‘Where was Larry Snelling?’ In the aftermath of the “horrific Loop slayings” of two teenaged boys Friday, a Tribune editorial says it would have been good to see Chicago’s top cop say a word or two.
■ Snelling’s ending a plan that’s had overtime “scarecrow” cops just sitting in their cars, blue lights flashing, to deter downtown crime.
‘It was always going to look … cruel.’ Columnist Eric Zorn’s not surprised that Mayor Johnson backed down on plans to begin evicting migrants from Chicago’s city shelters Thursday.
■ The mayor’s new deadline: The end of March …
■ … but some City Council members want him to drop the notion altogether.
‘Chicago’s cease-fire resolution won’t stop the bloodshed.’ But a Sun-Times editorial supports a City Council call for suspension of the war in Gaza.
■ The Sun-Times’ D.C. bureau chief, Lynn Sweet: The draft version “does not recognize the reality that no one—not even President Joe Biden—can make a cease-fire happen right away.”
‘It was the people around him who were giving him power. He … was nothing.’ After winning a stunning $83 million for Donald Trump’s defamation of her, E. Jean Carroll told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow she was terrified of facing him in court—but it wasn’t so bad …
■ … and she says she’ll sue him again if he defames her again.
■ Trump challenger Nikki Haley: Carroll’s jury got it right.
■ Ex-Illinois Republican Rep. (turned Trump nemesis) Adam Kinzinger sympathizes with Haley as a victim of “swatting”—when pranksters fool emergency responders into raiding one’s home.
Measles spotted. Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina answers questions like “Can I transmit the virus? Does vaccine protection wane? Does my child get antibodies?”
■ CBS News: As measles vaccination rates drop, the chance of outbreaks is on the rise.
‘One of the most catastrophic recalls in decades.’ ProPublica: “Philips agrees to stop selling sleep apnea machines in the United States.”
■ Consumer Reports wants your signature on a petition to demand products be designed to be repaired: “You shouldn’t have to replace electronics every few years.”
Sweet sorrow. Macy’s has closed the basement candy department at its State Street store.
■ Tech columnist Alex Kantrowitz: “I canceled Amazon Prime and you probably can too.”
■ As the delivery biz slows, UPS is cutting 12,000 jobs.
He’s (maybe coming) back. In his first public comments since the dropping of a lawsuit complaining he’d forced a coworker into performing sex acts (June link), ex-WTMX-FM (“The Mix”) host Eric Ferguson indicates on Facebook that he’s “now allowed to explore” new professional adventures:
An Onion strike? The union representing employees of The Onion has authorized a walkout, demanding raises, protections against artificial intelligence and—given ongoing layoffs by parent company G/O Media—improved severance.
■ … with picketing planned for Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City as early as Thursday.
‘Swift will perform several new songs, including … Shake Trump Off and Look What You Made Me Do (I Welcomed an Immigrant).’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke concedes that Republicans are right, the Super Bowl is “in the bag for Democrats” …
■ … or, as Wonkette’s Evan Hurst puts it, “Fox News idiots in pantloading panic over Taylor Swift.”
■ Matt Lewis at The Daily Beast: “Far-right snowflakes are terrified of the Super Bowl.”
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy: Suggesting that Swift “is quietly being manipulated by sinister forces in a grand conspiracy staged by the establishment … is precisely the type of rhetoric that has permeated the country’s ever-more polluted information environment.”
Correction of the year—so far. NPR has appended this note to its report on all the tech workers getting laid off: “The headline for this story has been corrected to add the omitted word off.”
■ Slow Boring blogger Matthew Yglesias sees “two crises in the news business: One is bad for journalists, the other is bad for democracy.”
Happy birthday. Seven years ago today, Chicago Public Square emerged from beta with its first public edition.
■ It wouldn’t be here now if the cost of producing and distributing it hadn’t been underwritten by generous readers such as John Gilardi, Kathy Burger, John Teets, Bill Weldon, JM, Patrick Olsen, Scott Sachnoff, Kevin Parzyck, Catherine Tokarski, Kevin Lampe, Jeff Herden, Suzy Le Clair, Larry Dahlke, Michael Johnson, Moondog, Victoria Engelhardt, Joe Hallissey, Jim Peterson, Anne Frederick, Mary Godlewski, Mike Cramer, Jan Kieckhefer, Timothy Cunningham, Jerry Wolin, Libbey Paul and Jim Prescott.
■ Join them today and see your name here tomorrow.
■ Readers Walter Fyk, Beth Kujawski and Mike Braden made this edition better.
A Square advertiser
