‘What we must do’ / ‘Serious shit’ / Last call / Quiz!

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‘What we must do.’ Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich: “Start preparing now for … a series of general strikes.”
■ Another nationwide round of protest takes the stage tomorrow—including Chicago’s Daley Center and several suburban sites.
■ You can find one nearest you—to join or avoid—here.
■ Yesterday’s National Day of Action for Higher Ed brought protests—and demands for administrators to stand tough against Donald Trump—at Northwestern and the University of Illinois Chicago.

‘Change in the air.’ Historian Heather Cox Richardson: “The vibe is shifting against the right” …
■ … or, as Law Dork Chris Geidner puts it: “The pushback against Trump’s lawlessness is real—and making a difference.”
■ Geidner points to a (Ronald Reagan-appointed) federal appellate judge’s blistering rebuke of the Trump administration in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador and left there by the White House.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance dismisses assertions that Abrego Garcia has a criminal record: “What does matter is that Abrego Garcia, criminal or saint, was denied his due process rights by the government, and in this country, people … whether citizens or not, are entitled … to a hearing in front of a judge.”
■ Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen met last night with Abrego Garcia—but, as of Chicago Public Square’s email deadline, had yet to share details of their encounter.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “Kilmar is alive. Bring him the fuck home.”
■ Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released a U.S.-born Georgia man after keeping him in a Florida jail for 48 hours.
■ Men Yell at Me’s Dingus of the Week: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who “continues to materially facilitate and publicly cheerlead for these cruel and arguably lawless deportations.”

‘Serious shit.’ That’s the phrase Politico’s Shia Kapos says Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul reportedly used to describe the arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home—suggesting the attack was motivated by Shapiro’s criticism of Trump’s administration.
■ Shapiro to ABC: “This is sadly a real part of our society today. And it needs to be universally condemned.”
■ Gov. Pritzker on Trump’s cuts in federal funding for violence prevention programs: “People will die.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: The same hatred of government that led Timothy McVeigh to bomb an Oklahoma City federal building 30 years ago fuels today’s dismantling of federal offices.

‘War on measurement.’ That’s how ProPublica describes the Trump administration’s slashing of federal programs that gather critical data—crippling work to fight climate change, maternal mortality and drug use.
■ Wired: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been gutted, with 1,400 of 1,700 employees terminated.
■ Consumer Reports is petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to outlaw the faking of your voice without your consent …
■ … and you can sign here.
■ The Union of Concerned Scientists is encouraging voters to press their senators to keep Trump from dismantling the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
■ Now in Trump’s sights: Tax-exempt status for do-gooder groups—specifically Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
■ Economist Paul Krugman: “You should fear a Trumpified Fed.”

Last call. Today’s the final day of Cook County’s “Amnesty Week” for those who’d like to clear overdue moving traffic violation fees without extra penalties.
■ The Reader looks back to 1855’s “Lager Beer Riot”—an uprising that forever changed Chicago policing.

‘Hopefully, he’ll remember to come back.’ That’s The Conversation arts and culture editor Nick Lehr, filling as quizmaster this week for past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.
■ Your Chicago Public Square columnist’s score: 6/8 correct.
■ Bonus quiz: Axios’ Justin Kaufmann tests how much you know about movies filmed in Illinois. (5/10 here.)

Not so not-so-evil. Make that three strikes against Google in court over the past 17 months: It’s been found to have monopolized advertising market tech.
■ Poynter: “Fact-checkers are out. The internet gets to vote on the truth now.”

Domain pain. Squarespace is raising the fee for the registration of ChicagoPublicSquare.com—from $12 a year to $15. Which generous reader will be first to step forward and cover that cost? $3 gets your name in Monday’s edition!
■ PayPal works, too.

A Square public service announcement
Help chart Chicago’s new course. Illinois Sen. Robert Peters and Rep. Kam Buckner keynote Saturday’s Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization convention. Previous KOCO conventions have developed policies and leaders that continue to positively impact Chicago and Illinois. Join the conference, free.

Take a number, Your Honor / Trump sees crimson / CTA shootout

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Take a number, Your Honor. Federal Judge James Boasberg says he sees probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt …
■ … for its “willful disregard” of his orders directing the halt of a flight of Venezuelan migrants to an El Salvador prison.
■ Read the order here.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “This uncertain process … is certain to make him even more of a target than his initial ruling against the Trump administration did.”
■ PolitiFact debunks Trump’s misleading statements about Boasberg.
■ A retired federal judge appointed by George W. Bush says the Trump administration’s disdain for judicial authority is “breathtaking in its audacity and lack of decorum.”
■ Author and tech watchdog Cory Doctorow: “Trump II is a lawless administration, prepared to violate laws, procedures, norms and the U.S. Constitution.”
■ Indivisible Chicago’s launched an online petition demanding that “nobody be disappeared from our country.”

A Chicago speech ticked Trump off. The president took to social media this morning to complain that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough” …
■ … after Powell told an Economic Club of Chicago lunch that “unemployment is likely to go up as the economy slows, in all likelihood, and inflation is likely to go up” as a consequence of Trump’s tariffs.
■ See Powell’s speech here.
■ Contrarian editor-in-chief Jennifer Rubin: “Tariffs are not the only regressive, economically insane move” the administration’s advancing.
■ Unions and other groups have launched a network to provide legal help to laid-off federal workers.

‘We need to … stand up to this president.’ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who last month called Trump Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “a f*cking liar,” joined The Daily Show last night.
■ Chicago-born John Mulaney’s Netflix talk show delivered what LateNighter’s Dennis Perkins dubs a “pitch-perfect tribute” to David Letterman.

Trump sees crimson. Denied complicity by Harvard in his demand for changes in its hiring and educational policies, Trump’s team is considering stripping the university of its tax-exempt status.
■ City Cast Chicago surveys the ways in which Trump’s putting the squeeze on Chicago’s universities.
■ Stephen Colbert on Trump’s push to defund public broadcasting: “They’re already operating on a shoestring budget! Daniel Tiger can’t even afford to wear pants!”

‘It is troubling that the City Council would consider giving one person … the ability to enforce a curfew at any point, at any time without warning.’ Axios: The American Civil Liberties Union, among others, is sounding a warning about a plan—endorsed by a majority of council members—giving the cops power to activate “anytime, anywhere” curfews for teens.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “It’s worth a try.”

CTA shootout. An exchange of gunfire by two masked men on a Red Line train last night left a 13-year-old wounded.
■ A 39-year-old man was due in court today, accused in the robbery of a custom-made violin Friday night on the CTA.


‘I’m not screaming Aliens! But I … reserve my right to scream Aliens!’ An exobiologist shares with The New York Times (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters) her excitement about the discovery of the “strongest evidence yet” for life on a distant planet.
■ It’s not E.T., though: It’s just signs of two chemicals long considered producible only by living things.
■ The Washington Post in another gift link: Trump’s purge of National Institutes of Health review boards has disproportionately hit female, Black and Hispanic scientists.
■ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts put the lie to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims about a rise in autism cases.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst wants you to know “what Seth Rogen said right to Bezos’s and Zuck’s little fascist Trump-sucking faces” at an “Oscars of Science” ceremony—remarks that “cowards … edited out.”

‘No paywall, ever. You are as good as anyone else.’ That financial appeal from Wonkette earlier this week brought to mind Chicago Public Square’s similar commitment.
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