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What We're Reading: Broke Ball Players, A Trump Piñata, 2015's Best Books

By DNAinfo Staff | June 23, 2015 1:59pm 

CHICAGO — Here's what we're reading on this glorious, sunny summer Tuesday.

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez: With the U.S. Supreme Court set to decide the fate of Obamacare before the end of the month by ruling on whether the tax credits the legislation established to subsidize health care are legal, reporter Heather Cherone is reading a report by Families USA, which touts itself as the voice of health care consumers. If the court strikes down the tax credits, 232,000 Illinois residents are at risk of losing their health care. Approximately 20,000 of those people live in Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley's Fifth Congressional District, which includes the Northwest Side.

Trump's a Real Hit, in More Ways Than One: Love him, hate him or love to haa te him — people can't get enough of Donald Trump. Michael Sneed reports in the Sun-Times that the Donald's upcoming June 29 appearance at the City Club of Chicago is not only sold out, it has a wait list of 1,000 people. Dalton Avalos Ramirez likely isn't one of them. Avalos Ramirez, a Mexican artist, didn't take particularly kindly to Trump's bashing of his countrymen as a bunch of criminals and rapists. So he came up with a clever way for people to hit back — a Trump piñata. Reporter Patty Wetli thinks these would make for an interesting party favor at the City Club.


Barack Obama was the guest on the podcast "WTF with Marc Maron" on Monday. [Courtesy of the White House]

WTF Obama: Reporter Sam Cholke is listening to President Barack Obama's interview on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast. The New Yorker points out that Maron wasn't able to dive as deeply with the president as with his other guests — or that maybe there just isn't the foundation of "crazy" that seems to be at the center of so many of Maron's comedian guests.

Pitch Imperfect: This is the time of year when it's easy to wish you were a professional baseball player: the weather's great, the crowds are big, the office is stifling. Well snap out of it, says senior editor Andrew Herrmann, who's been reading a financial breakdown of a minor league player. MLB.com looks in the wallet of class A player Todd Van Steensel and doesn't find much (he appears to survive on Jimmy Johns, Chipotle and whatever he can scrounge from the clubhouse.) Van Steensel tells writer Ashley Marshall of a time "we were in a car waiting for one of our teammates and Logan Wade told Zach Granite he's pay him $20 if he ate a raw egg. I think he was grossed out by it, so I jumped out of the car and sucked down the egg."

How To Be Happy At Work, According to Rashida Jones: Actress Rashida Jones shares tips on how to be successful at work in a recent Wired article. Jones is busy. She's currently cowriting "Toy Story 4" and just finished making a season of TV show "Angie Tribeca" and producing the documentary "Hot Girls Wanted." In the article, she talks about the importance of unplugging from social media and failing all the time. At Pixar, she said, the motto is "fail fast, fail often." Reporter Mina Bloom also appreciated Jones' dream job of becoming a park ranger and "living amongst the animals," which she shared in the video embedded in the story. Definitely hoping her role as Ann Perkins in Parks and Recreation inspired that dream.

What You're Reading: If what you’re reading is not that great, don’t worry, professionals are here to help. Librarians at the Chicago Public Library put together a list of “The Best Book of 2015…So Far.” The list includes nonfiction, memoirs and novels, so you’re sure to find something that you can relax with at (hopefully) a sunny beach.

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