Hey there! It’s Tuesday, and Fat Bear Week is almost here. Don’t worry, CDC, it’s not the one in Provincetown. Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. As Chicago police union fights vax mandate, former president is taken to an ICU

Chicago’s police union faces a new optics problem in their opposition to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Oct. 15 vaccine mandate for all city workers.

Dean Angelo Sr., the former president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, was recently taken to an intensive care unit due to complications from COVID-19, the union said. Angelo’s son would not share his father’s vaccination status when reached by the Chicago Sun-Times. [ST]

It remains to be seen if Angelo’s hospitalization will change any minds among rank-and-file officers who are unvaccinated. COVID-19 is the leading killer of police officers, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks the deaths of cops. [Wall Street Journal]

Meanwhile, vaccine mandates in the U.S. appear to have cleared another major test. Thousands of health care workers in New York rushed to get shots ahead of a Monday deadline, preventing the state from suffering a shortage of workers in hospitals and nursing homes. [New York Times]

And in Los Angeles, city officials tomorrow will consider a vaccine mandate for adults entering restaurants, gyms and other public indoor spaces. [LA Times]

2. Pfizer submits data showing vaccine is safe for kids ages 5 to 11

Parents across the country are another step closer to the likelihood of a COVID-19 vaccine for children.

Pfizer and BioNTech today announced they submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration showing “favorable” safety outcomes for a two-dose vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. The companies plan to submit a formal request for emergency-use authorization of the vaccine for that age range “in the coming weeks.” [NPR]

Meanwhile, health experts are warning about a “twindemic” as the flu season coincides with the pandemic. WBEZ’s Adora Namigadde has this informative report explaining why this flu season is unique and how to stay safe. [WBEZ]

3. Black women see a long-overdue victory in R. Kelly’s conviction

The conviction of disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly is being hailed as a recognition of Black women who survived sexual assault, reports WBEZ’s Natalie Moore.

Montana Ross sat in a research class at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology when she learned that a federal jury in New York found Kelly guilty of running a criminal enterprise based around sexually abusing and trafficking women and underage girls.

“A classmate of mine actually showed it to me, and I let out the biggest squeal in class,” said Ross, who is an alum of local program that empowers Black girls to activate against sexual assault and abuse. “I felt really happy and this rush of energy that something has finally taken place. And it felt as if everyone who has ever suffered gender-based violence all just had a moment.” [WBEZ]

4. Top U.S. military officials favored keeping thousands of troops in Afghanistan

Top military officials today acknowledged for the first time publicly that they advised President Joe Biden to not withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. The news comes as the officials appeared before a Senate panel over the chaotic exit that saw 13 American service members killed.

At the same time, the officials defended the evacuation and said staying past Aug. 31 carried enormous consequences. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S would have been “going to war again with the Taliban” had it missed the deadline. [AP]

Also during the Senate hearing, Milley defended backchannel calls to his counterpart in China as Beijing became increasingly worried about a U.S. attack during the final months of the Trump administration. The calls were first revealed in the book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. [AP]

5. How the complicated-sounding debt ceiling could have not-so-complicated effects on your wallet

The U.S. could suffer a “catastrophic” financial crisis and another recession if Congress fails to address the federal government’s debt limit by Oct. 18, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers today.

The debt limit is kinda like a credit card that’s got to be paid off. If the limit is not raised, the Treasury Department can’t borrow money to pay off bills for things Congress has already approved.

Republican leaders say they’re not going to raise the government’s borrowing cap because they believe Democrats should deal with it on their own.

Yellen told lawmakers if the situation doesn’t get resolved, seniors could see their Social Security payments delayed and interest rates on credit cards, cars loans and mortgages could rise. [New York Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• The Obamas were in town and officially broke ground on the South Side’s Obama Presidential Center. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• An unvaccinated mother of a Chicago public school student died after her daughter was exposed to COVID-19 at school. [WBEZ]
• This year’s MacArthur Fellows include two Black women who say their work was influenced by Chicago. [Sun-Times]
• A record number of Americans now say they are concerned about the climate crisis, according to a new poll. [Axios]

Oh, and one more thing …

Another week, another book about former President Donald Trump hits the news cycle.

Stephanie Grisham, the former press secretary known for never giving a televised press conference, has an upcoming tell-all book, I’ll Take Your Questions Now, in which she writes about her time at the White House and accuses Trump of abusing staff and trying to impress dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s temper with aides has been well documented, but this stood out to me in a report from The New York Times.

“At one point, she writes, Mr. Trump’s handlers designated an unnamed White House official known as the Music Man to play him his favorite show tunes, including ‘Memory’ from Cats, to pull him from the brink of rage.” [NYT]

Tell me something good …

What’s something funny that your pet has done?

Amarna Bugarin-Chazaro writes:

“Three dogs ago we started using ‘promenade’ for taking the dog for a walk and ‘special place’ for taking the dog to the off-leash dog park. Turns out my dogs have been Spanish-English bilingual but have been completely stumped by French and two-word phrases. In the end, it doesn’t matter what I say. If I reach for my sneakers, the barkfest begins.”

Feel free to email me at therundown@wbez.org or tweet me at @whuntah.

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