‘Chicago shouldn’t wait.’ Following “Monday’s terrifying incident in which a Red Line driver was lured off a train and shoved onto the tracks,” Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield says the CTA needs to get serious about protective platform barriers.
■ Not so fast: Mayor Lightfoot’s plan to give away free gas and transit cards has gone off the track in the City Council. (2017 photo: Brian Crawford in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
Step 1: Fire the top cop. Newly declared Chicago mayoral candidate Ray Lopez says if he’s elected, his first move to “save Chicago” from violent crime would be to dismiss Police Supt. David Brown.
■ Patch columnist Mark Konkol: “Lopez has a knack for articulately pontificating objections to just about everything proposed by Mayor Lightfoot.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn (middle of today’s dispatch): “It’s no longer inconceivable that Lightfoot will decide not to run again.”
■ Ex-Chicago top cop—and unsuccessful mayoral candidate—Garry McCarthy has a new job: Interim chief of the Willow Springs police force.
■ The Reader’s Ben Joravsky on Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin: “I’ve got to give him credit for toxic creativity.”
‘Distressing news.’ A Tribune editorial says the city must stop “twiddling thumbs of denial at the crisis on Michigan Avenue,” where crime and changing shopping habits have put retailers and landlords on the ropes.
■ Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas perceives “a permeated sense of fear on Michigan Avenue.”
‘A joyous day.’ That’s what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted as senators were poised to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court …
■ … beginning right around Square’s email deadline.
■ Watch live here.
‘They are just wiping the city off the face of the Earth.’ A Ukrainian military commander tells CNN that Russian military forces are showing no mercy in their assault on the city of Mariupol.
■ Ukraine is begging the international community for “weapons, weapons and weapons.”
■ Drone operators who used to make “nice” YouTube videos are now using their skills to record Russia’s war crimes.
■ The Onion has concocted mock commentary from Vladimir Putin: “I thought this was the shit America liked! I thought invasions, war, and unprovoked aggression against a small, far less militarized nation was kind of like, your thing.”
■ Block Club rounds up ways to support Ukraine relief efforts in Chicago.
Hi, Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, FedEx and Cigna. Popular Information calls out major corporations backing Tennessee Republicans who are pushing to undermine same-sex marriage—and legalize child marriage.
■ The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s cybersecurity director is among those flagging the plight of women across the country being stalked through the abuse of Apple AirTags.
The C in ‘D.C.’ might now stand for ‘COVID.’ Fueled in part by the return of social events like Saturday’s Gridiron Club dinner, Washington’s elite—including two Cabinet members—are, in Politico’s words, “getting pummeled” by the coronavirus.
■ Beware the forthcoming White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
‘Vexed.’ NBC News journalists are reportedly alarmed by MSNBC’s intent to hire White House press secretary Jen Psaki when she emerges from Washington’s revolving door.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce mourns the bike-accident death of “one of the only media critics who mattered.”
‘Officer? I would like to report a joke.’ Jimmy Kimmel is laughing off Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claim that she flagged Capitol Police after he ridiculed her.
■ USA Today (and ex-Trib) columnist Rex Huppke on Greene’s words: “NOBODY should be hurling the term ‘pedophile’ around like a schoolyard insult.”
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