Tribune shakeup / #MAGA / Chicago TV's 'first lady'

Tribune shakeup. A massive leadership change at the Chicago Tribune: Publisher Bruce Dold and managing editor Peter Kendall are on the way out. Colin McMahon will becomes editor-in-chief.*
 Update: Dold tells the staff in a note, “I love the Chicago Tribune.”
The Tampa Bay Times is cutting full-time staffers’ pay by 10 percent for the next few months.

Coronavirus’ bright side. The chairman of the company that now owns WGN-TV and Radio is upbeat: “If you’re quarantined in your home and one of the few things you can do is watch television, I think advertisers see the benefit in that.”

In a move that reportedly blindsided the Health and Human Services secretary, President Trump has handed leadership of the government’s coronavirus response to Vice President Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
Trump’s challenge in a health crisis: His huge credibility gap.
A proposed Interior Department rule could limit the scientific studies the department can consider.

Milwaukee in mourning. Six people are dead—including the gunman—after a shooting massacre yesterday at the Molson Coors complex, one of the nation’s biggest breweries.
What we know: It was a 51-year-old employee.
Hours before, Wisconsin’s Republican Senate leader made clear he wouldn’t support legal changes to keep guns away from dangerous people.

Democrats’ brewing storm. New York Times interviews with dozens of Democratic Party leaders suggest they’re “willing to risk intraparty damage” at the national convention in July to stop Bernie Sanders’ nomination.
Cultural critic Bob Lefsetz: “Obama … had some of the worst coattails of all time, losing both houses of Congress and many statehouses. … Yup, that’s what we want.”
The Guardian:Bloomberg’s campaign is polluting the internet.”
Ready to decide? Check the Chicago Public Square voter guide.

#MAGA. The Marine Corps’ top general has ordered the removal of all Confederate paraphernalia from Marine installations worldwide.
In a nationwide sweep, the Justice Department has arrested members of the Nazi group Atomwaffen.
The House has approved a bill sponsored by Chicago Rep. Bobby Rush to designate lynching a federal hate crime. (Another Keith J. Taylor cartoon.)
In Chicago Public Schools, “Columbus Day” is no more …
 … and racist murals will get a critical review.
An architect has set out to document every slave house still standing.

‘Destroying lives.’ A federal class-action lawsuit contends Chicago’s policy of towing cars and then selling them when drivers can’t pay up is unconstitutional.
Mayor Lightfoot’s “poverty summit” last week has triggered a round of complaints from progressive groups.
The American Medical Association and six hospitals have pledged $6 million to close “the vast life expectancy gap” separating residents of the West Side from those in downtown neighborhoods.

The Stephen Hawking question. The late brilliant British physicist who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease and used a wheelchair came up yesterday in a federal appeals court hearing in Chicago weighing Trump administration rules to limit immigration.
A New York appeals court has ruled the administration can withhold millions of dollars to force states to cooperate with immigration enforcers.
A case the Supreme Court hears next week could dismantle consumer protections built in response to the 2008 financial crisis—and fundamentally shift the balance of power between the president and “independent” federal agencies.

Chicago TV’s ‘first lady.’ Lee Phillip Bell, a talk-show host who went on to create two of network television’s longest-running soap operas, is dead at 91.
She began as a Chicago broadcast journalist.

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