Divers and Sundrie News on a Cold Thursday Thursday, 12 December 2024 14:34:16 CST David-Braverman Chicago, General, Geography, Politics, Travel (0) My, we've had a busy day: President Biden commuted the sentences of 1,500 Federal inmates in the largest single-day clemency in American history. Two of them stole millions in massive frauds against Illinois citizens. Josh Marshall doesn't see much clemency. Charles Sykes worries that neither major US political party has a clue how to fix our education systems (plural). Legalized sports betting has shifted billions from small punters to large corporations, which is why it was illegal for so long. Charles Blow muses about making friends after 50. Despite freaking out the usual car-besotted subjects, a plan to extend a protected bike lane in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill., will actually add parking spaces. A downtown Chicago office building constructed in 1928 will become 252 apartments under a plan that received City Council approval yesterday. Finally, paleobiologists have narrowed the range of Neandertal-Sapiens interbreeding down to a period that peaked 47,000 years ago. Cue the jokes, starting with: "Who knew yo mama was that old?"