Chicago Public Square is free for all because of generous support from readers. You can join them with a one-time tip (nice!) or an ongoing pledge (nicer!)—but if you can’t chip in now, no guilt: You help Square grow simply by opening and reading each day. Or by sharing it with a friend. Thanks to all. And now the news:
Bugged! If you see one of these lanternfly nymphs or adults, newly discovered in Illinois …
… you have the Illinois Agriculture Department’s encouragement to take a photo, then squish it and then alert the state to the time and location at 815-787-5476 or lanternfly@illinois.edu …
■ … because, eight years after it made its way from East Asia to Pennsylvania, it now threatens more than 70 types of fruit trees and other plants here.
■ The 19th: “Climate change is destroying public housing and displacing women of color.”
‘What was the point of that?’ Wake Up to Politics proprietor Gabe Fleisher on last night’s Republican presidential debate: After two hours, none of Donald Trump’s rivals appeared any closer to cutting his apparent lead.
■ Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark saw “a nonevent distinguished only by its embarrassing lack of substance and its utter pointlessness. Other than that, it was great.”
■ Columnist Mark Jacob on Sen. Tim Scott: “Racists love it when a Black person says slavery wasn’t as bad as LBJ.”
■ PolitiFact went to town on 20 of the candidates’ claims.
■ The Washington Post’s graphed who attacked whom (gift link, courtesy of Square supporters):
■ Politico: Trump wasn’t at the debate—but his wardrobe was.
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: The debate marked the Republican Party’s soul leaving its body.
‘You’ve helped … Republicans sow the discord they wanted in Chicago.’ A Sun-Times editorial sarcastically praises Ald. Anthony Beale’s push to reconsider the city’s Welcoming City ordinance for migrants.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn to Republicans: “Keep our city’s name out of your fearmongering mouths.”
■ The arrival in Chicago of seven new buses of asylum seekers brings the total since Saturday to 27 (update) 34.
Chicago’s new top cop. Larry Snelling, a 30-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, has won confirmation from the city’s civilian oversight commission.
■ Mayor Johnson calls him a “son of this city.”
■ He’s most recently headed the city’s counterterrorism team.
■ On his to-do list: Addressing a string of brutal robberies that has Bucktown on alert.
■ Oak Park’s police chief says the timeline for a rash of armed robberies there over the weekend suggests thieves traveling back and forth between the village and the city.
‘Vaccine rollout is a mess.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says people are being turned away at appointments for COVID-19 shots and some are being asked to pay—because vaccines are now commercialized and the government’s no longer responsible for buying or distributing them.
■ Here’s Chicago’s guide to getting your shot.
‘Gifts from controversial people may come with controversy.’ News watchdog Dick Tofel, who cofounded ProPublica, flags some concerns about the rise of nonprofit newspaper ownership.
■ The Tribune’s Nina Metz: The Writers Guild of America’s victory over artificial intelligence tech in its new contract includes a provision that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material” …
■ … a deal that media writer Tom Jones says may shape similar struggles in the nation’s newsrooms.
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy: “It’s difficult to see how every industry will not be dramatically affected by the spate of ever-learning machines … unleashed upon the world.”
■ NewsGuard warns that a network of 17 TikTok accounts seems to be “leveraging hyper-realistic audio AI voice technology to gain hundreds of millions of views on conspiracy content that sounds authentically human.”
■ Movie critic Richard Roeper says the AI thriller The Creator “suffers from schmaltzy dialogue and questionable dramatic choices.”
■ The Post: YouTube’s generating music videos for white supremacist groups.
National crisis averted. The U.S. Senate has passed a resolution formalizing business attire as the chamber floor’s proper dress code—for men …
■ …but it doesn’t spell out what female senators can or can’t wear.
■ Meanwhile, a government shutdown looms this weekend.
Welcome, new readers. Especially if you’re joining after reading about Square in Eric Zorn’s Picayune Sentinel today.
■ Your thoughts are always welcome here.
■ Ted Cox made this edition better.