Showtime! At Chicago Public Square’s email deadline, the U.S. Supreme Court had begun hearing arguments over whether Colorado can dump Donald Trump from its presidential ballot.
■ Hear audio from the proceedings here …
■ … and check the AP’s “listener’s guide” here.
■ At the heart of the Trump v. Anderson case: A groundbreaking 91-year-old Republican woman.
‘One of the most odious men in the entire anti-abortion world.’ Salon profiles Trump’s lawyer before the court today—also a champion of public libraries banning books that feature LGBTQ characters.
■ Tuesday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live: LeVar Burton hosted Banned Book Rainbow.
■ Chalkbeat’s thrilled at a shoutout in last night’s season premiere of the ABC school-set comedy Abbott Elementary.
‘Prepare for the role of toady-in-chief, and the butt of endless mockery.’ Ex-Illinois Congressman and Trump critic Adam Kinzinger advises Republicans jockeying to be Trump’s running mate: “Careful what you wish for.”
■ Columnist and actor Michael Ian Black: Kellyanne Conway seems to be auditioning for the role.
‘I’m just pissed off.’ Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—one of just four Republicans to support a border security deal that flopped yesterday—is working her way through the stages of grief.
■ Meanwhile, over in the House, Wonkette’s Evan Hurst observes, “These morons can’t even get one single Alejandro Mayorkas impeached” …
■ … in what Mother Jones says was “something of a test run” for Republicans’ hope of impeaching President Biden.
■ Popular Information: Flush with hypocritical corporate cash—hi, Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Amazon and more!—a top House Republican is pushing the racist “great replacement theory.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson perceives “a disturbing pattern” in Republicans’ meltdown.
‘It’s not business as usual when genocide is going on.’ An antiwar protest at Woodward, a Niles company that makes guidance systems for missiles and bombs, led to the arrest of 33 people yesterday.
■ The demonstrators complained that Woodward makes parts in weapons dropped on Gaza.
‘Homeownership … is increasingly out of reach of a large and growing number of Americans, especially young people.’ Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich blames Wall Street investors—buying up remains of the housing bubble “at fire-sale prices … selling or renting them for fat profits” …
■ … but he sees hope in a bill introduced in both houses of Congress, to ban hedge funds from snarfing up single-family homes.
Finally. Years after the pandemic triggered a rise in smoking on the CTA, the agency reports a recent-record number of police citations for people puffing away on trains and buses.
■ Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield: “This means more people are having negative interactions with police.”
■ The Onion jokes: “Dopey Riders Jumping In Front Of Trains To Retrieve Big Lollipops They Dropped.”
Decision time nears. With the Illinois primary just a little more than a month away, ABC 7 tonight hosts a debate between the two Democratic candidates for Cook County state’s attorney.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “This race and the binding ‘Bring Chicago Home’ referendum on increasing the real estate transfer tax on higher-end properties, will be the big stories the night of March 19.”
February thunderstorms. They were possible in a couple of batches today.
■ On the plus side: Spring-like temperatures.
Case closed. Prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against two Black Northwestern University students who created a parody satire of the university’s student newspaper—attacking the university’s stance on the war in Gaza.
■ Zorn again: “The Northwestern Daily was not a prank, not free speech in action and not a parody, which is the term for over-the-top imitations with comic intent. It was vandalism.”
■ Also from Zorn: The Tribune failed to cover a strike by its own newsroom and won’t explain why.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. Author CJ Chilvers offers “15 lessons from 30+ years in newsletters,” including several that may ring a bell for Chicago Public Square readers—like: “The current crush of mediocre content will only increase. We need picky people with fine-tuned bullshit detectors to comb through it all and surface the good stuff. The curation newsletter format, linking to the best of the best with a little personal commentary, works.”
■ And: “No one cares. You have to give them reasons to care.”
Email from a Square supporter who’s chosen to remain anonymous. “Any chance of a brief mention of those supporters who choose to remain anonymous?”
■ Why, yes: Thanks to the roughly 16% of all Chicago Public Square supporters who’ve chosen to remain anonymous—unlike, for instance:
■ Brian Gunderson, Glenn Jeffers, Joe Gauss, Tanya Surawicz, Patty Martin, Howie Anderson, Gary Kochanek, Mark Thurow, Jeanette Mancusi, Crissy Kawamoto, Evan McKenzie, Sarah Russe, Dan Shannon, Amy Dixon-Kolar, Stephanie Goldberg, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, Dave Kraft, Kiki Marie-Henri, Amy Reynaldo, Ronald B. Schwartz, Walter W. Gallas, Werner Huget, Jeff Weissglass, Barbara Miller, Deb Abrahamson, Linda Paul, Scott Baskin, Terry Locke, Janet Grimes, Timothy Mennel, Bob Tucker, Gil Arias, Ann Fisher, Carolyn Roberta Berg, Andrea Agrimonti, Christine Hauri, Don Moseley, Jeanne Mcinerney, Susan Hardy, MJ Garnier, Randall Kulat, Alan Hommerding, Robert A. Shipley, Martha Intrieri, Annemarie Kill, Diane Scott, Bruce Pfaff, Mike Janowski, Marc Blesoff, Rick Baert, Rebecca Ewan, Cynde Seegers, Lynne Taylor and Angela Mullins.
■ If you’d like to see your name here Friday, before Square takes a few days’ hiatus—or maybe you, too, would prefer to remain anonymous—you can chip in as little as $1, once, here.
A Square advertiser
