Mayoral race twist. Candidate Bill Quinlan is suing to keep Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Congressman Mike Quigley and Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas from running for mayor while also seeking reelection to their current jobs.
■ Before the City Council today: Dueling plans to rewrite apartment rental rules.
■ Mayor Johnson’s top lawyer is the latest administration official to depart.
‘Symbol of billionaire power’ or ‘a dangerous trope’? Crain’s Judith Crown (gift link) analyzes what Johnson stands to gain—or lose—by criticizing Jewish Democratic megadonor Michael Sacks.
■ The Tribune (free link): Sacks has dispatched a legal letter demanding an ad firm stop paying “influencers” to create videos spotlighting his political activity.
■ WBEZ: A nonprofit funded with Sacks’ cash is under fire for electioneering at a back-to-school festival on school grounds.
‘Who’s afraid of a big, bad debate?’ A Trib editorial (gift link) dings Illinois candidates dodging appearances alongside their opponents.
■ Patrick Pfingsten at The Illinoize: Gov. Pritzker’s revelation of his diabetes diagnosis “has raised further questions about what the 61-year-old governor does, or should, release to the public about his health.”
Fresh Trump falsehoods. CNN fact-checks the president’s UN address yesterday.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson notes that, as Trump threatened to “annihilate the Islamic Republic … much of the Iranian delegation walked out.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “What part of United Nations does Donny need explained to him? You’re not supposed to stand up and casually threaten to send another member nation to hell.”
■ Iran’s president was to get his turn today.
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin: “Trump is an idiot, and the mainstream press is covering up for him.”
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch (gift link) on a July column in which he compared Trump to mad emperor Caligula: “I need to apologize to Caligula.”
‘Trump is prepping D.C. for invasion.’ CNN’s Zach Wolf sees that as one possible reason the president’s describing a rebuilt White House ballroom as a military complex and declaring that his triumphal arch would feature snipers and drones.
■ The Atlantic (gift link): Key Trump allies are urging him to declare martial law for the midterms.
■ Columnist and former Tribune reporter Charlie Madigan: “Somewhere in the vast ballroom of empty space that is Donald J. Trump’s brain, there are enemies who deserve being sniped at. Heck, a good sniper could take out a whole CNN crew. … That would show them who is in charge!”
■ The Onion: “Trump Proposes Installation Of Sniper Nest Atop Barron.”
■ Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman on Trump’s “downward spiral into sundowning”: “It’s ‘Underwear on the Outside’ Time.”
‘Eye-popping stuff.’ Law prof Joyce Vance says yesterday was “a bad Tuesday in Maine if your name is Susan Collins” …
■ … because ProPublica reported that the Republican senator—who’s up for reelection in November—was the subject of an FBI bribery investigation “until Trump got in the way.”
Whoops. Block Club: In the face of student protest on a campus that describes itself as one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse, the University of Illinois at Chicago career fair will no longer feature Customs and Border Protection recruiters.
■ A federal judge has struck down Trump administration rules blocking noncitizens’ access to publicly funded health, education and social service programs.
■ Project Salt Box: The company that brokered ICE’s warehouse deals has a new deal to build … things … at seven sites from Honolulu to Guantánamo Bay—including Broadview, Illinois.
■ The Washington Post (gift link): The ICE officer in a Texas shooting was a new recruit who wasn’t wearing a bodycam.
‘We hacked the FBI.’ The cybercrime group ShinyHunters says it’s stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants”—and 404 Media says it’s seen a sample including names, addresses, phone numbers and details on FBI employees’ spouses.
■ The Conversation turned a spotlight on ShinyHunters a year ago.
‘Humans making calls to other humans.’ A.V. Club salutes 404 for exposing Facebook parent Meta’s artificial intelligence product, Muse, as “a cover for cheap human labor.”
■ The Post (another gift link): Researchers are sounding an alarm about a University of Chicago professor who used AI to write or co-write more than 200 papers and more than a dozen books this year alone.
■ 404 again: People training OpenAI’s AI have been fired for using AI to train the AI.
■ Gov. Pritzker’s assembling an “AI cabinet” to figure out what new laws Illinois needs.
Not so welcome. Illinois is closing its eight state-run welcome centers along interstate highways—although the restrooms will stay open.
■ Citing skyrocketing beef prices, the owner of more than 300 Wendy’s franchises is filing for bankruptcy.
Nazi wrong righted. The Art Institute is giving a 1913 painting back to the heirs of its original Jewish owners, who were forced to sell it by the Nazis.
■ Key to the resolution: Faint handwriting in pencil on the back.
‘$50 billion in debt just to simply mash together two mediocre media companies.’ Media watcher Simon Owens says oligarch David Ellison’s court victory to combine Paramount and Warner is just the next step in “a strategy that hasn’t worked for literally every other Warner Bros acquisition.”
■ Puck (gift link) is unimpressed by Ellison’s pledge to create an “editorial independence board”—to be chosen by … Ellison and his board.
■ Popular Information sums it up: “Democrats capitulate to MAGA media mogul.”
Thanks. Chris Koenig and Mike Braden made this edition better.