Carson's end / 'Which Preckwinkle?' / Delay of game

Carson’s end. Once one of Chicago's most prominent department stores, the former Carson Pirie Scott & Co chain is closing.

■ Amazon reveals it has more than 100 million Prime members.
■ … and that its median pay for employees last year was about $28,000.
■ Amazon is teaming up with Best Buy to sell Alexa-powered smart TVs.

Want to know more about lead in Chicago's water? Don't hold your breath. The Tribune reports Mayor Emanuel's City Council floor leader has derailed a call for public hearings on the problem.
■ A state report concludes efforts to reform Chicago Public Schools' special education programs suffers a lack of regular and comprehensive training for staff.

‘I literally bought WiFi as the plane was going down.’ One of the passengers on the Southwest Airlines flight that suffered a blown engine Tuesday, killing one person, shared his story on Facebook Live.
■ A similar accident also punctured a window in a similar incident two years ago.
■ Correction, 1:15 p.m.: A similar accident afflicted a Southwest jet in 2016.
■ The Philadelphia medical examiner has released details of the victim’s death. (Advisory: Graphic description.)

‘Which Preckwinkle?’ A Tribune editorial wonders whether Toni Preckwinkle— the first black and the first woman elected chair of the Cook County Democratic Party—will reign as a reformer or an old-style political boss. (Screengrab: Sun-Times video.)
■ Preckwinkle is promising the party will end a practice of automatically backing all judges seeking to stay on the bench.

C-SPAN about to get more interesting. Responding to the birth of Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s baby girl, the U.S. Senate has voted unanimously to let kids under the age of 1 onto the Senate floor.
■ Not everyone’s enthusiastic: Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch asked, “What if there are 10 babies?”

Delay of game. A plan to outlaw tackle football for kids under 12 in Illinois will stay on the sidelines for now, while backers seek more votes.
■ … as heard on the latest Chicago Public Square Newscast.

‘My time at Reddit made the world a worse place.’ The company’s former product head tells New York Reddit prioritized growth over investment in the kinds of changes that would have made the site less toxic.
■ President Trump’s besieged personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has dropped libel suits against BuzzFeed for publishing the “Steele Dossier”—the report that added “pee tape” to the national vocabulary.
■ Jonathan Chait in New York: “Trump’s lawyer forgets to pretend he’s innocent.”

Jazz Fest embiggened. The 40th anniversary edition of Chicago’s end-of-summer free Grant Park concert event is expanding to five days.
■ … including a pre-retirement farewell performance by iconic pianist (and former on-air partner to your Chicago Public Square publisher) Ramsey Lewis.
■ A showing of Black Panther has ended Saudi Arabia’s 35-year ban on movie theaters.

They ‘demonstrate journalism’s power.’ Actor Ashley Judd praises New York Times (and former Tribune) reporter Megan Twohey, Jodi Kantor and Ronan Farrow for their investigation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexually harassing behavior—work that landed them on Time’s list of 2018’s most influential people, which also (of course) includes the president.
■ Crain’s tracks down the “eccentric” 35-year-old McCormick aiming to buy into the Tribune’s parent company, Tronc.
■ People and The Hill have both ended their “most beautiful” franchises.

An L of a mistake. A reader who asks not to be identified noted in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square an email address typo your publisher has dreaded from the day this project launched. If you’re first to report an error to Squerror@ChicagoPublicSquare.com, you can see your name here … if you choose.