Not ‘not guilty’? Lawyers for Robert Crimo III, accused of killing seven people and wounding 48 others at Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade in 2022, say that, next Wednesday, he’ll change his plea from “not guilty” to … something else.
■ Chicago police have taken into custody a “person of interest” linked to a 7-year-old’s shooting death Tuesday.
■ A retired Chicago cop’s dead in a West Side shooting.
■ Mayor Johnson’s announced another $10 million—and 10 more neighborhoods—for a fund to aid victims of gun violence and the families of the dead.
■ In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a gun-control law designed to protect victims of domestic violence.
■ Guess who’s the one.
‘Nobody involved thinks it complies with the law.’ Law professor Joyce Vance says Louisiana’s requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom “is what people with an agenda do when they think the Supreme Court is on their side.”
■ Columnist—and former Sun-Times CEO—Edwin Eisendrath: “It is time that states like mine follow the lead of … Louisiana and simply defy the court. Let’s restore the common-sense gun laws we had in the 1990s.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “Something finally had to be done to stop second graders from coveting their neighbors’ wives.”
■ The AP: “Long a Republican state, Louisiana is redder than ever.” (Cartoon: Kathy Hirsh.)
■ And it’s columnist Lyz Lenz’s runner-up for Dingus of the Week.
He said it. Donald Trump can be heard in audio conceding briefly—before backtracking—that he lost the 2020 election.
■ Trump niece Mary L. Trump says the Trump campaign’s deceptive edits of President Biden on video show that “Donald is scared—more than usual, I mean” …
■ … but his fundraising has been on fire since his conviction.
■ A coin flip means Trump gets the last word at next week’s presidential debate.
■ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won’t be there.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “Forget the debate, I say we put them both in a hammock and the first one who stands up is our next president.”
Death traps on wheels. A Sun-Times test demonstrates just how hot parked cars with windows closed can get for kids and pets left inside during heat like this week’s.
■ The worst of it is off to torture New York City.
■ Thanks, human-caused climate change.
Skyway robbery. A lawsuit demands $3 million in refunds from the company that runs the Chicago Skyway—accused of overcharging users up to $1.20 per trip.
■ Read the suit here.
‘Freaked out by immigrants? Go buy a house for a dollar in one of the abandoned towns of Japan.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg calls immigration the “raw material that built our country in the past and will continue to build our country in the future, unless we go crazy and seal the borders.”
■ The Tribune tracks just how hard it is for migrant workers to claim workers’ compensation benefits—even though it’s their right, regardless of their citizenship status.
■ Prosecutors say two migrants were among those who raided a downtown 7-Eleven for beer.
‘Any fantasy you could possibly imagine.’ That’s the marketing pitch for a Near West Side “sex dungeon” that the Sun-Times reveals has gotten a property tax break for decades because it includes two apartments—even though those apartments seem just to be part of the biz.
■ Also from the Sun-Times: A suburban bar’s been the scene of a murder, a stabbing and a drive-by shooting—but the mayor, who’s benefitted from its campaign donations, has given it a pass on penalties.
Plastic payback. Baltimore’s suing large producers of plastics—including Coke, Pepsi and Frito Lay—demanding they pay for cleaning up plastic waste on city streets and in its waters.
■ By year’s end, Amazon says it aims to have abandoned the use of plastic air pillows in its shipping—in favor of recycled paper.
One down. Ethical questions about the guy tapped as The Washington Post’s next executive editor, Rob Winnett, have prompted him to withdraw.
■ That followed the Post’s own reporting linking Winnett to a self-described “thief.”
■ It doesn’t end Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ headaches.
■ Axios: The news business faces the “most difficult media moment ever.”
■ New at The Guardian: A list of stories “deeply read”—by people who stick around for more than a paragraph or three.
■ A new survey concludes the proportion of Americans paying for news has reached its highest percentage on record in years.
■ Have you pitched in—even just $1, once—to help keep Chicago Public Square coming?
Almost perfect. Your Square columnist got all but one question right on this week’s quiz concocted by The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
■ Your turn:
‘A stimulating collision of myth and realism.’ Critic Michael Phillips gives The Bikeriders, a new movie based on the suburban Outlaws Motorcycle Club, 3 out of 4 stars—even though it was shot mainly in Ohio.
■ Lollapalooza’s announced some lineup changes.
■ Axios Chicago: Virtually unused—overshadowed by the Pritzker Pavillion—Grant Park’s historic Petrillo Bandshell faces an uncertain future.
Thanks. Mike Braden and Ken Paulson made this edition better.