This is the final 2020 edition of Chicago Public Square. More to come Jan. 4.
Cops desked. Twelve Chicago police officers involved in the wrongful raid on the home of a Black woman—in which cops refused to let her dress before they handcuffed her—are off the beat.
■ Two more Law Department staffers are out in the fiasco.
■ The City Council today was to hold a hearing on police search warrant protocol, but the mayor wasn’t planning to be there.
■ Big questions from Politico’s Shia Kapos: “Why did it take until this week for officers to be reprimanded for an incident that happened nearly two years ago?”
Relief pitch. Congress has sent President Trump a $900 billion pandemic aid package …
■ … that includes provisions for ending “surprise” medical bills …
■ … and a fresh round of bailout cash for airlines—which a Tribune editorial condemns as “particularly hard to justify.”
Deadliest year. The pandemic means the U.S. death toll for 2020 will be history’s largest.
■ ProPublica: “How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men.”
■ Ex-Trib transportation writer Mary Wisniewski, who was hit by a car as she walked through an intersection: People in the pandemic “seem to have forgotten how to drive.”
■ Suburban parking lot emptiness points to possibly permanent changes in commuter train ridership.
■ For a second time in the pandemic, Lincoln Park Zoo will close Jan. 4 for two months.
Shots by summer. Dr. Anthony Fauci estimates most Americans will have access to the COVID-19 vaccine by midyear …
■ … and he concedes the U.K.-identified coronavirus variant may already be in the U.S.
Barr: None. A final appearance as U.S. attorney general found William Barr—in the words of The Associated Press—“undercutting President Donald Trump on multiple fronts,” including Barr’s assertion that he sees no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president’s complaints about the November election.
■ CNN analysis: “Trump threatens 30-day reign of destruction on the way out of office.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
‘By 24, she had bought herself a duplex condo on Chicago’s Gold Coast.’ QAnon-comfy Georgia Senate candidate Kelly Loeffler (October link) portrays herself as a humble Illinois farm girl, but The New York Times explains it ain’t so.
■ Chicago magazine’s Edward McClelland explores why Chicago stopped gobbling up suburbs we now know as neighborhoods.
‘One of the very best films of 2020.’ The Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper praises a George Clooney-directed and -starring science fiction movie debuting Wednesday on Netflix.
■ TV critic Aaron Barnhart rounds up 25 great shows you may have missed in 2020.
If you’ll miss Chicago Public Square … Get your fixes of big news over the holiday from Square on Facebook.
■ And if you’ll really miss this thing, please know that absence and underwriting support make the heart grow fonder.
■ Thanks to reader Mike Braden for catching a missing preposition above.
■ Note: This edition comes to you despite a computer whose L key broke shorty before deadine. That’s how much we ove you.
