‘From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry.’ For what one relative of Oak Park-raised Heather Mack says was the first time, Mack apologized before she was sentenced to 26 years in prison for her mother’s gruesome 2014 murder.
■ The court also heard from Mack’s cousin, who’s been raising the girl born to Mack during her first trial in Indonesia and who recounted her experience telling the child the truth about her mother: “I held her convulsing body as she sobbed with grief about the loss of an idealized mother she will never have and a grandmother she will never know.”
■ A federal jury’s convicted six reputed gang members for the murder of rapper FBG Duck along Oak Street in 2020.
‘Prevent chaos, sickness or worse.’ A Sun-Times editorial demands Chicago City Hall get ahead of its migrant shelter mess.
■ A Texas bus company is suing Chicago over rules aimed at restricting unscheduled dumping of asylum-seekers.
■ Add two more suburbs to those regulating one-way buses that drop off more than nine passengers.
■ The Chicago Teachers Union is calling for federal cash to help schools swamped by migrant students.
■ Chalkbeat: Mayor Johnson’s under pressure from charter school advocates to support school choice.
■ The Sun-Times reports Johnson’s returned more than $50,000 in campaign contributions that violate city ethics rules—but is hanging on to other questionable cash.
‘All we really want to do is drive and … help you dipsticks keep this planet inhabitable.’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke interviews a Tesla about widespread cold-weather challenges for electric vehicle owners …
■ … who’ve been scrambling to charge up as temperatures have risen a bit.
■ More snow was in today’s forecast, with another deep freeze into the weekend.
■ A climate science professor explains how extreme cold can be the result of a warming world.
‘A dumb interview.’ Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik listened to JPMorgan Chase CEO—and ex-Chicagoan (2011 link)—Jamie Dimon’s remarks from the World Economic forum in Davos so you don’t have to.
■ Columnist and ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich on Davos’ guests: “It’s hard to come up with any group of Americans, outside of Trump and his congressional loyalists, who have done more to destroy public trust than the senior executives of America’s biggest corporations.”
■ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was briefly stranded in Davos after a plane built by his ex-employer client, Boeing, malfunctioned.
■ Popular Information: Boeing’s “missing or improperly installed”-bolts-on-door-plugs embarrassment has opened the door to racist conspiracy theories.
■ The Conversation: “Why did Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 have a sealed-off emergency exit in the first place? The answer comes down to money.”
Well, they’d still be South Siders. The White Sox are reportedly considering abandoning their government-owned Guaranteed Rate Field (you know, “Comiskey”) for a new joint in the South Loop.
■ Among Politico’s big questions about the scheme: “How would such a project be funded given publicly funded stadiums aren’t popular these days?”
‘Trump … is so toxic that most of the good lawyers won’t touch him.’ Law professor—and longtime friend to E. Jean Carroll—Joyce Vance finds the ex-president’s representation wanting in Day Two of a trial to determine how much Trump owes Carroll for his defamatory remarks about her.
■ A judge threatened to kick Trump out of the courtroom for his loud talk during Carroll’s testimony.
■ Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin explains why “Trump would rather be in courtrooms than on the campaign trail” (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters).
Pitchfork pain. The corporate parent of the Chicago-spawned music website is folding the brand into GQ and laying off several staffers—but keeping the Chicago music festival.
■ Chicago Reader columnist Leor Galil is tired of hearing about The Bear.
‘Humorless Big Brother needs to check himself.’ Columnist Eric Zorn is not amused by new rules that would ban funny safety messages along highways.
■ Axios Chicago offers messages Illinois should try before a ban takes effect.
‘All the garbage I found on Substack in 1 hour.’ In what columnist Josh Drummond says will be his last post to Substack, he recounts his easy discovery on the platform of “some of the worst and weirdest anti-science/anti-vax stuff I’ve seen anywhere on the Internet. … Have a shower ready.”
■ Bloomberg: “Substack’s Nazi problem exposes a business-model problem.”
Not so private. Google’s updating its Chrome browser to make clear that its “incognito” mode, um, ain’t all that incognito.
■ Author and tech watchdog Cory Doctorow sees hope for consumers who want to leave Big Tech platforms and take their data with them elsewhere.
■ Amazon’s Fire TV devices will let viewers use artificial intelligence to generate art for their screens.
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■ Judy Graf made this edition better.