This is it. Welcome to the ninth annual National Support Chicago Public Square Day.
■ Got a Square T-shirt, hoodie or cap? Wear it today and then share a photo on social media …
■ … including the Square Flickr account …
■ … and encourage curious onlookers to subscribe free at sub.ChicagoPublicSquare.com.
■ Let’s kick things off with a note from Square reader and Travel Weekly columnist Arnie Weissmann: “I am in Lesotho to interview the king. … I told him it was Square Day and asked if he would mind taking a photo with me. … He obliged.” (Photo: David Burnett.)
And now the news:
‘It might seem incredible, but it’s likely going to become more frequent.’ A Northern Illinois University expert tells the Tribune the gargantuan—that’s the technical adjective—hail that assaulted Illinois Tuesday is just a sample of what’s to come as the globe warms.
■ A survivor of the accompanying tornadoes recalls: “I was there for a while trying to unbury myself.”
■ Brace for more high winds tonight into Friday.
Why kids died. Sources tell The Associated Press that outdated intelligence likely led to the U.S. launching a deadly missile strike that killed more than 165 people—many of them children—at an elementary school in Iran.
■ ProPublica: “The U.S. built a blueprint to avoid civilian war casualties. Trump officials scrapped it.”
■ Veteran Chicago TV news executive Jennifer Schulze: “Dogged investigative news reporting reveals the U.S. role in the deadly school bombing but you won’t hear much about that from Trump-friendly media.”
Your tax dollars at war. Cost to the U.S. of the conflict’s first six days? More than $11 billion.
■ Public Notice columnist David Lurie on the pointlessness of trying to discern the point of Trump’s war: “The evident fact is that the president is nuts” …
■ … or, as Jeff Tiedrich puts it, “It’s becoming more apparent with each passing day that … he had no plan beyond ‘we’re gonna bomb the shit out of Iran and they’re gonna surrender the same day.’”
■ The Onion: “‘Which Way Is Iran?’ Asks Pantsless, Sword-Wielding Trump Wandering On Side Of Freeway.”
‘This is not made up.’ Media writer Tom Jones is gobsmacked by the decision to bar news photographers from Pentagon briefings because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team found pictures of him “unflattering.”
■ The Defense Department’s labeled a Washington Post appeal for tips from within the military as prohibited “solicitation” that could prompt punishment.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “This is how the First Amendment erodes.”
‘We can’t handle a drone strike. We barely survived the writers’ strike here, OK?’ Jimmy Kimmel’s on edge after the FBI warned of possible retaliatory attacks by Iran on California.
■ Columnist and lawyer Robert Hubbell: “You would think that, during a war that has provoked one of the largest state sponsors of terrorism, the president and his party would want the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. You would be wrong!”
‘There’s an event near you.’ Heads-Up News columnist Dan Froomkin encourages you to prep for what could be the biggest anti-Trump protest yet: March 28’s next No Kings Day.
■ Search the map here.
You’re being watched. 404 Media breaks down a “dystopian hellscape” in which your day-to-day activities can be monitored by everything from doorbell cameras to license-plate trackers.
■ AI services ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot have been approved for use—possibly with sensitive and classified information—in the U.S. Senate.
Ready to cruise the Jackson? A bill introduced to the Illinois House would rename part of the Dan Ryan Expressway for the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
■ If you drive to Wrigley Field, the Cubs want you to have hundreds more parking spaces from which to choose.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn’s all in on a bill to pay Chicago school board members.
■ A Springfield mystery: Why has a member of the House Democratic caucus been excommunicated from the party?
She’s baaaa-aaaack. Scandal-scarred ex-Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard—widely compared to the principal on the TV show Abbott Elementary (2024 link)—is running for a county board … in Georgia.
■ The Washington Post (gift link): Artificial intelligence money is flooding the 2026 elections.
■ A veteran Illinois political strategist tells Politico that super political action committee spending here has gone “completely nuts.”
■ The Chicago 312 newsletter: Senate candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi “wants to abolish the ICE he’s taking checks from.”
■ Capitol News: Illinois election officials say they’re mostly insulated from Trump’s election threats.
■ Been putting off your ballot calls? The Square Voter Guide Guide is here to help.
Yay, Costco. It’s one of the few companies that hiked prices due to Trump’s now-illegal tariffs and that now tells Popular Information it intends to pass some of the refunded cash back to customers.
■ A bunch of others are not so eager to share the windfall.
A Square public service announcement
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