‘A quisling of journalism’ / Pritzker’s choice / ‘Burn this place to the ground’

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Let’s be independent together. Chicago Public Square will take the next couple of days off. But you’ll find The Conversation’s weekly news quiz in your inbox as usual Friday.
■ As ever, you can follow breaking news and commentary through the long weekend via the Square account on Bluesky.

‘A quisling of journalism.’ That’s Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob’s assessment of CBS parent Paramount’s $16 million settlement of President Trump’s lawsuit over 60 Minutes’ editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. (Image: ChatGPT.)
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “CBS News did nothing wrong. But its parent company still paid the price.”
■ Not-coincidentally: Paramount needs federal approval for its sale to a company controlled by the son of a tech billionaire who’s backed Trump.
■ In its defense, the company says the settlement doesn’t include an apology.
■ Ex-Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “Coward billionaire … Shari Redstone’s deal with Trump is a deal with the devil—and it threatens us all.”
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten snarks: “See? BS.”
■ It may not be over: The Freedom of the Press Foundation has said it’ll sue over the settlement itself (May link).
■ Zeteo: “The BBC refused to air this film on Gaza—so now we’re releasing it to the world.”
■ Longtime Chicago TV executive Bill Applegate is dead at 79.
■ At Applegate’s retirement in 2014, local media journalist Robert Feder reviewed his 45-year career.

Well, it’s a bit shorter. Updating coverage from the AP: The U.S. House was gathering for a climactic vote on the Senate’s slightly trimmer—now just 887 pages—version of Trump’s “sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities.”
■ The AP updates what’s in the Senate version …
■ … which you can read for yourself here.
■ Jeff Tiedrich: “I’d love to predict the imminent demise of the Republican Party, because none of this shit is popular. … But the average MAGA is basically the guy from Memento, who literally can’t remember what happened five minutes ago.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Senate action took at least some House members by surprise—prompting a scramble back to D.C.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “While the measure slashes public welfare programs, it pours $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement.”

Gator garbage. PolitiFact takes a microscope to things Trump said as he visited Florida’s detestable “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility in the Everglades.
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: The official White House social media account shared “an absolutely disgusting image, associating Trump with the alligator and swamp-snake guarded prison.”

‘We should be ashamed of ourselves.’ A Chicago City Council member’s among those frustrated by a failure to investigate police cooperation in a federal raid on an immigration office last month …
■ … even though city law limits cops’ role in immigration actions.

And now on a ‘Do Not Hire’ list. A Chicago lifeguard accused of murder has quit before he could be fired.
■ Outraged community members want more from the Chicago Park District.

Pritzker’s choice. As his present lieutenant governor runs for the Senate, the governor’s picked former deputy governor and veteran state lawmaker Christian Mitchell as his running mate for next year.

Schools out … $7 billion. The Trump administration’s withholding almost that much for K-12 schools—money that was supposed to go out yesterday—creating a massive budget crunch for educators across the country.

‘Riders rise up.’ With public transit in Illinois tottering at the edge of a fiscal cliff, organizers have set July 12 for a rally demanding state lawmakers get back to Springfield and figure things out.
■ Streetsblog Chicago: “Trump’s USDOT secretary wants you to drive to Midwest landmarks. Here are some car-free alternatives.”

Welcome to ‘Plastic Free July.’ Here’s what you can do to play along.
■ ProPublica: “Trump’s first EPA promised to crack down on forever chemicals. His second EPA is pulling back.”

Hard times at Microsoft. In its second mass layoff this year, the company’s cutting thousands of workers …

‘Burn this place to the ground.’ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz sees a millennial revolution brewing.
■ Wisconsin’s Supreme Court liberal majority has struck down a 176-year-old ban on abortion.

Looking for fireworks on the 4th? You won’t find ’em at Navy Pier this year.
■ Here’s where they will be.

