I filed a tangentially related FOIA yesterday — datetime-stamped taps at all Purple Line L stations in Evanston. Hoping not to be the menace of CTA public info staffers for the next few weeks.

Super helpful! Thanks Laurie. I think I'll take a shot through FOIA, hoping they have something either modeled or computer vision-based that's recent.

A ridership table split by line and (crucially) direction, with data up to 2014

Yeah. I know they've done some stuff in the past (www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/R...)? And I figure they, at least internally, have some type of estimate? But couldn't find it. Might cast a net through FOIA.

Also paging @stevevance.net @coleurbanist.bsky.social.

Anyone know if there's CTA data available on what percentage of riders go each direction at each station, preferably at each time in the day? So, e.g., it'd say that 35% go northbound, 65% go southbound at 11am. Anything like that?

Know of other commitments or shady things in this race? Tip to me (I can promise you anonymity):

Lincolnwood resident Muqtadar Ahmed, who attended the October town hall and asked the question that spurred Amiwala’s public commitment, said he was “super disappointed” by her failure to exit the primary. “If Bushra had dropped out and fully aligned and started to rally behind Kat, it would have potentially created additional momentum for people that stood on the sidelines,” Ahmed said.

Here's another voter perspective from Lincolnwood's Muqtadar Ahmed, who asked the question at the town hall that spurred Amiwala to repeat her commitment:

Glenview resident Paige Fullman, who voted for Amiwala, said that Abughazaleh did not seem to be a popular second choice for 9th District voters. “I think she kind of hit a ceiling,” Fullman said. “And because of that, I don’t take issue with Bushra, one, not dropping out, or, two, allegedly going back on her word, because I don’t think you can compare Kat to Bushra.”

It's unclear how dropouts would have affected the results, but Abughazaleh lost by less than 4 points. Amiwala and Huynh pulled a combined ~7%.

Whether those voters would have swayed toward Abughazaleh remains in question:

The “commitment” referenced was not formal. It stemmed from a yes-or-no question posed by moderators during a forum early last fall, asking whether a candidate would support another Democrat with similar values if their campaign had no viable path to victory. Bushra’s campaign did have a viable path to victory. She built a broad coalition of local grassroots supporters, faith communities and advocacy organizations that was unclaimed by other candidates in this race. It is therefore inappropriate to suggest that Bushra was obligated to withdraw. An Evanston RoundTable poll from February 24 shows that, among respondents who selected Bushra as their first choice, only 41% identified Kat Abughazaleh as their second choice. Daniel Biss and Laura Fine each received 17%, and Mike Simmons received 5%. These results do not support the claim that her withdrawal would have consolidated support behind any single candidate.

When we asked her about claims that she had pledged to drop out of the primary at an Election Night party, she denied ever doing so.

Shortly after, Elliott Parrish, her ops manager, told us that she had committed at least once, but it was "not formal."

Full statement:

Amiwala also committed publicly at an Oct. 8 town hall.

"If there comes a point at which the pro-Bushra campaign does not have the steam that maybe another one does, it’s not about me," she said. "And consolidation is the responsible thing to do at that point."

As part of Sunrise Chicago’s endorsement process, we directly asked all candidates being considered for an endorsement whether they would commit to dropping out and consolidating the progressive vote one month out from Election Day if they had little to no chance of winning the primary. Two of those candidates, Hoan Huynh and Bushra Amiwala, both of whom verbally affirmed their commitment to do so, failed to follow through. Both of the other candidates who expressed a commitment to progressive consolidation under the above conditions, Kat Abughazaleh and Daniel Biss, were correctly assessed to be frontrunners with a viable path to victory, and as such, neither met the criteria to fulfill the obligation they had agreed to. Sunrise Chicago did not inform or coordinate with the campaigns of either Abughazaleh or Biss regarding attempts to follow through on these commitments with Huynh or Amiwala.

The commitments were first done in 15-minute Zoom interviews over the summer hosted by the Chicago chapter of climate action group @sunrisemvmt.bsky.social.

