| Good morning. It feels a bit warmer today, at least. With our endorsement of Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, for the office of Cook County President and today's full-throated endorsement of emergency room physician Dr. Thomas Fisher in the March 10 Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District in Illinois, endorsement season at the Chicago Tribune is officially up and running. The editorial board plans to suspend its usual editorials on most days for the next week or so (unless news dictates otherwise), choosing instead to offer our choices in the statewide races for the U.S. Congress and also for Illinois Statehouse, along with a selected number of other races that we think will be of interest to our readers. This process is a longstanding tradition at this newspaper and we have enjoyed our meetings with candidates so far. In many races, such as the one we discuss today, we've been struck by the number of talented Illinoisans seeking our public service. Fisher, by the way, is something of a stealth candidate in that rate but we are exceptionally enthusiastic about our choice. Our Opinion section will keep chugging along though. Sunday, we had an especially important piece from Jens Ludwig and our friends at the University of Chicago crime lab. They home in on the good-news reduction in the murder rate in Chicago and make the observation that nobody really knows why. It's an important read, to my mind, because any number of politicians are trying to take credit for the news. Also, Jim Nowlan writes today about the "unrepresented suburbia" that surrounds Chicago land and civil engineer Yunus Emre Tozal has a lot of criticisms about the CTA's Blue Line and concrete suggestions for improvement. Whether the subject is the train to the airport or who can best serve voters, we're focused on solutions over the next several days. Keep checking back as our endorsements roll out. — Chris Jones, editorial page editor Submit an op-ed | Submit a letter to the editor | Meet the Tribune Editorial Board | Subscribe to this newsletter | 
