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Steve Kroft weighs in:
Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft calls the changes under Bari Weiss "disastrous." He adds: "This is journalistic interference. It makes no business sense whatsoever. It's the highest rated news program on television, and it has been that way for more than 50 years. The audience was up about 9% last year. Why would you mess with that?" Our conversation airs tonight on the
@newshour
The exchange between Pelley and Bilton:
One hundred years ago, on June 10, 1926, Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí tragically died in a tram accident in Barcelona. In his 73 years of life, the designer left his mark on the Spanish city, from his emblematic basilica, the Sagrada Familia, to Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens, Park Güell and numerous other sites.
Has anyone visited any of his buildings?
Researchers at Eurac Research have obtained a detailed picture of the microbial community associated with Ötzi, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy. The study provides insights into a complex microbiome, ranging from the gut flora of a Copper Age human to cold-adapted yeasts.
Using a variety of samples and methods, the researchers were able to differentiate which microorganisms were already present in the body during his lifetime and which only colonized it after his death—both during the time in the glacier and over three decades of preservation. In samples of internal tissue, the team was able to detect genetic material from bacteria belonging to Ötzi's original gut flora.
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tzi-iceman-microbiome-year-relationship.html
That's quite an assortment!
I feel your pain on the critter front. It's a never-ending battle.
Potatoes are really easy to grow in pots. Critters seem to pretty much leave them alone, though a couple of years ago my neighbor found a bunch of his potatoes harvested by some enterprising chipmunk and hidden in its den under the front porch, quite a distance away from the pots in the backyard where they had been growing.
Towering among vibrant summer blooms, monumental iridescent bubbles transform the natural landscape of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, forming an immersive world of light and reflection as part of the newest seasonal exhibit.
“Evanescent,” the centerpiece installation series of the garden’s “Shimmering Summer” exhibit, will be open to visitors beginning June 6, and running until Sept. 20.
The large-scale bubble sculptures are designed to be an immersive experience for visitors of the 385-acre garden, capturing the “ephemerality and fragility of life” through the form of a bubble, according to the installation’s designer, Australian art duo Atelier Sisu.
“The installation emulates the ethereal quality and magic of bubbles, and our summer programming extends that playfulness for visitors of all ages,” said Jodi Zombolo, associate vice president of visitor events and programs for the Chicago Botanic Garden.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/03/chicago-botanic-gardens-shimmering-summer-exhibit/
@mary-anna It looks lovely! Lots of personality in those old homes. Not cookie cutter!
I know you're are super busy with other projects, but the "g" in "wtg" is wondering if you are planning a veggie garden.
I hadn’t been following what has been happening at CBS. What a cluster.
Scott Pelley, one of the most well-known and respected journalists in broadcast journalism, has been fired by CBS News after clashing with network brass over last week’s severe round of cuts at 60 Minutes, the show he has worked on since 2004, the Guardian confirmed.
While changes were long expected at 60 Minutes, CBS News management shocked staffers last week by firing the network’s executive producer, executive editor and two correspondents, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, without giving a specific reason for their terminations.
During an extremely heated meeting on Monday morning with the show’s newly appointed executive editor Nick Bilton, along with another CBS News executive, Pelley rebuked Bari Weiss, the longtime opinion commentator who joined the network in October as editor-in-chief.
“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley said, as first reported by the Guardian. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jun/02/scott-pelley-60-minutes-cbs-news
Here in Chicago.
Federal agents chased and detained a man Tuesday morning in Albany Park, crashing into a woman’s car during the pursuit and threatening residents who gathered at a chaotic scene.
A Sun-Times reporter witnessed the scene and its aftermath.
The arrest comes amid a continued effort by federal immigration authorities to carry out arrests in the Chicago area, months after the end of Operation Midway Blitz — the Trump administration’s pummeling deportation campaign that led to thousands of arrests.
Tuesday’s incident started at 8:07 a.m., when a black Nissan SUV carrying one agent turned east onto Lawrence Avenue from Kedzie Avenue, chasing a shirtless man. A second black Nissan SUV carrying more agents then pulled out of a nearby parking lot and hit a woman’s car in an apparent effort to block the man from running.
The agents were wearing Department of Homeland Security badges and patches associated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Three agents ultimately wrestled the man to the ground as he screamed for help, asking agents to get off him as he was held under the front bumper of one of the SUVs. One agent then shocked him with a Taser.
The agent also aimed the weapon at bystanders and a journalist. Another agent pulled out a can of pepper spray and pointed it at the crowd as he waved away passing vehicles.
During the scuffle, an agent dropped a fully loaded bullet magazine onto the street. A supervisor picked it up minutes later, after other agents had left.
As the man was being detained, agents threatened to arrest the woman whose car had been struck. She had been stopped at a red light.
