* How reliable was the CTA yesterday?…

* Roundup…

* Tribune | Bears finalize deal to buy Arlington Heights racetrack site for a new stadium, but issues remain before ground is broke: By shelling out $197 million for the 326-acre Arlington International Racecourse site, team officials plan to leave behind Chicago’s Soldier Field in favor of owning their own stadium where they could also hold marquee events like the Super Bowl or NCAA basketball championships.

* AP | Retail sales jump as Americans defy inflation and rate hikes: The government said Wednesday that retail sales jumped 3% in January, after having sunk the previous two months. It was the largest one-month increase since March 2021, when a round of stimulus checks gave a big boost to spending. Excluding the pandemic era, January’s rise was the largest in more than two decades.

* ABC Chicago | Winter storm forecast to dump several inches of snow on parts of area Thursday : The city and areas to the west could see between one to three inches of snow, Butler said. The NWS warns of dangerous travel conditions, with winds gusting as high as 35 mph to go with a mix of rain, snow and sleet.

* Illinois News Bureau | Researchers illuminate gaps in public transportation access, equity: “Transit authorities tend to focus on the needs of existing users – those who live in high population density areas and travel at peak times,” Robbennholt said. “However, people without vehicles, who work unconventional shifts or rely on bus transit for spontaneous, unplanned trips are at a significant disadvantage – especially in low-income areas.”

* WGLT | Dan Brady adjusts to private life and urges party change: “One of the things I noticed the Republicans did in the primary to themselves. Republicans over the years have hitched their wagon to who has the most money. An individual, (hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin) created a slate, a handful of people they thought should be running for these offices. They forgot one thing: the will of the people. That was a huge mistake,” said Brady. He said they paid attention to consultants who thought they knew what they were talking about and were proven wrong, but received their commissions and rode off into the sunset. “And the rest of us are left with the mess that they created,” said Brady, adding what the consultants did with $50 million from Griffin was win just two primary races. “They lost every other race. That’s a terrible investment. And that comes from arrogance, egos, and individuals that should be listening instead of talking. That’s something obviously in the Republican Party that needs to be rebuilt,” said Brady.

* Journal Star | Will the Rivermen stay in Peoria? A deal is in the works, says city councilman: The Civic Center signed paperwork in late November to finalize a $25 million grant from the State of Illinois’ capital bill for renovations and improvements. The facility has a long list of projects prioritized on a list from which the money will be spent. The ice plant is No. 20 — far below the top nine or 10 items the building hopes to fix before the money runs out.

* News-Gazette | Time capsule discovered in Illini Hall’s cornerstone: Whatever is hidden inside the Illini Hall capsule is fairly light, he said, and there’s a chance some of the materials have deteriorated.

* Sun-Times | Illinois should put consumers first on car insurance rate hikes: For example, we see no reason why Illinois should continue to be one of a few states that does not prohibit insurance rates that are “excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory.” The proposal would rightly fix that.

* Trance | We’re Launching a Storytelling Network for Survivors of Chicago Gun Violence: Our storytelling group will consist of six to 10 people whose lives have been affected by gun violence. This can mean direct survivors of gun violence or their family members, friends, or neighbors. Beginning early this spring, the group will receive hands-on training from a trauma-informed storytelling coach who will teach them how to develop and better communicate their experiences, as well as the basics of journalism. The cohort will meet in person three times to learn about journalistic writing and oral storytelling. They’ll also have the opportunity to get to know each other. Participants will receive one-on-one attention from their storytelling coach and editing from staff at The Trace. We expect participants to commit an average of about an hour a week to this work.

* Tribune | Super PACs playing bigger role in mayor’s race, hiding donors: The latest committee to join the fray is the New Leadership for Chicago committee, which late last week reported doling out nearly $200,000 so far on digital media in support of García’s run for mayor, according to campaign finance records. The similarly named Chicago Leadership Committee has spent more than $165,000 on TV and digital ads for Vallas’ mayoral bid.

* Sun-Times | Lightfoot steps up attacks on Johnson, hoping to purge his surge: ‘Brandon’s not better. Brandon is bad for Chicago’: With money pouring into his $3.1 million campaign fund, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson has been blanketing the airwaves with commercials touting his plan to “invest in people.” The mayor counters that his tax-the-rich plan will drive business from the city.

* Block Club | In Chicago’s New 34th Ward, Residents Frustrated As Bill Conway Plans To Skip Only Candidate Forum: Wednesday’s forum is the third Conway has been unavailable for or dropped out. “People have a right to listen to how you want to represent us,” one frustrated organizer said.

* Sun-Times | Wilson’s plan to fill CPD vacancies: increase pay, eliminate exam, ‘temporarily’ raise retirement age to 67: The businessman also vowed to put armed police officers on CTA trains and buses to lure back riders who have abandoned the transit system in droves.

