I am never leaving the Great Lakes

It's your birthday, Duane.

I love my two blackout drunk Minnesota sons

jfc

NEW from me: the cook county sheriff's office missed a state-mandated deadline to report that, from april 2024-march 2025, it owned and used 10 surveillance drones. it's the second time in as many years that a chicago-area police agency has violated illinois’ drone surveillance law.

I did not enjoy listening to this clip. Esp as a parent parts of it feel almost unbearable to hear. That’s why I’m encouraging you to watch and listen to this

Disturbing. We must keep ProPublica authentic and transparent to its readers.

As Greg Bovino returns to Chicago, this story looks at children detained by ICE, including one 5-year-old swept up in Operation Midway Blitz earlier this year. “We didn’t eat anything for days. They didn’t even give us water to drink,” the mother said. www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/17/c...

This Facebook live from someone following agents from a safe distance then immediately cut off as a cop got out of his car and approached the driver.

After raiding shopping plazas in Cicero and Bedford Park this morning, a caravan of Border Patrol agents swung north toward Edgewater. Several Chicago police vehicles can be seen here intervening to protect their exit from DSLSD onto city streets and escort the caravan.

5824 West Race Avenue

Scenes from a Chicago area gas station: Gregory Bovino playing rock paper scissors with an agent over who gets what piece of beef jerky while a community member shouts “you’re a piece of shit, you’re a fucking loser!”

Teamsters Local 705 just confirmed that Bovino went with armed CBP agents to a Mauser picket line in Chicago this morning and "interrogated and laughed at our members while they were on the picket line." These workers went on strike to demand protections for immigrant workers, among other things.

More from me in @blockclubchi.bsky.social. blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/14/a...

SROs offer dormitory-like affordable housing, often for people who may otherwise face homelessness. Housing organizers fear it may leave some with nowhere to go. Nearly 40% of the city’s SRO buildings have closed since 2014, according to a 2024 UIC study.

A large CBP presence is back in Chicago this morning, with sightings and arrests reported across the southwest side and Cicero. Bovino is also here.

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

The fact that we keep pretending that police stations are an appropriate place to shelter or house vulnerable people is egregious.

Every frigid day like this, I think about this 2022 piece by @katieprout.bsky.social. No one should have to be outside today in Chicago, much less staying outside unsheltered overnight. That that might be preferable to the available shelter is incredibly damning. chicagoreader.com/news/lukewar...

Armed ICE agents trapped US citizens in a restaurant and demanded their papers. Federal agents walked into East African restaurants in Cedar-Riverside, MN. They closed and blocked the doors. Then they demanded to see everyone’s papers. Every person present was a US citizen.

This is outside Minneapolis. Like Chicago, a big part of their strategy is just driving around looking for laborers to abduct. They failed this time.

In 2010 I made a Christmas tour poster for @lowtheband.bsky.social . I have put some copies up in my shop at www.dangrzeca.com. All proceeds from these sales will be donated to Nourishing Hope food pantry in Chicago! These poster is printed in metallic golds and coppers and is a fave of mine.

“When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly," she told Reuters. "There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life," she said. www.reuters.com/business/env...

it's worth noting 1) that there's a longstanding tradition of trying to play solidarity against basic self-respect and 2) that the Combahee River Collective's coining of the term "identity politics" was directly in response to this

"My name is Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I stand before you as a free man and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high."

"Did women have no choice, Wilcox wondered, but to wander the world hoping never to step on a landmine of a man?" Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America. magazine.atavist.com/2025/14445-a...

dentist office smells like tuna fish I am gonna kms

lofi beats to lie under three blankets and feel insane to

Just a reminder that we're still accepting any and all tips regarding the people running for judge in Cook County in the March primary! Take a look at the names here and share anything you'd like us to know. Responses are confidential! airtable.com/appG8uZvhvgY...

A raided South Shore building will be cleared Friday after a judge denied residents’ motion for more time. blockclubchi.co/48Y8AJf

This is infuriating. For those who just want the donation link, it's here secure.everyaction.com/gLkKHzevhku4...

UPDATE — For those who want to help, there’s now a way to donate directly to the 7500 South Shore Tenants Union to help with emergency relocation costs as residents “vacate in one of the snowiest winters in Chicago’s history.” Details in our story. thetriibe.com/2025/12/judg...

It felt bad to be the primary lonely parent, making it thru hours of solo time with an infant the way I was when my spouse had to go back to work this summer. It also feels bad to be apart from my baby 40 hours a week! I know I'm not the first to say this, but capitalism! It really sucks!

really great reporting here

I don’t know how to put a dollar figure on an article. I do know the media ecosystem is better when there’s new models like @theflytrapmedia.com and @flaminghydra.com and @autonomynews.co and @hammerandhope.bsky.social and @prisonjournalism.bsky.social (just to name some of my subscriptions)

A coyote with a CTA bus

"We deserve respect. We deserve a safe place to find dignified work, a place where we can look for employment without fear."

"I have had my wages stolen after working, and I have been called lazy and told I don't work. I have waited on the corner during rainstorms and snowstorms because if I don't, I can't eat or pay my rent. I've gotten sick just from standing outside waiting."

Gualberto Olac's speech today at a press conference at City Hall was beautiful and I want to pull some longer quotes. He was calling for the city to support safe hiring sites for day laborers. "As a day laborer, I have experienced discrimination from people, from the police, and from employers."

oh shit I love this????? I had never heard this story! as always with wild saint lore, I’m just as interested in WHY certain legends stick. there’s something really moving in the idea of centuries of Catholics repeating and repeating a story where Mary’s miracle was saving two men from homophobes

PHOTOS: Feds deploy tear gas in Elgin as hourslong standoff ends in man's arrest chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Standoff has been going on for at least 2 hours. Chatter on live feed is that the person Feds are after either is a supposed gang member or federal agents are claiming the person crashed their car into them. The ERO officer in this still pepper sprayed the person on livefeed that I screencapped.

tense moments, Feds rushed into crowd, threaten crowd with nonlethals, before retreating and forming a new line. Crowd was standing on public property.

Happening right now. Community members in Elgin, IL are in a standoff with Feds who are trying to abduct their neighbor. ERO guy in picture on left just peppered sprayed person I screencapped.

NEW — Mayor Brandon Johnson has sent a letter to Friedman Communities, “requesting an immediate postponement of the move-out date and $7500 lump-sum payments to each household in the building.” thetriibe.com/2025/12/100-...

Several hundred more Starbucks baristas walked out Thursday, the 22nd day of their growing unfair labor practice strike. It is now the longest strike the coffee giant has faced, spreading to 145 stores in more than 100 cities. Our editor Jenny Brown reports labornotes.org/2025/12/red-...

Tents save lives. If you have the cash, consider donating to help unsheltered DC folks stay safe in their cold weather.

even in this batshit timeline this stands out as particularly unhinged and sick

You post a pic or video of a Chicago coyote & I will smash that like button so fast.

BREAKING: Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans & intersex people, memo says. A DOJ memo says certain standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) do not align with Trump’s Jan. 20 anti-trans executive order, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social reports.