Hunter hunt’s end? President Biden’s son Hunter has been charged with—and near-simultaneously settled—federal charges of failing to pay income tax and illegally possessing a weapon.
■ Read the Justice Department statement: “The defendant has agreed to plead guilty.”
■ Meanwhile, across the pond: French investigators have been searching the offices of the 2024 Paris Olympics for evidence of contract corruption.
Giving on borrowed time. Well, y’know how we said last night marked the end of the annual Chicago Independent Media Alliance fundraiser, benefitting 47 local organizations—including Chicago Public Square?
‘You probably haven’t heard about it.’ Popular Information says the U.S. murder rate’s down dramatically for 2023—on track for the single largest annual decline ever recorded—but the nation’s biggest news media have avoided mentioning that.
■ The AP’s national roundup includes at least 60 shot in the Chicago area alone over the weekend …
■ … including at least four mass shootings between late Friday and early today.
■ A woman wounded in a Willowbrook mass shooting early Sunday tells CBS 2: “I thought that I was going to die.”
■ Video caught the moment shots were fired.
■ The suspects remained unidentified.
■ Mayor Johnson on Chicago’s gun violence: “I knew what I was inheriting.”
■ Private donors have posted $6.8 million for new city monuments, including one honoring victims of Chicago cops’ torture.
Leads on lead. Axios Chicago files a guide to finding out whether a Chicago home is likely to have dangerous lead water pipes …
■ … beginning with a search on this city website.
Moment of silence. Naperville’s City Council’s meeting tonight will honor resident Eva Liu, who died last week when a man allegedly pushed her off a German mountain.
■ She and her friend—who survived—were both University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign grads.
James Cameron, your next movie’s here. Updating coverage: Rescuers were combing a remote stretch of the Atlantic Ocean in a race against time to recover a missing submersible carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic.
■ With an oxygen supply that could run out as early as Thursday morning, Cameron’s deep-ocean expert in filming Titanic is not optimistic.
Trevor Noah’s comeback. The former Daily Show host’s launching a new podcast on Spotify …
■ … which may ease some Spotify users’ misgivings about Joe Rogan’s continuing crapfest on that platform …
■ … notably last Thursday’s show—a three-hour conversation in which presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shat out more of his vaccine delusions.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says Nobel Prize-nominated vaccine scientist Peter Hotez “100% made the right move” in responding to Rogan’s challenge for him to debate Kennedy.
‘Liberal activists want to buy your local TV station.’ Semafor explains a push for wealthy Democrats to invest in for-profit media companies …
■ … a case detailed in a report authored in part by “the executive editor of … a new regional digital newsroom linked to the progressive radio station WCPT 820AM in Chicago.”
‘My final column … after … more than 1,400.’ Ted Slowik’s signed off at the Daily Southtown …
■ … but we’ll remember him as a WXRT News intern (2014 account of a funny 1987 story).
■ The Tribune’s Rick Kogan celebrates retiring Chicago TV political reporter Mike Flannery.
‘For most white Americans, the knowledge that their bloodline may be connected to slavery would be a difficult burden to bear.’ Journalist Mike Fourcher makes an unexpected discovery about his family.
■ The Root: How some businesses got Juneteenth wrong.
‘Not bad for a kid raised in Detroit.’ Filmmaker and author Michael Moore honors the memory of his “friend and personal hero,” Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, who helped end Richard Nixon’s crime-ridden presidency …
■ … but who in fact was born in Chicago.
‘One of the best new series of 2023.’ As other critics bemoan “superhero fatigue,” the Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper gives 3 1/2 stars to the new Marvel series on Disney+, Secret Invasion …
■ The site was overwhelmed for a time yesterday, so the deadline’s been extended, and your donation through Wednesday will still be quadrupled by generous foundations.
A Chicago Public Square advertiser
Free live music returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago with Tuesdays on the Terrace, every Tuesday evening this summer. Enjoy the sounds of jazz, bomba, blues, and more!
Tonight, jazz musician Victor Garcia and his band pay tribute to Tito Puente. Get more information and see our Tuesdays on the Terrace lineup.