‘Samuel Alito should resign.’ That’s ex-Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob’s reaction to reports that Justice Alito’s home displayed an upside-down American flag—a symbol associated with Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud—in January 2021.
■ Alito blames his wife.
■ Stephen King is … um … horrified.
■ Law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance: “Alito should “at a minimum, recuse himself from … the presidential immunity case and the case deciding whether the statute that criminalizes interference with an official proceeding applies to January 6.”
■ Public Notice: “A right-wing Supreme Court majority could well place Trump effectively beyond the reach of the nation’s criminal justice system.”
Biden’s ballot bind. An obscure provision of Ohio law could keep the president off ballots there.
■ Add a vice-presidential debate to the roster of political face-offs to come. Maybe.
What if … ? Journalist Dan Rather and his team at Steady ponder what the media has been underplaying: The possibility that the Republican nominee for president could soon be a convicted felon.
■ Trump’s criminal trial in New York resumes Monday, after a heated cross-examination yesterday of his former fixer Michael Cohen …
■ … who got caught up in the details of his alleged interaction with a 14-year-old prank caller …
■ … in what CNN analyst Stephen Collinson calls Trump’s best day of the proceedings so far.
■ Joyce Vance again: “The defense made the kind of points you’d expect: Cohen has lied a lot, including under oath. Cohen wanted a big White House job, and Trump rejected him.”
Guns at large. The Tribune reports that more than 112,000 Illinoisans have lost the right to own guns, but the state can’t confirm that 84,000 of them have truly been disarmed.
■ The Trace: More than 52,000 police guns—many of them resold by law enforcement agencies—have been involved in crimes since 2006.
‘In solving one problem, lawmakers created another.’ ProPublica: Illinois school districts sent kids to a for-profit out-of-state facility that isn’t vetted or monitored.
■ A Trib investigation has sparked legislation that would require doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals to report complaints of patient abuse.
‘Sorry, Ken.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg has bad news for the Museum of Science and Industry’s new namesake.
■ The president of Chicago’s Civic Federation is turning thumbs down on the plan for a new Bears stadium on the lakefront—instead suggesting the empty site Chicago acquired for an Olympics that never happened.
Spectacular—but maybe not that surprising. Slate analyzes just what went wrong with the implosion of the merged Foxtrot and Dom’s grocery chains.
■ Block Club: A pop-up market in Chicago this weekend and next aims to benefit vendors screwed by the stores’ abrupt closure.
Trib v. Trib. Seven Chicago Tribune journalists—filing on behalf of more than 50 others—are suing the newspaper and its corporate owner, complaining of sexual and racial discrimination.
■ The New York Times reports tension in the ranks of National Public Radio staffers over the still-unidentified source of funding for a new layer of editing to be imposed on all the organization’s media channels. (Gift link; you’re welcome.)
■ USA Today parent Gannett has cleared artificial intelligence tech to slap bulleted “key points” atop the work of participating reporters.
■ Bloomberg: Fake AI reporters are making it tougher for readers to tell truth from fiction.
■ Platformer: Google’s response to Gaza demonstrations exemplifies how the tech sector’s soured on employee activism.
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‘This is a famous space.’ Critic Chris Jones reviews Timeline Theatre’s final production inside its longtime North Side home …
■ … which, back in 2012, hosted a memorable play about Chicago police torture.
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■ Joe Hass made this edition better.