Endangered Chicago / ‘The Day Everything Changed’ / Mickey Mouse clubbed

Endangered Chicago. Add seven more to Preservation Chicago’s list of most threatened buildings and landscapes.
 … including North DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

The case against Madigan. The Sun-Times has identified the relative and the community organization implicated—but unnamed—in the indictment of ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan …
 … whom the pandemic yesterday spared from the traditional arraignment “walk of shame” …
 … before he pleaded not guilty.
Politico: Recognizing that development projects linked to Madigan are important to Latino voters, lawmakers are backtracking on a demand that those projects be frozen.
Today’s main court attraction: The sentencing of actor Jussie Smollett, convicted of lying to the cops about an attack he orchestrated on himself.

‘My daughter … could have ended up … fighting an insane Goliath.’ Teacher and Chicago Reader writer Jack Helbig* reflects on his adoption, 20 years ago, of a Ukrainian orphan.
The New York Times: A Ukrainian woman “decided it was time to take her children and run. They didn’t make it.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia’s attack on a children’s hospital was “a war crime” …
 … an assertion embraced by Vice President Harris.
The Conversation: “Ukraine’s Twitter account is a national version of real-time trauma processing.”
Overwhelmed by the dead, the port city of Mariupol has resorted to a mass grave.
Poynter’s Tom Jones: “The coverage is hard to watch, but news outlets need to continue their brave work.”

‘Facebook is knowingly aiding … Russia.’ The Washington Post reports that pro-Russia rebels are using Facebook to recruit fighters and spread propaganda.
Politico’s Jack Shafer: “Information technology has gained a significant toehold in Russia, making it difficult for the state to blot out the messages it disdains.”
A couple of business professors explain that corporations’ decision to pull out of Russia could be “one of the easiest stands they’ve ever taken” …
 … but Popular Information rounds up a list of prominent companies still doing business in Russia.

Z is for … ? Mysteriously, the letter Z—which doesn’t appear in Russia’s Cyrillic alphabet—has become a symbol of Russia’s war …

‘GasBuddy is a privacy nightmare.’ Wirecutter recommends alternatives for those seeking cheap(er) gasoline.
Maybe a safer CTA will help …
 … but the president of the CTA union says the steps announced yesterday aren’t enough.

‘The Day Everything Changed.’ Columnist Eric Zorn looks back two years to March 11, 2020—when Chicago shut down in the face of a looming pandemic.
Axios Chicago: The pandemic “changed our lives forever.”
The Chicago Teachers Union president has COVID-19.
Chicago’s Pride Parade will return in June …
 … and St. Patrick’s Day is looking a lot more normal.

Trump’s emergency landing. One of the engines failed Saturday night on Donald Trump’s plane.
And his Truth Social app isn’t doing much better …
 … or, as Vanity Fair puts it: “An unmitigated disaster.”

Mickey Mouse clubbed. Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek laggardly got around to opposing Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill …
 … but not before employees expressed outrage at his prolonged silence.
And it’s probably too late now anyway.
Critic Richard Roeper gives the new Disney movie Turning Red—“the 13-year-old girl version of The Hulk”—just 2 1/2 stars.

About 1 in 7 Chicago Public Square readers …
have chipped in over the last four years or so to help cover the cost of keeping this service coming. Thanks to them all—including Joycelyn Winnecke, Chris Ruys, Dale Epton, Tim Ward, Susan Tyson, Eric Davis, Catherine Johns, Melisa Goh, Helen Marshall, Steve Hobbs, Deb Abrahamson, Christa Velbel, David Protess, Meredith Schacht, Diane Scott, Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, Kevin Parzyck, John Culver, Rebecca Ewan, Joseph Lynn, Ellen Cutter, Mary Godlewski, Patricia Winn, Anne Rooney, Allan Hippensteel, Bob Konold, Fredric Stein, Jim Peterson, Mena Boulanger, Thomas Gradel, Sandy Kaczmarski, William Bork, Cate Plys, Charles Pratt, Michael Brooks, Carol Morency, Ken Davis, Lisa Colpoys and Catherine Schneider.
If each of those other six were to chip in a one-time contribution of just a dollar today, that would cover the present cost of Mailchimp’s email delivery service for more than three years.
Chris Koenig, as so often is the case, made this edition better.
_____

* The author of this flattering piece.

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