‘Trail of terror.’ The Sun-Times reports that, before his arrest Sunday in Oak Park in connection with a Lincoln Park shooting, a 19-year-old man had been involved in at least four other armed robberies and was shot himself near Millennium Park’s “Bean” sculpture.
■ Gunfire yesterday left a 7-year-old at one Chicago school and two people across the street from another school injured.
■ The Onion: “Congress Placed On Lockdown After Deranged Man Enters Senate With Gun Control Measures.”
The ‘Lollapalooza loophole.’ That’s a flaw critics see in Mayor Lightfoot’s curfew crackdown on unaccompanied minors in Millennium Park.
■ The American Civil Liberties Union: “The order singles out as an exception ticketed events, suggesting that the curfew will target disadvantaged youth … unable to purchase a ticket to a costly event.”
■ City Cast rounds up a list of places teens can go.
■ WBEZ assesses Lightfoot’s performance on her campaign promises of three years ago: “Followed through,” “Flip flop,” “In progress,” “No action.”
‘The man who could rig the 2024 election.’ That’s who political finance watchdog Judd Legum says won Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial nomination.
■ It’s a guy even the reserved Associated Press calls “a candidate who has spread lies about the 2020 vote count.”
■ A Pennsylvania Republican cliffhanger could determine control of the U.S. Senate.
■ Columnist Ryan Grim: “A Republican super PAC … fell short in its bid to intervene in a Democratic primary.”
■ U.S. Rep Madison Cawthorn will soon be freer to accept orgy invitations.
‘Treating the conservative base like they’re idiots.’ That was one of the complaints fired at Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin as six men in the hunt for Illinois’ Republican gubernatorial nomination met for the first time.
■ A person present in the room for that forum, organized by the Tribune, tells Politico: “It was like kids at the dinner table fighting.”
Classroom clash. Axios Chicago looks ahead to Friday’s tri-annual election for leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union—“arguably the most powerful labor force in the city.”
■ Patch columnist Mark Konkol says the race “is bigger than whether CTU leaders should fight for social justice.”
■ Hundreds of freshmen at mostly Black and Latino Chicago high schools over the last two years have been automatically enrolled in military-type education classes that were supposedly voluntary.
A Ukraine war first. A Russian soldier in the first war crimes trial since the fighting started in Ukraine has pleaded guilty to charges of killing a civilian.
■ The fate of almost 1,000 last-line Ukrainian fighters at Mariupol’s steel plant remained unclear after their surrender.
Look out—and up. Satellite images suggest the Loop Current, which fuels the Atlantic’s monster hurricanes, is looking a lot like it did in 2005—the year of Katrina.
■ At Congress’ first public hearing on unidentified flying objects in more than half a century, the Pentagon conceded that, in the words of New York, “UFOs are everywhere, aliens not so much.”
‘We really have just let the fox guard the henhouse.’ A BuzzFeed News investigation shines a light on Visa and Mastercard’s “strikingly permissive relationship with companies … accused of fraud.”
■ Consumer Reports: Credit cards offered by gasoline brands may save you less than a general cash-back card.
Equal-pay milestone. The U.S. Soccer Federation has struck a historic deal to level the paying field for its men’s and women’s players …
■ … including a split of World Cup prize money …
■ … and equal shares of any money U.S. Soccer makes commercially and at events.
■ Today only: Everyone who supports Square at the Booster level or higher gets both.
■ Or pledge at any level to get $5 off a shirt.
Dead and kicking. Almost four years after his death, Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee is being reunited with his creations at Disney’s Marvel Studios.
Wynn: Loser? In what Insider declares “a very bad day” for Donald Trump and his associates, the Justice Department is suing longtime Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, demanding he register as a foreign agent in light of his lobbying for China during the Trump administration.
■ Funny thing: Wynn has long paid tribute to a friend and mentor named—no relation to your Square columnist—Charlie Meyerson, who died in 2004.
Readers Mike Braden and Tom O’Malley made this edition better.