The Illinois Senate will move online for February, conducting virtual committee hearings in an effort to both maximize public health and safety and embrace available technology.
The early part of any new session is dominated by committee action. Given the ongoing pandemic, it makes sense to utilize the Senate’s remote committee meeting authority to continue doing the work of the people.
The Senate intends to move online for the Feb. 9-11 and 16-18 dates to conduct committee hearings and meetings.
We anticipate hearings being announced soon on key issues in addition to all standing committees having the opportunity to meet online during February.
All committee posting notices will be followed. They will be available on www.ilga.gov.
Meanwhile, the Senate President and staff continue reviewing workplace protocols with the goal of having a testing and safety process in place when in-person Senate floor action resumes.
State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch was walking through security at the Bank of Springfield Center on his way to the makeshift Illinois House floor the morning of Jan. 11 when he received a call that would change his life. […]
It was House Speaker Michael Madigan, who told Welch he planned to suspend his campaign for a 19th term as speaker and give the House Democratic Caucus an opportunity to find someone other than himself who could reach the pivotal 60 votes needed to be elected.
Then came the pivotal question from Madigan: “Chris, do you want to be speaker?”
Welch, in an interview last week, said he initially did not know how to respond to Madigan’s inquiry and thought it may be a trick question. […]
“I said, ‘Mr. Speaker, if there’s an opening, I don’t know who wouldn’t want an opportunity to make history,” Welch said. “I do believe I would do a good job with it.’”
* The Question: I know it’s early, but what sort of House Speaker do you think Chris Welch will be?
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,304 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 47 additional deaths.
- Boone County: 1 female 70s
- Champaign County: 2 females 80s
- Clinton County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 90s
- Cook County: 2 males 50s, 1 female 60s, 5 males 60s, 3 females 70s, 4 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 5 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
- Lake County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s
- Madison County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
- McHenry County: 1 male 70s
- Monroe County: 1 male 70s
- Montgomery County: 1 female 70s
- Saline County: 1 female 70s
- St. Clair County: 1 male 50s
- Stephenson County: 1 female 70s
- Will County: 2 females 70s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,130,917 cases, including 19,306 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 60,899 specimens for a total 16,161,454. As of last night, 2,447 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 533 patients were in the ICU and 265 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 26–February 1, 2021 is 3.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 26–February 1, 2021 is 4.9%.
A total of 1,455,825 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 496,100 doses total have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 1,951,925. A total of 1,028,969 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight, including 163,592 for long-term care facilities. The 7-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 44,139 doses. Yesterday, a total of 32,559 doses were administered.
If all the mitigation metrics continue to improve, regions 8 and 9 will move into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan on Wednesday, February 3, 2021.
*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.
* Meanwhile…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced Region 10, suburban Cook County, is moving to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan effective today. Additional information about which tier and phase regions are in can be found at the top of the IDPH website homepage.
A group of Republican state lawmakers, including State Rep. Dan Brady (105th District), State Rep. Tom Demmer (90th District), State Rep. Adam Niemurg (109th District), and Steven Reick (63rd District) spoke against Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards Monday. […]
While agreeing that all students should feel welcomed, some state representatives say the standards are pushing partisan politics into schools.
“That’s why this is an overreach, it establishes a whole series of new mandates that are outside of some of the core parts of education that we’re already struggling within Illinois,” Demmer said.
“It’s so disappointing that rather than focusing on any of these issues, the State Board of Education has instead chosen to create pages of new rules and mandates that prioritize social activism over basic skills,” Brady said.
* Chicago Republican Party…
Oppose Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards
On Tuesday, February 16, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) of the Illinois General Assembly will vote on a new rule already approved by the Illinois State Board of Education.
The rule’s title, which might as well have been dreamed up by a propagandist like Goebbels, is called “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards.” Assuming the rule is ratified on February 16, which will most likely occur, it will mandate that teachers fulfill a whole slew of progressive, politically-correct objectives, including but not limited to:
• “Understand and value the notion that multiple lived experiences exist, that there is not one ‘correct’ way of doing or understanding something.” This could mean that if a student’s parent is a drug-addict, his teacher would say that there is no single correct way to parent.
• “Recognize how their identity (Race/ethnicity, national origin, language, sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical/developmental/emotional ability, socioeconomic class, religion, etc.) affects their perspectives and beliefs about pedagogy and students.” An affront to our Judeo-Christian foundation and a promotion of secularism (let’s not forget a rising sensitivity to Islam!)
