Chicago Public Square will take Monday off—because the publisher is a kind man.
A ‘sweeping indictment.’ President Biden’s primetime address last night aimed, in the words of The Associated Press, “to marginalize [Donald] Trump and his followers.”
■ He accused Trump’s allies of undermining democracy.
■ Watch it here.
■ The New York Times: Biden’s speech left him “accused … of being divisive by allies of the most divisive president in modern times.”
■ Gizmodo is more blunt: “Trump’s army of whiners and assholes absolutely lost their shit.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg isn’t buying downstate Illinoisans’ resentment of Chicago’s impact on state elections: “If you live in a community of 12,000 people and are baffled and angry that the Chicago metro area, with a population of 10 million, can somehow drive policy choices and election results, you are by nature also yearning toward a system where the electorate doesn’t influence decisions.”
■ Google and its YouTube subsidiary pledge to clamp down on misinformation leading up to November’s elections.
New record. A retired New York cop has gotten the longest sentence yet for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol: 10 years for attacking and choking a D.C. officer.
■ That’s seven years less than prosecutors sought.
■ Trump says he’s “financially supporting” Jan. 6 defendants and will look “very favorably” at “full pardons” for those convicted if he wins the presidency again.
■ The Intercept’s James Risen: “Donald Trump’s Better Call Saul performance isn’t going well.”
■ Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri: “I’m a classified document and I didn’t think I would end up like this.”
■ Axios Chicago: On-time departures are most likely between 6 and 6:59 a.m.
‘This fall, everyone should get a bivalent COVID-19 booster.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says that’s all you need to know—even though “the only data we have on the bivalent BA.5 fall boosters is from mice.”
■ Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has granted final approval, the new vaccines could be in Chicago by next week.
■ Pandemic? Inflation? The streak of U.S. job growth nevertheless stretched to 20 months in August.
‘You can see Teen Wolf or Lethal Weapon without having to pay.’ Consumer Reports surveys the world of free streaming video services.
■ Cord Cutter Weekly runs down streaming bargains—including Paramount+ free for a month and Peacock for $2 a month.
■ CNET: “Streaming means you’ll never own your favorite movies or music. Here’s why that matters.”
■ Tribune critic Nina Metz: “If streaming is starting to resemble old-school TV with ads and live programming, aren’t we back where we started?”
■ Chicago-area native Alex Moffatt is among the latest Saturday Night Live cast members on the way out.
‘Rowling has doubled down on her transphobic views.’ Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week.
■ A.V. Club’s review of Rowling’s new 1,024-page book: “All those words, and not one syllable conveying sympathy, let alone regret, towards the countless ostracized fans whose identities she has denied and demeaned?”