FINALLY got to talk with @Maureen Kelleher this week one of the best kinds of experts on local policy: driven with a strong point of view. We're both thinking through a lot of the same things about civic engagement and local media. PS -- go subscribe to board rule:

I can't write up these board notes because all I can think about was how bad wuthering heights was

At the Pink Poster Club form for IL-9 tonight with the top 6 candidates. Started with a lightning round using yes/no paddles, and while there were WAY too many to share here, I want to share Q1: have you seen Heated Rivalry? Five waved no, Mike Simmons *emphatically* waved yes lol

Public officials blocking press from community events and meetings has famously always gone well and never backfired.

This is the highest Rahm will ever poll

chicago’s strongest housing warriors giving public comments at chicago planning commission today!! @bedubble.bsky.social @rsday.bsky.social

in america, if you go over your 3 minute allotment to speak, men with guns come to take you away.

here's the thing about george r r martin: writing outlines for a genre fiction story is one of the funnest things you can do, and "writing" is Adonai's final punishment meted out to the human race. he's living the fucking dream

The 46th Ward office email is live - I got a nearly immediate response from Director of Infrastructure & Development Jesse Orr this morning.

A Cooper’s hawk at Montrose Point Sanctuary

Third chances, fourth chances, and maybe sometimes a fifth. That's an quote from an unopposed Cook County judicial candidate with DUI charges. Plus: LA mayors, suing the Attorney General, and March 17 is closer than you think. Newsletter below. hs-newsletter-e91163.beehiiv.com/p/the-312-th...

KANSAS JUST ENACTED A BILL THAT INVALIDATES AND REVOKES THE DRIVER'S LICENSES OF TRANS PEOPLE. www.kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/...

imagine reading Wuthering Heights and think that the victim in this story is CATHY EARNSHAW. genuinely incredible, thank you Emerald Fennell

In January 2025, Illinois Policy Institute president Matt Paprocki published an essay on the State Policy Network website explaining his organization's strategy. He called it the "blue city strategy." I'm going to quote him directly because you should read this in his own words.

A post so smart I'm almost afraid to share it. www.garbageday.email/p/the-only-t...

SINGLE STAIR COMES TO ILLINOIS Rep Kam Buckner has filed legislation that would legalize single stair across the state! - In buildings up to 6 stories - Must have sprinklers in the stairwell - No more than 4 dwelling units per floor www.ilga.gov/Legislation/...

Is there a technology the left is excited about?" It's called the clamshell e-reader from It Follows, and I've been waiting for it since 2014

still think it's fascinating that appalachians were one of the original pillars of the rainbow coalition beltmag.com/young-patrio...

If we assume all of the polling we have is accurate here’s what it would tell us: -the public disagrees with the stances most Dems have on trans rights -they still trust Dems over the GOP on this issue anyway -most don’t prioritize it when they vote So we need to change what we’re doing? Huh?

"iS tHeRe a tEcHnoLoGY tHe leFt Is eXcItEd aBoUt" yeah, renewable energy, mRNA vaccines. Lots of cool stuff like that! Probably not the one whose main promise was cutting payrolls

Designer said “I just work here”

#1 write in

Illinois Policy dropped their big fiscal plan last week. "Illinois Forward 2027." They want to cut $3 billion in state spending, slash corporate taxes, and cap future budgets. Let's check what's in the document they're citing — and what they left out.

SCOOP: I have the first interview with the 36-year-old South Jersey man whose tearful protest against an ICE raid at a school bus stop has been watched more than 3 million times How a non-political Eagles fan Everyman became the face of ICE resistance My new column www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...

the Reverend Jesse Jackson proved millions would vote for something to the left of the establishment — and he forced the Democratic Party to reckon with that.

Just feel like this is the definitively Reilly moment, and what voters would get with him as Board President, whatever else happens.

AI is revolutionizing the world! A Playstation now costs $5,000 and this is the last phone you will ever own.

An Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights spokesperson tells me they've gotten word of people recently being detained during immigration check-ins at the Broadview, IL ICE facility. They said ICIRR has also gotten word of people with asylum cases having check-ins moved up to this week.

we still don't know the names of the ice agents who stopped and killed silverio villegas gonzáles

Here's the new strategy, same as the old strategy. The high profile evil was a blip on the radar, but the actual harm, obscured, is what ICE has run with for the last decade.

Thank you to @hkappklote.bsky.social's newsletter for grabbing my attention to this. Subscribe: hs-newsletter-e91163.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Prosecutor Eilleen O'Neill Burke built her entire career defending cops. buff.ly/Anvl0KU

What it means to be a solo indie pub: unless I get my shit together, I can send TWO (count em! TWO!) emails where I refer to Eileen O'Neill-Burke MULTIPLE times before I catch it

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

Good morning from Chicago’s Loop, where Marimar Martinez and her attorneys are holding a press conference to announce a civil lawsuit stemming from her shooting by a Border Patrol agent in October. They have some of the agent’s texts blown up on posters

Disgusted by the level of anti-trans misinformation already spreading about the shooting in Tumbler Ridge. I wrote about it after Charlie Kirk in September, and I hate that I’m probably going to have to write about it tomorrow xtramagazine.com/power/politi...

sigh

Notice how the popular media narrative has moved on, while people on the ground in Minneapolis are still struggling and crying out that things are as bad as ever. This is how fascist regimes operate — overreach, recalibration, normalization. Get louder, not quieter.

Yikes here are the numbers for the past 12 months. Everything is pretty much dead except healthcare/social assistance. Note that healthcare growth is largely not about the business cycle -- it's about the aging of the population and more elderly people needing care.

This article is fantastic! Here's another municipal device (inverted), from Mosaic School of Fine Arts, also found on other schools around town.

Friday on The 21st Show, we'll be talking with some trans women running for office in the Midwest, from state legislatures to Congress. If you have opinions on how trans issues are talked about in politics, or questions, please feel free to share them. We might make them part of the conversation!

900,000 times I can forgive, but

this post has a ton of quote tweets claiming american pop culture was actually never influential. bluesky moment.

It’s so important to have several unusual obsessions.

I gotta say I do not love that artist drawing dead trans women’s faces on Harry Potter books. Like, when I die the last thing I want is to be associated with someone who hates my entire existence. Distasteful.

They need just one more Gen Z member on the team, sorry

GOLDMAN: Do you know what other regimes in the 20th century required similar proof of citizenship? LYONS: Various nefarious regimes did that GOLDMAN: Is Nazi Germany one? LYONS: This is the wrong type of question

McIVER: Do you consider yourself a religious man? LYONS: Yes mam McIVER: How do you think judgment day will work for you with so much blood on your hands? LYONS: I'm not going to entertain that question McIVER: Do you think you're going to hell, Mr Lyons?

The ‘abolish ICE’ door is cracked open and every one of us needs to push and keep pushing. “Liam’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, said the family was in hiding. He cited a bomb threat at his son’s former elementary school and ICE agents patrolling the Columbia Heights home they no longer live in.”

Jessie: While the Fake News and Radical Left collude to distract, depress, and divide, James: We know they're lying to mask what 'woke' is trying to hide Meowth: And Meowth