‘An ever-present danger.’ ProPublica: Formaldehyde causes more cancer than any other air pollutant—often “in the one place people feel safest: inside their homes”—but the government’s doing almost nothing about it.
■ ProPublica’s created a lookup tool: Enter your address to assess your exposure to formaldehyde—and where it’s coming from.
■ Wonkette offers a field guide to the incoming administration’s “spokesclowns.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
If Donald Trump ‘were somehow to become incapacitated or die …’ Recalling the TV show Designated Survivor—about a catastrophic attack on Washington—columnist/cartoonist Jack Ohman surveys the line of succession if Trump gets his cabinet.
■ No. 6 on that list: Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth, who faces fresh charges—to quote historian Heather Cox Richardson—that he was “repeatedly so drunk at events that he had to be carried out, and that he once tried to join dancers on stage at a strip club to which he brought his work team” and that, in 2015, he “began to chant drunkenly: ‘Kill all Muslims!’”
■ Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s No. 12.
■ The Daily Beast: Trump’s nominees are cause for celebration at the Kremlin.
‘He made a mockery of our justice system.’ Put USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke down with those appalled by President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter.
■ Very Serious proprietor Josh Barro: “If this was an appropriate and justified act, why did the president lie about his intention not to do it?”
■ Politico: Biden handed Trump “a template to shield his own allies and stretch the pardon power even further.”
■ Eric Zorn at The Picayune Sentinel’s OK with it: “Hunter Biden was facing up to three years in prison for crimes that for which an average person … would have paid fines and received probation.”
■ Politico: Gov. Pritzker and other potential presidential candidates have kept mum about the pardon.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “The Biden presidency has now entered the Grandpa doesn’t give a damn about what you think phase.”
■ Jon Stewart on The Daily Show: “Why not take care of your kid, even if you said you weren’t going to? I respect it. … The problem is the rest of the Democrats made Biden’s pledge to not pardon Hunter the foundation of their defense of America.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “You know what would be … really funny? If Joe pardoned, like, every late-night host. And just because I think it would be a funny bit, I would accept that pardon.”
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Trump Blasts Biden for Issuing Pardon Without Being Paid For It.”
‘Heinous, terrible incident.’ That’s how the Chicago Police Department’s chief of patrol describes a shooting that left three dead and five wounded at a house party yesterday afternoon on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
■ Police had more questions than answers about what happened and why.
■ A Sun-Times editorial mourns an Oak Park police officer’s shooting death: “It is a tragedy that too many of them are gunned down in all ZIP codes, including the places where such shootings are least expected.”
‘The backlash … has only just begun.’ The American Prospect says seven states’ passage of constitutional amendments protecting abortion have fueled “fresh attempts by legislative manipulators to jam up the machinery of direct democracy.”
■ A federal appeals court has mostly cleared Idaho to enforce a law designed to punish adults who help minors get abortions in another state or get medication to induce an abortion.
■ A Kansas City doctor who once opposed abortion says Missouri’s abortion ban has made her an abortion rights advocate.
■ Planned Parenthood and the national virtual abortion provider Hey Jane are teaming up to expand abortion access in Illinois.
Preachers against interracial marriage. The Arizona Star has rounded up videos of sermons from across the country in which Pentecostalish ministers with a sect called “The Message” espouse racist views. (You may encounter a paywall.)
■ It’s part of a series: “Twisted Message: A prophet’s unchecked global sect.”
Chicagoans of the Year. Here’s Chicago magazine’s list …
■ … including a prize fossil.
‘Don’t look away. Don’t hope it won’t happen.’ Law professor and former U.S. prosecutor Joyce Vance says Americans’ “most fundamental duty” in the days leading up to Trump’s second presidency is to stay informed.
■ A Northwestern University report finds Illinois has lost 86% of its journalists since 2005—the biggest drop of any state.
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “We can’t count on corporate networks like CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS to stand up to Trump” …
■ … which is a cue to remind you of news organizations you can support on this Giving Tuesday.
■ Not to mention (ahem): Now’s your chance to vote for Chicago Public Square—twice—in the Reader’s Best of Chicago poll …
■ … and, of course, your support is welcome here any day of the year.
A Square public service announcement
Reflections on Justice. That’s the topic as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks—online and in-person—Sunday at Chicago’s Third Unitarian Church (just off the Green Line’s Austin stop). To join the online service, call or email for a Zoom link: 773-626-9385 or thirdunitarianchurch@gmail.com.