‘A stunning setback to transgender rights.’ That’s The Associated Press’ assessment of a Supreme Court ruling today upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for kids.
■ CNN: The decision could embolden more states to pass laws targeting transgender Americans.
■ The Los Angeles LGBT Center’s chief medical officer tells Teen Vogue: “For parents of transgender kids, the ruling means the loss of parental authority.”
Snap judgment. The Chicago City Council was poised today to decide whether to give the police superintendent power to impose a curfew anytime, anywhere in the city, with just 30 minutes’ notice.
■ Mayor Johnson says he’s ready to go “as far as necessary” to resist the Trump administration’s militarized immigration crackdown …
■ … including Chicago’s lawsuit against a freeze on federal funding for big-city security programs …
■ … now joined by Boston, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.
■ After listening to oral arguments yesterday, law professor Joyce Vance isn’t optimistic about California’s chances in a challenge to Donald Trump’s federalization of the National Guard, dispatching troops to Los Angeles.
‘We fear her being detained and us not being there.’ A couple of brothers in the Illinois National Guard yesterday escorted their mother—who was born in Mexico and has lived in the U.S. more than 24 years—to Chicago’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office,
■ She wasn’t detained—but two Illinois congressmembers, Jonathan Jackson and Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi, were denied access to that facility.
■ Block Club Chicago: A West Loop man complains that “ICE kidnapped my roommate.”
■ The field director of Chicago’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office is defending his agents’ behavior.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman hypothesizes that the U.S. may have illegally deported someone who could have cured cancer.
■ Harold Meyerson (no relation) at The American Prospect: “Looking Latino is grounds for deportation … in blue states.”
■ Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem was in the hospital, recovering from what her staff describes as “an allergic reaction.”
He could have been headed this way. At least three Illinois Democratic lawmakers—including Krishnamoorthi—were named in the notes of Minnesota murder suspect Vance Boelter.
■ CNN breaks down the 20-page affidavit the FBI’s filed in the case.
■ Columnist Mitch Jackson on Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s thoughtless response to the murders: Lee “must resign, be expelled, or be voted out by the people.”
‘You’re at an event, you have to rush home because … Look, I get it: None of us like to poop in an unfamiliar place.’ The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper led off a night of monologues mocking Trump for bailing on the G7 summit in Canada.
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “Trump embarrassed himself and America at the G7, just like the good old days.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump talks like a mob boss, but rarely has his organized-crime style of governance been clearer.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Trump’s confusion of the United Kingdom and the European Union: “I seem to recall a rabid press corp that pissed all over themselves with glee every time Joe Biden momentarily screwed up a name.”
War by tweet. Columnist Robert B. Hubbell: The U.S. position on the conflict between Israel and Iran flipped over the course of 72 hours from “‘We are not involved’ to Trump posting on Truth Social that ‘We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”
■ Press Watch proprietor Dan Froomkin: “The press needs to push back as Trump careens into war with Iran.”
■ Dan Pfeiffer at The Message Box: “Even Trump's base doesn’t want war with Iran.”
■ Contrarian editor-in-chief Jen Rubin: “Counting on ‘TACO’ Trump is foolhardy. Israel may have made a gross miscalculation.”
■ Live updates from the AP: Iran warns that U.S. involvement would risk “all-out war.”
■ 404 Media: Social media are being flooded with fake AI-generated slop claiming to show the war’s devastation.
‘A catastrophic loss.’ The failure of Weiss Memorial Hospital’s air conditioning system prompted the evacuation of all its patients—many to the sibling West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.
■ The fix could take days.
■ Weiss blames lousy maintenance by its previous owners.
■ The former chief financial officer of Chicago’s Loretto Hospital’s been charged in connection with a $290 million scheme to bill the government for a billion dollars in bogus COVID-19 tests for uninsured patients.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist offers guidance for dealing with benighted folks who insist on “doing their own research” about health matters.
‘No Kings’—again. Organizers of last Saturday’s anti-Trump protests have targeted July 17 for a sequel.
■ The Handbasket: What actually happened at the Salt Lake City “No Kings” shooting.
■ Popular Information: Verizon and Amazon have canceled their support for Juneteenth celebrations.
■ Here’s some of what’s happening today and tomorrow to observe Juneteenth around Chicago.
Hatches battened? Tornadoes and hail were potentially in the offing for Chicago this afternoon.
■ For the first time since the pandemic, Chicago Park District pools will open seven days a week—but not much into typically sizzling August.
■ Looking for ways to cut your electric bill? The nonprofit Citizens Utility Board rounds up a range of resources—including options for going solar even if your home doesn’t accommodate panels.
Chicago Public Square mailbag. A compliment to make us blush: “Thank you for your ongoing and tireless efforts to inform us without overwhelming us. And always with heaping doses of good sense and good humor. The world has more flowers because of the seeds you plant.”
■ Another reader, Paul Moretta, writes of his Squarewear: “Love the shirt”—and sends a selfie.
A Square reader perk. Save 30% on tickets to “Faith is Funny: Comedy Writers on God and Religion” with Hari Kondabolu, Gibran Saleem, Kate Sidley and Peter Sagal under the auspices of the American Writers Museum—Monday (June 23), 6 p.m., at Chicago’s Studebaker Theater. The code AWM at checkout brings admission down to $18.
■ More about the show here.
■ Here’s a profile of Sidley—a Peabody Award-winning writer for The Late Show with Steven Colbert.
■ As for Sagal: Remember this?
