Suburban explosion. In the worst of yesterday’s rough weather, a Berwyn gas station was leveled and nearby buildings were damaged as two natural gas lines ignited.
■ The manager of a neighboring restaurant tells ABC7 the station’s roof “shot about two-three hundred feet in the air and then it just came down.” (Photo: Ben Meyerson.)
■ The storm left tens of thousands of Commonwealth Edison customers without power …
■ … and we’re not in the clear yet.
■ The Tribune takes a look at the danger hot weather poses for baseball fans and players—and how it’s changing the physics of the game.
‘This was corruption.’ A federal judge has sentenced convicted ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan confidant Michael McClain to two years in prison for his role in a ComEd scheme to bribe Madigan.
■ The judge reprimanded McClain for calling those who rejected his requests for favors “dumbshits”: “That’s not dumb. It is, sadly, courageous.”
‘This column … is the one I hoped I’d never write.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters) says concentration camps have come to America.
■ ProPublica: “His former company got caught employing undocumented workers. Now he’s profiting off an immigrant detention camp.”
■ The American Prospect: In a resetting of priorities with “tragic consequences,” FEMA’s withholding homelessness grants while spending bigly on migrant prison camps.
■ With an executive order that critics tell The Washington Post (another gift link) threatens a return to the practice of unjustly locking people away in mental health institutions, Trump’s urging cities and states to clear homeless encampments nationwide.
■ Trump was bound for Scotland …
■ … where The National is waiting:
■ Cartoonist and columnist Jack Ohman condemns “Trump’s racist name games … part of his systematic attempted rewriting of American history.”
Endangered mayors list. Politico’s Shia Kapos says Mayor Johnson’s off to Cleveland this weekend for a summit of fellow big-city Democratic leaders finding themselves increasingly on the defensive.
■ The Cook County Board’s bragging about $80 million in funding to improve transportation in Chicago and throughout the county.
Tribune layoffs. The paper’s laid off eight journalists—about 10 percent of its shrunken news team* …
■ … even as parent company Alden Global Capital bids to buy The Dallas Morning News.
■ Media watcher Simon Owens suggests that newsroom buyout offers may be serving as “seed funding” for new independent media.
■ Columnist and ex-U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich sees the silencing of a Post columnist, the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show and more as consequences of Trump’s efforts to silence media criticism.
■ The Wall Street Journal (another gift link): Having extracted cash from a cowed Columbia University, Trump’s now seeking payments from other universities.
■ Dan Froomkin at Press Watch asks: “Why can’t journalists cover democracy like they cover Epstein?”
‘We put eyes on the penis.’ South Park’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, told San Diego’s Comic-Con how they got around network censors’ insistence that they blur Donald Trump’s privates in a brutal parody broadcast on Comedy Central Wednesday night.
■ Calling it “the best satire in years,” columnist Charlotte Clymer notes that South Park portrayed Trump exactly as they portrayed Saddam Hussein years ago: “Same voice inflections. Same love affair with Satan. Same dictatorial chaos. In fact, Satan references this by telling Trump he reminds him of a guy he used to date.”
■ The White House whines: “This show … is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention” …
■ … which, based on a check of Google searches, it’s getting.
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “In Trump’s America, we have a new way to define comedy: A show mocking naked Trump = NOT FUNNY! A fake Obama arrest video = FUNNY!”
■ On the same day Trump signed legislation killing government funding for public broadcasters, Stone told the audience that he and Parker first bonded over PBS broadcasts of Monty Python.
■ Comedy Central and CBS parent Paramount has won FCC approval for its acquisition by Trump-compliant Skydance.
■ If You Can Keep It: “Paramount gave in to Trump. What they get in exchange might not be what they expect.”
Animal quiz! Past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel’s taken the week off—but here’s a collection of questions about past animal stories at The Conversation.
■ Your Square columnist scored a disappointing 6/9 correct …
■ … but missed just one on City Cast’s Chicago-centric news quiz.
Dingus of the Week. Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz’s pick: Jubilee Media, “a company that puts out bold videos that ask hard questions like, ‘Have you ever thought about being more racist?’”
■ Columnist Evan Hurst says Jubilee’s producers “put one decent, intelligent human being … in a room surrounded by just the absolute vilest fascists, Nazis and otherwise deplorable people,” but adds: “I’m not saying everything Jubilee does is shit.”
■ WLS Radio, the conservative talk station that once was a giant among Chicago’s music stations, hosts an on-air reunion of its legendary DJs Saturday at 10 p.m.
Thanks. Mike Braden and John Herrbach made this edition better.
* Which included your Square columnist for about 11 years (2009 link).