‘I’m not going to go … another day without telling someone.’ Two brothers are speaking publicly about their allegation that outspoken Chicago civil rights leader Rev. Michael Pfleger sexually abused them decades ago.
■ Pfleger’s lawyer: “This is a shakedown.”
Schools showdown. Members of the Chicago Teachers Union have voted to defy an order to report to schools in the pandemic today …
■ Illinois enters Phase 1B today—with COVID-19 vaccines for people 65 years and older and “frontline essential workers.”
■ In the quest for a COVID-19 shot? Google’s rolling out a map.
■ Block Club Chicago: In the year since the coronavirus showed up here, “COVID-19 Has Killed More Than 4,500 Chicagoans.”
■ Chicago Public Square, Jan. 24, 2020: “It’s here.”
■ Square contributor Chris Koenig has launched her own email newsletter, 7 Ways To Get Through the pandemic.
Things they carried. The Daily Beast inventories “The Terrifying Arsenals of Capitol Rioters.”
■ The mob’s weird costumes echo the Ku Klux Klan’s pre-white-sheet days.
■ Contrary to stereotypes, plenty of women were among the insurrectionists …
■ … who were motivated in part by “self-proclaimed ‘prophets’ from a growing Christian movement.”
■ The AP: Federal law enforcement agents are investigating “ominous chatter about killing legislators” as Trump’s Senate impeachment trial nears.
■ A growing number of Republicans are getting weak-kneed about convicting Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
Trump’s Facebook fate. A Washington Post survey finds tech experts overwhelmingly approve of his social media suspensions following the riot.
■ The New York Times: “A new kind of corporate supercourt” will decide whether he gets back on Facebook.
Snow big deal. Up to eight inches of winter wonder could blanket Chicago by Tuesday morning.
■ A tour of Chicago’s geoheritage harks back to a time 21,000 years ago, when almost a kilometer of ice stood where the city is today.
Oceans Rise, Empires Fall Dept.
■ New research concludes Earth’s ice sheets are melting at an accelerating pace, “following the worst-case climate warming scenarios.”
■ Trump’s oceanfront Mar-a-Lago club, now “a sad place,” is losing members.
Giuliani’s ‘enormous harm.’ Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, faces a $1.3 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, accusing him of lying about its equipment as part of the campaign’s phony complaints regarding the election.
■ Trump’s lying ex-press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is running for Arkansas governor. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ President Biden’s reportedly set to undo Trump’s executive order barring transgender individuals from the military. (Update, 10:18 a.m.: He’s done it.)
■ Politico looks ahead to Biden’s busy week.
News literacy quiz. Observe News Literacy Week with this test of your ability to discern truth from crap. (Square scored 100%.)
■ A Los Angeles Times investigation shines a spotlight on bad behavior at CBS’ local TV stations—including Chicago’s Ch. 2.
■ R.I.P., “WGN America”—now to be known as “NewsNation.”
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