‘The planet is telling us something is gravely wrong.’ Scientists tell The Associated Press the Earth’s run of bad weather confirms we’ve entered uncharted climate territory.
■ The New Republic: “Leaders are scared shitless. Which is pushing them to explore … dumb, and outright dangerous, ideas.”
■ Investigate Midwest: Y’know the cliche about Midwest states being climate havens? Yeah, forget that.
Flush with care. Block Club Chicago: With Chicago’s waterways at capacity after recent rains, the city’s urging residents to scale back water usage.
■ Axios: In good news for carbon emissions, Chicagoans are living closer to their places of work and fun.
■ Mayor Johnson’s recommending Chicago restore its Department of Environment.
‘Ambitious and politically explosive ideas.’ The Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman says Johnson’s transition report gives critics “a measuring stick” for gauging his success.
■ The 223-page report—which you can read here—includes a call to make clearing sidewalks of snow a city responsibility and a goal of making all CTA stations accessible for people with disabilities.
■ Saturday’s “Downtown Day” in Chicago—the nonprofit My Block, My Hood, My City’s invitation for teenagers and young adults up to the age of 22 to explore the Loop.
Cops (allegedly) behaving badly. The Chicago Police Department’s investigating reports its officers engaged in sexual relations with the city’s new migrants—including a teenager who’s now pregnant.
■ Police investigating the sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl at Rainbow Beach on the Fourth of July are asking people to share photos or video taken there between 3 and 6 p.m. that day.
‘This case … is closed.’ With those words, a federal judge concluded a case older than she is: Lawyer Michael Shakman’s lawsuit challenging the practice of political hiring and firing in Illinois …
■ … but while the court is letting Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough off the hook for federal oversight of her practices, individual workers can still sue under standards set by Shakman’s case.
■ That said, new research concludes that quizzes help readers recall fact-checked news stories.
‘Fire everyone advising you.’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke offers Florida Gov. and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis that counsel …
■ … after the DeSantis campaign’s release of what Esquire’s Charlie Pierce calls “the single weirdest campaign video I have ever seen.”
■ The Onion mockingly assembles a list of DeSantis’ “most homophobic statements.”
‘Preferences given to the already advantaged Black kids of doctors and lawyers does nothing for those who most need a boost.’ Columnist Mona Charen finds an upside in the Supreme Court’s smackdown of collegiate affirmative action programs.
■ And so too does cartoonist Keith Knight at The Nib—sort of:
‘I expect that today’s actions will prevent this from ever happening again.’ Northwestern University’s president has suspended football coach Pat Fitzgerald for two weeks without pay because of charges of hazing within the program.
■ Fitzgerald says he didn’t know about it.
■ He and your Chicago Public Square columnist are both graduates of Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park (1997 link)—but he’s the only one who played football there.
Four stars. Critic Michael Phillips gives his highest rating to I’m a Virgo, a “fierce, funny, politically aware Amazon series about a 13-foot giant.”
■ Peyton Robinson at RogerEbert.com calls it “a laugh riot, a pulsing social document and an empathetic character study.”
■ Author Robert Loerzel’s unfolding blog on the beginnings of Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, “The Coolest Spot in Chicago,” revisits the city’s central role in the early motion picture industry.
Who’s on first … to follow the official new Chicago Public Square account on Facebook’s would-be Twitter-slayer, Threads? We’ll run your names Monday.
■ Jessica Lessin at The Information: Threads is bad for the news biz.
■ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg notes, that even as Twitter’s become “a toxic hellscape run poorly by a right-wing South African egomaniac,” a Jewish foodmaker’s having fun there.