Chicago Public Square’s taking next week off. But you can look forward to another news quiz next Friday.
■ And, as ever between editions, you can follow breaking news and commentary by checking the Square Bluesky account. (No membership required.)
Live on TV: Death. The U.S. Army—at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—plans to livestream the firing-squad execution of former Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people and hurting 32 others in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.
■ Bill Kristol at The Bulwark: “Hegseth wants you to watch a snuff film.”
■ Columnist and cartoonist Jan Kodner says it “feels like a giant leap for a mindless bloodthirsty societal breakdown.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Cruelty, as always, is the point.”
■ After her failed lethal-drug injection by the state of Tennessee, murder convict Christa Pike reportedly has begun walking and eating at a hospital.
■ Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale shares what it was like to witness that botched operation.
■ The Onion: “Pike Sentenced To Lifetime Execution.”
‘If the Justice Department still existed, you’d be in so much trouble.’ The Daily Show’s Michael Kosta ridiculed U.S. ambassador to Greece—and former Donald Trump Jr. fiancée—Kimberly Guilfoyle’s attempt to extract $100,000 from a political donor to pay off her credit card bill.
■ That donor says she should lose her ambassadorship.
■ Jimmy Kimmel piled on by resurrecting clips from her time at Fox News—a job she left under a shadow (2018 link).
■ CNN: “ABC News still hasn’t explained why it published and then deleted a report about the Trump sons’ investment ties to defense companies.”
■ CNBC: Two days before the president signed a policy encouraging U.S. investment in space transport, he invested millions in SpaceX.
■ Columnist Heather Delaney Reese has questions about Trump’s savings accounts for U.S. kids: “Families deserve answers about where the information used to open these accounts came from, who has access to it, and what the app collects before they agree to use it.”
No Nobel. President Trump didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize he has coveted so …
■ … and Israel isn’t happy with the woman who did.
■ A state court has upheld an Oak Park electoral board decision to allow an advisory referendum on whether Illinois should repeal laws that ban state investment in businesses that boycott Israel.
Mobilizing to protect the midterms. The American Prospect surveys what people nationwide are doing to fend off the prospect of presidential interference.
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “Trump seems to be preparing to try and salvage a potential electoral loss in ways that are all too familiar for those of us who lived through Jan. 6.”
■ Ready to cast your ballot? The Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide is here to, well, guide you.
Hotel strike. Chicago Marathon weekend could get complicated by hotel workers’ walkout this morning.
■ Could be the biggest such strike in city history.
‘No means no.’ That was one of the chants heard as hundreds of students walked out of Lincoln Park High School yesterday in support of the former Cornell University student who says frat members raped her—with little consequence from Cornell officials.
■ The Guardian in 2014: “Frat brothers rape 300% more.”
■ The Onion: “Cornell Tries Going By Different Name.”
Colleges + Flock. WBEZ: “To protect immigrant students, a Chicago-area college told Flock to remove its cameras. The company refused.” And it’s not the only campus with those things.
■ A federal judge has warned the Trump administration she may order Homeland Security workers involved in “Operation Midway Blitz” to turn over their personal phones for review.
Green Line stabbing. Police say a CTA worker is dead after a man still being sought stabbed the employee yesterday afternoon at the Damen station.
■ The victim: An eight-year veteran of the agency and father of two.
No—again. The Trump administration has denied Gov. Pritzker’s request for federal disaster relief after August’s storms.
■ Sen. Dick Durbin: “Trump continues to punish Americans who live in states that did not support him in the last election.”
■ The state plans to appeal.
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson looks back to this day week 155 years ago—the day of the Great Chicago Fire … and another one that was even deadlier.
No pumpkin, but some spice. That’s what past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel has in store for you with this week’s news quiz from The Conversation—on which your Square columnist scored 6/8 correct.
■ Then test your knowledge of suburban landmarks with Justin Kaufmann’s latest Axios quiz. (8/10 right here.)
‘Dear AI—so how, exactly, are you going to kill us?’ Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg posed that question to Google’s Gemini.
■ Chicago’s new inspector general says he expects to use AI for the benefit of the public.
■ Tech columnist Kim Komando sounds an alarm about Meta’s AI agent, Muse, which “builds a page on every person in your life and updates it every hour. Where they live. Their birthdays. Their money goals. Even the fights you’ve patched up. Your friends and family never have to sign up. One person using Muse is enough.”
■ Pulitzer winner Dave Barry has used AI to illustrate Halloween costume ideas—including the Strait of Hormuz … and an anus.
Happy John Prine Day. Chicago’s declared tomorrow a day to honor the late songwriter who woulda turned 80 then.
■ Prine’s breakthrough moment: A 1970 review by Pulitzer-winning movie critic Roger Ebert.
■ Among those inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame last night in Chicago: Celebrated former Chicago DJs Fred Winston, Charlie Van Dyke and Bob Pittman.
Irony, thy name is paywall. Funny thing: Even as yesterday’s Chicago Public Square declared that “paywalls suck,” it inadvertently linked to a paywalled column from the director of … wait for it … the Free Speech Center.
■ Here’s the un-paywalled version: Ken Paulson poses six questions to help you decide if you have a good local newspaper.
■ A thing learned in composing this item: “Irony, thy name is paywall” exemplifies a rhetorical device that’s come to be known as a snowclone.
Thanks. Chris Koenig made this edition better.