They came for the nannies. Politico’s Shia Kapos: Donald Trump’s immigration raids have “spread from Chicago’s immigrant neighborhoods to the insulated areas of Lincoln Park and Lakeview.” (Requires an email address to read.)
■ NBC Chicago: The feds have been using tear gas and smashing windows across the city and suburbs.
■ Block Club: “Feds tear gas Northwest Side street, disrupting Halloween parade for kids.”
■ The Tribune: “Instead of targeting factories and businesses in large-scale raids, federal agents are arresting Chicagoans who work out in the open.”
■ The Sun-Times: “Angry residents came out of their homes Saturday morning as ICE agents pursued people on foot, deployed tear gas and took three people into custody in the Old Irving Park neighborhood.”
■ Superman’s old editor and Albany Park expat—but ever “a proud and vocal Chicagoan” Mike Gold: “While Albany Park Latinos were being gassed, beaten and disappeared, so were the folks from Korea, the Philippines, India, Cambodia, Somalia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Romania, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. It is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in America.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: “Does the persistence of the A&W frosty glass mug in the annus horribilis of 2025 counterbalance the destruction of democracy? … No. … But … I’ll take any glimmer I can get.”
The whole world’s watching. Rolling Stone surveys the ways Chicagoans are “working to protect the vulnerable people in their communities as ICE sweeps through.”
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer (gift link, funded by those who support Chicago Public Square): “In Chicago, immigrants are fleeing the militarized city at night, helped by U.S. citizens who fear for their own safety.”
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner marks 50 days since the birth of the so-called “Kavanaugh stop”—a Supreme Court action “allowing the Trump administration, essentially, to target working-class Latinos in its massive immigration raids.”
■ Public Notice’s Paul Waldman: “ICE is out of control and beyond repair.”
LAX goes lax. A federal shutdown-triggered staffing shortage Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport brought departures to a standstill—with some consequences for Chicago.
■ In yet another announcement that violates a law forbidding the use of government resources for partisan ends, the U.S. Agriculture Department blames Democrats for a cutoff of federal food aid—the SNAP program—if the shutdown continues past Saturday.
■ Also on the block: Head Start, the program that funds social services to families with kids under 5.
■ The New York Times (gift link): Politics is changing the way history’s taught.
■ Case-challenged Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “how is our government still managing to function? do we even have a government? fuck if I know.”
Medicare dis-Advantage. Last night’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (free YouTube link) raised red flags galore about misleading ads and shady practices surrounding the private insurance plans that cover more than half of U.S. seniors …
■ … counseling viewers not to call those toll-free numbers in commercials and instead to get independent advice from state health insurance assistance programs here …
■ … and, with actor/author and University of Illinois graduate Nick Offerman’s help, tossing an Easter egg joke into a Medicare Advantage ad parody.
‘A stark, physical attack on democracy for no good reason, simply because he can.’ Law professor Joyce Vance says Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing cost Americans more than history: “We lost the future.”
■ Columnist Margaret Sullivan: “The Washington Post shamelessly defends Trump’s odious ballroom.”
■ Pulitzer-winning Post alumnus Gene Weingarten goes a step further—snarkily annotating that editorial.
■ Poynter media writer Tom Jones’ readers weren’t happy with his declaration that the White House renovation was a matter “I care very little about” …
■ … and yet coverage of that story obscured three Trump administration scandals that Popular Information says would have defined any other presidency.
CBS Evening News’ loss. Co-anchor John Dickerson’s leaving at the end of the year.
■ John Oliver’s old boss, Jon Stewart—whose Daily Show deal expires in December—says he hopes to stay … but “it’s not as clear cut as all that.”
■ MSNBC becomes … um … MS NOW on Nov. 15.
‘A nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile headed for Chicago.’ That’s the crux of Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow’s new Netflix thriller—which reportedly has ticked off the Pentagon.
■ The Independent calls it “the most entertaining movie about mass destruction since Dr. Strangelove.”
■ Even as critics jump on its inaccuracies, one military expert says it rightfully “scares the bejesus out of people.”
AIiiiiii. A BBC-led study finds artificial intelligence assistants misrepresenting the news around the world almost half the time.
■ The Conversation: AI’s changing who gets hired.
■ Wired offers “17 readings from the furthest reaches of the AI age.”
■ One week from today, Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up to offer you interactive online coaching in the world of AI tools. Sign up free here.
Thanks. Those of you who took a moment before Sunday’s deadline to nominate Square in the Reader’s Best of Chicago poll have our gratitude.
■ Harry Politis, Mike Braden and Jeremy Harris Lipschultz made this edition better.
Link corrected. Friday’s Square included a bad link for the Zeteo video “Inside Trump’s War on Chicago.” Here it is, although most of it’s sadly— and, in a content-strategy-grow-your-audience way, shortsightedly—behind a paywall.