Good afternoon! It’s Wednesday, and I just found this Twitter thread of “Tilda Swinton as libraries.” Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. Pfizer-BioNTech says its booster offers significant protection against omicron

Drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said today that laboratory tests suggest three doses of their COVID-19 vaccine provides protection against the new omicron variant.

Two doses may not be enough to stop infection, the companies said, but a booster shot provided a 25-fold increase in virus-fighting antibodies. [AP]

The news comes hours after Chicago officials late yesterday announced the city’s first known case of omicron.

The patient did not require hospitalization and “is improving and has been self-isolating since their symptoms began,” health officials said. The person was fully vaccinated and had previously received their booster shot.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Chicago has surged in recent days. Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top public health official, warned this week a new vaccination mandate for businesses is possible.

Major cities like New York require proof of vaccination in order to enter bars, restaurants, gyms and other indoor spaces. [WBEZ]

2. Hold onto your beer. Supply chain problems hit the beverage industry.

The holiday season is amplifying supply chain problems for the beverage industry, affecting everything from bottled water to soft drinks to beer, reports The Washington Post.

Most of the problem is the result of a shortage of cans and bottles, but missing ingredients, shipping problems and a labor shortfall are also factors.

For Americans, this means some beverages may become harder to find. Grocery stores are reporting around 13% of beverages are missing from shelves, the Post reports.

And things could become worse in the next couple of months. Aluminum cans are sold out in North America, and supplies may not be able to catch up to demand until 2025 or 2026, according to an analyst. [WaPo]

3. Jurors begin deliberating in the Jussie Smollett trial

And the big question is whose story will they believe?

Prosecutors accuse former Empire actor Jussie Smollett of staging his own hate crime and paying brothers Abimbola and Olabingo Osundairo to help him carry out the hoax.

During his closing arguments today, special prosecutor Dan Webb told jurors Smollett lacks credibility, saying key parts of the actor’s testimony this week contradicts what is seen in surveillance video from before the alleged attack and that night.

Smollett’s attorney, however, argues the hate crime was not fake, and it’s the Osundairo brothers who are “liars.” Smollett testified that he didn’t know who attacked him, and he only saw one person wearing a ski mask. [AP]

4. Biden’s infrastructure bill could make the construction industry more diverse

The massive, bipartisan infrastructure bill sets aside nearly $3 billion for apprenticeship programs across the country, with a focus on recruiting workers who traditionally face barriers to employment.

My colleague Esther Yoon-Ji Kang takes a look at how Black workers in Chicago have faced barriers to these jobs, which advocates say provide good pay and a pathway to financial stability. About 8% of construction workers in the city are Black, and less than 5% are women, according to one report.

“We’re coming out of a pandemic, and we had the George Floyd incident and the racial reckoning that our entire country had to face,” said Manny Rodriguez, executive director of Revolution Workshop, a pre-apprenticeship carpentry training program on Chicago’s West Side. “If we cannot figure out how to make construction more equitable now, we will never figure it out.” [WBEZ]

5. Illinois rakes in nearly $563 million from taxes on marijuana

Taxes collected from legalized marijuana now outpace those from alcohol sales, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The “total tax collections on pot sales have now jumped to nearly $563 million. And since February, pot sales have brought in a whooping $100 million more in taxes than booze,” according to the newspaper. Since marijuana was legalized, Illinois has seen more than $1.9 billion in sales.

The state earmarks taxes on marijuana for a wide variety of things, from a Girl Scouts program to investments in communities hit hardest by the war on drugs. You can find more information about how the state spends those tax dollars in the link. [Sun-Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• President Biden plans to make the federal government carbon neutral by 2050. [Washington Post]
• More than 4 million Americans quit their jobs in October, a sign the “Great Resignation” is not slowing down. [Washington Post]
• Chile’s Congress overwhelmingly approved same-sex marriage. [NPR]
• In case you missed it, Mel Brooks was on Fresh Air and said his only regret is the jokes he didn’t tell. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

It’s a big week for fans of musicals. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is out in theaters on Friday, and it’s better than the 1961 movie, writes Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips.

“Whatever this new adaptation’s popular reception, it’s five times the movie the ’61 movie was,” Phillips writes. “Spielberg has never made a musical before, but this one looks and feels like the work of an Old Hollywood master of the form — someone who knows when, where and why to move a camera capturing bodies in rhythmic motion.” [Chicago Tribune]

Over at the Sun-Times, critic Richard Roeper writes the film remains faithful to the 1957 Broadway musical but “manages to come across as fresh and timely,” thanks in part to actress Rachel Zegler, “who delivers a star-making performance and makes Maria her own from the moment we see her on screen.” [Sun-Times]

Tell me something good …

What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Is there a place in Chicago you always hit up? Do you and your family or friends do anything fun together?

Alison Mankowski writes:

“Every year our family gets our Christmas tree at Gethsemane Garden Center and each of us picks out an ornament from their gift store.

“We’ve been going there for 20 years, and when our now young-adult daughters start putting up their own Christmas trees, they’ll have a great collection of ornaments to start with!

“It’s been such a great tradition and we reminisce about all the ornaments as they go up.”

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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