* I’ve been hearing all day that the governor’s “Fair Tax” TV ad blitz is finally starting soon. Well, Comcast’s latest political issue buy report is out and Vote Yes For Fairness has purchased $75K over five days starting tomorrow. Click here.
I gotta figure that broadcast TV will also be announced and that the $75K is a drop in the bucket. Pritzker deposited $51.5 million into the Vote Yes For Fairness account in June.
We’ll have to see what the other side does and when. There are those who believe that waiting to go up on the air has been a mistake. But, again, we’ll see.
*** UPDATE *** The Illinois Opportunity Project has contributed $300,000 to a committee called Say No to More Taxes, which the IOP appears to control. The IOP was co-founded by Dan Proft, who has since moved on to a full-time radio career.
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* The governor held a press conference to announce this breakthrough today…
The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is now performing its new rapid, saliva-based COVID-19 test under the umbrella of an approved FDA Emergency Use Authorization. The CLIA-certified lab at the U. of I. performed a bridging study to a recently approved FDA EUA, showing that the Illinois test performs at least as well as the recently approved saliva-testing protocol.
“Direct saliva testing can address bottlenecks of time, cost and supplies. Our test also has unique features that enable fast and frequent testing on a large scale, and we are now working together with many partners to make our testing method broadly available as soon as possible,” said Dr. Martin Burke, a chemistry professor who helped to design the test. Burke also is the associate dean for research at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and a medical doctor.
“Today’s news puts the University of Illinois and the entire state of Illinois on the cutting edge of testing innovation on a national level. And let me just say to President Killeen, the State of Illinois looks forward to being your biggest customer,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “If ongoing research continues to yield positive results, this has potentially game-changing implications for our statewide testing program as well as for testing on a national level. I’m so proud — but not at all surprised — to see this type of groundbreaking work come out of our own University of Illinois and I want to applaud President Killeen and the entire research and development team at University of Illinois for this achievement.”
“This pioneering technology is a game-changer that will help safeguard lives and livelihoods across the country,” said Tim Killeen, the president of the University of Illinois System. “It is one of many breakthroughs that the U. of I. System’s world-class researchers have contributed to the battle against COVID-19, a battle that we are proud to help lead.”
Unlike most coronavirus tests, which involve a long, invasive nasopharyngeal swab, the Illinois-developed saliva test, called I-COVID, asks those tested to drool a small amount into a sterile test tube. The I-COVID test yields results in hours, even at high testing volumes: The U. of I. has performed more than 50,000 tests since making walk-up testing available to faculty members, staff and students in July, and expects to test up to 20,000 people a day when the fall semester begins Aug. 24.
“Once somebody is infected, the amount of virus in their system can rise very rapidly. Unless we have a test that can give them results very quickly, by the time somebody finds out they are infected, they will have spread the virus,” said Rebecca Lee Smith, a professor of pathobiology at Illinois. “The faster we can notify people, the faster we can stop the spread.”
The Illinois protocol has one key element that makes it uniquely suited for large-scale adoption, said Paul Hergenrother, a chemistry professor who helped to develop the test. “We inactivate the virus without opening any tubes. The samples are immediately inactivated at 95 C for 30 minutes. That makes it very safe for the workers in the diagnostic lab,” he said.
Testing is only one part of the strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers note. The university has developed SHIELD, a three-pronged “target, test, tell” system that incorporates testing with data reporting, modeling and a smartphone app, working closely with the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District for contract tracing and isolation for individuals who test positive. The University of Illinois System recently announced the formation of SHIELD T3, aimed at making the testing and data technology broadly available.
Any other CLIA-certified labs that would like to use the I-COVID protocol can perform similar bridging studies to the FDA EUA granted to Yale School of Public Health.
“The bridge to FDA Emergency Use Authorization is extremely exciting and important news for all of us in this pandemic,” said Robert J. Jones, the chancellor of the Urbana campus. “This is a critical new tool that we believe will let communities scale up their COVID-19 testing capabilities more rapidly in ways that are more affordable. We’re proud to be the university that is home to a huge team of amazingly dedicated and talented researchers who came together so quickly to move this test from concept to use approval in just a matter of months.”
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* Earlier…
Board members of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol will take up a request from the Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to replace imagery of political giant Stephen Douglas and Illinois pioneer Pierre Menard because of their racist pasts.
Madigan called for replacing statues and paintings of the two in July, inspired by the racially charged killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and a nationwide movement to remove Confederate symbols.
* Latest…
* Finke…
Architect of the Capitol Andrea Aggertt said the statues will be removed to a secure storage area maintained by the state. The granite bases on which the statues are mounted will also be removed and saved for possible future use. The locations where the statues were placed will be sodded.
The cost of the work hasn’t been determined, nor has a company been selected to do it.
“Obviously we want to hire someone who is skilled in the removal and boxing the statue, safe transport to take those items to our off-site storage,” Aggertt said.
