CUBS, CHAMPS. For the third season in a row, Chicago’s headed to the National League Championship Series—thanks to a game the Tribune’s Steve Rosenbloom describes as “drunk.”
■ Do you suffer from Cubs Anxiety Disorder?
■ How it felt for the other guys: The Washington Post’s take on the Nationals’ loss. (Image: JayCoop.)
HE’S BREAKING IT. HAS HE BOUGHT IT? NBC News: The president’s actions this week on the Affordable Care Act “make a strong case that the Trump administration is deliberately trying to break Obamacare.”
■ ABC News: Trump’s taking a chainsaw to health care.
■ The Washington Post: Now, Trump owns the system.
PASSIVE, AGGRESSIVE. Developing story: President Trump reportedly was set to announce today that the Iran nuclear deal is no longer in U.S. national security interests, but he won’t withdraw from it—yet.
■ Five reasons Trump has it in for the Iran deal.
■ White House chief of staff John Kelly’s news conference “laid bare the fact that job security is hard to come by in the Trump White House.”
■ The boss of the U.S. government agency that oversees background checks tells Congress he’s “never seen that level of mistakes” Trump’s son-in-law made in his security clearance application.
■ A suburban high school student newspaper’s staff is fighting the principal’s decision to confiscate an edition exploring student drug use.
‘FREEDOM TO DIFFER IS NOT LIMITED TO THINGS THAT DO NOT MATTER MUCH.’ A 1943 Supreme Court ruling inspires the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg to observe that President Trump’s actions with regard to national anthem protests are “immoral, very likely illegal and certainly un-American.”
■ Jake Tapper on CNN: If President Obama had threatened Fox News the way President Trump has threatened NBC News, “there would be people with torches in the street.”
‘THE WORST IDEA IN AMERICAN POLITICS.’ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce warns that a call for a national constitutional convention “is perilously close to completion.”
■ Now-withdrawn Illinois gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar could shake up the race with an endorsement of one of the remaining contenders.
CHRISTMAS CRIME. An ex-Amtrak employee in Chicago faces at least a year in jail after admitting to steering $30,000 in business from Amtrak’s Polar Express Train Ride event to his wife’s company.
■ Why almost no one in Illinois is charged with breaking gun trafficking laws.
NEW LIFE FOR A CHICAGO STAGE. A $65 million renovation for Logan Square’s Congress Theater is almost underway.
■ The City Council’s ex-inspector general says a Chicago alderman “abused his power and title” in the shuttering of the celebrated Double Door music venue.
■ The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s “Open House Chicago” this weekend opens more than 200 “hidden gems and architectural treasures” to the public—for free.
■ In Chicago’s troubled Englewood neighborhood, an architectural gem is bracing for thousands of Open House visitors.THE DAILY SHOW’S COMING. Ahead of the show’s stand here next week, host Trevor Noah tells the Sun-Times: “I had a love affair with Chicago long before most of America or other cities had a love affair with me.”
■ But Bill Murray was kinda pissed Tuesday night.
‘AN INTIMATE TRIUMPH.’ Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway debut wins a glowing review from Rolling Stone.
■ Eric Zorn: The problems with the song Dixie, “a march so defiled by history that not even Abraham Lincoln’s blessing can redeem it.”
WHY AREN’T WE TROUBLED BY TUESDAY THE 13TH? National Geographic explores the origins of Friday the 13th fear.
■ But this happened today: Facebook has gained a new feature letting you order food from local restaurants directly within its app.