Knock, knock. Updating coverage: The FBI today searched the home and office of President Trump’s first-term national security adviser and George W. Bush-era UN Ambassador John Bolton …
■ … who, The New York Times notes (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters) “has been particularly harsh over how Mr. Trump has handled his negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on the war in Ukraine” …
■ … and whose book The Room Where It Happened, in The Associated Press’ words, “portrayed Trump as grossly ill-informed.”
■ Lawfare’s Ben Wittes livestreamed the raid on Bolton’s home …
■ … as The Bulwark provided more context on Bolton’s strained relationship with Trump.
‘On to other places.’ Trump says his show of domestic military force will expand beyond Washington.
■ Defense Secretary Hegseth says National Guard troops on D.C.’s streets will soon be armed.
■ A Tribune editorial (another gift link) warns Chicago: “Prepare yourselves for the kind of ‘protection’ the nation’s capital has been provided … the dystopian presence of uniformed military personnel armed with lethal weaponry patrolling mainly parts of the city that aren’t anyone’s definition of crime-riddled.”
■ The American Prospect: “Moderate Senate Democrats enabled Trump’s D.C. takeover.”
■ Columnist Jennifer Schulze: D.C. residents are flooding social media with reality checks on the occupation.
■ The Onion: “Atrocities Keep Getting In Frame Of D.C. Tourist’s Shot.”
‘A smarmy bottom-feeder with the moral integrity of dog vomit.’ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week: The speaker of the Texas House of Representatives …
■ … which has approved a new, Republican-skewing political map aimed at preserving Trump’s slim congressional majority …
■ … prompting lawmakers in California to retaliate with a map giving Democrats the edge in that state.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “The president of the United States is openly admitting that his party cannot win a free and fair election.”
■ Author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Trump’s attacks on mail-in ballots and voting machines … should be challenged in the federal courts.”
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ sunset? A federal judge has effectively ordered the shutdown of Florida’s remote detention camp …
■ … a place that immigrants imprisoned there tell CNN delivers “a type of torture.”
■ The AP goes inside the facility where Immigration and Customs Enforcement is training recruits.
■ The Guardian: The Pentagon’s asking its civilian employees to join a “volunteer force” to aid in mass deportation efforts.
■ Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s demanding U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi explain the dismissal of 17 federal immigration judges.
‘We have joined Poland in the past-scrubbing business.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg—back from a visit to the Smithsonian Institution—puts the lie to Trump’s condemnation of the nation’s premier museum.
■ PolitiFact rates Trump’s assertion that the Smithsonian includes “nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future” Pants on Fire.
■ A 26-point list from the White House targets museum programs recognizing migrants and LGBTQ+ people.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s announced the launch of a legal hotline and resource hub for the LGBTQIA+ community.
‘Grim milestone.’ The AP says the world’s leading authority on food crises has, for the first time, confirmed a Middle East famine—in Gaza’s biggest city.
■ Photos convey Palestinians’ desperate struggle for food.
‘What appear to be outright lies.’ A lawyer for the relatives of a Chicago police officer shot and killed by her partner reacts to word that the cops at first told state officials she was shot by an “armed suspect”—a thing the department has yet to correct.
■ WBEZ and the Sun-Times report Chicago’s new police oversight boss has been wiping out recommendations to fire cops.
CTA life preserver. The parent Regional Transportation Authority’s agreed to send the Chicago Transit Authority $74 million from sibling agencies Pace and Metra to forestall catastrophic service cuts next year.
■ WBEZ: A non-speaking and autistic 5-year-old girl’s long, hot Chicago Public Schools bus ride at the end of her first day of kindergarten sent her to the emergency room.
■ Under a new state law cops no longer can ticket or fine kids at school.
■ Axios: A new report ranks the best and worst neighborhoods for Chicago kids.
■ Block Club: Ford City shopping center neighbors are petitioning to block its transformation into an industrial park.
‘Nobody knows yet what insurers will do.’ Wonkette surveys confusion over COVID vaccines under the Trump regime.
■ The Trib (gift link): Consumers shopping for health insurance plans on the Illinois’ Affordable Care Act exchange this fall can expect double-digit-percentage price hikes.
■ The Supreme Court’s cleared the administration to cut $783 million in National Institutes of Health spending.
Energetic scamsters. Illinois’ watchdog Citizens Utility Board says alternative energy suppliers scraping together business by going door-to-door promising lower electric bills have cost residents more than $2 billion over the last decade.
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “Trump boasted a lot about how he would bring down energy prices,” but … um … er … not so much.
■ Looking for relief from late-summer heat? The Trib (gift link) counsels to beware Lake Michigan bacteria.
Yay, reporters. Gov. Pritzker’s signed a new law strengthening news media protection from “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” ensuring journalists “don’t have to fear retaliation for reporting the truth.”
■ In the year since The Onion revived its paper edition, it’s become the nation’s 13th largest newspaper.
■ Its publisher tells The Wall Street Journal (gift link): “People like getting something in the mail that’s not f___ing awful.”
‘I had no knowledge of hazing ever occurring in the Northwestern football program.’ Ex-Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald is celebrating the settling of a lawsuit he filed after his dismissal two years ago.
■ The university says neither party will be talking about the deal’s specifics.
Who is that hoodied man? Why, it’s past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, sporting a Chicago Public Square hoodie in Boston as he whips up this week’s news quiz.
■ Get all the questions right to top your Square columnist’s 7/8 score.
‘Your publish hates Trump everyday! Tiring.’ Square yesterday lost a subscriber, who—unlike many who abandon this ship—took a moment to explain why.
■ Still, Square keeps coming—thanks in large part to people such as Meg Tebo, David Drew (again!), Thomas Gradel, Marianne Griebler, John Aerni, Stan Zoller, Griz Alger, Janice Wolf, Mark Suppelsa, Nancy Hess, Marcie Dosemagen, Bob Saigh, Jerry D. Mason, Julia Knier, Michael Soriano, Alan Dikty, David Painter, Kathy Manofsky, Christine Mackey, LJ in Arkansas, Nancy Burns, Susan Yessne, Diane Scott, Adam Broad, Jeff Currie, Terri Colby, Bennett Hart, Philip Prale, Lil Levant, Alisa dePedro, Tracey Thomas, Christine Koenig, Liz Strause, Paul Kubina, Kermit Carlson, Mike Pillatsch, Ann Spittle, Nancy and Barney Straus, Rob Renfro, Eric Townsend, Karen Hand, Elan Long, Terry Locke, Jo Patton, Daniel Forden, Michael Carniello, Jayson Hansen, Bob Izral, Frances Brady, Jerry Role, Jeanne Loshbough, Janet Grimes, Tim Brandhorst, Timothy Jackson, Dominick Suzanne, Peter Kuttner, Len Jaster, Tim Spencer, Mary Novak, John Culver, Christine Hauri, Christa Velbel, Tom Shepherd, Scottie Kersta-Wilson and Rosalind Rouse …
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■ Chris Koenig and Mike Braden made this edition better.