[Square will take Monday off to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Back Tuesday.]
■ … and he raised the possibility that he “probably should record future meetings”—a prospect that rings a Watergate bell.
■ But Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who was there, says of news reports in The Washington Post and elsewhere, “I have not read one of them that’s inaccurate.”
■ A UN human rights official calls Trump’s remarks “racist.”
■ In Africa: Shock.
■ But CNN quotes a White House official as saying Trump took a “victory lap” last night— phoning aides and friends to ask what they thought about the “shithole” remark.
■ A Tribune editorial: “The president owes the country an apology.”
■ How news media dealt with “shithole.”
■ A list of 56 “most unforgettable” lines from Trump’s interview with The Wall Street Journal.
■ Word of the day at snarky Merriam-Webster, whose online dictionary doesn’t define “shithole”: Reprehensible.
Work for Medicaid? Now that the Trump administration has opened the door to imposing work requirements on people who get government health insurance, Illinois is considering its options.
■ A disability lawyer who is also disabled: “This policy change will be disastrous.”
■ Walmart’s decision to close dozens of Sam’s Club warehouse stores—including six in the Chicago area—means layoffs for thousands.
Candidate robbed. A Democratic candidate for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint yesterday afternoon during a campaign photo shoot.
■ In a joint appearance, the eight Democrats running to replace Lisa Madigan in the job made their cases to the Sun-Times editorial board.
Homicide, not suicide. In a newly released report, an FBI expert concludes a Chicago cop found dead at his home in 2015 was shot by someone else at point-blank range—and then the scene was staged to look like a suicide.
■ Newly compiled video follows a mysterious Chicago police chase from beginning to horrific end.
‘We simply have no place to put them.’ The executive director of Chicago’s Animal Care and Control shelter says its dog population has reached capacity and so it may have to kill some.
■ Benefactors have bought a reprieve for at least some dogs.
■ How long can Chicago’s last Sears store endure?
Chicago’s Electric Dreams. Amazon’s new anthology series based on the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (who was born in Chicago) was partly filmed in Chicago.
■ Stephen Colbert will return to his alma mater, Northwestern, to host a show featuring other alumni in April.
■ In the first of a new interview series now playing on Netflix, David Letterman talks to Barack Obama, who warns social media threatens to keep citizens “in a bubble, and that’s part of why our politics is so polarized right now.”
■ Facebook is pledging to show you more posts from friends and family than from news organizations.
