Events

The Illinois State Climatologist reports on the autumn season, which for meteorologists ended Wednesday: This was the 5th warmest November on record for Illinois, based on preliminary data. The statewide average temperature was 8.6°C, and 2.7°C above normal. It was also the 2nd warmest fall on record for Illinois. The statewide average temperature for fall was 15.2°C, 2.8°C above normal. Only the fall of 1931 was warmer at 15.4°C The climatological fall months are September, October, and November. It...

Jeet Heer sees Trump's incessant tweeting as a real strategy: Trump is using Twitter it as a substitute for press conferences—as a means to make serious policy announcements in a safe space where he can spout off without being questioned or challenged. On Wednesday morning, for instance, Trump issued a string of tweets that, when strung together, announced: “I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to make America great again. While I am not...

That, as of today, is the number of votes that Clinton won more than Trump: Hillary Clinton's popular vote lead has now reached 2.52 million votes. In percentage terms that's a 1.9 percentage point margin. It will rise at least a bit more. We can likely be confident that her final margin will be at least 2 percentage points. To compare, that's 5 times the margin of Al Gore's popular vote win in raw vote terms and 4 times his margin in percentage terms. At this point, not only did Clinton win the popular...

Here's a fun comparison. This is the building adjacent to the north side of the northbound platform at the Northbrook Metra station. First, October 1985: Here's the same wall almost exactly 31 years later: The pharmacy long ago disappeared. The building now contains an Italian restaurant and a hair salon.

One more from Vieques. These guys were all over the island:

With Trump set to appoint Rep. Mike Price (R-Ga.) to head Health and Human Services, he's making good on his threat to destroy Obamacare. Even if the legislation doesn't disappear, Price will do everything in his considerable power to hobble it until it stops working altogether. Here's Greg Sargent: Unlike many Republicans, Price has at least given a lot of thought to how to replace the ACA. But Price’s own replacement proposal would roll back the Medicaid expansion, a substantial portion of financial...

Google now has a tool that will show you a time-lapse of any part of the world from 1984 to present: In 2013, we released Google Earth Timelapse, our most comprehensive picture of the Earth's changing surface. This interactive experience enabled people to explore these changes like never before—to watch the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, and the impressive urban expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, we're making our largest update to Timelapse...

Even though it rained every day during my trip to Puerto Rico last week, it did stop raining every so often. Wednesday I was able to go to the Playa Negra (black sand beach) on Vieques, with tons of sunscreen and very uncomfortable flip-flops: The rain made the "road" to Playa Negra more challenging to walk down, however, as it doubles as a stream: Finally, on Thanksgiving—my last day on the island—the sun did what it should have done all week:

James Fallows implores the news media to report that Trump actually lies when he lies: The United States is seeing both a chronic and an acute new version of this public-information problem. ... The acute version is the emergence as president-elect of a man whose nature as a liar is outside what our institutions are designed to deal with. Donald Trump either cannot tell the difference between truth and lies, or he knows the difference but does not care. Tiniest example: On a single day during the...

I'd expected to explore Old San Juan this past week, take some long walks around the islands, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, it rained consistently from my arrival Sunday afternoon through Monday night, stopping long enough for me to thoroughly drench myself on a bioluminescent bay tour, before resuming on the drive back. Here's my hotel's rooftop bar that I didn't spend a lot of time on, as it was pouring: So instead of 17th-century buildings, I'm posting photos of my hotel room: That little guy on...