3 things for Tuesday, Chicago

HOT, HOT ... NOT? In Lake Michigan, 60 miles off shore, the air is hotter than any other time in 30 years of record-keeping.
• Chicago's warmest July in 57 years
• U.S. News: Have the conservative Koch brothers changed their minds about climate change?

DOESN'T MAKE FART NOISES. The Obama campaign has launched a smartphone app that includes information on voter identification laws across the country.
• New Romney app to give users first word of vice-presidential choice

'BLAME THEM ALL, EACH AND EVERY ONE.' Mark Brown in the Sun-Times on how to solve the biggest problem Illinois lawmakers face.
• Tribune editorial: "A symbolic stab ... won't fool the ratings agencies"
• Chicago's budget hole shrinks, still huge
• Submit your ideas online for balancing the city's budget

3 things Chicago: Monday

WELCOME. More jobs for Chicago: Mayor Emanuel says the Reznick Group accounting firm will move at least 150 jobs to the city from Skokie. Later, he promises another announcement about jobs when he visits the Chicago office of Braintree, a company that helps businesses process credit-card payments online.

NEWSPAPER PRAISED. The Daily Herald gets compliments for a pledge to avoid using the name of the Colorado movie-theater shooting suspect "any more than we have to."

TASTE TEST. Simple exercises prescribed by Parade Magazine can help determine whether you're a "super taster" or just the regular sort. Get some blue food coloring and artificial sweetener and test yourself.

2 bonus things:

• Free movies on YouTube include a great one from Duncan Jones, David Bowie's son: "Moon." Roger Ebert's 3 1/2-star review.*

• The problem with all-caps headlines is (your comments below) ...

*Thanks to reader Cathy Konas for the tip.

3 things Chicago: Sunday

WATCH THIS. Chicago's making a huge request for speed cameras around town, although the city says it won't actually post or activate all that many.

New York set to launch all-seeing system to track crime

OBAMA'S BUNDLERS. A look at the rich and powerful Chicago-area leaders drumming up cash for the president's reelection campaign.

OOPS, MATE. NBC confuses Australia and Austria.

3 things Chicago: Saturday

1. OLYMPIC MISSTEPS. NBC's catching heck today for not knowing the guy who created the World Wide Web ... and for not using the Web in a 21st Century way to cover the opening ceremony.

2. FOUND 'IM. Long-missing congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s in Minnesota, at the Mayo Clinic. His ailments, the clinic says: depression and gastrointestinal issues.

3. BRAVO. Journalist John Conroy's play, "My Kind of Town," based on his groundbreaking reporting about Chicago police torture, is a sellout through this, its final weekend. But cancellation and wait-list tickets may be available. Highly recommended. Excerpts from my interview with him back when the show opened:

Now clear to eat Chick-fil-A sandwiches

Mayor Emanuel has undergone a health screening to kick off what the city hopes will be a money-saving new wellness program, to be offered to more than 47,000 city employees and eligible spouses as of this week.

Related, sort of: Mayor softens stand against Chick-fil-A chief's anti-gay marriage philosophy.

Postcards from the edge ... of the galaxy

The newest feature at the Adler Planetarium lets you send an e-card from various outposts in space. The catch: It gets delivered no faster than the speed of light.

By the time you or another recipient get it, you may have forgotten you sent it.

Or you may be dead.

Wish you were here.

3 things for Friday, Chicago

1. BLOOMBERG vs. NRA. New York's mayor spells out a plan to break the National Rifle Association's grip on politics: "It’s impossible to support police officers and law enforcement agencies and also oppose giving them the tools they need to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people."

2. TIPPING POINT. The New York Times is now supported more by readers than by advertisers, according to New York Magazine.

3. 'IT TRAPPED ALL THESE PEOPLE HERE IN THEIR CONDOS.' Ben Meyerson on WBEZ-FM 91.5, discussing the plight of Chicago parents whose plans to move to the suburbs have been dashed by the real estate downturn.

[Updated blog design by Joel Meyerson/Colorful Revolution Media.]

Chick-fil-A boo-boo? / 60% off for all / Right to print arms?

3 things, Chicago:

1. CHICK-FIL-A BOO-BOO? The Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell on Ald. Joe Moreno's vow to keep Chick-fil-A out of his ward: Chicago "shouldn’t be bullying this CEO because an alderman disagrees with his interpretation of the Bible." The Trib's Eric Zorn: Letting in Chick-fil-A "would simply double the number of Chick-fil-A restaurants in the city for me to boycott."

2. 60% OFF FOR ALL. An interactive-ad industry exec says Microsoft's decision to make "do not track" the default for the next version of Internet Explorer would kill the business: "They just gave everybody a 60 percent off coupon."

3. RIGHT TO PRINT ARMS? TheNextWeb.com declares "the world's first 3D printed gun ... a terrifying thing."

Feeling warm? / Special feelings / Paterno alternative

3 things for Wednesday, Chicago:

1. FEELING WARM? A "heat dome" has triggered Greenland's biggest ice melt in 30 years. In Chicago, the Trib reports, heat waves are getting longer, hotter and more frequent.

2. THAT SPECIAL FEELING ONLY ONE WHITE PERSON CAN FEEL FOR ANOTHER. The Daily Telegraph quotes one of Mitt Romney's advisers as saying the Obama White House doesn't "fully appreciate" the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" shared by the U.S. and Britain. The adviser says Romney "feels that ... special relationship is special."

3. WHY THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE PATERNO STATUE WHERE IT WAS. John Kass says Penn State should just have added these words: "Protecting a college football program was more important to him than protecting children from a rapist."

Let the rebuttals begin

If you want a sense of what it'll be like at your funeral, lose a job.

This LinkedIn recommendation from the wonderfully talented Dave Williams almost brought me to tears:

"... Dedicated to the highest ideals of journalistic integrity, Charlie never blurs the line between fact and opinion but tells each story with unquestionable authority and humanity. He is smart but never smarmy. He's a wordsmith who crafts every concise sentence with balance, perspective and warmth. When you hear or read a Charlie Meyerson story you come away with the satisfaction of being fully informed and left to draw your own conclusions. He never tells you what to think or how to feel but gives you every reason to do both. ... He is simply a master of his craft and one of the finest men you'll ever meet."

Thanks, Dave.

Meyerson's professional profile on LinkedIn.

R.I.P., FM News

It was an audacious plan and a grand adventure. But now it's over. On the upside, this blog is about to get a little loving for the first time in a while. Stand by for adventure.

FM News 101.1 Ends; Flips To Adult Hits I101

Highlights of my work there.

Who needs my skills?