• “Assess how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.). Belief in God will be relegated to the bias ash heap.
• “Provide multiple opportunities for parents to communicate in their language and method of preference.” Continuation of the Left’s effort to divide through the multiplication of languages with a hiring spree for translators, thereby diverting more dollars from the classroom.
• “Engage with students’ families and community members outside of the classroom to develop a more holistic understanding of the students’ lived experience.” Open season for taxpayer-funded field trips to leftist political rallies.
Needless to say, this proposed rule is a complete encroachment on our liberties and will be imposed upon a bureaucracy already smothered with woke-ism and virtue-signaling. Please reach out to the members of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules listed below before the vote on Tuesday, February 16.
That’s a bit of a stretch, to say the least, but this thing is gaining ground on social media. Groups like the Illinois Opportunity Project are asking supporters to call the Democratic chairman of JCAR to ask him to kill the rule and use these talking points…
1. Students should be provided with the basic skills and knowledge they need to succeed and we should leave politics out of the classroom. Teachers have incredibly difficult jobs, and forcing them to teach certain political viewpoints and ideologies will only make their jobs harder.
2. Students at young, impressionable ages should not be forced to comply with a political ideology regardless of what it is. This rule creates a dangerous precedent for the government to promote a preferred political agenda in schools.
3. We shouldn’t be creating more mandates and barriers that turn away qualified teachers who do not wish to push a certain political ideology.
* The ISBE sent out this clarification yesterday, noting that this program is optional, won’t take effect until 2025 and is about teacher prep, not curricula…
• Implementation of the proposed Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards will consist only of approved Illinois educator preparation programs incorporating the standards into their coursework in the best way they see fit.
• ISBE also will offer optional professional development on the standards to current educators. Educators and school districts maintain local control over what professional development they choose.
• The Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards apply to teacher preparation programs, not to K-12 school curricula.
• ISBE updated the draft standards in response to public comment to provide further clarity on the intended goal and remove language perceived as political.
• The standards will take effect in October 2025, giving educator preparation programs ample time to incorporate the standards.
• The standards support multiple viewpoints, experiences, and perspectives; promote inclusiveness; and encourage critical thinking.
• The standards were developed by a diverse group of educators from around the state.
• The standards affirm educators of all races and ethnicities and will help them better engage students from all different backgrounds. More than 52 percent of Illinois students identify as students of color, and English Learners make up the fastest growing student population. The ability to reach students from different cultural backgrounds is an essential skill to succeed as a teacher in Illinois today.
• Research shows that teachers of color help close achievement gaps for students of color and are highly rated by students of all races. Incorporating the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards into educator preparation programs will help attract and retain educators of color.
Reick pointed specifically to a portion of the new standards that call on teachers to “understand and value the notion that multiple lived experiences exist, that there is not one ‘correct’ way of doing or understanding something, and that what is seen as ‘correct’ is most often based on our lived experiences.”
He also pointed to another provision calling on teachers to “(a)ssess how their biases and perceptions affect their teaching practice and how they access tools to mitigate their own behavior (racism, sexism, homophobia, unearned privilege, Eurocentrism, etc.)”
Another provision calls on educators to “(b)e aware of the effects of power and privilege and the need for social advocacy and social action to better empower diverse students and communities.”
“Let’s be clear. This rule is not an improvement to education,” Reick said. “It’s an attempt to interject politics into the classroom. The standards that ISBE wants to impose are beyond misguided. Requiring certain political viewpoints in our school systems is simply unacceptable.”
Look, I get the uproar. The ISBE’s approach appeared to arrogantly assume they were dealing with allies who would wildly cheer from the cheap seats. Nope. But, there is not one correct way of doing quite a lot of things. And people, particularly teachers, ought to assess their own biases. None of that has anything to do with “politics.” Maybe some folks should check themselves.
Also, maybe the ISBE ought to also start issuing guidance for how districts should be vaccinating teachers.
Concerns were mounting Wednesday over a criminal justice reform bill awaiting the governor’s signature.
As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported Wednesday night, the bill has one north suburban police chief threatening to yank body cameras from cops. […]
“This bill includes brand-new language, called the law enforcement misconduct, which defines that an officer who fails to comply with any part of the Body-Worn Camera Act – state law – they are per se committing a Class 3 felony,” [Vernon Hills police Chief Patrick Kreis] said. “Never before have I seen a case where a law is passed that criminalizes the act of violating a department policy.” […]
Currently, officers can review body cameras to help write detailed reports. But that too would be banned.
