Too close for comfort? The Sun-Times reports that Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey has taken campaign money from—and has worshipped at a church service presided over by—a man convicted of sexually abusing a 17-year-old student at the high school where he taught.
■ WBEZ: Bailey’s running mate calls abortion a “sin against God.”
■ John Oliver last night surveyed the consequences of the Supreme Court’s abortion rights reversal …
■ … and then he reviewed the lowlights of his truly awful performances this summer on not one but two soap operas.
Powerless? With more than 100,000 people still without electricity after last week’s storms, northern Indiana’s NIPSCO utility has released a community-by-community schedule for restoration.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s signed legislation opening flood damage relief programs to more Chicagoans.
■ The Chicago area’s wetness wends on this week.
Parking meter revolt. Chicago magazine’s Tal Rosenberg introduces us to a Chicagoan who’s devised a way to foil the city’s widely despised parking meter deal (gift link) …
■ … but Rosenberg gives equal time to the city’s chief financial officer from 2004-07, who makes the case that it’s not so bad—especially compared to the way things were before.
Trump fails again. The Supreme Court has rejected the president’s efforts to undo a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich, who watched Sunday morning news shows so you didn’t have to: Newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche “sucks. His appearance on Meet the Press proves it.”
■ Wonkette’s Michael Mora: Blanche “basically confessed … that he lied to every fig-leaf-seeking senator who confirmed him.”
Trump threatens to ‘bomb the shit’ out of another country. As the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran nears expiration, the president is targeting his ire at Oman.
■ Economist Paul Krugman: Trump may be “the worst informed person in the nation because nobody dares to tell him bad news.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “Trump has become the very thing he fears most.”
■ A Philadelphia Inquirer flashback to February 2016 (gift link): Columnist Will Bunch warned that Trump’s landslide New Hampshire primary victory signaled “a grave threat to the American experiment” …
■ … and here’s Bunch today: “We need to care about Trump’s CIA murdering fishermen on the high seas.”
Trump ‘is laying the groundwork to foil the midterm vote in any way possible, including illegal ways.’ Meanwhile, columnist and former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan says, the White House Correspondents’ Association is displaying “pitiful” weakness.
■ Columnist and former Chicago TV news executive Jennifer Schulze: Trump’s handed a thank-you gift to “the nation’s worst TV news owner.”
■ The Freedom of the Press Foundation says “the Justice Department just handed corporate lobbyists, campaign donors, and political cronies the government’s strongest secrecy protections.”
Suit pursuit. The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet is on the hunt for President Obama’s widely mocked tan suit.
■ Know something? Email tansuit@suntimes.com.
‘Your price tag is watching you.’ Tech columnist Kim Komando recaps the myriad ways people selling you stuff online use data signals to figure out what they’ll charge you.
■ Consumer Reports rates the best doorbell cameras that store recordings locally, keeping them private.
Chicago Public Square is free for all because of generous support from readers. You can join them with a one-time tip (nice!) or an ongoing pledge (nicer!)—but if you can’t chip in now, no guilt: You help Square grow simply by opening and reading each day. Or by sharing it with a friend. Thanks to all.