She said the goal is to have the statues removed by winter.
* Press release…
Senate President Don Harmon released the following statement after the board of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol voted to remove statues of Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard from the Capitol grounds:
“The decision to remove these statues and give Dr. King’s statue a rightful place on the Capitol grounds is certainly a step in the right direction. It is also the beginning of what I hope to be a longer conversation about how we can do better to accurately represent our state’s past. I thank members of our caucus for bringing these concerns to light.”
Nothing from Madigan yet.
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Simple solutions are usually neither
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This is a common and habitual demand by grandstanders…
Four Chicago aldermen have filed notice to force a special meeting of the City Council later this week to address looting and call for the National Guard to be deployed. […]
“Losing Chicago’s downtown and business districts should have never happened,” [Ald. Ray Lopez] said in a news release. “We need to suppress all looting and rioting the minute it begins but we cannot do so at the expense and safety of other districts and neighborhoods. The time to act is now.”
* Um, the city has 13,000 police officers…
The city budgeted nearly $1.8 billion for the Chicago Police Department in 2020, according to Chicago’s budget overview. Chicago’s is the second-largest police department in the U.S. with more than 13,000 officers, according to its most recent annual report.
The city’s 2020 budget also set aside $153 million for legal settlements. In 2018, the city spent approximately $113 million to settle police misconduct cases.
That’s about 50 percent more police personnel per capita than the average for cities over 25,000 and twice as many per capita than Houston.
* And the Illinois National Guard doesn’t want these sorts of assignments…
“We’re not law enforcement officers,” [Air Force Brig. Gen. Richard Neely, the Illinois adjutant general] told the Tribune after the Guard’s mission ended earlier this summer without incident. “As guardsmen, we’re military. We go to war and we do not need to go to war in our cities. … It was important to me (troops) were not putting their hands on civilians. So we didn’t do riot control and some of those other missions. We focused on supporting law enforcement, allowing them to do the things they’re best trained to do.”
The Guard is not a rapid-response crime-fighting outfit.
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* From earlier in the week…
Vernon Township today called on the Lake County Board to install a secure collection site at the early voting location in Vernon Township.
“It is the consensus of the Vernon Township Board that mobile drop-off locations for vote by mail and absentee ballots are an essential component of guaranteeing a free and fair election in November,” said Vernon Township Supervisor Jonathan Altenberg. “This is even more critical given the recent announcement by the U.S. Postal Service that it cannot guarantee ballots cast by mail for the November elections will arrive on time, possibly disqualifying votes.”
“The continuing COVID-19 crisis is creating fear among our citizens to be present at physical polling places both during early voting sessions and on election day,” continued Altenberg. “The Trump Administration’s continued attempts to undermine the basic operations of the U.S. Postal Service during the election has many in our community fearful their vote by mail ballots will not be counted if residents use the U.S. Postal Service which could have limited or non-existing capacity. The very integrity of our democracy hinges on the ability of our citizens to vote, and this ability is in question.”
Because of these concerns, the Vernon Township Board is kindly requesting that secure collection sites be installed at all early voting locations, including Vernon Township’s William E. Peterson Park building, with the following stipulations:
• The secure collection sites are securely affixed to the ground or to a building to avoid pilferage.
• The secure collection sites are securely locked to avoid tampering.
• The site be monitored either electronically or physically during certain drop off times.
• The secure collection site will allow for citizens to submit their ballots without having to leave their cars. (I.e., a system much like a postal mail box.)
• The boxes be emptied and secured daily at the close of polling places during early voting and on election day.
* Daily Herald…
Lake County will install 16 or 17 drop boxes for ballots at early voting sites, Chief Deputy Clerk Todd Govain said. The locations haven’t yet been finalized.
Here’s what they look like in McHenry County…
* Back to the Daily Herald…
More than 50 drop boxes for mail-in ballots will be installed throughout suburban Cook County. Sites will include the village halls in Arlington Heights, Barrington Hills, Elk Grove Village, Glenview, Hoffman Estates, Mount Prospect, Northbrook and Streamwood, as well as libraries in Des Plaines and Wheeling.
Two drop boxes will be securely installed at the DuPage County complex in Wheaton — one in the parking lot and one inside, Chief Deputy Clerk Adam Johnson said. Additionally, nearly 300 drop boxes will be placed at all early voting locations and Election Day polling places in the county, Johnson said. […]
Although his office is installing drop boxes for ballots, Kane County’s Cunningham thinks the issue has become political and is overblown. He’s confident in the postal service’s ability to deliver ballots on time and said a postal worker told him the expected increase in mailed ballots will be no worse than the extra business the agency gets at Christmas.
“They think they’re going to be able to handle it,” Cunningham said.
The concerns may be overblown, but always remember that people will say they want cuts until cuts happen, and then they hate cuts.
