In case you missed it: I’ve got a new (warning: somewhat intense) story on @npr.org about all the ways faith leaders have pushed back against the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign this year — including clergy directly confronting ICE agents and police. www.npr.org/2025/12/24/n...

There was more that unfortunately we couldn’t fit into the story, but Steves effusive about the importance of local, independent media! And as the story got traction, he wrote a letter for MNNG to use for a fundraising push. He loves his local media and so should we all!

Thank you @washingtonpost.com & @bellwak.bsky.social for giving us credit to the Lynnwood hygiene center story. Love the butterfly effect in journalism & love this quote. “I really take ‘love your neighbor’ seriously,” Rick Steves said to The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

Pardon me, but *holy shit* chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

The whole piece is worthwhile—and talks about Bovino’s family’s immigrant roots. Bravo, @chicago.suntimes.com

I interviewed the DJ Priest, aka Padre Guilherme Peixoto, who went viral last month for his set in Slovakia at St. Elizabeth's Cathedral that included a video message from the Pope. t.co/BysdnBP6eU

the best coverage of rfk jr has been by beat reporters whom the people writing high-profile defenses of nuzzi have never heard of

Heartbreaking. The University of Nebraska will terminate its entire Earth science department. One of the country's most successful and respected geology & climate programs: gone. When ideologues & politicians are threatened by the very act of studying climate change, I wonder: who of us is next?

"Whether it takes him going to a Sunday School class or familiarizing himself with our country’s foundational documents, I hope the president soon learns that God doesn’t make garbage. God only makes beautiful things. And my Somali neighbors are beautiful"

🚨SCOOP: Amazon is preparing to sever ties with USPS and expand its shipping network as a true coast-to-coast rival. It could cost USPS more than *$6 billion* a year in lost revenue, and lead Amazon to dominate yet another facet of the economy. USPS posted a *$9 billion* loss in 2025.

You can help Bolts continue to provide crucial coverage of local elections. Here's how: - Repost this = I donate $1. - Follow @boltsmag.org = I donate $1. - Donate (link below) + tell me how much = I match your donation. (Donate monthly = I match a year's worth)

SCOOP from me + @makenakelly.bsky.social: despite recent reports, DOGE isn’t dead—it’s actually everywhere. @wired.com www.wired.com/story/what-i...

The Chicago Board of Ethics fined former inspector general Joe Ferguson $5,000 for sharing a confidential report that blasted the city’s handling of a botched implosion that left Little Village coated in dust, city records show.

“The National AIDS Memorial, through a partnership with the AIDS Quilt Touch team, presents all 50,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in an interactive experience so people around the world can experience the beauty of the Quilt and witness the love and stories stitched into each panel.”

IT'S TIIIIIIIIIIME!!! December is here, which means the inaugural 2025 #FOIAdvent calendar has arrived. ☃️✨ Every day this month, the calendar will update with a new records request prompt for you to file with an agency of your choosing, for a fun run of holiday FOIA requests. bit.ly/31-days-of-f...

It’s snowing nonstop and dropping to a low of 6 degrees in Chicago Thursday so new plan: reading/lounging *on* heated mat, *in* heated vest, *under* a regular blanket (And yet, I will go outside with no socks and a thin jacket to walk the dog because I am a December baby/maniac)

This year's Catalytic Sound Festival includes some top-shelf local talent and some exciting visiting musicians—but yeah, I'm gonna make you click through to see who! chicagoreader.com/music/concer...

Imagine if they just subsidized newspapers and magazines the way they’re subsidizing this slop

Huge news today, if you missed it; Chris Duncan was released from Louisiana prison after being wrongfully convicted for nearly three decades. @psfrench.bsky.social wrote this devastating but important read this spring on Louisiana’s rush to kill Jim despite junk science.

New from 404 Media: X has shown where accounts are actually being run from, revealing many MAGA accounts are actually grifters in Eastern Europe, Asia, etc. But the situation is much, much worse. Entire guides specifically on how to squeeze US audiences with AI. www.404media.co/americas-pol...

This kind of story pulls me temporarily out of retirement and away from bear hunting. chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors/202...

I need "Stats are down but he played great" to make it into the lexicon.

