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Isabel’s afternoon roundup
Friday, Mar 20, 2026 - Posted by Isabel Miller * Crain’s…
* The Daily Egyptian | Doody gets GOP nomination for 118th Illinois House seat: The former radio host of the “Working Man Show” said he felt hesitant to enter the race because he’s not a politician. However, after his campaign manager, Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens, asked him to think it over, he was ready for the task, he said in a February interview. Doody said his main goals are to give back to his community by rebuilding infrastructure and promoting tourism. “I know the territory, I know the geography, I know the people. I identify with them,” Doody said in the interview. “When you’re in the super minority like the Republican Party is, then you’ve got to play three-dimensional chess all the time.” * Chicago Reader | The fight over Illinois’s data center boom is coming to a head: The POWER Act would require data centers to bring their own clean energy, ensuring Illinois can meet its climate goals and that everyday ratepayers are not footing the bill for the industry’s electricity use. Consumers in the sprawling PJM market—the largest electric grid operator in the U.S., responsible for delivering power to 65 million people from Illinois to New Jersey—will collectively pay $9.3 billion for energy used by data centers between 2025 and mid-2026, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. * Press release | Ness, COWL to Hold Literacy Forum in Springfield Tuesday: “This is a great opportunity to hear from subject matter experts on issues they’re seeing in education and explore ways we can better equip both educators and students to improve literacy rates in areas across the state,” said Ness. “This information is invaluable as we get into the thick of budget negotiations and debate what money goes where to get the best deals for our residents and our local schools.” * Crain’s | Johnson proposes $55M tax break for Bulls, Blackhawks 1901 development: With both the administration and local Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett, 27th, in support, the incentive for what’s been dubbed The 1901 Project is likely to be approved as soon as next month, but the tax break raises eyebrows when both a cash-strapped city and Chicago Public Schools rely heavily on property taxes. The potential tax abatement is the first disclosure of public dollars being tapped to support the $7 billion redevelopment of surface parking lots surrounding the United Center into a mixed-use campus featuring a 6,000-seat music hall, 233-room hotel, public parks and up to 9,463 residential units. * Sun-Times | Chicago Park District pays more than $2 million to ‘sexually exploited’ lifeguard: The toxic workplace culture that once festered at Oak Street Beach led the Chicago Park District to pay more than $2 million to a female former lifeguard there — bringing the total legal tab for the sexual misconduct scandal at the city’s public beaches and pools to more than $8.7 million. The misconduct in the latest case included “grooming, exploitation and sexual assault” by park district supervisors that began when the plaintiff was still a “minor,” according to court records. * WTTW | Chicago Appeals Order Requiring Officials to Destroy Millions of Police Body-Worn Camera Videos: Requiring the city to delete those videos could complicate efforts by a team appointed by a federal judge to assess the city’s compliance with the federal court order known as the consent decree, which requires CPD to overhaul the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers while weakening “oversight by limiting the development of accurate, evidence‑based assessments of how policing is actually carried out,” according to the statement. The city has never destroyed even a single video captured by a CPD officer’s body-worn camera, according to evidence presented to Mullen during the court case brought by the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7. * Tribune | Campfire Milkshake is back for more at Chicago White Sox games. And it’s bringing some new friends.: “We’re introducing our Campfire Milkshake 2.0,” Nick Toth, executive chef at Rate Field, said with some measure of pride while he stood in front of all the new offerings. The 2.0 version of the shake is not all that different from the original, but “we twisted it up a little bit,” Toth said, “to make it shareable for two guests.” On the field, the Sox have not done a lot of things all that well in recent years. Eleven of the past 15 seasons have ended with losing records. They’ve lost at least 101 games in each of the past three seasons. Hope has dimmed amid the losses, and good seats are regularly available at Rate Field, and usually on the cheap through third-party ticket vendors. * Block Club | DePaul Faculty, Artists Put Pressure On University To Save Art Museum: In an open letter penned by philosophy professor Sean Kirkland and fellow faculty, thousands of DePaul community members, artists, curators and more signed on to oppose the museum’s closure. Since its publication Feb. 28, the letter has received nearly 3,800 signatures. The closure, slated for June 30, “appears to us short-sighted, wrong-headed and grounded in some deeply disappointing principles of prioritization,” the professor wrote. * Daily Herald | Elgin police officer fired for social media posts about immigration enforcement: It’s the second time Lentz has been fired over social media posts. In September 2014, he was terminated by the department after Facebook posts that appeared to have racial connotations. An arbitrator ruled that the termination should be reduced to a six-month suspension after a grievance was filed by the police union. * Daily Herald | ‘It’s very bittersweet for me’: Hollywood Blvd. Cinema to auction decades of movie memorabilia to fund makeover: Some 600 items reflecting decades of accumulated memorabilia, decor, fixtures, and furnishings will be on the block when Donley Auctions holds “The Redesign Auction” for Hollywood Blvd. Cinema. […] “I know we do need to be updated,” she said. “All of the funds are going right back into the building. Nothing will be kept, it’s just to get the new chairs, to do all the updates we’re planning, whole new menu, new rewards program.” * Crain’s | Amazon wants to eat Costco’s lunch in Chicago’s suburbs: With two test case stores opening in Chicago’s suburbs, Amazon is picking a deliberate fight