Coach Q(uits). Ex-Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville—the second-winningest coach in NHL history—is out at the Florida Panthers, implicated in a sexual assault scandal during the Hawks’ 2010 championship run.
■ Quenneville’s statement: “I want to reflect on how all of this happened and take the time to educate myself on ensuring hockey spaces are safe for everyone.”
■ The Hawks are asking the implicated ex-video coach’s name be Xed off the Stanley Cup trophy.
■ Axios Chicago’s Justin Kaufmann: “In 2010, the team’s motto was One Goal. … But at what cost? They may be finding that out.”
■ The AP reflects on the team’s inaction over the course of “three weeks that—more than a decade later—rocked a once-proud franchise and raised more questions about the culture of sports.”
■ An ex-Chicago Park District supervisor has been charged with the sexual assault of a teenage employee.
No strings attached. Thousands of struggling Chicago households will get at least $500 a month for a year under the new city budget’s guaranteed income program.
■ President Biden says congressional Democrats have come together on a massive domestic policy plan that includes free universal prekindergarten, expanded health care programs and $555 billion to avert climate change …
■ … but that lacks a plan for the country’s first mandatory paid family and medical leave rules …
■ … a thing that earns Sen. Joe Manchin columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week honor.
■ Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce cheers nevertheless: What is in the bill isn’t a consolation prize to the people it would help.
‘Political cannibalism.’ That’s how one Chicago congressman describes a newly approved Illinois map that puts Democratic Rep. Marie Newman in the same district with Democratic Rep. Chuy Garcia.
■ Newman says the map shortchanges Chicago’s Southwest Side and suburbs.
■ Politico notes that the map, which now goes to Gov. Pritzker, puts the squeeze on every Republican member of the Illinois delegation …
■ … and anti-Trump Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger is hanging it up.
■ A 2009 Newcity story about a Chicago tea shop is haunting a leading candidate for mayor of Boston.
Downtown’s double trouble. A Sun-Times analysis concludes the citywide rise in violent crime is worst in the Central district—where the number of shootings has risen more than 200% since 2019.
■ Prosecutors say a Logan Square man was so angry in a fight with his girlfriend that, when a passerby asked her if she needed help, the man shot and killed him.
■ A 39-year-old man was found shot to death inside a portable toilet in the Austin neighborhood.
Bees’ reprieve. The Greater Rockford Airport Authority says it’s redesigning its expansion project to spare the Bell Bowl Prairie—and its endangered bumblebees.
■ The union representing the Environmental Protection Agency’s Midwest workers is calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency.
■ Climate journalist Emily Atkin is excited: Congress has subpoenaed Big Oil.
‘Heartbreaking for these kids.’ No U.S. organization is caring for more Afghan refugee children than a Chicago agency where not one staff member can speak the kids’ language—and at which ProPublica reports some children have hurt themselves or others.
■ The New York Times: “For First Time in Public, a Detainee Describes Torture at CIA Black Sites.”
Bittersweet. Supply chain problems or not, Halloween candy sales are up substantially over last year—but last-minute shoppers may have a hard time finding their favorites.
■ Consumer Reports offers advance shopping guidance, rounding up early Black Friday deals on TVs and other electronics.
■ A ProPublica investigation of a salmonella epidemic reveals “a baffling and largely toothless food safety system that is ill-equipped to protect consumers.”
Um, Mark …? As Facebook’s parent company renames itself Meta—declaring its intention to be seen as “a metaverse company”—ad agency executive Michael Lebowitz says it’s too bad leadership didn’t pay more attention to the book that coined that phrase.
■ Your Square columnist’s 2019 take on that book: “It’s fatally flawed.” (Cartoon: Keith J. Taylor.)
■ Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decor during his big announcement included a cameo by a bottle of a Chicago-born barbeque sauce …
■ Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decor during his big announcement included a cameo by a bottle of a Chicago-born barbeque sauce …
■ … triggering a flood of Twitter mockery. (Twockery?)
■ Patagonia is calling on other companies to join it in boycotting Facebook, demanding Zuckerberg’s company “prioritize people and planet over profit.”
Chicago Public Square mailbag. In response to yesterday’s edition—which spotlighted columnist Eric Zorn’s lack of outrage at a judge’s ruling that those killed by teen gunman Kyle Rittenhouse can’t be called “victims”—reader Mike Gold asks whether “it’s possible that in the middle of a bloody riot these people committed suicide? If they didn’t, they are murder victims. The purpose of the Rittenhouse trial is to determine if this kid is the victimizer. It doesn’t matter if he was or was not when determining the victimhood of the deceased.”
■ Your thoughts on the news are always welcome here: Mailbag@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.
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