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szreports.bsky.social
@SZReports
@szreports.bsky.social
*Investigative journalist at Chicago Sun-Times
*Expert in consumer issues
*Previously with ABC News Investigative Unit
*Medill School of Journalism
Pinned
I’ve been busy since December tracking a basket full of 35 grocery items each month at four Chicago stores since Donald Trump’s reelection.

He said he won on immigration and groceries.

But the cost of my basket keeps going up. (1/3)

chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Supermarket super-pain: Trump's campaign promise to cut food prices falls short
The Sun-Times has been tracking prices for 35 grocery items across four stores, since December. We found most stayed the same or increased, with our shopping cart's total price rising by up to $11.
chicago.suntimes.com
“… neither the novel nor the 1920s ended well.”

Trump Is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...
Opinion | Trump Is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again.
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Lots going on in Chicago, but our monthly grocery price checks continue!

Here’s what’s happening in November with groceries as the holidays approach and the fed govt resists paying SNAP benefits:

chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
Rising grocery prices dampen holiday cheer, how some Chicagoans are coping
The Sun-Times has been checking the prices of 35 common grocery items at four Chicago stores the past year, and most items have not become cheaper.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
ICYMI — and if the ruling by Judge Ellis in Chicago has you yearning for poetry — here is the story by @jonseidel.bsky.social and here is Carl Sandburg’s poem, “Chicago”:

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

(1/8)

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Judge blasts Trump’s Chicago border ‘Blitz,’ extends curbs on use of force that ‘shocks the conscience’
Judge Sara Ellis said Trump's Justice Department lacks credibility, partly because of a lie told by U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
This goes so far beyond creepy.

“‘Rest easy, king,’ read the final message sent to his phone. ‘You did good.’”
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Great story by @chicago.suntimes.com colleague Nader Issa analyzing DHS/ICE propaganda and explaining why it resonates.

Your tax dollars at work, filming flash bangs and zip ties (while avoiding footage of children crying or a daycare teacher being manhandled).

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Watch how government propaganda techniques portray Chicago as a city at war with the feds
The government’s social media storytelling doesn’t always match what’s happening across the city and suburbs. The diverging sources of information are creating “parallel universes," professor Nick Cul...
chicago.suntimes.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Their city … ?
Lawyers play a video that was played for Bovino. In it, he tells agents "everybody fucking gets it if they touch you."

"This is OUR fucking city," Bovino tells them.
November 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
This is my neighborhood and the day care center is on one of my walking routes. This morning I spoke with a grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who goes to that day care center. She’s appalled that federal agents in tactical gear grabbed a teacher and apparently went into rooms, traumatizing children.
Tyler and I are out here at the rally where the crowd has about doubled since this first post. Easily 400+ people.

Group is chanting “no hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here.”
Here at Northcenter Town Square where 100-200 community members including families and young children are rallying after a teacher was taken by federal law enforcement from a local daycare this morning.
November 6, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by @SZReports
Tyler and I are out here at the rally where the crowd has about doubled since this first post. Easily 400+ people.

Group is chanting “no hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here.”
Here at Northcenter Town Square where 100-200 community members including families and young children are rallying after a teacher was taken by federal law enforcement from a local daycare this morning.
November 6, 2025 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by @SZReports
Munchak says she left the scene but was followed and blocked in by agents in SUVs. She says they "rushed my car … and then an agent was in front of my car aiming a gun at my head."
November 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
This happened right across from Lane Tech High School.

Trying to imagine the scene inside the daycare with the little kids’ teacher being manhandled out the door….
November 5, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
NEW: Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer who served three terms in the U.S. House, will become Virginia's next governor, The Associated Press reports.

Spanberger will be the state's first female governor. https://to.pbs.org/4hCyiWm
November 5, 2025 at 1:03 AM
“Rockwell’s son and other descendants wrote that … the artist would be “devastated” to see his work “marshalled for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color.”

Norman Rockwell’s Family Condemns Homeland Security’s Use of His Work www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/a...
Norman Rockwell’s Family Condemns Homeland Security’s Use of His Work
www.nytimes.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
U.S. Robert Gettleman is now giving his thoughts. He says, "I think the evidence has been pretty strong that this facility is no longer just a temporary holding facility. …

"It has really become a prison."
DOJ's Jana Brady steps up next but says she'll largely "rest on our brief that we filed."

She wants any TRO to not "interfere with the executive branch."
November 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
Overnight court filings seem to be giving us a peek at what U.S. Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said in his deposition so far (it apparently continues today):
November 4, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Sign of the times in Chicago:

A poster on the front door of my church this morning in Ravenswood.
November 2, 2025 at 8:38 PM
How would you feel if federal immigration agents, with no warrant, jumped a fence onto your property and started chasing the men working on your windows?

A Lakeview man describes what happened at his home.

(No paywall at Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Public Media)

chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...
Lake View man wants the Chicago police to investigate feds who entered his property during raid
The homeowner said the raid, which resulted in the arrest of a construction worker, has left him shaken.
chicago.suntimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
Many talented #Ukrainian actors, artists, comedians, sportspeople, and others left their professional careers to take up arms and defend their country from Russian occupiers.

Russia's war against Ukraine has taken the lives of at least 240 Ukrainian culture makers. This is a great loss.
November 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Is it gonna get done the same way he promised a high-speed electric transit tunnel to blast passengers to O’Hare so they wouldn’t have to ride the CTA Blue Line?
October 31, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
Alvin Holsey, who ran bombings as SouthCom head, resigned with no explanation. Rep Adam Smith says Pentagon denied request for testimony and Rs aren't pushing for it.

"We need to hear: Did he quit because he believed he was being given illegal orders?”

New details:

newrepublic.com/article/2025...
October 31, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
This is really appalling: Rep Adam Smith tells me that in a briefing, Pentagon officials said they reserve the right to kill people who are "affiliated" with their list of "narco-terror groups."

But under questioning, they wouldn't define what "affiliated" means!

newrepublic.com/article/2025...
October 31, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by @SZReports
Several have survived bombings and have been repatriated, rather than held as enemy combatants. Does this mean the admin lacks sufficient evidence to hold the people it is summarily executing?

This also came up in private briefing. The unnerving details are here:

newrepublic.com/article/2025...
October 31, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Chicago Sun-Times demands DHS immediately remove its images from their posts.

“These usages are blatant infringements of [Chicago Sun-Times Media’s] intellectual property rights.”

#journalism
The letter said @chicago.suntimes.com would file suit for intellectual property right infringement if the three pics used in social posts over the last week aren’t immediately removed from government accounts.

A Sun-Times legal rep said DHS could be liable for damages of up to $150k per violation.
Chicago Sun-Times demands DHS remove social posts using its photos without permission
A letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday says the government used three Sun-Times photos without permission to promote its immigration enforcement campaign. The ...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Plus it’s scary-looking
Why would someone pay $20k for a robot controlled by a human in a remote location to do things more slowly and clumsily when the median wage for a maid or housekeeper is $33k per year, which is typically spread across 10-20 households?
October 30, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Reposted by @SZReports
“.. A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states .. to form ‘quick reaction forces’ trained in ‘riot control’, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive ..”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
October 29, 2025 at 6:37 PM