‘False claims and factual omissions.’ The Sun-Times puts the lie to a Republican-controlled congressional hearing on crime in Chicago.
‘Police increasingly fail to comply with the law.’ WBEZ and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity: Traffic stops of Black drivers in Illinois have hit a 20-year high.
■ Block Club Chicago: Critics say a series of tweets calling out people for driving on Promontory Point bike paths and parking on green spaces “essentially targeted non-white parkgoers relaxing at the park.”
‘Trump’s Golden Tower of Fraud.’ That’s The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes on a New York State judge’s ruling that the real estate empire that propelled Donald Trump to the White House was built on a foundation of deception committed for decades.
■ Attorney George Conway—ex-husband of Trump apologist Kellyanne Conway—calls it “the equivalent of the corporate death penalty for the Trump organization.”
‘A Swiftie Sway or a Beyoncé Bump’? Columnist Rex Huppke: Republicans have reason to fear voters who register at the urging of the day’s two most influential pop stars.
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones previews what could happen in tonight’s second Republican presidential debate.
■ The AP: The debaters face a “growing urgency” to stop Trump—who won’t be there.
‘Biden should not have been there.’ A Tribune editorial says the president’s decision to join auto workers on the picket line cost him “the subsequent ability to act as an honest broker.”
■ Wonkette mockery: “Axios Can Now Confidently Report That Joe Biden Wears Tennis Shoes.”
‘The $100,000 worth of gold bars are because I was briefly afflicted with the Midas Touch. I got better. But by the time I was better, I had already touched a lot of bars.’ Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri scripts an out for New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters).
■ Add Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth to the list of more than half the Senate’s Democrats calling on Menendez to quit.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch: Leaders of the Republican Party don’t want him to leave—because “imposing a rigid ethical standard … would call attention to the raging fires of corruption that currently engulf its own house.”
Not so welcoming? A couple of City Council members want a vote on whether Chicago should continue to offer official protection for undocumented immigrants.
■ The Sun-Times spells out how a looming shutdown of the federal government could affect Chicago and Illinois.
Amazon under fire. On the 109th anniversary of the Federal Trade Commission’s creation, the FTC and 17 states—not including Illinois—filed a landmark case accusing the company of abusing its dominance and crippling competitors.
■ Blaming “theft and organized retail crime,” Target is closing nine stores across four states—not including any in Illinois.
CPAP perils. ProPublica: The manufacturer of breathing machines that went to kids, the elderly and close to three-quarters of a million veterans—many during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic—breathed not a word publicly about internal warnings that the devices posed an “unacceptable” risk.
■ A man dealing with long COVID tells WTTW, “I feel like we’ve been abandoned and forgotten.”
■ Politico: Cholera’s back.
New life for old Macs. Apple’s unleashed a free operating system upgrade for its Macintosh computers.
■ Jason Snell at Six Colors: “Apple has gone above and beyond what was required to bring a little delight.”
A Square advertiser
One strike down. Even though union members haven’t voted on a new contract, the Hollywood writers’ walkout is over …
■ … setting the stage for (link updated, dates confirmed) talk shows’ return as soon as next week.
About paywalls. A reader of Eric Zorn’s newsletter despaired at the paywalls Chicago Public Square readers sometimes encounter …
■ … prompting Square reader G.J. to offer another solution: The “12ft ladder.”
■ Columnist Matt Baron analyzes a Tribune blurb that got a football score wrong and perceives “a lesson in following the facts, not relying on presumptions.”
■ The Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists says the national organization is broke, “and they don’t want you to know this.”
25 years ago today …
■ Square’s spiritual ancestor made its debut.
Congrats! Here are the winners of Conversation stickers for their promptly excellent scores in last week’s news quiz: Ed Sackley, Eric Hochstein, Sue Gregoire, Teresa Savino and Mark Petersen. Yay, you all!
