‘Trumpish fear’ / ‘What scares me’ / Tribune tug-of-war

‘Trumpish fear.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg samples “the politics of grievance” roiling tomorrow’s local elections across Illinois.
The Tribune analyzes the proliferation of obscure political parties throughout the suburbs.
Find out where to vote and what’s on your ballot in suburban Cook County Tuesday.
Get background on your local choices at BallotReady.

‘I could get used to a Wrigley at 25 percent capacity.’ Midway Minute’s Kevin Kaduk on what it was like to watch the Cubs in person over the weekend.
As COVID-19 cases surge in Chicago and Cook County, two new mass-vax sites open today near Wrigley and at Chicago State.
The Atlantic: Vaccine “cheat days” are adding up—just when vigilance really matters.
Bloomberg: Next-gen vaccines—including some you can inhale instead of getting a shot—are in the pipeline.

‘What scares me.’ Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton explains why, “four weeks since I received my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,” she’s rethinking plans to ride a bus again …
 … even as the Sun-Times’ Laura Washington calls for people to “get on the L or a bus.”
The Daily Line: Even with a massive infusion of federal cash, “mass transit’s recovery from COVID-19 is likely to be a multi-year process.”
Clean-energy journalist David Roberts rounds up “the coolest parts of Biden’s expansive infrastructure plan.”
A Sun-Times editorial calls on Illinois to spend $89 million it got from a settlement with Volkswagen: “We can’t think of a better use … than to speed up the state’s conversion to electric vehicles.”

Know an aspiring journalist? Spread this word from the Chicago Headline Club: April 16’s the deadline to apply for the Les Brownlee Memorial Scholarship. A worthy undergrad attending a Chicago-area institution can land $5,000. Apply here.
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Tribune Publishing, which rejected an earlier offer, acknowledges the new bid may be “superior” to Alden’s.
Coming to PBS—and the web—tonight: Ken Burns’ new documentary about Oak Park-born newspaper writer (etc.) Ernest Hemingway.

Companies behaving badly. A new report from Public Citizen concludes that, since 2015, corporations have shoveled $50 million to state lawmakers pushing voter suppression legislation.
Top of the list: AT&T.
Journalist Judd Legum offers an explanation for AT&T’s equivocal stance on voting rights: “Look who is in charge of @ATT’s ‘legislative strategy.’
Legum’s Popular Information: “Facebook pledged to suspend political donations, then quietly funneled $50,000 to GOP group pushing voter suppression laws.”

‘Imagine being the one white man on Earth that Tucker Carlson won’t defend.’ Last Week Tonight host John Oliver on the sex-trafficking scandal enveloping Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz—and also tainting a Fox News host.
The Daily Beast’s Erin Ryan: “If you’re a member of Congress of either party who witnessed Matt Gaetz flashing nudes on the floor of the House, you’re involved.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)

‘I thought even … racists knew the I identify as _______ trope is hack, you … racist.’ Comedian Patton Oswalt is among those piling on ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee—father of ex-White House press secretary and Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders—for a hateful tweet.
Poynter’s senior media writer, Tom Jones: “What in the world was Mike Huckabee thinking?

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