Heather ♿📷

I've been documenting guns at protests since 2014.

I was just scrolling on the other place & knew I didn't need to watch it when I saw which "reporter" they chose to give the photo of the alleged weapon laying on a car seat. Same guy who smeared a barista in L.A. during the 2020 protests with lies about a "used tampon" in a cop's drink.

Screencap from KMOV website: St. Louis Area Foodbank expanding Food on the Move MADISON, ILLINOIS On Monday, the St. Louis Area Food Bank distributed fresh groceries to residents in Madison, Illinois, as part of an expanded initiative to increase food access

Photo I took yesterday of white man in grey hat, navy coat, & khaki pants working for KMOV using tripod & filming people at long-established Food on the Move truck in Madison, IL.

If you're gonna engage in the ethically tenuous practice of filming poor ppl in a food line w/o asking them, at least get the story right, @firstalert4.com. FotM 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 in Madison for 2.5yrs. The story is food amount available was lower than prior 30mos.
www.firstalert4.com/2025/12/22/s...

💔😭
We never got to meet in person, but we were friends online for over a decade. She was such a brilliantly funny, astute, & fierce advocate for civil & human rights.
R.I.P., Alice Wong ♿🕊️

I'm so sorry 💔

I just moved to GC 4yrs ago & have limited transport, so still learning the area.

The street in the foreground is Nameoki, a bit north of Pontoon Rd.

Photo of pink aurora in dark sky with road in foreground.

Aurora borealis
Granite City, Illinois

Anyone in Illinois that needs help with food can click this link to find pantries near you. It includes the St Louis area if you're on the Missouri side of the river 💙
www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?it...

I managed to avoid the lady handing out little American flags. Very white crowd, like unless they were in an inflatable, I didn't see any Black folks...also didn't see a single cop...🧐

Weird thing in Edwardsville; for a few minutes I *thought* I heard a small group of Trumpers chanting "USA! USA!" to harass the No Kings folks –like I've seen racists & fascists do in StL for over a decade– before figuring it out it actually *was* some of the NK folks. 😳

Didn't see any inflatable frogs in Edwardsville, but there were several artistic renditions of the Portland Frog on signs & umbrellas, & a number of inflatables of other species.

Frogs protesting

From a friend in Columbia, MO — the frogs have made it. A huge #nokings rally there, too. 🐸

I can tell exactly where that photo was taken. Downtown at 8th & Walnut, just outside the Boone County govt building & courthouse.

No kings stl with arch

Big turnout in St. Louis even with non-stop rain. #NoKings #STL #StLouis

Inflatable orange T-Rex among protesters with signs like "Democracy only dies if we let it."

Inflatable brown chipmunk, grey hippo with pink tutu, & green dinosaur among other protesters. Chipmunk sign: "nobody is a bystander. There's resistance & collaborators." Hippo sign: "No HIPPO-cracy, more democracy."

Inflatable green unicorn with rainbow horn & mane next to person holding a "warning signs of fascism" sign.

Inflatable bald eagle dancing on street corner with protester carrying sign: "No Kings, no führers, no fascists"

Inflatable Antifa
Edwardsville, IL Division
#NoKings

Older white man at No Kings rally in Edwardsville, IL holds sign that says "we stand with Chicago / U.S. military out of cities!"

Rainy scene of dozens of protesters holding signs along sidewalk at intersection. A man walks towards them across the crosswalk carrying a sign with a crown crossed out.

Sign with pride flags & resistance symbols "we the people / all people" behind an umbrella with variations of "no kings" on each panel including one with the Portland Frog & the word "resist."

Person in red rain poncho holding a hand-drawn sign of the Portland Frog kicking a crown with " no kings" text at bottom.

Despite the rain, I estimate at least a couple hundred people showed up for #NoKings in Edwardsville, Illinois this afternoon.

A Black woman stands under a large billboard-sized black LED board with orange lit letters for the "approve[d] assembly area" in Ferguson, MO in August 2014. The protesters taped a cardboard sign with a letter "d" at the end of "approve" because the police's sign was grammatically incorrect.

🙄

Possibly, but I also can't completely dismiss the possibility of some protester or random citizen trolling with the sticker. One time after a protest at the now-closed Workhouse I found a "blue lives matter" sticker on the back of my van.

"The murder conviction came despite medical evidence showing that Ms. Shakur was shot with her hands in the air and physically unable to fire a weapon and despite the sole witness recanting the testimony that fingered Ms. Shakur as a shooter."
web.archive.org/web/20130606...

Ferguson & St Louis activists have been using what's known as the 'Assata Chant' for over a decade.

💔 Rest in power, Dorian

Double rainbow over large roadway at dawn in Granite City, Illinois.

🌈🌈
#stlwx #ilwx

I didn't expect it to be that big, but it just took off & now stretches across the entire length of the front yard. I just had to turn a couple vine sections to try to keep them growing into the neighbor's yard.

Large green pumpkin on vine starting to turn orange, partially covered by leaves.

Baby pumpkin starting form under yellow flower on vine.

Baby pumpkin starting form under yellow flower on vine.

I have an 80ft pumpkin vine that has had just had one big pumpkin growing on one end, but there's finally some other babies starting to form now.

10 years and $19M later, Mansur Ball-Bey's family is still fighting St. Louis for justice A jury awarded Mansur Ball-Bey’s family nearly $19 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. Instead of paying, the city is seeking a new trial.

10 years ago today, I covered the protest and aftermath of a police shooting of 18-year-old Mansur Ball-Bey.

It was a privilege to interview Mansur's father Dennis on our show this week. He took us inside the tragedy of his son's death, but also shared with us some of the story of his life.

Black & white photo of Ferguson activist Miss Tonja Bulley —a Black woman with short blonde hair & black square-framed glasses— in Selma, AL for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in March 2015.

Rest in Power, Miss Tonja
(6/8/1965 - 8/25/2023)

Got it now. I see she's conflating the BLM movement with the national organization in order to erase the dozens of local organizations & individuals who came out of the Ferguson movement & have been doing tornado relief for 3 months now. 🤬

Tried that. Paywall graphic still pops up when I try to read it.

Is there a non-paywalled/archived link to that op/ed available?