All that standing between me and two weeks of holiday break are 60 more sections of this anti-harassment compliance training.

Having the kind of afternoon where I’m very excited to find one stale mini Twix left over from Halloween

Agents in Key Largo, Florida ripped this woman wearing medical scrubs out of her car as she screamed she is a US citizen. Agents cuffed her and put her in one of their cars. She was eventually let go, per David Goodhue of the Miami Herald, who also took this footage:

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:

I'm always torn between what I want to do and what I feel like I should do to align with my values.This morning, I wrote this post instead of doing community work. Does it help that some of the characters in the book have fully devoted their lives to the cause?

Heart the Lover, pure pleasure for bookish sorts from the pre-internet era.

Trump is a liar. Tear gassing kids in peaceful neighborhoods makes no one safer. He cannot steal credit from our violence prevention and law enforcement efforts that have reduced crime for four years straight — long before his masked agents showed up. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

I read this book entirely based on a Substack note that led me to a Substack post, which was nominally about landing the ending in literary fiction but was mostly about assassins. While reading I had the uncanny sence I was actually reading Marjorie Morningstar, if anyone remembers that novel.

Alderman Sigcho Lopez’s recent IG live is worth a watch. 22 min of him talking as he follows federal agents. He talks about what happened today in Little Village and this week. He calls out CPD for protecting ICE at one point & also speaks to an escalation in the attack on our communities.

Chicago officials say the daycare teacher abducted this week has valid work permit and asylum case. Homeland Security says her work authorization was approved by the Biden administration. As if that negates it. They think what they say is illegal is illegal, and gives them the right to violence.

With appearances by @britticisms.bsky.social, @zoezolbrod.bsky.social, Gina Frangello, @meganstielstra.bsky.social, and the all-star band of @marydeereynolds.bsky.social, Amalea Tshilds, @beanatitagain.bsky.social, Angela James, L. Wyatt, Julie Pomerleau & Jeanine O'Toole.

As Trump loses popularity, there will be an attempt to minimize what‘s happening in Chicago right now . THIS is the number one national issue — are you FOR or AGAINST a taxpayer-funded secret police terrorizing major cities?

Happy pub day to @mskellymhayes.bsky.social @akpress.org and everyone who inspired this beautiful and heartfelt offering. May it provide solace, clarity, and guidance in these truly scary and unprecedented times. I’m honored to have contributed a piece on grief, my great teacher and friend.

I know it's bad when I start arguing with randos on Facebook. Time for me to lock myself out of the socials and take some breaths.

Just heard sirens here in Evanston and went on high alert. I hang on every word Kelly Hayes says about community and activism, and I can't wait to get my hands on this book she edited.

I have a family member with bipolar and I pick up a lot of creative nonfiction on the topic. This one by Kerry Neville is swoopingly literary and ends with hard-won joy.

The pattern of ICE /Immigration violence, lawlessness, disappearing people, lying about it all is making life more dangerous for everyone in the communities they ransack.

Incredible turnout today for a mutual aid food drive in Evanston, 2 days after people were beaten and abducted by ICE/feds and schools had to go on soft lockdown. We know how to come together.

Large protest in Evanston where landscapers were detained by federal agents "They were brutalizing people who were yelling at them, it’s legal to yell in America," Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss said. www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/l...

Evanston Mayor Dan Biss on today’s ICE raids in his community: “What federal agents are doing in Evanston right now is monstrous.”

🚨Urgent 10/31: ICE is extremely active in EVANSTON IL and surrounding areas today. PLEASE send landscapers and other outside workers home, cancel service and pay anyway if you can. Working together we can help protect each other!

Ellis tells Bovino the people of Chicago have a right to tell him and his agents that they don't like what they are doing and want them to leave. "They can't get tear gassed" for doing that. Bovino: "I understand what you are saying, your honor. We will abide by the temporary restraining order."

Ellis asks whether it would be appropriate for a man who gets out of his car in running clothes after training for a marathon and asks agents what they are doing to be placed in a chokehold. That's what videos show happened Saturday in Old Irving Park.

Thank you to everyone in the Chicago area who is seeking out and videoing hostile federal forces breaking the law.

Greetings from the Dirksen federal courthouse, where Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino is set to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis. What you need to know, for @wttw.bsky.social:

Folks have the right to be on public property absent exigent circumstances, Ellis says. People standing on sidewalks and fliming and shouting do not present an immediate threat to law enforcement officers, Ellis says, explaining her order.

