Geyser City. Blame Sunday’s record-breaking Illinois rainfall for flooded basements, stranded cars and the spectacular eruption of failed water pipes in Chicago.
■ One witness, filing video to Twitter: “Water burst through the sidewalk … higher than a building. Never seen anything like this before!”
■ Did your basement suffer? The city wants to hear about it.
‘Get over it. You’re not special. Lightfoot doesn’t like anybody.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg’s had it with Chicago City Council members who, in his words, “jostle like piglets at the public teat … slurping up their six-figure aldermanic salaries” until “a sweeter gig beckons, they raise dripping snouts from the mire … and start bellyaching.”
■ Mark your calendar: Illinois gubernatorial candidates will meet in debate Oct. 6 and 18.
‘I fear the CTA.’ Tribune columnist Laura Washington, a lifetime Chicago Transit Authority devotee, is “spooked by the rule-breaking offenders taking over our trains and buses.”
■ Flashback to May 2020, when Mayor Lightfoot dismissed as “racist” the notion that the pandemic could trigger a public transit “death spiral.”
■ A wrong-way crash early Sunday on North DuSable Lake Shore Drive left both drivers dead.
‘Tons of kids with respiratory illness.’ Illinois students’ return to school has been accompanied by a mysterious surge of ailments that have overwhelmed children’s hospitals.
■ The Daily Beast: “There’s no sign the SARS-CoV-2 virus is slowing down. New variants are coming as mutations pile up.”
■ The Atlantic’s COVID expert, Ed Yong: “One of long COVID’s worst symptoms is also its most misunderstood: Brain fog … makes basic cognitive tasks absurdly hard.”
‘The two speeches could not have been more different in their level of importance to the United States.’ Media Matters: Broadcast networks carried King Charles’ speech Friday—even though they passed on President Biden’s urgent address Sept. 1 about threats to American democracy.
■ Biden was set to talk in Boston at 11:45 a.m. Chicago time about his goal of ending cancer “as we know it.”
■ You can watch here.
‘Now that he has been indicted (again), Bannon has a surefire way to raise money.’ Columnist Rex Huppke has drafted Donald Trump enabler Steve Bannon’s next pitch for cash.
■ The Onion: “Steve Bannon Arraigned On Public Indecency Charges For Going Around Looking Like That.”
Curtains. Just ahead of its 50th anniversary, Chicago’s Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater will stop producing its own plays and instead become a rental house for other companies.
■ Newcity’s Brian Hieggelke: “This is a sad moment for … American culture.”
‘This is a talk show in an email format.’ In the latest edition of the Chicago Public Square / Rivet360 Chicago Media Talks podcast, Axios Chicago’s Justin Kaufmann and Monica Eng discuss their work.
■ If you prefer to read your podcasts, here’s a transcript.
■ If you’re a completist, you can go behind the scenes with raw video of the interview on YouTube …
■ … including (at 34:50) a deleted segment in which they answer the question, “How did Charlie most annoy you?”
■ Check out previous Square podcasts here.
Chicago in the spotlight. Kaufmann surveys the city’s many contenders in tonight’s Emmy Awards ceremony—adding that, although they’re no longer of Chicago, “A Ted Lasso win is definitely a victory for us. Same with Colbert, Saturday Night Live or Seth Meyers.”
■ Here’s how to watch.