danhinkel.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

With more than seven months to go in 2025, Chicago budgeting $82 million for settlements and verdicts in lawsuits against the police for the year has turned out to be, gently put, very optimistic.

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I was introduced to him as the police chief in "Fletch." He was truly excellent in that.

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Disgusting Restaurant Celebrates 30 Years As Small Town’s Only Option theonion.com/disgust...

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Sports journalism in the spirit of public service.

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There's a pet psychic who got called out on Tiktok for being a fraud (getting every detail of the pet owner's life wrong) and the pet psychic responded saying that the pets must have been lying to her

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Records show a cop from Mayor Johnson's detail drank at a Trump inauguration party, asked to sit in another cop's squad car & called in a complaint to the station when that cop said no. Then the brass at the station told the complaining officer's supervisors & he got busted as he reported for duty.

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Do You Wanna Dance?

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Apologies for being macabre but I realized this morning it was on Mother's Day 20 years ago that 2 girls were killed in Zion, the cops arrested the wrong guy, the actual murderer developed into a serial killer, and people began getting clued into the brokenness of Lake County's justice system.

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Looking forward to my copy of "Fishes of the Chicago Region."

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

I'm building a spreadsheet and listening to my playlist titled "Work Focus" (every Aerosmith song with horns on it)

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All sorts of worthwhile stuff in the @injusticewatch.org newsletter today, including @msivit.bsky.social writing on Operation Greylord. And I teamed with @aurabogado.bsky.social to make it Beverage Week in the staff picks section. www.injusticewatch.org/subscribe/

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I’ve stepped out to lunch and can report a muted response to the news so far here on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

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The Onion has subtly or directly influenced both my education and workplaces, including when Sam Zell-era Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams resigned after one of his trademark email blasts, which highlighted risque Onion videos. In the Tribune newsroom, we looked on with fascination.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Really enjoyed this talk between @bencollins.bsky.social and @davidjroth.bsky.social as a Madison-area native and basically lifelong Onion reader who once had the privilege of personally complimenting a busy but polite Todd Hanson on “Utter Failure to Spend Rest of Day in Bed”

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The Trib took a few days but I'm glad they're up with a Rick Kogan obit for Miner that has this nice detail. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/07/c...

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Glad to see a couple news obits for Michael Miner now, including this one, which notes that he edited the Reader's stories exposing Cmdr. Jon Burge.

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RIP to Hot Type writer Michael Miner. His media criticism for the Reader communicated necessary history and context, and he was always a fun read. It makes me sad that he's been dead for three days and - unless I missed something - no local outlet has posted a news obit.

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In college, I went to an open mic at a coffee shop and a guy borrowed an acoustic guitar, took audience suggestions for songs, heard “SARS,” played an impromptu punk song with the lyric “my favorite kind of SARS is DinoSARS” and then jumped off the stage and broke his arm.

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BREAKING: #Chicago finished this past month with the fewest #murders of any April since 1962, a @WBEZ analysis has found. The month’s 19 murders make 115 so far this year, the lowest January-through-April tally since 2014. www.wbez.org/cpd/2025/05/...

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Current* conditions near Gary, IN:

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A proposal to allow Chicago Police Department officials to impose a curfew anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes notice is set to face a key test amid growing concern the measure is unworkable and unconstitutional.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

It has been my understanding that aircraft carriers don't turn very fast.

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This will have special resonance in my hometown, as Chubby Checker is the father of Janesville, Wis. basketball hero Mistie Bass.

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Federal immigration policy hits incredibly hard on local communities. I’m thrilled to announce I'm joining @injusticewatch.org, where I’ll investigate the hidden machinery of the Chicago Immigration Court and examine how immigrants interact with Cook County courts.

submitted 20 days ago • 11 comments

We’re thrilled to announce @aurabogado.bsky.social is joining Injustice Watch as a senior reporter. Her work will explore the ways the courts impact immigrants in Chicago and Cook County. Please help us welcome her to our team! buff.ly/hqUDoDw

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Today's @injusticewatch.org newsletter contains the excellent news that @aurabogado.bsky.social joins us next week to cover immigration and the courts. Please help us welcome her! www.injusticewatch.org/subscribe/

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Dale continues to be all over what's going on at Midewin. Good to know!

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In Illinois, public employees sometimes find that their employers' enthusiasm for labor doesn't extend to their own efforts to unionize: www.chicagotribune.com/2025/04/16/i...

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If this case rings a bell, that's because it's linked by DNA to the 1992 Holly Staker murder and wrongful conviction of Juan Rivera. His was one of a wave of exonerations illustrating serious defects in Lake County police work and prosecution.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

Lake County prosecutors agree with defense lawyers that Marvin Williford's conviction shouldn't stand. Judge Daniel Shanes, a former prosecutor, decided an observer unrelated to the case should decide whether the elected prosecutor of the county can do that.

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seeing a new zach lowe 2+ hour podcast drop then finding out bill simmons is on it so I gotta skip it

submitted 30 days ago • 6 comments

This is lovely and will likely resonate with anyone who has been called upon to discuss their job with kids. Perhaps that profession, as in my case, was journalism.

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NEW: What happens when prosecutors help convict innocent people — and their colleagues are tasked with investigating it? We looked at every exoneration tied to New York’s conviction review units. Here’s what we found.

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This is a running gag with Ohio State football trophies. You may or may not remember that the folks at LaGuardia messed up Eddie George's Heisman. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...

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The city of Chicago is on track to exhaust the $82 million officials set aside to cover police misconduct settlements and judgments in 2025, just four months into the year, city records show. (via @heathercherone.bsky.social)

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Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is still on U.S. Naval Academy shelves. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Memorializing the Holocaust” are not. An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office led to a purge of books that are critical of racism — but preserved volumes defending white power.

submitted 34 days ago • 500 comments

Asked to consider the wisdom of a legal settlement, Chicago City Council members took political positions on the police killing of Dexter Reed. The city's lawyer made a different point: Taxpayers could lose a great deal of money if the case proceeds to trial. chicago.suntimes.com/police-refor...

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Last week, we mailed senior reporter Dan Hinkel’s investigation of the Cook County conviction integrity unit to 234 people incarcerated at 24 different prisons throughout Illinois. Our goal was to reach people whose cases came before the conviction integrity unit, but who were not exonerated.

submitted 34 days ago • 1 comment

An intriguing announcement in this month's Chicago FOP newsletter.

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There's a long history of the city's legal strategy in lawsuits against the police causing political problems at City Hall, as when Rahm apologized for his lawyers preparing to sue the estate of a Black teenager shot to death by officers.

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Appreciate the handout photo of the guy looking like he's preparing to shoot the turnstile instead of presenting his Ventra card.

submitted 35 days ago • 3 comments