They’re here. Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein says a military advance team’s on the ground in Chicago, responding to a Homeland Security request for “immediate Department of Defense support.”
■ A Donald Trump fundraising email yesterday pledged, “WE’RE GOING INTO CHICAGO.”
■ Gov. Pritzker: “What we’re hearing is they’ll be ready to go on Friday.”
■ Sources tell the Sun-Times agents at the North Chicago Naval Station Great Lakes base have been practicing with shields and flash-bang grenades.
■ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg looks back through Chicago’s long history of troops in the streets and concludes they often made things worse.
■ A coalition of military vets and lawyers is encouraging service members to resist potentially illegal orders.
And yet … In Trump’s suggestion yesterday that he might instead target New Orleans, Politico’s Shia Kapos perceives a presidential blink.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Even the insouciantly headstrong blowhard Trump knows that, absent an actual insurrection or rebellion, sending military personnel out to fight crime in an American city against the wishes of the mayor and the governor violates the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.”
Whistles against ICE. Facing the prospect of federal agents targeting Pilsen’s Mexican Independence Day parade Saturday, organizers are equipping volunteers with radios, phones and whistles to report trouble.
■ With families wary of being targeted and separated by immigration raids, the Chicago Teachers Union is urging the school system to offer families online learning options for keeping kids at home.
■ A woman who was, in the words of a courthouse advocate, “just trying to come to court” yesterday was snatched by federal immigration agents.
■ Interested in accompanying at-risk people to court or ICE check-ins? Volunteer here.
■ The TRiiBE rounds up trainings, workshops and resources for Chicagoans ahead of a federal incursion.
■ Columnist Dan Froomkin: All eyes are on Chicago’s resistance.
Go fish. The Illinois Elections Board is telling Trump’s Justice Department it won’t comply with a demand for the state’s full voter registration database—including birthdates, signatures and partial Social Security numbers.
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “Republicans broke democracy. Here's how to fix it without them.”
‘An attempt to turn a Texas abortion ban into a nationwide abortion ban.’ That’s how one Democrat describes Republicans’ passage of a bill that would let private citizens sue manufacturers, doctors and anyone who mails abortion pill medication to anyone in Texas—the most common abortion method. (Regrettably timeless 2021 cartoon by the late, great Keith J. Taylor.)
■ The Guardian recaps last night’s South Park: “Trump is having a lovechild with Satan.”
What could go wrong? Florida’s set to become the first state to eliminate all childhood vaccine requirements.
■ Updating coverage: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a date today with a congressional committee asking questions about the turmoil he’s unleashed.
M.I.A. Injustice Watch: The guy who for a decade has run Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center has rarely been seen there—and might not even live in the county.
■ A federal judge court has overturned a lower court ruling, concluding the CTA and Metra can indeed forbid guns on public transit.
Not dead yet. PolitiFact conducts an autopsy on those “untimely and untrue” rumors of Trump’s demise.
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz and Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes team up to envision how Trump might revamp the Smithsonian’s art collection.
‘Hope you like enshittification.’ Author and tech watchdog—and guy who coined that word (2024 link)—Cory Doctorow says the case against Google has led to “the worst possible antitrust outcome” …
■ … a decision that The American Prospect’s David Dayen calls “embarrassing” …
■ … although columnist Mathew Ingram says it was the right one.
■ Amazon’s cutting off a perk that’s let Prime members share free shipping with relatives who don’t share the same primary address—you know, like kids away at college.
■ Axios: Aldi’s yanking self-checkout stations from Chicago-area stores.
‘No tax on tips’ list. The Treasury Department’s issued a preliminary roster of occupations that qualify for the new income tax break …
■ … including restaurant servers, rideshare drivers, barbers … and digital content creators, such as social media influencers and podcasters.
■ Hey, might that include email newsletter columnists?
■ Five years in, Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz has posted a reader survey: “This time, men, it’s OK to yell at me.”
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