Suburban shutdowns. As the pandemic tightens its grip on Illinois, Gov. Pritzker is ordering an end to indoor service at restaurants and bars in DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties, effective Friday.
■ A growing number of Chicago restaurants plan to close until patio season returns.
■ Illinois universities are canceling spring break.
■ A former Food and Drug Administration commissioner predicts U.S. cases of COVID-19 will begin to accelerate rapidly in a week.
Chicago’s plight. Mayor Lightfoot’s was set (at Square’s email publication deadline) to address the City Council on her plan to fill a $1.2 billion budget hole, dug all the deeper by the pandemic.
■ Watch on the web here.
‘Pissed.’ That’s how Politico says a person in the room describes President Trump’s reaction to a White House interview yesterday afternoon with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl …
■ … after which the president threatened on Twitter: “I am considering posting my interview with Lesley Stahl … PRIOR TO AIRTIME!”
■ It fits a pattern of escalating presidential attacks on journalists as the election nears. (Cartoon: Birthday boy Keith J. Taylor.)
■ One reason for Trump to be in a bad mood: Revelation he has an until-now secret bank account in China, to which he paid more taxes than he’s paid the U.S.
■ Block Club Chicago: “Meet The Midwestern Women Steelworkers Who Put A Pro-Biden Bat Signal On Trump Tower.”
■ A journalism professor hails the Lincoln Project’s contributions to political satire.
‘Vote for Trump or else!’ Democrats in Florida, Arizona and Alaska report getting email with that threatening subject line.
■ Tribune columnist Mary Schmich champions vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ choice of footwear.
■ A Rutgers political science professor: Attacks on women in politics “hurt democracy itself.”
‘The county clerk’s office has to step up its game—yesterday.’ A Sun-Times editorial condemns Karen Yarbrough’s team for screwing up early voting.
■ Ready to cast your ballot? Find enlightenment in the Chicago Public Square voter guide.
‘An abomination against God.’ More than two dozen people who attended or worked at schools overseen by a board Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years attest that the schools “effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren’t welcome.”
■ The secretive faith group affiliated with the schools has hired a law firm to conduct an “independent investigation” into sexual abuse complaints.
■ Signaling a major shift at the Vatican, the pope is calling for civil union laws recognizing same-sex couples: “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. … Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable.”
‘You have to do something extraordinary to unite Elizabeth Warren and Bill Barr.’ And yet, Recode’s Peter Kafka says, the Massachusetts senator is cheering the attorney general’s assault on Google.
■ Chicago environmental groups have reason to cheer, too: The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department has agreed to open a civil rights investigation into city zoning policies that have favored placement of industrial polluters in and near communities of color.
Amazon’s hiring. The company wants 1,500 people to staff four new Chicago-area grocery stores.
■ Facebook is testing a competitor to the Nextdoor neighborhood news network.
Life of A Salesman. The Goodman Theatre’s Tony-winning 1999 revival of Death of a Salesman, starring the late Brian Dennehy, gets revived itself this week, streaming free and live on the web through Sunday …
■ … beginning at 7 p.m. Chicago time here.
■ Critic Aaron Barnhart: “Peacock feels like the future of free TV.”
■ Thanks to everyone who chips in to keep Square coming—including Beth Kujawski, Mena Boulanger, Allan Hippensteel, Owen Youngman, Joseph Lynn, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Ken Trainor, Stephan Benzkofer, Jeff Weissglass, David Ibata, Melissa Leeb, Ed Nickow, Heather Foote, Michael Romain, Reginald Davis, Mary T. Davison, Nancy Burns, Denise Mattson, Alan Hommerding, Patrick Olsen, Mike Gold, Heather Alger, Christine Cupaiuolo, Heather O’Reilly, Wendy Greenhouse, Marianne Matthews, Matt Baron, Les Nelson, Edward White, Robert Clifford, Peter Kuttner, Eric Hochstein and John Iltis. You can join them for as little as $1 here.
■ And thanks to Pam Spiegel for some typographical mop-up work.