Whoops. Y’know Chicago’s deal with the company behind the controversial ShotSpotter gunfire detection service (2021 link)? The one that then-mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson in February vowed to dump?
■ Well, um, ah, er … the Sun-Times reports that now-Mayor Johnson “unwittingly” OK’d a $10 million payment to extend the company’s contract.
■ Earlier this month, the Better Government Association’s Illinois Answers Project looked at what happened after other cities cut ties with ShotSpotter.
■ Politico: A month after his swearing-in, Johnson’s team is still working on a transition report.
A million here, $7.25 million there … In what the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman calls “a surprise about-face,” a key City Council committee has approved a $1 million settlement with the family of a 26-year-old man police shot and killed in 2019 …
■ … and $7.25 million for a man who served 30 years in prison for a double-murder conviction that ultimately was overturned—and for which he says Chicago police beat him into a false confession.
■ A new report from the Civic Federation suggests considering cutting the council in half and combining the jobs of city clerk and treasurer.
Grumpy cop alert. The Chicago Police Department says officers will have to work overtime for traffic control during the Fourth of July weekend NASCAR races.
■ Block Club Chicago: NASCAR’s assurances of safety muted even some of the event’s sharpest critics during a City Council hearing yesterday.
■ Speaking of safety: Chicago’s new fleet of Divvy scooters comes with turn signals, phone holders and more powerful batteries for longer rides.
■ Speaking of phones: Add AT&T to the list of retailers abandoning Michigan Avenue storefronts.
27 seconds. That’s how long Fox let a caption labeling President Biden a “wannabe dictator” stay onscreen during its coverage Tuesday of Donald Trump’s arraignment on charges he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to block the ensuing investigation.
■ Fox says it “addressed” the matter immediately, but the epithet reappeared when the segment was rebroadcast overnight.
■ The White House press secretary yesterday tossed some shade back at Fox.
■ Trump’s former chief of staff says the 37-count indictment has Trump “scared shitless.”
■ USA Today columnist has a question for the growing field of Republicans now seeking the presidency: “If elected, will you pardon Trump?”
… and those 47 include Chicago Public Square.
‘The city has both a legal and a moral imperative to do better.’ Chicago’s inspector general says the city’s done a crappy job of enforcing its own law requiring at least half of all construction waste be recycled.
■ Read the full report here.
Can a doc demand your credit card up-front? Experts offer the Arm and a Leg podcast a couple of strategies and a legal maneuver you can try to avoid surrendering what could amount to a blank check.
■ If you’re more a reader than a listener, here’s a transcript of the show.
‘How do you parody a society that is already a comical dystopia?’ The Atlantic’s Fletcher Peters reviews Season 6 of Netflix’s Black Mirror …
■ … whose creator tells Wired that Apple’s new VR headset technology feels plucked from a Season 1 episode …
■ … which Entertainment Weekly has ranked as the best in the whole series.
■ Wearing his latest hat as a cartoonist, former Trib photographer Alex Garcia turns a skeptical pen on Apple’s latest.
Onion peeled. The union representing employees of the iconic humor website protests that four of its employees members were laid off with little notice.
■ ProPublica founder Dick Tofel suggests four reasons cable news is struggling—including “News avoidance is a big and growing problem.”
■ Thanks to columnist Eric Zorn for launching a new newsletter feature spotlighting Chicago Public Square.
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