The song for today because it's my birthday (!!!) and not 30 degrees below zero for once 😅 open.spotify.com/track/0HZlND...

omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for gradient.horse

More from me for @blockclubchi.bsky.social! Headed to A Cup of Joe in Garfield Ridge on Saturday to learn why customers are choosing to support them. blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/08/a...

Jamaica and so many Black-Majority non-Spanish speaking countries that are part of the Americas and are often excluded from the conversation. It made me so happy. But, of course, we caribeños understand this better than mainlander Americanos.

Hearing him shout out Jamaica (among other majority Black Carribean countries) and seeing the Jamaican flag made me so, so happy as someone with Jamaican heritage. Love that he made it a point to honor the Carribean countries, too!

Hahaha that’s a no from me dog

I really wish we had a well funded, power critical fourth estate interested in investigating the source of this clearly coordinated effort by payment processors. Like, we keep seeing the impact of it, but I really want to know the "who" and the "why" beyond nebulous surveillance/puritanism forces.

the bushes were people 😂

the general media's reaction to both musical performances at the Super Bowl is an indictment of what is lost when every major outlet gets rid of all the culture writers who know what symbolism is

Giancarlo Guerrero, artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival, in what he called a “beautiful surprise,” had nine days notice to join the top-secret musical lineup of the Super Bowl halftime show, which featured powerhouse vocalists Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.

They sang “American Idiot”

My colleague got into Trump's sprawling family detention camp, which is full of toddlers, kids, & teens. - Kids have cut themselves or talked about suicide -There's worms & mold in food -300 kids have been held for 30+ days, far longer court settlement allows www.propublica.org/article/life...

bad bunny appreciation post 🫶

An amazingly thorough thread deconstructing Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show!

This morning at the Minnesota State Capitol. An ice sculpture that reads "PROSECUTE ICE". I'm told the organization behind the sculpture is Common Defense.

A historic Roseland church, once on the verge of demolition, will become a Black-women-led medical center. blockclubchi.co/4ruzvCZ

TONIGHT: @maddow.bsky.social sits down with independent journalist Georgia Fort following Fort’s arrest after covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in Minneapolis. Watch The Rachel Maddow Show tonight at 9pm ET on MS NOW.

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back to reporting! My latest for @blockclubchi.bsky.social on the Black-women-led Oynx Health Collective, which acquired Roseland's historic Reformation Lutheran Church late last year to transform it into a community medical clinic. blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/02/h...

And part two! 💖 open.substack.com/pub/maiazine...

New Substack posts are up! If you like colorful, quirky fashion, tap in! ☺️

NEW from @justinrohrlich.bsky.social: “I’m not surprised this happened,” Ilhan Omar attacker Anthony Kazmierczak’s brother said. “Not at all. Unfortunately, he and my mother are both right-wing extremists.” "In my mind, he’s a piece of s**t," he added. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

i wrote about mothership.blog for @theguardian.com today by the way. thanks so much to @mackeza.bsky.social for the opportunity to tell more people about mothership and what we are doing with the site <3 www.theguardian.com/games/2026/j...

Mayor Brandon Johnson told the National Press Club on Wednesday that he aims to make Chicago the first city in the nation to hold ICE and Border Patrol agents accountable.

"The number of downloads...surged by 529% after Mr. Mamdani’s news conference" "there had been 3,000 people on a waiting list to access a limited number of e-book copies" "2,000 people applied for a library card over the weekend, roughly twice as many as had applied by this time last year" A win!

Whoa, whoa whoa! A Black fashion film directed by Boots Riley? Sign me up! And oh my gosh, the set, production, and costume design is so good! I will be seeing this, for sure!

Here is what this neighborhood looked like Wednesday night.

“Even milliseconds or seconds of interrupted blood flow to the brain can have serious consequences,” one Harvard neurologist told us. There is no “method of applying pressure on the neck that is foolproof in terms of avoiding neurologic damage.” By @nicolefoy.bsky.social and @mckenziefunk.com

Feds who blinded a young protester by shooting a less-lethal projectile at close range in Santa Ana shot a second man in the face that night, Britain Rodriguez, 31, blinding him too. archive.ph/D90dN

BREAKING: This dog is named Susan From Accounting

With arms linked and snow falling, Minneapolis ICE protesters dance as ICE agents retreat back. "Nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye!" WATCH ⬇️

This story is so fascinating because something pretty similar happened to me. Not getting contacted to issue a correction for a story I hadn't written, but once I had to contact Muck Rack once for aggregating stories I hadn't written, but had my name on them.

Ian emailed me to let me know a bunch of people sent donations to his site so thank you to people that did that.

DHS blames Minnesota family driving home from kids’ athletic event for their family (including 6-month old baby) being tear-gassed, then deletes tweet. www.cnn.com/politics/liv...

2026 is the year of RETVRN TO 2010 INTERNET WEB 1.0 static sites! forums! webrings, guest books, blogs etc

They are canceling youth sports across the city in Minneapolis this weekend because lawless masked armed federal paramilitaries are targeting the children and families.

Here is the NYT breakdown Ryan is referencing: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...

ICE is targeting Hmong families in St. Paul as they go door to door looking for people to kidnap. they’re asking “do you have any Asian neighbors”

I literally worked the cash register at my mid-Missouri college dining hall job Election Night in 2016. Things are bad now, but I would not ever go back.

I’m sorry y’all. I won’t be posting photos of me from 2016. That’s just not my ministry.

For anyone who doesn't see the vision! Even the best of the best has done it! 😤

Okay, it has happened. My resume is now hot pink, and I really feel like this was the right decision. 😌 Folks should know what kind of reporter they're getting with me!

New post up on Substack! It's never too late for an "ins and outs" list! substack.com/@maiamcdonal...

Goblin mode

the replay 😂

bears

Gonna need Chicago: Always Down, Never Out on a t-shirt ASAP

Field Museum post-game

The Chicago Blackhawks, our hockey team, won. The Chicago Bears, our football team, won. And the Chicago Bulls, our basketball team, won. Three for three, tonight! And I live within a reasonable walking distance from multiple sports bars, so when stuff like this happens, I know about it.

I know nothing about football, but my aunt, who is a big fan of the Bears, has been cycling between screaming joyfully and cussing at the TV in the other room, and y'all seem happy on here, so I'm going to assume they won.