Downstate guns, Republican cash and the rest of the morning's news

1 Where the heat is packed

Citizens of downstate counties are the most likely to apply for permits to carry concealed handguns under Illinois’ new concealed-carry law. There’s hardly any crime in those counties, unlike say Cook, where criminals are everywhere but not that many residents want to shoot at them. [Sun-Times]

2 Rutherford, Rauner get separation

State Treasurer Dan Rutherford and noted rich guy Bruce Rauner lead the four Republican gubernatorial candidates in fundraising, by a wide margin. Rauner has less than Rutherford in the bank, but that’s because he’s spent more than $4 million campaigning so far. [Sun-Times]

3 With friends like these

Jeremiah Wright, the South Side firebrand preacher who used to be Barack Obama’s pastor, blasted the president’s war-waging yesterday. He told a group that while Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed “I have a dream,” Obama says, “I have a drone.” [Sun-Times]

4 Archdiocese: bad idea to reassign abusive priests

The Archdiocese of Chicago admitted that reassigning priests who’d molested kids to a new parish was a mistake. The priests had been sent to new assignments after undergoing therapy. Horrifically, but not surprisingly, that often didn’t work. [Sun-Times]

5 Mystery around CPS scam, teacher’s death

Investigators say a former Lakeview High School teacher and coach embezzled half a million dollars from the school. But the case against him is full of holes, and several clues indicate he didn’t act alone. The teacher isn’t talking — he was found dead in a Tijuana hotel room two years ago. His own lawyer still doesn’t know what killed Robert Tirado. [WBEZ]

6 Tina Brown, still telling stories

Legendary magazine editor Tina Brown is in town today, promoting her Women in the World conference. And while many hands were wrung when she abandoned journalism, Brown still sees herself as an editor of sorts. The only difference is she’s putting stories on the stage, not the page, she tells Splash. [Splash]

7 Bulls beat Magic, finally

Jimmy Butler played a franchise-record 60 minutes in the Bulls’ triple-overtime win in Orlando last night. We’d call it a thriller except it was ugly and the Magic have only won 10 games this year and Derrick Rose was in a (stylish, sure) suit the whole time, so let’s not get carried away. [Sun-Times]

8 Clark the Cub to the rescue

By now you’ve seen the obscene alterations that the Internet has made to the Cubs’ new mascot. But how will Clark the Cub impact the team’s quest to win a World Series? The Trib’s Rex Huppke believes good things are in store. [Tribune]