shawn

@mulchy.bsky.social

6048 Followers 691 Following

a very serious journalist | signal: shawn.56

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a man wearing a tux speaks into a microphone as he says "let's get ready to rumbleeeee!"
"Organizing works," the Stop ShotSpotter campaign succinctly declared in a post on Twitter following Johnson's original announcement. In the accompanying press release, the campaign acknowledged the yearslong fight against ShotSpotter and reiterated its demand that the $9 million earmarked annually for the technology be reallocated to campaigns that are committed to keeping their communities safe. "Together, we will continue pushing for the investments in our people, communities, and neighborhoods that truly create safety," the release reads.
The expansion of SDSCs and the introduction of new surveillance technology came at a time when the CPD faced a severe crisis of legitimacy. Decades of brutality, dismal clearance rates, the killings of Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, and a federal investigation into a pattern of unconstitutional policing laid bare systemic issues within the department. An emphasis on high-tech policing, then, offered police an opportunity to rebrand.
Larger than any one technology are fears about the increasing collection and centralization of private data. The tendency in modern policing toward "data-driven" solutions purports to make law enforcement less violent, cops more efficient, and communities safer. In reality, the explosion of unchecked state surveillance has enabled police at all levels to amass troves of personal information on private citizens. Now, a new wave of tools, including BriefCam, seeks to use AI to make sense of it all. These programs are often administered in secrecy and without oversight, accountability, or evidence that they even work, as President Donald Trump has, in recent years, limited administrative safeguards and invested tens of millions into a surveillance state with reduced privacy rights.
chicago’s air quality at 153
Snelling, who has not spoken about federal deployments in the city or across Illinois, said he has sought to “stay out of the politics of this,” but after hearing claims his officers did not respond to the calls for service, he felt it was necessary to “put all of that to rest.” “My leadership team are not political pawns. Their lives are too important to play politics with these men and women who face danger every single day,” he said. “This is not a game, this is not a joke. This is still our city and we still have a responsibility to maintain safety and calm in our city.” Snelling said none of his officers were seriously injured by the tear gas. He added that he’s spoken with federal leadership about the incidents, and that the feds were “extremely concerned” about the officers.
cover of newsweek magazine shows three mysterious people standing together in dramatic shadows. the text reads “Bisexuality. Not gay. Not straight. A new sexual identity emerges.”
In the screenshots the former staffer provided from her Instagram account, several of her "stories," which are photos or short videos that disappear after 24 hours, show her wearing different outfits. One image shows her walking down a sidewalk, another shows her looking into the camera while sitting in a car, and two show her posing. Welch responded to each of those stories with an emoji displaying a smiley face with heart-shaped eyes. He also responded to a couple of those same photos with a second emoji of a face with its eyes and mouth wide open.
a tweet that says “i'm not falling for that hot take. that's clearly someone with a fetish for getting yelled at. i refuse to participate in that kind of perversion”
a minion stares blankly
Ensuring CPD complies with the consent decree is "one my most important responsibilities as mayor," Johnson said. "It is at the center of our commitment to the people of Chicago to build a police department that is constitutional, accountable, transparent and worthy of the public's trust," Johnson said in a statement to WTTW News. "That responsibility belongs not only to me, but to every leader within the Chicago Police Department. I want to thank Supt. Snelling for his commitment to that shared mission."
SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois State Board of' Education released new guidelines recently on how schools should and should not use artificial intelligence in K-12 education. One of the most notable aspects of the AI guidelines, however, is that it was written with help from popular AI programs including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Bill Curtin, Illinois policy director for the nonprofit advocacy group Teach Plus, one of the groups that pushed for the guidance, called that an example of how AI should be treated in academic fields. "Upfront, they said, 'We did use AI, and they were very clear and specific about how they used AI," Curtin told Capitol News Illinois. "And that actually builds trust because these days you can look at almost anything that anyone writes and wonder it it's AI. It's much better when, upfront, you say: 'We did use Al, and here's where, and here's where the human element is really still seen in this guidance.""