They've used Chicago as a testing/training ground for this roving army of BP dipshits after doing the same in LA. Feels pretty crucial that everyone not in Chicago continue paying attention to Chicago to know exactly what to expect when they move elsewhere.

Please listen to this driver's testimony about the entire incident (too long to embed). She says she has no idea how they knew who her passenger was, they never produced a warrant, and she isn't sure they even knew his name: www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMHSkAKr/

If, like me, you don't live in Illinois or near an ICE hotspot(?), consider donating to ICIRR! illinoiscoalitionforimmigrantandrefugeerights-bloom.kindful.com?campaign=124...

I will tell you that the folks working the ICIRR Hotline are the real deal and saved these kids. PUT THIS NUMBER IN YOUR PHONE AND CALL IF YOU SEE ICE IN ILLINOIS: (855) 435-7693

This Substack post is about both Abundance and the argument with Ezra Klein I've been having in my head for the past month plus.

Erendira Rendon, The Resurrection Project, asks us to: 1 Join a rapid response network 2 Visit, shop, eat in our towns & neighborhoods 3 Donate to orgs like The Resurrection Project, ICIRR, OCAD 4 Carry a whistle 5 Caĺl your reps 6 Raise awareness by talking to people, your boss, sharing video

Gift link. This isn't a hot take, it's historical analysis, which the NYT can still pull off. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/m...

“I’m going to make it easier for the private sector to build housing in this city, because what we see today is that it’s not labor, it’s not materials, it’s the weight that’s often costing so many, so much to actually build the housing we need." The Left YIMBY candidate we need!

"The boy, who is Hispanic and African American, was held in a garage for five hours “without informing his family, stating any charges, or allowing him to call an attorney,” the statement said. He is a U.S. citizen, as is his entire immediate family, the release said."

the admin that imprisoned and tried to deport a student over a pro-Palestinian op-ed, calling it anti-semitism, calls outrage over "I love Hitler" texts by young Republicans "pearl-clutching"

A child - a Black child - only 15 - was zip-tied and held by federal agents for hours, unable to contact his mother. Here in Chicago on the Southeast Side. tinyurl.com/BlackChildHeld @blockclubchi.bsky.social

This version is confirmed, by Hoffman Estates police, puncturing the official DHS statement. At this point, there is a statement from DHS re 🧊 activities in the Chicago area that’s refuted in similar fashion on nearly a daily basis at a minimum over the past week

In Evanston: a last-minute protest against ICE, called just a couple hours ago, draws dozens of people to Oakton Street near where two people were abducted in front of a Home Depot yesterday. I need to run to cover City Council, but more people are still arriving.

It is legal to record ICE and we should do it.

Happening now: at Kedzie and 40th, where Border Patrol agents just opened fire on rapid response this afternoon. A woman CFD says they found after the incident is reported in fair condition. A growing number of outraged neighbors have gathered across from ICE/CBP agents who have closed Kedzie.

Video shows Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th) asking two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers if they have a signed judicial warrant for a 37-year-old man they detained earlier. trib.al/9Z4q3wT

This is due to a law signed by Ronald Reagan and has nothing to do with this shutdown fight. But consider this... Emergency Medicaid spending in 2023 cost $3.8 billion — just 0.4% of total Medicaid spending. Now what about the $20 billion taxpayers are giving to Argentina?

Medicaid money has gone to hospitals to reimburse them for medical services after they followed the federal law signed by Ronald Reagan in 1986 that says hospital emergency rooms have to treat everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.

“They had a big, 15-inch chainsaw with round blade on it, cutting this fence down. We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military." The worst of what we feared when Trump’s spending bill gave ICE a blank check is happening.

With Chicago in the ICE crosshairs right now, here are some independent and nonprofit media orgs to read, follow and support. Unraveled: @unraveledpress.com Block Club Chicago: @blockclubchi.bsky.social Chicago Reader: @chicagoreader.com The TRiiBE: @thetriibe.com WBEZ: @wbez.org

Excited to announce that my novel COIN OF THE REALM will be published in 2027! I started working on this so long ago. It's a dystopia set in the near future, but real events have made conditions worse, faster, than I imagined. Now I'm categorizing it as a cozy dystopia. Hope people read it. .

Pritzker: "People of Illinois, we need your help. Get our your cell phones, record and narrate what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know that this is happening and that we won't stand for it."

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"