shawn

@mulchy

a very serious journalist | signal: shawn.56

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shawn@mulchy· 26d

yeah i'm sure they'll get right on it news.wttw.com/2025/10/06/c...

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.

Despite those discussions, the superintendent maintained that his department abides by the Illinois TRUST Act — which restricts local law enforcement, including sheriffs, from cooperating with federal immigration agents — and does not collect or share residents’ immigration status.

But he also said his officers “cannot and will not” arrest federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations in Chicago and implored residents not to interfere with those efforts.

“If you box them in with vehicles, it is reasonable for them to believe that they are being ambushed and that this could end in a deadly situation and it’s reasonable for them to use force based on those conditions,” he said. “Do not box in any law enforcement officer. You are breaking the law when you’re doing that and you’re putting yourself in danger.”

shawn@mulchy· 26d

on this day in 1995, scientists discovered bisexuality. happy 31st birthday to all my fellow bs

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.”

shawn@mulchy· 26d

so many things in this story make my skin crawl but wtaf

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.

Still, the former staffer had kept in touch with Welch. And in a series of other messages with the speaker, when the former staffer asked him for help developing her professional network, he responded: "That's probably too much to text. Let's plan to connect in person when you're in Chicago or I'm in Springfield. Should be a good chat." He then indicated he wanted the conversation
to continue on Signal, an encrypted messaging app.

Over Signal, Welch sent her the message:
"Meet me at Gibson's in Oakbrook. We can sit in the bar area."

shawn@mulchy· 26d

my take on the trump speech

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”

shawn@mulchy· 26d

the two bags of taylor farms salad mix i bought a week ago staring at me every time i open my fridge

shawn@mulchy· 27d

lmao news.wttw.com/2026/07/14/l...

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."

Snelling said in April 2025 that police officers must be allowed to continue stopping drivers for improper or expired registration plates or stickers and headlight, taillight and license plate light offenses to ensure that Chicago's streets do not become more "dangerous for everyone who are driving."

CPD's policy acknowledges those stops are designed to find evidence of "unrelated" crimes.

However, the CCPSA endorsed a policy in April 2025 to ban those stops in most cases, finding they "do more harm than good."

No public progress on finalizing that policy has been announced, nor has Johnson taken a stand on whether the policy should ban traffic stops designed to find evidence of unrelated crimes.

shawn@mulchy· 27d

i’m losing my mind capitolnewsillinois.com/news/illinoi...

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.""

shawn@mulchy· 28d

a small child gives a devilish smirk as they stand in front of a burning house

shawn@mulchy· 28d

another hall of famer

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.”

shawn@mulchy· 28d

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”

shawn@mulchy· 29d

the deal to reopen the shuttered hudson correctional center—renamed "big horn"—had been in the works since february 2025. highlands is also a residential landlord in evanston and denver. the deal will be a boon to its executives and shareholders. chicagoreader.com/news/feature...

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.”

Enter: Highlands. InvenTrust spun up the company in April 2016 to make good for investors “by liquidating and distributing net sale proceeds” from the properties in its portfolio, according to federal filings. At first, Highlands did pare back some of its holdings, including a Texas prison, which it sold for less than a fifth of what Inland American paid for it in 2008, and a pair of warehouses in Minnesota. But then, Highlands raised eyebrows as it began buying properties instead. It added a handful of apartment buildings in Denver and another in Evanston. Now, a decade after its formation, Highlands doesn’t appear to be winding down anytime soon.

While shareholders wait to collect their spoils, Highlands executives take home seven-figure salaries. Richard Vance, the company’s CEO from its formation until he resigned in May, was paid a total of $3.3 million in 2024, according to the most recent company filings. As part of Vance’s departure, the company agreed to repurchase $1.9 million worth of stock and continue paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars as a consultant. Robert Lange, the former chief operating officer who was selected as Vance’s successor, took in $2.6 million in 2024. Meanwhile, Highlands’s stock has dipped to $0.31 a share, according to an estimate released in December 2024, five cents below the price when the company launched in 2016.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 9

mood

ben affleck stands outside smoking a cigarette. he looks forlorn as he contemplates the painful reality of the world around him.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 8

sneak preview of said zine 👀

a green background with a photo of the quantum computing campus. the headline reads: “is southeast chicago at the quantum crossroads?”

an interior photo of the zine featuring paragraphs of text and a blue-washed photo

shawn@mulchy· Jul 8

saturday: come out to steelworkers park (87th & lake michigan) for a community art-making event with artist miguel limón, the @chicagoreader.com, and the chicago art department. we'll be handing out free zines with all of our quantum reporting and the july paper, ft. our latest quantum feature.

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.

Meet local artists and journalists, then pick up a free quantum computing campus zine and the Reader's July print issue.

Participants are invited to bring one small object from home—a dish, a textile, or a houseware item—that represents their experience of migration, labor, or displacement.

Object silhouettes will be printed alongside archival photographs of the southeast-side Mexican steelworker communities and natural matierials gathered from the park itself.

Following the event, participants will receive a digital version of their contribution.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 7

chat are we cooked? chicago.suntimes.com/us-house/202...

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.

