🟩 Do it / More Divvy / Chicago radio losses

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Do it. It’s Primary Election Day, so climb down from that fence and decide what happens next for democracy in Illinois.
■ That’s not an exaggeration: As a Tribune editorial explains (gift link), “in most of the races … the winner of the primary will be a shoo-in come the fall and there will be little a free-thinking voter can do.”
■ Early and by-mail voting’s been running ahead of previous Illinois midterm gubernatorial primaries.
■ Got a mail-in ballot you forgot to mail? In Chicago, you can leave it at a “secured drop box.”
■ The Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide is a great place to go before you cast your ballot.
■ Update: That posthumous endorsement by the late Jesse Jackson in the Illinois senate race? Not so fast.
■ Jackson’s widow has apologized to candidate Rep. Robin Kelly.
■ Follow the Square Bluesky account for results through the evening.

A ‘failure to plan for anything beyond shock and awe.’ Popular Information: “In the lead-up to war, the Trump administration made a number of decisions that indicate it was relatively unconcerned that Iran would attempt to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.”
■ Updating coverage: Saying he “cannot in good conscience” support the war on Iran, Trump’s right-wingish National Counterterrorism Center chief is quitting—a move that the AP says “shows that questions about the justification for the use of force in Iran extend to the right of … Trump’s base.”
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten: “In the last two weeks … Trump has destabilized the Middle East, turned the United States into a pariah state, killed more than a hundred little girls by mistake then denied he had done it and then admitted he might have done it but he didn’t know for sure because he hadn’t bothered to look into it.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “The only war Trump had an exit plan for was Vietnam.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ A Times of Israel reporter says he received death threats to himself and his family from gamblers pressing him to change his story about an Iranian missile strike—so they could win a bet.

‘Guarantee of humiliation.’ The Atlantic (behind a free registration wall): “Vance learns what Mike Pence already knows.”

‘No one is above the law.’ Gov. Pritzker’s not letting scandal-scarred Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino retire in peace: “He will be held accountable and responsible for the damage he’s done. … We won’t forget, and neither should you.”
■ Trump’s chief of staff has breast cancer.

‘Destroying all the things we accumulated. … That’s killing.’ A two-year resident of a homeless encampment in a park on Chicago’s Northwest Side was braced today for the city to clear the place out.
■ The move follows two fires at the tent city.

More Divvy. Chicago’s bike-sharing partner’s adding more than 200 stations across the city …

‘Hundreds of nurses, disease detectives and other essential public health workers will keep their jobs.’ Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul hails a federal judge’s decision to block the Trump administration’s cuts to federal health care spending.
■ Another federal judge has at least temporarily halted the government’s move to scale back vaccine recommendations.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina calls it “an incredible victory for kids who deserve barrier-free access to vaccines.”

Chicago radio losses.
■ Longtime WGN agriculture reporter Orion Samuelson is dead at 91.
■ Founding anchor at Chicago’s all-news WBBM John Hultman’s passed at 89.

‘Remarkably distressing.’ Poynter media columnist Tom Jones dissects a social media post in which Trump brags about the damage he’s done to the press.
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “The most reliable measure of the quality of the news media’s war reporting is how much the Trump regime is freaking out about it.”
■ Last month’s biggest late-night 18-49 audience? The Daily Show—with the second-highest ratings in its 30-year history.
■ Trib columnist Rick Kogan pronounces a four-part Netflix documentary on Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s family (gift link) “ultimately depressing.”

Why Mailchimp? Responding to word that Mailchimp’s raising what it charges to deliver Chicago Public Square, fellow newsletter columnist and Tribune alumnus Eric Zorn writes: “Switch to Substack! They don’t … charge you for emailing things out. They will take 10% off the top of what your subscribers donate, but I suspect you’d still come out way ahead.” Not true: Square’s tripartite production-and-funding schema—Google’s Blogger + Mailchimp + the nonprofit News Revenue Hub—is better, for several reasons:
■ Mailchimp’s charges here amount to far less than 10%.
■ Blogger and the Hub are free; the Hub doesn’t skim a cent—and is doing lots to keep the news biz afloat.
■ If any one of those three fails—or adopts objectionable policies—they can be replaced. (Medium, WordPress, Memberful and, yes, Substack are out there.) Why put all the eggs in one basket?
■ Substack doesn’t let readers name their own contribution levels; no “Just $1, just once.”
■ Mailchimp has what Substack still doesn’t: Clickmaps. (See your Square columnist’s 2007 contribution to a journalism textbook.)
■ Thanks to the readers who stepped forward yesterday to underwrite Mailchimp’s price hike.
■ And, to the reader who unsubscribed yesterday with the reason “Didn’t want you to have to pay for Mailchimp for me”: PLEASE COME BACK! (Update, 11:18 a.m. She did.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Axios can point you to Illinois’ most Irish place.

