■ Here’s the full report.
■ Props to the late Steve Goodman.
‘If I’m a mosquito I’m flattered to get so much attention. If I’m a taxpayer I’m incensed.’ Former Better Government Association chief Andy Shaw calls for eliminating hundreds of government taxing bodies “that make Illinois 40 per cent more bureaucratically bloated than any other state”—including four separate tax-levying mosquito abatement districts in Cook County alone.
■ A New York Times report (free link): Chicago’s tax increment financing program—created to revitalize struggling neighborhoods by stimulating economic development—has helped downtown, but not poorer areas.
‘A mockery of the justice system.’ Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep.—and Chicago mayoral candidate—Mike Quigley say Chicago’s downtown immigration court has been violating the law by issuing deportation orders for unaccompanied kids as young as 12.
■ The executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center’s Children’s Legal Center: “All of this is brand new.”
■ Mayor Johnson’s ordering the city to cut business with companies that assist in the Trump administration’s deportation campaigns.
■ Injustice Watch: “Illinois promised to protect immigrants. Local officials helped deport them anyway.”
■ The Reader: Illinois’ ban on physical mail to prisons has made it even tougher for inmates to access books.
■ An ICE officer accused of shooting a man in Minneapolis and lying about it has been freed from a Texas jail after a Trump-appointed judge refused to order his return to the Twin Cities.
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz fantasizes: “Stephen Miller Rushed to Hospital After Accidentally Stunning Himself with ICE Shock Gloves.”
March on Washington. Dan Froomkin at Heads Up News: With less than 10 weeks before the November election, thousands of people plan to gather on the National Mall tomorrow under the banner “Defend the Vote.”
■ Illinois has joined several others in challenging Trump administration moves to give the Postal Service power to regulate mail-in voting.
‘Pink slime’ alert. Leading up to November’s elections, NewsGuard says Democrats and Republicans have invested in phony-baloney websites presenting themselves as professional news outlets.
■ Popular Information: A Senate Republicans-funded website falsely links a Democrat to murder.
Not so fast. Gov. Pritzker’s signed a bill that—as of Jan. 1—regulates who can use e-bikes and scooters, and where and how quickly they can travel.
■ Count columnist Eric Zorn among the skeptics of the proposed “O’Hare Flyer” express train from the Old Post Office to the airport: “The terminal … will be … about a mile from the heart of downtown,” and “there are no plans for even one stop along the way in the near western suburbs, where a substantial number of customers could be found” …
■ … but a DePaul University transit expert who was skeptical of Elon Musk’s aborted underground version of the concept is more hopeful.
Gee, can grownups get one, too? Diving into Facebook and Instagram parent Meta’s historic—and expensive—settlement with most of the United States, Poynter’s Tom Jones finds an agreement to give kids a default chronological feed instead of an algorithmic one.
■ Facebook users can get that now, but not as a default; bookmark this page to see it.
■ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier: “It took 20 years to curb Meta. We can’t wait that long with AI.”
The next ‘6-7’? Chalkbeat Chicago reporter Becky Vevea flags a 7-year-old’s new putdown: “That’s so AI.”
■ Columnist and ProPublica co-founder Dick Tofel proposes ground rules for AI and writing.
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link), noting Google’s purchase of dead airline Spirit’s corporate archives to train its artificial intelligence agents: “Your old emails might be worth millions.”
■ Columnist and former Trib editor Jim O’Shea: “As soon as this fall … a handful of appointed public utility commissioners will wrestle with how much of the costly data center buildout gets added to the monthly power bills of customers whose idea of high technology may be a flip phone.”
Eyes up. If the weather cooperates, Chicago may get a view to a near-total lunar eclipse tonight …
■ … and maybe the Northern Lights, too.
■ WBEZ and The Grist analyze what’s driving Illinois’ record crop of tornadoes.
‘The consequences of handing over health care to Big Medicine have been immense.’ The American Prospect says the Trump administration’s taking credit for a drop in prescription drug prices—even though “the administration that delivered this was … Joe Biden’s.”
■ Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman: “Even the Trump sycophants realize that they’re in big trouble.”
Mills in the news. Ikea’s opening a new store in the Gurnee Mills Mall.
■ General Mills says it’s met its own deadline for removing artificial coloring from its U.S. cereal products.
It’s all wrong, but it’s all right. Coverage of the death of Dolly Parton was so absorbing that yesterday’s Chicago Public Square bore an above-average number of errors—including the misspelling of columnist and the name of acclaimed journalist Arnie Weissmann.
■ Thanks to Mike Braden and several other readers who caught those goofs.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Worst person in the world makes Dolly Parton’s death all about himself.”
■ The Onion: “Parton Troubled To Find God Illiterate.”