Lots of ICE alerts in the northwest side of Chicago (Logan, Humboldt, hermosa) in the past week. Bad sign to start the summer.

rapid response groups are reporting at least two ice abductions in chicago already this morning: one in avondale at diversey/pulaski (pictured below) and one in humboldt park at kolmar/grand.

New: We've been tracking reports of ICE activity across Chicagoland for five weeks. In that time, rapid responders have seen an escalation as feds have abducted dozens, caused at least two car crashes, threatened community members with weapons and flouted state courthouse protections. Read more:

Federal immigration agents are still swamping Chicagoland. Sightings in multiple city neighborhoods and in the suburbs today, with reports of at least three people being taken. "ICE is everywhere," the immigrant advocacy/rapid response group Hijos de Migrantes posted in an alert earlier today.

As ICE ramps up their bullshit for the summer, a reminder that me and a whole bunch of other folks will get whistles out to you, for free, in quantities of 100 to thousands, to distribute in your communities. Just send a request here linktr.ee/3Dwhistles

This morning federal agents hit a woman’s vehicle while chasing and eventually detaining a man, later using a taser on him while pointing tasers and pepper spray at bystanders at Lawrence/Kedzie in Albany Park. Story to come via @chicago.suntimes.com

Just cross posting this horrific intel from an independent journalist who has been on the ground in NJ for the last few days: www.threads.com/@hereswhykev...

seeing reports of rubber bullets and tear gas with an absolute deluge of police forces at Delaney. for tue second night in a row, people are facing cops on charging horses. the governor said sending in state police was “deescalating” the situation.

i feel like people should maybe be more concerned about the license plate readers they strapped to every parking gate

they’re shooting crowd control munitions at crowds that include multiple members of congress, the governor, and a sitting united states senator. they fired pepper balls at the senator. they cannot and will not be reigned in by democracy, whatever’s left of it.

Baby great blue herons at Oak Woods Cemetery

Chicagoland has seen a steady pace of ICE sighting + abduction alerts all week. After one person was taken in Waukegan yesterday, this morning feds are dispersed broadly across the burbs again. Seen in Round Lake Beach and Joliet so far. A worker was snatched at a Bolingbrook Burger King at 5:30am.

It's always cool to see amazing people get attention for their awesome books (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/s...

Just my opinion, but this is starting to sound like letting the sheriff spend a million dollars AND unilaterally decide all of the county's ALPR policies

if you take one thing away from my reporting pls let it be that *all* surveillance is bad. not just flock. not just briefcam. get rid of one and they’ll get another. companies and police have deliberately built a world where every aspect of our lives is collected and centralized and commodified.

ICE agents are walking around with a list of 20 million people to detain in their pockets because of this Palantir database: www.404media.co/ice-agents-h...

#books #read #write #authorlife #blueskywriters #booksky

May the 4th be with you as we are living in a crisis where the distance between what it said and what is known to be true has become an abyss Even so, you are not alone, you have friends everywhere

Walgreens is closing another two locations this year in my area (SE Chicago). After they closed THREE last year. When they closed the 3 last year, my Walgreens became UNBEARABLE in terms of waiting. You’d walk in to pick up your “ready” med, & wait 45(!) minutes! Routinely!

There’s a Chicago Beaver Festival this afternoon in Nichols Park on the South Side. www.illinoisbeaveralliance.org/2026-chicago...

Loving the random Xena nods on Hacks lol Please can we have a Lucy Lawless/Renee O’Conner rewatch podcast??

hi if you live in chicago or know someone who does and they’re looking for a roommate, plz let me know! one of my dear friends is a trans woman in her early 20s and she needs safe, longterm emergency housing. if she can move in within a week, amazing. dm me.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights is reporting an uptick in ICE activity across the Chicago area over the last week, incl. reported abductions at Cook County courthouses and immigration check ins. Chicago neighborhoods of reported activity include Rogers Park, Austin and Pilsen.

This could be your child, in your home. It's paid for by your taxes. Beirut, Lebanon.

The right and center left have spent decades defunding public goods. Privatization and “public-private” partnerships have left billions of people without safety nets. This message needs to be hammered home daily.

Spending this rainy, thunderous spring day writing up my process for our edible ground cover planting method, because chaos planting and polycultures make things so much easier.

The world is stupid, but I just watched a squirrel break into a car in the parking lot below me, steal a package of crackers, and escape to a nearby tree. So at least somebody is winning.

Occupation is strongest when it is normalized. They are not trying to terrorize you (unless you’re a target) at the airport because the point is to normalize their presence and occupation.

The photos in this story were made by local freelance photographer @mkaplanphoto.bsky.social, who risked his own health and safety in the face of chemical weapons to document that day:

Come on, Chicago, get the de-Flock bug, too!

This week has seen anti-trans legislation and policies advance or pass in Portugal, India, Ghana, Senegal, the US and the Olympics. It’s an an-all global assault on transgender people. It was begun by rich white ppl in England and the US. Being trans is good. We will never abandon trans people.

The final words of Alice’s memorial came from Alice herself

Oh

All this shit is a menace.

Hossam Shabqt was assassinated one year ago today. I felt an affinity for him because he was supposed to be finishing journalism school when the war began, was the same age as my students, and we corresponded. He was unbearably sweet and kind.

I know breaking news is hard but I've several articles about the crash at LGA yesterday/today and none mentioned the persistent understaffing of air traffic control, and the absolute chaos the trump administration added to the system in the past year.

Hi hello there's a lot happening, but want to draw attention to an urgent need in the community— 78 yr old Raymond & his 95 yr old mother are facing eviction *immediately* if they don't pay back rent to the tune of $3200. Fundraiser is sitting at 27%. More info here: instagram.com/p/DWO2QUoldVX/

ICE locks tens of thousands of detainees nationwide in a network of 170 "hold rooms" spread across 49 states, which are forbidden from containing beds. Today, we are publishing location and detainee information about all 170 facilities. coloradotimesrecorder.com/2026/03/excl...

If you believe you see ICE at any Chicago area airports this week (🚬), please message us anonymously on Signal at unraveled.66

THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section.

coincidentally, i spent the week traveling southeastern wisconsin on a reporting trip about data centers. more to say on that soon, but the tl;dr is that millions of people are going to feel the impact of this decision for generations

It's a clear and sunny day in Chicago. ICE is out and about, with vehicles sighted across the city and suburbs. Berwyn Cicero Rapid Response just confirmed feds took two people from Cicero shortly after 8am.

We have a verdict and we are heartbroken at the results. This is only the beginning. We will continue to fight the remaining charges until every defendant is home.

I see the "e-bikers are lazy and ruining cycling" discourse has arrived with the warm weather, and so let me just share this thing I wrote about how getting an e-bike after I got #LongCOVID gave me back one of the most joyful parts of my life that I thought was lost to me forever. bit.ly/48ohIH5

Let me tell you what may be another sign that these warehouses turned ICE detention centers are extremely unpopular. A source reached out and said they heard about a location. I looked it up and reached out to the owner of that location. Within 20 minutes, they responded that they received my email

Chicago.

Hello! One month from today I’m releasing my new book about our majestic universe, which thinks with poetry, quantum physics, relativity, Zhou kingdom philosophy, galaxies, particles, Akan aphorisms, Black feminism, Star Trek, Alice in Wonderland. AND it’s for all readers. 📚💙 Please preorder it! 🧵