Hot nights. The Sun-Times says Chicago’s looking at what could be the longest streak of above-70-degree nighttime lows in 91 years.
■ Yesterday’s high of 97 broke a 137-year-old record for June 17 …
■ … driving more people to the lake, where at least two have drowned this week.
■ The Onion: “Report: Every Place On Earth Has Wrong Amount Of Water.”
■ The Lever: Big Oil plans to criminalize climate activists’ pipeline protests.
‘This is what people have to live with.’ Block Club Chicago: A City Council member’s Facebook Live talk about crime was interrupted by the shooting of two people.
■ A teenager convicted of shooting and killing two boys outside Chicago’s Benito Juarez Community Academy in 2022 has been sentenced to 46 years in prison.
■ Popular Information: “Why so many Americans have misconceptions about crime trends.”
■ Daily Show host Jon Stewart turned Republicans’ condemnation of big-city crime back on … Republicans.
■ LateNighter: A new survey suggests late-night hosts are more popular than President Biden and Donald Trump.
‘The Court … has left both the law and the facts behind.’ Public Notice’s Lisa Needham dissects Justice Clarence Thomas’ “disgracefully unserious” opinion tossing out a Trump administration ban on bump stocks—the aftermarket mod that let a Las Vegas shooter kill 60 people and wound more than 500 over just 11 minutes in 2017.
■ Elie Mystal at The Nation: The court “wants more people to die in mass shootings.”
■ A Tribune editorial: “If Trump gave the word that Republican lawmakers ought to codify his bump stock ban … it would sail through Congress.”
■ Illinois’ ban remains in force.
■ The Onion details “A Day In The Life Of Samuel And Martha-Ann Alito.”
Americans incoming. Biden’s moving to grant citizenship to half a million immigrants without present legal status in the U.S.
■ Politico: The City Council’s Latino Caucus isn’t buying Mayor Johnson’s 60-day shelter stay policy for migrant families with kids.
■ Johnson’s belatedly launched a Chicago task force on reparations to address the repercussions of slavery …
■ … under the leadership of a new city chief equity officer.
‘Uh, he is one.’ Columnist Parker Molloy is exasperated by the New York Times headline, “Biden Campaign Ad Paints Trump as a Felon.”
■ The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols: “Trump World seems worried.”
■ Casey Michel, the author of the upcoming book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World, tells Politico he sees an “absolute explosion” of foreign interference in U.S. politics.
‘How isn’t that a conflict?’ The Sun-Times flags the case of an Illinois state senator who invests in insurance brokers and chairs the Senate’s insurance committee.
■ The chair of the Chicago City Council ethics committee is proposing to take big money out of city politics—with public financing for council elections.
‘BEYOND HERE BE MONSTERS.’ USA Today columnist Rex Huppke ponders how a surgeon general’s warning on social media might be worded.
■ Bloomberg: India’s farmers are getting news from two realistic, soon-to-be multilingual artificially intelligent avatars.
‘How effective are these drugs? Very.’ Your Local Epidemiologist takes a critical look at Ozempic and other cutting-edge weight-loss medications.
■ Bloomberg: Their booming popularity is generating vast quantities of plastic trash.
■ The Onion: “Plastic 6-Pack Rings Conveniently Ensnare 6 Fish At Once.”
‘The Summer of Royko.’ Chicago magazine’s Robert Chiarito surveys a bunch of events around town celebrating iconic columnist Mike Royko.
■ Never-broadcast audio: Royko debriefed by WXRT News on the outcome of the March 18, 1980, Illinois primary.
T-shirt blowout. One-day special: Through midnight tonight, support Chicago Public Square for $25 or more—one-time, monthly or yearly—and get a free Square T-shirt. (Supplies limited! These are collector’s items now! Dealer’s choice of style.) Simply reply to the confirmation email with your shirt size and mailing address.