Who’s the boss? / Republicans’ pull-out method / Under a red sun

Who’s the boss? A milestone Chicago City Council vote will put the Chicago Police Department under the oversight of seven elected civilians …
 … a measure Mayor Lightfoot says will enhance the public’s trust in the police.
13 aldermen voted against it.
A majority of Chicago high schools with campus cops have voted either to cut the number of officers this year or to dump them altogether.
Before the historic oldest building in the Cook County Jail complex gets demolished, WGN-TV’s Mike Lowe became the last reporter to tour the place.

‘Disrupt the worst gun trafficking corridors.’ That’s the mission U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland set for federal “strike forces” as he headed home to Chicago today to detail new efforts to stem the illegal flow of guns.
The American Prospect explains how, despite Garland’s inclination otherwise, a University of Chicago-born movement has pushed the Biden administration toward anti-monopoly enforcement.

Republicans’ pull-out method. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of a couple of Trumpists for the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection prompted Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the party’s involvement and announce his own probe.
Stephen Colbert mocked McCarthy’s choices: “They’re two potential suspects. Nancy Pelosi can’t just look the other way. She’s not Jim Jordan in the showers at Ohio State. Google it!(Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin: “Pelosi chose truth. McCarthy chose theater.”
The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz: “I Tried to Make Claims About Election Fraud So Preposterous Trump Fans Wouldn’t Believe Me. It Was Impossible.”

‘All we can do is watch.’ Tribune columnist Rex Huppke says the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago later this month looks like “a canary in a coal mine as Americans reckon with surging cases of COVID-19.”
Amplifying music critic Jim DeRogatis’ comments in the latest Chicago Media Talks podcast, University of Chicago Medical Center executive medical director for infection prevention and control Dr. Emily Landon calls Lollapalooza plans “a terrible idea.”
Chicago’s top doc says the delta variant could be responsible for a majority of the city’s new cases as early as next month.

Rock ’n’ rolling away. The Rolling Stones have set new dates for their pandemic-postponed “No Filter” tour …
 … which kicked off in Chicago (June 2019 link) …
 … and which is solely sponsored by a nonprofit devoted to—no joke—helping people plan for retirement.
The iconic Isley Brothers are set for their first post-pandemic performance Friday in Hazel Crest.
Guitar demigod Eric Clapton refuses to play shows where vaccination is required: “I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience.”

‘We deeply apologize.’ The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has dumped the director of its opening ceremony after learning he made a Holocaust joke during a 1998 comedy show.
An ex-White Sox minor leaguer on Friday will lead the U.S. delegation into the ceremony.
New COVID-19 cases in Tokyo have neared 2,000 a day—the highest rate since January.

Under a red sun. Here’s why heavenly bodies have lately taken on a scarlet hue.
 Oregon’s governor: This is “climate change playing out before our eyes.”
CNN: Wildfires erupting around the world are scorching places that rarely burned before.
The Conversation: A woman’s 1856 scientific paper was first to describe global warming’s driving force.

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