Patrick Smith

Just got my tickets to see this Wednesday. theeyesofghana.com

NEW: "Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s," per new House Judiciary Dem report. Report has new allegation that Trump raped a 24-year-old and then promised the victim a visa & NYU admission, demanding she stay quiet.

This is part of a pattern of the CPD superintendent refusing to fire cops who COPA calls to be terminated. And as @schuba.bsky.social and Anna Savchenko reported last year, COPA has been going along with it. www.wbez.org/criminal-jus...

Chicago Sun-Times story on "Kennedy Expressway traffic nightmare" includes story of a woman who switched commute modes: “If anything positive came out of this, it was getting that e-bike." chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

FUCK THE WHOLE LEAGUE LET'S GO

My latest for @blockclubchi.bsky.social follows up on an important City Council hearing that was canceled after not enough alders showed up. This one feels like such a Block Club story. It's fueled by our readers. And it holds our local alders accountable. blockclubchicago.org/2026/10/19/w...

it sorta seems like, yeah, ok, there were a lot of people on the epstein flight logs but not relative to like. everyone else in the world. seems like we could just lock all those guys up and let some other people do whatever they were doing if it was important

“The federal legal apparatus is working to strip the citizenship of a member of Congress and then deport her, because she’s from an ethnic group the president and his top aide despises,” is open executive-branch authoritarianism with no parallel in US history

The Chicago City Council just approved a $261 million settlement with 17 people who alleged disgraced Det. Guevara framed them for murder. One of those 17 men is Tyrece Williams. I detailed his battle to finally clear his name in the @injusticewatch.org & @boltsmag.org story below.

WBEZ and @chalkbeat.org are hosting a forum with candidates for Chicago Public Schools board president today! Tune into the conversation with Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez and Victor P. Henderson at 8 p.m. on YouTube. Photos by Pat Nabong and Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

I have to miss today's Say More because I am hosting a Chicago School Board presidential forum, airing tonight at 8 on 91.5 FM and streaming on YouTube. Erin Allen of Curious City is co-hosting Say More with @maryldixon.bsky.social. Listen at 10 on wbez.org !!!!!!

missed National Coming Out Day. but came across this screenshot of the mass email i sent 12 years ago!

Ken Paxton was chilling with the alleged Loretto Hospital schemers illinoisanswers.org/2021/04/28/c...

I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.

Cook County will not need to hike property taxes, lay off employees or impose new fees to close a projected budget gap of $550.8M in 2027, after some “budget magic” by the county’s finance team, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said.

And if you still have questions about Flock cameras, it may already have an answer — my colleague @lkpwrites.bsky.social and I did an AMA earlier today answering some questions from the folks on r/Illinois.

"Take her away, boys." "I thought you said the law was powerless." "Powerless to help you, not punish you."

I've been a reporter for a long time and this might be the strangest thing I've ever done. We've been reporting on privatization of schools this year and found that just about anyone can open a private school in most states. So we asked, Could reporters do it?

Today, 8 years ago, my friend, Saudi Journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.

U.S. District Judge April Perry has taken the bench to hear oral arguments over the potential consequences of apparent prosecutorial misconduct in the “Broadview Six” case.

Our look at the buyers, sellers and recipients of Illinois' rapidly expanding film income tax credit program. Among those who got a tax break: Jennifer Pritzker, Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao, Billy Corgan @capitolnewsil.bsky.social capitolnewsillinois.com/news/lights-...

I know that people don't like Banksy because it's like, "ah it's just a facile gimmick, his art is corny and his pranks are jejeune" but also I'm sorry to say this but Banksy is good.

Does anyone else think it's weird that this piece that "gives voice to the girlfriend" does not actually include an interview with the woman whose intimate thoughts are detailed in the article?

In an Uber. Driver having loud phone conversation with someone in Spanish. A little annoying, but it happens. He hangs up. Says, “Mi hermano. La Migra.” And starts weeping.

Today on Say More, @maryldixon.bsky.social and I are talking to the man who uncovered and resurrected an in-store Montgomery Ward tape from October 1983. We're gonna hear parts of it, and talk retail memories. 10 am on 91.5 FM and @wbez.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCU3...

NYT has now independently corroborated all the major allegations against Susan Collins in the ProPublica report, including that investigators were prepared to move against her and then Trump intervened to shut it down. This put Trump in a position of exceptional and extortionate leverage over her.

6/ Weeks later, Kao tells his team Collins committed to getting the company $32M in naval contracts.

It didn't matter if CBP officer Luis Uribe's victims were sex workers, a prosecutor told jurors this week. It's possible for a sex worker to be raped, he told them. "Sex workers," he said, "can be credible." The jury agreed. From @chicago.suntimes.com: chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2026/0...

blockclubchicago.org/2026/09/17/c... Another banger from @minabloom.bsky.social

This is APPALLING. The Trump administration is detaining multiple random Somali immigrants with no criminal record at Guantanamo Bay, seemingly because the White House ordered ICE specifically to detain Somalis at Gitmo as part of its effort to punish an ethnic group Trump has attacked.

This is this morning at 10am on @wbez.org

Listen at 10am tomorrow on @wbez.org and give us a call!

On tomorrow's Say More, we're talking with Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke. Listen at 10am on 91.5 or wbez.org and call in with your questions for the county's top prosecutor at 866-915-9239.

Ask and ye shall receive news.wttw.com/2026/06/30/w...

Chicago Story Fest is next week. One night. One stage. No replays. Features writer Katie Prout will be telling the story of Tita Carmen and Oscar, community leaders who fought the sweeping of their encampment in Legion Park. Get your tickets now: https://bit.ly/4et5Tkn

Sigh. A thing we have to say out loud. Consider sending a message to management???

Join us in demanding no layoffs due to AI from Chicago Public Media! Emails for CPM’s management are in the reply ⬇️

‘We Get The Food And Then We Eat The Food Until All The Food Is Gone,’ City Of Chicago Announces Unprompted https://theonion.com/we-get-the-food-and-then-we-eat-the-food-until-all-the-1819579002/

i know someone who went to jail for stealing a car who'd love to have only misused one

"the money, which was supposed to be used to provide health insurance for poor children, was instead hastily passed through multiple organizations before eventually landing in the bank accounts of two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida." www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/g...

passé at this point but can you imagine if obama had done this

wrote about why i like the detroit pistons and their subtly transformative summer: www.theringer.com/2026/08/18/n...

Every conversation about bike lanes is like: "Car crashes kill a huge number of people every day, including pedestrians, cyclists, & car occupants. Good bike infrastructure has been shown to make everyone safer (& doesn't increase congestion)." "But sometimes cyclists break rules & hit people!"

Chicago Public Media is building a social network for America's third largest city. Forget AI - this is the thing I'm most excited about in news technology. werd.io/chicagos-soc...

We're trying a new thing in Chicago.

i mean it's just an objective fact that they find elected officials plotting to violently overthrow our system of government to be less objectionable than, say, the president of harvard having sloppy citations in her phd thesis

"Approximately 25 incarcerated men have launched a hunger strike at Lawrence Correctional Center over restrictive housing conditions, according to lawyers from civil rights law firm Uptown People’s Law Center." Important reporting from @blairpaddock.bsky.social