Geoffrey Cubbage

2017: Officer shoots teen in the back of their shoulder
June 2021: Shooting ruled unjustified
Sept. 2021: Top cop disagrees
Nov. 2021: Police Board president orders full hearing
2019-24: 4 lawsuits naming officer settled for $590K
June 2025: Officer promoted to sergeant
Nov. 2025: Charges dropped

That is a STARTLING amount of civic pride for anyone to have ever invested in,

y’know,

Des Plaines.

The Chicago skyline as seen from the mouth of the Chicago River. Bridges are lightly dusted in snow, skyscrapers such as the marina towers glow from interior lights and many buildings on the north side of the river have architectural lighting in red and green

Never gets old

Woke up early this morning, checked the weather, saw like another hour-ish of snow on the forecast, decided "sure ok I'll just have some coffee and shovel once it stops."

Two hours later, the forecast is STILL for another hour-ish of snow. 🌨️🤷‍♂️🌨️

More bad news for the struggling steel industry.

CPD Officer Who Shot Teen in 2017 Won’t Be Fired — But Was Promoted After Costing Taxpayers $590K Since the shooting, Chicago taxpayers have paid $591,500 to resolve four lawsuits that allege the officer, who was promoted in June 2025, violated the rights of other Chicagoans, according to an analy...

CPD: Since Brian Collins shot and wounded a 16-year-old, Chicago taxpayers have paid $591,500 to resolve four lawsuits that allege he violated the rights of other Chicagoans, according to an analysis of city data from @wttw.bsky.social News’ @heathercherone.bsky.social.

A mighty good road, one might even say!

New from me: budget hawks have called on
@chicagosmayor.bsky.social to cut ARPA-funded programs before considering any new taxes. But it's been hard to nail down the exact price tag of federal programs the mayor wants to keep.

After six weeks of reporting, we found the number: about $33M.

Rogers Park's New 400 Theaters Is Reopening As New Operator Revives 113-Year-Old Movie House The operator of three historic movie theaters in Michigan has leased the shuttered Rogers Park theater, which was the city's oldest continually running movie theater when it closed in 2023.

Rogers Park's New 400 Theaters Is Reopening As New Operator Revives 113-Year-Old Movie House blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/01/r...

YouTube video by Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth - The 48th Ward 48th Ward Budget Town Hall - November 3, 2025

And if you missed it here’s the 48th ward town hall with @geoffreycubbage.bsky.social from @bettergov.bsky.social youtu.be/6rbd8jKWe38?...

Also keep in mind: it's not just that the CPD budget keeps increasing, the rate of increase is ALSO trending upwards.

Inflation-adjusted rate of change 2011-2024 averages 0.5%/yr.

Across Johnson's three budget years, 2024-2026 (proposed), it's 2.1%. (Real spend, of course, is even more.)

@musicboxtheatre.bsky.social mentioned!

And maybe kinda-sorta 17th Church of Christ Scientist across from it, too? But they turned the river into a street? Bizarre.

a victorian illustration of a potato as a person wearing a black hat and holding a red umbrella. he has root like arms, holding out a christmas card that reads “a merry christmas to you”

you have been blessed by the christmas potato

The Very Official 2025 FOIA Advent Calendar

IT'S TIIIIIIIIIIME!!! December is here, which means the inaugural 2025 #FOIAdvent calendar has arrived. ☃️✨

Every day this month, the calendar will update with a new records request prompt for you to file with an agency of your choosing, for a fun run of holiday FOIA requests. bit.ly/31-days-of-f...

Anyone in city government who makes noises about "efficiencies" or "savings" while simultaneously pledging no reductions in CPD spending is either kidding themselves or kidding you.

You cannot meaningfully shrink a budget without touching its largest operating expenses and debt drivers.

And to be clear, the mayor's 2026 proposal is not just a "no police cuts" budget -- it's a budget in which CPD (already the city's most expensive dept. by far) received a larger year-over-year net increase of non-grant funds than any other dept.

Larger than most other departments' entire budgets!

Call that…

…

…

…stolen valet. 😎

An almost all white, snowy scene in Chicago's Grant Park. A few sledders come down a hill in the foreground and mid ground. A statue of General John Logan is covered in snow in the middle of the frame, while blotted out skyscrapers are barely visible in the background.

Sledding amongst skyscrapers in #Chicago on an incredibly snowy Novemeber day

A thing I hope people outside of the most aggressively occupied cities are noticing: when armed, paramilitary invaders arrive in your community, the local police are going to protect them from you, not you from them.

This has been consistently true everywhere that’s seen substantial escalation.

Drive? In THIS? Oh honey. The city pays professionals to do that for me.

Love snowy days when everyone ends every interaction with “drive safe out there” and you get to say “oh I’m on the CTA.”

ME, READING ABOUT WHICH ACTOR WE’RE BOYCOTTING FOR SOMETHING AWFUL THIS TIME: Boy I’m glad I mostly watch old movies and arthouse and don’t have to think about this stuff.

ME, READING ABOUT OLD-TIME MOVIE STARS AND/OR ARTHOUSE DIRECTORS: Well shit. Well fuck.

My hand holding a shortbread cookie in the shape of an airplane. There are red sprinkles in the pattern of the survivorship bias plane.

A plate of the same cookies.

Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread

Thanksgiving repost of last year's etymological holiday diversion:

Microsoft Logo w/ the Four Humors written on individual blocks of the window. Orange is Sanguine Green is Melancholic Blue is Phlegmatic Yellow is Choleric

Photo of a Fiestaware relish tray: a large, flat-bottomed, orange-red bowl, into which a smaller central bowl is set, and the space between filled by four interlocking bowls in curving, quarter-circle shapes, colored in alternating red and yellow. The result is a single dish with five sectioned compartments for condiments, finger snacks, etc., at least three of which are fairly radioactive in the original, uranium-tinted Fiestaware red.

More than trace amounts of uranium, for those of us with the original Fiestaware red sets.

The lolcow, the milkshake duck, the freak, the internet's main character of the week, every so often we invent Hester Prynne, we need the winner of The Lottery, we are all holding rocks in our fists

Cook County law enforcement agencies get more money in 2026 The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved large investments in policing and prosecutions, over objections from advocates.

new: i read the 2026 cook county budget so you don't have to.

spoiler: more money for police and prosecutors (plus a lot of other stuff).

Ahhh the heady optimism of those early post-Metric Study Act days.