Time for a Statue of Liberty rewrite? Donald Trump’s administration is offering to give immigrants in the U.S. illegally $1,000 to return home voluntarily. (Image: ChatGPT.)
■ Deportation fears kept Chicago’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration yesterday … well, not much of a celebration at all.
■ Block Club: A TikTok video of former Chicago City Council member, ex-Sun-Times CEO, It’s the Democracy, Stupid columnist and WCPT radio host Edwin Eisendrath giving having given a guy his jacket on the Blue Line has gone viral.
‘A spate of victories.’ Lawyer and columnist Robert B. Hubbell says Monday was a good one for pro-democracy activists in the courts.
■ Law professor and columnist Joyce Vance on Trump’s nominee to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia: “Write to your senator … and encourage them to reject this unfit candidate.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson on Trump’s call to turn Alcatraz back into a prison: “Trump is throwing any strong words he can at the wall to distract from a series of news stories that are not going his way.”
■ Illinois is one of several states suing to block Trump’s gutting of the Health and Human Services Department …
■ … and to stop his meddling in state election law …
■ The National Park Service under Trump has suspended air-quality monitoring at its parks.
■ Lion, an Illinois company that has manufactured electric school buses, is on the ropes …
■… but electric vehicle maker Rivian’s building a $120 million supplier park near its Normal, Illinois, plant.
■ 12 news organizations across the country are teaming up for a Climate News Task Force.
Harvard squeezed. Trump’s Education Department says the university will get no new federal grants until it caves to his demands.
■ As Trump freezes research funding, Europe’s courting U.S. scientists.
■ Press Watch columnist Dan Froomkin is calling for volunteers “to aggregate what Donald Trump is doing to this country … so that there’s a comprehensive record of what needs to be fixed and restored when the time comes.”
‘It just keeps getting worse for Hegseth.’ ProPublica cofounder Dick Tofel assessess a Wall Street Journal report (gift link) that the security-sloppy defense secretary gave his phone to a military aide to send top secret stuff to his wife and others not authorized to have it.
■ Hegseth is ordering his staff to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by a fifth.
‘America’s ungrateful children deserve, at most, three dolls and five pencils. Anything more spoils the little wretches and makes them happy.’ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “We are fortunate to have a billionaire in charge … who confidently tells parents not to worry about rising prices while humbly keeping his taxes low.”
■ The Conversation: Cursive writing’s making a comeback in U.S. schools.
■ LateNighter’s recap of last night’s monologues: “Let them eat dolls (and pencils).”
■ Stephen Colbert on Trump’s AI-generated image of himself as pope: “As a Catholic, let me just say, in the words of St. Peter, ‘Go [expletive] yourself.’”
‘Pritzker should stop.’ A Tribune editorial calls on the governor to back off his push to make Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton the state’s next U.S. senator.
■ In contrast with much of her Republican family, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts is joining Stratton’s team.
■ U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly’s also now in the running.
■ The race is on to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who confirmed yesterday that she’s retiring next year after more than a quarter-century in the House.
■ Amid drumbeating about a presidential run for Pritzker, columnist Eric Zorn revisits a toilet “scandal” in the governor’s past.
Really long lines. With an official—but still fuzzy—deadline tomorrow for enforcement of the new Real ID rules for people flying domestically, business has been booming at Illinois Secretary of State facilities today.
■ But a passport will do the trick, too.
Awkward. Cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who quit The Washington Post (January link) after editors canned her piece criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos for bending the knee to Trump, has won a Pulitzer for commentary.
■ Her second, in fact.
■ Purpose, a play that was commissioned by and premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, takes the Pulitzer for drama.
■ Here’s the full list of winners.
‘Critics say.’ Stop the Presses columnist and Studs Terkel Award winner Mark Jacob says it’s time for news organizations to knock off use of that cowardly phrase.
■ Popular Information: “Trump and his administration have used the full power of the federal government to curtail the free speech of one of the nation’s most prominent media institutions: CBS News.”
■ The Onion: “PBS NewsHour Interrupted By Repo Men Seizing Desk.”
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