ICE whistles work.

I'm still posting through this WBEZ piece, really excellent and fair stuff from Mariah Woefel -- and I agree with Waguespack here: "the next mayor — or Johnson, if he wins an uphill battle — will have “no good choices. You won’t be able to do flashy new programs. The financial walls are closing in.”

WBEZ obtained anonymized city data through a public records request that shows the total head tax paid per company per fiscal year from Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 31, 2013. That’s when the head tax applied to companies with 50 or more employees.

Nonpartisan thought -- really haunted by the phrasing "keep the lake out of Chicago" buff.ly/FaBWzMs

Damn Dana, if only we had some kind of revenue option available from the city parking meters, would you happen to know anything about that?

Good morning

"WBEZ’s analysis sheds light on who would potentially be affected by Johnson’s proposal: less than 1% of all licensed businesses in Chicago; roughly 20% of jobs at companies across the city; and companies where an average salary is estimated to be roughly $111,000."

Man! Come on (Sunset Boulevard)

Your kids don't have enough librarians because some law firm successfully convinced the Board of Review their skyscraper is only worth $50 million.

Remember when Chicago made big corporations pay a "Head Tax" for every employee they housed downtown? Yeah, we used to do that. We lost billions in annual revenue by letting billionaires whine about tax rates and allowing them to dictate our budget policy. The city chose to tax you over Boeing.

If I read one more Crain’s headline about the "downtown doom loop" written by a guy commuting from Winnetka, I’m going to scream. The "bad business climate" they’re whining about is just code for "we have to pay a living wage now."

Never forget: We sold our own streets to a sovereign wealth fund for 75 years so Richard M. Daley could balance one budget in 2008.

However you feel about Johnson right now, our roads are unpaved, schools are starving, most undocumented people I know are afraid to leave their homes, no one has insurance, There is ZERO political will to do anything but trade stocks at the federal level. So what can we make cities do?

Chicago will approve a 20-megawatt data center in 14 minutes, but repainting a crosswalk requires five meetings...

Every year, downtown commercial landlords slash hundreds of millions off their bills through appeals. That money doesn’t disappear — it just shifts the tax burden onto working families and small businesses.

Today, baristas are bringing their ULP strike to Starbucks' NYC corporate office, housed inside the Empire State Building. Workers and allies are demanding the company resolve 100s of unfair labor practices, end the union-busting, & finalize fair union contracts. Let's go! #NoContractNoCoffee

Moving past piecemeal unfair regressive taxes is a structural problem that will take more than cuts.

Trump cuts could shrink Illinois economy by $10B: report | Capitol News Illinois buff.ly/X6SE29A

Chicago Abortion Fund just rolled out a massive statewide campaign — billboards, CTA, the whole thing — reaching 26M+ people across Illinois + border states. Illinois is the region’s access hub. CAF is making sure people know where to turn. buff.ly/PTIl9WE

Even knowing this is mostly a front to stop the head tax, I don't understand this counterproposal at all. Instead of a progressive measures taxing corporations they're going with... garbage fees, liquor tax, charging consumers for using Amazon?

Shawn Mulcahy’s new Chicago Reader piece is wild: Cook County passed a $10B budget that ramps up surveillance, predictive policing, and spending. If you want to understand how budgets actually shift power in Cook County, read this piece. buff.ly/ZvPPd0I

Most detained in Operation Midway Blitz had no criminal record buff.ly/9fgrpjW

Chicago is a model of resistance for cities battling federal immigration enforcement operations • The TRiiBE

Someday I hope I will be good enough at what I do that someone will ask me about my craft and I will get to say "my secret is to be up procrastinating before most people are awake" 😐

As we work on our next judicial election guide, we want to hear from you: What should voters know about these attorneys and judges? If you recognize any of these names, send us your tips. buff.ly/DlOqYRA

In other NEWS: Masked agents took at least 15 street vendors from Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz. “Worst of the worst,” they aren’t. Story by @lauranrodriguez.bsky.social & @zareensyed.bsky.social about neighbors rallying to support culture under attack www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/c...

we should throw them in the trash and fine the owners for garbage disposal

Thank you for your service Chi Osse.

We should tax these

Would be cool to see many of the politicians seizing on the current moment of property tax fury run on fixing this (and the many issues in the current property tax system) instead of handwaving about business growth.

At this point, vertical video is less “content” and more “community defense.” If you can talk to your people quickly, clearly, and without a million layers of approval, you win the narrative. If you can’t, someone else fills the silence for you. Wrote about this for 312:

Ald. Bennett Lawson tells Mayor Johnson he’s out as acting Zoning Chair if his job isn’t made permanent

Years ago, when I was an out trans reporter in Congress, I couldn’t even get colleagues to commit to defending me if I was misgendered by a lawmaker

sarah mcbride has voted with the progressive caucus on all things israel and is no longer an aipac candidate

i often get asked why it's so difficult to figure out how to cover local judges, or how to approach voting for them. this Chicago publication has a great project of crowd-sourcing information for the next few months. check them out/spread the word!

REFLECTION: I was tear-gassed, and everyday Chicagoans came to my rescue

Who are the video creators you actually watch — and why?

Subscribe to 312 — buff.ly/Geh6pgC

I don’t want to formulate words yet, but my friend Alice Wong, @sfdirewolf.bsky.social of the Disability Visibility Project, has passed. Here are the words she left behind: www.instagram.com/p/DREMDNBjnq...

NEW: Pope Leo XIV will share a meal this Sunday with Alessia Nobile and four fellow transgender Catholic activists, during the Vatican’s Jubilee of the Poor — marking the most significant public encounter shared between a pope and the trans community.

Teen Vogue did some terrific work. Great story here on Teen Vogue and how the Vogue/Conde Nast bosses seem like the "liberal" types who have been eager to use Trump's rise as a pretext to silence progressives/leftists they disagree with. www.cjr.org/feature/the-...

wellness check

NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected. And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.* Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:

When we learned that @busybeaverbuttonco.bsky.social made more than just buttons, we knew that we had to collaborate on something that people have been asking for a long time: MAGNETS! Twenty-two STFU About Chicago kitchen magnets have been added to the shop! #chicago