Chicago Public Square arrives in inboxes an hour early today to accommodate a conflicting engagement. Back to the usual delivery time Thursday.
Fast(-food) exits. McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks are shutting operations in Russia to protest its invasion of Ukraine.
■ McDonald’s pledges to keep paying its employees there.
■ Add The New York Times to the list of news organizations pulling out in light of Russia’s threat to imprison those who report the war in ways Russia doesn’t like.
■ A linguistics professor explains that a power struggle over language in Ukraine long preceded the outbreak of violence.
‘Take your gas and shove it!’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch is flabbergasted by calls for Americans to get in their cars and drive to work even as petroleum prices skyrocket.
■ Stephen Colbert’s taking fire on social media for joking about the Ukraine war’s impact on gas prices: “I’ll pay $15 a gallon because I drive a Tesla.”
■ The Atlantic’s David Frum: As the Ukraine crisis drives up food prices—an upheaval that “will touch every … consumer on Earth”—“our world is much more resilient than it was even a generation ago, especially with regard to food.”
■ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg tackles the question Why don’t we DO something? “Though we won World War II, there is no guarantee what would happen now if we took on Russia.”
Costly cops. A Washington Post investigation building on Chicago Reporter data documents the billion-dollar cost across the nation of repeated police misconduct—and finds Chicago had the highest rate of claims involving officers named in multiple cases.
■ South Side Weekly: Chicago police routinely deny freedom-of-information requests for dubious reasons.
‘Everything … tied to Madigan is called into question.’ The state representative who unsuccessfully challenged then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan last year hails Gov. Pritzker’s decision to freeze funds tied to four projects Madigan sponsored.
■ Madigan today was to be formally charged with corruption.
■ Ex-State Sen. Thomas Cullerton has pleaded guilty to embezzlement.
■ Ending weeks of acrimony, the House has voted to lift its requirement for the wearing of masks on the floor.
■ Just one representative voted no.
‘I’m really not sure why the Sun-Times is so sensitive about writing dicks.’ All the hyphens in coverage of Mayor Lightfoot’s allegedly obscene outburst at a couple of Park District lawyers has the Reader’s Ben Joravsky flummoxed.
■ The Sun-Times has an early look at who’s who in the wide-open field for Chicago mayoral candidates.
‘Loyalty to a single head of state is not patriotism.’ Asserting that they “damaged our standing and our credibility in the world,” a federal judge has let a Crest Hill couple off with probation for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
■ The first of the rioters to face a trial for actions that day has been found guilty on all charges.
■ Popular Information: AT&T is breaking its pledge to suspend contributions for Republicans who tried to overturn the election results.
‘They’ve broken our trust.’ An organizer of a Chicago Public Schools parents group says the administration blindsided them with a decision to end the system’s mask mandate.
■ Florida lawmakers have sent the governor a bill outlawing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in classes from kindergarten through third grade.
Zelle hell. Beware a scam that The New York Times says is flourishing on a Venmo imitator founded by big banks …
■ … about which those big banks seem unconcerned …
■ … even as it costs their customers thousands.
■ President Biden has signed an executive order signaling the first step toward regulation of cryptocurrency.
■ Headed to Biden: A bill to bolster the U.S. Postal Service and guarantee six-day-a-week delivery of the mail.
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