And on a purely political level, if the public thinks you’re responsible for the cuts, then people are gonna blame you every time their mail delivery is messed up. And even prior to any announced and unannounced cuts, the prospects of something wrong happening with the mail were pretty darned good because literally every household receives mail.
This was the wrong fight to pick at the absolute worst possible time, which is why they’ve seemed to back off. Even so…
* Related…
* Election Officials Plan For Influx of Mail-In Ballots With New Ballot Return Options: Chicago’s election agency plans to allow voters to drop off their mail-in ballots at all early voting sites starting in mid-October. In Champaign County, the county clerk plans to have up to six drop boxes for voters to put their ballots in through Election Day. In Morgan County in central Illinois, voters can return their ballots in a drop box set up for property taxes and traffic ticket payments when the county building was all but shut down at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
* Is Illinois Prepared for Mail-In Voting Boom? We Ask County Clerks
* Glenview Installing Ballot Drop Box For November Election - The Cook County Clerk’s Office announced Tuesday there will be more than 50 drop boxes around Cook County
* Winnebago County voters will be able to use drop box for ballots
* Sangamon County Democrats demand, Gray considering, use of ballot drop-boxes
* Vote by mail could be a mess, but not for the reasons President Trump says
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,295 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
- Cook County: 1 male 20s, 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 3 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
- DeKalb County: 1 female 80s
- Jefferson County: 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- Knox County: 1 female 80s
- LaSalle County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
- Madison County: 1 female 80s
- Morgan County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s
- St. Clair County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 70s
- Wabash County: 1 female 60s
- Will County: 1 male 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 211,889 cases, including 7,806 deaths, in 102 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 50,299 specimens for a total of 3,489,571. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from August 12 – August 18 is 4.4%. As of last night, 1,519 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 334 patients were in the ICU and 144 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*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. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
Also, the Metro East’s positivity rate is still rising.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Your daily Big Jim post
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From a column I wrote a month after Bruce Rauner took office…
Every governor over the past 25 years—Republican and Democrat—has learned a lesson from Gov. Jim Thompson.
Every governor except one.
Running for re-election in 1982, Thompson was in the fight of his political life, and the Republican speaker of the House was making things worse.
Illinois had plunged into recession under Republican President Ronald Reagan, and Thompson was running against a household name, former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III.
Then, House Speaker George Ryan of Kankakee allowed an anti-union “right to work” bill to move to the House floor. Organized labor was furious. Thousands of workers gathered on the Statehouse lawn in June to angrily denounce Ryan. Thompson was met with a resounding chorus of boos when he took the stage.
But those boos turned to cheers when Thompson vowed to veto the bill. He then invited the crowd to the governor’s mansion for free beer.
In the November election, the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed Stevenson against Thompson. But the incumbent received crucial backing from several individual unions after Stevenson suggested things like replacing unionized highway workers with prison inmates.
Thompson defeated Stevenson by just 5,000 votes. His speech and a sharply divided labor movement were crucial to his success—even though Ryan, whom the unions despised, had become his running mate.
After the election, Thompson signed a bill to legalize collective bargaining for state employee unions. He interceded in contract negotiations to break an impasse, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed his 1986 re-election bid, followed quickly by an AFL-CIO endorsement.
Every governor since then has learned the Thompson lesson: Keep state workers happy.
Well, every governor except the current one. We’ll get to him in a moment.
What ended up happening was that union contracts got better and better for the employees. Republican Govs. Jim Edgar and Ryan were kind to the unions. And AFSCME claimed that Gov. Rod Blagojevich negotiated the most generous contract in the nation. Union negotiations in 2010 were satisfactory enough that AFSCME immediately endorsed Pat Quinn after the talks ended and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaign.
Gov. Bruce Rauner deems this history “corrupt.” Quite a few people agree with him. The gazillionaire governor also claims that the millions of dollars he contributed to his own campaign last year and the millions he raised from his billionaire buddies are exercises in “freedom of speech.”
But you can’t on the one hand claim that contributions from billionaires are a constitutional right and on the other hand claim that contributions from working people are corrupt.
Plus, despite all this alleged “corruption,” Rauner won the election. The balance of power has substantially shifted.
His recent attempt to withhold some dues from the unions via executive order probably won’t succeed any time soon. Attorney General Lisa Madigan says Rauner is up against established case law and intends to fight him. Based on Madigan’s legal opinion, Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Rauner appointee, has said she won’t follow the order, effectively nullifying it.
Governors aren’t the only folks who learned from Jim Thompson. Legislators did, too. So, it’s highly doubtful the Democratic-controlled General Assembly will join any fight to undermine public employees’ legal rights.
A more adversarial relationship would be good for taxpayers in the short and the long run. But being adversarial is far different from this comically futile vow to destroy the other side. This could easily backfire and hurt everything else Rauner wants to do.
