War’s fog / ‘They’re not breathing’ / Grocery goodbyes / ‘A blow to authors and artists’

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■ Updating coverage from the AP: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praises the attack but offers few details.
■ Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer: “Too many Dems confuse being pro-war with being strong.”

Planned Parenthood’s defeat. The Supreme Court’s ruled that states can cut off Medicaid cash for the organization—even if that money’s not being used for abortion.
■ After 404 Media revealed that local police departments in Illinois and across the country were using automatic license plate reader tech from Flock to help at least one Texas cop track a woman who’d self-administered an abortion, the company’s blocking agencies across the country from searching cameras in Illinois, California and Virginia.
■ Columnist and doctor James Whalen sees dark clouds in statistics suggesting female physicians are getting burned out.

‘Did you suggest telling the courts fuck you in any manner?’ That was a question from a U.S. senator yesterday to Trump federal appellate court nominee Emil Bove.
■ Liz Dye at Law & Chaos: Bove’s assertion that “I am not anybody’s henchman” is “horseshit.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance counsels how to talk to your senators about Bove.

‘They’re not breathing.’ Wired’s review of hundreds of emergency calls from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers nationwide paints a picture of a system in chaos—with life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment and overcrowding.
■ Dan Froomkin at Heads Up News: “Revulsion and resistance to ICE’s courthouse arrests grows.”
■ Trump’s “border czar” says he’s living apart from his wife “mostly because of the death threats against me.”

He’s in. Gov. Pritzker’s officially announced his candidacy for reelection …
■ … declaring Illinois “at the center of … the fight to make life more affordable, the fight to protect our freedoms.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “An incumbent governor will have a better chance at winning the presidency than a citizen billionaire.”
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos connects the dots between the 2023 election of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Zohran Mamdani’s big New York mayoral primary win over Andrew Cuomo.
■ Seth Meyers last night: “Cuomo said that Mamdani … ‘touched young people.’ Cuomo’s mistake was waiting until after he was elected to touch young people.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “That can’t be easy for Cuomo to admit. ’Cause touching young people? Kind of his brand.”
■ Axios: New York’s Democratic establishment is in a panic.

Heat-wave biking tips. Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield updates his 2018 guide to reflect the rise of electric personal mobility devices.

Grocery goodbyes. Mariano’s is closing three Chicago-area stores this summer …
■ … part of parent Kroger’s broader downsizing.
■ Elswhere in the retail world: Variety reports that Amazon founder “Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Forge Ahead With Venice Wedding After Activists Threaten to Block a Canal With Inflatable Crocodiles.”

‘They’re not asking us. … and it’s a complete sham.’ As Northwestern University makes budget cuts under Trump’s funding freeze, a professor complains the faculty isn’t getting consulted in what stays and what goes.
■ The American Prospect: University unions around the country are pushing back.

‘First they came for Calvin & Hobbes, and we peed on them.’ Updating the rising tide of U.S. school censorship, Wonkette’s Doktor Zoom mourns Monroe County, Tennessee, schools’ banning of Bill Watterson’s beloved comics.
■ Meanwhile, reactionary internet personality Stew Peters has released what columnist Gary Legum says may be “the most racist children’s book ever.”
■ The Conversation: Self-censorship’s on the rise as Americans become less likely to voice opinions on political issues.

‘A blow to authors and artists.’ Popular Information assesses a federal judge’s ruling in a landmark artificial intelligence case.
■ Poynter: “A lot has changed since we created AI ethics guidelines for newsrooms. Here’s what you need to know now.”
■ Media business analyst Rick Edmonds: If you find no breaking news in your Sunday newspaper, well, that’s now baked into the system.

‘Quick summaries, political references, and media-savvy commentary … aimed at … readers who keep up with politics and current events.’ That, remarkably, is AI bot ChatGPT’s flattering—and may we say accurate?—assessment of Chicago Public Square.
■ But, hey, older boomers: Don’t let its stereotyping get you down.
■ Just for laughs, see how ChatGPT rewrote yesterday’s edition Ernest Hemingway-style.
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■ Mike Braden made this edition better.

