Vaccine quest. The Tribune: Thousands of frustrated Chicago-area residents are pooling strategy on where to find COVID-19 shots.
■ One channel: Facebook’s almost 14,000-member (and growing) Chicago Vaccine Hunters group.
■ Illinois’ top doc: “It will be months before our supply comfortably outpaces demand.”
■ Bloomberg: Technological hiccups and logistical snafus are thwarting second shots for those now due.
■ The U.S. coronavirus toll was at the threshold of half a million deaths.
■ President Biden and Vice President Harris planned a memorial candle lighting ceremony for sundown today. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
‘Lightfoot’s … being dirty.’ According to the husband of the late Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, speaking at a virtual memorial Sunday, those were some of Lewis’ last words about the mayor.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg mocks the mayor’s response to an inspector general report condemning the city’s handling of the George Floyd riots: “I’ve learned from the mistakes that weren’t made and won’t let them happen again.”
Illinois politics: The next generation. Thirty-seven-year-old Jahmal Cole—who founded My Block, My Hood, My City—is in the hunt to replace 74-year-old U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.
■ Scandal-scarred ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, 78, has chosen a 26-year-old 13th Ward worker to take the seat Madigan held for 50 years.
Now, the Big Thaw. Block Club Chicago rounds up suggestions for preventing flooding as all that snow and ice begins to melt.
■ But the weekend could bring more.
Grounded. After the catastrophic—but nonfatal—engine failure of a United Airlines passenger jet over Denver Saturday, Boeing is recommending airlines suspend flights for all similarly equipped 777s.
■ Passenger video shows it happening.
One year ago. Law prof Barbara McQuade pondered the prospect Donald Trump would refuse to leave office: “One could imagine a world in which Trump is defeated in the 2020 election, and he immediately begins tweeting that the election was rigged. … If his grievances hit home with even a few people inclined toward violence, deadly acts of violence … could result.”
■ Axios: Trump plans a speech next weekend in which he will claim “total control” of the Republican Party.
■ In remarks prepared for delivery at confirmation hearings for U.S. attorney general nominee Merrick Garland, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin planned to call on Garland—a Chicago guy, by the way—to restore faith in the Justice Department after four years “consumed with advancing the personal and political interests of one man—Donald Trump.”
■ The U.S. Supreme Court is refusing to consider Republican challenges to Pennsylvania’s election results …
Companies behaving badly. HBO’s John Oliver rips the meatpacking industry—and the government agencies supposed to oversee it—a new one over safety standards, especially in a pandemic.
■ See his report free here.
■ In a move that labor observers call unprecedented, Amazon is reportedly offering workers $2,000 “resignation bonuses” to quit ahead of a union election.
■ In a move that labor observers call unprecedented, Amazon is reportedly offering workers $2,000 “resignation bonuses” to quit ahead of a union election.
■ Dominion Voting Systems is suing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for more than $1.3 billion, accusing him of spreading lies about the election.
If you’re reading this for free … Thank Chicago Public Square supporters—including Darold Barnum, Ken Paulson, Dave Aron, Matt Baron, Kenneth Shiner, Marc Blesoff, Jeryl T. Smith, Mary Beth Nevulis, Bridget Hatch, Maureen Stratton, Carol Morency, Leslie Sutphen, Nancy Burns, Eric Zorn, Sherry Nordstrom, Michael Brooks, Arlene Thurow, Patricia McMillen, Marj Halperin, Ken Hooker, Ken Hildreth, Tom Marker, Barbara Powers, Clifton Wilson, Denise Mattson, Nancy W. Cook, Melanie Minnix, Dawn Haney, Jennifer Fardy, Beth Botts, Jerry Role, Stephan Benzkofer, Crissy Kawamoto, Alex Riepl Broz … and David Ibata, may he rest in peace. You can join them here for any amount you choose.
Graham Crackers is a Square advertiser.