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Anthony Caciopo, Carmel Callobre, Suzy Carlson, Jane Skelley Carroll, Jill Chukerman, Thom Clark, Robert Clifford, Cindy Coakes, Michael A. Collins and John Culver. Join them here. And now the news:
‘A great guy.’ As he soft-pedals the likely decapitation and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate, President Trump is praising a member of Congress sentenced for assaulting a Guardian reporter.
■ The Daily Beast’s Christopher Dickey: The president, who was elected in part by campaigning against Islamic law, is now “in bed with its lethal champion.”
■ New York magazine’s Frank Rich: “Trump defends authoritarian leaders no matter what they do because he aspires to be one.”
■ The Washington Post: Conservative politicians are running “a whisper campaign smearing Khashoggi in defense of Trump.”
‘Trump’s intervention may well have been motivated by his personal financial concerns.’ A law professor comments on reports the president personally kept the FBI from moving its headquarters—which happens to be a block away from his hotel.
■ Another New York City condo building is losing its Trump branding.
‘We’re talking about good versus evil.’ An Illinois Republican state representative is joining Democrats in condemning a Republican candidate for Congress: “This is not a Republican. This is a Nazi.”
■ Do yard signs affect elections? Signs are they do.
■ Now a trigger word in Republicans’ campaigns: Caravan.
■ The Guardian: “U.S. farmers are increasingly terrified by … climate change.”
Transit job boom. A new report finds half of all new Chicago-area jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were located within a half-mile of a CTA or Metra station—job growth at a rate more than double the national average.
■ No fare hikes or significant service cuts in next year’s CTA budget.
■ The New York Times: For fixing mass transit, “Chicago trounces New York.”
All the records. A lawsuit filed by four survivors of priestly sexual abuse demands every Illinois Catholic diocese share all information available on every abusive priest in Illinois.
■ The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed at least seven of Pennsylvania’s eight Catholic dioceses.
■ A Catholic exorcist plans a mass for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
■ Rabid-bat reports are on the wing in the Chicago area.
Thumbs down. Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs is joining counterparts in three other states to demand Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s ouster.
■ Google has opened a temporary Chicago store to sell its Google- and Nest-branded products through the end of the year.
‘A damning report.’ Illinois fares poorly in a new accounting of maternity deaths—with African-American women six times more likely than whites to die of pregnancy-related complications.
■ Chicago Public Schools has launched a series of public hearings on the challenges confronting some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
■ Chicago’s South Side is in line for a new food hall—a “diverse dining collective.”
Little Free Library founder dead. The notion of those sightly-bigger-than-a-birdhouse book repositories began with Todd Bol.
■ A WBBM Newsradio anchor signs off Sunday after 45 years.
Announcements.
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