‘An out-of-control danger’ / Saturday shots / ‘Dems’ worst nightmare’ / Cookies!

‘An out-of-control danger.’ That’s Gov. Pritzker, sharing Sun-Times photos on Twitter X after federal agents chased a car through Chicago’s Southeast Side yesterday, intentionally crashing into the vehicle—a maneuver forbidden by some police departments across the country—before tear-gassing observers …
 … in what the Tribune says was the third time in recent weeks the feds have deployed tear gas in the city—and at least the second time Chicago officers were gassed.
At the Trump administration’s request, Facebook has suspended a group devoted to reporting ICE sightings around Chicago.
Block Club: Hundreds of people showed up last night at events across town to assemble “whistle kits” Chicagoans can use to alert neighbors when immigration agents are nearby.
Los Angeles County’s declared a state of emergency over the feds’ ongoing raids there.
MSNBC: “Trump says immigrants are driving violent crime in Illinois, but ICE can’t find many who are. … They keep catching people who are just living their lives.”
Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz: “The best way to counter Trump’s lies? Frogs 🐸” …
 … which 404 Media praises for some practical reasons: “It’s hard for ICE to hit you in the eyes with spray if they’re not even sure where your face is.”
Email obtained by the Sun-Times indicates federal immigration agents will continue to hang out at Naval Station Great Lakes through at least December.

‘This incident should be … horrifying.’ A Chicago lawyer representing a WGN-TV producer violently arrested by ICE Friday as she witnessed an attack in Lincoln Park Square says, “If armed, masked, federal agents are snatching U.S. citizens off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbors and people who dare to speak out against them.”
A news release issued on her behalf: “Ms. Brockman will not be making any statement at this time. … She has been ‘exposed’ enough.”

‘Everyone is welcome, except ICE.’ Those signs are showing up at Chicago’s cafes and restaurants.
Cook County’s chief judge has banned civil arrests at courthouses here—a common ICE tactic.

‘Young Republicans caught being exactly who you think they are.’ That’s Wonkette columnist Evan Hurst’s comment on Politicos scoop: “‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat. … Young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.”
The Onion satirically profiles federal shutdown cheerleader Russell Vought: “Credentials: White.”

Saturday shots. Through March 28, Cook County residents can get free flu and COVID-19 vaccinations at weekly government clinics.

Control pique. Air traffic controllers—working one of the most stressful jobs in government without pay during the shutdown—turned out at O’Hare yesterday to encourage flyers to press for an end to the standoff.
Visiting a national park? Take and share photos of historical and educational placards at risk of removal by the Trump administration.
Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer: Republicans’ shutdown strategy “is corruption in broad daylight.”
Economist Paul Krugman: “China has overtaken America and Trump’s policies guarantee that we will never catch up.”

‘Dems’ worst nightmare.’ Politico explains how a case before the Supreme Court today could upend next year’s congressional elections.
Hear the arguments here.

‘The assessment of penalties stands.’ An Illinois elections board hearing officer is standing by a recommendation that Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park pay a nearly $10 million fine for taking campaign cash in violation of a law Harmon co-sponsored.
A former AT&T executive accused of bribing then-(and now-imprisoned) Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is on the verge of seeing those charges dismissed.
Ex-Democratic Chicago City Council member Bob Fioretti is running for Illinois attorney general as a Republican.
Here’s a photo of Fioretti 50 years ago, back in his time as a student government official at the University of Illinois.

‘Journalism is not a crime.’ That poster showed up briefly at the Pentagon yesterday as reporters planned to hand in their press passes in protest of Defense Secretary Hegseth’s new policies that essentially criminalize routine reporting.
Stop the Presses watchdog Mark Jacob, grading mainstream news organizations for their pro-democracy work, doesn’t think much of the traditional broadcast networks.
(Missing link added, 11:37 a.m.) The Writers Guild of America and CBS have told CBS News employees they can blow off Bari Weiss’ demand that they tell her how they spend their workdays.
The Supreme Court has rejected conspiracy regurgitator Alex Jones’ appeal, clearing the way for his Infowars website to be sold to The Onion.

Cookies! The Trib’s opened voting for its annual Holiday Cookie Contest.
While you’re in the kitchen testing those recipes, consider One5c’s guide to breaking that paper towel habit.

Redefining ‘USB’? 404 Media: ChatGPT plans to offer AI-powered “erotica for verified adults” beginning in December.
 … making this an apt time to remind you that Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up Nov. 3 to offer you interactive online coaching in the world of AI tools. Sign up free here.

Thanks. Mike Braden and Dave Miretzky made this edition better.

Win, win / #ShowMeYourHellhole / Quizzes!

