‘Groundbreaking transit reform’ / ‘Appropriate for our country’ / Have a news Christmas

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‘Groundbreaking transit reform.’ Streetsblog Chicago’s John Greenfield is overjoyed at Gov. Pritzker’s signature on legislation to overhaul Chicago and Illinois’ splintered mass transportation systems …
■ … combining them under a new Northern Illinois Transportation Authority—without raising fares or cutting service …
■ … but likely triggering an increase in drivers’ tollway charges.
■ Here’s what’s in it.
■ Tribune columnist Laura Washington (gift link): “Let’s hope the pressure from the feds will pump up the volume on safety and security on the CTA.”

‘Get used to it.’ Politico’s Shia Kapos rounds up reports of federal immigration agents’ renewed show of force around the Chicago area Tuesday.
■ Border Patrol ringleader Greg Bovino seemed to be having fun—telling a crowd of bystanders shouting insults, “We love Chica-ho-ho-ho.”
■ Now that he’s back, Bovino has an invitation from the governor.
■ The Evanston church whose nativity display supporting migrants was vandalized—twice—isn’t giving up.

‘She offered us a glimpse behind the White House walls. And it’s every bit as bad as we feared.’ Daily Beast national correspondent David Gardner assesses Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ tell-all to Vanity Fair …
■ … which media writer Tom Jones says may go down as the interview of the year.
■ Politico: Her words have proven “extremely demoralizing” at the White House.
■ Wonkette: “Wiles So Mad At Vanity Fair She Might Not Give Them 11 Interviews Next Time.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Columnist Charlie Sykes sees Wiles’ words as evidence of Trump’s effect on those closest to him: “To know him is to … warn the country against him.”

‘We will commit ourselves to bringing their murderer to justice.’ The Los Angeles County district attorney has filed first-degree murder charges against Rob Reiner’s son Nick, who was to appear in court today in connection with the deaths of his parents.
■ A person close to the family gives The New York Times “a detailed account of what occurred in the Reiner house after a massage therapist received no response at the gate.” (Times gift link, courtesy of those who support Chicago Public Square).
■ Author Stephen King: After he saw Rob Reiner’s adaptation Stand By Me, “I … surprised the hell out of myself by giving him a hug.”

‘If the economy isn’t working for us, then who is it working for?’ A University of Chicago staffer laid off around the same time her husband was laid off from a digital health startup exemplifies what The Wall Street Journal sees as job security slipping away from white-collar workers.
■ Ahead of Trump’s address to the nation tonight, Pulitzer winner Paul Krugman delivers a report card on the administration’s economic policies: “An A+++++ economy, my A++.” (Cartoon: Jack Ohman—still offering those who support his *free* newsletter cool, customized art.)
■ Author and tech watchdog Cory Doctorow sees a disenshittification opportunity in the collapse of U.S. consumption.

Yeah, but his name remains stuck to the Museum of Science and Industry. Billionaire and Illinois expat Ken Griffin is shrinking his company Citadel’s Chicago footprint (Trib gift link).
■ Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is reportedly backing out of the fight to take over Warner Bros. Discovery …
■ … whose leadership is rejecting Trump-allied Paramount’s “illusory” bid in favor of Netflix’s offer.

‘Appropriate for our country.’ Thumbing its nose at the Trump administration, an Illinois advisory committee has voted unanimously to recommend that all newborns in the state be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
■ ProPublica: Attorney General Pam Bondi “dismissed charges against a surgeon who falsified vaccine cards. It emboldened others with similar cases.”
■ Even as workers warn that Chicago-area Veterans Administration hospitals are understaffed, the Trump administration is cutting hundreds of unfilled jobs.

How to beat the bots. Stuck in a standoff with a customer service automaton? The Current newsletter offers phrases that may help you reach a human faster.
■ A report prepared by three state agencies warns that, as AI computing demands more and more power, Illinois could be just five years away from electricity shortages.

Have a news Christmas. A group of Chicago journalists—from, among others, Block Club, Chicago magazine, NPR, the Better Government Association and Borderless—has banded together under the banner Chicago Media Chorus to release a compilation of holiday songs on Bandcamp.
■ They’re free to stream online, but pay $7 to download ’em and your money benefits Streetwise, the weekly magazine that supports and employs the homeless.

Thanks. Matthew Tarpy and Chris Koenig made this edition better.

