Kansas City spent a year telling the world to watch.

The host-city banners went up downtown, the tourism ads ran in a dozen languages. We were told that businesses would flourish and diversity celebrated. The promise was that the eyes of the world would be on Kansas City this summer, on the stadium, the crowds, the show, which in many respects has indeed been the case. Yet the underbelly of this spectacle was something community members from Advocates for Immigrants Rights and Reconciliation, the rapid response network known as AIRR, and Decarcerate KC among others named and warned about long before the first whistle.

As I write this, ICE agents are running a manhunt across the metro that local television has scarcely named. Raids. Terror operations. Viciously brutal scenes of community members looking up to see agents smashing their window and ripping them from a vehicle to be trafficked.

All of what I name below is just within the past two weeks.

On Sunday, June 21, community witnesses and video confirmed that ICE boxed in a vehicle at the QuikTrip at 555 North 78th Street in Kansas City, Kansas, and disappeared two people who had stopped for gas. The two were trafficked to the Leavenworth detention center, the concentration camp CoreCivic reopened in March as the first ICE camp in Kansas. Six days later, on June 27, multiple ICE vehicles blocked traffic at 6th and Central in Kansas City, Kansas and ran a roundup that kidnapped at least four people, then kidnapped another outside a restaurant at 7th and Northrup. A blue work truck was left at the curb, its owner gone.

The agents then ramped up their operations even more.

On Sunday, June 28, in Olathe, agents chased a man through the Home Depot parking lot and kidnapped two people from an agua fresca stand at Santa Fe and Ridgeview. Afterward, neighbors described the victims as the kindest people on the block. Gone in the time it takes to pour a drink.

By Monday, June 29, the hunt had crossed the river into Missouri. Four vehicles moved down Truman Road and Indiana in the Northeast before the sun was fully up, then to an apartment complex at 23rd and Topping, where agents demanded papers and dragged residents out of their own doorways.

And on Tuesday, June 30, came the scene I keep returning to, the one this dispatch opened on. An unmarked snatch squad surrounded a work truck in Olathe, shattered the driver’s window, and dragged the man out through the glass while the morning traffic rolled past. This is the work of a secret police that wears no badge and answers to no one in this city.

The mayor who told the world its eyes would be on Kansas City said in March that this city stands against ICE. I have no reason to doubt that he meant those words. Yet, the world’s eyes have come, and so did the raids, including in the Northeast neighborhoods he governs.

But the truth is, I do not want you, reader and comrade, to read this and feel small. It has always been everyday people (not the state or politicians) who protect one another, the way Minneapolis showed us earlier this year when neighbors stood between ICE and each other during that occupation. Read this and get organized, because that is exactly what your neighbors here already did.

Know Your Rights and How to Report ICE Activity

Before the fear arrived, the infrastructure was already here. AIRR runs a hotline and floods the blocks with Know Your Rights guidance in English and Spanish. Rapid response networks exist and continue to train thousands across our city. You can tap into one easily, or have your church or place of work organize a session of its own. If you’re interested, reach out to me directly and I’ll connect you.

The map at ICEOUT.org, built by People Over Papers, logs every raid so we can see the pattern the news will not print. When that window shattered at the QuikTrip, it was on video within the hour, because the people of this city decided long ago that no one disappears here while we are looking.

So here is what yours are for. If ICE comes to your door, you do not have to open it unless they show a warrant signed by a judge. You have the right to remain silent, and you can say it out loud. I invoke my Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. You do not have to sign anything. You have the right to a lawyer. Regardless of your status, you have rights.

Report what you see to AIRR at (913) 999-2398 or at ICEOUT.org. Learn to defend your block at ICERR.com.

The world came to Kansas City to watch a game. Let us make sure it cannot look away from what was done to our neighbors while it did.

The post While the World Watches the World Cup, ICE Hunts Kansas City Community Members appeared first on The Kansas City Defender.

Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist and first-time candidate, ousted Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado in a primary challenge on Tuesday. 

DeGette, a 15-term incumbent first elected in 1996, is the second member of Congress to lose her seat to a younger democratic socialist challenger after Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillait, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in New York’s 13th District last week. 

Chevalier’s and Kiros’ challenges came amid widespread discontent and frustration among Democratic voters with party leadership in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election. Both Espaillat and DeGette are longtime progressives whom their opponents cast as representatives of a failing Democratic establishment beholden to corporate interests. Chevalier and Kiros both also have a history of pro-Palestine activism and made opposing Israel’s war in Gaza central to their campaigns.  

Kiros is all but assured to win the general election in the deep blue district, which encompasses most of the city and county of Denver. 

She, Chevalier and Assembly Member Claire Valdez, who won the Democratic primary for another New York City-based seat, are set to expand the ranks of democratic socialists in Congress. All three were endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America and Justice Democrats. 

Kiros, who immigrated to the United States from Ethiopia with her family as a baby, was an associate at a large law firm in New York City before she was fired in 2023 for writing a letter criticizing law firms’ response to Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.  

