Tax secrets of the .001%. ProPublica’s come into “a vast trove of never-before-seen IRS information” showing how billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little to nothing in income tax compared to their massive wealth …
■ … in many cases less on a percentage basis than you do.
■ It’s boiled down its findings so far to 10 takeaways.
■ If you’re an expert in tax law, accounting or wealth management, ProPublica wants your help diving deeper into those documents …
■ Media critic Tom Jones: “ProPublica does show, in detail, why we should at least examine how taxes work for the rich. And that gives its investigation journalistic value.”
■ The IRS is investigating how that confidential information escaped …
■ … and warning that those responsible face prosecution.
‘A do-nothing committee.’ After reviewing 20 years of legislative activity, the reform-minded Chicago Justice Project condemns the City Council Committee on Public Safety for doing little to improve, you know, public safety.
■ The full report concludes with four substantial actions the committee could take to justify its name.
■ Sun-Times columnist Phil Kadner: “Our children are being murdered. … It is time the adults stepped up.”
■ Mayor Lightfoot: “I don’t need a Sun-Times article to tell me that.”
There are tapes. The Tribune reports a then-Chicago alderman surreptitiously gathered audio and video recordings of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan—discussing, among other things, a land deal of interest to federal prosecutors.
■ The General Assembly’s been summoned back to Springfield next week to address big items left over from the regular session …
■ … including the question of an elected Chicago school board—with potentially as many as 21 members, which one clinical education professor says would create a “crazy dynamic.”
Home to mama. A federal magistrate has released to the custody of his mother—at their multimillion-dollar house in Kenilworth—a 24-year-old man charged with breaching the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.
■ Vanity Fair: “The Senate report on Jan. 6 has a gaping, Trump-sized hole.”
■ MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is gobsmacked by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s team at the Justice Department for continuing to protect Donald Trump.
■ Politico: President Biden has “a Merrick headache.”
Cicadas! A flight that was to have carried reporters to the U.K. to cover Biden’s first trip overseas as president was delayed seven hours after Brood X cicadas overran the plane.
■ The Onion: “Experts Warn Climate-Related Food Shortages May Require Bugs To Overcome Taboos Against Eating Americans.”
‘Some of my dearest colleagues will be leaving the Tribune on Friday.’ Columnist Eric Zorn looks ahead to “wrenching times”—the deadline for acceptance of buyout offers from the paper’s new cut-minded ownership.
■ Columbia College journalism alumnus Danny Fenster has been detained in Myanmar for, in the words of one of his teachers, “performing acts of journalism.”
■ Austin Weekly News editor Michael Romain, in a column that graciously mentions Chicago Public Square: “If you’re reading this column and would like to see more City Hall coverage done by journalists of color and journalists (regardless of race or ethnicity) from non-legacy outlets … you can do something about it.”
Chicago Public Square is proud to support—and be a member of—the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.Lake Shore Drive shutdown. Demolition of the 43rd Street pedestrian bridge—to make way for its replacement—will close that stretch of the road overnight.
■ The pandemic’s decay spells the end of a year’s worth of free rides on Metra’s Union Pacific lines.
They do. A post-pandemic wedding boom plus do-overs for lockdown unions have left wedding planners and other vendors in short supply.
■ Biden’s July 4 goal for a national 70% vaccination rate is looking increasingly like a long shot.
A fresh (fish) start. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources at the end of the month will announce a new name for the Great Lakes’ invasive Asian carp (Update, June 21: They’ve postponed this indefinitely) …
■ …with the goal of getting more people to eat it (February link).
■ Neil Steinberg reflects on the 50th anniversary of the first Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, Lincoln Park’s R. J. Grunts.
‘Breezy, funny, offbeat and potentially great.’ Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper gives three stars to the first two episodes of Marvel’s new Disney+ series, Loki.
■ The Trib’s Michael Phillips calls it “my kind of Marvel.”
■ Primetimer critic Aaron Barnhart: “How Jimmy Kimmel Became the Grand Old Man of Late Night.”
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Thanks to Mike Braden for making this edition better.