[Time stamp altered for Wednesday visibility.]
* Gov. Pritzker had two guests today who both stressed the importance of wearing masks and of social distancing. And then he and Dr. Ezike took questions.
Please elaborate on what exactly it means that phase three will allow limited childcare and summer programs open with IDPH approved safety guidance. Has that guidance been made available yet?…
Dr. Ezike: We will have more information to come before the end of the week, but we know there are childcare establishments that are already open now. And more and more people will be returning to work so obviously that need is pressing and more pressing as people are getting to getting ready to return to work. So, we will lay out that guidance in just a few days and we will have more childcare opportunities to address the needs of the communities as they start returning to work.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* The hospitalization numbers all appear to be the lowest since you began reporting daily data on April 12 by a considerable amount. Should we take anything from this or are we still expecting more volatility in those metrics?…
Dr. Ezike: It is great news and I’m glad that you noticed that. To fall under the 4000 for the number of people hospitalized. Obviously, it’s a continuum, people get infected, then they get sick. And if they get hospitalized, then the ICU and maybe pass on. So it is a good sign that there’s fewer people in the hospital. But we have to remember that things are going to start changing and so we will continue to follow these numbers and it’s why that we need a hard reset and can’t just jump from phase two to phase four. Because with each phase we’ve made changes and loosening things up. And so we want to make sure that these new things are coming on board that they are not resulting in a, in a number, a spike or increase. And so that’s why we will continue to watch closely. And over the next phase, another 28 days, make sure that these measures that have loosened don’t have a spike that will make us want to tap the brakes a little bit. So we’ll be watching that closely, but yes this is good news. This just solidifies these measures have been working both the stay at home, the masking both the social distancing. All of those things are effective and that’s why we’ve got numbers that are improving.
* Lawmakers will return to Springfield this week and vote on a budget based on revenue estimates from GOMB and COGFA that are now about a month old. Are there updated revenue estimates available from your office, and are you asking lawmakers for a lump sum budget in order to make cuts and spending decisions yourself, if so what can be cut?…
The answer to the latter question is no.
The answer to the former question is that there have been some adjustments, not major revenue adjustments that mentioned the other day, there’s additional spending required related to Medicaid. We believe that that some of the federal funding that will come will alleviate a little bit of that but to be honest with you, we’re including it in the budget, because we don’t know. And so, that additional spending will have to be in the budget, and therefore, you know, we’re going to have to room for it because we have to cover healthcare, especially for COVID.
* Many Illinoisans are asking for more recovery information, can you tell us what you know about recovery data and the challenges involved with trying to collect it?…
Dr. Ezike: I guess, you know, simply the interaction with the patients kind of falls off once they’re not in the hospital. And obviously there’s a good outcome if they haven’t, succumbed to the disease. So we can deduce a lot of recovery data in terms of just seeing people who are not in the hospital, and obviously subtracting the people who have unfortunately succumbed to the disease. But in terms of actually talking to all the people, it’s just been a challenge for the teams and the staff. We’re so busy with the response, but we are trying to get as much information for you. We’re definitely going to see how we can put that information on the website going forward. We have been very diligent about doing these email surveys followed up with telephone surveys, where we were talking to people, 14 days after a positive test, 21 days and 28 days, and we have consistently seen that 70 to 74% of individuals after 28 days following their positive tests have reported that they were fully recovered. So we know that people recover, we know the majority of people recover, but I know that there’s going to be some extra some extra satisfaction Illinois has actually seen raw numbers and so we, our team is working hard to get that for the people of Illinois.
* What is the number of people who have died from COVID-19, compared to the number of people who have died with COVID-19?…
Dr. Ezike: That’s a wonderful question and I know that has caused a lot of controversy, where people think well, they had a heart attack and they had heart disease. Why are you calling it COVID? Again, the way this virus works, it is working on multiple fronts causing multiple manifestations. And so even if someone had heart disease which we have established global data has established that there are some key conditions that result in more serious complications and we’ve seen that for heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We know that that’s a factor so those cardiac events may have been precipitated by the fact that COVID was involved. We know that COVID COVID-19 infection is associated with causing embolic phenomenon and [garbled] these clots that are formed in association with COVID can result in stroke, can result in heart attacks. It’s very hard to separate the respiratory illness from some of these other manifestations that also could be linked to COVID. So again, there is a reason to put them together. I know some people feel that it doesn’t make sense but even if someone you know I know there was a lot of questions around well if somebody was very elderly and they were already, maybe in hospice, we still can’t say that that COVID infection didn’t hasten the death and so it’s probably relevant, that definitely that COVID maybe had a chance to accelerate a process. So all of that, whether it’s with COVID, or directly because of COVID, we have both of those factors lumped together in terms of our COVID deaths.
* The Illinois comptroller’s reporting more than $240 million has been spent by the state on COVID related purchases. Can you describe steps taken to ensure the state wasn’t taken advantage of, and what kind of oversight there is for spending?…
This is something we’ve been deeply concerned about. We’ve been in consultation consistently, not only with the attorney general’s office in the state and the state police, but also with federal authorities to make sure that we’re following all the protocols that would be necessary to try to prevent fraud against the state. Because as you know when this first came up in March, you know I think everybody knew we had to move quickly, but we did not have the PPE that was necessary. In fact, almost no state in the United States that I’m aware of, had the PPE. And in consultation with many of the other governors, I discovered that there were a lot of folks out there that were trying to put one over on states in their procurement teams. So we put in place a number of measures I don’t want to talk about what those are. But suffice to say that that we have a variety of measures. I guess I’ll just give one which is we ask people to fill out a form to give us a lot of their prior information so that we can then go double check and triple check the veracity of that. So, lots of other things that we’re doing but. But I will tell you that there are definitely a lot of people fraudsters that are out there in the market trying to take advantage, not just to states and procurement teams, but also of individuals and businesses out there that are just all of us trying to do the right thing and you know in a in an emergency in a pandemic. You can imagine the people who are trying to take advantage, they’re pretty awful people.
* Governor what exactly do you want JCAR to do tomorrow? I’m hearing a couple of concerns about your order lasting quote five months, can you clear that up?…
The rule that we’ve put in place in emergency would only last until the end of this phase. That’s about 10 more days. And then in phase three a new rule would need to be issued. That’s the way it would work. It’s not something that would last five months.
* There are several suburban mayors who are asking you to be more flexible. The mayor of Elmhurst issued another letter today. We’re hearing the Naperville Park District is going to file a lawsuit. Of course Winnebago County says they’re going to open up next week. Is it possible that you might be more flexible because days mean a lot to folks, rather than even waiting until the 29th of May…
Well, to be clear, I am flexible and have been in a variety of ways. What’s important here though Maryanne is, you’ve got to make sure that we run this full course. This new phase and literally it’s 10 days so you know my view is that that the flexibility comes in the way that, you know, at the edges of the variety of businesses that will be reopening. Are there more things that they might be able to do? Those are things that are being considered by the industry groups that we put together with advice from the employees from the owners from the industry associations, because there’s always something at the edge that you know as governor I may not understand about a particular industry, but the experts in the industry do. And so we want to take all that into account but those are the changes or the flexibility that can take place, we really do need to stick with the timetable that we have and to follow the metrics and it’s about following those metrics for a period of time. And so we’re on track. Everybody should be I think optimistic. 10 days from now on, you know, haircuts, and manufacturing and offices and warehousing and lots of industries and jobs coming back online, and frankly I think everybody is pretty excited about it.
* WGN analyzed the total number of deaths in Illinois for January through April for the last five years, found there have been 3896, more deaths than the average, given that the state is reporting a little more than 4000 COVID related deaths. What does that tell you about the relative accuracy of the COVID count?…
Dr. Ezike: I have looked at that similar data for, I think I looked at ‘19 and ‘18, and saw that there were even additional deaths beyond the COVID deaths compared to the previous two years. What’s going on with those excess deaths. So that could suggest that there’s a, there’s an undercounting that we’ve missed some COVID deaths. If you think that we should have had the exact same numbers from the year and the prior year to this year. And so that’s postulating in terms of what we would guess is resulting in the additional deaths that we can’t account for. Again, we will not know exactly but we can just postulate.
* Do you plan to be in Springfield, and can you respond to state GOP lawmakers who say your five phase plan with 28 day intervals is extreme, and that you are abusing your executive powers by circumventing the legislative process when it comes to issuing citations to businesses who choose not to follow your plan?…
Let me start by saying that what’s extreme are lawmakers who don’t call out their fellow lawmakers who stand at rallies and call, you know, legitimate elected leaders, domestic enemies or give the home address of our US Senator and tell people to go surround their home or the many people who held Nazi symbols at those rallies that’s legitimate and frankly I’m disgusted by the failure of so many people to call that out. Mary Ann the first half of your question had me riled up on the second half. What’s the first half of the question.
* I believe besides the lawmakers feel as if they’re not having a big enough impact in the citations that you’re issuing the new citation you’re circumventing the legislative process…
The legislative process ran when they passed the Illinois Department of Public Health Act. And that Act provides for rules that if not followed would result in the potential for a citation or misdemeanor. And so that’s you know that’s simply we’re following the law that already existed. And, you know, I talked about that yesterday.
And also, will you definitely be in Springfield tomorrow?…
Yeah, that was the first half of your question. I will be in Springfield, I believe beginning midday on Thursday. So I won’t be there on Wednesday when the legislature calls itself into session. I understand I think the Senate’s calling itself at two o’clock tomorrow afternoon but I’ll be there on Thursday. [He later corrected that and said he’ll be in Springfield on Wednesday. He’d originally intended to be there Thursday, but changed his plans.]
* What should the state do to prepare for any possible lawsuits that could seek damages from the state for businesses ordered closed without due process, or just compensation?…
Well, I mean, obviously, those are, you know, those lawsuits, people have the right to go to court and sue but they won’t be successful. The law clearly allows us to put in place the orders that we put in. Look, I understand people look, were filing these lawsuits because they’re hurting and we’re hurting all over the state. All of us are being affected by COVID-19. And it’s, it’s not only affected businesses and thetemporary hopefully temporary closure of any businesses, sometimes permanent closure. The loss of jobs I mean we’re seeing it all over the country. There is everything about what we are doing in Illinois, that is focused on keeping people sick.
I know that people don’t, some people don’t want to hear that anymore… that this is about keeping people safe, but it is. And we’re doing everything we can to open up the economy and do it safely and you’ve seen a full plan. In fact, many have called that the most comprehensive plan for opening a state. We’ve been very explicit about how and what the metrics are, what we’re looking for. And again, I will aggressively pursue reopening, but not at the expense of people’s health and safety.
* You talked about the regional metrics, according to the IDPH website, hospital admissions in the Northeast region have fallen more than 30% since May. The other regions are seeing even steeper declines in hospitalizations. Is this not evidence that we have fallen from a peak?…
I am optimistic that we are falling from a peak however I want to point out that if you, if you look at all the metrics I mean they’re not all headed straight down. Some of them have sort of flattened their loading a little bit off their peak … but I’ll just say, I am optimistic. There’s no doubt about it think every day I watch those numbers like everybody else does, and and you know we keep them in chart form you can find it online and chart form. And you can see the line gradually heading in the right direction. So, you know, it feels good, it’s the right direction, but be clear that when you’re looking at these metrics you know there are a lot of them are affected by things that have happened days ago, weeks ago. So as you watch them, what you’re really seeing is a reflection of something that happened and infection perhaps that took place. weeks ago. And so you. That’s why you know it’s hard to project forward. When you look at a hospitalization number, but it is the best number in my opinion ICU beds and med surge bed numbers are the best numbers for us to keep an eye on. In addition to obviously the positivity rate and capacity.
Dr. Ezike: We kept saying last week that we thought we were plateauing that we were flattening, and that eventually we were hoping to [be] on the other end actually going down. We’re hoping that the data is showing that is where we’re going. I will highlight the fact that when people complain that we’re not moving fast enough with the plan, let’s remember that we advanced ourselves into phase two while we were flat, we clearly weren’t going down there. So we jumped ahead in getting into a new phase before the actual [garbled] heading down, we may be heading downward now again. With more and more days behind us, we can follow and see, is this a blip or does it look like it’s really consistently going down. In any case, that’s great. We’re hoping that we are there, but please remember that we did start some of our progression into these advanced phases into phase two, while we were still flat as opposed to going down but hopefully now, we’re going down, and we’re talking about falling numbers ever so closely. And so that we can see if that’s the case, remember that there are multiple metrics and you know the data doesn’t follow rules and stay straight for a day then go down for 20 days and continue, so you know one metric might go up and down another metric may stay flat, so we’re following all of it trying to make sense of it. We definitely want to see that we are heading down on the downward side, and we are going to know in a few more days two weeks if that really is the case.
* Physicians are claiming that more than 15,000 meatpacking plant workers in the US are infected with COVID-19, at least 60 have died with workers lined up in close proximity, viruses are easily spread within the slaughterhouse environment. Do you believe that these plants need to be shut down?…
I think as we think through all the different ways of reopening our state, when we really put our minds together and try to think of ways to be safe. There are ways to safely do a lot of things that we think we initially maybe thought we couldn’t do, but with all the awareness of the importance of social distancing with with masking becoming something that we accept now, the face covering, with people understanding the importance of hand sanitizer and how it needs to be put out everywhere and understanding I’ve seen plans where businesses have said, yes, we plan to have something sanitize the touchscreen, or surface clean after every use after every hour, all these different mitigation measures are what is going to make it possible for us to open things that maybe two months ago when we were very new to this whole process that we couldn’t couldn’t fathom doing so we are working with our infectious disease experts with epidemiologists with business industry experts, all of those people to put the best minds together, and the people who have the most knowledge of the industry to come up with plans that will keep people safe. of course as you know Dr Landon is always expressing a lot of onus is on individuals, it’s not just the people who are making policy writing policy, it’s actually what what is written, then has to be implemented and the implementation involves people that involves the managers of these industry and involves the individuals who work in that industry, everybody has a part to play, and if everybody plays that part, the right way, we can open many businesses safely.
* We talked yesterday about your blind trust, but there are companies within the Pritzker group, one of them being past group that has a contract with the state for testing. Even though you’re in a blind trust, are you still making money from it in the long term that money will be there for you after your governorship correct, is it ethical for it still to have a contract with the state should you have, whether it’s coronavirus or not, for any Pritzker company to profit in any way from a state contract?…
As you know, the very definition of a blind trust is that it’s blind. So I as you know stepped away from all of our businesses three years ago. And everything is in a blind trust, business or decisions that have been made in any of those businesses. So, you know, I really have not been involved for three years so if there’s anything like that I would I would not know about it.
* Yesterday you said that you saw no need for lawmakers to review your orders, but the legislature is a co-equal branch of government and it’s fair for them to provide their review of the orders or the reopen plan for the people’s representatives?…
I was asked if I needed, I wanted the legislature to ratify the orders that we put in place, that’s what I was asked about and that’s what I responded to.
* Back to this emergency rule and obviously lots of blowback on this. And you said this is a lighter punishment than lifting a business license or a shut down order. But isn’t there an alternative to injecting an arrest element into this context or injecting an arrest element?…
The state police and other law enforcement will tell you that this is simply a citation that can be issued and a decision at the local level about whether businesses in fact are really endangering people in their community by refusing to close when they should according to the orders that are in place. So that’s the purpose of it, it’s really intended to be a lighter version of, a kind of enforcement mechanism, rather than taking away somebody’s liquor license or shutting the business down entirely.
* Can you respond to a Moody’s report out today that the state actually faces greater pension risk today than it did in the subprime recession. You committed to making the full statutory contribution this year, do you have any plans and plans to speed up any payment…
I’m committed to making the statutory required payment to the plan and you know I would love to be able to speed up to more as you know I propose doing that in the budget that I proposed back in February, and would like very much to be able to do that for the state but as you’ve seen. We’ve got a pretty big challenge ahead of us to balance the budget and know that the legislature is working on that even as we speak.
* Governor with more and more local law enforcement officials in the state and here in northwestern Illinois, either they cannot enforce your orders, because they don’t have the manpower, or because they themselves don’t agree with them. Are you getting to the point of just giving up on the idea that your plan, though, may be good intent isn’t working for the rest of the state that’s not Chicagoland?…
I’ll just remind you that the vast majority of the people of the state are in fact following the plans that we put out. And the vast majority support the plans that we put out. They are supportive of the stay at home rule as part of the work that we’re doing to fight COVID-19 so I know there are some vocal, you know, leaders across the state. You know mayors or sometimes law enforcement who work for mayor’s who speak out. But look, I think everybody understands that the enemy here the fight that we’re in is against COVID-19 and that we ought to be following the science, not just the whims of, you know, desire by a mayor or here or there or you’re a leader of a reopen group, especially those that are carrying aisle signs to make their point. And you know, I think instead we ought to be listening to level heads. There are three of them on the, on the line here today, three doctors who live and breathe this every day I mean they have to work and understand COVID-19 and they’ve given you their views and it’s why I brought them forward. I could bring you dozens and dozens of others. These happen to be three of the great leaders in the state of Illinois, giving you the message that we need to stay the course.
* You’ve said that the state is reviewing COVID-19, removing those where the virus is not seen as a contributing factor to the depth, such as homicide or car accident. How many such deaths have been identified and removed from the state roles so far?…
Dr. Ezike: Ah, that is a small number, you know, less than a few percent, we can get that information but that is not a large number of our unfortunate large total of our total number of deaths.
* House Republican leader Jim Durkin basically, along with the Senate President Bill Brady were saying that, in light of the circumstances that people are facing in the private sector, that there are questions about why isn’t government laying off people, why aren’t state workers taking pay cuts?…
There are two things to keep in mind and I know that they want to cut state government no matter what, whether COVID-19 is here or not. But here we are in a pandemic in an emergency, and it’s now more than ever that we need to stand up for the social services that people need to make sure that we can fund the programs that help them reduce the rent.
You know this is exactly the time when you don’t want to cut public health departments. When you don’t want to cut back on our emergency management or on our department of innovation and technology. These are all things that now in the pandemic in the emergency you can see that state government should be doing. And in fact, we’re going to have to do more because so many people have been financially damaged by this disease, this infection. And so I would just suggest to them that the thing that we’re looking at as we think about balancing the budget is, is the federal government going to step up for all of the states? We’re not asking for anything special in Illinois, all of the states republican led states and democratic states have the same issue. We had a fall off of revenues, the result of COVID-19, whether you’re talking about Florida, or you’re talking about Georgia or you’re talking about California, New York, or Illinois. And so, they should at least acknowledge that their first instinct is to cut everything. That’s wrong here what we ought to ask is what do we need to preserve in state, what do we preserve in government in order to add support for people all across the state.
* Some businesses in the Chicago area say they’re starting to see an increase in customers attempting to come in without masks on. When asked to leave, they say that they have a medical condition which prevents them from wearing a mask. They must be accommodated under the Americans with Disabilities Act, that under HIPAA the store cannot legally ask them about their condition. Have you heard about that. Is it legal and how should a business react when confronted with something like that?…
It’s a good question and it’s, as you can imagine, this is something new to America. And now that we have a face covering requirement, our Department of Human Rights is in fact responding to this, and providing guidance for people who need to go into a store who were for medical reasons can’t wear face covering. What we want here is for the most number of people to be wearing face coverings. It’s not about requiring that every last person, especially somebody that’s medically unable to wear a face cover. But most people if most people if almost everybody would wear a face covering when they go out in public, in a public place with other people [when they] can’t social distance, that will do so much to reduce the spread here. So we’ll be looking into whether there are federal protections and how we can enact that. But for now anyway the Department of Human Rights is providing guidance for businesses as well as for individuals.
[That’s mostly a scam perpetrated by folks who don’t “believe” in masks.]
* Why is the state not doing widespread testing of residents at all nursing homes with known outbreaks to determine which nursing homes get those residents?…
I’ll turn this over to Dr. Ezike in a moment but just to say we are in fact going after widespread testing among our nursing homes and even among residents in places that have outbreaks. But as you know, as we’ve been ramping up testing, there’s been a limit to the amount of testing that’s available as we ramp it up even more, we’ll be able to do even more testing. But we’ve been at a focus on nursing homes.
Dr. Ezike: So just just to follow up on what governor said, our goal is to test everyone in every nursing home. The only reason that we don’t do that now is because of the limit of our supplies and our capacity. But as we’re aggressively, working again, going from a few hundred to 5000. Now we’ve averaged 20,000 in the last about a week. As we increase our capacity we’re increased the testing we will absolutely want to test. We were probably one of the first states in the nation to go in and start testing an entire facility back in March. But it wasn’t sustainable because of the supplies. But that is our goal right now, some of the criteria that we’re using, because we do have many facilities around the country. So it’s even just an issue of getting into all the facilities, but we do try to identify areas that already have a high burden of disease, hotspots, if you will. So we use that as one of the criteria as a place to go into. We also identify places where there’s an acute spike in that area. So that an acute increase in an area is another reason that would make us to identify a long term care facility in that region. And thirdly we look at if there is a high social vulnerability index. And so, social vulnerability index that’s a CDC metric, if you will, that takes into account. Basically, the higher your social vulnerability index is scored from zero to one, the higher it is the closer it is to one. That means that that area that that census tract is very it has a high rate, high number of individuals who are more susceptible to having bad things happen in association with this virus. So if there are more impoverished people, if there are more uneducated people out there more people without insurance that there are more people without jobs, we know that this that any kind of disaster a public health emergency of this kind, will ravage that area, more so than communities where everyone has an insurance everyone is educated, everyone has a job everyone has transportation etc. And so we’re using those three pieces to prioritize the areas that we go in first, but please know, if we had warehouses and warehouses full of all the supplies and we have all the capacity to do 1 million tests per second, we would hit every nursing home and hit them repeatedly not just once but we would be doing it with a consistent cadence to keep testing and retesting, and that’s what we hope to get to
* At what point do you think people will be able to visit family in nursing homes. Are there any plans for testing or socially distant visits to help this happen before a vaccine is established?…
Dr. Ezike: Yeah, that’s a great question and I will tell you that there has just been federal guidance that has been put out on this issue. And it says that visitations should be one of the last things that we should be thinking about, because there is still not an effective cure or a vaccine. I mean, putting this in, this is a global problem. If you look at Canada, 80% of their deaths have been related to nursing home residents. If you take all of Europe over 50% of their deaths, again in the same population. So this is a global challenge. And so visitation and having more people come in with the virus back and forth into the setting is not the solution. And the federal guidelines have said that just recently. They said we should think very, very slow about thinking, even as people cycle into their new phases, visitation should be way down on the list. When we’ve had places that have had an outbreak, we need to go in and do a complete survey of the facility before we think about lifting visitation restrictions. I don’t mean visitation is not the way we’re headed now. But we do want to, you know, encourage more virtual visits. We don’t want people to be socially isolated in terms of to their loved ones. However, people can promote that whether it’s through iPads or zoom and WebEx we’ve gotten really good with virtual connection over these last two months that we’ve been dealing with the pandemic and staying at home. and we want that to be available to our nursing home residents to try to take some of the sting off the fact that their loved ones can’t come in person. No, visitation is not something that we’re rushing to do. But we do want to promote connection, virtual connections and every, every possible way.
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* Click here for a little light reading (2246 pages). This looks like a budget cleanup for this fiscal year, but it also includes some ‘21 approps.
…Adding… The Senate Assignments Committee, by the way, popped an approp bill out to the floor today. SB264 is now on 3rd Reading and ready to be amended.
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Yes, we’ve had a lot of rain
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Farm Week…
Areas north of Interstate 80 received a whopping 400% to 750% of average rainfall May 12-18, according to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center. The center portion of the state, between Interstates 70 and 80, received 300 to 400% of average precipitation during the same period.
Average rainfall totals for that week ranged from 3 to 6 inches in central Illinois to 6 to 8-plus inches to the north, particularly the northeast portion of the state.
How’s your basement?
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1,545 new cases, 146 additional deaths
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dr. Ezike at today’s briefing…
Since yesterday we are reporting 1,545 additional individuals with COVID-19. We now have 98,030 total cases in the state of Illinois. Unfortunately, this does include 146 additional people with COVID-19 who have been reported to have died in the last 24 hours, for a total of 4379 fatalities total. 621,684 total tests have been run in the state of Illinois, with 18,443 tests reported in the last 24 hours.
We have a positivity rate of 8% for the last 24 hours. As of last night, 4002 individuals were in the hospital with COVID-19 and of those 993 patients were in the ICU and 576 patients were on ventilators.
I’ll post the press release when I get it.
…Adding… Gov. Pritzker…
I want to begin my portion of today’s briefing with some frankly very exciting news. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen Illinois make significant measurable progress, and I’ve been reporting on it to you, and growing our daily testing numbers. And today we reached another major milestone. Among the most populous states in the United States, Illinois has now overtaken New York to become the number one state in the nation for testing per capita over the past seven days.
More Pritzker…
I also want to update you by letting you know that all four regions of the state of Illinois remain on track to meet metrics to move into phase three of restore Illinois. That’s terrific.
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,545 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 146 additional deaths.
Coles County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
Cook County: 3 females 30s, 2 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 5 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 12 males 60s, 1 unknown 60s, 8 females 70s, 17 males 70s, 9 females 80s, 15 males 80s, 9 females 90s, 6 males 90s, 1 female 100+, 1 male 100+
DeKalb County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s
DuPage County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 4 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
Iroquois County: 1 male 60s
Kane County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 100+
Kankakee County: 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s
Kendall County: 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Madison County: 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s
McDonough County: 1 male 80s
McHenry County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s
Rock Island County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 90
St. Clair County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Whiteside County: 1 female 100+
Will County: 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Winnebago County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 98,030 cases, including 4,379 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 18,443 specimens for a total of 621,684. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate, May 10-16, 2020 is 14%.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. Information for a death previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Kathleen Sances is president and CEO of the Gun Violence Prevention Action Committee in the Sun-Times…
Every spring and summer, news headlines tell the tragic stories and statistics of the people lost and the communities devastated by gun violence. This year’s headlines have been dominated by COVID-19, but the loss and devastation has been just as great.
Unfortunately, gun violence in Illinois hasn’t stopped because of COVID-19, and the same communities most impacted by this epidemic are the same ones now also suffering from the COVID-19 disaster.
Across Illinois, while we’ve all been under orders to “stay at home,” gun violence is up 6 percent, unintentional shootings have increased and calls to domestic violence and suicide hotlines continue to grow. And in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods, hospitals are struggling to attend to both COVID patients and shooting victims, as these communities grapple with the convergence of two deadly disasters. We must stop these trends before more lives are lost.
While these numbers are a sobering illustration of the deadly intersection of COVID-19 and gun violence, there is hope. The Illinois’ General Assembly is about to reconvene for a special session focused on the COVID crisis and other disasters. There, lawmakers have the opportunity to address our state’s gun violence epidemic by passing SB 1966, the BIO Bill, which will expand background checks to all gun sales. This life-saving law will reduce the flow of illegal guns by depriving the illegal market of a loophole that allows people deemed too dangerous to own a firearm to acquire them with no questions asked. […]
During the [Illinois Gun Violence Prevention Coalition’s Digital Day of Action] event, Senate President Don Harmon said he is committed to taking the BIO Bill over the finish line. We urge his colleagues in the Senate to demonstrate the same courage. Like any public health crisis, the gun violence epidemic will not go away unless bold action is taken. Now is the time for the Illinois Senate to save lives by passing SB 1966.
The bill is on Third Reading in the Senate with a motion to concur. If it passes, it goes to the governor. A vote would also likely mean more protesters in Springfield this week.
* The Question: Should the Senate take up this bill this week? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
bike trails
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COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s Chicago Business editorial…
Just like you, we are itching to come back to work.
We don’t mean work as in working. Our staff, like many others, has been doing just that night and day to deliver the most important information on COVID-19, its devastation on those families who have lost lives, and how it has wreaked havoc on our economy and more. […]
What we mean in getting back to work is this: We want more than anything for life to return to some sort of normalcy. To come to a workplace and stop for lunch at a favorite spot and maybe pick up a cocktail or beer after work or talk with a friend or co-worker on a train ride home. To have live, in-person meetings. To create new products together and move about and feel the production we felt before, so we can help get so many others really back to work and get the wheels of this frozen economy unstuck.
Nothing is stopping the magazine’s employees from returning to the office today. It’s an essential business. Everyone should take the train downtown as well. Bring in whomever you want to interview. Then set up a bar in a conference room, order in some quality food. Hang out. Have fun. And the sooner the better so we can all see how it works out.
Good luck!
* AP…
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the Fed’s lending programs for medium-sized businesses and state and local governments would begin operating by the end of this month.
Powell said that while the Fed has received a “good deal of interest” in those programs, if not enough companies or state and local governments seek to borrow, the Fed would consider changes to them. That could include expanding their eligibility.
* Sun-Times…
Federal officials announced Monday that over $10 billion in new funding is now being delivered to states, territories and localities to bolster coronavirus testing efforts and conduct contact tracing, including over $286 million for Illinois. […]
The influx of funding “will provide critical support to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze COVID-19 tests, conduct surveillance, trace contacts and related activities,” the HHS said.
In receiving Illinois’ $286,317,362 in new funding, Gov. J.B. Pritzker must submit a testing plan to HHS that includes goals for the remainder of the year.
* Tribune live blog headlines…
Can Chicago’s food halls survive the pandemic? Owners and chefs consider the future of what had been a hot format.
Ditka’s restaurant in Chicago’s Gold Coast closing for good due to coronavirus shutdown
Lawsuit claims negligence in coronavirus-related death of resident at Bria of Geneva nursing home
25th case of Cook County Court clerk employee with COVID-19
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first year in office was filled with big moments and tough decisions. Then the coronavirus ‘changed everything.’
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says city will fine churches that violated social distancing rules
“Our movement man,” a fixture at Chicago protests, loses life to COVID-19
Uber laying off another 3,000 workers, raising more questions about the company’s future in Chicago
* Sun-Times live blog…
Churches’ reopening plan: take temperatures at the door, hand out masks, administer tests (
COVID-19 death toll in Cook County surpasses 3,000
County forest preserves to close more parking lots for Memorial Day weekend: ‘Enjoy the natural world in your backyard’
Annie Glenn, the widow of NASA astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, died Tuesday of complications from COVID-19. She was 100.
Trump taking anti-malaria drug in case he catches coronavirus
Closing streets for outdoor dining with safe social distancing? Sounds like a plan
Proposing a 5th star on Chicago’s flag: pep talk, or curse?
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* Press release…
House Speaker Michael J. Madigan released the following statement Tuesday:
“Last week when I announced the House would return to Springfield, I asked all members to commit to safety precautions approved and guided by the Illinois Department of Public Health to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. I strongly believe these safety precautions are critical for us to gather in Springfield in a way that minimizes the risk of the infection among House members, their families, staff, the public, and subsequently in their home communities.
“Taking into account the shared concerns of House members, I am proposing we move to adopt changes to the House rules that require members, staff and the public to wear masks, submit to temperature checks prior to entering the building each day and observe social distancing guidelines outlined by public health experts while inside the Bank of Springfield Center. The House will take up this rule change immediately upon convening Wednesday. After the motion passes, any member in violation of the rule change will face discipline, including potentially being removed from the chamber by a vote of the House. This is not an action I take lightly, but when it comes to the health and safety of members, their families, staff and the communities they represent, it is the right and prudent thing to do.
“Staff and members of the public not observing the rules will be asked to leave the premises immediately.
“I look forward to focusing on the critical work needed to ensure our state can continue to respond to the COVID-19 health crisis and provide relief to people struggling around the state and not on needless distractions.”
*** UPDATE *** Center Square…
State Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, plans to vote against it.
“I will certainly be voting against the measure,” he said. “I have yet to decide on how to handle the situation once the measure presumably passes.”
Think he’ll do the ol’ passive resistance thing and go limp?
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Some of what you can expect this week
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hannah Meisel…
As lawmakers return to Springfield Wednesday … GOP leaders are calling for hearings on Pritzker’s executive power after conservative House members have filed lawsuits against the governor and his stay-at-home orders.
From yesterday’s news media briefing…
Do you think there should be legislation passed this week during session to further clarify your powers under the stay at home order extension or also your reopening plan?…
I think that we’re on a good path, we’ve got a Restore Illinois plan, and that puts us on a good path to reopen it. And so I think existing legislation has been good enough.
So I’m not seeking anything from the legislature. And to be honest with you, there’s so little time that the legislature is likely to be in session here, I think it’s going to have to be focused on the very basics like a budget.
* Politico…
Legislation concerned with renewable energy and ethics reform appear to be on ice this spring, according to lawmakers’ list of priorities obtained by Playbook. And a measure meant to tweak a 2019 bill authorizing a Chicago casino seems to share the same fate.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot remains optimistic. “Advancing the Chicago casino is still a top priority for the administration, and we continue to work diligently to ensure that legislation becomes a reality as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman told Playbook Monday night in an email. “While the mayor does not have plans to travel to Springfield, we look forward to working with state lawmakers next week on not only the gaming bill but also additional revenue measures to bring resources to the city.”
The casino legislation isn’t mentioned among priorities for the legislative session happening this week. Neither is the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which would raise Illinois’ renewable energy target to 100 percent by 2050, or ethics legislation. High-profile legislation promoting data privacy, a cash bail ban, property tax reform and an independent redistricting commission also seem to be off the table for now.
“Legislating is now going to take creativity and resilience and the ability to put aside your own fears and anxieties and focus on the bigger picture,” Rep. Ann Williams, who has championed the Clean Energy Jobs bill, told Playbook.
Williams’ legislation had gained momentum in January and February, but it doesn’t fit the criteria for legislation during this abbreviated session.
It’s pretty simple: Along with the budget, lawmakers will focus on Covid-19 response issues such funding for remote learning days for students, speedy trial requirements in an emergency, telehealth access, a sales tax deferral program, delaying interest accrual on property taxes, delaying implementation of the hotel panic button legislation, and a measure supporting frontline health care and essential workers.
Lawmakers will also spend some time deciding the ballot language of the graduated income tax amendment voters will weigh in November. Democrats see it as the most important contest in the General Election while Republicans are trying to withdraw the measure outright.
Some folks in the Senate were pushing a Chicago casino, but with just three days to get stuff done, it looks like a goner to most eyes.
* SJ-R…
With more than two months to catch up on, but only three days to meet, lawmakers will hope to pass essential bills while minimizing the risk of spreading the novel virus.
The Senate will meet at the Capitol and the House will meet at the Bank of Springfield Center. Public and media access will be significantly limited while everyone must wear face coverings and keep a six-foot distance from others.
Lawmakers and staff are asked to self-isolate for seven days after adjournment, meaning May 30 would be the earliest they could reconvene.
The spring legislative session ends May 31. Convening after that deadline would need another special session proclamation and any legislation passed requires a three-fifths majority vote.
* Sun-Times…
For state Rep Darren Bailey, the decision to not wear a face covering when the General Assembly returns to Springfield this week is about making a point to “Chicago legislators.” […]
“These Chicago legislators are making more of a deal of wearing a mask in Springfield than they are about, you know, getting this $7.2 billion deficit that we’re staring at with our budget,” he said.
Bailey sits on two appropriations committees, but has never so much as co-sponsored an approp bill. And he won’t even be allowed inside the building without a mask. So, yeah, I totally believe he wants to get down to legislative business. Totally.
* Zorn…
Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, also mentioned as a possible bare-face, said he’s now thinking this form of protest won’t be such a good idea.
Although Miller said mask wearing “is kind of a running joke” in his district, he worries that any sort of display of that sentiment “will become the story of the day, and not the real issues that we need to be speaking to,” which he then went into at great length. About masks he added, “This isn’t the hill I want to die on.”
Rep. Miller (no relation) is right. If you grandstand like Bailey, you’re locked out of the process. And, setting aside the safety issue for a moment, it’s also disrespectful to suburban Republican colleagues up for reelection this year because it’ll help brand the GOP as anti-mask zealots.
* From the House…
In cooperation with the Illinois Legislative Correspondents Association, a limited press pool will be established for each special session day. Public safety and observation of public health guidance will be guiding principles for these special session days.
The pool will consist of 5 reporters Seats will be assigned in southwest section of the mezzanine at the Bank of Springfield Center. Every person entering the BOS Center will be required to have their temperature taken, wear a mask or face covering, and observe social distancing
Pool members will be asked to provide pool notes to a centralized location for distribution to media interested in these sessions. We will work to establish a mutually agreeable distribution point
* Senate instructions to reporters…
Only legislators, staff and media on a building access list will be allowed through the north doors. Your Secretary of State media credential badge is required for entry.
Please enter through the north doors. EMS personnel will be on the exterior north patio to take your temperature prior to building entry. Pursuant to guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health, those individuals exhibiting a temperature of 100F degrees or greater and/or other COVID-19 related symptoms will be turned away.
As I told subscribers today, Blue Room Stream is going back to subscriber-only streaming access. So, if you don’t want to trust the General Assembly’s sometimes clunky system during what will probably be a period of high usage, you’d better click here and pay the bill.
* Related…
* Illinois Legislature to Meet for First Time in Months
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Ford plant reopens
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From yesterday’s media briefing…
Ford workers have reached out furious that the company is reopening, are worried that they may contract COVID-19. Is this type of work appropriate during this phase of the stay at home order? What’s your message of concern for workers?…
Well, actually vehicle manufacturers are covered under the Department of Homeland Security’s list of essential businesses, so they already did have the ability to remain open all of this time. I’m hopeful that people can get back to work at the Ford plant in Illinois and not to mention the Chrysler Fiat plant in Belvidere. And so you know I want to see manufacturers and other businesses open up as we hit as we get to phase three about 11 days from now.
That question was asked by a Block Club Chicago reporter, but no story about Ford is currently on the site.
* The precautions…
“Everybody is also wearing watches that buzz if your get within six feet of somebody else,” said Bill Ford, Executive Chairman.
Proximity watches tell distance, not time. Made by Samsung, the prototype records who you worked near during a shift. Helpful information to trace workers who later get sick.
In addition to dividers, there will be masks, gloves and face shields. Workflow on the assembly-line also being retooled.
“We used to have two people in a vehicle on the assembly line. We stopped that,” added Ford.
They’ve also stopped three-shift workdays, dropping to two. In all, 12,000 North American workers will be back on Monday. That third shift expected to come back online June 15.
* ABC 7…
Thousands of United Auto Workers employees returned to the Ford factory on Chicago’s South Side for the first time in two months Monday.
While the doors have been closed and employees not collecting paychecks, the UAW union has been working with Ford to establish safety measures for the 4,500 workers at the plant. […]
“Oh it was an experience,” said Markeita Morris, Ford employee. “I was glad to see Ford is taking all the safety precautions for each and everybody.” […]
Other measures include adding extra fans and more plexiglass partitions to common eating areas.
With 4,500 employees on rotating shifts, they said the floor is already crowded.
“They go on lunch and they got 1,000 people on break all at one time,” the employee said. “The bathrooms are segmented where only half the bathrooms are open. People can’t use the bathroom. People can’t get food.”
* Related…
* What a return to work at the Belvidere Jeep plant will look like
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* A false claim by the Daily Wire…
The governor’s office “filed an emergency rule that would penalize owners of restaurants, bars, gyms, barbershops and other businesses for reopening before coronavirus restrictions are lifted,” The Hill reports.
The emergency rule makes reopening early a “class A felony,” which, in Illinois, carries with it a fine of up to $2,500 and up to a year in jail.
