‘Putin is now our ally’ / Cockroaches, ‘black slime’ / Better buses?

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Chicago Public Square will take Thursday off to join the News Product Alliance Summit in Chicago. Back Friday with a news quiz. But here’s what’s happening now:


‘Putin is now our ally.’ The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson (no relation): President Trump’s “alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s neo-Tsarist imperialist regime hasn’t yet stoked the level of horror and rage it deserves.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “On the same day Russia murdered that little girl and mass-murdered five more, including another young child,” Trump said that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine” …
■ … which makes this 2018 cartoon from the late Keith J. Taylor all the more timely.
■ Today would’ve been Keith’s birthday.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “A blockbuster story in The Wall Street Journal … says that it was billionaire Elon Musk who ordered SpaceX to slow down its service in Ukraine, rendering some drones that stopped incoming missiles and others aimed at Russian targets useless.”
■ Maybe cutting Trump a bit of slack from critics, Russia’s freed an American it held in prison for four years …
■ … and reportedly has agreed to resume peace talks with the U.S. and Ukraine.
■ The Atlantic: Donald Trump Jr.’s privately broken with his dad on the Iran war.

‘Trump lost control and ordered me to be quiet in the Oval Office. Then it got personal.’ A first-person account from The Independent’s White House correspondent, Andrew Feinberg.
■ Trump’s warning to Feinberg: “I don’t know who the hell you are, but you better be careful.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Trump’s offer of bounties for those who report government fraud: “This is straight up Nazi bullshit.”
■ Fresh dirt from The New York Times: “A Billionaire Wanted a Trump Pardon. His Family Gave [Trump lawyer] Alina Habba a $50 Million Deal.”

Hey, if the My Pillow guy says you need a nap … MAGA loyalist Mike Lindell concedes the president’s looking exhausted.
■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese: Every time Trump says something deplorable about immigrants, “I think about the people who cared for me during emergency surgery in the spring of 2020.”

‘Trump is the word, is the word.’ Recapping last night’s Illinois Senate debate between Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Republican Don Tracy, Politico’s Shia Kapos (free registration may be required) says the president loomed large over the evening.
■ See the broadcast here.
■ Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has belatedly taken credit for an ad featuring what HuffPost’s Paul Blumenthal calls Democrat Amy Acton’s “pedophile-protecting mother.”
■ Columnist and former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger calls that ad “beyond the pale.”
■ Ex-Jezebel editor-in-chief Laura Bassett says it’s “so repulsive it could drag down other Republicans.”
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “From cash to censorship, Big Tech is all over the election. It’s backfiring.”
■ The American Prospect: ICE profiteers are trying to buy the Senate for Republicans.
■ MSNBC’s MS NOW’s Hayes Brown: “The GOP has found its ‘migrant caravan’ for the 2026 midterms”—the riots in France.
■ Ready to cast your ballot? Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.

‘Sad and unfortunate.’ The Illinois High School Association says it’s working with both Evanston Township and New Trier Township high schools to figure out what should happen next in the investigation of New Trier fans’ hateful actions at a football game Friday night.
■ An Evanston fan who was there—writing not for attribution—says New Trier “did a great job of outfitting every kid in that student section. Everyone matched in their NT gear. Problem is, when it got cold, they all put their hoods up … and it was a wall of thousands of white kids in white hoods. Not a good look at a televised event with thousands of black spectators.”

Meanwhile, at college … A second woman reports that she was sexually assaulted at a University of Chicago frat party—a block away from another frat facing a similar accusation.

Cockroaches, ‘black slime.’ Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s Rendezvous Cafeteria is outta commission after health inspectors found things amiss.
■ Columnist and former Illinois Democratic Rep. Marie Newman: “Grey’s Anatomy debuted 20 years ago. American healthcare has not aged as gracefully.”
■ A new report on the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturning of the right to abortion concludes more than 900 women have been arrested for pregnancy-related “crimes” (none in Illinois).

Heads up. In a budget proposal set for formal introduction today, Mayor Johnson reportedly was to endorse a “head tax” of $33 per employee on companies with more than 500 workers in Chicago.
■ Also: A revival of the city’s mental health clinic …
■ On the way to six Chicago police districts: A new gunshot detection system.
■ Aggravating a split with the Chicago Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union leadership is backing Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias for mayor over Johnson.

Better buses? The CTA wants your thoughts on how to improve its bus service.
■ Those who submit ideas here could win a $100 gift certificate.

‘Rampant and repugnant.’ The Tribune’s Zareen Syed (free link) bemoans the growing number of Chicago restaurants and cafes using “bizarre or misleading” images on their menu boards and promotional signage.
■ Columnist and author Cory Doctorow mourns Google’s devolution from a company that once pledged to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible” into an “AI-fueled … parasite.”

‘It will delight gadget nerds and early adopters and likely frustrate everyone else.’ Among the first extended hands-on reviews of Apple’s new foldable iPhone Duo, The Verge is unwowed.
■ CNN’s Mike Andronico: “Is the iPhone Duo worth $1,999? I used it for a week, and it’s complicated.”

