* Wheaton…
* Press release…
November 12, 2020
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS 219 SOUTH DEARBORN STREET CHICAGO,ILLINOIS 60604 NOTICE OF PARTIAL TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF IN-COURT PROCEEDINGS
Dear Dirksen Courthouse and Roszkowski Courthouse Occupants:
In the last several days, there have been marked increases in the numbers of positive COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations in the Northern District of Illinois. Yesterday and earlier today, Illinois Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lightfoot responded by issuing advisories and recommendations for restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings. As you have seen in many recent letters from me, our court is not immune from the Coronavirus. A number of employees, visitors, and security personnel have tested positive.
Together with the District Court’s Executive Committee and the Restart Task Force, I am ordering restrictions on activities in our courthouses as follows: Effective at 4:30pm on Friday, November 13, 2020, the Clerk’s Office in Chicago and Rockford will close to in-person assistance until Tuesday, January 19, 2020. Clerk’s Office staff will accept filings via CM/ECF, e-mail, mail or the drop box in the lobby of the Courthouses. In addition, beginning Monday, November 16, 2020, all civil case proceedings will be held virtually. Jury trials will remain suspended until after January 19, 2020. To limit the number of individuals in the Courthouses at any time, all hearings in all civil cases will be conducted virtually, either by either via phone or video. We are drafting an order confirming these restrictions with a greater level of detail and will issue it shortly.
* And yet Crain’s Chicago Business just published this bonkers crackpot column today…
It’s time for the governor to take a new approach that allows businesses to reopen fully. The people of Illinois must be allowed to return to their jobs so that they can begin the difficult task of rebuilding their lives.
Yep. Let’s start by getting those quarantined Springfield firefighters back on the job!
* Amdor takes a look at the author…
Just totally irresponsible and ridiculous.
* Crain’s editorial board, maybe…
…Adding… Maybe Crain’s should completely cave and hire this guy full time…
- OneMan - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:28 am:
Hey we might kill grandma, but we need some profit.
Perhaps the worst timed editorial in recent memory
- Just Me 2 - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:31 am:
Embarrassing for Crains.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:31 am:
Mr. Carl will continue working from home. He really just wants low wage workers to go to work, get sick, and get “immunity”. Incredibly sad that this is the dialogue we’re having.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:33 am:
I wondered aloud who this writer was.
It’s like Crain’s here channeled their inner Trib Edit Board and decided with a fancy lil title this person “makes sense to the community”
I’d feel bad for the guy but he’s getting attention, so there’s that.
- Ballpark Franks - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:35 am:
$81 million spent on the McCormick Place field hospital and it won’t reopen. If the situation is so bad, shouldn’t it reopen?
- Leigh John-Ella - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:37 am:
I think you’ve got it turned around. Why would Crains hire Darren Bailey? They’re hard at work for him.
- Anon221 - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:44 am:
Love that Bailey can find the caps key for only the words he wants to emphasize, and not for titles or names. Really classy. /S
- Thomas Paine - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:48 am:
=== The people of Illinois must be allowed to return to their jobs so that they can begin the difficult task of rebuilding their lives. ===
From everything I’ve read, they put out the Chicago Fire before they started rebuilding.
I think the term for rebuilding while a fire is raging is called “adding fuel.”
- jimbo - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:49 am:
As the WGN reporter noted DuPage hit capacity today in 1h 41min.
Thur they hit it in just 41min- likely because they were closed for the holiday Wednesday.
Interesting(frightening?) to see how quickly it will go on Monday after two days being closed.
- Someone you Should Know - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:51 am:
At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
- Last Bull Moose - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:54 am:
Don’t think the next problem will be beds but staffing. There is nowhere in the country with surplus staff to shift.
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:55 am:
Another example of Darren Brain. The plural of hero is heroes not hero’s.
- Scott Cross for President - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 11:59 am:
Ballpark Frank-
The emergency field hospital at McCormick was built with City of Chicago, State and others $ and resources and has been packed up and transported downstate.
