In January, my partner, friends and I will be opening up a cultural club in an old bank in Bridgeport: the Mouse Arts and Letters Club. We'll host News Night, a citywide newsroom, screenings, translation + ecology events & more. We'd love you to join us. Sign up for updates: mouseartsandletters.org

a year of news night!

You probably saw videos of a nighttime raid in Chicago. Agents rappelling from a helicopter, bursting down doors, questioning brown-skinned immigrants. We investigated -- and found little evidence to support the government’s claims about Tren de Aragua. www.propublica.org/article/chic...

And Illinois State Police provides access to gang database info to DHS. In June, I found that DHS Enforcement and Removal Operations signed a data sharing agreement with ISP in *2024*. news.wttw.com/2025/06/02/i...

NEW: DHS secretly obtained Chicago police data on 900 residents accused of gang ties. It was quietly deleted after intelligence officers violated rules against domestic spying. The handoff came well after city inspectors formally announced CPD's gang data was deeply flawed and infected w/ bias.

Good morning from Judge Jeffrey Cumming's courtroom, where he's considering a motion to release 100s of "Midway Blitz" arrestees on EM who were subjected to "warrantless" arrest. ICE and CBP recently produced a list of 3,300 people arrested since June www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/24/c...

tomorrow!

Legal experts called DHS’ move to use driver’s license data for citizenship checks more evidence of federal overreach. “The administration wants to get as much data as it can, however it can, whenever it can.” With @texastribune.org

When Jose Jeronimo Guardian showed up at a Spanish language traffic court this week, he didn’t expect to be detained and face expulsion from a country he’d lived in for more than two decades. With @capitolnewsil.bsky.social: illinoisanswers.org/2025/10/31/i...

A partial list of what Bovino does not have to tell a federal judge happened today: *An agent pushed a City Council member in Albany Park *Agents deployed pepper spray in Albany Park & Evanston *Agents were involved in a car crash in Evanston *An agent pointed a gun at a woman in Evanston

New: a class action suit filed in Chicago's federal court this morning alleges overcrowding and inhumane conditions at the Broadview, IL ICE facility, as well detainees being denied legal counsel. The plaintiffs say this amounts to 1A and 5A violations.

a year of news nights! november 13!

NEW: ICE is planning to build a shadow deportation network in Texas. A proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine. My latest @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/ice-is...

i am looking for Exciting blogs about chicago or illinois happenings (politics, ecology, art, w/e) for news night. anyone have any recommendations?

NEW: Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget for 2026 sets aside just $82.5M to cover the cost of resolving police misconduct lawsuits, even though the city has already agreed to spend $90M next year to resolve 176 lawsuits tied to former Sgt. Ronald Watts and his team. @wttw.bsky.social

NEW: An Illinois lawmaker put out a call to corrections staff to contact her about incarcerated undocumented people. Months later, she gets a list purporting to be that, and hands it to Kristi Noem. But it appears to be information that DHS already had access to. news.wttw.com/2025/10/24/i...

This brilliant little article gets at what I’ve seen but haven’t yet read: Chicago locals, regardless of status, are apprehensive about venturing out to restaurants and food stalls targeted by ICE. The result is a whole sector in economic and social crisis. www.chicagomag.com/news/we-wont...

NEW: I found 17 sheriffs in Illinois that have contracts to detain people for ICE through U.S. Marshals Service contracts. IL law explicitly prohibits these types of intergovernmental service agreements. news.wttw.com/2025/10/22/d...

In 1861, abolitionists in Chicago claimed no “fugitive slave” had been arrested in Chicago in 8 years. But after Lincoln was inaugurated, the new U.S. Marshal for the territory started making arrests. The more progressive papers howled and a vigilance committee was formed: (1/)

TONIGHT!

For the last five years, people being released from Cook County Jail have gotten out later and later at night. In 2021, ~14% of people got out between 11 pm and 3 am. In 2024, ~40% of all releases took place in those wee hours. My latest, for @chicagoreader.com chicagoreader.com/news/cook-co...

