Daylight craving. The Illinois Senate is sending the House a bill to keep the state on daylight saving time year-round …
■ Wired: A growing movement aims to abolish time zones altogether. (Photo: Harry Carmichael in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
‘Uber and Lyft are screwing up Chicago’s transportation system.’ So, Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield says, Mayor Lightfoot’s plan to add a tax to ride-hail fares would be good for the economy and the CTA.
■ Without offering evidence, Lightfoot accuses Uber of offering black ministers a $54 million payoff if they oppose her tax plan.
■ The Chicago Reporter asks: Why not tax the companies directly?
Dig this. Chicago law requires property owners or managers to clear snow from a 5-foot-wide swath of sidewalk in front of their buildings—seven days a week— and the city encourages you to report those who don’t.
■ A bipartisan research group dedicated to immigration reform rates Chicago America’s most immigrant-friendly big city.
■ Lightfoot is proposing to require a wage increase for the city’s tipped workers—but not all the way to $15.
‘Facts are for liberal America-haters.’ The Tribune’s Rex Huppke translates “Fox-News-fever-swamp speak” at yesterday’s impeachment hearing into “traditional, fact-based English.”
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: On Fox, it was “a bust. It was all just hearsay. … Impeachment is ‘stupid.’ Impeachment is ‘fake.’” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ Poynter’s journalism critic, Tom Jones, gives a newspaper website the award for best TV coverage of the hearings.
■ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet credits Chicago-area Intelligence Committee members with a couple of zingers in Round One.
■ Vox on the hearing’s biggest moment: “Diplomat Bill Taylor dropped a bombshell.”
From the South Side to the White House? Deval Patrick, a Chicago-born Barack Obama pal and ex-Massachusetts governor, says he’s running for president …
■ … which reminds us of this:
■ Patrick’s campaign comes courtesy of some big-dollar donors …
■ … and it could bring some unwanted attention to his time at Mitt Romney’s old private-equity firm, Bain Capital …
■ … which apparently scrubbed Patrick’s bio from its website this morning.
Look! Up in the sky! For the first time, a Chicago company has won federal approval to fly drones above human beings.
■ Plans for the city’s second-tallest building—next to Tribune Tower—get a do-over today.
■ A Chicago congressman wants to take control of “dangerous” Union Station away from Amtrak and give it to Metra.
‘It’s turned into my morning must-read.’ That’s one of many unsolicited bits of praise Chicago Public Square has garnered since launch almost three years ago. People who agree—so much so that they’ve pledged their financial support to help Square grow—include Joan Berman, Jill Chukerman, Jerry Role, Jerry Delaney, Jennifer Packheiser and Jennifer McGeary. Why not join them for as little as $5 a month?
■ And thanks to readers Pam Spiegel and Mike Braden for some proofreading on this edition.