2022’s worst. Chicago’s coming off its most violent weekend of the year so far—at least 32 hurt and six killed by gunfire.
■ Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington: “My beloved CTA is in crisis”—with violent crime up 17% over last year.
■ Flashback to two years ago: Mayor Lightfoot dismissed your Chicago Public Square columnist’s question about falling CTA ridership as “racist.”
■ New York’s cover story: “Who’s Afraid of the Subway?”
Take these pillars and check back in a few weeks. Lightfoot failed to release her long-promised Climate Action Plan on Earth Day, instead rolling out just a few broad principles.
■ City Cast Chicago: Lightfoot’s preliminary offering hasn’t won raves.
■ Evanston’s Environment Board was set today to call on the city council there to declare a climate emergency.
■ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory experts: The power plants of the future—solar + battery hybrids—are “poised for explosive growth.”
■ A Colorado photojournalist and climate activist has died after setting himself afire Friday on the steps of the Supreme Court.
‘Chicago completely failed to correctly handle this pandemic.’ An ex-Chicago Public Health Department assistant commissioner joined other public health advocates Sunday to complain the city’s shoveled COVID-19 relief cash to contractors and consultants instead of schools and communities.
■ China’s capital, Beijing, is addressing a new COVID outbreak with lockdowns and mass testing of 3 million people.
■ Northwestern Memorial Hospital last night went on a two-hour lockdown after what apparently was an unfounded report of a hostage situation.
‘My world was destroyed.’ A man from Odesa, Ukraine, talks to the BBC about a Russian attack that took the lives of his wife, mother and three-month-old baby.
■ CNN: U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry is trying to persuade the world’s nations to take action on the climate crisis, but Russia’s war is making that job tougher.
Twitter’s Musky smell. Reuters reports the company’s near a deal to sell itself to the world’s richest guy, Elon Musk.
■ Bloomberg’s Brad Stone: “There are good reasons to suspect a Musk-owned Twitter would reactivate President Trump’s account.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg has offers a reminder for intransigent Chicago Reader co-owner Leonard Goodman: “Rich folks who try to use Chicago journalism as a salve for their swollen egos often get pricked.”
■ If you’re among 1.6 million Illinoisans who filed a claim against Facebook for creating and storing your face template without permission—a violation of Illinois’s pioneering biometric privacy law—a $397 check’s headed your way next month.
‘The true meaning’ of Florida’s Disney assault. Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch says Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature on a bill to dissolve Walt Disney World’s private government “makes a mockery of right-wing wailing about ‘free speech.’”
■ Bulwark editor-at-large and historically conservative Republican Charlie Sykes: DeSantis has unleashed “a clusterfuck of unintended consequences.”
■ Popular Information: Remember Toyota’s July pledge “to stop contributing to those Members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election”? Hah.
‘You know it’s prestigious because almost none of the other recipients turned out to be serial rapists.’ Jon Stewart was his irreverent self last night as he accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
■ He warned the world: “When a society feels under threat, comedians are who gets sent away first.”
■ The Chicago Headline Club will bestow lifetime achievement awards next month on veteran City Hall radio reporter Bill Cameron and ex-Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton.
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■ Reader Pam Spiegel made this edition better.