About that name. The Beachwood Reporter’s Steve Rhodes doesn’t get why the Museum of Science and Industry agreed to rename itself after Illinois’ richest person, Ken Griffin: “I wonder if the museum people ever thought, ‘Hey, $125 million is nice, but we are not changing our name!’”
■ A Trib editorial thanks Griffin for his donation …
■ … news of which was the most-clicked link by far in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square.
■ A Chicago technology CEO and his wife died in a San Francisco traffic accident.
Building concern. Architecture critic Blair Kamin has doubts about one of Mayor Lightfoot’s nominees to the city’s landmarks commission: The president of an organization whose directors include leaders of companies that frequently seek the commission’s favor.
■ Illinois’ billionaire governor is chipping in $850,000 of his own cash to renovate the governor’s mansion in Springfield.
Fuzzy on impeachment? A growing number of news organizations have launched tools to track all the dizzying developments: The New York Times has a new Impeachment Briefing email newsletter and CNN has “The top 10 latest developments on Trump, Ukraine and China” and “The latest on the Trump impeachment inquiry.”
■ CNN’s Chris Cillizza: Trump’s request for Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden “wasn’t a bug of this administration. It was a feature” [missing link added]…
■ … witness the president’s fresh similar request of China.
■ The Democrat leading the House Intelligence Committee investigation, Adam Schiff, told a Northwestern University audience yesterday the latest developments constitute “one of the most pernicious threats to our democracy.”
■ The Washington Post reports Schiff lied last month when he said his committee hadn’t spoken to a whistleblower.
■ Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who last week labeled one of Trump’s tweets “beyond repugnant,” says now that he still backs the president and doesn’t support impeachment.
■ The Post: “A squadron of pro-Trump television personalities, talk radio hosts, conservative blogs, fringe Facebook groups and Twitter accounts” is helping the president keep Republican lawmakers in line.
■ The Times’ David Leonhardt says he’s optimistic: “Things are going quite poorly for Donald Trump” …
■ … and now he has Nickelback to contend with.
■ Despite Colbert’s assertion Trump stole the idea from him, Trump’s apparently had “alligator-moat dreams” for at least 35 years.
McCooking the books? The Village of McCook is shedding a little light on what federal agents wanted when they raided the offices of the town’s mayor and Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski.
■ Speaking of dirt: For the first time in two years, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District dumped raw sewage into Lake Michigan to keep it from overwhelming sewer systems early Thursday.
One down. A Chicago jury last night convicted one man of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 9-year-old boy, and a second jury was to resume deliberations today in the case against a co-defendant.
■ Dozens of Humboldt Park neighbors took to the street last night to protest a rash of gun violence.
■ A new Trader Joe’s opens in Chicago Oct. 18.
Abortion showdown. The Supreme Court has agreed to review Louisana’s draconian abortion restrictions—raising the prospect of a divisive ruling in the heat of the 2020 election campaign.
■ Planned Parenthood is opening a massive Illinois center just across the river from the state of Missouri, which is close to becoming the first state with no abortion clinics.
‘It’s good to see DC … stop trying to make a Marvel movie.’ Rivet’s Rob LaFrentz reviews the new film about Batman’s nemesis, Joker.
■ Critic Michael Phillips: “You’d be an idiot to bring kids to this.”
■ Squarian Mike Braden graciously reported a missing link and a reversed quotation mark above.