Happy May Day from Chicago. There's a lot of events planned around the city today; right now interfaith leaders are gathering with activists outside 1 S. Dearborn Street, the Chicago HQ of Highlands REIT, a real estate investment firm planning to lease a vacant jail in Colorado to ICE.

The window blinds are drawn at CBS Chicago News station near Daley Plaza as the march passes by. Coverage of the Artemis II mission is playing on the news screen.

+ 200 more Chicago Public Library workers!

Never say the American dream is dead. Only in the United States can a Grand Wizard of the Klan give a State of the Union address.

Holding politicians accountable is absolutely essential. I worked on Brandon Johnson’s campaign, and understand he’s up against the system in place. That should never stop us from demanding the city + libraries we deserve and for leaders to keep promises.

City Council will negotiate and approve this budget, and NYC PLAN is working to convince each and every member that our public libraries deserve more. Join us in calling our council members to demand 0.5% funding for libraries & hold the mayor accountable to his word: nycplan.org/actions/call...

This funding increase to 0.5% is a core demand of NYC PLAN - one which has been amplified by our library systems to help ensure that every branch has the staffing and resources to provide robust services to their communities. Help us get NYC libraries the raise they deserve investinlibraries.org

Major Owens was a librarian who helped found the NY Social Responsibilities Round Table. He went on to become a NY State Senator and then a US Rep, following Shirley Chisolm. He shepherded the Americans with Disabilities Act through the House. #BlackHistoryMonth www.bklynlibrary.org/blog/2021/05...

Only in Chicago - @wgntv.com traffic helicopter currently watching this crossing guard CARRYING CHILDREN across the street because there was a water main break!!

i told a friend about the chicago public library's fire insurance map subscription and he's been excitedly sending me stuff he's found for the past hour, so a reminder that your CPL login gives you access to this awesome historic map tool chipublib.idm.oclc.org/login?url=ht...

BEARS

I am bearing down so hard that blood vessels are bursting in my eye

I am impeaching Secretary Kristi Noem, who is an incompetent leader and a disgrace to our democracy. She wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis. One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.

It’s a big club and you ain’t in it

We need to fully fund libraries. Now more than ever!

'The Fifth Street Building Takeover: Archival Activations 11' zine by @prisonculture.bsky.social. Copies of the zine are available for purchase here: www.printedmatter.org/catalog/69980 I love working on the archival activations series and I always learn a lot.

Chicago Public Library lovers: after a lot of calls, letters and visits to your alders, we got the library levy raised and restored the collections budget to $10 million. This year we were able to avoid cuts! In a contentious budget season, there is one thing we can agree on: libraries need funding.

I'm imagining an instructor somewhere making a syllabus with chat gpt, assigning reading from books that don't exist But the students don't notice, because they are asking chat gpt to summarize the book or write the essay

This is an argument I have made for a while - if you want to allow more new housing development, you'll face a lot less opposition if you protect existing tenants with rent regulation. Nice to have some more evidence to back that up.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an ordinary man, has defeated the great might of the US Government

There are a ton of opportunities to speak to support the library at city council next week! If you would like to speak with us, comment or DM me! - Monday the 15th 10am - Tuesday the 16th, 10am - Wednesday the 17th, 10am - Thursday the 18th, 10am - Tuesday the 23rd, 10am

The finance committee meeting was cancelled ! Stay tuned for more ways to support.

NEW — Cutting less than one day of the Chicago police would cover the $4.5M needed to ensure there are no cuts to library staffing and resources, one resident writes. Read this opinion submission about protecting city libraries in the 2026 budget. thetriibe.com/2025/12/opin...

ProPublica examined months of Fox News’ coverage and reviewed over 700 videos posted on social media. The network used five-year-old footage, mislabeled other dates and implied footage from elsewhere was in Portland.

The Institute of Museum & Library Services has restored all previously canceled federal grants to libraries, following a ruling by a federal judge "Restoration of these grants is a massive win for libraries of all kinds in all states."

Very happy to see so many folks coming out to offer public comment in support of the Chicago Public Libraries today. Even one of the "chicago turns red" leaders is defending libraries...come on now!

And to be clear, the mayor's 2026 proposal is not just a "no police cuts" budget -- it's a budget in which CPD (already the city's most expensive dept. by far) received a larger year-over-year net increase of non-grant funds than any other dept. Larger than most other departments' entire budgets!

Did you send a letter to your alder, mayor, and commissioner Brown already using bit.ly/LetterFundCPL? Well copy/paste that and send it to the finance committee as a written comment! Write them at [email protected] by 10am on Dec 5th.

The proposed Chicago city budget has a $5 million line item for a ShotSpotter replacement. Abandoning this failed pursuit would free up the funds needed to maintain 2025 funding levels at our city libraries, which would still leave the libraries underfunded but would avoid disastrous proposed cuts.

Anyone in city government who makes noises about "efficiencies" or "savings" while simultaneously pledging no reductions in CPD spending is either kidding themselves or kidding you. You cannot meaningfully shrink a budget without touching its largest operating expenses and debt drivers.

1.5% of CPDs budget increase would be enough to fund all the cuts to the library

1. In Tennessee, public libraries have closed for up to a week to facilitate a Trump-inspired book purge. Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.

@taylorlorenz.bsky.social with a great piece here : Many people are missing the most dangerous part of Sarah Hurwitz commentary. Her comments reveal exactly what the ruling class in America wants to do to online speech, and why we need to fight back so hard to protect our online freedoms.

"The program has the support of Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling." Outrageous. All three of them.

As budget talks stall out, I keep coming back to this one. From a budget perspective, CPD operations are almost entirely discretional. (Mind you, pensions and lawsuits are another matter.) It is an active choice to prioritize this spending above all other spending, year after year.

I support the head tax. You should too. The mayor should also support libraries. He was able to come up w/ 32 *new* positions for CPD and just found $18 million more for business grants with the head tax money. He can find $4.5 million to cover library staffing.

Specializations are the key to library operations. The sheer breadth of titles available in each area makes it imperative! Imagine going in and trying to talk to someone about children's books and all they know are the ones they read as a child. And it's not just readers. People doing research etc.

I see people claiming the head tax is going to public libraries, but as far as we’ve been told- it isnt. The good news is, our lackluster book budget may be restored. The bad news? We’re still facing 89 positions cut. After 52 positions were cut last year. That’s 11% of our workforce!

In other news, here’s a clip from Telemundo of Little Village Ald. Mike Rodriguez getting hit with a flash bang. www.instagram.com/reel/DQ0DnIv...

I do not think that Mayor Brandon Johnson was elected by people who wanted to defund their library and give that money to CPD. Following the link in thread to write a budget letter is a good thing to do.

A reminder: the library IS ALREADY underfunded The CPL foundation privately raises millions of additional $$ that it spends on programming, outreach, and also some collections. Also, where are the vacant positions? That matters a lot in terms of the City's commitment to serving the public.

Librarians and aldermen are pushing back against proposed library cuts. blockclubchi.co/47wlf48

Commentary: Halving the library’s collections budget will have immediate, real-world impacts. That means longer wait times for new books, fewer digital resources and a reduced ability to serve residents who depend on CPL for everything from résumé writing to after-school programs.

The People Want to Read: on the massive budget cuts proposed for Chicago Public Library. What's at stake and what you can do, whether or not you live in Chicago. buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

During COVID, Chicago started opening the library on Sundays with the promise, in writing, that we would get more staff for the extra hours. Instead, our staff has been cut year after year. If you love the Chicago Public Library, write electeds at bit.ly/LetterFundCPL and call your alder.