Chicago Public Square will take Friday off. Back Monday. Meanwhile, get continual updates by following Square on Facebook. And now the news:
‘The murder Chicago didn’t want to solve.’ ProPublica’s Mick Dumke revisits a still-open 1963 case that “illustrates Chicago’s enduring legacy of political corruption, police misconduct and systemic racism.”
■ A suburban school administrator asked dozens of young Black men what’s driving the area’s carjacking crime wave.
We still don’t know what he (allegedly) did. But now that ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s handpicked successor, Edward Guerra Kodatt, has quit for “alleged questionable conduct,” Democrats were set to huddle today to pick the replacement’s replacement.
■ State Comptroller Susana Mendoza is asking Kodatt to decline the month’s salary he’s entitled to under a law she’s aiming to reverse.
■ A veteran Chicago and Illinois political insider faces charges he bribed a disgraced ex-alderman and a corrupt ex-Chicago Public Schools official.
■ A Tribune editorial: “Just when you think Illinois might be turning a corner with … a renewed focus on ethics, you realize the corner is actually a dead end.”
Vaccine surge. Gov. Pritzker predicts Illinois’ supply of COVID-19 vaccines will nearly double by mid-March.
■ Although the state technically is expanding vaccine access today to people under 65 with underlying health conditions, not so much in the Chicago area.
■ A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report concludes that more than two-thirds of the people who exercised indoors at an unnamed Chicago gym last August got the coronavirus. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
‘You’ve got to be f__king kidding me.’ An open mic caught Mayor Lightfoot’s exasperation as she got word during a City Council meeting that scandal-scarred Ald. Ed Burke would oppose a quick vote on her pandemic relief fund plan.
■ It wasn’t her first time (2019 link).
■ With a full-page ad in the Sun-Times, dozens of Chicago’s corporate leaders hail Lightfoot for her “leadership in navigating the city” through the pandemic, racial strife and recession.
■ The mayor’s acknowledging the concerns of hunger strikers protesting a metal recycling plant’s relocation to the Southeast Side, but she hasn’t embraced their demand that the city deny the permit.
■ The mayor’s acknowledging the concerns of hunger strikers protesting a metal recycling plant’s relocation to the Southeast Side, but she hasn’t embraced their demand that the city deny the permit.
■ Aiming to slow “urban removal” in the gentrifying neighborhoods along the 606 trail, the mayor’s pushing an ordinance that would slap a big fee on developers who demolish nearby residential buildings.
Lakefront peril. Preservation Chicago puts the city’s shoreline on its annual list of endangered buildings and resources.
■ Also cited: Roman Catholic churches.
Trump’s treasures. The tax records the former president tried to keep secret for years have been turned over to New York’s district attorney …
■ … but they may never become public.
Restaurant Week reborn. Chicago’s foodie fest is coming back for 17 days beginning March 19—with pandemic-driven pickup and delivery options.
■ The lockdown’s been good to Buona Beef: It’s hiring 500 people as dining comes back.
■ The Trib’s Nick Kindelsperger finds McDonald’s new fried chicken sandwiches “a huge improvement.”
Unplugged. Fry’s Electronics—a destination for electronics tinkerers for close to four decades—is calling it quits.
■ Best Buy says pandemic-driven sales of remote-work computer equipment have begun to slow.
■ In a move that has analysts and consumer groups scratching their heads, ComEd parent Exelon is splitting its nuclear plant operations into a separate company.
About Facebook’s blocking. Updating an item in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square: No comment from Facebook on why it blocked Illinoisans sharing a U.S.-created link in a public Chicago-area Facebook group. But Katrina Aman at The Conversation told Square Wednesday:
■ “Facebook is blocking Australians from sharing and accessing news content, the result of an ongoing dispute with the Australian government. … The Conversation U.S. is an independent news organization, but because The Conversation was founded in Australia and we share a name, mission and website with the Australians and six other media outlets around the world, we are also being banned. … We are in conversation with Facebook and hoping to see it fixed.”
■ And, in fact, now that Australia has passed a law requiring Google and Facebook to pay news media, the article that triggered this inquiry now can be shared.
■ A journalism prof sounds the alarm: “Tech giants are swallowing the web.”
‘I have pursued a commitment to transparency over the antiquated practices of objectivity.’ In a letter to the editor, fired WTTW news director Hugo Balta says he “was wrongfully terminated last week because I don’t hide behind the handicap of objectivity as if journalists can check their humanity at the door.”
■ He has a point (2017 link).
■ Chicago radio blowhard Dan Proft is done as a national host.
■ A new audiobook project from Chicago actor* Kevin Theis gives voice to historic speeches never before recorded.
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■ And thanks to Mike Braden for making this edition better.
Midway Minute is a Square advertiser.
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* And sometime Square advertiser