Here's their full statement. We reviewed copies of Sunrise Chicago's notes, which confirm the claims.

NEW (not April Fools!): IL-09 candidates Bushra Amiwala and Hoan Huynh both committed to exit the primary if they had little to no chance of winning, me and my colleague Max Turetzky found.

Amiwala, who repeated the promise at an October town hall, denied ever committing.

Northwestern students worry federal deal will hurt trans community Following Northwestern’s Nov. 28 agreement with the Trump administration to restore at least $790 million in federal funding, NU claimed that “no restrictions” had been placed on its transgender commu...

Happy trans day of visibility! 🏳️‍⚧️

Here at Northwestern, you should know that anti-trans clauses in the university's deal with the Trump administration remain in effect, though not (publicly) acted upon. I first reported on those potential effects — and their legalities — in December.

Hoo, it's time to get back on everything after a brief break in New Orleans over the last few days (beautiful city).

N203Z has ICAO hex A19F67. N893N has ICAO hex AC51A5.

Flights landed at Selridge Natl Guard Base, to be precise.

I've never seen DHS 'control' chopper activity at Waukegan over DuPage Cty Arpt; N203Z last transmit ADS-B data on the 19th, when it was at DuPage.

N203Z going from Waukegan to Detroit

N893N/"12345" flying from Detroit to Waukegan

DHS air movement over Chicagoland: N203Z, longtime CBP 'control' chopper, appeared at Waukegan Natl Arpt today and flew to the Detroit border station. N893N, with the traditional 'control' callsign "12345," traveled from Detroit to Waukegan.

Appears to be a swapout.

Did you know the Cook County Sheriff FOIA portal breaks when your password has symbols in it because of URL encoding shenanigans? Neither did I until I created an account and had to reset my password 6 times in the next 10 minutes :P

If you know anything quirky about any of these people, or about AIPAC's participation in Illinois' primaries, tell me: bsky.app/profile/ryan...

CAUSE OF ACTION COUNT I: ARDLEIGH AND THE UNKNOWN PERSON(S) WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE COMMITTEES IN THE NAME OF ARDLEIGH VIOLATED 52 U.S.C. § 30122 28. The available information indicates that Ardleigh did not have the means to contribute $2.575 million to the Committees without other persons providing funds to the corporation for that purpose, such that these unknown other persons were, in fact, the true source(s) of the contribution.

Legal folks can chime in, but complaints argue that this straw donor behavior is illegal under 52 U.S.C. § 30122, "which prohibits making or knowingly permitting one’s name to be used to effect a contribution in the name of another," per a 2024 complaint.

Whoops.

A bunch of PACs registered to this same addresses with an occupant as the treasurer (blanked out)

Of course, these are shell addresses, but the former is interesting: It's someone's real house. And there's, like, dozens of PACs and businesses registered there, or to its occupants.

I think if I say any more I'll be banned off this site for doxxing! But there's multiple related FEC complaints :P

FMF's million-dollar contrib

PP (lol)'s $150k contrib

In terms of the more mysterious things that politics-knowing reporters down for a national investigation should shoot me a text on Signal about (rottignon.01), two straw corporations donated to the orgs: "Forward Movement Foundation" and "Pioneer Partners."

G2 Gaming's website with a... very colorful gambling animation in the background

Casino Developer Buys Littleton Properties Published Friday Mar 20, 2026 Author Robert Blechl, Caledonian Record LITTLETON — Three years after presenting his proposal for a casino in the building that currently houses the Staples office supply store, a Chicago-based casino developer has purchased the Staples property at 804 Meadow St.

G2 Gaming's Greg Carlin has an... interesting website with an unupdated copyright date of 2024.

Carlin's currently set to turn a Staples in 6000-person Littleton, N.H. into a casino lmao

A Google search for "Beal Properties bill silverstein," which brings up the website "Avoid Beal Properties."

