‘They control everything’: How the Dallas Stars monopolized Texas youth hockey Ice is power in the lucrative world of youth hockey. In North Texas, the Dallas Stars hold almost all of it.

The NHL's Dallas Stars bought up all the ice rinks in the Dallas metro area, in several cases got taxpayer money to build the rinks, and now control ice time for youth hockey, jacking up club fees and forcing leagues to play by their rules. Wild story.

Chicago Record Report Archives - Chicago Reader Chicago Record Report is a monthly series highlighting some of the new local music that has caught the ear of Reader staff.

Sharing some recent Chicago Record Reports from @chicagoreader.com just in case you, like me, are observing mere mortals art patron day (Bandcamp Friday) chicagoreader.com/category/mus...

YouTube video by Senator Chris Van Hollen WATCH: U.S. Army veteran gives first-hand account of suffering, starvation in Gaza

This discussion between Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Aguilar and @vanhollen.senate.gov is well-worth 27 minutes of your time. He describes the horrors he witnessed at GHF food sites in Gaza.

"Palestinians get shot at by the IDF and they get shot at by American contractors on the ground."

YouTube video by BBC News Former US Green Beret says Israel committed war crimes at Gaza food distribution site | BBC News

Full video:

BBC News: Do you think you were a witness to war crimes?

American veteran who worked at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution center: Without question I witnessed war crimes.

Piping plovers making their “piping” sound at Montrose Beach on July 25, 2025. The video includes Imani, two chicks, and an unidentified female that recently showed up. Filmed from the pier with a telephoto lens.

Death toll from starvation in Gaza rises to 115 as Israeli attacks continue At least 62 Palestinians killed across enclave in Israeli attacks, as two more malnutrition deaths are recorded.

At least 62 Palestinians killed across enclave in Israeli attacks, as two more malnutrition deaths are recorded.

Today, @chicagotribune.com laid off five guild staff members in a roughly 10% cut to our newsroom. These layoffs underscore a sad but unsurprising failure of leadership by Alden Global Capital, our hedge fund owner, and local management.

Our Reporter Got Into Gaza. He Witnessed a Famine of Israel’s Making. The people of Gaza face starvation under the joint U.S.-Israeli food distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

theintercept.com/2025/07/21/i...

I think it’s worth noting this piece generated the most unsubscribes I’ve seen in a while, and the newsletter version had the lowest open rate in many months. These horrors persist in part because too many people go to great pains to avoid them.

Chicago Reader Volume 54, Number 42 Chicago Reader print issue of July 24, 2025 (Volume 54, Number 42)

New issue drop!

On the cover: ‘I want people to be happy, seeing my artwork.’
Thomas Kong’s legacy of art and collaboration by Kerry Cardoza

Pick yours up in person tomorrow or read the PDF now!

bit.ly/4m71gP8

Lowering the curtain - Chicago Reader Trump’s brutal cuts to arts funding demonstrate the vulnerability of a culture sector tied to state ideology. How will Chicago rebuild?

Continuing to share @daniellamazzio.bsky.social's piece on what federal funding cuts to the arts will mean for so many organizations in Chicago from a recent issue of @chicagoreader.com. I really hope this piece serves as a wake-up call for what is at stake.
chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

It’s worse than “Gaza is being starved and destroyed and no one cares.” It’s that hundreds of millions *do* care and are powerless to stop it. We need a world where that can never happen, where the masses actually have political power.

The @LemkinInstitute is calling on every leader in the world to step in immediately with measures that ensure food and water gets into Gaza right now. No more discussions, meetings, reports, sessions, summits. GET FOOD AND WATER INTO GAZA NOW. IF YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU MUST USE IT.

Wow—the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (named after Raphael Lemkin, a Holocaust survivor who coined the term genocide) says plainly:

"No more discussions, meetings, reports, sessions, summits…IF YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU MUST USE IT."

"HISTORY WILL DETERMINE THE RECTITUDE OF YOUR ACTIONS."

Housing in Chicago Working* in Housing Policy in Chicago A very incomplete guide Table of Contents The purpose of this document What counts as “housing policy”? What local housing media is in Chicago? What about nation...

