So maybe not 20 inches. That was the fringe case among Chicago forecasts for snow totals over the next few days …
■ … but the National Weather Service, while skeptical of that total, nevertheless was predicting more than an inch an hour at times beginning tonight …
■ … with up to 10 inches on the South Side by Wednesday.
■ The forecast was bad enough to prompt Illinois lawmakers to cancel their Springfield sessions this week …
■ … although, regardless, Gov. Pritzker planned to give the General Assembly his annual budget address tomorrow …
■ … including a proposal for some election-year tax relief.
Stupid parents in the news. Axios Chicago reports that some Illinoisans were urging their kids to go to class without masks today—using them as proxies against Gov. Pritzker’s mask mandate …
■ … just as a new “stealth omicron” COVID-19 subvariant—maybe even more contagious—makes itself felt in the state.
Last call for the Chicago Public Square fifth anniversary quiz.
Although the 50-question challenge will remain open to all well into the future, midnight tonight brings your last opportunity to play for a Square cap. As of today’s email publication deadline, no one’s achieved 100%. Care to give it a whirl?
■ Chicago Public Schools is shortening students’ COVID quarantine from 10 days to just five.
■ Prospects are looking up for COVID vaccination of kids 6 months to 5 years old.
■ Olympic athletes are positioned to earn the gold for positive COVID tests.
‘This is the American Jewish experience these days.’ An Anti-Defamation League leader comments on a rash of vandalism in at least six locations on Chicago’s Far North Side over the weekend.
■ Chicago police have been questioning a suspect.
‘We’re the city that invented mountains.’ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke says Chicago’s new tourism campaign, bragging about things created here, would be better if it just made stuff up.
■ A Trib editorial says the name “Chicago Not in Chicago” (which yesterday’s Chicago Public Square got wrong) is “terrible” and “sounds designed to keep everyone away.”
■ The Better Government Association rates as false Mayor Lightfoot’s assertion that “Chicago maintained the lowest unemployment rate through most of 2021 of any large American city.”
‘Trump could successfully steal the presidency in 2024.’ Popular Information’s Judd Legum warns that a new proposal to keep Donald Trump from cheating his way back to the White House could backfire.
■ The Washington Post reports that a Trump ally is pushing the party to expel Trump-heretic Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
■ Reversing a Trump-era policy, the Biden administration pledges to resume a crackdown on power plant pollution.
Wordle up. The New York Times is buying the word-guessing game Wordle for a price in the low seven figures …
■ … pledging to keep the game free for all …
■ … while making a millionaire of Wordle’s creator, who happens to be named Wardle.
■ Commentary on Twitter: “I’m happy that Mr. Wardle is getting paid. Unfortunately, that never happened to Mr. Crassward, who died penniless.”
Deal done. Chicago Public Media, parent to WBEZ Radio, has acquired the Sun-Times.
■ The assertion from CPM’s CEO that they’ll maintain their own newsrooms gained credence with separate stories about the purchase filed by the paper and the radio station.
‘Sometimes, just sometimes, attacks on speech only enhance it.’ Politico’s Jack Shafer reviews Neil Young’s war on pandemic misinformation monger Joe Rogan’s podcast: “It will probably lift the fortunes of both men.”
■ The creators of Spotify’s Science Vs podcast say they’ll produce only episodes fact-checking Rogan and others until Spotify dumps Rogan’s bilge.
■ Cultural critic Bob Lefsetz demands at least seven reforms from Rogan, including “Put corrections at the front of each and every podcast.”
■ Author and Deadspin founder Will Leitch: “Spotify-like protests are the future of online protests.”
■ After this week, Rachel Maddow’s taking a break from her MSNBC show.
Although the 50-question challenge will remain open to all well into the future, midnight tonight brings your last opportunity to play for a Square cap. As of today’s email publication deadline, no one’s achieved 100%. Care to give it a whirl?
■ Speaking of deadlines: Noon Wednesday’s your last chance to back Square in the Reader’s Best of Chicago poll. Vote now!