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30 miles of resistance. Demonstrators lined Ogden Avenue yesterday from Chicago to Aurora in a “Hands Across Chicagoland” protest of Donald Trump’s administration.
■ ABC 7 has video.
■ WBEZ looks back to Chicago’s Democratic National Convention nine months ago: Although “the city has little to show for the effort in … securing meaningful punishments,” it keeps prosecuting protesters.
■ WBEZ looks back to Chicago’s Democratic National Convention nine months ago: Although “the city has little to show for the effort in … securing meaningful punishments,” it keeps prosecuting protesters.
‘Every second the president spends inveighing against paper straws, or denouncing Bruce Springsteen, or messing with the Kennedy Center, is time not spent tearing down our government and freedoms.’ And yet, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg observes: “Controlling every aspect of life is a hallmark of authoritarianism.”
■ Canceled at the Kennedy Center, the Broadway musical Hamilton’s coming back to Chicago next spring.
■ Escalating his feud with The Boss, Trump’s demanding an investigation of Springsteen’s endorsement of Kamala Harris last year.
■ He also whined about Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono.
■ CBS News alumnus Dan Rather shares video of Springsteen’s Manchester, England, call to action that triggered Trump.
‘Fight back unhesitatingly.’ An open letter from seven major organizations committed to free speech calls on universities, media organizations, law firms and businesses to “stand more resolutely” in defense of First Amendment rights.
■ Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: “Universities … have cowered. Huge law firms have cut deals. … And some media companies have shown too much willingness to … change their editorial practices. … That has to stop.”
■ The American Prospect points to Trump for Major League Baseball’s decision “to drop its ethical standards” and make Pete Rose (and eight members of the scandal-scarred 1919 White Sox) eligible for the Hall of Fame—confirming “the cowardice that so many iconic American institutions have displayed when confronted by this autocratic thug.”
■ The Onion: “State Department Designates WNBA As Terrorist Organization.”
‘Big, beautiful’ … and closer to law. In an unusual Sunday night session, the U.S. House advanced Trump’s plan to cut taxes and government spending.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: The legislation “blows the budget deficit wide open by extending the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.”
■ Popular Information shares “the ugly truth” about the bill: Because those tax cuts are “offset by steep cuts to healthcare programs and the social safety net … people who make less than $51,000 will see their after-tax income decrease.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke channels a Republican: “We guarantee this massive bill will not do a thing to hurt rich people.”
■ Wired: Now controlled by “Project 2025” architect (and guy who shares a name with the evil corporation on the dystopian TV series The Boys) Russell Vought, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has 86’d rules designed to limit data brokers’ ability to sell sensitive information about you.
‘Weather forecast services … have had to stop staffing overnight shifts, including … in Kentucky, where those twisters landed.’ But Wonkette’s Marcie Jones paraphrases the reaction on Twitter X: “Natural disasters are … just a thing that happens and nobody can really prepare for them, so what good even is weather prediction?”
■ As the central U.S. grappled with the aftermath of those deadly storms, more were headed that way this week.
■ A Tribune editorial ponders the causes of Chicago’s historic Friday dust storm …
■ … which the National Weather Service calls the worst the city’s seen since the 1930s.
Renters, unite. With a tenants’ rights ordinance pending before the City Council, union organizers rallied Sunday to encourage Chicago renters to join forces.
■ A nonprofit organization offering thousands of individuals and families subsidies to pay their rent is running $10 million short.
■ Block Club: Critics are slamming as “impossible” the city’s regulation of e-scooters.
A gift for the pope. Vice President JD Vance today gave Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV an invitation to visit the U.S. and presented him with a Chicago Bears T-shirt bearing the pope’s name.
■ Revisiting “the worst popes in history,” Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten counsels: “Relax.”
Sesame Street saved. Netflix has stepped up to keep the show alive after HBO/Max/HBOMax cut its support.
■ HBO’s John Oliver didn’t hold back as he assessed his employer’s return to the name “HBO Max” after two years of trying to make “Max” stick: “Sometimes, hypothetically, before we can even get used to one dumb name, some genius comes along and only makes it dumber. Then, somehow it gets dumber still, and then against all the odds somehow it becomes even worse, before inexplicably going back to the stupid thing it was before.”
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