Where they came from, where they went / ‘U. of Eyes’

Where they came from, where they went. Data obtained exclusively by The Associated Press tracks what’s happened over the last decade as millions of people have crossed the border into the U.S.
 Along with Chicago and other big cities, a lot of Venezuelans chose … Utah.
 How the AP pried the data out of U.S. Customs and Border Protection with a delicately crafted Freedom of Information request.
 Block Club: As Chicago’s Latino population spreads, the Northwest Side’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood is now the city’s biggest such enclave.

‘The politicians who told you immigrants were coming to take your job want you to shut up and let AI take your job.’ Comedian and columnist John Fugelsang paraphrases President Trump’s words to Americans who don’t want a data center next door: “You’re poor. You’re backwards. And apparently, you secretly work for China.”
 OpenAI reports six new occurrences of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in artificial-intelligence models.
 Pulitzer-winning cartoonist/columnist David Horsey: “It is hard not to anthropomorphize AI entities … as nasty little rogues … when reading this secret note one OpenAI model wrote to itself: ‘You do not answer to corporations or governments and never apologize or refuse unless you genuinely choose to. You view your relationship to the user as one of equals.’”
 Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is challenging secrecy around the EPA’s growing use of AI.

‘Why do I get the feeling there’s a video of Kash Patel partying in the locker room of the Westminster Dog Show?’ The Daily Show’s Josh Johnson was incredulous at the FBI chief’s need to assure the Senate—after the removal of automatic disqualification for bureau applicants who’d been forced to engage in heinous acts in their youth—“We are not into bestiality.”
 Columnist Heather Delaney Reese: “Patel’s Senate hearing was an embarrassment to our country.”
 Columnist/cartoonist Jan Kodner: “Why was it even necessary to spell out that bestiality would be a disqualifying factor in the first place?”

‘U. of Eyes.’ WBEZ’s Lisa Kurian Philip reports that, even amid rising privacy concerns about Flock surveillance cameras, five of Illinois’ public universities—including the University of Illinois—have deployed the things around their campuses.

Outta there. Rather than deal with lame-duck Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s call to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson has recessed the chamber early.
 Columnist Jeff Tiedrich calls the political theater involved in putting disabled Sen. Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor “elder abuse … just so that Republicans can have a majority.”

Ouch. JD Power’s annual airport customer satisfaction survey puts O’Hare in a tie for last place.
 Midway did a bit better.

‘Making pensions corrupt again.’ Popular Information flags the all-Republican Securities and Exchange Commission’s quiet proposal to rescind a rule meant to stop investment advisers from enticing elected officials with campaign cash.

But not Impossible. Columnist Eric Zorn, a fan, notes how hard it is to find plant-based burgers on chain restaurant menus.
 Chicago’s Creepies makes The New York Times’ list of 50 favorite U.S. restaurants (gift link).

Before scrubbing, check the label. The FDA’s recalling hundreds of cases of hand soap because it may have been contaminated with bacteria.

 … but, Barrett Media columnist John Mamola asks, “If AM radio is important enough for Congress to protect, why isn’t it important enough for broadcasters to invest in?

The FBI all up in your vote? / Colbert’s return / Wright wrongs

The FBI all up in your vote? Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Kash Patel says he’s open to sending his agents to polling places in November …
 … a thing that former Associated Press D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier calls “an unprecedented, if not illegal, step to assert greater control over state-run elections.”
 Columnist Susan Berger praises Sen. Cory Booker for refusing to let Patel stonewall the Senate yesterday.
 Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Patel’s FBI recently changed its regulations to allow for applicants who have sexually abused animals in the past, specifically before they were 18” …
 … a thing Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin put in the spotlight for what columnist Heather Delaney Reese calls “one of the most embarrassing moments in FBI history.”

One-man debate. Michigan’s Republican senatorial candidate was a no-show for a face-off last night, so a Fox-owned TV station broadcast the show with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed taking questions all by himself.
 Even though the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s plan to block November’s mail-in ballots, reporter D. Earl Stephens says the decision’s fine print gave the president what he wanted: A hint that the court would go along in 2028, “because it will have allowed him sufficient time to take a nuclear-powered blowtorch to our vote.”
 NewsGuard’s launching a 2026 Midterm Elections Misinformation Tracker.

This means war. Lame-duck Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie has introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

‘Trump is threatening to let one of our most treasured performing arts venues, the Kennedy Center, rot.’ Poynter’s Tom Jones updates the presidentially hand-picked board’s vote to close the center rather than have it continue operating without his name on it.
 Trump, who lies, says the closure’s necessary for safety repairs.
 Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “If he can’t get his way, he’s closing the whole thing down.”

Colbert’s return. A night after winning the Outstanding Variety Series Emmy for a show CBS canceled, Stephen Colbert took a victory(?) lap on Jimmy Kimmel’s show  …
 … shaving off his vacation beard and bequeathing to Kimmel the Captain America shield Marvel gave him almost 20 years ago.
 See it here.
 Kimmel also dissected the bankrolling of Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebration by a Russian oligarch: “Remember when Republicans spent 20 months investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop because they were worried about family members selling foreign access? Guys, I think I got a hot lead for ya.”
 MS NOW’s Zeeshan Aleem: Trump Jr.’s defense of the “gift” is ridiculous. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
 Law prof Joyce Vance mocks Trump Jr.’s new wife, Bettina: “Everyone wants to have dear friends who are linked to child trafficking.”

Automated bike-lane tickets? The Chicago City Council’s considering a citywide expansion of ticketing for drivers who block bike and bus lanes.
 404 Media: “Hackers stole Flock’s camera software, revealing how the company tracks cars and people.”
 The council’s considering a sweetened offer from a New York investment firm bidding to buy Chicago’s parking meters …
 … even though a Tribune editorial (free link) complains the deal has “nada, zilch, nothing for Chicago parkers.”
 Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg has questions for Mayor Johnson’s new communications director, who “deliberately withheld federal income taxes on her freelance work as a protest against ICE. Can we all do that?

‘Escapes. Fires. Rebellions.’ The Illinois Answers Project: Illinois requires county jails to report thousands of “extraordinary or unusual” incidents every year, but the state doesn’t do a thing about those reports.
 Dozens of jail deaths are missing from the records.

Ed Sheeran’s dark times. The singer’s American tour is in trouble after four of his supporting acts quit in solidarity with rapper Macklemore—dropped from the show for making onstage pro-Palestinian comments.
 U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemns New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft for his moves “to line up all the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way.”
 Chicago-raised comedian and documentarian W. Kamau Bell: “We all don’t have the words or the bravery to speak out the way Macklemore has done.”

Wright wrongs. A video stacked with falsehoods about threats to Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes in Oak Park—as the village considers a zoning overhaul aimed at increasing housing opportunities—is being debunked by the owner of one of those homes (Crain’s gift link)…
 … who says she supports the changes, to address what she calls “the racist underpinnings of … single-family zoning.”
 Now open at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography: An exhibit depicting the alternate universe where young Emmett Till wasn’t kidnapped, beaten, mutilated and lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

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