Commonwealth Edison has agreed to participate in next week’s meeting of a special Illinois House committee investigating Speaker Michael Madigan’s alleged role in a bribery scheme involving the utility.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin informed the committee by letter Thursday that he intends to question ComEd representatives about the company’s deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Durkin also planned to give an opening statement.
* Committee Chairman Rep. Chris Welch press release…
“Today, in a letter sent to counsel for Leader Durkin, I addressed points raised in his Sept. 24, 2020 letter regarding the administration of Tuesday’s Special Investigating Committee hearing. My letter informed Leader Durkin that as a signatory to the petition creating this Committee, he is not eligible to participate in the investigation process, as signatories to the petition are prohibited from serving on the Special Investing Committee under House rules. Granting his requests to make statements and question witnesses would therefore be inappropriate and in violation of the process he invoked.
“Leader Durkin was further informed that the Committee may choose to call him as a witness, due to his significant involvement in the energy legislation referenced in his petition.”
Addressing gatherings at nuclear power plants in Cordova and Clinton, Gov. Bruce Rauner today celebrated the jobs saved and gains made one year in to the state’s tenure with the Future Energy Jobs Act.
“Today we are here to celebrate the bright future of energy jobs in Illinois,” Rauner said. “Thanks to the Future Energy Jobs Act, Illinois is poised to compete head-to-head with any state in the nation to attract energy investment and jobs, while still protecting ratepayers and taxpayers.”
On Dec. 7, 2016, legislators, industry stakeholders and members of the Rauner Administration came together for the signing of FEJA. The landmark piece of legislation prevented the Quad Cities and Clinton power plants from closing, saving 800 jobs in the Quad Cities and 700 in Clinton while ushering in the addition of 100 more permanent Exelon jobs plus 400 construction jobs while capital improvements are under way. […]
“The Future Energy Jobs Act preserved our nuclear plants and protected thousands of jobs for Illinois working families,” said Mitchell, noting that Rauner and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin worked tirelessly on its passage. “This was not an easy bill to pass and they moved mountains to help get it done.”
Whew.
Things are getting seriously ugly, campers.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Leader Durkin…
It is clear that Chairman Welch is not well-versed on the proceedings of an investigatory committee, as he needed a phone call and two letters from U.S. Attorney Lausch after repeatedly misinterpreting his guidance. Furthermore, Rep. Manley was already allowed to question me on the veracity of the petition and the charges in the previous committee hearing. Under my rights as not only the petitioner but also as a member of the General Assembly, I will be making an opening statement tomorrow and questioning the confirmed witness, Commonwealth Edison, on the admitted facts laid out in the petition against Michael J. Madigan. See you there!
*** UPDATE 2 *** According to Chairman Welch, ComEd has “confirmed that David Glockner will be in Springfield to testify tomorrow and he will be accompanied by their attorney Reid Schar.” Glockner is Executive Vice President, Compliance and Audit, for Exelon Corporation.
In a matter of hours, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration changed it’s guidance on hayrides amid concerns over COVID-19, but haunted houses are still prohibited. A state representative says the decision is not based on science and data.
Thursday’s updated document had initially said: “Amusement rides such as train rides, hay rides, and inflatables must remain closed.”
The guidance document was updated late Friday with different language that said hayrides and haunted hayrides were permitted with capacity limits.
“Hayrides/haunted can operate at 50% capacity, with parties spaced at least six feet apart and wearing masks, with the best practice to limit hayrides to members of the same household,” Friday’s update said.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity didn’t immediately respond to why the guidelines changed.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, is a hay farmer. He said hayrides are a big tradition. […]
“Maybe his daughter wants to go on hayrides and that’s what’s happened,” Meier said. “She’s been allowed to go out of state and go to her horse competitions, so maybe she wants to go on a hayride in Illinois and that’s why we’re going to have them, but at least some people are going to enjoy hayrides and for that I’m happy.”
It looks like Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s warning that Illinois will have to cut spending if voters reject his “fair tax” amendment wasn’t persuading anyone. And why would it? After years of busted budgets, rising debts and tax increases, millions of Illinois voters want state government to stop spending so much.
So Team Pritzker on Thursday dispatched Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton to issue a new threat: Approve our amendment or, she said, “lawmakers will be forced to consider raising income taxes on all Illinois residents by at least 20% regardless of their level of income.” […]
We’ll see if Team Pritzker finds new ways to say, “Vote our way — or else.” But we hope nobody asks Lt. Gov. Stratton to be the one issuing future warnings. This was a message the governor should have delivered. This is his amendment, his campaign push, his threat to raise taxes on even the lowest of earners by a whopping 20%. How does the squeeze feel, Illinois?
Here’s the thing, though: Gov. Pritzker first warned of a potential 20 percent tax hike in his very first budget address, a month after taking office, in February 2019. In the very same speech, he spoke of “a fair income tax” as a solution. Two weeks later, he laid out his proposal for a progressive income tax, with brackets that have basically held true to that initial vision: a higher tax rate only for those making more than $250,000 a year, with 97 percent of Illinois taxpayers paying the same or less than they are now under the current 4.95 percent flat tax.
The General Assembly approved a graduated income tax that spring, sending it on to voters in the general election this fall with Pritzker’s initial brackets only slightly altered up to a top tax rate of just under 8 percent for those making more than $1 million a year. The actual Fair Tax Amendment, however, only changes the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax.
None of that has changed over the last year and a half.
Now, journalists have notoriously poor memories. Dealing with news on a daily basis tends to leave old facts and information buried under the new — especially in these turbulent times. But one might well expect better from the Tribune Editorial Board — or Republican politicians.
First, we could choose only to cut state government spending and raise no revenue. To do that, we have to recognize that out of this year’s $39 billion budget, approximately $20 billion is required payments on our debt, on our pensions, on our court-ordered obligations or federally protected programs. That leaves approximately $19 billion dollars. That’s the money we spend educating our children, running our colleges and universities, keeping our streets safe, preserving our natural resources, getting people to and from work efficiently and caring for our veterans. We’ll call that “discretionary spending.” To balance the budget by simply cutting government, we would have to reduce discretionary spending on all these direct services our jobs, our families and our businesses rely on by approximately 15%. That’s 15% fewer state police, 15% fewer students going to college, 15% fewer working parents receiving child care assistance, and 15% less money for your local schools – which likely also means your local property taxes will increase. I should point out that this option was tried in the prior administration, and it failed - because nearly no one thinks it’s a good idea to force our most talented kids to leave the state by diminishing Illinois colleges and universities, drive families away by defunding local schools, make our communities less safe by reducing public safety, and increase poverty by cutting badly needed human services.
