O.J. ➪ Trump. CNN’s Oliver Darcy painstakingly maps the connections between O.J. Simpson’s saga and Donald J. Trump’s rise to political power.
■ Poynter: “TMZ, which had the first media reports of Simpson’s death, was created by Harvey Levin, who came to prominence … while covering the Simpson murder trial.”
■ Reflecting on his “dozens and dozens of columns about the Simpson circus at the time,” the Sun-Times’ Richard Roeper concludes, “Two innocent people were murdered, and there’s never been any real doubt about who did it.”
■ Roeper colleague Mary Mitchell: The trial exposed America’s great racial divide.
■ Actually, I’m A Very Nice Person columnist Julia Gray: “Good riddance. Let’s remember his victims instead.”
■ The Onion: “Simpson Allowed To Remain Living After Coffin Doesn’t Fit.”
‘A habitual election denier is now running the Republican Party, or as it should be more correctly known, the party of Trump.’ Law professor Joyce Vance exposes Lara Trump’s “dangerous lie.”
■ With jury selection set for Monday, PolitiFact offers a fact-checker’s guide to Trump’s first criminal trial—including this truth: It will take just one juror to block the unanimous verdict necessary to convict him.
‘Johnson owns … any breakdown in police discipline it may represent.’ Better Government Association chief David Greising says a court-mandated consent decree was designed to prevent disasters like the police killing of Dexter Reed, and it’s time for the mayor and his police superintendent to get cops to do what’s right.
■ CWBChicago tackles nagging questions about the Reed video.
■ Johnson was set this afternoon to unveil new initiatives to cut down robberies in Chicago.
■ The City Council’s moving toward establishing a “security footprint” around this summer’s Democratic National Convention—including a ban on … laptop computers?
‘This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons.’ President Biden’s moving to require thousands more gun dealers in the U.S. to run background checks on buyers …
■ … but, as The Reload explains, many of the proposed changes just formalize long-running Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives policies.
■ Three Democrats joined Republicans in the Senate to reject Biden’s proposal to track pollution generated on highways the feds pay to build.
‘The man who presided over the legislature at the time … had married a 12-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old—in that order.’ Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti shares a “fun fact” about the 1864 abortion ban resurrected in Arizona this week.
■ Marisa Kabas at The Handbasket: Biden should deliver a primetime address on abortion.
■ Politico surveys the ruling’s repercussions across Illinois’ political landscape.
■ Michael Kosta at The Daily Show: “If Arizona women are gonna be forced to live under this law from 1864, then all of Arizona’s lawmakers should be forced to get their healthcare from 1864 standards, too. Yeah—you’ve got back pain? Put some leeches on it. … Feeling depressed? You can see a therapist … a leech.”
■ Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week is abortion rights opponent and Arizona Republican Kari Lake, whom Lenz mocks thusly: “Remember that thing I said that I totally believe in? It turns out to be insanely unpopular so I’d like to pretend I never said it. So if you could all just not hold me accountable for it, that would be great.”
Eccch. The Alliance for the Great Lakes reports that even stretches of Great Lakes beaches that look pristine are littered with tiny plastics.
■ The federal government’s sending Illinois $8.6 million to address chronic flooding along the Eisenhower Expressway and in nearby Maywood.
Irony Dept. The death of Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough left her office “temporarily unable” to provide death certificates.
■ She’ll be honored with a public memorial Sunday afternoon.
Roku rocked. More than half a million streaming accounts have been compromised by the second security breach in recent weeks.
■ The company says it’s resetting passwords for affected accounts and requiring two-factor authentication for everyone.
App updates. Chicagoans who use Uber’s app now have the option to summon a regular ol’ taxi.
■ Instagram has begun testing a “nudity protection feature” in direct messages.
NBC’s ethics cloud. The fiasco that was the network’s attempt to hire lying ex-Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel has put a spotlight on NBC News Group chair Cesar Conde’s side hustles—as a board member at Walmart and PepsiCo.
■ Square reader Benjy Blenner finds an NPR editor’s essay concluding that its news coverage “has gone off the rails” to be “offensive.”
■ LateNighter counted to determine which late-night show gets the most laughs per minute.
Jingle knell? Block Club Chicago reports that Logan Square’s famed “Christmas house”—the one loaded to the gills with lights each holiday season—is up for sale.
■ Here’s the listing: $1.6 million.
Despite ‘a record number of sports questions.’ Your Chicago Public Square columnist nailed a perfect score on this week’s news quiz from past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
Despite ‘a record number of sports questions.’ Your Chicago Public Square columnist nailed a perfect score on this week’s news quiz from past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
■ Question 1: “Which of these is an actual rallying cry for baristas working to unionize Starbucks?”
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