Ticket take / 'An abomination' / Net gain

Ticket take. At tomorrow’s City Council meeting, Mayor Lightfoot plans to introduce a plan to relax Chicago’s onerous parking, towing and booting policies …

 … which, as documented by WBEZ and ProPublica, have saddled thousands of Chicagoans with bankruptcy and unbearable debt. (Illustration: Rob Weychert/ProPublica.)

Weird signs. The CTA’s Blue Line makeover includes whimsical and confusing signage, including a Milwaukee Avenue windbreaker shelter labeled “Cosmic Plane.”
South Siders get to test electric bikes and weigh in on Divvy’s expansion to their part of town in a series of eight community events through September.

‘$15 an hour is not enough.’ As aldermen weigh a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage, a research fellow at a conservative think tank is among those warning it won’t help those who need it most.
A Sun-Times editorial: Perfect or not, approve the Fair Workweek Ordinance.

Counting counts. Chicago’s getting another City Council committee—on the census.
Lightfoot tried—and failed—to keep the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from holding a trade conference in Chicago beginning today.
Block Club Chicago: Is Chicago Finally Ready To Reckon With the City’s 1919 Race Riots?

‘Repugnant and foolish.’ Lightfoot is among those expressing revulsion at that “Jihad Squad” posting on Illinois Republicans’ Facebook page.
But a Kankakee County Democratic chairman is also under fire for a post comparing Trump supporters to members of the Ku Klux Klan.

‘A disgrace, an abomination, a festering piece of excrement.’ In Chicago Public Square’s first commentary post, veteran British journalist Barney Burnham assesses the news that the UK’s next prime minister will be Boris Johnson …
 … who inspired an episode of the British Black Mirror science fiction horror series. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
A British man—an ex-Oxford University employee—has pleaded guilty to a Chicago murder.

‘The best thing’? Stephen Colbert questions President Trump’s claim that his presidency has been a gift to Puerto Rico.
Chicagoans have been hosting “watch parties” to witness Puerto Rican protests demanding the resignation of the territory’s governor.
CNN’s Brian Stelter reflects on journalism’s role in exposing the governor’s misdeeds.

Net gain. The White Sox have made major league history, rolling out protective webbing from foul pole to foul pole.
The Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal: The Cubs should pay attention to the standoff between CBS and AT&T.

Keith Huizinga made it in just under the wire …
To be thanked in this edition, that is—alongside Kate Arias, Keelin Wyman, Ken Davis, Ken Hildreth, Ken Hooker and Kevin Lampe—for supporting Chicago Public SquareAs little as $5 a month will let you, too, join The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians. And now would be a good time for readers whose names begin with L to do that, if you catch our drift.
 Thanks also to unrelentingly attentive reader Mike Braden, who spotted an errant the in an item above.

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