Events

Tabs open but not read in my browser: Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee for Education Secretary, knows almost nothing about public schools. Trump probably knows almost nothing about NATO, but is still a danger to the alliance. Republicans in general know almost nothing about health insurance. Sixty members of the House are skipping the inauguration, including mine. A drone operator managed to get a $1.2m fine reduced to $200,000. But they're still in trouble. There was one more item, but it's too big to...

Two big Obama stories today. First, the president has commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence. She'll be freed in May: In recent days, the White House had signaled that Mr. Obama was seriously considering granting Ms. Manning’s commutation application, in contrast to a pardon application submitted on behalf of the other large-scale leaker of the era, Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who disclosed archives of top secret surveillance files and is living as a fugitive in Russia. Asked...

I grew up in Chicago, so I have some recollection of how things were before Harold Washington's mayoral administration. Particularly under the first Mayor Daley, large sections of the city lived under authoritarian rule. It wasn't pretty. New Republic's Graham Vyse explains what this might look like nationally. It won't be The Hunger Games—and that's part of the problem: Tom Pepinsky, a government professor at Cornell University, recently argued that Americans conceive of authoritarianism in a...

This is what I saw last night: As a singer who's performed the original Messiah about 10 times, I pronounce Too Hot to Handel amazeballs, and I will be in the chorus next year.

The latest scandal surrounding Trump is either farcical or truly scary: Seven months ago, a respected former British spy named Christopher Steele won a contract to build a file on Donald J. Trump’s ties to Russia. Last week, the explosive details — unsubstantiated accounts of frolics with prostitutes, real estate deals that were intended as bribes and coordination with Russian intelligence of the hacking of Democrats — were summarized for Mr. Trump in an appendix to a top-secret intelligence report. Mr....

Via Crain's, Business Insider explains in detail how Eddie Lampert has structured his financial holdings so that he may benefit more from Sears' destruction than from its success: For all the problems in Sears stores, Lampert has set up his various businesses in a way that means he has other ways to gain no matter what happens to the company. ESL holds a majority share of Sears, and that stake has lost three-quarters of its value just in the past few years — more than $1.5 billion since early 2015...

Since records began with Eisenhower's inauguration in 1953, no incoming president has had an approval rating below 50% at the start of his administration. Reagan and George HW Bush came in at 51%, and both managed to improve (to 68% and 56%, respectively) in the first 100 days. Even George W Bush, despite the taint surrounding his election, came in at 57% and inched up to 62% by April 2001. And along comes Trump. A Quinnipac poll released today has him at 37%, and falling. As Josh Marshall puts it...

Starting May 1st, general aviation pilots like me will have an easier time getting aviation medical endorsements: Starting on May 1, pilots will have the option to maintain their 3rd class medical, or opt to use the BasicMed rule. Under BasicMed, a pilot will be required to complete an online medical education course every two years, undergo a medical exam every four years, and comply with aircraft and operating restrictions. The medical exam will include a four-page FAA form to be completed by your...

You know, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone who invested in this charlatan's buildings, but still: Two signs of a slowdown in Trump's signature building have emerged: a decline in sales of condos and a stack of unsold listings that is bigger than in competitive buildings. At year-end, sales in the building were down from 2015, according to Gail Lissner, vice president of Appraisal Research Counselors, which tracks the downtown real estate market. There were 34 sales in the building in 2016, a drop of...

Growing up, one of my favorite things in the whole world was the O-gauge model railroad at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Atlas Obscura describes the $3.5m refurbishment that opened in 2002: The exhibit focuses on the intersection of transportation infrastructure and economic activity—the intercity elevated train, suburban commuter rail, and cross country freight lines, all buzzing with a vibrant post-WWII industrial economy of decades past. The trip begins in Chicago, which is the most...