katie wanted to understand how/why the city decided to evict unhoused people from public parks and what steps the city was supposed to take. but through months of reporting, a different story took shape: impacted people, advocates, and social workers all said evictions shouldn’t happen at all.

This does such a good job capturing the incredible disconnect between what the city says and what the city does and the confusion and sense of powerlessness it leaves in its wake.

Someone cleared a skating rink in the slough at LaBagh Woods!

new: the first piece in a @chicagoreader.com’s series on quantum shore chicago looks at community resistance to the megadevelopment. contributor grey lucas traces the neighborhood’s history of fighting disinvestment and environmental racism from the former south works steel plant to present-day.

The Mayor's Office of Homelessness has extended their window of public comment on their Five Year Blueprint on Homelessness to Feb 13: www.chicago.gov/city/en/site...

The entire anti wokeness nonsense of the past decade was about making this kind of gutter racism broadly acceptable again bsky.app/profile/adam...

Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...

‘One officer told me that I "had no chance of returning to Minnesota" and that "the best thing for (me] is self-deportation." … She offered me $2600 to self-deport. I refused. I wanted to talk to my attorney. They didn't tell me the judge had already ordered my release and return to Minnesota.’

Bumping for the afternoon crowd.

My list of inconvenient questions to ask people in power, should I ever get the chance to meet them, is getting longer

This is incredible reporting and incredible story ABOUT reporting--Unravelled journos clearly lay out the steps they took and why and that their results were.

related, the FOIA Bakery is currently suing the city for refusing to release public records documenting the city's approach to unhoused Chicagoans. specifically, metadata: a list of files.

Last year, I emailed Chicago’s chief homelessness officer, Sendy Soto, as well as spokespeople for both Soto & Mayor Johnson, six times. I wanted to understand their approach to evicting unhoused Chicagoans from the shelters they build to survive. No response. chicagoreader.com/news/housing...

can’t not hear and see:

Support the staffers who were laid off today

It’s me and my forehead zit against the world

My newest Reader music feature is all about Angel Tapes, the Chicago-based @firetalkrecs.bsky.social imprint that’s throwing a TNK showcase at Schubas next week.

Just received a response from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office regarding our request for comment: "We do not comment publicly on pending litigation. Once we are served with the petition, we will address the allegations in our legal response."

They just blindly shot through the fucking door. "Additional photographs show damage consistent with a bullet fragment lodged in a bedroom wall down the hallway — suggesting it traveled between a mattress and a portable crib in a room where several small children sleep."

“After the killing of Alex Pretti, there was an action brought to preserve that evidence that didn’t happen here…even though the state’s attorney has authority to bring that kind of case, that didn’t happen,” said Weikal.

Current* conditions near Sheboygan, WI:

Marimar Martinez stays brave. Also—not making light of the violence she endured or the violence that’s killing people—the pic of her FLEXING THE BICEP hit by a Border Patrol bullet goes hard as hell. What a person. What a Chicagoan.

A newborn in Minneapolis hadn’t eaten for a day and a half. ICE agents took her mother when she went to work, trying to make money for diapers. Her 16-year-old and Bri, a local mother of two, saved that baby's life. @chabeli.bsky.social tells their story

In 2025 ICE teargassed a middle-class street in Chicago holding a Halloween parade for children. In 2025 ICE deployed tear gas in front of middle and elementary schools in Chicago and Evanston, IL. In 2025 ICE pepper-sprayed a 1 year old baby in her parents' car in Cicero, IL. This is not new.

Just experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

Took my eyes off the baby for 30 seconds only to find he’d crawled to the bathroom, opened the cupboard, and was sitting in the dark plucking my hair out of my hairbrush and eating it

Recordings I obtained of Chicagoans calling 911 to report ICE activity—including Marimar Martínez’s call after an agent shot her—are included in this week’s episode of @thisamericanlife.org

My three closest coffee shops are closed because of the strike, at least one after taking a vote with their employees to decide what to do (maybe the others did it that way too, they just didn’t say so publicly). I think that’s pretty cool.

Fed agents boxed in a 56 year old observer, addressed her by her first name although they’d never met before, and told her they identified her using facial recognition software.

Huge thanks to Chicago NOW’s Anthony Ponce and Kaitlin Cody at @fox32chicago.bsky.social for chatting with new editor in chief Sarah Conway about what’s ahead for the Reader!

@katieprout.bsky.social has some background and historical examples chicagoreader.com/news/chicago...

Not surprisingly, kids are not faring well in the for-profit family concentration camp. They are distressed, sleeping a lot, not getting enough to eat. Rep. Castro reports that a 2-month-old baby is in there

ice was in elgin today. on tuesday, ice kidnapped people from chicago’s hermosa neighborhood as well as the suburbs of bolingbrook (west) and waukegan (far north). last week, feds in six vehicles abducted an adult and three kids from near their home in woodlawn. they never left. they never stopped.

Maher Tarabishi, who has been detained by ICE since October, was the primary caretaker of his disabled adult child, Wael. On Jan. 23, Wael died from complications related to Pompe disease, a rare genetic condition. ICE has now denied Maher’s request to attend his funeral, his attorney says.

“When Alex had his bedroom window open, I could hear him singing all the way from my own open window. He loved mandarin oranges and macaroni and cheese, and we agreed it was especially pleasing when all the food on our plates was orange.”

Removed my original repost of this because @peoplesfabric.com kindly pointed out that this incident happened Saturday & was police, not ICE. bsky.app/profile/peop...

“As of Feb. 1, people up to age 64 will have to work or volunteer at least 80 hours per month to remain eligible for food assistance. The work rules also expanded to include people who are homeless, veterans and parents of teens 14 and older.”

Crowd has filled up the corner now. At least 200+ people. Lots of unions including AFGE, NNU, CTU, SEIU, and more

"As veterans we know what warfare looks like and right now the United States is against in warfare against their own people"

Now: Small but growing crowd assembling in front of the Jesse Brown VA in Chicago to rally in memory of Alex Pretti and to demand ICE out of everywhere

So many people in the Twin Cities are physically and emotionally scarred by what has been happening there. Still, going out with a broken rib is remarkable. He must have been in severe pain and still decided to step in to help someone.

This is an *extremely* important story. Food pantries and mutual aid are beautiful, critical things, but the need will be greater than they can meet. People across the country are going to be forced to choose between paying for food or paying rent.

Marimar Martinez is so brave.

The only thing that would make this more of a Congressional Democratic proposal is if they figured out a way to means-test not being shot.

There's apparently body cam footage of Alex's murder. Do people know this? This lets you know that a demand for body cams is USELESS and in fact just a way to give more money to the killers.

What's old is new again: "The fear that young people, particularly young, white girls, would be corrupted if the literature they read acknowledged the existence of sex, queer people, and/or pleasure, was deemed by the federal government to be a national issue."

What is a literary salon, if not a kiki? Govt book bans only attest to the power of queer lit. For my first review of 2026, I read Adam Morgan's debut, "A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to Modernize Literature." chicagoreader.com/books/book-r...

On NPR on Friday, there was a story of a 4-year-old--an American citizen--who hasn't left her house since early December, not even to play in the yard. And her 8-year-old brother recently stopped going to school, too. Their father is undocumented, and the family doesn't want to risk him being taken.

Pritzker is over on X talking about abolishing “Trump’s ICE” but not ICE itself: