Hey there! It’s Thursday, and I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I remembered something embarrassing that happened nearly a decade ago — and now I can’t even remember what it was. The miracle of life. Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. The CDC says fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most indoor settings

In a significant move toward pre-pandemic “normal,” fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks or stay six feet apart in most situations, indoors and outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today.

The updated guidance still recommends face masks in crowded indoor settings, like planes, hospitals and prisons. [AP]

Meanwhile, the president of the second-largest teachers union in the U.S. is calling for the full reopening of classrooms in the fall. [NBC News]

In Chicago, city-run vaccination sites, as well as pharmacies and health care providers, are expected to begin offering shots today to adolescents between 12 and 15. [Chicago Tribune]

And Illinois is moving forward with lifting more business restrictions as it aims to fully reopen on June 11. [Chicago Tribune]

2. Two-thirds of police chases in Chicago ended in crashes in 2019, according to leaked emails

About 66% of the 270 police chases in 2019 ended in crashes, leaving a total of eight people dead, reports the Chicago Sun-Times, citing a “pursuit litigation analysis” that was included in a trove of hacked City Hall emails leaked online.

The emails show Mayor Lori Lightfoot followed the crashes closely. She mentioned the issue with David Brown before he was sworn in as police superintendent and asked advisers if the city could be sued.

Despite all that attention, it took nearly a year for the city to enact a new policy aimed at fixing the problem, and it happened after the tragic death of a mother of six. [Sun-Times]

The hacked emails were posted online last month by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit group that advocates for transparency.

In one email, Lightfoot wanted to send a letter to the public stating her displeasure with the Chicago Tribune after the newspaper published a report she didn’t like. [Block Club Chicago]

3. A former Blackhawks player accused a coach of sexual assault

An unidentified former Chicago Blackhawks player has sued the National Hockey League franchise, alleging that he and another teammate were sexually assaulted by an assistant coach before the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup victory, according to a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The player, identified only as “John Doe,” accuses the team of ignoring his claims against the assistant coach, who went on to be convicted of a sex crime involving a student in Michigan and is now a registered sex offender in that state. The lawsuit identified that coach as Brad Aldrich.

An attorney who said he represents Aldrich contacted WBEZ and said the former coach denies the allegations. A Blackhawks spokesman said the allegations against the organization lacked merit.

The player is represented by Chicago lawyer Susan Loggans, who said her client had “suppressed” memories of an alleged sexual assault until July 2019, when he learned Aldrich was convicted in 2013 of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a student. [WBEZ]

4. Egyptian negotiators try to reach truce agreement between Israel and Hamas

As violence continued for a fourth day between Israelis and Palestinians, Egyptian negotiators held in-person talks with the two sides in an effort to de-escalate the conflict, reports The Associated Press.

The news comes as the death toll continues to climb. Officials in Gaza say at least 87 Palestinians, including 18 children and eight women, have been killed and 530 people have been injured. Israeli officials say seven people have been killed, including a soldier and a 6-year-old child.

As negotiators try to reach a truce, both Hamas and Israel appear determined to move ahead. Israel has called up 9,000 more reservist troops, and Gaza militants fired some 100 rockets nearly simultaneously, the AP reports. [AP]

In Chicago, hundreds of demonstrators marched downtown yesterday in support of Palestinians and demanded an end to Israeli airstrikes. [AP]

5. Pritzker says it’s too soon to end enhanced unemployment benefits in Illinois

Gov. JB Pritzker this week said his administration is “not going to pull the rug out from under people” by ending beefed up jobless benefits, reports NPR Illinois.

Pritzker’s comments come as Republican-led states are working to cut jobless benefits, claiming they are keeping people from returning to the workforce. And the head of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association is urging Pritzker to end the enhanced benefits before their Sept. 6 expiration date. [NPR Illinois]

Meanwhile, only 473,000 jobless claims were filed last week in the U.S., a new pandemic low. [AP]

Here’s what else is happening

• Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid hackers a nearly $5 million ransom. [Axios]
• Former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn will testify before a House panel about his role in former special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. [NPR]
• The Washington Post takes a deep dive into what is known about the suspects in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. [WaPo]
• Ohio created a $1 million lottery in an effort to encourage people to get vaccinated. [NPR]

Oh, and one more thing …

Former President Barack Obama is this week’s guest on WBEZ’s Art of Power, where people share their experiences of amassing power and how they use it. Host Aarti Shahani said she had a ton of questions for the former president — from policy and politics — but she decided to go in a different direction.

“Given that American democracy was disrupted by a man whose very definition of ‘manhood’ is the opposite of Obama’s, it felt timely — urgent even — to drop down to a fundamental level: the story he tells himself about what it means to be a man,” Shahani writes.

Obama talks about how he balanced his family life with his enormous ambitions outside the home, the hopes he has for his daughters and why manhood should be more about caring for other people rather than domination. [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

As we get closer to the big reopening, I’d like to know what you’re looking forward to as life gets more normal.

Megan Collins-Moore writes:

“I’m looking forward to two things as normalcy becomes normalized. I’m looking forward to going on a date with my husband — a real one where we get dressed in real clothes and go to a real restaurant and our kids (ages 4 and 9 months) are watched by a real (vaccinated) babysitter.

“And I’m looking forward to my husband’s family meeting our daughter who was born in July 2020. They all live in England, so we are waiting and watching travel restrictions.”

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

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