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■ But now: Onward.
■ The New Republic: “ICE is terrorizing Chicago for Halloween—and parents are fighting back.”
■ Ex-Trib columnist Eric Zorn notes the paper’s Section 2, Page 5, publication of an AP account detailing “the kind of fuckery that would have made screaming Page One headlines under other presidents”: The Republican Justice Department’s decision to strip Capitol riot references from a document seeking prison time for a man arrested with guns and ammo near Barack Obama’s home—and to punish the prosecutors who filed it.
A ‘full force’ Halloween. Rejecting Gov. Pritzker’s plea for trick-or-treating “free from intimidation and fear,” Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem says her people will instead “be out on the streets in full force and increase our activities.”
■ If that brings to mind a caption frequently used in parodies of New Yorker cartoons, you’re right in step with …
■ … Evan Hurst at Wonkette: “ICE Nazi Barbie announces Halloween terror measures” …
■ … columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “What kind of ghoul gleefully terrorizes children?” …
■ … and the anonymously bylined Closer to the Edge: “ICE has turned Halloween into a hunting season—not for candy, but for human beings.”
Whistles at the ready. The Tribune finds Chicago-area households bracing for … complications … during this evening’s trick-or-treating.
■ A Trib editorial pleads for “a normal Halloween night.”
■ The Evanston Roundtable: Yesterday’s Day of the Dead celebration turned melancholy.
■ The Onion: “RFK Jr. Greets Trick-Or-Treaters With Big Bowl Of Ape Glands.”
‘Inhumane and torturous.’ The Illinois ACLU and the MacArthur Justice Center are suing the Trump administration over conditions at the Broadview immigrant detention center.
■ The Illinois General Assembly early today OK’d major legislation aimed at limiting federal immigration enforcement within the state.
■ At least 130 Illinois officials—including Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson—have signed a letter blasting the feds’ indictment of six people, including elected officials, who protested outside Broadview.
■ Sens. Duckworth and Durbin are demanding Noem’s gofers stop arresting people recording their actions.
■ The Sun-Times is asking Homeland Security to stop sharing its photos in social media without permission.
■ The Onion recaps “Chicago ICE Raids By The Numbers.”
‘I wish your daughter a full recovery.’ An immigration judge has freed a Chicago dad whose daughter’s fighting cancer.
■ Block Club Chicago: “Immigration agents detained a schizophrenic man—then dropped him miles from home.”
■ The father of a young woman whose death has been cited as justification for ICE’s Chicago oppression writes for the Trib: “I have supported and continue to support … ‘Operation Midway Blitz.’” (You may recall her mother took the opposite position 10 days ago.)
‘Trump plans to starve Americans to gain political advantage.’ As federal food benefits expire tonight, lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell concludes that “Trump and Republicans are using Americans suffering from food insecurity as hostages in the shutdown negotiations.”
■ Trump’s calling for what he calls “the nuclear option” to end the government shutdown.
■ Singer Billie Eilish called out the rich guys actually in her audience: “If you are a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”
‘Labor Department dreams of an Aryan America.’ Neil Steinberg and others—including real estate lawyer Geoff Bowser, who created this grid of images—see a pattern in Trump administration imagery:
On track. Illinois lawmakers have OK’d rescue funding for public transit—minus some of the wilder new ideas floated earlier this week.
■ Also: A plan to increase the state’s electricity generation and storage—and maybe keep bills from rising so much.
‘TrumpGPT.’ Lawfare senior editor and associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Alan Rozenshtein says we’re at the threshold of what sounds like a dystopian science fiction world in which artificial intelligence eliminates human constraints on presidential power grabs: “Once the president achieves AI-enabled control over the executive branch, all the other mechanisms become far more powerful.”
■ Last chance to snag a spot for Monday’s Chicago Public Square / Northwestern University team-up offering you interactive online coaching in the world of AI tools. Sign up free here.
ABC decoupling. YouTube TV subscribers awoke today to find ABC programming—including the broadcast network, ESPN, the Disney Channel and more—missing as the companies failed to work out a new distribution deal.
■ Amid what Deadline calls “something of a ‘woke’ backlash,” corporate sibling Disney+ has killed its Doctor Who production arrangement with the BBC.
■ The Washington Post (gift link, courtesy of those who support Square financially): Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted since Trump’s takeover.
■ Cord-Cutter Confidential columnist Jared Newman: “Things are about to get messy for free, over-the-air TV.”
■ Get more than 5 of 8 correct for bragging rights over your Square columnist.
■ Then try Axios’ quiz about Chicago’s haunted history. (6/10 right here.)
■ And can you beat 4/5 in the City Cast Chicago-centric news quiz?
Daylight saving’s last gleaming. Standard time returns verrrrrrry early Sunday morning.
■ Don’t forget the VCR and beware the infinite loop.
‘Your publication is really amazing.’ Fresh, unsolicited praise for Chicago Public Square from a reader makes us blush …
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