'Lies, plain and simple' / Pepe's condemns… / Wanna Wright?

‘LIES, PLAIN AND SIMPLE.’ In opening remarks to the Senate this morning, fired FBI Director James Comey blasted the Trump administration’s attempt “to defame … the FBI.”
Live updates on Comey’s testimony from ABC, the AP, CBS, CNN, The Guardian, the Lawfare blog, The New Yorker, The New York Times, NPR, PolitiFact, Politico and the Washington Post.
A friend says a hug from President Trump “disgusted” Comey.
Comey’s legal career began at the University of Chicago Law School.
Trump’s pick to replace Comey, Christopher Wray, has Russian entanglements of his own.
The two-second statement that may haunt the president.

‘IT WASN’T JUST ANY SHOOTING. IT WAS THE DEATH OF AT LEAST THE 10th OF MY FORMER STUDENTS.’ In a heartbreaking Facebook post, WGN Radio news anchor Roger Badesch shares what it’s like when the stories he reports intersect with his career as a Chicago school teacher.
The American Civil Liberties Union condemns Mayor Emanuel’s plan to sidestep federal court on Chicago police reform: “Yet another set of recommendations … that will have no teeth.”
Emanuel is set to dole out $3.2 million to neighborhood projects from what critics call his “slush fund.”
A Chicago Public Library comic strip casts Emanuel in a super-hero comic strip.

‘MY PHYSICAL RESPONSE TO YOUR LEGITIMATE QUESTION WAS UNPROFESSIONAL, UNACCEPTABLE, AND UNLAWFUL.’ Montana Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte has apologized to the reporter he assaulted and has agreed to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Legal fights are brewing over public officials’ blocking of constituents on Twitter.
A self-described “Grammy-losing songwriter” issues a legal threat: “The president can unblock me, or see me in court.” (And she tells Time: “It’s like FDR took my radio away.”)

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THIS ISSUE OF CHICAGO PUBLIC SQUARE does not include another of those annoying pitches for you to support Square with a vote for Best News Site in the Chicago Reader’s “Best of Chicago” poll. If you enjoy that sort of thing, though, you’ll find it in yesterday’s issue.


‘PEPE’S CONDEMNS … ALL DISCRIMINATORY COMMENTS … DIRECTED TO ANY OF OUR CUSTOMERS.’ The restaurant chain is apologizing to a group of teenage Muslim girls who were verbally assaulted by another customer at a Hickory Hills Pepe’s.
A judge has ruled for the Archdiocese of Chicago in a suit filed by a gay music director fired after announcing his same-sex marriage engagement.

WANNA WRIGHT? On this, the 150th anniversary of iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth, the people who own homes he built are having a tough time selling.
How Wright has influenced modern interior design.
Chicago Public Square video shows the view from the pulpit of Wright’s soon-to-reopen-after-restoration Unity Temple.

DEADBEAT ILLINOIS. A federal judge could decide within a few days whether the state’s budget deadlock and the resulting backlog of almost $14.7 billion in unpaid bills is hurting Medicaid recipients’ access to medical care.
Illinois lands 50 companies in the Fortune 500.

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