They’re back? CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters were allowed back in the White House yesterday—after a federal judge at least temporarily reinstated the credentials yanked by Donald Trump’s administration …
■ … and, for now at least, news organizations have resumed pool coverage of Trump’s antics …
■ … but it’s not over: CNN and MS NOW reporters were barred from covering White House state dinner arrivals last night.
■ The New York Times’ Peter Baker (gift link): “In Trump’s White House, China’s dictator is welcome. American media, less so.”
■ Columnist and lawyer Mitch Jackson: “Shame on Trump for rolling out the billionaires when Xi should have met our democracy.”
■ The Onion: “Xi Jinping Impressed With How Much Trump’s English Has Improved Since Last Visit.”
Meanwhile, at the United Nations … An angry Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected complaints of Israeli genocide in Gaza …
■… in a speech that prompted dozens of delegates to walk out of the hall en masse.
He’s headed this way. About a hundred protesters turned out near Medinah Country Club in DuPage County yesterday to protest what stands to be Trump’s first Chicago-area visit since his 2024 reelection—to this weekend’s Presidents Cup golf tournament.
■ Pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten has composed an ode to “the many MAGAts who finally seem to be dumping Trump” …
■ … and columnist Jeff Tiedrich declares a Good News Friday: “Judges and courts continue to cordially invite Donny—along with his like-minded flunkies and acolytes—to go …” well … you know.
They can’t fire her—she quits. Allegedly told by her supervisors in the U.S. attorney’s office that she could be fired if she distanced herself from mistakes in the fiasco known as the “Broadview Six” prosecution of “Midway Blitz” protesters, Sheri Mecklenburg has done so nevertheless—and retired from that job.
■ The Sun-Times: Chicago’s Catholic leaders have established a memorial honoring people who’ve died in immigration custody or during immigration operations since 2020.
‘They’re talking about returning to how it was before 1954.’ Civil rights advocates tell the AP the Trump administration’s limiting or canceling the remedies schools can use to address systemic racial injustice.
■ Chicago public school enrollment is plunging—but the city’s regained its No. 3 spot nationwide as other big-city districts suffer similar drops.
Benches benched. The city’s taking down two volunteer-built and -deployed Chicago bus-stop benches—but replacing them with seats up to city code.
■ Block Club: Another private investment group is set to make billions from a revised Chicago parking meter deal.
2 minutes. Over the course of 120 seconds yesterday, first the White Sox and then the Cubs both clinched playoff slots …
■ … the first time that’s happened on the same day.
Unprecedented. Can’t recall the last time your Chicago Public Square columnist got perfect scores two weeks in a row on the news quiz devised by past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel—but that’s what happened.
‘I don’t carry a physical wallet anymore.’ Tech columnist Kim Komando: “Every time you show your [actual] driver’s license, you hand over your home address. To a bouncer. To a hotel clerk. To the guy at the liquor store. The phone version changes the deal.”
■ A suburban cop on administrative leave has resigned—under investigation for allegedly using Flock camera tech to track a girlfriend and her ex-fiancé.
Thanks, AI. A new reader explains how he discovered Chicago Public Square: “I asked Claude for the best (and ideally free) daily concise Chicago newsletter that has less fluff and more real news.”
■ Are you gonna let an AI recruit more new Square readers than you have? Share this newsletter with a friend.
■ A high school senior who’s embraced the technology tells the Sun-Times’ Neil Steinberg AI’s “going to be part of our lives for a really, really long time.”
■ LateNighter recaps the same joke, three ways—as Desi Lydic, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel all mocked Trump’s decree that “artificial intelligence” henceforth be called “super intelligence.”
■ Columnist Dave Barry explains modern video game technology, because his average reader “tends to be hundreds of years old more mature.”
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.