‘No f*cking idea.’ Pollsters and other political handicappers tell The Daily Beast that Election Day may prove the polls wrong in decisive ways—in either direction.
■ All the more reason for you to consult the Chicago Public Square election guide and vote like your world depends on it. (Illustration: AI-generated image from DALL-E.)
‘Is $4/gallon the price for your vote against democracy?’ Columnist Irv Leavitt: “If Republicans cured inflation, it would be the first time. They’re not good at making things cheaper.”
■ Popular Information: Although mainstream media have cast inflation as a political issue, it’s mostly been driven by corporate profits.
■ The Lever: Keep an eye on Minnesota’s attorney general race—an election that could change consumer rights nationwide.
■ Illinois’ gubernatorial race failed to make Route Fifty’s list of “top governors races to watch” tomorrow.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce takes a critical look at the Uihlein family—owners of the Illinois-based -founded Uline business supply company—and its “low-profile through-line in the history of modern conservative extremism,” from 1930s isolationism through 1950s anti-Communist frenzy, the John Birch Society and “the wrong side of history” in the civil rights movement.
‘It’s going to be scary rough.’ A southern Illinois county clerk is one of several who tell the Tribune they’re bracing for violence around Tuesday’s election—and 2024’s contests.
■ Media columnist Tom Jones: The results in key races could take more than a week …
■ … and PolitiFact: Because voting by mail has become more popular, don’t count on election night results.
■ CNN: Donald Trump and other Republicans are already casting doubt on the outcome …
■ The Onion surveys “Things A Republican-Held Congress Plans To Do Immediately.”
■ But, hey, get up early Election Day to see the last total lunar eclipse visible in Chicago until 2025.
‘Build the memorial.’ A Sun-Times editorial calls on Chicago to deliver on a long-stalled monument to the victims of police torture.
■ For the second time in a week, human remains have been found in an Austin neighborhood trash can.
A ‘fiscal cliff.’ That’s what the Sun-Times says Chicago Public Schools face—because, ahead of the launch of an independent and elected school board, Mayor Lightfoot’s transferred millions in pension and other costs from the city’s budget onto the schools’.
■ The mayor’s budget was set for a City Council vote today.
Yeah, a tornado. The National Weather Service confirms a twister touched down in the far western suburbs on our very windy Saturday.
■ A warning from the United Nations chief at the start of the UN’s annual climate conference: “Cooperate or perish.”
Oops. Twitter’s overlord, Elon Musk, is asking dozens he laid off Friday to come back …
■ … but Musk had enough people left to suspend comedian—and Oak Park native—Kathy Griffin for mocking him …
■ … as several users have done—by appropriating his name for their accounts.
■ Bloomberg: Musk “obliterated whole departments tasked with making Twitter an important place for public conversations.”
■ In Twitter’s meltdown and MSNBC’s axing of aggressively progressive host Tiffany Cross, columnist Will Bunch sees a huge problem for the left.
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg joined Twitter replacement wannabe Mastodon, “squeezed out a few messages, gained a dozen followers, and my account promptly vanished.”
Superspreaders. Still. HuffPost says you haven’t heard much about COVID outbreak clusters because “we really haven’t been looking for them.”
■ Saturday Night Live’s latest prescription-drug ad parody: “Are you feeling tired and worn down? Sick of the endless grind at work? Exhausted by your family, desperate for some peace and quiet? Then ask your doctor about COVID. By simply getting COVID, you’re guaranteed a five- and sometimes even 10-day vacation from all of life’s problems.”
Naked city. Evanston’s Human Services Committee could vote tonight to repeal a municipal ban on the display of female breasts in public on grounds the present ordinance treats some bodies differently than others.
■ The revision (page 61 of the committee agenda) would continue to forbid “lewd exposure of the body with the intent to arouse or satisfy the individual’s sexual desire.”
‘The Car Safety Feature That Kills the Other Guy.’ A Harvard fellow takes to Slate to make the case that increasing reliance on vehicle size to protect people in a crash means greater risks for bicyclists and pedestrians.
■ New studies suggest that scooters cut pollution more than previously thought.
WBEZ, Sun-Times tension. Axios Chicago reports: Now that the radio station’s parent, Chicago Public Media, owns the newspaper—with separate unions representing each organization—the newspaper’s union is protesting a proposal that would give management authority to use Sun-Times reporting to replace WBEZ reporting in the event of a strike.*
■ The Sun-Times Guild tweeted last week: “They … want to strip us of our rights.”
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* Disclosure: Your Chicago Public Square columnist is a former SAG-AFTRA shop steward and has a union pension waiting in the wings.