Death stalks Springfield. In a letter to the top Republican in the Illinois House, Jim Durkin, Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch says “at least four of our Democratic colleagues have received threats against their lives, their loved ones or their place of worship”—a situation made worse, Welch writes, “when a member of your Republican caucus issued a statement fanning the flames.”
■ Durkin’s noncommittal response: “Allow the voices of the minority party to be heard.”
■ Politico Illinois Playbook’s Shia Kapos: “We don't want to think about where this all goes.”
‘Yep, that’s the American stupids, Canada.’ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke offers words of sympathy to Canadians coping with U.S. Republican-supported protesters against COVID-19 restrictions.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: Expect a similar round of “white working-class male rage, COVID exhaustion, fossil fuels, and really big trucks going toot-toot-toot” coming soon to “a nightly newscast near you.”
■ Gov. Pritzker’s asking the Illinois attorney general to appeal a Downstate judge’s ruling against the state’s mask mandate—a decision that Pritzker says “cultivates chaos.”
■ Axios Chicago: Although the governor says he wants to lift Illinois’ mask rules as soon as possible, the criteria are vague.
So the news here is that it wasn’t. The Chicago Police Department says its carjacking task force hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day … soon.
■ Mayor Lightfoot blames the rash of carjackings in recent months in part on kids left home unsupervised during the pandemic: “This was pure boredom.”
■ As Pritzker trumpeted progress against shootings on Chicago expressways …
■ … including at least 20 arrests and more license-plate cameras …
‘Please help my mother.’ A Change.org petition calling on Mother McAuley High School to rehire a veteran teacher fired for using the N-word to illustrate why the former name of the Washington NFL team was wrong had gathered close to 5,000 signatures as of this morning.
■ The Onion: “Teacher Fired For Breaking State’s Critical Race Theory Laws After Telling Students She’s Black.”
■ A sociology professor explains how Whoopi Goldberg’s oops “awkwardly demonstrates how the idea of race varies by place and changes over time.”
■ Block Club Chicago: “Chicagoans Say The City Shafted The South Side On Snow Removal Again.”
Made in Chicago. An ex-Chicago bank exec’s been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for conspiring with Donald Trump’s then-campaign chair to trade bank loans for a presidential appointment.
■ He told the judge: “I never sought to gain fame or power.”
Trib vs. Chicago. The paper’s suing the city, demanding release of records involving complaints against employees accused of mistreating other employees.
■ Amid accusations of staff bullying first reported by Politico, President Biden’s top science adviser has quit.
■ He was a 1987 recipient of a “genius award” from Chicago’s MacArthur Foundation.
■ With spoilers omitted, here’s a bit of how he did it: “I did need help on where [redacted] so I asked Alexa, and [redacted] was an educated guess since that’s [redacted] and I’d expect nothing less from her technical staff bumblers.”
■ A Square cap is headed Brent’s way.
■ With the supply of prize hats depleted, the restriction on one-try-per-user is gone. You now can retake the quiz as many times as you wish.