Welcome back. Before we dive into today’s news, you might want to catch up on what’s come down since last Wednesday’s Chicago Public Square …
■ …. by checking a few dozen breaking news and commentary links posted since then to the Square account on Bluesky …
■ … or maybe you’d prefer Off Message columnist Brian Beutler’s recap of “All The Sh*t I Missed” during his first two-week break in 15 years.
■ But now let’s get into the latest:
‘Abuse of power.’ That’s what Gov. Pritzker and other Democratic governors are calling Donald Trump’s activation of the National Guard to clamp down on anti-immigration-raid protests in California.
■ Live updates: Protesters overnight blocked a major freeway in Los Angeles and set self-driving cars on fire.
■ At least one journalist was struck at close range by an officer’s nonlethal round as she reported on the protests live.
■ You can see it happen in video here.
■ Media watchdog Brian Stelter notes that Dr. Phil McGraw’s presence on the ground in L.A. “reinforces the made-for-TV nature of Trump’s immigration crackdown.”
■ Trump was up late cheering via social media: “ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!” …
■ … an ironic appeal, given that his immigration enforcers routinely wear masks.
■ Popular Information’s Judd Legum: Because Trump for years “dreamed of mobilizing the military against protesters in the United States,” he’s manufactured a crisis in California.
■ California’s governor is daring Trump’s minions to arrest him …
■ … and he says he’s gonna sue Trump.
■ The Atlantic’s David Frum sees what’s unfolding in California as “a dress rehearsal” for a strategy under which Trump would “seize control of local operations of government—policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance perceives a strategy of intimidation: “Trump doesn’t want to see the country erupt in protests on his birthday” …
■ … which coincides with the resistance’s “No Kings” rallies around the country and the world.
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten flags Brazil’s sentencing of a standup comedian to eight years in prison for “intolerance” as “indicative of something much larger.”
‘WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS.’ That was just one of the signs carried yesterday by protesters denouncing immigration raids in Chicago.
■ As Northwestern University and other institutions of higher education square off with the Trump administration, a Northwestern engineering professor complains in a Tribune opinion piece (gift link, funded by those who support Chicago Public Square) that the university’s board of trustees is ill-equipped for the battle—because it includes “a plurality of finance and consulting folks but tend to lack scholars or community-minded individuals. They are also predominantly white and male.”
■ Columnist/lawyer Robert B. Hubbell’s suggestions for protesters in California and elsewhere: “De-escalate. Redirect. Overwhelm.”
A bad look. The Trib says one reason a political ethics bill flopped in the final days of the General Assembly’s spring session was that “Senate President Don Harmon tried to pass legislation that would have wiped clean a potential multimillion-dollar fine against his political campaign committee for violating election finance laws he championed years ago” (another gift link).
■ One bill that is headed to the governor’s desk: Authority for state police to use automatic license plate readers to investigate human trafficking and involuntary servitude.
‘World-class hater.’ That Twitter X description of Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller—one of Trump’s immigration crackdown cheerleaders—has cost veteran ABC News correspondent Terry Moran at least a suspension.
■ Moran’s since deleted the tweet.
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: Critics see ABC caving to pressure.
■ Harold Meyerson (no relation) at The American Prospect: Miller’s raison d’être “is based on demonizing the other.”
■ Author and filmmaker Michael Moore shares the words of Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges: “In the last days of all empires the idiots take over.”
Whoops. Elon Musk’s rebuked his own artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok—after it suggested Musk “took” Miller’s wife.
■ The Onion: “Trump Issues Executive Order Reversing All Vasectomies.”
‘You cannot have democracy without journalism. It can’t be done.’ That’s CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley, reflecting on CNN’s historic live telecast of the Broadway play Good Night, and Good Luck—about CBS News icon Ed Murrow’s resistance to the government witch hunts of the 1950s.
■ The Guardian and the University of Cambridge have launched a new tool to protect sources seeking to share confidential information with journalists.
One of our plays made it. Purpose, a Chicago-birthed drama, has won the Tony Award for best play.
■ More than two years ago, Trib critic Chris Jones called Steppenwolf’s production “a truly great new Chicago play” that “skewers the Jesse Jackson story.”
■ A romance comedy about two androids took the award for best new musical.
■ Here’s the full list of winners.
TV see, TV do. Warner Bros. Discovery is splitting into two companies—one oriented around streaming, the other around CNN and other TV channels …
■ … you know, kinda like Comcast is doing and Disney’s threatened to do?
Was today’s Square worth a dime? Pitching in $2 a month—$24 a year, or about a dime an issue—to support the cost of this service’s production brings you some remarkably modest perks.