They’re back? / 2 minutes / Unprecedented / Thanks, AI

They’re back? CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters were allowed back in the White House yesterday—after a federal judge at least temporarily reinstated the credentials yanked by Donald Trump’s administration …

■ … and, for now at least, news organizations have resumed pool coverage of Trump’s antics …

■ … but it’s not over: CNN and MS NOW reporters were barred from covering White House state dinner arrivals last night.

■ The New York Times’ Peter Baker (gift link): “In Trump’s White House, China’s dictator is welcome. American media, less so.”

■ Columnist and lawyer Mitch Jackson: “Shame on Trump for rolling out the billionaires when Xi should have met our democracy.”

■ The Onion: “Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit.”

Meanwhile, at the United Nations … An angry Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected complaints of Israeli genocide in Gaza …

■… in a speech that prompted dozens of delegates to walk out of the hall en masse.

He’s headed this way. About a hundred protesters turned out near Medinah Country Club in DuPage County yesterday to protest what stands to be Trump’s first Chicago-area visit since his 2024 reelection—to this weekend’s Presidents Cup golf tournament.

■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten has composed an ode to “the many MAGAts who finally seem to be dumping Trump” …

■ … and columnist Jeff Tiedrich declares a Good News Friday: “Judges and courts continue to cordially invite Donny—along with his like-minded flunkies and acolytes—to go …” well … you know.

They can’t fire her—she quits. Allegedly told by her supervisors in the U.S. attorney’s office that she could be fired if she distanced herself from mistakes in the fiasco known as the “Broadview Six” prosecution of “Midway Blitz” protesters, Sheri Mecklenburg has done so nevertheless—and retired from that job.

■ The Sun-Times: Chicago’s Catholic leaders have established a memorial honoring people who’ve died in immigration custody or during immigration operations since 2020.

‘They’re talking about returning to how it was before 1954.’ Civil rights advocates tell the AP the Trump administration’s limiting or canceling the remedies schools can use to address systemic racial injustice.

■ Chicago public school enrollment is plunging—but the city’s regained its No. 3 spot nationwide as other big-city districts suffer similar drops.

Benches benched. The city’s taking down two volunteer-built and -deployed Chicago bus-stop benches—but replacing them with seats up to city code.

■ Block Club: Another private investment group is set to make billions from a revised Chicago parking meter deal.

2 minutes. Over the course of 120 seconds yesterday, first the White Sox and then the Cubs both clinched playoff slots …

■ … the first time that’s happened on the same day.

Unprecedented. Can’t recall the last time your Chicago Public Square columnist got perfect scores two weeks in a row on the news quiz devised by past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel—but that’s what happened.

‘I don’t carry a physical wallet anymore.’ Tech columnist Kim Komando: “Every time you show your [actual] driver’s license, you hand over your home address. To a bouncer. To a hotel clerk. To the guy at the liquor store. The phone version changes the deal.”

■ A suburban cop on administrative leave has resigned—under investigation for allegedly using Flock camera tech to track a girlfriend and her ex-fiancé.

Thanks, AI. A new reader explains how he discovered Chicago Public Square: “I asked Claude for the best (and ideally free) daily concise Chicago newsletter that has less fluff and more real news.”

■ Are you gonna let an AI recruit more new Square readers than you have? Share this newsletter with a friend.

■ A high school senior who’s embraced the technology tells the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg AI’s “going to be part of our lives for a really, really long time.”

■ LateNighter recaps the same joke, three ways—as Desi Lydic, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel all mocked Trump’s decree that “artificial intelligence” henceforth be called “super intelligence.”

■ Columnist Dave Barry explains modern video game technology, because his average reader “tends to be hundreds of years old more mature.”

■ Mike Braden made this edition better.

A press victory—maybe / Citizen bloodied / DoorDash backlash

A press victory—maybe. A federal judge overnight at least temporarily blocked President Trump’s White House ban on three news outlets …

■ … but then the Secret Service kept out reporters from all three …

■ … prompting them to request an emergency hearing today.

■ Y’know how Trump’s team has pointed to those outlets’ reporting as a threat to national security? Turns out the source of some of that reporting was … Vice President Vance.

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Team Trump’s struggles to cope with the press pool boycott: “They still hadn’t worked out this whole ‘how do microphones?’ thing”?

■ Wonkette founding editor Ana Marie Cox offers two ideas for stopping Trump from abusing CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.

‘The bribery angle … is huge.’ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “The relationship between the MAGA Republican agenda and the misuse of tax dollars is becoming more and more obvious.”

■ The American Prospect: Trump’s director of national intelligence “appears to be withholding an explosive court opinion that could give lawmakers all the more reason to meaningfully reform surveillance law.”

■ Salty Politics columnist Julie Roginsky on the administration’s invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit at Trump’s golf club: “It is entirely something else to force European leaders, whom Putin is menacing every day … to greet him as one of their own, simply because the United States, which is governed by a Putin lackey, is hosting.”

Citizen bloodied. Evanston police are investigating the case of a man left beaten on the street after immigration enforcement agents mistook him for a fugitive.

■ Evanston Mayor and Democratic congressional candidate Daniel Biss: “End the funding of these brutal invasions into our cities.”

■ Block Club: Chicago’s curfew laws are being enforced mainly in Black and Latino communities.

Ready to vote? In-person early balloting begins today in Illinois counties outside Cook …

■ … although columnist Eric Zorn says that’s “too damn early.”

■ While dismissing Chicago mayoral candidate Bill Quinlan’s lawsuit against candidates running for two offices at once as “silly,” Zorn also says it spotlights “the need to change the timing of Chicago’s municipal elections.”

■ County election officials in Texas have their hands full unscrambling a massive backlog of voter registration applications created by a state-level goof.

More Divvy. Chicago’s extended its deal with the Lyft-owned bike- and scooter-rental company …

■ … adding thousands of vehicles—and discounts for rides that begin or end on the South or West Sides.

‘Real devastation here.’ Cook County leaders warn that, in just 100 days, new Medicaid requirements could cost hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans their medical coverage.

■ The Onion: “USDA Replaces Food Stamps With One Giant Rutabaga.”

DoorDash backlash. Popular Information says the company admits it “screwed up” and so will pay more than $100 million to New York City workers it concedes were underpaid.

■ Fun fact: DoorDash spent more than $1 million to oppose Zohran Mamdani’s New York mayoral campaign.

■ Columnist and former Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger—once upon a time a Republican, remember—says “Mamdani is the future of the Democratic Party. But not for the reason you think.”

■ McDonald’s has committed billions to improve its restaurants, retrain workers and revise its menu.

Other than that, Mr. Trump, how was the plan? Trump rejects as “a ridiculous lie” an MS NOW report that an administration push to rename even more government sites in his honor includes Ford’s Theatre …

■ … where President Lincoln was shot in 1865.

‘The nation’s for-profit metro newspapers are going out of business in slow motion.’ ProPublica co-founder Dick Tofel says you need look no further than the hedge-fund-controlled McClatchy, which is cutting newsrooms right and left …

■ … including most of the reporters at its one Illinois paper (Sept. 11 link).

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■ J. Michael Williams made this edition better.