Justice League of Amazon / Coal fired up / SNL's Chicago hires

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMAZON. Mayor Emanuel and Gov. Rauner have assembled a 600-member committee—including some of Chicago’s most high-profile executives in the fields of business, technology and the arts—for an “all hands on deck” effort to lure Amazon’s new headquarters to the city.

Holy We’re-gonna-need-a-bigger-table-for-the-Hall-of-Justice, Batman: Who’s not on this full list?
For the last few days, Chicago has been one of the hottest cities in the world—literally.
Coming next year: Dinner cruises on the Chicago River.
Police are looking for a group of men and a woman who a man says stole his backpack and cell phone and then threw him into Lake Michigan by the Shedd Aquarium.

TAX CUT PLAN. Updating coverage: A Republican proposal to overhaul the tax code reportedly would almost double the standard deduction.
A former Obama assistant writing for Fortune: “Trump’s reform plan is all about cutting taxes—for Trump.”

TWEET RETREAT. After Trump’s candidate lost in Alabama’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate, the president reacted in what The New York Times dubs “the most Trumpian way possible,” by deleting a series of posts to Twitter in which he had supported the loser.
BuzzFeed: Fresh evidence Trump and the Republican establishment have created a Frankenstein’s monster.
NBC News: Sen. Mitch McConnell’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Tuesday.

COAL FIRED UP. Environmental activists are alarmed by Gov. Rauner’s EPA pushes to relax restrictions on lung-damaging pollution from Illinois’ coal-fired power plants.
The acting chief of President Trump’s Drug Enforcement Administration is quitting after—according to one source—he lost confidence in the president’s respect for the law.


FREE SPEECH. Beginning this weekend, Delta Air Lines will offer passengers in-flight access to iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger at no charge.
The Atlantic’s Alexis C. Madrigal on outrage over Twitter’s rollout of 280-character tweets.

SNL’s CHICAGO HIRES. Just days before the season premiere, two veterans of Chicago’s improv scene have been named to the cast of Saturday Night Live.
… as three veterans leave.
… and another breaks the record for longest-serving cast member.

DON’T LIKE KNEELING? YOUR MONEY BACK. DirecTV has reportedly been allowing refunds for its Sunday Ticket NFL package customers who blame players protesting during the national anthem.
Mayor Emanuel is sympathetic to the cops facing discipline for kneeling with an activist—but not that sympathetic.
The Tribune’s Steve Chapman: “To many whites, the only good black protest is no black protest.”
Chapman comrade John Kass: “America isn’t the Jim Crow South of the 1950s and ’60s.”
ProPublica: The bankruptcy system is failing black Americans.

CORRECTION. Yesterday’s emailed edition of Square included a redundant preposition, spotted by the eagle-eyed Mike Braden. (Fixed on the website.)

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