Truthout broke the story that an undercover police officer posing as a street medic has infiltrated Chicago activist efforts and protest events, including the anti-NATO actions of 2012 and recent actions against Chicago public school closings.
Quoting from the article: "On March 27, Chicago teachers and their supporters - including parents, students and community residents - rallied against the largest mass public school closure in US history. News of the mobilization sparked huge public interest before the demonstration - including from an undercover police officer calling himself 'Danny Edwards.'
'Danny' - who admitted to us on May 6 that he is, in fact, a Chicago police officer - could have saved himself the trouble and his department the expense. After all, organizers had already coordinated directly with top [Chicago Police] brass about their plans for the next day and widely promoted their intent to stage nonviolent civil disobedience.
His latest undercover sortie as a fake volunteer street medic bookends a hectic year for him." Read more
Additional Links: Chicago Action Medical press release | Chicago Action Medical public statement | Photos of undercover cop spying on dissent in Chicago
From the newswire: "Mark Neiweem, a 28-year-old Chicago activist, pleaded guilty in Cook County Court yesterday [April 11, 2013] to felony charges brought on by interactions with undercover Chicago police officers who had infiltrated activist groups prior to last May's NATO protests. Neiweem pleaded guilty to a probation violation charge from a previous conviction and to solicitation and attempted possession of an explosive or incendiary device. Neiweem, who had spent 329 continuous days in the appalling conditions of Cook County Jail while awaiting trial, will now serve out the remainder of a 3-year sentence in a state prison. He is expected to receive credit for time served and other reductions in the duration of his incarceration for good behavior.
A Chicago media activist looks at two heralded media outlets: the forthcoming Al Jazeera America, and Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ, and writes: "Al Jazeera and WBEZ are guided by lofty ideals, but only sometimes. What can be done to hold them to account to those ideals? I took a closer look at both WBEZ Chicago Public Media and Al Jazeera America and what I found confirms the need for an in-depth examination of the governance of U.S. public media -- and the need for a wide distribution of the findings." 
"Thousands of teachers, school workers, parents and students joined a mass protest led by the Chicago Teachers Union Wednesday against the city’s plan to close 54 schools, most of them in African-American neighborhoods. About 150 people sat down in the road outside Chicago City Hall and locked their arms together, prepared to risk arrest. Roughly 130 people were detained by police." [
On March 20th, 2003, shortly after more than 18,000 antiwar protesters marched against the escalation of the war in Iraq, in so doing overtaking control of the six-lane highway of Lake Shore Drive, in one of the landmark protests in Chicago history.
For years, activists with the Chicago south side group 
