R.I.P., Dolly / Cops on the case / Take your shots

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R.I.P., Dolly. Immediate family planned a small, private service for entertainment titan Dolly Parton—who reportedly will be laid to rest in her signature high heels following her death of cancer yesterday at age 80.
■ Her passing sparked a pilgrimage of Chicagoans to an Edgewater mural in her honor (Tribune gift link).
■ Tribune critic Chris Jones, who’s visited her Dollywood theme park at least 50 times: “Even with all of her money and fame, she was unchanged and unchangeable” (gift link).
■ The AP surveys the many, many ways she used her fame and fortune for good …
■ Travel Weekly columnist and University of Illinois alumnus Arnie Weissmann recalls his 1977 Daily Illini interview with her—in which she declared, “I don’t do things that make me miserable.” (Photo: 1977 RCA Records publicity shot.)
■ The A.V. Club reviews Parton’s career: “Film and TV cameras were just as susceptible to the Queen Of Country’s charms as the rest of us.”
■ The Atlantic (gift link) shares photos from her life.
■ Columnist and self-described queer Army vet Charlotte Clymer: “God keeps taking the wrong 80-year-olds from us.”
■ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz: “The Grim Reaper has some explaining to do, because this is unacceptable.”
■ Her family encouraged fans to honor her memory by leaving a message at DollyParton.com …
■ … and by making donations to her charity, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, committed to mailing books to kids from birth to age five.

Face(book) the music, Meta. The company’s agreed to a whopping $17 billion settlement of 47 states’ lawsuit accusing it of deliberately addicting kids to Facebook and Instagram and routinely collecting data on those under 13 without parental consent.
■ Illinois’ share: Up to $768 million.
■ Among other steps, the company’s pledging to change things for teens across the country—including daily usage limits and nighttime blocks.
■ The University of Chicago’s limiting AI’s presence in the classroom.
■ The Freedom of the Press Foundation flags a new feature that could put ChatGPT all up in your iMessages.

‘If the voting process is destroyed, nothing else matters.’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg paraphrases the Supreme Court’s Monday gift to Donald Trump: “Sure, go ahead and mess with the mail-in ballots.”
■ Cook County and Illinois election officials insist their early voting and mail-in balloting systems are cool. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ In a win for Trump, late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s little sister has won the Republican primary to replace him on the November ballot.

Cops on the case. The Sun-Times reports a Border Patrol agent’s shooting of school teacher and U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez last fall in Brighton Park is under investigation by an elite group of Chicago police officers.
■ 404 Media unmasks the guy who dressed up as Darth Vader to mock the Flock security camera network.

‘No president in history has ever harnessed the power of his office against journalists in as relentless and retaliatory a manner.’ Middle Tennessee State University Free Speech Center director and former USA Today editor-in-chief Ken Paulson sounds an alarm about Trump’s unprecedented assault on the press.
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Canada has broken what’s left of Donny’s rotting brain.”
■ Lawyer and columnist Mitch Jackson: Attorney General Todd Blanche should be impeached.

Charge up, gang. No sooner has power been restored to Northwest Indiana than a fresh round of bad weather threatens the region today.
■ In the days since storms left the region powerless, utility company NIPSCO filed for three rate hikes.
■ The Citizens Utility Board explains which customers are good candidates for ComEd’s “Time of Day” pricing program—offering lower rates to those who can shift electricity use to cheaper times of the day.

Take your shots. Your Local Epidemiologist offers a guide to vaccines for this fall.
■ Ahead of a new Illinois law designed to curb health insurance companies’ ability to cut fees for doctors—beginning in 2028—Blue Cross Blue Shield is … cutting fees for doctors.
■ Despite its owner’s pledge to reopen by this summer, West Suburban Medical Center is reportedly being emptied of equipment.
■ Block Club: The former CEO of Chicago’s scandal-scarred Loretto Hospital may avoid jail time by paying $60,000 in restitution for taking bribes.

‘We are deeply sorry.’ Target’s yanking a Halloween costume some described as racist …
■ … notably a year after the company walked back its commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion—a.k.a., fairness.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

Election ‘chaos’? / Fly to O’Hare? / ‘Kiss my ass’ / Square mailbag

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Election ‘chaos’? That’s what Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson foresees arising from the court’s decision preliminarily clearing President Trump’s authority to restrict mail-in voting—a thing almost a third of the nation’s eligible population uses …
■ … including Trump himself.
■ Check your registration here.
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage makes the case for impeaching Justice Clarence Thomas.

