Good afternoon! It’s Monday, and I’m wide awake after falling asleep at 8 p.m. over the weekend — proving the pandemic has turned me into an old man. Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Health experts are worried about a COVID-19 surge in the coming weeks

Health experts are urging Americans to remain vigilant because they expect fluctuations in some important COVID-19 numbers. That’s because fewer people got tested and sites cut back their hours around Thanksgiving.

And because symptoms often don’t show up immediately, it could take a few weeks for exposures from the Thanksgiving weekend to start showing up in case counts.

“I just hope that people don’t misinterpret the numbers and think that there wasn’t a major surge as a result of Thanksgiving, and then end up making Christmas and Hanukkah and other travel plans,” Dr. Leana Wen, a professor at George Washington University who is an emergency physician, told The Associated Press. [AP]

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, recently warned the U.S. may see a “surge upon a surge” in the coming weeks. [AP]

Gov. JB Pritzker said today he talked to Fauci and was advised to not pull back on any restrictions. The governor said the current statewide restrictions on businesses will remain in place as his administration awaits what impact the Thanksgiving holiday may have on infections.

In Illinois, officials reported 6,190 new cases and 85 deaths. The state is seeing a rolling, seven-day average of 9,155 cases per day, a 25% decrease from the average two weeks ago. But again, these numbers could fluctuate. [WBEZ]

2. Biden announces economic team as more warning signs flash on U.S. economy

President-elect Joe Biden today announced the top members of his economic team and highlighted his commitment to diversity.

If confirmed, Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen would become the first woman to serve as treasury secretary. Biden also seeks to make Cecilia Rouse the first Black woman to chair the Council of Economic Advisers. And Neera Tanden will be nominated as director of the Office of Management and Budget, becoming the first woman of color to oversee the agency if she is confirmed. [NPR]

The announcements come as a trio of recent reports signal that the U.S. economy is showing some major cracks and further suggests another crisis is approaching: Americans are not spending as much money, layoffs are rising and incomes are falling.

As Axios reports, some economists are wondering how bad the situation will become before Congress does something.

“You have to wonder whether that spark is going to be in the economic data or in the stock market,” Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, told the online news site. [Axios]

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators is trying to jumpstart negotiations over a new relief plan, but it’s unclear if they can overcome differences that have prevented a deal for months. [Politico]

3. Iran blames Israel in killing of nuclear scientist

Iranian state TV is reporting that a remote-controlled machine gun was used to kill scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who played a leading role in Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon in the 2000s.

Iran’s English-language Press TV reported early today that a weapon recovered at the scene of the attack had “the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry.” Iran’s Al-Alam, a state TV channel, claimed the weapons used were “controlled by satellite.” Fars news agency, which has close ties to the Revolutionary Guards Corps, also claimed the weapons were controlled remotely.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Israel carried out the attack, and Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Amir Hatami, vowed to continue Fakhrizadeh’s work “with more speed and more power.” [AP]

Fakhrizadeh’s killing complicates President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda for the Middle East. Biden has said he hopes to reenter the Iran nuclear deal. But if Iran moves forward with its threats of retaliation, the U.S. could be dragged into a military confrontation. [Al Jazeera]

4. Red-light camera tickets against Lightfoot’s security detail were tossed

The city of Chicago has dismissed 10 out of 13 red-light and speed camera tickets given to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s security detail, the Chicago Tribune reports. And it appears some of the violations took place when the mayor was traveling with her detail.

“Though city officials did not address specific questions about her whereabouts at the time each ticket was issued, listings in her official calendar show some were given at times when her calendar suggests she was on the way home from a personal event or en route to a ‘non-city breakfast,’ ” the Trib reports.

A city spokeswoman told the newspaper the tickets were not issued to the vehicle the mayor travels in. The spokeswoman said the tickets were given to vehicles assigned to police officers, who can run red lights in certain situations. [Chicago Tribune]

5. Should the U.S. government count every person, citizen or not, in the census?

That’s the question facing the Supreme Court today. The nation’s high court heard arguments in the Trump administration’s attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants from the census, a move that, if successful, would impact how new congressional districts are drawn and the reallocating of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

As NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports: “Three lower courts have ruled unanimously that the president’s action violates either the Constitution, the federal census statute, or both.”

Totenberg also reports that the red-state coalition that usually supports the president’s legal challenges is missing in this case, probably because some of them, like Texas and Florida, could lose congressional seats and Electoral College votes. [NPR]

Here’s what else is happening

• A document dump from Commonwealth Edison right before the holiday weekend raised more questions about Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. [WBEZ]
• A Chicago police district saw more violence this year than all of Minneapolis. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• The University of Illinois at Chicago wants to create a program for people with intellectual disabilities. [Chicago Tribune]
• A Chicago professor created a plan for turning vacant lots on the South and West sides into spaces that he hopes will benefit communities. [WBEZ]

Oh, and one more thing …

Cue up the theme song from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The mysterious monolith recently discovered in a remote part of Utah has disappeared, according to the Bureau of Land Management’s Utah division.

The agency said “an unknown party” may have removed the monolith during the evening of Nov. 27. Utah officials discovered the object about two weeks ago as they surveyed bighorn sheep from a helicopter, and the situation immediately recalled Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece involving a monolith that plays some sort of role in transforming an astronaut into a psychedelic space baby.

One of the most prominent theories about the monolith (not involving extraterrestrials) is that sculptor John McCracken created the object before he died in 2011. The monolith resembles McCracken’s work, and the artist’s son once told The New York Times that his father “would like to leave his artwork in remote places to be discovered later.” [NPR]

Tell me something good …

The first day of winter is almost here, but it’s already so cold outside that my soul feels like it’s leaving my body. What’s something you like doing during the winter?

Me? In the immortal words of this muse, I will be getting “fat and sassy.”

What are some of your favorite things to do during the winter? Feel free to email at therundown@wbez.org or tweet to @whuntah.

Have a nice night! If you like what you just read, you can subscribe to the newsletter here and have it delivered to your inbox.