‘Safeguard’? Hah. The president of the Illinois League of Women Voters explains how Republicans’ “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act” would endanger voting rights for, among others, married women who’ve changed their names.
■ The Brennan Center for Justice: It would “undermine voter registration for all Americans. Congress should reject this antidemocratic and ill-conceived bill.”
■ The ACLU, which calls it “a direct attack on voting rights,” has launched an online letter-writing campaign to press Congress to vote no.
■ President Trump’s signed an order that purportedly would expand access to and reduce costs for in vitro fertilization …
■ … but Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, whose two daughters were conceived that way (2021 link), calls Trump’s gesture “vague” and “toothless.”
‘Empires have fallen before. But it’s never been this purely idiotic.’ American Prospect managing editor Ryan Cooper says Trump and Elon Musk are causing “the dumbest imperial collapse in history.”
■ Trump’s signed an order expanding his control over the government’s sprawling independent regulatory agencies.
■ In what Wonkette’s Doktor Zoom calls “one of those little oopsies that can happen when you’re trying to fire everyone in the government but pretending mass firings won’t have any downsides,” NBC News reports: “USDA accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them.”
■ The Washington Post: “U.S. reverses plan to shut down free COVID test program”—which is to say there was a plan to shut down the free COVID test program.
■ Wired: The National Science Foundation has fired 168.
■ The Associated Press: “Trump’s firing of 1,000 national park workers raises concerns.”
■ Here’s an overview of the “Department of Government Efficiency” firings and layoffs so far.
■ The guy in charge of, you know, food at the Food and Drug Administration is quitting—contending that Trump’s staff cuts make it—good choice of word here—“fruitless” to continue.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “This is now a Justice Department where people who stand for principle over politics … resign.”
■ The American Prospect: Trump’s new Veterans Affairs secretary “is a bigger threat to veterans’ care than Elon Musk.”
■ Trump’s layoffs have cost Chicago’s Environmental Protection Agency offices dozens of scientists.
■ A couple of hundred federal workers and supporters gathered in Chicago yesterday for a “Stop the Billionaire Takeover” protest.
■ FAA workers tell Rolling Stone Trump and Musk’s purge is “a very real threat to the American flying public.”
■ The New York Times (gift link; you’re welcome): “DOGE claimed it saved $8 billion in one contract. It was actually $8 million.”
■ Zeteo: Musk “might soon have access to the most lucrative defense contract database of all.”
■ The Conversation: Trump’s forgetting Greenland’s rapidly melting ice and landslide-prone fjords, making oil and minerals dangerous to extract.
Mexico protests. It’s demanding Google restore the name “Gulf of Mexico” to all its maps.
■ Trump says he’ll continue to freeze The AP out of his events until it adopts “Gulf of America.”
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “The wire service is in an impossible position. The Trump White House wants this fight. And it’s not going to end at the shores of the Gulf” …
■ … which makes this an apt time to mention that the AP accepts donations.
■ Axios: “Our standard is to use ‘Gulf of America (renamed by U.S. from Gulf of Mexico),’” but “the government should never dictate how any news organization makes editorial decisions.”
■ Apple and Microsoft have now bent that knee, too …
■ … but MapQuest now will let you name that body of water whatever you’d like.
‘With the new tariffs … the cost of everyday goods like tomatoes and beef and beer is likely to rise again.’ Politico’s Shia Kapos previews Gov. Pritzker’s State of the Budget address …
■ … scheduled to stream live here at noon.
■ Pritzker was also poised to call for a crackdown on scam-prone cryptocurrency ATMs.
■ Illinois Republicans are pushing a DOGE-style review of Illinois government.
‘The Don & Elon Show.’ Politico: “Millions of Americans tuned in to Fox News last night for the latest episode of 2025’s most improbable rom-com.”
■ Poynter’s Tom Jones on the conservative takeover of media space at the Pentagon: “It does show the Trump administration’s intention to give preferential treatment to media they like. Or, more accurately, to media that likes them.”
Kindle user alert. ZDNET reports that, after Feb. 26, Amazon’s “changing the rules on stuff we already bought and paid for”—revoking the ability to download that material to files you can control yourself.
‘Heartened by all the names I’m seeing at the bottom of the newsletter.’ That’s Chicago Public Square supporter J.J. Tindall—seen here on the right, sporting Squarewear with his brother Steve—cheering on the continued roll call of readers whose contributions help cover the cost of producing this service.
■ You know—people such as Mark Suppelsa, Amy Fazekas, Maryanne Peterson, Jean and John Meister, Diana Lauber (again!), Patrick Olsen, Thomas Gradel, Kathy Downing, Linnea Crowther, Keelin Wyman, R Carney, Jon Hilkevitch, Sarah Rodriguez, Mark Edwards, Jan Rogatz, Lawrence Weiland, Suzy Carlson, Jim Owens, Liz Strause, Shara Miller, Tom Williamson, Sandy and Jeremy Lipschultz, Sara Burrows, Phil Vettel, Amy Reynaldo, Leonard Strazewski, Andrew Mitran, Tom Pritchett, Graham Greer, Edward White, David Layden, Michael Wilson, Alisa dePedro, Yolanda Bada, Darold Barnum, James Madigan, JM, Phil Huckelberry, H. Evan Williams, Catherine Tokarski, Jennifer McGeary, MJ Garnier, Deborah Stone, Michael Kelly, Mike Pillatsch, John Aerni, Mark Thurow, Mickey Callahan, Tom Wethekam, Alice Cottingham, Jim Grimes, Harlene Ellin, Karen Hand, Angela Mullins, Christine Cupaiuolo, Marianne Goss, Bill Herbert, Sarah Williams, Maria Mooshil, Meghan Strubel, Sandy Kaczmarski, Dave Hodgman, E Larsen, Larry Baldacci, Ronald Melody, Christine Hauri, Mary Greenwald, Alec Bloyd-Peshkin, Tim Spencer, Michael Conway, Dan Haley, Sandy Ridolfi, Alan Hommerding, Ryan Bird, Lisa Krimen, Ira Pilchen, Jean Davis, Mark Miller, Don Miner, Jen Purrenhage, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Lynne Taylor, Ricky Briasco, Tina Birnbaum, Paul Francuch, Nina Ovryn, Joe Hallissey, Mike Leiderman, Ben Orzeske, Leigh Daeuble, John Culver, Vidas Germanas, Joel Hood and Sherry Skalko, Marc Blesoff, Timothy Jackson, Meredith Schacht, Pat Albu, Marcie Dosemagen, Cassandra West, Mary Godlewski, Tracey Thomas, Matthew Hunnicutt, Jeanne Peppler, Lizzie Schiffman Tufano, Marjorie Huerta, Scott Knitter, Clive Topol, Mark Mueller, Nancy and Barney Straus, Lil Levant, Cate Plys and Susy Schultz.
■ Pitch in any amount—even just $1, once—and see your name atop tomorrow’s list.
■ Make it $25/month—about a buck a day—and get a free Square T-shirt or hoodie. Then share a selfie and see it here.
