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■ And now the news:
‘Should we rebuild?’ Reflecting on the devastation Hurricane Ian wrought in Florida, Poynter’s Al Tompkins says climate change means it’s time for communities to consider not rebuilding—because they’re “just too vulnerable to being blown away or washed away again.”
■ Residents of Florida’s ravaged Pine Island tell The Associated Press about “the horror of being trapped in their homes as water kept rising.”
■ For some Floridians, things keep getting worse.
■ U.S. News & World Report in August noted a trend of U.S. “climate migrants” relocating to the Midwest because it’s less susceptible to major weather events.
■ Sociology professors see in Ian and other disasters “a growing source of inequality—even among the middle class.”
‘Governors are actively trying to raise campaign money off of their recent cruel stunts.’ The Lever documents Republican Governors Association ads on Facebook asking, “Where should GOP governors send Biden’s buses of illegal immigrants?”
■ Popular Information: While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “was fighting the culture wars and positioning himself for a future presidential run, he has failed to meaningfully address … the state’s … dysfunctional and collapsing property insurance market.”
■ The New York Times shares the story behind DeSantis’ migrant dump on Martha’s Vineyard: “Asylum seekers in Texas were recruited … by a woman who appeared to be a former Army counterintelligence agent.”
■ Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey’s new front: “Pritzker’s rallies and his events … I don’t often see the flag flying in a prominent position.”
■ Politico: Pritzker’s spending big outside Illinois, in the words of his campaign manager, “to support leaders in other states who are on the right side of history supporting women in the wake of Roe’s repeal.”
■ The Intercept: How Amazon, Google and Facebook helped fund the campaign to overturn abortion rights.
■ Slate profiles what it sees as “the most important Senate race in the country.”
■ The Conversation: What’s at stake in the Supreme Court session that begins today.
3-year-old ‘road rage’ casualty. Mateo Zastro is dead in a tide of violent shootings among strangers on Chicago streets.
■ Activists: “This is totally unacceptable.”
■ Columnist Matt Yglesias: “The best way to end mass incarceration is to catch more criminals.”
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Cluck bucks. If you bought fresh or frozen raw chicken between January 2009 and December 2020, while living in Illinois or several other states, you’re entitled to a piece of a $181 million class-action settlement of price-fixing charges.
■ Filing a claim takes only a couple of minutes.
‘His discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.’ A Harvard geneticist hails the Nobel Prize for medicine awarded to a Swedish scientist who unlocked the secrets of Neanderthal DNA.
■ Flashback: A 1997 interview with then-Times culture editor and Pulitzer Prize winner John Darnton, discussing his science fiction novel Neanderthal.
■ The Intercept: The CIA has invested in woolly mammoth resurrection technology.
‘It gets a lot harder to pretend that these objects are fulfilling a mission of educating and connecting people when they’re in a basement in a box labeled with a fucking Sharpie.’ Chicago’s Field Museum didn’t escape scrutiny as HBO’s John Oliver (watch free here) bashed Western museums for hoarding antiquities stolen from other countries.
■ The A.V. Club finds Saturday Night Live’s season debut wanting: “Poor writing and stale ideas.”
■ Chicago horror-TV host Rich Koz is a big deal nationwide—especially this month.
Mad’s oldest artist. Ahead of this week’s special 70th-anniversary edition of the magazine that inspired generations of satirists, The Washington Post profiles Sergio Aragonés, senior surviving illustrator of the publication that inspired generations of satirists …
■ … and a guy who did your Square columnist a memorable favor in 1985.
■ Here’s a 1978 interview with Mad’s founder.
We have a winner. Reader Randy Volz was first to report scoring 100% on Friday’s news quiz.
■ A Conversation tote bag is headed his way.
■ What other Chicago email newsletter treats you this well? Help keep the informative fun coming by chipping in to the Chicago Independent Media Alliance fundraiser.