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Dan Hinkel

@danhinkel.bsky.social
2K followers 588 following 1.5K posts

Chicago journalist at Injustice Watch.

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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 08/10/2026
NEW: Unlike other elected officials in Cook County, the dozens of judges up for retention this year campaign and raise money as a group. Why do judges run as a "class"? buff.ly/xnGxG2f
buff.ly
‘Vote “yes” for all of us’: Why Cook County judges run as a ‘class’
Unlike other elected officials, the dozens of judges up for retention this year campaign and raise money as a group.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 07/10/2026
Want to pick up a print copy of our Cook County judicial election guide? Check out our interactive map with distribution locations across the county. buff.ly/4XvjChh
buff.ly
Where to find the 2026 judicial election guide
Injustice Watch printed 200,000 copies of the judicial voting guide for the upcoming November 3 general election — more than ever before — and is
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Kerry Reid (she/her) @kerryreid.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The @injusticewatch.org judicial guide is always quite helpful, IMO. www.injusticewatch.org/topics/judge...
injusticewatch.org
Judicial Elections
Every two years, Cook County voters go to the polls to elect new judges and decide whether to retain sitting judges. We research every judicial candidate and provide comprehensive, nonpartisan voter g...
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 05/10/2026
We're so excited to celebrate with you tonight! Here's what to expect: 🎟️ Free entry and food (while supplies last) 🎶 Tunes by DJ Jesse Sandwich 🎤 A convo with reporters about the judges on your ballot RSVP: buff.ly/JHyjGkq
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Thanks to Mike Stephen and @wgnradio.bsky.social for having me on to discuss the Cook County judicial elections and the @injusticewatch.org guide to the candidates!
bit.ly
OTL #1,042: Food influencers’ impact on Chicago, Rattleback Records, A guide to local judicial elections | Outside the Loop RADIO
Mike Stephen explores the impact of food influencers on the Chicago culinary scene with freelance reporter Leigh Giangreco,
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Much to see in the @injusticewatch.org newsletter, including my story on a judge seeking to keep her post after many reversals. Plus, my select recommendations for spooky movies at theaters in Oct. I will not undersell how freaky "Spoorloos/The Vanishing" is. www.injusticewatch.org/subscribe/
With Halloween approaching, I did some reporting (OK, browsed some websites) to select a few great horror films showing locally this month. Get a case of the creeps from psychological thriller “The Vanishing” at Gene Siskel Film Center Oct. 14. See John Carpenter gems such as this, this, this, and this. Visit Davis Theater for the transcendent Japanese horror-comedy oddity “House” Oct. 29. And bring your kids to Logan Theatre Oct. 25 for a free double feature of “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” and “Casper Saves Halloween.” Many more classics are playing; I’d encourage you to look around and figure out how you want to scare yourself. —Dan Hinkel, senior reporter
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's being called a "global settlement," so you might not realize there are more Detective Guevara-related lawsuits to come, likely at great cost to taxpayers. Guevara, of course, is quite challenging to defend for the city because he doesn't defend himself, instead pleading the Fifth.
chicago.suntimes.com
$260.8M settlement proposed to resolve misconduct cases involving ex-CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara
“We have a lot of these cases. Any time we can put them all together and package them and get a better settlement amount, it’s best for the taxpayers,” said Ald. Pat Dowell, chair of the City Council'...
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My work. Judge Walowski is seeking retention following a wave of reversals by the appellate court. In one case, the court reversed a conviction because Walowski forced a defense attorney to proceed to trial as he recovered from a bout with food poisoning bad enough to call for hospitalization.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
And it’s right by Grill &Shawarma house, which I like
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A little inclement weather does not stop us from delivering the @injusticewatch.org guide to the Cook County judicial elections. Find hard copies all over the place, or here online. www.injusticewatch.org
Me, the West Belmont Branch of the Chicago Public Library
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Drivers are criss-crossing Cook County dropping off bundles of these at book stores, coffee shops, courthouses, etc. What's inside our judicial election guide is useful and interesting, but you might want a hard copy because they just look great, courtesy of @veromartinezart.bsky.social.
Print copy of the Injustice Watch judicial election guide