IEMA spokes in ChiSunT: “If the alternate-care facility is needed in the future…the McCormick Place equipment has been prepositioned throughout the state to help hospitals and other congregate-care settings enhance surge capacities.”
So, yes, Darren Bailey and the Eastern Bloc clogged courtrooms, drove around the state attacking Chicago and the Governor and sided with the virus - and Lightfoot and Pritzker keep the help coming.
We’re all in this together.
- Leigh John-Ella - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:00 pm:
Darren is seizing on a little-known provision in state law that makes the least popular member of a super minority caucus the supreme legal authority of the land.
With such little power comes such little responsibility.
- Almost Retired - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:00 pm:
I would like Crains to explain how the people that the virus has killed already are able to return to normal life. I would like Crains to explain how the families that have members that the virus has killed have a normal to return to. I would like Crains to explain to those who the virus will kill or who the virus is killing right now can return to normal. There is no old normal to return to only a new normal that is being created. The virus has destroyed the old normal. The current new normal unfortunately is not positive.
- Jocko - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:09 pm:
==s Gov. J.B. Pritzker, not a resurgent virus, who’s taking us once more down a dark path==
JB can cause fatigue, muscle aches, and shortness of breath? Darth Vader must’ve taught him the Force Choke.
- Sue - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:13 pm:
Anyone catch the Chicago Medical Society urging the Gov to allow health clubs to remain open because the Docs need a place to work out to preserve their well being. Have to think they know the risk benefit better then a Governor who probably has never seen the inside of a workout facility
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:13 pm:
I am currently the leader of a community group downstate. I cancelled this week’s meeting. A member asked me why. I told him that the virus is resurging. He did not think it was a problem in our area and, as evidence, pointed out that the local churches are still holding Sunday services.
-sigh-
I told him that our numbers are higher than they were in the spring and that hospital folks indicated that we are on a trajectory where the hospital may be full by Thanksgiving. I also told him that the top locations for spread were restaurants and churches. This information was met by silence…
We will not get the virus under control until media outlets stop promoting messages like this and start calling out irresponsible leaders (like Rep. Bailey and Sen. Rezin) for saying things that ignore reality. What these folks should be doing, if they really care about the health of businesses, is pushing DC for a robust relief package that supports businesses that need to cut back (or close) for a few months. (ie. send every bar that closes a check to cover wages and rent for a month)
- Lincoln Park Debs - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:18 pm:
Haha, Sue. Pritzker is fat. Haha. That’s such an original and funny joke. All of his concern for the health and well-being of Illinois residents should be dismissed because he’s fat like 40% of Americans. Haha.
- Moe Berg - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:19 pm:
I’m sure if you asked Crain’s about the decision to publish such bogus BS, they’d say “marketplace of ideas.”
Which, is nonsense. They wouldn’t publish someone who wrote a piece denying the Holocaust, nor someone claiming the earth is flat.
But, every month they give space to Mark Glennon at Wirepoints, another noted fabulist.
Crain’s editorial board itself regularly bleats for “pension reform” without ever really saying what they mean by it, how it would work and pass legal muster.
They’ve got a segment of their readership that they’re playing to, because the first job of most publications is to make money. Truth is secondary.
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:20 pm:
Sue, you have no idea what you’re talking about. What a ridiculous comment. Why don’t you go join Darren Bailey in fighting common sense health measures. Or are you already.
- Sue - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:20 pm:
Lincoln Park. You overlook the main point of mg post. The Country’s oldest medical society sees no reason to close health clubs provided they follow protocol. Go read the letter. It’s mentioned in Today’s Illinois Politico
- Chicago Cynic - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:22 pm:
Darren Bailey has blood on his hands.
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:30 pm:
Bailey, why don’t you let your Clay County lawsuit get past the trial court stage and move it up the appellate levels. You got one judge there who ruled your way and another from Kane County who has been reversed by the Appellate Court. I wouldn’t tell you how to farm because I don’t know anything about farming. Why should anyone listen to my opinion about farming or your opinion about the law. Don’t you have to rotate the crops or something now?