“It really changes like the dynamic for the work product the officers are going to put out,” Jones said.
As is so often the case with recent reporting on this particular topic, not a single proponent was mentioned in the story, so I reached out to sponsoring Sen. Elgie Sims about why officers aren’t allowed under this bill to use cam footage to write their reports. His texted reply…
Supervisors are allowed to review the reports. And furthermore when a member of the public makes a complaint, they can’t review the data before making their complaints. This provision treats law enforcement the same way.
Vernon Hills Police Chief Patrick Kreis said that based on what he’s heard from states where recreational marijuana is legal, local authorities will have a real challenge on their hands.
“Hospitalizations due to overconsumption of cannabis skyrocket,” he said. “The dispensary locations have been riddled with complaints connected with the odor.”
Point being, Kreis might be right now, but I’d take anything this police chief says with a grain of salt considering what he was saying two years ago.
The penalty for a Twin-Cities restaurant and bar will run in the thousands of dollars for defying Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 restrictions by providing indoor service.
The Normal Town Council, acting as the the town’s liquor commission, voted 5-2 to affirm hearing officer Todd Greenburg’s recommendation for a $1,750 fine against Joe’s Station House and Pizza Pub at The Shoppes of College Hills on Veterans Parkway.
The financial penalties are more than that because Joe’s also has to pay $2,420 for the hearing officer and court reporter. Plus, the business will have to pay the town its regular liquor license fee. The town council recently waived that fee for establishments complying with regulations. […]
Joe’s attorney Thomas DeVore indicated he will appeal the local commission’s findings to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, and possibly file a lawsuit against the town.
DeVore also represents Joe’s owners, the Wargo brothers, in a similar matter involving their other establishment, Joe’s Pub on G.E. Road in Bloomington. In that case, the city’s liquor commission fined the owners $600.
Just putting this here: “Most voters said they prioritized battling the coronavirus over reopening the economy, even as the president put a firm emphasis on the latter. And roughly 75% of voters — most of whom favored Biden — said they favored public mask-wearing mandates.” https://t.co/U86Rb8Hfs5
* Trump’s pollster looked at exit polls from five states that flipped to Biden (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) and the five most competitive states won by Trump in 2016 and 2020 (Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas). “Voters prioritized stopping the spread of coronavirus over reopening the economy in both groupings, larger in the states that flipped”…
* “Three quarters of voters favored mask mandates both in the Flipped and Held groups. Biden ran up the score with this large majority of voters, especially in the states that flipped”…
* As an aside, the poll found that Biden lost whites nationally 46-52, but he won white Illinois voters 52-45. Biden also won non-college graduate men 51-44 in Illinois, while losing that demographic nationally 46-51. His margin here among women, Latinos and Black voters was larger than it was nationally. He also won urban and suburban areas by more than he won nationwide. Biden’s loss among small town/rural voters was actually 2 points larger here than nationally - the only tiny bright spot for Trump in Illinois.
* The Illinois Department of Public Health just published some new self-reported county-by-county numbers and, man, there are a lot of county health departments sitting on vaccines. Click here.
According to IDPH, those county departments had 172,999 vaccines on-hand as of Friday, while their “community partners” (like pharmacies) have another 117,807 doses, for a grand total of 290,806. Some of these could be second doses waiting to be administered, but that appears to be the minority.
Chicago isn’t reporting its data to the state, but suburban Cook County, with more than 2.4 million people, claims it has 44,390 doses at the county level and another 37,967 with community partners, for a total of 82,357 available doses - or about 3.4 percent of its population.
Sangamon County says it has 16,713 total doses available, or 8.6 percent of its population. Even so, Sangamon is restricting its 1B program to only those 85 and above.
Tiny Pulaski County, population 5,510, reports having 3,680 doses sitting around. That’s a whopping 67 percent of its population. The county has only vaccinated 202 people, and only 23 of those are fully vaccinated. What the heck?
I heard last week from a local that there were some issues with Madison County getting people vaxed. The county has 10,674 doses available, with another 1,918 at their community partners’ locations, for a total of 12,592.
* On the other end of the spectrum, 30 county public health departments had no vaccine doses on-hand as of Friday. And 14 of those also report no doses at their partners’ sites. The state delivers vaccines to the counties twice a week (Monday is a big delivery day), so those counties with no doses on hand as of Friday appear to be more efficient at getting doses into arms. I’m told Greene County is one of those high performers.
The local health departments asked that they be allowed to run the local programs because they have experience with similar efforts. Oops.
