Ix-nay on obs-jay / Off track / Happy Record Store Day

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Ix-nay on obs-jay. The judge in Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying documents to cover up his frantic efforts to prevent damaging disclosures in the waning days of the 2016 election has ordered media not to report where potential jurors have been employed.
■ The judge dismissed two jurors concerned that information about them had become public.
■ Trump niece Mary L. Trump finds “some segments of the corporate media, primarily Fox, … helping Donald interfere with his trial through jury intimidation.”
■ Live updates: The trial had its 12 primary jurors and was in the hunt for alternates today.
■ In a break from tradition, the prosecution’s not advising Trump’s team who’ll be called to the stand first: “Trump has been tweeting about the witnesses. We’re not telling them who the witnesses are.”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance says one of the big questions is whether Trump will testify in the case: “The man whose lawyers were afraid to let him sit down for an informal Q&A with special counsel Bob Mueller has no business on the witness stand … But … Trump has proven … uniquely incapable of listening to the advice of his lawyers.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst sums up Trump’s post-court appearance before reporters yesterday: “Old Man Says He’s Cold, Has Some Newspaper Clippings To Show You.”
■ The Daily Beast says the trial is wreaking havoc on Trump’s campaign …
■ … but The Conversation finds him using the proceedings to his advantage.

‘Eight years into the Trump takeover of the Republican Party, there are still a few surprises left.’ Susan B. Glasser at The New Yorker: Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “sudden willingness to bring foreign-aid bills to the House floor risks his speakership—and Trump’s wrath.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich hopes Trump keeps up his “stolen election” rhetoric—which Reich says “will backfire if enough potential Trump voters decide there’s no point in voting because the game is already rigged against them.”

Ceasefire resolutions ‘do foster anti-Semitism.’ Reader* Amy Parker disagrees with columnist Eric Zorn’s criticism of Jewish lawmakers who refused to discuss the matter with Mayor Johnson.
■ Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post: “Israel cannot endure as a pariah on the world stage. Its long-term interests require it to … minimize further civilian casualties.”
■ A Google worker—and organizer with the group No Tech for Apartheid—who was fired after protesting the company’s contract with Israel’s military: “It feels like a very fascist environment.”
■ Israel reportedly launched a drone attack on Iran early today.
■ CNN alumnus Jessica Yellin: “It’s a veiled threat: Escalate and we can do real damage.”
■ NewsGuard: Iranian state media has been faking reports about its Saturday attack on Israel.

Pride cometh. Reversing an earlier call, organizers of Chicago’s June 30 Pride Parade say schools previously denied a role in a scaled-down event are back in—but as just one entry.
■ An extended moratorium on the closing of Chicago Public Schools—charter schools included—has passed the state House.

Off track. A Sun-Times investigation of a program designed to help ex-offenders win full-time jobs with the CTA finds those apprentices “strung along for years … in low-paying roles with no benefits.”
■ The Reload: The U.S. hasn’t had a mass shooting—four or more people killed in a single public incident unrelated to other criminal activity—since October.

Welcome to the 21st century, Illinoisans. Good news if you’ve ever scrambled to find someone to notarize a document: Illinois is now the 48th(!) state to let that happen remotely.
■ You can search for an e-notary here.

Happy Record Store Day. It’s tomorrow.
■ Honoring today’s 100th anniversary of the National Barn Dance’s debut on Chicago’s WLS-AM, Neil Steinberg writes: “The more I look at my time in Chicago, the more country pops out.”
■ The occasion gets celebrated Saturday at the Hideout.

‘To say the results were garbage would be a deep understatement.’ Literary Activism columnist Kelly Jenson: “Google is destroying your access to news.”
■ Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer: Free speech is disappearing on America’s college campuses.


This is the kind of spontaneous publicity that really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening now! Your Chicago Public Square columnist got 6/8 on this week’s news quiz. Can you do better?
■ Q. 1: “Expected tax revenues from which product have fallen short of projections?”
_____

* And former WXRT colleague to your columnist.

Back to it / Rats! / Steph-en! Steph-en! Steph-en!

