Expect to see a lot of this classic Onion headline, from 23 years ago, over the coming weeks.

The Chicago City Council just punted again on passing a corporate head tax to help fill a $1.2b gap. Beyond the excellent case from @etoddbreland.bsky.social here, one of the alternative proposals—aggressive debt collection—seems almost designed to fail... (🧵) inthesetimes.com/article/bran...

Wrote something in light of the ongoing conversations about the city budget in Chicago. We should demand that large corporations pay their fair share to support the public good! @inthesetimes.com inthesetimes.com/article/bran...

With artificial intelligence sparking a surge in electricity demand, Illinois could be only five years away from chronic shortages and higher monthly bills, according to a report released late Monday by three state agencies.

“You can’t bust our unions — we will not stop organizing.” @rebeccaburns.bsky.social & @thomasbirm.bsky.social report on threats, surveillance & retaliation against members of the Tenant Union Federation and how they are fighting back.

👇👇At 7500 S Shore, tenants still traumatized by the military-style raid on their building are being forced out. Maya's points here are critical, and the problem is likely to get worse given rising financial distress, as discussed here by @cplusc.bsky.social climateandcommunity.org/research/fin...

NEW: From the Bronx to Accra, lives are being rebuilt — or dismantled — under a U.S.–Ghana deportation pact few know exists. In Ghana, I met the people caught in between: the deported, the waiting, the afraid. Read the story: capitalbnews.org/ghana-us-dep...

One of the most blatantly authoritarian threats in a Trump term full of them

“I owe my freedom to being organized."

Private equity landlords are learning from unscrupulous employers: subjecting members of tenants unions to surveillance and harassment, and retaining union-busting firms. Must-read for anyone seeking to understand the terrain of tenant organizing. by @rebeccaburns.bsky.social @thomasbirm.bsky.social

Remember the military-style raid on a Chicago apartment building that made national headlines this fall? This is the aftermath: The building's remaining tenants must relocate by Friday. A cycle of speculation-> neglect-> repression-> displacement that may leave traumatized people w/ no place to go

This story by @rebeccaburns.bsky.social & @thomasbirm.bsky.social is wild. Private equity landlords are fighting the growing tenant union movement with all the familiar tools of traditional union busting, and then some—from police harassment & counterprotests to bouncy castles & fake tenant groups.

At @inthesetimes.com, we've been following how tenant unions are adapting strategies from organized labor. Here's a fascinating story about the flipside: a corporate landlord taking a page from anti-union employers, even hiring a "union avoidance" firm. (1/8) inthesetimes.com/article/tena...

Tenant union members say they’ve faced threats, surveillance and retaliation from their private equity landlord, which has retained a notorious “union avoidance” firm. @rebeccaburns.bsky.social & @thomasbirm.bsky.social report on old-school union-busting tactics being used against renters.

Threats, retaliation, and a mysterious, management-friendly "union": As tenants of Capital Realty Group mount a new, national organizing push, they say their private equity landlord is union-busting with help from a familiar player. New w/ @thomasbirm.bsky.social inthesetimes.com/article/tena...

Tenants are forming unions to fight mold, retaliation and rising rents — and their private-equity landlord is responding with classic union-busting tactics, even hiring a “union avoidance” firm. @rebeccaburns.bsky.social & @thomasbirm.bsky.social report on the threats, surveillance and retaliation.

Mientras Estados Unidos se enfrenta a los mayores recortes del sector médico en su historia, Texas presenta una visión aterradora del futuro de la atención médica a largo plazo.

A new @inthesetimes.com investigation by @ottavias.bsky.social w/ @typeinvestigations.org uncovers Texas “boarding homes” where disabled & elderly people face neglect, abuse & exploitation. As the US faces the largest healthcare cuts in its history, Texas' disastrous system is a warning for us all.

Must-read, heartrending reporting

In my opinion, one of the biggest revelations from the Epstein-Trump emails is that Michael Wolff -- who calls himself a journalist -- acted as a publicist and PR crisis manager for the most notorious sexual predator in recent memory. And he did this for YEARS!

Progressive groups are calling for Chuck Schumer's ouster after centrist Dems' shutdown cave. Dem senators' phone lines are "exploding" with the same demands. So far, Senate Dems don't have a ton to say. New at @zeteo.com w/ @swin24.bsky.social @premthakker.bsky.social zeteo.com/p/senate-dem...

Must-read investigation by @thomasbirm.bsky.social connecting the dots between the displacement of U.S. tenants and Palestinian families. (Spoiler: the same corporate entity profits from them both!)

Today's must-read by @thomasbirm.bsky.social: a major corporate landlord is fueling homelessness across the U.S. *and* the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israeli company owns tens of thousands of apartments in the South, filing evictions at nine times the national average.

