Girls under attack / Call with a killer / Colbert beats the rap

GIRLS UNDER ATTACK. Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams on the Manchester bombing of an Ariana Grande concert: “What is always clear … is how feared and hated the young girls of this world are.”
UK police say a “network” was behind the attack at Manchester Arena.
Rolling Stone:The symbolism … is clear and devastating.”
The Tribune’s Heidi Stevens: “Our brains shouldn’t have to expand to make room for the increasing ways and places we’re watching children die.”
Elizabeth Grattan on Medium: “We have chosen to teach our daughters that their upper body merits privacy while they watch their male counterparts enjoy the breeze on their skin, shirt- and shame-free.”
Cartoon Network has OK’d a full series of DC Super Hero Girls.

CUBS-MANCHESTER CONNECTION. Citing the mayhem in England, Chicago aldermen have moved to accept $1 million from the Cubs to post dozens of security cameras near Wrigley Field.
Worried about the takeover of WGN-TV and radio by the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group? Blame the Cubs.
Can we now stop hearing about “Dancing with the Stars”? (Photo: SecretName101.)

CALL WITH A KILLER. The Intercept has obtained the transcript of Trump’s friendly phone chat with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, “to congratulate him on his murderous drug war.”
Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt warns against “the fantasy that the nation’s problems … could be solved if only that one man could magically be made to disappear” through impeachment.

WHAT THE POPE GAVE TRUMP. It was a sign the pontiff hopes the president won’t bail on the Paris climate-change deal.
Trump to the pope: “I won’t forget what you said.”
The pope to Melania: “What do you give him to eat?

MUDSLINGING’S END? Political pros see evidence Trump’s unorthodox campaign style has left voters numb to negative ads and opposition research.
With a new book coming out, Sen. (and Saturday Night Live alumnus) Al Franken dishes on his colleagues: “You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz, and I hate Ted Cruz.”

TRUMP’S ILLINOIS SQUEEZE.
The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet says the president’s spending plan includes “slashes in programs that directly help the Illinois poor; the end of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative; and cuts in Amtrak subsidies for eight routes running through Chicago.”
Trump’s AIDS budget cuts could cost a million lives.
His spending plan might hit his own voters hardest.
 66 programs the president would eliminate.
But his own security detail? He needs $60 million more.
Meanwhile, he’s personally lawyering up for the Russia investigation.

‘SCHOOL CHOICE IS A SCAM.’ Chicago Reporter columnist Jitu Brown slams Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ philosophy: “Choice does not exist in most black and brown communities in the United States.”
Developing: DeVos testifies today to Congress about the president’s education budget—her first appearance there since her widely ridiculed confirmation hearings.
Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis on gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker’s claim that he’s progressive: “I thought it was hilarious!

‘THE CHARACTER OF THE CITY … MUST CHANGE.’ Two psychology profs write a prescription for ending Chicago’s plague of gun violence.
When adults leave guns unattended and kids under 12 die, who gets punished? USA Today and the AP survey the nation.

A TASTE OF ‘TASTE OF CHICAGO.’ The city’s served up the full list of restaurant vendors for this year’s edition.
Chicago beaches may shrink this summer.
The whole world is running out of sand.

UP AGAINST A PAYWALL? A Columbia Journalism Review survey reveals which major media sites are leaky and which aren’t—and some strategies for slipping in. (CJR graphic by Ariel Stulberg.)
Satiric Twitter account LOLGOP: “I’ve created a safe space for conservatives offended by this. It’s called ‘pretty much every other channel.’”
The online business magazine Quartz offers users an optional 24-hour break from Trump news.
The boss of Chicago’s 1871 startup incubator, Howard Tullman: We don’t need any more apps.

COLBERT BEATS THE RAP. The FCC says it won’t fine The Late Show for that edgy Trump-Putin joke.
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has given the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press its biggest gift ever.


TONIGHT. See the BuzzFeed article about “How Sweden Became ‘The Most Alt-Right’ Country In Europe”? Explore that development and more as Göran Montan, a former member of the Swedish Parliament, explains “The Truth About Sweden.” Come to the free inaugural event of the Chicago Know-How, Global Reach series. 7 p.m., at Chicago’s Cards Against Humanity Theater. Sign up here.

A Square advertiser. This space can be yours. Email ads@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.

Subscribe to Square.