Our second option is to raise revenue with our current regressive flat income tax system and impose more flat taxes which fall disproportionately on the working poor and the middle class. This option could require imposing sales taxes on services, implementing a retirement tax, or raising the income tax overall by around 20%. Or all of the above. For a family earning $100,000, that means paying almost a thousand dollars more in income taxes, and their property taxes will continue their upward march as they always have.
Our third option is to reject imposing additional income, retirement and sales taxes on the middle class and instead enact a fair income tax. This would lift some of the tax burden off of middle income earners and instead ask the wealthiest to pay a little more. Just for clarity, a fair tax is what three quarters of states with income taxes have. We can accomplish this with a more competitive rate structure than Wisconsin and Iowa, both of which are outpacing Illinois in job creation and economic growth. We can also implement a fair tax system that’s lower than our metropolitan competitors on the east and west coasts.
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) today announced that Chicago has made sufficient progress in the fight against COVID-19 to ease certain restrictions on businesses. Effective Thursday, October 1st, new guidelines for businesses will come into effect that will expand indoor capacity to 40% for certain businesses, reopen bars for indoor service, allow restaurants and bars to serve alcohol until 1:00 am, increase maximum group sizes for fitness classes and after-school programming and allow personal services that require the removal of masks. These changes build on Chicago’s status as one of the most open large cities in America and are possible due to continued improvement on crucial COVID health metrics, including a declining number of new daily cases, a test positivity rate now below 5% and the lowest rates of hospitalization and death in months.
“Over the past six months, we have asked so much of our business community. But each time, our businesses have stepped up to the plate,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Thanks to this cooperation, we have met this challenging moment with grace, commitment and resilience, and the sacrifices made by our businesses, workers and residents have saved countless lives. This next step in our reopening is good news for business owners as well as the communities they serve and the thousands of residents that work for them.”
Chicago is now seeing around 300 new COVID cases per day whereas in late August the city was over 350 cases per day and rising. Test positivity (the percentage of COVID tests with a positive result) has fallen to 4.5% and severe outcomes have also improved, with hospitalizations from COVID lower than they’ve been since March and deaths at an average of 2-3 per day, when they were around 50 per day at the peak of the pandemic.
The outbreak continues to have a disproportionate impact on Black and, particularly of late, Latinx communities, but we are seeing improvement there, as well, and declines in the Latinx community outpace the overall averages. As we gradually ease our reopening guidelines, we will continue to watch trends closely, particularly among essential workers and People of Color.
“Overall, we are heading in the right direction, and this affords us an opportunity to further re-open the city and to do so gradually and safely,” said CDPH Commissioner Allison Arwady, M.D. “But I can’t emphasize this enough: Chicagoans need to continue to follow the public health guidance – wearing masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing and staying home when sick – or we risk falling back and experiencing another rise in cases.”
Effective Thursday, October 1st, at 5:00am, the following guidelines will come into effect:
• Increased Indoor Capacity: Restaurants, health and fitness centers, personal services, non-essential retail and all other establishments that have been limited to 25% indoor capacity will now be able to increase their maximum indoor capacity to 40%. The limit of 50 total customers within one room or space at restaurants, venues and other establishments will remain in place, as will the limit of no more than six people per table.
• Reopening of Bars: Breweries, taverns, bars and other establishments that serve alcohol without a food license may reopen with indoor seating, at 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is fewer. Service remains limited to no more than two hours per party, and customers must be seated when eating, drinking or ordering – patrons cannot walk up to the bar to order.
• Extended Hours for Bars and Restaurants:Bars, restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol will now be able to sell alcohol for on-site or off-site consumption until 1:00 am and may remain open until 1:30 am. Liquor stores, grocery stores and other establishments that sell alcohol to-go through a Packaged Goods license must continue to cease alcohol sales at 9:00 p.m.
• Increased Group Size:Maximum group size for health and fitness classes and after-school programming will increase from 10 to 15 people.
• Expanded Personal Services: Facials, shaves and other personal services that require the removal of face coverings will be allowed.
“The last six months have brought unprecedented challenges for everyone, especially the small businesses that form the pillars of so many of our neighborhoods,” said BACP Commissioner Rosa Escareno. “I want to thank the many businesses that have shown their dedication to their employees and patrons throughout this crisis by strictly following our guidelines. While this crisis has brought extraordinary pain, our recovery has outpaced peer cities and I am confident that this next step will bring much-needed economic support for thousands of businesses and workers while still prioritizing the health of our community.”
To help keep communities safe while supporting the neighborhood economy, the City today also today announced a partnership with homegrown technology company Tock to provide free technology solutions for restaurants and bars in low-income communities. Through this partnership, Tock will offer a free set-up and six-month subscription to Tock Plus Litefor restaurants and bars without a reservation system in areas of the city below 60% of the Area Median Income. This one-of-a-kind program will provide these establishments with the ability to manage reservations, takeout, delivery and events all through one unified system. This program, which is also available at a low cost citywide, can be used by businesses to retain cell phone numbers and email addresses to support contact tracing for reservations and when seating walk-ins.
“As a locally-grown Chicago business, we are thrilled to partner with the City to help expand safe dining and help restaurants build a bridge to the future,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, Tock’s co-founder and CTO. “For many restaurants and bars, especially those in historically disinvested areas, technology can make all the difference. Access to reservation systems during this critical time will help businesses keep pace while ensuring that they comply with regulations to keep their employees and patrons safe.”
While enough progress has been made to ease certain restrictions, Chicago remains in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and calls on all businesses and customers to continue following the phase four guidelines. In order to continue the significant progress, the following additional guidelines will also come into effect on Thursday, October 1st:
• When dining out at a food service establishment or bar, customers must always wear face coverings while seated, except when actively eating or drinking. This protects employees that may interact closely with patrons.
• Patrons at indoor bars, taverns and breweries must order from their seats – they cannot walk up to the bar to order.
• Bars, taverns and breweries that are reopening indoors must partner with a food establishment so that food is available to patrons at all times (e.g., making menus available and allowing delivery, allowing patrons to order from third-party delivery services).
• When taking reservations and seating walk-in customers, restaurants and bars should retain an email and/or phone number for possible contact tracing.
• Personal services that require the removal of face coverings are recommended to be kept under 15 minutes, and the employee conducting the service must always wear a face covering.
