‘These people should be executed.’ That’s President Trump, quoted in ex-national security adviser John Bolton’s book, talking about journalists …
■ … whom Trump called “scumbags” …
■ More from the book: Trump asked China’s leader for reelection help and told him to keep building concentration camps.
■ His staff mocked him behind his back.
■ Bolton considers Trump not “fit for office.”
■ Late-night TV hosts are getting plenty of mileage out of the book.
■ At the parent agency of the Voice of America service, Trump’s new guy unleashed “a Wednesday night massacre.”
Dreams come true. The U.S Supreme Court has rejected Trump’s plan to end legal protection for young immigrants—“Dreamers” …
■ … a decision The Associated Press labels “a stunning rebuke to the president in the midst of his reelection campaign.”
■ But it was close.
A ‘high-drama’ meeting. Politico recaps yesterday’s livestreamed Chicago City Council meeting.
■ A surprise parliamentary move derailed a plan to yank Chicago police from the city’s schools.
■ A Tribune editorial: Don’t do that.
■ Whatever the Chicago Teachers Union intended by posting this tasteless cartoon, one commenter after another is condemning it. [Update: Mayor Lightfoot calls it “racist.”]
■ Columnist and native Texan Steve Chapman: The Texas Rangers should abandon their team name, honoring “an agency that struck terror in many nonwhites.”
■ Cultural observer Mike Gold: “Police ‘unions’ are a force for evil.”
‘A slap in the face.’ Two white aldermen were the only votes against a much-weakened resolution creating a subcommittee to study reparations for the impact of slavery and segregation.
■ The council voted to “recognize” Juneteenth (Friday) as a commemoration of slavery’s end—but stopped short of making it a city holiday.
■ Columnist Ron Grossman: “Ring a bell of hope” for Juneteenth.
■ The Times: How the Trump campaign blundered into its now-rescheduled plans for a Juneteenth rally in Tulsa.
Help on the way. The City Council has OK’d the mayor’s proposal to spend $1.13 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus funding …
■ … the biggest specific chunk of which would go toward airport operations and concession relief.
■ Aldermen also approved help for renters facing eviction in the coronavirus crisis: A $20 million assistance fund plus a seven-day cooling-off period for tenants and landlords to negotiate deals.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s cleared $900 million to help small businesses and residents struggling to pay mortgages and rent.
‘Spacious! Clean! Is this the CTA?’ The Trib’s Christopher Borrelli gives Chicago’s mass transit system a four-star rating in his review of city amenities post-lockdown.■ Traffic jams are back.
■ COVID-19 has claimed the life of a 35-year-old Field Museum researcher recognized, in the words of the Tribune’s Doug George, as an accomplished woman of science.
■ An Iowa State University sociology professor: “Rural America is more vulnerable to COVID-19 than cities are, and it’s starting to show.”
Light work. Chicago’s inspector general finds the city has failed to manage traffic signals effectively—adding to accident rates, congestion and air pollution.
■ Local (kind of) billionaire Ken Griffin is donating $4.75 million to repair Chicago’s storm-battered Lakefront Trail, which reopens Monday …
■ … along with The 606 trail.
Chasing equity. Protesters demanding reparations for shockingly disparate lending in minority neighborhoods prompted Chase to close two of its Chicago bank branches yesterday.
■ The Conversation: Time to make good on that “
■ Black Lives Matter banners have sprouted as a symbol of unity in Chicago’s largely Latino Little Village.
$6.19. Through the weekend, dozens of Black-owned Chicago restaurants will offer discounted menu items at that price to mark Juneteenth.
■ The Southwest Side’s iconic
Square mailbag. Reader Chris Beck writes to take issue with the lead item in yesterday’s edition: “Putting the blame on Fauci … is unwarranted and nullifies any trust in him going forward. … I feel like my world is rife with disinformation right now, but the last place I expected to find it was Chicago Public Square.” See Beck’s full commentary and join the discussion at the bottom of this page.
■ Thanks, Meg Herman, Mike Braden and Pam Spiegel, for making this edition better.
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