Slow news day? Pah Friday, 30 August 2019 12:04:31 CDT David-Braverman Chicago, General, Geography, Politics, Travel (0) It's the last weekday of summer. Chicago's weather today is perfect; the office is quiet ahead of the three-day weekend; and I'm cooking with gas on my current project. None of that leaves a lot of time to read any of these: Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot gave her first State of the City address last night, complete with her revealing that the city has a $858 million shortfall next year. Aaron Gordon says that, essentially, Uber and Lyft are parasites, so it's no wonder they oppose California's efforts to classify their drivers as employees. Citylab polled readers to find out who says they live in the Midwest. Hint: Midwesterners do. Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Jim Mattis, who incidentally will be in Chicago on the 11th. (And I have a ticket to his speech.) President Trump abruptly fired his personal assistant after she revealed "confidential family information" to journalists at an off-the-record dinner. Josh Marshall smells something fishy. Josh Marshall also points out the false equivalency of comparing Joe Biden's campaign stretcher with the president's incessant and pathological lying. Finally, in an older Medium story, "former card magician" Ben Chapman explains how the president gets away with lying so often. Now, to find lunch.