Michael Hawthorne
@scribeguy.bsky.social
Midwesterner. Pulitzer finalist. Dig into environment/public health for the Chicago Tribune. Confidential tips welcome via SIGNAL: scribeguy.35
EPL/NBA/MLB obsessive. Victoria Concordia Crescit. https://www.chicagotribune.com/author/michael-hawthorne
EPL/NBA/MLB obsessive. Victoria Concordia Crescit. https://www.chicagotribune.com/author/michael-hawthorne
Pinned
Michael Hawthorne
@scribeguy.bsky.social
· Jan 15
EPA warns of toxic forever chemicals in sewage sludge used on farmland, including thousands of acres near the Chicago area
In northeast Illinois, more than 777,000 tons of sludge from Chicago and Cook County have been spread on farmland — in many cases near residential areas.
www.chicagotribune.com
Update from me: More than 777K tons of PFAS-contaminated sludge from Chicago and Cook Co. have been spread on farmland during the past 8 years — in many cases near residential areas.
Only LA gave more sludge to farmers.
EPA confirms cancer risks for farmers and neighbors. Unclear about gen pop.
Only LA gave more sludge to farmers.
EPA confirms cancer risks for farmers and neighbors. Unclear about gen pop.
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."
Catholic Vice President Vance takes to social media to justify killing of Renee Good
After the tragic shooting of Renee Good at the hands of ICE, the Catholic vice president of the United States took to social media to justify the killing.
www.ncronline.org
January 8, 2026 at 10:51 PM
Editorial in the National Catholic Reporter: "The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel."
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
An expert in vehicle ramming attacks with an important🧵⤵️
“When the state kills first and invents the threat afterward, it is not policing, it is death squad behavior.”
“When the state kills first and invents the threat afterward, it is not policing, it is death squad behavior.”
🧵In my expert opinion as a researcher of vehicle ramming attacks, what has been publicly described in the video evidence does not support the claim that Renee Nicole Good was attempting a deliberate ramming attack when she was shot in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. 1/7
January 9, 2026 at 2:44 AM
An expert in vehicle ramming attacks with an important🧵⤵️
“When the state kills first and invents the threat afterward, it is not policing, it is death squad behavior.”
“When the state kills first and invents the threat afterward, it is not policing, it is death squad behavior.”
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
It was simple, non-controversial extension on federal loans for a clean drinking water project. Then President Trump killed it to punish an entire state.
Colorado's Republicans and Democrats warned Congressional colleagues today that their community could be targeted next.
Colorado's Republicans and Democrats warned Congressional colleagues today that their community could be targeted next.
January 9, 2026 at 3:27 AM
It was simple, non-controversial extension on federal loans for a clean drinking water project. Then President Trump killed it to punish an entire state.
Colorado's Republicans and Democrats warned Congressional colleagues today that their community could be targeted next.
Colorado's Republicans and Democrats warned Congressional colleagues today that their community could be targeted next.
"Cities are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment — and we will weather it — it will be on us to light the way forward."
Opinion | I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.
www.nytimes.com
January 9, 2026 at 3:30 AM
"Cities are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment — and we will weather it — it will be on us to light the way forward."
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
This is very good from WaPo. Note position of officer's feet to side of car when first shot is fired. I think everyone defending this should be asked: Was it not even an *overreaction* to fire those shots, especially 2 & 3, into her face point-blank with the officer clearly not in danger? Really?
January 8, 2026 at 5:47 PM
This is very good from WaPo. Note position of officer's feet to side of car when first shot is fired. I think everyone defending this should be asked: Was it not even an *overreaction* to fire those shots, especially 2 & 3, into her face point-blank with the officer clearly not in danger? Really?
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Clarity, @aoc.bsky.social speaks with clarity
AOC: What we saw today was a criminal murder a woman while she was trying to flee for her life. What we saw today was a manifestation of every American’s worst nightmare: their government turning into a tyranny.
