Illinois’ name shame. A Politico search of a federal database reveals the state is home to several places whose names include outdated or racist words such as “Negro” and “squaw.”
■ Axios: Nationwide, the number of offensive names tops 1,000.
■ You can recommend changes.
Your map, your future. A virtual public hearing tonight brings you a chance to share thoughts on how Chicago’s ward boundaries should be redrawn under the new census.
■ Strictly by the numbers, one analysis concludes the city would lose three Black-majority wards and gain three Asian-American, two Latinx- and one predominantly white ward …
■ … but City Council members hold the upper hand in picking their voters.
Weekend woe. At least 50 people have been shot—11 killed—in violence across Chicago since Friday.
■ Among the wounded: An 8-year-old boy.
A library ‘run by people who hate libraries and hate most of the people they serve.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg dissects the civil war erupting on a suburban library board newly dominated by people who one reader says “don’t want any foreign-language books because people oughta learn English.”
■ Book Riot blogger and ex-librarian Kelly Jensen: It’s a fight reflected across the country, with Trump supporters “running for small boards … in the name of white supremacy.”
Chicken run. A bird-protection group is sounding the alarm about a rash of Chicagoans getting rid of the backyard chickens they adopted during the pandemic.
■ The U.S. surgeon general is worried: COVID-19 cases are increasing in every state and a highly contagious virus variant is spreading quickly. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ The AP: “No one expected a vaccine gap between the global rich and poor that was this bad.”
■ Anti-vaccination protesters in France compared themselves to Jews persecuted by Nazis.
■ The Conversation examines the Israeli right’s productive—but not necessarily enduring—relationship with American evangelicals.
‘Climate change … transforms the season of summer into the season of smoke.’ Writing from Montana, journalist Anne Helen Petersen describes her “accumulating grief over this summer, and the summers to come.”
■ Climate reporter Emily Atkin offers ways one person—you—can “help solve the huge problem of climate change.”
■ A former COO of the Condé Nast publishing empire advises journalists: “If you’re not a climate reporter yet, you will be.”
■ Activists are pushing for a “global green deal” to address the climate crisis.
Spyware shocker. An international reporting team warns that software designed to monitor criminals and terrorists is also being used to hack the phones of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers around the world.
■ Frontline is live-blogging a growing body of reporting on what’s known as “The Pegasus Project.”
■ The Washington Post’s new executive editor: Despite the company’s protests, “We are confident that the material provides accurate and revelatory insight into the pervasiveness of private surveillance.”
■ The U.S. and its allies blame China for a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software.
Old Chicago TV saved. A nonprofit founded by a suburban man is digitizing local broadcasts preserved on home video recorders.
■ Speaking of the past: A photo gallery updates what’s becoming of Tribune Tower under its transformation into a condo building.
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