At Trump’s service / ‘Fox News … on acid’ / Hire this kid

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At Trump’s service. Chicago’s scandal-scarred U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros is reportedly leading an investigation of longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll—awarded millions from the president in her battle to prove he’d sexually assaulted her.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Trump’s beclowned Justice Department is going after all Trump’s enemies, because that is their only job right now besides Nazi shit.”
■ A federal judge is refusing to block Trump’s executive order creating a federal voting list and limiting mail-in votes—clearing the way for, in the AP’s words, “sweeping changes in how American elections are run.”

Little kids’ immigration anguish. In the aftermath of the Trump administration’s Minnesota offensive, school districts are providing trauma counseling to kindergartners.
■ The Washington Post (gift link): A pregnant woman and her 4-year-old son from Ghana were detained for days at Dulles Airport.
■ Illinois’ “Broadview Six” are considering requests for cash from Trump’s “anti-weaponization” slush fund.
■ The American Prospect: Abolishing ICE would be just a start toward reckoning with America’s fascist past.

‘Fox News … on acid.’ That’s Independent columnist Holly Baxter’s take on Trump’s latest bizarre Cabinet meeting.
■ In a cleverly edited remix, Jimmy Kimmel crashed that session.

‘She’s lying.’ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier says former First Lady Jill Biden’s assertion that she feared her husband was suffering a stroke during his pivotal 2024 debate with Trump makes no sense—and “reminds us who put [Trump] back in office.”
■ Oh, hey: She has a book out next week.
■ Former President Biden’s suing the Justice Department to block release of audio recordings of his conversations with a ghostwriter.

‘The costs …are enormous.’ Columnist Eric Zorn says he loves the notion of renaming Wabash Avenue—which runs by Chicago’s Trump Tower—in honor of Barack Obama, but he says it could prove more trouble than it’s worth. (Photoillustration.)
■ An online petition for the change had more than 600 signatures as of this morning.

So, then: Room for compromise? The Washington Post (gift link) reports the Trump administration’s pushing creation of a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait …

Papal pitch. Updating coverage: Ahead of his meeting with Pope Leo today, Mayor Johnson said he’d use his time to request Catholic Church support for reparations to descendants of African American slaves.
■ His “goodie bag” for the pope included spicy giardiniera peppers.

CTA buses crash. At least nine people—including one bus driver—were hurt on the West Side last night when a car ran a red light, causing one CTA bus to collide with another.
■ Newly digitized online for the Chicago Film Archives collection: Silent 1968 footage of the late Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks riding the CTA.

‘The divisions in America … could destroy our nation.’ Echoing Abe Lincoln, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin yesterday delivered a farewell address to the General Assembly.
■ See his speech here.
■ Whoops: After the Tribune raised ethics questions about a law forbidding Illinois officials from holding fundraisers anywhere in the state when the legislature is in session in Springfield, Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey’s delayed one he’d scheduled for today.

Sorry about that ‘kill an abortion provider.’ At least one North Carolina Republican has stripped his name from draconian legislation that would give anyone “the right to defend … the life of another person”—even embryos—“by the use of deadly force if necessary.”
■ North Carolina’s News & Observer: That bill now looks dead on delivery.
■ A new study concludes that abortion restrictions are hindering U.S. access to miscarriage care.

‘Unexplained, unfair.’ Gov. Pritzker says he looks forward to signing a bill reigning in surprise hikes for homeowner and auto insurance.
■ It would ban increases of more than 10% without at least 60 days’ notice.

‘America’s strongest AI safety bill.’ That’s how Wired describes legislation headed to Gov. Pritzker’s desk.
■ In a first for the nation, it would require annual independent audits on safety issues.
■ Signaling a shift to AI-driven tech, Chicago-based Groupon is cutting up to 400 jobs—a quarter of its worldwide workforce.
■ The AP notes the typical CEO’s pay package rose almost 6% last year: At half the firms surveyed, “it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale 200 years to make what the CEO did in one.”

Here comes … StAIn Lee! The late Marvel Comics impresario Stan Lee’s voice and likeness have been added to speech synthesis company ElevenLabs’ roster of celebrity avatars licensable for commercial use.
■ Experience the real Stan in your Chicago Public Square columnist’s encounters with him from 1975, 1976, 1998 and 2017.

Hire this kid. A high school journalist accepting this year’s Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship at last night’s News Emmys ceremony thanked the network for funding the prize but added: “The recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace.”
■ See his remarks here.
■ Months after a conflict with CBS News chief Bari Weiss, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi is out at 60 Minutes.
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Trump Tower on Obama Avenue? / Emanuel’s ‘grand bargain’ / Suburbs ranked

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Trump Tower on Obama Avenue? As of this morning, close to 500 people had signed a petition calling on Mayor Johnson and the Chicago City Council to rename the block of Wabash Avenue, on which the Trump International Hotel and Tower is located, “Barack Hussein Obama Avenue.”
■ Off to the Vatican tomorrow, Mayor Johnson planned to cheer Chicago-born Pope Leo’s criticism of Donald Trump’s “godforsaken policies.”