As the vaccine becomes more available, the local health departments will become a smaller component of the administration chain, the administration tells me.
…Adding… Through an intermediary, Rep. Patrick Windhorst says the Pulaski number is so large because that is where the headquarters is for the Southern 7 Health Dept, a regional health dept. “You’ll notice the counties around it have 0.”
"A Chicago parent and a volleyball coach" (who's also a right-wing radio host, but shh) said Chicago teachers won't teach in-person b/c they prefer their "second homes" in CA & FL. She also blamed kids for an increase in robberies, which are actually down. https://t.co/lhWcAwvdP5
Gun dealers say they are selling more firearms than ever in the Chicago area since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — and they predict sales will shatter the records set during last year’s civil unrest and in the early days of the coronavirus panic. […]
Greg Tannehill of GT Transfer gun shop in south suburban Merrionette Park traced the gun sales to “straight up fear.”
He blames the news media for not covering the “stolen election,” accusing the Chicago Sun-Times specifically of being a “liberal” outlet.
“This stolen election and the increase of gun sales in the last two weeks alone go hand in hand. They’re spawned by the theft of an election,” he said.
“We’re back not trusting our government. The media really painted the best president in history as a really bad guy. You shouldn’t have done that because a lot of people have had enough of that crap. And you’re gonna see a big backlash coming soon if you haven’t already.”
* Last month, the Naperville City Council rejected a resolution calling on the governor to veto the criminal justice bill. Then the DuPage County Board voted to indefinitely postpone debate on a similar resolution. But, goshdarnit, the Naperville Park District Board is demanding to be heard…
The Naperville Park Board wants Gov. J.B. Pritzker to veto statewide criminal justice reforms approved by the previous Illinois General Assembly because of the effect they will have on the park district’s police officers and others across the state.
Board members unanimously approved a resolution that says the proposed legislative changes pose a “substantial danger” to the 23 part-time and two full-time park officers employed by the park district. […]
Leaders call out others, and a bill of this magnitude approved in the middle of the night without debate and serious discussion is wrong, Janor said.
“If the Naperville Park District ever attempted to pull shenanigans like this, our constituents would be outraged and justifiably so,” he said.
The park board sued the governor last May, arguing that it ought to decide when to reopen, not the governor. A local judge denied the request for a TRO and the board eventually dropped the suit.
Also, the House Speaker and every chair of his approps committees strongly supported that bill, and the new Senate Appropriations Chair Elgie Sims was its principle sponsor. Local governments that make wild accusations about this bill probably ought to keep that in mind, particularly since the state is in a budget bind these days.
Sims said he’s willing to entertain input despite the “fear-mongering” spread by the critical groups who contend they were left out of discussions on the legislation and complain about its Senate approval just before dawn on Jan. 13, the last day of the previous legislative session
“That’s what’s the most disturbing about the discussion of the process,” Sims countered. “The bill passed when it did because we continued to negotiate (with those groups) until the very end.”
Pretrial detention in jails has also swollen the state’s incarcerated population–even as the prison population has fallen. According to the Vera Institute, the state’s jail population has shot up 5 percent since 2000, while the prison population has dropped 12 percent. Pretrial detention accounted for 71 percent of the state’s jail population in 2015.
* From Judge Robbin Stuckert, who chairs the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices…
Comprehensive, sustainable reform takes courage, patience, diligence and faith. Building upon the Bail Reform Act of 2017, the General Assembly recently passed additional reforms of the State’s pretrial detention system. Importantly, the legislation includes a delayed effective date on many of its key provisions. This additional time will be critical to establish an effective statewide pretrial system to support these changes and ensure that individuals who pose a threat to public safety are detained pretrial.
The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices recognizes that for far too long our criminal justice system has criminalized poverty by often detaining low level, non-violent offenders simply because they cannot afford bail. A large percentage of accused persons who enter the criminal justice system are indigent, facing economic obstacles. The General Assembly is commended for addressing these difficult issues. […]
Going forward, the Supreme Court has directed the Task Force to assume a leadership role regarding the implementation of this historic and courageous legislation. We will prepare guidance and training on the bill’s pretrial provisions and will identify areas in the bill for which amendatory language must be considered.
We look forward to continued dialogue with the legislative authors and we will work tirelessly to ensure comprehensive and sustainable pretrial reform is implemented throughout Illinois.
The bill, which would take effect in January 2023, if signed, offers dozens of charges that could compel a judge to detain the accused: first-degree murder, arson, gun-related offenses, sexual assaults and domestic violence and other crimes.
