Trying times.
■ Updating coverage: Accused of dramatically inflating the value of his financial empire, Donald Trump had taken the stand today in New York—in the words of law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, “volatile temper, toddler-ish lack of self-control and all.”
■ Jury selection was set to begin in the five-years-pending corruption charges against ex-Chicago Ald. Ed Burke.
■ The dad of a man accused of last year’s Fourth of July massacre in Highland Park faced trial, accused of reckless misconduct for helping his son get a gun license. (Update, 10:31 a.m.: He pled guilty, will get 60 days in jail.)
‘Nobody’s hands are clean.’ Using words that Politico says will “reverberate through the national media and Washington in the coming days,” ex-President Obama told his former aides on their Pod Save America podcast that “all of us are complicit to some degree” in the Israel-Hamas war.
■ Time details the struggle to save lives at Gaza’s hospitals.
■ The AP’s running count of casualties since the attack of Oct. 7: More than 9,900 in Gaza and the West Bank; 1,400 in Israel.
■ Israel’s prime minister has suspended a member of his cabinet who seemed to support the notion of nuclear war on Gaza.
■ Columnist Steve Sheffey: “Nope. Still not time for a cease-fire.”
■ Antisemitic signs and flyers have been sprouting around the Chicago area.
■ Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrated outside the White House Saturday.
■ Retired Chicago-area physician Cory Franklin says Attorney General Merrick Garland—with whom he “grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same high school, and both of us lost relatives in the Holocaust”—needs to step up action against college campus antisemitism.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: The war’s causing his Jewish and his Arab, Palestinian and Muslim students “to fear each other.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch: “With the world on fire … the push not to offend with Middle East news coverage is emblematic of a bigger trend of … rank cowardice that also permeates domestic news coverage.”
Council crisis. Conceding “mistakes” in a racially charged confrontation last week over a proposed referendum on whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city, Mayor Johnson’s City Council floor leader, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, has quit that role and his post as chair of the Zoning Committee.
■ Ramirez-Rosa says he acted “in a way unbecoming of a leader” and says he’s apologized to Ald. Emma Mitts for his “disrespectful interaction” with her.
■ Johnson says he “agreed” Ramirez-Rosa should step down.
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “If the city decides to electronically crack down on loud mufflers, it should not follow the road it did with red light cameras.”
‘Candidates who, frankly, should be embarrassed they’re not beating the snot out of a twice-impeached, one-term president facing 91 state and felony charges.’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke offers unsolicited counsel to Republican presidential contenders scheduled to debate Wednesday.
■ HBO’s John Oliver roasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a “pathetic” response to Trump’s mockery of his cowboy boots: “You can’t claim it’s a time for substance just after promising to wear a boot on your head” …
■ … and, in an extended segment, Oliver stressed the critical role state elections will play in determining the fate of U.S. abortion rights.
‘To see the orchestrated campaign to remove books from schools escalate to a police station is shocking.’ The nonprofit free-expression group PEN America is among those condemning members of the fascist Moms for Liberty group for siccing the cops on Florida librarians.
■ Popular Information’s posted police video of the complaint.
Hawks in the news.
■ Cooper’s Hawk and several other birds are getting new names—free of “associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful.”
■ An ex-Chicago Blackhawk has filed another suit against the team, contending its former video coach “groomed, harassed, threatened and assaulted” him during the Hawks’ 2009-10 championship season.
Pouch peril. Several brands of apple cinnamon fruit puree marketed for kids are yanked from shelves because they may be contaminated with lead.
■ The FDA recommends testing for kids who may have eaten the stuff.
Oh, this will surely end well. Elon Musk plans to integrate his homegrown artificial intelligence chatbot Grok into Twitter X.
■ Google’s back in court, defending itself against charges its Play Store’s been illegally driving up prices.
Final two days. Midnight Tuesday ends the nomination period for the Reader’s Best of Chicago awards—bringing your last chance to give Chicago Public Square nods for Best Email Newsletter and Best Independent Website.
■ Then, it’ll be time for the periodic roll-call of Square supporters. If you'd like to see your name listed first, pitch in something—literally anything, even just $1—to help keep this service coming.