Primary colors / Obama Center showdown / Come again

Primary colors. The Washington Post recaps last night’s election results across four Southern states: “2018 is the year of the minority woman.”

■ In Alabama’s Georgia’s Democratic “Battle of the Staceys,” Stacey Abrams defeated Stacey Evans, positioning her for a bid to become the nation’s first black female governor. (Photo: Stacey Abrams on Twitter.)
■ Texas has its first openly gay Latina major-party candidate for governor.
■ In Kentucky’s Republican primary, a high school math teacher ousted the state House majority leader.
■ Reflecting a wave of teacher protest across the country, congressional Democrats are pushing a plan to undo some of last year’s Republican tax cuts and fund raises for teachers.
■ ProPublica: Groups tied to the reactionary, Republican-allied Illinois Policy Institute are seeking a foothold on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

You’re gonna wanna diagram this. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is calling for the state’s legislative inspector general to inspect a female state representative’s claims Madigan’s office retaliated against her because she criticized his office’s handling of sexual harassment charges that triggered an investigation of Madigan’s office.
■ A female state senator: “I hope … he is seeing how serious women are about the fact that we’re not just going to tolerate being treated differently, being intimidated, harassed.”
■ McDonald’s faces sexual harassment charges in Chicago and eight other cities.

Balbo begone? Chicago aldermen are proposing to rename Chicago’s Balbo Drive—which honors fascist aviator Italo Balbo—after anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells.
■ At two New Trier High School campuses, an administrator says the hurtful impact of three incidents of racial graffiti is “impossible to overestimate.”

Obama Center showdown. Big crowds could show up for today’s Chicago City Council meeting, which could bring final city approval for the controversial construction in Jackson Park of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.
■ Watch live on the web, beginning at 10 a.m.

‘There just can’t be priority, free, full-day two-year Montessori pre-K for the most affluent boundary school in the city.’ The Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general is calling for an end to an “unjustifiable” perk for the city’s wealthiest attendance area.
■ A Sun-Times editorial on future Chicago school closures: “Give future displaced kids the pick of any other school, bar none—including selective and charter schools.”

Prime invective. Civil liberties groups are sounding an alarm about facial recognition technology Amazon is giving police across the country.
■ … as explored on the latest Chicago Public Square Newscast.

15 yards for kneeling. NFL owners are weighing the prospect of penalties for players who protest during the national anthem.
■ USA Today columnist Jarrett Bell: “Forcing players to stand for the national anthem would be a huge mistake.”

But you knew it all along, right? Behind all the bragging involved in the announcement that Fifth Third Bank is swallowing Chicago’s MB Financial: Admission that dozens of branches for the combined operation will close.
■ Congress is moving to dismantle some post-meltdown regulations on financial institutions.

Come again. Most-clicked item by far in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square? The one about the censored Summa Cum Laude graduation cake.
■ Stephen Colbert offered his own as a consolation.
■ Neil Steinberg in the Sun-Times: “Cum is an interesting word.”

Announcements.
■ Attentive reader Beth Kujawski noted an errant space after a dash in yesterday’s emailed Square. (And you thought you had an eye for detail.)
■ This edition is brought to you thanks to support from The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians, including Martha Whitehead, Julia Winn, Tim Woods, Mark Wukas and Owen Youngman.
■ This concludes the alphabetical salute to those who’ve joined the Legion and allowed public acknowledgment. You can join them for just pennies a day, and then we’ll begin all over again.