Take that, Indiana. A day before the state to the east was to impose a near-total abortion ban, Gov. Pritzker expanded access to reproductive healthcare in Illinois …
■ … including a hotline for scheduling reproductive services at hospitals across the state.
■ Two Chicago hospitals have made U.S. News & World Reports’ new list of the nation’s best.
■ Today’s the day the Wisconsin Supreme Court—which almost overturned Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory—flips to liberal control.
‘My granddaughter keeps asking for mommy.’ For the second time in four years, a Chicago woman has lost a child to a fatal shooting …
■ … that left another seven wounded.
■ Chicago police were seeking whoever shot two teenage girls—killing one—on the South Side last night.
■ Dozens of teenagers face criminal charges in connection with a Sunday evening gathering that turned violent in the South Loop.
■ A Tribune editorial: Chicago needs a tourism campaign acknowledging that “‘dangerous’ is how people across the world … view the city.”
Ex-judge probed. The Cook County state’s attorney has launched a criminal investigation into a former Circuit Court judge accused of stealing almost a million dollars in handling the financial affairs of a 90-year-old veteran Tuskegee Airman.
Chicago schools’ ‘racial disparity in principal removals.’ WBEZ and the Sun-Times note that, of nine principals yanked for “serious misconduct” in recent years, six are Black men.
■ Popular Information: Meet the “scholars” who created Florida’s new Black history curriculum.
Right turn on red no more? That’s one of the proposals Axios Chicago finds in the transportation plan submitted by Mayor Johnson’s transition team.
■ The transportation commissioner who oversaw the introduction of electric scooters and outdoor dining is signing out at City Hall.
Good news, auto shoppers. For the first time in months, Carfax’s Used Car Index sees price drops in virtually every category.
■ Axios: Chicago carjackings are finally down, but regular ol’ thefts are up.
Color it bankrupt. Yellow Corp., one of the biggest U.S. trucking firms, is calling it quits.
■ And, yeah, its trucks were orange.
‘Threatening a nonprofit … that tracks hate speech. Who does that?’ Media watchdog Tom Jones: Twitter (now “X.com”) overlord Elon Musk’s latest legal bluster represents a new low …
■ … and, in the words of columnist Robert Reich, would keep the public “from knowing the extent of hate speech” on the platform.
■ Musk had to remove a big X sign from the company’s headquarters.
■ Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow envisions help for Musk from Invisible-Hand-of-the-Free-Market Man:
AI Jesus. There’s at least one now.
■ Google’s laying off some workers on its voice-powered Google Assistant team—in favor of more artificial intelligence tech.
‘The greatest manchild ever.’ Rolling Stone remembers Pee-wee Herman—Paul Reubens, who died Sunday at 70.
■ Hollywood Reporter critic Daniel Fienberg: “Without Pee-wee Herman … we don’t get half the characters conceived by Will Ferrell or Chris Kattan or Nasim Pedrad or too many Saturday Night Live performers to count, an irony given that Reubens famously auditioned for and was rejected by the Lorne Michaels sketch show.”
■ Conan O’Brien: “His surreal comedy and unrelenting kindness were a gift to us all.”
■ Journalist Dan Sinker: Pee-wee Herman provided joy in the pandemic’s darkest days (2021 link).
Correction. Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square misquoted Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley: She said government leaders of advancing age and declining health should “know when to walk away.”
■ The Onion: “Biden Forgets Nation’s Name.”
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