Time’s up. Updating coverage: The unsuccessful quest for the Titan—that submersible missing on an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic—passed the point when breathable air was to run out.
■ CNN columnist Oliver Darcy: “Should a missing tourism vessel for the ultra-wealthy take precedence over other consequential stories happening around the world?”
■ Lauren Martinchek: “Here we are pondering some of the most disturbing deaths imaginable that simply did not need to happen.”
■ Slate’s Shannon Palus: As the rich “try to defy death … the rest of us can only watch.”
■ There’s no shortage of harrowing tales from past travelers with the expedition company …
■ Neil Steinberg predicts: “Interest in this kind of thing will soar. … People with more money than sense will … become intrigued, ignoring the ‘and then you might die’ part.”
‘Killer tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail.’ A National Weather Service forecaster reflects on the horrible weather that devastated a west Texas town and killed at least four people last night.
■ The Washington Post Tuesday: Five maps link Texas’ terrible weather to climate change.
■ Argonne National Laboratory’s teaming up with community organizations to track climate change’s impact on Chicago.
‘The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office does not believe it can meet its burden of proof.’ Twelve years after the killing of an off-duty Chicago police officer, prosecutors have dropped charges …
■ … against two men who’ve already spent a total of 22 years behind bars.
■ The City Council’s approved $8.8 million in settlements of lawsuits claiming Chicago cops did bad things.
■ In a move the head of Chicago’s search for a new police superintendent calls “completely inappropriate,” 19 council members are pushing one candidate.
■ Columnist Matthew Yglesias: “Community meetings aren’t democracy. … Elected officials should … decide what they want to do and make it happen.”
Sox park reliever. A man who aided people hurt in a hit-and-run Tuesday outside Guaranteed Rate Field credits his decision to take his employer up on an offer of emergency medical training.
■ The suspect in the case was due in court at noon today.
■ One witness says the Sox and the city should shut down 35th Street near the stadium on game days.
■ The chaos caused by a flash mob at a carnival last month has prompted Tinley Park to bring in outside security to back up cops for a festival July 1-4.
‘I believe in throw-back.’ Mayor Johnson’s introduced an ordinance aimed at protecting Chicago’s iconic “ghost signs”—flashy neon reminders of businesses long gone.
■ The City Council’s voted to designate The Warehouse—a West Loop club that birthed house music—a Chicago landmark …
■ … just in time for this weekend’s Chicago House Music Festival and Conference.
Metra pass on borrowed time. A pandemic-era innovation—the $100 unlimited-ride monthly ticket, the agency’s most popular—may be ending …
■ … along with $6 and $10 day passes.
■ It’s soliciting public comment here.
‘Censure all of us!’ Democrats defiantly celebrated the Republican-dominated House’s censure of Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the prosecution in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
■ Schiff told Fox he’ll wear the censure “as a badge of honor.”
■ Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, the Daily Beast reports, “The messy feud between two of MAGA world’s biggest stars burst into public view … when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Rep. Lauren Boebert a ‘little bitch’ to her face.”
■ Boebert wanted to impeach President Biden—a plan House Speaker McCarthy diverted to committee.
‘Justices licking sugar off the tummies of their sugar daddies.’ Politico’s Jack Shafer says Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito’s “presponse” to ProPublica’s expose of his questionable ethics was one of the dumbest things Washington’s seen in decades.
■ Charlie Pierce at Esquire: “Supreme Court justices should not live like oil sheikhs, and especially not on somebody else’s dime.”
■ A year after Alito’s historic majority opinion overturning women’s right to abortion, The Associated Press reviews abortion law in every state.
America: Older than ever. New census data shows that the U.S. population’s median age has leapt eight years since 1980—mainly, in one demographer’s words, because “fewer kids are being born” …
■ … and that the white population of this country would have fallen last year if not for immigration …
■ … which makes all the more timely “The Onion’s Guide To Fertility Treatments.”
‘A feast for data-hungry government agencies.’ The Intercept: “The legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis is providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tools to target people who may potentially commit a crime—before any actual crime takes place.”
■ Here’s the unredacted contract overview.
‘This tale is far from over.’ Columnist Eric Zorn notes release of an update to former WBEZ reporter Lauren Chooljian’s podcast The 13th Step, where she details the arrest of two men accused of vandalizing her home, her parents’ home and a colleague’s home in apparent retaliation for her reporting.
■ You can hear the whole series here.
‘Meyerson tells readers where to go.’ Thanks to Zorn for sharing Chicago Public Square highlights with readers of his Picayune Sentinel newsletter.
■ You should subscribe free here.
■ Elizabeth Austin made this edition better.