One of the changes that advocates for the legislation tout is that the measure also creates a risk-assessment tool to help a judge determine whether someone should be detained or released.
“We can track the outcome of what happens in bond court, what happens with jail decisions so we can make better decisions about how we should move forward when it comes to pretrial, said Sharone Mitchell, director of the Illinois Justice Project. The group is part of a coalition that advocated for the end of cash bail.
Mitchell says the bill maps the process for determining whether somebody will be detained. “In the status quo, we have like a patchwork of laws, some of them contradict each other.”
I asked Mitchell about the contradicting statutes. He pointed me to People v. Gil, which, he explained, tries to parse out how someone is held without bond and points out contradictions between 725 ILCS 5/110-6.1 and 4(a) of that statute.
* But this is coming at a time of increased violent crime, making it tougher for proponents…
Chicago is off to another violent start to a new year with 51 homicides in January, the most slayings recorded for the month in five years.
Nearly 80 organizations have joined a chorus of calls that the head of the Chicago police union be fired over allegations he made racist remarks in a series of social media posts. […]
When reached Monday about the letter, Catanzara was unbowed, saying he will continue to represent the FOP members. He urged the organizations to focus on efforts to address Chicago’s escalating violence, including carjackings and homicides.
“Maybe they should worry about things like that,” he said. “Crime that really matters.”
A Worth Township trustee with ties to several Illinois politicians through his commercial printing business admitted to a federal magistrate judge Monday that he failed to file tax returns in 2017 and 2018 despite making hundreds of thousands of dollars those years.
Richard J. Lewandowski, 61, of Palos Heights, also agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors. He was first charged in early January.
The case against Lewandowski is the first public-corruption shoe to drop in 2021, following a flurry of public corruption cases in 2020. Though it’s unclear exactly how Lewandowski fits into that puzzle, the prosecutor handling his case has handled several defendants caught up in an investigation into the politically connected red-light camera company SafeSpeed. […]
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stetler told U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez that Lewandowski made $370,342 in 2018 and $213,516 in 2017 but failed to file his tax returns. That failure cost the IRS $52,365 and the Illinois Department of Revenue $10,350, the prosecutor said.
Lewandowski’s plea makes him the latest Democratic political player to cooperate with federal authorities in a corruption investigation that has stretched from Chicago to the southwest suburbs and Springfield.
Lewandowski, who has served as a trustee in Worth Township since 2013, was closely allied with John O’Sullivan. He’s a former state representative and ally of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan who resigned as Worth Township supervisor last year amid the investigation involving red-light camera company SafeSpeed.
O’Sullivan was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors about the SafeSpeed probe in 2019, shortly after agents raided the offices of then-Democratic state Sen. Martin Sandoval and a host of suburban mayors as part of a sprawling probe. O’Sullivan has not been charged with wrongdoing.
Lewandowski also is the president of Breaker Press, a Pilsen-based printing company that has received millions of dollars for printing services from politicians dating to at least 2011. That includes more than $100,000 from Friends of Michael J. Madigan for the speaker himself and dozens of candidates, ranging from rank-and-file House Democrats to his hand-picked 13th Ward alderman, Marty Quinn.
Breaker Press has done $14.7 million in state and local campaign business since 1999.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,312 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 16 additional deaths.
Christian County: 1 male 70s
Cook County: 1 male 40s, 2 males 50s, 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s, 3 males 90s
Grundy County: 1 female 70s
Putnam County: 1 male 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,128,613 cases, including 19,259 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 61,263 specimens for a total 16,100,555. As of last night, 2,387 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 515 patients were in the ICU and 278 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 25–31, 2021 is 3.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 25–31, 2021 is 4.9%.
A total of 1,333,475 doses of vaccine have been delivered to providers in Illinois, including Chicago. In addition, approximately 496,100 doses total have been allocated to the federal government’s Pharmacy Partnership Program for long-term care facilities. This brings the total Illinois doses to 1,829,575. A total of 996,410 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight, including 156,872 for long-term care facilities. We anticipate more than one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine being administered by the end of today. The 7-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 43,378 doses. Illinois set a new record for the number of doses administered on a Saturday at 36,851. However, yesterday’s winter weather impacted the number of vaccines administered, which totaled 14,422 doses.
If all the mitigation metrics continue to improve, Region 10 will move into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan on Tuesday, February 2, 2021.
*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.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced Region 7, Kankakee and Will counties, is moving to Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois Plan effective today. Additional information about which tier and phase regions are in can be found at the top of the IDPH website homepage.