• All places of business should provide hand sanitizer for patrons and employees to use upon entry.
Illinois has made good on a promise to remove statues from the Capitol grounds of people associated with slavery.
Statues of Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard have been removed from the grounds and taken to a secure storage area. On Monday, workers were removing the pedestals that the statues rested on prior to the state sodding the area.
In August, the board of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol voted unanimously to remove the statues from the grounds. House Speaker Michael Madigan asked that the statues be removed because both men were slave holders and Douglas had a history of making racist comments.
Madigan also said he would sponsor a resolution in the House to remove a portrait of Douglas that hangs in the chamber. Madigan said it should be replaced with the portrait of someone who reflects the modern positions of the Democratic Party such as former President Barack Obama.
* Pics…
The state removed the Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard statues from the Illinois Statehouse grounds on Friday night/Saturday morning. I took a few shots of empty pedestals today: pic.twitter.com/5QxLBZolhD
Monday, Sep 28, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Cleaner, greener energy. Fewer emissions. More jobs. That’s what Springfield lawmakers can deliver, thanks to Gov. Pritzker’s leadership in reviving clean energy legislation and putting forward thoughtful, ambitious principles to guide its progress.
As one of Illinois’ diverse energy providers, bp applauds Gov. Pritzker’s vision for a clean, renewable economy and urges state legislators to seize the moment for a comprehensive climate bill that includes a price on carbon.
Why? Because as Gov. Pritzker points out, “implementing a carbon price makes dirty energy less competitive, reduces emissions, creates room for renewable energy development, and raises revenue for the state.”
It’s fair to ask: why is an integrated energy company like bp advocating for carbon pricing? Because it aligns with our own low carbon ambition. Because we see business opportunity. Most of all, because we believe this is the right thing to do.
The baton is officially being passed from Mitchell Trubisky to Nick Foles.
During his Monday press conference, Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy confirmed Foles would get the start at quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts after he led the Bears to comeback win against the Falcons yesterday.
And this isn’t a play-to-play, week-by-week thing. This is Foles’ job until further notice
* The Question: Agree or disagree with Nagy? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,709 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 13 additional confirmed deaths.
• Coles County: 1 female 80s
• Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 2 males 80s
• Crawford County: 1 male 70s
• DeWitt County: 1 male 80s
• Madison County: 1 female 80s
• Marion County: 1 male 80s
• Richland County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 289,639 cases, including 8,614 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 21 – September 27 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 41,142 specimens for a total of 5,520,652. As of last night, 1,491 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 346 patients were in the ICU and 135 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
* Sunday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,604 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 14 additional confirmed deaths.
Carroll County: 1 male 80s
Cook County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 60s
Hamilton County: 1 male 60s
Monroe County: 1 female 80s
Peoria County: 1 female 80s
Tazewell County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 287,930 cases, including 8,601 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 20 – September 26 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 50,822 specimens for a total of 5,479,510. As of last night, 1,486 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 350 patients were in the ICU and 144 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
* Saturday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 1 female 50s, 3 males 60s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
Effingham County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
Greene County: 1 male 60s
Hamilton County: 1 female 90s
LaSalle County: 1 male 50s
McLean County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 70s
Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
Tazewell County: 1 female 80s
Wabash County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Williamson County: 1 male 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 286,326 cases, including 8,588 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 19 – September 25 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 65,217 specimens for a total of 5,428,688. As of last night, 1,597 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 355 patients were in the ICU and 141 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan tried to get state jobs last year for a half-dozen people with close ties to the chairman of a new, special House committee investigating Madigan’s links to a Springfield bribery scandal, according to records obtained by WBEZ.
State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside is the chairman of the bipartisan panel, which is scheduled to meet for the second time on Tuesday to begin hearing testimony.
Welch’s relationship to Madigan has come under heavy scrutiny since he was named on Sept. 2 to lead the “Special Investigative Committee” looking into the federal corruption scandal. Illinois Republicans have accused Welch of inhibiting the probe to protect Madigan, who also chairs the state’s Democratic Party.
Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Westchester) nominated Madigan, saying he was a great leader who listens to the people.
“That’s the most important quality a leader should have,” Welch said. “Watching Speaker Madigan these last four years has been a real case study in true leadership.”
Welch said with Madigan’s leadership, the House stood strong and protected the heart of Illinois.
Following the recent scandal that appears to implicate Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, a group of Illinois Democrats announced sweeping ethics reform proposals [last month]. […]
Illinois Rep. Chris Welch said he agrees with many of the proposals, but not the one calling to remove leaders unless proven guilty.
“We’re not sitting here playing judge and jury..that we have fair processes in place and that we don’t put in systems that’s going to create witch hunts,” he said.
Madigan clearly decided that he wanted loyalists on the investigative committee. There’s not a bit of daylight between himself and those three members. The same basically goes for the Republican members and their leader.
But Welch may be even closer to Madigan than most in the House Democratic caucus, judging by the job recommendations and resumes that the speaker’s chief of staff sent to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office in early 2019, shortly before the ComEd scandal burst into public view. […]
The records show Madigan recommended more people with connections to Welch than anybody else during the months after Pritzker was sworn in, when the rookie governor was looking to fill many job openings in his administration. […]
Only one of those six people with ties to Welch got what they wanted from the governor, even though 35 of the nearly 80 job seekers who appeared on Madigan’s clout lists ultimately would land on the state-government payroll or on a board.
I’d bet a dollar that Madigan passed along pretty much every recommendation from his members. According to the story, Rep. Sue Scherer (D-Decatur) was also mentioned as much as Welch was on the lists Madigan sent to the governor’s office.
Welch recommended his wife, an attorney, for an appointment to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. She didn’t get it. He also recommended his mom for a job, which she didn’t get.
* It turns out all of the people recommended by Welch were Black women. From Welch…
My entire life in elected office I have fought for diversity, equity and inclusion for Black people, especially Black women. My fight is for everyone, people I know and those that I don’t know personally. I, just like other legislators, Republicans and Democrats, recommended several well qualified Black women to the new administration in 2019 as they had requested. I had hoped all were chosen, but I am pleased that at least Dr. Andrea Evans was chosen to serve at IBHE, the only Black Woman on IBHE today. I will continue my fight to diversify boards. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, Women belong in all rooms where decisions are made.
That would probably be a far better argument if two out of his six recommendations weren’t immediate family members, but OK.
