Internet, interrupted. Dozens of major websites around the world—including those of The New York Times, CNN, Twitch, Reddit, The Guardian and the U.K. government’s home page—failed for about an hour overnight …
■ … after an outage at a company you probably never heard of but whose services you probably use every day. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ Updating coverage: The CEO of the fuel pipeline company hit by ransomware had dates with Congress today and tomorrow to explain why he authorized paying the hackers $4.4 million in bitcoin…
■ … a good chunk of which U.S. investigators now say they’v recovered.
‘Our kids are becoming extinct.’ A Sun-Times analysis concludes guns are killing Chicago children at a rate far higher than in years past.
■ Chicago rapper Lil Durk’s brother, DThang (born Dontay Banks), was shot and killed in what police say may have been retaliation at a Harvey strip club.
‘The worst bike crash of my life.’ Chicago Ald. Daniel LaSpata tells Streetsblog Chicago he went over the handlebars in 2012 near the intersection of Logan and Western Avenues, where School of Rock drummer Kevin Clark was killed while biking last month—and he’s pushing for safety improvements there.
■ Block Club Chicago: A screaming woman drove into a Jefferson Park family’s home garden—allegedly because they don’t support the neighborhood’s alderman.
‘Reopening anxiety.’ A Northwestern Medicine psychiatry instructor tells WTTW that if you’re uneasy about returning to normal life after the pandemic, you’re not alone.
■ Add Illinois State University to the list of higher education institutions that won’t require COVID-19 vaccinations for students returning this fall.
■ Here’s a state-by-state list of colleges and universities that are requiring shots.
■ For the first time since the rise of the pandemic, downtown’s Thompson Center driver services facility is open again.
■ The first Illinois municipality to have issued a shelter-in-place order (March 2020 link) is again canceling its 4th of July parade and fireworks show.
■ Up for a road trip? To mark Juneteenth, Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library will, for three weeks beginning a week from today, display its signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Grocery roar. Dom’s Kitchen and Market—a new kind of grocery store birthed by, among others, the namesake founder of Mariano’s and a descendant of the founder of the shuttered Dominick’s chain—is now open in Lincoln Park …
■ … but it’s struggled to find workers in the post-pandemic economy.
Light reading. A new analysis concludes turning off half the lights at McCormick Place could cut by nearly 60 percent the number of birds who crash into the convention center’s windows and die.
■ See detailed findings here.
Coming to an iPhone near you. Apple’s previewing forthcoming changes to its iOS software …
■ … including more Zoomish features for FaceTime video calls …
■ … the ability to add your driver’s license to a phone’s digital wallet …
■ … social sharing services that CNBC says seem designed to “drive Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg absolutely crazy” …
■ … and a new option to let you keep newsletter publishers* from tracking whether you open their email on iOS devices.
■ Amazon’s Echo Show smart screens are also learning new tricks.
Draft things. The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the Biden administration, declining to consider whether the military draft should apply to more than just men.
■ Professors from Iowa State and West Point, writing in The Conversation: “The real question is about how draft registration serves society, or doesn’t.”
After a ‘month of turmoil.’ Tribune sports reporter Shannon Ryan says repairing relationships and reputations will be among the first challenges facing Northwestern University’s new new athletic director—replacing a guy whose previous appointment turned into a “fiasco” because he was a defendant in a cheerleader’s sexual harassment suit.
■ He’s been an NCAA vice president for inclusion, engagement and community involvement.
Journalism’s ‘Kryptonite.’ A Penn State professor says The Associated Press’ firing of a journalist who allegedly violated its social media policy illustrates the news business’ vulnerability to “partisans who cry bias.”
■ Welcome, new readers: Chicago Public Square picked up a batch of new subscribers following kind words in Robert Feder’s column yesterday and today.
‘My final public artwork for the City of Chicago.’ Artist Tony Fitzpatrick is planning “something lasting, life-affirming and positive” for the exterior of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s new Lincoln Park home.
■ Chicago writer Michael Sean Comerford spent the waning days of the pandemic bicycling the 2,500 miles along Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, California …
■ … documenting his journey with video interviews that the Trib’s Rick Kogan describes as “compelling, odd, moving and spooky.”
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