Monday’s Chicago Public Square will arrive an hour late—if you don’t return your clocks to standard time over the weekend.
■ Check those smoke alarms.
■ And beware getting trapped in an infinite loop.
We’re No. 1. The annual ranking from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s political science department finds Chicago again the nation’s most corrupt city—and Illinois the No. 3 most corrupt state.
■ The City Council’s closing in on a plan to require 10 days’ annual paid leave for workers—with payouts for unused time off at all but the smallest businesses.
‘Uneducated buffoonery has become a virtue.’ Tribune executive editor Mitch Pugh condemns a Chicago suburb for ticketing a reporter with the Trib-sibling Daily Southtown on grounds of “interference/hampering of city employees” with questions about historic flooding.
■ The town’s mayor is under federal investigation (April link).
■ The Onion shares social media guidelines for its reporters, “whose failure to follow them to the letter is punishable by death.”
‘An astonishing and ugly rant.’ CNN’s Oliver Darcy condemns Fox for its silence on host Jesse Watters’ remarks about Arab Americans and the Muslim world.
■ The White House is demanding an apology.
■ Journalism critic and soon-to-be executive director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security Margaret Sullivan says Fox host Mark Levin’s antisemitic attack on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was “appalling and hateful.”
Cease-fire? Pause? The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet explains the distinction between calls to end the mayhem in the Israel-Hamas war.
■ Israel’s prime minister has ruled out a cease-fire “that doesn’t include a return of our hostages.”
■ HuffPost: A growing number of American Jews are protesting Israeli military action.
■ A coalition of Jewish writers has published a letter condemning “the fight against antisemitism weaponized as a pretext for war crimes with stated genocidal intent.”
‘A riot of witness intimidation.’ Columnist Liz Dye looks at Donald Trump’s Truth Social page so you don’t have to and finds stuff so awful even his lawyers can’t defend it.
■ The Daily Beast: Prosecutors yesterday confronted the Trump boys with “damning emails.”
■ Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week: “Definitely not these large adult children” of Trump.
■ Politico: Trump rival Nikki Haley’s political momentum “feels real.”
3.5 million teacher comments about students from thousands of schools. When college researchers munged all that data, they found clear patterns of racial bias against Black kids …
■ … especially Black girls.
Hyundai security fix. Owners of cars that have proven stupidly easy to steal can get a free anti-theft software update Sunday in the Sox Park parking lot.
■ Find out if your car’s vulnerable here.
‘Consumers should still be aware that they are on the shelves and they can permanently harm you.’ A lawyer for a Pennsylvania woman awarded $7.1 million from Chicago-based Conagra Brands after a can of cooking spray ignited into a fireball says the company’s decision to stop manufacturing those cans isn’t enough.
■ The Conversation: What the gas industry isn’t telling you about your stove.
‘Kim Kardashian, billionaire, is telling us this climate joke … to sell shit.’ The climate newsletter Heated exposes the environmental truth behind a commercial for “a bra with built-in hard nipples.”
■ The Federal Trade Commission accuses Amazon of using a secret algorithm that had the effect of raising prices on competing sites—and then destroying internal communication about the thing.
Let’s get quizzical. You get to brag if you match or exceed your Chicago Public Square columnist’s 7/8 score on this week’s news quiz, devised by The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
Chicago, your Christmas tree is ready for its close-up. The city’s official yuletide arbor was to be chopped down today in Darien.
■ See it here.
■ It’ll be lit Nov. 17.
Obamafest. Ex-President Obama and close to 2,500 former staffers are gathering in Chicago this weekend to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his election.
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: “I wasn’t invited, but I was there.”
■ Of course, there are commemorative bobbleheads.
Put that extra hour to good use. Just a few days left for you to nominate Chicago Public Square for Best Email Newsletter and Best Independent Website in the Reader’s Best of Chicago awards.
■ Sherry Kent made this edition better.