‘Show what a slaughtered 7-year-old looks like.’ A former Seattle Times editor is calling on the news media—with families’ permission—to share graphic images of the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas: “Maybe only then will we find the courage for more than thoughts and prayers.”
■ He’s not alone.
■ Only a few of the victims had been identified.
■ The school district had an extensive safety plan that proved useless.
■ Local police are under scrutiny for the time it took them to storm the school.
■ Predictably, “horrifying” conspiracy theories about the carnage have arisen.
‘The federal government has safety standards for toy guns, but not real guns.’ That’s one of Popular Information’s five facts about guns in America.
‘America practices child sacrifice.’ Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg: “Given the lack of action after these spasms of butchery, there is only one possible conclusion: We are willing to tolerate the murder of children.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “How have we arrived at a place where 90% of Americans want to protect our children from gun violence, and yet those who are supposed to represent us in government are unable, or unwilling, to do so?”
■ The guy who created that sadly resonant 2014 headline: “If it helps people channel their sorrow and anger and hopelessness, it’s not so bad for 12 words.”
‘Americans witnessed something rare in Texas on Wednesday: A Democrat with a spine.’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke says Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s disruption of Gov. Abbott’s “thoughts and prayers” news conference was what the nation needs.
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch: “Don’t be ‘horrified and heartbroken’ at Uvalde. Get mad as hell and do something.”
■ Abbott called the shooting a mental health issue, but he’s cut state spending for mental health programs.
■ Dismissing calls for tougher gun laws, Abbott deflected: “There are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas.”
■ Mayor Lightfoot to Abbott: “Be a part of the solution or get the hell out of the way.”
■ Chicago police are looking for a man who pointed a gun at a Chicago TV crew during a live report yesterday.
■ And they’re also seeking the person who set a widely recognized homeless man—Joseph Kromelis, known as “Walking Man”—on fire early yesterday
■ Kromelis’ chances of surviving were not good.
10 p.m., kids. The Chicago City Council has made Lightfoot’s curfew citywide and permanent, seven days a week for people 17 and under.
■ TRiiBE editor-in-chief Tiffany Walden condemns Lightfoot for expanding the curfew “instead of implementing policies and sending resources that could address the root issues causing gun violence.”
■ Patch columnist Mark Konkol: “There isn't anyone running for Illinois governor—from either political party—offering up a comprehensive plan to do more to protect children.”
■ “The department basically abuses a child”: A Better Government Association investigation reveals the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as an agency in crisis.
But it wasn’t pretty. With a 41-7 vote that followed what Block Club describes as a screaming match, the Chicago City Council has OK’d the city’s first casino.
■ Politico Illinois Playbook reports that the mayor celebrated afterward with the usual suspects at a steakhouse.
■ Also in Politico: Before mayoral wannabe State Rep. Kam Buckner could travel to New York this week, he needed court approval because of his conviction for driving under the influence.
■ Condemned by a federal judge as a “corruption super-spreader,” ex-state Rep. Luis Arroyo is headed to nearly five years in jail.
■ The police chief of a southwestern suburb’s been indicted for bribery.
Guess who and what won’t be at the National Rifle Association convention this weekend.
■ American Pie singer Don McLean. (Update, 11:54 a.m.: Larry Gatlin and Larry Stewart of Restless Heart, too.) (8:32 p.m.: And Lee Greenwood.)
■ The company that makes the “perfect rifle” used in the Uvalde slaughter.
■ … who, according to testimony before the congressional committee on the events of Jan. 6, 2021, expressed support for hanging his vice president.
Not so fast. Were you all set to vote early today in Chicago? Hang on instead until Tuesday.
■ Columnist Will Leitch: In November, it’s all going to come down to Georgia—again.
‘The end is coming more quickly than I ever would have guessed.’ And so WXRT-FM morning host Richard Milne is resigning as the station’s morning host to care for his wife, Charlene, who’s been in hospice care since April.
■ But he says he hopes to return some day.
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