Gas Card Lottery OK'd / Konkol Column / Probe City Clerk? / John Mayer

A tip of the cap to WBEZ reporter Patrick Smith for a fine investigative story about Gov. Pritzker administration's slow roll out of what was billed as an immediate $50 million response to surging violence, which has been declared a public health crisis in Illinois.

Deputy Gov. Sol Flores said the delay has been intentional. You heard it first on WBEZ.

KONKOL COLUMN: Amid Violence 'Public Health Crisis,' Pritzker Breaks $50M Promise?

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Showered. High: 50 Low: 48.

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• Bless my ward boss for trying! Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) keeps trying — and failing — to stop giving people speed camera tickets if they're not going faster than 10 mph over the limit. (Patch)
• Mayor Lori Lightfoot's free gas and transit giveaway won City Council approval by a three-vote margin. The $12.5 million "Chicago Moves" program will start dolling out $150 gas cards and passes for transit rides next month. (Patch)
• A woman was shot dead outside Target at Brickyard Mall Wednesday. Ald. Gilbert Villegas said the woman's husband drove to a police station and confessed to killing her. (Patch)
• Writer Merrily Beyreuther waited in line at Dinkel's Bakery, which is closing for good after a century on Lincoln Avenue, in search of one last world-famous stollen and a chocolate donut. This is her story. (Third Coast Review).
• A Chicago alderwoman wants the newly confirmed inspector general to launch an investigation into City Clerk Anna Valencia for allegedly using her elected post to benefit her husband's business interests, Craig Wall reports. (ABC7)

Today's newsletter is dedicated to my pal, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg. Congrats on winning the National Headliner Award for local commentary with a delightful entry that included an amusing obituary for "the cat that broke things." Read his blog: Every Goddamn Day.

For A Good Time, Click:

• Mastodon & Opeth at The Aragon Ballroom (7 p.m.)
• Anais Mitchell at Space (8 p.m.)
• Carol Burnett at Chicago Theater (7 p.m.)
• Ms. Nina at Lincoln Hall (7:30 p.m.)
• John Mayer at United Center (7:30 p.m.)

• The White Sox losing streak is ovah!
• Happy 200th birthday to famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
• Chicago Rum Festival returns this weekend.
• Robert De Niro was in town. He said he likes it here. Then he left.
• Check out South Side Weekly's poetry corner.

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— Mark Konkol

About me: Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."