She became a PhD student and barista after moving back to Denver and launched her campaign against DeGette last year on a message of generational change and getting corporate influence out of politics. 

In an interview Friday, Kiros said Denver “doesn’t get enough credit” for being as progressive as it is. 

“This is a state that really appreciates leaders that talk about the corruption in government, that talk about how rigged our economy is, and talk about the kind of programs that would meaningfully bring relief for working families,” she said. 

Kiros and DeGette were largely aligned on policy, including opposing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda and supporting Medicare for All. 

DeGette, 68, is the top Democrat on an influential subcommittee overseeing healthcare and pledged to hold hearings on Medicare for All if Democrats retake the House in November. 

But Kiros singled out DeGette’s acceptance of campaign funds from corporate PACs, including from the healthcare industry, arguing they contradicted DeGette’s progressive stances. DeGette said the contributions did not influence her votes in Congress and argued that she, not Kiros, had the experience necessary to meet the moment. 

In a brief interview at the Capitol on Thursday, DeGette expressed confidence in her chances of winning renomination and said, “Denver, Colorado is not New York City.” 

Still, outside groups poured a last-minute influx of money into the race aiming to boost DeGette and oppose Kiros. Much of the pro-DeGette spending came from Pro-Choice Majority Action, a PAC linked to Elect Democratic Women, which spent over $1.5 million in the final two weeks of the campaign. 

“I think what we’re seeing right now in New York, and also other places around the country, is that when a party is actually responsive to the needs of voters, they will come out and support, they will volunteer, they will be a part of a movement if that movement is fighting for them,” Kiros said. “That’s what we saw in New York, and that’s what we’re going to see here in Denver too.”

The primary race in the 1st District was one of several that tested the power of the insurgent left in Colorado. Also on Tuesday, Attorney General Phil Weiser defeated Sen. Michael Bennet  in an unexpectedly competitive Democratic primary for governor and Sen. John Hickenlooper faced a primary challenge from the left from state Sen. Julie Gonzales. 

Democratic state Rep. Manny Rutinel defeated former state Rep. Shannon Bird in the primary for the battleground 8th Congressional District, held by GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, set to be one of the most competitive in the country in November. 

Want more stories like this? Subscribe to our menopause newsletter.

Like many other political leaders in the United States, Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton was thinking about affordability. 

That’s why she started hosting a series of conversations with women in her state about financial wellness and economic challenges. She expected to hear about housing costs, low wages, the challenges of saving for retirement. But she was surprised by what she actually heard a lot about: menopause — and how much it was costing.

Stratton and her team quickly realized that menopause was creating such a financial burden for so many people because they couldn’t get the care they needed. There was work and productivity lost to untreated symptoms. There was bouncing around from doctor to doctor, taking time off of work each time, trying to get answers. There was the money spent on alternative treatments found online, in the absence of actual medical care.

That’s when Stratton also learned that 70 percent of women who seek medical care related to menopause symptoms do not receive treatment. Menopause symptoms that affect worker productivity result in over $150 billion lost globally. Black and Latina women disproportionately experience more severe symptoms — and are also less likely to receive hormone therapy from a healthcare provider. 

The stories Stratton kept hearing about the financial and physical impacts of poor access to menopause care made something immediately obvious to her: “There’s a real policy solution for this.”

At the end of May, the Illinois state legislature unanimously passed a law amending the state civil code so that beginning January 1, any licensed healthcare professional in the state can take specialized training in perimenopause and menopause care for their required implicit bias awareness training. 

The bill doesn’t create a new continuing medical education (CME) hours requirement but rather finds a creative way to put the option of menopause training in front of all licensed providers in the state. Illinois is the first state to create this type of incentive for menopause education among healthcare professionals.

That’s why I wanted to connect with Stratton to hear more about the Illinois bill, how perimenopause and menopause should be part of the larger conversation around affordability, and what she sees as the legislative road ahead — especially as she is likely to win the race for an open U.S. Senate seat in November. 

Mind the gap

Stratton tells me that this legislation was prompted after her team discovered that fewer than 200 physicians in Illinois were certified as menopause health professionals. 

“When I think about a state of almost 13 million people and half of the state being women — 200 people being certified just wasn’t enough,” she said. 

But she said she knew that any solution needed to not only address that women weren’t getting the care they needed, but also ensure that it didn’t add an impossible burden to physicians. 

“Having all physicians being able to get this, you never know who you’ll have that conversation with. It could be your primary care physician, but it could be another physician that you’re seeing and you’re talking about your symptoms and what you’re feeling — the brain fog, the hot flashes, not being able to sleep — and it could lead more physicians to say, ‘Hey have you checked out to see whether this might be that you’re experiencing perimenopause or menopause?’”

Knowledge is power

Pauline Maki, PhD, is director of the Center on Health, Awareness and Research on Menopause at the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UICOM) and a leading menopause researcher who worked closely with Stratton’s team on Illinois’ menopause bills.

