* This man regularly emails state legislators, but today’s is particularly relevant considering the horrible news out of Taylorville…
…Adding… Rep. Jonathan Carroll received the email as well…
I guess we all have our own definition of what constitutes a hero. I would suggest that the front-line workers and medical professionals who continue to get overrun by those who deny the science of vaccines and masks are much bigger heroes than those seeking headlines arguing with smart people.
Taylorville High School is grieving after it was announced that a high school senior passed away last night.
Taylorville School Superintendent Doctor Chris Dougherty, in a news release sent this morning, announced that Alexia Garrison, a senior student at Taylorville High School, died last night at her home where she collapsed.
Dr. Dougherty, in the release, said there are no words to express the grief, heartbreak, and sense of loss felt by everyone in the Taylorville School District.
I was told by one area reporter that the school district pushed back against questions yesterday.
Garrison was quarantined for COVID-19, but had cleared her quarantine period and returned to school at Taylorville High School, according to a Christian County Public Health Official. […]
Students at Taylorville High School are planning to wear purple — Garrisons’s favorite color — to class on Friday to honor her memory.
Hopefully, this tragic death will prompt more people in the area to get vaccinated. Just 39 percent of Christian County’s population is vaxed, according to IDPH.
* Click the image from IDPH if you need a bigger version to see that unvaccinated kids aged 12-17 represent the highest case growth by far in Illinois right now…
…Adding… Rep. Deb Conroy…
Tragic. Which anti mask, my body my choice Republican will step up and take responsibility for the death of Alexia Garrison? She is everyone’s child and no child is safe when personal political gain is valued over human life.
*** UPDATE *** Get your shots, people…
Tragic news from Taylorville. A 17-year-old girl collapsed in her home and died after a long, drawn out bout with Covid-pneumonia. Her dad told @WCIA3 that her symptoms lasted beyond recommended quarantine, and that she was unvaccinated, per @Cole_Henke.https://t.co/gPLYohk88Y
The Sears anchor store at Woodfield Mall was such an instrumental part of the shopping center’s creation and early success that part of the mall’s name — the “Wood” is for legendary former Sears Chairman Robert E. Wood — pays tribute to the iconic retailer.
But now just a week after the suburban shopping mecca celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening, Woodfield’s Sears store is preparing to close its doors for the last time.
Officials from Sears’s Hoffman Estates-based parent company Transformco announced Thursday it will close the Woodfield store, its last remaining location in Illinois, on Nov. 14, as part of a corporate plan to “redevelop and reinvigorate the property.”
“This is part of the company’s strategy to unlock the value of the real estate and pursue the highest and best use for the benefit of the local community,” the announcement states.
Governor JB Pritzker joined Boeing and community leaders to announce that the company will be investing $200 million to build a state-of-the-art facility to produce the MQ-25 Stingray, the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aircraft. The new 291,000 square-foot facility at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, scheduled to begin construction later this year, will help support nearly 300 good jobs for the Metro East region over the next three years.
“The world’s largest aerospace company is doubling down on Illinois because of our unparalleled assets in the transportation and logistics sector and the world-class talent of our people,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “To prepare our communities for the future, my administration is committed to making continued investments that will modernize our airports, spark new innovation and bring jobs and economic opportunities to our communities from Chicago to St. Clair and beyond. I want to thank the Boeing Company for their vote of confidence in Illinois, as well as St Clair County leadership and the MidAmerica Airport team for giving companies another reason to choose Illinois.” […]
The new production center will bring 300 jobs to the Metro East community – with initial plans to hire approximately 150 mechanics, engineers and support staff who will build the MQ-25TM StingrayTM. This project was made possible in part by an EDGE agreement from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), a tool used to support companies making large scale capital investments that lead to significant job creation. As part of its agreement with the State, Boeing has committed to an initial investment of at least $200 million over a 15-year period.
The innovative MQ-25 facility will include state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, including robotic automation and advanced assembly techniques, to improve product quality and employee ergonomics. Boeing digitally engineered the MQ-25 aircraft and its systems, resulting in high-fidelity models that drive quality and efficient production. The new facility is expected to be completed in early 2024, and aircraft production is projected to begin in the start of FY 2024.
