‘Veto this … before Illinois gets nuked for real’ / ‘Shut the f--- up about Chicago’ / News quiz!

‘Veto this … before Illinois gets nuked for real.’ The energy watchdog group Nuclear Energy Information Service condemns legislation on its way to Gov. Pritzker, lifting the state’s ban on new nuclear power plants.
A Sun-Times editorial from May 8: “Illinois still faces the problem that led to the moratorium in the first place: There is no long-term storage facility to store nuclear waste, which can go on emitting hazardous radiation for tens of thousands of years.”
The Illinois Senate’s sending the House a bill to let businesses and public institutions designate restrooms as all-gender and multi-occupant …
 … a measure that prompted a senator from Andalusia—you know, right next to Iowa—to threaten to “beat the living p---” out of any man who walked into a restroom with his daughter.

Fresher air ahead? BP has agreed to pay a $40 million fine and spend almost $200 million to clean up its act in Whiting, Indiana.
The Lever: The Biden administration’s pumping up plans by “a financial firm full of former government officials” to run trains full of crude oil along the banks of the Colorado River—a water lifeline for the parched Southwest.
ProPublica: It’ll cost up to $21.5 billion to clean up California’s oil sites. The industry won’t make enough money to pay for it.

Hit-and-run death. Police are looking for the driver who struck a Chicago bicyclist who died three days later.
Axios: Fatal bike crashes in Chicago 2017-2021 were up 19% from 2012-2016.

‘Shut the f--- up about Chicago.’ A sports writer’s tweeted complaint about repeated slams of the city by Fox “News”—including a report filed Tuesday from Naperville about Chicago’s new mayor—has spawned a line of T-shirts.
Despite a 3% drop from 2020 to 2022, the latest Census Bureau count shows Chicago’s still the nation’s third most populous city.

‘It’s almost as if Mickey Mouse doesn’t care.’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke celebrates the “backfire” of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “weird war on Disney” …
 … a decision that may come as a relief to California workers who faced relocation to Florida.
Disney’s also shuttering an Orlando hotel themed after Star Wars.

Sicker than we knew. Pivotal Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office has disclosed more—and more troubling—details about her declining health.
Slate:Nothing Weird About Having Nancy Pelosi’s Daughter Hover Over Dianne Feinstein All the Time, Democrats Say.”
The Conversation: Feinstein’s just the latest in a long line of politicians able to evade questions about their ability to serve.

‘No political movement in history has so many whiners spread out over so much of government.’ Esquire’s Charlie Pierce assesses the federal appeals panel weighing the fate of the abortion medication mifepristone: “Two Trump appointees and one judge who was appointed by the previous Republican worst president of all time, George W. Bush.”

‘Financial catastrophe for the company that locally owns WXRT, WBBM-AM & FM, WUSN, The Score, and 104.3FM.’ Chicago media watcher Rick Kaempfer notes the New York Stock Exchange’s delisting of parent company Audacy.
TechHive’s Jared Newman: Cable-replacement services including YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV are blowing it on basic DVR recording features.

In case you run out of real liars to talk to. Artificial intelligence agent ChatGPT now comes in an official iPhone app into which you can speak requests for information that may or may not be truthful.
An Android version isn’t far behind.

‘Which wrong answer will be right this week?’ With a nod to faithful Chicago Public Square reader and news quiz taker Elizabeth Austin, quizmaster and past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel is back with a fresh test of your current events mettle.
Last week’s quiz was the hardest since Holznagel took over—only 16% of takers got perfect scores or just one wrong.
Austin—who got a preview of the latest edition—and your Square columnist each scored 100% this time out.

‘These lithium quotations need statistics to … avoid dumb panic.’ Reader Dave Mausner—the owner of two Chevy Bolts—writes about the most-tapped item (by far) in yesterday’s Square, columnist Tim Carter’s cautionary piece about lithium-ion batteries around the house: “One in 10 million is a nearly imperceptible probability of failure. It’s like saying that there is a risk of a piano falling on you as you walk down the street, so don’t walk anywhere. … There was a Chevy Bolt recall, and we got our batteries replaced. Compare: GM has sold 131,500 Bolts in the U.S. But fewer than two dozen fires were identified. I calculate a fire probability in the Bolt at 0.01825 percent. If I said that is the probability of rain, would you carry an umbrella?”
Ford’s recalling 422,000 SUVs because their rear-view camera displays can fail.

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 Mike Braden made this edition better.

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