■ Columnist Neil Steinberg on a new book about the nearby Wrigley Building: “Iconic structure? Yes. Superb? Not so much.”
Heating up. Add Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi to the ranks of those in the hunt for the U.S. Senate seat that Dick Durbin’s surrendering.
■ With three Black women also in the mix, Tribune columnist Laura Washington (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square financial supporters) fears things will get ugly.
An Illinois transportation revolution? Streetsblog Chicago suggests a new Illinois bill to create a cohesive statewide train and bus system could encourage other states to follow suit.
■ In an unprecedented move, Trump’s team has removed the National Transportation Safety Board’s vice chair—even as it struggles to manage hundreds of aviation disaster investigations.
■ Block Club: Uber’s refunding riders incorrectly charged a Chicago congestion fee—but it’s been sketchy about the details.
‘The worst, dumbest, most politically damaging message I’ve ever heard.’ Columnist and Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer suggests ways Democrats can make Trump pay a political price for insisting that American kids have too many dolls and pencils.
■ Mattel’s considering raising prices. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Law professor Joyce Vance celebrates a Republican senator’s pivotal decision not to support Trump’s problematic choice for Washington’s U.S. attorney—and the administration’s reversal of a plan to cancel air-quality monitoring at national parks: “If you’ve been questioning whether what you’re doing matters, it does.”
■ Contrarian editor-in-chief Jen Rubin: “Even Trump-appointed judges are resisting authoritarian ploys.”
‘If at first you don't succeed, try offering $1,000.’ Popular Information’s Judd Legum talks to a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council about that offer of cash and free airfare home for undocumented immigrants who agree to deportation.
■ Columnist and lawyer Mitch Jackson: A federal judge has blocked Trump’s unconstitutional deportation scheme, sending a message that no president is above the law.
■ The New York Times (gift link): The administration’s planning to send migrants to Libya’s “horrific” and “deplorable” detention centers.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Couches McButthair Has Warning For People Who Want To Come To World Cup.”
■ Citing “uncertainty around artist visas,” the Latin-themed Michelada music fest has canceled its July event in Chicago.
■ A range of Chicago cultural events are out federal cash under Trump’s cuts …
■ … but the Chicago Jazz Festival’s on track for August—with this newly revealed lineup.
■ The Onion: “National Endowment For The Arts Lays Off 30,000 Muses.”
‘What will we tell our children and grandchildren?’ Columnist and lawyer Robert B. Hubbell says the Supreme Court’s reactionary majority has effectively cleared the Defense Department to ban transgender people from military service.
■ Deprived by Trump of $400 million in federal funding on charges of “antisemitism,” Columbia University’s laid off close to 200 staffers.
■ In a hearing on states’ lawsuits challenging the mass dismissal of federal workers, a federal judge expressed sympathy but suggested mass reinstatement might not be the right remedy.
Welcome to The United States of Measles. Columnist Jennifer Schulze says a disease labeled by the World Health Organization “one of the most infectious … known to mankind” shows no sign of slowing—in Illinois and elsewhere—thanks in part to “a disastrous response by the Trump administration.”
■ The Oakbrook Terrace-based Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals nationwide for safety and effectiveness, is cutting 55 jobs.
■ The American Prospect: Legislation Republicans are shepherding through Congress would charge the poor more for Medicaid coverage.
■ First Aid Kit: Yes, you can negotiate with medical bill collectors.
Your joke here. At the president’s urging, the U.S. Postal Service was reportedly set to name a former Waste Management CEO as postmaster general …
■ … an apt choice, given that his predecessor’s landmark achievements included trashing mail-sorting machines leading up to the 2020 elections (September 2020 link).
‘Mainstream media is failing us.’ Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti is “dumbfounded that outlet after outlet is buying the Republican spin” on the Trump administration’s request that a judge toss an abortion-pill case.
■ Tom Jones at Poynter: Meet the new-media influencers and partisans who’ve joined the White House press pool.
■ Ex-Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger: Like all dictators, Trump’s trying to destroy the press.
Sesame S.O.S. Trump’s Education Department has cut $23 million that would have gone to public broadcasting TV shows for kids—including Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
■ Columnist and former Illinois U.S. Rep. Marie Newman: You can fight back against Republicans who’ve been “trying to remove funding for PBS and NPR forever.”
■ Greg Mitchell at Between a Rock and a Hard Place: “Is Trump’s de-funding vendetta against PBS derived from all the mockery he suffered via Sesame Street years ago as ‘Donald Grump’”?
Reading this for free? Thank readers whose support has kept Chicago Public Square coming for close to 8 1/2 years—including Valerie Denney, Bob Tucker, Timothy Mennel, Ruth Hroncich, Ed Nickow, Stephanie Textor, Craig Koslofsky, Denise Pondel, Peggy Fogelman, Julie Ross, Suzy Carlson, Mike Fainman, Marj Halperin, Susan Beach, Timothy Baffoe, Meghan Strubel, Susan Parks, Thomas Yoder, Theresa Rattenbury, Rosalind Rouse, Peggy Conlon-Madigan, Phil Grinstead, Liz Meisterling, Ellen Siciliano, Jordan Wilkerson, Deborah J. Wess, Paul Engman, John Jaramillo, Mike Dessimoz, Joe Hass, Tom O’Malley, Kelly Martin, M. Braun, Stephanie Blatt, Jim Owens, Steve Johnson and Louise Kiernan, Paul Wedeen, Gail Frost, Stephen Schlesinger, Lawrence Weiland, Brian Rohr, Jim Holmes, Robert Toon, Helen Kossler, Ann James, Fredric Stein, E Larsen, Daniel Burke, Laurie and Bill Bunkers, Alan Hommerding, Denise Mattson, Geoff Anderson, Ann Johnson Arellano, Sherry Kent, Marjorie Huerta, Rob Renfro, Kathy Burger, Lynne Stiefel, Mike Trenary, Martha Intrieri, Craig Gunderson, Larry Baldacci, Bernard Schoenburg, Cynthia Farenga, Paul Buchbinder, Anne Rooney, Ken Stroble, Mena Boulanger, Kermit Carlson, Janice Wolf, Carole Barrett, Fritz Mills, Ira Pilchen, Kevin Hendricks, Beth Mrkvicka, Arnie Weissmann, Paul Pasulka, Cathy Schornstein and Martin Fischer.
■ Join their ranks with a contribution of as little as $1, once, and see your name atop tomorrow’s acknowledgements.