Good afternoon! Here’s a Dune joke for Illinois residents. And here’s what you need to know today.

1. Mayor Johnson says migrant families with children will not be evicted from city shelters

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration today announced more exemptions to a 60-day limit on migrants staying at city shelters, a long-delayed policy that will go into effect this weekend.

Johnson said families with children and residents affected by a measles outbreak will not receive eviction notices, my colleagues Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg report.

“Systemwide, families with children will receive a 30-day extension, which can be extended three times through June 10 — shortly after the Chicago Public Schools year ends,” my colleagues write.

Migrants will also now be required to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox — and will not be allowed into shelters if they refuse vaccination.

City officials say 35 migrants must leave shelters on Sunday, and more than 2,000 individuals will be evicted by the end of April. [WBEZ]

2. A pregnant Chicago woman was denied an emergency protection order weeks before she was stabbed and her son was killed

The woman and her 11-year-old boy were attacked Wednesday at their home on the North Side, authorities say.

Just weeks before, the woman unsuccessfully sought an order of protection against the suspect in the attack, Crosetti Brand, who had just been released from prison, my colleagues at the Chicago Sun-Times report.

There’s no indication in the court record that the judge knew Brand was due to be released. State prison officials said “notifications” about Brand’s release were made to “registered victims,” but it’s not clear if the woman had been informed.

The case raises other questions. The woman told the judge she contacted Chicago Police after her alleged confrontation with Brand last month, but “they didn’t let me file a report. They told me to come down here to get an order of protection.” [Chicago Sun-Times]

3. Tuesday’s primary election will be the latest test of Toni Preckwinkle’s political influence

The Cook County board president is backing Clayton Harris III against Eileen O’Neill Burke in the heated Democratic primary for the county’s state’s attorney.

Preckwinkle has downplayed what she might get in return for the reach of that influence as she works the phones and wallets to get people elected. She said she simply wants “good people in public office.”

As my colleagues Tina Sfondeles and Kristen Schorsch report, Preckwinkle “has amassed political prowess without always taking much credit. With a roster of mentees who used to work for her or alongside her in county government, from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, she has put her stamp on the next generation of Black and Latino leaders throughout Illinois politics.” [WBEZ]

Meanwhile, nearly all the big donors to O’Neill Burke are white men, WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell reports. [WBEZ]

4. The amount of people leaving Cook County has slowed down

Nearly 25,000 people left Cook County last year, causing the population to drop to about 5 million people, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.

Cook County remains the second-largest county in the U.S., and the exodus has slowed down, my colleague Kaitlin Washburn reports. Since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, the area has lost over 188,000 residents, according to the census.

Nationally, more U.S. counties saw population gains than losses last year, with those in the South growing faster, according to the census. Harris County, Texas, the third-largest U.S. county, grew by an estimated 53,000 people to 4.8 million — the biggest population gain in the nation.

Much of the migration comes from people moving to places where housing is cheaper, researchers say. [Chicago Sun-Times]

5. The buzzing of cicadas may be more intense this summer

For the first time in more than 200 years, two different groups of periodic cicadas will emerge at the same time, my colleague Mary Norkol reports.

To put it another way, the last time this phenomenon occurred was in 1803, when electricity hadn’t been invented and the Great Chicago Fire hadn’t yet ravaged the city.

“We talk about this as being a once-in-a-lifetime thing where two are coming out at once, it’s more than that … the next time we can expect to see two broods to come up is 2245,” said Kacie Athey, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

One brood pops up every 13 years, and the other comes every 17 years. It’s hard to predict just how many will be out, but one rough estimate from 1956 suggests there will be as many as one million bugs per acre in areas where they come out.

By that logic, Illinois could be home to around 37 million cicadas. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• A judge ruled Fani Willis can remain on Georgia’s election interference case against Trump if her top special prosecutor steps aside. [NPR]

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s war on “woke” ideas appears to be losing steam. [NPR]

• The cost of buying and selling a home in the U.S. could significantly drop after the National Association of Realtors agreed to a $418 million settlement. [CNN]

• McDonald’s suffered a tech outage, affecting restaurants worldwide. [CNBC]

Oh, and one more thing …

FX’s The Bear will film its third and fourth seasons back to back, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That also means the critically acclaimed series has been quietly renewed for a fourth season. [Hollywood Reporter]

Finding out where The Bear is filming in Chicago has become the city’s new favorite spectator sport, my colleague Courtney Kueppers reports.

Internet super sleuths discover the show uses a codename, Kubelik, on permits in an effort to keep people in the dark.

“By tracing filming, you can get a little sneak peek of what Chicago might look like on screen when the latest season drops in June,” Kueppers reports. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

I’ve been going on something of a book bender and need to add some stuff to my list before I run out. What books do you recommend?

Deb S. writes:

“As you are looking for book recommendations: I was just discussing sci-fi books with my adult son over lunch and we remembered how he recommended that I read Dune (the first one — they went downhill after that) and all of the Game of Thrones books. Both ushered me into amazing alternate worlds where I could lose myself for hours at a time. Oh, and then there was Memoirs of a Geisha, which is on my bookshelf in the never-give-this-away collection. Geishas in Japan was also an alternate world for me. I could go on… .”

Ralph Bishop writes:

“Have a look at The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, a series of novellas told in the first person by a rogue part-human, part-security unit on the lam after hacking its governor module to avoid detection and finding itself becoming uncomfortably more humanlike.”

And Joyce writes:

“Njuta: Enjoy, Delight In: The Swedish Art of Savoring the Moment by Niki Brantmark. The title says it all!

“A quick read that will inspire you to do so. With all the upsetting news, political unrest and busy lives we are leading, this book inspires you to take pause to savor and appreciate the moments of your life.”

Thanks for all the book recommendations! I really appreciate it!