Twitstorm. In what Bloomberg calls “Twitter’s nightmare,” the accounts of virtually “everyone you’ve ever heard of” (as Gizmodo put it) were hacked …
■ … apparently by people who reportedly paid a Twitter staffer for access.
■ The hack raises profound global security questions.
■ The ensuing lockdown of Twitter’s blue-checkmarked royalty triggered mockery from the unverified masses.
■ Question of the day: Why wasn’t President Trump’s account hacked?
Beans, beans. Ivanka Trump’s tweeted endorsement of Goya brand beans—target of a boycott because of the owner’s sucky-uppy support for the president—runs afoul of government ethics rules …
■ CNN’s Chris Cuomo: “Tell me how a president in the middle of a pandemic has got time for this bullshit.” Speaking of which …
TL;DR: ‘It’s asking for disaster.’ The Tribune surveyed health experts on the risks of dining out in the COVID-19 pandemic.
■ Chicago’s legendary Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen has cause to celebrate after a tweet pleading for customers in the pandemic generated business in droves.
Strange change(s). Because the pandemic has brought circulation of coinage to a virtual halt, Kroger Co.—parent to the Mariano’s and Food 4 Less chains—is no longer giving customers change in coin form.
■ Kroger, Walmart and Kohl’s have begun requiring customers to wear masks.
■ Georgia’s benighted governor is forbidding local governments from requiring masks.
■ USA Today: “Spring’s coronavirus surge was bad, but 32 states are doing much worse now.”
■ Russian hackers have allegedly tried to steal research on potential COVID-19 vaccines.
‘I won’t just turn the car around. I’m gonna shut it off, kick you out and … make you walk home.’ Warning that Chicago’s “dangerously close” to slipping backward in the pandemic, Mayor Lightfoot says she won’t hesitate to lower the lockdown boom again.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s splitting the state into more regions for COVID-19 tracking purposes …
■ … and Chicago is now a region unto itself.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: “Illinois feels like an island in the middle of a churning COVID sea.”
Fauci’s podcast gambit. Apparently muzzled by the White House when it comes to network TV interviews, epidemiological guru Anthony Fauci is waging a kind of guerrilla PR campaign across the smaller digital media landscape.
■ For the second time in a week, Trump’s administration has put a man to death.
That’s two. A second Chicago public high school’s local council has voted to dump police officers from campus.
■ A corrupt Chicago cop’s off to almost six years in prison.
■ The Sun-Times’ Mary Mitchell: A 1968 report provides a blueprint for addressing today’s problems of police brutality, unemployment and inadequate housing and education.
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■ Soundtrack for production of today’s edition of Square courtesy of Chuck Allen.