NEWS NIGHT on October 16

NEW: In the weeks leading up to a massive ICE raid at a South Shore apartment building, neighbors saw drones surveilling the area, and teachers at a nearby school regularly saw agents in the neighborhood. ✍️ Jose Abonce for the Weekly and Maira Khwaja for @invisible.institute

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Tune in ... now to see @brandisfriedman.bsky.social interview @mayorofchicago.bsky.social 🌟LIVE🌟 on @wttw.bsky.social

There’s no medical staff or services at Broadview. No food preparation. No beds. That’s all by design because the facility was created for holds less than 12 hours. @bylaurenfitz.bsky.social @adrianacardmag.bsky.social chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

This comes after CBP/ICE, assisted by large number of FBI and other feds, orchestrated a large raid on an apartment building late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. Immigrant rights orgs estimate at least *forty people*, including children and infants, were taken from their beds in South Shore:

NEW from @injusticewatch.org and @boltsmag.org: Cook County has more documented wrongful convictions than any county in the nation. In the last 10 months, State’s Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke has weakened her office’s main system for freeing innocent people. buff.ly/ysPtaYG

“Noemi Chavez and her two children are now confined to a room at O’Hare International Airport, awaiting transfer to a detention facility in Texas before deportation to Guatemala,“ reports the @chicagotribune.com

AG Raoul says "We are in touch with Sheriff Grootens and we’re going to be having a conversation" capitolfax.com/2025/09/29/w...

NEW: The Illinois Department of Corrections will now permanently scan most physical mail sent to incarcerated people and distribute it electronically. news.wttw.com/2025/09/29/i...

see ya soon!

NEWS NIGHT is tomorrow!

Meet Officer Joseph Treacy, who has been named in 4 lawsuits in the past 6 years that cost taxpayers $524K, according to the analysis. $225K went to the family of a Black man shot and killed by Treacy & another officer in 2016 during a brawl that exacerbated racial tensions on the South Side.

Chicago taxpayers paid $295M to settle lawsuits tied to 272 police officers with repeated misconduct claims from 2019–2024, my latest w/ @heathercherone.bsky.social shows. New report, only at @wttw.bsky.social 👇

Seven current and formerly incarcerated women filed federal lawsuits over the last week alleging sexual assault, harassment and institutional retaliation at Illinois’ primary women’s prison, Logan Correctional Center. news.wttw.com/2025/09/17/i...

NEW: Amid an ongoing debate over whether physical mail is a major entryway for illicit substances in Illinois prisons, DOC issued an emergency rule to instead scan mail. But a key legislative committee on Tuesday determined it doesn’t warrant an emergency. news.wttw.com/2025/09/16/k...

Illinois Gov. Pritzker, on what appears to be the 1st fatal shooting by an ICE agent this year: “This is the most unusual situation I’ve seen in my entire lifetime." chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

a map of ice arrests/sightings just today. reports span from way north in waukegan to the western suburbs of elgin, west chicago, and aurora, to joliet and dixmoor in the south. in chicago, agents seen in east garfield park, little village, brighton park, university village and nearby cicero.

See ICE agents in your community? We’re asking the public to help us track where they are and document scenes on the ground by submitting photos of ICE agent sightings in the greater Chicago area. Images are posted to this map daily.

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Schneider and Sens. Duckworth and Durbin are demanding answers + defined parameters to the ICE/CBP op at NSGL. More interestingly: a Duckworth rep confirmed the DoD asked the base for three nearly 2,400 cubic foot storage containers for medical supplies and “less lethal munitions.”

BREAKING: Charles “Charlie” Beach has been elected as chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, unseating Timothy Evans. Evans held the position for a record 24 years.

"The firm guarding sites where aid is distributed in Gaza has been using members of a US biker gang with a history of hostility to Islam....BBC News has confirmed the identities of 10 members of the Infidels Motorcycle Club working in Gaza" www.bbc.com/news/article...

NEW from @injusticewatch.org: There's an election this week for Cook County Chief Judge, one of the most powerful local elected officials. The rub? The only people who can vote are other judges. @mdoukmas.bsky.social previews what's at stake in the race: www.injusticewatch.org/judges/court...

NEW: The Illinois Department of Corrections is moving toward mail scanning instead of physical mail. news.wttw.com/2025/09/03/u...

NEW: Leonard Dixon is the head of Cook County’s youth detention center, one of the largest youth jails in the nation. Current and former employees say he’s rarely seen at the facility.

The Mayor of Broadview issued a statement yesterday highlighting the village's plan to deal with the impending ICE surge. The processing/de facto detention center will operate *7 days a week for ~45 days.* Also notes potential for "assaults on law enforcement," coordination with local police.

BREAKING: Gov. JB Pritzker says the Trump administration has sent the Texas National Guard to Great Lakes Naval Base outside Chicago, awaiting orders to deploy to Chicago. Trump administration officials will target Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) celebrations. @wttw.bsky.social