Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, March 2, 2017.
- U.S. rep Bobby Rush says Trump has accepted his invitation to visit Chicago
Congressman Bobby Rush pulled President Donald Trump aside before he addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening and asked him to visit Chicago. Rush’s office told the Sun-Times that the president accepted the invitation. In his speech, Trump mentioned that more than 4,000 people were shot in Chicago in 2016 “and the murder rate so far this year has been even higher.” Rush’s office disagreed with that statement, saying that the president “assailed Chicago’s shooting rate by erroneously stating the current [year] had already surpassed last year’s numbers.” [Sun-Times]
- Alderman Sophia King keeps her seat in special election
Alderman Sophia King easily won the Fourth Ward special election Tuesday with 64 percent of the vote, allowing her to keep her seat and avoid a runoff election. King was appointed to the seat by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after former alderman Will Burns resigned, and faced four challengers in the special election, during which she was endorsed by her longtime friend, former president Barack Obama. “I have to take a small moment to thank President Obama. History will tell, but I think he’ll go down as one of the best presidents ever,” she told her supporters after the victory. “I’m just happy to have known him that way.” [Tribune]
- The Trump era reportedly has Oprah reconsidering running for president
President Oprah Winfrey could be a reality someday. President Donald Trump’s surprise victory reportedly has the media mogul reconsidering running for president. “I thought, ‘Oh gee, I don’t have the experience, I don’t know enough.’ . . . And now I’m thinking—’Oh,'” she told Bloomberg in an interview taped in December. [Sun-Times]
- Michelle and Barack Obama sign $65 million-plus book deal with Penguin Random House
Former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have signed book deals with Penguin Random House reportedly worth more than $65 million. The 44th president will write a “straightforward memoir about his presidency,” while the former first lady “plans to write an inspirational work for young people that will draw upon her life story,” according to the Associated Press. [Vox] [Associated Press]
- Jackson Park, public sculptures make list of the city’s most endangered sites
Preservation Chicago released its annual list of the seven most endangered sites in Chicago. Jackson Park, 20th-century public sculptures, the lakefront’s water cribs, and Blocks 11, 12, and 13 of Altgeld Gardens all made the cut. Jackson Park is set to become the home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center and possibly a golf course, but “the lack of community input on the projects, the privatization of parkland and the level of influence by privately held organizations” has the group concerned, according to the Tribune. [Tribune]
- A Wrigleyville bar transformed with the help of Bar Rescue
A dive bar below Bacci’s Pizza near the Addison Red Line stop and just steps away from Wrigley Field has been transformed with the help of the Spike TV show Bar Rescue. The show’s experts were able to turn the Dugout from a “stripped-down sports bar with head-sized fish bowl specials” into the Press Box, a “olive-walled tribute to a 1940s press box, with a sleek wooden bar and old-style typewriter accents,” according to DNAinfo Chicago. The episode will air on Spike TV at 9 PM Sunday. [DNAinfo Chicago]