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Back to it. Live updates: After a day off, Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying documents to cover up his frantic efforts to prevent damaging disclosures in the waning days of the 2016 election resumed today …
■ … beginning with dismissal of more than half the day’s first jury panel.
■ Experts tell Politico that the “totally uncommon” presence of two lawyers on Trump’s jury could benefit him.
■ Historian and MSNBC commentator Ruth Ben-Ghiat calls the trial a “small miracle that is … the polar opposite of authoritarianism.”
■ The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last, the sarcastically “proud shareholder” of DJT stock, reports that it’s “doing great.”
■ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “Russian propaganda has infiltrated American politics through Republican lawmakers and media figures.”
■ Ex-Labor Secretary—and former Justice Department lawyer under Republican President Gerald Ford—Robert Reich traces the party’s downfall back to Richard Nixon.
■ Bringing his career full circle after stints at The New York Times, ESPN and ABC, University of Chicago-spawned statistician and journalist Nate Silver’s relaunching his “FiveThirtyEight presidential model” on a self-owned Substack newsletter.

‘They are putting out defective airplanes.’ A Boeing engineer tells the Senate that the company’s rush to crank out product has imposed shortcuts that could lead to jetliners breaking apart …
■ … and says, “I was told, frankly, to shut up.”

Rats! Block Club Chicago: Oz Park’s getting a new playground that will evict a giant underground rat colony.
■ Maybe it’ll drop the city down a few notches on this list (August link).

‘He trashed his own institution in public, and did it loudly.’ Columnist Jack Shafer says the case of National Public Radio business editor Uri Berliner—who quit yesterday—is evidence that “the newsroom rebellion has shifted into a higher gear.”
■ Dozens of NPR employees want management to publicly and pointedly rebuke Berliner’s criticisms.
■ NPR’s own public editor, Kelly McBride: “I wish NPR would talk more about how and why it makes decisions.”
■ Editor & Publisher takes a look ahead to the future of local news websites.

‘Disingenuous.’ Mayor Johnson’s rejecting a campaign to give voters power to recall a mayor.
■ Ex-Gov. Pat Quinn’s on board with the effort.

‘Blocking the way to O’Hare is no way to win hearts and minds.’ Columnist Eric Zorn says pro-Palestine protesters’ tactics aren’t helping their cause …
■ … and he takes issue with Jewish lawmakers’ refusal to meet with Johnson to discuss antisemitism: “I reject the idea that adults who may disagree on a matter of great importance shouldn’t sit down and talk to one another.”
■ Columnist Jacob Sullum: The U.S. Supreme Court whiffed on a chance to protect peaceful protest.

‘We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.’ The Chicago City Council’s OK’d extra security precautions for this summer’s Democratic National Convention here.
■ For the first time since 2022’s July 4 mass shooting, Highland Park is planning an Independence Day parade.


Steph-en! Steph-en! Steph-en! Colbert’s taking The Late Show on the road for the first time—to broadcast live from Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre the week of the Democratic convention, Aug. 19-22.
■ Last night he reprimanded Trump: “You keep my friend Jimmy Kimmel’s name out of your weird little wet mouth!” …
■ … but Kimmel was delighted to spend most of last night’s monologue firing back at Trump.
■ Beatle Ringo Starr will play New Lenox in September.

‘My dad, Jason, would lament how he could not … see one of his childhood homes … because the building was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the Congress Expressway.’ Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet celebrates a new federal program to heal the city’s “urban removal” scars.
■ The Tribune’s Christopher Borrelli previews Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation—a four-part series debuting tonight on WTTW, exposing Chicago’s history of housing discrimination and weaponized real estate policies. (A gift link, courtesy of those who support Chicago Public Square.)
■ Critic Richard Roeper gives 3 1/2 stars to We Grown Now, a movie set in 1992 Chicago—against the backdrop of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis’ murder.

Are you Uber verified? To protect drivers from unscrupulous passengers, the app’s going to add a blue checkmark to users whose identities have been confirmed.
■ If you’re not verified automatically, you can upload a government-issued ID.

A Square public service announcement
Don’t miss the 2024 Spring Music Festival at Frank Lloyd Wright’s stunning UNESCO World Heritage-designated Unity Temple in Oak Park, Saturday, April 27, at 7 p.m. Get your tickets here.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

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