas infrastructure by more than $9 billion — and residents could be paying these costs off for the next 40 to 70 years, my colleague Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco reports for WBEZ.

A new report from the Building Decarbonization Coalition and Groundworks Data investigated what could happen if Peoples Gas, Nicor Gas, North Ameren Gas and North Shore continue to double down on a natural gas infrastructure system that flies in the face of the state and nation’s climate goals.

Without meaningful intervention by state officials, the average residential bill could climb to approximately $650 a month during the coldest months by 2050.

Keeping up with natural gas also takes a huge toll on the climate because the substance is mainly made up of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. [WBEZ]

5. Archaeopteryx — one of the Field Museum’s greatest-ever acquisitions — emerged from a suitcase in a Switzerland hotel room

Archaeopteryx was a bird-like, holy grail creature of sorts that when first discovered in 1861 helped prove Charles Darwin’s then-controversial Theory of Evolution, Stefano Esposito writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The animal lived about 150 million years ago, a dinosaur with feathers, hollow bones, tiny teeth and clawed wings. Much about its lifestyle remains unknown. Could it fly? Perhaps, but not very well, Field scientists say.

Pete Makovicky, the Field Museum’s former chief dinosaur scientist, first laid eyes on the fossil in a Zurich conference room in 2019.

“Really, no other living paleontologist had seen one in the raw state,” says Makovicky, now a professor at the University of Minnesota. “So it was a very sort of exciting moment for me.”

On Monday, the Field unveiled its Archaeopteryx, which arrived in Chicago in 2022 and is one of only about a dozen such specimens ever found. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• A judge threatened former President Donald Trump with jail time for again violating the gag order in the hush money case. [NPR]

• President Joe Biden will be in town this week for a fundraiser. [Chicago Sun-Times]

• Three bodies in a Mexican well were identified as Australian and American surfers killed for their truck’s tires. [AP]

• Here’s what to know about Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s hip-hop beef. [CNN]

Oh, and one more thing …

Actor and playwright Nambi Kelley brings a triple-play to Chicago stages this spring. She’s acting in Joe Turner at the Goodman downtown (through May 19) and producing two of her written works on other stages: her play Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution will have its world premiere at Court Theatre in Hyde Park (opening May 24) and Lifeline Theatre will produce her adaptation of the classic Richard Wright novel Native Son (opening May 10).

Kelley’s flair for crafting complex characters and writing poetic dialogue has made her an in-demand voice for theaters seeking new works — and it’s the type of creativity that makes Chicago one of the most compelling theater cities in the country.

Her influence today still almost surprises her; at times she refers to herself as the little girl from the South Side who was never supposed to be here — a sought-after writer and actress whose television credits include The Chi, the Bel-Air reboot and Chicago Med. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

Mother’s Day is coming up, so I want to know: What’s your favorite memory with a maternal figure in your life?

Feel free to email me and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week.