We interrupt your email inbox for this special Chicago Public Square update on federal charges against Chicago Ald. Ed Burke.
■ … and to kick in a $10,000 campaign donation to an unnamed politician that sources tell the Tribune was Cook County Board President and now-Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle.
■ At the center of the case: A restaurant less than 100 yards from where 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shot and killed by a Chicago cop in 2014.
■ Trib City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt: “Lordy, there are tapes.”
■ The Trib’s Jason Meisner: “Details in the 37-page complaint hint that it could be the tip of the iceberg. … The FBI had won a judge’s approval to wiretap Burke’s cellphone and was already recording his calls before the alleged shakedown.”
■ Burke, an ex-cop, was ordered to surrender 23 guns.
■ Mayor Emanuel says he wants Burke out as chairman of the City Council’s powerful Finance Committee.
■ Read the criminal complaint against Burke.
■ Veteran Sun-Times City Hall reporter Fran Spielman: Burke “often says there are only three ways to exit the City Council: ‘The ballot box. The jury box. Or the pine box.’ Now, Burke is moving closer to that second option.”
■ He’s been an alderman for almost 50 years, and he’s married to an Illinois Supreme Court justice just reelected in November.
■ A 2016 profile of the guy who owns that Burger King restaurant …
■ … and who in 2017 agreed to pay $250,000 to settle child labor law violations.
■ Also from 2016: How Burke saved Donald Trump almost $12 million. (2009 photo by Kate Gardiner.)
■ A Trib editorial: “Burke exemplifies … aldermen and mayors who enable one another when they should be checks on one another.”
Corrections. Thursday’s regular edition of Chicago Public Square bore a couple of mistakes spotted by readers:
■ Charlie Pajor noted that the word “stocks” should more properly have been “shares.”
■ Mike Braden flagged an s missing from the end of “Chicago Public Schools.”
A reminder that readers who note an error in Square—and are first to report it to Squerror@ChicagoPublicSquare.com—get their names here. And it doesn’t matter how trivial the goof is: Square aims to get everything right, and we love having readers who take the time to help set the record straight.