1. Rauner’s Budget Cuts Need Some Real Math

Veteran political observer Rich Miller takes a look at the GOP candidate’s policy roll-out—and finds it wanting. Crain’s runs the numbers, and gets different results.

2. Chicago’s Red “X”: Meaning, Myths, and Limitations

Don’t know what those signs are on dilapidated buildings throughout the city? You’re not alone. WBEZ investigates what they mean, and why so many people aren’t aware of that.

3. The Fight to Preserve a Model Housing Project

Lathrop Homes is one of the few CHA projects that’s worked. So why has it been in limbo for years? The Reader checks in on its dwindling population.

4. How Princess Leia and Obama May Give Chicago Tourism Lift

For decades the city has been focused on regional tourists and conventions. Could two museums restore its international luster? Bloomberg looks at the hole in our visitor economy.

5. OD’d on Outrage: The Donald’s Sign Is Very Bad. The Circus of Distraction Is Worse.

Longtime architecture writer Lynn Becker directs our attention away from Trump’s blah new sign to worse architectural offenses. Architecture Chicago Plus calls out the city’s “architectural mediocrity.”

6. Will Bruce Rauner Convince Illinois to Give Up on the Prairie Chicken?

The state has been trying—with very modest success—to preserve the rare bird’s tiny population for decades. Is it all a waste? Chicago magazine tells the chicken’s depressing story.

7. A Gadget Geek’s Fantasy Kitchen

Nick Kokonas, Grant Achatz’s partner, had the company behind the kitchens in Next and Alinea do his elaborate home kitchen. Food & Wine goes inside his historic Old Town house.

8. Rahmbo’s Toughest Mission

The mayor has a lot of work to do—while working within the biggest pension gap of any major American city. The Economist details the city’s fiscal woes.

9. Homicide Inequality in Chicago—in Maps

New York and Los Angeles have comparable income inequality, but nothing like Chicago’s distribution of violence. The New Republic documents the patterns here and among our civic peers.

10. Madigan Firm Got $1.7M Tax Break for Contractor, Its Partners

The speaker’s law office specializes in property taxes, and just scored big savings for a downtown building that counts a major state contractor as a tenant. The Sun-Times navigates Madigan’s many connections.