‘Unhealthy’ / Companies backing ICE / ‘One bad Apple (update)’

‘Unhealthy.’ The Chicago region faced another day of lousy air …

■ … with some relief by this evening.

■ Yesterday brought us the second-worst air quality of any major city on Earth.
■ Axios: “Chicago may need … to start planning for a yearly ‘smoke season.’”

■ Block Club surveys life in this siege for Chicago’s homeless.

■ The AP explains how to create a do-it-yourself home air filter.

■ The Tribune: The proliferation of warehouses built near homes and schools raises new concern about truck pollution.

Lettuce pray. Business Insider breaks down the risks of explosive diarrhea from eating suspect lettuce for people at three tiers of risk: Low, Medium, and Throwing Caution to the Wind.

■ The Guardian traces the outbreak to Republicans’ deep cuts in public health programs.

■ In what The Daily Beast calls an “embarrassing mistake,” the FDA says a lettuce sample test that triggered a multistate recall delivered a false positive—although the company responsible says it stands by the recall. (Cartoon: Jan Kodner, with ChatGPT.)

■ A University of Arizona microbiologist tells NBC: “The biggest outbreak I’ve seen was 4,000 people, but this looks like it’s going to push 8,000. There’s something different this time.”

■ Cyclosporiasis sent a Wisconsin newlywed to the hospital on her honeymoon in Yellowstone National Park.

Pumped for war. As President Trump’s assault on Iran escalates, the U.S. gasoline price average again is topping $4 a gallon.

■ Columnist Robert Hubbell: “The reckless battle plan … has so depleted U.S. military stockpiles that it impairs our ability to fight another war.”

■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “The public deserves transparency about the U.S. war in Iran. But that’s not what we’re getting—not even close.”

■ The Onion: “Trump Insists Frequent Naps Necessary To Protect U.S. Interests In Dreamland.”

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on the conclusion of World Cup festivities: “Donny—in his divine role as President of the United States, Supreme Ruler of the Western Hemisphere, Lord-Emperor of the Sky Above and All the Planets, and God’s Own Avatar on Earth—presented the winning team with their trophy … and then … wouldn’t get off the stage.”

‘The most corrupt thing Trump has done since returning to office.’ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer says a plan to charge for special high-speed access to the president’s Truth Social posts is a contender.

■ Lifting the curtain on Trump’s cheap-ish “Freedom Fuel” gas stations, The American Prospect finds a pair of lawsuit-embroiled brothers.

■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, looking back at the present moment from the distant future, sees “One Nation, Under Trump, Marked Down 70 Percent.”

‘A D and a bunch of B’s.’ Journalism critic Margaret Sullivan rates coverage of Trump’s “awful speech” Thursday night.

■ Free Speech Center director and former USA Today editor Ken Paulson mourns the newspaper editorial’s decline—and offers newsrooms a few suggestions to restore the spirit of editorials.

Companies backing ICE. Popular Information ranks the top 25 consumer brands funding Congress’ biggest Immigration and Customs Enforcement supporters.

■ The New York Times (gift link): Failed immigration cases have left the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago—among the most prestigious in the country—reeling.

■ An ex-Chicago federal prosecutor tells the Times “there seems to be a pattern of charges being filed without any merit.”

■ Law professor Joyce Vance mourns reports that “the FBI is out of the business of investigating ICE interactions with the public that have gone wrong.”

■ Trump’s Justice Department is proposing to revive what the AP describes as “a secretive and dormant court created 30 years ago to consider government requests to deport so-called ‘alien terrorists.’”

Independence fray. City Cast surveys the challenges that independent candidates are facing trying to get on ballots in Illinois.

■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Susan Collins Concerned That Maine Voters Might Remember Things She Has Done.”

‘One bad Apple (update) can spoil the whole week.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, an Apple fan for 25 years, recounts days of struggle after downloading a new iPhone operating system.

■ A Chicago software engineer is a prime example in what The New York Times (gift link) describes as a flood of Apple App Store offerings created with artificial intelligence.

■ The Onion: “Parents Sit Kids Down For Difficult Discussion About Moving To Ad Tier.”

‘You are my favorite website.’ Those comments last week—accompanied by financial support—from a Chicago Public Square reader are an important part of what keeps this newsletter coming.

■ Join him and others—such as Brent Hoffmann, Tom Butler, Charles Pratt, Susan Hardy, Al Hoyt, Joe McArdle, Mario Greco, Lisa McNulty, Tim Bannon, Leigh Daeuble, Rob Renfro, Deborah J. Wess, Mike Janowski, Maggie Ellsworth, Joseph Pesz, Jeremiah Woods, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, David Hammond, Judith Krzysko-Jakubowska, Jeffrey Nelson, Julie Ross, Jeanette Mancusi, David Kindler, Matt Griffin, Mike Schultz, Charles Sudo, Karl Schuster, Julia Gray, Anne Rooney, William Lindsey Cochran, Joe Hass, Jan Rogatz, Chris Rhodes, Cate Plys, Victoria Engelhardt, Steve Johnson and Louise Kiernan—and you’ll qualify for some modest expressions of gratitude.

