Retreat, yes. Surrender, no. Chicago Public Square will take Wednesday off to join the Chicago Independent Media Alliance retreat, “Together in Action.”
■ Meanwhile, follow the Square Bluesky account for results of today’s elections, including this …
Most. Expensive. Judicial. Race. Ever. All political eyes are on the Supreme Court contest in Wisconsin …
■ … where Elon Musk’s been tossing around millions while wearing a cheesehead hat …
‘An indicator of the national landscape.’ Politico’s Shia Kapos says a handful of suburban mayoral elections today could indicate how the Trump-Musk administration’s faring among voters so far.
■ Ready to vote? The polls are open: Get smart first—with the Square guide to voter guides.
■ Delivering what he dubbed “good trouble,” New Jersey Democratic Sen. Corey Booker was, at Square’s deadline, still holding the chamber hostage with a filibuster he began at dinnertime last night to protest what he calls the “crisis” Trump and Musk have precipitated.
Not so healthy, not so much service. Layoffs of up to 10,000 employees at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department began today.
■ Inside Medicine takes stock of “what we’ve lost and what we are about to lose.”
■ Wired: Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” is trying to gift itself a $500 million federal building.
■ The Onion: “COBRA Extension Lets Terminated Employees Continue Raiding Office Fridge For 18 Months.”
Disaster’s ‘only a matter of time.’ ProPublica talks to flight attendants working for the airline that has become the dominant player in a network of deportation contractors known as “ICE Air.”
■ Popular Information: “Trump claims a Michael Jordan tattoo is evidence of Venezuelan gang membership.”
■ Chicagoans are pressing the feds to release a man who was set to donate a kidney to his immigrant brother here.
■ Nieman Lab: ProPublica wanted to find more sources in the federal government. So it got a billboard truck.
■ Law prof Joyce Vance: “It’s not a joke, and we need to take it seriously.”
■ The Onion: “Trump Says He Won’t Rule Out Third Reich.”
■ Humorist Andy Borowitz: “Trump’s Arteries Unlikely to Serve Third Term.”
Kids’ chaos. Count the guardian of a 15-year-old boy shot during teenagers’ “takeover” of Streeterville Friday night among those favoring an earlier curfew for minors downtown.
■ Police say a Saturday night gathering of about 70 teens in downtown Oak Park Saturday night resulted in “no concerning incidents.”
■ Columnist Andy Shaw: Chicago’s The City That Works—until it doesn’t.
Wildcat call. A congressional committee is investigating Northwestern University’s legal clinics on charges they’ve used taxpayer cash to “engage in progressive-left political advocacy.”
■ Ohio’s governor has signed a bill aimed at stamping out diversity initiatives, banning faculty strikes and threatening academic freedom at that state’s public colleges and universities.
Sun-Times, WBEZ shakeup. Among changes in the leadership at the parent organization, Chicago Public Media, Sun-Times executive editor Jenn Kho will take over as interim editor-in-chief for both organizations—and be a candidate for the job permanently.
■ Here she was in 2022, interviewed in a Chicago Public Square podcast.
■ Chicago news veteran Jennifer Schulze appeals to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: Please stay on the air five nights a week beyond the end of a pledge to do it just through Trump’s first 100 days.
‘I would have been so terrifically mean.’ Comedian and Late Show writer Amber Ruffin joined Seth Meyers last night to defend(?) the White House Correspondents Association for axing her gig at their annual gala later this month.
■ Daring Fireball columnist John Gruber blasts the association’s president as an “obsequious bootlicker.”
■ Former AP White House correspondent Ron Fournier: “Dear White House Reporters: WTF?”
■ The Onion: “Correspondents’ Dinner Scraps Host In Favor Of Terrified Silence.”
■ A.V. Club: “The admin continues to undermine the WHCA wherever possible.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones on the White House usurping one of the association’s most prominent roles: “Media outlets that … Trump and his administration don’t like could be pushed to the back of the room, while those who give more favorable coverage to Trump will get prime positions.”
■ Worried about news media freedoms? Here are some things you can do.
‘A powerhouse celebration.’ Critic Catey Sullivan says Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of Sunny Afternoon “delivers a white-hot musical take on The Kinks.”
■ The Tribune’s Chris Jones gives it 3 1/2 stars.
A Square public service announcement
Square alumni gathering. Coming Wednesday night: Authors Cory Doctorow and Peter Sagal in conversation at Chicago’s Exile in Bookville bookstore.
■ Coincidentally, each of them has guested on the Chicago Public Square podcast: Sagal in 2017 and Doctorow twice—in 2019 and last year.
■ Tickets are free here.
‘All hail Donald J. Trump, president of the United States, gloria mund in excelsis. I’m only sorry it took me this long.’ Check the calendar before reading Neil Steinberg’s latest.
■ Steinberg in 2020, as the pandemic dawned: “When this is over—assuming it ever ends—I don’t want to look back at myself yukking it up as the death toll mounts.”
Fools: Old. Updating coverage: As April Fools’ Day pranks proliferate across the world, let’s look back:
■ Chicago Public Square, 2022: “Guess how / Guess which / Guess what.”
■ Square, 2019: “Bagels / Bagels and Nazis / Bagel jokes.”
■ Square, 2017: “Doughnuts / Doughnuts / Doughnuts.”
■ WNUA, 1997: Chicago’s Pig Latin School.
■ WXRT, 1980: Strange visitor from another planet.
■ WXRT alumnus Ryan Arnold: This “used to be the one time a year we questioned what we read online. Now, it’s just Tuesday with slightly better branding.”