Hey there! It’s Wednesday, and I’m feeling under the weather today. Actually, this week. If you have any home remedies, feel free to hit me up. Meanwhile, here’s what you need to know today.

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1. Chicago Park District leaders were warned a year ago that allegations of abuse from lifeguards may have been sex crimes

The Chicago Park District’s internal watchdog prepared a “highly confidential” presentation for the agency’s two top officials last year, indicating widespread allegations of sexual misconduct from young lifeguards and other employees were potentially sex crimes, reports WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos.

The presentation stated “the involvement of law enforcement” may be necessary, according to a report dated Aug. 27, 2020.

But Park District Board President Avis LaVelle and then-parks CEO Michael Kelly kept the existence of the allegations hidden from the public for eight months, until WBEZ first began reporting on the abuse.

The presentation raises questions about the response to the allegations from LaVelle and Kelly. Kelly, who resigned this month, could not be reached. LaVelle, in an email, said she does not remember the presentation. [WBEZ]

2. More than a dozen members of the Chicago City Council are hoping to reverse the city’s vaccine mandate

A group of City Council members is trying to force a special meeting this Friday in an effort to overturn Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s mandate for all city workers, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The move is spearheaded by Southwest Side Ald. Silvana Tabares, 23rd Ward, who says the City Council should vote on the COVID-19 vaccine requirement and how city workers should be disciplined for failing to comply. She is supported by other council members who represent wards home to many city employees.

The call for a special council meeting comes amid the standoff between Lightfoot and the city’s police union over the vaccine mandate. As of earlier this week, only 23 officers have been sent home without pay for refusing to report their vaccination status. [Chicago Tribune]

3. Lightfoot’s budget gets the OK, setting the stage for a basic income program

Mayor Lightfoot’s $16.7 billion budget plan easily sailed through the City Council today, thanks in part to the nearly $2 billion in federal stimulus funding that allowed the mayor to sweeten her pitch to aldermen with a host of progressive programs and spending on social services, like mental health, housing and environmental initiatives, reports WBEZ’s Mariah Woelfel.

The budget also established a guaranteed basic income program for a year that will send $500 checks each month to 5,000 low-income families.

One of the more contentious issues in Ligthfoot’s plan is a bump in property taxes. You can read more about that and other elements of the mayor’s budget in this link. [WBEZ]

4. Senate Democrats pitch new billionaires’ tax to pay for Biden’s social safety-net expansion and climate change policies

The proposed tax unveiled by Senate Democrats this week seeks to tax billionaires on essentially the money they’re sitting on — also called “unrealized gains” — which includes stuff like stocks, cash and bonds that can grow for years.

The proposal comes as Democrats struggle to gain enough support to pass President Joe Biden’s sweeping plan to bolster the nation’s social safety net and combat climate change.

The billionaires’ tax is aimed at winning over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who criticized an earlier plan to reverse Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy. [AP]

But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., today said he doesn’t like the idea, and his comments add more uncertainty over whether Democrats will be able to pass Biden’s agenda before the president leaves at the end of the week for a Group of 20 summit. [New York Times]

5. Enrollment at Chicago’s public schools plummets by about 10,000 students

A growing number of Chicago families are leaving the public school system, with increasing numbers moving to the suburbs or out of state, being homeschooled or transferring to private schools, according to data released today by Chicago Public Schools.

“I would have never imagined seeing this steep of a decline,” new CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told reporters.

Martinez says he wants to better understand why exactly enrollment has plummeted during the pandemic and whether students can be lured back.

That’s a big question considering all of the complaints from parents in just the last two years alone, such as the district’s tense relationship with the Chicago Teachers Union, shortcomings with remote learning and the failure to get widespread COVID-19 testing off the ground.

The problem of falling enrollment isn’t new for CPS — it has lost nearly 74,000 students over a decade — but the trend has accelerated since the beginning of the pandemic and threatens the district’s title as the third-largest school system in the nation. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• A Chicago alderman says the reason why cops rarely pull over drivers in areas where many city workers live is because “white people just know how to talk their way out of a ticket.” [Block Club Chicago]
• A Fox News anchor received death threats after urging viewers to get vaccinated. [NPR]
• The U.S. issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation for nonbinary, intersex and gender-nonconforming people. [AP]
• Australian footballer Josh Cavallo is the first A-league player to come out as gay. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

Curious where the nation’s pumpkins come from? Illinois is the undisputed champion when it comes to growing pumpkins, producing 41% of the nation’s crop last year, reports NBC News.

“Pumpkins like hot, dry weather, and typically in the Midwest, we will get that,” said Mac Condill, owner of the Great Pumpkin Patch in Moultrie County, Ill. “We also have very well-drained soil. And so that helps pumpkins — they don’t like wet feet.”

Click the link to see a map of where pumpkins are grown and a bunch of other neat facts. [NBC News]

Tell me something good …

What are your plans for Halloween this year?

Vivian Noble writes:

“This Halloween we will be celebrating my dad’s 80th birthday. It is a big one and we are all together to celebrate this milestone. Pretty exciting. Maybe we’ll squeeze in a little trick or treating for the kids too.”

Feel free to email me at therundown@wbez.org or tweet me at @whuntah, and your responses might be shared here this week.

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