‘I’ve had it with this guy.’ The New York Times reports that, days after the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, top Republicans expressed their exasperation with Donald Trump—before backing down publicly in the weeks that followed.
■ A key witness against Trump—his former lawyer Michael Cohen—has reportedly told New York prosecutors he’s out if they don’t charge Trump within nine days.
■ NBC News has audio suggesting that Trump didn’t storm out of an interview with Piers Morgan.
■ A federal judge has cleared a 14th Amendment challenge to insurrection cheerleader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to seek reelection.
■ The Conversation: Text messages between Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, who pushed to overturn the 2020 election, “highlight missing ethics rules at the Supreme Court.”
‘It’s a lot of power.’ The American Civil Liberties Union is concerned about the Chicago Police Department’s growing use of cameras capable of reading license plates—giving cops “broad reach to … see where someone is.”
■ The Better Government Association reports that only 16 of the 600 parks in Chicago neighborhoods have security cameras, but they’re disproportionately deployed in white, wealthy areas.
■ Columnist Steve Chapman suggests a way to reduce the dangers created by police traffic stops: “Make them less numerous.”
■ An Illinois state worker—a mother of three who inspects homes for use as daycare centers—has been charged with driving under the influence in a crash that decapitated a woman in another car.
‘We’d rather see more of the city’s resources poured into CTA safety … than … frittered away in Lightfoot’s $12 million gas-and-transit card giveaway.’ Echoing a letter from Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. “Chuy” Garcia to CTA President Dorval Carter, a Sun-Times editorial demands the CTA step up its anti-crime efforts.
■ Lightfoot’s plan has won a City Council committee’s OK.
■ Axios Chicago maps CTA crime by neighborhood.
‘Acknowledging that Black mathematicians exist is not Critical Race Theory.’ Popular Information has scrutinized eight of the 26 math textbooks rejected by Florida for “prohibited topics”—and finds “no resemblance to the alarming assertions of Florida officials.”
■ Retaliating for Disney’s opposition to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, the state Senate has approved legislation to dismantle the company’s self-governing “kingdom.”
■ Curbed explains that turning Disney’s theme-park property over to adjacent counties would saddle them with $2 billion in bond debt—not a big deal to Disney, “which makes Scrooge McDuck amounts of cash elsewhere,” but enough to increase taxes for Orlando-area households by a reported $2,200 a year.
‘Wanna hear about my testicle-tanning regimen?’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke offers techniques for keeping newly mask-free travelers at bay.
■ The Justice Department will appeal the court order that mandated an end to the feds’ COVID-19 mass-transit masking rules …
■ … a decision that may seem like a no-brainer, but which carries a risk—if the appeal fails—of leaving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “powerless to take some basic public health precautions in the event of a surge in cases in the fall or winter.”
■ The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel feels a “‘George W. Bush on the aircraft carrier in front of a Mission Accomplished banner’ vibe …when I watch videos of airplane cabins applauding and celebrating the mandate repeal.”
After chocolate, what? Chicagoans have plenty of ideas for repurposing Galewood’s Mars chocolate factory after it closes in 2024.
■ You can add yours here.
■ Block Club Chicago: Three City Council members representing potential sites for a Chicago casino don’t want it.
‘An immediate drop in content.’ A study of what happens when corporations take over local news outlets shocked one of its authors.
■ Not so shocking to those who’ve heard this Chicago Public Square podcast from last year.
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■ Thanks to Mike Braden for making this edition better.
