Historic school strike. Thousands of Chicago charter school students have the day off as their teachers become the first in the country’s history to launch a network-wide walkout.
■ Chicago Public Schools plans to close two charters and deny applications for three new ones.
■ WBEZ’s first-time tally finds that, over the last 17 years, Chicago has closed or overhauled about 200 public schools.
■ A rise in unions’ political clout may spell setbacks for the charter movement.
■ After a historic court ruling, the Chicago school board has given a South Loop elementary school a reprieve.
■ At Chicago’s celebrated Whitney Young Magnet High School, a bathroom stall scrawl has prompted deployment of metal detectors.
■ Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens disputes a reader’s contention that “enrolling your children in a Chicago public school is a form of child abuse.”
■ Elementary, middle and high school teachers are striking in Geneva School District 304.
‘The only place someone could find two Illinois governors outside of prison.’ The presence of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker at Illinois’ official bicentennial celebration last night prompted that joke from comedian George Wendt.
■ Rauner and Pritzker were there—but not together.
Challenging time. You’ll need this scorecard to track who’s challenging whose petitions in the Chicago mayoral race, but Politico’s Shia Kapos says one pattern is clear: Mayoral candidate and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is going after other female and minority candidates.
■ One of those Preckwinkle’s targeting, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, has landed a big chunk of cash from a controversial scrap yard’s part-owner.
More sergeants. Wrestling with an embarrassingly low rate of arrests in Chicago’s plague of shootings, the police department is adding supervisors to ride herd on detectives.
■ Two O’Hare airport motor truck drivers are suing the city, complaining they faced “extreme retaliation” for refusing to do political work on city time.
‘They’re really talking about laying off local journalists.’ The nonpartisan media watchdog organization Free Press is opposing Nexstar Media Group’s plan to acquire the TV stations of Chicago-born Tribune Media.
■ But Nexstar doesn’t seem all that hot on keeping WGN Radio and the WGN America cable channel.
■ Dozens of photos document the history of WGN-TV.
‘I’m the most qualified person in the country to be president.’ Ex-Vice President Joe Biden displays no deficit of self-esteem.
■ Mother Jones: “Republicans Finally Have a Voter Fraud Scandal. And None of Them Want to Talk About It.”
■ Vox: Wisconsin Republicans are staging a lame-duck power grab.
■ Mail delivery is just one of many services to be suspended Wednesday in honor of the late President George H.W. Bush.
Not folked over yet. Amid a flood of protest, the Old Town School of Folk Music board has postponed the sale of its historic building at 909 W. Armitage Ave.
■ From 2017: How the school began.
A dating site for Trump backers. The founder of a service for loveless supporters of the president threatens to sue liberals who join.
■ Facebook says it’s eradicating hate speech, but The Daily Beast says it hasn’t touched posts advocating the killing of immigrants, minorities and public figures.
■ Mother Jones: Why Facebook and Twitter aren’t giving their all to stamping out false and toxic content.
■ BuzzFeed News senior editor Katie Notopoulos on Tumblr’s decision to ban porn: “The march to delete the internet of the 2000s seems to be moving along much faster than the march to make today’s internet a better place.”
About yesterday’s late delivery of Square email. It was MailChimp’s fault.
■ If you’re not getting Square free by email, you (nevertheless) should.
■ Thanks to all who keep Square coming—whenever—through their financial support. Why not you?