‘Everything should be on the table.’ A Tribune editorial demands Chicago do more to suppress “teen takeovers” like the one that drew close to a thousand teens to the Hyde Park lakefront Monday night.
■ A City Council member’s calling for ratcheting up consequences for the parents of such kids.
■ The council’s lone Jewish member says Johnson’s proposal to fight hate crimes falls short because it “fails to address the unique nature of anti-Jewish hate.”

Emanuel’s ‘grand bargain.’ Chicago’s ex-mayor—widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate—traveled to Dartmouth College yesterday to roll out a plan to revive U.S. higher education (New York Times gift link).
■ Can you watch this Emanuel video and imagine that he’s not running for president?
■ Roosevelt University political science professor and self-styled “predictor of doom” David Faris: “There is no groundswell of support for him, he is not remembered particularly fondly even in Chicago and all of the people who are truly excited about him could fit into a single conference room.”

‘Alarming.’ An AP investigation finds immigration detainees taking their own lives at a rate that suggests authorities aren’t properly overseeing the tens of thousands swept up in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy.
■ A Chicago high school kid detained by ICE for months is back home in time for graduation.
■ The original lead prosecutor in the discredited “Broadview Six” case against immigration crackdown protesters has been fired from her job with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
■ Alleged misconduct by prosecutors in that case could aid the defense of two people tied to charges of fraud at Loretto Hospital.
■ Doctors and faith leaders are demanding the reopening of Oak Park’s West Suburban Medical Center.

Trump’s ‘winning streak’ a loser? The victory of the president’s Republican primary choice for the U.S. Senate—defeating an incumbent who didn’t drink all the Kool-Aid—demonstrates what the AP calls Trump’s “tightening grip on the party” …
■ … and delivers a reminder that, in the words of columnist and ex-Republican political strategist Rick Wilson, “no one who enters his orbit gets out alive … politically, at least.”
■ It may also in the fullness of time show that Texas Republicans, to quote columnist Charlotte Clymer, “shot themselves in the foot.”
■ Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: “Republicans just nominated the one guy who could lose Texas.”
■ In a rare challenge to a Democratic primary winner—whose last-minute entry was kinda cheesy (March link)—three independents have submitted the thousands of signatures they need to make November’s general election ballot for Illinois’ 4th congressional district.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman on Hawaii’s ban of corporate political ad spending: “Every state can and should.”
■ 51 candidates have formally filed for November’s election of Chicago’s first fully elected school board.

‘It would be perfectly fine to kill an abortion provider, an activist, or even someone who drives a friend to the clinic.’ Abortion, Every Day columnist Jessica Valenti flags a North Carolina bill that would give anyone “the right to defend … the life of another person, even by the use of deadly force if necessary, from willful destruction by another person.”
■ Read it here.

‘Severe consequences for American democracy.’ An open letter coordinated by the Freedom of the Press Foundation—and signed by Chicago Public Square, among many others—opposes CBS parent Paramount’s merger with CNN owner Warner Bros. Discovery “because it will undermine press freedom and editorial independence.”
■ The foundation’s seeking more signatures from current and former journalists, press freedom advocates and professors of journalism and First Amendment law.
■ In what Poynter’s Tom Jones calls “the most drastic step any administration has taken to curtail information from getting out,” Trump’s White House is planning what The Washington Post (gift link) calls “a government-wide nondisclosure agreement.”
■ Speaking of free speech: The American Civil Liberties Union’s landed a $225,000 settlement for a woman fired by Ball State University after she posted to Facebook criticism of assassinated reactionary activist Charlie Kirk.
■ Trib media columnist Robert Channick catches up with news anchors displaced from WGN-TV and the now-gone CBS News Radio.

Suburbs ranked. Relying strictly on data—not opinions—for factors including racial diversity, housing, education and green space, Chicago magazine rates 205 towns across six counties.
■ The Trib’s out with its 2026 Critic’s Choice Food Award winners (gift link).

7% off. Yesterday’s Square confused Pope Leo XIV and Leo XIII, the first to explicitly condemn slavery.
■ Thanks to several readers quick to note the error.
■ The latest Leo quoted Gandalf in his new letter on artificial intelligence.
■ YouTube says it’ll start automatically tagging videos that make “significant” use of AI.
■ Walter Fyk made this edition better.

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