‘Will he be convicted by the Senate? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!! In a word: No.’ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke unveils his Guide to (former) President Donald (the worst) Trump’s (second) Impeachment Trial Extravaganza: Flight of the Flaccid Fascists.
■ Sun-Times Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet’s more serious overview: “The trial is at the crime scene” …
■ … which is why no witnesses are likely to be called …
■ … even though the trial could go on for a week …
■ Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger in The Washington Post: A conviction “is necessary to save America from going further down a sad, dangerous road.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor, answering the question “What day is it?”)
■ Watch the proceedings here, beginning late this morning.
COVID-19’s origin. An international team of scientists rejects theories the virus leaked from a Chinese lab—and says it most likely jumped to humans from an animal.
■ Chicago’s aiming to crimp the number of suburban residents getting vaccine shots in the city.
■ The Conversation: “COVID-19 shows why it’s time to finally end unpaid college internships.”
In teachers’ hands. A plan to reopen Chicago Public Schools for most K-8 students by March 8 is headed to a vote by the Chicago Teachers Union.
■ Trib columnist Heidi Stevens celebrates a decision to strip a Chicago school of the name of “a man whose flawed teachings caused harm to humanity.”
Cops on camera. Embarrassed by long-suppressed footage of a botched February 2019 police raid, Mayor Lightfoot has signed an order making it easier for people who file complaints against officers to get related video.
■ The Sun-Times’ Michael O’Brien found Lightfoot’s lack of knowledge about the resumption of high school basketball in the city “shocking.”
■ The mayor’s lost another member of her cabinet.
Hungry for change. A hunger strike to protest plans for another industrial facility on Chicago’s polluted Southeast Side is growing.
■ Joining the strike: A college student who says, “Our community has suffered enough abuse.”
Surprise. Turns out the new speaker of the Illinois House was serious about changing the way things work …
■ … including a term limit for himself.
‘Pants are always funny.’ A Chicago author froze a pair of wet jeans to use as a marker for a shoveled-out parking space.
■ Chicago’s cold weather stretch could last another two weeks—maybe the longest February cold snap in 60 years.
■ A DePaul University professor explains how the polar vortex’s Midwest incursion is related to global warming.
■ But wasn’t Monday’s snow adorably fluffy?
Supreme loss. The longest-running original member of the Supremes, Mary Wilson, is dead at 76.
■ As recently as January, she was talking about a reunion.
■ The New York Times in January 2019: “Wilson and the Supremes Changed How We Dress.”
Relationships in trouble. University of Texas researchers who analyzed the public posts of thousands of people in a Reddit group devoted to breakups conclude that subtle changes in language can signal romantic turmoil well before a couple has made a conscious decision to call it quits.
■ More from The Conversation: “Mothers who earned straight A’s in high school manage the same number of employees as fathers who got failing grades.”
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