Chance is helping out Chicago's homeless. Credit: Alison Green

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

 • That Chance the Rapper hopes to raise $100,000 to make 1,000 coats for homeless Chicagoans? —Leor Galil

• Or see today’s excellent Beethoven-themed Google doodleAimee Levitt

• About the Uber driver who attacked a couple with a snow brush? Brianna Wellen

• That Putin’s partial to Trump? Tony Adler

• That fewer people were sentenced to death in 2015 than any other year since the 70s? Tal Rosenberg

• The great Rebecca Solnit on art and empathy, or mansplanations of LolitaAimee Levitt

• An interview with architect Zaha Hadid, in which she calls the Chicago Architecture Biennial “cute?” Tal Rosenberg

• That Martin Shkreli got arrested on fraud charges? Luca Cimarusti