‘A REGULAR GUY.’ The Sun-Times profiles the life of ballfield gunman James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill.
■ The New York Times: He was a regular at the YMCA near the field where congressional Republican ballplayers practiced.
■ He wrote letters of outrage to the Belleville News-Democrat.
■ What we know about the victims.
■ The Illinois representative at bat when the shooting began: “I never thought I’d go to baseball practice and get shot at.”
■ Lynn Sweet in the House chamber: “I can’t recall when I’ve seen the members … so serious.”
■ Still, Republicans want looser gun laws— so people facing similar attacks can better defend themselves.
■ Sen. Rand Paul’s year-old Second Amendment tweet comes back to haunt him.
■ Roger Simon: “Getting shot is no big deal in America.”
■ Tonight’s party-vs.-party baseball game goes on as scheduled.
■ … And now Facebook is launching an online discussion of “hard questions”—like, “After a person dies, what should happen to their online identity?”
■ New York Post columnist John Podhoretz: Is America descending into “a new kind of chaos with a signature frighteningly reminiscent of 1968”?
■ A San Francisco UPS driver who killed three co-workers before turning the gun on himself had previously filed a grievance about excessive overtime.
TRUMP BEWITCHED. The president calls a Washington Post report he’s under investigation for obstruction of justice “the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history.”
■ Newsweek writer: “The president blocked me on Twitter for saying he’s not as cool as witches.”
■ A senior Trump official to the Daily Beast: ““Keep him away from Twitter, dear God, keep him away from Twitter. … The president did this to himself.”
■ Vladimir Putin is offering Comey political asylum.
■ After congressional hearings for a couple of Trump’s picks for the federal bench, at least one Republican representative “looked disgusted.”
■ Across the government, the Trump administration has been quietly rolling back civil rights efforts.
■ Mayor Emanuel tells Reuters’ Dave McKinney Democrats can retake legislative control across the country by focusing on swing suburban voters.
ILLINOIS ROADWORK’S END? The Illinois Department of Transportation is notifying contractors that if the state doesn’t have “a balanced budget” by the end of the month, it won’t be able to pay them.
■ State Republican lawmakers are offering what they call a “compromise” budget.
■ Business leaders are pushing Gov. Rauner to sign immigrant protection legislation.
■ The Bat-Signal will shine over Los Angeles tonight in honor of TV Batman Adam West.
KNEEL BEFORE YOUR A-I BETTER. In an apparent first for human or artificial intelligence, a Microsoft-made artificial-intelligence system has notched a perfect score on the Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man.
■ The company that makes Apple’s iPhones in China is considering opening a plant in Wisconsin.
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