🛩️ Happy Friday! It's Air & Water Show practice day. Remember that when the jets rattle your building.

🌧️ Today's weather: There could be more rain this morning. High of 75.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Melanie Dillon, Fred Stein and Dale Scheiwe!

Today's newsletter is 1,125 words — a 4-minute read.

Earlier this week, Mayor Brandon Johnson's office drew attention for paying a social media creator to post a supportive video about him on her account.

Why it matters: The move kicks off a campaign season when Chicagoans are likely to see a lot more paid and unpaid collaborations with influencers blurring the lines between opinions, grassroots support and paid messaging.

Driving the news: Axios reached out to several mayoral candidates to ask if and how they will use social media content creators in their campaign.

• They either didn't respond, said they're still considering or answered yes.

Catch up quick: This week the Chicago Tribune confirmed that Johnson's office paid content creator Rebecca Lehmann to post videos about the mayor, which she did after an interview with him during a two-day creator event.

For the record: Lehmann, a marketing specialist, labeled the post as a "paid partnership" and wrote:

• "I maintained creative control over my content, was careful to ensure that what I created aligned to both my values and my niche as a content creator, and I would not have done it under any other conditions."

What they're saying: "Campaigns pay networks to play a commercial saying positive things, right? I mean, that's a pretty age-old practice," Johnson tells Axios this week when asked if he thought the practice is deceptive.

• "In terms of whether or not it's the wave of the future … people have been using social media influencers prior to me."

The other side: "Collaborations with creators in Chicago will be part of Susana Mendoza's campaign, based on common ground, concerns and interests vs. paid-first transactions," Mendoza campaign spokesperson John Digle tells Axios.

Go deeper

The Bears are inching closer to moving to Indiana.

The latest: Bears President Kevin Warren said yesterday the team is evaluating two sites in Hammond for a potential stadium and surrounding mixed-use development.

• He said he is in regular communication with Indiana lawmakers, while saying talks with Illinois leaders have been "minimal."

What they're saying: "We're reaching that point where we have to make a determination and decision," Warren said at a press conference.

Details: Warren said the Lost Marsh area near Wolf Lake is suitable for a stadium and they are also looking at the Wolf Lake terminal area.

• He said they could merge the two sites to create more space for mixed-use development, including retail, hotels and housing.

Context: The move would create an unusual reality for one of Chicago's most iconic institutions: The Bears would still carry the city's name, but play their home games in a neighboring state.

Flashback: In June, the Bears board of directors voted to explore sites in Indiana after the Illinois legislature failed to pass a proposed stadium tax incentive package in its spring session.

• Indiana had already passed tax breaks.

Friction point: Illinois and the Bears remain stuck in a chicken-and-egg dispute: Pritzker says the team needs to spell out what it wants; Warren says there’s nothing to negotiate until lawmakers produce legislation.

The bottom line: Indiana has viable sites and legislation; Illinois and the Bears can't even agree on who should make the next move.

Keep reading

⛑️ NIPSCO says it expects to have power restored to all of its Northwest Indiana customers by next Friday after this week's storms. Meanwhile, several school districts in the area have pushed back the start of classes until next week. (CBS 2)

📲 A new gunshot-detection app that would warn users when shots are fired nearby is being tested in two Chicago wards. (Block Club)

🐳 The Shedd Aquarium is preparing to receive four more beluga whales from Canada's shuttered Marineland. (Sun-Times)

After our recent story about using greenways for safer cycling, we asked Axios readers for their own safety tips, and they came through as always.

Here are some of the best:

🛣️ "The city recently painted new bike lanes along Wellington by Damen to allow for bike lanes going both ways along Wellington. It’s a bit narrow at times, but a great new option to have so that you can avoid Diversey and Belmont." — Mike R.

⚾️ Roscoe/Aldine Greenways are great except: "First, when Cubs games are either about to begin or have just let out, Roscoe carries a LOT of traffic, a nontrivial fraction of which regularly ignore the bike lane lines."

• "Second, quite a few drivers, particularly delivery drivers, seem to view the bike lane as a temporary parking slot." — Gary R.

🗺️ "I use Google Maps to route my bike trips and it seems they often use greenways."— MJ. Garnier

🍎 "I often use Apple Maps when biking, and of course it offers bike-friendly alternates off busy roads —  many that are actual greenways rather than just bike lanes." —Bruce T.

🚗 "I give cars all the leeway I can. ... Never put yourself in a situation where you have to trust the driver to do something (braking, not turning) for you to be safe."

• "I always wear a safety vest in the suburbs. I feel a lot less visible in the burbs with so much less bike and pedestrian traffic. I never wear headphones and I wear a helmet of course." — Jerome M.

Chicago continues to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66. But with all the hoopla over the Mother Road, what about Chicago’s other routes?

This week's "Kaufmann Quiz" is one for the commuters.

State of play: If you live in Chicago or the surrounding area, you’ve probably driven them countless times without realizing that many familiar streets also carry an Illinois route number.

• Can you connect the route number to the street name?

The last quiz on athletes returning to their teams netted a few winners. Congrats to Matthew A., Brian H., Timothy A., Alex P., Mike C., Jeff K. and Andrew C.!

Take quiz here

Edited by Larry Graham.

🍷 Justin is celebrating his birthday this weekend. He's heading to Chez Joel. He's never been!

🥂 Monica is intrigued by the Aug. 23 cook-off at The Alston dubbed "Cluck and Bubble" presented by the Banchet Awards. Tickets for the fried chicken and champagne bonanza start at $150. Maybe she'll get a ticket for Justin's birthday.

📽️ Carrie is looking forward to the Chicago Underground Film Festival next month. Tickets go on sale TODAY! Maybe Justin wants a ticket for his bday?

Want more Axios Chicago content? Check out our Instagram for extra stuff to do, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more!