‘Gestapo-style intimidation.’ Elected Chicago officials and other concerned citizens assembled at Humboldt Park’s National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture yesterday to condemn federal agents’ surprise visit Tuesday afternoon.
■ It all escalates tension ahead of upcoming Chicago cultural festivals.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: “Get used to the uproar: President Donald Trump’s megabill includes $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement, which means Illinois will remain in the feds’ sights.”
■ Add Chicago to the list of cities suing Donald Trump’s administration over its threats to strip federal funding from cities that have placed limits on local cooperation with federal deportation efforts.
‘Incredible.’ That’s how a National Weather Service meteorologist describes the Tuesday night downpour that flooded Chicago’s Near West Side.
■ The neighborhood within five blocks on of the United Center got five inches in about an hour-and-a-half …
■ … while Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports got just .05 inches all night.
■ The AP sees a decade of missed opportunities: Texas couldn’t find $1 million for a flood warning system near kids’ camps.
■ Newswatcher Jennifer Schulze: “News outlets are doing an exemplary job” piecing together what happened in that deadly Texas rainfall.
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “Should we politicize the Texas flood? Absolutely.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: Trump was right to stay away from Texas as rescue and recovery efforts were in full swing.
■ The Onion: [Texas Sen.] “Ted Cruz Assures Texans He Working Tirelessly To Get Vacation Refunded.”
Thanks, global warming. Extreme weather events are getting the blame for a 27.2% increase in some Illinois homeowners’ insurance rates next month (Tribune gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters like you).
■ Environmental journalist Bill McKibben in The New Yorker (paywalled, sadly): “The sun is having a moment. In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.”
The ghost haunting Trump. Politico says conspiracy theories surrounding the prison death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have handed Elon Musk a weapon he’s now “gleefully and expertly wielding” against the president.
■ While Trump’s administration drags its feet on revealing what it knows about Epstein’s “industrial scale abuse enterprise,” investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reports, an FBI review confirms he “harmed over one thousand victims.”
■ Author Michael Wolff tells The Daily Beast that, hours before he was found dead in his cell, ostensibly by hanging, Epstein texted Wolff that he was “still hanging around.”
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters … the so-called Epstein List is ‘as non-existent as President Trump’s healthcare plan.’”
■ Gizmodo: The Epstein fiasco “gives Elon the perfect fuel to burn his former pal.”
■ Gizmodo: The Epstein fiasco “gives Elon the perfect fuel to burn his former pal.”
■ Columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: The real purpose of Musk’s call for a new political party is “the total annihilation of American democracy.”
American exceptionalism. Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Trump’s cluelessness as he met with African leaders: “What a fucking embarrassment.”
■ Zeteo asked Republican senators if they knew how many Americans Israel has killed since Oct. 7. “None of them did.”
MAHA-ha-hah. The AP: The products of a company that “Make America Healthy Again” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised for sending taxpayer-funded meals “without additives” to the homes of sick or elderly Americans are in fact “the type of heat-and-eat, ultraprocessed foods that Kennedy routinely criticizes.”
■ The un-bylined Closer to the Edge column: “This is what happens when wellness grifters get power.”
Wildlife watch.
■ Conditions this year have been good for Chicago’s firefly population.
Freed from the paywall. If Status’ registration rigamarole kept you from reading the most-tapped article in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square—about looming corporate threats to Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and Jon Stewart’s Daily Show—good news: LateNighter’s recapped it, no charge.
■ The Chicago Tribune Guild says the paper’s buyout offer for journalists has drawn no known takers.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: A new report details “severe shortages” in local news across the country …
■ … including at least one Illinois county with less than one “Local Journalist Equivalent.”
Beatle incoming. Paul McCartney’s first North American tour since 2022 is scheduled to wind up with a couple of nights in Chicago.
■ Radio nostalgia: 1970s Chicago rock-jock legends Bob Sirott and John Records Landecker reunite, taking listener questions via call or text, for an hour tonight on WGN Radio.
Thanks. Mike Braden and Barry Koehler made this edition better.