January 8, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Clarity, @aoc.bsky.social speaks with clarity
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
“'The guy, I’m telling him like, "Please step off the school grounds," and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he knocked me down,' an official at Roosevelt High School said. 'They don’t care. They’re just animals. I’ve never seen people behave like this.'"
Minneapolis schools cancel classes after Border Patrol clash disrupts dismissal at Roosevelt
Minneapolis schools closed for the week citing safety concerns after an encounter involving armed Border Patrol agents near Roosevelt High School.
www.mprnews.org
January 8, 2026 at 2:09 PM
“'The guy, I’m telling him like, "Please step off the school grounds," and this dude comes up and bumps into me and then tells me that I pushed him, and he knocked me down,' an official at Roosevelt High School said. 'They don’t care. They’re just animals. I’ve never seen people behave like this.'"
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Emily Heller, an eyewitness, is speaking out to set the record straight. Officers were screaming at Renee Nicole Good, “Move, move, move.”
So she moved, and they shot her multiple times? Then Noem and Trump branded her a domestic terrorist. Does everyone see how absolutely insane that sounds?
So she moved, and they shot her multiple times? Then Noem and Trump branded her a domestic terrorist. Does everyone see how absolutely insane that sounds?
January 8, 2026 at 3:06 AM
Emily Heller, an eyewitness, is speaking out to set the record straight. Officers were screaming at Renee Nicole Good, “Move, move, move.”
So she moved, and they shot her multiple times? Then Noem and Trump branded her a domestic terrorist. Does everyone see how absolutely insane that sounds?
So she moved, and they shot her multiple times? Then Noem and Trump branded her a domestic terrorist. Does everyone see how absolutely insane that sounds?
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
March 2025: "After Trump’s election it was possible to believe that America would merely become indifferent to the NATO countries. It’s now clear that the United States sees these former allies as prey. There can be no mistake about this."
Taking Greenland Seriously
What JD Vance’s speech means for the future of European security.
lnk.thebulwark.com
January 8, 2026 at 4:00 AM
March 2025: "After Trump’s election it was possible to believe that America would merely become indifferent to the NATO countries. It’s now clear that the United States sees these former allies as prey. There can be no mistake about this."
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
I’m seeing a lot of people predict that “the right wing media is going to turn this story for Trump” and “they’re going to work overtime to make America forget this” and you should tell that to all these people out there in Minnesota in fucking January. This can matter. This will matter.
A friend in Minneapolis just sent me this video. Looks like thousands have come together for a vigil after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. This was my neighborhood for several years before coming to Portland.
January 8, 2026 at 1:32 AM
I’m seeing a lot of people predict that “the right wing media is going to turn this story for Trump” and “they’re going to work overtime to make America forget this” and you should tell that to all these people out there in Minnesota in fucking January. This can matter. This will matter.
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...”
A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.
lithub.com/renee-nicole...
A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.
lithub.com/renee-nicole...
Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…
lithub.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:54 AM
“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...”
A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.
lithub.com/renee-nicole...
A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today.
lithub.com/renee-nicole...
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Mayor Brandon said the fact that “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” broadcast live nationwide from the Chicago Riverwalk, training a national spotlight on the city, without incident proves that CPD does not need additional power. news.wttw.com/2026/01/06/p...
Push to Expand CPD’s Curfew Power Not Necessary, Johnson Says
“I think New Year’s Eve was a testament that we did not need an additional tool in order to ensure that our young people were where they need to be and that our parents and adults who are part of thes...
news.wttw.com
January 7, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Mayor Brandon said the fact that “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” broadcast live nationwide from the Chicago Riverwalk, training a national spotlight on the city, without incident proves that CPD does not need additional power. news.wttw.com/2026/01/06/p...
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
COMMENTARY: It seems an increasing number of Americans, including elected leaders and journalists, are afraid to tell the truth about what happened on January 6. That's dangerous.