Draws parallels with what @rebeccaburns.bsky.social uncovered in the illegal, racist raid in Chicago—cheaper for predatory landlords to have people kidnapped than evicted: inthesetimes.com/article/evic...

Extremely honored to have run this piece last week from the national leaders of @ueunion.org. Carl Rosen and Mark Meinster's last public act as they hand over the reins was to stand up for Palestine. Principled leaders who know that struggle is a long game. inthesetimes.com/article/gaza...

The Trump administration gutted the agency investigating how thousands of homeowners fell victim to zombie mortgages. A new Bloomberg analysis shows just how widespread these debt collections have become

AIG insures fossil fuel infrastructure deals. But AIG’s lead independent director, John G. Rice, holds the exact same position at Baker Hughes, which gets contracts to build fossil fuel infrastructure. Big conflict found by our partners at @exposedbycmd.bsky.social. prospect.org/2025/10/29/t...

This is genuinely terrifying and also entirely predictable, based on the direction of policy and rhetoric that has been, in many instances, entirely bipartisan in recent years

New: Videos show ICE/CBP agents are scanning peoples' faces on the street to verify citizenship. ICE has tool to instantly look up unprecedented number of databases with just a photo “I’m an American citizen so leave me alone” “Alright, we just got to verify that” www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...

Great and necessary reporting from @rebeccaburns.bsky.social about the landlord and property manager of the South Shore building that got raided inthesetimes.com/article/evic...

“The caller reiterated that the agent had the apartment numbers' on his wrist."' Audio of 911 calls during the South Shore raid—obtained by @southsideweekly.bsky.social, which has been all over this story—provide more evidence that agents targeted certain units southsideweekly.com/911-calls-sh...

I’ve been tracking this contract since 2023, and last week, Cook County quietly renewed it. As ICE raids continue across Chicago, the board approved another $1M deal with a data broker tied to ICE. My latest for @southsideweekly.bsky.social

@npr.org itself reported without comment last summer that mass deportation was the Trump coalition’s housing plan

"It costs a lot more money to evict someone than to call ICE on them." A month after the military-style raid on a Chicago apartment building, residents are still searching for answers about why their homes were targeted—and the role their investor landlord played. inthesetimes.com/article/evic...

Strange tags on raided apartments, a slumlord speculator under water with the bank & eviction drives in a gentrifying neighborhood. @rebeccaburns.bsky.social investigates how tenants were systematically targeted during September's military-style raid of a Chicago apartment building @inthesetimes.com

Excellent read by @rebeccaburns.bsky.social , from the history of union pension investments to the growing number of union members “calling for investment in social goods, like green energy and affordable housing.”

"As some of the world’s largest institutional investors, pension funds are especially exposed to the risks posed by climate change. They’re also uniquely positioned to address them." @rebeccaburns.bsky.social on how to reclaim pensions for the common good. inthesetimes.com/article/fina...

"Because of a patchwork, highly financialized retirement system, union pension dollars have been implicated in almost every manner of attack against the working class." Excellent piece by @rebeccaburns.bsky.social. inthesetimes.com/article/fina...

oh look, it’s literally the thing i wrote about for @rollingstone.com happening in real time. as we speak. like exactly what i reported, like a carbon copy. as a reminder, here’s what i said people within the party and trans care advocates believe will most likely happen next.

8-year old Dasha Ramirez was playing with her brother at Millennium Park when Border Patrol took them. They’re now awaiting deportation to Guatemala. “We never imagined our Sunday would end this way, mother Noemi Chavez said. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/i...

Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for over 100 days. Now, he faces deportation —for just doing his job. The same energy that defended Jimmy Kimmel should be used to defend Guevara, a journalist who is not facing any charges. Watch @seth-stern.bsky.social on @meidastouch.com for more.

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

🤔

This dystopian ICE recruitment ad targeting Chicago cops is running right now.

1/ In June, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, defeating real estate-backed candidates. He is now the party’s nominee. @thomasbirm.bsky.social @rebeccaburns.bsky.social reporting.

Holy shit: Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors, who said that top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status. www.hcn.org/articles/fir...

In our latest, @reallandsend.bsky.social & @city.bsky.social speak with @rebeccaburns.bsky.social about how Trump’s threats to invade cities to combat “endemic vagrancy” echo the policies of the Cicero Institute, a right wing think tank run by a co-founder of Palantir www.patreon.com/posts/137338...

DHS is recruiting using a not-so-subtle reference to a 1978 book from white nationalist William Gayley Simpson, Which Way Western Man? Simpson's book was released under an imprint associated with the National Alliance, founded by Turner Diaries author William Luther Pierce.

The push to criminalize homelessness isn't only about politics—it's a billionaire-backed campaign. In 2024, @rebeccaburns.bsky.social exposed the shadowy group working behind the scenes to evict unhoused people and deploy the National Guard.