Chicago Public Square’s taking a few days off. We’ll meet here again Wednesday.
 Until then, catch breaking news and perspective via the Square Bluesky account.
 Forthwith, the news for now:

Win, win. In a pair of federal court victories for Chicago and Illinois yesterday:
 One federal judge has blocked the Trump administration—for two weeks—from “ordering the federalization and deployment of the National Guard of the United States within Illinois” …
 … also ordering immigration agents not working undercover to wear visible ID in the Chicago area.
 Could make for a less fraught Chicago Marathon Sunday.
 Chicago-born Pope Leo yesterday: “Doing the work of a journalist can never be considered a crime. … It is a right that must be protected.”
 A federal magistrate judge was set to rule this afternoon in the case of an Oak Park native* accused of shoving U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino after Bovino had pushed him and other protesters at the Broadview ICE facility.
 Parodying a Tribune editorial putting the onus on Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Johnson to keep their cool during the federal incursion, press critic Mark Jacob envisions the Trib’s response to the Wicked Witch’s assault on the Emerald City: “Show some civility, Dorothy.”

Trump’s immigrant crime math ‘is for the birds.’ Columnist Neil Steinberg rips into the president’s calculations.
 A Chicago elementary school teacher joined the mayor yesterday to share the trauma of tear gas that made it into her classroom last week as she taught first graders addition and subtraction.
 WBEZ and the Sun-Times: Long before that jarring immigration raid, “unlivable” conditions festered at a Chicago apartment building.
 Former Trib photographer Alex Garcia shares images from years ago, when the paper was one of a small group of organizations allowed inside the Broadview facility to document the whole deportation process.
 Chicago columnist and Politically Correct Bedtime Stories author James Finn Garner says it’s been tough to write amid all this—noting ironically that “the governor of Texas … piled immigrants into buses and sent them up to Chicago in the dead of winter. We helped those poor folks out, because WTF else are you going to do?

#ShowMeYourHellhole.
Jimmy Kimmel’s inviting residents of Chicago and Portland—towns Trump has described as “hellholes—to submit YouTube video with that hashtag, illustrating “all the horror the administration is defending you from” …
 … and, among others, Gov. Pritkzer has complied: “We’ve seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup on them.”
 Public Notice: Trump’s reason for invading Portland is “impossibly dumb.”
 USA Today on a viral photo of Chicago’s hefty new occupants: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told hundreds of top military commanders last week that it was ‘tiring’ to see ‘fat troops.’ The arrival of the Texas National Guard to Chicago could leave him exhausted.”

Mideast ceasefire. In what the AP calls “a key step toward ending a ruinous two-year war,” Israel and Hamas today announced a pause in hostilities ahead of an exchange of hostages and prisoners …
 … under a deal brokered in part by Trump, with “a whole lot of help from Arab and Muslim allies.”
 A Trib editorial addresses Trump: “Bringing about the conditions for peace must be a great feeling. We hope you start to employ these same tactics back at home.”
 The deal didn’t come in time to get Trump that Nobel Peace Prize.

Another check on Trump’s ‘enemies list.’ Cameron Peters at Vox explains the indictment of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who convicted Trump and his family of fraud.
 Lawyer/reporter Aaron Parnas: “The Justice Department has become an arm of the president’s political machine.”
 In that case and the charges against former FBI Director James Comey, lawyer/columnist Robert B. Hubbell perceives disgrace for the Justice Department.

‘What’s going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene?’ Add The Atlantic’s Will Gottsegen to the roster of those surprised by the Georgia Republican representative’s turn to the left.
 The progressive cohosts of ABC’s The View want her on.
  Lyz Lenz’s Dingus of the Week: CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss—who “makes Ron Swanson Burgundy look like Walter Cronkite.” (Updated, 10:16 a.m. Lenz has posted a correction.)
 The Verge offers a “Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed.” (Behind a registration wall, but you can see it by opening an incognito window.)

‘Go 8 for 8 and award yourself the Nobel Prize for Smartyness.’ That’s the pitch from past Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Fritz Holznagel (seen above, wearing his Square hoodie), inviting you to try your hand at this week’s news quiz.
 Sadly, your Square columnist is an also-ran for that Nobel—scoring just 7/8 correct.
 Worse: Just 5/10 here for Axiostest of your Chicago memories …
 … but 4/5 on City Cast’s Chicago-centric news quiz.

A tip he should have kept to himself. Ignore Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s false assertion linking autism to circumcision.
 Wonkette’s Evan Hurst mocks: “Trump and RFK Jr. can tell if kids are autistic just by looking at their dicks.”

 Witnessed or been affected by book bans or educational censorship? 404 Media wants to hear from you.

‘AI is changing how politics is practiced in America.’ The American Prospect assesses tech’s impact on next year’s midterm elections …
 … making this an apt time to remind you that Square and Northwestern University’s Local News Accelerator are teaming up Nov. 3 to offer you interactive online coaching in the world of AI tools. Sign up free here.

2,800. That’s about how many people have unsubscribed from Square since its launch in 2017. Of course, that’s the way of the news biz: People subscribe, people unsubscribe—some because they’ve moved (on to another geographical location, or away from the news); some because they’re bored; some because they’re overwhelmed; etc. But this publication’s fortunate always to be welcoming new readers—a few of whom have found it worthwhile enough to support financially.
 You can join their ranks—for as little as $1, just once—here.
 Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.

* Who grew up down the block from your Square columnist.

Square up.

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