Here come the judges / Deadlocked / TV tips / Quizzes!

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Here come the judges. Donald Trump’s administration had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in the courts. A sampling of yesterday’s Associated Press headlines:
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst asks: “Would you like some truly happy news for your Friday? … Time for some poll porn!”

And now some jokes about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “Nothing sparks fear in the hearts of our enemies like a defense secretary who puts foundation on his face and a big palm full of Suavecito Pomade in his hair every day. It’s the warrior ethos.”

■ Jacob Sullum at Reason: Trump’s launched a “crusade against speech that offends him.”
■ Trump’s Labor Department warns that employees could face criminal penalties if they talk to journalists.
■ Public Notice columnist Stephen Robinson attributes Trump’s influence over Republican legislators in part to fear for their personal safety.

‘We sincerely hope never to have to type his name again.’ A Tribune editorial hails a judge’s decision to put away Highland Park Fourth of July killer Robert Crimo III for the rest of his life.
■ The judge says those seven successive life sentences were the strongest penalty she could hand a man she described as “irretrievably depraved, permanently incorrigible, irreparably corrupt and beyond any rehabilitation.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg draws a line from Crimo to Trump’s administration: “When you stop caring about people, you can do anything.”

Deadlocked. The jury in the bribery trial of State Sen. Emil Jones III—son of a former Illinois Senate president—couldn’t agree on a verdict …
■ … but the judge says Jones could yet face trial all over again.
■ Gov. Pritzker was reportedly set today to endorse his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, for the U.S. Senate seat Dick Durbin’s giving up.

‘We … thank him on behalf of Chicago taxpayers.’ But a Trib editorial sees Chicago schools CEO Pedro Martinez’s new job—overseeing Massachusetts’ public schools—as repudiation of Mayor Johnson: “Massachusetts … considered what happened in Chicago over the past year and chose the man Johnson and his allies attacked as a threat to public education.”
■ Chicago’s school board has approved a new contract for the teachers’ union.

Dingii of the Week. Columnist Lyz Lenz honors Trump’s “Men’s Cabinet on Incentivizing Females to Baby.”
■ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina: “If we want people to have more children, we need to create a society that actually supports parents. And right now, the U.S. is nowhere close.”

TV tips. Cord Cutter Weekly’s ever-insightful Jared Newman on [HBO]Max’s password-sharing crackdown: Don’t pay until they force you to—and there are ways to avoid being forced to.
■ Also: How to get around Netflix’s anti-sharing rules.

‘Habeas corpus, Fort Collins Brownies and the mystery of K2-18b. Go 8 for 8 and give yourself a gold star!’ That’s this week’s challenge from quizmaster and past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, back from a break.
■ With a score of 7/8, your Chicago Public Square columnist enters the weekend minus a gold star.
■ Bonus quizzes: Axios’ Justin Kaufmann invites you to test your knowledge of Chicago’s theater scene (7/10 here) …
■ … and City Cast serves up its weekly Chicago news trivia quiz (a lowly 2/5 right here).

‘What 95 days sucking up to Trump got the tech lords.’ Daily Beast correspondent David Gardner: “They tried to save their companies. Now they need to rescue their dignity.”
■ CNN alumnus Jim Acosta calls for taking the White House Correspondents dinner off the table: “Is this really the right time to sit down and break bread with the very people who seek to destroy the free press in America?”
■ Editor & Publisher columnist Guy Tasaka: “Meet the scrappy, affordable tools that might just rescue local journalism.”
■ Did someone say “scrappy”? Your support helps keep this newsletter coming.

Aaaand they’re off / Man Bites Dog Dept. / ‘Secret’ radio

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Aaaand they’re off. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s announcement that he’s retiring at the end of his present term has “at least a dozen” politicians eyeing campaigns to replace him …
■ … including Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton …
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Only a fool” at this point would predict Durbin’s successor—so Zorn does just that.
‘I don’t want to wait too long and test fate.’ Durbin—who’s 80 and would be 88 by the end of another term—broke the news to WBEZ.
■ He also posted an almost two-minute declaration on YouTube.

‘The most decisive act of leadership of any Democrat since Donald Trump was elected.’ That’s how investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein sees Durbin’s announcement.
■ Progress Report columnist Jordan Zakarin, who—in his own words—has called Durbin “a useless coward,” nevertheless praises the senator for deciding to pass the torch to a new generation.
■ A Tribune editorial thanks Durbin for pioneering legislation that outlawed smoking on airlines.

Another ‘80 and out’? Octogenarian Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s also reportedly ready to hang it up …
■ … potentially creating a path to Congress for Kat Abughazaleh, described by The American Prospect as a 26-year-old “pigeonholed into being a younger voice,” but “really running against a culture of complacency and apathy in the Democratic Party.”
■ Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports, Trump’s aiming to use a little-known federal agency to overhaul U.S. elections.

Highland Park shooter’s sentencing. 2022 Fourth of July killer Robert E. Crimo III could learn his fate today—after victims and survivors have their final say.
■ Jurors in the bribery trial of Illinois State Sen. Emil Jones III may be deadlocked.

‘Nothing says we’re broke like spending nearly $1M on ads to tell everyone you’re broke.’ Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner mocks the RTA’s campaign to “beg Springfield for more money” …
■ … in part via a website encouraging riders to press lawmakers to “Save Transit Now.”

■ Meanwhile, CBS News reports, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ordered a makeup studio installed at the Pentagon.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: Hegseth’s “a walking disaster.”
■ ProPublica shares a previously untold story: “Ed Martin ghostwrote online attacks against a judge—and still became a top Trump prosecutor.”

Spotted in Illinois. The state’s confirmed its first modern-day case of measles here—well, in far southern Illinois, anyway.
■ Wonkette: Health and Human Services Secretary “RFK Jr. Pretty Sure Anything He Didn’t Know About As A Kid Is Not Real.”

‘They are absolutely trying to bring back segregation.’ That’s influential tech blogger Mike Masnick’s take on one of Trump’s executive orders.
■ Law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance sees First Amendment danger in Trump’s dismantling of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
■ The New York Times (gift link): In what looked at first like a scam, the Trump administration texted dozens of current and former university employees with a text message asking if they’re Jewish.
■ The TRiiBE: Chicagoans now can apply to join the city’s Reparations Task Force—via this form.

‘The billionaire who has been busy ruining the U.S. government is sad and it’s all your fault.’ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke reflects on Tesla profits’ fall from grace.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: Elon Musk “says that he will dial back his work with the government so that he can spend more time with all 10 of his families.”
■ The official website for Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has seemingly pulled $5 billion in taxpayer savings out of its—well, Popular Information says “thin air.”
■ A.V. Club: Meta’s Oversight Board—which manages decisions governing the removal of Meta content—“sounds pretty blindsided” by (link corrected) Mark Zuckerberg’s decree ending fact-checking.
■ Wired: Google’s AI Overviews is delivering “credible-sounding explanations for completely made-up idioms.”

■ Riot Fest has released its 20th anniversary lineup for Douglass Park in September …

‘Secret’ radio. With local news in decline on commercial airwaves, Nieman Lab turns a spotlight on audio information services where—every day, around the clock, across the country—hundreds of volunteers read local, national and international news—and books and magazines, too.
■ In Chicago, it’s CRIS.

Thanks. Patrick Olsen made this edition better.

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