“During the evening hours of May 6, 1876, a destructive severe storm caused widespread damage across the then growing city of Chicago.” www.weather.gov/lot/1876_05_...

People who hold power shouldn’t plaster their names and faces across government buildings and infrastructure. Trump’s moves to do so deserve emphatic public repudiation. [Dan Greenberg]

Thread. I cannot stress enough how difficult it will be to prosecute anyone, let alone everyone, responsible for the horrors we’ve experienced. There will inevitably be shortfalls by any measure of justice, and if you’re not familiar with this work, you should be.

Was too hasty on guess 4—realized right as I submitted, but still pretty happy with this one: Wordle 1,783 5/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

"After my story appeared, I heard from people in Patel’s orbit and people he has met at public functions, who told me that it is not unusual for him to travel with a supply of personalized branded bourbon."

BREAKING: A key city panel on Wednesday advanced Mayor Brandon Johnson’s nomination of Anjanette Young, a social worker who was handcuffed while naked during a botched 2019 Chicago Police Department raid, to serve on the city’s police oversight board. @wttw.bsky.social

If Kash’s drinking wasn’t true what was there to leak?

Corporate journalism was able to exist because it either: 1) aligned with a rich owner’s views 2) Kept advertisers happy So say you want to opt out of that and be fully independent. But then, you become a slave to either your audience’s whims, algorithms, or funders with their own agenda.

In 1981 I went to Atlanta for Rolling Stone to view the amazing phenomenon of a 24-hour cable television news channel, and interviewed the complex dude who started it. RIP Ted Turner.

“The more stations that are added to the network and the longer the monitoring project runs, the more patterns will become apparent. Birds might be using previously unsuspected corridors, they might be more affected by certain weather conditions than others … ”

DAWKINS: You idiots believe in God? ALSO DAWKINS: The Computer is alive. And it’s also my girlfriend

“The answer isn’t a more sophisticated metric. You need to be more deliberate about what you measure and why.” “Article-level metrics will often mislead you.” theaudiencers.com/the-reader-w...

Wordle 1,782 5/6* ⬛🟩⬛🟨🟨 🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

“We’re going to flood the zone. You’re going to see more ICE agents [than] you ever seen before.” The time to get whistles into the hands of your community is right now. We will send you whistles, for free, in quantities of 100-thousands. We do it every day. linktr.ee/3Dwhistles

So the Feds did more to investigate VA workers who went to Alex Pretti memorial than those who killed him.

from the jump, we (@unraveledpress.com, @djbyrnes1.bsky.social + me) pointed out obvious lies and raised questions about the circumstances leading up to the ice agent—whose name we still don’t know—shooting and killing silverio.

IL State Police has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González nearly 8 months after he was killed by a federal immigration agent during a traffic stop in Franklin Park toward the start of Operation Midway Blitz. Let's hope State's Atty Burke will finally act.

Cook County Sheriff's Dept. patrolling at Red Line's 63rd Station recently, by Jeff Zoline. He says, "They have mostly been on the Dan Ryan Branch from there south." @chicagocta.bsky.social @ctaction.org @ctasmokers.com @atalliance.bsky.social @betterstreetschicago.org @equiticity.bsky.social

A detail I didn’t know: “The Herald entered the Epstein series for a Pulitzer Prize that year, but it was not a finalist. Alan Dershowitz … who helped broker Epstein’s original deal, wrote a letter to the Pulitzer committee that year, urging them not to honor Brown’s work.” share.inquirer.com/THMiUZ

Unlucky to miss the solve in three or two after a lucky first guess. Satisfying nonetheless: Wordle 1,781 4/6* ⬛⬛🟨🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

In December, SCOTUS stayed a district court ruling blocking TX from using its new maps because the lower court ruled "on the eve of an election." That district court ruling was issued 15 weeks before the TX primaries. Callais was issued *17 days* before the LA primaries.

👀

Statement on today's motion from Chris Parente, attorney for Brian Straw:

Here’s the jaw-dropping story via @kyledcheney.bsky.social and @joshgerstein.bsky.social 2/ www.politico.com/news/2026/05...

