Good afternoon! It’s Tuesday, and what is it about road trips that makes you want to roll the dice on beef jerky at the gas station? Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. Lightfoot sounds alarm over a “concerning” rise in COVID-19 cases ahead of Lollapalooza

Mayor Lori Lightfoot today warned COVID-19 cases are steadily rising a week before the enormous Lollapalooza music festival is scheduled to return to Grant Park.

City officials are reporting a daily average of 90 cases over the last seven days, up 69% from the previous week. The city’s positivity rate is up to 1.5% from last week’s 1%. Only 59.6% of city residents 12 years and over are fully vaccinated. [COVID Dashboard]

Lightfoot said the rise in cases is likely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, which was first discovered in India earlier this year. Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top public health official, said the delta variant currently makes up about 44% of new cases in Chicago, but she warned it is on track to soon become the most dominant strain.

Like many parts of the U.S., the spread of the delta variant in Chicago is coinciding with a slow down in vaccination rates, especially in the city’s Black and Latino communities.

Regarding Lollapalooza, Lightfoot said the music festival won’t allow anyone to attend unless they have proof of vaccination or tested negative for COVID-19. Festival-goers who are not fully vaccinated should wear a mask, Arwady said. [Chicago Tribune]

2. Civilian oversight of the Chicago Police Department? Or a glorified advisory committee?

A City Council committee this evening is expected to take a preliminary vote on a new plan to create an elected civilian board to oversee the Chicago Police Department. But the details of the proposal fall vastly short of what a coalition of community groups had previously sought, suggesting that progressives may have hit the ceiling on reforms, at least for the time being.

The new plan, born out of a compromise over the weekend between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and activists, would largely maintain mayoral control of the police department. It would create a seven-member board that would not have the power to fire the superintendent, but it can take a non-binding vote of no confidence.

And when it comes to department policies, the board can request changes. But if the department rejects them, the dispute would go to the mayor.

Previously, activists and their allies in the City Council had pushed a plan that could have paved the way for an elected board with much more power, such as deciding who should lead the Police Department. But that proposal, as well as watered down one from the mayor’s office, failed to advance in the council. [WBEZ]

3. Evanston will hire outside lawyers to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct at beaches

Officials in north suburban Evanston will commission an independent investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct by employees at lakefront beaches, reports WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos.

The move comes after WBEZ last week reported more than 50 female lifeguards and other beach workers signed a petition detailing accusations of sexual harassment and abuse by coworkers and bosses on the lakefront — with some of the alleged incidents targeting underage girls.

The petition named two men who worked for Evanston. City officials said they decided not to rehire one of the men this summer. The other man resigned Friday. Neither of them has been charged with wrongdoing. [WBEZ]

4. A massive wildfire in Oregon is disrupting the atmosphere and creating “fire tornadoes”

The Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon is so large that it’s creating its own weather that allows it to spread more rapidly and thwart firefighting efforts, reports The New York Times.

The intensity of the wildfire is so great that it can “generate so-called fire tornadoes — swirling vortexes of heat, smoke and high wind,” the newspaper reports. Unpredictable winds and fire clouds that create lightning have also confounded efforts to contain the blaze.

The Bootleg fire is the largest wildfire so far this year, burning more than 530 square miles of forest and grasslands over two weeks. [NYT]

5. What to watch for at the Summer Olympics (aside from COVID-19)

We’re just hours away from the beginning of the first events of the Summer Games, even though the opening ceremony is on (checks notes) Friday. NPR has a great guide on what to watch in the first half of the Olympics.

U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky, a six-time Olympic medalist, will be competing in up to six events. Simone Biles, the best gymnast in the world, is expected to dominate once again this year. And surfing and skateboarding will make their debuts at the Games. [NPR]

Because of the 13-hour time difference, you’ll have to wake up pretty early to catch Friday’s opening ceremony, which will air at 5:55 a.m. CT on NBC. The network will also run a repackaged version for 6:30 p.m. [New York Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• Stocks rebounded today after concerns over the delta variant led to a major sell-off yesterday. [CNBC]
• The nation’s three largest opioid distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson are close to reaching a $26 billion settlement with thousands of governments. [AP]
• An HBO adaptation of The Last of Us video games will reportedly be one of the most expensive TV shows. [A.V. Club]
• Vaxxed and ready to mingle? Google searches about dating have reached a 5-year high. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

Kids binge watched the British cartoon Peppa Pig so much during the pandemic that they are now sporting “an unusual vocabulary and a British accent just like the show’s namesake character,” reports The Wall Street Journal. (h/t WBEZ’s Libby Berry.)

If you’re not familiar with the cartoon, I caught an episode once with the nephews. It’s about a preschooler named Peppa who is a pig, and it’s pretty charming.

One father told the Journal that his 5-year-old daughter calls the gas station the “petrol station,” cookies “biscuits,” and coffee “tea.” Other parents have reported similar situations and are now referring to the phenomenon as the Peppa Effect. [WSJ]

Tell me something good …

I have to do a performance review for work because apparently showing up everyday isn’t enough. But I’d like to know: What was the first job you had, and did you learn anything meaningful from the experience?

Joel Ruggaber writes:

“My first job was in a library: I was the guy who put all the books in alphabetical order, then back on the shelves. As a result, I gained a unique skill: I can say the alphabet backwards faster than most people can say it forwards.”

And Mark Grotzke writes:

“My first job was at a corrugated cardboard box warehouse, where I learned that singing doo-wop in a freight elevator’s echo chamber is a lot of fun and going to lunch at Como Inn with my hip co-worker, who also had shoulder length hair, was unusual behavior. When our bosses spotted us there, I’m sure they were sweating through their suit jackets that we might come over and say hello.”

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

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