Chicago Public Square will return in full force Feb. 18—with sporadic updates between now and then on Twitter and Facebook. Meanwhile …
■ Hours after the Tribune revisited his 1973 scandal, candidate Bill Daley ducked out of a WFLD-Ch. 32 debate.
■ Ex-VP Al Gore was set to back Daley today.
■ Among the latest Trib endorsements: An alderman who’s been a thorn in the Cubs’ butt.
■ A Trump-aligned college student running for alderman faces abuse charges—again (middle of today’s Politico Illinois Playbook roundup).
■ Want to see some candidates in the flesh? You’ll find a guide to where they’ll appear in the Square voter guide.
Cops out.
■ Burke got property tax breaks on his house and political offices just by asking.
$1,000 a month—no strings attached. A task force appointed by Mayor Emanuel recommends Chicago and charitable organizations give cash to 1,000 economically struggling citizens in a pilot program aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty.
■ The Illinois Senate has OK’d a plan to raise Illinois’ minimum wage to $15 within six years.
■ A new bill in the Illinois House would legalize pot—and let people grow up to 24 plants at home.
Chicago water crisis. A joint American Public Media and National Public Radio report concludes the whole Great Lakes region
■ Politico: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal “will never happen the way it’s laid out—and that’s also kind of the point.”
■ Jacobin: Ocasio-Cortez is “making C-SPAN fun” …
■ … as seen in this clip in which she justifies the Democrats’ anti-corruption and voting rights plan.
Naperville race tension. The city’s state representative is toning down—a little—her complaint about its “white supremacist policies.”
■ Mount Prospect is going to stop selling vehicle stickers featuring an image co-opted by racists.
■ Pro-Trump trolls are engaging in “digital blackface,” impersonating black people on Twitter.
Prime roast. In an extraordinary post to Medium (go read it now), Amazon founder, Washington Post owner and (sometimes) world’s wealthiest human Jeff Bezos has told the publisher of the National Enquirer—Trump pal David Pecker—to take a flying leap …
■ … despite the Enquirer’s threat to publish what an Enquirer executive described as a “d*ck pick” and other embarrassing shots of Bezos.
■ Wired’s editor: “The National Enquirer has been so repulsive that the whole Internet is rooting for a billionaire who got busted for an affair.”
■ The Enquirer promises to “thoroughly investigate” the claims against … um … itself.
■ Reporter Ronan Farrow says Bezos isn’t the Enquirer’s first blackmail target.
■ Farrow’s
Tax shock. The new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is surprising some early income tax filers this year with news they either owe the IRS or will be getting refunds smaller than expected.
■ President Trump’s family business has been tapping what The Washington Post calls “a pipeline of illegal workers” for years.
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Thanks … for inspiration this issue to Robert Feder, Amy Savin Parker and Miguel Gonzalez.