‘An assault on the public’s right to know’ / ‘A dark milestone’ / Ready to march?

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‘An assault on the public’s right to know.’ A coalition of Chicago news organizations and broadcast workers, including the Chicago Headline Club*, is suing the Trump administration, alleging First Amendment violations and “widespread government violence” outside the ICE facility in Broadview.
■ The American Civil Liberties Union** is taking the lead.
■ Here’s the suit, which cites “attacks on individual journalists … too numerous to list in full.”
■ Lawyer/journalist Aaron Parnas: “Reporters on the ground are documenting raids that resemble military operations, and yet many large media companies are ignoring the story entirely or burying it under lighter news.”
■ The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is compiling a database of attacks on journalists here and around the world.
■ Separately, dozens of news organizations—including, notably, Fox News—have signed an amicus brief supporting The Associated Press in its ongoing fight for White House access.

On guard. As a federal judge weighs Illinois and Chicago’s lawsuit hoping to block the deployment, hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas—and Illinois—were targeted for the Chicago region today.
■ Trump’s team has until tomorrow night to respond.
■ Columnist and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance: “The judge described herself as ‘very troubled by the lack of answers’ the government provided in court on the deployment. This is hardly a win for the Trump administration.”
■ Gov. Pritzker’s threatening to quit the National Governors Association if it doesn’t condemn Trump’s invasion of U.S. cities.
■ WTTW’s Heather Cherone: Pritzker’s “furious.”
■ The American Prospect: Governors across the country now face a constitutional crisis.
■ Law Dork Chris Geidner: “This could be a very complicated, difficult week in Chicago.”

‘A dark milestone.’ That’s how traditional conservative columnist Charlie Sykes predicts historians will recognize the military-style attack on a Chicago apartment building.
■ The Economist says that raid and others “seem designed to produce content.”
■ As body-cam video casts doubt over the government charges against her, a Chicago woman accused of driving toward Border Patrol officers—one of whom shot her—has been ordered released from jail.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “A good rule is that ICE is lying, no matter what ICE says. … If ICE says this woman they shot in Chicago did something to deserve it, fuck off.”

ICE vs. cops. Chicago’s police superintendent says 27 officers were hurt by tear gas during weekend protests.
■ Video shows a protester appealing to some of those cops: “They just teargassed you! … Why you protecting them?”
■ A Chicago gang member’s been charged with soliciting the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.
■ The Atlantic: Even with billions in new federal funding, ICE arrests have declined and jail overcrowding is worse.

‘Republicans will try to steal 2026.’ But columnist Christopher Armitage says state and federal laws could put them in prison—and he recommends concerned citizens make “three phone calls this week” to support pending legislation that could ramp up those defenses.
■ Politico: Trump’s considering invoking the Insurrection Act if the courts block his guard deployment …
■ … which author and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says has been Republicans’ plan all along.

Ready to march? The ACLU last night hosted a plainspoken guide on how to protest smartly, safely and effectively …
■ … in what organizers say could be the biggest protest in modern American history, the Oct. 18 “No Kings” rallies …
■ … one of which you can find near you here. (Cartoon: Alex Garcia, Media Moe)

We’re No. 1—again. For the ninth year in a row, Condé Nast Traveler readers have voted Chicago the best big city in the U.S. …
■ … but under Mayor Johnson’s executive order, at least some parts of that great city will be off-limits to ICE agents.
■ Here he is signing that order …
■ … which The New Republic says prompted the White House to flip out.
■ Broadview’s police chief accuses ICE agents of making fake 911 calls to local cops.

‘Plenty of good news.’ Your Local Epidemiologist celebrates—finally—a green light for COVID-19 vaccines.
■ Lurie Children’s Hospital tops U.S. News and World Report’s list of Illinois’ best facilities for kids.

‘Apple has thrown in with the Trump regime’s most violent, human-rights invading program.’ Author and tech watchdog Cory Doctorow condemns the company’s removal of the ICEBlock immigration-enforcement reporting app—noting that Apple founder Steve Jobs was “exactly the sort of person that Trump wants to deport.”
■ Popular Information takes a critical look at the long and troubled history of the “anti-woke crusader” now in charge of CBS News …
■ … a moment about which Poynter’s Tom Jones says “it’s hard to overstate the enormity.”
■ Oligarch Watch: TikTok’s new boss is a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
■ If you’re inclined to patronize Jeff Bezos’ baby, Consumer Reports offers its favorite “Amazon Prime Big Deal Days” sales.
■ Ars Technica: The survival of Amazon’s Alexa smart voice assistant hinges on people buying newer, more expensive Amazon gadgets.

