Birds of a feather / Reporter carjacked / 'Offensive, bigoted, insulting'

BIRDS OF A FEATHER. President Trump, who’s been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, has fully endorsed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who’s been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct.

… And Moore tweets his thanks.
Former Access Hollywood co-host Billy Bush on Trump’s denial he endorsed a “grab them by the pussy” approach to women: “Of course he said it.”

IMPEACHMENT ODDS? FALLING. An Atlantic contributing editor concludes chances the Republican-dominated House will take action against the president are on the wane because “the last six months have demonstrated that GOP voters will stick with Trump despite his lunacy, and punish those Republican politicians who do not.”
Across the country, the number of women challenging U.S. representatives is almost quadruple what it was two years ago.
Trump’s personal lawyer tells Axios a president can’t be guilty of obstruction of justice.
Politico details ex-Chicagoan and ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos’ late night before his jailing on charges of lying to the FBI.

REPORTER CARJACKED. Two men early this morning ordered a Tribune reporter out of her company car, which they then stole.
Trump says investors should consider suing ABC News over a story it bungled last week.
Columbia Journalism Review: ABC hands Trump a press-bashing weapon.”
A checklist for journalists who want to avoid ABC’s mistakes.
New research: Trump has unleashed “unprecedented” levels of polarization in how people view journalists.

CURTAIN FALL. New York’s Metropolitan Opera has suspended conductor—and former longtime music director at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park—James Levine after three men, including one from Illinois, accused him of abusing them when they were teenagers. (2013 photo: Ralph Daily.)
Several women accuse longtime NPR host and former Chicagoan John Hockenberry of sexually harassing them.
Around the world, sexual harassment charges against major entertainment figures are creating new challenges for law enforcement.

‘MEN ARE SCUM.’ Saying that on Facebook, apparently, has gotten women banned from Facebook.
Facebook’s launching a new—and, it says, entirely separate—app to let kids communicate with people approved by their parents.

‘OFFENSIVE, BIGOTED, INSULTING.’ The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is condemning a bus company for an email ad that took a swipe at the university’s foreign students.
The company has a troubled history.

‘THIS SEEMS TO BE AN EXCEPTION.’ Analysis in The New York Times concludes that, unlike other consolidation across the healthcare industry, the merger of CVS and Aetna could benefit consumers.
A new Congressional Antitrust Caucus wants annual studies of how mergers affect prices, jobs, wages, and local economies.
Vox: Emergency rooms are monopolies, and patients pay the price.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Something new on Chicago Public Square, the website: You can now comment at the bottom of each day’s edition. Click on the headline at the top of any issue (or at the start of this email, if that’s where you’re reading this); then scroll down to the end of the post. Note: Comments require you to log in with your Facebook account. Looking forward to good discussion among smart people. (That’s you.)
Thanks to superduper-hyperattentive reader Mike Braden for spotting a typo in the last issue of Square: A miscapitalized word.

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