commissioner jessica vásquez said the cook county board had yet to see a contract for briefcam, sheriff tom dart's proposed jail ai surveillance camera system. dart said breifcam will "save lives" and downplayed its facial recognition features while hyping up its object recognition features (?).

shawn@mulchy.bsky.social · 3mo ago

new: sheriff tom dart is quietly pitching the cook county board on two new surveillance systems that could be approved as soon as thursday. dart wants $2 million for a software that uses ai to monitor the jail’s cameras for drug use and nearly $1 million for more flock license plate readers.

“Music publications BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver, and Goldmine have been gutted by parent company Veeps... Nearly all the staff at each publication appear to have been laid off yesterday. Veeps, which is now owned by Live Nation, acquired the publications in 2024 or 2025”

BrooklynVegan, Alt Press Hit With Mass Layoffs

Music publications Revolver and Goldmine have also been gutted by owners Veeps and Live Nation

pitchfork.com

he said what now

Chicago Tribune@chicagotribune.com · 22h ago

Dolton Village Board members voted to institute a 9 p.m. curfew after police reported five “teen takeover” events this summer.

PHOTOS: Dumpsters full of books showed up outside former Acero schools. Parents and teachers worked to salvage them

The Guild enjoyed a night off from fighting for a fair contract last week watching the Sox beat the Yankees 🎉

This November, voters in Washington State will weigh in on IL26-638, a ballot measure requiring that girls who want to play sports in K–12 schools undergo sex-verification tests such as genital exams.

The Push to Force Genital Exams on Student Athletes

This November, voters in Washington State will weigh in on IL26-638, a ballot measure requiring that girls who want to play sports in K–12 schools undergo sex-verification tests such as genital exams.

thecut.com

Chicagoan Amira Hondras made a list of goals when she was 11. Now 18, she “might have to make another list.” She’ll play with the LA Queens in the Women’s Professional Baseball League tomorrow, a week after she helped the US in the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Rockford.

Women's pro baseball comes home to Illinois, paving the way for next generation of ballplayers

The Women's Professional Baseball League, the first nation-spanning U.S.-based professional league in the sport for women since 1954, will hold its opening day in Springfield Saturday.

chicago.suntimes.com

New “mega master” hearings that began in Chicago in May are calling as many as 185 immigrants to a single small courtroom. Many immigrants, fearful and unable to find a lawyer on short notice, are missing critical court dates.

Chaotic, crowded Chicago immigration mega court hearings are fueling record deportation orders

chicago.suntimes.com

A Finnish psychiatrist holds increasing influence over youth gender care worldwide. At home, the inpatient mental health facility she oversees has been repeatedly cited for excessive restraints, invading patient privacy, and other acts of neglect and mistreatment of (cis) adolescents).

As a Gender Critic’s Influence Grew, So Did Concerns About Cis Adolescents in Her Care - Assigned Media

Finnish government reports cite neglectful practices in the mental health care of young people at a hospital affiliated with Riittakerttu Kaltiala.

assignedmedia.org

New guidelines call for cops to use their body-worn cameras to record incidents involving immigration officers, and to identify the names of top federal agents present on a scene.

Chicago police set directives for collecting evidence on ICE agents suspected of breaking the law

chicago.suntimes.com

Yellow Banana promised to stay in Chicago’s predominately Black and brown neighborhoods and provide equitable food access for ten years. Now, less than 1.5 years after opening, that promise will be broken this Saturday, unless YB finds a last ditch effort: chicago.suntimes.com/money/2026/0...

Save A Lot stores set to close Saturday after years of turmoil, recent CEO death threatens city-funded deal

Three years after inking a city-funded deal to open six Save A Lot stores, financially troubled operator Yellow Banana is set to shutter its South and West side stores on July 25.

chicago.suntimes.com

BREAKING NYT: Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the FBI would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute DHS agents implicated in violent encounters.

Federal Agents Were Told FBI Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations

Senior officials deny such a change is in the works, despite guidance shared with agents around the country in recent days.

nytimes.com

Bellwood cop accused of using database to tip off acquaintance

Bellwood cop accused of using database to tip off acquaintance

chicagotribune.com

DOGE axed the CDC team that tracks cyclospora. Now 1000s are sick, restaurants & hospitals scrambling. What's next? “Cyclospora is just one piece. It's making the news right now, but there are other, more dangerous pathogens.” By @emilymullin.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/cdc-cy...

The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year

“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” the former CDC lab director tells WIRED.

wired.com

The Chicago Reader Union has been bargaining w/ Noisy Creek since February. In that time, management has consistently offered proposals that would cut longstanding benefits in exchange for meager pay raises. We need YOU to tell Noisy Creek we deserve better! 🧵 🔗: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

It means something that Silverio Villegas Gonzalez and Keith Porter are not remembered in these discussions online.

Silly Sally 💙💙💙@caturday62.bsky.social · 3w ago

Between the dangerous heat and the dangerously poor air quality, unhoused Chicagoans are really going thru it this week. If you have an unhoused neighbor, consider asking them if they need water & masks.

