BILL O’REILLY’S NOT DEAD. Just because Fox has fired him doesn’t mean he’ll disappear from the media landscape.
■ He’ll get a “staggering” payout on his way out.
■ His book publisher is standing by him.
■ Bloomberg: O’Reilly’s exit probably won’t hurt Fox’s bottom line much.
■ But a CNN anchor who worked at Fox for 16 years says there’s “more to come.”
■ Stephen Colbert acknowledges his debt to O’Reilly.
■ Beachwood Reporter maestro Steve Rhodes: “I was on Bill O’Reilly’s show once.”
■ Anita Hill, who put sexual harassment in the spotlight 26 years ago: “When we find sexual harassment exists, the solutions are very often to move the women who have complained.”
■ Meanwhile: Hill’s harasser yesterday was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote against requiring governments to refund court fees and other costs to those whose criminal convictions are invalidated on appeal. (Photo: Justin Hoch.)
EMANUEL’S EMAILS. A Tribune investigation of the mayor’s private account has prompted the Chicago Board of Ethics to expand its investigation of illegal lobbying.
■ Aldermen have backed down from a plan to exempt their contract workers from ethics rules.
ABORTION-RIGHTS GROUP: GOVERNOR AND HIS WIFE ‘LIED.’ It says Bruce Rauner’s vow to veto a bill it supports disproves the Rauners’ campaign claim he’s “pro-choice.”
■ The Illinois Senate has scheduled a hearing in Springfield next Tuesday on a proposal to ratify the long-dormant Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—a fight the center of which Illinois is at.
NEW METRA CARS. It’s moving to add at least 25 new rail cars and 10 locomotives.
■ Metra BNSF Railway trains were brought to a halt this morning after a train hit a person.
BUT NOT THAT MUCH EASIER. Caterpillar Inc., which said it would move from Peoria to the Chicago area to make meetings with its global customers easier, has chosen Deerfield as its new corporate headquarters.
■ How a rat balloon from Chicago’s suburbs became a global union mascot.
■ A union’s lawsuit aims to block the sale of the Strack & Van Til grocery chain, which has also announced plans to close nine Ultra Foods stores.
‘A PUBLIC STAGE FOR MURDER.’ Writing in The Guardian, Nancy Jo Sales says Facebook has failed to do anything substantive to keep its site from becoming “a kind of online Roman Colosseum.”
■ Ex-Chicago TV news director Carol Fowler on Mark Zuckerberg: “If I were CEO, I’d be mortified that my company has been hijacked by morons and thugs committing heinous acts.”
■ Want to be a march marshal? You can sign up for a training session tonight.
■ After the march, a Science Expo on the Museum Campus will celebrate work in Chicago on the frontiers of research.
■ Science guy Bill Nye says his new Netflix series, debuting tomorrow, aims to save the world.
■ Chicago-based Boeing Co. and the Bolingbrook parent company of WeatherTech floor mats each gave the Trump inauguration committee $1 million.
■ Dow Chemical—which also chipped in $1 million—is pushing Trump to kill a report that found a family of widely used pesticides harmful to threatened or endangered species.
■ Law prof: Trump’s Syria strike clearly broke international law—and no one seems to care.
NOT SO FAST. If you’ve seen photos contrasting the New England Patriots’ White House turnout for a visit to President Trump with their attendance at the Obama White House two years ago, know The New York Times has admitted it wasn’t comparing apples to apples. (Correction at bottom of the story.)
■ Time’s 100 Most Influential People list includes Theo Epstein, Colin Kaepernick and Chance the Rapper.