Mayor Emanuel announces Elevate Chicago – a kind of marriage of the already-announced plan to renovate Navy Pier with some kind of new stadium at McCormick Place for DePaul (or maybe not just for DePaul, who knows?)

Springfield manages to come up with two competing visions for how to manage the looming pension debacle, but there’s a chance that the votes will be sufficiently divided and nothing will pass.

And we’re six days away from a historic vote at CPS. If the Board goes along with Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s plan, it will commit to the closure of more public schools at one time than has ever occurred inthe United States.

It’s a fascinating conversation this week with two knowledgeable journalists – Tom McNamee, Editorial Page Editor at the Sun-Times, and Tony Arnold, who covers Springfield for WBEZ.