Chicago Public Square

Chicago Public Square will take tomorrow off—except for your weekly Friday news quiz roundup.

■ Through the Independence Day weekend, check the Square Bluesky account for news worth knowing …

■ … you know, like these 1,300+ discerning folks.

■ Now, though, the news for today:

Good news, bad news. The worst of Chicago’s heat wave has passed, but dangerously high temperatures will linger for days …

■ … and thunderstorms threaten the region tonight into tomorrow.

■ Not that you’d want to do it tonight, but Block Club reminds you that you can camp out in the Cook County Forest Preserves.

■ Columnist Elaine Soloway investigates: “Why are old people like me more affected by high temperatures than young folks like you?”

■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “Mother Nature is a radical leftist personification, possibly stemming from some meteorological wing of antifa, and now she’s threatening to ruin America’s 250th anniversary.”

Top cop taps out. Declaring a historic drop in Chicago crime, Police Supt. Larry Snelling is retiring in a couple of weeks.

■ Also leaving: The chief of the FBI’s Chicago office …

■ … a departure that the Trump-controlled FBI’s social media account seems to be celebrating.

‘Outrageous, unethical.’ That’s how Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch describes behavior by Plainfield Rep. Harry Benton, who’s been accused of sexual harassment.

■ Welch’s formal statement: “If he does not resign, we will initiate the process of expelling him from the House.”

■ Benton’s still on the ballot for November.

■ An aide to former Chicago City Council member Carrie Austin has been fined $20,000 and sentenced to three years’ probation for a scheme in which they used their clout to get home improvements from a developer seeking a deal in Austin’s ward.

It goes on. The New York Times reports (gift link) that, without the braggadocio of last year’s onslaught, federal immigration agents have detained more than 10,000 people in the last five days …

■ … even as Chicago’s embattled U.S. attorney concedes that more than 1,000 grand jury presentations are under review after dismissal of charges in the “Broadview Six” case against immigration enforcement protesters.

Nice grift if you can get it. Confronted about his jaw-dropping $1.2 billion in profit last year from various crypto holdings, President Trump deflected: “Everybody’s profiting.”

■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese: “How is this even legal?”

■ Former Time editor Rick Stengel: “It took 250 years, but we finally have a chief executive who understands the full money-making possibilities of the Oval Office.”

■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “If you’re stupid enough to put your money in a Trump crypto venture, you deserve to lose your entire ass. … Still, wow, corruption!”

■ A new congressional report concludes that Trump used a shadow corporation embedded within the National Park Foundation to hijack the national anniversary for “political ideology and pet projects.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)

■ The Onion: “Agriculture Department Puts Trump’s Face On Soybeans.”

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich is incredulous: Did Trump “understand that he was talking to a fake Teddy Roosevelt?”

■ A real headline, from a real news organization: “Trump jokes about ‘threesome’ involving him, his sons and Medal of Honor.”

■ The Guardian goes inside Trump’s “dreadful” state fair: “A storm, overpriced food and a sad ferris wheel.”

■ Lyz Dye at Public Notice: “As the cowards in Congress prostrate themselves, an 82-year-old woman took on the president and won.”

‘Nip this abolish prisons thing in the bud.’ Columnist Eric Zorn says a New York Democratic socialist congressional candidate’s call to eliminate prisons puts Democrats across the country in a position of having to deny “the accusation that theirs is the party that wants to fling open prison gates.”

■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein surveying populist Democrats’ primary surge: “The old guard extinction event is here. … party-approved candidates getting mowed down like a brontosaurus napping in the Yucatán circa 66 million years ago.”

■ NOTUS columnist—and Washington Post alumnus—Dana Milbank: “Israelis need to understand that America is about to file for divorce.”

AI’s worrisome skills. 404 Media reports that scientists asked artificial intelligence chatbots to impersonate 112 public figures: “What happened next is a ‘dire’ warning.”

■ Casey Newton at Platformer: “The tech industry can’t keep up with the AI backlash.”

Ch-ch-ch-changes. Chicago guitarist Joel Paterson has a new gig—as a member of Bob Dylan’s band.

■ CNN’s losing its first major on-air talent ahead of a pending takeover by Paramount Skydance.

Unsolicited Praise Dept. A couple of notes from readers made yesterday better:

■ “I appreciate Chicago Public Square and all the work that goes into it. It’s really comprehensive and so helpful to me when I want a 360-view of an issue.”

■ “It seems that I’m getting more complete news coverage from Chicago Public Square than from any of the broadcast outlets, though PBS is close behind.”

■ Messages like that—along with voluntary financial support from readers like you—keep this publication coming back after a break. Thanks.

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