As part of its 25th anniversary anthology of journalists reflecting on digital media, @talkingpointsmemo.com asked me to write about when my Guild tried to make Google and Meta pay for journalism. (We totally lost.) Thanks @allegrak.bsky.social for the edit! talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/we-tr...

The "worst of the worst" is a big lie. Only 2.6% on list of 614 Operation Midway Blitz arrestees had criminal histories, DOJ records show (gift link) www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/14/o...

‘Death remains my intimate shadow partner. It has been with me since birth, always hovering close by. I understand one day we will finally waltz together into the ether. I hope when that time comes, I die with the satisfaction of a life well-lived, unapologetic, joyful, & full of love.’ —Alice Wong

Our beloved Alice Wong has joined the ancestors. It was one of the great honors of my life to call Alice my friend, co-author & co-conspirator. She was a true genius, a force of nature the likes of which the world has never seen before. I love you, Alice, and am equal parts grateful and devastated

All I have to say about the Nuzzi profile is that at the end of it she jokes about how she destroyed her life. In fact she did not do that. She has a book, a magazine job, this lovely profile. People’s lives are being destroyed by this administration, however, including by -well, you know.

Well. cyberscoop.com/washington-p...

"Please trust us now when we say that what is happening in the Chicago area is wrong *** It is not law enforcement; it is terror."

My takeaway from every new Epstein revelation is that some powerful people victimized many powerless young women, many more knew, some actively enabled it--and we're still being told that MeToo and accountability for sexual violence have gone too far

My last big story for the year is up at @dwell.bsky.social: I spoke with ~a dozen millennials who left big cities during or after the pandemic. What I found was a lot of people trying to redefine what ‘upward mobility’ might mean: www.dwell.com/article/rura...

Have the absolute best Southwest gate agent going Ft Myers to Midway. She’s getting the line moving asking folks to “ show me your two-step” and greeting people as “gorgeous” and “diva.” Gotta get her name.

A few weeks ago I zoomed with a group of high school students and their adult mentor to discuss taking social action. I am thrilled to report that this group of 10 students raised $10,000 in two weeks to support their local food pantry. They sent me a photo and it has them all jumping and I tear up.

Nearly a million incarcerated people depend on rural hospitals for care – but now, thanks to Trump's 'big beautiful bill,' many of those hospitals are at risk of closing This will devastate entire communities, including people behind bars More here👇

Breaking: A federal judge on Thursday delivered a damning condemnation of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago: “I would find the use of force shocks the conscience.” @bellwak.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Thanks for sharing out story, @jimmykimmel.com! For anyone interested, here's a gift link to the piece: wapo.st/49yu548

👀 Scoop: IRS Direct File, the free government-backed program that let you file your taxes for free, is dead. IRS wrote to state tax agencies saying it would not be operational this coming tax season, per records I've obtained. IRS Direct File: 2023-2025. (Story from when the pilot launched.)

What happens when you distill 2025 into a single social media post? This. This is what you get.

if there was a rich person with the will, you could build the most incredible news organization that has ever existed just from the wreckage of this year alone.

This magazine just fired all of their politics staffers

You can't make this up.

ICE is trying to get bounty hunters to speed up the deportation process, including by offering cash bonuses. I took a look at the procurement document posted by @propublica.org and, just for fun, FOIA'd all the questions received - and responses issued - by ICE's contracting office about this plan.

BREAKING: The full bench of the 9th circuit has agreed to take up the Portland National Guard case and vacated the panel decision that had blessed Trump’s deployment.

Judge warns Border Patrol leader that tear gas use appears to violate court order, via @bellwak.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

An ICE agent being arrested for DUI with his kids in the car threatened to check the cop’s legal status. “Your boy, he’s Haitian, right?” His lawyer says he’s sorry. ICE says its agents adhere to the highest standards. @bellwak.bsky.social reporting www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

The Survivor Connection is a new resource intended to make experts from the gun violence survivor community more readily accessible to journalists in Philadelphia. survivorconnection.org

MAGA media is desperate for proof of widespread left-wing violence. But from an GOP bar fracas to a teen who staged his abduction by “four Mexicans,” the stories keep turning out to be hoaxes. My latest newsletter for @thebulwark.com: www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-media...