‘Appalling.’ Responding within a day to reporting by ProPublica and the Tribune, Gov. Pritzker has ordered the Illinois State Board of Education to end the practice of isolating school kids alone behind schools’ locked doors.
■ A Naperville Central High School freshman faces hate-crime charges, accused of posting to Craigslist a photo of a black classmate with the caption “Slave for sale (Naperville).”
■ The Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general reports getting almost three complaints per school day about sexual misconduct against students by adults—so many he’s beefing up his office’s sexual investigations team.
■ A worker at a Chicago car dealership describes the high school kids who sought refuge there after the shooting began in a deadly confrontation between police and a bank robbery suspect: “You just saw the terror in their eyes.”
■ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet on the damning testimony by Trump’s European Union emissary, Gordon Sondland: “Sondland wasn’t quite John Dean, the Nixon White House counsel whose testimony was a game-changer. … But he’s the closest thing so far.”
■ The BBC says “Sondland fired a torpedo that has blown a hole in the White House’s defences.”*
■ Saturday Night Live’s Sondland casting should now be clear.
■ Updating coverage of today’s hearings from Wonkette: “These witnesses … are like a hot TV spy couple or something, what the f__k are the Republicans going to do with them?” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
Debate’s ‘single worst idea.’ Vox’s Ian Millhiser takes an ax to a proposal from Tom Steyer at last night’s Democratic presidential faceoff.
■ In one of the fiercest confrontations, Kamala Harris ripped into Tulsi Gabbard.
■ Cory Booker slammed Elizabeth Warren’s plan for a wealth tax.
■ Stephen Colbert mocked Joe Biden’s performance: “We gotta chain up that racism. We gotta stuff that homophobia back in the closet.”
A new Chicago holiday? Two City Council members are proposing to make Juneteenth—June 19th, commemorating slavery’s end in the U.S.—a day off for city employees.
■ Mayor Lightfoot says she’s done negotiating over her 2020 budget.
■ Seven Chicago newsrooms are teaming up to monitor Lightfoot’s progress toward her goals during her first year in office.
‘They can keep pot shops out. Keep pot out? Not a chance.’ Tribune columnist Steve Chapman takes a dim view of some suburbs’ not-in-my-backyard moves to ban the sale of recreational marijuana.
■ The American Medical Association is calling for a ban on vaping products that haven’t been approved by the government—which is precisely
■ The Arm and a Leg podcast shares financial tips from a health-care ninja.
Dark waters. A congressional watchdog warns the rising waters unleashed by global warming threaten to inundate hundreds of the nation’s polluted Superfund sites, spreading poisons to inland waterways, communities and farmland—including several in Illinois.
■ An interactive graphic lets you check the dangers near you.
Macy’s hacked. If you bought something online from the company in October, your names, addresses and payment info may have been compromised.
■ The Tribune’s Christopher Borrelli explores the history of Chicago’s official Christmas trees.
‘Unicorn’ meteor shower. Late this evening, if skies are clear, Chicagoans may witness a remarkable sky show—several shooting stars per minute.
■ NASA has identified sugars—key ingredients for life—in meteorites that fell to Earth.
‘Worthy (if not equal).’ Critic Richard Roeper gives Frozen 2 three stars.
■ It’s racked up a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Thanks to readers who support Chicago Public Square, including Fredric Stein, Frank Heitzman, Elizabeth Meisterling, Elaine Soloway and Ed McDevitt. Join ’em here, why don’tcha?■ And thanks to reader Lee Coleman for flagging a problematic double-negative above
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* Because that’s the way the BBC rolls on defenses.