Jan. 6 hearing lays blame firmly on Donald Trump for ‘attempted coup’ – Chicago Tribune

Good morning, Chicago.

In prime time Thursday night, Americans watched as a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The panel showed a 12-minute video with new footage of the deadly violence as well as testimony from Trump’s inner circle of advisors. “President Trump summoned a violent mob,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel’s vice chair who took the lead for much of the hearing.

Caroline Edwards, a Capitol Police officer, testified in graphic terms about the bloody scene outside the Capitol that day and the traumatic brain injury she suffered when members of the Proud Boys and others pushed her to the ground as they led the mob into the Capitol.

Here are the takeaways from the first in a series of Jan. 6 hearings.

Meanwhile, at Bar Louie in the Dearborn Park neighborhood, dozens gathered to watch the hearing in an event hosted by the activist group Indivisible Chicago. “I wanted to be in a group of people who are also concerned,” Chicago resident Justin Hill said.

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A newly unsealed search warrant in the ComEd bribery probe centered on former House Speaker Michael Madigan provides the greatest detail yet about an alleged behind-the-scenes effort to kill an energy bill supported by Madigan’s daughter, the then-Illinois attorney general.

“We got — we’ve gotta kill it. Period,” Madigan’s longtime confidant, Michael McClain, allegedly told ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore in a recorded call in May 2018.

The conversation was detailed in an FBI affidavit filed in January 2019 in support of a search warrant for the City Club of Chicago headquarters on North Michigan Avenue. A redacted version of the 94-page affidavit, unsealed in U.S. District Court late Thursday, provided the greatest detail yet about one of the most intriguing chapters of the federal indictment filed against Madigan and McClain in March.

Amid an era of heightened concern over violence, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s opponents in his reelection bid have been trying to paint him to voters as a soft-on-crime boss who has been in the job too long — but most of them need to get back on the ballot first.

Two of the three hopefuls have been removed as candidates in last-minute court decisions, including one as recently as Wednesday. The back and forth about who is on and who is off the ballot has become a centerpiece of the sheriff’s race, in large part because Dart has led the charge to have his challengers’ names removed from the ballot.

A rival nude-inspired bikini crafted to make its wearer look au naturel has made one Chicago-area small business owner worried that her provocative product has been duplicated. When billionaire cosmetic mogul and reality TV star Kylie Jenner posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a pseudo-nipple bikini on Monday, Linze Rice’s phone started buzzing nonstop.

The most-followed woman on Instagram had just shared a selfie vaunting Rice’s product, The TaTa Top. So it seemed.

Then Rice swiped right.

Rich Harvest Farms, a lush private golf course near Aurora, might not seem like a natural setting for geopolitical intrigue and moral quandaries, but they will arrive as surely as the morning dew when the LIV Golf Invitational Series comes to Illinois in September.

The fledgling rival to the PGA Tour is attracting big names with big money and generating controversy to match. The series, which started Thursday at a course in England, is backed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, and critics call it a textbook example of “sports washing” intended to gloss over the kingdom’s dismal human rights record.

Some decisions work. Others:

With two outs and the Chicago White Sox trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by two runs, a wild pitch from Bennett Sousa made the count 1-2 as the left-hander faced right-handed-hitting Trea Turner. Sox manager Tony La Russa elected to intentionally walk Turner, bringing up the left-handed-hitting Max Muncy. The cleanup hitter made the Sox pay, hitting a three-run homer to left.

The move became an instant topic of discussion locally and nationally.

A new logo adorns the Chicago Tribune nameplate because, really, who doesn’t like to dress up when celebrating their birthday? Today, June 10, marks the 175th anniversary of the Tribune’s first edition. And though that original copy has disappeared, there is a time-honored tradition of marking the occasion with a special presentation on the front page.

In a sharp contrast from the post-World War II days, Kristen Althoff, digital design director for Tribune Publishing, says subtlety and elegance were her inspirations in designing the Tribune’s 175th anniversary logo.