Guns’ toll. The Washington Post: For every criminal shot in self-defense, 34 innocent people die.
■ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy is calling on Illinois state pension funds to dump their gun industry holdings.
■ WBEZ: A state agency regularly approves gun licenses for people police have warned shouldn’t have guns.
■ The president’s aiming to blame the video game industry for gun violence.
■ The last living member of the commission that investigated those events tells the Tribune’s Mary Schmich, “Using the word racism was important. That was the first time it had ever been in any government document.” (Photo: Zepia Archival Collection, Karega Kofi Moyo, curator.)
Where there’s smoke … The Better Government Association reveals how the giant tobacco company Altria won a big property tax break from the office of Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, who just happens to co-own a lobbying firm whose clients include Altria.
■ Wealthy man and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has committed $20 million dollars to launch a watchdog to monitor the tobacco industry for dirty tricks.
‘Rampant over-prescribing.’ Chicago is suing three distributors of opioids, accusing them of shipping “orders they knew or should have known were being diverted or used other than for legitimate medical purposes.”
■ New Centers for Disease Control figures: Opioid overdose visits last year jumped 66 percent in Illinois.
■ But corn dogs remain disappointingly hard to find in Chicago.
■ New construction proposed near Chicago’s 606 elevated trail is escalating neighborhood concerns about rising rents and home prices in the area.
Lake Michigan water on the block. The Tribune says the Foxconn manufacturing company preparing to build a plant just across the border in Wisconsin has found a way around strict regulations so it can suck 7 million gallons a day.
■ The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cleared its top officials to moonlight for private companies.
■ … prompting an Obama administration ethics chief to tweet: “By the end of Trump admin, prisons will be full of his associates.”
Your presidential cabinet at work—or not.
■ FiveThirtyEight: Why the resignation of National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is different from other departures.
■ Housing Secretary Ben Carson has cut the phrase “communities free from discrimination” from his department’s mission.
■ Ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, has gotten married at Chicago City Hall.
■ Wired: “For-profit podcasting … is now matching and even eclipsing public radio in terms of ambition and budgets.”
Texas tea leaves. Democrats are hoping the turnout in yesterday’s primaries signals the start of a national wave.
■ … with turnout totals that blew away previous party records.
■ … but the big picture suggests Texas remains red overall.
■ Facebook is struggling with strategies for handling news satire.
■ Chicago Public Square’s not-so-secret weapon for taming social-media news overload since 2015: the free app Nuzzel—which also powers the free Square Annex evening update email.
■ … erroneously placed quotation marks around John Records Landecker’s middle name—which truly is Records. (Thanks to Mark Wukas.)
■ … included an errant “in” in the phrase “a ‘common-sense’ bill to change [in] Illinois gun rules.” (Thanks to Mike Braden.)
■ Find a mistake in this edition? Be first to email ScrewUps@ChicagoPublicSquare.com and see your name in this space tomorrow.
If you’ve read all the way down here … and your name isn’t already on this page, please check out your many options for supporting Square.