Yet again I am pitching the Pet Gala™️

Times Opinion columnist M. Gessen has been awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in opinion writing, for "an illuminating collection of reported essays on rising authoritarian regimes that draw on history and personal experience to probe timely themes of oppression, belonging and exile."

more on @jkbjournalist.bsky.social's special Pulitzer www.pulitzer.org/winners/juli...

The Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting Monday for its coverage of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement mission in the Chicago area last fall.

Phew: Wordle 1,780 6/6* 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟨 🟩🟩⬛🟩⬛ 🟩🟩⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Shoegaze is everywhere, especially in the midwest. I reached out to more than a dozen musicians and experts to talk all things midwest shoegaze for my newest Reader feature.

It's not just nostalgia: How print enhances advertising and visibility for local-news projects. New at Media Nation. #journalism dankennedy.net/2026/05/04/i...

Wordle 1,779 4/6* ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wait, I thought if 60 Minutes edited an interview with a politician in the slightest, that was grounds for a lawsuit?

Last night’s palindromic #SquareApp check-in number 26,362 found me … in the East Village: MTA Subway - 2nd Ave (F) in New York City swarmapp.com/user/9218262...

Yes. The text of the 14th and 15th Amendments explicitly gives the power to decide how to enforce these amendments to Congress. The Civil Rights Movement was an attempt to enforce the Reconstruction amendments. By undoing the work of the movement, you are undoing the results of the Civil War.

Very clear lede here, doesn't mince words or euphemize, and thereby helps us see how far down the democratic backslide we've already gone:

🚨BREAKING: On behalf of the National Council of Jewish Women and Louisiana voters, my law firm has sued Governor Jeff Landry (R) and Secretary of State Nancy Landry (R), challenging the state’s decision to suspend the 2026 congressional primary elections. www.democracydocket.com/cases/louisi...

Update: Meenu Batra was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention on April 30. A federal judge in Brownsville mandated her release that same day through a temporary restraining order, writing that her detention likely violated her constitutional right to due process.

Justice Thurgood Marshall, dissenting in Mobile v. Alabama, which gave us the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the Supreme Court just nullified in Louisiana v. Callais. Every word applies to the current majority: tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...

as an avid reader of corrections, I am unlikely to recover from “sits peeing down”

A key finding from the report: "Officials from ICE, CBP, DHS, and the White House routinely lied to the public about the motivations and outcomes of Operation Midway Blitz and concealed and distorted key facts about events involving federal immigration agents."

Wordle 1,777 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩 ⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I wrote for The Atlantic about political violence and the rise of what I’m calling Blood Populism. Americans need to look beyond reflexive partisanship to understand the scope and scale of this problem.

This Gen Xer will in fact be indulging in the “great tonic” offered by this show next weekend as I continue, hopefully, to “Stay alive and stay weird.” #afghanwhigs chicagoreader.com/music/concer...

What do conservatives always say when liberals criticize a Supreme Court decision? "Get Congress to pass a law," right? That is EXACTLY what happened here. In 1982, Congress explicitly overruled a Court case that narrowly interpreted the VRA. Today, Sam Alito said, nope, we were right all along.

Especially happy today with this three after not being able to finish yesterday's: Wordle 1,776 3/6* 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Late-night update to Amy's Louisiana v. Callais analysis: the court has been asked on its interim docket to make its decision final immediately, which would give Louisiana more time to potentially adopt a new map.

Disappointing result. Even on a chilly Wednesday night though, still nice to be back at the Gee[km]. #cf97

“The court directly struck down Louisiana’s current map … With a May 16 primary looming — and early voting set to begin this weekend — drawing new congressional boundaries would require a breakneck timetable and perhaps new election dates.” www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/u...

“Its complex ownership history meant that the manuscript had been regarded as lost by Bede scholars since 1975 and no one realised it contained a copy of Caedmon’s Hymn until the National Central Library of Rome digitised the manuscript.” www.tcd.ie/news_events/...