Chicago Public Square will take Tuesday off. We’ll meet again here Wednesday.
Still married. The Supreme Court’s rejected a call to reverse its landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the country.
■ It’s bad news for ex-Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who faces a world of legal pain for her refusal to issue such marriage licenses.
■ It’s bad news for ex-Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who faces a world of legal pain for her refusal to issue such marriage licenses.
Pardonpalooza. President Trump’s pardoned his ex-personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and others accused of backing efforts to overturn the 2020 election …
■ … although those pardons are mainly symbolic, because none of ’em were charged with federal crimes, and Trump can’t pardon people for state offenses.
■ The unbylined What Did Donald Trump Do Today blog: Trump spent his social media time Sunday on an “increasingly crazy” “ObamaCare rant.”
■ Cartoonist Ann Telnaes offers her design for a commemorative Trump coin.
Transit’s ‘pivotal moment.’ Now that the Chicago region has won landmark legislation to overhaul mass transportation, Environmental Law & Policy Center CEO Howard Learner calls out big changes the new Northern Illinois Transit Authority should prioritize.
■ Meanwhile, the Chicago Public Library stands to lose half its budget for new books and other material.
‘Fear created by indiscriminate enforcement.’ In a full-page newspaper ad, business and civic leaders—Democrats and Republicans—condemn the Trump administration’s Chicago immigration blitz.
■ In apparent violation of a federal judge’s order, federal agents pepper-sprayed a 1-year-old girl in Cicero …
■ … and they crashed a Girl Scout food drive.
■ A Sun-Times reporter’s first-person account: “Deportation has taken away the father I once knew and given me back a person I no longer recognize.”
■ Block Club: “Border Patrol agents pose at The Bean for apparent photo op.”
■ The Guardian: “Border patrol chief reprimanded for lying claims shots were fired at immigration officers in Chicago.”
■ City Cast counts off three times Homeland Security lied to Chicago.
■ The pseudonymously bylined Closer to the Edge has an open letter for the chief: “You turned lying into a public-service function and bootlicking into a moral philosophy.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: “The general timidity that can affect newspaper editors is being sandblasted away by children being snatched off the street.”
Schrödinger’s SNAP. A jumble of court rulings and shifty statements from Trump have left states uncertain whether they can or should provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to the needy.
■ With signs of a Senate budget truce—and an end to the record government shutdown—in the making, Politico sees the rise of a Democratic civil war.
■ Lawyer/columnist Robert Hubbell: “Sens. Schumer and [Illinois’] Durbin should resign from their leadership positions … as they are obviously incapable of leading the Democratic caucus.”
■ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: “No one can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like the Democrats.”
■ On the other hand, Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall says, counterintuitively, “the overall situation and outcome is basically fine” for Democrats.
■ … although some to the south and east got it worse. (Photo: Fulton Market, by Seth Anderson, in the open-to-all Chicago Public Square Flickr group.)
■ A handful of Illinois schools closed for the day.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. Under fire from Trump for the editing of his infamous Jan. 6, 2021, speech, a TV network—in this case, Britain’s BBC—is losing its most senior executives.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: The BBC could have avoided this mess with a teensy “‘white flash,’ an editing effect that shows one snippet of video is ending and another is beginning.”
■ Tom Jones at Poynter: This shows the high cost of editorial mistakes in a polarized era.
■ Newly Trumpified 60 Minutes last night embraced the bipartisan criticism of its Trump interview last week.
‘Carlson invited … Nick Fuentes onto his podcast to whitesupremacist it up for two and a half hours.’ Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion columnist Jeff Tiedrich updates what Fox News alumnus Tucker Carlson’s been up to.
■ Popular Information calls the roll of companies sponsoring Carlson while he mainstreams white supremacy.
■ Don’t expect lots of hard-hitting reporting on T-Mobile from CNN.
■ A former college professor regrets agreeing to a New York Times interview about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani: “I’m a fucking idiot.”
‘I don’t think I’ll live to see a happy ending to the current situation.’ Tribune writer Ron Grossman’s closing his notebook after 50 years. (Gift link, courtesy of those who support Chicago Public Square.)
■ After 40 years with the station, WGN Radio news anchor and host Steve Bertrand signs off Thursday.
■ A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan is quitting after 40 years “to advocate for the judges who cannot speak publicly for themselves.”