Chicago Public Square will take a break for a few days. Back Tuesday, Sept. 8. Get updates through then on the Square Facebook page.
Kenosha lies. The Associated Press runs a fact-check on President Trump’s remarks yesterday in Wisconsin.
■ The New York Times’ take: Misleading, exaggerated, false.
■ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg: “Trump gave $1 million of your tax money to the Kenosha police; that’s $142,857 for each bullet pumped into Jacob Blake’s back.”
■ Lynn Sweet in the Sun-Times: Expect Trump and Vice President Pence to keep “lavishing attention on Wisconsin.”
Odds are … Europe-based betting exchange Betfair says wagers on its network put Trump ahead of Joe Biden to win.
■ Vox’s Ezra Klein explains “the eerie stability of Trump’s approval rating.”
■ Eric Levitz at Intelligencer: “Many GOP Voters Value America’s Whiteness More Than Its Democracy.”
■ A Democratic analytics firm warns Election Night could look like a landslide for Trump—even if he eventually loses …
■ … a prospect that the Times suggests could also trigger Democrats’ “doomsday scenario.”
■ Old Navy says it’ll pay its employees to work the polls on Election Day.
■ Want to do the same? Here’s how you can—earning a few hundred bucks—in Chicago and Cook County.
Tale of two states. White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx says the fight against COVID-19 is playing out better in the Chicago area than in the rest of Illinois …
■ … but Chicago’s top doc warns, “The whole state, including Chicago, is at a warning level for our number of new cases.”
■ Added to the city’s quarantine list, with fines up to $7,000: Hawaii, Nebraska, North Carolina.
■ Glimmers of hope: New research concludes that “immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus may not be fleeting” …
■ … and that cheap steroids can help COVID patients.
‘I probably should have decided earlier.’ Northwestern University’s president is apologizing and cutting tuition for first- and second-year students who got late notice last week they can’t live on campus this fall.
■ Acknowledging that sending students back to school has increased the odds of cascading outbreaks, the White House coronavirus task force is warning colleges not to send COVID-infected students home.
■ ProPublica: New Orleans hospitals sent COVID-19 patients home to die—even as relatives begged them not to.
Rohr no more. Iconic Chicago car dealer Bob Rohrman is dead at 87.
■ Mark Mothersbaugh, frontman for Devo—and composer for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Rugrats and more—is sharing his harrowing personal battle against the coronavirus.
■ A biological sciences professor says the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman underscores two important public health concerns.
‘McCrook.’ That’s the Sun-Times’ newspaper headline on the guilty plea from ex-Cook County Commissioner and McCook ex-Mayor Jeff Tobolski, who—in reporter Jon Seidel’s words—“admitted he’d abused both jobs.”
■ McDonald’s is getting sued by dozens
■ Lawyers around the country report a flood of age discrimination complaints triggered by COVID-19.
‘Trump says he will save American suburbs from the threat of affordable housing. They’re not exactly terrified in Northbrook.’ Columnist Irv Leavitt takes a look at fear and loathing in the suburbs.
■ Chicago’s second-largest hotel, The Palmer House Hilton, has been hit with a foreclosure lawsuit.
■ So has the redeveloper of Chicago’s long-neglected Congress Theater.
Thanks, August. Last month wrapped up Chicago’s hottest meteorological summer on record …
■ … and a desperately dry one, too.
■ The Conversation: Trump’s push for looser showerhead standards could send a lot of water and money down the drain.
‘Made me cringe every time.’ Reviewing last night’s debut of WGN America’s nightly three-hour newscast, NewsNation, critic Robert Feder gives thumbs-down to the show’s “overworked, self-serving mantra: ‘We’re bringing you balance, not bias.’”
■ Trib critic Steve Johnson: “There were filler stories with absolutely no broader meaning.”
■ Hours before the premiere, Trump blew a kiss on Twitter to its Nextar Media boss.
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■ And thanks to Pam Spiegel for catching a bad word choice above.