■ First son-in-law Jared Kushner had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad month.
■ Trump’s departing communications director, Hope Hicks, kept a diary of her time at the White House and her affair with alleged domestic abuser Rob Porter—and that has publishers salivating.
■ … and one insider tells Vanity Fair
■ CNN political analyst Gloria Borger on Trump’s demeanor amid all this: “There’s an up-against-the-wall quality to the past couple of weeks that is … loud, clear, unhealthy, even dangerous.”
■ The president also had time to tweet a swipe at his satirist, Alec Baldwin: “Bring back Darrell Hammond.”
■ Twitter’s CEO asks for help: “We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough.”
‘Language of racists.’ In Thursday night’s Democratic gubernatorial debate, Chris Kennedy slammed fellow candidate J.B. Pritzker for his words in a wiretapped conversation with former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
■ See the debate online here. (And they’ll debate again Friday night at 7 on Ch. 7.)
Meanwhile, in the race for Illinois attorney general … The Tribune’s political team says the eight-candidate Democratic primary has become a race to stop ex-Gov. Pat Quinn.
■ The Tribune’s Eric Zorn says that, after meeting all the candidates in an Editorial Board meeting, “I walked out positive I was going to vote for …”
■ Cards Against Humanity (!) and the Sun-Times will livestream a debate among the attorney general candidates Sunday afternoon.
The NRA’s secret weapon. Bloomberg says the National Rifle Association has an app “so effective at connecting the NRA’s members with lawmakers, even Democrats are jealous.”
■ L.L. Bean joins the bandwagon of retailers deciding not to sell guns to those under 21.
■ A Stanford economist and law prof writing for Scientific American: The president’s suggestion to arm teachers “is not a good option.”
■ Updating coverage: Students have been advised to take cover after shots fired at Central
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‘Dumbass people.’ That’s how retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch describes supporters of the Affordable Care Act.
■ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is fighting for the right to cast votes in the Senate after she gives birth: “You’re not allowed to bring children onto the floor of the Senate at all, so if I have to vote and I’m breastfeeding my child, what do I do, leave her sitting outside?”
■ Republican governors are dragging their feet on scheduling elections their party stands to lose.
Tackling the football problem. The Illinois House will debate outlawing organized tackle football for kids under 12—under a bill named for late Chicago Bear Dave Duerson, who killed himself in
■ The Boy Scouts are extending their background check process to cover all adults present with kids at any event longer than 72 hours.
■ WBEZ: A group you’ve probably never heard of has partnered with the Catholic Church to take control of $33 million in Illinois tax dollars for education.‘Essentially a sham.’ Even a fellow conservative media organization, NewsMax, calls Sinclair Broadcast Group’s plan to take control of Tribune Media—including Chicago’s WGN-TV and Radio—“a transaction … rife with the appearance of impropriety and special treatment.”
■ Chew on this: Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Building is on the block—at an asking price more than six times what investors paid for it in 2011.
Oscar’s Chicago team. Wondering whom to cheer Sunday night? Here’s a rundown of nominees with ties to Chicago.
■ Chicagoan Mark Caro rolls out his annual Oscars quiz in The New York Times.
■ Critic Richard Roeper: Bruce Willis’ new Chicago-set movie, Death Wish, “feels anything but real.”
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