Chicago Public Square—Chicago Reader readers’ 2019 pick for Chicago’s best blog—wouldn’t be here for you today without support from people including Larry Dahlke, Heather Foote and Heather Alger. You can join them for a few cents a day with a pledge here. And now the news:
■ How the story developed—including examination of nearly 50,000 pages of records.
■ Parents are upset about a junior high schooler’s science project that asked LaSalle County kindergartners and first-graders to open “child-proof” medicine bottles.
Armed and dangerous. Police have identified a man sought in connection with the murder of a husband and wife in the parking garage of their suburban apartment complex Sunday.
■ Police have stepped up their presence in the neighborhood.
‘Watch Republicans Sh*t On A Guy With A Purple Heart!’ Evan Hurst’s live play-by-play, plain-English translation of impeachment hearings is back at Wonkette.
■ Today’s two starting witnesses call President Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president “improper” and “unusual.”
■ Read Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s opening testimony, denouncing “callow and cowardly attacks” on his fellow witnesses.
■ Near a smart speaker? Listen in by saying, “Play C-SPAN.”
■ At the heart of the Ukraine scandal: The owner of The Hill.
■ A Fox News host advises Trump to chill during the hearings: “Don’t tweet during it, don’t get outraged over it. It ticks you off.”
Who’s your match? An interactive Washington Post poll aspires to reveal which of the Democratic presidential candidates agrees with you most.
■ BuzzFeed News: An ex-candidate denies cutting the cheese on live TV …
■ … and MSNBC backs him up, blaming a mug dragged across a desktop.
■ Here’s the video.
‘Take it down.’ The Sun-Times’ David Roeder sees no future for Chicago’s iconic—but problematic—Thompson Center.
■ Politico: State Sen. Kimberly Lightford has lined up key support in her bid to become the first African American woman to preside over a General Assembly chamber.
■ A battle’s brewing over the qualifications of a woman chosen to replace a criminally charged state representative.
‘He deserves our scorn—and a prison sentence.’ The Beachwood Reporter’s Steve Rhodes dissents from coverage of indicted blowhard Chicago Ald. Ed Burke’s plight.
■ Tribune columnist Kristen McQueary: If you appreciate the burst of federal action against Illinois corruption, thank Trump.
$8.40 an hour. That’s the level to which Chicago’s minimum wage for tipped workers would rise under Mayor Lightfoot’s compromise with restaurant industry leaders.
■ Bowing to widespread protest, the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain says it’ll stop donating to the Salvation Army and two other groups that have opposed marriage equality.
■ A children’s author whose appearance at a Wheaton school was canceled over concerns about her celebration of LGBTQ rights champions will instead appear at another DuPage County school.
■ Rare audio: June Foray (Rocky) and Bill Scott (Bullwinkle) visited Chicago in 1983, when Scott addressed criticism the show was just “radio with pictures.”
■ The three biggest Jeopardy! winners of all time—including Naperville’s James Holzhauer—will face off in a multi-night tournament set for January.