Ready to vote? Chicagoans can cast ballots in-person beginning today—but at just two locations …
■ … which means it’s time again for the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide—a guide to the growing number of voter guides out there.
■ Citing “the gusher of special-interest cash” funding other campaigns, Chicago School Board presidential candidate Sendhil Revuluri is dropping out of that race.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: “I would have voted for him.”
■ The Tribune (free link): Chicago-area election officials are bracing for the presence of ICE and FBI agents at the polls—as threatened by President Trump.
■ The Guardian: Trump’s administration has abandoned efforts to protect the vote from foreign actors and domestic terrorists.
‘Everybody’s numbers dropped.’ Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton was caught on an open mic saying that Trump and his midterm convention in Texas have proved a drag on the party: “Now, yeah, not good” (New York Times gift link).
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich on Trump’s recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month: “Let’s all look on in horror as a racist game show host does a racism.”
■ As Trump was off to campaign in Alabama, columnist and law prof Joyce Vance found reasons to be cheerful: “If people in the heart of Trump country are concerned about where this administration is taking the country, there’s hope.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “If there’s one thing our president likes, it’s benefiting financially, so I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t want one of these apparently awesome data centers near or on top of one of his golf courses.”
‘Weirdest Village People cover we’ve ever heard.’ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst reviews Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “State of the Force” address …
■ … in which Politico says Hegseth first vowed to shrink the Pentagon and then announced plans to grow it.
■ After hundreds of thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries, the last of the U.S. military forces are out of Iraq.
SCOTUS showdown. Politico: The Supreme Court’s agreed to decide the legality of ICE’s mandatory detention policy—which lower courts have rejected more than 20,000 times.
■ The family of Renee Good—shot and killed by immigration enforcers in Minneapolis—is suing the government and several immigration officials.
■ In Chicago federal court today: A judge considers what to do about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the “Broadview Six” case.
■ The Daily Beast: “Trump’s legal goon takes revenge on judges for speaking out.”
■ Columnist and ProPublica co-founder Dick Tofel: “The White House press corps needs to stop compromising with Trump.”
Rahm-ance move? The New York Times (gift link) showcases former Chicago Mayor Emanuel’s potential as a presidential candidate.
■ Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary—and fellow Clinton administration alumnus—Robert Reich last week: Emanuel’s “the single worst Democratic hopeful now (almost) running for president” …
■ … which makes this a fun time to revisit a series of 2011 and 2012 radio reports filed under the banner “Who’s Mayor Emanuel ridiculing now?”
‘Billionaires versus the Brandon Johnson Coalition.’ That’s how Mayor Johnson described next year’s mayoral race as he spoke to the City Club.
■ See his speech here.
■ A Tribune editorial (free link) blasts a proposal to charge suburbanites more to park in Chicago.
■ Coming in the next few weeks: A dedicated bus lane along northbound Michigan Avenue.
Shopping center shooting. One man’s dead and a woman wounded after gunfire at the Oakbrook mall yesterday afternoon.
■ Chicago police have released video of a fatal shooting—an ambush by two masked gunmen—at a South Side gas station Friday night.
‘His valor helped save hundreds of lives.’ A FlyDubai airline captain who survived an attack by his copilot, who stabbed him in an apparent attempt to crash the flight, is being celebrated as a hero.
■ Video shows some of what happened on that flight.
‘I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.’ Casting more doubt on a district attorney’s decision not to prosecute anyone for a 2024 Cornell University fraternity house incident, new evidence indicates the woman who filed that complaint was unequivocal in her accusation.
Baseball news. The White Sox have swept their playoff series, while the Cubs were swept out.
■ Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan (free link): Finding Chicago playoff games on Peacock has never been so maddening.
No relation. Wednesday Jeopardy! contestant Ben Meyerson (spoiler alert on that link) is not familially tied to your Square columnist.
■ Columnist Elaine Soloway: “In my old age, I am like a Jeopardy! contestant, but louder.”
