■ Leaked emails show Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife pushed Trump’s travel ban—and the Daily Beast says that could doom Trump’s chances in an appeal.
■ Mayor Emanuel says he told Trump the cities Trump’s invested in are “all sanctuary cities.”
‘3. Honesty (formerly Respect).’ Writing for The Atlantic, Miss Manners lists 11 virtues the president has redefined.
■ “If Trump hopes to tame the leak monster … he might want to stop lying first.”—Jack Shafer in Politico.
■ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to the Weekly Standard: Trump’s tweeting “makes everything harder.”
■ Trump launches Thursday with a Twitter attack on “low-life leakers.”
■ Classified memo to intelligence analysts: Keep Trump’s briefings short.
■ Even the Kremlin is reportedly telling the media to cut back on fawning coverage of Trump.
■ Next season on American Horror Story: The 2016 presidential election.
‘He has balls of Styrofoam.’ Journalism critic Jay Rosen says Trump strategist Steve Bannon “reads the New York Times and Washington Post with fear in his heart. Like normal people in power do.”
■ In The New Yorker, William Finnegan attributes the derailing of Trump’s labor secretary nominee, Andrew Puzder, to a paperwork pitfall: Complex financial disclosure records, which slowed things down, “giving his opponents time to fill in his record.”
■ Tribune cartoonist Joe Fournier mocks departed National Security Adviser Michael Flynn: “I thought having contact with the Russians and then lying about it was the administration’s policy.”
■ The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald: “Leakers who exposed Gen. Flynn’s lie committed serious—and wholly justified—felonies.”
‘A permanent freeze would be extremely destructive to schools.’ The Sun-Times’ Mark Brown says Gov. Rauner’s “grand bargain” ain’t so grand.
■ Even Rauner’s best-case scenario leaves a $4.5 billion hole, the Tribune reports.
■ … And his teleprompter gave out, triggering 113 seconds of awkward improv.
‘Chicago has no tipping point.’ The Tribune’s Rex Huppke on the city’s seemingly unending flow of heartbreaking, senseless murder.
■ Dahleen Glanton: “We have convinced ourselves that all we can do is watch,” which “allows us to sleep peacefully at night.”
■ Mary Mitchell in the Sun-Times: “Our babies are martyrs and our young men are killers.”
Bad news if you like bucket boys. Chicago aldermen have voted to silence—or at least quiet—street performers along broad stretches of Chicago’s retail districts.
■ Aldermen are close to a limit on those honorary brown street signs.
Apartment boom. More opened in Chicago’s suburbs during 2016 than any year in the last 20.
■ Dennis Rodkin in Crain’s: Elmhurst is a new hub for million-dollar homes.
■ Chicago ranks 8th among 10 major U.S. cities for rent affordability.
■ Monopoly’s thimble gamepiece is going extinct.
■ Giant machines could help refreeze the Arctic.
Most-clicked link in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square? It was this one.