Chicago Public Square will take Friday off—but you’ll find the weekly news quiz here as usual.
■ As ever, check the Square Bluesky account for breaking news and commentary around the clock.
‘Boycott the press briefings.’ Princeton historian Kevin Kruse is calling on journalists to deny President Trump attention until he ends his ban of The Associated Press from the White House media briefings for its failure to cave to his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
■ Poynter media writer Tom Jones: The story’s “quickly gone from ridiculous to alarming. Very alarming.”
■ ProPublica founder Dick Tofel: Journalists “badly need a greater sense of urgency.”
■ The AP’s standing firm, saying that, “as a global news agency that disseminates news around the world … it must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.”
■ Seth Meyers on The Late Show: “Trump spoke today with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the phone. And, bad news, you guys: We gotta change the name of the Gulf again.”
For sale. Wired: The General Services Administration, staffed at its upper levels by Elon Musk associates, plans to sell more than 500 buildings—including Chicago’s Kluczynski Federal Building, designed by renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, fronted by an iconic Alexander Calder sculpture … and also home to offices for Democratic U.S. Sens. Durbin and Duckworth.
■ The American Prospect’s David Dayen: A “fire sale” of federal office space could spark a financial crash (missing link added)—because “real estate markets … are particularly depressed when it comes to the very type of inventory the government wants to sell.” (Photo: Mary Warren in the Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ Gizmodo: “Trump gives DOGE [Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency] broad powers as GOP announces budget designed to screw millions of Americans.”
■ The New York Times (gift link; you’re welcome): The State Department plans to buy $400 million worth of Musk’s armored Tesla Cybertrucks …
■ … a thing Rachel Maddow had fun ridiculing last night.
■ NPR update, Feb. 13, 3:31 p.m.: “Trump administration says it has no plans to fulfill $400 million ‘armored Tesla’ contract.”
■ Sources to Drop Site: “DOGE has the names, addresses, and social security numbers for anyone who has applied for disaster relief.”
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “Musk has yet to offer any specific examples of government waste.”
■ Reacting to Musk’s assertion that he expects public scrutiny comparable to “a daily proctology exam,” The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper offered: “I did the exam, and what an asshole!”
■ The president’s niece Mary L. Trump: Musk “fits in so well with the Trump regime … because he has absolutely no sense of self-awareness. … He clearly missed the irony when he went off about unelected bureaucrats, considering he’s kind of the poster child for those.”
■ American Prospect managing editor Ryan Cooper: “The richest man on Earth is setting himself up as dictator of the United States.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “Trump seems to be OK with it because he took over the Kennedy Center.”
Showdowns. Updating coverage: The Senate was set to vote on Trump’s nominees to oversee Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the FBI, Kash Patel.
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “America first? Nah. Trump first. The rest of us can eat cake, assuming we can afford the eggs to make it.”
Cleared for departure? A federal judge (appointed by President Clinton) has dismissed a union challenge to the Musk administration’s “deferred resignation program” for federal workers.
■ CNN: Scores of firings have begun at federal agencies—including the Education Department …
■ … and, Wired reports, a key government tech agency.
■ Despite court orders to the contrary, billions in federal funding are still frozen …
■ … although Popular Information reports the National Institutes of Health concedes the freeze is illegal and has agreed to resume issuing grants.
‘Nobody really knows what’s going on.’ Sources tell CNN Guantanamo Bay is in disarray as the government scrambles to expand tent facilities to house thousands of detained migrants.
■ The Times reports (another gift link) that some migrants at Guantanamo are being guarded by soldiers instead of civilian immigration officers—and that the government’s refused to disclose names, keeping relatives and lawyers from reaching the detainees.
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “Trump Says White Refugees from South Africa Will Alleviate U.S.’s Severe Shortage of Racists.”
Overwhelmed? Take a number. Law professor Joyce Vance: “Who could pay attention to everything? It’s important that we … recognize the effort to overwhelm us. They want us to give up. They want us to resign ourselves to the inevitability of whatever Trump is going to do for the next four years. That, of course, is what we can’t do.” So, consider …
Things to do. Author and Chicago-born journalist Jonathan Alter offers “four ways to hold the line on Trump and the Muskrats.”
■ Slate: “Furious at Musk? Don’t buy a Tesla. … If you’re renting a car, choose another brand. And if you own a Tesla, sell it. Yes, that would help: A deluge of used Teslas would lower their resale value, further depressing the new-car sales that the company depends upon.”
■ Indivisible Chicago plans Saturday to protest Lurie Children’s Hospital’s decision “to eliminate some forms of life-saving, trans-affirming care” in accordance with a Trump threat to cut off federal funds.
■ As Trump’s slew of directives casts a shadow over funding for higher education, Northwestern University’s cutting non-personnel spending by 10%.
‘I have no faith that crooked pols out there will be frightened into honest behavior.’ Columnist Eric Zorn on yesterday’s conviction of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan: “We should be less focused now on the fate of this retired octogenarian and more focused on how to deter the most venal among those coming up behind him.”
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “Time for lawmakers to be aggressive about ethics reforms.”
■ The Better Government Association: “Alleging obstruction, Chicago’s inspector general turns to City Council for stronger laws.”
■ Chalkbeat: Chicago’s embattled schools CEO is up for a job in Nevada.
Welcome to the Gift Room. Under fire from Chicago’s inspector general, Mayor Johnson’s released a video—a whole 21 seconds long!—showing what’s in the room where he keeps his stash of gifts—although it falls short of a full 360º view.
■ Also: New rules for gift reporting.
■ If you rely on stuff from the Joann Fabrics chain to make gifts, act quick: It’s closing hundreds of stores—including 26 in Illinois.
Without Chicago, no Saturday Night Live? Axios Chicago traces the show’s origins back to The Second City.
■ Flashback to 2012, when your Chicago Public Square columnist made an unsuccessful pitch to serve as Second City’s … news director.
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■ Jim Parks and Ed Sackley made this edition better.