‘Dangerous.’ That’s the National Weather Service word of the day, as the Chicago area faces another round of heat and humidity …
■ … and storms.
■ A heat advisory’s on until 8 p.m.
■ Ryan Cooper at The American Prospect explains a cheaper and simpler way for homeowners to go solar: “You don’t have to pay for contractors or a grid hookup.”
‘What the Epstein scandal is—and isn’t—about.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters): “Hours of TV coverage fail to grasp … the anxieties of the U.S. middle class.” (Link fixed!)
■ Columnist and AP alumnus Ron Fornier translates reporting on how President Trump’s faring the Epstein scandal: “Two people familiar with his thinking are telling The Post what we all can see with our eyes. Dude’s spiraling.”
■ Law prof Joyce Vance surveys the week ahead: “Trump’s ongoing effort to confuse his base about what’s in the Epstein files involves asking a federal judge to release just a limited bit of them.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “You have a choice, MAGA: A harsh reality or the comfort of lies. I have no confidence you’ll choose reality. But I at least hope the decision is tougher than usual.”
■ Bill Kristol at The Bulwark says Trump’s flunking Scandal 101: “If you’re going to stonewall, stonewall.”
■ Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer—a White House intern when then-President Clinton perjured himself about an extramarital affair—offers questions reporters should be asking about the Epstein scandal.
Thanks, Trump. The Tribune’s Dan Petrella explains the one change under the president’s “big beautiful bill” that can actually help Illinoisans: An increase in the limit on how much of your state and local tax bill you can deduct when paying your federal taxes.
■ Go figure: The Revolving Door Project and The American Prospect report that Trump frenemy Elon Musk has a “secret army of progressive lobbyists” … people taking money from Musk while also being paid to fix the problems his “Department of Government Efficiency” created.
‘Fear-based cleansing.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg: “Trump 2.0 came out of the blocks swinging at immigrants—who now can be arrested on sight by masked police, without due process, and shipped to foreign countries while we race to build our own domestic gulags.”
■ A suspect in the spray-painting of swastikas and “ICE rules” graffiti has surrendered to Chicago cops.
‘Chicago … actually scrapped their databases. … It has not resulted in an increase in reported crime.’ The city got a nod from John Oliver during last night’s dive into just how lousy police gang membership databases really are.
■ See the full segment here.
COVID’s ‘wimpy wave.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina says the summer surge is on—especially in Hawaii and Florida.
■ One of Chicago’s few for-profit “safety net” hospitals, Weiss Memorial, has been booted from the Medicare program after state investigators found it out of compliance with federal standards.
■ You may remember Weiss as the institution whose air conditioning failed last month.
■ Dr. Jeremy Faust at Inside Medicine: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly ready to fire all voting members of the agency in charge of deciding what preventive measures private health insurers have to cover.
Who’s next? Media watcher Tom Jones: Emboldened by that $16 million from Paramount, Trump’s now targeting ABC and NBC.
■ Critic Bill Carter: Josh Johnson’s breakout week as host of Paramount-owned Comedy Central’s Daily Show offers a demographic glimmer of hope for late-night comedy.
■ Popular Information concludes that Axios has rebranded conservative ideology as “objectivity.”
‘I was digitally snuffed.’ Longtime Chicago journalist Andy Shaw shares how he came to be banned from Facebook—for no fault of his own—and how he found his way back.
■ A Florida school board member has apologized for a Facebook post celebrating wrestler Hulk Hogan’s death.
‘A temple to the people’s art.’ That’s how Star Wars creator George Lucas, in his first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, describes his new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening next year in Los Angeles.
■ It coulda been here—but for what a 2022 Tribune editorial (another gift link) labeled “one of Chicago’s biggest mistakes.”
■ Speaking of mistakes: As the present longest-serving member of the City Council gets ready to retire—in the hope his son will replace him—City Cast serves up a quiz on other council nepo babies. (Your Square columnist scored 3/5 correct.)
Rest in parody. Tom Lehrer, the prodigy Harvard math professor and song satirist who took aim at—well, almost anything—has died at 97 …
■ … but not before putting all his work in the public domain: “So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.”
A Square public service announcement
Bakery specialties and unique dining experiences. The Misericordia Hearts & Flour Bakery and Café and Greenhouse Inn Restaurant provide jobs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities—and all proceeds benefit the 600+ children and adults who call Misericordia home.
Thanks. Mike Braden and Judy Graf made this edition better.
