We’re No. 1, but … For the fifth year in a row, the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards have named Chicago the nation’s Best Big City (“some of the most pleasant people you’ll find anywhere”) …
■ … just hours after a City Council member complained to the police superintendent that “Chicago is the most dangerous city in the country” (even though, as WTTW News notes, that assertion is unsupported by data) …
■ … and Illinois’ richest human compared Chicago to “Afghanistan on a good day,” threatening to move his business out if the city doesn’t bring the violence under control. (Photo: Harry Carmichael in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
‘Carjackings are becoming more common closer to where I live.’ A young Chicago data scientist shot while bicycling near the West Loop tells Patch columnist Mark Konkol he nevertheless feels “lucky to be here.”
■ The executive director of the Active Transportation Alliance: “Chicago needs more protected bike lanes now.”
‘A level of brazenness that will send this city into chaos.’ That’s Mayor Lightfoot’s warning about the consequences of Cook County prosecutors’ decision not to charge five suspects in a gang-related shootout.
■ State’s Attorney Kim Foxx maintains the evidence isn’t there and Lightfoot’s take doesn’t match the facts.
(Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
Not-so-public radio? Taking a closer look at the potential merger of the Sun-Times with their former employer, WBEZ-FM, Axios Chicago’s Justin Kaufmann and Monica Eng report that at least some of WBEZ’s historically free content may wind up behind a paywall.
■ The Sun-Times now has a deputy managing editor for diversity, equity and inclusion administration and planning.
How McDonald’s makes the burgers. Business Insider goes, um, inside a McDonald’s meat-processing factory—armed with a clipboard and pen both made of metal, “because in the final phase … burgers go through a metal detector—so if that pen were to end up in the meat, it wouldn’t go unnoticed.”
■ McDonald’s is committing to cut its global greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, from beef production to restaurant operation.
■ Scientists whose work has expanded understanding of climate change have won the Nobel Prize for physics.
Facebook: ‘We are sorry.’ The company’s still vague about the “issues” responsible for its hours-long outage yesterday.
■ Wired: A Border Gateway Protocol failure “took down every part of Facebook’s business.”
■ Protocol: “Everything at Facebook runs on a single system, from its platforms to its status pages to its in-office security systems, so breaking one thing broke everything.”
■ Updating coverage: Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was sharing her story with the Senate this morning.
■ Watch her testimony here.
■ You did get yesterday afternoon’s special Square edition on Facebook’s plight, right?
‘A dark place for … impoverished lives.’ Opinion writer David McGrath isn’t mourning the death of Arlington International Racecourse—the Chicago Bears’ possible new home.
■ Arlington Heights residents aren’t uniformly excited by the prospect.
‘This Week’s Worst Influential American.’ Political observer and ex-U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich bestows that distinction on “hate-monger” Tucker Carlson, “the most dangerous demagogue since Donald Trump.”
■ The Conversation: Century-old racist U.S. Supreme Court cases still rule over millions of Americans.
■ The FBI’s been ordered to deal with anti-mask parents threatening teachers around the country.
‘Convoluted and far too long.’ But critic Richard Roeper nevertheless bestows three stars on No Time to Die, which sends off Daniel Craig as “a magnificent 007.”
■ Michael Phillips: “It’ll enrage the purists who live in constant fear their adolescent memories are about to be destroyed.”
■ The Atlantic: “The perfect final outing for a 007 who rejected the character’s usual stoicism.”
Chicago Public Squarians in the news. Square supporter John Culver, who’s hosted a series of small backyard concerts to help musicians through the pandemic, landed a surprise guest for last Friday’s show.
■ Square reader Daniel J. Horvath asks of yesterday’s morning edition: “Why is the headline this: ‘Five men linked to a deadly gang-related shootout … are off the hook after prosecutors declined to file charges’ instead of: ‘… after no witnesses or victims would contribute to the investigation’?” One reason: Police maintain they have plenty of witnesses.