Good afternoon! It’s Friday, and it’s another busy news day with lots of developing stories. Here’s what you need to know.

1. Lightfoot wants to fire cop who flipped off protesters, officers who hide badge numbers

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said today she wants a Chicago police officer fired after a photograph showed him giving middle fingers to protesters in Lincoln Park this week.

“We will not tolerate that kind of abusive, offensive conduct on the part of police officers. Period,” Lightfoot said.

The mayor also called for the firing of cops who hide their police badge numbers, saying “we’re actively at work identifying the officers responsible for that.” [Chicago Tribune]

Meanwhile, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul wants the state to license police officers the same way it licenses physicians, pharmacists and hairdressers. [WBEZ]

Raoul is among 18 attorneys general who want Congress to give them the power to launch probes into patterns of abuse within local police departments.

The move comes as U.S. Attorney General William Barr and his Justice Department have not launched an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. [Politico]

In Chicago, calls are growing for cops to be removed from the city’s public schools after the Minneapolis school board severed a deal with their police department. [WBEZ]

2. Two-thirds of Americans say Trump has increased racial tensions

That’s according to a poll released today from NPR, the PBS NewsHour and Marist. The poll shows that 67% of people surveyed said President Donald Trump has increased tensions, while 18% said he has decreased them.

Here’s a closer look at the numbers: 92% of Democrats, 73% of independents, 88% of Africans Americans and 63% of whites said Trump has inflamed tensions. When it comes to Republicans, 6 in 10 said Trump has either increased tensions or they’re not sure.

“It’s very unusual to see Republicans break when the name Trump is presented, but that is the case here,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. [NPR]

3. D.C. mayor renames street outside the White House after Black Lives Matter

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the street “Black Lives Matter Plaza” and had the slogan painted in large yellow letters on the road today. City officials said the move was to honor protesters demanding police reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing while in police custody.

Bowser has been a vocal critic of Trump and Attorney General William Barr’s decision to call in federal police and National Guard units in response to protests in the capital. Trump inaccurately accused Bowser of refusing to allow D.C. police to help with crowd control in Lafayette Square. [Washington Post]

4. Trump says it’s a “great day” for George Floyd while discussing today’s jobs report

Hours after the U.S. Labor Department unveiled a better than expected jobs report for May, President Trump appeared in the Rose Garden and invoked the name of George Floyd.

“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” Trump said. “This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody.” [AP]

The jobs report showed that the unemployment rate actually fell in May to 13.3% from April’s 14.7%. Many economists expected the jobless rate to reach 20%, and today’s report suggests the economy may be rebounding at a faster pace from the freefall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the unemployment rate for African Americans rose slightly in May to 16.8%. Trump did not answer questions about the higher jobless rates for African Americans. [NPR]

5. There’s an area in Illinois that’s been untouched by COVID-19

Scott County is the only one of Illinois’ 102 counties that has not reported a single known case of COVID-19. And there are a number of theories as to why the small county in central Illinois appears to have sidestepped the worst of the pandemic.

The mayor of Winchester told the Chicago Sun-Times that he thinks the pandemic bypassed his region because not a lot of people move to and from the area. But a local health official believes that Scott County may have had cases early on when testing was not as widely available. [Sun-Times]

Worldwide, more than 393,000 deaths and more than 6.7 million known cases have been reported. [Johns Hopkins]

In Illinois, state officials announced 59 deaths today, bringing the total number of fatalities to 5,795. Officials also announced 1,156 new cases after nearly 19,000 tests were performed in the last 24 hours. That puts the total number of known cases in Illinois to 125,915. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• Lightfoot said she hopes to reopen the lakefront “very soon.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
• The Trump administration moved forward today with a plan to scale back a century-old law protecting wild birds. [AP]
• Berlin passed a sweeping anti-discrimination law. [NPR]
• Illinois’ oldest resident, and oldest known immigrant, died at 113. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

WBEZ’s award-winning radio play about one of the bloodiest race riots in the country — Chicago’s “Red Summer” of 1919 — will be re-aired today at 5:30 p.m.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot mentioned the “Red Summer” this week as she talked about Chicago’s long history of racial violence.

“Here in Chicago, the murder of George Floyd evoked a long history of violence against African Americans in this country. More specifically here in Chicago, it is about Laquan McDonald. Quintonio LeGrier. Rekia Boyd. And Jon Burge. And if we’re honest, it goes back to at least as far as the Red Summer in 1919, and more other events before and since,” she said.

You can listen to City On Fire: Chicago Race Riot 1919 on 91.5 FM and our online livestream, which you can also access on your smart speaker. You can also click the “listen” button in this link. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

What acts of kindness have you seen?

Heather writes:

“I was at my local Trader Joe’s the other day buying some items for a cookout. The two clerks asked me what the occasion was and when I told them it was for my youngest daughter’s high school graduation, one of them handed me a small flower bouquet and said, ‘Congratulations!’ In these days when our masks and social distancing make me feel somewhat disconnected from people, this small gesture literally brought a happy tear to my eye and made my day!”

Thanks for all the responses this week! Have a nice night, and I’ll see you on Monday.