Here we go again? Charlie Sykes in The Atlantic: Donald Trump is setting the stage to challenge the election—and “could be even more dangerous this year than he was in 2020, because the personal stakes for him are higher than ever.”
■ Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has ID’d 35 rogue election officials across the country “who have already refused to certify election results and may be in a position to do so again.”
■ Here’s its full report.
■ The New York Times: A generation of election officials have their hands full fighting disinformation.
Their emails! At least three news orgs—including the Times, Politico and The Washington Post—have been given a trove of confidential email from inside the Trump campaign …
■ … creating what columnist Brian Beutler calls “a moment of reckoning” for journalists who now “owe their readers frenzied coverage of his campaign's emails, or a mea culpa for their history-altering emails fixation in 2016.”
■ Among those hacked: Political trickster and convicted felon Roger Stone.
■ A Trump campaign office in Virginia was reportedly burgled.
X marks the lies. In a seemingly interminable and glitch-fraught more-than-two-hour chat with Twitter X founder Elon Musk, Trump delivered at least 20 lies …
■ … a thing the European Union saw coming.
■ He suggested he’s ready to flee to Venezuela if he loses.
■ Columnist Dan Pfeiffer calls the session “absurd, painfully awkward” …
■ … and, to some, Trump sounded like he had a lisp.
■ The Post sees the interview as his latest effort to pump up his white male base.
■ He spoke for half an hour about that time he was shot—a thing he once promised never to talk about again.
■ NewsGuard Reality Check: Beware “deep-fake” audio of Barack Obama talking about the shooting.
■ Reason: Vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz was wrong years ago when he asserted “There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.”
■ The Kamala Harris campaign characterized the Trump-Musk lovefest as “self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a livestream in the year 2024.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump has repeatedly seemed to fantasize that Biden will return to the head of the Democratic ticket.”
■ Traditionally pessimistic economist Umair Haque sees America outgrowing Trump.
■ Spoiler candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s off the ballot in New York.
‘We’re not going to allow you to riot.’ Chicago’s top cop is laying down the law for those considering protesting during next week’s Democratic National Convention.
■ Bracing for trouble, some West Side businesses are just closing for the week.
■ The convention will test the CTA’s mettle.
■ It’s rolling out rail cars wrapped in new public art.
Dolton dishonor. The scandal-scarred suburb’s deputy police chief faces federal bankruptcy fraud charges.
■ A Sun-Times editorial says ex-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s findings in an investigation of Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard’s administration “have made the town … a national laughingstock.”
Thinner wallets ahead. Coming next year: Your Illinois driver’s license on your phone.
■ Also: A new option to renew that license for eight years instead of four.
‘A years-long appeal will see Google on its very best behavior, with massive, attendant culture changes inside the company.’ Tech watchdog Cory Doctorow is actually excited about the legal slog ahead now that a judge has ruled the company “an official, no-foolin’, convicted monopolist.”
■ ProPublica: Nike leaders promised climate action, but their corporate jets kept flying—and polluting.
■ Popular Information: Lawsuits accuse hotels of colluding to jack up room rates.
■ The Reader revisits drugstore magnate Charles R. Walgreen’s anti-communist crusade of the 1930s.
Radio news out. After almost 60 years as an all-news station, Audacy-owned WCBS 880 in New York—sibling to Chicago’s WBBM—is signing off at the end of the month, to be replaced by sports talk.
■ Among those losing their jobs: Acclaimed Chicago radio veteran Steve Scott.
■ Columnist Garrett Searight: “If stations like WCBS … aren’t going to be able to stay in the format, what does that mean for others like … WBBM?”
■ Former WLS Radio program chief Kipper McGee sees “a slow erosion of the very fabric that made radio indispensable.”
■ All-news alumnus Dave Williams: “People today don’t relate to the old traditional style of radio news.”
■ The New York Times editorial board is getting out of the business of backing state and local candidates.
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