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Daywatch: Is a COVID vaccine for youngest kids finally near? | Bears at the NFL draft: What to expect | Mike Royko’s columns, 25 years after his death

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Moderna on Thursday submitted a request to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for kids younger than 6.

It’s a welcome development for parents who have faced long waits to vaccinate their youngest children. A North Aurora mother with an immunocompromised infant told the Tribune: “It’s like … society has moved on and has made the kids feel like, well, ‘If they die, they die.’”

An infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children’s Hospital estimated that it could be several weeks before the FDA makes its decision, as it moves through its normal steps for evaluating vaccine trials.

Meanwhile, the waiting continues. “It seems like for families with children in this age group,” another parent told the Tribune, “it’s been dangled in front of us and then taken away so many times.”

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

COVID-19 tracker | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Daily horoscope | Ask Amy | Today’s eNewspaper edition

Fight over Chicago’s ward boundaries could leave ‘People’s Map’ out in the cold

With a deadline approaching to avoid the first Chicago ward map referendum in three decades, Latino aldermen failed this week to convince City Council colleagues to let them make changes to the design of the 50 wards they’re set to present to voters.

That effectively cuts a map created by good-government groups out of a possible late June decision by voters on the shape of Chicago’s wards for the next decade. The development also sets up a potential head-to-head ballot showdown between the Latino proposal and a map favored by most of the council’s Black Caucus and others.

US Rep. Mike Quigley won’t run for Chicago mayor in 2023; Lightfoot expected to announce reelection bid soon

El Milagro committed ‘flagrant’ violations of state labor law, according to Department of Labor

The Illinois Department of Labor found Chicago tortilla maker El Milagro had violated the Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act because employees regularly worked over 7.5 hours without required meal breaks. The Department of Labor found 112 meal break violations between Jan. 1 and July 31, 2021, and was fined $11,200 in total for those violations.

The findings, which were released to the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request, come after workers at El Milagro filed a complaint with the Department of Labor in late October 2021.

Metra eyes long-delayed bridge work on Union Pacific North Line

Metra is preparing to replace nearly a dozen aging rail bridges along a stretch of Chicago’s North Side, marking the long-delayed next phase of a bridge project that began more than a decade ago.

Metra officials say their preferred plan for the project on the busy Union Pacific North Line would mean minimal changes to commuter train schedules. But property owners who live near the project raised concerns that the construction plan will harm them and their homes.

Illinois’ roads, bridges and water systems remain subpar, but state and federal funding offer optimism

The Bears have 3 picks on Day 2 of the NFL draft. Who are the best players still available?

Ryan Poles didn’t make a splash on his first draft night as Chicago Bears general manager, but that was expected. Instead he will try to select impactful players Friday on Day 2, when the Bears have the Nos. 39 and 48 picks in the second round and No. 71 in the third round.

Here are some noteworthy players still on the board at the Bears’ three biggest positions of need and a handful of other prospects who might merit consideration.

12 intriguing wide receiver options for the Bears in the NFL draft
When do the Bears pick? What do the mock drafts say? Everything you need to know about the 2022 NFL draft.

Take a look back at Mike Royko’s Chicago Tribune columns on the 25th anniversary of his death

Mike Royko was many things. A self-proclaimed curmudgeon. A lover of ribs and all other Chicago foods — except for ketchup on hot dogs. A seller of Tribune-branded socks. For more than 13 years, the beloved columnist and Chicagoan was published five times a week in the Tribune. He died on April 29, 1997 – a month after his last column. As Charles M. Madigan put it: “No one in journalism could touch Mike Royko.”

“Every day was an adventure,” writes Paul Sullivan of his time working as Royko’s legman. He takes a look back at his journey with Royko, which started on bar stools at the Billy Goat and ended with Sullivan on the Cubs beat.

On the 25th anniversary of Royko’s death, read some of his columns written for the Tribune — as selected by his family, colleagues and friends.

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