The University of Illinois Flash Index continued its slow recovery in January, rising to 96.3 from its 95.9 level in December. This is well below the pre-COVID-19 level, but it is the highest reading since March 2020.
The January results suggest only modest gains for the economy because of the resurgence of the COVID-19 virus with the accompanying mandated closures. The index remains below the 100-dividing line between growth and decline.
“The availability of various vaccines has yet to have a significant impact on the spread of the virus,” said University of Illinois economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the monthly index for the University of Illinois System’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs (IGPA). “However, many observers believe the economy is on the cusp of a major resurgence resulting from the eventual effectiveness of the vaccine program along with strong pent-up demand in the economy.”
The unprecedented intervention of both the past and current administrations has created strong untapped demand that may be unloosed once the economy fully reopens. While the long-term impacts of the stimulus may be problematic, the short-term effects are strongly positive, Giertz said. See the full Flash Index archive.
Recent indicators for Illinois have been mixed. Unemployment has increased slightly while revenues have remained strong. For January, all three components of the index (corporate, individual income and sales tax receipts) exceeded the levels of the same month in 2020 after adjusting for inflation. Since the advent of the crisis, receipts for Illinois’ three major taxes have been below pre-crisis forecasts, but well above post-crisis predictions of a revenue disaster. This was confirmed by a recent IGPA study.
The Flash Index is normally a weighted average of Illinois growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending and personal income as estimated from receipts for corporate income, individual income, and retail sales taxes. These are adjusted for inflation before growth rates are calculated. The growth rate for each component is then calculated for the 12-month period using data through January 31, 2020. Ad hoc adjustments have been made to deal with the timing of the tax receipts resulting from state and Federal changes in payment dates beginning in March.
State Rep. André Thapedi (D-Chicago) is set to resign from his seat in the Illinois House after 12 years, he told NPR Illinois on Sunday.
Thapedi, who has served as representative for the 32nd District since 2009, said he wants to take an active role in searching for a replacement for his seat. The 32nd District stretches westward from Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood to south suburban Hickory Hills. […]
“All the change that’s occurred over time — we’ve got the first black female vice president of the United States, the first Black secretary of defense, the first Black speaker of the [Illinois] House, the first Latina [U.S.] Supreme Court justice, the first Black female mayor of the city of Chicago, the first Black female president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners,” Thapedi said.
Thapedi said “so many things have happened,” making it impossible for him to pinpoint one big or most memorable accomplishment during his tenure.
You’d think he’d be ready for that question. His most recent newsworthy act…
An emergency rule for businesses to enforce masks and social distancing in Illinois stands didn’t get the required number of votes.
Some on the panel wanted the entire 176-member body to take up the issue as a bill. […]
State Rep. Andre Thapedi, D-Chicago, voted present, asking why the Pritzker administration didn’t bring a bill to pass into law after already having filed one emergency rule that expired after 150 days.
He could’ve filed his own bill, of course.
Thapedi chairs the Judiciary - Civil committee, so this will set off a robust internal contest to replace him.
* Onward…
Thapedi's announcement kicks off another replacement process for members of the Cook County Democratic Party (there's an ongoing process to pick a successor for former Sen. Heather Steans). Here's the weighted vote totals for those who have a hand in picking Thapedi's successor: https://t.co/aS8RXdBZd7pic.twitter.com/fXrxtPSHdh
With the resignation of Rep. Thapedi and a couple other potential departures, it's likely that soon a majority of House Democrats will have been in office for fewer than five years. https://t.co/vmnL6GNwacpic.twitter.com/QRJ2Mr67CH
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, is launching a political action committee to push back against a House GOP leadership team and party that he says have become too closely aligned to the former president.
The “Country 1st” PAC, unveiled in a six-minute video released Sunday, will challenge the current direction of a GOP that Kinzinger says has wrongly become a “Trump-first party” to the detriment of the nation, as seen by the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
The Illinois congressman cited most Republicans’ seeming unwillingness to hold Trump accountable for his role in encouraging the violent protests, as well as the party’s support of lawmakers such as Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has drawn criticism for past social media posts reported by various news organizations in which she’s suggested support for killing Democratic politicians, unfounded QAnon theories and racist views.
The goal of the PAC is to say, “Let’s take a look at the last four years, how far we have come in a bad way,” Kinzinger said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “How backward-looking we are, how much we peddle darkness and division. And that’s not the party I ever signed up for. And I think most Republicans didn’t sign up for that.”
