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.”
■ 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 …
■ … and cutting membership prices.
‘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.