a small child gives a devilish smirk as they stand in front of a burning house
tweet from chuck grassley posted at 1:13 am on october 26, 2012: “Fred and I hit a deer on hiway 136 south of Dyersville. After I pulled fender rubbing on tire we continued to farm. Assume deer dead.”
a tweet from chuck grassley posted at 8:49 pm on september 19, 2020: “If u lost ur pet pidgin /it's dead in front yard my lowa farm JUST DISCOVERED here r identifiers Right leg Blue 2020/3089/AU2020/SHE |//LEFT LEG GREEN BAND NO PRINTED INFO. Sorry for bad news”
In late February 2025, just a month after Trump’s inauguration, Highlands responded to a government solicitation for Denver-area immigration jails, according to documents the ACLU of Colorado obtained. The Big Horn Correctional Facility was built in 2009 and imprisoned men from Alaska until its closure in 2014. “It has been very well maintained, and its current condition reflects its low mileage,” Highlands wrote in its offer to ICE. “We estimate that depending on urgency and the specifics of the detainee population, Hudson could accept detainees in a matter of months.”
ben affleck stands outside smoking a cigarette. he looks forlorn as he contemplates the painful reality of the world around him.
a green background with a photo of the quantum computing campus. the headline reads: “is southeast chicago at the quantum crossroads?”
Sun-Printing at the Park: A community art-making event. Saturday 7/11 from 2-4 PM at Steelworkers Park (87th and Lake Michigan). Join artist Miguel Limón and the Chicago Reader to creat a collective artwork titled "Un Umbral Entrelezado" at Steelworkers Park on Chicago's Southeast Side. This event is part of the Chicago Art Department's Contra Corriente Art Festival.
As members of Congress grapple with ways to regulate the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, they're also divided on how to use it in their own personal and professional lives. In Illinois, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a former Fermilab physicist, is using Al to help draft legislation. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth says she "involuntarily" uses it in Google searches. Others, like U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez are purposefully steering clear.
As of Sunday, there were 1,450 National Guard soldiers assigned to Memphis Safe Task Force, according to Brady McCarron, deputy chief of public affairs for the U.S. Marshals Service. The U.S. Marshals Service is the lead agency in the task force, which was convened via a Sept. 15 executive order by President Donald Trump to “restore law and order” in Memphis, the nation’s largest majority-Black city. Soon after Trump issued the executive order, Gov. Bill Lee deployed the Tennessee National Guard to join hundreds of other law enforcement officers in the multi-agency task force effort, which has brought officers to Memphis from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Services, ATF and a host of other federal law enforcement agencies. The National Guard soldiers first began arriving in Memphis on October 10.
Johnson’s cousin, Terracle Nelson, said authorities told family members that he had been shot twice in the chest. The dead man’s grandfather, Evaniel Johnson, said his grandson had taken classes at Tennessee State University, was the father of a young child, and was preparing to help lead the family’s construction business. He said he wanted to review findings from investigators and any video of the shooting before making judgment. “I believed in him, and I know he still had so much life ahead of him,” Johnson said. “The heartbreaking reality is that he will never have the chance to enjoy what we were building together. That is a pain no grandparent should ever have to endure.”
mariah carey asks "and i was like, why you so obsessed with me?"
Part of what's at work is a reasonable desire to give a party with more than its share of grizzled congressional veterans a jolt of youthful energy. That much we understand. But the majority of Americans aren't socialists and don't wish to be governed by kissing cousins of Karl Marx and Kim Jong Un. After CNN reported on phrases like "seize the means of production" showing up (among many other classics) in Chevalier's now-deleted Twitter account, she said she had grown and moved on from such youthful absurdities as supporting the government of North Korea. But we've yet to see evidence she has traveled far at all.
