Gas-powered leaf blowers’ end? Journalist James Fallows: “If it hasn’t happened in your town yet … this will happen sooner or later. Make it sooner.”
■ The Washington Post: Gas-powered blowers “are viewed about as favorably these days as smoking indoors.”
‘We can’t blame this bike for heading south.’ But Divvy says it can’t explain how one of Chicago’s shared bicycles wound up in Santa Ana Maya, Mexico—2,000 miles away.
■ This weekend’s Chicago Marathon will be only the second major U.S. marathon to open a division for nonbinary runners, but at least one competitor says “it feels hurtful” that the division won’t offer any finish-line ribbons or monetary prizes.
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‘Here we go again.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina notes a new wave of COVID-19 cases—and an increase in severity—but no new subvariant, which means “changing weather, waning immunity and/or changing behaviors are the culprit.”
■ Al Tompkins at Poynter: “We may be missing the new first symptoms caused by the latest virus subvariants.”
‘Resources to heal and rebuild.’ Gov. Pritzker’s issued a disaster declaration for the apartment building that collapsed in the Austin neighborhood last week.
■ That brings homeowners and renters the chance to request up to $40,000 for repair or replacement of damaged or destroyed personal property.
Sneak peek. Bloomberg reports that documents seized from Donald Trump’s Florida home—documents that were supposed to be sealed but that were inadvertently visible to the public before they were yanked away—included analysis of whom Trump should have pardoned.
■ The Guardian reads Maggie Haberman’s Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America so you don’t have to and serves up a list of key takeaways.
Kills internet crap fast. The News Literacy Project has launched a new service to shoot down misinformation: RumorGuard.
■ Sign up for email alerts here.
‘This is now my sole means of communication, e-mail.’ Cultural critic Bob Lefsetz is up a creek without a cellphone after upgrading to an iPhone 14 Pro Max that promptly failed.
■ Apple’s been mostly mum about the problem, which has been widespread.
■ The Biden administration’s proposing an Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights …
■ … but it’s designed not to protect AIs but to protect people’s privacy and limit surveillance.
■ Dayten Rose at Tedium: “A few months ago, I went around my apartment apologizing to virtual assistants.”
Thanks, radio. Poynter’s Kristen Hare details the vital role audio broadcasters played during Hurricane Ian’s assault.
■ After 40 years at Chicago’s ABC 7, anchor/reporter Alan Krashesky is retiring.
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