If it hadn’t been for Rep. Skillicorn favorably tweeting this story I likely wouldn’t have seen it. As The Hill and everyone else reported, it’s a Class A misdemeanor, not a felony.
* Daily Herald…
DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick has joined a chorus of suburban law enforcement officials who say they won’t enforce Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order as a criminal offense.
Scroll down…
On Monday, Mendrick said he decided to post the message after receiving hundreds of phone calls from “terrified citizens asking me if I’m going to arrest them” for meeting with their friends or being at a business.
He said there’s no need to threaten to arrest residents when they are staying home, wearing masks and social distancing to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
“Through community policing and education, we’ve had full compliance,” Mendrick said. “So why would I threaten a society that’s compliant?
He stressed he’s not defying Gov. Pritzker.
People are most certainly freaked out by this new IDPH emergency rule. Unveiling it late Friday with no advance notice to pretty much anyone was a really bad idea. And stories like this one just fan the flames…
Illinois business owners could do jail time under Pritzker’s new emergency rules
Illinois business owners found guilty of violating the governor’s stay-at-home-orders could land in jail for up to a year under new emergency rules filed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker late Friday, two months into his executive response to slow the spread of COVID-19.
* The rule is also poorly drafted. Text message from a Democratic legislator…
There’s no language in the rule directly tying it to the Gov’s EO. So it technically can stay in place well after the EO expires. (Which will fuel a lot of the crazies and their conspiracy theories.) Of course, the rule could be withdrawn when the EO expires, but there’s no accounting in the rule for the phased re-opening contemplated in the gov’s plan. Hair salons are scheduled to reopen in stage three, but restaurants not til stage four. The rule doesn’t address that. And of course, the reopening can happen at different points geographically.
The rule is here.
* But some legislators are receiving this form e-mail…
We would like to vote NO on the following:
Vote NO against granting an overreach of the Governor’s power.
Vote NO against making changes to the Illinois Constitution granting additional power to the Governor.
VOTE to OPEN THE STATE.
Vote: “NO” to Mandatory Vaccination against COVID-19
Vote: “NO” to Mandatory Testing of COVID-19
Nobody is pushing to change the constitution. Also, arguing against mandatory vaccination probably doesn’t help their cause and testing isn’t mandatory.
* Stopping this rule will require two Democrats to cross over tomorrow…
State Rep. Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego, is on the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules. He said when the commission meets in Springfield on Wednesday, he will file a motion to suspend the rules.
“That takes eight members, so it would have to be bipartisan with respect to getting a suspension,” Wheeler told WMAY on Monday.
The commission is comprised of six Democrats, three from each the House and Senate, and six Republicans, three from each the House and Senate.
The rules are in place right now, Wheeler said. If the rules are not suspended on Wednesday, they will be in place through the second week of October. He called the rules an abuse of the rule-making process.
“If they’re intent on doing this, they can do this by statute,” Wheeler said. “The push back they give on that is it’s easier to withdraw an emergency rule and that is true but we sunset things in Springfield all the time, so I’m sure that the creative minds in Springfield could find a way if everyone agreed this was good policy, which I don’t.”
* But why they even needed to issue the rule is still somewhat beyond me…
During his daily coronavirus press briefing Monday, Pritzker pointed out that defying an Illinois Department of Public Health Act rule has always been a Class A misdemeanor. He said the emergency rule is simply another “tool” for local law enforcement.
“That’s the existing law today, in fact, last week and last year,” Pritzker said. “Under that existing law, law enforcement can issue a citation to the business. … This additional enforcement tool causes less harm to a business than a total shutdown or loss of a license, but gives local law enforcement the ability to do their jobs.”
Not to mention that the governor has unnecessarily created a huge uproar ahead of the first legislative session since March.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s media briefing…
Governor what exactly do you want JCAR to do tomorrow? I’m hearing a couple of concerns about your order lasting quote five months, can you clear that up?…
The rule that we’ve put in place in emergency would only last until the end of this phase. That’s about 10 more days. And then in phase three a new rule would need to be issued. That’s the way it would work. It’s not something that would last five months.
It’s kinda ludicrous that they caused all this uproar over two weeks of enforcement.
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The company you keep
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The trolls are active this week…
* Meanwhile, this Feder column is not accurate…
Amy Jacobson, the Chicago radio talk show host and former TV news reporter, has been barred from attending Governor J.B. Pritzker’s daily coronavirus media briefings after she spoke at a rally protesting the governor’s stay-at-home order.
Right now, with the governor isolating at home, the news media briefings are 100 percent virtual. Jacobson is only barred from submitting questions directly to the governor’s press secretary, but she can still submit questions to the two pool reporters like lots of folks do. Whether those reporters will accept her questions is uncertain, though, since she spoke at the reopen rally.
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Our Democracy Is Too Important, The Fight Continues
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Martha Kohlrus needs our help
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Martha Kohlrus is an administrative assistant in the Illinois Senate who was a runner-up for a Golden Horseshoe in 2016 and was just featured on a local TV station last month. She’s a sweet person and now something awful has happened to her…
After suffering a massive heart attack on April 30, Martha Kohlrus will require skilled care for some time once she is discharged. After being deprived of oxygen for up to 10 minutes, she will need months and maybe up to two years of therapy for cognitive and physical recovery. This therapy is expensive, and it is unknown if or when Martha will return to work. `
Martha’s daughter, Tara, called 911 after speaking with her mother. Emergency services arrived approximately 10 minutes after receiving the call and found her in full cardiac arrest without a pulse. She was taken immediately to surgery where doctors placed three stents. Martha coded up to ten more times during the procedure and doctors gave her a 50/50 chance of even waking up. She was placed in a hypothermic coma and on a ventilator.
Two weeks after the heart attack, the temporary pacemaker is out and she’s breathing fully on her own. She’s already been moved from ICU to a general room and we hope she will begin inpatient rehab next week. Major concerns for cognitive function remain. Martha does not know where she is, what happened or why no one is with her. She does not recognize family yet, and will have to relearn how to do simple daily tasks like holding a spoon, dressing and eating. We remind her daily her name is Martha, she had a heart attack, we can’t be in the hospital because of coronavirus, and that she has a beautiful family absolutely desperate to see her again.
Many people have reached out to her family and asked to help; once Martha is released from the hospital, she will need 24hr assistance, so this is a great way to help Martha on the road to recovery. All donations will go toward extensive outpatient therapy for our beloved aunt, mother, sister, friend.
* Please click on the pic to donate…
…Adding… As of about 2:30, her family has raised $3250 since I posted this. Thanks!
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JB cannot hide out at JB’s Hideout
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Um…
* Back story…
Police and the Macon County Health Department were called to a Blue Mound bar after a social media post said they would be throwing a “anti-corona party.”
JB’s Hideout, located at 341 N. Railroad Avenue, posted to their Facebook page that they would defy the stay-at-home order laid out by Governor JB Pritzker. […]
The bar also said Gov. Pritzker is not allowed in to the bar.
* Best retort…
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Open thread
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Have at it, but please confine your topics to Illinois and be as polite as possible. Thanks.
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[Time stamp altered for Tuesday visibility.]
* Gov. Pritzker began his news media briefing today by talking about this press release…
Building on a robust, statewide effort to ensure Illinois can safely reopen, Governor Pritzker announced the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative, a locally-driven approach to scale up contact tracing in Illinois.
“With Illinois’ daily availability of testing among the best in the nation, we want to grow our voluntary contact tracing so we can further control and reduce the rate of spread of COVID-19 and stop outbreaks in their tracks,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Knowing if you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 gives everyday Illinoisans the ability to keep their families and co-workers and friends safe by helping them seek testing or self-isolate, and it helps us build a public health system that truly supports them if their exposure leads to actual infection.”
The state is immediately engaging two local health departments to pilot this initiative: St. Clair County in the Metro East region and Lake County in the Northeast region. These local health departments were chosen for having significant needs in terms of case numbers in vulnerable populations, a robust capacity for tracing, and great existing collaborations of public health personnel, medical students and volunteers already on the ground.
Additionally, IDPH sent assessments to the state’s 97 local health departments with half already sending back their initial assessments regarding their ability to expand and deploy their contact tracing capabilities. Beginning today, IDPH will be sending out asks for workplans and budgets from all of these departments – allowing Illinois to incorporate their plans into the state’s overall plans and bringing them online in the coming weeks.
In every region and across the state, the curriculum, software, and technology will be IDPH-driven, and IDPH will support the funding for new hires at local health departments where needed through federal CARES money and Disaster Relief Act funding.
This will be a tech-based approach that will innovate and scale up existing systems. Illinois will be implementing a state-of-the-art project management and comprehension tool, to collect and hold all raw information relating to contact tracing for COVID-19 and providing forward-facing relationship management software for deployment throughout the state. This personal contact management software will allow all local health departments to work on one platform, and allow IDPH to operate with an aggregated, real-time sense of where COVID-19 is in Illinois.
IDPH has also brought on Partners in Health –a world-renowned organization for building strong community-based health systems. Partners in Health is behind what has become known as the “Massachusetts model” for what scaling up a contact tracing operation looks like. As one of the group’s earliest out-of-state collaborations, Illinois has learned what worked, what didn’t, and what challenges they continue to face as they design a community-based program in Massachusetts. Partners in Health will continue to advise IDPH on the state’s program design and how best to tailor it to all of Illinois’ communities.
All hires will be made locally, not through IDPH, and salaries will be determined by local health departments in accordance with salary rates in the region. Those interested in becoming a contact tracer can indicate their interest through IDPH, which will deliver names and resumes to local health departments. That interest form can be found on the IDPH website at dph.illinois.gov/COVID19.
* From the governor’s remarks…
Now that testing has ramped up, only about 29% of our known cases are engaged in a tracing process. That’s a number we want to push as high as possible, to the industry standard of over 60%. Given the sheer scale of our population’s widespread susceptibility to COVID-19, we can’t get there with our existing infrastructure alone. So what we’re building in Illinois is a tech-based approach that innovates and scales up an existing system. Illinois has 97 county and city health departments. They are the foundational elements of the new Illinois contact tracing collaborative.
Please remember to pardon all transcription errors.
* Back to the governor…
For business owners who have decided to put people at risk by not following our gradual reopening plan or a limited set of warnings, and then penalties that can be invoked. Let’s use a restaurant and bar as an example. Before today for a restaurant and bar that refuses to comply after communication from law enforcement or even after a cease and desist letter, the state can revoke the business’s liquor license or impose a closure order by IDPH. Those are expensive measures for a business to come back from. They’re not preferred by anyone, least of all me.
Under the current Illinois Department of Public Health Act, the business violates an IDPH rule puts public health at risk, the business has committed a class a misdemeanor. That’s the existing law, in fact, last week and last year. Under that existing law, law enforcement can issue a citation to the business.
An emergency rule requiring businesses to follow the existing stay at home border has now been put in place. This additional enforcement tool, the citation is less harm to a business than a total shutdown, or a loss of a license. It gives local governments and law enforcement the ability to do their job. Many other states have enforcement tools like this. Not Illinois until now. This rule can only impact a business, not individuals, and is a response to only a select type of violation. It cannot be used for example to regulate individual conduct like not wearing a face cover.
As with any misdemeanor offense, local officers can use their discretion and state’s attorneys can apply the facts and the law, fairly on a case by case basis, like they do every day.
For those businesses operating in the best interests of the health of their communities, nothing has changed. You’re part of the 99% of Illinois businesses that are following our gradual reopening plan, a plan that is based on the data and is likely to move all of Illinois into phase three and reopen thousands of businesses, only 11 days from now.
* What encouraged you to make this emergency rule, what was the straw that kind of broke the camel’s back?…
Really, it was just to give another tool to law enforcement, it wasn’t that there was a straw that broke the camel’s back, it was that you know we don’t want to have to pull licenses for people. We don’t want to have to shut a business down. What we really want is for people that comply. And we want to give them, this type of citation as an alternative.
* How far are you willing to go to enforce your orders. And also, will you direct state police forces and communities that have said they’re either will not or cannot enforce your executive order?…
Well this is within the existing law, the Illinois Department of Public Health Act. So, that’s the extent to which we’re seeking to enforce the law. You’ve seen that I’m very interested in reopening businesses across the state in a safe and healthy fashion. And we’re on our way to being able to do that. But there are people who are endangering people in their own communities. And we want it to be able to give again, local officials local law enforcement, the ability to do what they need.
* Has anyone received misdemeanor charges over the weekend? And can you respond to criticism that this is an overreach of your authority?…
Well, again, this is a citation you know you’ve heard of a traffic citation. This is another kind of citation. I do not, I’m not aware of anybody having received one over the weekend. […]
Well it’s in the law today it’s in the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, so there’s not an overreach here. And in fact, it gives us a lighter enforcement mechanism than the ones that already exist.
* Ford workers have reached out furious that the company is reopening, are worried that they may contract COVID-19, is this type of work appropriate during this phase of the stay at home order, what’s your message for concern for workers?…
Well, actually vehicle manufacturers are covered under the Department of Homeland Security’s list of essential businesses, so they already did have the ability to remain open all of this time. I’m hopeful that people can get back to work at the Ford plant in Illinois and not to mention the Chrysler Fiat plant in Belvidere. And so you know I want to see manufacturers and other businesses open up as we hit as we get to phase three about 11 days from now.
