R.I.P., Queen of Soul / 'A living hell' / Pearl Jam vs. Trump

Reading this for free? Thank The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians, including visionary journalist Owen Youngman—godfather to “the concept of a Chicago newscast on a Web page” at the Chicago Tribune (where he recruited me 20 years ago) and later incarnations at WBEZ and Crain’s Chicago Business. Join him here. See also the Chicago Public Square editorial below. And now the news:

R.I.P., Queen of Soul. Aretha Franklin is dead at 76.
Her fellow musicians—including Carole King, Lionel Ritchie and John Legend—are praising her.
Vox recaps “her joyful legacy.” (2007 photo: Ryan Arrowsmith.)
That time she bailed out black power activist Angela Davis.

Water war. The suburb of Evanston says its neighboring community Skokie has “no fundamental right to water” Evanston draws from Lake Michigan.
Wasn’t this the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road?
Lab tests have found significant amounts of a cancer-linked weedkiller in popular cereals and snack bars made with oats.

‘A living hell.’ A tenant tells the Tribune about terrible living conditions in low-income Chicago housing that deteriorated even as its nonprofit owners collected special loans and tax breaks.
Reporter Joe Mahr leads an audio tour of one of the buildings plagued by mold, leaks and other problems.
Chicago’s next thoroughfare targeted for a protest shutdown: The Kennedy to O’Hare on Labor Day.

Lawyers’ alleged killers.
A Winnetka man was due in court today, accused of shooting and killing acclaimed lawyer Stephen Shapiro at his Northfield home.
In Hobart, an 83-year-old man has been charged with shooting a prominent Indiana lawyer at his home.

Students, take your seats—please? At least 10 Chicago public high schools got virtually no interest from students using the new “universal application” to pick their schools.
WBEZ’s South Side reporter, Natalie Moore, says a new TV comedy set in Chicago aspires to show “the breadth of blackness.”

Erased from the ballot, pronounced dead, mistaken for white. But Mandela Barnes survived all those mishaps this week to become the second African American nominated for lieutenant governor by either party in Wisconsin.
A Boston University journalism professor recounts joining the Ku Klux Klan as an undercover reporter in 1979.

Pearl Jam vs. Trump. A poster the band designed is under fire from Republicans for depicting an eagle pecking at what appears to be the skeleton of President Trump
… and Democrats aren’t embracing it, either.
At the Illinois State Fair, Gov. Rauner backed the president’s stands on taxes and tariffs—but not so much that derogatory language for ex-White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
Omarosa’s book: Ivanka Trump “would not stop talking” about a Saturday Night Live skit that mocked her.
Trib columnist Rex Huppke’s dog writes a letter to Trump: “Stop referring to humans as dogs.”
A new novel envisions The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States.

And now, a Chicago Public Square editorial.
President Trump’s attacks on journalism pose a fundamental threat to democracy. Support your favorite news organizations.
Thank you.

Clarification. Reader Nancy Burns suggested improving the wording in yesterday’s Square to indicate Democratic voters on Tuesday nominated a candidate who stands to become one of the first Muslim women in Congress.

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