Chicago Public Square wouldn’t be here for you without the support of readers including Sandy Ridolfi, Sandy Kaczmarski, Sandy Heitzman, Roy Plotnick, Ronald B. Schwartz, Robert Clifford and Richard Milne. You can be like them for just a few cents a day. (Alert readers may have noticed we’re going through the list by first name in reverse alphabetical order. So if you’d like to get a shoutout here and you have a first name beginning with Q, you should jump on that link a.s.a.p.) And now the news:
‘This is the jackpot.’ Illinois State Rep. Luis Arroyo—a Chicago Democrat—is the latest pol snared by the feds, who say they recorded him saying those words as he handed a $2,500 bribe to a state senator …
■ … reportedly identified as Terry Link, the Senate's assistant majority leader …
■ … who reportedly wore a wire because he faced charges of cheating on his taxes …
■ … although he emphatically denies being that guy.
■ Leaders of both parties are calling for Arroyo to quit.
■ A Tribune editorial celebrates discovery of “rich veins of criminal conduct in Illinois governance.”
‘Trump talked like a fool.’ A Sun-Times editorial reflects on the president’s visit to Chicago …
■ … during which he trash-talked the city and its police chief …
■ … who laughed off Trump’s repeated tale of a cop claiming to know how to end Chicago crime in a week.
■ But at least a few suburban police chiefs liked some of what Trump said.
■ Trib columnist Rex Huppke: “The orange man in the bubble came to Chicago, a city of people with pins.”
■ A photo gallery captures some of the protest that drew thousands to Trump Tower. (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor, whose work you can see in person beginning Friday; see below.)
Teachers terminated. Under a new law aimed at keeping people charged with sex crimes, violent felonies and some drug offenses from interacting with students, the Illinois State Board of Education reports it’s suspended the licenses of almost 50 educators.
■ A tenured Oak Park and River Forest High School assistant football coach is out, “based on an inappropriate relationship.”
Boeing: Sorry. In full-page newspaper ads today—the anniversary of the first of two deadly crashes of its 737 Max plane—Boeing Co. says it mourns “those whose lives were lost” and pledges it will “always remember.”
■ Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has a date in the hot seat today with a Senate committee investigating the disasters.
Halloween snow. Several inches are possible Thursday—on top of snow
■ And temperatures will be flirting with the 20s …
■ … which may help cut into Halloween “chaos” attributed to teenagers in one Chicago neighborhood.
‘It was disappointing.’ Media watchdog Robert Feder reports that “news anchor Alan Krashesky read a commercial for Disney Plus during ABC 7’s 10 p.m. newscast Monday.” (Third item in today’s post.)
■ Time: Which of the growing field of streaming TV services are worth paying for?
■ You may already qualify to get some of them for free.
■ Early reviews for Apple TV+ shows kinda suck.
Thanks to reader Pam Spiegel for flagging a redundancy above.