I think about this number constantly

Art I am thinking about: "The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux" by A.E. Housman. "...The troubles of our proud and angry dust Are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale."

At the lake near Museum Campus: one old reminder, old Ambrose v. Kings tag. And long sightlines

The federal government indicted the Broadview 6 in a hugely significant case. Five work in politics. One is a garden store worker who sings and was randomly swept up. @tesskenny.bsky.social explains what happened and why it matters in this must-read story www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/21/b...

What this guy lacks in eyesight he makes up for in enthusiasm

Broadview zoning officials last night nixed a proposed change to the village code that would have — among other things ¸— required allowance for religious worship inside prisons and detention centers in the village. W/ Tess Kenny www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/18/b...

The year I make it to the criminal justice team holiday party and am NOT crashing on three separate stories is probably the year I stop being a reporter

I come back to "San Bernardino" all the time and am always impressed with how much it helps me in any mood. Probably because it is a song about hope under difficult circumstances www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF19...

JUST IN: Lawrence Reed, the man charged with lighting a woman on fire on the CTA Blue Line on Nov. 17, is now indicted on additional arson charges for allegedly lighting a fire at City Hall three days earlier www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/19/f...

The front page of today's Chicago Tribune. Read the e-edition here: trib.al/EHGVt5p

@chicagotribune.com's first take on today's arrests and confrontations here. I have a lot on my mind but nothing to say just yet www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/16/b...

Just watched the entire convoy drive circles around a Menards at 26th and Cicero (or so) for several minutes without any agents getting out. They just detained someone out of a grey Cadillac a little further north on Cicero.

Border Patrol, including Cmdr Bovino, is back in Little Village. They've detained at least one person so far. Officers have pepper ball guns and tear gas canisters on them but have not deployed them so far. One officer was holding a can out the window as he drove away.

Wondering what changed during what must essentially amount to felony review such that the man detained for the Brown University shooting was released. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12...

Outstanding work on the lead-up to a domestic murder-suicide that took place a few months ago, and the gaps in a system meant to keep guns away from people who may be dangerous to themselves and others. By Tess Kenny. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/14/b...

@chicagotribune.com photogs rock my world every single day but often this year I've thought about how important their art is at the moments when words fail. Their top 100 just drives home what a year it's been in this precious city www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/12/t...

Grand jury refused to indict Laugh Factory manager Nathan Griffin and that's why the feds dropped the charges against him. Griffin allegedly shut a car door on the leg of a federal agent at the height of Operation Midway Blitz. For @chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/10/c...

News: First Deputy Commissioner of Streets and San arrested for DUI Sunday, near South Shore Cultural Center. w @aliceyin.bsky.social www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/09/d...

Fine fine I'll say it. I can't stand these damn things and I fight the urge to kick them over every time they cross my path

Listening: "When We're Older" by James Blake feels like a good one for a day like this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw-i...

Could anyone on this here website direct me to someone who knows how to analyze images for possible AI tampering or generation? Thanks in advance.

"Unsquare Dance," by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, is the best song I can think of to loop on a frigid writing afternoon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbdE...

The Army Corps asked for $3.85 million for the Harbor Lock next year. It may get less than $300k. Close followers of Harbor Lock news will remember it from Sept, when Border Patrol docked near it after conducting a river cruise whilst armed with rifles www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/04/c...

Yet another criminal case against a U.S. citizen protesting federal immigration enforcement goes kaput. This time prosecutors have dropped charges against Laugh Factory manager Nathan Griffin. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/c...

Me and who

“I’m surrounded by Bears fans right now, and I don’t like it.”

Five guns recovered and 18 arrests in connection with this pair of shootings. The kids had come downtown from as far away as Dolton and Evanston when a fight broke out between two groups by the Chicago Theatre. The boy killed a few blocks to the south is 14, not 17. w/ @jake-sheridan.bsky.social

Total of nine teenagers shot last night in Chicago’s Loop in connection with a “teen trend” per sources. Seven were wounded outside Chicago Theatre and two more a few blocks south. One, a 17 y/o boy, has died. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/22/f...

News: Federal prosecutors have charged a Chicago man who in April 2020 attempted to set the Thompson Center on fire with one count of terrorism on public transit after he allegedly set a woman on fire on the CTA Blue Line. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/19/m...

News: Police suspect a man arrested following a Monday night arson attack on the Blue Line is the same man who allegedly poured an unknown substance on City Hall over the weekend and lit it on fire, according to an arrest report obtained by the Tribune. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/w...

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...

A judge is scheduled to visit the controversial and secret ICE processing center in Broadview Thursday. Here's what it looked like in 2009.

///BREAKING/// Judge Jeffrey Cummings orders that by noon of Nov. 17, he will order the release of all of the 615 "Operation Midway Blitz" detainees identified as class participants (at least those still here in the country) once they pay a $1,500 bond.

News: Bodycam footage of a federal immigration arrest last month shows a Palatine cop helping agents handcuff a man — which we already knew — but the after-action reports and rest of the footage have a lot of interesting material in there. W/ Madeline Buckley www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/11/p...

Hell hath no fury like two reporters and an editor fighting a clunky CMS an hour from print deadline

"Another source with direct knowledge said the number of Border Patrol agents currently operating in the Chicago area will go from 250 down to 100. But in March, that number could increase to 1,000 agents." chicago.suntimes.com/public-safet... w/ @jonseidel.bsky.social

Art I am thinking about: "Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George. About art, community, commitment to work, commitment to the people you love and how they can collide www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QBY...

At a veterans’ day event, Ald. Mike Rodriguez says people have been on 26th Street since 6 a.m. because “a certain member of the federal government promised to be in Little Village today.”

In Little Village, a small group has closed down 26th Street in front of the arch. About 12 hours after news that Bovino et al may be on their way out.

News: Feds are said to be on their way out of Chicago in the near future. Via @jmetr22b.bsky.social and me www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/10/f...

News: Police arrested a man with a gun Saturday in Little Village, a few hours after CBP agents said someone in a black Jeep had fired at them a block north. Police records list the Jeep the man was in as a possible match to the car federal agents described. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/10/s...

@colinbphoto.bsky.social caught federal immigration agents in an apparent photo shoot at the Bean this morning and I guess this happened: While Border Patrol photographers snapped photos, one agent shouted, “Everyone say, ‘Little Village!’” blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/10/b...

Arianna Sofia Veraza and her parents were driving to Sam's Club for milk, eggs and diapers yesterday when they heard helicopters and horns blaring yesterday. They had turned around to leave when a federal agent pepper-sprayed them through a car window. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/09/c...

Ogden and 26th Street at 11:30 a.m. today. Federal authorities claimed someone shot at their agents in Little Village this morning. They spent the next several hours circling the neighborhood, deploying chemical crowd controls and arresting people.

After @mandophotos.bsky.social photographed federal agents pointing rifles at 26th/Lawndale yesterday, I inquired with DHS about what threat had prompted them to pull weapons on a busy commercial strip (pictured). This is the response I got from a representative of the United States government.

This was a no.

Present situation: Faith over Fear clergy are trying to deliver a letter to the processing center but are instead engaged in what looks like an intense negotiation with Broadview Chief of Police Thomas Mills. Has been going on about five minutes now.

Broadview, 11:35 a.m.

Protestors are singing the Hebrew song Lo Yisa Goy, which roughly translates to “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” and is a song I grew up on

BROADVIEW - state and local authorities just arrested about 20 women who hopped the concrete barricades outside the processing center, sat down in the middle of the street and joined hands. Took maybe five minutes all told.