From the newswire: "Activists with the Coalition Against the NATO and G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8) this afternoon received a permit from the City of Chicago for a Saturday, May 19 march from Daley Plaza to McCormick Place, site of the NATO / G8 summits to be held May 19-21." But the permit includes an "escape clause" which would allow the Secret Service to nullify the permits. Read more

Also, Mayor Emanuel's "sit down and shut up" anti-protester ordinances have taken a beating in public opinion, so he revised it. But the revisions, despite claims from the Mayor's office to be substantial, appear upon review to be little more than cosmetic. Only a small number of changes — a reduced increase of fines, and elimination of the marshal requirement — appear in the update. The remaining restrictions — including the redefinition of "resisting arrest", onerous insurance requirements, requiring a week's advance notice, and stringent requirements on Chicago sidewalks — all remain in place. Read more

On Thursday, Mayor Emanuel pulled aldermen into closed-door meetings to lobby for proposed "improvements" to his effort to revise protest ordinances. But G8 / NATO protesters are ramping up pressure on the City Council to reject Mayor Emanuel's proposed "revisions", and have called on Chicagoans to urge a rejection of this ordinance. Read more