I read recently (alas, I can't remember where) that one reason the two largest cities on Lake Michigan developed on the west side was the snowfall on the east side. I never thought Chicago and Milwaukee could look favorable in weather comparisons, but here we are.

stumbled across and admits laughing at this, but now I'm curious about the Jesus bettors.

Do the "yes" bettors expect to spend their earnings in the life of the world to come?

Can the "no" bettors really not find better returns? Even I bonds pay better than this.

What am I missing?

Pope Leo to spend US July 4 holiday on Italy's Lampedusa, known for migrant arrivals Pope Leo, the first U.S. leader of the global Catholic Church, will spend the Independence Day holiday this year visiting an Italian island known as the first port of call for migrants sailing from No...

Huh...

www.reuters.com/world/pope-l...

After that, the state should sell the land around 35th and Shields. If it's feeling generous, then it can give the Sox the right of first refusal to buy it, then sell it if they don't.

We should be done with billionaires needing public subsidies to run entertainment businesses.

If the Bears feel they need to tax 1 percent of food purchases by a population of ~700K to run their family business, then they could not move to Indiana fast enough for me.

This caught my eye...

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Senate Bill 27 also now details on how a Hammond stadium would be financed, including...potential countywide 1% food and beverage taxes in Lake and Porter counties.
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White Sox spring notes: Chris Getz confirms Luisangel Acuña's right-handedness after introducing doubt himself - Sox Machine This morning, the White Sox issued an unusual Chris Getz statement to address a series of unusual Chris Getz statements, in which he repeatedly added “switch-hitter” to Luisangel Acuña’s CV even thoug...

I can't imagine how this team managed to lose 324 games over the past three seasons.

soxmachine.com/2026/02/whit...

I am increasingly seeing ads like this . . .
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Paste your text, essay or paper to find, summarize, and add credible academic sources.
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That's . . . not supposed to be how it works, is it?

Why not? "You're the pride and joy of Bettendorf . . ."

Though a comment I saw elsewhere does offer a good argument against this: "Iowa cannot get a professional football team because then Minnesota would want one …"

I was also surprised but happy to see Alexei Ramirez will play for Cuba. I hadn't thought Cuba would have to rely on a 40-something player, but good for him on making that team! He was fun to watch with the Sox.

I was thrilled to see Sir Didi Gregorius is on the Netherlands roster for this year's World Baseball Classic. I had the pleasure of meeting him once when attending a conference in Curaçao. Sir Didi and I have combined for nearly 1,000 MLB hits: he has 999, and I have the remainder!

How to help the resistance to ICE in Minnesota — and beyond What Minnesota’s immigrant communities need from you now.

This made me smile...
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This piece...has been updated to remove organizations that have now reached capacity for donations.
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That said, plenty of others remain, including one that appealed to (and has now received a donation from) miserly old me.

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Quiz: Are you a true Chicago Bears fan? Take this 15-question quiz from our Bears beat reporters to find out.

Odd quiz. I don't consider myself much of a fan (certainly not in comparison to other teams and sports), but I got 14 of 15. And I don't know what Caleb Williams does with his nails, the question I missed, has to do with being a fan. chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2026/0...

Est. undocumented as % of all foreign-born by state, 2/2
WA 26.9%
KY 26.3%
OR 26.2%
ID 26.1%
RI 25.6%
VA 25.4%
NJ 25.1%
IL 25.1%
MO 24.6%
CT 22.5%
CA 22.1%
OH 21.9%
PA 21.9%
MA 21.7%
MN 21.2%
FL 20.5%
NH 18.3%
DC 18.1%
WV 17.6%
MI 17.3%
NY 17.2%
ND 14.8%
MT 13.8%
AK 12.5%
ME 12.3%
HI 9.1%
VT 4.5%

Est. undocumented as % of all foreign-born by state, 1/2
LA 41.4%
TN 40.8%
AR 40.6%
TX 37.6%
NC 36.8%
OK 36.8%
NE 36.7%
SC 36.2%
MS 35.9%
AL 35.8%
KS 35.7%
UT 35.5%
WY 34.8%
WI 32.8%
SD 32.8%
GA 32.4%
CO 31.6%
IN 30.4%
MD 29.5%
IA 29.3%
NV 28.6%
NM 28.0%
AZ 27.5%
DE 27.1%

For example, the ACS estimated that IL in 2023 had a foreign-born population of 1,878,890, and the CMS estimated that 471,900, or 25.1% of all foreign-born in the state, are undocumented.
Results for all 50 states and DC, ranked by proportion undocumented among all foreign-born, follow.

discovered data.cmsny.org this morning, which may be of interest to those interested in data. I decided to use it and the ACS foreign-born population estimates to calculate "undocumented" immigrants as a percent of all immigrants for 2023, the most recent year for which data on both are available.

Eh, why not?

This, and the structured roll call to end the "shutdown" last month, remind me of what my youngest said last summer: Team D claimed 2024 was an existential election but spent three weeks dumping all over their presumptive nominee. It wasn't a comment on the candidate(s). But the "leaders"? Yowza.

I'm told some precincts of these here innertoobs have suggested that the Bears move to Michigan City, resulting in a team named for Chicago but located in an Indiana city named for another state.

Again, go for it, Bears.

As an Illinois taxpayer and, for that matter, one-time resident of Northwest Indiana, I say, go for it. The bluff on this one is strong--unless Bears STH really are more concentrated toward Lake Station than Lake Forest.

Whooping cough cases soar as vaccination rates drop In an NBC News data investigation of 31 states, about 70% of counties and jurisdictions fell below the target vaccination rate needed for community protection.

Sad story but interesting map at www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-.... t quick glance, it appears Mississippi has the best DTAP vaccination rate in the nation, and New York right behind it. In Illinois, central and southern counties do better than northern ones. Good for them!

The original makes it even more fantastic, in the traditional sense of that word.

The theological musings of . . . Joe Rogan

Jordan Love's Toyotathon effect: Packers QB becomes unstoppable each holiday season Love's success during Toyotahon is impossible to ignore.

Looks like the NFL is having a correlation series: on 12/7 and 12/20, the Bears, 9-3 under the papacy of a, um, White Sox fan, play the Packers, 13-5 when their QB is shilling for a, um, Japanese motor company.

Spurious, you say? Well, they're playing the games to find out!

The aggregation of nondenominational churches is now larger than any Protestant denomination in the USA. Such churches vary, but all contrast with the more centralized structure of Catholicism. Will contrasts grow with the direction Francis and Leo have set for Catholicism?

They’re doing to America what they did to Christianity | Bill McKibben Trump’s wrecking-ball approach to America has a precedent: the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression

The focus here is on Protestantism, as it should be in discussions of Christianity in the world's most Protestant nation. But the observations about Catholicism in the last few paragraphs caught my eye as well.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...