Biden’s big bet. In an address to Congress tonight, the president was set to push a $1.8 trillion plan for universal preschool, free community college and extended tax credits for child care.
■ Also: $225 billion for a national paid family and medical leave program.
■ Who’d pick up the tab? The wealthy.
■ Watch live at 7 p.m. Central.
‘Health care is a right, not a privilege.’ Gov. Pritzker’s signed a new law aimed at improving health care for Black, Hispanic and low-income patients.
■ The Washington Post: The Biden administration is set to propose a ban on menthol cigarettes, which tobacco opponents and civil rights groups say have disproportionately hurt Black communities.
■ Moving ahead in the Illinois legislature: A bill to replace all the lead water service lines in Chicago, which has more than another other U.S. city.
‘Turns the stomach to even repeat it.’ But media writer Tom Jones says he has evidence—angry email—that people take seriously Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s “dangerous” and “reprehensible” complaints about mask-wearing in the pandemic.
■ Fully vaccinated? The CDC has now spelled out “guiding principles” for what you should and shouldn’t do—with and without a mask.
■ A Block Club Chicago / Better Government Association investigation reveals that Loretto Hospital—the Austin neighborhood institution whose COO quit after hooking friends up with vaccinations—paid millions to companies founded by his friend, business partner and Trump Tower neighbor.
■ A University of Virginia public policy prof explains why states didn’t go broke in the pandemic.
Case of the cursing cheerleader. That’s now in the hands of the Supreme Court …
■ … which today considered the matter of a high school cheerleader (now a college student) fighting her removal from the program after Snapchatting in anguish, “F––k school f––k softball f––k cheer f––k everything.”
■ She has the ACLU on her side …
■ … but not the Biden administration.
■ Hear the arguments here.
■ The director of the Free Speech Center* says the school was clearly responding to obscenity profanity: “If instead of four-letter words … she thoughtfully said, ‘I believe there are injustices in the cheerleading program and that the coach applies shifting standards to the selection process,’ is there anyone who would suggest that the girl had no right to share that opinion?”
400. That’s how many people a CNN count finds the Justice Department has charged so far in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
■ But the FBI could use your help rounding up hundreds more still “Most Wanted.”
Where’s the beef? Digital food mag Epicurious is no longer publishing recipes featuring red meat …
■ … a move that it says “is solely about … not giving airtime to one of the world’s worst climate offenders.”
■ The AP recounts how a bogus story about federal limits on beef consumption went viral.
■ The Conversation: “Climate-friendly farming strategies can improve the land and generate income for farmers.”
SNL rebellion. The decision to let pandemic-conspiracy theorist and Tesla founder Elon Musk host Saturday Night Live sparked cast members’ critical social media posts …
■ CNN Business has launched an internal investigation into how its female staffers have been treated.
■ WTTW: The fight to save the Chicago Tribune from the predatory Alden Global Capital hedge fund is not dead yet.
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* For which your Square columnist files a (free!) twice-a-month newsletter about the First Amendment.