My annual NNO story: On National Night Out in 2014, my coworker and I made an interactive map of all the block parties in St. Cloud, MN. The St. Cloud POLICE DEPARTMENT called the newspaper and insisted it be taken down - they didn't want the 'wrong' people showing up at public block parties.

Turns out watching terrible amendments get slammed down in other states is just as joy inducing as watching them get slammed down in my own

The Downballot@the-downballot.com · yesterday

AP calls a DEFEAT for Kansas Amendment 1, which would have replaced the current merit-based selection of state Supreme Court justices with partisan statewide elections. GOP wanted this change to try to overturn a ruling protecting abortion rights, but voters emphatically said no.

Overflow Action Alert: Heavy rain is expected in the Chicago area today. Reduce your use of water during & after the storm to help prevent flooding & protect water quality. • Delay showers & baths • Wait to run the dishwasher More: MWRD.org/OAD A joint initiative with chicagoriver.org

El-Sayed is likely still winning but will definitely be by 4-5%, not the double digits a vast number of polls have said in the last week. That almost all election data is now bad polling and vibes-based degenerate gambling sites partnered with the very news networks reporting on it doesn't bode well

I’ve been screening our documentary with organizing communities in the South. So far, the organizers mention data centers first at every single event. From racial justice orgs to old school activists who don’t usually think about tech policy. This has legs.

honestly, the fact that we have made it through the atomic age *without* another use of nuclear weapons since 1945 is a miracle we don't fully appreciate

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · yesterday

Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:

Read it here if you haven't yet. Today is the very best day of all days to read it for the first time. short-stories.co/@raybradbury...

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

The voice-clock sang, breakfast was ejected, but no doors slammed. The garage chimed and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. The house sat alone in a city of rubble and…

short-stories.co

Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · 2d ago

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

There were 37 homicides in the city last month, the lowest total for any such month dating back to at least 1970. That total is down 18% compared to July 2025, and is less than half the totals of July 2020 and 2021, which each saw more than 100 killings.

Chicago Sees Lowest Homicide Total For Any July in Decades

There were 37 homicides in the city last month, the lowest total for any such month dating back to at least 1970. That total is down 18% compared to July 2025.

news.wttw.com

“'Thomas is 5,' she recalled thinking. 'He has no assets.'" "Thomas, who has cerebral palsy, is nonverbal, deaf and unable to walk. Medicaid helps cover private-duty nursing, respite care and other services that he relies on every day, allowing him to remain safely at home with his family."

States Newsroom@statesnewsroom.com · 2d ago

Parents, patients and disability advocates say Indiana’s Medicaid renewal process has left many eligible families struggling to navigate paperwork requests, meet deadlines and maintain essential health coverage. via @indianacapitalchronicle.com www.newsfromthestates.com/article/powe...

Most of my tax dollars go towards things I will never use, that’s how a functioning society is supposed to work

USA TODAY Opinion@usatodayopinion.usatoday.com · 3d ago

Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.

Bluesky oldheads will remember that brief period of time when the conservative trolls tried to storm the place and were flummoxed by the idea they would have to organically grow an audience and that someone who didn't want to talk to them could nuke every interaction they ever had from orbit

This whole thread up & down:

Denali@denali.bsky.social · 3d ago

These are fairly straightforward concepts that people understand and experience and they know they don't follow this proposed budget model of "a little treat if you have good fiscal discipline." And this isnt hypothetical! The city spends a lot on infrastructure.

The 4700 block of Lincoln’s quasi pedestrianization (one lane of traffic, one direction, angled parking on one side, plaza at the intersection of the side street) is so wildly successful it’s weird the city never did it again

Watched a multi-acre fire break out before my very eyes and then watched a bunch of helicopters show up and put it out. Government was a good idea, it should do more things like that instead of evil and corruption

A lot of questions Chicago leaders are also going to need to grapple with, where the answers are not "1000 more police" or "ShotSpotter."

Daniel Aldana Cohen@aldasky.bsky.social · 6d ago

For years, I've argued that we focus too much on "managed retreat" from climate danger, and not enough on movers' "managed arrival" in new places. It will take work to get that right! Thrilled to see NYT covering. Cincinnati's plans on this. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/c...

Agreed, especially since retreat happens in many unmanaged ways driven by acute shocks and chronic stressors, but also by people’s risk tolerance, insurance pressures, perceptions of economic opportunity, health considerations as well as family and community needs.

Daniel Aldana Cohen@aldasky.bsky.social · 6d ago

For years, I've argued that we focus too much on "managed retreat" from climate danger, and not enough on movers' "managed arrival" in new places. It will take work to get that right! Thrilled to see NYT covering. Cincinnati's plans on this. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/c...

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

Being able to type fast on a keyboard has been far more useful to my life than handwriting in cursive.

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · 3d ago

I went to public school growing up, and we had touch-typing lessons in elementary and middle school, and just with the required instruction, I was typing >100wpm by 8th grade. Which meant that in high school/college, I could type papers almost as fast as I could think. 2/

I wasn't taught proper typing until 7th grade, but it is one of the most valuable things I ever learned. It had not occurred to me that schools might not be teaching it anymore. That's insane.

Jess Calarco@jessicacalarco.com · 3d ago

I wonder if students today would be less likely to lean on AI for writing assignments if schools had made sure they could touch-type (at least 60wpm) before having them submit all their assignments online. 1/🧵

The RFK Jr.-style response to COVID is childish in the worst way. Bad thing happened out of anyone’s control. They don’t want to understand it, they want someone to yell at. The idea that dealing with it would require any sacrifice upsets them. It’s all mom’s fault, throw a fit and she’ll be sorry.

The best way for a city to prevent crime is to have invested in housing, healthcare, food security, education, & jobs programs 20 years ago. The second best way is to invest in those things today, right now.

Local independent news outlet The Current covered the Democratic Party of Georgia's convention in Savannah. Lot of questions about data centers.

Scenes, voices from 2026 Georgia Democratic Convention - The Current

Video interviews from attendees, candidates at the 2026 gathering in Savannah

thecurrentga.org

This whole thread but this point in particular:

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 5d ago

The world is full of people who insist "AI is changing everything" but who - when pressed - have to admit that what they mean is that they're pretty sure that AI *will* change everything. Eventually. After we allow it to consume all the planet's energy, carbon, water and financial resources. 8/

Sunday reading from @liberalcurrents.com. Happy to see "expand the House of Representatives" shows up on page 10.

Trib Ed board deciding how to react to young people downtown

Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · 4d ago

From the Editorial Board: Sparkly, semiattired Lolla kids are this weekend swarming around such oft-deserted environs as Van Buren Street, Jackson Boulevard and State Street. Welcome. Your presence and youthful energy could not be more timely.

Been a real week for our society's collective & unresolved trauma from COVID. The bullies keep bringing it up to make it hurt more while the enablers try to change the subject & move on.

It's pretty infuriating that Trump is denying disaster aid to Oregon for political reasons and I have barely heard anything about it, while Biden was falsely accused of doing the exact same thing to North Carolina and millions of people believed that

I count at least six cities with the fewest murders through July since before 1970 (NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland & New Orleans). New York City and Philadelphia are on pace to have the fewest murders reported in a year in each city since 1944.

Chicago elections, y'all.

John@localcelebrity.bsky.social · 5d ago

There is a man allegedly running for alder who has AI slop-coded a campaign website scraping the current alder’s content. He literally mentions the alder’s signature achievements as it he was in any way responsible for them, including one that is one of my proudest accomplishments as an organizer.