Good afternoon! It’s Tuesday, and a programming note: WBEZ is providing live coverage of the Senate’s impeachment trial during the day. You can tune in online, on your smart speaker or on the radio at 91.5 FM. Here’s what you need to know today.

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1. Second impeachment trial against Trump begins with explicit video on mob attack

House impeachment managers used a roughly 13 minute video of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to make their case that former President Donald Trump incited the deadly mob. (You can find the video in the link. It includes explicit language and violence.)

Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of the impeachment managers, told senators his youngest daughter and her husband were at the Capitol during the attack and barricaded themselves in an office.

“I told her how sorry I was and I promised her that it would not be like this again, the next time she came back to the Capitol with me,” said Raskin, D-Maryland. “And you know what she said? She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol.’ ”

Trump’s legal team, however, argued the former president’s remarks at a rally shortly before the attack are protected under the First Amendment. They also suggested that because Trump lost the election, the voters already rendered their verdict on Trump. The former president has repeatedly insisted he didn’t lose and has spread false claims there was widespread voter fraud.

Senate Democrats would need 17 Republicans to side with them in convicting Trump, and it is not clear if they have the votes. The trial is expected to be fast and could end as early as next week.

Meanwhile, senior aides for the House impeachment managers said they plan to unveil evidence that “that nobody has seen before.” [NPR]

Trump’s legal team says he was “horrified” when violence broke out at the Capitol, but that conflicts with accounts from several people who were in contact with the president on that day, according to The Washington Post.

The newspaper reports that one close adviser to the president said “Trump was voraciously consuming the events on television, enjoying the spectacle and encouraged to see his supporters fighting for him.” [WaPo]

Trump is not the only one facing legal trouble. Fox News and some of its hosts face a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from voting company Smartmatic. Fox today asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. [NPR]

2. WHO scientists say it’s “extremely unlikely” a Chinese lab unleashed the coronavirus

A team of scientists from the World Health Organization today dismissed a theory that the coronavirus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the center of many conspiracy theories. The institute collects samples of viruses, and it’s within miles of a wet market where some experts say the outbreak may have begun. But the WHO team said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus escaped from the laboratory because of safety protocols in place.

Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, who is leading the WHO mission into the origins of the pandemic, said it is more likely that the virus came from a bat who gave it to another animal that then spread it to humans. But more research is needed. [AP]

Scientists say solving the big mystery of the virus’ origins can help prevent it from happening again. Here’s a look at some of the most prevalent theories. [Washington Post]

Meanwhile, a growing body of research suggests that people who survived COVID-19 could be reinfected by new variants that have emerged. [AP]

3. Pritzker will not raise income taxes to close a $3 billion deficit

Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal will not include an income tax hike, but it will seek the elimination of $900 million in business tax credits, the governor’s office announced today.

It’s not clear what “corporate tax loopholes” Pritzker is talking about, as his office didn’t provide any specifics. But as WBEZ’s Dave McKinney and Tony Arnold point out, it’s an “issue that undoubtedly will mean a fight with state business groups this spring.”

Pritzker, who will formally present his budget outline on Feb. 17, also proposes to hold state spending at current levels and fully cover the state’s $10 billion-plus mandated pension costs. [WBEZ]

While a $3 billion deficit is nothing to write home about, the governor’s budget plan doesn’t appear as dire as he has previously suggested. The plan also comes as President Joe Biden is proposing to set aside $350 billion to states and local governments that have taken a financial hit from the pandemic. [USA Today]

4. We’ll know soonish whether Chicago’s public schools will begin reopening this week

All 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union are voting on whether to accept a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration that would allow the first group of students and teachers back into schools on Thursday.

Results of the vote will be announced tomorrow. The union’s governing body, known as the House of Delegates, notably did not endorse the plan when it decided to move forward with a full union vote. The House of Delegates also overwhelmingly approved a “no confidence” vote of Lightfoot and leadership at Chicago Public Schools.

If the union’s members approve the reopening plan, elementary and middle school students can return to classrooms March 1. Students in sixth through eighth grades would return on March 8. There is currently no schedule for bringing back high school students. [WBEZ]

Meanwhile, about half of Illinois’ nearly 2 million public school students are still in remote-only learning, according to the Chicago Tribune. [Trib]

5. New Chicago Police policy aims to chip away at the “code of silence”

The Chicago Police Department, long accused of punishing officers who speak out against wrongdoing, has created a new policy banning retaliation against officers who report misconduct, reports WBEZ’s Patrick Smith.

The move comes as the department is under what is known as a consent decree, which is a court-enforced plan to reform its policies and practices. Independent monitor Maggie Hickey, who helps oversee the consent decree, is expected to release a new report on the department’s efforts. In the first year under the consent decree, Hickey reported the department was making little progress.

The Police Department’s “code of silence” has come at the expense of taxpayers. In the past five years, the city has paid out millions of dollars in lost lawsuits and legal settlements to officers who claimed they were victimized. [WBEZ]

Here’s what else is happening

• A Chicago hospital with one of the busiest ERs in the city is turning away ambulances. [WBEZ]
• A hacker tried to poison the drinking water for a Florida city of 15,000 people. [AP]
• The United Arab Emirate has its eyes on Mars today. [Axios]
• But has anyone seen my pants? [Block Club Chicago]

Oh, and one more thing …

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee will reportedly meet on Friday to discuss a new crisis surrounding the games: chief organizer Yoshiro Mori’s recent comments that women talk too much in board meetings.

Calls for his resignation have mounted since he made the sexist remarks last week. As NPR reports, hundreds of Olympic volunteers have quit, and some torch relay runners have withdrawn to protest.

The International Olympic Committee today reiterated that Mori’s comments were “absolutely inappropriate.”

The controversy comes at a time when public support for the games appears to be waning due to safety concerns. Opinion polls in Japan show that about 80% of respondents think the games should be postponed or canceled. [NPR]

Tell me something good …

What is something you miss about going to school or college?

Fellow Dungeons & Dragons player Karak Ungoul writes:

“I miss next to nothing about my college. Except, in the small town in NJ where I served my time before parole [some called it graduation], there was an ice cream shop that featured ‘blend-ins.’ This was between 1978 and 1982, and being from the midwest, I had limited experience with this delight. I miss fresh fruit blended into vanilla ice cream.”

Debra Liddell Quarles writes:

“I miss the ‘first day of school’ outfit. New shoes, dress (I’m a “Boomer” so no pants or jeans allowed), matching bows for my pigtails and off I went.”

And Amanda tweets:

“I loved the weeks before the new school year. Having 5 siblings and not a lot of time or money to spend on us individually, my mom would make a point to take each of us one by one and buy us 1 new outfit + 1 new pair of shoes. I always wore my new outfit on picture day.”

Feel free to email or tweet me, and your responses might be shared here this week.

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