* A question about harness racing, many owners believe that they can do it safely through social distancing no crowds at the track, are you looking at, possibly, allowing Hawthorne and Arlington to reopen for online gambling?…
Yeah, we’re looking at all the alternatives here, you know you’ve heard that major league sports, for example, I think rightly so have said, well we can’t get crowds together in a stadium, but they can run their games and and televised and so on. And that’s true with horse racing potentially as well. So we’re definitely having conversations, they have the racing board, our office as well as the leaders in the horse racing industry, including harness racing.
* Your reaction to businesses adding surcharges to bills, added expenses due to COVID-19?…
I don’t know how to react to that I mean I know that businesses are suffering and they’re trying to figure out how they can open. You know and operate profitably with downsides number of people potentially in their business so I you know I don’t want to encourage that people are hurting people are shopping especially for essential items certainly should not be charged a surcharge for that. But I’m not aware of what the businesses are that are attempting to do that. And I would just suggest that they’d be careful about it.
* Can you provide more specifics on Friday [IDES] system data breach? How long was the sensitive information out there, many people’s information was exposed, what’s been done to fix this issue?…
Well first of all, we are doing and have been doing a full investigation of the matter. It’s important that we identify all of those who are affected by that breach of this is, as you know, has happened in large corporations and other aspects of other governments around the United States and we don’t like it happening here. Deloitte which built that system and obviously the glitch that was in there is something that that was a result of the work that was done to build it, but they are offering credit reporting for all of those who are affected by it to make sure that they can monitor their credit, in case there’s any problem that they may undergo. But we are still investigating the number of people who are affected by it and want to make sure that we that we get the system, completely kind of half proof and and safe.
* There are questions that have surfaced about several companies have [ties] to health as well the third business that are providing COVID testing in Illinois and elsewhere, are owned by the Pritzker group, are you personally profiting in any way?…
Well, as you know, Marianne, you know, three years ago when I decided to run for governor, I put it all assets in the trust form, and they continue to be in that form. And so I’m not involved, I really don’t even know the engagement of those businesses and any thing that has to do with this and you know, I’m really three years from having had any knowledge about any of those.
* Will you shut down general iron in Chicago after this morning’s explosion. Why is it being considered an essential business?…
The EPA is looking into it, I know the city of Chicago has jurisdiction as well. So you know we’re actually, as you can imagine, paying very close attention. I want to make sure that people are kept safe. I’m unaware of what the latest is on the matter but it’s certainly something of great concern to me.
But why is it being considered an essential business that’s being allowed to stay open right now?…
Let me just say that the Department of Homeland Security’s list of essential businesses is roughly what we use as the baseline for our list of essential businesses. And I would have to refer you to the Department of Homeland Security for the reasoning behind that particular business. Again we were trying to find kind of followed national emergency protocols here when we’re in. And that’s the essential business lists that we used as our base.
* Churches in Chicago continue to host services. Is there anything you’re looking to do to increase enforcement enforcement and to stop that from happening in Chicago and elsewhere?…
I’m extraordinarily reluctant to, you know, talk about whether it’s the city of Chicago or anywhere in the state, to interfere with a service that’s ongoing. What we have tried to do is communicate and educate leaders and parishioners. Look, the job here is to keep people safe. I want people also to be able to worship. There are many ways in which to do that. [Audio degraded and transcription wasn’t very good, so I’m skipping the rest of this answer.]
* Data shows fewer people are obeying the stay at home order. Do you expect another surge in cases this summer?…
I don’t know if I expected exactly but I’m deeply concerned about it’s the reason why we’re following this very gradual plan. It makes sure that we have a health care capacity to deal with any kind of surges. But yeah, if people don’t follow the plan, or if people don’t wear face coverings when they’re out in public as directed, more people are going to get coronavirus, COVID-19 and I’m deeply… honestly it’s when I wake up thinking about, go to bed thinking about, you know, how do we keep people safe. I know that it’s, we have beautiful days that are coming throughout the summer and people want to be outside wherever they are in the state, they want to be together gathering. And we just want them to do everything they can to keep themselves safe. So, we’ll keep monitoring and hope people will follow the rules, and I think we’ll be able to make it through the fall and then I must say that I’m concerned about all of the warnings that have been given by epidemiologists about the potential first surge this fall. Because if people don’t learn the lessons over the summer that we’ve learned over the last couple of months and we hit a fall surge, I mean, we’re going to be in big trouble.
* Could you please explain why without any public notice or discussion you over the weekend filed a new regulation establishing a misdemeanor offense for businesses which reopen despite your shutdown order? Even if this is needed why do it this way?…
I think you understand why we put it in place. It was a tool, as I described for law enforcement. We were working on it during the week, we issued it on Friday. And it’s something that, it doesn’t establish a new misdemeanor. The misdemeanor is already in the law so it was simply a change of rules.
* Do you think there should be legislation passed this week during session to further clarify your powers under the stay at home order extension or also your reopening plan?…
I think that we’re on a good path, we’ve got a Restore Illinois plan, and that puts us on a good path to reopen it. And so I think existing legislation has been good enough.
So I’m not seeking anything from the legislature. And to be honest with you, there’s so little time that the legislature is likely to be in session here, I think it’s going to have to be focused on the very basics like a budget.
* Are you worried about you or your family’s safety after anti semitic hate speech was used during protests over the weekend?…
Yes, I have to admit that I am worried about my family’s safety. You saw some of the signs, you saw the vehemence that people are carrying those signs with swastikas and pictures of Adolph Hitler, references to me and my family.
Yeah, I’m concerned. But I also want you to know that I am undeterred, the path that we’re on. I think we’re doing the right thing and the vast majority of people in Illinois are doing the right thing, and indeed you’re seeing it in the numbers. Just look at what is happening, and it’s happening because everybody banded together, following the rules. Do you know to do what was necessary to keep each other safe.
I hear that there are people that are planning to show up in Springfield in the legislature not wearing a mask. I’m thinking about what that says, right, because a mask isn’t designed to protect you. It’s designed to protect the people you’re with. So, like callous disregard for people’s health that those legislators demonstrate is, you know, and those were the same legislators that showed up at those rallies with those swastikas and those pictures of Hitler, and they were perfectly willing to stand up and speak in front of that crowd, that was okay with them. I mean, you know it’s not okay with me, and they are in fact putting people in danger. One of those speakers, the GOP US Senate candidate actually called out Senator Dick Durbin’s home address and told people they should go to his house and surround it. Dangerous.
* On Friday at a hearing over representative Darren Bailey’s lawsuit, the Clay County Court deputies were not enforcing social distancing or mask rules. Will ISP get involved with local officials who do not enforce your new rule or if the social distancing or mask rules as well?…
That’s not the role of ISP. We know that state’s attorneys and law enforcement around the state, vast majority of them are doing the right thing and enforcing the right way. In Clay County, I mean, it speaks for itself but the decision that was made in that courtroom a couple of weeks ago and you know continuing a, say, disregard for the law in Illinois.
* Governor since the beginning of this you have said quote lives over livelihoods, why are they mutually exclusive?…
They’re not. What I have been focused on Dave is making sure that the balance weighs in favor of keeping people safe. That the job here is to make sure that while we’re reopening the economy. At the beginning of this thing, we didn’t know how fast it was this was going to affect the population and you’ve seen it move pretty fast. We didn’t know how fast it was going to take people from being well, to being on a ventilator and dying, and it moves reasonably fast. To say we’ve learned a lot in this process. But what I know is that every decision that I’ve had to make has been a difficult one, in part because I know there are things that we’ve had to do in CDC guidance that has affected people’s livelihoods and that disturbs me. And I want very badly for us to move ahead and let people get back to their livelihood. But most of all, I want them to stay alive while we do it.
* What are your thoughts on the 11 North Central counties part of Illinois reopening plan they say their plan includes more metrics than yours, but moves a little faster. They say IDPH approved of the methodology, why not allow them to proceed?…
Well, again, we’re talking about many many plans that have been submitted and I’ve read most of them, if not all. Some of them are well crafted there’s no doubt about it. But ultimately a decision had to be made about that, put a plan together for the entire state of Illinois and regionalize it. That’s what we did. And again, I know there are people who might like this to be done on a different grouping of counties or they might like to see certain cities open and not the rest of their counties. You know, I’m sure there are lots of ways to do this. But what we did was driven by again science and epidemiologists also with a [garbled] by me, for the real desire to open businesses, again with safety precautions and every step of the way.
* Some Republicans want the graduated tax off the ballot. Is there any chance you think the resolution gets a vote in the upcoming session? Are there any revised estimates to what anticipated revenues from a graduated tax would be for next fiscal year?…
I believe that the estimate for the revenue from the graduated income tax is over a billion dollars just for next year because it’s a truncated year as you know, and also a very unusual year in the history of the state.
But as to the likelihood of a vote being taken or a decision being made like that. I can’t speak to it, I can only say, I think it’s, you know, the GOP wants to keep people from voting on this, to keep people away from the ballot box says something about their lack of confidence in their position.
* About the new IDPH enforcement rule, do you think that that means the state’s getting tougher on enforcement given so many local jurisdictions and others are thumbing their nose at your EO, and how do you recommend social distancing and mask wearing during the legislative session?…
I think I answered the first part of that question earlier. And so I’ll just take the mask. I think, as I understand it, the House and the Senate both have required or asked all of their members to wear face coverings. I mean it makes eminent sense to me. I put a rule in place that requires people in public, where they can’t socially distance, groups of 10 or more to wear a mask. So I hope they will. I don’t know whether people will follow it or not. Most of the legislators that I talked to understand that it is necessary, it is something that is again about keeping the other people that you’re with safe.
* The Illinois restaurant association expects 20% of restaurants not to reopen following the shutdown, what has been done to help keep them afloat to avoid such a drastic closure?…
Well I think you’ve seen what the federal efforts have been, I would describe them as not good enough. PPP still has not reached many small businesses, many people couldn’t hire lawyers or accountants to get that PPP money. And so I think we here in Illinois, as we get support from the federal government for state local governments, and I’m somewhat optimistic that we will, we should use some of that to support these restaurants, particularly and bars, people that have had to stay closed longer than others. But it’s very important to me that we lift up these small businesses. It’s something I believe deeply and it’s something that I was engaged in before I became governor helping small businesses grow. And I know that the lifeblood of our future economic growth is in those small businesses, so we’re going to work on that in Springfield. I’ve talked to legislators about it. I’ve also talked to our federal officials about trying to get specific provisions in support laws that are being passed for restaurants, in particular.
* An agenda item for lawmakers this week is potential election legislation. What specific things would you like the General Assembly to address in an elections bill that might get sent your way?…
Most important thing and I’ve talked about it some number of times now, is we’ve got to give people the ability to vote by mail, make it much easier for people. Because at this point, I know that fewer people going to the ballot box in November, is better for all of us in terms of keeping people healthy and safe and so I’ve called upon the legislature and I know that many many members agree with this to pass legislation that will make it easier for people to vote by mail. So that’s the primary thing that I think we ought to be focused on when we get to Springfield. But no doubt there are some smaller important provisions. In order to keep our elections, safe, and I mean safe in a different way from hacking from, you know, interference, and so on. So, looking forward to seeing those ideas in legislation next week, or this week, later this week.
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* Um…
* Give a speech at a rally and then expect to be treated like a reporter? Nope…
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2,294 new cases, 59 additional deaths
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,294 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 59 additional deaths.
Coles County: 1 female 90s
Cook County: 3 males 40s, 2 females 50s, 3 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 7 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 8 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 1 female 80s, 10 males 80s, 1 unknown 80s, 2 females 90s, 3 males 90s, 1 unknown 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 80s
Kane County: 1 male 80s
Kendall County: 1 female 90s
St. Clair County: 1 male 70s
Will County: 1 male 50s
Winnebago County: 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 96,485 cases, including 4,234 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 21,297 specimens for a total of 603,241. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate, May 9-15, 2020 is 14%.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. Information for deaths and counties previously reported have changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
* Dr. Ezike…
As of last night, regarding hospital statistics, we had 4120 individuals in the hospital with a COVID-19 diagnosis. And of those, roughly a quarter, or 1096, were in the intensive care unit and 636 of those in the intensive care unit were on ventilators.
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COVID-19 roundup
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Oy…
The new coronavirus has spread like wildfire, killed — and spared — people of all ages and all health conditions, baffled doctors, defied guidance and conventional wisdom, and produced an unprecedented array of symptoms.
There’s never been a virus like it.
“This gets into every major biological process in our cells,” said Nevan J. Krogan, a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied HIV, Ebola, Zika, dengue and other viruses over the last 13 years.
“At the molecular level, it’s something we’ve never seen before, and then look at what it does to the body — the long list of symptoms — we’ve never seen that before.”
* Pearson…
A federal judge has modified her ruling that gave third-party and independent candidates for Illinois’ Nov. 3 election until Aug. 7 to submit petitions, instead ordering a deadline of July 20 to allow time for challenges and for the ballot to be printed.
But U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer left intact the portion of her April 23 order that those candidates only need to collect 10% of the previously required number of signatures and can collect them electronically because of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order.
Pallmeyer’s revised decision Friday came after attorneys for the state asked for a rehearing on her April order, which moved the filing deadline from June 22 to Aug. 7 and lowered the number of valid signatures needed to gain access to the ballot.
