As you peruse the tales within,
Thank the folks whose names begin
With signs like E and also G—
Those who keep Square coming free:
Lora Engdahl, Maria Garvy, Mike Gold, Wendy Greenhouse and Jim Grimes. Join them here. And now, the news:
■ At least six people were shot after a Chicago rapper’s South Side funeral yesterday afternoon.
Kanye cash. Joining fellow rapper Chance, Kanye West is pumping money into Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Enyia’s campaign.
■ Powerful Ald. Ed Burke is tossing in with the campaign of his former employee, Gery Chico: “There’s probably nobody more qualified.”
‘Refreshing compared to those brutal governor’s debates.’ Politico recaps last night’s debate in one of the nation’s most-watched congressional contests—the suburban race between U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam and his challenger, Sean Casten.
■ NBC News: “The 2018 midterms won’t end on Election Night. … Overtime could possibly determine the balance of power in the House and Senate.”
■ In Texas, the first day of early voting drew a huge turnout—including a Houston crowd that “looked more like a Black Friday shopping morning.”
■ Voting early in Illinois? Here’s your Chicago Public Square guide to doing that.
Trumpany’s coming. The president’s confirmed plans to visit Southern Illinois Saturday …
■ … and you can sign up for tickets here.
■ At a Houston rally, The Atlantic reports, “Trump launched into … a furious tirade at Democrats, laced with falsehoods.”
■ The Hubble Space Telescope is feeling better now, thank you. (Cartoon: Keith Taylor.)
‘This savage murder.’ Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the Saudis plotted for days to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
■ From John Oliver’s HBO archives: Reminders that Erdogan is no paragon of virtue.
■ A CNN reporter calls on Trump to end his attacks on reporters: “I’m afraid somebody is going to get hurt.”
■ The Onion: “Trump Announces He’ll Pay Legal Fees Of Any Rally Attendee Who Beats Up Ted Cruz.”
‘It requires an unusual combination of paranoia and racism to view a few thousand poor people fleeing violence as justifying a panic.’ New York’s Ed Kilgore says Trump’s obsession with a “caravan” of Central Americans headed north echoes a racist 1975 novel that has become a favorite of the right.
■ The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan: “The caravan is coming! And it’s high time to calm the rising media frenzy.”
■ Fox News’ Howard Kurtz: “Trump is spraying the landscape with a deluge of issues … saturating the political debate in the process.”
‘His constituents … clearly don’t want the world streaming through their high-rent backyard.’ Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin condemns a Chicago alderman for “kowtowing to … NIMBY instincts” in blocking a project that would include public space along the waterfront.
■ One of The Old Town School of Folk Music’s longtime homes is up for sale.
■ Chicago’s ending an experiment with higher parking-meter rates near Wrigley Field during games and concerts.
Landlines’ end? AT&T is dialing down its traditional wired phone business in Illinois—raising prices by about $120 a year for some of its neediest subscribers.
■ Reviews of Apple’s newest iPhone, the XR: “The iPhone for most people.”
Candy corn’s lament. The Trib’s Rex Huppke relays a message from the seasonal treat: “If a starving human had to choose between us and a bowl of dirt, the dirt would be nutritionally preferable and far more pleasing.”
■ Contrary to Huppke’s description of candy corn as “a … substance that looked nothing like corn,” it does.
■ Researchers have, for the first time, found microplastics in human waste.
Thanks … For a continuing flow of link suggestions from reader Christine Badowski Koenig.