Print wins today
BACK ON THEIR B.S.
The government shutdown moves toward reopening with eight Democratic votes in the Senate moving the budget forward, surely to be challenged on both sides in the House tomorrow – making quick resolution unlikely – when Speaker Johnson will have to reconvene and swear in Arizona's Adelita Grijalva, the 218th signature necessary to force a House vote on demanding the DOJ release the Epstein Files. At last.
On the Senate side, in a twist everyone paying attention saw coming, the GOP immediately put a condition on their "deal" to hold a debate and vote on ACA subsidy extensions: Roll back abortion coverage to nil ala the Hyde Amendment.
PRINT BEATS COPS
In better news today, 50 miles north of Wichita, Kansas, the Marion County Record weekly newspaper won $3 million in an agreement from its namesake county over a police raid of its offices and associated private homes in 2023. Five federal lawsuits followed, against the county, the city, and local officials, according to the AP. The city and the officials claims haven't been settled yet.
Sketchy suspicions were inflated to get search warrants for the newspaper, the publisher's home, and a Marion city councilperson's house – cooked up by a crooked police chief trying to shut down the paper's aggressive coverage around town, including of his time leading the PD. The sheriff's dept. apparently helped get the warrants, using inaccurate information to trick a judge.
Cellphones and computers were seized, and reporters' desks were searched by sheriff's deputies and city police officers. The paper's 98-year-old co-owner was recorded giving them hell on police bodycam as they barged into her house. She died of a heart attack the next day.
The police chief resigned two months after the raid, and he's set for trial next February for felony interference with a judicial process for allegedly getting a witness to cover up communications with him before investigators came asking.
The sheriff's office has issued a written apology to the owner-publishers' family. The department's apology was a stipulated requirement of the settlement.
RATS LEAVING CHICAGO
Mixed news: Border Patrol may be leaving Chicago in large numbers soon, led by their fearless sadist Greg Bovino, possibly en route to Charlotte, North Carolina next. ICE and CBP officers have terrorized the city for months now. Wouldn't wish that on the next city. Chicago pushed back hard, organizing and activating intensely, essentially driving the stormtroopers out of the city in search of easier prey. Each major city along the chain so far – L.A., D.C., Chicago, Portland, Memphis – has adapted and adopted different vital lessons and tactics. So whatever fresh hell rises in North Carolina will provide. And The National Riot is intent on providing details, context and synthesis for developing resistance strategies across the country, locally sourced.
Chicago Block Club has more on that city's latest – including the photo shoot the soft-booted thugs gathered for in front of Cloud Gate, aka The Bean, early Monday morning. Fucking tourists. Also check out the Reader, WBEZ / Chicago Sun-Times, The Triibe and Unraveled.
STREAMING KILLS
An aspiring influencer was streaming live as she drove down the street two Monday nights ago in Zion, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago, and struck a pedestrian. A child appeared to be in the car with her. The woman got out and tended to the stricken man. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. She stayed at the scene and cooperated with police. She wasn't charged. Now police have reportedly been made aware of the video.
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