* Hannah Meisel…
Three months after an investigation into the COVID outbreak that killed 36 residents at the state-run veterans’ home in LaSalle found the facility’s management was “ineffective, reactive and…chaotic” responding to the virus’ spread, Republicans in the Illinois House are once again agitating for more information from Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration.
GOP members are also renewing their call for Attorney General Kwame Raoul to open a criminal probe into the fatal outbreak, which infected nearly all the residents at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home last fall, killing more than a quarter of the facility’s population, and spreading to more than 100 staff members.
But Republicans, who are in the superminority in the General Assembly, have not received answers from those Democratic leaders in months, and are turning up the volume on the issue has largely faded into the background of Illinois’ political discourse.
In communications obtained by NPR Illinois, the top attorney in Pritzker’s office last month blamed the two-month delay in responding to LaSalle-related document requests from a House Republican member on the fact the member sent his formal demand via the U.S. Postal Service to Pritzker’s statehouse office, which also receives a high volume of mail from the general public.
“I regret that our response was not more timely and assure you that the delay was unintentional,” Pritzker’s General Counsel, Ann Spillane, wrote in her letter to State Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Alpha), the minority spokesman on the Illinois House’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
#Facepalm.
* Meanwhile…
Some at the statehouse continue to demand a response from the Illinois Attorney General about whether he’ll investigate possible negligence at a state-run home for veterans.
Last fall, 36 residents of the LaSalle Veterans’ Home died of COVID-19 in a matter of weeks. After several reports and legislative hearings, Republicans sent a letter to the Illinois Attorney General to investigate if state statute applied to the “negligent and disturbing activities that arose.”
“The poor practices that allege to have led to the loss of life of at least 36 Illinois heroes in the state’s care are well documented, especially in the Acting Inspector General for the Illinois Department of Human Services report dated April 26th of this year,” said a letter House Republicans sent Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Friday. “To date, your office has not responded to this investigation request. This is not acceptable.”
State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, comes from the long-term care industry. He was one of 26 lawmakers who signed the letter.
“Any private entity that had that kind of situation would have been prosecuted for one death, two deaths, but 36 deaths,” Caulkins told WMAY.
There’s no doubt that the LaSalle Veterans’ Home outbreak was a horrible and unpardonable utter disaster. Zero doubt. But in LaSalle County alone, three nursing homes have reported at least 24 COVID-19 deaths. Heritage Health Mendota had 24, Liberty Village of Peru had 31 and Ottawa Pavilion had 35. Of 25 nursing home facilities in that county, 16 reported deaths.
* Also, back to Hannah…
Though Raoul’s office has communicated its receipt of the Republicans’ requests via media, as well as indicated it had no plans to open a criminal probe, the GOP members claim they have not received any response from Raoul’s office in the last three months.
- Bruce( no not him) - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:05 am:
Much as I dislike the republican agenda overall, this needs to be dealt with posthaste.
- Responsa - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:11 am:
Quite honestly the LaSalle issue should not have required an inquiry from House Republicans in order to shake loose information. It’s disappointing that the governor’s office did not understand on its own that the public deserved more info and follow-up action following the tragic deaths at the state run veteran’s home. And Kwame? Are they really this oblivious to how memories of the LaSalle failure is sitting with the public?
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:16 am:
I’m curious, what was the governor supposed to do when the county sheriff made no qualms about loudly stating no covid enforcement was going to be done in his county.
While those deaths are tragic, I think the republican party should be careful about pulling too hard on this thread for political points. The potential backfire against them is incredibly large if the full picture gets painted.
- downstate dem - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:31 am:
Don’t forget that it’s LaSalle County. In July 2020, the LaSalle Speedway packed 3,000 people into its stands without masks…and flew the confederate battle flag in the stadium to boot! The whole county never took this pandemic seriously.
- wut? - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:33 am:
The republicans only care about the vets when they can be used as political pawns. They did nothing to mitigate covid in the community and now want to scream about the impacts. Looking forward to the republican support of a vax mandate for these workers to protect the veterans they claim to care so much about.
- Publius - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:36 am:
Maybe they should investigate all the nursing home deaths in LaSalle county. Review the contract tracing on all the staff and so on. Sounds like a problem of the people of the county. Did the same State Rep call the owners of those private run nursing homes to ask? Also, why just that one. There are other Veterans’ Homes in other parts of the state. What did they do better. Even the one in Union County had few problems while the private run ones had a lot of deaths.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:38 am:
=== So Jay Bob’s statehouse office is as competently run as the LaSalle veterans home was and since other nursing hones had deaths there is not much to investigate. Got it. Thanks for the update.====
It’s obvious your mouth breathing makes ya dizzy and light headed.
The politics to this horrible and fully owned by the governor is the appointment of Chapa LaVia and the gross negligence of the leadership inherit in Chapa LaVia’s incompetence and the governor continually supporting her.
