What's closed / Meanwhile, on Mars / Shatner Claus

Chicago Public Square goes on hiatus for the rest of the week. Back Monday.

What’s closed, what’s open. It’s that time again—for the updated-every-15-minutes Emergency Closing Center to activate.
■ Updating coverage: Some parts of the Chicago area were digging out from under more than 13 inches of snow that left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses powerless.
■ Stuck somewhere? Welcome to Cyber Monday …
■ … or—why wait?—get a headstart on Giving Tuesday.

Mostly false. PolitiFact razzes Illinois Comptroller and Chicago mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza for her claim that she was the “deciding vote on abolishing the death penalty” in Illinois.
■ Gov. Rauner could face dozens of override votes before he escapes office.

Merry Christmas from GM. General Motors is cutting almost 15,000 North American jobs and may close five factories …
■ … partly in response to the Trump administration’s shifting trade agreements.
■ The world’s oldest advertising firm is merging with—and taking second billing to—a digital network.
■ CVS and Aetna are in position this week to complete their merger.
■ 10 things to know about Chicago hot dog and Italian beef king Dick Portillo—including his jail time as a young man.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. It’s off to prison today for the first person charged by the office of special counsel investigating the 2016 Trump campaign.
■ Alabama Mississippi voters today get not one, but two, rally appearances from President Trump on behalf of public hanging aficionado Cindy Hyde-Smith. (Cartoon: Keith Taylor.)

Meanwhile, on Mars … Updating coverage: At 2 p.m. Chicago time today NASA was set to land a spacecraft on the red planet—hoping to learn why it, unlike Earth, became so inhospitable to life.
■ How to watch live online.

Shatner Shattner Claus. Captain Kirk has recorded a Christmas album—and it sounds like just what you’d expect.
■ More new Christmas albums reviewed.
■ The Tribune’s Heidi Stevens writes in praise of those holiday card family letters.

Reading this for free? Thank those whose contributions keep it coming.

And thanks to Mike Braden and Reg Davis for those corrections to this issue.