‘Disgusting and a violation of human rights.’ A Texas county sheriff has launched a criminal investigation into how migrants were shipped to Martha’s Vineyard.
■ He announced it in a Facebook Live session.
■ The Conversation: Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are pulling from segregationists’ playbook.
‘Who’s buying the 2022 midterms?’ The Lever’s list of the nation’s biggest political donors leads with local reactionary types: The Uihleins of Lake Forest and Ken Griffin, recently of Chicago.
■ The Intercept: If Republicans take control of the U.S. House in November, they plan to investigate … the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
■ A self-described “born-again … small-business-owning dad” writes in Salon: “I voted for Trump—twice. … I was dead wrong about all of it.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich: “What to do about candidates who won’t commit to election results? Disqualify them from running.”
■ Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin: Nazi analogies are increasingly relevant.
‘Truly awful journalism.’ News watchdog Mark Jacob slams Fox 32 Chicago for a story about a poll sponsored by Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey.
■ Happy National Voter Registration Day.
‘Some of the most heartless rules I’ve seen bubble up from the right-wing-cruelty cauldron.’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke calls Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s guidelines for treatment of transgender students “masterful hypocrisy.”
■ Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago is boosting security following Twitter criticism of its services for gender-nonconforming children.
‘If you reported a burglary in progress, a person with a gun … or anything else that did not involve someone being physically injured, you now understand why cops never show[ed] up.’ CWBChicago reports that, overwhelmed by Mexican Independence Day crowds, a high-ranking Chicago officer just ordered the “coding out” of aging 911 calls that didn’t involve physical injury.
■ Chicago’s police superintendent: “We had to make some different decisions.”
■ A civilian employee of the department yesterday was found dead of what police said seemed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a South Side forest preserve.
Meet the new boss (maybe). Mayor Lightfoot’s nominated a longtime supporter to replace Ald. Michelle Smith in the City Council seat representing most of Lincoln Park.
■ A City Council committee’s OK’d a $15 million payout to the estate of a woman killed in a crash with a police squad car chasing another vehicle.
Another 799 or so to go. In the first of almost 800 lawsuits to go to trial against the medical tool sterilization company Sterigenics, a woman who says its toxic emissions in Willowbrook gave her cancer has won a $363 million verdict.
■ Its parent company’s stock plummeted yesterday.
■ The Onion: “Scientists Announce Earth’s Sewage No Longer Drinkable.”
‘He couldn’t believe it’s real.’ Adnan Syed, subject of the groundbreaking podcast Serial, is a free man for the first time in 23 years because a Baltimore judge ordered his release after overturning his conviction in a 1999 murder.
■ … from its originator, University of Chicago-educated This American Life alumna Sarah Koenig.
It’s a gas. Illinois and other Midwestern states are teaming up to make the region a hub for research and production of hydrogen fuel—a cleaner alternative to petroleum.
■ Axios Chicago: A new organization, DePave Chicago, aims to replace stretches of asphalt with green spaces to soak up surface water and keep the city cooler.
■ Fifty years of space probing has left Mars littered with 15,694 pounds of human trash.
‘Pat Sajak, would you like to buy a clue?’ Columnist Eric Zorn spotlights the Chicago-born Wheel of Fortune host’s latest display of right-wing trolling.
■ Chicago native Chris Redd is departing Saturday Night Live.
■ Joining SNL: Former Chicago standup Molly Kearney, the show’s first nonbinary cast member.
Vowel movement. Thanks to reader John Robinson for catching the errant spellings above of Redd and alumna.
■ Pam Spiegel also made this edition better.