Hey there! It’s Monday, and it’s finally not 90 degrees in Chicago! I can now walk to the store without looking like a glazed ham. Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. It’s the first day of school in Chicago. Does Los Angeles offer a peek into the future?

Hundreds of thousands of students today returned to Chicago’s public schools. But in Los Angeles, students are beginning their third week of the new academic year, putting the city at the forefront for how a large school district can reopen during a pandemic.

With more than half a million students, Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest school system in the nation. Since reopening classrooms, the district has reported nearly 3,000 active cases among students and staff, but only seven cases have been linked within a school, reports The Washington Post.

LA Unified has adopted stricter pandemic policies than Chicago Public Schools, such as weekly mandated COVID-19 testing for all students, teachers and staff — regardless of vaccination status. In Chicago, testing is largely voluntary, and only some students are required to be tested. [Washington Post]

Meanwhile, here’s a look at how the first day of the new academic year went in Chicago, as excited and nervous students and parents lined up at schools across the city. [WBEZ]

2. Chicago cop who grabbed a woman walking her dog will be investigated

The city agency tasked with investigating police misconduct today opened a probe after a viral video showed a white uniformed officer restraining a Black woman who was walking her dog at North Avenue Beach this weekend.

Lawyers for the woman, whom they identified as Nikkita Brown, said the video shows “an obvious case of racial profiling.” Brown told the unmasked officer she would leave the beach and asked him to stay 6 feet away because of concerns about COVID-19, said attorney Keenan Saulter, who is representing Brown.

The video shows Brown taking out a cellphone, and the officer appears to reach for the phone and then grabs her. Brown can be heard yelling, “Let go!” [Chicago Tribune]

3. 10 civilians — including children — were reportedly killed in U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan

The Pentagon today said it is investigating reports that 10 Afghan citizens, including several children, were killed during a U.S. drone strike over the weekend that targeted suspected militants with the Islamic State Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K.

Family members told The Washington Post that all of the civilian deaths were from a single extended family, who were getting out of a car in their driveway when the drone strike hit a targeted vehicle. A relative told the Los Angeles Times that no fewer than seven children were among the dead.

Meanwhile, rockets apparently targeting Kabul’s international airport fell on a nearby neighborhood today. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack came as U.S. forces scrambled to evacuate thousands of Afghans trying to flee ahead of tomorrow’s withdrawal of all American troops. [NPR]

4. Louisiana assess damage from Hurricane Ida as storm moves into Mississippi

Hundreds of boats and helicopters are rushing to people trapped in floodwaters after Hurricane Ida hit southeastern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm yesterday. The hurricane’s destructive force knocked out power grids, resulting in more than a million people in Louisiana and Mississippi losing electricity.

One death has been reported in Louisiana, but the state’s governor said he expected the death toll to rise “considerably” in the coming hours.

Hurricane Ida comes exactly 16 years after Hurricane Katrina struck the same area. This time, however, the levees are holding up.

Forecasters have downgraded Ida from a hurricane to a tropical storm as it moves inland into southwestern Mississippi with damaging winds and severe flooding. [NPR]

5. Enhanced jobless benefits are slated to end this week

Millions of Americans are expected to lose enhanced unemployment benefits this week in several states, including Illinois, and the cut-off coincides with a rise in COVID-19 cases and a growing body of research suggesting ending the aid will hurt local economies.

In mostly conservative states that ended beefed-up jobless benefits early in the summer, employment did not substantially grow, and the loss of supplemental income caused people to spend less money at local businesses, according to a study from the JPMorgan Chase Institute. [CNN]

The Biden administration earlier this month encouraged states with high unemployment rates to extend the enhanced benefits by tapping into other federal pandemic funds. Illinois’ unemployment rate of 7.1% was much higher than the national average of 5.4% in July, according to the most recent federal monthly jobs report. [CNBC]

Here’s what else is happening

• The number of hate crimes in the U.S. last year rose to the highest point in 12 years, fueled by more attacks on Black and Asian Americans, according to the FBI. [Washington Post]
• The Education Department today launched civil rights investigations into Iowa, South Carolina, Utah, Oklahoma and Tennessee for banning face masks in schools. [AP]
• Illinois lawmakers return to the state capitol this week to potentially approve new legislative boundaries. [WBEZ]
• China today announced that children can’t play video games for more than three hours a week. [AP]

Oh, and one more thing …

Chicago historian and TikTok celebrity Shermann “Dilla” Thomas is back on WBEZ tomorrow with another crash course on fascinating stories you might not have learned in history class.

Thomas, known as @6figga_dilla on Tiktok and Twitter, has made a name for himself on social media by using his charming sense of humor to highlight little-known tales of Chicago’s history.

Tomorrow begins the first installment of a two-part conversation about the Divine 9, a group of Black sororities and fraternities whose memberships include many well-known Chicagoans.

You can catch the segment at 7:45 a.m. and 2:33 p.m., and new ones will air every other week.

Tell me something good …

The new school year is here, and I’d like to know: What is one of your favorite memories of going to class, either grade school, high school or college?

In high school, I ate lunch with some friends in a hallway. We technically weren’t supposed to eat there, but we picked a spot right next to the science department to make the whole thing feel extra dangerous. I know, real rebels.

I was super sassy one day, and a friend gave me a fake punch on the arm, causing me to say, “Ouch, my ovaries.”

A biology teacher overheard me, stopped walking, and asked, confused, “Wait, did you just … ? No, you didn’t … ” And he shook his head and walked away.

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

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