I asked the former governor what he thought of the current governor’s attacks on the unions. Thompson refused to criticize a sitting governor but said I was free to use any of his past comments.
Here’s one from 2013: “You can disagree with AFSCME, you can disagree with the teachers, you can disagree with other public employee unions without demonizing unions.”
…Adding… Pretty sure I’ve told you this before, but I watched a film of that “right to work” speech in college and it was a masterful performance that has stayed with me ever since.
Thompson was greeted by thunderous booing, but quickly calmed things by saying “Where’s Local (whatever number) from (whatever town)?” The union local members hollered and clapped and the whole tone changed. And by the time he announced that he would veto the bill, he had them eating out of the palms of his hands. I’ve never seen anything like it. That took real guts and real skill.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Pritzker just announced that the state has set up an electronic guestbook where you can sign your name and share your memories. Click here.
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* US News…
The most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 41% of respondents have faced mental health challenges related to COVID-19 and steps taken to combat the pandemic, including social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
Taken from June 24-30, about one-third of respondents, or 31%, said they were experiencing anxiety or depression symptoms. Thirteen percent said they had started or increased substance use and 26% said they were experiencing trauma or stress-related disorder symptoms.
Eleven percent of respondents said they had seriously considered suicide in 30 days prior to the survey. […]
Respondents 18 to 24 years old were most likely to suffer mentally from the pandemic, with 75% of the age group saying they had at least one adverse mental or behavioral health symptom. About half, or 52%, of people aged 25 to 44 years old said the same. […]
Suicidal thoughts were higher in minority racial and ethnic groups. Nearly 19% of Hispanic respondents reported suicidal ideations and 15% of non-Hispanic Black respondents said the same.
About 22% of essential workers and 31% of unpaid caregivers also reported seriously considering suicide in the 30 days prior to the survey.
The CDC report is here.
* Rosalynn Carter brought up the challenges facing unpaid caregivers during her and her husband’s DNC presentation last night…
We’ve known and admired Joe and Jill for many years, and most recently have worked with them on tackling the demands faced by the more than 53 million unpaid caregivers in our country who are juggling work and other family responsibilities and putting their own physical and mental health and well-being at risk.
How are you and yours holding up?
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Because… Madigan!
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Joe Cahill…
To eradicate corruption once and for all, Illinois must prevent the rise of another Madigan.
Some of the ideas he proposes are pretty good, but that seems like just a wee bit of an over-promise.
* Chicago Tribune editorial board…
Illinois lawmakers from both sides of the aisle recently announced support for ethics reforms — this, after Democrats who control both chambers left Springfield in May without passing any.
But there’s a major plank missing from the proposals: Removing House Speaker Michael Madigan now.
The Republicans and some Democrats would beg to differ.
* Um…
Maybe that’s what caused the delayed response, although the question was simply read aloud and not directed at any one person on the call…
Although an all-virtual Democratic National Convention has led to a few awkward moments as party leaders adapt to a new web-based format, there weren’t any technical glitches behind an uncomfortable pause Tuesday afternoon as top Illinois Democrats were asked a pointed question about embattled Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. […]
That changed at the end of a virtual news conference previewing the second night of the convention for the Illinois delegation, when a spokeswoman for Madigan relayed a question from NBC-5 political editor Carol Marin to a panel that included U.S. Representatives Robin Kelly and Jan Schakowsky, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Mary Morrissey, executive director of the state Democratic Party.
Beyond the ComEd case, Marin asked if Madigan should step down “given also his admitted failings” in a sexual harassment scandal that rocked Springfield two years ago.
A full 13 seconds passed before Kelly offered the conditional chiding of Madigan that most prominent Illinois Dems have stuck to since federal prosecutors announced the ComEd case a month ago.
Comptroller Mendoza also spoke up.
I watched on BlueRoomStream.com and there were no technical glitches.
Bottom line, if DPI wants to do these things, they ought to either allow reporters to name a pool reporter or just open it up to questions on Zoom.
* Related…
* Architect of the Capitol to take up issue of Douglas statue: Board members of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol will take up a request from the Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan to replace imagery of political giant Stephen Douglas and Illinois pioneer Pierre Menard because of their racist pasts.
* Illinois lawmakers call for ethics reform: In the wake of the ComEd scandal involving House Speaker Michael Madigan, there have been a number of legislators who are now talking about ethics reforms in Illinois. State Reps. Blaine Wilhour, John Cabello, Darren Bailey, and Brad Halbrook held a press conference Tuesday calling for reform.
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* Background is here if you need it. Here’s Dan Mihalopoulos…
Commonwealth Edison got a temporary reprieve from its due date to pay the first installment of a $200 million fine in a federal corruption case Monday.
The delay came after a Chicago lawyer argued ComEd — which is supposed to pay the fine to the U.S. treasury — should instead pay back electricity-delivery customers who were victims of the power company’s long-running Springfield bribery scheme. […]
In a court hearing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu defended prosecutors’ deal with the power company and opposed any effort to divert fine money from the federal treasury in order to pay ComEd’s customers.
