Welcome to Poetically Yours, where you'll hear the voices of Illinois poets as they share their words about the world around them. This week features Margo Anderson. Her poem is called, "Threat."

Threat

When did our children go from asking for help to wailing in pain?

While the world waits for a COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are encouraging residents to catch up on their other immunizations. 

Lisa Gonzalez is Public Health Administrator for the DeKalb County Health Department. She said with the current pandemic, it’s just as important to protect yourself against other respiratory diseases, such as influenza.

“We believe that it’s likely that the flu virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 will both be spreading at the same time.”

COVID-19 postponed many northern Illinois festivals. But some organizers found ways to keep their celebrations alive.

This would have been the 10th year for the live Screw City Beer Festival in Rockford. This event normally attracts 2,500 to 3,000 people. Aaron Sleger is the director and cofounder of the event. He said when the pandemic hit, he thought the festival would still happen because September seemed so far away. 

RBG. My personal connection. August 10, 1993. The White House.

There she stood at the pinnacle of her legal career, diminutive in stature, with a soft voice, her right hand raised, being sworn in as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Fast forward, twelve and a half minutes into her acceptance speech, she is quoting my aunt, Esther Rothstein, a Chicago attorney, about the attributes of women attorneys.

Songwriting duo Derek Luttrell and Mossy Vaughn return to Sessions from Studio A this week with their new band and debut album, Sickhorse. They've graced our studio previously with the band Name the Moon - and what originally started as writing for Name the Moon turned into something else entirely as the songs took on a different character. We'll talk with songwriter and guitarist Mossy Vaughn on his front porch in Rockford, and also get on the phone with Zach Staas, head of Corporate Panda Records in Nashville.

This week, the Mercyhealth campus on Rockford’s West Side officially got the green light to permanently shut down its mental health unit.

On Tuesday, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted 5-0, in favor of allowing Mercyhealth to shutter its mental health unit at the Rockton Avenue campus. 

Danielle Angileri is with the National Alliance on Mental Health of Northern Illinois. She said these services are more vital than ever. 

SEIU Local 73 confirmed that its bargaining units reached contract agreements with the University of Illinois at Chicago after more than a week on strike. Workers returned this morning.

SEIU member Alicia Uwumarogie confirmed, “The strike is over and that we are leaving the picket lines victorious in so many areas.”

The “wins” in the new agreements include increases in shift differentials, bilingual pay for hospital workers and the workers of the division of specialized care for children.

In April, Illinois Valley Community College’s servers shut down. It happened soon after COVID-19 closed down the campus and shifted classes online. Hackers locked the college out of its own networks. That caused its website and email system to crash. 

In the directory where files should be, the hackers left a message demanding cash for ransom.