Hang in there. Chicago Public Square will take a break for a few days.
■ Tomorrow: The weekly news quiz, courtesy of The Conversation.
■ Monday: No edition, to accommodate a Press Forward huddle at the Chicago Community Trust.
■ Tuesday: Back to normal.
■ Throughout the weekend—as always, between editions—breaking news and commentary around the clock via the Square account on Bluesky.
‘MAGA civil war.’ That’s how CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan describes a split in Donald Trump’s camp over what role—if any—the U.S. should play in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
■ Stephen Colbert: “I gotta say, in an argument between [Fox News exile] Tucker Carlson and [Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz, I’m rooting for a sinkhole.”
■ Jordan Klepper at The Daily Show: “Damn, Ted Cruz! Are you a pair of $800 Ferragamo boat shoes? Because Tucker Carlson owned you, buddy!”
■ Seth Meyers: “It’s like watching a sequel to Alien vs. Predator called I Can’t Believe I’m Saying This, But the Predator Is Making Some Very Salient Points.”
■ Got a strong stomach and two hours—or one hour at double-speed—to kill? Here’s the whole Carlson show.
■ Among today’s developments: An Iranian missile that left more than 200 injured at an Israeli hospital and an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian reactor.
■ A non-proliferation expert tells Popular Information that if the U.S. bombs Iran, he “absolutely” expects Iran would strike U.S. targets.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Narcoleptic fart factory has his finger on the button. Or maybe he doesn’t.”
■ Protect Democracy’s Ben Raderstorf: “Congress should decide if we go to war with Iran. The founders gave the first branch war powers for a reason.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Chicago radio, NBC and NPR veteran Jeff Kamen flashes back to a newspaper piece he filed 19 years ago—“The day after Israel attacks Iran”—adding now: “I so want to be wrong about this.”
Durbin out. In a mic-drop moment, retiring Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin gave a rhetorical middle finger to Republican-led hearings on Joe Biden’s mental fitness by playing the Judiciary Committee a short video spotlighting Trump’s cognitive shortcomings …
■ … and then he walked out.
Chicago in Trump’s crosshairs. The Sun-Times’ Nader Issa says immigrant advocates are steeling themselves for more deportations—wary of new ICE tactics.
■ The AP: ICE raids and their uncertainty are scaring off workers and baffling businesses.
■ Education columnist Jan Resseger: ICE raids are traumatizing kids, frightening parents and hurting school attendance.
Snap zap? Mayor Johnson says he’ll veto the City Council’s vote giving Chicago’s top cop power to impose a curfew anytime, anywhere in the city with just a half-hour’s notice.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn suggests the mayor instead consider a trial period.
Where there’s smoke … As a prelude to a new crackdown on a problem exacerbated by the pandemic, a Chicago City Council member—and potential mayoral candidate—is pushing the Chicago Transit Authority to “provide more transparency about the prevalence of smoking on CTA trains and buses.”
■ Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel confirms it: He’s weighing a presidential campaign.
‘A hospital apocalypse.’ That’s what The American Prospect’s David Dayen says experts foresee under the Senate’s version of a Republican budget bill.
■ Administrators at Chicago’s Weiss Memorial Hospital say repairs to their failed air conditioning system could take weeks.
‘Worrisome’ heat. A heat dome menaces a broad swath of the nation this weekend—especially Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa.
■ Dozens of records could fall.
‘Go out and celebrate Juneteenth.’ A Tribune editorial (gift link, courtesy of those who support Square) says today’s holiday “neither rivals nor diminishes the significance of July 4.”
■ The Atlantic senior editor Vann Newkirk sees it differently: “Transforming Juneteenth into ‘Juneteenth National Independence Day’ against the backdrop of the past few years of retrenchment simply creates another instance of hypocrisy.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson looks back to the celebration’s origin.
■ NBC Chicago rounds up what’s closed for Juneteenth in the Chicago area.
‘AI AI AI!’ Eric Zorn again: “AI video technology is getting scarier by the day.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “Musk’s AI told the truth, so now he’s fixing it.”
■ Paul Waldman at Public Notice: “Republicans want unregulated AI. What could go wrong?”
■ ProPublica co-founder Dick Tofel: “If AI could evolve to the point where it provided the answer to a question like, ‘What’s the news in [fill in the blank]?’ that might actually yield Armageddon for online publishers.”
Lower education. Long-struggling Columbia College Chicago is laying off 20 faculty members.
■ Your Square columnist long ago taught radio newswriting there.
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