‘Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable’ / ‘War on wind’ / A Elbereth Colbertiel!

‘If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible.’ That’s a Democratic party strategist’s reaction to news that a Democrat yesterday flipped a state legislative district seat representing Donald Trump’s Florida home.

■ North Carolina’s Trump-endorsed state Senate leader—that state’s top conservative architect—lost a primary race to a challenger he’d outspent by more than 40-to-1.

■ ABC News alumnus Terry Moran: A phrase tossed off by a Supreme Court justice during arguments over whether Mississippi may count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive up to five business days later exposes a majority “that no longer seems to trust the people it serves.”

Flying? The Sun-Times breaks down what we know about wait times at Chicago airports during the Homeland Security funding shutdown.

■ The Daily Show’s Josh Johnson on ICE’s airport security role: “You’re telling me ICE agents are showing up to the airport and doing absolutely nothing? Well, then, it’s my honor to present the award for most improved agency.”

■ Investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein: A leaked database shows ICE paying off local cops to do their bidding …

■ … but not in Illinois.

■ The Onion: “ICE Agents Swab Passengers’ Hands To Test For Immigrant Residue.”

■ Broadview’s mayor is demanding the closure of ICE’s detention facility there—and reimbursement of $700,000 for the costs it’s imposed on government and businesses.

■ Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is turning thumbs down on a call to appoint a special prosecutor for the “Midway Blitz” offensive.

■ The anonymously-bylined What Did Donald Trump Do Today? blog: The swearing-in ceremony for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin “exposed loyalty over competence.”

What’s in the box? Trump’s unexplained boast that Iran has given him “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money” has people wondering:

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich calls on Trump to level with the American people: “Was this ‘present’ from Iran a big wooden rabbit on wheels?”

■ Jimmy Kimmel: “Who would have ever guessed he could be easily manipulated by expensive gifts?”

‘The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could.’ Updating coverage: After the Iranian military mocked Trump’s talk of a ceasefire, Iran is reportedly rejecting his “15-point” ceasefire proposal. (Or is it 13?)

■ He’s reportedly sending at least 1,000 more troops to the Mideast.

■ Popular Information: “After sending billions to Kushner and Trump, Saudis lobby to escalate Iran war.”

■ Economist Paul Krugman: “People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.”

■ Former Republican Illinois Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra: Trump’s war masks his support of Vladimir Putin.

■ McSweeney’s: “We’ve Officially Won the War We’re Currently and Indefinitely Fighting.”

‘War on wind.’ Krugman again: The Trump administration “remains deeply committed to killing renewable energy … and increasing America’s reliance on fossil fuels.”

■ Under Trump, the U.S. will pay a French company $1 billion to abandon plans for two East Coast wind farms—instead to invest in oil and gas projects …

■ … even as Trump’s war raises gas prices and more in Chicago.

■ Columnist Neil Steinberg objects to the president’s co-opting of Chicago’s controversy over Christopher Columbus’ role in U.S. history: “It was as if the president had issued an executive order banning ketchup on hot dogs, not to give him any ideas.”

When a CTA platform gets dangerous. Axios’ Monica Eng offers three tips for commuters who find themselves in worrying scenarios.

■ A 15-year-old Chicago girl’s death Saturday night in a hit-and-run involving an e-scooter is sparking new questions about a lack of age restrictions for their rental.

Tech trouble. A Serve Robotics food delivery robot crashed through the glass wall of a Chicago bus shelter this week.

■ A ZDNET editor cracked open cheap electronics charging gadgets from Temu: “It was worse than I expected—loose wires, sketchy lumps of steel and other suspicious findings.”

Papers shredded. Press Gazette: Of the nation’s biggest newspapers, 24 of 25 saw print circulations fall last year …

■ … none more than the Jeff Bezos-compromised Washington Post.

Unrelated items.

■ Under the leadership of MAGAriffic Bari Weiss, CBS Evening News is on track for its lowest-rated first quarter this century.

■ City Cast’s Emily Mack has concocted a quiz about rats—on which your Chicago Public Square columnist scored a mousey 2/5.

A Elbereth Colbertiel! Stephen Colbert and his son are writing a new Lord of the Rings movie …

■ … because he’ll have some time on his hands after May.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better. 

