Burning questions

Chicago Public Square’s taking a break. Back Tuesday.

■ Until then, get breaking news and commentary via the Square account on Bluesky. (Hey, you’ll find plenty there just since the last edition.)

Burning questions. It wouldn’t be Friday without a fresh news quiz from The Conversation’s quizmaster, past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel.

■ Get more than 6/8 correct and you get to brag you beat your Square columnist.

‘Please continue your efforts to help us make sense of the world.’ Reader—and former Daily Southtown columnist*—Ted Slowik sent a fan letter this week: “Square respects its readers by providing a concise summary of important news.”

■ Join Ted in The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians by pitching in as little as just $1, just once, to help keep this service coming … back from vacations.

A Square public service announcement

What if next-generation quantum computing can power the local economy in South Chicago? As Gov. Pritzker places a half-billion-dollar bet on that prospect, the Illinois Answers Project, the Chicago Council on Science and Technology and Block Club are teaming up for an evening of conversation about the promise and the peril of that gamble. Oct. 9, 6 p.m. at the Chicago Public Library South Shore Branch. Register free here.

* And long-ago WXRT News intern.

An ‘ill-chosen word’ / TrumPoem / Starbucks shuttering stores

Chicago Public Square will take a break. Friday will bring you an abbreviated edition, with The Conversation’s weekly news quiz as usual, and Square will return at full strength Tuesday morning.

■ Through the extended weekend, catch breaking news and perspective by following Square on Bluesky.

An ‘ill-chosen word.’ Taking issue with Mayor Johnson’s assertion that “jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness,” columnist Eric Zorn writes, “Using the word ‘sickness’ to describe the men and women who risk their lives to keep us safe and to describe the institutions that incapacitate those who prey on our communities is something new.”

■ Wonkette pleads sarcastically: “Please Do Not Call ICE Thugs ‘Gestapo’ For Holding 5-Year-Old Hostage As Bait To Nab Her Father.”

■ Sen. Durbin’s hoping to meet with ICE about its Chicago-area raids.

■ The Intercept: “Who wants to join ICE? We went to Utah to find out.”

■ The Pokémon Company says it was “not involved in the creation or distribution of … and permission was not granted for the use of” its imagery and language in a Homeland Security video promoting ICE raids to strains of “gotta catch ’em all.”

‘You can’t believe they gave me my job back? I can’t believe we gave you your job back!’ In his second show after a suspension, Jimmy Kimmel cut President Trump no slack.

■ Kimmel’s homecoming ratings—on-air and online—have been through the roof.
■ Vice President Vance says the Federal Communications Commission chair’s threat to can Kimmel’s show was just “a joke on social media.”

■ With the Nexstar and Sinclair TV chains still refusing to air Kimmel, the American Civil Liberties Union’s launched a petition drive encouraging both companies to change their ways.

■ Lawyers representing, among other Disney shareholders, The American Federation of Teachers and Reporters Without Borders are demanding Disney/ABC turn over internal documents tied to Kimmel’s weeklong exile.

■ In the words of one lawyer: “ABC was the network to run the series Schoolhouse Rock more than fifty years ago. Its leadership should pay attention to the important lessons it taught.”

■ Lyz Dye at Public Notice: “Disney set itself up for this shakedown when it settled Trump’s weak defamation suit last year.”

■ Mark Stenberg at Adweek has four unanswered questions about Kimmelgate.

■ The Lever: “A 1996 law from a Democratic president created Donald Trump’s censorship machine by consolidating media, broadband and tech firms. We can stop it.”

■ Disney+ and Apple TV+ are both raising prices.

‘Censorship undermines the city’s ability to defend its residents against President Trump’s right-wing attacks.’ A group of artists says the Chicago Public Library has censored an exhibit critical of Trump.

■ A statue of the president prancingly holding hands with convicted—and dead—sex offender Jeffrey Epsein has been removed from Washington’s National Mall. (Photo: The Secret Handshake Project.)

■ Let columnist Neil Steinberg, back from a trip to D.C., introduce you to a disparaging word spotted on an anti-Trump poster.

■ South Park was back at it last night—depicting Trump’s efforts to kill his and Satan’s unborn child.

Budget brinksmanship. As tensions rise between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, the White House has told federal agencies to prep plans for mass firings.

■ Chalkbeat says Chicago will lose millions in federal funding for magnet schools because Trump’s Education Department disapproves of the school district’s services for Black and transgender kids.

■ Newsweek sees in Trump’s fiscal policy a “Great Boomer Bailout: In America, the young pay while the old collect.”

■ Columnist Christopher Armitage: “Republicans run 8 of America’s 10 poorest states. Maybe they should stop.”

TrumPoem. Columnist Mary Schmich’s latest lyrical lampoon of the president’s thinking on Tylenol includes this passage:

You’re pregnant with a fever

And you’re crying out in pain?

Just buck up, ladies, tough it out!

Don’t whimper and complain.

■ Gov. Pritzker’s beefing up his new Autism Data Privacy Advisory Group.

■ Grudge Report proprietor Bess Kalb satirically lists things that do and don’t contribute to autism.

■ Columnist Matthew Yglesias: “It’s dangerous to have the White House … controlled by people with terrible epistemics.”

‘Hands Off Chicago.’ Organizers have set Saturday, Oct. 18, for the city’s next “No Kings” rally and march.

■ The Tribune: ICE’s suburban Broadview facility has become “the place to be seen for candidates running in next spring’s primary elections.”

Starbucks shuttering stores. The company says it’s closing hundreds of outlets around the world …

■ … before the end of the month.

Cubs’ ‘firestorm.’ Axios’ Justin Kaufmann assesses the criticism faced by the team for its management’s—and at least one player’s—political and media ties.

■ Chicago-born John Mulaney will headline Wrigley Field’s first comedy show.

■ Columnist and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories author James Finn Garner offers a weekend guide for those stranded in Chicago.

‘Man, you’ve been VITAL this week.’ A reader wrote those kind words yesterday about Chicago Public Square …

■ … which makes this a good time to note that Square wouldn’t have made it to almost 2,000 editions—more on that to follow over the next few weeks—if not for the financial support of readers who keep it coming.

■ You can join that roster by pitching in as little as just $1, just once.

Welcome, new readers. Many, many joined the subscriber roster yesterday from Substack.

■ Let’s get some more: Recommend Square to a friend?

A Square public service announcement

Does your home have lead pipes? City Bureau, WBEZ, Grist and Inside Climate News host a free “public newsroom” session to help you find out—and to learn how to test your water and protect yourself from lead exposure. Tonight, 6-8 p.m. R.S.V.P. here.