Hey, there. Welcome back. If you missed Chicago Public Square these last few days, catch up quick via the Square account on Bluesky. But now, the news for today:
‘We have watched in horror.’ That’s Gov. Pritzker, announcing a lawsuit jointly filed by Illinois and Chicago against the Trump administration over its immigration enforcement practices.
■ Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul: “Border Patrol agents and ICE officers … use tear gas and other chemical weapons … injuring dozens, including children, the elderly and local police.”
■ Read the suit here.
■ ProPublica’s found more than 40 cases—in Chicago and elsewhere—of immigration agents using banned chokeholds and other moves that can cut off breathing.
Minneapolis on edge. The city’s seen days of demonstrations following an ICE agent’s shooting of Renee Nicole Good. (Photo: Protest sign in Chicago’s Oz Park Sunday, by Mike Nowak.)
■ Columnist John Stoehr: “The likelihood of convicting her killer is very low … but in death, she might finally show people … that Trump truly is an evil man, and that other truly evil men are drawn to him.”
■ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier: “Trump went so far as to offer a novel justification for murder: Behaving badly. … Under these conditions, nobody is safe.”
■ Wired: “Right-wing influencers have flooded Minneapolis.”
‘Go Bears. Fuck ICE.’ Oak Park lawyer Scott Sakiyama, arrested in October outside his kid’s elementary school after honking his horn and blowing a whistle to warn neighbors of ICE’s presence, took to Facebook yesterday to announce the dismissal of both cases against him.
■ Ex-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, launching a new ICE Accountability Project, says federal immigration officers don’t have blanket immunity.
■ Lightfoot has a lawsuit problem of her own: Chase is suing her for more than $11,000 in unpaid bills.
If ICE stops you on the sidewalk and asks, ‘Are you a U.S. citizen?’ … Lawyer and columnist Mitch Jackson says you have the right to ask one clarifying question: “Am I free to leave? If the answer is yes, you walk away calmly. Don’t say another word.”
Playing both sides. U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson—an ICE critic and a candidate unchallenged for renomination in this spring’s Democratic primary—has bought thousands of dollars in stock in Palantir, a data analysis company that’s been helping the government deport people …
■ … and whose stock, The Motley Fool reports, “has been on an incredible hot streak.”
‘Standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms.’ Saying he’s doing it to protect freedom of speech for all military veterans, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly—a former astronaut and Navy pilot—is suing the Pentagon for punishing him over his warnings about illegal orders.
■ The New York Times: Facing a threat of contempt, Bill and Hillary Clinton are refusing to testify in the U.S. House’s investigation of dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
‘A bedrock of our economy.’ A Tribune editorial (gift link, courtesy of Chicago Public Square supporters) doesn’t get why Trump’s threatening the independence of the Federal Reserve Board—especially when Chair Jerome Powell’s term’s about to expire in May anyway.
■ The Bulwark: “The Fed chair finally learns that the only way to deal with Trump is to push back.”
■ Central bank executives around the world are siding with Powell—against whom Trump’s threatening criminal charges.
■ In a quickly launched Substack account, three living former Fed chairs and five former Treasury secretaries came together to defend Powell.
■ The Onion: “DOJ Releases Jerome Powell Deepfake Nudes.”
‘We are in a confusing, dark place.’ In a profanity-laden review of the United States under Trump, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart despaired, “Rule of law and institutions are kind of an important framework. But … those are gone.”
■ The death toll in Iran’s wave of nationwide protests has reportedly topped at least 2,000.
Football news. The Bears’ playoff game at home against the Los Angeles Rams is set for 5:30 p.m. Sunday on NBC.
■ The team’s postseason run could shift the dynamics in talk of a new stadium.
■ Management’s sent a survey to season ticketholders, asking how they’d feel about a move to Indiana.
The heart of Chicago journalism. A new book spells out the history of the legendary City News Bureau.
■ Trib columnist Rick Kogan praises new documentaries about Chicago-trained journalist Seymour Hersh and Saturday Night Live alumnus Chevy Chase.
■ Dilbert creator Scott Adams is dead—three years after papers around the country dropped the strip over his racist remarks.
Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better.
