‘Everything we can.’ Visiting with immigrants taking shelter at a Chicago police station, Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged his full effort to make the city their home.
■ Axios sees Johnson’s first challenge as mayor: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is threatening to leave.
■ A Tribune editorial calls Johnson’s executive order creating a deputy mayor for labor relations “disastrous.”
■ The Reader’s Ben Joravsky: “Nobody from Chicago is actually from Chicago! At least not our new mayor. And the one before him. And the one before her.”
‘A tone-deaf middle finger to the entire Chicago Police Department.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg perceives one glaring gaffe in Johnson’s inaugural address.
■ We’re No. 1: For the fifth year in a row, the National Registry of Exonerations ranks Chicago tops for wrongful convictions—mostly because of cop misconduct.
■ Autopsy results list a drug overdose as the main cause of death for a homeless man beaten at a downtown Blue Line stop—allegedly by a CTA worker who faces felony charges.
■ Politico catches up with CTA President Dorval Carter—one of the administrators whose job’s on the line under Johnson’s administration.
77,010 workers. Turning a skeptical eye on a grocery store mega-merger that would join, among others, the Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s chains (2022 link), Popular Information shares a report projecting the deal would cut wages for that many Chicago-area store employees.
■ Read the full Economic Policy Institute study here.
■ Consumer Reports has launched a petition drive to get Amazon to cut its pollution in neighborhoods around its warehouses.
■ Block Club: Former Chicago public housing could become private homes for a nearby tennis center.
‘A brief, concerning conversation.’ Slate’s Jim Newell shares an exchange with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein in which she seems to not remember being absent from the Capitol.
■ The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes: “For two-and-a-half months … California (population 39.2 million) has had half the representation in the U.S. Senate as Wyoming (population 579,000).”
Abortion limits. North Carolina Republicans have overridden a gubernatorial veto to ban the procedure after 12 weeks.
■ Pennsylvania voters have secured a Democratic House majority likely to protect abortion rights there.
■ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is criticizing Donald Trump for calling Florida’s six-week ban “too harsh.”
■ Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik: DeSantis will “become only more noxious before he’s finally ushered off the national stage.”
Hotness ahead. The UN weather agency sees a strong likelihood that the world will hit a key warming limit within five years.
■ It was so hot in Seattle that “the swan threw up.”
Google taketh. Got an extra—and long-unused—Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, YouTube or Photos account? The company’s going to begin deleting them …
■ … but it promises to do so “carefully, with plenty of notice.”
Foo may be fought. The Foo Fighters headline September’s Riot Fest in Chicago …
■ … which still lacks a permit …
■ … and neighbors hope it doesn’t get one.
Thank you. It’s true: Chicago Public Square would’ve disappeared years ago had readers not made clear with their financial support that they value this service.
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