a toy company in vernon hills just beat trump at the supreme court. $133 billion in refunds. no plan.

the park district wants $630 million to turn soldier field into a concert venue. while the bears inch toward hammond, indiana, the chicago park district — the agency whose unresponsiveness helped drive them out — has been pitching state lawmakers on a post-bears plan. the breakdown: $130 million in stadium renovations, $500 million in parking and traffic infrastructure, with a request that the state use its road fund to cover it. the city still carries roughly $500 million in debt from the 2003 renovation everyone hated. the full pitch is here, and it is a document that exists

"abolish ice" is now a chicago snowplow, officially. roughly 70% of the 13,300 submissions to the city's fourth annual snowplow naming contest were specifically "abolish ice". the city picked it. mayor johnson endorsed it on social media. the rest of the winners: "stephen coldbert," "pope frío xiv," "the blizzard of oz," "svencoolie," and "caleb chilliams." "chance the scraper" lost by 0.24 percentage points. somewhere, a plow with a federal agency in its name is currently salting the streets of a sanctuary city, and no one involved seems to have a problem with this

three chicago breweries announced closures in the same month. alarmist brewing in sauganash shut down february 1 after nearly a decade. whiner beer company in back of the yards announced it closes march 29. then, hours after whiner's post went up, illuminated brew works in norwood park said it's done june 28. alarmist and whiner both cited the same thing: people just aren't drinking the way they used to, and the numbers finally stopped working. illuminated didn't say. illuminated's closure announcement was written in the voice of a cult preparing to board a comet — "hop into the tail of a near-proximity comet" — and is somehow both very funny and genuinely sad. the tap room is open through june if you want to say goodbye

a family-owned toy company in vernon hills just beat trump at the supreme court. learning resources — founded by stephen woldenberg's grandmother in 1984 — sued the trump administration last april after tariffs pushed their china import costs from $2 million to $14 million a year. they called it a "death sentence" and took it to district court. they won. the government appealed. last friday, the supreme court ruled that trump lacked congressional authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the international emergency economic powers act. by mid-December, the government had collected $133 billion in tariff revenue under the now-invalidated policy. the court did not say what should happen to any of it. woldenberg on the refund question: "the administration and the country had no issue taking the money when the tariffs were imposed and collected. so, they should be able to just flip it around and hand it back to us." no timeline exists for that. the full story is here

naperville's holiday parade of lights is canceled. the 2026 one. it is february. the rotary club of naperville has already pulled the plug on the post-thanksgiving parade that draws thousands downtown each year, citing production costs that outpace any return. the city's seca grant money will either be returned or reallocated by council. a former councilwoman called the news "a shock." we are eleven months out and already mourning the parade, which is very naperville when you think about it

ikea is opening a third chicago-area location at gurnee mills, in the old sears grand. the 66,000-square-foot store — smaller than schaumburg and bolingbrook, still enormous — is going into the space that sears vacated at the gurnee mills mall. it opens next spring. it will carry 3,000 take-home items and 600 furniture pieces, and yes, meatballs. the sears footprint at suburban malls has now been converted into target, whole foods, a dave & buster's, a lifetime fitness, a movie theater, and as of this announcement, ikea. sears is somehow less gone than you think but more gone than it can come back from

if chicago towed your car since 2017, there may be a check coming — but you have to ask for it. the city just settled a class-action over vehicles towed without proper advance notice. the payout isn't automatic. you have to submit a claim confirming your vehicle wasn't abandoned. if a car ever disappeared off a chicago street and you assumed it was just how things go, worth checking. the claim process details are here

eat: libertad opened last week at 1835 w. north ave. in wicker park, taking over the old las palmas space. owner marcos rivera ran the skokie original for 15 years before making the move. the menu is latin-american shared plates — scallops with yuzu-habanero butter, skirt steak with chipotle chèvre, mussels in tomato-coconut broth, sourced from local farms including mick klug and spence. reservations are open

do: north side restaurant week starts thursday and runs through march 8, covering eight neighborhoods: albany park, edgewater, irving park, lincoln square, ravenswood, northcenter, north park, and rogers park. prix fixe menus across dozens of restaurants, no tickets required. northsiderestaurantweek.org has the full list

avoid: the united center area saturday night. wwe elimination chamber is at the uc on feb 28 — the first wwe premium event held there since summerslam opened the building in august 1994. that's 32 years of rosemont exile, now over. the west loop will be full of people who drove in from three states to watch cm punk. if you live near the uc or were planning to park anywhere in that corridor, account for it. if you weren't planning anything near there, this is still a useful fact to carry around.

and hey — if you’d like to put your business in front of the readers of this very email, reply with a little about what you do. small, weird, or local: we like all three.

brookfield zoo free admission ends saturday, feb 28. the zoo has been free since january 5. this is the last week to take advantage before regular admission prices return. open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. parking still costs money. go early, because everyone in the suburbs had the same idea and will be there. full details at brookfieldzoo.org

cheesy baked casseroles for the remaining bad weeks. serious eats published a roundup of 11 oven-baked comfort dishes: classic mac and cheese, french onion strata, crispy baked pasta with mushrooms and sausage, baked kimchi rice with gochujang, and kenji's four-meat all-day lasagna for when you have something to prove. february is almost over. use the oven. the full roundup is here

the volunteer rescue team in the smoky mountains. paige williams spent time with an auxiliary group of elite volunteer outdoorsmen who get called when park rangers can't reach someone in time — hikers, climbers, and rafters who miscalculated. roughly 9,000 words, published january 12 in the new yorker. reads like a very calm thriller. one of those pieces where you look up an hour later and it's dark outside. it's here

the snowplow is named and deployed. the park district has a vision board. three tap rooms are winding down, one of them headed to the fifth dimension. a toy company in vernon hills is waiting on a check from the federal government.

tips, sightings, unexplained things:

reply with your neighborhood and one thing that made you pause, squint, or text someone "???"

talk thursday.

-sam