* Tribune…
Residents of Chicago and the surrounding Cook County suburbs are now getting a D in social distancing from a New York City data firm that’s been grading the country on compliance with stay-at-home orders.
That’s a significant drop from late March, when the area got an A, but the difference is more about revisions to the grading system than a huge change in behavior. Unacast, the firm drawing the measurements from a sampling of cellphone data, toughened its criteria based on input from public health experts.
Grades also fell in many other locales across the country, including Chicago’s collar counties and Illinois as a whole. Some areas, however, fared better than the Chicago region. New York City, perhaps hit harder by COVID-19 than anywhere else in the United States, scored a B as of Monday.
More here.
* Tribune live blog…
Civil rights groups decry anti-Semitic and other hate messages at stay-at-home protests
Five reasons your stimulus check may have been for less than you expected
Chicago public health officials report 626 COVID-19 cases in homeless shelters, two deaths among workers there
Lightfoot says city will fine churches that violated social distancing rules
Actor Sean Penn joins Lightfoot on tour of Chicago coronavirus testing site
The pandemic is boosting a stagnant meal kit industry. But will interest persist when people are no longer stuck at home?
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trial shows promising early results, it says
After ending extra hazard ‘hero’ pay, Kroger to give bonus to front-line workers
Lakeview restaurant worker struck by deliveryman during quarrel over social distancing, police say
Chicago’s St. Anthony Hospital fights for survival, sues state for money owed
* Sun-Times live blog…
Loop group deploys cleaning crew with ‘disinfectant backpack sprayers’ downtown
Early testing of COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in healthy volunteers
Oprah Winfrey is latest celeb to host virtual story time for Chicago kids
Latest COVID-19 stats for Chicago region suggest curve flattening
Work-from-home Congress: House OKs proxy voting for first time
Obama criticizes U.S. leaders’ virus response in online graduation speech
Bittersweet e-ceremony for UIC grad: ‘I didn’t really get to say goodbye’
Closing streets for outdoor dining with safe social distancing? Sounds like a plan
COVID-19 scales back youth sports. That’s a win for many kids
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* Gov JB Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh sent me a detailed response to some questions that I and others have raised about the governor’s Restore Illinois plan…
REGIONAL MAP
One of the points of the critics is that the regions are too big and it’s holding areas with few cases back.
• But right now, every region is in the green and on pace to move forward to the next phase, so this criticism doesn’t really hold up.
• We’ve heard criticisms from the suburbs that they don’t want to be grouped in with the city, but their own hospital capacity numbers are very similar to the city. If you look at a snapshot of numbers from this weekend of hospital capacity by the 11 EMS regions, pasted at the bottom of this email, you’ll notice that the capacities in the regions that have been grouped together for Restore Illinois are quite similar.
• We recognize the different experiences that more rural counties in the Northeast region have in comparison to the City of Chicago — but in terms of their EMS hospital capacity breakdown, they don’t have dramatically more capacity to handle moving forward before the rest of the region.
5.17 Hospital Data:
*This data is reflective of a snapshot in time on May 17th
Northeast Region:
• Southwest Suburbs/EMS Region 7
o ICU Beds: 23.9%
o Med/Surg Beds: 23.5%
• West Suburbs/EMS Region 8
o ICU Beds: 19%
o Med/Surg Beds: 19.8%
• Northwest Suburbs/EMS Region 9
o ICU Beds: 24.5%
o Med/Surg Beds: 20.5%
• North(east) Suburbs/EMS Region 10
o ICU Beds: 21.8%
o Med/Surg Beds: 17.7%
• City of Chicago/EMS Region 11
o ICU Beds: 21.7%
o Med/Surg Beds: 21.2%
None of the EMS regions in the Northeast Region have an ICU or Med/Surge capacity above 25 percent — a number not tied to Restore, but a stage that IDPH considers with an additional level of concern. Regions 8, 9, and 10 all have at least one measure where their availability is lower than that of the City of Chicago – only Region 7 can claim otherwise, and that’s by approximately 2 percentage points.
For the remaining three regions: all the EMS regions are well above the 14 percent capacity threshold for moving forward under the Restore Illinois plan. In other words, no EMS region is holding back the other EMS region it’s grouped with.
North-Central Region:
• Rockford Region/EMS Region 1
o ICU Beds: 45%
o Med/Surg Beds: 45.8%
• Peoria Region/EMS Region 2
o ICU Beds: 36.6%
o Med/Surg Beds: 36.9%
Central Region
Southern Region
14 VS. 28 DAYS
The critics want regions to move forward in 14 days, not 28. They say 28 days is too long to wait.
• The White House plan does mention a 28-day timeline when talking about travel. So, it’s not like it’s a made-up number.
o The White House plan recommends that communities “minimize” travel in Phase 1, and that in Phase 2, after 28 consecutive days of decline, “Non-essential travel can resume.”
o In fact, the shelved CDC guide advises communities to avoid all nonessential travel in phases of reopening until the last one, when cases are at the lowest levels. Even then, the CDC is cautious and advises only a “consideration” of the resumption of nonessential travel after 42 continuous days of declining cases of COVID-19.
o It’s clear the CDC would lean on the side of longer timelines, rather than shorter ones.
But other states are using 14-day metrics
• It’s important to note, that a lot (I’ll admit, not all) of the states using a 14-day timeline require a DECLINE in metrics, while our plan only requires stabilization.
• If we used a 14-day measurement Illinois wouldn’t move to the next phase anytime soon. Instead, our public health experts determined that as we phased out some restrictions if we could hold stable for 28 days (two incubation periods) we could move to a new phase.
• Not every state is using 14 days
o WA uses a 21-day metric
o Washington state did three weeks with this reasoning: “The state will stay in every phase for a minimum of three weeks. During that time, the Department of Health and the Governor will re-evaluate the above indicators and determine if the state should remain in the current phase, advance to the next phase or return to the previous phase. No phase will last less than three weeks before moving to the next phase, in order to allow one complete disease incubation period plus an additional week to compile complete data and confirm trends.
o https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/SafeStartWA_4May20_1pm.pdf
• We don’t pretend it’s a good thing that there’s such a patchwork of requirements and phases across the nation. In a scenario of proper national governance — one where the CDC playbook doesn’t get shelved — we wouldn’t have a situation where Illinoisans can hop across the border into Missouri or Indiana and live a different lifestyle. The rules might be different, but the consequences are the same.
• Data lags and it could take longer to see the impact of lifting mitigation measures appear in the data. More time means we know more, especially since moving to the next phase doesn’t require a decline.
o Scientists learn new things about this virus constantly — to date, research indicates that symptoms tend to appear for people, on average, approximately 5 days after infection — but hospitalization looks to be around 8 days (former FDA commissioner). Given that infections that lead to hospitalizations are the driving concern of all our mitigation efforts, 14 days — less than one infection → hospitalization cycle — isn’t a lot of time to make sweeping decisions about reopening.
o The novel virus is still being studied and there are discussions about how long the incubation period might need to be adjusted: https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-symptoms-24-days-after-infection-2020-2
o Study showing that the impacts of the 14 day quarantine aren’t usually reflected two weeks later: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/is-a-14-day-quarantine-effective-against-the-spread-of-covid-19
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* From Rep. Edgar Gonzalez’s (D-Chicago) Facebook page…
In preparation for a special session to vote for much needed legislation to be convened in Springfield this Wednesday, May 20th, I underwent testing for COVID-19.
Unfortunately, I tested positive. I was hoping to return to Springfield and work with my colleagues to provide relief for all of Illinois. I will not be attending the session and I have immediately begun to self-quarantine at home for the safety of my colleagues, my constituents, my family, and myself.
My neighborhood has been one of the hardest hit by this pandemic, and it angers me that people are not taking COVID-19 seriously. People’s disbelief and indifference to the stay-at-home order and CDC guidelines is putting working families and frontline workers at risk. The intransigence of the president to acknowledge we have a crisis highlights the need for relief at the state level. I urge my colleagues to vote for the best package for all of Illinois and I urge you to take care of yourselves and your loved ones.
I will still be working from home during my self-quarantine. My team is still available for your concerns and needs.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Representative.
So, with Rep. Carroll self-quarantining after coming in close contact with someone who has the virus, that’s two House Democrats who won’t be at session that we know of so far.
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* Capitol News Illinois…
A downstate judge on Friday denied the attorney general office’s request to move to Sangamon County a Republican representative’s lawsuit challenging Gov. JB Pritzker’s authority to issue successive disaster proclamations.
Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, filed his case on April 23 alleging the governor overstepped his power by declaring more than one state of emergency to address the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
The state argued the move was warranted because the county is the seat of Illinois government, the case has statewide implications and relevant witnesses are located in the county.
Thomas DeVore, Bailey’s attorney, argued in a court document that the state’s request reflects its “motion for substitution of judge cloaked as a forum change for ‘convenience.’”
Devore wrote that the appeal for venue change is being used as a “vehicle for Pritzker to forum shop for a favorable ear,” when such a request would properly be used as “a device to remedy a situation in which the existing forum is truly inconvenient for all parties.”
* Law Bulletin…
[Judge McHaney] referenced a 2002 Illinois Supreme Court case, First American Bank v. Guerine, which clarified the standard judges should follow when considering a forum non conveniens request to move a case from the plaintiff’s preferred venue.
In that ruling, the justices said one of their concerns was “curtailing forum shopping by plaintiffs.” Judges must give more weight to the plaintiff’s choice of venue unless the defendant can show that forum is inconvenient to the defendant and that another forum is more convenient to all the parties.
McHaney said the concern of forum shopping also applies to defendants.
“Now, I’m not accusing you, defense, of judge-shopping, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…” McHaney said in court Friday.
Rep. Bailey has the perfect judge.
* Sun-Times…
Finally, McHaney said, “this case needs to be heard. I mean now.” Bailey attorney Tom DeVore told the judge he would file a summary judgment motion Monday, and the judge set a hearing for Friday.
The judge told the lawyers, “I don’t need to hear two days of testimony from a medical expert that if these executive orders aren’t continued the world is going to end. I don’t need to hear that. This is a legal issue, a legal argument on whether this governor had the authority to issue this executive order under Illinois law and pursuant to the Illinois Constitution. Period. That ain’t hard.”
The judge also overruled complaints from Verticchio that the state wouldn’t have time to prepare for the hearing by Friday, insisting that, “it’s not asking too much pursuant to the citizens of this state that every hour that goes by they’re being deprived of the right to leave their house or make a living.”
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Question of the day
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The setup…
* The Question: Are you worried at all about this protest? Explain.
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* WAND TV…
Lawmakers announced a resolution Monday to withdraw a $3.7 billion progressive income tax hike from the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot.
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin and Illinois Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady introduced the resolution to remove from the ballot.
The measure would ask voters to scrap the state’s flat income tax for a graduated one. The accompanying Senate Bill 687, also passed during the last legislative session, would implement introductory tax rates ranging from 4.75% to 7.99% starting Jan. 1, 2021.
Illinois Policy Institute pointed to the fact that small businesses and households have been significantly impacted financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some lawmakers said a progressive income tax would exacerbate the economic downturn people are already enduring.
Illinois Policy Institute research shows more than 100,000 small businesses, which file as “pass-through” entities, would see tax hikes of up to 47% under the current proposed progressive income tax.
* Jordan Abudayyeh…
By pushing this resolution, the Republican leaders are using the coronavirus pandemic to advocate for silencing the voices of Illinoisans who now have the opportunity to vote on reforming our tax system. If the Republican leaders believe so strongly that the wealthiest Illinoisans can’t afford to pay their fair share then they should make their case to the voters instead of advocating for them to be removed from the process.
* From the Illinois Business Alliance, which claims to be a “member-driven business league” but doesn’t disclose its membership and is run by a former Illinois Policy Institute chief of staff…
“All across our state, thousands of small business owners dutifully closed their doors to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, and many remain closed today. Small business owners have been forced to lay off employees and over 1 million Illinoisans are unemployed today. Business owners have used personal savings or applied for loans to try and preserve their businesses so they can attempt re-opening when the governor’s closure orders are lifted. Sadly, many small businesses face the prospect of closing forever if they are not allowed to re-open soon.
“As the Illinois Business Alliance has said repeatedly, these are the very same small businesses that would face higher taxes under Gov. Pritzker’s graduated income tax. Raising taxes on small businesses at this time is wrong – morally and economically.
* From the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which I do not think has ever met a tax hike it didn’t find a way to like, but still has some reliable numbers…
Hypothetically, if all of the 189,133 taxpayers earning more than $250,000 in income were all sole-proprietors (which they are not), that would amount to just 15% of all small businesses paying more in taxes, while the remaining 85% of small business owners would still pay the same or less under the Fair Tax.
S-Corps and partnerships are taxed the same as sole proprietorships, with the addition of the PPRT. Under the current tax structure, S-Corps and partnerships are also subject to a flat rate income tax of 4.95 percent plus the additional PPRT rate of 1.5%. This is a combined rate of 6.45%. Under the Fair Tax legislation, the combined effective tax rate would range from 6.25% to 6.45% for taxable income less than $250,000 and 6.45% to 8.36% (8.6% if filing jointly) for taxable income greater than $250,000. […]
More so, in 2017, the median income for individuals self-employed at their own incorporated business was $52,020 and for individuals self-employed at their own unincorporated businesses, the median income was $25,453 — far below where taxpayers would see in increase in their marginal tax rates.
