Amazon quest / Free freezes / No laughing matter

AMAZON QUEST. Developers of a former steel yard hope to lure Amazon’s new headquarters to Chicago’s North Side with the newly renamed “Lincoln Yards

a 100-acre development that could feature a new Metra station, an extension of The 606 elevated trail, a water taxi stop, office and residential towers, a riverside brewery, shops and restaurants. (Rendering: Sterling Bay.)
Gov. Rauner says he’s been courting Amazon executives personally.
Plans are moving forward for a big new police and fire training facility along a desolate stretch of the West Side.

ILLINOIS UNIVERSITIES’ NOSEDIVE. At least three state institutions of higher education are reporting double-digit drops in freshman enrollment this year.
A Tribune editorial: Overhaul the system.

APPLE’S NEW SLICE OF CHICAGO. Its store along Michigan Avenue at the riverfront opens Oct. 20. (Rendering: Apple.)
A hands-on review of the new $1,000 iPhone.
Apple is keeping—and cutting the price of—its cheapest iPhone.

HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL? Updating coverage: Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, backed by a coalition of Democrats, is formally proposing legislation to expand Medicare to provide universal health insurance—coverage simply for showing a government-issued card, with no out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles.
Drug plans are fighting state efforts to subject their pricing to more scrutiny.
Small businesses that get group health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange won’t be able to get it from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.

INCLUDING SOME ‘VERY FINE PEOPLE.’ With strong bipartisan votes, Congress is sending President Trump a resolution calling on him to condemn “white nationalists, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.”
ThinkProgress: Trump’s presidency reveals the true nature of Christian nationalism.

NOT A COLD CASE. Police and amateur sleuths are poring over a Facebook video linked to the case of a young woman found dead in a Rosemont hotel’s walk-in freezer, but the list of unanswered questions remains long.
Police are still rounding up witnesses.

FREE FREEZES. Bowing to public outrage, hacked credit bureau Equifax says it’ll waive fees for those seeking a block on new-credit requests in their names.
But, as TechCrunch notes, communication on this new offer has been “as unhelpful as everything else Equifax has offered in the way of making things right.”
Phil Kadner in the Sun-Times: “The people we pay to protect us have failed. It’s time we demanded better.”
How the hackers did it.


OBAMA’S CHICAGO VISION. For the first time at a public event, the Obama Foundation on Thursday night will discuss program and design plans for the Obama Presidential Center.
Obama will host a global Obama Foundation Summit next month in Chicago.

NO LAUGHING MATTER. A white actor is suing The Second City comedy theater, complaining it did nothing when a black female colleague called him “White Jesus” and “cracker” and said he should be shot.
The @EricandKathy Twitter account is no more as WTMX’s morning show officially takes a new name.
The Tribune’s Mary Schmich revisits personal history with a stroll through Chicago restaurants dead and gone.

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