‘Oh, yeah … a creep.’ Female students at one of Chicago’s most celebrated high schools, Whitney Young, say it’s been an open secret for years that a coach and teacher was a guy to be avoided.
■ Now, after scathing social media posts by his estranged daughter, he’s been placed on leave.
Chicago’s ‘hard weekend.’ Mayor Lightfoot acknowledges the city’s most violent weekend of the year—with at least six of 48 gun victims dead.
■ A 15-year-old girl was shot and wounded yesterday while walking her dog in Washington Park on the South Side. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ A man’s been arrested in the shooting of two Chicago cops in Lawndale early Sunday.
■ In a rebuke of the mayor, the City Council’s Black Caucus is backing a plan to put an elected board of citizens in charge of the police department.
Defecation attestation. Two Illinois men face charges in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol …
■ … with a complaint alleging that, while they were there, they asked a cop to point them to the nearest bathroom.
■ A new Illinois Supreme Court site offers lawyers and non-lawyers, beginners and veterans, counsel on how to go to court.
‘We ask for your intercession …’ Politico reports Republican state lawmakers are asking Cubs and White Sox leadership not to separate vaccinated and unvaccinated fans.
■ Fully vaccinated? Gov. Pritzker says you don’t need to wear a mask—mostly.
■ He’s gradually clearing landlords to resume evictions—but also launching $1.5 billion in rental relief to ease the need for them to do that.
■ A multinational panel of professors has ranked the world’s five worst presidents and prime ministers through the pandemic—and don’t worry, one of our guys made it.
■ Vox: “COVID-19 proved bad indoor air quality makes us sick. We can fix that.”
■ Chicago Public Square one year ago today: Past pandemics have shaped American cities for the better.
Escalating warfare. Updating coverage: Israel destroyed a six-story Gaza building housing bookstores and educational centers, and a retaliatory strike from Gaza killed two workers in a southern Israel packaging plant.
■ Vox: How Israel’s U.S.-funded “Iron Dome” defense system has changed the conflict’s nature. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor, again.)
■ CNN: The latest fighting has revealed “a delicate shift in the way Democrats have talked about Israel for decades.”
■ A Tribune editorial: In efforts to end the violence, President Biden’s “voice has been all too ineffective—and quiet.”
■ The Onion: “The Onion Calls On Israel To Bomb Our Offices In Case Any Hamas Agents Hiding Out There.”
Summery summary. Chicago could find itself within shouting distance of 90 degrees by Saturday.
■ But first, rain may provide relief from the city’s driest spring on record.
■ Paid parking meters kick into operation this weekend at Montrose Harbor.
■ The Pitchfork Music Festival returns in September.
High art, west suburb. Opening Wednesday at Oakbrook Center: “Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition.”
■ Getting in will cost you $20.
Square mailbag. Reader Patrick Olsen responds to Monday’s mailbag: “Public officials should assume every email will one day be read. Whether in the press or in litigation, there’s nothing ‘private’ about the work email of public officials. We’ve certainly been taught in the corporate world to act as if every IM, text and email will one day be read aloud before the world. In addition, if reporters don’t make an effort to ascertain the contents of what public officials are thinking vs. what they are saying, then they very often are not held accountable.”
■ Send your thoughts on the news to Mailbag@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.