* Perhaps one of the most under-reported stories about the job of being a state legislator is what they do for constituents. This is mainly done quietly, away from Springfield, so it’s usually almost always invisible. But many are quite conscientious at it and kudos to Mark Brown for sharing this story, which also shows us that the problems people were facing at the beginning of this pandemic are still with us today…
The calls come daily to state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe’s office on the Northwest Side from people who need help navigating the state bureaucracy.
They call about unemployment benefits, housing assistance and food stamps. They call about utility bills, problems with state licenses and support for their small businesses.
Many of the callers these days are in tears, not knowing where to turn. Some can’t pay the rent. Others are worried about feeding their families.
Yet what’s striking to LaPointe’s chief of staff, Jessica Genova, is how apologetic many of the callers are, as if they’re feeling guilty about their predicament and needing help.
“I’ve never done this before,” they say.
Millions of people across the country have found themselves unemployed and needing assistance for the first time in their lives. And then they are faced with state systems that are antiquated, over-loaded and inaccessible.
Dark money is helping to fund opposition to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, who is up for retention in November. Judicial Fairness Project just gave $200,000 to the similarly named Citizens for Judicial Fairness to pursue its anti-Kilbride campaign.
The dark money group is listed under the same address as Chicago attorney John Fogerty, who is general counsel to the Illinois Republican Party. Fogerty did not immediately return a request for comment.
Citizens for Judicial Fairness, meanwhile, is headed by Jim Nowlan, a former Republican state legislator and GOP consultant who is president of Stark County Communications newspaper publishing company in central Illinois. Last week, Nowlan accused Kilbride of being “a puppet” of House Speaker and state Democratic Party leader Michael Madigan.
Kilbride is a Democratic judge in a district that’s leaning more Republican than when he was retained a decade ago. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton 50 percent to 44 percent in the district that includes Kankakee, LaSalle, Peoria, Rock Island and Will counties. Numbers like that show Kilbride could be in trouble given he needs 60 percent to be retained.
The best thing Kilbride has going for him is that his party affiliation is not on the ballot. He also has several GOP endorsements.
Two weeks after a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down the 2020 census, a manager in Illinois instructed employees to get started with layoffs, according to an audio of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.
During a conference call Thursday, the Chicago area manager told supervisors who report to him that they should track down census takers who don’t currently have any cases, collect the iPhones they use to record information, and bid them goodbye. The manager did not respond to an email from the AP.
“I would really like to get a head start on terminating these people,” he said. “All of these inactives that we have, we need to get rid of them. So hunt down your inactives, collect their devices, get them terminated and off of our lists.”
It was unclear whether such actions would violate U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations while she considers a request to extend the head count by a month.
Despite assurances from U.S. Census Bureau officials that there would be a final push to reach people this month, the latest data shows the Chicago region employed around 3,000 fewer people the week of Sept. 6-12 compared with the previous week. The move raises more questions about the reliability and completeness of a count that will determine Illinois’ representation in Congress and the state’s and city’s share of billions of dollars in federal aid over the next 10 years.
Late Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Census Bureau to extend its deadline from Sept. 30 to Oct. 31. The Trump administration is expected to appeal, but the judge’s order prohibits the agency from winding down operations until the case is resolved
The Chicago field office would not comment on the recent cutback of workers, but an official in Washington, D.C., said one reason might be that the Chicago area is actually faring very well in the census, with much of its population already counted, contrary to what every local official has been saying. […]
Olson said Cook County is about 90% counted when you combine responses from households and visits by census workers to homes that didn’t respond. But experts say that’s still not good enough.
Sherrie Taylor, interim head of the State Data Center Network, which works with the bureau, said the agency should not be satisfied with anything less than 99%. “Until there is 99% in every single tract, there’s questions about the reliability of the data,” she said. “In a sample survey, you’re happy to get a 20% response and that’s really good, but this is much more serious than that.”
Q: Will you put it to rest? Are your doctors at IDPH talking with IHSA and their doctors about somehow bringing back soccer, football, volleyball this fall?
A: There is not an ongoing discussion about that. We have talked in the past. And then of course, we’ve put forward our, these are the rules that doctors have put forward about high, medium and low risk sports. So no, there’s not any ongoing dialogue right now. And again, it is doctors and epidemiologists that are leading the way here. It’s what I’ve done all along in this pandemic. I think it’s one of the reasons we have one of the lowest positivity rates in the Midwest, and one of the lowest in the nation. Now, I will also say that if you look at the list of states that, remember, we’ve allowed many, many sports, I want to be clear with people, we have a lot of fall sports that are being played. But if you look at just football, for example, many of the states that do not allow football today are the ones with the lowest positivity. Let’s take a look at that. New York, Massachusetts, etc. Right? They’re the ones who have the lowest positivity rates. So I think we should be striving to get to where they are. We’re not anywhere near there, by the way. We need to get there. And you know, obviously, we’re all concerned to get people back on the field. Right now, they’re able to practice, they’re able to scrimmage, they’re able to do a lot of things. They’re not able to play regular tournaments, for example, or games.
This week, a group plans to level the playing field for students who depend on showcasing their skills on the field to score a college scholarship.
“Student athletes, especially those from the poorest neighborhoods, have virtually no chance to be seen in game action, and are therefore at an extreme disadvantage compared to all neighboring states with kids playing in the fall,” said plaintiff Dave Ruggles. “Scholarships will simply go to players college coaches can actually see in action, and that won’t include kids in Illinois.” […]
Ruggles and others plan to file a legal action against the Illinois High School Association on Monday.
The suit will be filed in DuPage County, according to a press release, and will list the IHSA as the primary defendant. The suit is expected to be filed this week.
A total of 20 students are expected to be listed as plaintiffs in the suit, which will seek a temporary restraining order ordering the state to allow fall sports to get underway.
The suit alleges that prohibitions on some fall sports, including football and volleyball, violates the IHSA’s constitution and bylaws, and has “caused mental health issues and financial hardships” for athletes and their families, according to the press release.
Specifically, the suit alleges that the decision to postpone fall sports will have negative financial impacts on both students and parents, as they will fall behind in their ability to compete for athletic scholarships to make college more affordable.
* Meanwhile…
"The events under investigation include multiple youth sports practices and games" pic.twitter.com/aFNfc1rjBv
As the Governor has said many times, his top education priority is resuming in-person learning for students across the state. In order to make that a reality for our students and teachers, we must do everything possible to keep positivity rates down and reduce the risk of spreading the virus at events outside the classroom. The courts have repeatedly sided with the public health experts who have created guidance that protects the health of people across this state.
