Hey there! It’s Thursday, and you know what that means? Club Thursday! Here’s what you need to know today.

1. Congressman Mike Quigley is moving closer to running for mayor of Chicago

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley has commissioned a poll to test the waters for a potential mayoral bid, reports Crain’s Business Chicago.

Part of the poll asks Chicago voters who they would support, listing Quigley along with incumbent Lori Lightfoot, former CPS CEO Paul Vallas, local businessman Willie Wilson, South Side state Rep. Kam Buckner, City Clerk Anna Valencia, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates and Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara.

As Crain’s reporter Greg Hinz writes: “I’m told the poll had about 20 questions and is heavy on queries about crime, asking about Lightfoot’s record as mayor and Quigley’s efforts to fight crime in Congress and earlier as a Cook County commissioner.”

Quigley’s name emerged as a possible contender after former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced early this month that he was taking a pass. [Crain’s]

2. Biden and NATO leaders prepare plans in the event Russia uses weapons of mass destruction

President Joe Biden is in Brussels, where he and NATO leaders held urgent talks over the now monthlong war in Ukraine.

Among the pressing matters is what happens if Russia uses chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons, a sign of just how concerned officials are about how quickly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could escalate.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says the military alliance is stepping up its defenses should Russia use weapons of mass destruction and is sending equipment to Ukraine.

“This could include detection equipment, protection and medical support, as well as training for decontamination and crisis management,” he told reporters after meeting in Brussels. [AP]

Biden today said any response to attacks using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would be proportional, according to The New York Times. Biden would not say what specific intelligence points to Russia’s use of chemical weapons. [NYT]

3. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson may face a tight confirmation vote

Senate hearings on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s historic nomination to the Supreme Court wrapped up today, and voting is expected to begin on April 4. If Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee stick together, the nomination will head to the full Senate.

The White House is hopeful some Republicans will cross over to vote for her, but judging from the hearings, those votes are unlikely to come from GOP members on the committee.

As NPR points out, committee Republicans used some of their time to air grievances about how Democrats have treated past nominees put up by Republican presidents. Democrats, however, quickly point to how Republicans blocked the nomination of Merrick Garland. [NPR]

Committee Republicans also attacked Jackson’s sentencing decisions in a way that illustrates how much some members have embraced the bogus QAnon conspiracy theory. [New York Times]

4. Lightfoot appoints the first Asian American woman to the City Council

Nicole Lee, a director of social impact and community engagement for United Airlines, has been selected by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to represent the 11th Ward on the City Council.

She will become the first Asian American woman to sit on the council. And her appointment takes place as the boundaries of the 11th Ward will likely be redrawn in a way to give the city its first Asian-majority ward.

So far, there has been only one Asian American alderman — Ameya Pawar, who represented the North Side’s 47th Ward from 2011 to 2019.

Lee’s expected appointment comes after former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson was forced to resign after being convicted last month of lying on his income tax returns. [WBEZ]

Lee is also the daughter of Gene Lee, deputy chief of staff under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. He was convicted in 2014 of stealing thousands of dollars from two Chinatown charities. [Chicago Sun-Times]

5. If things had gone differently, Madeleine Albright would have been a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times

Tributes are pouring in for Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state, who died this week at age 84.

And I had no idea she once tried to get a job as a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times.

Albright had studied journalism and politics at Wellesley College and, a few years after graduating, married Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, who worked at the newspaper when the couple lived in the city, writes Lynn Sweet, the Washington bureau chief for the Sun-Times.

Madeleine Albright went out to dinner with a Sun-Times editor, who told her, “Honey, you may want to be a reporter, but you can’t be on the paper your husband works for, so why don’t you find another career?” she recounted in the biography Madeleine Albright, A Twentieth-Century Odyssey. [Sun-Times]

Here’s what else is happening

• Chicago Public Schools hasn’t spent 69% of federal COVID-19 relief money that was budgeted for this year. [WBEZ]
• More than 91,000 residents in the greater Chicago area moved during the first year of the pandemic, according to federal data released today. [AP]
• The Chicago Teachers Union is suing a former mayoral adviser and a “Jane Doe,” claiming they are illegally interfering with the union’s internal election. [Chicago Tribune]
• Diana Ross, Erykah Badu and Pitbull are among Ravinia’s lineup this year. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Oh, and one more thing …

“When the first bombs landed in Ukraine, I was lying in bed in Chicago. It was almost as if I could feel them myself,” writes my colleague Anna Savchenko in an essay about the helplessness she faces as Russian forces invade her home country.

“When I’m not reporting, this fear creeps in. I’ll look at the Chicago skyline and imagine the high-rises exploding in front of me. Or when I hear a nearby plane, chills run down my spine.

“It’s the first time I have experienced this feeling, but I have seen it in my parents and my grandparents. That fear was so strong that my parents chose to raise me outside Ukraine, in Cyprus.

“For them, Ukraine is the place where my grandparents spent 10 years in labor camps in the 1940s. The country was still part of the Soviet Union at the time. Before the USSR collapsed in 1991, the country struggled under Soviet rule for decades.” [WBEZ]

Tell me something good …

The Oscars are on Sunday, and I’d like to know what movie or actor you loved but ended up getting snubbed.

Susan Tonon writes:

“Oh, without a doubt, 1985’s The Color Purple. Brilliant screenplay, acting, directing, music, cinematography … (Am I the only one who thought the winning picture, Out of Africa, was boring?)”

No, you’re not alone. It is boring. (Sorry not sorry.) And because my brain has a few wires loose, I can’t stop thinking of Toto’s “Africa” now, a song that for some reason triggers a sudden sense of doom for me. Like I’ll be walking down an aisle at the grocery store and bam, the song comes on and I’ve got to book it.

Anyway, feel free to email or tweet me, and your response might be shared in the newsletter this week.