Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn't wading into Ald. Ed Burke's run-in with the FBI yesterday. Meanwhile, more women are coming to Illinois to have abortions as more than a dozen other states tighten restrictions. And Chicago's indie music venues are singing a sour note over Live Nation setting up shop in Lincoln Yards. |
 From the Tribune's John Byrne: Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday refused to weigh in on whether Ald. Edward Burke should step down from representing his ward or give up his Finance Committee chairmanship a day after federal agents raided the alderman's offices, saying it's too early to know exactly what the dramatic episode means. Read here. In a nothing-to-see-here moment Thursday morning, while the raid was unfolding, Emanuel's Twitter account was touting the city's newest science, technology and math schools: https://twitter.com/ChicagosMayor/status/1068189191694098433 Professor Emanuel: The mayor also talked about reports that he was in line for a teaching gig at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. The mayor told reporters on Friday he's still in talks with the university, but nothing has been finalized. He said he could potentially be teaching a course about politics in business and the realities of public policy in business. |   |
 From the Tribune's Annie Sweeney and Jeremy Gorner: Just four days before the shootout at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, a woman who had worked with gunman Juan Lopez filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saying she was repeatedly harassed by him while the two worked together at the Chicago Housing Authority. Now the woman, Rhonda Barrett, is suing the CHA, accusing it of "willful negligence" in hiring Lopez even though he had been dismissed from the Chicago Fire Department Academy years earlier, after being accused of verbally and physically abusing women. Read more here. | |
 Last year, 5,528 women traveled to Illinois from other states to terminate pregnancies, almost a thousand more than the 4,543 women who came from out of state in 2016, drawing strong reactions from both advocates and abortion foes, the Tribune's Angie Leventis Lourgos reports here. Here's why: While the Illinois Department of Public Health data don't indicate the reason for out-of-state travel, Illinois is generally considered a reproductive rights haven amid the more restrictive Midwest, where women often face waiting periods, gestational limits, fewer clinics and other hurdles. Across the country: 19 states adopted 63 new abortion restrictions in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Some of the greatest shifts recently have been in Iowa, which last year passed a 20-week limit on the procedure as well as a 72-hour waiting period, though the waiting period portion of the law was immediately blocked by the courts. This reminded me of Calamity West's politically potent "In the Canyon," which examines and imagines how government and society might look at abortion decades down the line. The Jackalope Theatre Company show, in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood, is in its final days. Read Tribune critic Chris Jones' review here. | |
 As news outlets, including the Tribune, have been reporting this week, a group of Chicago independent music venues has banded together to ask the city to pump the brakes on the $5 billion Lincoln Yards development and its proposed three to five concert halls run by Live Nation, arguing that the plan threatens the small clubs' existence. Tribune music writer Greg Kot calls whole David vs. Goliath scenario "kind of depressing." He goes on to write: "The indie clubs in Chicago have been told by the city in a variety of ways for decades that they don't matter, so it's not surprising they fear the worst with the Sterling Bay project. They're right to fight for their survival, but shouldn't their survival — heck, their freedom to thrive — be a given by now? It doesn't help that the Sterling Bay deal would use tax dollars to underwrite potential competition for the clubs, in the form of entertainment venues run by Live Nation, by far the largest concert promoter in North America." Read more of Kot's analysis here. | |
 If Illinoisans had played by the rules to get statehood, Chicagoans would be cheeseheads. By all rights, the Wisconsin border should have been set at the southern tip of Lake Michigan when Illinois was admitted into the union, 200 years ago Monday. Let's just say that there were healthy helpings of rules skirting and border games (a predecessor to gerrymandering?) along with a side serving of family clout to make this story of statehood by the Tribune's Ron Grossman delicious. Read here. | |
 Cyclists and pedestrians rejoice! City Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld is promising that part of the long-awaited Navy Pier Flyover — the bike and pedestrian byway that was starting to look like a bridge to nowhere — will be finished and open before Christmas, the Tribune's Mary Wisniewski reports. Read here. Mayor Emanuel, aggravated by delays, blamed the state for delaying funding for the project during the budget crisis. The project also skidded a bit because the Depression-era Lake Shore Drive bridge over the river needed repairs, according to the city. Scheinfeld said the city will open a segment that will run between the Ohio Street Beach up and over Grand Avenue and Illinois Street, currently a crash-prone spot on the Lakefront Trail because of a narrow sidewalk. | |
 High there: Leafy Oak Park is excited about the prospect of all that green if the state legalizes marijuana. It's a likely prospect as Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker, who favors legalizing recreational use of pot, is looking for new revenues to deal with Illinois' budget crisis. Read here. Sign of the times: Chicago's winter overnight parking ban kicks in Saturday, prohibiting parking on 107 miles of main streets from 3 to 7 a.m., regardless of snow, until April 1. Note: The ban is in place regardless of the weather. Separately, another parking ban goes into effect for 500 miles of main streets when there is at least 2 inches of snow on the street. Check street signs so you don't get ticketed or towed. Check out our map here. The year of she continues: U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos of Moline continued her rise in the ranks of Democratic leadership this week, winning election from her partisan colleagues to chair the party's congressional campaign committee efforts leading to the 2020 election. She's just the second woman to hold that spot. Read here. Working for the weekend: If you haven't picked it up by now, I love Chicago-area theater. The more ripped-from-the-headlines, the better. This weekend I'll be heading to "Rightlynd," the new play at Victory Gardens Theater. As Tribune critic Chris Jones explains, it's set in the fictional 51st Ward of the city and follows a newly elected alderman. "Her aldermanic struggle is at first against gentrification," Jones writes. Mmmhmmm. See you next week. | |
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