Chicago Public Square will take Monday off. Be here Tuesday.
Winds of change. AP White House correspondent Josh Boak says back-to-back hurricanes have reshaped the campaigns of Vice President Harris and ex-President Donald Trump.
■ Milton’s storm surge: Up to 10 feet along the Gulf Coast …
■ … with a death toll of at least 16.
■ Chicago’s welcomed 21 dogs rescued from Hurricane Helene.
■ Wired: As officials encouraged Floridians to evacuate Milton’s path, “several folks stuck around and posted about the storm online—for better or worse.”
■ Floridians registered to vote run in this weekend’s Chicago Marathon can take a pass until next year.
■ The marathon stands to run up some big economic boosts for the city this weekend.
■ Not running? Here’s what it means for non-participants.
Dingus of the week. Columnist Lyz Lenz’s pick: Climate change.
■ Sneezing more? Blame climate change for Chicago’s surge in fall allergies.
■ PolitiFact rates wackadoodle U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s assertion that “they” can control the weather “Pants on Fire.”
■ Cartoonist Ruben Bolling’s latest: “A Trump presidency wasn’t going to harm ME!”
■ If you missed last night’s Northern Lights show over the Chicago area, you may get another chance tonight.
‘Obama was … mocking the ever-loving shit out of Trump.’ Columnist Evan Hurst reviews ex-President Barack Obama’s near-hourlong speech (missing link added) for the Harris campaign last night …
■ … which you can see in its entirety here.
■ He told men to drop “excuses” for not supporting a woman running for the White House. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Jimmy Kimmel paraphrases Trump’s campaign speech yesterday before the Detroit Economic Club: “You guys are living in a real dump. I wouldn’t wanna do business here. PU, vote for me.”
■ Detroit’s mayor shot back: “Crime is down and our population is growing. Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help.”
‘Is it time to panic yet?’ The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser: The presidential campaign’s “all but over and the one question anyone wants answered cannot be answered.”
■ Public Notice columnist David Lurie: “Harris and Walz are winning the economic policy argument … turning a Democratic weakness into a strength.”
■ Political poll watcher Nate Silver: Ignore campaigns’ “internal polls.”
■ Notus: In swing states that didn’t fix their systems, Trump’s 2020 fake electors will be the real deal in 2024.
■ The American Prospect: “Education policies in states red and blue have diverged dramatically,” leaving “schools attended by the vast majority of kids … with far fewer resources.”
■ ProPublica: The far right’s vision for local governing has come to life in Texas’ third-largest county.
■ Ready to vote (early)? Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.
‘Threats against free speech.’ The FCC’s chair is rejecting Trump’s complaints about CBS News …
■ … but the network faces legit questions over its editing practices.
■ ABC’s The View was forced under federal law to air an obscure presidential candidate’s ad comparing the show’s hosts to Nazis.
Hey, CTA! The Chicago Transit Authority’s stepping up efforts to hear what riders really want …
■ … including a public survey you can take right now.
■ DuPage County’s planning to up its pedestrian/biker/transit game.
Guns at work. The Tribune: A string of violent incidents at Chicago workplaces is raising concerns about employees who own weapons.
■ Cops are investigating the shooting of an 8-year-old boy inside a Southwest Side home yesterday.
A 9-Q quiz. An expanded version of the weekly news quiz, concocted by past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel, crams in an extra question … for your Chicago Public Square columnist to get wrong, with a measly score of 6/9 correct.
■ Your four choices for answering Question No. 1: Wriggle, Spin, Fold, Dissolve.
AI’s ‘coming-out party.’ That’s what Politico sees in not one but two of this week’s Nobel Prizes …
■ … one of which was shared by a University of Chicago alumnus.
■ The American Prospect: Artificial intelligence has “helped create barriers for people seeking to access our nation’s social safety net.”
■ 404 Media’s Jason Koebler used AI-powered bots to apply for 2,843 jobs.
Local kids in the news. St. Ignatius College Prep graduate John Mulaney’s signed to host a live weekly talk show on Netflix.
■ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg’s burning to recommend the YouTube series Hot Ones—“where A-list celebrities are grilled while eating progressively hotter wings”—hosted by University of Illinois broadcast journalism grad and Evanston native Sean Evans.
Square mailbag. Reader Reg Davis writes about the Internet Archive hack reported on haveibeenpwned.com: “Maybe include a link … that explains pwning and what to do about it. I find all my email addresses have been pwned (and I’d be surprised if most of us weren’t), yet two ‘had no pastes.’ What does ‘paste’ mean?” Thanks for the suggestion, Reg. Answers here and here.
■ Archive founder Brewster Kahle: “Data has not been corrupted. Services are currently stopped to upgrade internal systems.”
■ A reader “who had to follow First Amendment caselaw for years” but who asks not to be named takes issue with columnist Eric Zorn’s objection to the State of Illinois’ rejection of license plates referencing Oct. 7: “The First Amendment is not free and not unlimited. ‘Oct. 7’ coupled with references to Palestine such as ‘From the river to the sea’ arguably fits under the ‘fighting words’ exception … and public roads are not a great place for provoking tempers. This was a rational, defensible decision. … Public forums are subject to regulation in terms of time, place and manner.”
■ Via email, Zorn says he still considers “this objectionable sentiment” political speech and plans to respond next week in his Picayune Sentinel.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.