Chicago Public Square will take a few days off. Friday will bring you a news quiz as usual, and we’ll be back in force here Tuesday.
■ Between now and then, get your fix of news and commentary around the clock by checking in with Square on Bluesky.
After Trump, what? Journalist Dan Froomkin has a 10-point plan for fixing all the president’s broken.
■ American Prospect co-founder Paul Starr has a “Premature Guide to Post-Trump Reform.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn asks: When, exactly, was “America great”?
■ Stop us if it’s feeling like the 1880s all over again.
■ Timely reading: Daring Fireball notes that ebook editions of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny are available for just $2.
‘Falsehoods are now winning.’ Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler has filed his farewell column. (A gift link, underwritten by Chicago Public Square supporters.)
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “The media can’t handle the absence of truth.”
■ ProPublica cofounder Dick Tofel offers practical steps for journalists to get tougher on politicians’ “provable knowing falsity.”
■ Froomkin again: “The country’s top journalists have gotten too used to just quoting the crazy things Donald Trump says and leaving it at that.”
■ Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion proprietor Jeff Tiedrich: “The narcoleptic old fart factory fell fast asleep in public. Again.”
‘We’ll smash the fucking window out and drag him out.’ ProPublica documents nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to speed up arrests.
■ In a case that The Guardian says illustrates how ill-prepared the Trump administration is to meet the needs of immigration detainees with disabilities, a man detained by ICE in Georgia was placed in solitary confinement after he complained about flooding in his cell—a potential danger for his electronic prosthetic legs.
■ PolitiFact: Florida Gov. DeSantis said “‘everybody’ at Alligator Alcatraz has a deportation order. Lawyers say he’s wrong.”
■ A federal judge who’s declared the detention camp “a black hole” is demanding to know “who’s running the show.”
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “Trump’s complaint about one judge is an attack on the entire judiciary.”
Canada aye. Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Canadian government in September will officially recognize the existence of a Palestinian state.
■ In a first, a majority of Democrats in the Senate have voted to stop arming Israel—although they were still vastly outnumbered by Republicans and other Democrats.
■ In what France, among others, calls an “unprecedented” move, Arab nations have allied to call on Hamas to disarm and surrender power.
■ Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein declares Pope Leo’s comments to Israeli President Netanyahu “the most pointed I’ve ever seen from an influential global leader.”
‘I’m glad Trump is gutting the EPA. My family’s tire-burning business is on fire!’ USA Today’s Rex Huppke sends mocking gratitude the president’s way: “Thank you for not caring about the cancer cluster in the town downwind of our business.”
■ Columnist Elaine Soloway, 86, recounts her trip to the emergency room for heat exhaustion in Chicago’s recent scalding weather …
■ … and thanks the young neighbors she’d earlier this month described as callous.
‘Not safe for patients.’ Records obtained by the Sun-Times show the medical director for struggling Weiss Memorial Hospital’s emergency room told state investigators he has “serious concerns” about the department’s abilities.
■ Trump’s chief scientific officer at the Food and Drug Administration is out after just three months.
Start your engines. After 28 years in the House, Chicago Rep. Danny Davis was set today to announce his retirement—sparking a crowded race to replace him.
■ Ex-VP Kamala Harris says she won’t run for California governor.
■ Columnist Ron Fournier fears that means “she wants to run for president in 2028, which would be a big mistake.”
■ Her new book, 107 Days, revisits that brief run for the White House.
‘Staggering.’ The Chicago Transit Authority’s acting president warns of “drastic service cuts” if state government doesn’t come up with more cash.
■ Block Club: A bold Park District plan to enlarge Grant Park could move part of DuSable Lake Shore Drive underground.
■ A 2-year-old is dead after a car crashed into a Portillo’s restaurant in Oswego yesterday.
‘It’s like a whole weight lifted off.’ Two cousins who, at 42 years, became Illinois’ longest-serving wrongfully convicted people have finally received an official declaration of innocence. (A Tribune gift link.)
■ The Trib also reports that the Chicago Police Department’s second-in-command has seemingly been stripped of almost all duty—after a 2022 incident in which her personal vehicle, driven by her niece, was involved in a narcotics arrest.
■ The nonprofit, pro-gun-control Violence Policy Center ranks Illinois second in the nation for “black homicide victimization.”
■ The Onion: “Study Finds Refreshingly Low Amount Of Shovel Violence.”
As Obi-Wan Kenobi said: ‘If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.’ His show canceled by corporate overlords in thrall to Donald Trump, Stephen Colbert just set a new ratings record.
■ Colbert’s Paramount/CBS sibling, South Park, scored its biggest season premiere ever with its brutal satire of Trump.
Time marches on. Eric Zorn rounds up some tech-outdated phrases—including “flat-screen TVs” and “411.”
■ Your Square columnist has resolved to eschew “smartphone” and “mobile phone” (2012 link).
