Flock squawk. Under fire for privacy violations nationwide, the surveillance tech company Flock Safety is clamping down on law enforcers abusing its license-plate monitoring network.
■ The Washington Post and 404 Media deserve part of the credit.
■ A Chicago company’s testing an app that uses people’s phones to detect possible gunfire.■ Tech columnist Kim Komando says home insurers are using aerial photos across the country to justify “nonrenewal letters … no claim filed, no inspector at the door”—and she recommends ways to fight back.
‘Forgotten souls.’ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman calls on President Trump’s administration to bring home sailors who’ve spent a record-setting more than 260 consecutive days at sea aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln …
■ … from which have emerged a growing number of reports of mental health and supply problems.
■ Newman’s fellow congressional alumnus—a military veteran himself—Adam Kinzinger: “The suffering on that ship … is the direct result of … a war that Trump’s ego started and keeps extending with no clear objective and no end in sight.”
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “Secretary of Playing Dress-Up calls sailors on USS Abraham Lincoln liars.”
■ The Washington Post (gift link): As the Iran war drags on, the U.S. military has lost about a quarter of its $50-million-each Reaper drones.
■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has no idea what he’s doing.”
‘A win for crooks.’ The Atlantic (gift link): Trump’s Treasury Department “has made the American economy a safe space for corruption.”
■ The American Prospect says Trump’s planned landlord bailout “would funnel billions to private equity.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: It’s a new Justice Department under Todd Blanche, “and the first signs are no good.”
■ Trump’s asking the Supreme Court to override a lower court order blocking construction of his beloved White House ballroom …
■ … as his handpicked Kennedy Center board voted to add his name to the building thusly: “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
Was she or wasn’t she? Snopes has been unable to confirm that departing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was among those left on that “decoy plane” Trump abandoned to escape in a catering cart.
■ Politico: “Behind the scenes, her relationships with reporters were less adversarial than on camera—and with Trump, more frank than the ‘yes men’ the president typically surrounds himself with.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Jimmy Fallon: “She was like, ‘I wanted to wait for a good time, but there hasn’t been one, so.’”
‘Scarier than it’s ever been.’ A.V. Club critic Monica Castillo says the import of Al Gore’s 2006 warning about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, is now “all around us.”
■ Make it at least six tornadoes that hit Northwest Indiana Tuesday …
■ … and some residents there may not get power back until next Friday.
■ More lousy weather threatens the weekend’s Chicago Air & Water Show.
■ Columnist Dave Barry—a Pulitzer winner, really*—explains Canada’s smoke problem: “Rising global temperatures have caused Canada to become so hot in the summer that members of the moose population are bursting into flames.”
‘I have nothing to lose. I’m only in this race for Chicago.’ U.S. Rep Mike Quigley, running for Chicago mayor even as he seeks reelection to Congress, tells the Sun-Times that if he’s sent to City Hall, it’ll be his last elected office ever.
■ Crain’s (gift link): “The next mayor will inherit Chicago’s budget problem. Here’s what candidates should do now.”
‘Maybe our schools can lead the way.’ Rethinking his initial reaction to Illinois’ move to separate students from their phones during the school day, columnist Neil Steinberg—back in print after shoulder surgery—has, “through a superpower of mine called ‘changing my mind,’ decided that the ban is right.”
■ Chalkbeat: For the first time in its history, Chicago’s school board has voted to put two referenda on the November ballot.
‘Back to classic in-the-news questions.’ The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, acknowledges that last week’s Gen Z challenge was tough, with 62% of the players getting five or fewer right. So better luck this week.
■ Can you do better than 7/10 on Justin Kaufmann’s Axios quiz matching Chicago-area streets to their route numbers?
South suburbanites in the news.
■ The Handbasket, profiling Moraine Valley Community College and University of Chicago law graduate Richard Hanania: “The so-called ‘former’ white supremacist’s work doesn’t show … that he’s actually moved on.”
■ The Tribune (gift link) spotlights south suburban native Dan Sullivan—challenging Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska’s Republican primary.
What is chicago.com? Nieman Lab explores Chicago Public Media’s plan to turn that coveted domain into … “not a news site.”
■ Media watcher Simon Owens: Historian Heather Cox Richardson—whose newsletter reaches almost 3 million people on Substack without a paywall or sponsorships (you know, like Chicago Public Square)—may be the most popular nonfiction writer alive.
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.
* And let us not forget: A guy who, almost 30 years ago, called for your Square columnist to get fired.