Republican unity cracks. Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein says yesterday’s House hearings on a whistleblower’s memo provided “a good chance to see what GOP lawmakers are thinking,” and he concludes, “They’re all over the place. And that’s bad news for the White House.”
■ Trump’s crude threat to a whistleblower—something that may also be an impeachable offense—has drawn a rebuke from Congress.
■ Impeachment doesn’t require a crime.
■ At Fox News, an insider reports disarray over the impeachment story: “It’s management bedlam.”
■ Margaret Sullivan in The Washington Post: “Trump, the TV president, finally meets a media story he can’t control.”
■ HuffPost editor Samantha Storey: The whistleblower’s complaint “should be held up as an example of how to write well.”
■ No time to read the complaint? Listen to it in a free Penguin Random House audiobook.
■ The Tribune’s Mary Schmich channels Trump in a new poem: “Impeach your greatest president? Ridiculous! Not fair! / To quote that Swedish Greta girl: I don’t know how they dare!”
Teachers’ strike answers. Now that the Chicago Teachers Union has overwhelmingly authorized a walkout, the Tribune answers questions about what happens next.
■ A strike could begin as soon as Oct. 7.
Suburbs besieged. Federal agents visited three suburban village halls yesterday for what the FBI calls “authorized law enforcement” and “investigative” activity.
■ The mayor of one of those villages is also a Cook County commissioner …
■ … and they’re all represented by a state senator whose offices were raided earlier this week.
■ A state senator is giving up her seat to become Illinois’ first cannabis czar.
CTA blues. Blue Line service to O’Hare will be out for nine days beginning today.
■ A Chicago alderman is calling for a massive rebuilding of Chicago’s lakefront—including Lake Shore Drive—in the face of a rising Lake Michigan.
■ The Better Government Association: Chicago-area flooding hits poorest communities hardest.
‘Nonsense.’ Mayor Lightfoot dismissed a complaint from Chicago’s new Immigration and Customs Enforcement director about local police’s failure to help his agency. She told protesters outside his news conference: “That’s the point.”
■ A Chicago alderman says immigration agents “tricked” Chicago cops into providing cover for two raids.
■ Steve Rhodes asks in The Beachwood Reporter: “What exactly did Lightfoot find improper” about a program to jump-start investments in struggling neighborhoods?
■ Lightfoot’s launching a relief program for Chicagoans swamped by city sticker fees and fines.
The Healthy Kids Running Series is a Chicago Public Square advertiser.
Chicago’s new Michelin restaurants. Five places in the city have joined the roster of Michelin stars …
■ … bringing the city’s Michelin total to 25.
■ McDonald’s is testing a veggie burger—in Canada.
No Joker matter. Mindful of a deadly Colorado shooting spree that broke out during the showing of a Batman movie in 2012, movie theaters in Chicago and around the country are tightening security—and banning the wearing of costumes—for some showings of the new Joker movie.
■ A new Netflix show from American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy stars Chicago trans actor Theo Germaine.
Thanks …
■ … to reader Chris Koenig for musical inspiration that powered production of this edition—on repeat.
■ … and to Mike Braden for correction of an apostrophe that was misplaced above.