Two towers. A Chicago developer has unwrapped plans for a second skyscraper in the Fulton Market area: A hotel-and-apartment project that would be the city’s tallest building west of the Kennedy Expressway. (Related Midwest rendering.)
‘Everything’s going up, and our salaries are remaining the same.’ Fare hikes greeted Metra riders this morning.
■ … and service cuts begin Monday.
■ Meanwhile, Metra is inviting riders to take an online survey about a fare system overhaul.
The case against Emanuel. Ex-Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas is dispelling doubt about his plans to challenge Rahm Emanuel—and he suggests the mayor had a hand in his early ouster from Chicago State University.
■ Columnist John Kass surveyed the scene as Vallas appeared at a City Club of Chicago luncheon yesterday: “Is he going to run? Yes.”
‘S___hole of the universe.’ The chairman of the Illinois Lottery Control Board is out after describing East St. Louis, Ill., that way in a tweet.
■ A veteran Chicago firefighter’s been fired after repeatedly engaging in sex with a woman at a firehouse.
■ … and male legislators need to beware “the handkerchief trick.”
■ At the center of what may be the worst corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history—responsible for epicurean feasts and sex parties—is a guy known as “Fat Leonard.”
‘The State of the Union is a huge waste of time. And wasting time is the best thing Trump can do.’ Which is why the Tribune’s Steve Chapman says the president should deliver a State of the Union address every week.
■ In his State of the State address, Gov. Rauner called for “a joint effort to restore public trust.”
■ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy says if the election this fall comes down to Rauner vs. J.B. Pritzker, he’d reluctantly back Pritzker: “If you have a choice between the immoral and the unethical, I guess I’d go with the unethical.”
Concussion Protocol. The Intercept has a brief online movie collecting visual records of every concussion in the NFL this year.
■ “The highlight reel that the NFL does not want you to see.”
Carson’s closings. The parent company of the Carson’s department store chain says it will shutter seven Illinois outlets.
■ Sears is laying off 220 corporate workers, mostly in Hoffman Estates.
■ A health finance professor on the Amazon-Chase-Berkshire health care initiative: “One has to applaud … if you are outside the health-care sector and fear it if you are inside.”
■ Showtime’s The Chi—executive-produced by Common—is getting a Season 2.
■ Fact-check: The Chicago scenes in last night’s American Crime Story.
■ Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer is planning to buy out a Mississippi movie theater “to ensure that all our brown children can see themselves as a superhero.”
‘Journalists buying followers on social media isn’t trivial. It’s unethical.’ Chicago Tribune journalist Kurt Gessler on a simmering scandal at the Sun-Times: Yes, it matters that “Richard Roeper might have paid a company for followers like @Sidy06266084 or @fdsfdsf30499949.”
■ Wired magazine is launching a paywall today.
