Ill winds. The Chicago Board of Elections is urging people to vote early for tomorrow’s municipal contests—because tornadoes shadow the weather forecast.
■ Candidates Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson have been running hard on the South Side in particular.
■ Whoever wins, the Tribune’s Laura Washington hopes Johnson and Vallas will find a way to collaborate.
■ Columnist John W. Fountain: “Perhaps a spring Election Day, 55 years to the day [after] Dr. King was slain, will bud with change … even in this divided city where race still billows like the wind.”
Not just Chicago. The mayor’s race has hogged the spotlight, but Axios’ Justin Kaufmann notes that other contests “could shape how the city’s suburbs look and feel for years.”
■ The ACLU: Local elected offices impact your civil liberties …
■ … so don’t vote dumb: Check the Chicago Public Square voter guide for the city and the suburbs.
Long trains runnin’. ProPublica tracks the growing menace of “monster trains”—in Illinois and elsewhere …
■ … and it wants to know if a rail crossing near you is a danger to the community.
Sweep season. April sends Chicago back to sweeping the streets again …
■ … which means it’s time to check the schedule to avoid getting ticketed.
Not your kind of place today. McDonald’s has reportedly closed corporate offices for a few days …
■ … so its employees can be laid off in the comfort of their homes.
‘All of us are real sad your family member _____ got shot. Here’s a cake!’ Columnist Irv Leavitt suggests a new way politicians who refuse to back gun controls can show their support for gun violence victims’ relatives.
■ An idea from one of Neil Steinberg’s readers: “A nationwide school strike until Congress passes a law to ban assault weapons.”
■ Matthew Yglesias at Slow Boring spots a disconnect between some Democrats’ passion for gun control and others’ conclusion that “arresting people for carrying guns illegally is bad.”
‘Favorite miracle: Splitting of the sea with Jewish space lasers.’ Columnist Steve Sheffey updates his “Top 10 Signs You’re at a Republican Seder” …
■ … last year’s debut of which was plagiarized by, among others, “Michael Cohen—yes, that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer.”
■ Speaking of space lasers and the person who propagated that nonsense …
‘Greene absolutely should be profiled … but not in the way 60 Minutes did it.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones says CBS merited the criticism it got for turning its spotlight on Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
■ Chicago TV news veteran Elizabeth Vargas tonight launches a show on the Chicago-based NewsNation network.
■ The New York Times has refused to pay for that verification checkmark on its main Twitter account, so Twitter’s yanked it.
■ Insider reporter Avery Hartmans: “Someone hacked my phone and stole my credit card. I set out to find them.”
Thanks. Readers Reg Davis and Eric Hochstein made this edition better.
■ Square gives back, too: Three free one-month subscriptions to Lyz Lenz’s Men Yell at Me newsletter (each a $7 value) will go to the first readers to email Yell@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.