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I don’t remember the details but it captured my imagination
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This only makes me long for the beer stand they used to have where you could mix two different flavors of Leinenkugel’s together in various different flavor combinations
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is coming up Thursday. Please come out to the Oak Park Public Library, and bring questions about Cook County judicial elections and our guide to all those judges on your ballot. Looking forward to it.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 26/09/2026
great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...
themomoftheyear.substack.com
I’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.
You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Wonderful news. Congratulations, you two.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Reminder to Check Your Judges with our nonpartisan guide to the Cook County judicial election, out now!
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Jason Meisner @jmetr22b.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Meckenburg retired from the U.S. attorney's office effective TODAY after being told by her bosses she could not file anything on her behalf in the Broadview Six case, her lawyers say
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The time has come once again to Check Your Judges.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 21/09/2026
🗣️ Our Cook County judicial election guide for the November retention election will be out later this week! Want to be the first to know when it launches — and where to find it? Sign up for our newsletter. buff.ly/1nQW2OY
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This year, that sounds like a threat.
Bucks saying they play basketball a month from today
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
They just couldn’t miss Bowling for Soup
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
christian @speederaserhead.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
RIP Gerrit Graham - who was, among many things, star of one of the lowkey scariest stunts I’ve ever seen in my life
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A fascinating development that could get interesting at the city council.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
The Bloody Hammer @robertham.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Gerrit Graham 1949 - 2026
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Gerrit Graham had a wild, fascinating movie career, and I was lucky enough to meet him a couple times because I'm friends with his sons. As you'd imagine, a fun hang, the whole bunch. variety.com/2026/film/ne...
variety.com
Gerrit Graham, Actor in ‘Phantom of the Paradise,’ Screenwriter and Grateful Dead Collaborator, Dies at 77
Gerrit Graham, actor in "Phantom of the Paradise" and many other films and TV shows who co-wrote a song for The Grateful Dead, died Tuesday.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is very cool.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 17/09/2026
Join senior reporter @danhinkel.bsky.social for a conversation about judicial elections at Oak Park Library. The event takes place Thurs., Oct. 1, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. RSVP: buff.ly/Z9jEkhD
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Jonah Newman @jonahshai.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
After David Jackson published his series on Illinois' Special Prosecution Unit, two whistleblowers came forward with previously unreported records that allege additional misconduct and conflicts of interest by the unit. Here are their stories. www.injusticewatch.org/project/shad...
injusticewatch.org
The whistleblowers vs. the shadow prosecutors
A new trove of documents independently confirmed by Injustice Watch allege previously unreported misconduct and conflicts of interest by Illinois’ Special Prosecution Unit.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
rob @ok-but-still.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
imagine a divorce so bad it turns you into mickey rourke
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Injustice Watch @injusticewatch.org · 11/09/2026
🎉 Our next Cook County judicial election guide will be out later this month, ahead of the next judicial retention election. Join us for drinks, music, and a conversation with our reporters about the judges on your ballot this fall. Plus, grab a guide (or five) to take home with you. buff.ly/cXYbz1C
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This, of course, calls to mind one of my favorite obscure Wisconsin storylines: The ill-fated Martinifest held at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2006. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
The Milwaukee Art Museum is reviewing its policy of renting out space on weekends after the interior of its spectacularly winged Quadracci Pavilion, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was trashed by patrons of Martinifest, a semiformal event organized by Clear Channel Radio and held at the gallery last month.

