Football shame. Racist and homophobic comments directed at Evanston Township High School’s marching band during a Friday football game against New Trier have raised tensions between the two communities.
■ The Evanston Roundtable: Social media posts allege that “New Trier fans … told band members to ‘kill themselves’ and spat on one band member.”
■ In a joint statement, the superintendents of both schools pledge a thorough investigation and “accountability for discriminatory behavior.”
■ All that unfolded days after the Illinois High School Association put Lincoln-Way East on probation following similar behavior by students at a game in September.
■ Meanwhile, the Trump Justice Department has announced an investigation of Evanston’s groundbreaking program of reparations for Black residents—contending that “distinctions between citizens based solely on their ancestry are … odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality” (Crain’s gift link).
‘Active shooter’ arrest. Updating coverage: Chicago police report a man in custody and no one injured after reports of shots fired outside the Kluczynski Federal Building downtown early this morning.
■ A bullet hole was spotted in a nearby building occupied by Wintrust Financial.
‘It used to be that threats against federal judges came from unhappy litigants.’ But yesterday, law professor Joyce Vance says, the president took to social media to do just that.
■ Columnist and former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob assesses Trump on 14 signs of mental illness, concluding: “I’m no medical professional, but even I know he’s nuts—and so do other journalists.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich is incredulous: “Does our Slumlord-in-Chief actually believe that property values in Albuquerque are suppressed because the word ‘Mexico’ is in the state’s name? Apparently he does.”
■ Former Republican Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “Trump regularly displays a complete lack of comprehension. … But the same media that hounded Joe Biden over his age and mental acuity have suddenly found presidential fitness to be less interesting.”
2 weeks. Election Day is 14 days away. Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide when you’re ready to cast your ballot.
■ Trump’s administration is charging more than two dozen people with voting or registering illegally in California.
■ Former megachurch pastor and columnist John Pavlovitz: “No King’s Day was really nice. And that’s what worries me.”
■ Next year’s Chicago mayoral election is getting real.
Meanwhile, in Michigan …. PolitiFact rates Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ assertion that Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed “didn’t disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood as false.
■ The American Prospect: Rogers got a big payout before a controversial cybersecurity firm went bankrupt.
‘Wanted: White Blonde Female.’ National political journalist Nina Burleigh ponders Trump’s selection of “unqualified but gorgeous women for jobs that any number of experienced, competent women with natural hair color and unreconstructed faces could perform brilliantly.”
■ Journalism critic Margaret Sullivan assesses two tellingly different headlines on “the amazingly short tenure of Katie Zacharia as Trump’s press secretary.”
‘Beware of AI billionaires bearing gifts.’ Popular Information sees reasons to be skeptical of Elon Musk’s pledge to “give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.”
■ Political science professor Kristoffer Ealy: “Four men spent four hours at the White House. The only thing they agreed on was a bumper sticker.”
France aflame. Paris is enduring its worst civil unrest in years …
■ … and other European cities are seeing protests of their own as citizens take to the streets to protest—in the AP’s words—“rising fuel costs, discontent with the state of schools, declining public services and a housing crisis.”
■ News Not Noise columnists Jessica Yellin and Rohan Montgomery see the unrest as a trait of “Generation ‘Enough Already.’”
■ A Tribune editorial (gift link) says Chicago’s been there: “Marches are fine; thievery under the cover of protest is not.”
■ Jon Stewart mocking Vice President Vance on last night’s Daily Show: “Are you seriously suggesting that immigrants have brought a culture of revolution and protest to France?”
■ Stewart thanked viewers as he acknowledged the show’s two-year renewal …
■ … because late-night critic Bill Carter says even the show’s Trump-allied Skydance corporate leadership can’t afford to lose Stewart.
■ After 43 years, anchor and reporter Christiane Amanpour is leaving CNN.
Birds’ bloodbath. With the migratory season in full swing, more than 1,000 birds died or were hurt over the weekend, colliding with buildings in downtown Chicago and on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.
■ WBEZ: Dozens of Illinois species are at risk as Trump guts the Endangered Species Act.
■ The Guardian: A melting statue of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a symbolic protest of his inaction on climate change.
Feel better now, Chicagoans? Emmy-winning comedy writer and David Letterman’s longtime head writer Merrill Markoe says wandering through Los Angeles’ new George Lucas Museum—the one Chicago passed on—felt “like I had been invited to the home of some billionaire who bought up every single piece of narrative art in the entire world and hung them up all over his house. And then, for some reason, invited me in to have a look. And when I asked him about any of what I was seeing, he just shrugged and said ‘Geez, I dunno. This is just a lot of stuff that I liked.’”
■ Also: Parking was “weird.”
Thanks. Chris Koenig made this edition better.
■ And paid supporters of Square keep this thing coming.