Showtime. Live updates: Jury selection has begun today in Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial—the first for an ex-president …
■ … and, the AP reports, “almost certain to be the most salacious, with testimony expected about alleged marital infidelity, a supermarket tabloid’s complicity in a cover-up, and payouts orchestrated by a former Trump loyalist who now counts himself among the ex-president’s enemies.”
■ Trump’s accused of faking business records to keep voters from learning unflattering info about himself—in what the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin calls his “first—and only successful—attempt to use deception … to gain power.” (That’s a gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters.)
■ Politico introduces you to the trial’s potential cast of characters.
■ No live video from the courtroom, but a University of Texas journalism professor says still photos will reveal much.
Judge won’t budge. Dismissing the Trump team’s request as “a series of inferences, innuendos and unsupported speculation,” Judge Juan Merchan kicked things off by refusing to recuse himself from the case.
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “Trump has been … baiting the judge all weekend.”
■ Lisa Needham at Public Notice: If Trump “really thinks it’s a nothingburger, he certainly isn’t acting like it.”
■ Ex-Illinois Republican Rep. turned Trump adversary Adam Kinzinger: The system is working.
■ Prospective jurors may be asked what media they consume and where they get their news …
■ … a thing that last week brought joy to Stephen Colbert.
Chicago Jews, divided. Politico’s Shia Kapos says the escalating Middle East war has become “a huge wedge issue” splitting the city’s Democrats—particularly left-leaning Jewish leaders and some of the city’s most prominent Democratic Jewish politicians.
■ “Free Palestine” and “Stop Genocide” protesters today were blocking access to O’Hare—partly to call attention to Boeing’s sale of weapons to Israel.
■ The AP: “Iran’s attack on Israel raises fears of a wider war, but all sides have also scored gains.”
■ Also from Politico: “The Biden administration’s main message for Israel … comes down to this: Stop and think.”
■ Same thing from Britain and France.
■ Same thing from Britain and France.
‘We are all allowed to be outraged.’ Mayor Johnson is condemning a Back of the Yards mass shooting that killed an 8-year-old girl and injured 10 others—including her mother and three boys, ages 9, 8 and 1.
■ Chicago police say the city’s controversial ShotSpotter technology led them to the scene of the crime.
■ Behind the nearly 100-shot police killing of Dexter Reed, Block Club and Bolts see a surge in West Side traffic stops.
■ CWBChicago: A man was shot while relieving himself on a tree in Lincoln Park.
Dairy downfall. Oberweis Dairy—the milk and ice cream company with almost 40 stores in Illinois and Missouri—has filed for bankruptcy.
■ Its website showed no clues to its business plans.
■ Its family ownership includes Trump-backed ex-State Sen. Jim Oberweis, who unsuccessfully ran—and then contested his defeat—in a 2020 race for Congress (2021 link).
■ Popular Information catches Ohio’s Trump-allied Senate candidate in a series of falsehoods about his purported aversion to China.
No ‘sweetheart deal’ for Obama shrine. Two lawyers representing efforts to block plans for an Obama Presidential Center in historic Jackson Park say the legal fight ain’t over yet …
■ … even though a federal appeals court last week gave further construction the go-ahead.
‘News organizations should put their election content in front of their paywall.’ Former Time managing editor Richard Stengel calls for making journalism free—at least during the 2024 campaign …
■ … reflecting the reasons why Chicago Public Square is always free—thanks, in part, to the support of readers who’ve stepped forward to help cover the continually rising cost of its production and distribution.
■ NewsGuard set up an artificial intelligence-generated, “pink slime” website filled with partisan news for just $105.
Soundtrack for this edition. Chicago radio veteran (WXRT, WLUP) Dave Benson’s free Bensonic stream on Live365.
■ Jerry Role made this edition better. (Image generated in part by Google’s ImageFX.)