Good morning, Chicago.

An often-combative Mayor Lori Lightfoot once again took the offensive against her leading challengers, repeatedly interrupting rival candidates and even the moderator during a forum Thursday as she defended her mayoral record.

As it has during much of the mayoral election, crime became a main focus of the discussion as Lightfoot attempted to portray herself as the one person actually addressing the issue while her opponents were coming at the topic from different sides of the political spectrum.

Turning to U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” García, a progressive congressman from the Southwest Side, Lightfoot labeled him as a supporter of the defund the police movement, declaring: “This man is a (police) defunder, pure and simple. Don’t let him fool you.”

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Alice Yin, Gregory Pratt and A.D. Quig.

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Carlon Brown lives on the 15th floor of the Kenwood high-rise where a fatal fire broke out Wednesday morning. Numerous residents, including Brown, have been displaced from the building — which has a history of fire-related code violations, according to city records.

Brown said she hasn’t been allowed to return to her apartment — which is across the hall from where the fire is believed to have started — since the fire was put out around noon Wednesday after she rushed home from work.

The U.S. is poised to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot, a major shift in strategy despite a long list of questions about how to best protect against a still rapidly mutating virus.

COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives and booster doses continue to help the most vulnerable even as more contagious variants have popped up. But protection does wane and the shots don’t fend off milder infections for long.

Engelbert Humperdinck’s music for “Hansel and Gretel” is such an eclectic and cinematic composition that to hear it is to take an evocative ride through your own past, writes Chris Jones, who found himself back in his school choir.

Few other works have so combined folkic whimsy and emotional trauma, but then Hansel and Gretel are the poster siblings for such things.

Even with Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon withdrawing from the Senior Bowl, next week will be big for the Illini in Mobile, writes Brad Biggs.

Three Illinois players are on the National roster, the most in program history (the Illini sent two players 16 times). Coming off an 8-5 season in Bret Bielema’s second year running the program, safeties Jartavius “Quan” Martin and Sydney Brown will be joined by running back Chase Brown.

For one night only at Symphony Center, Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra present an all-Duke Ellington program. Younger music fans may appreciate Disney On Ice featuring songs from Frozen and Encanto.

See more of what’s happening this week in and around Chicago.