Events

Forget the news for a moment. This video is just so cool—especially if you're from Evanston in the 1970s:

Justice Kennedy is retiring.

The owner of the property that houses Chicago's infamous Wieners Circle hot-dog stand has put it up for sale: The Wieners Circle, that Lincoln Park institution known as much for its late-night insults as its hot dogs, may soon have to take its shtick somewhere else. The hot dog stand's longtime landlord has hired a broker to sell the Clark Street property and an apartment building next door, potentially setting the stage for a developer to raze the 36-year-old restaurant and put up apartments or condos...

In a pair of 5-4 decisions today, the Republican Party's theft of Merrick Garland's seat on the Supreme Court paid dividends again. The modern-day Taney court, with the Roberts minority plus Gorsuch voting one way and a majority of the country voting the other, ruled that President Trump's ban on immigration from Muslim countries was constitutional, but found that California's law requiring unlicensed "crisis pregnancy centers" to post a notice that they aren't licensed was not constitutional. Add those...

Now that ICE and CBP feel like they have carte blanche to "do their jobs," stories like this will only become more frequent: The coast of White Rock, British Columbia, in western Canada looks to be an ideal place for a run, with its sweeping views of the Semiahmoo Bay to the west and scores of waterfront homes and seafood restaurants to the east. That's what 19-year-old Cedella Roman thought when she went jogging along the area's smooth beaches — in a southbound direction, notably — on May 21. Roman...

This past weekend included the Chicago Gay Pride Parade and helping a friend prepare for hosing a brunch beforehand. Blogging fell a bit on the priority list. Meanwhile, here are some of the things I'm reading today: From last week, the Times discusses whether Earth's 23.4° axis tilt was actually a necessary precursor to life. New Republic's Josephine Huetlin asks, "Why do populists get away with corruption?" One of Chicago's last remaining over-the-tollway oases is slated for demolition. Josh Marshall...

Meetings and testing all day have put these on my list for reading tomorrow: The Atlantic's Carl Zimmer on epigenetics. New Republic's David Dayen saying AT&T has proved its critics right in only a week. London plans to spend £1.5 bn ($2 bn) to get enough trains on its four most-crowded lines just to keep up with demand. Jennifer Rubin says, contra the President, America is strong and he is weak. Andrew Sullivan says, fuck it, give Trump his wall. And pity the poor Trump Administration staffers who...

Yesterday I worried aloud that the Sessions/Miller/Trump immigration policy separating children from their parents at the border was a move in a longer game to get rid of Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller without making it obvious that was the goal. With the President's apparent policy reversal yesterday, that no longer seems the case. Josh Marshall has a new hypothesis taking into account yesterday's executive order: And there you have it. DOJ confirms that the White House knows the President’s...

The Supreme Court handed down its ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. this morning: Brick-and-mortar businesses have long complained that they are disadvantaged by having to charge sales taxes while many of their online competitors do not. States have said that they are missing out on tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that helped spur the rise of internet shopping. On Thursday, the court overruled that ruling, Quill Corporation v. North Dakota, which had...

I had a thought last night that disturbed me. It goes something like this: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being set up as the heel, so the President can fire him without it looking like a step in shutting down the Mueller probe. Think about it. Sessions has doubled down on a monstrous policy decision that almost the entire Republican Congressional caucus wants to stop. He has become almost a comic-book villain now, taking responsibility for a policy that actually came directly from the White House....