Oprah off the fence. Finally taking a stand against the candidacy of a man whose career she almost single-handedly created, Oprah Winfrey has come out in support of Democrat John Fetterman and against Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race …
■ … and she backed a bunch of other Democrats across the country, too.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch: Donald Trump sees the Fetterman-Oz contest as a “test track for 2022’s model of the Big Lie.”
■ Inquirer cartoonist Rob Tornoe tweets: “Every World Series commercial break is just an endless stream of Oz and Fetterman commercials, which creates unintentionally funny moments like this.”
Trump 2024? He told Iowans last night, “I will very, very, very probably do it again.”
■ Axios: Nov. 14 looks likely.
■ CNN: If Trump runs again, the Justice Department may bring on a special counsel to oversee two sprawling federal investigations related to his activities.
Beware fake ‘newspapers.’ A Sun-Times editorial warns against deceptive publications jamming Illinoisans’ mailboxes …
■ The reactionary guy behind those rags, Florida resident Dan Proft, faces questions about his ties to Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey’s campaign.
■ Facebook is cracking down on last-minute political ads.
■ The Tribune’s Chris Borrelli dives into a Twitter account “slavishly devoted to memeing ‘J.B. Pritzker on to the throne of a mighty Khanate that spans from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico.’”
‘If you can chuckle at a grandfather having his skull smashed by a politically deluded lunatic, you can laugh at anything.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg condemns the “gales of GOP laughter, mingled with the lies they immediately, reflexively formed to shrug off responsibility” for the brutal attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul …
■ … who’s been released from the hospital, facing “a long recovery process.”
Decision time. This weekend’s return of standard time gives you an extra hour to do your homework and plan your vote in Tuesday’s election.
■ Injustice Watch tackles last-minute questions about voting for judges.
■ The Conversation: What to do if your vote’s challenged Election Day.
Why are we still changing our clocks? Poynter’s Al Tompkins revisits the Senate’s approval in March of a permanent switch to daylight saving time.
■ That extra hour also gives you more time to stake your claim to a Biometric Information Privacy Act settlement check under a class-action settlement on behalf of Illinoisans who used Snapchat’s Lenses or Filters features between Nov. 17, 2015, and the present—the filing deadline for which rolls around at 1:59:59 a.m. Chicago time Sunday.
Twitter skitter. Ahead of massive layoffs, Elon Musk’s Twitter Inc. closed its offices today and cut off workers’ access to internal systems …
■ … promising employees they’d get the word by 11 a.m. Chicago time whether they still have a job or not.
■ … promising employees they’d get the word by 11 a.m. Chicago time whether they still have a job or not.
■ Twitter workers have been flooding social media with news of layoffs and tributes to colleagues.
■ The company’s bleeding advertisers.
■ BuzzFeed News’ tech reporter Katie Notopoulos makes the case for just paying Musk $8 a month.
‘We will be doomed.’ The UN secretary-general tells The Guardian that if wealthy nations don’t come to terms with poorer nations on a climate treaty, he sees “no way we can avoid a catastrophic situation.”
■ The Conversation explains what’s on the line at the Climate Change Conference in Egypt.
■ The Tribune: “Last winter’s heating costs were bad. This year could be worse.”
Catalytic crimebusters. Feds have lowered the boom on a New Jersey business that they say knowingly trafficked in stolen catalytic converters …
■ … thefts of which one insurance company reports have quintupled in Illinois since 2019.
■ The Instagram account of one of the defendants displayed a photo of a necklace adorned with a converter-shaped pendant.
Ix-nay on the idnapping-kay. A Chicago Police Department official says the department’s alerts last month about people getting kidnapped near Wrigley Field were instead cases that “began as sort of consensual conversations.”
■ A new law taking effect in January gives Illinois cops a choice not to jail people for tiny amounts of drugs.
‘A total surprise.’ A Chicago nonprofit dedicated to helping people with disabilities has landed its largest single donation ever—from billionaire philanthropist and former high school chemistry teacher Dan Jewett’s soon-to-be ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.
■ The City of Chicago has placed menacing stickers on—threatening removal of—the high-quality, bright orange tents gifted to the city’s homeless by a generous former addict.
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