‘Profound disgrace.’ That’s the way two former presidents once described impeachment, which the U.S. House was poised today to debate for six hours in the case of Donald Trump.
■ Watch or listen live.
■ In Minneapolis, protesters sang to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas: “We wish you would leave the White House, some time by New Year.”
■ Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton: Illinoisans should be proud of three vulnerable Democrats who “have chosen to put America ahead of their political ambitions by voting to impeach Donald Trump.”
■ A thing in D.C.: Impeachment tourism.
■ Politico’s Jack Shafer calls on journalists to stop whining about “Trump fatigue.”
‘An utterly desperate cry.’ The co-author of Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, blasts the president’s letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi …
■ … a lie-filled screed in which Trump complains “more due process was afforded to those accused at the Salem Witch Trials.”
■ Pelosi called the letter “really sick.”
■ Hundreds of Obama administration alumni are backing Elizabeth Warren’s campaign for the presidency.
Planes and boats. The Sun-Times reports that ex-Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios’ access to private modes of transportation is one focus of a federal grand jury investigation.
■ For the first time since a federal raid on his suburban mayoral offices, Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski yesterday showed his face at a public meeting.
■ A Trib editorial: Welcome, Council on Governmental Ethics Laws conference.
Not so fast. The full Chicago City Council today could vote to honor a committee’s recommendation that legal sale of recreational marijuana be delayed in the city until July 1—because all the dispensary owners online so far are white.
■ Watch the meeting live here.
‘We ain’t going nowhere.’ People living under Lake Shore Drive viaducts at Wilson and Lawrence Avenues are protesting the city’s cleanup efforts.
■ They streamed their news conference on Facebook.
■ Aurora’s mayor is defending an eviction order for 19 child sex offenders in shelter at a Christian ministry.
‘Some obvious flaws.’ A study has identified structural problems in the dome over the Illinois Capitol.
■ An Onion headline from 20 years ago: “World’s Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-Berg.”
‘Insane’ fees. Fans who’ve bought tickets for a show at Pilsen’s new concert venue, RADIUS, are complaining loudly—and, in many cases, obscenely—about massive surcharges.
■ Chicago’s Dick’s Last Resort restaurant and its siblings across the country have been sold to a company that operates strip clubs in the U.S. and abroad.
Three-star Wars. Reviews of the new Star Wars movie are fair to middlin’:
■ The Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper calls it “good (not great).”
■ The Trib’s Michael Phillips says it “flies right, more or less.”
■ Vanity Fair: “Incredibly rushed and mind-bogglingly cluttered.”
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