In October, a month after Charlie Kirk was killed, Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, called the Southern Poverty Law Center “a partisan smear machine.” www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Genre glitching: a new sign of AI-assisted writing? Thanks to @doremus-schafer.bsky.social and @srettberg.bsky.social who shared the two examples of this that I discuss in today's blog post. Please please please send me any other examples you see of this! jilltxt.net/genre-glitch...

The Boulevard du Temple, Paris, by Louis Daguerre (1838) Possibly the first photograph to include an image of a human.

By 2010, China was among Nike’s most lucrative markets. Today, Nike’s China business is flailing—a cautionary tale of an American giant caught in the tar pit of China’s hypercompetitive and increasingly nationalistic consumer market. www.wsj.com/business/ret...

Love the reference to "a horse with no name." Look it up if you don't get it. Thank you for sharing @mollyjongfast.bsky.social

In history class, I never understood how “advanced” civilizations could collapse. It just didn’t seem plausible. Anyway, I’ve seen enough. I get it now.

Amen to this. (And definitely written by a human person.)

1 in 4 Americans think the April shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner was staged. “Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and also the media,” said Sofia Rubinson, an editor at NewsGuard. wapo.st/4tYHkm5

This is what the @nytimes.com is actually posting ?!?!

For The First Time In More Than A Century, Baby Eaglets Are Born In Chicago !!! blockclubchicago.org/2026/05/06/b...

Animal rights activist Wayne Hsiung employs an “open rescue” strategy, openly taking animals from facilities to fight charges publicly. www.wsj.com/us-news/the-...

The U.S. is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on tools that give federal agents easy access to the home and workplace addresses of American citizens, their social-media accounts, and flight history, as well as data to track their daily comings and goings www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Elusive street artist Banksy has claimed responsibility for a new sculpture in central London.

A well-reported update on the 15 South American people ICE sent to DR Congo two weeks ago. Trapped in a rat-infested hotel by the airport with no options but going back to the countries they fled. This is what we're doing to legal asylum-seekers who "followed the rules." www.npr.org/2026/04/28/n...

In a separate memo, Meta technology chief Andrew Bosworth said the company is building toward a vision where AI agents primarily do the work. “Our role is to direct, review and help them improve,” he said. www.wsj.com/tech/meta-wi...

i remember when someone like this would play the kooky scientist in Independece Day, not trying to ruin human civilization.

I had no idea the Marx Brothers were Chicago vaudevillians first.

From the Editorial Board: Leave it to the always-canny Cook County treasurer, Maria Pappas, to issue a comprehensive report less than two weeks after voters made their displeasure known at the polls — saying to residents, in effect, “No, it’s not your imagination. Property taxes really are that b...

For employees at a Dell Technologies office, mornings used to start with a tiny dose of joy. The office coffee machines doled out free daily espresso shots. Then came the buzz kill: Last year the company started charging staffers a fee every time they used the machine. www.wsj.com/business/how...

A Fortune editor has cranked out more than 600 stories using AI; ‘This won’t be seen as some people’s idea of journalism’ What do you think? www.wsj.com/business/med...

As Mr. Milchick knows, that's a typo! #ManholecoverMonday #Chicago @robertloerzel.bsky.social @rogersparkman.bsky.social

Just a year ago, we heard reducing the deficit was so important Elon Musk had to fire as many scientists, forest rangers and Black women on the government’s payroll that he could find. Now? 🤷🏾‍♂️

Who is responsible for “the mountain of crap” most of us accumulate over a lifetime? Margareta Magnusson's answer: We should sort out and sell or give away almost all of our stuff before we die—rather than leaving a dreary chore for friends or families. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Supporters Of Skokie Woman Fall Silent After Officials Deny She Was Held By Feds blockclubchicago.org/2026/03/13/s...

Sheesh, even the #WSJ sees Trump as feckless: www.wsj.com/opinion/in-a...

Earlier, before it was really raining in Chicago, production crews for "The Bear" turned on sprinklers to produce a downpour for crowd shots outside the Armitage Brown Line station. No sightings of Jeremy Allen White.

City News Bureau was my trial by fire introduction to Chicago. Back then, it paid $3.50/hour, barely above minimum wage

DePaul Art Museum closing in June amid campus layoffs, financial troubles. The future of more than 4,000 objects in the museum’s collection, including 1,000-plus photographs by Andy Warhyol and Chicagoans Dawoud Bey and Paul D’Amato, is unclear. www.wbez.org/museums/2026...

You have to read the alt text

you think you've seen the whole movie, and then the alt text reveals you haven't even finished act two

When you see this clinic on an upcoming episode of "Chicago Fire," you're really seeing a long-shuttered Baby Gap on the fringe of Lincoln Park that soon will be razed

Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. And it's not just those getting deported. www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

Let America Be America Again, by Langston Hughes, 1935 Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907...

nice exploration of how right wing propaganda and "pink slime" newspapers (fake local papers built by right wing propagandists to lie to locals) propped up the whole AOC "um" non news cycle

Chicago's own WGN TV lays off at least 8 camera-facing employees in a major shakeup chicago.suntimes.com/sports-media...

Beautiful.

Chicago Bears stadium plan could mean new taxes for Indiana residents, including sales tax on food www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/bea... via @crainschicago

Bates Machine Co., Andersonville #manholecovermonday @robertloerzel.bsky.social @rogersparkman.bsky.social

Quite apart from politics, which is how so many blinkered people see this issue, no reporter at your local school committee board or town council meeting means no one is watching when someone’s brother-in-law gets a no-bid contract. The increase in penny ante corruption must be breathtaking.

Just found it: Charlie was found and has been returned to his home. A happy ending!

If you see this dog, please take a photo and call 574-286-3105. He was dognapped!

still unclear to me how the species made it this far

Nobel Economist Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University on our future: Climate change is real. The population is inexorably aging. We can fix this through tech innovation, including AI. But we need the brightest minds and right now they're not welcome in the US. He spoke at #ChicagoInnovation event

Finally.... President Trump’s global tariffs are illegal, the Supreme Court ruled Friday, in a stinging repudiation of a signature White House initiative. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/... via @WSJ

Good question, @jamellebouie.net

@artinstitutechi.bsky.social, instead

A yellow what now

She dances with her eyes!

Who wants to be a Cook County judge? Not many. For the second straight Cook County judicial primary election, less than half of the seats up for grabs March 17 drew more than one candidate, continuing a decadeslong slide in competition. chicago.suntimes.com/elections/20...

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin