‘Historic and unanticipated fury.’ That’s how The Associated Press describes the impact of Hurricane Ida’s remnants on New York City and much of the Northeast.
■ The city’s subway system was virtually knocked out of operation.
■ The New York Times explains why New York’s particularly vulnerable to the kind of storms likely to become more frequent as the planet warms.
■ CNN climate editor Angela Dewan: “These are the kinds of scenes … the world will see more of.”
‘Climate change … is ravaging the planet.’ A Sun-Times editorial calls on Illinois to shut down coal-powered energy plants sooner than later.
■ At the heart of the state’s energy quandary, WTTW reports: “The inability … of Democrats’ key constituencies—unions and environmental groups—to reach an agreement.”
■ PolitiFact rates an Illinois congressman’s warning about global warming “mostly false.”
■ You now can check the Chicago River’s water quality in real-time.
■ The World Health Organization concludes that air pollution is a greater threat to life expectancy than war, smoking or HIV/AIDS.
■ Looking to cut your carbon footprint? Consumer Reports ranks the best bike helmets.Trauble in paradise. Hawaii investigators have arrested an Oak Lawn woman, accusing her of uploading a fake vaccine card to avoid a quarantine—forgery they caught because she misspelled Moderna.
■ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking unvaccinated people not to travel over the Labor Day weekend.
‘I got COVID.’ Unvaxxed—and anti-vax—podcaster Joe Rogan confessed on Instagram …
■ … revealing he’s been treating himself with ivermectin, a deworming veterinary drug …
■ … an application for which the American Medical Association is calling “an immediate end.”
‘Holes in lungs, muscle wasted, organs failing one by one.’ An emergency medicine professor describes the disease’s devastation and says 95% of its victims at his hospital share one thing in common: “They’re unvaccinated.”
■ For the first time since January, Illinois Wednesday recorded more than 5,000 new COVID-19 infections.
■ Southern Illinois is particularly hard hit, with hospital intensive care beds full and patients getting turned away.
■ Cartoonist Joe Fournier sees the pandemic’s bright side: “The U.S. is finally learning the Greek alphabet.”
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/63VWPWAXSVCUTDAOSN2RCE3RFM.jpg){kind=link}
Not the last word. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling allowing Texas’ oppressive new anti-abortion law leaves the door open for further challenges: “This order … in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges.”
■ Read the ruling here.
■ Trolls have been dumping nonsense on the tip line the state established for ratting out “someone aiding and abetting an abortion after six weeks.”
‘Did you kill?’ The coauthor of a book about military veterans warns soldiers returning from Afghanistan to brace themselves for painful questions about their time in “a moral space very few of us … understand.”
■ Columnist Steve Chapman on the end of the war: President Biden did the right thing, not the easy one.
■ The Tribune’s Rex Huppke: Senators weighing Biden’s nomination of ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel to become ambassador to Japan should “take 10 minutes to laugh hysterically” before “rejecting this cynical, ludicrous idea.”
Free movie night. Filmmaker Michael Moore [RE-corrected:] next Friday hosts a screening online of Fahrenheit 9/11, his award-winning 2004 film questioning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
■ Following a federal court victory for broadcast networks, the nonprofit Locast, which provided online access to local TV stations, is shutting down.
■ A Wall Street Journal investigation: “How TikTok’s Algorithm Figures Out Your Deepest Desires.”
‘I died at the end of July.’ Trib alumnus Charles Madigan recounts his return from the dead after “a big heart attack no one saw coming.”
■ Neiman Lab: Meet the “shadow bank” that, with the help of public pension funds, is killing local news at the Trib and elsewhere.
Why does Chicago Public Square keep showing up in your email inbox? Because some people keep paying money to support it. Feel free to join them any time—for any amount—here.
■ Thanks, Chris Koenig, for making this edition better.