Welcome to Chicago 312, a newsletter on Chicago municipal politics, institutional power, and how the city actually works. If someone forwarded you this, welcome! Subscribe here.

Happy Thursday.

Chicago named a snowplow "Abolish ICE," CPD is harming people more than ever but also changing how they count it so you can't tell, AIPAC is spending millions on Illinois congressional races through shell companies, and the Bears are threatening to move to Hammond, Indiana, so, uh, good luck to them.

Also, Project C — the creator journalism research initiative at Medill — just published The News Ecosystem 2025, testing their national framework in Chicago. They found about 100 previously unindexed news and information sources serving Chicago-area audiences, including this newsletter! The full report is worth reading if you care about where Chicago actually gets its information. Check the Independent Journalism Atlas and build your own Chicago media starter pack.

Let's get into it.

3 Headlines:

1. CPD Excessive Force Is Up 46%. Also, COPA Changed How They Count It. Convenient!

WTTW: Excessive force allegations against Chicago police officers rose 46% between 2022 and 2025, according to new data from COPA, the civilian agency charged with investigating serious police misconduct. Use of force overall increased 76% between 2022 and 2024. Officers used the highest level of force — gunshots, chokeholds, baton strikes to the head — 84 times in 2024, more than double the year before. Officers pointed guns at people more than 11 times per day in 2024. In more than half of those incidents, the person didn't have a gun.

Superintendent Snelling's explanation: officers aren't actually using force more, they're just reporting it for the first time. Which, to be clear, is not the defense he thinks it is.

But here's the kicker: COPA just changed how it categorizes allegations against officers — without consulting CPD, the mayor's office, or the consent decree monitoring team — making it impossible to compare 2025 data with the previous seven years. WTTW had to point this out before COPA even added a footnote. Meanwhile, CPD still hasn't delivered the monthly updates on its early warning system for problem officers that the 2026 budget literally requires by law. No evidence a letter was ever sent. Dowell referred questions to Ervin, who didn't respond.

The consent decree just turned seven. CPD has fully complied with 22% of it.

Why It Matters: The consent decree is the only mechanism forcing CPD to change, and it is barely working. Force is up, compliance is glacial, the monitoring team has never demanded sanctions, and now the agency that counts the complaints has quietly made year-over-year comparison impossible. This isn't reform stalling. This is the institutional immune system doing its job — absorbing the language of accountability while making sure nothing actually sticks. The reform coalition is asking Judge Pallmeyer to intervene. She told them last week she shares their impatience. Cool. Do something with it.

2. AIPAC Money Is Becoming Anathema in Illinois — And the March 17 Primary Is the Test

Sun-Times: Rep. Jan Schakowsky — who was herself an AIPAC stalwart early in her tenure — withdrew her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in the 2nd Congressional District last week, citing AIPAC-affiliated funding. Miller has raised over $875,000 from donors who've previously given to AIPAC or its super PAC, the United Democracy Project. A separate super PAC, Affordable Chicago Now, has dropped $868,000 in TV ads boosting Miller. Nobody will say it's AIPAC money. Everybody knows it's AIPAC money.

This is happening across four Illinois races simultaneously. In the 7th, UDP has spent over $750,000 supporting Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. In the 8th, former Rep. Melissa Bean is getting the boost. And in the 9th — Schakowsky's own seat — State Sen. Laura Fine has raised over $1 million from AIPAC-connected donors and is being propped up by a brand new super PAC called "Elect Chicago Women" that materialized in late January and immediately started buying TV time.

Common Dreams: A recent poll found nearly half of Democratic voters in competitive districts said they could "never" support a candidate they knew was backed by AIPAC. So AIPAC is doing what it did in New Jersey: hiding behind shell organizations. As State Sen. Robert Peters put it, "they're trying to be slick."

Meanwhile in the 9th, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss is running as the anti-AIPAC candidate, which — fine — but let's not forget this is a guy who took several meetings with AIPAC early in his campaign before discovering his principles on the matter. The 9th is a 15-way race, and "I talked to AIPAC before I was against AIPAC" is not the lane-clearing flex some people think it is.

Why It Matters: AIPAC's New Jersey strategy — flood a race with dark money, elevate compliant candidates, obscure the source — blew up spectacularly when a progressive won anyway. Now they're running the same play in Illinois, three weeks before the primary, with even more shell companies. Schakowsky pulling her endorsement is significant because she's Jewish, retiring, and was once one of theirs. If AIPAC money is toxic enough that Jan Schakowsky won't touch it, the Overton window on this has genuinely moved. March 17 will tell us how far.

3. Chicago Named a Snowplow "Abolish ICE" and Bebo Is Our City's Greatest Performance Artist

Block Club: It won. "Abolish ICE" was submitted 9,200 times — 70% of all entries — in the city's annual "You Name a Snowplow" contest. Johnson gave it his "full and complete endorsement." Other winners include Stephen Coldbert, Pope Frío XIV, The Blizzard of Oz, Svencoolie, and Caleb Chilliams. "Chance the Scraper" was robbed (finished 0.24% out of the top six).

Credit where it's due: this was spearheaded by @BebopOtt, Chicago's self-appointed Rat Czar and Democratic Socialist content creator, who has been submitting "Abolish ICE" every year since 2022 out of sheer stubbornness. It made Rachel Maddow's show. It made Fox News lose their minds. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino got into it with Johnson on X and got ratio'd. 39,000 people voted. A record.

This is extremely funny and good. It is also, obviously, not a policy.

