Not-quite-apology. Mayor Lightfoot’s blaming her security team for blocking a busy bike lane as she bought doughnuts.
■ A City Council member who’s been pushing the mayor to support a crackdown on bike-lane blockers: “I’m trying to figure out what else she does besides block.”
■ The mayor whacked Amazon-owned Whole Foods as “not a good partner” for shuttering its 63rd Street store.
How clean is that cop? Chicago’s inspector general has rolled out a new website that makes police officers’ misconduct records more accessible.
■ You can search by officer name or star number for disciplinary investigations initiated from Feb. 11, 2019, through the present.
‘Though this … doesn’t make our current situation any better, it does offer perspective.’ Axios Chicago says the latest FBI report on violent crime makes clear Illinois is much safer than it was 30 years ago.
■ Crain’s Chicago Business notes: “The North Side is as safe as it’s been in a generation,” but the West Side is another story.
■ A troubled Calumet City mall remained closed after the fatal shooting of a security guard there yesterday afternoon.
■ An Illinois man who pleaded guilty to assault in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol stands accused of murder in the Nov. 8 crash that killed a Skokie woman.
‘Florida man makes announcement.’ Neil Steinberg’s latest Every Goddamn Day post says Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post bottom-of-Page-One headline deprecating Donald Trump’s reelection declaration for president hardly puts the Post “among the good guys.”
■ It was play not unlike Chicago Public Square’s call to drop the story to the bottom of yesterday’s edition. (Cartoon: Rob Rogers/The Nib.)
■ Press watcher Dick Tofel: News organizations should stop conducting their own political polls.
‘I spent part of my day imagining the internal world of another person.’ Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri envisions Trump announcements that would actually be newsworthy.
■ The Post’s Charles Lane says Trump’s statements Tuesday night amounted to a 2020 concession speech.
■ Popular Information: “Trump’s candidacy … raises the prospect of a major party nominee … on the payroll of a foreign government.”
They’re baaaaaaack. By a slim majority, Republicans have secured control of the U.S. House for 2023 …
■ … which President Clinton’s former adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, says effectively puts Trump in control of the House.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: A Louisiana federal judge’s ruling serves as “an extended trailer for what the Republican House will be all about.”
■ Updating coverage: Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who’s 82, was set today to address her plans for the next term. (Update, 1:09 p.m.: She’s stepping down as speaker, not as a member of Congress.)
■ New video shows Jan. 6 rioters in her office.
■ Mitch McConnell will again lead Senate Republicans.
■ BuzzFeed News: “Congress has split majorities. That should be fine, right? Right???”
■ Twelve—count ’em, 12—Senate Republicans joined Democrats to advance a landmark bill that would federally secure the rights to same-sex and interracial marriage.
■ Conservative columnist Charlie Sykes mocks the party’s other senators: “No sex, please. We’re Republicans.”
‘A megaphone to the loathsome individuals.’ Columnist Eric Zorn worries that news media’s widespread coverage of hate vandalism may just encourage the creeps.
■ Construction’s resumed on the Barack Obama Presidential Center after discovery of a noose found there a week ago.
■ Obama will guest tonight on The Daily Show.
■ Amazon’s begun its job cuts.
■ So has email news giant—and sometime Square advertiser—Morning Brew.
■ A Silicon Valley psychotherapist: “I’ve never witnessed such an atmosphere of panic and insecurity.”
■ Starbucks workers in Chicago and across the country planned walkouts today at more than 100 stores.
Ranking spanking. Condemning a system that “undermines the efforts of many law schools to support public interest careers for their graduates,” Harvard and Yale are cutting ties with U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings.
■ An open letter from Yale’s dean: “The people most harmed by this ill-conceived system are … those from low-income backgrounds.”
No deepfake here. Hasbro and Merriam-Webster have expanded The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary with hundreds of new words …
■ … including one created popularized by The Simpsons in 1996.
■ Wordle players’ frustration drove selection of the Cambridge Dictionary word of the year.
Deal-shopping? Consumer Reports rounds up the best Black Friday deals on big TVs, kitchen gadgets and health and fitness products.
■ A Jan. 6 defendant told a jury yesterday that her decision to join those storming the Capitol felt like the emotional rush of holiday shopping: “It was like Black Friday.”
■ The Onion: “Kamala Harris Picks Up Seasonal Job At Macy’s.”
Their noble spirit embiggens Chicago Public Square.
■ This service would have ended years ago had readers including Patty Martin, Garry, Jeff Currie, Judy Hoffman, Jan Czarnik, Linnea Crowther, Molly McDonough, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, Mary Gannon Pittman, Gil Herman, Michael Kelly, Ken Davis, Dale Epton, Ken Shiner, Reg Davis, Jen Purrenhage, Stephen Brenner, Sara Burrows, Liz Strause, Jennifer Packheiser, Lisa McNulty, Ron Schwartz, Chris Handzlik, Marc Magliari, Jack Bizot, Bill Oakes, Stephan Benzkofer, Gail Frost, Carol Morency, Daniel Forden, Stephanie Kiesling, Susy Schultz, Jerry Wolin, Hank and Marge Arnold, Heather Alger, Ralph Sherman, Sally Donatiello, Barbara Miller, Victoria Long, John Iltis, David Walker, Beth Botts, Charlie Pajor, Ed Nickow, John Kowalski, Robert Toon, Phil Huckelberry and Carol Marin not provided financial support to encourage its continued production.
■ This service would have ended years ago had readers including Patty Martin, Garry, Jeff Currie, Judy Hoffman, Jan Czarnik, Linnea Crowther, Molly McDonough, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, Mary Gannon Pittman, Gil Herman, Michael Kelly, Ken Davis, Dale Epton, Ken Shiner, Reg Davis, Jen Purrenhage, Stephen Brenner, Sara Burrows, Liz Strause, Jennifer Packheiser, Lisa McNulty, Ron Schwartz, Chris Handzlik, Marc Magliari, Jack Bizot, Bill Oakes, Stephan Benzkofer, Gail Frost, Carol Morency, Daniel Forden, Stephanie Kiesling, Susy Schultz, Jerry Wolin, Hank and Marge Arnold, Heather Alger, Ralph Sherman, Sally Donatiello, Barbara Miller, Victoria Long, John Iltis, David Walker, Beth Botts, Charlie Pajor, Ed Nickow, John Kowalski, Robert Toon, Phil Huckelberry and Carol Marin not provided financial support to encourage its continued production.
■ You can join their illustrious ranks for as little as $1, just once, here—and then get $5 off a Square cap or T-shirt.