Today’s Headlines

• Advocates: It's "Now-or-Never" for a State Gas Tax Overhaul to fund Infrastructure (Tribune)
• House Vote for Amtrak Funding Means a Brighter Future for Illinois Rail (Crain's)
• MPC Extolls the Virtues of "Loop Link" Downtown BRT System
• Owners of Company That Was Supposed to Build Electric Car Stations Here Indicted (Tribune)
• Chicago "Sneckdowns" Illustrate How Roads Could Be Narrowed for the Benefit of All (Moss)
• CTA Security Footage Leads to 2 Arrests in Red Line Robbery (RedEye)
• Experimental Station Building, Home of Blackstone Bikes, Targeted by Burglars (DNA)
• Take It Easy on the Slivovitz: Roger Park Cops Planning DUI Crackdown for Purim (DNA)
• Video: A Man Has Telepathic Powers, But Only While Riding CTA Trains (Tattler)
• "Slow Ride" Benefit for West Town Bikes This Friday -- Be Sure to Wear Your Foghat (DNA)

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Due to a funding shortfall, Streetsblog Chicago has suspended publication of orginal articles. Please see Streetsblog Editor-in-Chief Ben Fried’s message about the hiatus, and my post about the effort the revive the site via local fundraising. In the meantime, I am continuing to produce Today’s Headlines on a volunteer basis as a service to readers.

The Chicago Community Trust, a charitable foundation that was one of the early funders of SBC, has been impressed by the outpouring of support the site has received since we announced our hiatus on January 8. Thanks to the generosity of sponsors and readers like you, by February 16, we had raised $34K of the $75K needed to fund a year of operations.

As a result, CCT has very generously offered us a challenge grant. If Streetsblog reaches $50K in donations and sponsorships by our April 8 deadline to reboot the site, the Trust will provide the last $25K needed to resume daily publication of original reporting. In other words, our finish line is within sight.

However, we still have a lot of work to do in order to win the CCT funding that will allow us to relaunch. If you haven't already done so, please donate to the Streetsblog Chicago Resurrection Fund today. While donations are not tax-deductible at this point, in the very unlikely event that the site does not relaunch by April 8, your money will be refunded.

If you've already contributed, thanks so much for helping us attract the challenge grant. As an added incentive to first-time donors, as well as those who'd like to make an additional contribution to help us win the CCT funding, anyone who donates $100 or more from this point on will be mailed a copy of my book "Bars Across America." Donate $200 or more and we'll also throw in a copy of the anthology "On Bicycles," to which I contributed a chapter about Chicago's West Town Bikes, while supplies last.

Please feel free to spread the word about the challenge grant to potential donors, or contact me at 312-560-3966 or greenfieldjohn[at]hotmail.com with leads on other possible funding sources. To keep you apprised on our progress as we enter the home stretch, I'll be updating the above Donate-O-Meter along with Today's Headlines each morning.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

- John