Hey there! My cat is asking for food five hours early. Fridays, am I right? Here’s what you need to know today.

1. DNA tests may have finally solved the case of a Chicago girl kidnapped in the 1930s

Mary Agnes Moroney was reportedly snatched from her South Side family when she was 2 years old — and though the case captivated national attention in the 1930s and 1950s, investigators were stumped.

Now, Mary Agnes’s family is convinced they know what happened to her, my colleague Jon Seidel reports for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The family believes “Mary Agnes lived her life as Jeanette Burchard, who was raised as an only child, married twice, had three children and spent more than 50 years as a nurse. She died about 20 years ago in Florida at the age of 75,” Seidel reports.

Commercial DNA tests showed that Burchard’s daughter, Terri Arnold of Florida, and members of Don Moroney’s family were cousins.

The crack in the historic Chicago cold case is thanks to the work of Cook County Sheriff’s Detective Jose Rodriguez, who was assigned last June to investigate Mary Agnes’s disappearance as part of Sheriff Tom Dart’s Missing Persons Project. [Chicago Sun-Times]

2. How admittedly corrupt ex-Illinois lawmakers get to keep their pensions

Nearly $2 million in retirement checks have gone out to a mix of federally charged, convicted and self-admitted felons who once served under the Capitol dome in Springfield, my colleague Dave McKinney reports for WBEZ.

The group includes former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion last year, and former state Sen. Terry Link, who admitted underreporting his income for four years.

As McKinney writes: “All of these cases won sign-off from an obscure state panel, often on the advice of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Raoul’s office found that the criminal wrongdoing of people like Acevedo and Link didn’t disqualify them from their pensions because it wasn’t linked to their work as public officials. That’s a legal standard Illinois pension boards rely on to decide who gets a pension, and who doesn’t.” [WBEZ]

3. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will speak to Chicago’s police union next week

The Republican governor will be in the Chicago area on Monday for an invite-only event to speak with members of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Chicago Tribune reports.

DeSantis and Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have both been speculated to be potential presidential candidates for their respective parties and have recently taken aim at each other, particularly regarding policies about school curriculums.

DeSantis’s campaign hasn’t disclosed the reason for his visit. But as the Trib reports: “A DeSantis speech to Chicago’s FOP Lodge 7, set for an undisclosed location in west suburban Elmhurst, would appear to be aimed at attacking Pritzker and Democrats over outbreaks of violent crime in the city as the mayoral election nears.” [Chicago Tribune]

4. Illinois politicians still take campaign cash from Boeing despite the company’s misconduct

Boeing has collectively given the state’s politicians $50,000 since 2021, when it was revealed that the aerospace company hid safety information about an aircraft model involved in two deadly crashes.

As Robert Herguth writes for the Chicago Sun-Times: “Many of the political contributions were made around Sept. 17, 2021, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Boeing announced that the company, with the help of a pledge of tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks and other perks, would open a factory to build military drones at a sleepy airport in downstate Illinois near St. Louis.”

Campaign disclosure records show Boeing had given Illinois politicians and political groups about $277,000 since 1998 before the recent contributions. [Chicago Sun-Times]

5. Japan may have undercounted its islands by 7,000

The realization comes after geographers used advanced mapping technology and cross-referenced past aerial photos to recount the number of islands in Japanese territory, NPR reports.

Previous figures date back to 1987, when the Japan Coast Guard listed islands with circumferences of at least 100 meters.

But as NPR reports: “They used basic technology that often misidentified groups of small islands as one island. They also left out thousands of islands, many of which were within lakes or rivers. They didn’t include river sandbanks either, which the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea now recognizes as islands. Plus, volcanic activity has led to the creation of more islands since the study over 35 years ago.”

With the recount, the number is expected to increase from 6,852 islands to 14,125. [NPR]

Here’s what else is happening

• Federal prosecutors asked for 25 more years in prison for singer R. Kelly. [AP]

• Today is the 20th anniversary of the deadly crowd rush at E2 nightclub in the South Loop. [Chicago Tribune]

• All five former Memphis Police officers accused in the death of Tyre Nichols pleaded not guilty. [NPR]

• A teen’s family sues Waukegan cops for extracting his false confession to a shooting. [WBEZ]

Oh, and one more thing …

Adapting a book to a movie or TV show is tricky, with plenty of unsuccessful examples (the three-part movie adaptation of The Hobbit comes to mind).

Critic, editor and author Kristen Lopez wrote about the ways these adaptations have been done in But Have You Read the Book? 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films, which comes out March 7.

“The movies range from Frankenstein (1931) to the recent Dune and Rebecca Hall’s superb Passing, both from 2021,” the Chicago Tribune reports. [Chicago Tribune]

Tell me something good …

What warm-weather activities are you most looking forward to?

Jessica writes:

“I look forward to the weather being warm enough and the evenings light enough that I can walk the three miles home from work rather than taking the train.”

Thanks for all your responses this week. I’m sorry we couldn’t include them all, but it was nice hearing from everyone.