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Vote-a-rama / New month, new taxes / Media weasel words

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Vote-a-rama. That’s really what they call what’s been going on in the U.S. Senate for more than 24 hours, working through the 900-plus pages of President Trump’s massive package of tax breaks, spending cuts, and new funding for the military and deportations.
■ You can watch live here.
■ Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse on the Senate floor: “This place feels … like a crime scene. Get some of that yellow tape and put it around this chamber.”
■ In the face of widespread opposition, the Senate’s cut a proposal that would have stripped states of power to regulate artificial intelligence.
■ Politico foresees a TACO in the president’s July 4 deadline for approval …
■ … which seems a stretch, given that whatever the Senate passes then goes back to the House.
■ The anonymously bylined newsletter Closer to the Edge issues a series of open letters to Senate Republicans on the bubble:
■ To Kentucky’s Rand Paul “From: The People Who Know Exactly What That Golf Invite Was About” …
■ … to Louisiana Dr. Bill Cassidy “From: The Patients You Just Voted to Abandon” …
■ … to Maine’s Susan Collins: “When your party tried to kill the Affordable Care Act, you voted no” …
■ … and to Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski: “You have one last chance to show us that your independence isn’t just branding.”
■ Columnist Robert Hubbell: “Even if you have called your representatives and senators before, do so again! See 5 Calls.org.”

Half a million Illinoisans. That’s how many residents the Sun-Times says could lose health care coverage under that legislation, according to analysts examining how it would affect Illinois.
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Trump Signs Executive Order Changing Meaning of Word Obliterate.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ PolitiFact ranks Trump’s assertion that his bill will deliver on the promise of no tax on Social Security “Mostly False.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “There are so many rotten ideas in this sprawling legislation that it will be disastrous, particularly to the less fortunate.”
■ Greater Chicago Food Depository executive director Kate Maehr: “We are heading into … a crisis of unimaginable proportion.”
■ Politico: As Trump cuts federal library funding, Illinois is pitching in more.
■ See how much your library’s getting here.

New month, new taxes. July 1 brings the launch of new Illinois taxes on—among other things—gasoline, sports bets and tobacco and vaping products.
■ Now in effect: A ban on those plastic-waste generating mini-bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotions at larger Illinois hotels.
■ The Tribune reports a problem for Mayor Johnson: His team worked with outsiders who weren’t registered to lobby on the city’s behalf in the General Assembly.
■ Also from the Trib: The staff-bleeding Chicago Housing Authority gave 4 1/2 months’ severance to a recently departed executive.

‘Culture wars brought to life.’ Law professor and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance warns that “the Civil Rights Division, the once proud crown jewel of the Justice Department, will participate in stripping naturalized American citizens of their citizenship.”
■ Semafor: As part of its growing effort to target individuals’ immigration status, the Trump administration’s opened the door to examining the U.S. citizenship of New York Democratic mayoral primary winner Zohran Mamdani.
■ Florida today opens “Alligator Alcatraz,” which Handbasket columnist Marisa Kabas calls a “sadistic ‘one-stop shop’ for mass deportation.”
■ The American Prospect sees Social Security offices bracing for millions of requests triggered by the Supreme Court’s ruling against birthright citizenship: Workers will have to figure out if a newborn should be counted as a citizen—“a determination they’ve never had to make, for which there is no process” …
■ … just one of what Public Notice columnist Lisa Needham labels a series of “profoundly anti-democratic decisions issued by the court’s right-wing majority.”

Help for the college-bound. Gov. Pritzker’s signed legislation directing many—but not all—Illinois public universities to offer admission directly to students based just on a grade-point average.
■ Chalkbeat: Last week’s layoffs for 161 Chicago Public Schools workers look like just the beginning …
■ Meanwhile in Indiana: To meet budget requirements, that state’s colleges and public universities are cutting almost a fifth of their degree programs.

Media weasel words. Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob flags five ways news outlets are sugar-coating Trump’s fascism with euphemisms.

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