Thanks. Kurt Wehrmeister and Mike Braden made this edition better.

Football shame / 2 weeks / Birds’ bloodbath

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Football shame. Racist and homophobic comments directed at Evanston Township High School’s marching band during a Friday football game against New Trier have raised tensions between the two communities.
■ The Evanston Roundtable: Social media posts allege that “New Trier fans … told band members to ‘kill themselves’ and spat on one band member.”
■ In a joint statement, the superintendents of both schools pledge a thorough investigation and “accountability for discriminatory behavior.”
■ All that unfolded days after the Illinois High School Association put Lincoln-Way East on probation following similar behavior by students at a game in September.
■ Meanwhile, the Trump Justice Department has announced an investigation of Evanston’s groundbreaking program of reparations for Black residents—contending that “distinctions between citizens based solely on their ancestry are … odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality” (Crain’s gift link).

‘Active shooter’ arrest. Updating coverage: Chicago police report a man in custody and no one injured after reports of shots fired outside the Kluczynski Federal Building downtown early this morning.
■ A bullet hole was spotted in a nearby building occupied by Wintrust Financial.

‘It used to be that threats against federal judges came from unhappy litigants.’ But yesterday, law professor Joyce Vance says, the president took to social media to do just that.
■ Columnist and former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob assesses Trump on 14 signs of mental illness, concluding: “I’m no medical professional, but even I know he’s nuts—and so do other journalists.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich is incredulous: “Does our Slumlord-in-Chief actually believe that property values in Albuquerque are suppressed because the word ‘Mexico’ is in the state’s name? Apparently he does.”
■ Former Republican Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “Trump regularly displays a complete lack of comprehension. … But the same media that hounded Joe Biden over his age and mental acuity have suddenly found presidential fitness to be less interesting.”

2 weeks. Election Day is 14 days away. Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide when you’re ready to cast your ballot.
■ CNN and WXRT News alumnus Charles Jaco: Trump’s “MAGA crime syndicate is telling us exactly what they intend to do: Steal the midterm elections and, failing that, buy American democracy. … ICE is preparing to deploy 142 ‘intelligence agents’ in 27 locations nationwide”—including Chicago. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Trump’s administration is charging more than two dozen people with voting or registering illegally in California.
■ Former megachurch pastor and columnist John Pavlovitz: “No King’s Day was really nice. And that’s what worries me.”
■ Next year’s Chicago mayoral election is getting real.

Meanwhile, in Michigan …. PolitiFact rates Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ assertion that Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed “didn’t disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood as false.

‘Wanted: White Blonde Female.’ National political journalist Nina Burleigh ponders Trump’s selection of “unqualified but gorgeous women for jobs that any number of experienced, competent women with natural hair color and unreconstructed faces could perform brilliantly.”
■ Journalism critic Margaret Sullivan assesses two tellingly different headlines on “the amazingly short tenure of Katie Zacharia as Trump’s press secretary.”

‘Beware of AI billionaires bearing gifts.’ Popular Information sees reasons to be skeptical of Elon Musk’s pledge to “give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.”
■ Political science professor Kristoffer Ealy: “Four men spent four hours at the White House. The only thing they agreed on was a bumper sticker.”

France aflame. Paris is enduring its worst civil unrest in years …
■ … and other European cities are seeing protests of their own as citizens take to the streets to protest—in the AP’s words—“rising fuel costs, discontent with the state of schools, declining public services and a housing crisis.”
■ News Not Noise columnists Jessica Yellin and Rohan Montgomery see the unrest as a trait of “Generation ‘Enough Already.’”
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link) says Chicago’s been there: “Marches are fine; thievery under the cover of protest is not.”
■ Jon Stewart mocking Vice President Vance on last night’s Daily Show: “Are you seriously suggesting that immigrants have brought a culture of revolution and protest to France?”
■ Stewart thanked viewers as he acknowledged the show’s two-year renewal …
■ … because late-night critic Bill Carter says even the show’s Trump-allied Skydance corporate leadership can’t afford to lose Stewart.
■ After 43 years, anchor and reporter Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN.

Birds’ bloodbath. With the migratory season in full swing, more than 1,000 birds died or were hurt over the weekend, colliding with buildings in downtown Chicago and on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.
■ WBEZ: Dozens of Illinois species are at risk as Trump guts the Endangered Species Act.
■ The Guardian: A melting statue of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a symbolic protest of his inaction on climate change.

Feel better now, Chicagoans? Emmy-winning comedy writer and David Letterman’s longtime head writer Merrill Markoe says wandering through Los Angeles’ new George Lucas Museum—the one Chicago passed on—felt “like I had been invited to the home of some billionaire who bought up every single piece of narrative art in the entire world and hung them up all over his house. And then, for some reason, invited me in to have a look. And when I asked him about any of what I was seeing, he just shrugged and said ‘Geez, I dunno. This is just a lot of stuff that I liked.’”

Thanks. Chris Koenig made this edition better.
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