BOOM LOOMS. A long-awaited City of Chicago plan to redevelop almost four miles along the Chicago River sets the stage for massive investment, including a new Metra station and a sports field.
■ Metra launches a multimillion-dollar rehab of a train station near the 606 trail.
■ Greg Hinz in Crain’s: Is rebuilding one CTA station worth $200 million—enough to fill the Chicago Public Schools budget hole?
■ Disabled commuters say Lyft and Uber’s plans to improve accessibility don’t cut it.
■ A major South Side Chicago road may have to close under Mayor Emanuel’s plan to merge two golf courses.
■ A Chicago alderman’s under police guard after a “credible threat” from a gang.
■ Vox: Police have known for 45 years they shouldn’t shoot at moving cars. But they still do it.
‘THE MOST REGRESSIVE PIECE OF SOCIAL POLICY IN AMERICA.’ The New York Times concludes homeownership has been an engine of inequality—through a tax code that props up home prices and overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy.
■ New research from the University of Chicago, among others: The decline of the middle class “began so much earlier than people think.”
■ A public policy analyst known as Chicago Data Guy: “The big factor that is altering Chicago’s population is the change among blacks.”
Your ad here. Email MeToo@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.
‘THIS HEARING INDICATED THAT THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PROTECTED A NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER WHO LIED AND WHO COULD BE COMPROMISED BY MOSCOW.’Mother Jones on why former acting attorney general Sally Yates’s appearance before the Senate was bad news for President Trump.
■ Sen. Al Franken to Yates: “Just maybe, [Trump] didn’t get rid of a guy who lied to the vice president, who got paid by the Russians, who went on Russia Today, because there are other people in his administration who met secretly with the Russians and didn’t reveal it …until they were caught.”
■ Comedian Wanda Sykes recaps Yates’ testimony to the Senate: “They didn’t know what to do with that woman. She was so cool, and they just lost it” (3:58 in this Daily Show segment).
■ See Yates and Ted Cruz butt heads.
GOFCCYOURSELF.COM. John Oliver’s ingenious workaround for the FCC’s way-too-complicated protocol for people to demand it maintain net neutrality rules has again unleashed a flood of public comment. But the FCC insists it didn’t crash the government site.
■ Stephen Colbert reunites his old Daily Show teammates tonight to mark his 20th anniversary in late-night comedy.
A CLOSE CALL? Federal appeals court judges seem split on the Trump administration’s immigration ban.
■ An ACLU lawyer contended Trump’s travel ban should be ruled unconstitutional because it was taken by Trump and not another president.
■ A Democratic U.S. senator rips a Republican congressman’s defense of Trumpcare: “What the f— is that?”
■ Columnist Catherine Rampell: Trumpcare is “warfare against the young.”
O, HARE! The owners of a World’s Largest Rabbit contender found dead after a United Airlines flight from London to Chicago are demanding United pay damages and order an outside investigation: “Their company’s credibility is under question when they immediately cremate the giant rabbit Simon without anyone’s consent.”
■ United is apologizing for sending a woman to San Francisco instead of Paris.
‘IT WAS HEARTENING TO LISTEN TO MY ENEMIES … AND CONCLUDE … THEY WOULD NEVER WIN.’ Jewish writer Mark Oppenheimer: Meeting Holocaust deniers “actually empowered me as a thinker.”
■ FBI boss Comey admits he lurks on Twitter: “I am there to listen. … And sometimes it’s a wonderful place and sometimes it’s a depressing place.”
■ Maybe he should spend less time there: The FBI has been scrambling to recover from his mistake on his “investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s email server.
NEWS DESERTS. Columbia Journalism Review: More and more U.S. communities have no daily local news outlet at all.
■ Rutgers study: The rich/poor divide extends to local news.
■ Tribune Media’s sale to Sinclair may be bad news for local TV anchors: Sinclair has a rep for dumping high-priced journalists.
SOUNDTRACK FOR PRODUCTION OF TODAY’S EDITION OF CHICAGO PUBLIC SQUARE. This.