Chicago vs. Big Oil and Gas. The City of Chicago’s suing six fossil fuel companies and their largest trade association, alleging they lied about their products’ implicit climate dangers …
■ … including storms, flooding, severe heat and shoreline erosion.
■ Block Club Chicago: West Siders devastated by floods have formed their own recovery group.
■ Chicago’s Wednesday: Maybe the year’s first 60-degree day.
‘If Mayor Brandon Johnson even had a honeymoon with the news media, it’s over.’ Veteran Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman says the mayor has a real problem, with real consequences for Chicagoans.
■ Reader columnist Ben Joravsky turns a critical eye to “a curious phrase in the mainstream media” covering Johnson: “The mayor’s base.”
Dolla holla. The City Council was set today to vote on new restrictions on dollar stores in Chicago.
■ One council member accuses another council member of attacking him after a meeting last week.
‘These elections come with high stakes.’ Injustice Watch has unleashed its 2024 guide to the Cook County judicial primary …
■ … early balloting for which begins today …
■ … which makes this a fine time to check the new Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.
■ Flouting the First Amendment, one concurring opinion cited the Bible.
■ One dissenting justice says the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization in Alabama.”
■ The Onion: “Alabama Supreme Court Rules That Frozen Burritos Are Children.”
‘I hope he liked what we had to say.’ White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf sounded upbeat after making his pitch to House Speaker Chris Welch for $1 billion to fund a new downtown stadium.
■ Gov. Pritzker reportedly plans to kick in $10 million to expand Illinois arts funding …
■ … and he’s proposing another $10 million to help wipe out Illinois residents’ $1 billion in medical debt.
■ Politico: President Biden’s emailing 153,000 student loan borrowers: “All or a portion of your federal student loans will be forgiven.”
CTA drama. A woman who fell onto the tracks from a moving Green Line train got off with just a broken leg …
■ … thanks to a good Samaritan who pulled his truck underneath the tracks.
Radio rocked. A twist in a business dominated by conservative and reactionary companies: A Texas federal judge has signed off on a plan to extract Audacy—parent to Chicago stations including WXRT, WBBM, The Score and WBMX—from bankruptcy by making an investment fund founded by liberal billionaire George Soros the company’s largest individual shareholder.
■ The deal still requires Federal Communications Commission approval.
‘The public deserves to know more.’ A Sun-Times editorial cheers on state and federal officials’ plans to put the brakes on a merger of the parent companies for the Jewel and Mariano’s grocery chains.
■ A Tribune editorial calls the announcement of Capital One’s plans to assimilate Discover “a sad day for Chicago” (gift link courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters).
■ Amazon’s replacing Deerfield-based Walgreens in the Dow Jones Industrial Average …
■ … a thing that Business Insider says might not work out all that well for Amazon.
■ Amazon’s folding its free Freevee streaming TV service. (Update, Feb. 22: Or maybe not.)
■ Author and tech cynic Cory Doctorow: With a near-monopoly on search, Google has “turned into a pile of shit.”
Wheel fun. On the eve of its 90th anniversary, Brookfield Zoo’s poised next month to add a 130-foot Ferris wheel …
■ … and in April—somewhat unsettlingly—a “shark feeding adventure.”
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.
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