Soft launch docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Lowering the curtain - Chicago Reader Trump’s brutal cuts to arts funding demonstrate the vulnerability of a culture sector tied to state ideology. How will Chicago rebuild?

Whatever scale destruction takes place under Tr*mp will not magically go away under a new president. To quote THE INSIDER, "What got broken here doesn't go back together again."

But to echo a quote in my piece: "Our involvement with each other is mandatory."

chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

www.cafha.net/_files/ugd/e...

A City Fragmented: How Race, Power, and Aldermanic Prerogative Shape Chicago's Neighborhoods from the Shriver Center + Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance

Brilliant move to locate it on the way to the sub & Apollo 8 as they all tie in. The sub was drydocked right next to South Works before MSI move, and Frank Borman, cmdr of 8, was from Gary.

Nashville Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) is simultaneously an intimate film about interpersonal connection and disconnection, and a sprawling, meandering portrait of Am…

This looks awesome! Heather Hendershot has a book coming out on Nashville from Bloomsbury's BFI imprint later this year & gave a great talk after a Gene Siskel screening recently. Maybe there's a Nashville event to convene in the fall or winter!
www.bloomsbury.com/us/nashville...

"Its aim to disappear marginalized people from public life, its tactics rely on the invisibility of much of the cultural labor it is destroying. The jobs lost to these cuts won’t just include people you might see onstage: artists, preservation workers, costume designers, curators, researchers."

Lowering the curtain - Chicago Reader Trump’s brutal cuts to arts funding demonstrate the vulnerability of a culture sector tied to state ideology. How will Chicago rebuild?

Please make some time to read this week's @chicagoreader.com cover story by @daniellamazzio.bsky.social (with great editing from @pmontoro.bsky.social). Daniella's article really gets to the heart of some big questions that we need to be talking about right now.
chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

Abundantly clear that "Abundance" is bad!!!

I hope the exhibit and the piece are entry points for folks to learn about the interconnected environmental, labor, and industrial histories of the city and region and get even more people asking you all asking about steel workers! There are so many stories here!

Lowering the curtain - Chicago Reader Trump’s brutal cuts to arts funding demonstrate the vulnerability of a culture sector tied to state ideology. How will Chicago rebuild?

Do me and @daniellamazzio.bsky.social a solid and read this week's @chicagoreader.com cover story. As far as I know, it's the first published attempt to take a big-picture look at the local impact of Trump's clawbacks of federal arts funding. chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

What You Can Do to Protect Public Radio and TV Congress is set to take away federal funding for PBS and NPR, the most trusted media in the U.S. The hardest hits will come for rural stations.

Public broadcasting has weathered political attacks before, but not on the scale of Congress’ current proposal to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Here’s what you can do to help it survive.

barnraisingmedia.com/what-you-can...

One important lesson: It's risky to tie the fate of anything you care about to government money if there's a nonzero chance your country will put fascists in charge.

Lowering the curtain - Chicago Reader Trump’s brutal cuts to arts funding demonstrate the vulnerability of a culture sector tied to state ideology. How will Chicago rebuild?

This week's @chicagoreader.com cover story is online! @daniellamazzio.bsky.social spoke to more than 30 local artists and organizations to create a picture of how the Trump administration's brutal cuts to arts funding are harming Chicago—and how we might rebuild. chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

The cover story in this week's @chicagoreader.com is @daniellamazzio.bsky.social's can't miss, deeply-researched look at the impact cuts to the NEA, NEH, and IMLS (& more) will have on Chicago-area artists, arts & cultural organizations, and all of us. Check out the full issue PDF online!

Who built the Chicago skyline? - Chicago Reader "Steelmakers" is an accessible entry point to the environmental, industrial, immigrant, and labor histories of the Calumet region.

I wrote about the Museum of Science and Industry's new exhibit on steel workers, the industry's impact on South Chicago & the Calumet region, environmental justice, and a whole lot more for @chicagoreader.com.

Check it out online today & in print soon!
chicagoreader.com/visual-arts/...