Furthermore, according to 2017 IRS data, the average income for partnerships and S-Corporations in Illinois was $65,883. The top 5% of those businesses had an average income of $201,878. The top 1% of those businesses had an average income of $433,299. This means that somewhere between the top 1% and top 5% of businesses, by share of income, would see a tax rate increase. While the businesses in the top 1% could see an effective tax rate increase from 6.45% to 7.62% (including PPRT), that is far from the misrepresented 47% increase often touted by the Illinois Policy Institute. That 47% increase would only apply to, at most, 0.3% of taxpayers with taxable business income over $1 million — assuming all of the 0.3% of taxpayers are small businesses, which they are not — leaving more than 99.7% of small businesses to see a far smaller percentage increase, and 97% of small businesses to see no increase at all.
…Adding… ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider…
If Governor Pritzker is so convinced that small businesses and people need to pay more, he should start the process of raising more revenue by bringing back to America the billions in inherited wealth he has stashed away in offshore accounts.
Unlike Pritzker, average Illinoisans don’t have billions of dollars in wealth to hide away in secret tax havens in low-tax countries in the Caribbean. Instead of asking middle class Illinoisans to pay more, he should lead by example and allow the state of Illinois to tax his billions at the same rate he wants small businesses to pay.
But alas, Pritzker never will because he believes in one set of rules for him and his family and another set of rules for everyone else.
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Sears. Where else?
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* ProPublica Illinois and the Daily Herald…
Under a 2012 law designed to keep the company from leaving the state, Sears was required to maintain at least 4,250 employees at its sprawling offices in Hoffman Estates and a small satellite office in Chicago. In return, the retail icon received tax breaks worth an estimated $275 million.
But as the company fired hundreds of employees in the years leading up to its 2018 bankruptcy, Sears grew increasingly concerned about maintaining the tax breaks, according to interviews and internal corporate documents.
Company officials began counting baristas, fast-food workers and janitors who worked at Sears headquarters but weren’t employed by the company, records show.
Sears’ counting methods have raised doubts about the legitimacy of millions of dollars in property tax rebates that the company received from Hoffman Estates. A local school district has filed a lawsuit against Sears for $43 million, charging it overcounted the number of employees and collected public money that it should not have received.
The disputed tallies also reveal uneven enforcement by state and local officials, who allowed tax dollars to flow to Sears while ignoring signs — including substantial annual losses, store closures and public notices of mass layoffs — that the fading retail giant was struggling to maintain the required head count.
Politicians who helped draft the tax deals said they were designed to save thousands of well-paying corporate jobs at Sears. Contractors, landscapers and temporary employees deployed to work at Sears-owned properties were never meant to help the company qualify for tax breaks.
“The intention was to include, or count, jobs of Sears employees and staff,” said state Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat from Hoffman Estates, who drafted the legislation to extend Sears’ tax breaks and once served on the village board. […]
To obtain the [$150 million over 10 years] state tax credits, Sears filed yearly reports with the economic development agency to show the company had maintained more than the 4,250-employee benchmark.
The economic development agency had the ability to review the count or conduct on-site visits. But when ProPublica and the Daily Herald asked the agency for evidence of its monitoring of Sears since the agreement began, the department provided a single, four-page audit, paid for by Sears and dated May 2015. The audit found that 25 employees randomly selected by Sears were listed on the company’s payrolls. But it also warned that the findings were not “an opinion on compliance.”
There is no other indication the agency tried to determine if Sears was holding up its end of the deal, even as it annually disbursed approximately $15 million in tax credits. […]
In June 2017, Sears eliminated 375 more corporate jobs. Now, there was little question. Sears was at least 215 employees short of its minimum head count for eligibility for the state credits — a fact acknowledged by Howard Riefs, a Sears spokesman at the time.
That month, state officials decided to suspend Sears’ tax credits, refusing to provide nearly $15 million in payroll tax rebates that the company believed it was owed. Sears fought back, threatening to file a lawsuit. The two sides settled in December 2017, splitting the difference. Sears got tax credits for 2016 but agreed not to ask for any more for 2017. Sears is no longer receiving the credits.
Meanwhile, Sears told Hoffman Estates a different story.
Go read the rest.
* Related…
* A Case Study on Economic Development Agreements: Did the Sears Mega-Deal Increase Economic Activity in Hoffman Estates
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Blagojevich officially disbarred
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Supreme Court of Illinois…
M.R.030382
- In re: Rod R. Blagojevich. Disciplinary Commission.
Motion by the Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission to approve and confirm the report and recommendation of the Hearing Board. Allowed. Respondent Rod R. Blagojevich is disbarred.
Order entered by the Court.
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* Sun-Times…
“They said this was all about flattening the curve. I think we flattened the curve,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said. “These are the snarky things he says: ‘This is all about science… and the peak isn’t going to hit until the middle of June.’ Why did they take down all the beds in McCormick Place already then?
“You know what this is all about. This is about taking down President Trump in November,” Schneider said.
Nothing like completely politicizing the state’s pandemic response.
* NBC 5…
Illinois Rep. Allen Skillicorn says a recall resolution is on the table if Gov. J.B. Pritzker fails to fix the state’s unemployment claims website, the representative announced Sunday. […]
The Illinois representative threatened to file a motion to recall the governor’s election if Pritzker does not fix the website soon.
A little context is in order here…
The recall of the Governor may be proposed by a petition signed by a number of electors equal in number to at least 15% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election, with at least 100 signatures from each of at least 25 separate counties. A petition shall have been signed by the petitioning electors not more than 150 days after an affidavit has been filed with the State Board of Elections providing notice of intent to circulate a petition to recall the Governor. The affidavit may be filed no sooner than 6 months after the beginning of the Governor’s term of office. The affidavit shall have been signed by the proponent of the recall petition, at least 20 members of the House of Representatives, and at least 10 members of the Senate, with no more than half of the signatures of members of each chamber from the same established political party.
There is no “motion to recall.” C’mon, 5.
* Center for Illinois Politics…
But by picking fights with the president, Pritzker also risks losing credibility at home, said U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a downstate Republican. […]
The congressman noted that Pritzker bristled when reporters asked about his wife traveling to Florida during the crisis.
“Frankly,” Davis said, “if you’re going to Monday morning quarterback a federal response to a disease we didn’t know existed seven months ago, then you open yourself up to criticism when your family decides to leave the state when you’re telling people to stay home. You can’t be offended by people criticizing your response if you’re so quick to criticize others during the pandemic.”
Criticize the president and it’s just fine with Davis to come after your family. Not to mention that they went to Florida before the order was issued.
* Speaking of which…
Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why people are upset. I’m not at all happy with this situation either and I wrote about it in the subscriber edition today. But, if the governor is telling the truth then they’re not technically in violation of the order. And a statewide party dragging minor children through the political mud is just beyond the pale.
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* Press release…
State Rep. Jonathan Carroll, D-Northbrook, has released the following statement regarding his attendance for session this week:
“Due to coming in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 on May 17, I’ve been advised by a physician to self-quarantine for 14 days and won’t be attending session. Last week, I tested negative for the virus.
While I wish I could be in Springfield, the health and safety of my colleagues and staff must come first.
My office will remain open during this time.”
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* Agreed…
* From Fox 32’s coverage of the Chicago rally…
Protesters held signs expressing disgust for the way Governor JB Pritzker’s handling things.
Two protests, noisy, yet peaceful, for the most part. Chicago police broke up this fight between a guy holding a Nazi flag and a man who was upset by it.
* WGEM…
WGEM’s Capitol Bureau Chief Mike Miletich asked Doug Walter why he was comparing Pritzker to Adolf Hitler. The Pana resident’s sign showed a photo of the governor with an equal sign next to the leader of the Nazi party. […]
“Is it okay to have an anti-Semitic sign like this,” Miletich asked. “You bet it is.” Walter then pointed to Pritzker’s photo. “He is Hitler. They are one in the same. They are one in the same.”
A separate participant at the rally held a sign with Hitler’s mustache drawn on a photo of Pritzker with swastikas drawn on both sides.
The Bureau asked Linda Scheaffer if she knew the governor’s family history.
She said it doesn’t matter, “because he’s a hypocrite.” However, Scheaffer added she would not partake in an interview.
* ADL…
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Midwest Regional Director David Goldenberg issued the following statement today in response to the continued presence of antisemitism, racism and Nazi comparisons at “stay at home” protests in Springfield and Chicago:
“The comparison of Illinois’s democratically elected governor to Hitler is antisemitic – period. Such vile comparisons trivialize and dishonor the memories of the millions killed by Nazi Germany.
With antisemitic incidents at an all-time high and up 340% in Illinois since 2016, these protests are becoming rallying points for hate and extremism. We are deeply concerned by the silence of speakers at these protests – including elected officials – who failed to condemn the antisemitism, racism and Nazi comparisons of attendees while stoking the flames of hatred. Leaders across the state and political spectrum must forcefully and unambiguously condemn this language.”
* Also ADL…
On May 18 at 11:00am CT, community and civic leaders from across Illinois will come together for a virtual news conference to condemn the antisemitism, racism, and extremism reported at recent “stay-at-home” protests in Springfield and Chicago.
Over the last two weeks, multiple protests concerning coronavirus restrictions have taken place across Illinois, with attendees calling for stay-at-home orders to be lifted. Media reports have shown some attendees displaying antisemitic, racist, and extremist-related signs and engaging in hateful rhetoric.
Community leaders will make opening remarks followed by questions from the media.
WHO: Nearly a dozen community and civic leaders from across Illinois:
• David Goldenberg, Midwest Regional Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• Very Reverend Dominic Barrington, Dean, St. James Cathedral
• Sindy Benavides, CEO, LULAC
• Jaime di Paolo, CEO, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Karen Freeman-Wilson, President and CEO, Chicago Urban League
• Maricela Garcia, CEO, Gads Hill Center
• Pastor Marvin Hightower, President, Peoria NAACP and Senior Pastor, Liberty Church of Peoria
• Andy Kang, Executive Director, Association of Asian Americans for Justice - Chicago
• Lonnie Nasatir, President, Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago
• James Rudyk, Executive Director, Northwest Side Housing Center
• Michael Ziri, Director of Public Policy, Equality Illinois
It’s high time that the politicians who are speaking and hosting these rallies denounce these cretins and do something to keep them away from the events. But don’t hold your breath…
“The silver lining here is we are able to identify our enemies - both foreign and domestic,” [Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland] shouted. “We have identified China as a foreign enemy. We have identified our domestic enemies in Nancy Pelosi and JB Pritzker.”
* Related…
* Illinois Nazis, seriously GOP?
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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
For many weeks after the beginning of this COVID-19 crisis, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proved adept at telegraphing his every move.
Pritzker waited until people practically begged him to shut down the schools on March 15. He talked about issuing a stay-at-home order for days, and then acted on March 21 only after California jumped first.
It was clear for days that he would extend his stay-at-home order another month starting April 1. He talked for well over a week about a mask-wearing requirement, always noting that he was being lobbied by Republican state Rep. Mark Batinick before finally announcing the order on April 23.
People did not always agree with him, but they always had a sense of where he was going. Pritzker did get out over his skis when his Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission dramatically altered the burden of proof on COVID-19 illnesses in favor of employees without so much as a heads-up to business groups. But most regular folks never noticed that and a court intervened and stopped the order anyway.
Otherwise, the governor did a remarkably good job of making sure the public was always aware in advance of his leadership direction.
And then on May 5 he announced his “Restore Illinois” roadmap to gradually reopen the state.
To be fair, Pritzker did say for days that he was looking at a more regionalized approach to the stay-at-home order. But then he sprung his plan on the state without adequately laying the groundwork. Everyone was most definitely sure to complain about a regional map no matter what it was. People will always find a way to say they should be in a different region, particularly near borders.
But the governor has yet to come up with an easily digestible explanation for why he drew the map the way he did and, in the process, he’s left the door open to municipalities to try and form their own regions.
For instance, Peoria’s mayor is backing a regionalization plan developed in concert with his county’s public health director, a trained epidemiologist. They’re not ignoring science in Peoria, as the governor has accused local officials of doing as they push to reopen in defiance of his order. The Peoria area is using actual epidemiology to make the case for their own map because Pritzker’s map and his overall scheme don’t get them where they want to go and when they believe they should get there.
More importantly, though, Restore Illinois broke with Pritzker’s battle plan of copying others’ work. New York’s reopening plan has 10 regions to Illinois’ five, though New York is only half again as populous as Illinois. People see that and understandably wonder why our regions are so big.
New York’s plan also relies on two-week intervals to move to the next stage, as do most other state plans that don’t throw open everyone’s doors right away. Illinois’ plan includes a 28-day metric for hospitalizations. That 28-day requirement for no overall increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations has understandably rubbed a whole lot of people the wrong way.
Pritzker has a nuanced explanation for this, but he’s struggled to get it across. I asked him last week for a succinct summation and he said his plan would allow the regions to move more quickly into the next phase than “under the metrics that the White House put forth.” But the White House essentially abandoned its two-week metrics the moment they were released. People are understandably focused on Pritzker’s four weeks.
