Goodbye, Columbus. Overnight, by order of Mayor Lightfoot, two Christopher Columbus statues were removed from Chicago parks without notice …
■ … evoking memories of then-Mayor Rich Daley’s midnight bulldozing of Meigs Field airport in 2003.
■ Lightfoot’s office emailed a statement at 6:48 a.m. calling the removal “an effort to protect public safety and to preserve a safe space for … public dialogue about our city’s symbols.”
■ A group representing protesters: “The people got this statue removed.”
■ Block Club Chicago reviews the Grant Park statue’s “turbulent history” and its blessings from dictator Benito Mussolini.
■ Virginia has removed from its capitol busts and a statue honoring Confederate generals and officials.
■ Satire from The Onion: “Country Time CEO Unsure If Company Supposed To Be Racist Or Not.”
A police station on lockdown. A “block party” that convened young people outside the Chicago Police Department’s Bronzeville station Thursday proved mostly uneventful, even as one man called out officers’ last names and announced the number of misconduct claims lodged against them.
■ The group responsible is one of several going to court to keep President Trump’s incoming federal agents from infringing on protesters’ constitutional rights.
■ A federal judge is forbidding U.S. agents from arresting or using force against journalists and legal observers at Portland protests.
■ A Tribune editorial: Chicago police need “a beefed-up witness protection program—now.”
■ An ex-Cook County Board member and funeral directors are calling for revival of a task force to keep mourners safe at funerals and cemeteries after the deaths of gang members.
‘Having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man.’ In a reprimand for the ages, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped a new one for a veterinarian, Tea Party member and veteran Republican from Florida.
■ See her remarks on the House floor.
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch: “America needs a reckoning on hate toward women.”
‘Complicity and corrupt behavior.’ Better Government Association chief David Greising warns not to let Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s links to criminal behavior divert attention from rot within the ranks of Commonwealth Edison’s management.
■ Chicago’s inspector general finds something rotten within Chicago’s weed-cutting program.
Welcome back. The downtown section of Chicago's pandemic-shuttered Lakefront Trail is open again.
■ The Conversation: Making coronavirus testing easy, accurate and fast is critical to ending the pandemic—and guess what the U.S. sucks at?
■ Scholars foresee big changes even if the traditional workplace survives the pandemic.
■ Vox: Since June, corporate America has been quietly rolling back pandemic-related perks and benefits.
Chicago weather giant gone. Jerry Taft, who delivered forecasts on TV and radio for more than 40 years, is dead at 77 (link corrected).
■ In retirement for two years, he’d been working as an Uber driver.
■ The Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network has come to terms with Comcast, just in time for cable subscribers to see tonight’s season opener.
‘Indiana is the least-educated state among Midwestern states.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg dissects The Economist’s in-depth report on the Midwest.
■ From the full article: “The Midwest as a whole draws in too few migrants, and too many of its brightest decide to leave. Until that is reversed, renewed prosperity is likely only in some urban parts.”
A shoutout to those who keep Chicago Public Square