Chicago Public Square will take a few days off. Back Tuesday.
When ya gotta go … A Tribune census concludes that Chicago doesn’t provide nearly enough public restrooms …
■ … putting it on the wrong side of a UN human rights resolution.
■ Guess which neighborhoods saw the most tickets for public urination or defecation.
Boosters in brief. As guidance over COVID-19 vaccinations evolves, BuzzFeed News runs down 16 things to know about follow-up shots …
■ … including how to mix and match booster brands—a thing the FDA has approved and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to finalize today.
‘A vaccine mandate … is effectively an intelligence test. If you don’t pass, we don’t want you.’ Trib columnist Rex Huppke calls on the city to fire cops who refuse to comply with vaccine mandates.
■ Indiana State Police are recruiting disgruntled Chicago cops.
■ A professor of American history: “The American founders didn’t believe … you can do whatever you want—not even when it comes to vaccines.”
‘Tiny wrists in cuffs.’ An AP investigation, with a focus on Chicago, finds children as young as 6 have been treated harshly by police nationwide—handcuffed, felled by stun guns, pinned to the ground—with few regulations to prevent such things.
■ Two Chicago police officers were reportedly shot by a third cop’s gun during a struggle with suspects at a Lyons gas station.
■ The officer whose gun went off will spend a month—maybe longer—on desk duty.
‘The Rahm con job continues.’ Patch columnist Mark Konkol assesses ex-Mayor Emanuel’s pitch for Senate confirmation as President Biden’s U.S. ambassador to Japan.
■ Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley used all his time to press Emanuel about the police shooting of Laquan McDonald on Emanuel’s watch …
■ … and Emanuel conceded “that tragedy sits with me” …
■ …but, the Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet concludes, “Emanuel caught major breaks.”
■ Politico: Neither Illinois senator has addressed a letter from progressive Illinois Democrats calling Emanuel “the wrong choice at the wrong time.”
■ A Tribune editorial backs Emanuel’s nomination, but suggests a Saturday Night Live skit: “Emanuel, the famously profane and blunt former mayor … charged with running U.S. diplomacy in the nation where politeness and decorum matters more than anywhere else in the world.”
‘Biden is incredibly weak.’ Political analyst Lauren Martinchek predicts “a political bloodbath coming, and Democrats will only have themselves to thank for it.”
■ The New York Times: “A 30-Year Campaign to Control Drug Prices Faces Yet Another Failure.”
■ Popular Information: “The Biden administration is proposing a simple fix to catch wealthy tax cheats. … But the banking industry has launched a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign to defeat the proposal.”
‘Worsening implications.’ Joint reports from the White House, the U.S. intelligence community and the Pentagon warn that climate change threatens security worldwide.
■ Axios: “Climate change can become a threat multiplier.”
No chairs, man. An Iowa judge has imposed limits on picketing Deere & Co. workers in Davenport—forbidding them from using chairs …
■ … prompting derision on Twitter.
Beware onions. A salmonella outbreak—at least 37 cases in Illinois—has prompted a CDC alert about onions whose provenance is unclear.
■ Consumer Reports has launched a petition drive to demand baby-food companies stop selling rice cereal products until they can be certified free of arsenic.
Happy birthday, Keith J. Taylor! Send Chicago Public Square’s irrepressible cartoonist your best wishes on Facebook or Twitter.