A few dozen people showed up and faced off with the seven federal agents who arrived in five unmarked vehicles equipped with emergency lights. Onlookers filmed on their cellphones, blew whistles and screamed at the agents.
One agent had a Jerusalem cross sticker on the back of his phone, a Christian symbol dating to the Crusades that more recently has gained popularity among the far-right and white supremacist groups. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was criticized for having a chest tattoo of a Jerusalem cross in the weeks before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. He countered with a since-deleted post on X, saying, “Anti-Christian bigotry in the media on full display.”
Chicago police officers who arrived minutes after the arrest spoke to witnesses and made a report. An officer and said detectives would take over the investigation if the crash was deemed a hit-and-run.
That’s pretty high if it’s generic.
From a comparison of pitavastatin to other statins:
Pitavastatin offers several advantages, including minimal drug interactions, potent LDL cholesterol reduction, and a favorable effect on HDL cholesterol. However, it tends to be more expensive than generic statins like atorvastatin or rosuvastatin
A much deeper dive comparing pitavastatin to other statins:
sidebar:
A nonprofit called the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund Inc. was set up in December 2024, after ABC News agreed to donate $15 million toward a future presidential library as part of its defamation lawsuit settlement with then-candidate Trump. Over the next year, that fund got an influx of cash from various legal settlements with Meta, X and Paramount.
The fund was dissolved by the state in September 2025 — just days before the trustees' vote — after it failed to file a mandatory annual report. It is not clear how much money was in the fund, but a trio of federal Democratic lawmakers pursuing the issue says it could have held up to $63 million in settlement money.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, along with Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, wrote to ABC, Meta, X and Paramount earlier in March to ask for more detailed explanations on the original terms, conditions and amounts of their settlement deals.
"The Fund is now gone, and the public has no clarity about the current location or purpose of the funds provided by ABC or any other source," the lawmakers wrote.
NPR has reached out to the White House for comment about the status of the settlement money.
The Trump family opened a similarly named library foundation in May 2025, which is the entity that now owns the Miami property.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/31/nx-s1-5768094/trump-presidential-library-renderings-miami
And the future DJT library:
More renderings here:
There is a promotional video on Truth Soc but I refuse to include the link here....
I wondered what the other presidential libraries look like. Someone has put together a list of them with links to the individual library websites.
https://www.roadtripsandcoffee.com/presidential-libraries/#george-washington-presidential-library
(begin thread drift)
but the article reads like AI to me
Interesting bit in Atlantic:
The Biggest Tell That Something Was Written by AI
Look closely and you’ll see that every part of the text is not quite right.
The Maryland woman arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in December and held for 25 days despite offering proof of citizenship has been issued a U.S. passport and removal proceedings against her in immigration court have been halted, her lawyers said in a statement Monday.
The issuance of a U.S. passport to Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales “is the most definitive proof that she, or indeed anyone, can produce to show the reality of their citizenship. And yet, this document is only verification of the truth. She was a citizen before receiving the passport, and she will remain a citizen thereafter,” Gunther Sanabria, president of the law firm representing Diaz Morales, said.
Sanabria said the Department of Homeland Security filed a request last week for dismissal before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) in the removal proceedings. But, he added, Diaz Morales’s freedom “has an asterisk attached.”
“Given that the government only agreed to closing Dulce’s case ‘without prejudice’ it indicates they maintain the position that they can resume these proceedings against her at any time,” Sanabria wrote.
Lawyers for Diaz Morales said she would not comment at this time on being issued a passport or DHS’s decision to halt removal proceedings.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request from The Post to questions on why it requested to halt removal proceedings or whether it planned to renew removal efforts at a later date.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters “we don’t need a weaponized” director of national intelligence when asked about President Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte, the homebuilder and director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to serve as acting head of the nation’s intelligence services.
Thune pointed out that Pulte, who has come under sharp criticism from Democrats for pulling up mortgage information to investigate Trump’s political opponents, would have to undergo the Senate confirmation process to permanently take over as director.
“If they nominate him to take the position permanently, he’ll have to go through a confirmation process and hearings and everything else, so we’ll see,” Thune told reporters.
When asked whether he has concerns that Pulte would “weaponize” the position given the role he has played during Trump’s second term in plumbing mortgage records to see whether Trump’s political adversaries have committed fraud, Thune said: “We don’t need a weaponized DNI; we need professionals there.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5905615-senate-thune-pulte-dni/
For years, Saturn appeared to be doing something impossible.
Measurements suggested the giant planet's rotation rate was changing over time, as if Saturn were somehow speeding up or slowing down. That puzzling result left scientists searching for answers. Now, researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) say they have finally solved the mystery.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260529043658.htm
Why the US population boom became a bust
And how immigration policies could strain the safety net
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-POPULATION/AGING/gdpzaomqyvw/