Another snippet has been leaked of a now-infamous recorded fundraising call made by state Rep. Amy Grant, R-Wheaton, in late August. And it’s a doozy.
Grant already is reeling badly from the backlash to other comments she made during the call. She has insisted that she is neither a racist nor a homophobe and has tried to claim her words were taken out of context, without explaining how.
You may have seen the news about this. Grant is running against Ken Mejia-Beal, a gay Black Democrat. In the call, Grant dismissed Mejia-Beal to someone she believed to be a potential campaign contributor by saying, “That’s all we need is another person in the Black Caucus.” She mocked “the way he talks,” saying “He’s all LGBTQ. He wants to work for the chronically ill. He just gives us, like crazy, and every week it’s a different reason for why he wants to get into the race.”
In the latest clip, Grant is heard telling the potential contributor how groups like Planned Parenthood would be attacking her for opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
“Well, of course, you know, people don’t want to hear that,” Grant admitted about her position on the issue.
But Grant went on to explain why she continues to stick by her beliefs. “For starters, the percentage of incest,” she said. “Peter Breen, who said, ‘Amy, don’t worry about that; the percentage of incest is so small it’s ridiculous. And in the case of rape it’s even small.’”
Breen is a former Republican state representative who is campaigning to regain the seat he lost in 2018 to Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn. He’s also vice president and chief counsel at the staunchly anti-abortion Thomas More Society.
The House Republicans turned down an opportunity to respond.
Grant’s opponent Ken Mejia-Beal pointed to a series of recent Republican attack mailers that essentially accused him of helping cover up a rape. “It really is the height of hypocrisy,” he said of Grant’s recorded comments.
Similar mailers apparently have been used against Democratic House candidates this cycle. The front of one of the mailers has the words (in all capital letters) “Rape, Cover-Up, Mike Madigan” and the candidate’s name. The headline on the other side was: “Ken Mejia-Beal: Silent When It Mattered.”
“When Mike Madigan’s political organization was implicated in a rape cover-up, top Democrats called for him to step down. What did Ken Mejia-Beal have to say? Nothing.”
The mailer referred to an emailed comment made by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former consigliere Mike McClain, who was trying to protect a state worker’s job by claiming the guy had kept his mouth shut about “the rape in Champaign.” The explosive story broke in January of this year, less than two months after Mejia-Beal had filed his nominating petitions.
Mejia-Beal said the mailers were particularly hurtful because he’s been a mentor for sexual assault survivors. He issued a press release at the time saying he had no knowledge of the issue and called the attack “pathetic” because Grant was “using the unfortunate story of someone else’s abuse to earn political points for her own campaign.”
After the latest audio clip was leaked, Mejia-Beal issued a formal statement: “While millions of women in the U.S. have become pregnant as a result of rape or incest, Rep. Grant’s heartless and disgusting remarks are a reminder of how out of touch she is with reality. These comments from Rep. Grant also serve as a reflection of her extreme record against women’s health care and victims of abuse.”
Terry Cosgrove, who runs the pro-choice Personal PAC, also weighed in: “It’s the height of cruelty that Peter Breen and Amy Grant are so callous to victims of rape and incest… I would like to see Breen and Grant look into the eyes of a 15-year-old girl who has been victimized repeatedly by a relative or neighbor and tell her ‘it’s ridiculous.’”
One other thing: Grant has some trouble saying what she means during the recording. For instance, she claims, “You know, life is going to come after me, Planned Parenthood.” And “They’re going to say, oh, Amy Grant supports abortion even in case of incest and rape.”
Obviously, what she meant was pro-choice groups were coming after her for opposing abortion even in cases of incest and rape, because it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.
* Let’s keep it Illinois-centric and be polite to each other, please.
Also, best wishes to Rep. Bryant!…
I’ve been delayed in thanking everyone for the awesome turnout at Saturday’s Bryant Birthday Bash. During the event I was battling a gall bladder attack which led to Sunday night surgery. Thank you volunteers and supporters for a very successful event! pic.twitter.com/tQKhmPAE3K
Members of my family have had these attacks and they’re not fun at all. I had mine checked out as part of this summer’s long list of routine medical checkups and it came back negative. Everything else was fine, too, by the way. I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but as of this moment I have no more medical appointments scheduled for at least six months.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the committee’s chair, Rep. Chris Welch…
“As of 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, the Special Investigating Committee has received no formal indication of any witnesses planning to testify.
“The committee will proceed as scheduled with our Tuesday, Sept. 29 hearing at 2 p.m., and I ask all members to come prepared to conduct themselves in a manner reflective of the serious business before us.”
The correspondence received by the committee is here. Still no statement from Rep. Welch on the planned appearance by an as-yet-unnamed witness from ComEd.
*** UPDATE 2 *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
Speaker Madigan continues to take the path that his own House Rules apply to all except him. The House Democrats and Governor Pritzker must step up and demand answers about Madigan’s involvement in ComEd’s admission of guilt in a bribery scheme lasting nine years.
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state.
The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce launched an initiative Wednesday to get the state to spend a larger share of its advertising dollars on Black-owned media.
The Coalition for Black Media Equity is seeking at least 8% of the state’s annual $2 billion marketing budget, or about $160 million, be spent on Black-owned media, in line with the state’s minority procurement guidelines. […]
Larry Ivory, president and CEO of the chamber, said the state’s actual Black-owned media spend is closer to $10 million a year, or about 0.5% of the total budget. […]
There are 15 initial members in the coalition, Ivory said. Chicago members include Dorothy Leavell, publisher of The Chicago Crusader; Melody Spann Cooper, chairman of Midway Broadcasting Corp., which owns WVON-AM 1690; and Carl West, publisher of TBT News.
Wait. The state is spending $2 billion for advertising/marketing in a $40 billion budget? I found that difficult to believe, to say the least.
* So, I asked the governor’s office to check with its budget office and here’s what GOMB could find for advertising/marketing…
Lottery — $41.4 Million for FY20 and this was paid to the Private Manager, Camelot, and they directly pay for marketing.
DCEO — $18.2 million in FY20 for tourism that’s being used for mask/COVID stuff this year
IDOT – about $4 million for their safety media program
Tollway - they were waiting on this, but isn’t going to make $2 B
DHS – about $3 million
DPH - $717,729.98, which is made up of $64,486.23 in newspaper notices plus $653,243.75 in COVID PSAs
That totals $67.3 million, plus whatever the Tollway spends, and the state has no direct control over Tollway spending. Same with universities.
