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‘Everything we can’ / ‘Lake Street death trap’ / Google taketh


Your independent reader-supported newsbrief
By Charlie Meyerson
‘Everything we can.’ Visiting with immigrants taking shelter at a Chicago police station, Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged his full effort to make the city their home.
Axios sees Johnson’s first challenge as mayor: The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is threatening to leave.
A Tribune editorial calls Johnson’s executive order creating a deputy mayor for labor relations “disastrous.”
The Reader’s Ben Joravsky: “Nobody from Chicago is actually from Chicago! At least not our new mayor. And the one before him. And the one before her.”

‘A tone-deaf middle finger to the entire Chicago Police Department.’ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg perceives one glaring gaffe in Johnson’s inaugural address.
We’re No. 1: For the fifth year in a row, the National Registry of Exonerations ranks Chicago tops for wrongful convictions—mostly because of cop misconduct.

‘Lake Street death trap.’ A fix for the narrow stretch of road squeezed under the CTA tracks on the West Side is one of the demands of the new mayor from Fulton Market’s booming business community. (2016 photo of the L through East Garfield Park: John Ruberry.)
Autopsy results list a drug overdose as the main cause of death for a homeless man beaten at a downtown Blue Line stop—allegedly by a CTA worker who faces felony charges.
Politico catches up with CTA president Dorval Carter—one of the administrators whose job’s on the line under Johnson’s administration.

77,010 workers. Turning a skeptical eye on a grocery store mega-merger that would join, among others, the Jewel-Osco and Mariano’s chains (2022 link), Popular Information shares a report projecting the deal would cut wages for that many Chicago-area store employees.
Read the full Economic Policy Institute study here.
Block Club: Former Chicago public housing could become private homes for a nearby tennis center.

‘A brief, concerning conversation.’ Slate’s Jim Newell shares an exchange with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein in which she seems to not remember being absent from the Capitol.
The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes: “For two-and-a-half months … California (population 39.2 million) has had half the representation in the U.S. Senate as Wyoming (population 579,000).”

Abortion limits. North Carolina Republicans have overridden a gubernatorial veto to ban the procedure after 12 weeks.
Pennsylvania voters have secured a Democratic House majority likely to protect abortion rights there.
Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik: DeSantis will “become only more noxious before he’s finally ushered off the national stage.”

Hotness ahead. The UN weather agency sees a strong likelihood that the world will hit a key warming limit within five years.
It was so hot in Seattle that “the swan threw up.”

Google taketh. Got an extra—and long-unused—Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, YouTube or Photos account? The company’s going to begin deleting them …
 … but it promises to do so “carefully, with plenty of notice.”

Foo may be fought. The Foo Fighters headline September’s Riot Fest in Chicago …
 … which still lacks a permit …
 … and neighbors hope it doesn’t get one.

Thank you. It’s true: Chicago Public Square would’ve disappeared years ago had readers not made clear with their financial support that they value this service.
So we like to thank them publicly, in random order, every once in a while—beginning this time with Tom Mulcahy, Linda Paul, Robert Izral, Joe Hallissey, Shel Lustig, Sue Omanson, Nancy Straus, Kathy Catrambone, Pavlo Berko, Ted Slowik, Suzy Le Clair, Mike Pontillo, Scott Baskin, Lizzie Schiffman Tufano and Jane Hirt.
Join them for any amount you choose and see your name here tomorrow.

A Square public service announcement

But wait—there’s more!

Previously in Square:
‘A brand new Chicago’ / Not just Hollywood / News under attack
Ready, set … go, Brandon / 4 robbers, 30 minutes, 10 victims / One of our rats made it
The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians
‘Enough with the bellyaching’ / Missing a catalytic converter? / Deplorable of the week
‘Spectacle of lies’ / Tagged out / ‘The ugly truth’

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