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Laura Rote

@laurarote

Editor and writer focused on sustainability. WV girl who made Chicago home 10 years ago (but I do miss the hills and trees and stars). I won’t shut up about music, travel, books, and hiking. πŸ©·πŸ’œπŸ’™

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07.01.2025
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Latest posts by Laura Rote @laurarote

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Ottawa - Minnesota, PWHL takeover in Chicago. Charge wins! πŸ’βš‘οΈ #womenshockey #pwhl

21.12.2025 22:04 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Caleb Williams x Celine Dion mashup

21.12.2025 04:57 πŸ‘ 297 πŸ” 66 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 19
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09.12.2025 23:57 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Take me back to Maine.#maine #acadia #hike

09.12.2025 23:57 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Qobuzz!

09.12.2025 16:39 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I came across *the* example I have been hammering with these food delivery robots.

A man with a mobility aid is forced to step aside because there is not room for him because the robot will not make room for a person (esp. those with a mobility aid who need addditional room)

08.12.2025 17:50 πŸ‘ 483 πŸ” 139 πŸ’¬ 24 πŸ“Œ 60
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Sunday snow and bright skies, I love Chicago winters

08.12.2025 03:37 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Preach! ❄️

08.12.2025 03:36 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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November 2025 shot from winter light show at Chicago Botanic Garden / It’s been a minute. Should I return to Flashes? #winterlights #christmas

04.12.2025 21:58 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Politics Chicago
2025-11-08

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.

Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again.

An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next.

Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. β€œWe could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st.

Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…

I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. β€œWe could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…

Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...

09.11.2025 20:49 πŸ‘ 10355 πŸ” 5680 πŸ’¬ 119 πŸ“Œ 337
How to report ICE

How to report ICE

SALUTE acronym with instructions

SALUTE acronym with instructions

An ICE watch zine (Chicago edition) being handed out today.

05.09.2025 12:32 πŸ‘ 955 πŸ” 244 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 16
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Hungary banned anything that β€œpromotes homosexuality,” which means Pride.

However, today over 500,000 people in Budapest told the government to fuck off. πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆπŸ³οΈβ€βš§οΈ

28.06.2025 16:03 πŸ‘ 54498 πŸ” 12797 πŸ’¬ 560 πŸ“Œ 805

LET'S GO QUEERS

28.06.2025 18:41 πŸ‘ 673 πŸ” 144 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 0
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Illinois follows the law β€” we expect the federal government to follow the law, too.

We won't participate in abuses of power.
We won't violate court orders.
We won't ignore the Constitution.
We won't defy the Supreme Court.
We won't take away people’s right to peacefully protest.

12.06.2025 15:13 πŸ‘ 3297 πŸ” 798 πŸ’¬ 85 πŸ“Œ 67

Try this instead

11.06.2025 12:38 πŸ‘ 685 πŸ” 208 πŸ’¬ 24 πŸ“Œ 7
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Jon is a Marine Corps veteran who served at Camp Pendleton. Here’s what he thinks of Pete Hegseth’s threats to deploy Marines in Los Angeles.

08.06.2025 19:59 πŸ‘ 2112 πŸ” 884 πŸ’¬ 76 πŸ“Œ 43
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live from the huge spontaneous anti-ICE protest after the agency used military-style tactics during a series of raids in Los Angeles today.

07.06.2025 01:54 πŸ‘ 9655 πŸ” 3015 πŸ’¬ 231 πŸ“Œ 279

Anyone who is against building transit and bike infrastructure really hates their life cause these commute times within the city are absurd

06.06.2025 15:42 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
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Parks, libraries, museums: here’s why Trump is attacking America’s best-loved institutions | Margaret Sullivan The president’s funding cuts and bullying are about dividing Americans and tightening his grip on power

β€˜Take away natural beauty, free access to books and support for the arts, and you end up with a less enlightened, more ignorant and less engaged public. That’s a public much more easily manipulated.’

Via @sulliview.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

02.06.2025 17:50 πŸ‘ 136 πŸ” 55 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
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Opinion | The Profound Inhumanity of ICE Raids

Not my usual essay, but sometimes the world gives a writer no choice of subjects. When terror comes for your neighbors, you stand witness. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/o...

22.05.2025 13:37 πŸ‘ 91 πŸ” 38 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 3

Wtffffffff. More reason to wear your masks, folks. I for one enjoy not being sick.

20.05.2025 16:22 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh, it’s not just a jersey thing?

What could have made this a national issue? What change at the FAA in the last 6 months? Impossible to tell.

15.05.2025 14:32 πŸ‘ 145 πŸ” 46 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 6

I got stressed and cut my own bangs again. 😞

09.05.2025 15:50 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

And he was a Lyft driver?!

24.04.2025 15:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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21.04.2025 15:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Somas Sur

21.04.2025 15:06 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Ana Tijoux killin’ it at Sleeping Village. April 20, 2025 πŸ‡¨πŸ‡±πŸŽΆ #livemusic #chicago #independentvenues

21.04.2025 15:04 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Ahhhhhhh πŸ™ Thank God someone is doing the work!

18.04.2025 01:24 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Embarrassing and evil.

16.04.2025 23:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0