All the hazards. As Chicago flirted with potentially record-breaking temperatures today, the National Weather Service raised warning flags about scattered storms that “will likely become severe with all hazards possible, including destructive hail and winds.”
■ If they do happen, they could be “quick moving in and quick moving out.”
‘Do you like Donald Trump?’ That’s one of the questions progressive streamer Hasan Piker says federal agents asked him as they detained him at O’Hare for more than two hours Sunday.
■ Columnist Parker Molloy calls the incident “a chilling signal” of what happens “when border control becomes thought police.”
■ Techdirt columnist Mike Masnick: Piker “gave his millions of followers a masterclass in what not to do when detained,” turning “what should have just been a clear story of an unfortunately common constitutional violation into potential legal ammunition against himself.”
Who’s an American? Updating coverage: The Supreme Court today was weighing the president’s push to deny citizenship for kids born in the U.S. to people who are here illegally.
■ The AP has been covering the arguments in real-time.
■ You can hear the session here.
■ A Chicago-area mother of a newborn is among those following the case closely.
■ An influx of migrants likely fueled Chicago’s population gain last year—the seventh biggest leap of any U.S. city.
■ Protesters bearing signs including “Only Fascists Arrest Judges” crowded outside a Milwaukee federal courthouse today as a county judge appeared on charges connected to an undocumented immigrant’s escape from arrest in her courtroom last month.
‘Big, beautiful’ threat. Digging deep into Republican budget legislation making its way through the house, Popular Information discovers on page 380 “a powerful new tool to silence dissent.”
■ The AP: Republicans in the House last night pushed that legislation past overwhelming strong Democratic opposition.
■ The American Prospect: The party’s far exceeded its original plans, cutting “a staggering $300 billion” from the nation’s anti-poverty food stamp program.
■ Abortion, Every Day: “Georgia’s abortion ban is forcing a family to keep their brain-dead daughter alive.”
■ The authors of a forthcoming book, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, say Trump’s betraying the voters who restored him to power.
■ The Onion: “U.S. Military Bans Men With Girl Names From Combat.”
‘PLEASE STOP BEING MEAN TO TRUMP’S $400 MILLION BRIBE.’ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst dissects the president’s “Traitor Criminal Temper Tantrum” on social media.
■ Washington Post alumnus Paul Farhi, writing for The Daily Beast: In its coverage of Trump’s travels across the Middle East, the Post “seems to hardly remember a columnist who was the victim of a despicable act of state murder.”
■ Democracy Docket: Trump’s trying to control Congress by taking over its library.
■ Columnist and ex-Sun-Times CEO Edwin Eisendrath: Once Trump’s out of power, turn Mar-a-Lago into “a museum and research center on American Fascism.”
‘Probably not a lie, but just more incompetence.’ Columnist Eric Zorn analyzes Mayor Johnson’s sketchy accounts of why he sacked the city’s acclaimed health commissioner in 2023.
■ Defending the mayor’s pick to head the Chicago Transit Authority, City Council member David Moore warned CTA board members not to be a “backbiting snake” by acceding to transit advocates’ demand for a nationwide search.
■ Coming to Chicago’s streets: Dozens of new speed cameras.
Going up. Walmart says Trump’s tariff plans will force it to raise prices this month.
■ Same story at Chicago’s immigrant-owned grocery stores.
■ Consumer Reports rounds up a list of “our favorite deals right now.”
‘I trust RFK Jr., so I, too, shall take my family to swim in sewage.’ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke sarcastically endorses the health secretary’s decision to take his grandkids into a creek with widespread fecal contamination.
■ An embattled Kennedy—again, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services—told a House committee yesterday, “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.”
Facebook’s dangers. The American Prospect: Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company has exposed Americans and American security to Chinese surveillance.
■ Author and tech activist Cory Doctorow decries Team Trump’s assault on citizen privacy—in tandem with a do-nothing Congress that “hasn’t passed a new consumer privacy law since 1988 … to address … the scourge of video-store clerks telling newspapers which VHS cassettes you took home.”
Admit it: You never really knew it changed, right? In one of the most noteworthy brand retreats of the century, “Max” is reverting to “HBO.”
■ Columnist Bess Kalb: “Now that it’s available, I am changing my Substack’s name to ‘Max.’”
Signs of hope. Reflecting on three journalism conferences he’s attended in the last month, ProPublica founder Dick Tofel recaps four reasons for optimism in a time of fear …
■ … and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich predicts that, when the “huge sleeping giant” that is the American public awakens, “Trump and his regime will be toast” …
■ … but constitutional scholar Kim Wehle cautions: “Hoping things will work out is not a strategy.”
■ Progressive groups are planning a 30-mile “human chain of solidarity” Sunday afternoon from Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood west to Aurora.
‘Too partisan.’ That’s a Chicago Public Square reader’s explanation for unsubscribing this week.
■ You can help replace that reader by recommending Square to a friend.
■ And, of course, a buck or two into the Square tip jar eases the sting of abandonment.
■ Susan Stevens made this edition better.