I get the governor’s pitch, but I do this for a living and most people don’t. I am also no fan of reopening too fast. It makes me feel like we’ve gone through all of this for nothing and will have to do this all over again.
Anyway, Pritzker made the mistake of introducing brand new concepts into a process that had worked well for him and the state since March.
The governor could’ve accomplished the same ultimate goals with smaller regions and by sticking with two-week metrics, opening up a couple or three things in two weeks and then several more in another two weeks. Instead, Illinoisans, especially at our thousand-plus miles of borders, may understandably feel trapped while every one of our surrounding states are opening up.
If you can’t explain a surprise announcement in a sentence or two, then it’s too darned complicated and people won’t understand. The governor needs to get back to simple copycatting as soon as humanly possible.
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*** UPDATE *** I was wondering why there were no comments on this and then I realized I had turned them off because I was going to post this piece on Sunday and then decided to wait. Oops. Comments are now on. Sorry!
* From state statute…
The State Department of Public Health has general supervision of the interests of the health and lives of the people of the State. It has supreme authority in matters of quarantine and isolation, and may declare and enforce quarantine and isolation when none exists, and may modify or relax quarantine and isolation when it has been established. The Department may adopt, promulgate, repeal and amend rules and regulations and make such sanitary investigations and inspections as it may from time to time deem necessary for the preservation and improvement of the public health, consistent with law regulating the following […]
Sec. 8.1. Whoever violates or refuses to obey any rule or regulation of the Department of Public Health shall be deemed guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. The Director of Public Health shall institute prosecutions and proceedings for violation of the rules and regulations adopted by the Department of Public Health, provided that he may designate a local board of health or local health officer to institute prosecutions or proceedings for violation of those rules and regulations adopted by the Department. Each State’s Attorney shall prosecute all persons in his county violating or refusing to obey the rules and regulations of the Department of Public Health. All fines or judgments collected or received shall be paid to the County Treasurer of the county in which prosecution is conducted.
Keep that line about “Each State’s Attorney shall prosecute” in mind for future reference this week.
* So, what IDPH has now done is implement some emergency rules to clarify how the statute should be enforced during the pandemic…
1) Businesses and establishments that serve food or beverages, including, but not limited to, restaurants, food buffets, self-serve areas, bars, taverns, pubs, wineries, breweries, or beer gardens, that operate under a permit or license issued by the State or local health authority, shall not allow indoor on-site consumption of food or beverages. Service shall be limited to drive-through, delivery, curb-side, or pick up only. Businesses and establishments located in airports and hospitals are exempt from the requirements of this Section.
2) Businesses and establishments that offer indoor fitness, exercise, physical workout or non-medical wellness services, such as health clubs or centers, fitness clubs or centers, gyms, tennis clubs, swimming pools, shall not allow on-site indoor fitness, exercise, workout or non-medical wellness options to customers, including but not limited to, classes, personal training, or individual customer use of exercise equipment or facilities. Service shall be limited to the sale of retail goods via drive-through, delivery, or pick up only, or the use of exercise equipment or the indoor use of facilities for the recording and streaming of online classes and instructional videos only.
3) Businesses or establishments that offer cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology, barber, tanning, body art, or similar non-medical personal care services, treatments, procedures or therapies shall not provide on-site services. Service shall be limited to the sale of retail goods via drive- through, delivery, curb-side, or pick up only
Any person who violates the provisions of this Section shall be subject to the penalties set forth in Section 8.1 of the Act.
* Amanda Vinicky…
Members of Pritzker’s cabinet described it as a new and gentler “tool” that law enforcement can use to keep businesses closed during the coronavirus pandemic – and therefore keep people safe – that’s less severe than other options, like closure orders or stripping establishments of their liquor licenses. […]
Pritzker’s top attorney, Ann Spillane, admitted a misdemeanor charge could be seen as “intimidating,” especially if it was targeted at bartenders or servers. But because it’s instead aimed at businesses, she said there’s no threat of jail time and believes it’s a “less dramatic” step than some other alternatives.
She described the charge as “very mild, like a traffic ticket … nobody’s getting arrested or handcuffed. But they are getting a citation where they would have to go to court.” […]
But if business owners continue to refuse, the next steps would have been to issue a closure order – meaning the establishment would have to shut down completely, including for curbside and delivery orders – or pull an establishment’s liquor license.
Spillane described getting a misdemeanor charge as less severe, and an opportunity for businesses to “pause to say: ‘OK, we’re going to close, this is not worth it.’”
“It’s going almost an extra step because we don’t want bars and restaurants that can do delivery and pickup, we don’t want them to be missing out on that business,” she said. “As a business dealing with this, it is probably much less expensive in terms of getting a lawyer to help you with a misdemeanor than getting a lawyer to deal with a license revocation hearing, or a public health closing hearing.”
* But not everyone sees it that way…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) released the following statement on the emergency provisions filed that would charge businesses with a Class A misdemeanor for violating the Governor’s stay-at-home orders:
“These rules are a legal overreach and beyond the scope of the Governor’s authority. It will be a dark day in Illinois when we charge small businesses with a jailable crime for salvaging their livelihoods.”
* This emergency rule is actually what Rep. Darren Bailey’s and Rep. John Cabello’s attorney Thomas DeVore has said the state ought to be doing…
DeVore is alleging Pritzker does not have the authority to enforce his stay-at-home restrictions because that power rests with the state and local health departments. He is also alleging that if the state is using the law dictating how the Illinois Department of Public Health enforces the restrictions, it should follow the procedure outlined.
“Pritzker has perverted the emergency provisions of the (Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act) in an effort to rip the sacred responsibility of the health and lives of the people away from where the Legislature placed it, being local control of county health departments or the (IDPH), and in doing so he took complete control of the free movement of every citizen within the state of Illinois,” DeVore argued in a related lawsuit he filed on behalf of Republican Rep. John Cabello, from Machesney Park.
I assume the state will now use that very logic against Bailey in Clay County court this coming Friday.
* Still, expect an uproar on this in the days leading up to reconvening the General Assembly…
* From Rep. Cabello’s press release…
The rule changes also call for heavy fines and charges under a Class A Misdemeanor for any violators. Additionally, the rule under 20 ILCS 2305/2(k) states: “Any person who knowingly or maliciously disseminates any false information or report concerning the existence of any dangerously contagious or infectious disease in connection with the Department’s power of quarantine, isolation or closure order is guilty of a Class A Misdemeanor”.
“The Constitution of the United States is under siege here in Illinois,” Representative Cabello said. “We have a dictator Governor who is weaponizing our Department of Public Health to treat our citizens like criminals. The pure irony lies in the fact that the Governor is doing this at the same time that he is commuting sentences for murderers and rapists. The greatest danger today from the COVID-19 is the alternative universe that is being created here in Illinois.”
“People are resisting because they view the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan, and his general approach to the COVID-19 health crisis, as a hodgepodge of arbitrary rules and restrictions placed on citizens and businesses by a hypocritical leader,” Cabello added. “Recall the news stories about the Governor’s wife traveling to Florida while the rest of us are being told to lockdown. Now we are hearing that the Governor’s family has been up in Wisconsin too. In another case of irony those two states have been easing their restrictions.”
“I think our Governor needs to look in the mirror when he starts to criticize the people of Illinois for their lack of compliance and confidence in his approach to the COVID-19. Telling a family of four who just drove in the same car to the boat dock that only two of them at a time can be on a boat is not only stupid, it is just one example of things that undermine confidence in the way the entire issue is being handled. Perhaps the Governor should travel to Florida with his family next time and get some advice from their Governor,” Cabello concluded.
The “rule under 20 ILCS 2305/2(k)” doesn’t say that. The statute says that. And that particular statute went into effect on August 25, 2009.
* Related…
* Churches to reopen for Sunday service in defiance of Illinois’ stay-at-home order: Meanwhile, a northwest suburban church backed off its plan to host public services Sunday morning. Northwest Baptist Bible Church in Elgin said they were warned in a letter from the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office that they would face criminal enforcement of state health guidelines.
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* Keep in mind that weekend data reporting from the field is often on the low side. Here’s Saturday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,088 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 74 additional deaths.
- Clinton County: 1 female 60s
- Cook County: 2 males 30s, 2 males 40s, 4 females 50s, 3 males 50s, 4 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 5 females 70s, 7 males 70s, 8 females 80s, 7 males 80s, 4 females 90s, 2 males 90s, 3 females 100+, 1 male 100+
- DuPage County: 4 females 80s, 2 females 90s
- Jasper County: 1 female 90s
- Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s
- Lake County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 70s
- LaSalle County: 1 female 60s
- Madison County: 1 male 90s
- St. Clair County: 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
- Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 80s
- Winnebago County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 92,457 cases, including 4,129 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 23,047 specimens for a total of 561,649. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is 15%.
The Illinois Manteno Veterans’ Home (IVHM) is reporting the passing of a third resident with COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 63 individuals at IVHM have contracted COVID-19, including three cases who have passed away.
* Sunday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,734 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 51 additional deaths.
Cook County: 2 males 30s, 1 male 40s, 3 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 3 females 70s, 4 males 70s, 1 unknown 70s, 7 females 80s, 3 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 female 100+
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 female 90s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 90s
Kendall County: 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
Madison County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
McLean County: 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s
Stephenson County: 1 male 70s
Winnebago County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 94,191 cases, including 4,177 deaths, in 100 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 20,295 specimens for a total of 581,944. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate is 15%.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. Information for deaths and counties previously reported have changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted.
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* Saturday evening press release…
Statement from 115th District State Representative Terri Bryant on a possible massive data breach involving the private information of thousands of Illinois unemployment applicants.
“On Friday, May 15, 2020, a concerned constituent made me aware of a potential data breach at the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Through a series of just two clicks, this constituent stumbled upon the personal information of thousands of unemployment applicants on the IDES website. This came up in a spreadsheet with thousands of names containing sensitive information. The information she was able to access included the name, address, social security number, and unemployment claimant ID number of thousands of people.
My constituent was visibly shaken, and worried, and shared her discovery with me. My office immediately brought this to the attention of IDES officials and the Governor’s office. We have since demanded answers multiple times. I sent the Governor and the director of the IDES a letter earlier today demanding answers. As of now, the only official response I have received from the Governor’s office has been an email reply to my letter that said, “Thank you Representative. We are aware and fixing the problem.”
The people of Illinois deserve better!
Hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans are stressed and struggling! It is imperative that Governor Pritzker and his administration answer my questions immediately.
Here are the questions I asked:
1. Is IDES aware of any potential data breach involving the personal information of thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment?
2. Is Governor Pritzker or his staff aware of any potential breach involving the personal information of thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment?
3. How long was the personal information of unemployment applicants available for other applicants to see?
4. Has the problem been resolved? Is there any possibility that thousands of Illinoisans that have applied for unemployment assistance through the IDES website have had their identity compromised?
* From Jordan Abudayyeh…
IDES is aware there was a glitch in the new PUA system that made some private information publicly available for a short time and worked to immediately remedy the situation. A full investigation is under way to assess exactly what happened and how many people were impacted. Those who were impacted will be notified.
* IDES…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has confirmed a limited data access issue within the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) system. An analysis found that one PUA claimant was able to inadvertently access personal identifying information of a limited number of claimants. That claimant notified the Department of the issue and within an hour, it was corrected to prevent any future unauthorized access.
IDES has contracted with Deloitte to create and maintain the web-based PUA portal, which went live on Monday, May 11, and is working in partnership with the vendor to run a full-scale investigation into the matter while conducting additional testing to prevent any potential future occurrences. IDES will release results of the analysis once completed and notify anyone affected. IDES will also explore further remediation on the part of Deloitte upon completion of the investigation.
The Department encourages claimants to continue filing for unemployment benefits through the PUA portal if they are still in need or have not yet done so already. Though the system is only one week old, more than 50,000 claims have been processed through the PUA system. PUA provides 100% federally-funded unemployment benefits for individuals who are unemployed for specified COVID-19-related reasons and are not eligible for the state’s regular unemployment insurance program, the extended benefit (EB) program under Illinois law, or the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (PEUC), including independent contractors and sole-proprietors. Up to 39 weeks’ worth of benefits are potentially available under the program for COVID-19-related unemployment claims.
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Stay Safe Today, Be Vigilant For Tomorrow
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrust families and businesses in Illinois into crisis and put a spotlight on the costly and chaotic outcomes from delay in addressing global threats.
Illinois is hurting, families are in mourning, and people who have the least have been hit the hardest. Communities of color are bearing the brunt of the pandemic, suffering greater loss and greater financial strain.
We face unprecedented times, but Illinois is strong and will be ready to lead us through recovery with solutions that put the state back to work. As we emerge from this crisis, new and good-paying jobs will be key to the state’s recovery.
Our recovery will be strengthened by the diversity of the many voices and communities that make our state strong and resilient. Equitable job creation for all Illinois residents, in particular for those who have been hit the hardest during this crisis, will be critical to building a strong economy and strong communities.
The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition is committed to helping Illinois recover and building a better, cleaner, and more equitable future for us all and for generations to come.
For more information, visit ilcleanjobs.org.
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Open thread
Monday, May 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Devo is selling personal protective equipment…
More info here. I’m coming around to the idea of wearing a face shield. But I doubt I’ll get one made out of Devo’s “energy dome.”
Anyway, keep it Illinois-centric and be polite, please.
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