“This motion is completely without merit,” Bhachu said in the hearing before U.S. District Judge John Kness.
But Bhachu said Monday the government would take action to “maintain the status quo,” suggesting that no money would go into the federal treasury before Kness rules on Stewart’s motion.
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Open thread
Wednesday, Aug 19, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Here’s something to get you started…
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* WTVO…
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health have won an injunction against three school districts who said they did not need to mandate face masks for in-person learning this year.
Pritzker filed a preemptive lawsuit in July to ensure school children wear face coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A lawyer representing Hutsonville Community Unit School District No. 1 in southeastern Illinois, Parkview Christian Academy in Yorkville and Families of Faith Christian Academy in Channahon wrote letters in the last month to the state board explaining that the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in a 1922 case that government cannot make rules “which merely have a tendency to prevent” the spread of infectious diseases, particularly if “arbitrary and unreasonable.”
Thomas DeVore of Greenville also noted that Pritzker has said there’s not enforcement for violators of the guidelines, which DeVore contended turns “rules” into “recommendations.” He did not return a message left at his office after hours [Tuesday].
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USPS backs off cuts
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Capitol News Illinois…
Operational shifts undertaken by the United States Postal Service in recent weeks, including spending cuts and equipment removal, are illegal, Illinois’ top lawyer and 13 other attorneys general argued in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
By terminating workers’ overtime, eliminating a number of mail sorting machines, removing several mailboxes and rescheduling the delivery of some late-day mail, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is subverting the national election this year, the officials added. […]
Before the Postal Service is allowed to implement procedural changes that affect all Americans, officials must submit them for approval to the Postal Regulatory Commission, according to the lawsuit. That panel then accepts public feedback and makes a determination.
DeJoy did not do that, the attorneys general assert, thus operating outside the scope of his power. The lawyers are asking a federal judge to prevent the nation’s mail delivery agency from reducing services and to force DeJoy to undo all other recent changes.
This has been a huge national news story for the past several days. The union representing workers did a remarkable job of getting the word out as its members’ overtime hours were being cut and the president raged at the USPS. From yesterday…
Mayor Lori Lightfoot cast President Donald Trump and Republicans as “enemies of democracy” who are mounting a “full-out assault” on the integrity of the November election by undermining the U.S. Postal Service and making it more difficult for people to vote by mail amid a pandemic.
Last week…
Gov. JB Pritzker commented on President Donald Trump addressing issues with the United States Postal Service.
Trump said he opposes funding for the service because he doesn’t want to see it used for mail-in voting.
The governor countered Trump, reiterating that the state of Illinois is expanding mail-in voting and they are doing everything they can to make sure everyone gets the chance to cast their vote in the presidential election.
“This president appears to do anything to try to win the reelection, including taking away people’s voting rights in the midst of a pandemic,” Pritzker said. “We need to have mail-in voting available to everybody. We need the postal service to work like it has for the entire history of our country.”
* So far, I’ve heard zero complaints about any issues from campaigns about direct mail. And I’ve heard nothing yet from any county clerks about particular USPS issues. Indeed, when the Champaign County Clerk goofed (for the umpteenth time now) and printed the wrong Zip Code on return envelopes for vote by mail applications, the local postmaster said it was no big deal and the mail would be delivered. Also, Jack Shafer had a really good piece this week about how much of this was overblown…
It’s true that the USPS has sent letters to 46 states expressing its doubts about delivering all the ballots in time to be counted. But, as the Washingtonn Post also mentioned in its story, those letters were in the works before Trump’s new postmaster general took office. It’s also true the USPS needs billions of dollars from Congress, which Trump made noise about vetoing. But that has little to do with delivering ballots for the election, as he implied on Fox. It’s Trump’s particular genius for pulling together unrelated things that has liberals and election wonks in a tizzy. […]
The USPS’s capacity to deliver mail is immense, at an average of 472 million mailpieces a day. If every voter of the 138 million who voted in 2016 posted his ballot on the same day this year, that would compose only 30 percent of a normal day’s delivery. And that surge won’t happen; every voter casting a ballot outside his local polling precinct isn’t going to use USPS and not every voter who does is going to mail his ballot on the same day. […]
What about those vanishing USPS mail collection boxes? As it turns out, the USPS has been culling the boxes since 2000, when their numbers peaked and 365,000 of them stood sentinel on U.S. streets. Today, their numbers have dwindled to 142,000. Why has the USPS deleted them? Because the volume of first-class has nose-dived. In 2010, the USPS delivered 77.6 billion pieces of first-class mail, but by 2019 that number was 54.9 billion. Reduced volume makes it cost-inefficient to collect from so many scantly used boxes, so USPS has done the logical thing and removed them. (That’s why the USPS removed those mail-processing machines, too.) […]
Another thing to remember is Trump’s propensity for making big threats and then retreating. After he fed his base a slaughterhouse-sized meal of red meat by claiming he was going to impede voting by withholding billions of dollars from the USPS, he quickly reversed himself and said he won’t veto relief legislation just because it will fund the Postal Service. By Monday afternoon, he was tweeting “SAVE THE POST OFFICE!”
