This issue of Chicago Public Square is brought to you by the letter W—and by members of The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians, including Michael Weiland, Martha Whitehead, Clifton Wilson, Julia Winn, Tim Woods and Mark Wukas. Join them here in their support for keeping Square going and growing. And now the news:
It’s Trump’s party. Last night’s primary results from four states—including Wisconsin—suggest the president’s supporters are driving Republican candidate selection.
■ The Cook Political Report concludes that, for Republicans, “The 2018 House playing field is a lot like a game of Whack-a-Mole: everywhere they turn, new problems keep popping up in surprising places.”
Amid extraordinary turnout among Democrats …
■ … the party’s nominated a former energy company executive to be the country’s first transgender governor …
■ … a candidate who stands to become (clarifying) one of the first Muslim women in Congress …
■ … a former National Teacher of the Year to be Connecticut’s first black representative to the House …
■ … Wisconsin’s education chief to challenge Gov. Scott Walker …
■ … accused-of-abusing-a-girlfriend U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison to run for Minnesota attorney general.
Not Biden time. Ex-Vice President Joe Biden’s sick, and so has canceled a visit to the Illinois State Fair tomorrow.
■ From last month: Trump said “I dream about Biden” running for president.
■ The president’s longtime confidant, Roger Stone, posted and then deleted a Nazi Space Force meme.
■ The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan V. Last hopes there’s no audio of Trump saying the N-word: “If you look at the Trump administration and think it can’t get worse, then you haven’t contemplated what a scorched-earth Trump might be like.”
■ Chicago aldermen blame “racist” Trump policies for the raid of a Pilsen convenience store.
■ Updating coverage: Closing arguments begin in the tax-evasion and bank-fraud case against the president’s ex-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
‘Trump Tower cannot continue violating the law.’ Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is suing the president’s Chicago skyscraper, accusing it of endangering life in the Chicago River.
■ The feds are nosing around a Midway Airport restaurant company.
■ Illinois ranks fifth in the nation for “structurally deficient” bridges in need of repair or rebuilding.
You and Chicago police reform. A Sun-Times editorial notes that you have until Friday to file comments on plans to overhaul Police Department training, practices and accountability.
■ The ACLU and Black Lives Matter say those plans don’t go far enough.
■ Much-honored investigative journalist Jamie Kalven in The Intercept: “Chicago has a unique opportunity to confront fundamental issues of racial justice.”
Acclaimed lawyer killed. A former U.S. deputy solicitor general and Supreme Court advocate with a prominent Chicago law firm is dead in what police describe as a domestic-related shooting at his suburban home.
■ The Tribune recounts dramatic testimony in the opening round of the trial for two men accused in the shooting of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton.
■ Crain’s: A safe manufacturer in Chicago’s suburbs is moving production to Mexico, eliminating 153 jobs.
‘Reject this stupid pro-press assignment!’ Politico media critic Jack Shafer says newspapers’ plans for coordinated editorials condemning the president tomorrow “will provide Trump with the circumstantial evidence of the existence of a national press cabal that has been convened solely to oppose him.”
■ Chicago media watcher Robert Feder calls out the Sun-Times for blurring the line between advertising and editorial (second item in today’s column).
■ The Trib’s Steve Johnson on the limits to comedy—notably by Stephen Colbert and Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! host Peter Sagal—in the Trump era.