Happy Monday. But not just any Monday! For the seventh time …
And now the news:
‘Fire is inevitable.’ As Chicago deals with another blast of air polluted by Canadian wildfires, a climate researcher tells the Tribune the problem will only get worse.
■ The Guardian: As global heat records tumble, Big Oil’s quietly walking back its climate pledges.
■ A drought in southern France is drying up tourism.
■ Italy’s bracing for temperatures up to 104º this week …
■ … and parts of Mediterranean Europe could top 113º.
■ Death Valley, California, yesterday tapped in at 128º.
■ The Onion surveys make-believe kids about climate change: “I’m sort of banking on a shooter taking me out before the climate does.”
Make that 13. That’s the revised total for tornadoes that ravaged Illinois last week.
■ Illinois businesses damaged by twisters in March now can finally apply for federal assistance.
■ Progressive activists who gathered in Chicago last week for the Netroots Nation conference celebrated Illinois’ leadership on issues including climate change, abortion and gay rights.
‘They’re bigger than ever.’ Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead—founder of the group Abortion Access Front—talks to the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg about her campaign against fake abortion clinics that, in Steinberg’s words, “lure in young women who fear they are pregnant, so they can be harangued about hellfire and the alleged horrors of a medical procedure far safer than carrying a pregnancy to term.”
■ The group’s database counts more than 100 in Illinois.
‘Thank you, Jesse.’ Columnist Mary Mitchell musters gratitude for the Rev. Jesse Jackson—retiring from the presidency of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded—even though she and he “often bumped heads.”
■ Visiting Chicago, Vice President Harris praised Jackson as “one of America’s greatest patriots.”
■ His successor at PUSH: A Dallas pastor.
‘Our local cycling stinks.’ Axios Chicago recaps a new report on Chicago’s bikeability from the group PeopleForBikes.
■ Chicago ranks 161st out of 163 large cities assessed.
Outrage alert. ProPublica’s latest on shady business at the Supreme Court: Billionaire Harlan Crow’s not only lavished gifts on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; he’s also gotten tax breaks for doing so.
■ R.I.P., U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel—who one of his colleagues says “was not only a much-admired federal judge; he played one in the movies.”
■ Among other high-profile cases, he presided over the 2011 sentencing of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
How to house more people. In a challenge that ends Aug. 12, the Federation of American Scientists is inviting your ideas for addressing the housing crunch at a national level.
■ Columnist Matt Yglesias: “It seems very unlikely that the federal government would get directly involved in writing zoning codes,” but it does control grant money that can bend state and local policies.
■ A developer blames higher costs and Chicago city rules for stalling his plans to build 250 single-family homes.
‘A dangerous nutcase.’ Columnist Robert Reich on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Democratic presidential campaign: “I knew Robert F. Kennedy, and you’re no Robert F. Kennedy.”
■ Popular Information finds donors who’d never given a dime to a Democrat until now are pitching in to fuel Kennedy’s run.
■ In a financial squeeze, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is cutting staff.
‘There’s a cost to ambition in big-time college sports, and NU is finding out what it is.’ Columnist Rick Morrissey on Northwestern’s coaching scandals: The university “didn’t make a deal with the devil when it sought more success on the field of play, but the two became nodding acquaintances.”
■ Sporting News’ Bill Trocchi: “I look forward to some of the bright academic minds at Northwestern someday putting a class together on Fitz-gate.”
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