■ Plain old cloth masks won’t cut it.
■ Chicago’s air quality index yesterday set a record: 638 on a scale of 500 …
■ … and at at least one point was the world’s worst.
■ Lots of events have been canceled.
■ CNN: You can trace increasing outbreaks of unhealthy wildfire smoke to climate change.
‘Debunked election lies.’ Democracy Docket reviews President Trump’s primetime speech last night.
■ The Guardian cites his “attempt to sow confusion ahead of midterms that could deliver big losses for Republicans.”
■ Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark: “We are all profoundly dumber for it. But it was still dangerous.”
■ Sykes’ Bulwark colleague Sam Stein: “Trump used the bully pulpit to undermine U.S. elections … in ways that adversarial governments could only dream of.”
■ But columnist Heather Delaney Reese says it was also a sign that “Trump knows the end is near.”
■ Nobel winner Paul Krugman: Trump’s biggest lie wasn’t about elections but was instead his assertion that “America is respected like we have never been respected before.”
■ Veteran CNN White House reporter and Trump antagonist Jim Acosta: “The thing that was scary … is he was talking about going after … the broadcast licenses for ABC and NBC for refusing to carry that speech.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: TV networks were all over the place in how they covered the speech.
■ Everyone is entitled to my own opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich: “Even Fox News admits that Donny’s ‘stolen election’ speech was bullshit.”
Headlines You Might Have Guessed Were Coming Dept.
■ “AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior.”
■ Gary Legum at Wonkette: “Tom Homan wants you to shut up and let ICE shoot people or you will be to blame for ICE shooting people.”
‘Todd Blanche should not be attorney general.’ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “You did not need to watch Wednesday and Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings … to know that.”
■ Yesterday’s hearing included what lawyer/journalist Aaron Parnas calls “powerful, deeply personal, and incredibly courageous” testimony from a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse machine.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: A federal judge has questioned whether Blanche is fit to practice law at all.
■ The Atlantic (gift link) sees the Blanche hearings’ biggest takeaway: “The once-cherished ideal of dispensing impartial justice has all but disappeared.”
‘The state owes us a report.’ Better Government Association chief David Greising demands the state reveal just what got Illinois State Rep. Harry Benton bounced out of the General Assembly.
■ State Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana and her husband have pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.
‘Awesome.’ The Odyssey is getting smash reviews—a bushel of four-star ratings.
■ A mocking list of businesses The Onion’s corporate parent is acquiring—in addition to InfoWars—includes “Shreddd: An eco-friendly business that takes paper shredders and turns them into piles of shredded metal and plastic.”
Old guys in the news. Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk, William Shatner, 95, is bringing his heavy-metal band to Chicago’s Riot Fest in September.
■ Pulitzer winner Dave Barry, 79, went to the dentist.
A lotta glass. Late architect Frank Gehry’s seven-ton glass desk has sold at auction for close to a quarter of a million dollars.
■ A couple of old friends might be forgiven if that news is … triggering (2016 links).
In fairness, this quiz is a little light on news. That may excuse your Chicago Public Square columnist’s sad 5/8 score this time out—as past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel yields the reins to The Conversation’s team for questions about their favorite articles of the week.
Square is here because readers—including Brad Winick, Susann Slinic, Lloyd Sachs (again!), Margaret Benson (again!), Paul Francuch, Mena Boulanger, saknrad, Shruthi Kannan, John Powers, Paul Segedin, Phil Priest, Miriam Beams, Mike Hannigan, Janice Wolf, Chip Mitchell, Patrick Olsen, Spring Belasich, Craig Gunderson, Jonathan Yenkin, Andrew Stancioff, Michele Bukowski, Virginia Mann, Mark Mueller, Michael Carniello, Edward White, Maria Mooshil, John Gehron, Christine Cooper, John D. Abel, Sandy and Jeremy Lipschultz, Patricia Sullivan, Jasmin Phua, Tim Ward, Jim Peterson, Harla Hutchinson, Jennifer McGuire, Susan S. Stevens, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Geoff Tillotson, Gordon Hellwig, Ellen Mrazek, Adrienne Smith, Jean Johnson, Sarah Rodriguez, Jeff Currie, Cynthia Martin, Joan Richmond, Carol Hendrick and Sheila Solomon—have helped underwrite the cost of producing it.
■ Join them this weekend for any amount—even just $1, once—and see your name atop Monday’s roll call.