* Even so, the pressure seems to have worked…
The U.S. Postal Service will halt its controversial cost-cutting initiatives until after the election — canceling service reductions, reinstating overtime hours and ceasing the removal of mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced in a statement Tuesday.
The declaration comes as lawmakers prepared to question DeJoy and USPS board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan in a Friday hearing in the Senate and at a Monday hearing in the House on those policy changes, which have caused mail slowdowns and threatened to jeopardize ballot collection during the November election.
DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, took office in June and swiftly made organizational changes to the nation’s mail service, cracking down on overtime hours and banning extra trips by postal carriers trying to ensure on-time mail delivery. The result was mail delays in localities across the country that ensnared prescription medications and election mail during some mid-summer primaries.
The Postal Service also planned to take 671 mail-sorting machines, roughly 10 percent of its inventory, offline to cut costs, and had in recent days removed, relocated and replaced public mailboxes in a number of states including Oregon, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Montana and Arizona, among others.
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It’s just a bill
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Center Square…
As cities across the state see less revenue in the aftermath of the months-long COVID-19 shutdown orders, some are looking at pushing local pension payments out by a decade to get some “breathing room.”
Illinois Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole said they’ll be opposing any additional unfunded mandates. One mandate he said they want to be changed is moving the pension ramp out 10 years to 2050.
“There’s no way they’re going to be able to make those heightened payments, so we need a little bit of breathing room and we’ve asked the general assembly to provide that through a re-amortization of the public safety pension funds,” Cole said. “We hope that is something they’ll consider during the veto session” […]
“We can either kick the can down the road and make the payments or stop kicking the can, declare bankruptcy and start defaulting on the obligations that are due to the pension recipients,” Cole said. “We’re not kicking the can down the road. We’re refinancing so we can continue to make payments.”
* Chicago Reader…
Republicans in Springfield have introduced two bills that would put members of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police on the commission that reviews torture allegations against former police commander Jon Burge and other cops accused of torture.
The bills have flown under the radar and have struggled to gain momentum since they were introduced earlier this year in the Illinois House and Senate. They are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled legislature, especially at a time when police are facing so much scrutiny.
But the push to reshape the torture commission, even if it is unsuccessful, is another example of the police union and its political allies fighting efforts to expose police abuse and trying to control the narrative around police violence. […]
The House bill, HB4283, would add two sworn officers from the Fraternal Order of Police to the panel and would require a seven-vote supermajority for the commission to refer a torture claim to the courts. The Senate bill, SB3557, would replace all three of the commission’s public-at-large members with members of the FOP. […]
Already, two of the three commission spots reserved for the public are held by people who used to work for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office: Tim Touhy, a former spokesperson, and Marilyn Baldwin, a former victim-witness advocate.
While House Republican Leader Jim Durkin’s bill specifically reserves two seats for Chicago FOP members, the Senate bill would apply to people who are “members of a law enforcement organization representing law enforcement officers in a county of more than 3,000,000 inhabitants.” Neither bill has an advanced even a click.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sports editor at the Hobbs, New Mexico News-Sun…
Paging Rep. Bailey! Rep. Bailey!
* The Question: New Illinois motto?
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* Last November…
State Rep. Curtis Tarver II (D-Chicago) was arrested Monday night in the Woodlawn section of Chicago and charged with carrying a weapon with an invalid concealed carry license (CCL), according to Chicago police.
Replying to an inquiry from Chicago City Wire, the CPD Office of Communications said that at approximately 8:32 p.m. on November 18 officers on patrol in the 6500 block of South Stony Island Avenue stopped a vehicle with a broken headlight. They asked the driver, whom they identified as Curtis Tarver, 38, if there were weapons in the vehicle.
“The driver handed officers a weapon that was in the vehicle, as well as a concealed carry license,” a CPD communications officer wrote in an email. “Further investigation revealed the license was revoked. The subject was taken into custody and charged accordingly.”
Tarver and (later) the CPD both claimed the matter was a simple clerical error on the part of the police.
* So, keep in mind when reading the rest of this that Rep. Tarver had a perfectly valid concealed carry license that even the police say he handed to them when he was stopped (by, as it turns out, six police cars). The question was whether his FOID card had expired. It hadn’t. And yet he was cuffed to a bench for nearly seven hours.
