Groceries gone. With no advance notice, the Foxtrot and Dom’s stores—which merged just five months ago—shuttered yesterday.
■ Eater Chicago: Store workers kept in the dark until almost the last minute were “instructed not to talk to customers about the matter.”
■ Holding a credit from those stores? Fuhgeddaboudit.
■ ProPublica: “10 times as much of this toxic pesticide could end up on your tomatoes and celery under a new EPA proposal.”
■ Fresh research could send shivers through the halls of Big Tobacco and Alcohol: The new generation of weight-loss drugs—think Ozempic—seems to suppress the desire for those vices.
■ Illinois’ bankrupt Oberweis Dairy says it expects to keep running under new ownership.
‘CTA: Show Dorval Carter the exit door.’ A Sun-Times editorial says it’s time for Mayor Johnson to replace the Chicago Transit Authority’s president.
■ Reader columnist Ben Joravsky on Johnson’s success in letting controversial tax increment financing districts expire and use that money to pay for programs to help the poor: “I should be happy, but all I do is cry.”
■ Chicago magazine’s Ted McClelland rates Johnson’s first year in office: “The mayor is not incompetent, he’s inexperienced.”
Footlooser. The Chicago Loop Alliance says pedestrian activity downtown is finally—sometimes—back to pre-pandemic levels.
■ Police say a man last night was held up in the Loop at gunpoint by one female and five males.
■ Never mind River North: A new report finds Green Street through Fulton Market now Chicago’s most expensive commercial way.
‘Go to a state school.’ FiveThirtyEight founder—and University of Chicago alumnus—Nate Silver shares that advice with college-bound people: “The Ivy League and other elite private colleges are losing esteem—and they deserve it.”
■ A Tribune editorial: “Elite university presidents … utterly failed to anticipate what was coming their way after Hamas attacked Israel and Israel responded in a way that killed thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
■ Press Watch proprietor Dan Froomkin: “The media should be celebrating college protesters instead of demonizing them.”
■ A Palestinian-American professor at New York University describes the police crackdown on student protesters Monday night: “Panicking” and “screams.”
■ A Jewish student at Columbia University writes for Zeteo: “Don’t believe what you’re being told about ‘campus antisemitism.’”
■ Columbia early today reported “important progress” with the protesters.
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: Columbia’s student journalists have “expertly documented” the story.
■ The AP: What began at Columbia is spreading nationwide.
■ Politico: President Biden’s not sweating fallout from the protests.
■ Semafor untangles threads of left-leaning protests, facial recognition tech, face masks and the pandemic.
‘He violated the gag order during the hearing about whether he violated the gag order!’ Jimmy Kimmel recapped yesterday’s proceedings in Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
■ CNN: “Former National Enquirer boss David Pecker … revealed in granular detail how Trump worked hand-in-hand with the infamous national tabloid to … smear his political opponents.”
■ The Onion: “Trump Held In Contempt Of Court After Stabbing Michael Cohen To Death With Ballpoint Pen.”
■ The Daily Show roasted Biden for his suggestion that cannibals may have eaten his uncle—a thing that PolitiFact debunked last week.
Pandemic flashback. From Chicago Public Square on this date in 2020:
■ “Please ignore him.” Gizmodo rips into President Trump for floating “the potentially dangerous idea of injecting disinfectant” into coronavirus patients.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst pleads with Fox News viewers: “DO NOT INJECT YOURSELF WITH BLEACH OR WINDEX.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
And while we’re looking back … Matthew Yglesias explains why George W. Bush was a terrible president.
TikTok’s tick-tock. Biden says he’ll sign a bill that the Senate has approved, requiring TikTok’s China-based parent to sell the thing under threat of a ban.
■ The AP explains: “No, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from your phone. Nor will you go to jail if you continue using it after it is banned.”
■ Washington Post columnist Will Oremus calls it “a gift to Big Tech”—notably Facebook parent Meta and Google.
■ NewsGuard founder Steven Brill: “There’s a First Amendment-friendly way to clean up social media. But tech CEOs won’t like it.”
History derailed. In the face of intransigence by Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, Biden was set to abandon his bid to name Chicago’s first female U.S. attorney.
■ Washington Post columnist George Will (gift link): “112 ignoble, infantile Republicans voted to endanger civilization.”
One for the books. A far north suburban school board has un-canceled its participation in a statewide program where fourth through eighth graders get to vote on their favorite titles.
■ That followed a torrent of protests from parents and students—including a second grader who spoke before the vote.
Thanks. Charlie Pajor made this edition better.