Violet Miller

Chicago's encampment closures are ‘unconscionable’ - Chicago Reader Public encampments provide resources and community for people experiencing homelessness, but city crews repeatedly evict residents.

Instead, I spoke to 4 housing workers who partner with the city. They were unequivocal: encampment closures don't solve homelessness, they perpetuate it. "I don't feel encampments should be closed at all."

chicagoreader.com/news/housing...

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Our elections page has primers on the Dem primaries in the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th Congressional Districts; Dick Durbin's U.S. Senate seat; Cook County board president and comptroller, the Republicans vying for governor and state house races.

What to know about the Democratic primary race for Cook County assessor Fritz Kaegi is running for this third term as assessor against challenger Pat Hynes — who the Democratic Party endorsed — the Lyons Township assessor who spent 23 years working in the Cook County asse...

Fritz Kaegi is running for this 3rd term against challenger Pat Hynes, the Lyons Township assessor who worked as a residential field inspector in the office for 23 years.

It comes as residential property tax bills are rising fastest in predominantly Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides.

Walmart, Amazon and CPS top list of employers where Illinois workers still need SNAP benefits

Among the people in Chicago living in SNAP households who are 22 or older, a CPS lunchroom porter is among the 47% who are employed but still need government support to help buy groceries, according to 2024 U.S. Census data analyzed by WBEZ.

The Mayor's Office of Homelessness has extended their window of public comment on their Five Year Blueprint on Homelessness to Feb 13:

www.chicago.gov/city/en/site...

JUST IN: In a new court filing, attorneys for Marimar Martinez call Chicago's U.S. attorney's office "active enablers of an out-of-control client."

They cite reports from @chicago.suntimes.com and @npr.org in which DHS refuses to back down on claims that Martinez is a "domestic terrorist."

JUST IN: Chicago's Marimar Martinez is expected to attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address:

Identified: the El Paso BORTAC crew rampaging through the Midwest One violent duo in particular, U.S. Border Patrol agents Michael Sveum (EZ-2) and Edgar Vazquez (EZ-17), have been frequently seen alongside former commander-at-large Greg Bovino terrorizing crowds wi...

NEW: since last year, a pair of "highly trained" feds have been involved in an array of incidents attacking crowds with chemical weapons.

We used public records and open source analysis to identify Edgar Vazquez and Michael Sveum, alongside some other members of their tactical team.

Read more:

Nearly 30,000 Minnesotans trained as constitutional observers The Immigrant Defense Network works with more than 100 organizations to help train constitutional observers. At the end of November, there were 2,500 trained observers. That number has soared as more ...

A manager for the Immigrant Defense Network told MPR News that back in November, 2,500 people were trained as constitutional observers. Now, the total is nearly 30,000 trained observers in 77 of Minnesota's 87 counties.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Immediate Release 04 February 2026 David Ormsby, [redacted phone number] Thompson Wants Broadview ICE Center Closed; Gets Mayors Group, Harvard Fellowship Envisions Future Museum on the ICE Site (Broadview, IL) - The United States Conference of Mayors and the Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design have selected two Illinois mayors among only eight mayors nationwide to serve as 2026 Just City Mayoral Fellows. City of Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati and Village of Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson will begin their fellowship in Spring 2026. [screenshot ends]

Also, the partnership referenced: the 2026 Just City Mayoral Fellowship by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Just City Lab at Harvard.

As part of it, Thompson will meet with experts in architecture, planning, housing, policy and community design to help plan local improvements.

And by “almost certainly,” I mean I don’t know the intricacies of the law well enough to say there isn’t some secret, unknown loophole that would circumvent this, but as it stands, the feds would need to hand over the building of their own accord.

Last month, Broadview’s Board of Trustees adopted a new zoning ordinance that would, in practice, prevent ICE from expanding its operations in the community and establishing a detention center.

But notably, in the statement, Thompson said the zoning move by the village last month is aimed at future operations, not the current one.

How a museum would happen is unclear given the village’s buildings dept can’t even inspect the facility. It would almost certainly require fed cooperation.

Thompson envisions a potential museum for the ICE facility in the future. “Potentially, this facility could serve as a museum and a civic space that tells the full story of Broadview’s resilience and the experience of those who disappeared behind the ICE facility’s walls,” said Thompson. “We cannot allow the harm inflected by ICE to define our modern history and future. Through this fellowship, I will bring back tools and partnerships to help us repair past injustices.”

Broadview mayor Katrina Thompson said she wants to “permanently close the Broadview ICE Detention Center and reimagine that site as something that reflects our values a place for education, culture, and community well-being,” in a Wednesday statement to press.