The video is here. Music is too loud, but it’s an interesting approach. We’ve seen much of what he’s warning about here in Illinois, particularly during the pandemic…
“The party that always spoke about a brighter tomorrow no longer does. It talks about a dark future instead. Hope has given way to fear. Outrage has replaced opportunity. And worst of all, our deep convictions are ignored. They’ve been replaced by poisonous conspiracies and lies. This is not the Republican road and now we know exactly where new and dangerous road leads. It leads to insurrection and an armed attack on the Capitol,” he argued.
Former President Donald Trump amassed $31.2 million in his new political operation by the end of 2020, giving him a powerful tool to keep the Republican Party in his grip as he left office.
Save America, a leadership PAC created in the aftermath of the 2020 election, is set to play a key role in Trump’s plans to keep a strong hand in party politics — both to boost loyalists and also to seek retribution against Republicans he believes have wronged him, such as the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in mid-January. Trump cannot spend the PAC funds directly on any future campaign of his own, but he can use it to wield influence in campaigns in the midterm elections, pay his political advisers and travel the country.
I guess we’ll see soon enough if Kinzinger’s new PAC is more about publicity or actually raising the kind of money he’ll need to counter the former POTUS.
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) going to Wyoming to campaign against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump was “totally GOP cancel culture.”
Anchor Chuck Todd said, “I’m curious, is there just no room for disagreement in the Republican Party when it comes to Donald Trump? This is to me, a form of cancel culture, is it not?”
Kinzinger said, “It is totally. If you look at Matt Gaetz going to Wyoming because a tough woman has an independent view, and he doesn’t want to explain why he voted for impeachment, that’s totally GOP cancel culture. I think what a significant part of the base wants, we can have a diverse opinion. Peter Meijer from Michigan, good friend of mine, he and I are on other ends of the spectrum on things like foreign policy, but I respect his view. That’s what the Republican Party needs to be, the optimistic party in the future. We need to quit being the party that supports an insurrection, a dead police officer, and other dead Americans on the Capitol. There’s no equivalency to that. We have to run from that as fast as we can.”
…Adding… Maybe he could add this to his repertoire…
Pour out a cold one for all the GOP press secretaries who have to apply extra care and diligence as they type out statements condemning the coup in Myanmar…
“Subverting the will of the people”… no, can’t say that….
Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Sunday offered a glimpse of what it’s like being one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump: Friends and family turned against him, and he was told he’s “possessed by the devil.”
“Look it’s really difficult. I mean, all of a sudden imagine everybody that supported you, or so it seems that way, your friends, your family, has turned against you. They think you’re selling out,” the Illinois congressman said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I’ve gotten a letter, a certified letter, twice from the same people, disowning me and claiming I’m possessed by the devil.”
That appears to be a bit of an embellishment. Here’s what he told the Sun-Times a couple of weeks ago…
“I’ve heard from friends that don’t want to be friends with me anymore. … I’ve had family members who are somewhat distant relatives sign a petition disowning me,” citing “Bible verses and that I was part of the devil’s army”.
In Mississippi, an online vaccine registration system buckled in a sudden onslaught of traffic. Officials at a local health department in Georgia had to resort to counting every dose they receive before scheduling appointments. A $44 million national vaccine scheduling and tracking system is going largely unused by states.
And California, Idaho and North Dakota undercounted vaccinations because workers forgot to click on a “submit” button at the end of the day.
Across the U.S., a vaccination campaign that was meant to reverse the tide of the pandemic and spur the nation’s economic recovery is getting bogged down by technical glitches and software woes. Cash-strapped public health departments are trying to keep their websites from crashing while booking millions of appointments, tracking unpredictable inventory and logging how many shots they give.
The situation unfolding across the U.S., home to technology giants, is frustrating a public eager for the inoculations. Further, gaps in the data could be distorting the national picture of how efficiently vaccines are being used, if some number of doses that are administered don’t get counted.
“Our sense is that it’s a substantial amount,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “That will become more clear as the data systems get improved and we get a better sense about what we’re missing.”
So early in the pandemic, the CDC outlined the need for a system that could handle a mass vaccination campaign, once shots were approved. It wanted to streamline the whole thing: sign-ups, scheduling, inventory tracking, and immunization reporting.
In May, it gave the task to consulting company Deloitte, a huge federal contractor, with a $16 million no-bid contract to manage “covid-19 vaccine distribution and administration tracking.” In December, Deloitte snagged another $28 million for the project, again with no competition. The contract specifies that the award could go as high as $32 million, leaving taxpayers with a bill between $44 and $48 million.