It is a chaotic scene on the National Mall, as several hundred people refuse to leave despite an order to evacuate because of severe storms approaching. Some are even arguing with Secret Service agents. An officer is sternly repeating the evacuation order over a bullhorn, and the crowd is booing. Many have begun chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A." One man blamed the situation on "liberals in the weather service," adding, "I think this is baloney."
a majestic chicago flag flaps in the wind. the white terra cotta of the wrigley building’s tower is visible in the background
In 2012 — as the commander of Wentworth, a South Side patrol district — Waller helped snare a promotion for officer Alvin Jones, a close associate of corrupt Sgt. Ronald Watts, who had been arrested that year with another member of their unit for stealing what they thought was drug money from an FBI informant. That sting, which led to prison terms for the officers, followed numerous local and federal investigations into the unit's alleged corruption. Waller nominated Jones for sergeant 10 months after the arrests. Jones remained on the force as a sergeant for the next decade. He resigned last year upon release of a city report that recommended his firing for alleged extortion with the Watts crew.
"What we found is that the data centers, if you treat them collectively and look at all the data centers in the Northern Virginia region, that they're putting out about as much emission from their backup generators as what you would get from living near a natural gas power plant in that region," Pitt said. Pitt said the concerns extend beyond what neighbors can see and hear. "It's a mix of the local impacts that you're going to receive in your community, which is the construction, the noise and the air pollution of the backup generators, and then there's the bigger picture concerns as it relates to water supply and, again, our ability to meet our clean energy goals given the amount of electricity that these facilities require," Pitt said.
map showing locational marginal pricing for almost every node in pjm's grid is exceeding $500
Still, Snelling repeatedly called for accountability for officers found to have committed misconduct, and at one point even filed a lawsuit against the police board to overturn a decision that allowed an officer to remain with the department after Snelling wanted him fired. The police board remains, effectively, frozen, though CPD internal affairs and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, COPA, continue their investigations.
The city's entrenched gun violence did continue to decline under Snelling's leadership of CPD. But several high-profile shootings and the persistent "teen takeovers" in the downtown area and along the lakefront challenged the perception of decreasing crime.
Daily Herald: Protests at Kane County courthouses to be restricted to designated areas
a person in a black tank top and jeans rides a blue and pink bicycle with an extremely tall frame that looks similar to a penny-farthing
kevin from the office says "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?"
While the industry faces growing public pressure, Tietz said data centers help the state and local communities. Data centers generated $2.6 billion in local and state tax revenue in 2024, according to the Data Center Coalition. Those taxes and the construction jobs created by data centers directly benefit the public, Tietz argued. He also said pinning the blame on data centers for rising utility bills was unproductive and that inflation and Illinois' insufficient energy generation pose a larger challenge to electrical costs.
r.f. kuang’s babel: an arcane history
lush, green mountains slope down to the ocean
a large box of kraft mac & cheese. a spoonful of freedom-loving fake cheesy pasta perches like a bald eagle in front of an american flag. above the spoon is the logo for america 250
a guy named brandon johnson gestures at a butterfly labeled "stadium subsidies" and asks "is this community development?"
two agents in green pants, black t shirts, and green vests that say “police” stand in the street at the driver’s side of a grey suv. two black suvs with flashing lights have boxed in the grey suv.
a bar chart showing reported ice abductions per day of the week between may 11, 2026 and june 15, 2026. twenty-one reported abductions occurred on wednesdays compared with 19 on tuesdays, 11 on saturdays, ten on fridays, eight on mondays, seven on thursdays, and four on sundays.
lisa simpson stares dumbstruck into her plate
bugs bunny emphatically declaring “no”
an ugly asf greg bovino in a green uniform casually carrying a gun and snarling in the dried meats section of a gas station
three messages that say: “i ain’t reading all that. i’m happy for u tho. or sorry that happened.”
