Trump's cuts / McDonald's v. Trump / Chicago's 'Jeopardy!' auditions

TRUMP’S CUTS. The budgets of every non-military agency of the U.S. government would drop under the president’s budget proposal, which also would slice the EPA’s budget by a third, privatize air traffic control, and eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 But it has some good news for critics of “mass incarceration.”
 Public broadcasting gears up for another fight.
 Washington Post analysis: Trump’s military spending bump could fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for 121 years.
 George Will mocks “the National Endowment for the Affluent.”

THE REPUBLICAN 22. FiveThirtyEight says critics in the U.S. House may have the votes they need to sink the party’s health care reform plan.

 Illinois Republicans are under pressure—and on the fence.

‘THE PRESIDENT WAS WRONG.’ The Republican chair of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee has gone beyond just asserting a lack of evidence for Trump’s suggestion he was wiretapped by the Obama administration.
 Rachel Maddow says she never misrepresented her Trump tax scoop.
 But Stephen Colbert ridiculed her mercilessly last night.

McDONALD’s v. TRUMP. The company’s Twitter feed insulted the president briefly today—before the tweet was killed.
 Luke Skywalker goes after a Trump bureaucrat on Twitter.

‘WHERE IS AMERICA GOING?’ That’s one of two questions Chicago journalist Rich Cahan asked people on a train ride across the country beginning the day Trump was elected. He’s just premiered the resulting 13-minute documentary online here.
 Rex Huppke: “Imagine if President Donald Trump apologized …”

AN ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD? Over objections from Chicago Public Schools, the full state House will get a proposal to let voters pick their board—instead of letting the mayor do it.
 The mayor’s asking teachers to call off plans for another one-day strike.

MUSCLED OUT. Under fire for pricing its muscular dystrophy drug at a spectacular $89,000 a year—even though it was available outside the U.S. for as little as $1,200 a year—Northbrook-based Marathon Pharmaceuticals is selling the product to another company.
 A huge round of investment in a Chicago health care startup may be a recent record.

CHICAGO’S ‘JEOPARDY!’ AUDITIONS. For two hours this week, hopeful contestants tried out for the chance to be embarrassed before Alex Trebek.
 Us Weekly is sold not to the Chicago Tribune’s parent company, but to the National Enquirer’s parent company.

WHO KNEW? Dept.
 Illinois state representatives spent a half-hour debating a plan to spend up to $1.5 million on a thing Google does for free.
 Ex-Mayor Daley has a “latest squeeze.” (About halfway into today’s Sneed column.)

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