Another goofy goober: the ever-elusive Bill Silverstein, the rather private owner of Beal Properties, a famously hated property rental group.

It's *so* hated that when you search his name and company, a page on the website "avoidbealproperties.com" comes up lol.

My colleague Jack Baker and I wrote about this in our brief on the topic today for @thedailynu.bsky.social, which includes more Sacks context, if that's of interest:

Michael J. Sacks 4/27/2024, 1:20 AM Bit surprised to hear on trustees as I am usually in the progressive/liberal camp for that group and I admit to thinking that not being tough/tougher will end up hurting the school Michael Schill 4/27/2024, 1:27 AM Once we end this I'll explain why we have a much more limited set of choices than many think. It is very frustrating, but that is the nature of the situation. We have to play the cards we have right now. Sorry to be so cryptic. Michael J. Sacks 4/27/2024, 1:35 AM I have no knowledge. I would bet you don't have the police force capability and Biss and Schakowsky not full throated supporters and back up may not be there. I know Biss well. If the winds blow the wrong way he will throw you under the bus. No hesitation. Jan too. I would think you do have the ability to make sure that there are consequences for students and faculty and the idea that if they don't produce ID, don't take down tents, don't get rid of amplification they will be suspended or whatever will put a dent in the crowd. As for the professors out there like the guy from Medill my ask is that we just not hire assholes anymore. We knew he was a bad guy before he came over and we hired him anyway. Let's just try hard not to do that the next 5-10 years.

Biss calls encampment-related congressional letter featuring trustee criticism a ‘baseless attack fueled by’ AIPAC Daniel Biss stands at a podium for a press conference. Anavi Prakash/The Daily Northwestern

I must mention Sacks in this category as well. You may be familiar with his Obama-related shenanigans, but he's also a Northwestern University trustee!

And he's currently in a spat with Daniel Biss (Evanston mayor and IL-09 Dem nominee) because of the 2024 pro-Palestine encampment lol

Spellman's 5 donations to UDP and AIPAC PAC

Spellman is a repeat donor to both of AIPAC's primary PACs (AIPAC PAC and UDP). He donated $150,000 to both Illinois shell PACs at play here in February.

3. It was part of the corrupt endeavor that defendant TRI STATE obtained cash by negotiating checks made payable to fictitious individuals. TRI STATE used that cash to pay vendors, pay cash wages to employees, provide cash for the personal benefit of Individual A, and assist those vendors, employees, and Individual A, in understating their income on annual federal income tax returns. 4. It was further part of the corrupt endeavor that TRI STATE agreed to and did sell scrap metal to Business A. In return, TRI STATE received approximately 769 checks from Business A, all made payable to fictitious individuals in amounts less than $10,000. 5. It was further part of the corrupt endeavor that TRI STATE failed to record these sales or the receipt of funds from Business A on TRI STATE’s books, and failed to report the income it received on its annual federal income tax return (Form 1120).

Now the quirky folks. Marc Spellman is a Chicago-area metal dealings mogul; his Tri State Metal Co. was found by the DoJ in 2014 to have committed tax fraud.

The gov't charged that Tri State "obtained cash by negotiating checks made payable to fictitious individuals" (among other things).

ACN's UDP contribution for $1.32 million on Feb. 2

ECW's UDP contribution for just over $4 million on Feb. 2

The headlining stat is that AIPAC's United Democracy Project (UDP) donated more than $5.3 million to the PACs, and that all 28 other donors were AIPAC donors/members.

Among those other donors: Michael Sacks, a trio of (ex-)Capital Group execs, Jeff Hammes, Steve Lavin.

I'll use this as an opportunity to talk about these ridiculous February donors to two AIPAC-backed super PACs which played a large hand in the Illinois primaries.

🧵

You can follow along with this thread in my spreadsheet:

If you look through these FEC filings, be warned that the people who donated are perhaps the goofiest people ever. Why did this random AIPAC donor and recycling/scrapyard mogul's company get charged with fraud in 2014 LOL?