Hawaiian horrors. Wildfires fueled by hurricane-driven winds left at least 36 dead and historic sites burned to the ground on Maui …
■ … which was taken by surprise.
■ A climate expert sees the devastation as testament that, as Earth warms, “nowhere is immune” to such fires.
■ Not to mention bear incursions.
(Cartoon: Charis JB at The Nib.)
No doubting Thomas’ conflicts. New revelations from ProPublica provide “the fullest accounting yet”—one “far more extensive than previously understood”—of how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas “has secretly reaped the benefits from a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons … who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence” …
■ … including the late Evergreen Park-born billionaire and Blockbuster, Waste Management and AutoNation chief H. Wayne Huizenga.
■ (Update, 12:27 p.m.) New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz: “Clarence Thomas Hikes Price of Supreme Court Decisions to Keep Pace with Inflation.”
Illinois’ Ohio showdown. Big loser in the Ohio referendum widely portrayed as a fight over abortion rights? Conservative Illinois shipping-box billionaire Dick Uihlein, who provided almost all the cash anti-abortion forces poured into the campaign (Aug. 8 link).
■ Gov. Pritzker, who had some skin in the game for the winning side and who hailed Ohio voters’ decision not to make passing constitutional amendments as hard as it is in Illinois, says he wouldn’t change the rules here.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn translates: “The higher threshold for amendments is good if I like what’s in the constitution, but bad if I favor the proposed amendment.”
■ Bulwark columnist Daniel McGraw: “This wasn’t a vote on some arcane constitutional procedure; it was a don’t-fuck-with-me-like-this vote.”
■ Ohio native Neil Steinberg: “It is good to see Ohio … on the side of the good guys once again.”
■ Fox host Ann Coulter: “By the time Republicans notice states keep voting IN FAVOR of abortion, there will be no elected Republicans left.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke crafts a message Republicans should consider issuing: “Here’s hoping we can all move on as a nation from this minor, multidecade political miscalculation that stands to make us politically irrelevant for years to come. We really didn’t read the room, and we also really wanted to control women. Who knew such a thing might backfire?”
What did he tweet? For reasons that remained undisclosed, the special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s final days as president got a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account …
■ … and Twitter was fined $350,000 for failing to cough up those records in a timely fashion.
■ The Lever: Trump’s administration gave a $700 million bailout to trucking firm Yellow—which is now bankrupt and laying off tens of thousands of workers—shortly before the cofounder of the private equity firm that owns a bunch of Yellow’s debt and his wife donated $1 million to Trump’s 2020 campaign.
‘Not fit for a dog.’ That’s how one Chicago Transit Authority worker, talking to The Reader about deplorable employee treatment, describes restroom facilities the CTA offers staffers.
■ To discourage panhandlers, Walgreens is blasting classical music outside some of its Chicago stores—and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is not amused.
End ‘Chicago’s legacy of bad cops.’ A Tribune editorial says that should be a mandate for the city’s next police superintendent.
■ An off-duty Cook County sheriff’s officer was in critical condition after a shooting near Midway Airport last night.
■ To deter crime and conflicts, Uber is rolling out a new feature in Chicago—letting drivers and riders record audio during their trips.
Jersey roar. Northwestern University football coaches and staffers are under fire from the university’s leadership for wearing shirts bearing scandal-scarred and fired head coach Pat Fitzgerald’s old jersey number.
■ Northwestern’s athletic director calls the shirts “tone deaf.”
He was born in Canada. But Robbie Robertson, who as the leader of The Band crafted some of the most American music of the 20th century, is dead at 80.
■ Marathon Pundit John Ruberry recalls Robertson’s 1974 Chicago performance backing up Bob Dylan’s comeback tour.
‘Thanks for the link to The Atlantic article on local journalism.’ Reader Scott Watson writes in response to yesterday’s edition of Chicago Public Square: “Our very own St. Louis Post Dispatch does a great job of reporting local scams and was instrumental in bringing down a corrupt county president in 2018. Tony Messenger, the reporter, has won a Pulitzer for his work. Of course, most of my hard-right friends think he is a liberal communist … but I find Tony and his colleagues’ work essential.”
■ A hat-tip to Simon Owens’ media newsletter for flagging the Atlantic piece.
Hey, kids! Free comics! As The Nib—which has generously shared its illustrations with Chicago Public Square readers over the last year or so—prepares to shut down at the end of the month, it’s offering all 15 issues of its Eisner and Ignatz Award-winning magazine available for anyone to download at no cost.
■ You can also chip in funding to keep the more than 6,000 comics it’s published over 10 years available to the public online.
■ Thanks to Jim Parks for catching the goof.