Got masks? / ‘Awesome’ / Quiz

Got masks? Chicago’s blanket of wildfire smoke is putting N95 masks back in style.

■ Plain old cloth masks won’t cut it.

■ Chicago’s air quality index yesterday set a record: 638 on a scale of 500 …

■ … and at at least one point was the world’s worst.

■ Lots of events have been canceled.

■ CNN: You can trace increasing outbreaks of unhealthy wildfire smoke to climate change.

‘Debunked election lies.’ Democracy Docket reviews President Trump’s primetime speech last night.

■ The Guardian cites his “attempt to sow confusion ahead of midterms that could deliver big losses for Republicans.”

■ Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark: “We are all profoundly dumber for it. But it was still dangerous.”

■ Sykes’ Bulwark colleague Sam Stein: “Trump used the bully pulpit to undermine U.S. elections … in ways that adversarial governments could only dream of.”

■ But columnist Heather Delaney Reese says it was also a sign that “Trump knows the end is near.”

■ Nobel winner Paul Krugman: Trump’s biggest lie wasn’t about elections but was instead his assertion that “America is respected like we have never been respected before.”

■ Veteran CNN White House reporter and Trump antagonist Jim Acosta: “The thing that was scary … is he was talking about going after … the broadcast licenses for ABC and NBC for refusing to carry that speech.”

■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: TV networks were all over the place in how they covered the speech.

■ Everyone is entitled to my own opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich: “Even Fox News admits that Donny’s ‘stolen election’ speech was bullshit.”

Headlines You Might Have Guessed Were Coming Dept.

■ “Lettuce at Taco Bell in 5 states confirmed as a source of diarrhea-causing parasite.”

■ “AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior.”

■ Gary Legum at Wonkette: “Tom Homan wants you to shut up and let ICE shoot people or you will be to blame for ICE shooting people.”

‘Todd Blanche should not be attorney general.’ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “You did not need to watch Wednesday and Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings … to know that.”

■ Yesterday’s hearing included what lawyer/journalist Aaron Parnas calls “powerful, deeply personal, and incredibly courageous” testimony from a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse machine.

■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: A federal judge has questioned whether Blanche is fit to practice law at all.

■ The Atlantic (gift link) sees the Blanche hearings’ biggest takeaway: “The once-cherished ideal of dispensing impartial justice has all but disappeared.”

‘The state owes us a report.’ Better Government Association chief David Greising demands the state reveal just what got Illinois State Rep. Harry Benton bounced out of the General Assembly.

■ State Rep. Carol Ammons of Urbana and her husband have pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.

‘Awesome.’ The Odyssey is getting smash reviews—a bushel of four-star ratings.

■ The Onion: “Bat-Wielding Christopher Nolan Confronts Man Using Bathroom During The Odyssey.”

■ A mocking list of businesses The Onion’s corporate parent is acquiring—in addition to InfoWars—includes “Shreddd: An eco-friendly business that takes paper shredders and turns them into piles of shredded metal and plastic.”

Old guys in the news. Star Trek’s Capt. Kirk, William Shatner, 95, is bringing his heavy-metal band to Chicago’s Riot Fest in September.

■ Pulitzer winner Dave Barry, 79, went to the dentist.

A lotta glass. Late architect Frank Gehry’s seven-ton glass desk has sold at auction for close to a quarter of a million dollars.

■ A couple of old friends might be forgiven if that news is … triggering (2016 links).

In fairness, this quiz is a little light on news. That may excuse your Chicago Public Square columnist’s sad 5/8 score this time out—as past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel yields the reins to The Conversation’s team for questions about their favorite articles of the week.

Square is here because readers—including Brad Winick, Susann Slinic, Lloyd Sachs (again!), Margaret Benson (again!), Paul Francuch, Mena Boulanger, saknrad, Shruthi Kannan, John Powers, Paul Segedin, Phil Priest, Miriam Beams, Mike Hannigan, Janice Wolf, Chip Mitchell, Patrick Olsen, Spring Belasich, Craig Gunderson, Jonathan Yenkin, Andrew Stancioff, Michele Bukowski, Virginia Mann, Mark Mueller, Michael Carniello, Edward White, Maria Mooshil, John Gehron, Christine Cooper, John D. Abel, Sandy and Jeremy Lipschultz, Patricia Sullivan, Jasmin Phua, Tim Ward, Jim Peterson, Harla Hutchinson, Jennifer McGuire, Susan S. Stevens, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Geoff Tillotson, Gordon Hellwig, Ellen Mrazek, Adrienne Smith, Jean Johnson, Sarah Rodriguez, Jeff Currie, Cynthia Martin, Joan Richmond, Carol Hendrick and Sheila Solomon—have helped underwrite the cost of producing it.

■ Join them this weekend for any amount—even just $1, once—and see your name atop Monday’s roll call.