- Captain Obvious - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:34 pm:
Sue - Loved your post. Salient point peppered with a bit of good natured humor rooted in an honest observation of reality. Keep it coming.
- Jocko - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:37 pm:
From the CMS letter: “[A]llow health and fitness facilities that 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒏
𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒅𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔. We believe that 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 between the facility and its members.”
Just one question, who’s going to address the rule-breakers?
- Cricket - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:40 pm:
The DuPage County test site can handle 600 tests ahead due to the number of tests kits they get. At last night’s health department meeting it was asked if they could get more kits. The answer was they weren’t going to ask because as inclement weather sets in and they set up tents they will only have room to handle about 300 tests.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:41 pm:
- Sue -
I thought you told us all you weren’t coming back.
Yet, here you are.
(Sigh)… to this…
“Until the Illinois legislature meets and votes to change current law, governor pritzker has absolutely NO authority to do anything that he is saying or attempting. Stand up and stay open”
The legislature is the meeting, Bailey has lost every case to its fruition.
Will Durkin rebuke him yet?
- Club J - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:44 pm:
Darren Bailey never misses a chance to be an embarrassment to the State of Illinois. The Governor could announce everyone was getting $1000 check and Bailey would tell people not to take it from the tyrannical Governor. If him and DeVore would spend all the time they have trying to fight the Governor doing something good. Just maybe they wouldn’t be thought of as such fools. They definitely have blood on their hands.
- Arock - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 12:48 pm:
Obvious that the current testing method isn’t working especially in many areas where you may already be better before you get your results. At home testing even though it may be flawed a bit is far better than what we are currently doing and gives results with 15-30 minutes.
- SouthSide Markie - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 1:15 pm:
90 minute wait to get tested in South Holland yesterday. Last several times I’ve gone, there was literally no one. Staff there told me that it’s been like that for the past couple of weeks, with people starting to line up an hour before the facility opens.
- JS Mill - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 1:17 pm:
= Have to think they know the risk benefit better then a Governor who probably has never seen the inside of a workout facility=
With hard data points like “you’re fat” and cogent argument construction as displayed, your point is very compelling. /s
- ArchPundit - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 1:17 pm:
You can open all the businesses you want, but most people aren’t going to them. Control the virus, improve the economy.
- Lady of the Lake - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 1:34 pm:
Does anyone here that blithely criticizes someone’s weight, and uses it to judge their personality, have any idea what medical conditions may play a part? What does the governor’s weight have to do with anything that he is trying to accomplish? Are you a better/smarter person because you don’t look like him? I don’t understand people.
- OneMan - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 2:06 pm:
== = Have to think they know the risk benefit better then a Governor who probably has never seen the inside of a workout facility= ==
Just an FYI as a fat guy (who has seen the inside of many workout facilities) I can tell you two things.
– We are still capable of listening to experts on a whole host of things.
– At the age the Governor (and I) are at in life we are well aware that we are fat, and calling older fat guys out on that is likely one of the least creative insults ever.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 2:20 pm:
Jocko at 12:37 has the point. People don’t do nuance. The governor tried nuance and all he got was Bailey and Vore saying if people can shop why can’t they sing in church?
Sure, the governor could follow the letter from the Chicago Medical Society (”one of” the oldest, not the oldest, if you read their letter) and say you can open if everyone who goes there follows the protocols to a T. But we’re past that.
This is serious. Stay home. Answer contact tracers calls. Flatten the curve.
- MyTwoCents - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 4:28 pm:
First of all, Crain’s should print a retraction. Secondly, I hate to break it to non-attorney Darren Bailey but 3 appellate justices disagreed with that idea. I wonder what he’ll say when the IL Supreme Court also disagrees with him?
- Stormsw7706 - Friday, Nov 13, 20 @ 4:41 pm:
Ok Darren. You saw your name in print today. Good for you. We noticed you. You were important. Now please go away until tomorrow. Thank you. Good night
- @misterjayem - Monday, Nov 16, 20 @ 12:09 pm:
Sue,
I have no idea what you look like but your ugliness speaks for itself.
– MrJM