No Chicago Public Square Monday. Your columnist will be joining a Northwestern University workshop on local journalism and artificial intelligence. Back Tuesday—hopefully, more intelligent (artificially or otherwise) than ever.
What to know. WBEZ and the Sun-Times answer reader questions about the impending deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.
■ Organizers say weekend downtown festivities are still on—although they worry some people will stay away.
■ Gov. Pritzker says the state will file an immediate challenge in federal court if Trump sends armed military personnel to Chicago.
■ The American Prospect’s Ryan Cooper: “Pritzker shows how to handle Trump.”
■ Pritzker has a date tonight on MSNBC.
■ A University of Chicago political science professor warns in The New York Times (gift link): Chicago could be a powder keg.
■ McSweeney’s ridicules those using Chicago as a talking point for the nation’s problems.
Weekend checklist.
■ Download the free (Apple-only) ICEBlock app, with which you can share Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in real time.
■ Sign up for “Eyes on ICE” text alerts, notifying subscribers of immigration actions in your neighborhood. (The form requires an address, but you can enter just a street and a town.)
■ It’s the work of a new grassroots campaign, Hands Off Chicago.
■ An immigrant who dodged federal agents allegedly with the help of a Milwaukee County judge pleaded guilty yesterday to being in the U.S. illegally.
■ Block Club: “This Chicago lawyer wants to help you fight back against ICE.”
Sick burns. The AP surveys the false and misleading claims shoveled out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during yesterday’s Senate hearing.
■ The highest-ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, called the Republican majority’s refusal to swear Kennedy in “a message that it is acceptable to lie … about hugely important questions.”
■ Even the Senate’s No. 2 Republican—Wyoming’s John Barrasso, also a doctor—bemoaned the confusion Kennedy’s engendered over vaccinations: “Americans don’t know who to rely on.”
■ Stephen Colbert mocked Barrasso: “Then why did you vote for the anti-vax guy? Look, I’m no doctor, but your results are in and you just tested positive for bulls**t.”
■ Healthbeat: “The CDC as we know it is gone.”
■ The Conversation: Its ability to protect public health is compromised.
■ Defector offers an explainer: How to get the COVID vaccine now.
This means war. Updating coverage: Trump planned today to sign an executive order restoring the Department of Defense’s pre-1947 name: Department of War …
■ … even though department name changes require an OK from Congress.
■ Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “This is one way to get Pete Hegseth’s microdick insecurities onto the Pentagon letterhead.”
Airlines off the hook. The Republican administration’s killed a Biden-era plan that would have required compensation for passengers stranded by flight disruptions.
■ Trump hosted a White House dinner for a band of tech bros that didn’t include Elon Musk.
■ The Daily Beast: Trump awkwardly kept his bruised hands under the table when cameras were rolling.
■ NextDraft proprietor Dave Pell: Illinois-based John Deere “should be plowing forward on all cylinders”—but not.
‘The mass shooters are performing for one another.’ Charlie Warzel at The Atlantic: “As incoherent, unhinged, or even cringey as the Minneapolis shooter’s videos might seem, they are part of a familiar template of terroristic behavior—one that continues to spread in online communities dedicated to mass shootings and other forms of brutality. … Really, they’re influencers.”
■ Sources tell CNN the Justice Department’s looking at ways to forbid transgender Americans from owning guns.
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “Extremists circumvented the Constitution to capture American schools.”
The CTA wants you. Three town hall meetings this month will take public comment on how to address a massive budget shortfall.
■ Here’s the where and when.
Wildcut. After a rocky, scandal-scarred tenure, Northwestern University’s president is resigning.
■ A White House spokesperson tells the student-run Daily Northwestern: “The Trump Administration looks forward to working … to Make Northwestern Great Again.”
‘An extra-tough news quiz.’ That’s this week’s pledge from The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
Dingus of the Week. Lyz Lenz’s pick: Author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell, “whose work has been repeatedly debunked by legions of exhausted social scientists, but who somehow still gets heralded as a genius.”
Media muddle. Deprived of major federal funding, PBS is cutting 100 jobs.
■ Vogue’s abandoning monthly publication in favor of occasional print editions.
Thanks. Fritz Mills and Kevin Shotsberger made this edition better.
A Square public service announcement
Nourishing Hope—the former Lakeview Pantry—provides free food, mental wellness counseling, and job and housing assistance to people throughout Chicago. Here’s where to volunteer and donate support.