Events

The High Speed Rail Alliance advocates extending the Metra UP-North (my line) all the way to Milwaukee: Hourly trains departures will bring Chicago and Milwaukee closer together, strengthen the economic and social ties between them, and help revitalize both city centers. Wisconsin and Illinois set a goal of 14 daily roundtrips, which is close to hourly, in the mid-1990s. More recently, the Federal Railroad Administration’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan called for 24 daily roundtrips. But heavy freight...

Everyone in the world knows that President Biden had a bad night two weeks ago. Since then, we've heard a steady drumbeat of calls for him to withdraw from the race. But did anyone watch last night's press conference? Here it is; I'll wait: The convicted-felon rapist XPOTUS could not have done that press conference, because he lacks the knowledge, the focus, the sanity, and frankly the IQ to answer questions for that long. And still, what did most press outlets report? That he bobbled the name of the...

I don't know the provenance of this photo, but it appears to be taken from near the top of the Prudential Building at 135 E. Randolph St., summer of 1968: Here's approximately the same view from last year (via Google Earth): What a difference 55 years makes. I especially like how we removed all the surface parking lots and hid them under the park. And I'll be there—under the park—tomorrow morning for another Brews & Choos expedition. In other Chicago history, today is the 45th anniversary of Disco...

The G7, meeting today in Washington, strongly rebuked the Israeli government's illegal seizure of Palestinian land: We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the EU, join the UN and the European Union in condemning the announcement by Finance Minister of Israel Smotrich that five outposts are to be legalised in the West Bank. We also reject the decision by the Government of Israel to declare...

Josh Marshall sometimes gets excited, but he comes around eventually: [A new poll] from ABC and the Washington Post...shows Biden and Trump tied and Harris actually up over Trump by two points. This is only one poll of course. But I don’t think it’s greatly different from other polls over the last several days. An Emerson poll, never especially favorable to Biden, shows the two tied. A Bendixen/Amandi poll shows Biden down one, Harris up one. A handful of other polls show Biden down two or three points....

If he were even a tiny bit better as a human being, I might have some empathy for the old man clearly suffering from some kind of dementia who spoke in Doral, Fla., yesterday. But he's not, so I don't. I mean...just read the highlights. In other news: Tom Friedman thinks this year's election could only have been dreamed up by the Devil himself. (Lucifer Morningstar could not be reached for comment.) Tom Nichols wants you to remember why NATO matters on its 75th birthday. If you're looking for a house to...

It has started raining in downtown Chicago, so it looks like Cassie and I will get wet on the walk home, as I feared. I still have a few tasks before I leave. I just hope it stays a gentle sprinkle long enough for us to get home from doggy day care. Just bookmarking these for later, while I'm drying out: Researchers concluded that the problem with online misinformation and epistemic closure comes from people, not technology. Apparently we generally look for information that confirms our existing biases....

Hurricane (now "post-tropical depression") Beryl smashed through Texas and Louisiana yesterday, and is now passing south of Chicago: The forecast models don't agree on how far north the storm's outer edge will go, but they do seem to say that it will start raining later this afternoon and continue through tomorrow morning. They agree that parts of the south suburbs and Northern Indiana will get flooding downpours. I did remember my umbrella today. But I still expect to have a very wet dog when I get home.

The New York Times had two opinion pieces today that seemed to go together. In the first, literary critic Hillary Kelly notes the prevalence of pop-culture stories about people not so much in dystopia, but stuck in something else: On one sci-fi show after another I’ve encountered long, zigzagging, labyrinthine passageways marked by impenetrable doors and countless blind alleys — places that have no obvious beginning or end. The characters are holed up in bunkers (“Fallout”), consigned to stark...

Note: Bosacki's closed permanently in April 2025. Welcome to stop #109 on the Brews and Choos project. Brewery: Bosacki's Brewery, 610 E. Hawley St., MundeleinTrain line: North-Central Service, Mundelein Time from Chicago: 68 minutesDistance from station: 800 m Don't let the façade dissuade you from visiting this place; it's an absolute gem. Greg Bosacki loves brewing beer, and he has made some unusual and surprising ones over the years. I spent so much time talking with him about beer and the other...