Press release today…
State Rep. Curtis J. Tarver II released the following statement Wednesday after charges against him of an expired concealed carry license were dropped:
“On November 18, 2019, after being subjected to a routine traffic stop originally for having a nonfunctioning headlight, I was arrested for allegedly not having a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID) which would have triggered the revocation of my Concealed Carry License (CCL). At the time of my arrest my FOID as well as my CCL were both valid through the years 2029 and 2024 respectively. This update was not reflective within the Chicago Police Department (CPD)’s database unbeknownst to me.”
“Although the possession of my disclosed firearm was legal, I was subjected to unjust treatment by CPD officers, which included being pulled over by six police cars in my district and being handcuffed to bench for nearly seven hours.”
“Against CPD policy, I was demanded to hand my firearm to an officer. I continued to explain that this must have been a clerical error, as I was in legal possession of my firearm. Despite this explanation I was transported the 4th District police station, where one of the officers tried to persuade me into ‘taking this charge.’ It wasn’t until 2 a.m. when my sister, who is also an attorney, told them I was a lawyer and also formerly worked for the department that investigates police misconduct that they finally allowed me to speak with anyone after being denied a proper phone call.
“Ironically after learning of my profession, less than 15 minutes later I was released on bond after multiple hours of unfair and unjust treatment. Before I could be released I was forced to remove my sweatshirt to ensure that any visible tattoos I have would be present in my mugshot.”
“Experiences such as these shows the fallacies within the conduct of CPD. As a Black man from the Southside of Chicago, I am not looked at as an Illinois state representative during these interactions with law enforcement. I hate to imagine what could have happened that day if I was not fully knowledgeable of my constitutional rights, and what many of my constituents may be coerced with while interacting with law enforcement.”
“These charges being dropped vindicates my innocence, which I have always maintained, due to the clerical error within the database. I take considerable efforts to ensure that I am always in compliance with our state’s laws and following safe practice for handling a firearm. I am committed to solving issues relating to gun violence, illegal sales of firearms, and strengthening background checks. I look forward to continuing this work for the communities I represent.”
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,740 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 27 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 1 female 40s, 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 unknown 80s, 2 males 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 70s
Jefferson County: 1 female 80s, 1 unknown 90s
Kane County: 1 male 80s
Kankakee County: 1 male 80s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
LaSalle County: 1 female 70s
Madison County: 1 male 80s
Morgan County: 1male 90s
Perry County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
St. Clair County: 1 male 60s
Will County: 1 female 90s, 1 male 100+
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 209,594 cases, including 7,782 deaths, in 102 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 34,175 specimens for a total of 3,439,272. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from August 11 – August 17 is 4.3%. As of last night, 1,510 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 335 patients were in the ICU and 128 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*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 previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at
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* Bloomberg…
Is there anything the government can say to get people to wear masks during a pandemic? There’s one message that had some positive effect, at least in Illinois.
A recent survey of more than than 2,000 state residents offered respondents five different messages and gauged whether they made people more or less likely to wear a mask in public, as compared to a control group that saw no message. Comparing masks to helmets and seatbelts was the only message that had a positive impact on people’s decisions. […]
About 92% of respondents who were shown the message that compared masks to helmets and seatbelts were likely to wear a mask, compared to 89% of the respondents in the control group. A 3 percentage point increase may not seem like much, but Civis says messages like these tend to have a lower effect for issues that people have already been highly exposed to. “People have heard so much about it that their opinions are strongly held,” Crystal Son, health care analytics director at Civis, said in an email. “Given the saturation of messaging around Covid and masks, a 3 [percentage point] treatment effect is both statistically significant and meaningful.” […]
The worst-performing message showed the World Health Organization finding that masks may reduce Covid-19 spread by 85% and included text that began, “The science is clear.” That strategy led to a 3 percentage point decrease in mask-wearing likelihood as compared to the control group. The other message with a negative effect showed images of people wearing masks with text over it that read, “If it gets us out, we’re all in,” with smaller text explaining that wearing a mask lets people get out of the house. Messages invoking a potential second wave of coronavirus and the risk of infecting elderly family members had neutral effects.
The researchers also broke down the responses regionally. In areas outside of northeast Illinois and the Chicago metro area, the comparison to seatbelts and helmets had an even greater effect, increasing mask-wearing by 5 percentage points. It was also more effective in rural areas, showing a similar increase of 5 percentage points, compared to 3 percentage points among urban and and suburban areas. The four other messages, however, were no more effective among any of these groups.
The full poll is here. The poll was paid for by Civis, which is helping the administration with its response.
* They tested five messages…
As you know, the first one tested best and they’re using it. That one also had a projected “backlash probability” of just 3 percent. The “85 percent” message had the highest backlash probability, at a whopping 90 percent.
There’s more, so click here.
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* Today, new COVID-19 restrictions are imposed on Region 4, which covers the Metro East. Click here for more info. There are exceptions, though. Here’s Molly Parker with one…
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is located in Region 4. But Doug McIlhagga, SIU Edwardsville spokesman, said the campus was informed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education that reducing the number of people who may gather from 50 to 25 people in the Metro East does not apply to classrooms.
