When I was driving past the roundabout at Auburn and Main Street over the weekend, I noticed the large U.S. flag flying at half-staff and wasn't exactly sure of the reason.

During a quick search to see the current status of the U.S. flag from Stars and Stripes Daily, the status of the American Flag was at full-staff nationally, so the next was to check if the Governor had ordered the flag lowered.

Here's why U.S. flags are at half-staff in Illinois but not in any other state

According to the Illinois Flag Display Act, the flag will be flown at half-mast throughout the state whenever "an Illinois member of the armed forces, police force, fire service and other groups covered by the Act" is killed in the line of duty.

On Friday (3/3), Illinois Governor JB Pritzker sent a notice to the Department of Central Management Services to have all entities covered by the IFDA lower their U.S. and state flags to half-staff from sunrise on Saturday, March 4 until sunset on Thursday, March 9.

This symbolic gesture is in honor of Andres Vasquez-Lasso, the Chicago Police officer who was killed in the line of duty on the SouthWest side of Chicago when he responded to a "domestic-related incident," according to Fox2Now.

What's the difference between half-staff and half-mast?

According to USHistory.org, the term half-staff is used when lowering the flag over land, and while they've been used interchangeably, half-mast is more commonly used when lowering the flag at sea.

You can find out when the flag is lowered to half-staff nationally on Twitter by clicking HERE.

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