Thanksgivers, assemble! Chicago Public Square will take the next few days off. But watch your inbox Friday morning for a fresh news quiz from The Conversation. And, for a change, catch breaking news and commentary through the holiday weekend at the new Square account on Bluesky …
■ … which, unlike Facebook (October link), has yet to censor Square’s posts. (No Bluesky membership required.)
■ Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard: For politics junkies, Bluesky’s become the best social media platform.
■ Fans of gone-but-not-forgotten Twitter adjunct tools like Zite and Nuzzel (2016 link) now have a Bluesky successor: Sill, which cuts through the clutter to list the most popular links shared by accounts you follow there.
‘Busiest Thanksgiving ever.’ That’s what the chief of the Transportation Security Administration foresees for airports nationwide this weekend.
■ Jimmy Fallon: “Don’t worry, because today the TSA announced that they’re opening a second lane.”
■ Chicago’s busiest day looks to be Sunday.
■ For many destinations, the weather won’t help …
■ … but Chicago may dodge the worst of it.
■ Flying with a turkey? OK. Gravy? Not so much.
Eat responsibly. The Illinois Department of Public Health has tips for celebrating holiday meals in health—avoiding food- and air-borne diseases.
■ Careful with the cinnamon and spice: Consumer Reports is demanding the government step up safeguards for production of those ingredients, at least a dozen of which it found to contain more lead in a quarter-teaspoon than one should consume in a whole day.
■ Columnist and Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous sees hope for healing the nation’s divisions—starting with holiday family gatherings. (Cartoon: Marc Stopeck.)
■ The Conversation: How to navigate the evolving parent-child relationship as young-adult offspring return from their first weeks at college.
Ready to spend? Consumer Reports serves up “The Ultimate Guide to Black Friday Deals and Sales.”
■ ZDNET rounds up what it considers the best Black Friday deals on tech products.
■ Then again, CNBC cautions, beware sales that aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
‘Embarrassing.’ A Sun-Times editorial calls for Cook County Board of (Tax) Review Commissioner Samantha Steele to quit after “a pitiful attempt to throw around her weight as a public official” when she was arrested for driving under the influence earlier this month …
■ … an encounter caught on police bodycam video.
■ A former city financial analyst tells WBEZ that the real cost of Chicago policing could be nearly double next year’s $2.1 billion budget.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Please indulge me one last time in calling bullshit on [actor] Jussie Smollett and [Cook County State’s Attorney] Kim Foxx.”
Cookies crumble. Under investigation by Illinois and federal labor departments for employing kids, Downers Grove-based snackmaker Hearthside Food Solutions has filed for bankruptcy.
■ In the face of threatened boycotts, Walmart’s caved—becoming the biggest company to walk back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
■ Four more people have pleaded guilty to a gift-card scam that cost Chicago-area Home Depot stores more than $6 million.
‘A hell of a mistake.’ That’s how columnist and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich describes special counsel Jack Smith’s request that a federal judge dismiss the indictment charging Donald Trump with plotting to subvert the 2020 election.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Trump’s approach to the cases was to delay and delay and delay in hopes voters would return him to the White House, and it appears his strategy worked.”
■ CNN’s Stephen Collinson: “This is likely to reinforce Trump’s belief that he will have almost unchecked authority and will therefore reverberate through the next four years and generations to come” …
■ … but former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance reads it differently: “Trump is not innocent.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “What was Jack Smith supposed to do? The deck was stacked against him—by so many different players.”
■ Wonkette managing editor Evan Hurst: “The Washington Post, which beclowned and humiliated itself when it chose not to endorse in the 2024 presidential race, in fear of Trump getting punishing or disfavoring its mega-billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, published an op-ed begging/demanding current President Joe Biden to pardon Trump.”
‘All the president’s menaces.’ Chicago-born author, journalist and documentarian Jonathan Alter suggests a few questions for senators to ask during cabinet confirmation hearings—if they happen.
■ Surveying that lineup, Trump niece Mary L. Trump sees “predators all the way down.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ The Downballot calls a Wisconsin contest coming in April “the most important election between now and next November”—one that’ll “help determine the future of democracy in a critical swing state.”
■ Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow’s characters aren’t much better off than his readers: “We have little control over the outcome of our unfortunate predicament.”
Corruption in the Trump team? Go figure. Trump’s lawyers have been investigating charges that one of his top aides, Boris Epshteyn, has been hitting up potential candidates for administration jobs—soliciting cash in exchange for talking them up to Trump.
■ Epshteyn’s a childhood chum to Eric Trump.
■ In its inimitable style, The New York Times reports that Epshteyn told one of those he allegedly hit up, Treasury secretary-designate Scott Bessent, “that it was ‘too late’ to hire him and that he was ‘Boris Epshteyn,’ with an expletive between the two names.”
Weight to go? President Biden’s proposing Medicare and Medicaid cover the cost of popular—and expensive—weight-loss drugs …
■ … although Trump’s administration could derail that plan.
■ In Trump’s choice to head those government programs, Dr. Mehmet Oz, The American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner sees “the stealth destruction of Medicare.”
Thanks given. Chicago Public Square wouldn’t be here without the support of its readers—including Cecelia Kafer, Paul Crossey (again!), Moondog (again!), Keri Lynch, Don Miner, Julia Knier, Judy Davy, Ken Shiner, Tanya Surawicz, Aris Georgiadis, David Henkhaus, Evan McKenzie, Ted Slowik, Bob Saigh, Suzy Carlson, John Kowalski, Julie Vassilatos, Bill Drudge, Susan Karol, Stephen Brenner, Margaret Meyer, Carolyn Potts, Karl Schuster, Brian J. Taylor, Debi Gordon, Charles Kepner, Karyn Esken, Thomas Witt, Andrew Thackray, Walter Gallas, Charlene Thomas, Libbey Paul, David Hammond, Neil Parker, MJ Garnier, Kathleen O’Brien, Liz Fitzgerald, Becky Brofman, Judee Barone, Susan Tyson, Paul Kubina, Stephen Schlesinger, Dave Kraft, Allen Matthews, Karen Conti, Bill Oakes, Al Hoyt, Daniel Burke, Logan Aimone, Shara Miller, Bob Back, Rhona Taylor, William Wheelhouse, Victoria Quero, Paul Colombo, Jill Brickman, Jenny Wittner, Meghan Strubel, Lawrence Perlman, Michael Conway, Nancy Hess, Phil Vettel, Maureen Kelly, Graham Greer, Paul Kungl, Jennifer Bartlett, Stephanie Textor, Alison Thomas, Michael Wilson, Jill Chukerman, John Meissen, Matt Baron, Craig Parshall, Steve Carlson, Denise Pondel, Joe Hallissey, Nina Ovryn, Jennifer McGeary, Kevin Hendricks, Carol Lavoie Harper, k.h., Chris Beck, Mark Thurow, Barbara Heskett, Brent Brotine, Jean Lubeckis, Anne Costello, Tom Petersen, Steve Winner, Liz Strause, Judy Sherr, Jack Bizot, Brian Cassidy, Susan Gzesh, Ralph Culloden, Kiki Marie-Henri, E Larsen, Donna Rigsbee, Marcie Dosemagen, Kevin Lampe, Carolyn Grisko, Laurel Saltzman, Avery Cohen, Angela Mullins, Scott Knitter, Ryan Bird, Robert Toon, Chris Rhodes, Leonard Strazewski, Mana Ionescu, Ken Stroble, Stan Zoller, Martin Yeager, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Craig Kaiser, Doug Berman, Anton Till, Another Debbie Becker, Kevin Tynan, Alison Price, Nancy Burns, Doreen Rice, Timothy Mennel, David Mausner, Irv Leavitt, Ann Johnson Arellano, Ken Hildreth, Barbara Cimaglio, Robert Jaffe, Susan Benloucif, Nancy W. Cook, Dominick Suzanne, Dawn Haney, Karen Hand, Mary Bunker, Mike Trenary, Arnie Weissmann, Jeremiah Woods, David Boulanger, Joyce Winnecke, Joe Germuska, Art McNamara, Marie Dillon, Joe Hass, Kathy Catrambone and Jean Johnson.
■ Join their ranks by pitching in as little as $1, just once, and see your name added to the roster of The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.