2024 ‘is going to be a mess.’ That’s Illinois Republican Rep.—and Jan. 6 committee member—Adam Kinzinger, telling ABC’s This Week he’s “very worried” about a repeat of 2020’s debacle.
■ In (more of) his words: “My party has utterly failed the American people.”
■ HBO’s John Oliver sounds an alarm about this year’s Republican primary winners who could taint the 2024 elections.
■ The Chicago Public Square election guide to next week’s Illinois primary can help you vote smart.
Precious moments. The Associated Press runs down the Jan. 6 hearings’ most resonant developments so far.
■ With a flashback to Barack Obama’s inaction on Bush-era atrocities, a Boston Globe editorial calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring charges against Donald Trump: “The message that the Obama administration sent to its successors was clear: You can get away with torture. If Garland fails to pursue justice, he will only have amended that message to say: You can get away with overthrowing the government too” …
■ … but a Homeland Security executive under Obama contends that if Trump simply “ends up a rich, lonely man who can no longer fill a stadium … then America will have won.”
The Colbert 7. Staffers working on a “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” segment for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert face unlawful entry charges after their arrest while filming a segment at the U.S. Capitol in a House office building—in the words of Capitol Police, “unescorted and without Congressional ID” …
■ … an incident that reactionaries including Tucker Carlson are comparing to the Jan. 6 riots. (Screenshot: Colbert and Triumph in 2016.)
■ George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley: “This is obviously … not the equivalent to the Jan. 6 riot,” but it does put Democrats who enabled the Colbert crew “in an awkward position.”
Crime’s growing footprint. CWBChicago: At least five women since noon Saturday have been mugged in a section of Lincoln Park by “two or three young males who target women on the street during afternoon and early evening hours.”
■ A woman and two teenagers were hurt in a shooting early today in the South Side Gresham neighborhood—just about 10 minutes after an 11-year-old girl was shot a half-mile away.
■ Security’s rising for concerts at the downtown Pritzker Pavilion: No dogs, no metal knives, no tents, canopies or lawn stakes.
COVID shots for the littles. They’re rolling out this week for kids between 6 months and 5 years, but CNET explains that availability will be more complicated than it has been for adults.
■ Chicago’s planning vax clinics at a variety of locations beginning Saturday.
Ride cheap. Newly available today, a $30-a-month Regional Connect Pass will give holders of Metra’s Super Saver monthly pass unlimited rides on Metra, the CTA and Pace.
■ If you have the Ventra app, you can buy the new pass right in there.
‘All you heard was a big boom.’ A year later, the Tribune revisits the tornado that ravaged Naperville and Woodridge …
■ … and profiles a woman who lost her unborn son after she was crushed by a tree limb that crashed through the roof of her in-laws’ Woodridge home.
Hot time. The heat’s back in Chicago’s forecast.
Happy Juneteenth (observed). Chicago, Illinois and the U.S. federal government all for the first time today are recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday.
■ The University of Chicago’s in the spotlight over its historic—and, the school maintains, tenuous—links to slavery.