Passwords’ final hurrah? Google’s rolling out a new free service that may make them irrelevant—and make logging in to websites as easy as offering your fingerprint or a view of your face.
■ Wired: Google’s scale—billions of users—is a massive boost for the tech industry’s years-long push away from passwords.
■ Here’s Google’s explanation.
Meet the new (temp) boss. Mayor-elect Johnson has named a cop who retired three years ago to take over as interim police superintendent.
■ The leader of the commission seeking the city’s permanent replacement pledges a process “completely independent” of Johnson.
■ Police are alerting Northwest Siders to beware an armed crew that’s been accosting people on their way to work or their vehicles early in the morning.
Danville did it. A tiebreaking vote from that central Illinois town’s mayor puts on the books a law forbidding the mailing or shipping of abortion pills …
■ … an ordinance that Gov. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul contend is illegal.
‘Just because books aren’t burned in a local town square doesn’t make restricting public access to them any more acceptable.’ Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias hails legislation the General Assembly’s sending Gov. Pritkzer—cutting off state funding to public and school libraries that ban books for “partisan or doctrinal” reasons.
■ Pritzker’s likely to sign it.
Pools’ shaky future. The Chicago Park District says it may—again—not have enough lifeguards to open the city’s public pools.
■ Columnist Matt Yglesias, after a recent stay here: “I’m still not feeling very optimistic about Chicago.”
Your move, Illinois. New York’s become the first state to forbid the use of global-warming contributor natural gas in new buildings—beginning in three years.
■ Chicago’s been mulling a municipal ban.
■ WTTW News explains what happens to stuff you flush down the toilet.
‘Unhappy meals.’ Popular Information dives into the federal investigation that found three Kentucky-based McDonald’s franchises illegally employed kids as young as 10.
■ McDonald’s corporate spokeswoman: “These reports are unacceptable, deeply troubling.”
■ A National Labor Relations Board judge says Starbucks broke the law last summer when it fired a worker who helped organize a union at a Hyde Park shop.
‘A gasbag perennially rejected by voters.’ Ex-Tribune columnist Eric Zorn is appalled the Trib has brought on failed politician and ex-McDonald’s franchisee Willie Wilson as a columnist …
■ … noting that, since a raft of the paper’s columnists took buyouts almost two years ago, not one staffer has been designated as a replacement.
‘Confront Trump.’ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin offers CNN suggestions for next week’s “town hall” session with the ex-president: “Questions … along the lines of what did he know and when did he know it.”
■ Columnist Lauren Martinchek asks: “Why doesn’t President Biden hold press conferences?”
‘Way outside the norm.’ An ex-White House ethics lawyer comments on ProPublica’s new revelation about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ relationship with Nazi-tchotchke-collecting billionaire Harlan Crow: That Crow paid the private-school tuition for a relative Thomas claimed to be raising “as a son.”
■ Thomas’ friend and biographer: The Ethics in Government Act’s definition of a “dependent child” doesn’t include great nephews.
■ The Onion: “Supreme Court: ‘We Wear Gold Crowns Now.’”
Chicago’s rock spotlight. Chaka Khan and Soul Train creator Don Cornelius have been tabbed for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction this November …
■ … alongside Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, the Spinners, Rage Against the Machine and more.
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This Saturday at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, dance maker Barak adé Soleil premieres a new work, SHIFT.
On May 6, a promenade of disability community members move through inaccessible museum staircases, challenging simplistic depictions of Black disabled bodies in real time.
Museum admission is included. Get tickets now.