Chicago Public Square will take Thursday off. Be back here Friday for a fresh quiz and more news than you can shake a stick at.
■ Forthwith, the news for now:
‘We cannot have people be afraid.’ Federal Judge Sara Ellis yesterday lowered the boom on Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino in that lawsuit filed by news outlets and protesters, ordering him to report to her courtroom every weekday evening and to begin wearing a body camera by the end of the week.
■ A bad look: After the judge ordered Bovino to produce by Tuesday all “Operation Midway Blitz” use-of-force reports since Sept. 2, he said it would be “physically impossible” because of the “sheer amount.”
■ Mayor Johnson calls the judge’s orders “a start.”
■ A Washington Post analysis (gift link, courtesy of readers whose support keeps Square coming) concludes—surprise!—that the Trump administration’s been using misleading videos to support its deportations push.
■ Block Club: Old Irving Park neighbors, furious after an ICE raid disrupted a kids’ costume parade, are ramping up defenses ahead of Halloween Friday …
■ … and, sadly, indoor trick-or-treating is becoming a thing here. (Cartoon: Marc Stopeck.)
■ High school students in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood walked out of class yesterday in a two-mile march to protest ICE’s reign of terror.
■ Borderless: A 20-year tradition of prayers outside Broadview’s ICE processing facility is getting drowned out by Trump’s crackdown.
■ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: “Trump and Stephen Miller thought immigration was their winning issue. They were wrong.”
‘Trump just announced his police state.’ Author and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the president’s speech to U.S. troops in Japan revealed a man who intends to use a domestic military force “to intimidate Democratic mayors and governors and potential Democratic voters … to suppress Democratic turnout in next fall’s midterm elections” …
■ … as The Washington Post reports new Pentagon guidelines that “could be used to fire anyone who doesn’t rubber-stamp the administration’s programs.”
■ The Atlantic’s David Graham (gift link): “You don’t need a political-science degree to understand why wealthy individuals cutting secret checks to the president to pay the military is a bad idea.”
‘Weaponizing food supply.’ Contrarian Jen Rubin says Trump’s using hunger as a political weapon—“prepared to let more than 40 million Americans go hungry to pressure Democrats to capitulate on the shutdown and accede to his plan to snatch health insurance away from tens of millions of people.”
■ Popular Information puts the lie to the Agriculture Department’s claim that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding will run out Saturday because Democrats are holding out to fund “health care for illegal immigrants” and “gender mutilation procedures.”
■ The American Prospect: “The legal authority to tap a contingency fund is quite clear.”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “Hungry Americans losing SNAP need to suck it up. Trump has a ballroom to build.”
■ Chicago and Illinois are appealing Trump’s denial of a disaster declaration for summer flooding here.
‘Major Republican cracks.’ Reporter Aaron Parnas concludes the SNAP crisis is driving a revolt against House Speaker Mike Johnson …
■ … including one-time Trump reliable Marjorie Taylor Greene …
■ … as lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell sees courts and the Senate pushing back against Trump on several fronts.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link): “A dictator needs to shut down his legislature. Trump is almost there.”
■ Former Illinois U.S. Rep. Marie Newman offers a list of good ways to push congresspeople into action.
‘F---. But can we do the demolition at night?’ Author Michael Wolff recounts for The Daily Beast how Trump deliberately kept the public in the dark about demolition of the White House East Wing.
■ Late-show hosts—including Desi Lydic and Stephen Colbert—had fun comparing Trump’s Japan visit to a show dog’s performance …
■ … and that was before Trump embarrassingly delivered what Raw Story calls “a cringeworthy impression of an Indian accent” in South Korea …
■ … which gave Trump an actual crown.
■ Rafi Schwartz at Discourse Blog: “We have to talk about Donald Trump’s brain. Something’s not right up there.”
Buy a ticket, get a ride. Legislation taking shape in Springfield to avert fiscal disaster for Chicago-area mass transit would slap a surcharge on tickets to big sporting and entertainment events—but also let those tickets serve as one-day bus and train passes.
■ Also in the mix: A 7% amusement tax on streaming entertainment services like Netflix.
‘I’m truly sorry.’ Prison-industrial-complex critic Bianca Tylek mourns the Trump-compliant Federal Communications Commission’s decision to gut regulations capping the exorbitant price of phone calls for prisoners …
■ … raising the cost of a 15-minute call from 90 cents to $1.65.
Cookies! The Tribune’s revealed the 12 finalists for its annual holiday cookie recipe contest.
■ You can find them all—even the also-rans—here.
■ Your Local Epidemiologist offers parents a smart guide to Halloween candy.