Trump’s ‘pitiful’ win. Columnist Robert Reich says the New Hampshire primary results show that Donald Trump “did terribly among independents … which portends problems for him.”
■ Public Notice’s Noah Berlatsky calls the outcome “a chilling reaffirmation” that the Republican Party is Trump’s, “and stands for what he stands for—authoritarianism, cruelty, election denial, corruption, criminality, conspiracy theories and mob-style threats.”
■ Columnist and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer pronounces Nikki Haley’s campaign over …
■ … and The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes says New Hampshire “marks decisively the pivot from the primaries to the general election.”
■ Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer: “I’m totally here for the DeSantis jokes, and I hope they don’t stop coming.”
Respectful recidivist. The Tribune reports that Monday—three days after a Chicago man was acquitted in a bank robbery during which he employed a polite demand note, “Give me the money Please Thank You”—he allegedly did the same thing at another bank.
■ Motley Fool rates the best banking apps.
Library larceny? WBEZ reports that a south suburb that hasn’t had a library in almost 30 years has nevertheless collected more than $100,000 in library taxes—for uses unclear …
■ … while, in another nearby town, residents living in a condemned, boarded-up apartment building are struggling to find places to live.
Whoops. Failed Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas faces a $10,500 fine for breaking campaign finance rules.
■ The guy who beat Vallas, Mayor Brandon Johnson, is down with an ordinance that would almost totally ban the use of natural gas in new Chicago buildings.
■ A Sun-Times editorial backs a City Council crackdown on rundown dollar stores—but counsels against preventing new ones from opening altogether.
■ Axios ponders the prospect of fresh chaos in today’s first full council meeting of 2024.
‘Casimir Plowaski,’ anyone? That’s one of 50 finalists in Chicago’s second annual “Name a Snowplow” contest.
■ Voting here runs through Feb. 2.
■ Ex-Trib columnist Barbara Brotman: “Ice is my mortal enemy.” (Gift link courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters.)
■ Ford’s recalling almost 1.9 million Explorers that can fall apart in traffic.
The Onion: For sale. G/O Media—parent to Deadspin, Jalopnik, The Root and, yes, The Onion, is looking for buyers—with what Adweek says is “particular emphasis” on The Onion because it’s “not profitable.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: “Tuesday was a bleak day for the media industry as the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and National Geographic all conducted layoffs.”
■ Media columnist Brian Morrissey on the news biz’s future: “It’s a good time to be either a city-state (think newsletters and podcasts) or an empire (The New York Times). The reality is there will be far more of the former than the latter.”
■ R.I.P., “lyrical newscaster” and CBS News “poet-in-residence” Charles Osgood.
‘The largest consumer boycott in human history.’ That’s how open-source tech champion Cory Doctorow describes web users’ adoption of ad-blockers.
■ The Federal Trade Commission is ordering TurboTax to stop misleading people with its “free file” claims.
■ Check tax software ratings from PCMag and Nerdwallet.
Stream Oscar nominees. Ready to binge on Academy Award contenders? Consult what’s-on-where guides from (sorry; old link) TVLine and The New York Times. (Another gift link.)
■ Holding his nose over Academy Award nominations that slighted Barbie’s director and star, Trib critic Michael Phillips nevertheless perceives “a lovely array of quality” in those films that did get nods …
■ … and the Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper sees a Best Picture roster of “great and nearly great works.”
We’re gonna start again soon. If you’d like your name added to the list of Chicago Public Square supporters—which we’ll be serializing daily beginning tomorrow—now’s a good time to pitch in.
■ Reader Sydnye Cohen made this edition better.
Soundtrack for production of today’s edition. This song on repeat.