■ The key metric: Soil temperatures at 8 inches underground of 64 degrees or higher.
■ And then beware: They pee from trees.
Name game. Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry has rewarded billionaire Ken Griffin’s 2019 $125 million donation by renaming itself “The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry” …
■ … a move that historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas decries because the museum’s millionaire founder Julius Rosenwald “didn’t want the museum to be named after anything.”
■ Griffin bailed on Chicago two years ago, comparing the city to “Afghanistan on a good day” and relocating to Miami.
■ Then again: Free admission Sunday.
Your City Council at work. The Better Government Association: A year in, Mayor Johnson’s legislative body spends about a third of its time on honorary resolutions …
■ … which, frankly, sounds a lot like the state of things back in 1988.
■ Axios surveys the highs and lows of Johnson’s first year as mayor.
Trump’s ‘new criminal conspiracy.’ Popular Information: The parade of high-profile Republicans that Trump’s called “surrogates”—complaining outside the courthouse about witnesses, the jury and even Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter—could constitute criminal contempt of the gag order on Trump.
■ A Tribune editorial calls that pack of pols “a disgrace.”
■ Desi Lydic at The Daily Show: “It’s kind of hard for Trump to argue he’d never cheat on his wife when there’s a line of dudes outside waiting to suck him off.”
■ Reuters examines the threats of violence inspired by Trump’s criticism of his judges.
■ Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told the court in Trump’s criminal trial yesterday why he finally decided to turn against Trump.
Game on. Trump and President Biden have tentatively agreed to two debates in June and September …
■ … but not hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates, against which Biden’s campaign has held a grudge since 2020.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg: Trump’s approach to the 2024 election amounts to “Heads I win, tails you lose.”
■ Poring over the Federal Election Commission’s Presidential Candidate Map, veteran journalist Charlie Madigan concludes, “You really should run for president!”
FEST off. Amid continuing protests of war in the Mideast, DePaul University has canceled what was to have been its year-end campus celebration Friday.
■ A thing on social media: Users blocking celebrities who have said little or nothing about the war.
Hospital’s ‘disgraceful’ conditions. Two dozen doctors at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park complain of the institution’s decaying “patient care, staff safety and education.”
■ Earlier this spring: West Sub got a D from Leapfrog for safety conditions.
‘Climate-friendly’ hooey. Heated’s Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Agriculture casts a shadow over Tyson Foods’ claim to have devised the nation’s first “climate-friendly” beef.
■ A similar request from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group traces the data underlying Tyson’s boast to experts funded by Big Beef.
■ Chicago magazine ranks the Great Lakes … um … by greatness.
Bad Boeing. The Justice Department says Boeing’s violated the terms of a 2021 settlement that let it avoid criminal prosecution after two deadly crashes of its 737 Maxes …
■ … which means the company could now see itself hauled back into court on those charges.
‘The end of Google search as we know it.’ That’s Wired’s take on an overhaul to the company’s core product as it evolves to get “more personalized, and much more summarized by AI.”
■ U.S. users will begin to see AI-generated summaries atop search result pages.
■ Wired again: “The idea of communicating with artificial intelligence by typing into a box is already starting to seem quaint.”
■ Coming soon: “Ask Photos,” a feature that will employ AI to search your Google Photos for things like “the best photo from each national park I’ve visited.”
■ CNN’s Oliver Darcy: All of this seems to signal “the AI doomsday clock … ready to strike midnight for publishers” …
■ … but Washington Post columnist Will Oremus says AI answers could come back to bite Google.
‘We are building one enormous ad-supported streaming pile of shit.’ That’s Jimmy Kimmel’s brutal take on the state of television as he delivered his annual pitch to Disney and ABC advertisers.
■ Variety: Streaming TV’s embrace of commercials is putting them where once they were forbidden.
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