Class dismissed. Updating coverage: Donald Trump reportedly planned today to sign an executive order triggering the shutdown of the U.S. Education Department …
■ … a move likely to hurt the poor, the disabled and those for whom English is a second language.
■ Public Notice columnist Lisa Needham: “Conservatives began pretending they cared about antisemitism during the Israel-Hamas war, even while Trump and other GOP elected officials trafficked in age-old antisemitic tropes. What they really cared about was bringing the hammer down on universities, particularly elite ones.”
■ The Atlantic (gift link): The administration’s attack on academic freedom endangers the prosperity and security universities have given the U.S.
■ Arkansas Republicans are pushing a bill that would allow lawsuits to be filed against hairdressers who cut a teen’s hair in a “gender-nonconforming” fashion.
‘This is scary.’ Chicago City Council members condemned the Trump administration for its detention and attempted deportation of Columbia University Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
■ A lawsuit complains that Trump’s out to deport another academic legally in the country.
■ Emails obtained by the Tribune through a Freedom of Information Act request show Trump’s immigration crackdown has sparked a string of concerned reports from parents and principals about federal immigration agents hanging out near Chicago Public Schools.
‘Things are bad, and they are going to get worse.’ That’s Gov. Pritzker in Washington, addressing the Democratic-allied think tank Center for American Progress …
■ … and Sun-Times D.C. bureau chief Lynn Sweet agrees: “There is no bottom, no basement to what is happening to our nation right now.”
■ The New York Times (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters): With orders and investigations, Trump and the Republicans aim to cripple the left.
■ CNN: A massive purge of Pentagon websites has wiped out pages on the Holocaust, sexual assault and suicide prevention.
■ ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg: One of his organization’s “most prophetic stories in our history” explained in October just what would happen in the first months of Trump 2.0.
‘The least lousy’ choice? Columnist Eric Zorn comes to the reluctant defense of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s support for a federal spending bill that many Democrats found highly objectionable.
■ Schumer on PBS last night: A complete government shutdown would have been worse.
■ A Sun-Times editorial mourns the dismissal of federal workers overseeing and preserving federally owned art, including Chicago’s Alexander Calder-designed Flamingo and Claes Oldenburg’s Batcolumn.
Tower trouble. A lawsuit filed by the ex-director of Chicago’s Trump Tower accuses Trump Inc. of financial malfeasance—and of having him arrested as he was using the building spa’s steam room.
■ A linguistics professor analyzes Trump’s love of pointing his finger.
‘The havoc and destruction they’re causing is no doubt going to break the agency.’ Popular Information: A secret policy shift could overwhelm Social Security offices with millions of people.
■ Trump’s enthusiastic release of files related to the assassination of President Kennedy has made public the Social Security numbers and other private information of more than 200 people, including former congressional staffers and at least one former Trump campaign lawyer.
■ ABC News’ Steven Portnoy: The papers “shed light on granular details of mid-20th-century espionage that the CIA had fiercely fought to keep secret.”
■ The Washington Post, sifting through the more than 60,000 pages released, has uncovered gems like this one: A Watergate burglar helped the CIA develop new technology.
Welcome back, astronauts. To mark the return of space explorers stuck in orbit for nine months, USA Today’s Rex Huppke has prepared a brief recap: “Um, a few things have changed since you left.”
■ The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic to Suni Williams: “When you left, you were a female astronaut. Now you’re a DEI astronaut—and also you’re fired.”
Knock, knock. After the horrific and wrongful search of the home of a Chicago social worker, Illinois lawmakers have advanced a bill that would essentially forbid cops from executing no-knock search warrants …
■ … which have resulted in injuries and at least one death in Mississippi.
‘See you at the movies.’ After 37 years, Richard Roeper’s leaving the Sun-Times—but vowing to continue reviewing films …
■ … across other venues, including television.
■ Ex-Tribune columnist Eric Zorn surveys the editorial cost of the paper’s buyouts …
■ … including sportswriter Rick Morrissey’s departure after 43 years in the biz.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg’s staying, but mourning “all the positions that the Sun-Times once had that are now gone. A jazz critic and a classical music critic, a book editor and an assistant book editor. A TV critic. A food editor. A travel editor. A medical writer. Five full-time librarians.”
■ Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds: The high-profile merger of WBEZ and the Sun-Times was supposed to be different.
‘A choice between two strong candidates.’ The Tribune makes a tough editorial call in the vote for “proudly progressive” Oak Park’s village president.
■ Early voting’s begun in Illinois and the Chicago Public Square guide to voter guides is here to help, wherever in the state you live.
Spring? Hah. The vernal equinox arrived at 4:01 this morning—accompanied by snow over Chicago.
■ Classes were canceled for at least one Chicago-area school after high winds yesterday ripped off part of the roof.
■ Amid a tornado warning yesterday afternoon, a CBS News team took shelter in Kankakee.
Chicago Public Square mailbag. Reader John Teets writes: “Trump’s reversals Tuesday included a particularly scathing one that you overlooked: U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes’ preliminary injunction on transgender troops finding that the administration’s ban was based almost entirely on ‘animus’—I think we can translate that as hatred. Chris Geidner has an analysis. One particularly strong section stood out to me:
Plaintiffs’ service records alone are Exhibit A for the proposition that transgender persons can have the warrior ethos, physical and mental health, selflessness, honor, integrity, and discipline to ensure military excellence. Defendants agree. They agree that Plaintiffs are mentally and physically fit to serve, have “served honorably,” and “have satisfied the rigorous standards” demanded of them. Plaintiffs, they acknowledge, have “made America safer.” So why discharge them and other decorated soldiers?