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Good Wednesday morning, Evanston.
Evanston held its first hands-only community CPR classes Sunday. The sessions, which taught chest compressions but not breathing, were held in the wake of NFL player Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the field last month on national TV. “Suddenly people saw CPR does make a difference,” Evanston Fire Department instructor Jason Hays told the RoundTable’s Richard Cahan.
Meanwhile, the news keeps pumping – here are today’s top local stories:
A year after the District 65 and Evanston Township High School boards identified a need to “reboot” a longstanding joint literacy goal, board representatives and administrators said they are now “moving away from” that specific goal. At Tuesday’s joint meeting of the District 65 and 202 school boards, curriculum and instruction teams for both districts offered literacy updates, which showed flat scores over the past few years and a consistent opportunity gap by race.
Hit-and-run update: Many business owners in the commercial district at Chicago Avenue and Dempster Street are questioning why it took so long for officials to recognize that Yun Park, owner of Soapie’s Dry Cleaning & Tailoring, had been hit by a car on Feb. 8. Police and fire officials initially thought Park, who remembered nothing of the ordeal, had fallen. “But the injuries were so much more extensive than anyone could have from a fall,” said one shop owner.
A 14-year-old male ETHS student has been referred to juvenile court for disorderly conduct after allegedly posing with a fake gun in a social media post. The Evanston Police Department said it received a text-message tip Tuesday about a student posing with a gun in a post captioned “can’t wait 4 eths 2 blow up.” Police said their investigation found the weapon was actually a prop gun being used in a class lesson about Romeo and Juliet.
COVID-19 by the numbers: Four new cases and no new deaths were reported Monday, Feb. 20, the last day the city updated totals. The seven-day average is 10.3 cases per day.
More RoundTable reads
In March 2020, the pandemic lockdown forced Evanston Dance Ensemble to shut down its original ballet production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe after a single performance. Now at last, the dancers are returning to the world of Narnia.
Guest Essay: City planner and attorney Daniel Lauber says Evanston’s proposed Shared Housing Provider License Ordinance unwisely lumps together different types of housing. The ordinance, he writes, “is filled with potholes deep enough to swallow a tractor trailer.”
The McGaw YMCA is celebrating Black History Month by participating in a national YMCA We Wear Black campaign this Friday, Feb. 24, and promoting its YouTube presentation of Unforgettable: Memories of the Emerson Street Branch YMCA. The facility (above) was a hub of the Black community until desegregation in 1969.
Your four-legged friends will be pleased to know that dog beach tickets are on sale beginning Monday, Feb. 27. The beach is set to open on Wednesday, March 1.
Picturing Evanston: A warm glow on a cold evening at the entrance to the Alcove restaurant at the Davis Street Metra Station. (Photo by Joerg Metzner)
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Around the web
Evanston advocates ask community to step up to support Venezuelan refugees. Advocates work to provide food, clothing and housing for new arrivals, but say there isn’t enough support or community awareness.
Cook County awards $25 million in grants to address gun violence. Thirty-nine grants were handed out to community groups on Tuesday.
Ice warning for parts of Chicago area with freezing rain, sleet and thunderstorms forecast throughout Wednesday. “Tree damage and power outages are possible,” the National Weather Service said.
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