‘A serial abuser of women.’ A former on-air partner to WTMX-FM morning host Eric Ferguson says management has for years protected Ferguson from consequences for unlawful “misconduct that goes far beyond the limits of decency” …
COVID ‘wildfire’ subsiding. Southern Illinois’ pandemic plight is easing up and Chicago’s numbers, in the words of the city’s top doc, “continue to look really good.”
■ With no substantial rise in case counts since the school year’s start, she says the city will shorten quarantine rules for unvaxxed kids.
■ Welcome back to Chicago, Connecticutensians … um, Connecticotians … ah, Connecticuters … or Nutmeggers. Whatever.
■ A new documentary about Dr. Anthony Fauci premiering today on Disney+ captures what critic Brian Lowry calls “the absurd levels of vitriol heaped upon him” through the pandemic.
Facebook knows it’s harming the vulnerable. That’s one of the AP’s highlights from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s Senate testimony.
■ NPR’s takeaways include this: “Democrats and Republicans actually are united on regulating Facebook.”
■ Founder Mark Zuckerberg wants more government oversight: “The right body to assess tradeoffs between social equities is our democratically elected Congress.”
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg: “I don’t fully buy the destroying democracy aspect of Facebook, just because, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, it only takes you places that you are already able to go.”
■ Tech journalist Charlie Warzel: “Facebook’s leadership might have a negative effect … that amounts to evil, but Facebook is evil then in the way that all unregulated hyper-capitalist businesses are evil.”
■ The Onion: “Zuckerberg Vows Employees Responsible For Facebook Outage Will Be Bullied To Suicide.”
Republicans’ ‘abuse of crime statistics.’ Popular Information’s Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby explain that, despite what you’ll hear leading up to the 2022 elections, violent crime in America remains far below its 1990s peak.
■ CWBChicago: Sources say a county cop opened fire on men who tried to steal his squad car outside Cook County Board President Preckwinkle’s home, but authorities never told the public about it.
Dirty water. Axios Chicago: Heavy rains are increasingly washing dangerous chemicals into Illinois waters—despite a state pledge to cut levels dramatically by 2025. (2018 photo: Harry Carmichael in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ The Streets and Sanitation Department admits Chicago’s recycling rate sucks …
■ … but it says tree trimming’s getting a boost.
■ The Nobel for chemistry goes to two scientists who found an environmentally cleaner way to build molecules used in medicine and pesticides.
‘A disappointment as an ex-president.’ Reader columnist Ben Joravsky compares Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter.
■ Reuters: AT&T funding helped build the far-right One America News channel.
Missing link found. Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square email escaped without a hyperlink to opinion writer David McGrath’s condemnation of Arlington International Racecourse as “a dark place for … impoverished lives.”