DEATH AT THE WHITE HOUSE. The Atlantic’s Rosie Gray says the White House press briefing is slowly passing away.
■ Washington Post: In Trump’s Washington, public business increasingly is handled behind closed doors.
■ … Including the Republican health care plan.
HAPPY TALK, UNHAPPY FACES. Axios recaps Trump’s meeting with the leaders of Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.
■ Vox: The real reason Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods terrifies the competition.
■ If you bought an ebook from Amazon between 2010 and 2012, you may have a credit coming—but it expires Saturday.
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TAKING SIDES. Two influential Chicago members of Congress are splitting their support between gubernatorial candidates Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker.
■ Chicago’s private equity industry has declared candidate Daniel Biss an enemy.
■ Gov. Rauner tonight delivers an address from Springfield. Topic: “Unity.”
■ Cook County Commissioner Robert Steele—son of former board president Bobbie Steele, whose seat he assumed when she retired a month after her re-election—is dead, and his replacement will ultimately be picked not by voters but by Democratic committeemen.
THEY BEAT THE DEADLINE. A union group affiliated with a former Chicago alderman has formally submitted a bid to buy the Sun-Times.
■ The group’s goal: “The 99 percent should recognize themselves in what gets written.”
EYES ON GEORGIA. Voters go to the polls today in the most expensive U.S. House race in history.
■ … Which partisans on both sides are casting as “a referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump.”
■ … Even though the contenders hardly ever say his name.
■ The outcome could sway the fate of the Republicans’ health care overhaul.
■ It’s so hot in Phoenix, the air density has decreased to the point where planes can’t take off.
■ In what police describe as a domestic dispute turned violent, a man has been arrested and accused of attacking another man with a chainsaw in Arlington Heights.
‘ALEX JONES … PULLED IN LESS VIEWERSHIP THAN A RE-RUN OF AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS.’ RedState’s Joe Cunningham says Megyn Kelly has learned you can’t convert fringe internet celebrities into ratings.
■ A Tribune editorial condemns an attack on a Sun-Times critic: “If some members of the Chicago theater community need a ‘trigger warning’ to get through the season, then here it is: You won’t like every review you see.”
‘NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOTBALL. AND … EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS.’ A Supreme Court ruling on a dance band’s potentially offensive name gives the team cause to dance in the end zone.
■ … And, a Trib editorial says, is a victory for free speech.
■ A Green Bay Packers fan is suing the Bears for keeping him from wearing his Packers gear onto the field.
CHICAGO TRANSFORMED.
A red-carpet opening tonight on a barge in the Chicago River marks the debut of the new Transformers movie.
THE FUTURE OF RADIO AND PODCASTING.
Explored at length (1:28:28, precisely) last night in Evanston during a Facebook Live video discussion among radio and podcasting pros, including your Chicago Public Square proprietor.
THIS ISSUE OF SQUARE … is showing up an hour earlier than usual—because apicoectomy.