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■ The skin of a new Illinois Institute of Technology building comprises “pillowlike cushions that can automatically adjust to let in more or less natural light depending on the weather.”
■ A developer’s buying a swath of McDonald’s old headquarters property in Oak Brook—to build a gated community on land coveted by the village’s park district.
To protect ‘Chicago’s most vulnerable workers.’ The City Council has approved creation of a new agency to enforce minimum wage, sick time and wage theft laws.
■ But the mayor’s turning thumbs-down on plans that would have taxed the sale of pricey homes to fight homelessness or replace lead pipes delivering water to Chicago homes.
■ The watchdog Civic Federation says the mayor’s final budget fails to address “an enormous elephant in the room.”
■ Mayor Emanuel’s promising to use a grant from ex-New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to expand bike-sharing to “100 percent of the city.”
■ A Tribune editorial: “Do your homework. Then vote ‘no’ on bad judges.”
■ Don’t vote dumb: Check the newly expanded Chicago Public Square election guide. (And please share it.)
■ Feeling angsty as the election approaches? You’re not alone.
Now public: ‘The last great still-secret Watergate document.’ The Lawfare blog examines the significance, in the Age of Trump, of the newly released—and long mysterious—Watergate “Road Map” special prosecutor Leon Jaworski sent Congress in 1974.
■ The president to ABC News: “I always want to tell the truth. When I can, I tell the truth.”
■ … which is a lie.
■ Ex-presidential candidate and current Senate candidate from Utah Mitt Romney: “I cannot conceive of thinking or saying that … any responsible news organization is an enemy. … It is very much our friend.”
News biz upheavals.
■ The Sun-Times CEO is quitting.
■ The Sun-Times is cutting its Monday-through-Saturday comics pages from three to one and eliminating its daily TV listings.
■ One of Mayor Emanuel’s top donors is rumored in the running to take over Tribune Publishing.
■ Tech news site Recode is getting folded into sibling site Vox.
‘It’s medically sanctioned … torture.’ A Chicago filmmaker who was born genetically male—with XY chromosomes, but also with a vagina—and whose parents opted for genital surgery to render their child physically female is among those demanding Lurie Children’s Hospital stop doing that.
■ Lurie’s selling its Lincoln Park research building.
‘Here are our demands.’ Organizers of a Google employee walkout called for today at 11:10 a.m. list what they want the company to do about systemic sexual harassment, gender inequality and racism.
■ Women who worked with Chicago’s once-celebrated anti-violence campaign, Cure Violence (formerly CeaseFire, profiled in the Steve James documentary The Interrupters), say they endured sexual harassment there for years.
■ A Chicago man who heads a suburban park district police force is accused of secretly recording sexual encounters with women and sharing the video online.
■ The Tribune reports Cook County promoted an ex-Chicago alderman once recommended for firing after allegedly saying, “I can’t stand these Mexicans.”
Please keep your baggage handlers in their upright position. A baggage handler says he was drunk when he fell asleep in the cargo hold on a Piedmont Airlines flight to Chicago from Kansas City.
■ Forbes: The best days to fly for the holidays.
■ Environmentally friendly ways to dispose of your decaying Halloween pumpkin include … catapulting.
Correction. Avid and attentive reader Mike Braden reported a backward quotation mark in yesterday’s Square. Your corrections are welcome always at Squerror@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.