Hi. Thanks for missing Chicago Public Square last week. Let’s get back to it:
‘A whole civilization will die tonight.’ That’s President Trump’s threat on his Truth Social app if Iran doesn’t meet the latest of his several abandoned deadlines for a deal to reopen the oil-essential Strait of Hormuz …
■ … whose closure amid Trump’s war threatens the global food supply.
‘Unhinged’ and ‘deeply alarming.’ Columnist Aaron Parnas recaps Trump’s Monday news conference.
■ Trump twice used the word “retarded” to refer to his predecessor, Joe Biden.
■ Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Trump has really, seriously, frighteningly lost his mind.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich reviews Trump’s White House Easter egg event: “These are children, you asshole. … They don’t give a shit about your lifetime of accumulated petty grudges.”
‘Welcome to my old neighborhood.’ Before his death last year at 97, Apollo 13 commander and longtime Lake Forest resident Jim Lovell recorded a wake-up message for the crew of Artemis II.
■ Hear it here.
■ In a 1987 interview with your Square columnist, Lovell revisited the events of that fateful 1970 mission.
■ … and he recalled 1968’s Apollo 8: “After we came back ... we got sued.”
■ After setting a new record for human flight into space, Artemis was headed home.
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “With our world in chaos, Artemis II offers humanity a lifeline.”
‘Rank voter suppression.’ Law professor Joyce Vance says a Trump executive order is designed “to make it more difficult for us to vote.”
■ Wonkette’s Gary Legum sarcastically praises D.C. journalists’ “collective bravery” for planning to protest Trump’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner appearance by “wearing pocket squares and pins inscribed with the First Amendment.”
Keep your guns off those trains and buses. The Supreme Court’s refused to consider a challenge to Illinois law forbidding concealed-carry permit holders from carrying loaded weapons on public transit.
■ A Tribune editorial endorses legislation to keep Chicago from imposing taxes on companies based on the number of workers they employ.
‘Without this federal funding, it’s kaput.’ A union leader mourns the nonprofit Heartland Human Care Services’ decision to close Chicago shelters for minors who’ve arrived unaccompanied in the U.S.
■ Chicago’s Trump-administration-appointed U.S. attorney insists his office hasn’t gone after political enemies …
■ … despite appearances to the contrary.
■ The New York Times (gift link): Federal prosecutors didn’t watch video of an ICE agent shooting a Minneapolis man until weeks after filing charges against the victim.
‘I scammed myself on Venmo.’ Veteran tech columnist David Pogue accidentally sent a stranger $1,500.
■ Have you used the Samsung Messages app? Not for much longer.
‘We’re not a newspaper company.’ Pivoting from its print roots, The Associated Press is offering buyouts to at least 120 employees.
■ In an email alert about Trump’s threat to jail reporters, The Washington Post puts the burden on you: “Summary is generated by AI. Please verify accuracy by reading the full article.”
■ An online petition drive (signed by your Square publisher) urges state attorneys general to flex their power to keep “two of the nation’s biggest news organizations—CBS News and CNN—along with CBS Entertainment (home to Stephen Colbert), Comedy Central (home to Jon Stewart), HBO (John Oliver), and TikTok (where 1 out of 5 Americans now get their news)” from becoming “one giant mega-media monopoly under the control of Trump allies and suck-ups.”
He’s back. Former Sun-Times movie critic Richard Roeper is joining Chicago’s NBC 5 as a contributor.
■ The Trib’s Rick Kogan (gift link) previews a new documentary based in part on a book by former Sun-Times TV critic Ron Powers and narrated by Chicago-area native Bob Odenkirk, with music by Chicago’s Jeff Tweedy: No One Cares About Crazy People …
■ … to be screened, with a panel discussion to follow, Saturday at Columbia College Chicago.
■ Chicago-raised Kanye “Ye” West’s antisemitism prompted the British government to forbid his entry to the UK—prompting cancellation of the Wireless Music Festival, which he was to headline.
Why Square returns after a break. Because so many readers—including Tim Ward, Marcie Dosemagen, Zarine Weil, Deb Kadin, Brian J. Taylor, Andrew Nord, Judy Sherr, Carolyn Potts, Kay Ambre, Mike Krauser, Peter Chien, Joanne Rosenbush, Neela Marnell, Mike Leiderman, Deb Abrahamson, Kathleen Walton, Shayna Robinson, Margaret Benson, Larry Stopa, John Aerni, Tim Powell, Maureen Stratton, Jim Polaski, Steve Nidetz, Mike Dessimoz, David Heisler, David Clauter, Linda Paul, Kim Johnson, Irv Leavitt, Nannette Doetsch, John Lewis, Sally Noble, John Metz, Beth Kujawski, Ron Castan, Cynthia Martin, Don Moseley, Karen Gray-Keeler, Harry Politis, Jay Gerak, Catherine Tokarski, Art McNamara, Mollie Kramer, Cate Plys, Timothy Baffoe, Christine Cupaiuolo, Jerome Ostergaard and Bob Izral—have made clear through their support that they value this service.
■ Join their ranks for as little as $1, just once—with PayPal as an option, if you prefer—and see your name atop tomorrow’s roll call.
