Were you hacked? More than half a billion Facebook accounts around the world have been compromised—phone numbers and, in some cases. dates of birth and email addresses exposed.
■ Find out if your data was leaked by entering your phone number on a website …
■ … and your email address here.
■ BuzzFeed News: “Employees at law enforcement agencies across the U.S. ran thousands of … facial recognition searches—often without the knowledge of the public or even their own departments.”
■ Did your local police do it? Search here.
‘No justice, no peace!’ That was the chant as dozens of Little Village community leaders and neighbors turned out last night to demand action in the case of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, shot and killed by Chicago police last week.
■ More from Block Club Chicago: What’s taking so long to get the how and why of the story?
■ Official accounts had yet to confirm the victim held a gun, but Mayor Lightfoot seems to know more: “An adult put a gun in a child’s hand. … I want to bring that person … to justice.”
■ The Tribune’s Heidi Stevens asks why Chicago’s mass shootings aren’t part of the national dialog on gun violence.
‘This coronavirus surge is different.’ Noting daily COVID-19 case rates in big, largely urban states are as bad as they were last winter, The Daily Beast points to the U.S. government’s policies that “protected its seniors’ lives at the cost of some of its younger workers’ health.”
■ Dr. Anthony Fauci is playing down concern about coronavirus variants: “I don’t believe that there’s anything to panic about at this point” …
■ … as long as people get that second dose of two-dose vaccines.
■ Admitting it hasn’t been following CDC guidelines on timing of that second dose, Walgreens is shifting from four weeks to three.
16? Sweet. President Biden’s moving up to April 19 his deadline for states to begin offering vaccines to all adults …
■ … as can happen now in 84 of Illinois’ 102 counties.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos speculates Chicago’s failure to make that move may be one reason the schedule for Vice President Harris’ visit this afternoon doesn’t include a news conference.
Coronavirus walked into a bar. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report traces 46 cases of COVID-19 and a school closure to the indoor opening of a rural Illinois bar …
■ The Conversation: As fans return to baseball stadiums, an analysis of the NFL’s 2020 season holds a warning of COVID-19 case spikes.
‘You’re such a Liberal douche bag!’ Trib columnist Rex Huppke opens his mailbag.
■ Speaking of which: Shortly after opening yesterday’s edition of Chicago Public Square, a subscriber canceled with this explanation: “Very biased content.”
■ You can replenish Square readership by encouraging friends to sign up—free.
■ And you can help keep Square coming by dropping as little as $1 in the tip jar.
Handed his hat. Scandalized Scandal-scarred ex-Transportation Secretary and ex-Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood has given Gov. Pritzker his resignation as chairman of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.
■ Over Mayor Lightfoot’s objections, Pritzker has signed a bill increasing Chicago firefighters’ pensions …
■ … which the mayor says may force an increase in property taxes.
Jeopardy!’s next quarterback? Media writer Tom Jones assesses the odds Green Bay Packer Aaron Rodgers would quit the NFL to take the permanent job of replacing the late Alex Trebek.
■ Rodgers says he could do both.
■ On his first show yesterday, a contestant trolled him.
■ Launching his late-night show on Fox News, host Greg Gutfeld went after the news hosts and comics he’ll compete with.
■ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth joined Stephen Colbert last night: “Repeal the [post 9/11, 20-year-old] Authorization for Use of Military Force … which we’re still using to justify having troops in combat.”
Mad’s ‘poet laureate.’ The writer responsible for some of Mad magazine’s most memorable song parodies, Frank Jacobs, is dead at 92.
■ His work was at the heart of Mad’s most famous legal battle—in which the U.S. Supreme Court a federal appeals court delivered a historic ruling on copyright law.
Graham Crackers is a Chicago Public Square advertiser.
Thanks to Ron Schwartz and Pam Spiegel for making this edition better.