Unrelated developments. Texas and California National Guard members have been decamping from the Chicago region, returning home as Homeland Security has departed from its Naval Station Great Lakes hangout after a weekslong immigration enforcement effort.
■ The Associated Press: “In Japan’s Northern Alps, residents battle monkeys to protect homes and farms.”
‘The response from Chicago is a bunch of obscenities and No.’ A North Sider talks to the AP about the region’s reaction to the immigration crackdown—pushback now considered “a model for other cities” …
■ … including Border Patrol’s latest obsession, Charlotte, North Carolina …
■ … where Wonkette says Greg Bovino “is bringing his brand of terror to anyone who looks like an immigrant there, indefinitely!”
■ City Cast recaps “Two months of ‘Midway Blitz.’”
‘I had my hands raised in prayer, saying I was nonviolent.’ Two pastors arrested by local cops Friday while trying to pray with detainees at the Broadview immigration facility are asking Gov. Pritzker to investigate what they consider excessive use of force against them.
■ The Evanston Roundtable’s Rich Cahan rode along to that protest with “the God Squad”—a rabbi and five ministers.
■ The Tribune: The governor’s commission to hold the feds accountable for atrocities committed in Illinois has yet to get serious.
‘I could not be prouder of Chicago’s local journalists.’ Columnist and former Chicago TV news exec Jennifer Schulze talks to some of the retired local reporters who came together to raise the alarm about “state-sponsored terror in Chicago.”
■ McKinley Park News’ Justin Kerr defends his publication’s use of words like abduction to describe Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions here—and knocks other news organizations that “apply standard crime reporting language … that markets ICE’s actions as legitimate.”
Trump’s ‘startling reversal.’ In a rare about-face, the president last night called on House Republicans to vote for release of all files in the case of his now-dead friend, sex offender Jeffrey Epstein …
■ Politico: “Trump shifted position because he was going to lose anyway” …
■ … but AP alumnus Ron Fournier recommends you not “take Trump at face value. He still could:
• Kill the bill in the Senate.
• Veto the bill.
• Order the Justice Department to scrub the files of damning information.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “I don’t give a damn if Clinton … gets brought down by the release of the Epstein files.”
■ The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch (gift link, underwritten by Chicago Public Square supporters): “If the evil banality of the world’s most powerful people exposed in the Epstein emails doesn’t cause a revolution, nothing will.”
■ Journalism ethics watchdog Margaret Sullivan: “Contrast this to a … New York Times feature story that puts a nostalgic gloss on Epstein’s world … ‘Epstein Emails Reveal a Lost New York.’”
■ Next major anti-Trump protest: Remove the Regime, this weekend in Washington …
■ … an event for which the pseudonymously bylined Closer to the Edge has generously drafted Rachel Maddow’s script.
■ The Epstein files were central to several Saturday Night Live bits—a sign that critic Bill Carter says shows “new spark—and a willingness to confront Trump.”
■ The Onion: “Trump Imposes 100% Tax On Movies Where Slaves Escape.”
‘Trump is in the process of sending millions of dollars in taxpayer money directly to his political allies—and himself.’ Popular Information details a case of “grand theft government.”
■ A joint Illinois Answers Project / Trib investigation finds record property tax increases for Chicago homeowners as downtown landlords see their bills fall.
■ The Cook County treasurer’s office sees black neighborhoods hit hardest.
■ A Trib editorial: “Own a home in Chicago? You should be cheering for commercial property values in the Loop.”
■ The Sun-Times: A school board serving three suburbs has rejected calls for an investigation of alleged bribery and extortion.
■ A 35-year-old man’s been arrested, accused of holding a staffer for Illinois Senate President Don Harmon at knifepoint during a robbery at Harmon’s Oak Park office Friday morning.
‘A brutal flu season.’ Your Local Epidemiologist explains that the latest flu mutations surfaced right before the season, meaning your vaccination “will likely recognize some, but not all, of this updated virus.”
■ Bird flu cases are on the rise among the turkey population, spelling higher prices for Thanksgiving.
‘She kept at that reporting even … as her house and those of her parents and her boss were vandalized.’ John Oliver last night celebrated the work of WBEZ alumnus Lauren Chooljian as he spotlighted Republican defunding of public media …
■ … and then he launched an online auction of Last Week Tonight relics—including Russell Crowe’s jockstrap and a giant sculpture of President Lyndon Johnson’s testicles—in a fundraiser for those broadcasters.
Next: Seth Meyers? Echoing what befell Jimmy Kimmel, Trump’s calling for NBC to dump Meyers’ show—and Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair reposted it.
■ The Hollywood Reporter: Trumpophiliac broadcaster Sinclair has its eye on 61 local broadcasters across the country—“consolidation that was simply not possible” before Trump took the White House and the FCC.
■ The Hollywood Reporter: Trumpophiliac broadcaster Sinclair has its eye on 61 local broadcasters across the country—“consolidation that was simply not possible” before Trump took the White House and the FCC.
Corrections. Friday’s Chicago Public Square had a bad link to Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week and lacked a link to Sun-Times analysis that found Border Patrol poster boy Greg Bovino and his agents have favored Trump and Republicans in their campaign giving.
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■ Mike Braden made this edition better.