The FBI all up in your vote? / Colbert’s return / Wright wrongs

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The FBI all up in your vote? Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Kash Patel says he’s open to sending his agents to polling places in November …
■ … a thing that former Associated Press D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier calls “an unprecedented, if not illegal, step to assert greater control over state-run elections.”
■ Columnist Susan Berger praises Sen. Cory Booker for refusing to let Patel stonewall the Senate yesterday.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Patel’s FBI recently changed its regulations to allow for applicants who have sexually abused animals in the past, specifically before they were 18” …
■ … a thing Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin put in the spotlight for what columnist Heather Delaney Reese calls “one of the most embarrassing moments in FBI history.”

One-man debate. Michigan’s Republican senatorial candidate was a no-show for a face-off last night, so a Fox-owned TV station broadcast the show with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed taking questions all by himself.
■ Even though the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s plan to block November’s mail-in ballots, reporter D. Earl Stephens says the decision’s fine print gave the president what he wanted: A hint that the court would go along in 2028, “because it will have allowed him sufficient time to take a nuclear-powered blowtorch to our vote.”
■ NewsGuard’s launching a 2026 Midterm Elections Misinformation Tracker.

This means war. Lame-duck Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

‘Trump is threatening to let one of our most treasured performing arts venues, the Kennedy Center, rot.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones updates the presidentially hand-picked board’s vote to close the center rather than have it continue operating without his name on it.
■ Trump, who lies, says the closure’s necessary for safety repairs.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “If he can’t get his way, he’s closing the whole thing down.”

Colbert’s return. A night after winning the Outstanding Variety Series Emmy for a show CBS canceled, Stephen Colbert took a victory(?) lap on Jimmy Kimmel’s show  …
■ … shaving off his vacation beard and bequeathing to Kimmel the Captain America shield Marvel gave him almost 20 years ago.
■ See it here.
■ Kimmel also dissected the bankrolling of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration by a Russian oligarch: “Remember when Republicans spent 20 months investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop because they were worried about family members selling foreign access? Guys, I think I got a hot lead for ya.”
■ MS NOW’s Zeeshan Aleem: Trump Jr.’s defense of the “gift” is ridiculous. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Law prof Joyce Vance mocks Trump Jr.’s new wife, Bettina: “Everyone wants to have dear friends who are linked to child trafficking.”

Automated bike-lane tickets? The Chicago City Council’s considering a citywide expansion of ticketing for drivers who block bike and bus lanes.
■ 404 Media: “Hackers stole Flock’s camera software, revealing how the company tracks cars and people.”
■ The council’s considering a sweetened offer from a New York investment firm bidding to buy Chicago’s parking meters …
■ … even though a Tribune editorial (free link) complains the deal has “nada, zilch, nothing for Chicago parkers.”
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg has questions for Mayor Johnson’s new communications director, who “deliberately withheld federal income taxes on her freelance work as a protest against ICE. Can we all do that?”

‘Escapes. Fires. Rebellions.’ The Illinois Answers Project: Illinois requires county jails to report thousands of “extraordinary or unusual” incidents every year, but the state doesn’t do a thing about those reports.
■ Dozens of jail deaths are missing from the records.

Ed Sheeran’s dark times. The singer’s American tour is in trouble after four of his supporting acts quit in solidarity with rapper Macklemore—dropped from the show for making onstage pro-Palestinian comments.
■ U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft for his moves “to line up all the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way.”
■ Chicago-raised comedian and documentarian W. Kamau Bell: “We all don’t have the words or the bravery to speak out the way Macklemore has done.”

Wright wrongs. A video stacked with falsehoods about threats to Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes in Oak Park—as the village considers a zoning overhaul aimed at increasing housing opportunities—is being debunked by the owner of one of those homes (Crain’s gift link)…
■ … who says she supports the changes, to address what she calls “the racist underpinnings of … single-family zoning.”
■ Now open at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography: An exhibit depicting the alternate universe where young Emmett Till wasn’t kidnapped, beaten, mutilated and lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

A Chicago Public Square public service announcement

‘Democracy lives’ / ‘Glitch McConnell’ / ‘Bezos … needs to pee’ / Colbert show’s last laugh

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‘Democracy lives.’ Tribune, New York Times and Washington Post alumnus Susan Berger hails the Supreme Court’s decision to block Donald Trump’s restrictions on ballots mailed in for November’s elections.
■ CNN calls it “a significant loss for the president.”
■ Trump’s condemning the justices he put on the court: “Not the people I interviewed.”

Not all that thrilled? In what Politico’s Shia Kapos calls “a notable break,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey seems less than enthusiastic about his endorsement by Trump.
■ Bailey issued a statement declaring, “That’s not what this race is about.”

Illegal bust? A suburban police department’s investigating the possibility its officers violated a state law forbidding local cops from assisting federal immigration enforcement—as ICE arrested two Venezuelan immigrants after a routine traffic stop (Tribune gift link).
■ Chicago and Illinois are suing the Trump administration over a rule set to take effect Friday, giving the feds more power over immigrants who get welfare benefits.
■ A Trump administration rule would leave thousands of acres in Shawnee National Forest vulnerable to drilling and logging.

■ The new bride ain’t denyin’ it.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “There’s no looking away from this Trump scoop.”

‘Private gain and antidemocratic reaction.’ The Atlantic (gift link) says “Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy.”
■ Popular Information: Senate legislation on the crypto industry would greenlight Trump corruption. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “Journalists need to resist the right’s attempts to set their agenda.”

‘Glitch McConnell is kinda sorta somewhat almost alive!’ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich is amazed that, for the first time in three months, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell showed up on the Senate floor yesterday.
■ Also back to the Senate today: FBI Director Kash Patel, to face questions from, among others, Illinois’ Dick Durbin—who called Patel “the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation’s history.”
■ Watch here.

‘There is no longer anything Grand about the deranged cult.’ Columnist Eric Zorn explains why he eschews “GOP” as a nickname for the Republican Party.
■ Your Chicago Public Square columnist in 2016: “Death to ‘GOP.’”

‘Jeffrey Preston Bezos … needs to pee all the time.’ Author, tech watchdog and enshittification coiner Cory Doctorow cites that inevitability of the Amazon founder’s age (62) “because of how hard it is to reconcile the very different circumstances of Bezos’s bladder with the bladders of the hundreds of thousands of Amazon delivery and warehouse workers who are not allowed to pee at all.”
■ After a Miami crash that killed five, Amazon is suspending use of cargo airline 21 Air.

DIY bus benches. Block Club: Without city permission, volunteers are installing seats at Chicago bus stops.
■ They’re open to collaborators.
■ Also from Block Club: Urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas is in a legal fight with a Swedish ski apparel brand over his slogan “Everything Dope About America Comes From Chicago.”

‘I can’t think of any reason why anyone shouldn’t be allowed to make this deeply personal choice for themselves.’ Eric Zorn salutes radio star and newspaper veteran Judy Markey’s “deliberate and well-timed” decision to end her life on her terms.

Colbert show’s last laugh. His show canned by a sycophantic CBS, Stephen Colbert last night took the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series.
■ In a post-Emmys interview, he declared free speech “alive and well.”
■ … whose online-only sit-down with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico has become his most-watched post in two years.
■ … which went heavily to Apple-produced shows.

New life for old(er) things? Apple’s released its 2027 software updates.
■ Six Colors reviews the new features for iPhones and Macs.
■ TidBITS offers guidance for “who should upgrade immediately, and who should wait.”
■ ZDNET salutes Energizer for making the batteries used in AirTags and other small devices less lethal for kids who swallow them.

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