Raided! The FBI over the weekend descended on the Rolling Meadows headquarters of the shady coronavirus testing site chain known as the Center for COVID Control.
■ The FBI says it can’t comment on “investigations that may or may not be occurring,” but the Illinois attorney general’s office says it’s working “with the FBI.”
Books cooked. Chicago Public Schools officials say they didn’t mean to mislead people when they quietly changed the way they track COVID-19 cases …
■ … but the change just happened to make the number of infections at individual schools appear lower than in fact was the case …
■ … coincidentally, just as Chicago teachers voted to go remote during the pandemic surge.
■ The district’s promising to re-evaluate its reporting methodology.
■ Jakob Ondrey, the parent and software engineer who spotted the change, says, “The most flattering thing that you can say is that they are bad at this” …
■ … and he awaits “an apology for misleading people.”
■ Since September, Ondrey’s been running an independent Chicago schools COVID dashboard.
Happy News Literacy Week. Here’s how it’s being taught to some middle-school students …
■ Take a news literacy quiz. (Chicago Public Square nailed 100%.)
Amazon’s ‘crisis.’ Bloomberg reports that “the Great Resignation, at Amazon at least, is on the verge of turning into a Great Exodus,” as a record number of vice presidents bail.
■ (Correction:) Four Three states and the District of Columbia are suing Google, alleging it misled users about when it was able to track their location.
■ The U.S. House aims to move out of the technological Dark Ages.
‘Poor, wittle white people are uncomfortable.’ Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington flags a Florida bill that would forbid public schools and private businesses from teaching or training about racism.
■ Popular Information lists corporations that sent checks to Texas Republicans who imposed a draconian ban on abortion.
‘We’re in trouble.’ Ex-Sen. John Kerry, now the U.S. special envoy on climate change, warned a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conclave today that the world’s “not on a good track” to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
■ Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility warns: “Record low criminal anti-pollution enforcement levels under Trump remain largely unchanged so far under Biden … the lowest number of new cases developed in 33 years.”
■ After Chicago’s second snowfall dump in two days—of course—it’s gonna get cold.
■ The Onion: “Leaked Documents Confirm ExxonMobil Has Known Exactly Which Day Earth Ends Since The 1970s.”
Haven’t cast a ballot yet? Kick a vote or four Square’s way, won’t you?
■ Reader John McClelland made this edition better.