‘The corruption Trump intended.’ Journalist and former Politico editor Garrett Graff reflects on yesterday’s federal court decision by a Donald Trump-appointed judge who was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association (2020 letter) to void a national mask mandate for planes, trains and other transport modes.
■ Her 59-page ruling has “outraged medical experts … warning of increased transmission of COVID-19.”
■ The Biden administration seemed ready to take it lying down.
■ The decision—which came even though the judge had heard no oral arguments—left businesses, state and local governments free to impose their own policies.
■ It makes a muddle of Chicago-area transit agencies’ mask rules.
■ Airlines and Amtrak embraced it.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina: We’re still in a pandemic, making this a good time “to get your booster and start wearing a mask in increasing trend areas. And yes, this means on planes, buses and trains.”
Judges in trouble. WBEZ reports: “When a Cook County judge crashed into a parked car while driving drunk last year, the passengers included another judge—who refused to cooperate with police.”
■ Police say a driver who critically injured a bicyclist on Madison Street through the West Loop neighborhood Saturday night fled the scene, with the victim’s bike lodged under her car.
■ Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield: “The collision likely would have been prevented if the city hadn’t removed concrete planter medians from the street … to facilitate faster driving.”
■ A 22-year-old Columbia College student hit in the head by debris from a decaying Wicker Park building says, “This has defeated me … and it’s defeated my whole timeline.”
‘Not a cent.’ A Tribune editorial says the Illinois Commerce Commission should block ComEd’s request to raise electric rates an average of $2.20/month per household until the company has resolved “the scandal that branded ComEd as part of the problem when it comes to corruption in Illinois.”
■ Popular Information spotlights corporations behaving badly—including Amazon, Costco, Lowe’s and TJ Maxx parent TJX—enthusiastically embracing inflation as cover to “raise prices beyond their increased costs, increasing profits.”
■ The Onion: “Company Referral Program Offers Bonuses For Recommending Potential Employees To Fire.”
‘If someone asked me if the Chicago theater had any true stars, I always answered Hollis Resnik.’ Trib theater critic—and editorial page editor—Chris Jones reflects on the passing of a great Chicago actress.
■ Resnik, who was 66 at the time of her death, told the Chicago Reader in 2019: “The struggle for actors today is to stay working until we can get our social security.”
‘Don’t get me started on … mathematical filth like binomials, trinomials and polynomials. THESE ARE CHILDREN, FOR GOD’S SAKE!’ Columnist Rex Huppke says he’s “considering moving to Florida to keep my children safe from math.”
■ Stephen Colbert mocked the Florida’s decision to reject math textbooks for references to critical race theory: “That explains the updated unit on division: ‘A house divided against itself … Hey, that’s two houses. Nice!’”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch says “the real reason they’re banning math books” is that “youth of the George Floyd protest movement, calling out not just police violence but a broader systemic racism … made a lot of Republicans wonder what their kids were learning.”
‘CNN+ is reportedly failing. Good.’ Columnist Eric Zorn (middle of today’s dispatch) sheds no tears for a struggling new streaming service.
■ As Chicago Reader editorial workers wage a public relations war with a board member holding up efforts to take the Reader private, another board member has taken to the pages of the Trib, condemning the Reader for “censorship by the very publication that made its bread and butter on supporting alternative viewpoints.”
■ The New York Times is getting a new top editor.
‘Love the T-shirt almost as much as I look forward to reading the newsletter every morning!’ Mark Miller—journalist, author and Evanston RoundTable board vice president—has one of those new Chicago Public Square tees—and you can, too.