Black-owned media and PR firms should most definitely be getting every dollar of their fair share. But the terms need to be set using reality.
As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle at the Illinois statehouse continue to offer up ideas they believe must be implemented to curb corruption and clean up ethics, one is looking to give local prosecutors power to wiretap public corruption suspects. […]
State Sen. John Curran Thursday with other Republicans laid out measures he said would help combat such behavior. He said local prosecutors can get wiretaps for drug and gang investigations, but not for public corruption investigations, and that needs to change.
“The federal government has shown us how they effectively use wiretapping evidence to break through the system of corruption here in Illinois, our local prosecutors need to get in the game,” Curran said.
Curran said there’d be judicial oversight to ensure such power wasn’t abused for political reasons.
* The Question: Overall, would you trust state’s attorneys with this power? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. Stratton threatened Illinois citizens with at least a 20 percent across the board income tax increase if their cherished tax increase hike amendment fails in November. That 20 percent comment is just a starting point, it is just the beginning, if you believe. Her intimidation and scare tactics used yesterday against Illinois citizens, employers, employees, retirees are a clear sign of desperation by the governor, lieutenant governor, Speaker Mike Madigan because their tax hike amendment is failing and the election is around the corner. […]
Here’s the message in no uncertain words: If you do not pass my tax hike amendment, we will annihilate you with a 20 percent tax increase across the board, across the board, when we return to session.
I spent yesterday with a group of Will County farmers, they all spoke about one thing: That was the fear of this tax amendment. These are not men and women of means, they work with their hands, with a job they love. Same goes for my hardware store owner in my town. The bakery owner. The restaurant owner in my town. Each one of them fears what this is going to do to their livelihoods, particularly at a time of pandemic, with the state of Illinois has forced so many closures upon them. They’re struggling to make ends meet. They’re struggling to keep people on the payroll. But to threaten Illinois citizens with a smile on their face, that if you pass this tax amendment we’re going to oppose a 20 percent income tax increase, increase against you, we will punish you for not following us. It speaks volumes that this tax amendment is failing and the Democrats are desperate.
The comments that were issued yesterday by Lieutenant Governor Stratton were problematic for a couple of reasons. First, because they portrayed a false choice to Illinois voters between one tax hike or another tax hike. And what that misses is a couple of key points that taxpayers across Illinois have been pushing Springfield to consider for years. First, if the choice is only between two tax hike hikes, it means that the administration is not considering any number of meaningful reforms, spending reductions, or efficiencies that they should find within the agencies that they control and operate. It means that any of those meaningful reforms are not coming to the major cost drivers that have pushed us year after year into facing these financial challenges. But second, it misses a very important message that voters have been sending to Springfield for over a decade. And that’s don’t tax more. It’s not that voters who are saying no to the fair tax are getting caught up in the details of this, voters who are saying no to the graduated income tax are saying no because they’re sending a message to Springfield, that says stop coming back to Illinois taxpayers every couple of years to raise income taxes because you refuse to deal with the underlying issues that are causing so much hardship and so much pressure for families across the state of Illinois.
* The House Republicans originally scheduled their press conference for 11 this morning, but then late last night Gov. Pritzker decided to schedule his own presser at 11. The HGOPs changed their start time to 10:30 and I asked Leader Durkin if he did that to avoid appearing at the same time as Pritzker…
We did. I wanted the governor to be able to explain why his lieutenant governor has threatened Illinois citizens that if you don’t vote for this tax amendment we’re going to tax the heck out of you with 20 percent. That is a scare tactic that was done on the same day that early voting is starting in Cook County. That was all planned yesterday, but that was to get into the heads of people who are uncertain, people who are scared about what the future is going to be particularly in a time of a pandemic. But I want the governor to explain why they’re using this intimidation, this scare tactic with Illinois citizens in Illinois voters. I want to hear the answer to this question today.
* OK, on to Gov. Pritzker. The governor was asked today if he thought Stratton’s comments seemed like a threat…
No, that’s your characterization. Here’s what I would tell you. And I said this from the very beginning that there are three choices that are facing the people of Illinois right now, in order to deal with the structural deficit, that’s putting aside the need for state and local funding from the federal government because of the failure of revenues because of COVID-19. We already had a structural deficit in Illinois that you’re aware of. And there are three choices that people have. It’s either you’re gonna see a 20% increase, meaning one full percentage-point increase, in order to cover that structural deficit - by the way, that structural deficit that was there under my predecessor, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. Either that, or you’re going to see a 15% cut in government in our budget, which would significantly reduce education funding at the state level, and significantly, therefore, increase property taxes in the state, and would reduce funding for our public safety, all of which we need to address. And then the third, [crosstalk] and then the third choice, if I may just finish my answer, the third choice the third way, frankly, that we need to go not that the traditional routes, I agree with the you know, with people who understand the three, that we need to go another direction. And the best direction that we should go to deal with this is to make sure that we’re asking those who are most able to step up to pay to do so those are the wealthiest in our state, and to give a tax cut to 97% of people in Illinois. And that’s the direction that I think we ought to go in.
They haven’t been listening, because we’ve been doing it all along. You saw that we negotiated a contract with the unions that cut about $750 million in total from the budget. That’s something that Bruce Rauner never did. Never was willing to sit down at the table. Because of the health care cost cuts that we were able to bring enormous savings. That’s just one item in a whole panoply of other areas. We’ve done that. That’s not something Republicans have ever been interested in engaging in. All they want to do is attack, attack ,attack, and they want to take services away and pensions away from people in the state.
No, they’re the ones that are proposing annihilating the working class and the middle class in Illinois, because they have no solutions. I’ve said from the very beginning that the reason we need the fair tax is so we can avoid these other solutions. These are the ones the Republicans are leaving you with, the idea that you’re going to raise taxes on the middle class, working class; or that you’re going to cut the education, public safety, healthcare services that people rely upon. I mean, the developmentally disabled, all those line items would all be significantly cut if the Republicans had their way. I’m proposing something that will help us get past this problem, a problem that was in part created by them. And that left us with eight downgrades of our credit rating in the state of Illinois, just over the previous governor’s term.
He also said he remained hopeful that Congress would come up with a funding package before the election.
Before we begin, I want to acknowledge some news that came out this morning. We’ve learned that the courts have ruled against the Trump administration’s unjust attempts to and the census earlier. Here in Illinois, we are working diligently to ensure an accurate and complete count. And we will do so until the very end. And that means until the end of October.
* Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law press release early this morning…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last night issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to rush the 2020 Census to a close while a legal challenge to that plan plays out in the courts. The court’s order preliminarily enjoins the Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce from using a Sept. 30, 2020 deadline for the completion of data collection and a Dec. 31, 2020 deadline for processing and then reporting the census count to the President. Under the Court’s Order, the census count will continue through Oct. 31, as the Census Bureau had earlier planned, and its data processing will continue under a timeline that allows for a full, fair and accurate overall tabulation and reporting of the total population to the President..
District Judge Lucy H. Koh issued her ruling after a hearing Tuesday afternoon in National Urban League et al. v. Wilbur L. Ross Jr. et al., the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups, civil organizations and tribal and local governments on Aug. 18 to block the administration’s attempt to rush census operations to a close by Sept. 30 and send population numbers for apportionment to the President by Dec. 31. The plaintiffs sought to stop the Trump administration’s plan to force the Census Bureau to shorten the 2020 count against the judgment of the bureau’s own expert staff and in the middle of a pandemic. The court had already issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from shutting down its census operations while the court prepared the ruling it issued today.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are membership and advocacy organizations, counties, cities, federally-recognized Indian tribes and individuals whose communities will be underrepresented in the final census count if the administration succeeds in ending the 2020 Census data collection and processing prematurely. The plaintiffs are the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the League of Women Voters, the Navajo Nation, Gila River Indian Community, Harris County in Texas, Commissioners Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia of the Harris County Commissioners Court, King County in Washington, the city and county of Los Angeles, the cities of San Jose and Salinas (California) and the City of Chicago, Illinois.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Latham & Watkins, LLP, Public Counsel, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, the Office of the Salinas City Attorney, Edelson P.C., the Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Holland & Knight LLP.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges to the decennial census, including massive displacements of people, just as the count was getting underway. It upended all census field operations and undermined outreach to populations that the bureau has long struggled to count, including racial and ethnic minorities, non-English speakers and undocumented persons.
Bureau officials requested an extension of census data collection, processing, and reporting deadlines to accommodate a Covid-19 plan that President Trump publicly supported, and spent multiple months acting on that plan. But on Aug. 3, Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham abruptly announced that the data-collection would stop on Sept. 30, a full month short of the time census officials had previously said was necessary to complete the count.
The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s new, accelerated census timeline cuts a crucial four weeks from the actual count and four months from the time for processing and reporting the data used to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives. The abrupt change disregards the bureau’s own plans for dealing with the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also undermine the quality and accuracy of the census as well as produce a massive undercount of communities of color.
The lawsuit argues that the administration’s attempts to rush the census to a close pose a grave threat to the vital functions that rely on census data, from reapportioning the House of Representatives and redrawing state and local electoral districts to equitably distributing over $1.5 trillion annually in federal funds that support basic needs like education, food and health care.
The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare the decision to scuttle the census COVID-19 plan unlawful because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the Enumeration Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
The suit asks the court to keep the 2020 Census on the schedule proposed by census officials in April in response to Covid-19. Under that plan, the bureau would complete the census, including door-knocking, by Oct. 31, 2020, and deliver apportionment numbers to the president by April 30, 2021. Redistricting data would be reported to the states by July 31, 2021. [Emphasis added.]
* This is just a stay, but if that July 31st redistricting data reporting timeline holds up, it would not be good for Illinois. From the state constitution…
In the year following each Federal decennial census year, the General Assembly by law shall redistrict the Legislative Districts and the Representative Districts.
If no redistricting plan becomes effective by June 30 of that year, a Legislative Redistricting Commission shall be constituted not later than July 10. The Commission shall consist of eight members, no more than four of whom shall be members of the same political party. [Emphasis added.]
Notice, though, that the constitution doesn’t specifically require that the latest census numbers be used for the new map. They might try to use the 2010 census if push comes to shove - at least for the first two years.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,514 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
• Cook County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
• Cumberland County: 1 female 80s
• DuPage County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s
• Green County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s
• Jersey County: 1 male 90s
• Kane County: 1 male 50s
• Menard County: 1 male 90s
• Richland County: 1 male 80s
• Saline County: 1 male 70s
• St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
• Tazewell County: 1 female 70s
• Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
• Williamson County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 283,885 cases, including 8,563 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 18 – September 24 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 69,793 specimens for a total of 5,363,471. As of last night, 1,637 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 371 patients were in the ICU and 124 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 17 counties in Illinois are considered to be at a warning level for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A county enters a warning level when two or more COVID-19 risk indicators that measure the amount of COVID-19 increase.
Seventeen counties are currently reported at a warning level – Bond, Boone, Cass, Christian, Clinton, Crawford, DeWitt, Fayette, Grundy, Hamilton, Macon, Menard, Peoria, Putnam, Washington, Wayne, and Winnebago.
Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with university and college parties as well as college sports teams, large gatherings and events, bars and clubs, weddings and funerals, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools, and cases among the community at large.
Public health officials are observing people not social distancing, gathering in large groups, and not using face coverings. Some communities lack access to convenient testing before people become symptomatic. In some counties, local law enforcement and states’ attorneys are not enforcing important mitigation measures like social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. Additionally, some people refuse to participate in contact tracing and are not providing information on close contacts or answering the phone.
Several counties are taking swift action and implementing mitigation measures to help slow spread of the virus, including increasing testing opportunities, stressing the importance of testing to providers, hiring additional contact tracers, working with schools, meeting with local leaders, and educating businesses and large venues about the importance of mitigation measures.
IDPH uses numerous indicators when determining if a county is experiencing stable COVID-19 activity, or if there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county. A county is considered at the warning level when at least two of the following metrics triggers a warning.
COVID-19 County Metrics
• New cases per 100,000 people. If there are more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county, this triggers a warning.
• Number of deaths. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly number of deaths increases more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly test positivity. This metric indicates a warning when the 7-day test positivity rate rises above 8%.
• ICU availability. If there are fewer than 20% of intensive care units available in the region, this triggers a warning.
• Weekly emergency department visits. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly percent of COVID-19-like-illness emergency department visits increase by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly hospital admissions. A warning is triggered when the weekly number of hospital admissions for COVID-19-like-illness increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Tests performed. This metric is used to provide context and indicate if more testing is needed in the county.
• Clusters. This metric looks at the percent of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks and is used to understand large increase in cases.
These metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do. The metrics are updated weekly, from the Sunday-Saturday of the prior week.
A map and information of each county’s status can be found on the IDPH website at https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics.
