Ix-nay on obs-jay. The judge in Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying documents to cover up his frantic efforts to prevent damaging disclosures in the waning days of the 2016 election has ordered media not to report where potential jurors have been employed.
■ The judge dismissed two jurors concerned that information about them had become public.
■ Trump niece Mary L. Trump finds “some segments of the corporate media, primarily Fox, … helping Donald interfere with his trial through jury intimidation.”
■ Live updates: The trial had its 12 primary jurors and was in the hunt for alternates today.
■ In a break from tradition, the prosecution’s not advising Trump’s team who’ll be called to the stand first: “Trump has been tweeting about the witnesses. We’re not telling them who the witnesses are.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance says one of the big questions is whether Trump will testify in the case: “The man whose lawyers were afraid to let him sit down for an informal Q&A with special counsel Bob Mueller has no business on the witness stand … But … Trump has proven … uniquely incapable of listening to the advice of his lawyers.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst sums up Trump’s post-court appearance before reporters yesterday: “Old Man Says He’s Cold, Has Some Newspaper Clippings To Show You.”
■ The Daily Beast says the trial is wreaking havoc on Trump’s campaign …
■ … but The Conversation finds him using the proceedings to his advantage.
‘Eight years into the Trump takeover of the Republican Party, there are still a few surprises left.’ Susan B. Glasser at The New Yorker: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “sudden willingness to bring foreign-aid bills to the House floor risks his speakership—and Trump’s wrath.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich hopes Trump keeps up his “stolen election” rhetoric—which Reich says “will backfire if enough potential Trump voters decide there’s no point in voting because the game is already rigged against them.”
This is the kind of spontaneous publicity that really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening now! Your Chicago Public Square columnist got 6/8 on this week’s news quiz. Can you do better?
Ceasefire resolutions ‘do foster anti-Semitism.’ Reader* Amy Parker disagrees with columnist Eric Zorn’s criticism of Jewish lawmakers who refused to discuss the matter with Mayor Johnson.
■ Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post: “Israel cannot endure as a pariah on the world stage. Its long-term interests require it to … minimize further civilian casualties.”
■ A Google worker—and organizer with the group No Tech for Apartheid—who was fired after protesting the company’s contract with Israel’s military: “It feels like a very fascist environment.”
■ Israel reportedly launched a drone attack on Iran early today.
■ CNN alumnus Jessica Yellin: “It’s a veiled threat: Escalate and we can do real damage.”
■ NewsGuard: Iranian state media has been faking reports about its Saturday attack on Israel.
Pride cometh. Reversing an earlier call, organizers of Chicago’s June 30 Pride Parade say schools previously denied a role in a scaled-down event are back in—but as just one entry.
■ An extended moratorium on the closing of Chicago Public Schools—charter schools included—has passed the state House.
Off track. A Sun-Times investigation of a program designed to help ex-offenders win full-time jobs with the CTA finds those apprentices “strung along for years … in low-paying roles with no benefits.”
■ The Reload: The U.S. hasn’t had a mass shooting—four or more people killed in a single public incident unrelated to other criminal activity—since October.
■ The Reload: The U.S. hasn’t had a mass shooting—four or more people killed in a single public incident unrelated to other criminal activity—since October.
Welcome to the 21st century, Illinoisans. Good news if you’ve ever scrambled to find someone to notarize a document: Illinois is now the 48th(!) state to let that happen remotely.
■ You can search for an e-notary here.
Happy Record Store Day. It’s tomorrow.
■ Honoring today’s 100th anniversary of the National Barn Dance’s debut on Chicago’s WLS-AM, Neil Steinberg writes: “The more I look at my time in Chicago, the more country pops out.”
■ The occasion gets celebrated Saturday at the Hideout.
‘To say the results were garbage would be a deep understatement.’ Literary Activism columnist Kelly Jenson: “Google is destroying your access to news.”
■ Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer: Free speech is disappearing on America’s college campuses.
This is the kind of spontaneous publicity that really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening now! Your Chicago Public Square columnist got 6/8 on this week’s news quiz. Can you do better?
■ Q. 1: “Expected tax revenues from which product have fallen short of projections?”
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* And former WXRT colleague to your columnist.