Another Millennium Park? The Sun-Times’ David Roeder says capping the Kennedy Expressway through Chicago’s West Loop is an idea come round again. (Rendering: RATIO Architects.)
‘Rape in Champaign’ mystery unraveled? One possibility for a lobbyist’s still-unexplained emailed reference to a crime: An inmate who was granted early release under then-Gov. Pat Quinn and who then sexually abused a girl.
■ A judge has ordered the Chicago Police Department to release almost five decades of files documenting officer misconduct.
Beach battle. Indiana legislators are weighing a law to scale back a state supreme court ruling that the Lake Michigan shoreline is owned by the state and open to all.
■ The weekend’s storm flooded historic homes along Chicago’s south lakefront, and residents are demanding government solutions.
■ Pollution and global warming threaten the world’s largest freshwater island—the Great Lakes’ Manitoulin Island.
■ The Guardian makes an environmental case for never demolishing another building.
Off-the-charts demand. That’s one of the Sun-Times’ six takeaways from the first week-and-a-half of recreational marijuana sales in Chicago.
■ A new book by much-honored Chicagoan Jahmal Cole, It’s Not Regular, documents the everyday indignities of living in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods— like omnipresent currency exchanges and liquor stores, bulletproof windows at takeout restaurants, and restroom toilet paper chain-locked in place.
■ The editorial director of the Just Security blog: That Trump’s national security team is all male and all white means he’s not getting the best advice.
■ Senate Democrats plan to squeeze vulnerable Republicans with a series of tough votes on impeachment.
Sanders’ surge. Politico says Iowa’s progressive leaders are increasingly lining up behind Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and not Elizabeth Warren’s.
■ The New York Times’ David Leonhardt: Warren has “a more sophisticated understanding … of how to use policy to shape public opinion.”
■ Joe Biden has more endorsements from congressmembers of color than any other candidate.
■ Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart’s Aunt Gloria explains why polls show Biden leading among black voters: “There is so much racism that it’s going to have to be an old white person to go after an old white person.”
■ Laura Washington in the Sun-Times: Candidate Mike Bloomberg has his work cut out in Chicago.
■ Update: Candidate Cory Booker is bailing.
Oscars history. Today’s nominations made Parasite the first South Korean movie to become a contender for Best Picture and Best International Film.
■ But women again failed to nab a Best Director nomination …
■ … and it all still feels #sowhite.
■ Netflix earned more nominations than any other studio.
■ Here’s the full list of nominees.
‘Dude! You’re 60, not 95.’ Columnist Eric Zorn has had it with people who use age as an excuse for not adopting modern tech.
■ The Times exposes how partisan politics and state regulation shade the content of history textbooks.
Studio E is a Chicago Public Square advertiser.
Correction. Friday’s Chicago Public Square erroneously identified a pastor as a priest. Thanks to reader—and Square advertiser—Marty Berg for being first of several to note the mistake.