Now, the plague / ‘If I don’t, then who else?’ / Chicago’s 10-peat

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Now, the plague. The World Health Organization is monitoring a possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia—after the death of a woman who worked at … the Anti-Plague Research Institute.
■ Columnist and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky (gift link): “The Kremlin’s refusal to provide even a modicum of transparency about what has taken place is deeply problematic.”
■ Kenya’s confirmed its first case of Ebola by way of Congo.
■ Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak is the largest the U.S. has seen in decades.
■ Columnist Brooke Binkowski⁠ on the Texas Senate campaign: “Ken Paxton Joins War On Childhood Diseases, On The Side Of Childhood Diseases.”

‘Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.’ Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America, yesterday told a Nebraska rally that he’d consider attacks on those cities by Iran “a very small price to pay” in the war that he launched and that he insisted again is “gonna be over with very soon.”
■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese says those “horrifying” words justify Trump’s removal from office.
■ The plainspoken Jeff Tiedrich wonders why that’s not a bigger story: “Imagine that Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen had blundered its way into an unwinnable war, and then invited our adversary to nuke the shit out of us.”
■ See Trump say it here.
■ Defying court orders, he’s still blocking journalists from covering him.
■ He used an anti-transgender slur yesterday to attack a Democratic Senate candidate.

‘If I don’t, then who else?’ Chicagoan Marimar Martinez—shot five times by a Border Patrol agent last year—is suing the government …
■ … and Chris Parente, the former federal prosecutor now representing her, is also calling for criminal charges against the guy who did it.

‘Let’s Go Brandon’ is let go. The Supreme Court’s letting stand a school district’s ban on shirts bearing a MAGA slogan that became a stand-in for “Fuck Joe Biden.”
■ A Trump-appointed federal judge has blocked new Illinois limits on prediction gambling markets—siding with Kalshi …
■ … a company that has reportedly been generous to Donald Trump Jr. (September link).
■ The American Prospect explains “how the courts became a safe haven for corporations.”

If you watch just one show about AI today … Make it Jon Stewart’s Daily Show from last night …
■ … in which he exposed hypocrisy among the tech’s champions …
■ … and then frighteningly interviewed former AI researcher-turned-whistleblower Jacob Coxon.
■ Crain’s (gift link): Acknowledging its rising demand for electricity to power AI operations, Google’s agreed to fund billions in upgrades for Illinois’ nuclear power network.

Mum’s the word. Like his new corporate sibling, John Oliver, Stewart passed on the chance to comment on Comedy Central parent Paramount’s digestion of Warner Bros. …
■ … a deal that, as of today, has officially joined those storied brands—including HBO, CBS, CNN and DC Comics—under the banner “Skydance.”
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “American oligarchs and foreign fatcats are attempting ‘media capture.’”
■ Surprise (not): Ex-Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt is joining Fox News.

Chicago’s 10-peat. For the 10th year in a row, Condé Nast Traveler readers have named this the Best Big City in the U.S. (Tribune gift link).
■ In celebration, the city’s marketing agency, Choose Chicago, is declaring this Saturday “Best Big City Day.”
■ Scooter-share service Lime’s threatening to leave, too—if the city moves ahead on a new deal with Divvy.

Spending frenzy. Chalkbeat tracks the surge in campaign donations and expenditures as Chicago’s historic school board election nears.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: Candidates simultaneously running in November’s general election and February’s municipal races are not “double-dipping.”
■ Unsure how you’ll vote? Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide—a guide to all the voter guides out there.

‘Chicago is not a world-class city’ / Who sent you that? / ‘Your router snitches’

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‘Chicago is not a world-class city.’ And it can’t be, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg says, as long as it finishes dead last in a ranking of U.S. cities by public toilets per 100,000 residents.
■ But, hey, it’s getting one that’ll clean itself.

‘The city that brought down an ICE airline.’ The American Prospect says Chicago’s new parking meter deal “split the billionaire class from the fascists, providing a blueprint that can be replicated in other communities.”
■ Meanwhile, the Sun-Times reports, video gambling’s saturation of the Chicago area has critics worrying about that industry’s ability to separate Illinoisans from their money.

Awkward. Politico: “A day after Chicago School Board president candidate Hilario Dominguez was named in a Tribune report detailing previously investigated allegations involving a minor, he appeared at a rally alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson.”
■ Dominguez says the charges are unfounded.

‘The real problem is WE have failed to notice how great everything is, probably because we can’t afford gas to drive around and see all the greatness.’ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke says we should definitely trust President Trump when he says the economy is great.
■ The American Prospect: “The Trump regime is taking away our ability to know what’s going on.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “That he is openly using taxpayer money to buy votes in the election suggests just how worried Trump is about Democrats winning control of Congress.”

Ouch. This one’s gotta hurt Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey: His colleague, former House Republican leader Jim Durkin, is backing Democrat JB Pritzker’s reelection campaign …
■ … in a video declaring that Bailey “cannot be trusted to lead our state.”
■ Former Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler: “If Republicans lose the midterms, Trump has already told us why.”
■ The nation’s longest-serving Republican House speaker, Dennis Hastert of Illinois—who went to prison after admitting to sexual molestaton—is dead at 84.

Who sent you that? A new free app from Popular Information, PaidForBy.info, lets you upload a snapshot of a political mailer to learn who really funded it …
■ … like this.
■ Don’t vote dumb: Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.

‘The outlet for nearly a decade of pent-up public rage.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “The elite impunity of the Cornell rape case is the last straw.”
■ Now flooding the internet: “Jane Doe” posts in solidarity with the victim.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman blames Trumpian culture: “The punishment for rape is sometimes just a time-out at a college.”
■ Thank Cornell student journalists for blowing this whistle.
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones reviews Trump’s weekend: After lashing out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins—a Fox News alumna, remember (June link)—he woke up angry at Fox.

‘No one could be successful and be this unlikable.’ Culture critic Bob Lefsetz is unsparing in his review of ex-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel brother Ari Emanuel’s autobiography: “He must have some redeeming characteristics, but they’re not in this book.”
■ Rahm told Meet the Press yesterday the U.S. is ready for a Jewish president: “My faith is not your problem.”
■ Pro-Israel Political Update columnist Steve Sheffey hails New York Mayor Mamdani’s “meaningful, concrete action to fight antisemitism”—rejecting what Sheffey calls a “flawed” definition adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

‘Operating on borrowed time’? As Trump-allied Skydance merges CNN and HBO parent Warner Bros. with Paramount, Variety notes that HBO star John Oliver last night was uncharacteristically quiet about the news.
■ Oliver did delightedly announce that he’s reacquired the jockstrap Russell Crowe sported in the movie Cinderella Man.

Power pain. The Citizens Utility Board is collecting consumer complaints about skyrocketing summer electric bills …
■ … and encouraging Illinois residents to lobby lawmakers for legislation that would require data centers to pay more for the energy and infrastructure their operations demand.

‘Your router snitches.’ Tech columnist Kim Komando explains that your internet connection device can tell when and how people are moving through the house—“no camera, no mic, no extra gizmo” …
■ … and the fine print in at least one company’s contract says it can share that data with law enforcement—without telling you.

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