National terrorism bulletin. The Department of Homeland Security has issued a formal warning to the entirety of the United States, flagging “a heightened threat environment” …
■ … crediting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol with emboldening extremists nationwide.
■ Wall Street Journal video confirms: “Proud Boys Were Key Instigators in Capitol Riot.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ An Illinois guy allegedly caught fighting with National Guard troops at the Capitol has been arrested.
■ A reporter who tried last night to ask unhinged Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene about her lies was threatened with arrest.
Biden’s ‘priceless gift.’ Politico says the new administration feels blessed by “the blissful sound of former President Donald Trump’s Twitter silence.”
■ BuzzFeed News: “A white nationalist troll who ran a racist and highly influential pro-Trump account on Twitter … has been charged with election interference.”
■ Facebook pledges to stop recommending users join “civic and political” groups …
■ … but it still has a QAnon problem.
■ Things are looking up for an end to Facebook’s Trump ban.
Illinois’ vaccine mess. A Tribune editorial mourns the state’s “frustrating, confusing, unacceptable rollout.”
■ The state’s dentists are champing at the bit—but frustrated by bureaucracy preventing them from beginning—to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
■ The New York Times puts Illinois near the bottom of a ranking of states by percentage of vaccine doses administered.
‘We dare not be silent … when it’s coming from the mouths of City Council members.’ Mayor Lightfoot condemned aldermen who used what she called “racist” language to oppose expansion of undocumented immigrants’ “sanctuary city” protections—which nevertheless passed.
■ The Chicago home of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose brutal death in 1955 helped spawn the civil rights movement—will become a city landmark and a museum.
■ The council’s approved new limits on conversion of affordable apartment buildings to single-family homes in the gentrifying Pilsen neighborhood and along the 606 trail.
GameStop’s pop, explained. Vox breaks down the Wall Street weirdness of “a captivating David vs. Goliath story, where David—at least for now—appears to be winning.”
■ Intelligencer: America’s top hedge funds failed to factor in questions including “Would a rally in GameStop shares be funny?”
■ CNET: It’s “a game of chicken with billions of dollars on the line.”
■ The Guardian’s Dan Dixon: “Redditors are … effectively demonstrating that the stock market is a dreadful measure of society’s economic health.”
■ Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell calls the ascendance of Walgreens’ new CEO, Rosalind Brewer—the only Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company—a signal to young women “that they can navigate the potholes of systemic racism … to realize their dreams.”
Challenger remembered. NASA today marks the 35th anniversary of a disaster that brought America’s manned space program to a halt.
■ Newsman Dan Rather’s tribute: “Plumes of smoke and debris etched forever in my mind.”
■ From five years ago: How covering the story felt in Chicago.
■ President Biden reportedly is leaning toward keeping one of Trump’s more ridiculed creations, the U.S. Space Force.
Stupid in the news. Prosecutors say a man accused of robbing a West Side bank Monday complied with a quick-witted teller’s assertion that, even though he was engaged in a crime, he still needed to fill out a withdrawal ticket and provide ID.
■ Chicago police union president John Catanzara faces new charges that could get him fired—including filing a false police report about then-superintendent Eddie Johnson.
Another reader lost. Chicago Tribune and Atlanta Journal-Constitution alumnus David Ibata, 66, is among COVID-19’s latest victims.
■ His daughter writes: “He taught me to love reading and history, to ask questions, and to always have a map handy on road trips.”
■ Dave was an editor for Square’s antecedent, Daywatch—and a member of The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.
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