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* Sun-Times…
With attendance down to a trickle due to the pandemic, officials at Chicago’s Navy Pier said Tuesday the lakefront attraction will close Sept. 8 and will not reopen until next spring.
The decision means more than 70 local businesses that operate at the pier must close. Major attractions such as the Ferris wheel and the Chicago Children’s Museum already are closed.
Navy Pier CEO Marilynn Gardner said the attraction is facing a $20 million deficit this year because of lost business due to COVID-19. The pier closed March 16 and reopened June 10, but has seen summer attendance at less than 20% of normal rates.
“While this was a very difficult decision for the organization, it was a necessary one to proactively ensure the long-term success of one of Chicago’s most treasured and important civic institutions and the communities it serves,” Gardner said.
* Tribune…
Closing as the weather turns colder and visitorship typically decreases will help the pier limit its losses in a year when the not-for-profit entity was already projecting falling $20 million short of anticipated revenues. That’s more than a third of last year’s $58.9 million take, according to the executive. […]
One new business may open, however. The new 222-room Sable Hotel atop an existing pier building is nearing completion, and pier officials said it could go ahead and open while the rest of the pier is closed, according to Robert Habeeb, CEO of Maverick Hotels and Restaurants, the developer of the property that will operate under the Curio Collection by Hilton umbrella.
“As of today our goal is to open the hotel on time Nov. 1,” Habeeb said Monday evening, although he emphasized that, as with everything during the pandemic, plans are subject to revision.
“We understand their rationale for closing,” he added, speaking of pier officials. “It’s a very sad circumstance for all of us, but we get it. We now have to step back and assess our own position.”
Who’s gonna want to stay at a Navy Pier hotel if the pier is closed?
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* Nick Vlahos at the PJStar…
During the ‘82 WIU homecoming game, [Gov. Jim Thompson] Thompson sipped peppermint schnapps from a toilet plunger, the [United Press International] report stated. He also received a kiss from a bearded female impersonator named “Candie,” who left a lipstick stain on the governor’s cheek.
It made good Thompson’s pregame promise to “join all you party animals at halftime,” UPI reported. The governor apparently turned down several toilet-plunger offers before he relented. […]
“You’ve got to remember, Western is kind of an unruly school,” Thompson told the [Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library during a 2014 interview]. “The group started towards us, and I said, ‘Who are they?’ These big guys in dresses, wigs, holding the plunger came right at the (university) president and I.
“I thought to myself, oh, no, no, no, no, no. It’s one thing to be handed a beer, it’s another thing to be drinking out of a toilet plunger. So I refused, and they finally went away.”
The next day, the story broke about what or what didn’t take place in the Hanson Field stands. Thompson said it was “ginned up by Adlai.”
“It was just not true,” the governor said. “My wife came down, and I said, ‘Listen, before you read this story in the paper, let me explain.’ And I didn’t know whether she believed me or not, since she was inclined to think that I might have done something stupid like that. But I didn’t.
“I did a lot of stupid things, but that wasn’t one of them.”
I cannot stop laughing.
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* Background is here if you need it. This statement was released yesterday by Democratic state Senators Bill Cunningham, Sara Feigenholtz, Robert Martwick and Tony Munoz; and state Representatives Jaime Andrade, Kelly Burke, Jonathan Carroll, John Connor, John D’Amico, Anthony DeLuca, Elizabeth Hernandez, Fran Hurley, Yehiel Kalish, Martin Moylan and Mike Zalewski…
This Saturday, less than a week after hundreds of rioters looted portions of the city’s central business district, the women and men of the Chicago Police Department were subjected to a well organized and unprovoked attack while attempting to maintain order during a series of protests downtown. Video of the incident clearly showed dozens of individuals forming in groups and charging police lines shortly after they opened umbrellas to disguise their activity. Footage also showed a protester repeatedly beating an officer with a skateboard. At least 17 officers received medical attention for injuries.
Peaceful demonstrations are always welcome. In fact, they are beyond welcome, they are an important and justified part of our democratic process that allow Americans to express outrage over incidents of injustice, as was the case after the brutal and senseless murder of George Floyd.
However, violent demonstrations are never justified. Looting, theft, and criminal damage to property are never justified. And unprovoked attacks against police officers are not only unjustified and lawless, they are an attack on all Chicagoans and an insult to those who protest peacefully. We strongly condemn the actions of those who initiated organized attacks against the Chicago Police Department this weekend and we express our support and appreciation for the officers who risked their personal safety to protect our city and state.
That starkly contrasts with a statement released Sunday by a mostly younger, more liberal group of legislators who said they “are wholeheartedly with the protestors.”
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Open thread
Tuesday, Aug 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Keep it Illinois-centric and be polite to each other. Thanks.
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