Pritzker probed / Walgreens' grudging concession / 'Jeopardy!' in jeopardy?

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Pritzker probed. WBEZ reports Gov. J.B. Pritzker, his wife and brother-in-law are under a federal criminal investigation for the removal of toilets from a mansion they bought so it could be declared “uninhabitable,” netting a huge property break. (Photo: Cook County Inspector General.)
The former acting legislative inspector general writes in the Tribune that the state has buried her work—including a report about a lawmaker’s wrongdoing …
 … and she says the Legislative Ethics Commission, which oversees the office, should be made up of people other than lawmakers.
More than 200 people are newly alleging sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts of America organization.

‘They’re being victimized.’ Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is calling on the General Assembly to pass a bill to end the cheating of Illinoisans by the alternative retail energy business.
Politico: Nuclear plant operators are benefitting from climate-change rules via “a contagion of subsidies … that started in Democratic states like Illinois.”

‘We will miss him … in the sense that we will notice that he is gone.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg invokes, among others, Adolf Hitler in a halfhearted retrospective on Rahm Emanuel’s time as Chicago’s mayor.
The Atlantic is the latest news organization to give Emanuel a free pass to communicate without challenge: A column in which he complains journalists are screwing up coverage of the presidential campaign.

Chicago’s ‘affordability gap.’ A new report from DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies spotlights the city’s growing lack of affordable rental units.
Trib architecture critic Blair Kamin says tonight’s community meeting about Logan Square development marks “the beginning of a long—and potentially hot—debate over how to make Chicago a city where growth benefits the teacher’s aide as well as the tech worker.”
Also in the Trib: City code lawsuits against a housing charity have quadrupled in five months—and, it turns out, glowing biographies of some of the organization’s leaders omitted “troubling details about their criminal history.”

‘This is what the most powerful person in the world was preoccupied with Tuesday.’ The Daily Beast says that, during a closed-door meeting with Twitter’s CEO, President Trump “spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about lost Twitter followers.”
The New York Times: Before Trump forced out his Homeland Security chief, Kirstjen Nielsen, she worried about Russian interference in the 2020 election—but was told not to talk to him about it.
The president’s ordered officials of his administration to boycott Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
At last night’s Time 100 Gala, previous Correspondents’ Dinner host and now Netflix star Hasan Minhaj shamed the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner—who was in the room.
Sun-Times columnist Phil Kadner: “Now is the time for Congress … to explain to the American people why this president is dangerous and begin the impeachment process.”
Iowa’s longest-serving Republican state lawmaker is now a Democrat.


Walgreens’ grudging concession. Walgreens says it’ll stop selling tobacco products to people under 21 … in September.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin: Walgreens should just stop selling tobacco products altogether—which rival CVS did five years ago.
Trib columnist Will Lee: “What would become of the neighborhood weed man—or woman—after pot becomes legal?

Irish troubles. Politico reports Ireland’s cozy relationship with Big Tech is undercutting data privacy movements around the world.
The Washington Post: Facebook is dealing with some of its most prominent critics by hiring them.
Daily Beast: “Reddit’s BlackPeopleTwitter forum wants to know if its users are actually white.”

Jeopardy! in jeopardy? Washington Post columnist Emily Yahr says “frighteningly talented” Naperville native James Holzhauer has broken not only winnings records, but also maybe the game itself.
Variety’s Daniel D’Addario says Holzhauer is bad for the game: “If every episode is a blowout  … does that not grow uninteresting over time?”
He’s only the second person in Jeopardy! history to earn more than $1 million.
In yesterday’s Chicago Public Square, guess what was the most-clicked link by far?

Avengers: Endgame reviews.
Richard Roeper rates it four stars in the Sun-Times: “A serious contender” for “the best of the 23 Marvel Universe movies to date.”
The Guardian gives it five stars for “unconquerable brilliance.”
WGN’s Dean Richards: “Absolutely” worth it.
Rivet’s Rob LaFrentz: The movie “makes fans the heroes.”
Variety’s Peter Debruge: “But there’s something considerably less elegant to the storytelling this time around.”
Acclaimed Marvel (and DC) comics artist Alex Ross joins friend of Square James VanOsdol for a podcast in a car.

Cole call. This summer’s 10-day Chicago Jazz Festival comes with a tribute to Nat “King” Cole.
A public memorial for iconic sportscaster Chet Coppock will be held Monday in Chicago. (Last item in Robert Feder’s media news roundup.)

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