🏛️ S. 3090 — A bill to prohibit the use of funds for an explosive nuclear weapons test. Sponsored by @markey.senate.gov in the Senate. 🔗 legilist.com/bill.php?con... #NuclearTesting #Congress #BreakingNews #LegiList

IL Genealogical Society 2025 conference is in the books. So much better to meet w people in person. It was a great day. #genealogy

I have never seen so much Halloween candy at the grocery stores as this year. Stress response?

“With vaccination of many school children and a considerable number of employees…small-pox has ceased to be of much importance. It has been brought under effective control in most parts of the State so that there were only 15 deaths from it last year.” 1919, IL Report of the Health Commission

sick day, new jigsaw puzzle keeping me company in between naps.

“Dad’s DNA looks different”

How long can the US function without a Congress? What if it just never met again?

A federal judge in Chicago extended restrictions on ICE's warrantless arrests until February 2026, finding that the agency violated a settlement agreement by arresting 22 people without warrants.

I will not back down. Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

This is an important point. Everyone one of these people has been asked to leave their home, their family, and their job to work without pay bc of the shutdown. We're better off thinking of ways to make this backfire on Abbott than to treat them poorly.

We (Democrats, reporters, society in general) should and should be able to make this into a big story.

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

Enjoying this ornately lettered design, of the title page of Van Arsdale & Company’s 1873 Representative Business Houses of Chicago

Happy #InternationalTranslationDay from ATA! 🌎🎉 Today is a reminder to everyone everywhere of just how critical #translators and #interpreters are. We change the world every time we connect individuals, communities, and cultures! 🥳💙 . . . #Translator #Interpreter #Language #xl8 #1nt #atanet

“The Californians are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world, their average yearly consumption being 16 3/5 lbs…average in the US is only 7 lbs. The average consumption of wine is 10 gal. to every citizen, and the amount of whiskey consumed is beyond computation.” Central MO Herald, Nov 10, 1870

We take care of one another.

Housing and registration are open for #AHA26! Join us for the nation’s largest gathering of historians in Chicago from January 8-11, 2026.

If you're on #LinkedIn, this is the link for declining their use of your data for training their AI models: www.linkedin.com/mypreference...

Luckily, Sinclair has a helpful database of all their stations, so you can see if they're operating in your area and respond accordingly. sbgi.net/tv-stations/

Chicago is such a beautiful city.

That’s Literally Amore

This is a Melissa Hortman appreciation account for the next 24 hours.

To every person pissed that they can’t get access to a vaccine & who thinks it’s not the gov’s job & between them & their doctor: Many Americans can’t get abortion care even if they will die without it. It sucks when gov controls your access to healthcare.

A reminder, the National Guard, however fabulous, is just *not set up* to police neighborhoods for burglars, or mediate disputes at businesses, or in traffic, when some asshat pulls a gun. Their presence is not going to “fix” the gun problem in ANY city or town. That’s magical thinking.

This weekend I've appreciated people setting the record straight, including local outlets/reporters like @blockclubchi.bsky.social @chicago.suntimes.com, @unraveledpress.com and @dansinker.com Shout out who you are finding reliable! I am always looking for places to find better info.

I just visited Naval Station Great Lakes that Trump is letting DHS use as they prepare to invade Chicago. 
The Navy cooperated and took the time to answer our questions.

Trump’s DHS locked the doors and fled.

That’s not how you act when you’re doing something legal.

Chicago forever

Nothing "devalues and demeans the Christian faith" more than a group of lying grifters who just bragged about murdering a boatload of people and are protecting a pedophile sex trafficking ring pretending that they are, despite all their actions, Christians.

Got my COVID booster today. Thanks @govpritzker.illinois.gov.

One of the biggest $$ business opportunities in the US right now is household solar panels & batteries. Any company that wanted to sell at break-even or a low profit could quickly corner this growing market.

I know, I know, but: The president of the US saying, literally, "we're going in" in reference to sending the military to an American city for no reason beyond terrorizing the local population should be the most immediately impeachable shit imaginable

NEWS: A federal judge has ruled that Trump’s deployment of military forces to Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a law that prohibits the use of the armed forces as a domestic police force.

Reminder that you don’t need to be a “pro” genealogist to make a big impact. In the 1980s an amateur found 20 ledgers in the back of the Voter Registration dept in the Cook Co. building. Inside were hundreds of thousand of voters for 1888, 1890, & 1892. 1/2

Netflix just gave Gavin Newsom 2 million for the redistricting fight and made a deal with Sesame Street. New episodes will air there and the backlog of old episodes will Be free to watch. Netflix picked a side. I will keep my subscription.

Solar gain. We got it. #cats

Why Isn't Donald Trump's Declining Health Being Covered by Corporate Media? Where are the op-eds & news programs calling for Trump's resignation due to his declining health, impaired abilities, & march towards fascism? Oh, yeah, "both sides" corporate journalism. open.substack.com/pub/thelefth...

If you're arrested in Illinois protesting the planned ICE HQ in North Chicago, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at [email protected]. As always, I will take as many cases as I can.

2nd great grandpa Phil got busted twice for holding illegal gaming tables, and sold specialty liquors under the table. They had prized medicinal properties. #genealogy

What if your town’s culture vanished overnight? Libraries are capturing online pages that showcase community life, preserving the web we built Learn more in our blog ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/08/27/p...

Try to imagine life in 2641. This is why archives, museums and libraries are AMAZING. End.

Jamieson & Smith has stopped mailing their lovely wool yarn to the US because of the idiotic tariffs. And citizens with pointy sticks just got a little more stabby. #knitting

Everyone in Bluesky. Go to settings > Accessibility > Require alt text before posting Turn it on. It won’t let you post till you describe the image. You can also select the text in an image of text & paste that. It could not be easier to be a human for your fellow humans. An #ally in #a11y. 😁

Just fetched a sack of 19th c Hessian church records from the library, because I know how to party. #genealogy

The whole fundraising-by-ominous-text thing really needs to stop in the US. It’s going to get so much more toxic w all the AI scam bots, too. Please get money out of politics. This is so dumb.

Illinois Gov. Pritzker vows to pursue Trump officials who participate in an illegal National Guard deployment to Chicago: "If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me - not time or political circumstance - from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law."

What a cute 1927 service station! I wonder if it’s still—oh

This week 225 NEW genealogy education events were added to our FREE calendar! Webinars, workshops, seminars, courses, conferences & more! See the list at https://www.conferencekeeper.org/blog #genealogy

That was one of the most batshit press conferences of Trump's public life. He brandished a photo of Putin and promised to deploy the US military to occupy Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. A sane country would be moving toward impeachment and removal right now.

Things People are Begging for: 1. Cheaper groceries 2. No Medicaid and SNAP cuts 3. Release of the Epstein Files Things People are NOT begging for: 1. An authoritarian power grab of major cities