Behind the carjackings. Experts tell the Better Government Association a pandemic-era detachment from school, social activities and close family contact left teenagers especially vulnerable to dangerous influences.
Cop, feds shot. Developing coverage: A Chicago police officer and two federal agents working undercover were wounded as they rode in an unmarked car near a Southwest Side police station.
■ They were expected to survive.
■ A housekeeper at Chicago’s W hotel alerted cops that a guest had a rifle, a handgun and ammunition in his room.
■ Among those shot at a 4th of July party on the South Side: A Chicago Public School principal and her 6-year-old daughter.
■ Patch columnist Mark Konkol calls Chicago’s increase in shootings and murders “clear evidence of the ineffectiveness of Police Superintendent David Brown’s leadership.”
Nice while it lasted. For the first time since the pandemic’s onset, Illinois went a full day Monday without losing a life to COVID-19 …
■ … but 16 died Tuesday.
■ Maryland reports 100% of its COVID-19 deaths last month were among the unvaccinated.
■ Chicago City Hall is open to the public for the first time in 16 months.
‘I’d prefer a clip of you signing a federal voter rights bill that guarantees American citizens can cast ballots and those votes will be tallied whether local Republican officials approve of their choices or not.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg addresses an open letter to President Biden ahead of the president’s visit to Illinois today.
■ Steinberg colleague Lynn Sweet: Biden’s Crystal Lake stop puts him in tough political turf.
Hypocrisy on the line. Popular Information: In June, as AT&T “plastered its social media accounts with rainbows” and bragged that it “stands with LGBTQ+ people,” it “quietly sent thousands in corporate PAC contributions to anti-LGBTQ politicians.”
■ A Ph.D. student whose work is funded by Facebook concludes Facebook’s design makes it “nearly impossible to avoid arguments.”
‘Things Used to Be Better When I Was Younger, But the Weather Wasn’t One of Them, The Weather Has Always Been Like This and It’s Fine.’ The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri sarcastically envisions programming for Fox’s new weather channel.
■ As Florida braces for an above-average hurricane season, the collapse of that 12-story Surfside condo building is raising the emotional stakes.
■ Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago: “We may never look at beach condo living in Florida the same way.”
■ Another 10 victims were found in the wreckage.
‘We’ve seen all this before, often in better movies.’ Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper is unwowed by Marvel’s Black Widow.
■ National Review’s Kyle Smith figures the script “had about 30 pages that were blank except for ‘Meaningless CGI crapola goes here.’”
■ Constance Grady in Vox: HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot “doesn’t have the skill to pull off what it’s trying to pull off.”