In a wide-ranging interview this week with the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, Marimar Martinez discussed her shooting, the federal government’s failed attempt to prosecute her and the role she now sees for herself in a fight for accountability.

DHS said that the woman CBP shot in the chest in Portland was “involved” in a gang shooting.

Her ~involvement~ was that suspected gang members sexually assaulted and robbed her.

edited ayo edebiri tweet: “i’m seated. the [robin roberts stadium] employees are scared and asking me to leave because it’s ‘not august yet’ but i’m simply too seated.”

six months until women’s professional baseball league opening day (aug. 1)

Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.

A note from our editors:

Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raym...

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez www.propublica.org/article/alex...

They’re not ending anytime soon.

They will fail in court. They’re cool with that. Because it’s not about winning a conviction.

This is about intimidating us with the high potential pain for doing journalism

“A Law enforcement member holds a weapon as they stand guard while people protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, after the fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

@reuters.com

The Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists strongly condemns the wrongful arrests of journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon for reporting on a church protest in St. Paul.

Read our full statement here: www.mnspj.org/2026/01/30/m...

The Trump Administration Is Now Delaying Renewable Projects It Thinks Are Ugly The Army Corps of Engineers is out to protect “the beauty of the Nation’s natural landscape.”

BIG SCOOP @heatmap.news: The Trump administration is now going after renewable energy projects on both public and private lands by indefinitely delaying water permits … on grounds that the projects might have bad “aesthetics”

Yes, they’re hurting renewable energy projects by calling them ugly

Rahm Ordered to Testify About CPD’s ‘Code of Silence’ During Trial Over Botched Raid A trial, set to start Monday, will decide whether CPD officers traumatized two women and four children in August when a CPD SWAT team broke down the door of their apartment, pointed assault rifles dir...

BREAKING: A federal judge ordered former Mayor Emanuel to testify about allegations that a “code of silence” among CPD officers led to a botched 2018 raid of a Back of the Yards apartment that violated the civil rights of a family with 4 children — ages 4, 8, 11 and 13. @wttw.bsky.social

Whoa. D.Minn's chief judge Patrick Schiltz dockets a list of "96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases."

www.courtlistener.com/docket/72120...

Nurses honor Alex Pretti, call for abolition of ICE and general strike in Chicago A group of hundreds, many of them nurses still wearing badges after walking from their nearby hospitals, performed a Nightingale Tribute — a traditional send off for nurses — for Pretti, who was kille...

“They want us to believe that the reason we don’t have heath care or why there’s crime in this city is because of immigrants, and that’s a lie,” said Dennis Kosuth, a Cook County nurse. “It’s because they spent all our money on ICE. The billionaires and their lackeys in Congress are the criminals.”

Nurses honor Alex Pretti, call for abolition of ICE and general strike in Chicago A group of hundreds, many of them nurses still wearing badges after walking from their nearby hospitals, performed a Nightingale Tribute — a traditional send off for nurses — for Pretti, who was kille...

"We demand more from our [electeds] than just strongly worded letters or tweets, or grandiose speeches romanticizing the sacrifice of others," said Michael Applegate, a Navy vet. "Put some skin in the game or get out of the way, because we will not stand for your cowardice or complicity any longer."

Tracking every known federal prosecution in Chicago tied to Trump’s immigration blitz Every known federal prosecution in Chicago tied to Trump’s immigration blitz

The @chicago.suntimes.com has now posted a public tracker of federal criminal cases tied to Operation Midway Blitz, with a small update: We've now tied 32 defendants to the campaign.

The bottom line remains: 15 cleared and no one convicted, so far: chicago.suntimes.com/2026/tracker...

Woman shot by Border Patrol in Chicago asks judge to let her release evidence Marimar Martinez is blocked from releasing evidence in her case by what's known as a "protective order." Though standard, her attorney says it's “become an albatross” around her neck and “keeps the en...

The woman who survived five gunshots from a Border Patrol agent in Chicago, only to be criminally charged and then cleared, now wants a judge’s permission to share records showing how the feds respond when agents use deadly force.

@chicago.suntimes.com story: chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Minnesota targeted by federal government over trans girls in sports The notice comes as the Trump administration faces a substantial backlash to its immigration enforcement in the state, which has led to the shooting deaths of two Minnesotans.

The Trump administration on Monday targeted Minnesota schools, saying they have violated federal law by allowing transgender girls to play sports with their peers.

After a doxxing, a transgender Texan pitmaster forges his own way "There's not a queer space in barbecue yet, so let's create one."

I spoke to Waco's Kaleb Blain, a transgender pitmaster working to create space for trans people in Texas BBQ. After being doxxed, attacked online and let go from Terry Black's, he's now forging his own path:

"I have to do this for the rest of my life."

www.chron.com/culture/arti...