If you live in Reid McCollum’s neighborhood you’ll want to keep an eye over your shoulder.
The 37-year-old Democratic activist has a habit of taking photos from his house Bodin Street home overlooking Dietz Park in Hinsdale.
McCollum has taken to snapping photos of children in the park, sometimes those in early grade school, and posting them to Facebook asking for his followers to shame the children and their parents publicly for not wearing masks and playing outside.
“Dietz Park right now,” Reid said in a recent Facebook post. “This is almost every day. If you know their parents shame them.”
Reid has also been posting the photos to Twitter.
Not cool. At all. Creepy, even. Yuck.
* Jeanne Ives followed up with a Facebook video. Here’s the intro…
One of Sean Casten’s operatives recently took photos of other people’s kids playing in a Hinsdale park and posted them to Twitter, saying “If you know their parents, shame them.” Reveille is a wake up call, but the attitudes of Casten’s Crew are truly alarming.
Who puts innocent pictures of children playing on their Facebook and says, ‘I’m going to shame you’? That is terrible.
I actually agree with her. However, there’s just one little thing.
* Prairie State Wire is a publication owned by the same folks who own the DuPage Policy Journal. And you may recall this recent PSW story…
While Gov. J.B. Pritzker has used his executive authority to cancel high school sports for kids across the state this fall, apparently this rule does not apply to his daughter.
Parents have been rallying across the state and at the state capital in an attempt to have the football season reinstated.
Meanwhile, Pritzker’s 18-year-old daughter, Theodora “Teddi” Pritzker, who formerly attended Francis W. Parker in Chicago, has continued to engage in equestrian sports across the country since the state was locked down, including in Illinois.
Teddi is the only daughter of Illinois’ billionaire first family. She jumps horses competitively in the Medium Junior division with Team Welles and is featured on the team’s website.
The story includes photos of the governor’s kid.
* One of those photos was used in a recent Ives tweet about that story…
The number of patients in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19 hit 1,713 as of Wednesday night, the highest number since mid-June, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
On June 18, there were 1,852 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and tallies had diminished since then. The state’s hospitals were most crowded with virus sufferers in the spring with counts in the high 4,000s and more than 5,000 on a few days.
The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds as of Wednesday was 400, the highest since June 29 when 401 people with the virus were in intensive care. However, 35% of Illinois’ hospital beds and 38% of ICU beds were available as of Thursday, the IDPH reported. […]
The spike in hospitalizations could be connected with Labor Day, Sept. 7, said Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital physician Daniel Boyle.
According to the latest IDPH numbers, Region 8, which encompasses DuPage and Kane counties, is down to 25 percent availability for intensive care units. Region 6, which is eastern and southeastern Illinois, is down to 24 percent ICU availability.
* As we discussed the other day, a poll conducted September 17-20 for the Betsy Dirksen Londrigan campaign has President Trump trailing by 7 points in the 13th Congressional District, 51-44. Trump won that district four years ago by 5.5 points. With that in mind…
Today, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign released its fifth television ad, “Real,” which dives into Congressman Rodney Davis’ record of voting to gut health protections for Central Illinois families. Illinois Trump Campaign Co-Chair Rodney Davis has voted with the Trump agenda 91% of the time, including the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, in contrast to Dirksen Londrigan who is committed to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care and preserving the ACA and the Essential Health Benefits that Illinois families rely on.
The 30-second ad will air in the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur media market as part of a districtwide buy that includes broadcast, cable, and digital platforms.
Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement and repeatedly voted in support of a lawsuit that could lead to the Supreme Court overturning the Affordable Care Act by the end of 2020. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would strip health care coverage from millions, including more than 31,000 in the 13th District, and remove protections from more than 282,500 13th District residents with pre-existing conditions. The repeal would also roll back funding for Medicaid Expansion and risk the closure of rural hospitals, including many in Central Illinois.
“A Supreme Court controlled by Donald Trump could overturn the Affordable Care Act by the end of the year,” said the narrator. “Rodney Davis won’t help us. He votes with Trump and the drug and insurance industries that gave him over $770,000. Davis voted 11 times to gut protections for pre-existing conditions.”
“With the fate of the Affordable Care Act now more uncertain than ever, we can’t trust Rodney Davis to protect our health care,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “Davis has voted 11 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement which would gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and strip health care coverage from millions. We need representatives like Betsy Dirksen Londrigan who will fight to ensure everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Executive Director at St Clair County HD admitted negative test results are not factored into positivity rate
The video below shows a question and answer to what is going on with the bad math on the positivity rate.
Barb Hohlt, executive director at St Clair County health department basically says no the negatives aren’t counted. You can hear her answer to the question at 18:35.
Here we go again.
* From the referenced video…
Q: Is it true that private testing companies are not required to report negative results to the state of Illinois? And if that’s the case does it screw up our numbers?
A: In the state of Illinois, all labs are required to report positive cases of communicable disease to the local health department, the positive cases. The majority of the labs in Illinois report to what we call the ELR - Electronic Lab Reporting System. The majority of them do, especially the larger ones that do the majority of testing in Illinois. Our friends across the river and here at Memorial, BJC is working on becoming a part of that electronic lab recording system. So when we do our daily stats for St Clair County, we get a separate report from BJC that we report in our daily stats, along with the ones that we get through ELR from IDPH. But our daily reports are as accurate as they can be. Because they’re measured on the actual lab report, positive or negative, that we get into our health department. So those are the ones we were acting upon but again those positive ones are all reported, are they’re negative ones that aren’t? That is true. We’re trying to work on that to get everyone into the ER system.
Q: Barb, you’re not just sitting there, the health department’s not just sitting there waiting for information to come in. All of your people are out working hard, mining this information every day to put forth the most accurate number possible. So you’re grabbing numbers from everywhere and putting them in a system to get this number that we talk about every day, which is you proudly say is the most accurate number that you can get on St. Clair County’s positivity rate.
A: Absolutely. Every single day, seven days a week we have staff that are working on what’s coming in as paper reports and fax reports, and what’s coming in through the [garbled] computer system, and on a daily basis we call long term care facilities to get their updates as well. And we gather the most current up information we can every single day. So those are the numbers we report to you.
* Jordan Abudayyeh from the governor’s office…
We don’t use positives that are not on the ELR system to calculate regional positivity rates. We only report data when we have complete sets. People who report positives manually are not counted towards a region’s positivity rate. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
To be clear, this was not an “official” response. We were texting about the situation and there was no groundrule set about off or on the record.
