Remember when you could take a break from the news on weekends and evenings? Not so much these days. Check the Chicago Public Square Bluesky account for updates between editions.
‘Trump’s invasion.’ That’s what Gov. Pritzker is calling the president’s order to dispatch members of the Texas National Guard here—without consulting Pritzker or his administration.
■ That’s on top of the federal co-option of 300 Illinois National Guard troops.
■ The state is suing to block that deployment …
■ … hoping maybe for a deal like Portland, where Wonkette notes that Trump’s forces “got kicked out! Twice!”—by a judge Trump appointed.
■ Pritzker’s scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m.
■ Columnist Mary Geddry: “From Portland to the Fed to the DOJ, judges and prosecutors told [Trump] no, and still he storms around shouting ‘off with their heads!’”
■ The home of a South Carolina judge who ruled against the Trump administration burned to the ground yesterday in a fire whose cause was under investigation.
‘Well, they lie, right?’ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is among those casting doubts on immigration agents’ allegation that a woman and a man allegedly rammed their vehicle into a government car on the Southwest Side …
■ … before she was shot and wounded.
■ Here’s the government complaint against them.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, who was at the Broadview detention center last week: “I saw it first hand … ICE threatening and roughing up police.”
■ The AP: “Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago.”
■ Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Muñoz, taking video in Broadview Friday, was pulled down by Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino and handcuffed as a federal agent held him down with a knee on his back.
■ Author and Evanston RoundTable photographer Richard Cahan shares “the view from the ground” in the Broadview’s “free arrest zone.”
‘Terrorizing American citizens.’ Popular Information says ICE’s assault on a Chicago apartment building exemplifies the Trump administration’s “systemic violations of U.S. citizens’ Constitutional rights.”
■ Contrarian Jen Rubin: “A military attack more akin to an overseas military operation than a domestic police action unfolded in that Chicago apartment building.”
■ Chicago congressmembers toured the scene yesterday, calling for an end to all federal immigration enforcement here.
■ Reviewing “nauseating footage” of the attack, John Oliver went on to celebrate protesters striking back with humor.
■ The American Prospect: A “well-intentioned” Illinois law ending immigration detention here has played into ICE’s hands, helping it hide detainees from their lawyers.
Next: Hunger. The federal shutdown threatens the disappearance within two weeks of a food aid program that helps millions of low-income moms and young children.
■ Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: Beware the phrase “partisan bickering” in reporting on the shutdown.
■ Satirist Andy Borowitz: “String of Correctly Spelled Texts from Trump Fuels Speculation That He Is Dead.”
‘The greatest politician you've probably never heard of.’ That’s how a new episode of This American Life celebrates Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington …
■ … who once read “The Night Before Christmas” for WXRT listeners.
R.I.P., Monday papers. Lee Enterprises—publisher of mid-market midwestern newspapers including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Quad City Times and The Times of Northwest Indiana—is abandoning dead-tree publication on Mondays effective next month.
■ That follows big layoffs last month.
The end of CBS News as we’ve known it? In what Axios describes as “the latest in a string of moves … to shift CBS News’ coverage to the right,” parent company Paramount’s bought reactionary Bari Weiss’ Free Press website, naming her the network’s editor-in-chief.
■ Zeteo: “The general sense among all those inside CBS ‘who are interested in fairness and journalism and accountability’ right now is: ‘What the fuck?’”
■ Today’s the first day of MSNBC’s split from NBC News—and it has a new code of principles.
‘Book banning is everywhere in Trump’s America.’ That sad observation comes from John K. Wilson, the Chicago coordinator of Banned Books Week—which begins today.
■ A University of Illinois Springfield professor: Beware the “academic neutrality playbook.”
■ The Onion reacts to a report that Stephen King is the author most banned in U.S. schools: “Censor him all you want, but eventually young people will learn that cars can get possessed.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “A university censorship conference gets censored? This is Trump's America.”
‘The Oct. 7 attacks engaged Israel into betraying its humanitarian core.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg marks the second anniversary of the horrific attack that triggered a horrific war: “I just want to draw attention to all the lives lost, on both sides.”
■ The AP spotlights things to know as talks to end the conflict begin.
‘None of them were real.’ PolitiFact exposes a buttload of fake musical tributes to regressive martyr Charlie Kirk—purportedly from artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Imagine Dragons—all generated by artifical intelligence …
■ … and offers guidance for identifying such phony songs—which reminds us:
■ Join us for a deep dive into the world of AI tools and fact-check tech—free. Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up to offer you interactive online coaching already received by thousands of professional journalists. Online, Nov. 3, noon-2 p.m. Registration details here. (Share with your friends!)