■ Obama said Donald Trump’s upending of the unwritten rules of the presidency means “we’re going to have to do some work to return to this basic norm, and we probably now have to codify it.”
■ He also gave Colbert a tour of the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago—the first tickets to which went on sale today.
■ After a sequel to his wastepaper basketball face-off with Obama, Colbert remains undefeated.
■ Meanwhile: Late-night hosts were appalled by Trump’s behavior before kids visiting the White House.
Primary points. Tuesday’s voting reinforced Trump’s control over Indiana’s Republican Party …
■ … and set the stage for an Ohio Senate race that could prove critical for control of the U.S. Senate.
■ CNN’s takeaway: “Trump gets revenge.”
■ Democrats won a special election securing control of Michigan’s Senate for now.
■ The American Prospect expects Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman to “go full Benedict Arnold” and turn Republican—because his support for Trump has doomed any 2028 re-election campaign as a Democrat.
Who’s who in the Epstein photos? Decoherence Media’s published the Epstein Photo Network, “the highest-quality publicly available facial recognition interface to the Epstein Library,” identifying more than 400 people in photos released by the government—170 of whom haven’t been cited before.
‘To Tell the Truth: The Future of Local Media.’ That’s the title of a discussion your Square publisher will moderate Saturday afternoon—free tickets for which you can register in advance.
■ Contrarian columnist Jennifer Weiss-Wolf: A federal appeals court ruling proves that “abortion is on the ballot this November.”
■ Your Local Epidemiologist: “Regardless of what happens in courts, American women have access to the same lesser-known option that changed everything in Brazil. Most don’t know it exists.”
■ It’s searchable by name and professional or social circles here.
■ Poynter’s Kristen Hare says her favorite Pulitzer this year went to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown for “her groundbreaking reporting in 2017 and 2018 that exposed Jeffrey Epstein’s systematic abuse of young women.”
■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich asks: “What kind of shithole country wastes a billion taxpayer dollars on a gaudy Epstein Dance Hall?”
ICE under heat. Illinois State Police have launched an investigation of last September’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved fatal shooting in Franklin Park.
■ The Lever: “Trump’s private repo men are hunting immigrants.”
■ A woman fired as an immigration judge in Chicago is suing, accusing the Trump administration of firing her for her previous work as an advocate for immigrants—and for her race and gender.
■ News from the States: Homeland security has hit a Cuban landscaper in Arizona with a $1.8 million fine just for being in the U.S.—even though immigration officials two years ago told him he had a valid green card.
■ The Sun-Times: Cinco de Mayo in Chicago went parade-less and was generally “really slow” in Chicago.
■ Nieman Lab: “The Intercept didn’t just publish a story about ICE—it drove it around.”
■ Borderless: As ICE fears escalated, Chicago teachers worked off the clock to help students move past fear.
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: Two motions in the government’s lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center show “the government's indictment is in trouble.”
‘A bakery that didn’t exist.’ A claim for $41,000 in pandemic relief cash has made a Chicago cop the department’s third officer to be charged with defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program.
■ A Cook County official overseeing taxpayer complaints has been found not guilty of drunk driving in 2024.
■ Headed to the full Chicago City Council over Mayor Johnson’s opposition: A ban on “sweepstakes” gambling machines.
‘If they don’t agree, the bombing starts.’ That was Trump’s threat to Iran today if it doesn’t open the oil-essential Strait of Hormuz.
■ Wonkette’s Marcie Jones: The ceasefire in Iran “sure involves lots of firing.”
■ Columnist Mary Geddry: “The ceasefire has missiles now.”
■ Popular Information: The war’s real cost in its first 60 days is $47 billion more than the Trump administration’s accounting.
■ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch (gift link) traces a dearth of antiwar protests on college campuses back 56 years ago this week to “what began with the Kent State Massacre.”
Hard time for hard drives. 404 Media reports that the AI boom’s needs have rocketed upward the price of solid-state drives, hard drives and other types of storage …
■ … putting the squeeze on the most important archiving projects in the history of the internet, including the Internet Archive …
■ … repository for, among other things, the Chicago Public Square podcast series.
■ Settling a lawsuit over its failure to deliver on promises of AI capabilities it never delivered, Apple’s agreed to a class action settlement that could send customers up to $95 per device.
A year of Leo. The Tribune (gift link) reviews the Chicago pope’s first year in office.
■ The New York Times (another gift link): The pope had to call customer service, but “Spoiler alert: There was no miracle.”
CNN founder dead. Ted Turner’s gone at 87.
■ Rupert Murdoch’s son James—the liberal one—is eyeing Vox Media, including New York magazine and a podcast division that hosts Kara Swisher’s show.
■ The Times (another gift link) faces a federal lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against a white guy.
■ Former Chicago TV news executive Jennifer Schulze: Bari Weiss’ CBS News takeover is “a train wreck, calamity, crisis, sinking ship and disaster.”
■ Surprise: The Chicago-based show The Bear yesterday dropped a prequel episode on Hulu.
■ On the panel, among others: Journalists with Axios and Block Club.
■ Also: Refreshments!
Thanks. This publication comes your way because of financial support from readers like—and maybe including—you.
■ Harry Politis and Mike Braden made this edition better.