He’s baaaaaa-aaaack / Prosecutors’ puzzle / Year of the Lies

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He’s baaaaaa-aaaack. Block Club: Border Patrol boss Gregory Bovino and about 200 of his lackeys have returned to the Chicago area—today targeting Cicero.
■ WBEZ and the Sun-Times trace his roots—including a father who was imprisoned after a drunk-driving accident that killed a 20-year-old woman.

DePressing. DePaul University’s laying off 114 staffers …
■ … citing in part the Trump administration’s moves to cut the number of foreign students studying on American campuses.
■ The American Prospect: Republicans are forcing eight million student loan borrowers into repayment.

Prosecutors’ puzzle. Updating coverage: Police say Nick Reiner is “responsible” for the deaths of his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and producer Michele Reiner …
■ … but the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office had yet to decide whether and how to charge him.
■ In a revealing and heartbreaking account, Hollywood Reporter tech and politics editor Steven Zeitchik recalls sitting down with Rob, Michele and Nick: “Strip away the larger-than-life persona of the father and the son’s addiction struggles (and maybe not even that) and it becomes any other tense family dinner where baggage and demons hover.”
■ A number of accounts indicate that Nick and Rob got into an argument at a party Conan O’Brien hosted Saturday night.
■ Popular Information: Rob “leaves behind a rich political legacy.”
■ That includes the movie that inspired the series The West Wing: The American President, which historian Heather Cox Richardson celebrates for its “meditation on what it means to be the president of the United States.”
■ Michele inspired the happy ending to Rob’s movie When Harry Met Sally…

‘What is wrong with him?’ Add Gov. Pritzker, who met with Rob and Michele Reiner just last week, to the list of those condemning President Trump’s hateful remarks about them. (Cartoon: Jack Ohman.)
■ Columnist Eric Zorn calls it “a new low, but probably not rock bottom.”
■ USA Today’s Rex Huppke: “We are a sick country with a person like Trump at the helm. Reiner knew that. … Now, more people, even those who’ve devoted themselves to the president, are seeing it as well.”
■ Rocker Jack White addressed the president directly: “You disgusting, vile, egomaniac, loser child.”
■ Trump niece Mary Trump: “You are a depraved, deviant, damaged little man who cannot bear the thought that there are people in this world who are talented, valued and loved—three things you are not.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “Rob Reiner … would want us to keep pointing out the loathsome atrocities that continue to ooze out of this sick and irresponsible man’s mouth. And so we’re going to do that over and over again until the rest of us wake up.”
■ Late-night chronicler Bill Carter: “Hosts who went on the air last night … made four different choices in how they would deal with topical news this disturbing.”
■ Columnist Elaine Soloway, 87, is petitioning God: “Hold off on any age/illness demise until Trump is out of office.”

‘A weekend of hellish violence.’ A Tribune editorial (gift link) ponders the mayhem “that seemed to explode across the planet just as the season of peace and goodwill was getting underway.”
■ Australian police are linking say the Bondi Beach massacre—which (clarifying yesterday’s Chicago Public Square) took at least 15 lives—was “inspired by Islamic State” …
■ … and Jewish leaders in the U.S. are urging increased security measures for public events celebrating Hanukkah.
■ The (at Square’s deadline) unresolved hunt for a Brown University killer who took the lives of an aspiring neurosurgeon and a leading student Republican has sparked a campus petition for increased security.
■ The Onion (again and again and again and again): “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”

‘I could have gone either way.’ Pritzker says his decision to sign Illinois’ new “right-to-die” law was a close one.
■ Here’s what’s in that law.

All opposed, say ‘AI.’ Add the Tribune to the list of media organizations going to court complaining that an artificial intelligence company’s been stealing its work.
■ Illinois lawmakers are vowing not to back down in the face of a Trump executive order shielding tech companies from state laws.

Year of the Lies. That’s what PolitiFact has dubbed 2025.
■ Editor & Publisher reviews a year of fear for U.S. news media.
■ The BBC’s the latest media company to face a Trump lawsuit—this one to the tune of $10 billion.
■ CNN’s Brian Stelter: “Until this year, it was unheard of for a sitting American president to sue a news outlet.”
■ Columnist Julie Roginsky: “Trump is a psychopath. And the media is complicit.”
■ Mark Jacob at Stop the Presses: “What if a member of the public—not me, but someone—created a GoFundMe account that would pay big bucks to the first reporter to tell Trump to his face that he should f– off?”

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

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