'If this were a normal state …' / Company's brewing / Candy corn defended

The news this time comes to you courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters Rich Means, RF Davis, Reed Pence, Ralph Sherman, Peter Kuttner, Paul Clark and Patricia Skaja. Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping to keep Square coming. And so let’s get to it:

‘If this were a normal state …’ Citing the bribery indictment of Illinois Rep. Luis Arroyo, Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown says it’s time to outlaw elected officials’ ability to act also as paid lobbyists.
■ ProPublica has tallied an astonishing number of lobbyists hired by the Trump administration.
■ Politico: White House aides are scrambling to lawyer up as the impeachment investigation expands.

No news: Bad news? Lawmakers who sat through more than 10 hours of impeachment-related testimony yesterday by Purple Heart-winninghonored veteran and diplomat Alexander Vindman say that his remarks didn’t substantially change their understanding of a fateful phone call, but that that’s not good for President Trump. In the words of one Democrat, “Every single witness … has corroborated the central facts of the story we’ve heard.”
■ On Twitter today, Trump attacked Vindman.

‘Chicago is a dangerous dump—I mean that it votes blue.’ In honor of Trump’s visit to Chicago Monday, the Tribune’s Mary Schmich again channels the president through poetry: “Ricketts raised bazillions / That made up for all the snubs / So even though this town’s a pit / I gotta say, ‘Go Cubs!’” (Photo: Seth Anderson in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ Just one local dignitary welcomed Trump to Chicago on the tarmac at O’Hare Monday.
■ PolitiFact: Trump was “pants-on-fire” wrong about Chicago murder statistics.
■ Ex-Chicagoan and convicted Trump adviser George Papadopoulos has filed to run for Congress from California.

Company’s brewing. Molson Coors is moving its North American HQ from Denver to Chicago—and cutting up to 500 jobs in the process.
■ Starbucks pledges to invest $10 million to help grow small businesses in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods.

Back to school? Chalkbeat sees a possibility the teachers’ strike could end in time for class to resume Thursday. Stay tuned.
■ Nine protesting teachers were arrested yesterday outside the office of the developer behind Chicago’s controversial Lincoln Yards project.
■ Today’s protesters are confronting Chicago’s first snowfall of the season.

Candy corn defended. The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg: It’s “as Chicago as deep dish pizza.”
■ CNN offers a brief history of poisoned Halloween candy panic: “No actual events explained this fear.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)

‘As it has gotten warmer, the fires have gotten bigger.’ A Columbia University bio-climatologist is among those studying climate’s role in California’s wildfire plague.
■ Columbia Journalism Review’s Jon Allsop: “Far too many news articles on the fires mention climate change … not at all.”
■ Environmental prodigy Greta Thunberg is refusing to accept an honor from the Nordic Council: “The climate movement does not need any more awards.”

Anchor Advisors is a Chicago Public Square advertiser.

Reader Pam Spiegel is on the job again, catching a capitalization error above.
■ And thanks to reader Mike Esposito for some advanced wordsmithing advice.