three tiny sprouting pic-a-little cucumber plants in a green menards bucket
patrick and spongebob frolic happily as a pensive squidward watches from a window above, behind partially open blinds
SIGHTING Immigration Agents Spotted 26 May 2026 - 10:15AM to 11:20AM Dan Ryan Expressway at 71st On Tuesday, May 26th, a black Ford Explorer that has participated in recent immigration abductions was involved in a minor crash with a civilian vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Rapid responders do not believe that the crash was related to immigration enforcement. The agency vehicle and the civilian stayed on the side of the highway near the 71st Street exit for about an hour until Illinois State Police arrived to process the crash. The damaged Explorer left the scene at 11:20AM, traveling west on 71st to an unknown destination. If you see immigration enforcement activity, please call the FSN hotline at (855) 435-7693 with details about what you saw, when it took place, and where it happened. Rapid response volunteers will be dispatched to verify and document reported activity. @chicagofarsouthrapidresponse
B. May use information sharing, partnerships, crime analysis, and evidence-basedpractices to assist in the reduction of violent crime, property crime, and othercode of conduct violations. C. Shall recognize and use best practices of community-oriented policing and procedural justice. 1) The Task Force may develop potential partnerships with faith-based and‘community organizations to achieve its goals, including, but not limited to, partnering with social service organizations, to assist persons experiencing homelessness obtain shelter and other services and to assist persons experiencing a mental health or behavioral crisis in connecting with appropriate services.
Cook County Sheriff's Office [redacted] Strategy March 2026 On June 1, 2026, the Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA) will be created replacing the Regional Transit Authority (RTA). With the creation of the NITA, the Cook County Sheriff's Office is charged with leading a public safety task force dedicated to combating violent and other types of crime, with the primary mission of preservation of life and reducing the occurance and the fear of crime on the public transit system. The objectives of the Task Force shall include, but shall not be limitd to , reducing and prevent violent crimes and other illegal activities. The Task Force shall also assist and coordinate with other Transit Service Boards' codes of conduct and solve quality of life issues for transit riders and staff. In furtherance of these objectives, the Task Force: A. May develop and acquire information, training, tools, and resources necessary to implement a data-driven approach to policing, with an emphasis on: 1) Preventing violent crime in known hotspots, property crime, and code of conduct violations that are crimes. 2) Identifying and arresting persons accused of violent crime. [redacted]
Gov. Pritzker, Lawmakers Celebrate Bipartisan Work to Attract Data Center Construction to Illinois Monday, October 7, 2019 Taking another step to build an Illinois where both businesses and working families can thrive, Governor JB Pritzker joined legislators, business leaders, labor leaders, trade groups and existing data center businesses to promote Illinois' new tax incentive for data center construction.
a person wears sunglasses and a giant fuzzy hat with crimped hear and says, "i'm the talent"
Hi Shawn: Alex brought your concern to me. While I don't think we violated the act, I understand your argument. I also think Alex was acting in good faith trying to find responsive records in what he thought was the quickest way possible. He recognized you as a sophisticated FOIA requester who has provided email domains in the past to aid searches (e.g.: R063737, providing domain "@liamconnect.com") and figured it would be a good way to proceed. In an office of 6,000 employees, it is not always easy to find the right party most knowledgeable about a request, and he reached out to try to get more information. So how about this - to resolve your objection, I will personally work with you to narrow to 200 pages of responsive emails, which is 100 more than we normally categorize as unduly burdensome. I will communicate with you daily to narrow and update on the status of email searches, and get these records back to you as quickly as possible. Please let me know if that's acceptable to you. Thanks. Rob Olmstead Deputy General Counsel CCSO
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The $900,000 approved on May 14 is in addition to the $815 million set aside for the sheriff’s office in 2026. A $300,000 line item in the county’s budget for another brand of license plate readers, Genetec, is unrelated, wrote Walberg. “The Genetec contract is for the installation of [license plate readers] at secure Sheriff’s Office parking locations to enhance our ability to ensure only authorized vehicles are allowed entry.”
Rep. Patrick Sheehan, R-Homer Glen, who has spent nearly two decades in law enforcement, voiced his opposition to the bill on social media. "Imagine having to tell a victim's family the technology that could have identified the suspect was taken off the table by lawmakers," he wrote. "That's exactly what this bill does! It literally takes us back to the stone age in fighting crime, making our communities less safe." Sheehan's office did not respond to Capitol News Illinois' request for an interview.
The few people who were aware of the company's existence could only repeat stories shared by others. One landowner gave a reporter the name of a man he claimed was "one of the few who is still alive who could answer your questions." When reached by phone, that man said he would like to help, but he did not want to get involved. A woman could be heard in the background warning a reporter not to pursue this story.