With early voting starting Tuesday in the Chicago mayoral election — OK there are other city races on the ballot, but we all know what the big show is — and a record 14 candidates vying for outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel's job, the Tribune's politics team is looking out for busy voters. Check our our detail-rich biographies, which include info about the candidates from their ages and professions to policies and links to additional stories about them. It's a good thing to curl up with as the dangerous cold moves in this week. Meantime, one of our critics offers his pick for the planned global terminal at O'Hare International Airport, one of many projects the outgoing mayor has announced during his final months in office, no doubt aimed at cementing his legacy. Of course, it's shrouded in secrecy. And as the General Assembly convenes this week with newly minted Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, we see that more women are in the legislature — but there's more work to be done. Welcome to The Spin. |
 So many candidates, so little time. Early voting starts Tuesday and the actual election is just a month away. Be sure to check out the Tribune's snapshots of each candidate. Read it here. |   |
 The Tribune's architecture critic Blair Kamin has been keeping an eye on the hush-hush process of selecting a design for the planned global terminal at O'Hare, part of a larger $8-billion expansion at the airport. He's assessed the five finalists and offers this take: "Chances for architectural greatness are rare. When they come around, we best grab them. Such is the opportunity Chicago has before it with one of the five plans for a new global terminal at O'Hare International Airport. "That plan, from a team led by London-based Foster + Partners architects, promises to be everything an airport should be: a precisely-honed machine for moving people and baggage; easy to get around intuitively; and an enthralling gateway to its city." Read the full column here. Kamin pointed out earlier this month that light needed to be shone on the process: "A city-appointed evaluation committee heard presentations from the architects … yet the city is declining to make public the identities of the committee's members. Worse, the committee will prepare a report, but that report won't be made public." Read here. The public has every right to know. As John Byrne and Bill Ruthhart wrote in March: "Aldermen cleared Emanuel to borrow up to $4 billion for his $8.5 billion plan to add gates, concourses and an updated international terminal at the airport. And they approved new lease and use agreements for the gates at O'Hare, which the mayor says will allow the work to be paid for using airport fees instead of broad tax or fee hikes on Chicagoans." Read that story here. | |
 Speaking of secrecy, time to catch up on the latest in this cop-killing trial, slated to begin today at the Cook County courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue. Last week, Judge Stanley Sacks apparently "caught off guard by the media interest in a cop killing, suddenly announced sweeping secrecy measures — unusually late with the trial just days away. He "gagged" lawyers from talking about the case, sealed the entire court file from public view and ordered that his last-minute rulings on pretrial motions be kept secret," the Tribune's Megan Crepeau reported in a story published Monday. Lawyers for the Tribune challenged the legal basis for the judge's move and were planning to appear in Sacks' courtroom Monday. Two years ago, the Illinois Appellate Court threw out an attempted murder case Sacks was presiding over and criticized the judge for "highly offensive remarks" he made as he sentenced a man convicted in the shooting that left three Chicago police officers injured. Read the Tribune story here. That story looks at some cases that have landed him in trouble. There's this: "Sacks, who has a sign that reads 'Life is good' hanging in his sixth-floor courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, has long had a reputation for delivering strongly worded rebukes from the bench. In 2004, after Sacks gave a profanity-punctuated lecture during a sentencing hearing, Chief Judge Timothy Evans reassigned him for four months to the domestic relations division to be mentored by another judge." Sacks apologized. | |
 With a record-setting number of women taking their seats in Congress, The Associated Press and other outlets examine what's happening at the state level as the General Assembly prepares to convene. From the AP: "The number of women in the Illinois Legislature has increased slightly, though the numbers still fall behind a state panel's goal of having equal representation. The 101st Illinois General Assembly has 64 women, up from 62 women two years ago, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reported. The state has 177 House and Senate seats. Illinois is 11th in the U.S. for the percent of women in a state legislature, with about 36 percent of the legislature being women, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Nevada leads the nation with nearly 51 percent of its legislative seats filled by women, while West Virginia has the lowest ratio of women with 14 percent." Read the story here. State senator talks about witnessing deadly Orland Square Mall shooting: Lawmaker Elgie Sims tells NPR Illinois, "So we were … in Justice — my wife, my daughters and I were in the store, and we were walking toward the front of the store where the register is when the shots rang out." Read or listen to the interview here. Read coverage of the case, including the arrest in the fatal shooting here. | |
 Ex-Starbucks CEO weighing run for president will be in Chicago next week: Howard Schultz, the billionaire one-time Starbucks boss who's making the media rounds as he talks up a new book and a potential 2020 presidential run will be in Chicago on Monday. He'll be interviewed by Ariel Investments' Mellody Hobson, a Chicago native who is vice chair of the Starbucks board of directors, to talk about his career at a sold-out South Loop event. The Starbucks brand and his deep pockets would help the billionaire launch his bid — aimed squarely at unseating President Donald Trump — but the lifelong Democrat says he'll run as an independent, stoking fears in the party that he'd do nothing more than split the vote with the Democratic nominee and hand Trump a second term. Schultz told Scott Pelley he's weighing the run because "the American people are tired" and "they are looking for a better choice." On Monday morning Trump took to Twitter: "Howard Schultz doesn't have the "guts" to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the "smartest person." Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!" Of course he'll have to address more than Trump's criticism with some high-profile controversies under his watch, including that #racetogether campaign and a racial profiling incident at a Philadelphia coffee shop. 43rd Ward aldermanic candidate Derek Lindblom is launching a TV ad called "Disruptor" touting his experience working for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Mayor Emanuel. Lindblom, who is challenging incumbent Ald. Michelle Smith in the ward, is at least the third aldermanic contender to air TV ads, following Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, and Edward Burke, 14th. You can watch the ad here. ldonovan@chicagotribune.com Twitter @byldonovan | |
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