It’s time. Clocks fall back an hour early Sunday as most of the nation returns to standard time.
■ We’d stay there forever if the suburban-based Coalition for Permanent Standard Time gets its way. (Image: Microsoft’s Copilot.)
■ The movement’s backed by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine …
■ … although nearly half the states—not including Illinois—have endorsed permanent daylight saving time.
■ Science historian James Gleick called in 2016 for dumping time zones altogether and putting everyone, all over the world, on Coordinated Universal Time.
■ Heed this 2005 guide to falling back or risk getting caught in an infinite loop.
■ On the plus side, you get an extra hour to study up with the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.
‘Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at … her face.’ That was Donald Trump, speaking in Arizona after midnight on the East Coast, menacing Vice President Harris’ Republican ally, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney.
■ Guess which ex-Fox News host was there to facilitate the vitriol.
■ Cheney fired back on Twitter X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death.”
‘Offensive to everybody.’ Harris is condemning Trump’s vow to protect women “whether the women like it or not.”
■ Trump says parasitic brain worm survivor Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would take charge of “women’s health” if Trump regains the White House.
■ Columnist Evan Hurst: “MAGA men VERY MAD at wives secretly voting for Kamala. Stop laughing, It’s not funny!”
‘Donny the Garbage Man.’ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich dissects Trump’s trash dash—and reporters’ frenzy over an unspoken apostrophe in President Biden’s words …
■ … punctuation that has triggered complaints of “a breach … of transcript integrity” …
■ … in a controversy that stemmed from an insult to Puerto Rico delivered by a comedian who is columnist Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week.
■ Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s cosplay: “That vest will come in handy when he’s … picking up trash with the other inmates.”
■ Jimmy Fallon: “First he dressed up as a McDonald’s worker, then a garbage man. He dances to ‘YMCA.’ It’s like he’s trying to create his own version of the Village People.”
■ The Onion: “In an apparent attempt to get the attention of passing aides … Biden reportedly spent Thursday whimpering from inside a locked White House supply closet.”
‘Nauseously optimistic.’ Conservative columnist Charlie Sykes shares words that he hopes never see the light of day—part of a column he was asked to write for publication in the event of a Trump victory.
■ Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer: If Harris wins, here are three reasons why.
■ Harris supporters struggling for a good night’s sleep may find comfort in Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf’s words: “Forget the polls showing a dead heat. Kamala Harris will win.”
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch: “Voters should remember that some people have everything riding on the outcome.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Harold Meyerson (no relation) at The American Prospect: “Voters so understandably appalled by Israel’s war on Gaza and the toll it’s taken in innocent lives that they may not vote, or vote for Jill Stein … imperil millions of innocent lives right here in the USA.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “I’ve looked in the eyes of an innocent victim of Trump’s cruelty. … We absolutely cannot go back.”
Don’t skip the referenda. Ex-Gov. Pat Quinn is championing an advisory vote in this election for a new tax on Illinois’ highest earners …
■ … to fund property tax relief.
■ The League of Women Voters is confident about Tuesday: “Illinois state ballot handling procedures protect against intentional or unintentional ballot destruction and related tampering. Beware of false claims about the election results.”
Gone. Less than a week after taking office, Mayor Johnson’s new Chicago school board president has quit at the mayor’s request …
■ … amid criticism of social media posts condemned as antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: It’s just the latest manifestation of “tensions between the mayor’s office and the city’s large Jewish community.”
■ A man accused of shooting an Orthodox Jew as he walked to a Chicago synagogue—and then of opening fire on cops and paramedics—faces terrorism and hate crime charges.
Nice work if you can get it. As Chicago confronts a budget crisis, all but two City Council members have opted to accept an automatic pay raise next year.
■ The mayor’s proposed budget would cut funding for police department reform.
■ Axios: Johnson’s “confusing residents on which campaign promises he intends to keep and which ones he’ll break.”
■ The nonprofit Center for Tax and Budget Accountability’s executive director, Ralph Martire: Johnson’s proposed property tax hike won’t solve the city’s financial problems.
Not dead yet. Contrary to an erroneous news report (since corrected), the owner of a near-century-old Chicago bookstore says he is for sure not expired and gone to meet his maker.
■ Tomorrow brings an “end of an era” sale for the store.
‘I hate insurance companies.’ And so a software engineer wrote an artificial intelligence tool to appeal health insurance denials.
■ Here it is, ready to help craft yours.
News quiz! Your turn to try your hand at the latest challenge from past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
■ Just 7/8 right for your Chicago Public Square columnist. But that was coming off a sugar high. ✅✅❌✅✅✅✅✅
Free flick. Author and filmmaker Michael Moore is sharing, free through the election, his film Fahrenheit 11/9, “about how we, as a country, arrived at a time that could allow this man to be president.”
■ Shopping for a TV streaming device? Tech guru Jared Newman rates their remote controls.
‘I believe in what you do. I think it is important that we support you.’ That’s a note yesterday from a Chicago Public Square contributor.
■ Another one: “I am so impressed by all of the news items in your digest these past few weeks. … You’re doing your hardest work to get us all the information we need about this dastardly criminal running for president. Thanks for all your hard work.”
■ Thanks for the thanks. This newsletter keeps happening because of encouragement like that … and, of course, reader financial support—even just $1, once.
■ Your nod in the Reader’s Best of Chicago nominations would be cool, too.