I remember the Nazi incident. At Jones College Prep: chicago.suntimes.com/education/20...

Jones Prep principal suspended amid uproar over goose-stepping student in German soldier’s uniform on Halloween

“We should have handled the incident with greater care,” the school’s principal, Joe Powers, told parents in an email earlier Friday.

chicago.suntimes.com

Heather Cherone@heathercherone.bsky.social · 3w ago

BREAKING: A teen Chicago police employee resigned under fire after they wore a Nazi uniform and “goose-stepped” at their high school while performing a “Sieg Heil” salute. Another CPD member was fired for showing photos of the teen dressed as a Nazi at work, records show. @wttw.bsky.social

At annual Country Thunder music festival, reports of sexual assaults against young women continue to emerge. Organizers won't talk about it. chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog.... By @chicago.suntimes.com's Robert Herguth

At annual Country Thunder music festival, reports of sexual assaults against young women continue to emerge

The four-day country music event on the Illinois-Wisconsin border saw at least one reported sexual assault case in 2025, and another in 2024, records show. Other reported rapes have surfaced over the ...

chicago.suntimes.com

NEW: A 28-year-old man died Tuesday morning following an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents in St. Augustine, marking the third death involving ICE in a week.

Man dies during immigration encounter in Florida, the third ICE-involved death in a week

Third ICE-involved death in a week confirmed after fatal St. Augustine crash during joint agency operation. National outrage grows over enforcement and deaths

miamiherald.com

My privilege to share some lovely stories from the science community about what Sam Neill's timeless performance as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park meant to them—and why it will continue to inspire kids to chase their own discoveries for years to come.

Sam Neill Inspired a Generation of Scientists

The actor, who died at age 78 on Monday, embodied a passionate approach to research and positive masculinity in his role as paleontologist Alan Grant in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park.

wired.com

“The motorist killed by ICE officers in a Maine shooting Monday was not the target of the warrant the officers were executing, Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Mullin told him.”

Man shot and killed by ICE in Maine was not the target of warrant, Sen. Angus King says

The motorist killed by ICE officers in a Maine shooting Monday was not the target of the warrant the officers were executing, Sen.

apnews.com

Authorities say ICE shot and killed a person this morning in Maine. www.wmtw.com/article/signific...

Person killed in shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, official says

Police closed part of busy Pool Street in Biddeford on Monday morning and there was a significant police presence.

wmtw.com

The fest opener was cheered on by her mom, the 2000 Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade queen. A father and daughter traveled from Puerto Rico to sell carved higüeras. And inspired by her mom, Chucherías Tropical Creations’ owner served bizcocho mojadito she spent 7 years perfecting the recipe for.

26th annual Barrio Arts Festival is a family affair: ‘My food, my culture, my music’

The free two-day festival attracted thousands as it hosted more than 80 vendors offering artful renditions of coquí frogs, carved higüeras and Puerto Rican-inspired food such as guava quesitos.

chicago.suntimes.com

All 3 men inside of the van with Lorenzo Salgado Araujo “‘reiterated that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van…They came in and started shooting from the sides.’” www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Migrants who saw man killed by ICE in Houston say he did not ram officers

Three men who were in the vehicle alongside Lorenzo Salgado Araujo are contesting the Department of Homeland Security’s account of the fatal shooting.

washingtonpost.com

A helpful visualization to compare the recent ICE escalations in Chicago by @kcinbk.bsky.social with data from ICEOut.org. In the past month, the number of requests for legal immigration services made to the Resurrection Project have also about doubled, from 900 to more than 1,700.

Shortly after taking office, Trump discontinued a $25 million body camera pilot program for ICE started in 2021, a former ICE chief of staff told @chicago.suntimes.com last fall. They didn’t have body cameras when they shot Silverio Villegas González either.

ICE agents didn’t have body cams during deadly shooting of Silverio Villegas González outside Chicago

The Trump administration scrapped the agency’s body cam program soon after the president took office this year, according to a former ICE chief of staff in the Biden administration. The Chicago Police...

chicago.suntimes.com

gwen howerton@kissphoria.bsky.social · 4w ago

Wow: DHS says ICE officers were NOT wearing body cameras when an agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado in Houston, "due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns." www.chron.com/news/houston...

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.” www.wired.com/story/madiso...

Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high...

wired.com

the company tells me that they're basically having to get into the real estate business because landlords have decided it's more profitable to have a big box store than a used bookstore. so they do a lot of shuffling and are very careful about how they expand:

gwen howerton@kissphoria.bsky.social · 4w ago

Half Price Books is kind of a fascinating company. I spoke to their president about the new Houston store and how the approach expansion: "Our sales are up across the chain. We are very, very healthy. We're doing great. People are coming back to reading." www.chron.com/culture/arti...

#WPBL team names and logos are out: the Boston Hunters the New York Heights the Los Angeles Queens the San Francisco Firebells the reasonings behind the names are in the press release sent out to media below