‘A victory for Putin.’ Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley explains why he was the only House Democrat to vote against the bill that averted a federal government shutdown.
■ The Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg rejects characterization of the deal as “a victory for the American people”: “A victory for the American people would be a smoothly functioning government.”
■ The New York Post: “House GOP members seek to expel Matt Gaetz as he attempts to oust Kevin McCarthy: ‘No one can stand him.’”
Showtime. Arriving for a New York trial over his business practices, Donald Trump denounced the case against him as “a scam.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich allows himself to entertain the notion that “the fever of Trumpism may be starting to break.”
‘Thousands of people daily.’ As the number of buses bringing migrants to Chicago from Texas—at all hours—hits double digits daily, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff tells Politico the trend’s looking grim.
■ The Associated Press: As the city shelters hundreds of migrants at its airports, “sickness spreads quickly.”
Step right up. Own an assault weapon in Illinois—one bought before the state banned ’em in January? Time to register.
■ Gunfire in the Garfield Park neighborhood yesterday afternoon killed two people and injured two others—including a 7-year-old boy.
‘We’ve all now seen what happens when non-professionals are trusted with the written word.’ Celebrating Hollywood’s writers for victory in their strike, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver returned from his strike hiatus to take special aim at Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy’s hapless confrontation last month with Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias …
■ … and, in a report on the sad state of health care for prisoners across the country, cited this 2019 WBEZ report.
■ Back tonight: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
■ A Tribune editorial: “Hollywood writers negotiated a sensible approach to AI. Other humans should pay attention” (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters).
‘Papers will die that way.’ The publisher of the small-town Kansas newspaper raided in August by a police department it was investigating says he worries about the chill the raid will send down corporate spines—owners who will say, “Oh, we don’t want our bottom line to be screwed up by this. So you guys, you stop doing these kinds of stories because it’s gonna interrupt our business model.”
■ The police chief who ordered the raid has been suspended—as body camera footage shows cops went out of their way to inspect a reporter’s material about the chief’s misdeeds.
■ In the launch of his email newsletter, Stop the Presses, ex-Trib and Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob observes, “The show business of politics is more profitable for media organizations than the hard work and the issues.”
■ Popular Information: Journalists are objecting to North Carolina Republicans’ creation of a “secret police force.”
Hot pockets. Apple’s pledging a fix for iPhone 15 models that some users complain have been overheating.
■ ZDNET explains how some iPhone users can replace Siri with ChatGPT—at a price.
Busy weekend. Here’s some of what you missed if you haven’t been following Square on Facebook (for which you need not have a Facebook account—at least on desktop and laptop browsers):
■ California governor’s pick to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the Senate: “The head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights.”
■ A bail bondsman has become the first of Trump’s co-defendants in Georgia to plead guilty …
■ … landing him a sentence so light that law professor Joyce Vance says “it suggests prosecutors believe his cooperation is valuable.”
■ The News Literacy Project shot down conspiracy theories about this Wednesday’s upcoming nationwide test of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mobile phone alerts.
■ New York floods freed a Central Park Zoo sea lion—prompting a flashback to this pivotal scene in the children’s classic Sammy the Seal:
■ No one was more disappointed than your Square columnist, who couldn’t make it Saturday (when it actually happened) but who’d planned to be there Sunday (when it was not scheduled).
■ To make it up to readers who were misled, here are the original podcasts that inspired the event.
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■ Author Kurt Wehrmeister and illustrator Kathryn Nagel will do a reading, sign books and lead kids in a hands-on art workshop Saturday, Oct. 14, in Geneva.
The Square tip jar’s open. Not everyone can make an ongoing commitment to keep this service going. If you’re more of a one-and-done supporter, consider the Square tip jar. Thanks for reading.
■ Columnist Steve Sheffey generously recommends Square to his readers in today’s edition.