THE NEW RULES.
■ No. 2 exec in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives proposes cutting gun regulations.
■ Government agency removes online database that let people research animal welfare.
■ FCC stops defending regulations to lower prisoners’ phone call costs.
■ One of the judges weighing the refugee ban was a refugee.
■ FBI documents suggest Trump’s fixated on the wrong border.
■ Refugees from the U.S. are crossing into Canada on foot—despite frostbite conditions.
■ Portland’s airport is requiring immigration-ban protesters get a “free speech permit.”
■ Two minyans’ worth of rabbis arrested in New York protest.
■ In Illinois, Atty. Gen. Madigan presses Gov. Rauner to oppose the ban.
■ Uproxx: Next, “SNL” should cast Rosie O’Donnell as Trump.
■ … But O’Donnell wants to play Steve Bannon.
■ Why the internet’s been flooded with images of Trump wearing a bathrobe.
■ The “Gawker-killer” lawyer is suing the Daily Mail newspaper on behalf of Melania Trump—over a report she once worked as an escort … and the suit reveals she sees the role of First Lady as a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance to pursue deals in “apparel, accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and fragrance.”
‘JUST LIKE DONALD TRUMP.’ Chicago schools CEO Forrest Claypool blames the schools’ budget crunch—$46 million in cuts for textbooks, field trips, technology and hourly workers who staff recess and after school programs—on Gov. Rauner, who he says is “attacking children of immigrants, he’s attacking racial minorities, attacking the poor here in Chicago.” The Sun-Times’ Lauren FitzPatrick has the story.
■ DNAinfo: How the cuts will hit the classroom, school by school.
A ‘TRAVESTY.’ That’s what the faculty council president at Chicago’s Olive-Harvey College calls the city’s failure to complete a $45 million project that was to turn the college into a training center for students in transportation, distribution and logistics. The Tribune‘s Gregory Pratt reports.
■ March 3, 2012: Mayor Emanuel and Gov. Quinn said taxpayers couldn’t afford not to invest in the project.
■ San Francisco’s set to become the first city in the country to make college free to all residents.
BARACK OBAMA DAY? Can the State of Illinois, struggling with almost $11 billion in unpaid bills, afford to give its workers another day off? Some state lawmakers think so. They’re proposing to close schools and state offices the Monday after the former president’s birthday, Aug. 4.
■ Chicago radio legend Bob Sirott: Make the city’s historic Chess Records recording studio a tourist attraction.
■ The owner of Wicker Park’s evicted Double Door club plans to reopen in Logan Square.
CORRECTION. In accordance with a tweet from Cards Against Humanity co-creator Max Temkin, this item from yesterday’s edition of Square stands corrected:
POTATO! One of today’s most talked-about Super Bowl ads—a wordless 30-second shot of a potato with the word “Advertisement” written on it—was placed by the Chicago-based company that makes Cards Against Humanity (“a party game for horrible people”), which claims in a hilarious confession posted to Medium that it went bankrupt airing it. [Temkin confirms the company isn’t really bankrupt.]
YOU HAVE COMPANY. Chicago Public Square registered its 500th subscriber Monday. Thank you, Sue Ryba of Sue Ryba Landscapes. If you tell your friends, maybe one of them will be No. 600.
