Chicago Public Square will take Monday off. Back Tuesday.
‘I’m scared someone might shoot me.’ An 8-year-old survivor of the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre brought his mother to tears last night as he spoke to CNN.
■ The Uvalde death toll includes the husband of a teacher killed there—dead of a heart attack that his relatives attribute to “a broken heart.”
■ A fourth-grade boy who survived recalls the gunman saying, “It’s time to die.”
■ Another fourth-grader says she smeared her friend’s blood on herself to appear dead in case the killer returned.
■ Her parents have launched a GoFundMe to pay for her therapy.
■ CNN suggests ways to help people and communities in mass shootings’ aftermath.
■ Politico Illinois Playbook: An audit exposes “big safety issues” at Illinois schools.
‘They say they rushed in. … We didn’t see that.’ A father of a girl killed at Robb Elementary School questions what police did from the time the gunman slammed into a ditch behind the school and his death 90 minutes later.
■ The Wall Street Journal: “The gunman entered the building unobstructed after lingering outside for 12 minutes firing shots.”
■ A Texas Department of Public Safety official says responding officers were cautious entering the school because “they could’ve been shot.”
■ Welcome to Hell World columnist Luke O’Neil: “The police in Uvalde hoard 40% of the town’s entire budget. It’s a town of around 15,000 people and they have an entire SWAT team.”
■ The Onion, merciless: “Tearful Uvalde Residents Thank Police For Protecting Parking Lot From Gunman.”
Republicans be Republicans. They blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have cleared the way for debate over gun safety.
■ Sun-Times D.C. bureau chief Lynn Sweet: “I dropped any optimism about Congress doing anything to curb gun violence after nothing happened following the Columbine school shootings in 1999.”
■ The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser: “Biden’s call for action is a painful reminder that he cannot make it happen.”
■ PolitiFact: About a quarter of the shooters at primary or secondary schools during school hours since the Columbine High School massacre of 1999 were younger than 25.
■ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week is The Second Amendment: “I’d love it if the decaying feet of the founding fathers would step off our collective necks and let us live.”
About those photos. Ex-Tribune editor Patrick Olsen supports another editor’s suggestion—spotlighted in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square—that news media share graphic images of the Uvalde massacre: “Until Americans can see the devastation of these school attacks with their own eyes, they won’t fight as hard for gun-safety laws. I know some folks will say it’s salacious to show those images, but … again and again, horrible images—think Kent State or the Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack—tied to awful events stir something in decent people that a sterile, image-free recounting cannot.”
■ Columnist Irv Leavitt: “If we’re the kind of people who allow such carnage, we should have to look at what we’ve done.”
Business as (almost) usual. Despite the pullout of several speakers and performers, the National Rifle Association begins its annual convention in Houston today.
■ The Onion: “[NRA CEO] Wayne LaPierre States Mass Shootings Can Be Perfectly Safe When Carried Out By A Trained, Responsible Gun Owner.”
■ The Onion: “NRA Convention Applauds As Gunman Massacres Entire Crowd.”
■ The new season of Stranger Things, debuting today on Netflix, now carries a disclaimer: “Given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing.”
High, high, high. Chicago’s officially back at high COVID-19 transmission level—meaning it’s masking time again.
■ A lifeguard shortage could keep Chicago beaches and pools closed this summer.
■ State and local governments nationwide are raising wages as they scramble to fill parks and rec jobs.
■ But, hey, fireworks are back at Navy Pier beginning Saturday night.
Dress codes that won’t die. A Trib investigation concludes many Chicago Public Schools dress codes continue to slight students, despite state and local policies to the contrary.
■ The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating a suburban school district’s practice of letting police ticket kids for minor misbehavior.
Suspect nabbed. A 53-year-old Chicago man faces murder charges in connection with the stabbing of a man on the Blue Line Tuesday evening.
■ Asserting that the crime could have turned into “a horrific massacre ... at a monumental level,” a Cook County judge has denied bail to a teenager accused in a shooting spree that same night at the CTA’s 95th Street bus terminal.
■ A 31-year-old Uptown man is among the latest to be charged with breaching the U.S. Capitol—with his dad—on Jan. 6, 2021.
Chicago stories. The Daily Line: A Chicago alderman quitting to work for a scandal-scarred movie studio stands to benefit from a city-backed land deal that would let him and his wife buy a pair of vacant lots adjoining their home at bargain prices.
■ The Sun-Times: An annual audit finds Chicago’s hated parking meter deal is worse than ever for Chicago taxpayers.
‘Reprehensible.’ That’s how Illinois’ first openly gay state senator characterizes State Farm’s decision—under political pressure from the right—to yank its support for a gender identity school book program.
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