The event offered unlimited martinis for $30 -- and according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, guests did not know their limit.

“People threw up, passed out, were injured, got into altercations and climbed on sculptures,” writes Mary Louise Schumacher.

Schumacher noted that the group of four young men who climbed onto Gaston Lachaise’s “Standing Woman,” a bronze sculpture of a “goddess-like woman with exaggerated features,” groped her breasts while someone else documented the sculptural harassment with a camera phone. Food, drink and vomit were found on and near artworks by the end of the evening, and two artworks, both sculptures, had to be removed from the gallery so possible damage could be assessed.

The problem, according to Kerry Wolfe, a local programming director for Clear Channel, was not the martinis but the price: “Hindsight is 20-20.... It was probably too cheap,” the paper quotes Wolfe as saying.
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BYCTOM @byctom.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
You will never see Jerry Reinsdorf's Bulls investigated for trying to give a player more money
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Damn, RIP to Axl Rose's cat.
loudwire.com
'A Son, a Brother, a Friend' - Axl Rose Mourns Cat Whiskey Maranello Rose, See Photos of His Cats Over the Years
Rest in peace to Whiskey Maranello Rose.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Blair Paddock @blairpaddock.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
This has been the case at most solitary units in the state. But due to an “error,” men at Menard were provided tablets. As of last week, those admitted to the unit won’t have access to the devices.
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Reposted by Dan Hinkel
Blair Paddock @blairpaddock.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
NEW: Illinoisans in solitary confinement will no longer have access to outside communication, legal materials and educational programming through tablets. news.wttw.com/2026/08/31/i...
news.wttw.com
Illinois Prisons Move to Restrict Access to Electronic Tablets for Those in Solitary Confinement
Incarcerated Illinoisans admitted to solitary confinement appear to no longer have access to outside communication, legal materials and educational programming through tablets, according to advocates.
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Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Come be my boss! Chicago-based Injustice Watch is seeking our next EIC. If you're an experienced manager with deep investigative skills who cares about independent, impactful reporting, please consider applying. $125K–$145K, with benefits. www.injusticewatch.org/about/editor...
injusticewatch.org
Editor in Chief
Editor in Chief Injustice Watch is seeking an Editor in Chief to lead our nonprofit newsroom. The ideal candidate is an experienced manager and editor
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A worthwhile first-person perspective on living without power from @javonte.bsky.social
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Chicago journalists of a certain vintage will remember Anthony Guglielmi as the spokesman for CPD in the chaotic years after Officer Jason Van Dyke murdered Laquan McDonald.
nytimes.com
Secret Service Officials Said to Be Put on Leave Amid Internal Inquiry (Gift Article)
The agency’s top spokesman is among those on leave, according to two Trump administration officials. The agency said three people faced a misconduct investigation.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Come work with us (if you're cool).
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I was just wondering "what were my parents thinking?" but that's really on a whole other level
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My tribute to Tim Curry is that the 10 minutes of "It" I watched at age 9 on ABC kept me awake in bed for two weeks. That remains the most scared I've ever been of a movie. RIP.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
My hero today is the woman I saw in the gallery in a criminal courtroom singing "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner to a baby girl held by a relative and telling the baby, "You got Fred Flintstone feet."
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armando l sanchez @mandophotos.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
10-year-old Eliot McQuaide drops off flowers at a mural of Dolly Parton in the Edgewater neighborhood after she died peacefully earlier in the day in Nashville Tuesday in Chicago.
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Aura Bogado @aurabogado.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Illinois law says local officials can't help federal agents deport people. So how did so many residents end up on ICE's radar through information shared by local police, sheriffs, and prosecutors? I filed 394 FOIA requests to find out. (An @injusticewatch.org partnership with @theintercept.com!)
injusticewatch.org
Illinois promised to protect immigrants. Local officials helped deport them anyway.
In over a third of Illinois counties, cops, sheriffs, and even prosecutors helped federal immigration agents route at least 150 people into the deportation system since Trump returned to office, despi...
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"The scale of prosecutor collaboration in Illinois — which is one of the largest sanctuary states, and often cited as a national model — raises questions about the limitations of state laws to protect immigrants." Substantial discoveries by @aurabogado.bsky.social
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john j. kim @jkimpictures.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Chicago Water Works oil slick 🟧🟩🟪🟨🟦 #ManholeCoverMonday 📷 2010
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
This brings across the painful challenges, constant frustrations and small mercies of life in Gary, Ind. right now.
chicago.suntimes.com
12 nights without power in Gary, Indiana, ‘Why is this OK?’ | Chicago Sun-Times
With no power and a spotty generator, every day is a struggle for a family of seven as they approach two weeks without electricity in Northwest Indiana.
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Dan Hinkel @danhinkel.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Of its many nicknames, The Magic City is my favorite
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