‘A council transformed.’ That’s what Politico’s Shia Kapos sees in the Chicago City Council’s unprecedented exodus—including two fresh departure announcements.
■ As Texas dispatches more migrants to Chicago, the city’s set up a website to coordinate donation and volunteer support.
If it’s the day after a holiday weekend, it’s time for Chicago’s police superintendent to … say stuff. At Chicago Public Square’s email deadline, top cop David Brown was holding a news conference to address the city’s latest round of horrific violence …
■ … which included an ax-wielding man shot and killed by a marijuana dispensary security guard.
■ CWBChicago reports that an armed robbery and carjacking crew pistol-whipped victims and fired shots during a Monday morning spree in Logan Square and Avondale …
■ … an assault similar to a Lakeview robbery caught on video Sunday.
■ Also: “Why is this guy out of prison? Man who served just 9 months … for having a gun on the Red Line allegedly had another gun on the Red Line this weekend.”
‘Boy is my arm sore.’ Axios Chicago’s Monica Eng got one of the new COVID boosters Saturday.
■ NPR sorts out who should get the booster when.
■ Traffic experts blame the pandemic for a massive spike in Illinois roadway deaths.
Courthouse mystery. Chicago’s Dirksen Federal Building is closed for what—at Square’s deadline—remained an unexplained “operational issue” …
■ … that will delay, among other things, R. Kelly’s child porn trial.
■ Tribune courthouse reporter Jason Meisner quotes a judge phoning in from home this morning: “We’re not at the courthouse and I got a dog in the other room, so give me one second, OK?”
Trump gets his wish. A federal judge has granted the ex-president’s request for “a special master” to review the FBI’s haul in its raid on Mar-a-Lago.
■ The judge is a Federalist Society member appointed by Trump and confirmed after he lost the election.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: “The highest level of our government has been rendered an unconvincing puppet show.” (Illustration: Excerpt from a longer cartoon commentary by Tom Tomorrow.)
■ The Onion: “Clarence Thomas Annoyed After Getting Another Text From Wife Nagging Him To Overthrow Government Before He Gets Home From Work.”
Nice work if you can get it. The Trib’s A.D. Quig: “The Barack Obama Foundation’s top staffers are commanding high-end salaries that … exceed salaries for counterparts at other presidential foundations.”
■ Here’s Quig interviewed in a Chicago Public Square podcast over the summer.
‘Among the greatest scientists who ever lived.’ Chicago-born radio astronomer Frank Drake—who led the first search for extraterrestrial intelligence and devised that famous equation for the likelihood of alien intelligence—is dead at 92.
■ As a child, he was inspired by visits to the Museum of Science and Industry.
■ Author and columnist Will Leitch: “The worst part of getting older is all the dying.”
‘It is never going to make sense.’ Elsa Avila—a teacher who was shot in the massacre at a Uvalde, Texas, school and who, for the first time in 30 years, is not returning to class this fall—recounts how 16 fourth graders waited with her for help that day.
■ Economist Umair Haque: “The 2020s are the most miserable decade in modern history.”
■ The Conversation: “Why news consumers experience crisis fatigue.”
‘Worst in 1,200 years.’ Axios: “No one alive in California has seen a September heat wave quite like this one.”
■ Popular Information: Jackson, Mississippi, can thank the multibillion-dollar Siemens conglomerate for its water crisis.
■ Chicago’s beaches are now officially closed for the season.
‘There’s something going on at CNN.’ Media watchdog Tom Jones says another departure raises new questions about where the channel’s headed.
■ Benighted Lord of the Rings fans condemn Amazon’s new prequel series for casting non-white actors in tales of a fantasy world that they maintain was based on European culture.
■ TV, shmeevee: Bloomberg says YouTube is the economic and cultural juggernaut to watch.
‘Never before has a T-shirt given me such swagger and confidence.’ Chicago radio legend* James VanOsdol seems happy with his Squarewear.
■ You can get yours here.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.
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