■ … even though some teachers say they were spat upon from above Wednesday as they protested outside the Board of Trade building. (Oct. 18 photo: Harry Carmichael in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ Crain’s: How the Chicago Teachers Union has arrived at the head of a national labor movement.
‘Remarkable speed.’ In a report on questionable Chicago police stop-and-frisk practices, a retired federal judge gives high marks to Mayor Lightfoot’s administration for “fast-tracking” reform.
■ The police department is promising by next year to develop new street-stop protocols …
■ … to address inequities like the report’s finding that roughly 70% of pedestrian stop-and-frisk patdowns have targeted African Americans.
■ The Chicago Reporter: The City Council is quietly moving toward decriminalizing psychedelic plants and fungi.
■ Michael Tomasky in The Daily Beast: “Trump and the Republicans … are no longer merely lying. … What these people are doing … [is] a direct nuclear assault on the truth.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ The White House has ordered federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post.
■ The New Yorker’s Susan B. Glasser: Trump’s invocation of the insult “human scum” puts him in rare company.
■ Axios: The president’s “created a de facto impeachment war room, with a chief goal of policing and solidifying Republican Senate support for acquittal.”
■ The Onion: “Trump Ties Thousands Of Balloons To White House Roof In Attempt To Sail Away From Impeachment Inquiry.”
■ Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate has confirmed another Trump judicial nominee rated “not qualified.”
Unrelated developments.
■ Politico: Trump’s plan to address police chiefs in downtown Chicago Monday stands to draw thousands of protesters.
■ CBS Chicago: “Rare Cosmic ‘Mudball’ Meteorite Arrives At Chicago’s Field Museum.”
Future not what it used to be.
■ The Census Bureau says that, by next year, no single race group will constitute more than half of U.S. children.
■ Cook County ballots will come in more languages beginning with the March primary.
■ The Trump administration has quietly shuttered a program to keep watch for dangerous animal viruses that could infect humans—the next Ebola.
■ A new report concludes the U.S. isn’t ready for a pandemic.
■ Wednesday Journal: “Oak Park to become dementia-friendly.”
Halloween getaways. Metra will run early trains out of downtown Thursday.
■ Thrillist lists the Chicago area’s most terrifying haunted houses.
Who doesn’t love it when a corruption investigation bears fruit? Reuters: “Japan trade minister resigns amid melon donations scandal.”
■ The Sun-Times: “Suburbs that federal agents recently visited as part of a wide-ranging corruption investigation have been using an insurance company that employs Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s son.”
■ Missing in action from both his jobs since a federal raid at his home last month: Cook County Commissioner and McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski.