January 7, 2026 at 2:51 AM
COMMENTARY: It seems an increasing number of Americans, including elected leaders and journalists, are afraid to tell the truth about what happened on January 6. That's dangerous.
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
January 7, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Lol how can you tell this administration is lying to you? Because oil hasn't been shipped in actual barrels in over a century
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
www.cnn.com/2026/01/06/b...
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
keep thinking of a vocally anti-woke reporter who insisted that the term "environmental racism" was nonsense
After a white county in South Carolina rejected a data center, developers have sets their sights on a Black community for a proposed data center complex the size of 1,200 football fields
After a White Town Rejected a Data Center, Developers Targeted a Black Area
Four million Americans live within 1 mile of a data center. The communities closest to them are “overwhelmingly” non-white.
capitalbnews.org
January 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
keep thinking of a vocally anti-woke reporter who insisted that the term "environmental racism" was nonsense
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Excellent 🧵by a local chicago reporter on the DHS violence we saw here in our city that’s now happening in Minneapolis. Scroll thru the whole thing to be reminded just how badly ICE IS OUT OF CONTROL.
An ICE officer fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis is not the first time federal agents involved in immigration have shot a person this year. Here are two shootings, including another fatal one, during the recent Chicago blitz.
January 7, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Excellent 🧵by a local chicago reporter on the DHS violence we saw here in our city that’s now happening in Minneapolis. Scroll thru the whole thing to be reminded just how badly ICE IS OUT OF CONTROL.
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Texas A&M has decided that Plato is woke & thus has forbidden a philosophy professor from teaching Plato's works.
Not a joke. Not satire. This is the world the anti-woke "free speech warriors" have bequeathed us.
dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Not a joke. Not satire. This is the world the anti-woke "free speech warriors" have bequeathed us.
dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous
Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University, was told by university officials today about his upcoming "Contemporary Moral Problems" course, due to start next
dailynous.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:13 PM
Texas A&M has decided that Plato is woke & thus has forbidden a philosophy professor from teaching Plato's works.
Not a joke. Not satire. This is the world the anti-woke "free speech warriors" have bequeathed us.
dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Not a joke. Not satire. This is the world the anti-woke "free speech warriors" have bequeathed us.
dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
They will murder unarmed citizens and then accuse them of wrongdoing. Zero sense of accountability or shame.
Kristi Noem accuses the woman who was killed by ICE in Minneapolis of committing an act of "domestic terrorism"
January 7, 2026 at 7:30 PM
They will murder unarmed citizens and then accuse them of wrongdoing. Zero sense of accountability or shame.
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
they are recruiting for the worst, bottom-of-the-barrel chuds imaginable and those chuds are behaving exactly as you'd expect
MPR playing an eye witness account right now of ICE shooting directly through the windshield at her face and not giving her medical care for 10 minutes.
MPR News is live right now bringing you updates on this. mprnews.org/listen
January 7, 2026 at 5:02 PM
they are recruiting for the worst, bottom-of-the-barrel chuds imaginable and those chuds are behaving exactly as you'd expect
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
"To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
“To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite.” – Mayor Jacob Frey, after ICE shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis today.
January 7, 2026 at 8:48 PM
"To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Woke Bill Kristol outstripping National Dems Again
Abolish ICE. Really.
Trump: "I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting ... "
January 7, 2026 at 8:51 PM
Woke Bill Kristol outstripping National Dems Again
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Mayor Jacob Frey: "They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit."
January 7, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Mayor Jacob Frey: "They are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit."
Reposted by Michael Hawthorne
Along with the more standard, now-familiar January 6 denialism, the White House website included a suggestion that assassination attempts against Trump have been orchestrated by rogue forces inside the government. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-whi...
The White House’s J6 Revisionism Includes a Wild New Conspiracy Theory
The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack by...
talkingpointsmemo.com
January 6, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Along with the more standard, now-familiar January 6 denialism, the White House website included a suggestion that assassination attempts against Trump have been orchestrated by rogue forces inside the government. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-whi...