‘Tried-and-true strategy for white men in trouble.’ Vox’s Jamil Smith assesses Kyle Rittenhouse’s “ugly cry” on the stand at his murder trial in Kenosha.
■ After a long weekend, lawyers in the case return Monday to set instructions for the jury.
‘Perverse incentive structures.’ In email obtained by the Trib, a Chicago police leader charged with implementing department reforms told Mayor Lightfoot he was quitting because the city’s top cops refused “to even feign interest” in the work.
■ Chicago City Council members today were set to quiz the department on its widely discredited ShotSpotter gunshot detection system.
‘He can’t relate because he is wealthy and we are not.’ A protest at a West Side McDonald’s upped pressure on the chain to dump its CEO over insensitive comments about the deaths of two kids shot and killed in Chicago.
■ Gunfire grazed the head of a 1-year-old boy in a South Side Walgreens parking lot yesterday afternoon.
■ A southwest suburban man’s been charged with carjacking Chicago radio host Maze Jackson on the South Side Tuesday.
■ The University of Chicago is stepping up security measures after the robbery at gunpoint of a staffer early yesterday and the killing of a recent graduate Tuesday.
Happy Vaccination Awareness Day. Axios Chicago rounds up things to do with kids who have no school …
■ … aside, of course, from getting them vaccinated.
‘Countdown to catastrophe.’ The AP details “70 minutes at Astroworld.”
■ More findings from the Trib’s email haul cast shadows over the rigor of pandemic precautions at the summer’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago.
‘I have been threatened with battery. I have been threatened with rape. I have been hit in the face. I have been spat on.’ WTTW News reports Chicago-area emergency room nurses want more security.
■ The Conversation: Calling nurses “heroes” doesn’t help.
KISS on death. Gene Simmons, founder of the rock band KISS, calls out anti-vaxxers: “Over 5 million human beings have died from COVID. I know there are Flat Earth Society people who believe that … they died because they were fat or died because they smoked. … They died because they got COVID” …
■ … but he also sank to both-sidesing: “The far left and the far right, they are both evil.”
‘It’s common sense.’ In a recorded interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl for Karl’s new book, Donald Trump defends Jan. 6 threats to hang Vice President Mike Pence.
■ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz awards a three-way tie for her latest “Dingus of the Week.”
Novo is a Chicago Public Square advertiser.
In defense of billionaires. Better Government Association CEO David Grieising: “The big-bucks feud between two of Illinois’ most prominent billionaires has been good for the state.”
■ One of those guys—Gov. Pritzker—tells the Sun-Times the other one—Ken Griffin—should keep his money out of the next gubernatorial race after “the damage” done by his last candidate, Bruce Rauner.
■ The Intercept: “The Main Driver of Inflation Is a Murderous Maniac.”
Bye, Sears. The last Illinois outlet of a chain born in Chicago closes Sunday.
■ The Trib’s Christopher Borrelli walks through the store in Schaumburg and recommends that if you go, “Bring a few tissues, this is a tearful story.”
■ Johnson & Johnson is splitting in two—and one of them won’t be “Johnson.”
Heavy snow? Brace for a burst of winter this afternoon and tomorrow …
■ … and then a freeze Sunday.
‘I’m canceling my subscription to this right-wing rag.’ A reader of columnist Eric Zorn’s Picayune Sentinel email newsletter—which yesterday kindly plugged Square—used those words to explain a decision to dump the Sentinel. Because it’s only fair, let’s replace that subscriber for Zorn.
■ A Chicago Tribune editorial mournfully honors renovation of the paper’s old home, Tribune Tower*: “It’s beautiful now in a different way but very quiet. We miss all the commotion.”
Evanston RoundTable is, like Square,
a member of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.