Foster has a more open-minded approach to the burgeoning technology, which he likened to writing down a "great idea" on paper to see it it still makes sense.

"I use it for computer coding and drafting legislation,'" Foster said. "One of the great
things that I find (with) these advanced Al tools ... is I come up with some great idea for a piece of legislation, and then before I waste my staff's time with an idea that won't write, I have ChatGPT, or typically Claude, ask what would be involved in writing this legislation, and very often they'll point out... 'Here's the eight big problems with it,' but other times it will say, 'Hey, this, this actually is a good thing."

He compared the use of Al to his "whole career in physics," where he could input ideas and place focus in one direction.

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, a Downers Grove Democrat who worked in clean energy and as a biochemical engineer before being elected to Congress, said he uses Al in his office - and he sees its immense value
when it comes to the private sector and research fields. There is no directive from House leadership to use Al, but
congressional staffers have been authorized to use Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

"We use it a lot in the office, and look, we're at a point where I think it's basically replaced web searches as the way to find information.
In that sense, I think if I had the job I had before I came to Congress, I would be using it a lot more," Casten said. "The power of it to write code, to query huge data sets, to do all sorts of things that I did all the time in the private sector. I just don't have as much cause to do that in this job, so I think about it more from the perspective of a legislator."

"I've used some ChatGPT. I mostly end up using Al involuntarily, because when I do a Google search on something, the Al answer comes up first," Duckworth said. She also recently used Al to try to figure out who manufactured a T-shirt her daughter, who had some fabric sensitivity issues, loved.

"I'm in charge of the Al, and, and specifically know what I'm looking for as a consumer, and I do think Al has some real potential for breakthroughs in healthcare, in particular," Duckworth said. "But again, like anything else, we must remain the master of the technology and not the other way around."

Duckworth called Illinois' approach to regulating data centers "a thoughtful one" and said the state must get guardrails in place before the industry explodes, as it did in California.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 6

there are almost 1,500 national guard members in memphis, in addition to hundreds of federal, state, and local cops. beyond terrifying. tennesseelookout.com/2026/07/06/n...

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.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 6

so incredibly heartbreaking www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

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.”

shawn@mulchy· Jul 6

mariah carey asks "and i was like, why you so obsessed with me?"

shawn@mulchy· Jul 5

pure brain worms as usual

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.

What is clear is that centrist Democrats haven't mounted much of a fight. The DSA candidates and those in their ideological camp have an identity - and an energy — none can mistake. They stand for "Medicare for All," taxing the rich, yanking all military aid to Israel, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and rebranding capitalism
as a dirty word.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 5

checking in on the nation’s capital www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07...

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."

shawn@mulchy· Jul 3

THESE COLORS DONT RUN 😤

a majestic chicago flag flaps in the wind. the white terra cotta of the wrigley building’s tower is visible in the background

shawn@mulchy· Jul 2

fred waller helped elevate a corrupt cop tied to a cpd torture ring and was himself suspended for “using the word ‘rape’ in a meeting at police headquarters to describe his feelings about officers being moved from patrol districts to other units.” chicago.suntimes.com/2023/11/2/23...

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.

Waller announced his retirement in 2020 after he was suspended for 28 days for using the word "rape" in a meeting at police headquarters to describe his feelings about officers being moved from patrol districts to other units, which depletes the patrol ranks.
After retiring, Waller followed the path of some other former top CPD officials by joining Monterrey Security, a Chicago-based firm in charge of safety and crowd control at large events across the country.
In September, just weeks before Snelling's confirmation, Waller announced an overhaul of the department's leadership. Waller's selections included two commanders accused of fostering a hostile work environment and two others named in costly lawsuits.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 2

unfortunately lots of data centers are already relying on rooftop diesel generators bc they haven’t been connected to the grid yet but want to be operational. www.29news.com/2026/06/23/v...

"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.

shawn@mulchy· Jul 2

according to pjm, today's peak demand almost beat the grid's historic peak at 162,373. wholesale electric prices across almost the entire grid are far above $500 per megawatt hour. this is like ... pretty bad, y'all.

map showing locational marginal pricing for almost every node in pjm's grid is exceeding $500

chart showing pjm's demand on 7/1/26 peaked at 162,373 mw

shawn@mulchy· Jul 1

lol

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.

For much of his tenure, though, Snelling's relationship with COPA, the agency tasked with investigating police misconduct and use of force, was strained. In February 2024, he issued a public and unusually blunt critique of the agency, accusing its investigators of leaning on "personal opinions and speculation."

shawn@mulchy· Jul 1

“challenged the perception of decreasing crime”

shawn@mulchy· Jul 1

you get a "free speech" zone! and you get a "free speech" zone! and you get a "free speech" zone! www.dailyherald.com/20260630/new...

Daily Herald: Protests at Kane County courthouses to be restricted to designated areas

shawn@mulchy· Jun 30

you should read this bc it's an endearing and wholesome piece about bike messenger subculture but also bc this bike is cool as hell

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

shawn@mulchy· Jun 30

kevin from the office says "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?"

shawn@mulchy· Jun 30

how dare you blame data centers for illinois’s insufficient energy generation!!! they only consume as much power as a large metro area does in a year www.chicagotribune.com/2026/06/29/i...