‘The mayor’s decision … will harm our ability to keep you … safe.’ A coalition of Chicago’s largest news organizations is protesting the city’s plan to block live transmission of police scanners.
■ A Tribune editorial flags the importance—and risk—of February’s elections for newly created police district councils, giving citizens more oversight of Chicago’s cops. (Illustration: DALL-E.)
■ Mayoral challenger Paul Vallas says he’d fire Police Supt. David Brown and give Chicago cops “in good standing” the right to live outside the city.
■ CWBChicago: “At least 11 more armed robberies reported as Chicago police struggle to address out-of-control holdup sprees.”
■ Popular Information deflates Walmart’s threat to raise prices or close stores if governments don’t step up prosecution of shoplifters.
‘I am free. At last.’ Columnist John Fountain has quit the Sun-Times in an editorial dispute that columnist Eric Zorn calls “unfortunate to downright curious.”
■ At the heart of the matter: A column about a recently deceased former student of Fountain’s …
■ … who, coincidentally, profiled and posted an audio interview of Fountain in 2013 for a class taught by your Chicago Public Square columnist.
‘I fucked up.’ That was how disgraced crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried was planning to begin his testimony to Congress today about the abrupt and spectacular failure of his company …
■ … except that he was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas …
■ … hours after he told thousands on Twitter, “I don’t think I will be arrested.”
■ The House was today to hear from the company’s new CEO, whose advance statement attributed the company’s collapse to “the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals.”
Elsewhere on the stinker beat …
■ Twitter CEO Elon Musk has disbanded the group representing dozens of independent civil, human rights and other organizations advising the company on how to deal with hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems.
■ Twitter’s former head of trust and safety has reportedly fled his home amid a flood of threats triggered by Musk’s criticism.
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy: Musk’s selective release of the so-called “Twitter Files” constitutes “a game of information warfare.”
■ Media critic Dan Froomkin slams a New York Times columnist for gaslighting readers about what Musk represents.
■ Most-tapped item by far in yesterday’s Square: “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist.”
■ Gizmodo: “Musk, who was booed mercilessly by a stadium full of people … during a Dave Chappelle stand-up show, has deleted tweets that sought to explain away the jeers.”
‘Battle cries, crackpot legal theories, and invoking Marshall law!!’ Talking Points Memo has come into possession of 2,319 text messages at least 34 members of Congress swapped with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows …
■ … in “A Plot To Overturn An American Election.”
Fusion Dept.
■ Updating coverage: The U.S. Energy Department was set to detail that “major scientific breakthrough” in efforts to master fusion.
■ Updating coverage: President Biden was scheduled to sign the Respect for Marriage Act, protecting same-sex and interracial marriage.
‘What’s she gonna do, sue her daughter?’ Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi tells Vanity Fair her mom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, never legally authorized the documentary Pelosi in the House, debuting tonight on HBO.
■ Politico says “it is not a work of journalism,” but it is “completely captivating and historically significant.”
■ If HBO’s Westworld and The Nevers are on your watchlist, watch quick: They’re going away.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a Square advertiser.
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Lie of the Year. PolitiFact bestows that dubious achievement award on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
■ He joins a roster that, since 2009, has included Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
Fir-mageddon. Climate change has wiped out a million acres of fir trees in Oregon—raising the chance of major wildfires.
■ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce: “When you turn the entire ecosystem on its head, all the while denying that you’re doing any such thing, you’re going to end up with any amount of weird damage.”
■ Reader Mark Wukas made this edition better.