Time to cram / CTA dangers / Oscar zingers

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■ Politico has questions about Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s last-minute claim that she won an endorsement from the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died a month ago.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance flags “concerns that ICE might show up to intimidate people.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: Republican candidates “go into midterms with nothing to brag about.”
■ Chicago parents, guardians and temporary custodians of students get to vote again Wednesday—this time for local school council members.
■ Here’s how to do that.

But … but … but … President Trump says he’s “demanding” that “about seven” countries help keep Iran’s oil-delivery-essential Strait of Hormuz open.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich—whose birthday is today—paraphrases Trump: “Our allies, they’re worthless, we can win this thing all by ourselves, in fact, we already have won it all by ourselves, but also our allies are already helping us, but come on, we really need them to step up, because why … aren’t they helping us?”
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “Thanks to Trump, we’re held in contempt even by our closest allies.”
■ Columnist Steven Beschloss: “When you abuse … countries, they are unlikely to come running to help you.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Fallout from the strikes on Iran … appears to have caught the administration by surprise.”

‘Even without a bite, the threat matters.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones assesses Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr’s barking at the media—threatening networks’ broadcast licenses—“because the president is unhappy with coverage of the U.S.’s involvement in Iran.”
■ Former ABC journalist Terry Moran—fired after criticizing Trump—sees a lesson in “how to kill a free press without killing a free press.”
■ CNN media-watcher Brian Stelter tips a cap to a reporter who “refused to be shushed by Trump.”
■ Author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich bestows the title “Trump’s Stupidest Cabinet Member” on a guy who “dismisses war crimes, pooh-poohs the rules of engagement and projects unequivocal belligerence at a time when the United States is rapidly losing whatever moral standing it had in the world.”

CTA dangers. The Sun-Times’ analysis finds that, on average, an L rider gets shoved onto the tracks once a month.
■ Separately, the paper reports that a deadbeat Chicago developer owes the CTA a million dollars in back rent.

■ … but the 50s return before the week’s up …
■ … which makes this a good time to revisit Chicago-born John Belushi’s 1976 Saturday Night Live piece on the many ways March comes in and goes out.

Oscar zingers. Four-time Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel—last night, serving just as a presenter—got off some digs at Trump, CBS … and Melania.
■ Host Conan O’Brien joked: “We’re coming to you live from the ‘Has a Small Penis Theatre.’ Let’s see him put his name in front of that!”
■ But O’Brien also had his serious moments.
■ See his monologue here.
■ The broadcast was plagued by production problems …
■ … and it was worse for those watching on Hulu.
■ The show’s Chicago highlights included the great Buddy Guy taking the stage with the cast of Sinners …
■ … and, 40 years after her first nomination, an Oscar for Chicago-born Amy Madigan—daughter of longtime CBS Chicago newsman John Madigan.
■ Variety’s Scott Feinberg notes that “she has been in the business forever” and “knows and is known by everyone.”

Promise broken. Popular Information: Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s “claim that he would not raise additional money during Trump’s presidency to avoid conflicts turned out to be a lie.”
■ Monopoly watchdog Matt Stoller: “An explosive and little-noticed document” filed Friday “details Watergate-style corruption” at the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
■ Hypocrisy much? New York Times headline (gift link): “To Address Farm Labor Shortage, Trump Administration Turns to Migrant Workers.”

Population Bomb author. Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book warned of human population growth outpacing the planet’s ability to provide, is dead at 93.
■ Smithsonian Magazine in 2018: Ehrlich’s work triggered a worldwide “wave of repression.”

Monkeys, business. Mailchimp’s raising the price of delivering Chicago Public Square by almost 12%.
■ You can help cover that increase by pitching in as little as $1, just once.
■ Make it $100 and get a limited-edition Square cap.

Square up.

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