Park carefully. The Chicago City Council’s approved a new batch of video surveillance cameras to catch and ticket drivers blocking bus and bike lanes …
■ … but at least one organization advocating for an inclusive bicycling culture in Chicago opposes the plan’s “punitive approach” via automated enforcement. (2017 photo: Brian Crawford in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ Politico: A council discussion of $20 million from the state to care for migrants “turned into a fierce discourse between Black and Latino aldermen” …
■ … but the plan eventually passed.
■ The council also voted overwhelmingly—over Mayor Lightfoot’s objections—to expand Chicago nonprofit employees’ power to unionize (link updated).
Buh-bye. Chicago Police Supt. David Brown officially leaves office today …
■ … (update, 10:29 a.m.) although he apparently departed town early.
■ The citizens’ commission charged with finding potential replacements is telling mayoral candidates to keep out of the process.
■ WBEZ: The new board of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police has 27 elected members—but just one is Black.
‘The strange death of education reform.’ Columnist Matt Yglesias: “Emphasizing kids’ performance on tests of their reading and math skills now seems extremely old-fashioned.”
■ The Conversation: “Every teacher grades differently, which isn’t fair.”
■ In what the AP calls “the latest example of Republican and predominately white state officials pushing to take control of actions in heavily minority and Democratic-led cities,” Texas is assuming control of Houston’s schools.
‘If you think the fact that my … door-lock failed because the company that designed it made no plan to let me into my house if they went out of business would make me sympathetic to that company, you are out of your fucking mind.’ Author and columnist Cory Doctorow has little patience for Silicon Valley Bank bailout apologists …
■ Popular Information explodes Fox’s bullshit assertion that SVB “donated $74 million to Black Lives Matter.”
■ Columnist Rex Huppke on reactionary suggestions that the bank’s problems arose from its commitment to diversity: “Never have the words I’m not saying more clearly meant that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
‘Axios comes out of this looking like … it sided with a politician who goes out of his way to denigrate the press.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones reviews the case of an Axios reporter fired—apparently for calling a statement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office “propaganda.”
■ The reporter—Ben Montgomery, who’s written four books and been a Pulitzer finalist—tells Talking Points Memo that he objected to the editor who fired him “with my full fucking throat on behalf of every hard-working journalist.”
■ Losing money, BuzzFeed is pushing reporters to produce more articles.
Whew. With a disclaimer that raises what Ars Technica calls “eye-opening questions about … future AI systems,” OpenAI’s safety document on its new GPT-4 chatbot finds the thing unlikely to engage in “power-seeking behavior,” self-replication, and self-improvement.
‘One odd albeit sometimes charming duck of a documentary.’ Richard Roeper reviews a Disney+ special pairing David Letterman with U2’s Bono and The Edge.
■ Star Trek Twitter is alive with concern about Jean-Luc Picard’s vulgar language in last week’s episode.
Ravinia’s summer schedule. Headed this way: John Legend and Jethro Tull …
■ … a band with which your columnist shares a curious connection.
What you missed … if you haven’t been following Square on Facebook:
■ Ex-candidate Ja’Mal Green is backing Paul Vallas for mayor, and Kam Buckner—the second choice of many of the candidates in Round One—is in Brandon Johnson’s camp.
■ The April ballot will feature 14 City Council runoff races.
■ Because Congress has done nothing about it for 36 years, the nation’s impoverished elderly are facing the ends of their lives on just pennies a day.
Thanks. Mike Braden and Rosemary Caruk made this edition better.