After Earth Day. A panel of scientists and futurists consulted by USA Today concludes civilization can solve climate change problems without compromising living standards.
■ Lyft is offering free Divvy bike rides today.
■ A bill in the Illinois General Assembly aims to level fees for residential water service across Illinois—including Chicago suburbs paying some of the state’s highest rates. (Photo: Badges from the first Earth Day in 1970; personal collection.)
Illinois’ Republican ‘upheaval.’ Politico’s Shia Kapos says the party’s confronting its fundraising challenges—under the leadership of a former Illinois Lottery executive who left the state under an ethical cloud.
■ Sun-Times analysis: Mayor Emanuel's legacy on ethics is mostly good—except at the Chicago Public Schools system.
■ … to be paid for by increasing taxes on the nation’s wealthiest families.
■ Warren to CNN: “I got married at 19 and I took a job answering phones and I thought that was going to be my whole life. And the fact that there was a commuter college about 45 minutes away that I could pay for on a part-time waitressing job—you know, it opened a door.”
■ FiveThirtyEight: How 40-year-old Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton—the latest (and second-youngest) candidate to toss a hat in an increasingly crowded ring—could win the presidential race.
Unprecedented Presidents Dept.
■ Despite his complete lack of political experience and few detailed policy positions, voters in Ukraine have elected as president a comedian who has played its president on TV.
■ An Associated Press fact-check finds President Trump and his attorney general distorting the truth about special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
■ The Tribune’s Dahleen Glanton: “Congress must follow Mueller’s road map in lockstep and take our nation’s honor out of the hands of a dishonorable man.”
■ A Trump tweet claiming “138 million” people were killed in terrorist attacks on Sri Lanka stayed up for 20 minutes before it was corrected.
Sri Lanka was warned. The country’s government confirms it received intelligence April 4 that churches and tourist destinations were terrorist targets—but, its presidential chief of staff tells NBC, “We never expected it to be so big” as the attacks that have claimed close to 300 lives and injured at least 500 others.
■ Updating coverage: Sri Lanka’s president has given the military sweeping wartime powers …
■ … and in a vote of no-confidence in American internet companies’ ability to control harmful content after terrorism, the nation blocked access to Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and other social media.
Big gay ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court says it’ll take up the question of whether federal civil rights law protects individuals on the basis of sexual or transgender orientation …
■ … via three challenges involving a skydiving instructor, a Michigan funeral home worker and a Georgia county government employee who alleged they were fired because they were gay or transgender.
‘If we were trying to design the system from the ground up, we wouldn’t have all these hospitals.’ A Loyola University professor explains how the bewildering plight of a suburban medical center exemplifies dramatic shifts in America’s health care industry.
■ A Chicago neighborhood chamber of commerce is offering members its own group health plan.
Hell hath no fury like high school journalists scorned. When U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Kentucky’s Republican Gov. Matt Bevin held an “open press” roundtable discussion on education, a group of student reporters were turned away. So they wrote an editorial.
■ Columnist Will Bunch: “Students have restored my faith—in journalism and in humanity, which to me are pretty much the same thing.”
■ Media columnist Robert Feder has corrected early reports on the death of Chicago sportscaster Chet Coppock.
If every person reading these words persuaded someone new to subscribe to Chicago Public Square, we’d have … um … a lot more readers.
Thanks … to reader Pam Spiegel for catching two errors above: The misspelling of Mueller and a missing article in the Supreme Court item.