* Block Club | Paul Vallas Defends His City Residency And Stances On School Choice, Saying He’ll Bring ‘Crisis Management’ To City Hall: “What’s going to make the difference this time is the city is in a leadership crisis,” Vallas told Block Club board President and Chicago Tribune columnist Laura Washington in a livestreamed interview Monday. “At the end of the day, the best remedy for bad leadership is good leadership. And particularly the type of leader that can bring people together and assemble the type of leadership team that can get the city moving again.”

* Fox Chicago | Garcia casts early ballot as new poll released in race for city’s top office: At a brief news conference outside the polling place where he voted Tuesday, the congressman called on Lightfoot to release the full text of an inspector general’s report that was very critical of how her administration badly bungled a demolition project in 2020 that caused a huge plume of dust and smoke to drift across the Little Village community.

* Sun-Times | Open City Council seats in 2 Northwest Side wards spark call for open minds in addressing crime: Ald. Roberto Maldonado’s decision earlier this year not to seek reelection in the 26th Ward and Ald. Ariel Reboyras’ announcement in the 30th last year prompted a push for new ideas to address crime and other issues in the wards.

* Crain’s | Pro-biz PAC lays out another $75,000 in City Council races: The Get Stuff Done PAC reported spending between $8,000 to $16,700 each on seven candidates with ad-placements through political consulting firm AKPD Message and Media, according to the Illinois Board of Elections. AKPD was founded by Chicago political strategist David Axelrod, who left the company to work for former President Barack Obama.

* Sun-Times | 11 candidates fight to fill open seat in South Side’s historic 6th Ward ‘so that we can become what we once were’: Former home of civil rights and gospel icons needs new investment, crowded field to replace mayoral candidate Ald. Roderick Sawyer says.

* Sun-Times | New poll shows opportunity to resurrect rainbow coalition in Chicago race for mayor: Of those polled, 71% of Black voters and 78% of Latino voters believe Chicago would be better off if those groups worked together on pressing issues, while 75% of Black and Latino voters said they had a “great deal or a fair amount in common.”

* Sun-Times | Big changes ahead for 34th Ward: New City Council member — and new digs 15 miles from longtime home: Neither Bill Conway nor Jim Ascot has ever held political office. Conway, 44, ran unsuccessfully for Cook County state’s attorney in 2020, and Ascot, 73, lost his challenge to long-standing U.S. Rep Danny Davis back in 2006.

* Sun-Times | Disgraced ex-Chicago police sergeant breaks his decadelong silence: Former Sgt. Ronald Watts pleaded guilty to corruption. Judges have thrown out 226 convictions tied to him. Now he’s lashing back at prosecutors.

* The Guardian | Chicago’s south side residents fear Obama Center will displace them: Black longtime residents fear the economic boost from the $500m project will not reach them and that it could make their communities unaffordable

* AP | Study shows ‘striking’ number who believe news misinforms: Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found. Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public’s best interests.

* Intelligencer | Elon Musk Rigged Twitter to Force Us to Read His Tweets: James Musk, Elon’s cousin, sent a Slack request to Twitter engineers at 2:36 a.m. Monday to ask for their help with a “high urgency” task. “We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform,” he wrote. The “issue” was actually Musk feeling sad that we’re not paying attention to him.

* USA Today | WHO confirms Marburg virus outbreak in Equatorial Guinea: What to know about the viral disease: There is no cure or specific treatment for Marburg disease, the CDC said. Still, “Early supportive care with rehydration, and symptomatic treatment improves survival,” according to the WHO, which added that a range of drug and blood therapies to treat the disease were under development.

* The Nation | Even After a Landmark Bill, the Fight for Prison Phone Justice Isn’t Over: The FCC might not regulate these costs to the extent that it can or should. The agency has a record of making decisions about prison exploitation issues that effectively favor companies over consumers. In regulating other prison phone issues, the FCC has seen fit to ask companies for their business data via the honor system, and made decisions with this data rather than scrutinizing the economics of delivering services to prisons.

* NBC Chicago | Chicago Marina Holds Remarkable Connection to the Underground Railroad: “They used their farm as a holding site for enslaved folks who were seeking freedom,” says Lillian Holden, education outreach coordinator of Openlands. In 2019, this stop on the Underground Railroad was officially recognized by the National Park Service, and Gaines is now seeking to redevelop the property for public use. “I am honored to have that distinction, especially being a Black man and owning a piece of Black history that we have,” he says.

* Tribune | My 111-year-old valentine: Cook County shows love for oldest voter: Access to voting has changed tremendously since Lewis cast her first ballot as an 18-year-old, Yarbrough noted. Indeed, during Lewis’ life, American women finally got a constitutional right to vote and the Voting Rights Act helped end many of the once-legal efforts used to prevent Black people from casting ballots.