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

* Of which your Chicago Public Square publisher is a member.

‘Trump’s invasion’ / R.I.P., Monday papers / ‘None of them were real’

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Remember when you could take a break from the news on weekends and evenings? Not so much these days. Check the Chicago Public Square Bluesky account for updates between editions.

‘Trump’s invasion.’ That’s what Gov. Pritzker is calling the president’s order to dispatch members of the Texas National Guard here—without consulting Pritzker or his administration.
■ That’s on top of the federal co-option of 300 Illinois National Guard troops.
■ The state is suing to block that deployment …
■ … hoping maybe for a deal like Portland, where Wonkette notes that Trump’s forces “got kicked out! Twice!”—by a judge Trump appointed.
■ Columnist Mary Geddry: “From Portland to the Fed to the DOJ, judges and prosecutors told [Trump] no, and still he storms around shouting ‘off with their heads!’”
■ The home of a South Carolina judge who ruled against the Trump administration burned to the ground yesterday in a fire whose cause was under investigation.

‘Well, they lie, right?’ Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is among those casting doubts on immigration agents’ allegation that a woman and a man allegedly rammed their vehicle into a government car on the Southwest Side …
■ … before she was shot and wounded.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, who was at the Broadview detention center last week: “I saw it first hand … ICE threatening and roughing up police.”
■ The AP: “Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago.”
■ Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Muñoz, taking video in Broadview Friday, was pulled down by Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino and handcuffed as a federal agent held him down with a knee on his back.
■ Author and Evanston RoundTable photographer Richard Cahan shares “the view from the ground” in the Broadview’s “free arrest zone.”

‘Terrorizing American citizens.’ Popular Information says ICE’s assault on a Chicago apartment building exemplifies the Trump administration’s “systemic violations of U.S. citizens’ Constitutional rights.”
■ Contrarian Jen Rubin: “A military attack more akin to an overseas military operation than a domestic police action unfolded in that Chicago apartment building.”
■ Chicago congressmembers toured the scene yesterday, calling for an end to all federal immigration enforcement here.
■ Reviewing “nauseating footage” of the attack, John Oliver went on to celebrate protesters striking back with humor.
■ The American Prospect: A “well-intentioned” Illinois law ending immigration detention here has played into ICE’s hands, helping it hide detainees from their lawyers.

Next: Hunger. The federal shutdown threatens the disappearance within two weeks of a food aid program that helps millions of low-income moms and young children.
■ Journalism watchdog Margaret Sullivan: Beware the phrase “partisan bickering” in reporting on the shutdown.

‘The greatest politician you've probably never heard of.’ That’s how a new episode of This American Life celebrates Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington …
■ … who once read “The Night Before Christmas” for WXRT listeners.

R.I.P., Monday papers. Lee Enterprises—publisher of mid-market midwestern newspapers including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Quad City Times and The Times of Northwest Indiana—is abandoning dead-tree publication on Mondays effective next month.
■ That follows big layoffs last month.

The end of CBS News as we’ve known it? In what Axios describes as “the latest in a string of moves … to shift CBS News’ coverage to the right,” parent company Paramount’s bought reactionary Bari Weiss’ Free Press website, naming her the network’s editor-in-chief.
■ Zeteo: “The general sense among all those inside CBS ‘who are interested in fairness and journalism and accountability’ right now is: ‘What the fuck?’”
■ Today’s the first day of MSNBC’s split from NBC News—and it has a new code of principles.

‘Book banning is everywhere in Trump’s America.’ That sad observation comes from John K. Wilson, the Chicago coordinator of Banned Books Week—which begins today.
■ A University of Illinois Springfield professor: Beware the “academic neutrality playbook.”
■ The Onion reacts to a report that Stephen King is the author most banned in U.S. schools: “Censor him all you want, but eventually young people will learn that cars can get possessed.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “A university censorship conference gets censored? This is Trump's America.”

‘The Oct. 7 attacks engaged Israel into betraying its humanitarian core.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg marks the second anniversary of the horrific attack that triggered a horrific war: “I just want to draw attention to all the lives lost, on both sides.”

‘None of them were real.’ PolitiFact exposes a buttload of fake musical tributes to regressive martyr Charlie Kirk—purportedly from artists including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber and Imagine Dragons—all generated by artifical intelligence …
■ … and offers guidance for identifying such phony songs—which reminds us:
■ Join us for a deep dive into the world of AI tools and fact-check tech—free. Chicago Public Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up to offer you interactive online coaching already received by thousands of professional journalists. Online, Nov. 3, noon-2 p.m. Registration details here. (Share with your friends!)

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