[Whispering in a corner]: Dear God, please let Illinois have a vaccine lottery and please let me win it. I promise to never share this link again in the newsletter. Oh, hey! Didn’t see you there! It’s Thursday, and here’s what you need to know today.

(By the way, if you’d like this emailed to your inbox, you can sign up here.)

1. City Hall is still not on the same page about police torture under Jon Burge

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has consistently said Chicago police tortured African Americans into giving false confessions under the direction of the late police commander Jon Burge.

But the city’s Law Department continues to deny there was a pattern, reports WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell. In response to five lawsuits filed by men who say they were victims, city attorneys have refused to admit that police regularly tortured suspects.

This comes after a city panel, led by Lightfoot, concluded in 2016 that Burge and the detectives he supervised “tortured and abused at least 100 African Americans on the South and West sides in attempts to coerce confessions.”

Chicago-based civil rights attorney G. Flint Taylor accused Lightfoot’s administration of being “two-faced.” [WBEZ]

2. Chicago moves up full reopening to June 11, aligning with the state

Bars, restaurants and other businesses in Chicago will no longer have to limit capacity and follow other pandemic-era restrictions a week from tomorrow, Mayor Lightfoot announced today.

That means the city will be in sync with the state’s plan to lift restrictions on June 11. Previously, the city was looking at July 4 for a full reopening.

The news comes as the city reports a positivity rate of just 2% and an average of 135 cases per day, the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic. However, only about 42% of Chicago residents are fully vaccinated, well below the desired target of 70%. [WBEZ]

Meanwhile, cases also continue to fall throughout Illinois. The state is reporting an average of 734 cases per day, down 52%from two weeks ago. [New York Times]

3. Pritzker is more popular with Chicago voters than Lightfoot, poll finds

A recent poll from WGN and Emerson College found Mayor Lightfoot’s approval rating is 48%, with 39% of city voters disapproving and 13% undecided or have no opinion.

When asked about Gov. JB Pritzker, 64% of Chicago voters approved his overall job performance, the poll found.

Crime remains a top issue for Chicago voters (38%), and a plurality gave Lightfoot a poor grade (42%) on her handling of public safety. Other issues on the minds of voters were police reform (12%), health care (11%), COVID-19 (10%), housing (9%) and jobs (9%).

Another interesting nugget from the poll: 41.5% said they opposed renaming Lake Shore Drive in honor of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable while 36.6% supported the idea. [WGN]

4. How Arizona’s ballot “audit” is a playbook for disinformation campaigns

Republican-commissioned efforts to recount more than 2 million ballots in Arizona’s Maricopa County are being criticized as a “clown show” and “performance art” by policy experts. But there is growing concern that the recount can become a blueprint for other states to further erode trust in the electoral process, reports NPR.

Maricopa County’s ballots have already been audited several times by companies with experience in the field, and no irregularities were reported. This latest attempt, however, is led by a Florida firm called Cyber Ninjas, whose CEO has echoed false claims that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. [NPR]

The former president has become increasingly consumed with ballot audits, reports The Washington Post, and he has suggested to allies that he could return to the White House later this year. [Washington Post]

5. The Tokyo Olympics took another blow

About 10,000 of the 80,000 volunteers helping organize next month’s Tokyo Olympics have quit as concerns grow about holding the Games during a pandemic.

Pressure is mounting to cancel the Olympics, which was postponed last year, as Japan reports a surge in COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rates. According to The New York Times, a recent poll found that 80% of people in Japan did not want Tokyo to host the Olympics.

The city is currently under a state of emergency as the country faces a fourth wave of infections. And less than 3% of Japan’s population is fully vaccinated, among the lowest rates reported by industrialized countries. [New York Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• Weekly jobless claims in the U.S. fell for the fifth week in a row. [AP]
• President Joe Biden said the U.S. will donate 75% of its unused COVID-19 shots to a global vaccine program. [AP]
• A single California wildfire destroyed at least 10% of the world’s mature giant sequoia trees last year, according to scientists with the National Park Service. [NPR]
• The Tenacious Unicorn Ranch in rural Colorado aims to be a safe haven for trans and queer people. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

WBEZ’s Curious City wants to know which question you’d like to see answered. (If you’re unfamiliar with the show, Curious City answers audience questions about the Chicago area.)

The questions are:

Did Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood have a silent film industry? How big of a deal was the silent film scene in Chicago?

Why doesn’t Chicago have an indoor public market like the West Side market in Cleveland or Pike Place Market in Seattle? Have we ever had one? If so, why did it disappear?

And how do skyscrapers recognize special events with lights? How does the process work?

You can vote on which answer you think Curious City should answer in this online poll. And if you have a question, feel free to send it to the show via this link.

Tell me something good …

What is a good book you recently read?

Bindy Bitterman writes:

“I am reading Michael Chabon’s Moonglow, about his grandfather, and it’s fascinating reading; I am about halfway through. Chabon’s writing is so distinctive, and his grandfather was obviously an intriguing fellow, although he admits parts of the book are fiction (or fictionalized) so it’s hard to know what’s true and what isn’t. But that really doesn’t matter, does it?”

And Mona writes:

“The best book I read recently was an autobiography of Harpo Marx titled Harpo Speaks. You hate that you know he dies in the end as he was so loveable.”

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

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