‘Yabba-dabba do!’ Columnist Eric Zorn reflects on Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey’s invocation of the Flintstones when confronted with questions about the curriculum at the Christian school Bailey and his wife founded—which asserts that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time.
■ It’s primary day in South Carolina, where the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s admittedly uninformed little sister is running for a full term to replace him.

Biggest. Ever. The Trump administration’s poised to launch the largest mass visa revocation in U.S. history—yanking sanctuary for up to 200,000 foreigners.
■ Block Club: McKinley Park neighbors on the Southwest Side celebrated yesterday after a tow truck driver refused to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who’d rammed their SUV into a car whose driver they then arrested.
■ A teacher on the scene told the Sun-Times: “Our schools are empty and underfunded, and to see them here with all this expensive equipment is frustrating. … Day by day they keep terrorizing our most marginalized people.”



Fly to O’Hare? Along comes a visionary plan to run an express train—15 minutes, one way—between Chicago’s Old Main Post Office and the airport’s Terminal 2.■ A Trib editorial loves the idea.
■ Here’s a promotional video.
■ Suck it, Elon Musk (flashback to an award-winning edition of the gone-but-not-forgotten Chicago Public Square newscast from 2018).

He’s baaaaack. Cleared by the church again—for the fifth time—of sexual abuse charges, Father Michael Pfleger has been reinstated at St. Sabina Church.
■ A statement from the archdiocese: “There is no reason to believe Father Pfleger is guilty.”

‘Kiss my ass.’ Dismissing Trump’s personal attacks in an escalating trade war with Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford called Trump a dictator …
■ … adding: “Your own people … don’t even like you.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: Trump’s attack on Canada “might not make economic or political sense for the U.S., but it seems to make sense for a decaying president.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich (more on him at the end of this edition) says we’ve seen this movie before: Trump “blundered into an unwinnable trade war. … When he failed to achieve victory after the first day, he … started throwing everything at the wall, hoping that something would stick.”
■ A Tribune editorial calls Trump’s treatment of Canada “shameful.”
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “Ontario’s threat to withhold electricity and critical minerals reveals the foolishness of attacking America’s closest ally.”
■ A leaked memo about an Oval Office meeting in February reveals that Trump was warned repeatedly that launching a war against Iran could prove disastrous.

‘Our newsroom has been decimated.’ Their ranks gutted by layoffs after its acquisition by the Tribune, Daily Herald editorial workers are moving to form a union (Crain’s gift link).
■ The Intercept: A Pentagon mouthpiece admits there’s a secret blacklist of journalists.
■ Press Watch proprietor Dan Froomkin calls out mainstream political media: “Normalizing Trump doesn’t just fail readers—it jeopardizes our future.”
■ Mark Jacob at Stop the Presses: “Trump wants the media to ‘low-key’ the war. Let’s not.”
■ Media monitor Simon Owens doesn’t get why the creative community sees the migration of TV and movie production out of Los Angeles as inherently bad—especially when the concentration of journalism jobs in New York City is “widely treated as a problem.”

‘If you’re sick, it’s most likely the common cold.’ Your Local Epidemiologist offers words of comfort for your Square columnist—and maybe for you, too.
■ Also: A guide to all those food recalls.
■ The Conversation: “Lactose intolerance is actually the human norm—but racism, the U.S. government and business interests have made it into a condition.”

Password nightmare. The Atlantic’s Will Oremus (gift link) shares a login horror story: “I lost the password to my password’s password.”
■ Jack Wallen at ZDNET: “I dumped Firefox, but these five features finally won me back.”

Square mailbag. A reader’s concern about links from this newsletter to the work of columnist Jeff Tiedrich triggered some responses:
■ Beth Riches: “I find him absolutely refreshing … one of the few people who is ready, willing and more than able to call this chaos exactly what it is: Stupid, destructive and insane. … I credit him (and a few other columnists and late-night comedians) with helping to maintain my sanity and well-being. Thanks, Jeff!”
■ Carmie Callobre: “Tiedrich is always welcome. Keep him. He makes me laugh, is of course ‘on the nose’ and says things in public in a way I am not brave enough to do myself. Go Jeff!”
■ Mary Hancock: “Please continue. … I feel he absolutely expresses the rage that MANY of us feel about Donny Two Scoops and his minions.”
■ Barry Koehler: “He knows the exact right amount of shittery to include so it doesn’t sound like an urban dictionary or something vomiting in a blog.”
■ Sandy Kaczmarski: “I first discovered Jeff on Twitter when it was useful and love him. I am a paid subscriber … and find him saying what all of us are actually thinking.”
■ Judy: “A very talented writer who just LOATHES Trump. What’s not to like?”
■ No one (else) wrote to object to Tiedrich’s work.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

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