Hey there, it’s Thursday! Do you like scarves? Do you like WBEZ? You can win a chance at getting a WBEZ scarf by playing our holiday bingo game . Here’s what else you need to know today. (PS: You can have this delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.)

1. All eyes are on the Senate

If you didn’t get a million notifications on your phone during dinner last night, the full House of Representatives made the historic move to impeach President Donald Trump, making him the third U.S. president to be impeached.

And now there’s a lot of confusion about what happens next. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will send the articles of impeachment to the Senate only after she receives more information about the ground rules for the Senate trial, which will determine whether to remove Trump from office.

There is currently no clarity on how long a Senate trial will last or when it will begin. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are soon expected to negotiate the parameters of a trial. McConnell has said he is coordinating plans with the White House. [NPR]

2. What you need to know about this week’s Obamacare ruling

A federal appeals court struck down part of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, saying the mandate that most Americans have health insurance is unconstitutional. The ruling won’t have an immediate impact because Congress already removed the penalty for people who don’t have insurance.

But the appeals court sent the case back to a federal judge, who previously ruled against the entire law, to determine if the rest of the Affordable Care Act can stand without the individual mandate. That means other parts of the law, like protections for people with preexisting conditions, could also be tossed out.

The case will likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court but not before the 2020 election. [NPR]

3. About 72,000 Medicaid applications in Illinois are stuck in a backlog

And Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration hasn’t hired enough people to help clear the state’s backlog of applications for the government-run Medicaid health insurance program. Pritzker had vowed an aggressive hiring spree that would create 240 jobs for caseworkers. But the state has only hired 170 people.

The backlog that once topped 100,000 applications is shrinking. But about 72,000 people remain uninsured, and that carries consequences for Cook County taxpayers. The county offers a Medicaid program that actually makes money, so the backlog could hurt the county’s bottom line. [WBEZ]

4. Scotland seeks independence as Britain barrels toward Brexit

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wants to hold a voter referendum on whether Scotland should leave the U.K. Her comments come as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledges to withdraw the U.K. from the European Union by the end of January.

Scotland largely voted to remain in the EU during the 2016 Brexit vote, and Sturgeon’s pro-independence Scottish National Party scored major wins in the U.K.’s recent general election. [NPR]

And here’s a factoid for the holiday parties: The decision to hold the 2016 Brexit vote was made at a pizza restaurant at O’Hare International Airport by then-Prime Minister David Cameron. [Chicago Tribune]

5. Top 7 Dems face off in tonight’s presidential debate

Those candidates are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, businessman Tom Steyer, entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.

It’s the sixth debate of the year and is co-hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico. It takes place at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. [NPR]

WBEZ will air live coverage of the debate tonight beginning at 7 p.m. CST.

Here’s what else is happening

• Cigar shops, hookah lounges and other places in Chicago could allow pot smoking under a proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot. [Chicago Tribune]

• A man was sentenced to life in prison for murdering Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey. [Chicago Tribune]

• A Chicago high school senior is getting a full ride to the University of Chicago after acing the AP Spanish test. [Chicago Sun-Times]

• Author J.K. Rowling faces backlash for defending a researcher who lost her job because of anti-trans tweets. [Variety]

Oh, and one more thing …

The nightmare fuel known as Cats is now out in movie theaters and punishing the public, and the reviews are hilarious.

“Nine may not be enough lives for some of the stars to live down their involvement in this poorly conceived and executed adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical,” writes The New York Times. You can find an entertaining roundup of reviews here. [Buzzfeed]

Cats, at the moment I’m writing this, has a 17% score on movie-ranking site Rotten Tomatoes. In contrast, the Netflix documentary series Dogs has a 92% score, proving once again dogs are better than cats.

Tell me something good …

I’m literally counting down the days until Friday because I’ll be on vacation for the next week and a half. (Don’t worry, someone else will be writing the newsletter.) So I’d like to know what you’re doing for the holidays.

Byung-In writes:

“My family is relatively low-key when it comes to Christmas, so I plan to scrapbook, for as many days as possible, while watching cheesy Christmas related movies. Scrapbooking has gone out of vogue, but I still love it, documenting my and my husband’s life for the past year. Then, I start the next year with a new book, documenting new memories.”

What are your holiday plans? Feel free to email at therundown@wbez.org or tweet to @whuntah.

Have a nice night! I’ll see you tomorrow. And if you like what you just read, you can subscribe to the newsletter here and have it delivered to your inbox.