Today (Friday) the city of Chicago has entered PHASE 5 of the Restore Illinois plan. With that -- businesses are no longer required to mandate masks, or ensure social distancing between parties, however, all businesses reserve the right to enforce their own policies regarding unvaccinated patrons. Please post these policies on your door. Folks are still required to wear masks inside hospitals, CTA, schools and other places as they may require.

On June 2nd, several local officials gathered near Belmont Rocks for the ground-breaking ceremony for the AIDS Garden in Lakeview. The garden has been in the plans for more than a decade but funding kept delaying the process until now.

One year ago today, George Floyd was killed by a police officer, and even though this was not the first incidence, it did bring national and international attention to the racial inequity in our country. That attention did not put a stop to the racial profiling and killing but it did cause some folk to believe what many of us BIPOC experience everyday.