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Hospital ‘nightmare’ / About that F-bomb / ‘Disappearing women’

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Hospital ‘nightmare.’ Remember how the failure of air conditioning at Resilience Healthcare-owned Weiss Memorial Hospital last week prompted the evacuation of patients to Weiss’ corporate sibling, West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park? West Suburban’s AC hasn’t been up to the job, either.
■ Chicago’s Provident Hospital: Same thing.
■ Indicted on fraud charges in Chicago, a former executive of Loretto Hospital is waging what the Tribune calls a “bizarre PR campaign” from Dubai (gift link, funded by Chicago Public Square supporters).
■ Illinois has reported its first human case this year of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.

‘Political earthquake.’ That’s how Politico sees 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary.
■ The Bulwark calls his victory over scandal-scarred former Gov. Andrew Cuomo “a wake-up call for the Dem establishment” …
■ … all the more shocking, The American Prospect reports, in light of “what Cuomo and his deep-pocketed allies threw at Mamdani.”
■ Gov. Pritzker’s reportedly set Thursday to announce his campaign for a third term next year …
■ … which doesn’t rule out the prospect of a presidential run in 2028.

About that F-bomb. Poynter’s Tom Jones surveys how the news media handled the profanity Donald Trump unleashed yesterday—in frustration over continued war between Israel and Iran as he left for a NATO summit.
■ Seth Meyers: “Remember when Biden whispered it to Obama and everyone on the right lost their f______ minds?”
■ The AP: Early intelligence suggests the American strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program by just months.
■ Strangely missing, CNN’s Brian Stelter observes: “Any video of Saturday’s actual bombing raid.”
■ Columnist Robert Hubbell: “The success of the US bombing of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility is contested at best and insignificant at worst.”
■ The Daily Beast: “Trump lashed out at ‘scum’ who revealed his much-championed strikes against Iran were likely far less effective than he claims.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Journalist Jonathan Alter: Trump “failed to ‘obliterate’ Fordo. Now the Iran fiasco has left the United States weaker.”
■ Under pressure from Trump, NATO leaders have agreed to increase their financial contributions to the alliance.

‘The most unethical judicial nominee in modern history?’ Popular Information explores “an explosive new whistleblower disclosure” alleging that, as a senior Justice Department official, Trump appellate court nominee Emil Bove “is willing to ignore federal law to give Trump what he wants.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “A vote for Bove, at this point, is a vote that says: It’s okay to f*** the courts.”
■ Updating coverage: Bove had a date today before the Senate Judiciary Committee—chaired by whose ranking Democratic member, Illinois’ Dick Durbin, calls the allegations “serious.”

A bad look. Trump’s anti-immigration gofer, Stephen Miller, owns big stock in Palantir—a government contractor doing work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
■ Technically, the stock’s in an account for one of Miller’s kids.
■ ProPublica: A new Trump plan led by Miller would give the Department of Homeland Security and the White House more control over organized crime investigations, scaling back prosecutors’ role.

‘Big Balls’ out. Edward Coristine—the high school graduate “Department of Government Efficiency” staffer known by that nickname—has left his federal job in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s … shall we say awkward? … departure from the Trump administration.

‘Disappearing women.’ Author and ex-Illinois Rep. Marie Newman samples Trump’s misogynistic actions so far, warning that “the fastest way to an authoritarian state is to reduce the role of women to nearly nothing.”
■ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz: “The prime minister of Israel—the man ultimately responsible for … more deaths of women and children than any other conflict over the past two decades” is “trying to free the women, even if he has to kill them first.”
■ States Newsroom: Three years after the Supreme Court overturned women’s right to abortions, criminal investigations of miscarriages are on the rise.

Video tensions. Under objections from, among others, the American Civil Liberties Union—which sees a significant threat to people’s privacy—a Chicago City Council plan to require that public-facing businesses install security cameras seems to be losing support.
■ In a break from recent policy, a judge is blocking release of video related to the death of a Chicago cop.

Switch on. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from withholding funding for electric vehicle charger infrastructure in Illinois and other states.
■ Community solar business Nautilus Solar Energy is moving its HQ from New Jersey to Chicago.
■ Energy-centric environmental newsletter Cypher is calling it quits.
■ CareerBuilder + Monster—once partly owned by Tribune Co.—has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Mailbag. A reader writes: “I am so happy with Chicago Public Square. The mix of items is great and it is one of the very few newsletters I receive that I always read all the way through and even go back to prior issues. Keep up the great work!”
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