On the institutional side: Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke finally announced a protocol for investigating federal agents who commit crimes during immigration enforcement. The TRiiBE has the definitive breakdown. O'Neill Burke was conspicuously silent for months while ICE agents shot people in Franklin Park and Brighton Park, deployed chemical weapons dozens of times across the metro area, and generally operated like an occupying force. She got sued — attorney Sheryl Weikal filed a petition for a special prosecutor, arguing the SA was either unwilling or unable to protect Cook County residents. She called Johnson's "ICE on Notice" executive order "wholly inappropriate." Then she released... a protocol that does roughly the same thing.

Meanwhile, in contrast: prosecutors in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, and several Virginia districts launched a joint coalition to investigate federal overreach. O'Neill Burke is not a member.

Why It Matters: The Sun-Times' definitive feature on Operation Midway Blitz's aftermath dropped this week, and it's devastating. Parents in Pilsen pulling their kids from after-school programs. Sales down at businesses across Little Village because customers text ahead to ask if federal agents are in the area. People checking for drones before going to church. One teacher described waiting with students whose parents were late to pickup, praying they hadn't been detained. This is what victory over ICE actually requires — the grinding, neighborhood-level work of protecting people who are still afraid months after the agents left. Name the snowplow. Love the snowplow. But keep following what's actually happening in Pilsen and La Villita.

1 Big Question:Is Illinois Really Going to Let the Bears Hold Two States Hostage for a Billion Dollars?

Axios Chicago: Indiana lawmakers passed Senate Bill 27 unanimously out of committee last week — a bill creating a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority that would funnel upwards of $1 billion in public money toward a Bears stadium near Wolf Lake in Hammond. The Bears immediately released a statement calling it "the most meaningful step forward in our stadium planning efforts to date." Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. promised to build "a Bearsville right outside of this stadium." Bearsville.

What's funny about this: Illinois lawmakers had just wrapped a productive three-hour meeting with Bears brass, had mostly agreed on a bill, and the Bears asked them to pause the committee hearing — then dropped a public statement praising Indiana the next morning. Pritzker called it "very disappointing" and "a surprise," which is Governor-speak for what the fuck.

But the Illinois response has been surprisingly sharp. State Sen. Mark Walker told Axios Indiana's bill "nowhere near means they're close to a deal." Former Gov. Pat Quinn went on The Score and said flat out: "The Bears have to realize they just can't take advantage of taxpayers." And a Axios reader poll of over 1,000 people found 76% blame the Bears for the drama. Only 7% think Illinois should throw more public money at the team. Rachel Nichols said on The Herd: "If you can't afford to build in Chicago, sell the team to someone who can."

Even Pritzker — who is clearly still trying to land the Bears in Arlington Heights — acknowledged what everyone already knew: "There's a common understanding by most of the General Assembly that they're not going to be able to build in the city of Chicago." Johnson, for his part, said "Hammond or Arlington Heights? They ain't Chicago."

He's right. And also — good? If the McCaskeys want a billion dollars in public subsidy to build a football stadium, maybe the correct answer from both states is: no? The Bears are worth $6.3 billion. They can build their own stadium.

2 Red Flags:

🚨 Data Centers Are Eating the Grid and Pritzker Just Noticed

Capitol News Illinois / WTTW: A state report published in December projects energy shortfalls in northern Illinois by 2029 — driven in large part by data centers powering AI. Illinois already has 95+ data centers in Chicago alone and 184 statewide, each sucking up energy, water, and infrastructure. And now Pritzker is proposing a two-year moratorium on the data center tax incentives he signed into law in his first year as governor.

Consumer advocacy groups are demanding action as electricity bills rise. Some lawmakers want data centers to generate their own renewable energy on-site. Data center operators are threatening to leave for Wisconsin or Indiana. The whole thing is a preview of the energy politics that will define the next decade in Illinois: who gets the grid capacity, and who pays when it runs out?

We covered this in December when HydraVault slid a 76,000-square-foot, 20-megawatt data center into the South Loop with barely a peep. The pattern is the same every time: fast-track for server farms, multi-year delays for bus lanes and public housing. Pritzker reversing his own incentives is progress, but a two-year moratorium is just a pause button. The question is whether Illinois will actually capture any of this value for public goods, or whether we'll keep subsidizing private energy consumption while residential bills climb.

🚨 The Mainstream Media Litmus Test for Progressives Is Rigged (And Brian Beutler Caught the Receipts)

Off Message: Brian Beutler's analysis of AOC's Munich Security Conference speech is the best thing I've read this week about the gap between what progressive politicians actually say and how political media covers them. His challenge: Google "AOC + Munich" and scroll the headlines. What you'll find is a media ecosystem that still gets to define politicians — but is very selective about who gets the treatment.

What AOC actually laid out in Munich was a coherent vision: global pro-democratic class solidarity, working-class-centered politics as the antidote to authoritarianism, and U.S. moral leadership that isn't riddled with contradictions. You may think that's pie in the sky. It is also — and this matters — a vision, which is more than most Democrats have offered since approximately 2008.

Beutler's core point: the media imputes that "clarity and polish are essential political skills" without ever applying that standard to Trump, who probably couldn't define "strategic ambiguity" at gunpoint. The double standard isn't new, but the precision of Beutler's autopsy is useful for anyone trying to build counter-narratives. Ahem.

—

That’s it this week.

A few other loose ends: I wrote about Maria Pappas, weird calendar maker and treasurer, and what she represents: 3 eras of Chicago politics.

Sci-Fi Journaling Workshop I started a sci-fi project based on Studs Terkel’s Working back during the pandemic, which included a sci fi journaling workshop. I’m hosting one this Thursday, March 5, 7pm–9pm, at Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, 6500 N Clark St, 2nd Fl Free. Hosted by Gender Fucked Productions, facilitated by me. Trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming artists writing more hopeful futures. Sign up here.f

Stay warm. Abolish ICE.