1. President Barack Obama is coming to Chicago this afternoon as part of his post-State of the Union tour. The Tribune’s John Kass says that is bad news for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, while the Washington Post predicts he will discuss raising the federal minimum wage, creating jobs for young people living in poverty and encouraging fatherhood in low-income communities. Obama is scheduled to speak at the Hyde Park Career Academy, where he is also expected to discuss the murder of Hadiya Pendleton and the need for greater gun control.
2. Two days ago, police arrested two young men for allegedly shooting Hadiya at a park in Kenwood, and yesterday police announced they would be targeting the Chicago gang SUWU because they are affiliated with the suspected shooters. That targeting will mean the gang’s 40 or so members will be arrested for any infraction, minor or major. In an interview on WBEZ on Feb. 13 Sen. Mark Kirk blamed the gangsters disciples for Hadiya’s murder and said “it is time to crush the gangster disciples as an organization in Chicago.”
3. On Wednesday evening Chicago Public Schools released a list of 129 schools that may be closed. That list included 16 schools in the Austin-North Lawndale Network on the West Side, sparking outrage among community members. Our sister publication Austin Talks reported on the community response.
4. This evening the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., kicks off a two-week-long 70mm film fest with a screening of “Vertigo” at 6:30 pm. The festival runs until the end of February, and features nine films presented in 70mm, as they were originally shot. The Music Box’s website described the festival as a chance to “see these films as their creators wished them to be seen.
5. Today in Chicago history in 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was killed while traveling in a car with President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Miami.
