About Amendment 1. At the top of every Illinois ballot this fall: A “Workers’ Rights Amendment” to the state constitution—a provision whose pros and cons are detailed (in fashion typically clunky for State of Illinois) via PDF on the Illinois Secretary of State’s website.
■ A United Steelworkers union member contends that it would enshrine Illinoisans’ collective bargaining rights.
■ An Oct. 10 Tribune editorial opposed the amendment, arguing that it would “skew the balance of power in the public sector to an unacceptable degree.”
■ The Trib’s unprecedented tide of all-Democratic candidate endorsements continues with today’s round of congressional nods.
■ Ready to decide? Your Chicago Public Square voter guide awaits.
‘If one dead person votes for a fucking Democrat … you and everyone around you will be found dead.’ A Reuters investigation details how pro-Trump conspiracy theorists have hounded election officials nationwide out of office.
■ A federal judge finds Donald Trump’s emails “in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.”
■ Election deniers running for Arizona’s top office could shape national politics for years to come.
■ The Intercept dives into Pennsylvania’s “biggest, dumbest race for the Senate.”
‘These poll results were an affront to the news industry.’ Press watcher Dan Froomkin lays into New York Times reporting.
■ Tribune alumni Charlie Madigan and Jim O’Shea, in a new series they call Wait a Minute: “It is a poll based on questions asked of 792 registered voters across the nation. That’s not many to use to extrapolate what a whole nation will be doing.”
■ Back in 1997, Madigan and O’Shea appeared on the radio to discuss their book Dangerous Company: Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin.
Pass on fare-hikes. The CTA’s draft budget proposes no increase in prices and no service cuts …
■ … but the Pace suburban bus system is proposing permanent elimination of routes suspended in the pandemic.
Wrigley robberies. Police report at least five cases of gunmen abducting and robbing people during early morning hours near Wrigley Field.
■ The Cubs are cutting season-ticket prices by an average of about 5%.
■ The price of tickets to live concerts, sports, and comedy shows has exploded as the pandemic has waned—with increases that Popular Information says “can be traced back to one company: Live Nation Entertainment.”
‘Science—and my belief in it—saved me from COVID.’ Author and filmmaker Michael Moore reports finally testing negative.
■ Time: “Our third COVID winter is coming. America isn’t ready.”
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Internet ripoffs. The Markup’s investigation finds AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink and CenturyLink disproportionately offering lower-income and least-white neighborhoods slow internet service at the same price as speedy connections they offer other areas …
■ … but the gap wasn’t as big in the Chicago area as elsewhere.
■ Consumer Reports’ 2021 “Guide to Getting Better Internet Without Busting Your Budget.”
She gone. United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss is quitting—ending the shortest such tenure in more than a century …
■ … or, as Donald Trump’s short-lived (10 days) White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci put it, “4.1 Scaramuccis.”
■ The AP: Her $50 billion in unfunded tax cuts sparked financial market turmoil.
Blues blues. Chicago-born blues pianist Marty Sammon is dead at 45.
■ Here he was, playing New Hampshire in June.
Square mailbag. Reader Stephanie Goldberg writes about yesterday’s coverage of the controversy over ex-Chicago TV news reporter Charles Thomas’ ads for Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey: “Thomas’s ad is offensive because it’s coded antisemitism. If Bailey is a guy you can trust because he’s a farmer from downstate, the implicit meaning is that Gov. Pritzker cannot be trusted because he’s a Jew from the northern suburbs. … Thomas’ ad would be objectionable if he’d spent the last 40 years as a plumber.”
■ And from reader Garry Jaffe: “The worst part of Charles Thomas selling out: That he sold out for a measly $50 grand! What with Uihlein spending millions [Oct. 13 link added by Square], he should’ve asked for at least half a million!”