Your phony angst to the tragedy is predicated on “whataboutism” which has less of a leg to stand on and less legs to run with…
“Whataboutism” and angst towards that only reinforces “group think” that are already voting against the governor anyway.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:43 am:
Not excusing IDVA, but it’s a little hard to take the GOP seriously when they’re leading the charge against COVID mitigations.
- A Guy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:43 am:
==when the county sheriff made no qualms about loudly stating no covid enforcement was going to be done in his county.==
…because the Illinois Veteran’s Administration AND the Illinois Dept. of Public Health don’t have jurisdiction or and enforcement mechanism beyond a County Sheriff??
Weak sauce dude. Bad example of excuse making on this. Try again. Beyond death excuses are tough to come by. They either didn’t care…OR didn’t care enough. Does it really matter which?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:47 am:
===Beyond death excuses are tough to come by. They either didn’t care…OR didn’t care enough. Does it really matter which?===
… and yet you voted for Rauner.
See how whataboutism works.
Folks predisposed voting one way or another aren’t the audience to the politics.
To make the political hay from this tragedy of lives lost and hold accountable leadership, it’s those who voted against Rauner in 2018 willing *now* to vote against Pritzker in 2022.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:54 am:
=== on the fact the member sent his formal demand via the U.S. Postal Service to Pritzker’s statehouse office===
I would wager this was intentional.
Have these GOP members deleted their Facebook posts downplaying the risk of the virus and calling for an end to mitigation efforts yet?
- Perrid - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:57 am:
Maybe the Guv’s statehouse office should have caught the request, but it seems like that’s not the best place to send requests if you’re actually serious about wanting people to see it and respond.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:10 am:
=== on the fact the member sent his formal demand via the U.S. Postal Service to Pritzker’s statehouse office===
Isn’t that the proper way to send formal requests? Not through social media?
- Bruce( no not him) - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:10 am:
11;10 is me sorry
- A Guy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:38 am:
OW, When you talk out of both sides of your mouth (multiple times daily) It’s tough to figure out which side to slap first.
We were talking about avoidable death and your brain reverts to Rauner years ago.
Your goofy comments aren’t even entertaining anymore, if they ever were. I guess they were only heroic Veterans who served our country, right, smart aleck?
- Norseman - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:38 am:
The Governor’s folks deserved to be dinged for the handling of LVH. However, it’s laughable to use that as an excuse to vote for COVID deniers, anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers and propagandists. Sorry folks, it’s like the arsonist blaming the fire department for getting to the fire late while he’s pouring gasoline all over it.
- Lord of the Fries - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:42 am:
“Republicans Pounce”
- Jibba - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:43 am:
Norseman +1
LaSalle was a black mark against the administration, no doubt, and I sincerely hope they learn from it.
It is unsurprising that the hypocritical right will make an issue of it because it is pretty much all they have.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 11:48 am:
=== When you talk out of both sides of your mouth===
Oh, - A Guy -
The Quincy deaths, still voted for Rauner. So stop, “dude”
===It’s tough to figure out which side to slap first.===
Didn’t know you as a physical violence person when hypocrisy is shown, *but* you are a Trumpkin, so that’s on brand.
=== We were talking about avoidable death and your brain reverts to Rauner years ago.===
Read what I wrote, exactly as I wrote it;
=== … and yet you voted for Rauner.
See how whataboutism works.
Folks predisposed voting one way or another aren’t the audience to the politics.==
“Dude”, lives and tragedies, for you, are Blue or Red. I can’t help that about you. Otherwise you’d have voted against Rauner “because Quincy”
=== Your goofy comments aren’t even entertaining anymore, if they ever were. I guess they were only heroic Veterans who served our country, right, smart aleck?===
Narrator: he had nothing else, so he went full “In-Law Uncle” which you should never do.
- FormerParatrooper - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
Like anything in a bureaucracy this is going slow. People made lethal mistakes and leaders at the lowest levels failed. There has to be accountability and it has to match the situation.
My longterm goal is never to go to a nursing home of any type, I survived a lot of situations by dumb luck mostly and can’t bear the thought I could die by someone else’s stupidity or negligence.
- Shield - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 1:04 pm:
- A Guy - Wednesday, Aug 4, 21 @ 10:43 am:
So you support hiring whatever number necessary of people by IDPH to enforce public health guidelines statewide?
- A Guy - Thursday, Aug 5, 21 @ 10:03 am:
==So you support hiring whatever number necessary of people by IDPH to enforce public health guidelines statewide?==
In the case of Veterans, you’re darn right. These catastrophies didn’t happen everywhere, but where they did; there’s a common thread. Bad management, horrific oversight and worst of all, apathy.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Aug 5, 21 @ 10:05 am:
===In the case of Veterans, you’re darn right. These catastrophies didn’t happen everywhere, but where they did; there’s a common thread. Bad management, horrific oversight and worst of all, apathy.===
Narrator: He voted for Rauner after Quincy.