Elections in the balance. Popular Information: “The Trump administration is engaged in a multi-pronged effort to undermine the integrity of and confidence in the 2026 election.”
■ Trump’s words, in an interview with a podcaster who joined the FBI and left after nine months to become a podcaster again: “Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over.’ … Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Jon Stewart’s in the Epstein files. And he is offended: “Somebody like Jon Stewart, or Jon Stewart? My point is, do I have the offer, or is this an audition?”
■ The Washington Post (gift link): The president’s claiming a power the Constitution explicitly grants to states.
■ Former Illinois Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger sees “a psychopath talking about seizing elections—and a party too cowardly to stop him.”
‘I am their voice.’ As Chicagoan Marimar Martinez, shot five times by a Border Patrol agent last fall, prepared to testify today in Washington, she told the Sun-Times and WBEZ she intends to speak up for those killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis.
■ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says each of her officers on the ground in Minneapolis will be issued a body camera.
■ Trump sounded less than enthusiastic.
■ Journalism critic Margaret Sullivan pleads with reporters to apply far more skepticism to things Trump says.
‘My 8-year-old woke up, but she was so terrified she just laid in the bed and cried.’ Independent Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort last night recounted for MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow her nighttime arrest at her home after covering an anti-ICE protest at a St. Paul church.
■ CNN veteran Don Lemon last night shared with Jimmy Kimmel the details of his very public arrest after covering that protest: “They want to embarrass you. They want to instill fear.”
■ A St. Paul native and senior at Temple University in Philadelphia has turned himself in on charges of conspiring with Lemon to interfere in that service at a church served by a pastor who’s also an ICE official.
■ The Onion: “ICE Agent Scores Easy Win By Deporting Own Family.”
Children led them. Hundreds of kids yesterday walked out of Chicago high schools to protest Trump’s deportation onslaught.
■ The student Republican club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is in the spotlight after posting an illustration of a masked gunman holding a weapon to a kneeling man’s head, with the caption “Only traitors help invaders.”
■ Reporter Marisa Kabas shares “what it’s like to see ICE tear gas kids.”
Jon Stewart’s in the Epstein files. And he is offended: “Somebody like Jon Stewart, or Jon Stewart? My point is, do I have the offer, or is this an audition?”
■ Media critic and Chicago TV news exec Jennifer Schulze: One of new CBS boss Bari Weiss’ new hires “was one of Epstein’s biggest pen pals, sending him cringey and disturbing emails but she’s fighting to keep him on staff anyway.”
■ Stephen Colbert: “Punxsutawney Phil … might be the only prominent American male who is not in there … is what I would have said if he wasn’t in there. But—and this is true—he actually appears in it four times.”
■ Columnist Eric Zorn is beggin’ Trump to sue Trevor Noah over that Epstein joke at Sunday’s Grammys: “No one in America needs to be deposed more than our reflexively dishonest president.”
■ Are you in the Epstein files? Search here.
Who owns ‘Stephen Colbert’? As CBS prepares to cut ties with its Late Show host, longtime late-night critic Bill Carter says control of the faux-right character Colbert played on Comedy Central hangs in the balance.
■ Tribune columnist—and former TV critic—Rick Kogan: New CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil’s disparagement of Walter Cronkite “made me wonder how long this anchorman might last” (gift link).
■ Mark Jacob at Stop the Presses: “Megyn Kelly is a fascist propagandist selling out her country for attention and profit.”
Amazon’s watching. The company’s donating a thousand of its Ring security cameras to Illinois—for distribution to domestic violence survivors, giving them an increased sense of security.
■ It’s the latest feel-good (or feel-better) move by Ring, against a backdrop of concerns it’s playing nice with immigration enforcement agencies.
■ 404 Media: A photo booth company that caters to weddings and D.C. lobbying events has been collecting and insecurely storing those photos for anyone to download.
All that glitters … Axios reports that a new bill in Springfield would outlaw the sale of personal products that include body glitter—one of the world’s most pervasive pollutants.
■ Now that the Trump administration’s yanked the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, Gov. Pritzker’s signing Illinois up.
Not following Chicago Public Square on Bluesky? Here’s a taste of what you missed yesterday:
■ An “ICE conveyor belt” is illegally detaining and moving Minnesota kids to Texas faster than courts can respond.
■ Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify before Congress about Jeffrey Epstein.
■ Mark Jacob compared and contrasted: “Yesterday: Deputy AG Todd Blanche denies that Trump played any role in the FBI’s seizure of Georgia voting records or had been briefed on the case. Today: The NY Times reports that Trump talked by phone to the FBI agents who conducted the raid, asking them questions and getting answers. (Gift link).”
■ Wonkette surveyed the Sunday news shows: House Speaker Mike Johnson “talks like a typical abuser.”
■ A Mother Jones review: “The Melania movie is an American obscenity.”
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‘While some news bears repeating, don’t you think that’s a bit much?’ A few readers didn’t get this newsletter’s recurring Groundhog Day gag.
■ Mike Braden made this edition better.