“We’ve been trying for decades to underscore the importance of having providers trained in this universal experience for women who live to late life,” Maki said. “Every organ system in the body has estrogen receptors and although 27 percent of women sail through menopause without a problem, I think it’s really important that we recognize that for a lot of women, it represents a very challenging time.”

It’s a challenge that not all healthcare providers are equipped to address, which can mean patients turning to therapies without any scientific basis that can sometimes be harmful. That’s why the Illinois bill is so important, she said  — and is gaining attention. 

“My inbox is blowing up with people asking me to consult with them on their legislation.”

Maki is helping design an Illinois CME menopause education course and said it will focus on things like the basics of prescribing hormone therapy, the basics of prescribing non-hormonal FDA-approved therapies, and how to address the needs of various patients. 

Not the last

Illinois is not the first state to address menopause legislatively. As of 2026, 10 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted a menopause law of some kind; 60 pieces of legislation related to menopause have been introduced in state legislatures this year alone. 

These new bills tend to fall into three categories: workplace accommodations, insurance coverage and healthcare provider education.

Rhode Island was the first state in the nation to pass a menopause law; a bill signed into law in June 2025 mandated workplace accommodations for menopause symptoms and banned discrimination against employees seeking these accommodations. 

Red, blue and purple states alike — including Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia — have enacted insurance coverage laws for menopause care. 

Maine requires its state Department of Health and Human Services to provide informational materials on menopause to clinicians.

But the approach of the Illinois bill is novel: Outside entities, like UIC Health, can now create CME courses on menopause that can be distributed for healthcare professionals to take to fulfill their implicit bias training requirement. 

When the political is personal

Stratton, 60, understands the toll that perimenopause can take because she lived it. 

“I have a fantastic doctor, but I do not remember a proactive conversation that said, ‘Juliana, we need to talk about perimenopause and menopause, what the symptoms are, what your treatment options are, what’s possible.’”

She said that now she thinks back to the years of feeling exhausted after not being able to get a full night’s sleep, her primary symptom. “The impact that it had — to get up and have to push through for work, feeling just sluggish all day, because I wasn’t sleeping, and there was not really a solution that was tried. When I would talk to my doctor, it didn’t come up.”

She said she thinks a lot about the 94 percent of women who report being inadequately informed about menopause and the health issues surrounding it. 

“I’m a mom of four and working, and to have a position that requires my full attention and focus — it’s hard to do when you’re not sleeping or when you feel like no one cares that you literally are having symptoms of menopause but it’s never been identified as that,” Stratton said. “It’s not treated as a public health issue, it’s treated as a personal issue. We need to change that.”

What’s next

Stratton said this bill isn’t the end of this work.

She wants more investment in women’s health, on the state and federal levels, and a focus on what it costs both people impacted by perimenopause and menopause symptoms as well as what it costs society when their work is impacted.

“Women are spending so much just to be able to get the relief and the care that they need and they deserve,” Stratton said. Accessible healthcare, she said, can save patients real time and real money. 

Echoed Maki, “I can’t think of another condition that affects more citizens in the state than menopause. … I think the return on investment for this training for the state and the health of its citizens is huge.” It’s why Maki said she thinks Michigan will soon follow with a similar bill; she also pointed to work in California and said there’s related momentum in Massachusetts. 

Stratton said she also is thinking about the fact that the equity gaps in menopause care disproportionately impact women of color — women who often are already less likely to be having conversations about menopause at home and also disproportionately experiencing more severe symptoms and for longer periods of time.

In the Senate, Stratton hopes to be a leading voice on this issue — and to champion the fact that investment and attention must be paid to women’s health beyond their childbearing years.

“Older women fall woefully behind when it comes to the attention and the research,” she said. “We need national, federal policy that elevates an issue that will affect every single woman in this country. Every single woman will go into menopause. So why are we not talking about it?”

The GIF-picking interfaces in some of your favorite online platforms might look different going forward, as Google prepares to shut down the Tenor API today. While the Tenor website, along with its searchable GIF library, will remain live, platforms like X, Discord, Bluesky, and WhatsApp that previously integrated the API are now having to migrate to alternative GIF picker services.

Google acquired the Tenor GIF platform in 2018. Both its website and API allow users to search for GIFs using keywords, similar to competing services like Giphy and Klipy. Google will continue using Tenor across its own services, including Google Messages and Gb …

Read the full story at The Verge.

On Friday, I got a bee in my bonnet that this t-shirt should exist and so I made it and now you can buy it. The shirt is simple, straightforward, $25 (+s&h), and ships all over the world.

A promotion. Making a new friend. Or the big cork-popping event; you know the one. Today could be the day!

Maybe it’ll even happen before the shirt reaches your mailbox! We should be so lucky.

Thanks to Dan Cederholm at SimpleBits for his Free Lunch font and to Fourthwall for handling the shopping, printing, and fulfillment.

Oh, and I also zhuzhed up the Goods page, where you can still get the Hypertext, Process, and Choppke’s tees. More fine not-hypertext products to come soon.

Tags: fashion · kottke.org

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