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A Chicago record / She’s out / Headline of the Day
A Chicago record. That was the city’s biggest November snowfall ever …
■ … with more on the way today …
■ … as that onerous winter parking ban returns.
■ The climate-focused One5c newsletter offers seven ways to spend Cyber Monday without shopping online.
Architectural irony. Columnist Lee Bey: The “nondescript” downtown skyscraper that replaced Louis Sullivan’s treasured Chicago Stock Exchange Building, birthing the city’s modern preservation movement, may itself now be granted landmark protection that its predecessor lacked.
■ Flashback to 1972: Photographer Richard Nickel died while trying to save pieces of the Exchange.
‘A place willing to take risks.’ A University of Chicago physics professor tells columnist Neil Steinberg the emerging Chicago Quantum Exchange signifies a city “standing up courageously against ruthless federal oppression … poised to reap the rewards of tolerance.”
■ The New York Times (gift link): Voter concern about the rise of data centers—and their contribution to rising electric bills—could fuel Democratic political campaigns focused on utilities and affordability.
■ The chief executive of a Chicago nonprofit caring for the immigrant community describes Operation Midway Blitz’s impact: “I’ve been doing this work for 25 years and I’ve never seen such fear.”
Good news for fans of mandatory training. Northwestern University’s agreed to pay $75 million to the Trump administration to resolve a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding …
■ … also committing to mandatory antisemitism training for students, faculty and staff.
■ Columnist Steve Sheffey says anti-Zionism isn’t always antisemitism: “We must know the difference.”
She’s out. An appeals court has unanimously disqualified President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor …
■ … a finding that The Washington Post says (gift link) “could have far-reaching implications for other controversial Trump appointments that have been challenged in court.”
■ Read the decision here.
‘Universally regarded as criminal behavior.’ Columnist Robert B. Hubbell sees reports that the U.S. military killed survivors of a shipwreck as “a tipping point in the effort to end Trump’s lawless reign.”
■ The AP: Lawmakers from both parties are supporting congressional reviews of those strikes on ships suspected of smuggling drugs—especially Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s reported verbal order that all crew members be killed in a Sept. 2 attack.
■ Popular Information: The Trump golf partner appointed to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine “has maintained an active financial partnership with … a billionaire sanctioned by Ukraine over his ties to Russia.”
Headline of the Day. The AP: “Trump says he’ll release MRI results but doesn’t know what part of his body was scanned.”
■ Public Notice reviews Trump’s “ugly Thanksgiving meltdown” on social media, wherein he referred to Minnesota’s governor as “seriously retarded.”
‘Formalization of a worldview in which the press exists to flatter Dear Leader or be punished.’ The What Did Donald Trump Do Today newsletter ain’t buying the White House’s new “media bias” tracker.
■ Reporter Aaron Parnas: “The administration’s attacks have been formalized into a government-branded digital tool.”
■ Ex-New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan: “Much of the reality-based press is doing a poor job of even acknowledging that they have a role in saving democracy, much less doing anything about it”—and she has the receipts.
High(er) cost of flying. Beginning in February, the Trump administration plans to impose a $45 fee on travelers passing through airport security checkpoints without a REAL ID or passport …
■ … but even that won’t guarantee them passage.
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.
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