… Aaaaaand we’re back. Did you miss Chicago Public Square last week? It missed you. But the hiatus gave you time to consider a world without Chicago Public Square. Is that a world in which you’d like to live? No, it is not. So please consider chipping in a few cents a day to keep this thing growing. Enlist in the Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.
Now, the news:
■ The station will be a seven-minute walk from the United Center—and could further transform the Near West Side.
■ A station at that location was demolished in 1949.
■ Chicago Water Taxi tells the Tribune it’s talking to developers about adding new stops along the Chicago River.
100 questions. After Father Michael Pfleger’s anti-gun violence protest that closed the Dan Ryan Expressway Saturday, the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg has a bunch. No. 40: “Does shutting down a highway feed Trump’s rhetoric?”
■ Steinberg’s colleague, John Fountain: “I see a people near desperation.”
■ The Reader’s Ben Joravsky: Don’t be fooled by Mayor Emanuel’s and Illinois Gov. Rauner’s “phony-baloney ‘feud’” on Twitter over the protest.
■ Over the weekend in Chicago, shootings left at least four people dead and 24 wounded.
Rauner’s ICE haul. Politico [correcting its original story] says the governor’s statement of economic interests reveals he turned a profit from a private equity fund that owns a health care group that services U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers—including facilities detaining immigrant families with children.
■ President Trump’s tweeted concern for Thai kids trapped in a cave (updating coverage here) is drawing cries of hypocrisy.
‘I’m fluent in ignoramus.’ The Washington Post rounds up a sample of confrontations Trump administration aides face in their everyday lives—and some of their snappy answers.
■ Vox: Across the country—including Illinois—“self-described Nazis and white supremacists are running as Republicans.”
■ The Post’s James Hohmann says Trump’s professed confusion over President George (correction:) H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light” metaphor has triggered a round of criticism from Republican stalwarts …
■ … who face growing pressure to support policies they once didn’t.
■ Politico profiles a Republican senator Trump would like to see “go away.”
■ NBC News: Five Trump problems that’d be getting a lot more attention now if his pending Supreme Court nomination weren’t hogging the spotlight.
‘Zombie housing’ war. U.S. News reports on efforts by the City of Chicago, nonprofits and financial institutions to save homes the foreclosure crisis left behind.
■ The Chicago Bungalow Association is growing its #StopThePop campaign to prevent the addition of more ugly second-floor additions to a classic style of Chicago home.
■ Motley Fool: Three companies that might buy it.
■ The Sun-Times’ Laura Washington: “Where’s the outrage” over the mayor’s bragging about a measly 22.9 percent graduation rate from the City Colleges of Chicago?
‘We’re going down.’ An air ambulance helicopter pilot is winning praise for his performance in a crash landing Saturday night.
■ Hear audio of his communication with air traffic control at 22:41 here.
Taste of Chicago preview. As the city’s annual foodfest dawns Wednesday, the Sun-Times rounds up what you need to know.
■ If you’d rather not rough it, this year offers a $50-a-day upgrade: The “Taste Oasis,” with “a private bar, executive washrooms, music and more.”
A few things you may not know about Iman Shumpert.
■ He’s famously refused to visit the White House while Donald Trump is president …
■ … but he hasn’t criticized Kanye West for cozying up to the president.
■ He’s half of what the New York Post has called a “power couple.”
■ He “partied hearty” to celebrate his 28th birthday the week before last.