Chicago’s very own … grocery? Mayor Johnson’s launched a study of the concept that the city could run its own grocery store …
■ … to serve neighborhoods that have become food deserts.
■ Talk of turning an abandoned Jewel-Osco site in the Morgan Park neighborhood into a tent shelter for migrants drew a huge turnout for a community meeting last night.
■ A Chicago Coalition for the Homeless report estimates that almost two-thirds of the city’s homeless population is “couch surfing” with friends or relatives.
Sleeves up—but maybe not right away. Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says the decision on just when to get the new COVID-19 shot should hinge on when you got your last one.
■ CVS and Walgreens are taking appointments now.
‘It feels like a betrayal.’ A victim of sexual harassment reacts to NPR’s revelation that a communications firm supporting a campaign to help harassment victims was also getting paid by then-Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan—while she was suing him.
■ It’s not the first time the firm’s co-founder, Anita Dunn—also a top adviser to President Biden—has been in the middle of a #MeToo conflict (2017 link).
■ The Lever: Ex-President Obama’s former acting solicitor general and a Democratic senator-turned-lobbyist are helping a dark money group pressing the Supreme Court to block Congress from ever instituting a wealth tax on the superrich.
‘Trumpy judge actually rules against Trump.’ That’s The Daily Beast’s take on ex-President Trump’s unsuccessful bid to review classified evidence for his trial over the handling of secret documents in the comfort of his own home.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance says the prosecutions of Trump in Georgia and Florida evoke a tortoise and hare comparison—with the Florida judge seemingly “dragging her feet.”
■ In a setback for prosecutors, a Georgia judge says Trump and 16 others will be tried separately from two of their fellow defendants.
■ The new host of NBC’s long-running Meet the Press, Kristen Welker, will debut Sunday with a recorded Trump interview …
■ … which CNN’s Oliver Darcy says will put her to the ultimate test, “interviewing a professional lie machine on one of the biggest stages in news media.”
‘An effort to put a few more people behind bars is probably good politics.’ But Popular Information finds big holes in the case for the war on “organized retail crime.”
■ The former Hoffman Estates HQ for Sears, once the world’s largest retailer, is headed for demolition and replacement by data centers.
Star-studded … and fined. The SEC is slapping a $1 million penalty on the NFT-fueled and unregistered security animated series Stoner Cats, featuring the voices of—among others—Jane Fonda, Chris Rock, Seth McFarlane and Ashton Kutcher …
■ … whom Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz declares “not the toxic bro, but he’s friends with him.”
An apology—and an advisory. The most-tapped link in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square—about Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias laying a little snark on Louisiana’s benighted Sen. John Kennedy as Giannoulias defended Illinois’ groundbreaking ban on library book bans—failed to capture the context of that snark.
■ Here’s a video clip that does—but it probably should be rated R.
■ The Onion again: “Some Group Called ‘Dads For America’ Currently Running Over Your Kid’s Teacher With A Car” for “attacking America’s freedom with lessons about … how to use the library.”
Just your type. With help from reader and MediaTechGuy Barry Koehler—the kind of tech-savvy squeaky wheel every email newsletter should have—we’ve been updating Square’s code to eliminate typographical weirdness that’s persisted on some platforms. (Looking at you, Outlook.)
■ See more bugs—jarring font changes, for instance? Holler to design@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.)
■ Thanks again to columnist Eric Zorn for sharing Square highlights in his Picayune Sentinel newsletter.
A Square public service announcement
■ Square columnist Charlie Meyerson will be one of the evening’s storytellers.
■ SPECIAL OFFER: Email your ticket purchase receipt to Farther@ChicagoPublicSquare.com and get a free Square cap or T-shirt (a $20 value!) that night—while supplies last.