Why was Deloitte awarded the project on a no-bid basis? The contracts claim the company was the only “responsible source” to build the tool.
In reality, many states are choosing to pay other vendors rather than using VAMS for free.
* Meanwhile, a recent poll of Georgians shows that 62 percent of respondents say they are willing to be vaccinated, while 34 percent say they are not. Of those who are not…
After a group of protesters managed to disrupt operations at Dodger Stadium’s mass COVID-19 vaccination site Saturday, some Los Angeles officials expressed fury at the demonstrators while calling for increased security at testing and vaccination installations.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials closed the main entrance to the stadium — one of the largest vaccination sites in the country — for about an hour Saturday after 40 to 60 demonstrators appeared on Stadium Way holding signs that decried masks while shouting unfounded claims about the dangers of the vaccine.
The group dispersed around 3 p.m., and there were no arrests or injuries reported, said LAFD Assistant Chief Ellsworth Fortman, who oversees the department’s COVID-19 response.
Just a couple of weeks into a job that most people couldn’t imagine being held by anyone other than the guy who had it for decades, Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch is putting together a House that looks both familiar and different at the same time.
Welch’s first week included a rollout of his new leadership team, with a Black woman as speaker pro tempore and fresh faces throughout. By the third week, we’ll see committee membership rosters and vice chairs. The following week will be the new rules.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin told reporters he was “pleased” that Welch was allowing his party some input on the rules. Durkin told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Rachel Hinton that Welch suggested the two get together regularly for coffee or breakfast. I seriously doubt Durkin ever received such an invite from House Speaker Michael Madigan.
All of Welch’s new appropriations committee chairs are people of color. I asked Welch if there was any particular reason for this.
“First of all, let me say that I think my list is full of people that are super talented,” Welch said. “I’m really proud of the diversity of our caucus. I think that’s the strength of our caucus, the strength of our state. But also I think you can’t not recognize the fact that those people are high in seniority.”
Welch said that when you look at the new chair list, “you’re gonna find that there’s a lot of consistency,” meaning several representatives retained their committee posts. Rep. Mike Zalewski, for instance, is still chairing Revenue. “I think people were doing a good job. And they should be allowed to continue doing a good job. Again I tried to recognize people’s requests and many of them wanted to continue doing the same thing that they were doing. And I think I was able to accommodate that.”
Up until his ascension, Welch had chaired the Executive Committee, which handles much of the bigtime heater legislation. Rep. Bob Rita will take over that important helm. “He’s someone that I know and trust,” Welch said, “with the tough issues that are going to come through that committee.”
The new House speaker also wanted to point out some new special committees he’s created, including Ethics & Elections, which will be chaired by Rep. Kelly Burke. Immigration & Human Rights will be helmed by Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz.
The new Police & Fire special committee will be chaired by Rep. Fran Hurley. Welch didn’t mention this, but considering the law enforcement uproar over the recently approved criminal justice reform bill, putting a Mount Greenwood resident — who has a ton of cops in her district and who voted against the Black Caucus bill — in charge of that special committee should help rebuild some bridges.
“Those new committees should be a signal of where we’re headed,” Welch said. “Ethics reform is very important to me. We need to rebuild trust in the legislature, we need to rebuild trust in our process.”
Some of Welch’s members want Gov. J.B. Pritzker to move legislators into the 1b vaccination phase so they can immediately receive their COVID-19 shots. Pritzker has said they need to wait their turn.
“I understand what the governor’s issues are on that, and I respect his position,” Welch said. “I’m going to take the vaccine when it’s my turn. Other members have their personal thoughts on that, and I’ll defer to them.”
Welch said he expects the new House rules will be “similar” to the Senate’s, which allow for remote committee hearings. The issue of remote floor votes is being researched by lawyers, he said, but he’d like to “put that in the rules so that we have that flexibility.”
Last year, Welch publicly pressured the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services to disclose data on the use of Black-owned businesses for Medicaid-related professional services, primarily through managed care organizations. After finally prying the information loose, Welch then called on that state department to penalize managed care organizations for not meeting contract goals, and demanded that Attorney General Kwame Raoul step in.
I asked Welch whether he intended to keep up the pressure.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I know my voice,” Welch said. “I’m looking forward to using my new voice to continue to highlight the issues that are important to me and to the communities that I serve and the core constituencies that our caucus represents, so I want to continue to find a way.”
