'Worst storm of the season' / Hog 'havoc' / Megxit strategy

‘Worst storm of the season.’ Chicago’s bracing for an onslaught of heavy rain, flooding and—to top it off—heavy snow.
The lakefront may get the worst of it.
Grass and shrubs are showing up around Mount Everest, and that’s not good.

‘That single word—rape—should have stopped everybody cold.’ A Sun-Times editorial on a still-mysterious reference in an email sent to two aides to then-Gov. Pat Quinn: “The sooner an official investigation gets wrapped up, the better.”
Although the email placed “the rape” in Champaign, the Champaign County state’s attorney says she has no plans to dive in.

Coyote caught. DNA tests could confirm an animal apprehended late last night in Lincoln Park is the coyote who bit a man and a boy Wednesday.
But at least one more was being sought.
A sighting prompted a brief Lincoln Park schools lockdown yesterday afternoon.

As many as 4,000 coyotes may be living in the Chicago area.
Chicago has a rehabilitation facility for coyotes.
Coyote safety tips: Yell, clap hands, blow a whistle.

Hog ‘havoc.’ Chicago Police are counting on high tech to restrain motorcycle clubs and a drag-racing “sub-culture” menacing the city’s streets.
A police commander told aldermen yesterday officers can’t chase bikers “because we’re primarily talking about traffic offenses, which we are prohibited from pursuing in any way.”

Driven by faith. A West Side Chicago priest pastor faces charges of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a federal program to feed needy kids—instead using the money to, among other things, buy himself a $142,000 Bentley.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services inspector general reports 123 kids died on the department’s watch in the last fiscal year—partly because staffers are taking “shortcuts that lead to tragedy.”
Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell: “The unspeakable horror” of a Chicago mother’s alleged murder of her two children before attempting her own suicide exposes huge gaps in mental health care.
The Chicago Health Department reports the state’s first pediatric flu-related death of the season.

‘Bloomberg is either going to be the nominee or the most important person supporting the Democratic nominee for president.’ Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign manager says, win or lose the nomination, the campaign will pay roughly 500 staffers through November, to work for him or whichever other contender leads the party against Donald Trump—or whoever the Republicans nominate.
New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait: “Maybe nominating Bloomberg for president isn’t a crazy idea.”
Bernie Sanders to Stephen Colbert: “I will do everything that I can to stop a war with Iran that I think will be a disaster.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)

Megxit strategy. Following the decision by Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to turn their backs on their royal roles, she has returned to Canada.
Historian Alexis Coe: They’ve delivered “the greatest blow to the British crown since George Washington.”
A British journalism professor at the University of Southern California: Harry and Meghan’s “two fingers up at the racism of the British establishment” might be “the most meaningful act of royal leadership I’m ever likely to see.”
The Tribune is winning props for its tweet about the story: “Northwestern graduate moving closer to home after spending time abroad.”
A Trib editorial: “Lots of people live happily ever after in Chicago. Why not the Duke and Duchess of Sussex?
A new book by a Chicago-raised Georgetown University history professor recounts how fast food “became black.”



Thanks to reader Marty Berg for identifying an error in the item above about the West Side pastor.

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