with the likes of big box retailers Costco and Walmart that promises to be a “battle to watch,” analysts predict. The stores mark Amazon’s latest attempt to crack the notoriously difficult grocery market and compete head-on with established players in brick-and-mortar retail — a space where the e-commerce giant has struggled despite its 2017 Whole Foods acquisition and subsequent experiments with smaller-format stores. * Neil Steinberg | Definition of a company man? Calbert Wright, who’s been working at Ford’s Chicago Heights plant since 1963: When Wright began work at the age of 23 at Ford, John F. Kennedy was president. Henry Ford still ran the business — albeit Henry Ford II, grandson of the man who founded the automobile manufacturer in 1903. That means Wright, who prowls the floor today checking that workers on the line have enough parts to keep the robots busy — and takes their place when they go on bathroom breaks — has worked for Ford a little more than half the 123 years since the company sold its first car, a two-cylinder, two-passenger Model A, in red, the only color available, for $850 to Ernest Pfennig, a dentist on Clybourn Avenue. * IPM News | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students to pay more for campus health insurance in fall: Champaign-Urbana undergraduates will pay $30 more a semester, starting in the 2026-2027 school year. Graduate students will pay $37 more. Nicholas Jones is the vice president of the University of Illinois System. He told the University of Illinois Board of Trustees Academic and Student Affairs Committee on Wednesday that costs are increasing because prescriptions are getting more expensive and more students are needing more mental health care. […] Costs are also going up in Chicago and decreasing in Springfield. Chicago students have the highest dollar increase, but will still have the lowest total cost at $753 a semester. Springfield students will pay $1,110 a semester. * WCIA | Champaign Co. evaluating year-long moratorium on mega data centers: Thursday night, the Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals looked at a year-long moratorium stopping construction on any data center larger than 10,000 square feet. Also part of the conversation was the public. They let the board know how they felt about moving forward. Director of Planning and Zoning John Hall said the county would put together a task force to look into what guardrails they need in place for these centers. Thursday night, the Zoning Board of Appeals decided whether or not to take the next step, and it was a packed house, filled with people eager to let them know that they want this passed. * WCIA | NJCAA basketball tournament brings $1 million economic impact to Danville: The City of Danville is seeing a boost in business this week as the National Junior College Athletic Association hosts its Division II men’s basketball tournament there. Danville Area Community College is serving as the host site for the tournament. The Danville Area Visitors’ Bureau said these games can bring more than $1 million into Danville. Hotels are sold out, and visitors are packing restaurants each night. * WSIL | Shawnee Forest to burn 869 acres at Sulphur Springs today: Officials evaluated weather conditions before the burn. If conditions were not favorable, they were prepared to cancel the activities. Residents were advised they might experience smoke during the burn. “When driving, slow down and turn on your headlights when you encounter smoke on the road,” an advisory stated. * AP | Judge rules US government overreached with transgender health care declaration: The ruling grants preliminary relief to health professionals who provide the treatments. The judge also denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case. “Today’s win breaks through the noise and gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers,” Letitia James, the Democratic New York attorney general who led the lawsuit, said in a statement Thursday. “Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them.” * AP | CBS News shutters its storied radio news service after nearly a century, ending an era: When it went on the air in September 1927, the service was the precursor to the entire network, giving a youthful William S. Paley a start in the business. Famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II kept Americans listening anxiously. Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday. * WaPo | Teens allege Musk’s Grok chatbot made sexual images of them as minors: Police alleged a person arrested in December had used Grok, xAI’s chatbot, to edit photos, including one from the teen girl’s Instagram account, removing a blue bikini from one image to “depict her without any clothes,” according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The teen is suing xAI as part of a group of Tennessee teenagers who allege the company’s AI tools were used to create nude images of them by editing photos in which they were clothed. The edited photos spread across Discord and Telegram in recent months, and some were bartered for other child sexual abuse material in online chatrooms, according to the complaint, which was first reported by The Washington Post.
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- Candy Dogood - Friday, Mar 20, 26 @ 3:25 pm:
===you’ve got to play three-dimensional chess all the time.”===
My favorite part about this saying is how divorced from reality it is. Three dimensional chess? Sure it is a real thing that was invented in the 19th century but this is usually referring to the prop that was just dropped into the scene in Star Trek and became a thing where some Trekkies made a rule set for it. Is it supposed to be challenging? Maybe. But does Mr. Dooty know how to play three dimensional chess? Has he ever sat down to play three dimensional chess? Why did Republicans start using this analogy anyhow?
I think we can just rely on someone referencing “three dimensional chess” as a short hand for them admitting that they don’t know what they’re doing.
Does Mr. Dooty support increased revenues? Does Mr. Dooty plan to vote for Pritzker’s budgets? Does he acknowledge that the district he is running to represent receives more in public funding from the State of Illinois than it pays in taxes?
Or is “three dimensional chess” short hand for hootin’ and hollarin’ while doing nothing and collecting a paycheck as others do the work that improves the lives of people living in Southern Illinois?