■ … as is much of the Midwest and Northeast …
■ … with lousy air quality to match.
■ Chicago’s pools are ready and waiting.
■ Meanwhile: Snow in the Rockies.
‘What’s bad for the climate is the people who have given up on public transit.’ A 2018 report said doubling train and bus ridership was a key to cutting the Chicago region’s greenhouse gas emissions—but the deputy director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center tells the Tribune the pandemic derailed that dream.
■ Sun-Times columnist Rich Miller says Metra’s squandering tens of millions of dollars on a suburban warehouse, demonstrating that the CTA “clearly ain’t alone” in transit governance debacles.
■ The company behind Lime scooters is pushing to let them ply Chicago’s Lakefront Trail.
‘A race to the bottom.’ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob assesses the “icky options” Donald Trump’s reportedly considering for his running mate.
■ Puck political columnist John Heilemann says “veepstakes” are “the most inane and insipid of Washington’s panoply of inane and insipid political rituals.”
‘An open audition for people who might want a new job because they lost their old one back on Jan. 6 for some reason.’ HBO’s John Oliver scrutinizes Trump’s planned “Project 2025” changes to federal employment policies.
■ Columnist and former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger: Christian nationalists shaping that policy are “a threat to democracy.”
■ NOTUS explores “a federal judge’s cozy ties to an anti-gay marriage think tank.”
■ A University of Michigan health behavior professor writes at The Conversation: “Abortion bans are changing what it means to be young in America.”
‘May God damn and curse your life and infest you family.’ USA Today columnist—and Tribune alumnus—Rex Huppke reviews the email he receives daily from Trump fans.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos (middle of today’s column): Gov. Pritzker’s getting under Trump’s skin.
Badgering Biden. Popular Information spotlights a recent University of Wisconsin graduate responsible for the misleading articles about the president that have “flooded a vast network of local news websites” lorded over by the Trumpophiliac Sinclair Broadcast Group.
■ Poynter’s Rick Edmonds: “Of those who pay for news online (itself a low fraction of subscribers), at least 60% pay less than the full price.”
‘Give him six months.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg joins the hundreds of Chicagoans who’ve weighed in on “how big a book” to throw at convicted ex-City Council member and ex-cop Ed Burke.
■ Guess which organizations aren’t on a list of groups Chicago police officers can’t join?
Robbery run. CWBChicago: At least five Chicago robbery victims have been shot since Thursday.
■ In Rogers Park’s third shooting since Wednesday, a man was shot and killed outside the Howard CTA station overnight.
Cigarettes … and social media. The U.S. surgeon general’s calling on Congress to slap warning labels on apps that he says are contributing to a mental health crisis among young people.
■ Columnist Steve Sheffey recommends “three videos to make you smarter” about Israel and antisemitism.
‘You forget that there’s no one in the driver’s seat, and that’s fine.’ Tribune columnist Laura Washington recounts her first ride in a self-driving car.
■ The Onion: “Tesla Announces Plan To Add Up-Skirt Cameras On All Vehicles.”
■ Paul Brian, whose unmistakable voice could be heard for decades discussing all things automotive on Chicago’s radio waves, is dead at 73.
■ … which incorrectly stated that a Cook County Circuit Court judge ordered a lawyer handcuffed to a chair, when the source report in the Sun-Times in fact, as Morris noted, “suggests that the judge ordered sheriff’s deputies to remove the lawyer from her courtroom and that the sheriff's deputies decided … to handcuff him to a chair.”
■ The Square post has been corrected, with thanks to Mr. Morris …
■ … who kindly has now subscribed directly to this service.
■ We hate making mistakes, but we love having readers who take the time to set things straight.
■ Thanks also to readers who took the time to send well wishes on Friday’s encounter with the “silver stallion.”
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