11,000 kids / Congrats, Naperville / The Worsties

11,000 kids. That’s ProPublica’s count of how many children—U.S.-born citizens—have seen their parents arrested and detained in the first seven months of Donald Trump’s second term.

■ That’s an average of more than 50 kids a day separated from a parent.

■ Trump’s deporting moms of citizen children at four times the rate under the Biden administration.

■ Rachel Maddow last night shared new details of Delta Airlines’ complicity in the deporting of 5-year-old Liam Ramos from Minneapolis to the Dilley, Texas, concentration camp.

■ Listen here.

■ Add Bruce Springsteen to the roster of those performing at Saturday’s No Kings rally in St. Paul.

‘Trump needs to call off his thugs.’ Add retiring Chicago U.S. Rep. Chuy García to the roster of those opposing the deployment of immigration agents at the nation’s airports …

■ … including O’Hare.

■ Trump’s notion of ICEing airports may have started with a conservative radio caller, “Linda from Arizona.”

■ PolitiFact explains why ICE gets paid in a shutdown but the TSA doesn’t. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)

■ On the table in the Senate: A deal to fund Homeland Security but not ICE.

■ Want to help Chicago’s unpaid TSA workers? Here’s how.

■ Benighted Sen. Markwayne Mullin is the nation’s new Homeland Security secretary.

■ The Onion offers a snarky profile of Mullin.

‘We already know enough to be very concerned.’ With details still emerging, columnist James Fallows analyzes Sunday’s deadly collision at New York’s LaGuardia airport.

■ Air traffic audio reveals a separate emergency on a different plane unfolding simultaneously.

■ Former Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger: “The LaGuardia crash will be blamed on one controller. That’s not the whole story: 3,000 controllers short. WWII-era radar is still in use. And a lone controller managing two emergencies at midnight. This was preventable.”

‘The Trump administration needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies.’ Gov. Pritzker’s spokesperson condemns the president for using the killing of a Loyola University student on Chicago’s lakefront to bolster his immigration policies.

■ Trump on social media early today: “Democrats are desperate to keep illegals, no matter how bad or dangerous they may be, in the Country.”

■ A Tribune editorial: “Gorman was not in the wrong place at the wrong time. The system failed her.”

■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “Trump has changed how I feel about celebrating the deaths of political foes.”

Mail-in voting limits? Hearing arguments that included a swipe at Chicago, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed inclined to side with the Trump administration against a Mississippi law allowing a five-day grace period for ballots delivered after Election Day.

■ Guess who voted by mail in Florida yesterday, even as he pushed Congress to limit that option?

Congrats, Naperville. Community ratings site Niche puts the town atop its list of Best Cities to Live in America.

■ See where your town ranks here.

Not so independent. The Tribune reports that the primary funding organization behind two ostensibly independent super PACs that spent heavily on Chicago-area congressional races was secretly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

■ British police were seeking three suspects in an arson attack on a Jewish charity’s ambulances.

‘The war in Iran is not going well.’ Popular Information: Trump’s offensive is unraveling.

■ CNN’s Brian Stelter asks of Pentagon restrictions on journalists: “What is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth so afraid of?”

■ On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart brutally deconstructed Trump’s nonsensical statements on the conflict …

■ … including that one about a 15-point agreement—where the first three points are identical.

■ See it here.

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “TACO Donny tries to TACO his way out of war by announcing imaginary peace talks.”

■ The Onion: “Trump Demands Allies Do Their Fair Share To Fuck Up The World.”

The Worsties. Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob bestows his dubious achievement awards on the news media’s 25 worst people.

■ Poynter’s Tom Jones: As Trump hit a new rhetorical low, the usual suspects in the media stayed quiet or defended him.

■ Dan Froomkin at Press Watch: Quoting Trump as if he were reliable constitutes journalistic malpractice.

■ The Trib’s Robert Channick (gift link): NBC 5 Chicago, Telemundo Chicago and the national NBC News Chicago Bureau have downsized from five floors of NBC Tower into one 70,000-square-foot space on a single floor.

Missing link found. A gift link in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square to a New York Times story about Kristi Noem pal Corey Lewandowski’s exploits inside Homeland Security was wrong. Here’s the right one.

■ Mike Braden made this edition better.