Dems’ ‘worst fears.’ The Associated Press concludes yesterday’s elections in Virginia and New Jersey show the Democratic Party “on course for a 2010-like drubbing” next year.
■ Glenn Youngkin has landed the Virginia governor’s seat—the first Republican to win statewide office there in a dozen years …
■ … but he won it, the AP says, “by running away from … Donald Trump.”
■ New Jersey’s gubernatorial race remained a cliffhanger.
■ Axios’ Mike Allen sees a “brutal blow” to President Biden.
■ Tim Miller at The Bulwark: “Giving Up on Rural America Is Proving a Nightmare for Democrats.”
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg: “A healthy terror at this moment shows clear-eyed awareness of … how badly our national life is going now, and how much worse it could be in the future.”
Chicago scorecard. In two big-city mayoral races:
■ One-time Chicago fixture, Guardian Angels founder and conservative radio host Curtis Sliwa lost a bid to lead New York …
■ … and ex-Chicagoan Michelle Wu has become the first female and first person of color to win Boston’s top seat …
■ … despite opponents’ efforts to use an old article from Chicago’s Newcity against her (middle of Friday’s Chicago Public Square).
■ Tribune columnist Clarence Page: “I … lived long enough to see us go from ‘colored people’ to ‘people of color.’”
‘What’s the point?’ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce complains that the Federal Election Commission has proven “utterly inadequate to the task of controlling the torrent of cash and corruption.”
■ Popular Information: GM says it supports Biden’s Build Back Better plan—and the lobbying campaign to kill it.
Hey, kids! Vaccines! Final approval for COVID-19 shots to kids 5 to 11 means needles in younger arms beginning today—at a bunch of places around Chicago and Illinois.
■ Gov. Pritzker says the state’s mask mandate is going nowhere anytime soon.
■ The Conversation: Want to prevent future pandemics? Pay attention to animals’ health.
‘Chaos tourist.’ That’s how prosecutors characterized Kenosha murder defendant Kyle Rittenhouse as his trial began yesterday …
■ Satire from The Onion: “Rittenhouse Claims Self-Defense After Shooting 3 Jurors.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ You can watch the trial live on the web.
‘All talk and no action.’ Patch columnist Mark Konkol gives the fisheye to Gov. Pritzker’s declaration of gun violence as a public health crisis in Illinois.
■ Pritzker’s dumping the chair of the board that supervises state police hiring and firing.
■ One off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed another last night.
■ WBEZ: 88 people with convictions tied to a corrupt Chicago cop hope for mass exoneration.
‘Mistakes were made.’ The president of the Chicago Park District acknowledges “a dysfunctional investigative process” in the abuse, assault and harassment of lifeguards at city pools and beaches—but she says she won’t quit.
■ The district has fired three senior managers.
Move it, people. Off-line for close to three years, O’Hare International Airport’s people mover system today returns to (partial) service.
■ Hundreds turned out last night for a “ghost bike vigil” to honor a celebrated bicyclist killed in an accident at DuSable Lake Shore Drive and Grand Avenue.
Yeah, but now how will you know which one is you? Facebook is killing its Face Recognition feature, which automatically recognized people in photos.
■ The official announcement: “We will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.”
■ A cyberattack in March exposed personal information for thousands of CNA employees, contractors and policyholders.
■ Zillow’s getting out of the home-buying business and laying off thousands.
Evanston RoundTable is, like Square,
a member of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.
The tower that gum built. The hybrid novel-and-1972-Chicago primer Roseland, Chicago: 1972 takes a detour for a history of Chicago’s landmark Wrigley Building.
■ McDonald’s CEO says he “was wrong” to condemn the parents of 7-year-old and 13-year-old Chicago kids who were shot and killed earlier this year …
■ … but he didn’t act quickly enough to head off calls for a protest at McDonald’s HQ.
■ Striking workers at Deere & Co. have tossed a contract offer into the compost.
‘When Republicans chant Let’s Go Brandon, they are … really hurling a 4-letter crudity toward … the American people.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch explores the chant’s true meaning.
■ Wrapping up a 48-year career with the Daily Herald—a run marked, in media watchdog Robert Feder’s words, by “integrity, compassion and fairness”—John Lampinen retires in December.