CTA REBATE TEST. A “modestly publicized” pilot program in August paid riders to avoid crowded trains—and the CTA says it’ll try again within the next three months.
■ Joe Cahill in Crain’s: Is this the beginning of the end for Metra?
‘NAUSEA. HEADACHES. DIZZINESS. BLURRED VISION.’ The owner of a Ford Explorer describes the symptoms that have prompted Ford to offer free repairs for a carbon monoxide problem.
■ Denver plans for “hyperspeed commuting” in pods that could hold cars, freight or people.
■ A suburban Chicago-area plant has lost a $352 million contract to build high-speed Amtrak trains.
SECRET POLLUTION. Newly released documents reveal U.S. Steel last month dumped poisonous chromium into water near Lake Michigan—and then asked Indiana regulators to keep it on the down low.
■ Since President Trump’s inauguration, 61 staffers have quit the EPA’s Chicago office—and haven’t been replaced.
■ The Atlantic: Democrats “are shockingly unprepared to fight climate change.”
‘AGAIN REALIZED HOW BAD, AND FAKE, IT IS. LOSER!’ Among a flurry of tweets this morning, Trump complained about being “forced to watch @CNN” during his visit to the Philippines.
■ Fox News anchor Shepard Smith’s debunking of his network’s Hillary Clinton uranium “scandal” enraged his viewers.
■ BuzzFeed: “More Than 200 People Were Arrested On Trump’s Inauguration Day. The First Trial Starts Today.”
‘BILL CLINTON SHOULD HAVE RESIGNED.’ As society awakens to the problem of sexual harassment, Matthew Yglesias writes in Vox: “We got it wrong. We … should have talked about … men abusing their social and economic power over younger and less powerful women.”
■ Your Square proprietor in September 1998, for an early personal website: “Love him or hate him, forgive him or condemn him, Clinton must go.”
■ Mary Schmich slams reporters’ choice of words: “Whatever you call Roy Moore’s alleged behavior toward teenage girls, it is not romantic.”
■ A Democratic congresswoman says she knows of at least two current members of Congress who have sexually harassed staffers.
■ Unwritten advice to women on Capitol Hill: Beware male lawmakers who sleep in their offices.
■ Radio host “Mancow” Muller his suing his new/old boss for “emotional distress.”
■ A new law requires Chicago hotels to give employees who work alone in rooms portable “panic buttons” to summon help if they’re harassed or assaulted.
ONE OF OUR CHEFS IS MISSING. A chef at Chicago’s trendy Roister restaurant, Luis Mercader, organized a fundraiser for Hurricane Maria recovery efforts last week, but didn’t show up for it—and now is the subject of a missing person hunt.
■ Yesterday’s fire at Chicago’s fragrant Blommer Chocolate factory was the second in two weeks.
■ FitzGerald’s Sidebar in Berwyn will become an It’s a Wonderful Life pop-up bar on Wednesdays in December.