“The team and state-of-the-art technology we’re bringing to the Navy’s MQ-25 program is unprecedented, and we’re incredibly proud to be expanding both as we build the future of autonomous systems in Illinois,” said Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of Autonomous Systems, Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “We’ve received great support from MidAmerica Airport and countless dedicated employees, and we’re excited to build the Navy’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft right here in the Metro East.”
The new MQ-25 facility will be in addition to existing manufacturing operations at Boeing St. Clair, which produces components for the CH-47 Chinook, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and other defense products.
Boeing’s investments in Mascoutah are the latest in a series to prepare MidAmerica St. Louis Airport for future growth. Fueled by $57 million in Rebuild Illinois capital funds, the airport will deliver the airport will deliver taxiway and airfield enhancements surrounding the new Boeing production facility and significant upgrades to the passenger terminal facility.
Just a suggestion: Use some of that Rebuild Illinois money to open up more pay lanes to exit MidAmerica airport. There are only two now, and the unstaffed automated machines don’t always work, creating gridlock.
* Wednesday…
Governor JB Pritzker joined the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM), Congresswoman Marie Newman, City of Chicago officials, and members of the community today in announcing a first of its kind aviation training facility opening in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood. With support from the State of Illinois, the new AIM campus will expand access to industry standard aviation training programs, increase the talent pipeline for Illinois’ growing aviation industry, and unlock a long-term investment of 75 permanent jobs for the community.
At 137,000 square feet, the Chicago facility will be AIM’s largest training program in the nation, and its 14th campus overall. Working with longstanding industry partners and a range of educational partners in Chicago, the new campus plans to begin enrolling for classes set to begin on September 27th.
“Our long-term economic success as a state depends on our investment in the next generation of leaders, who will soon take on the task of steering our most important industries to meet the demands of the next decades,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “As governor, I’m committed to building on Illinois’s transportation leadership by working to educate and empower new talent and bring historically underrepresented populations into the field. Today, we have a new partner in that work: with the support of an EDGE agreement from the state, the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, or AIM, is set to open its largest aviation training facility in Chicago. I look forward to watching the AIM campus take the talent, diversity, and strength of our workforce to new heights.”
Construction on the training facility is now complete at 3711 S. Ashland Ave. AIM converted a former warehouse into a modern training facility with a large hangar, 17 classrooms, an avionics lab, and 31 administrative offices to support students. The Chicago campus will be 30% larger than AIM’s two current largest campuses, which will allow them to bring aviation maintenance training currently lacking in the area. AIM is a leading provider of training for students pursuing certification in aviation maintenance.
“AIM is thrilled to bring our proven industry training programs to Illinois as we work to prepare the next generation for exciting roles in the aviation industry,” said Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) Executive Vice President, Dr. Joel English. “Thanks to support from the State of Illinois, City Colleges of Chicago, and numerous industry partners, we will launch our latest program in the country, with an emphasis on delivering training programs to match the needs of local employers and to increase diversity in the workforce. We look forward to launching classes this fall, partnering with Olive-Harvey College and with colleges and universities statewide to bring students access to training that will allow them to compete for well-paying jobs in this fast-growing field.”
* No law is perfect, and the new climate/energy law is far from it…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker vows Illinois will help stop — and even reverse — climate change with a new state law that outlaws coal- and gas-fired electricity by 2045.
But the law fails to address the state’s biggest source of climate-changing pollution: coal mining.
During 2020 alone, mostly out-of-state companies that burned Illinois coal released more than 57 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis based on a formula developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
By contrast, the state’s coal and gas plants emitted 46 million tons of CO2 during the year.
The result is what proponents call the “most equitable” climate bill passed to date in the United States.
Even some of the core people behind the environmental justice parts of the legislation — which include preferences for minority businesses and hiring, training opportunities for clean energy jobs and grants for community programs — seemed shocked by how much they had achieved.
“No one believed in Illinois we would actually pass legislation that can stop oil and gas facilities from running forever,” says Juliana Pino, policy director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. […]
J.C. Kibbey, Illinois clean energy advocate for Natural Resources Defense Council in Chicago, says more needs to be done and will be done to address climate change.
Still, Kibbey says, “This would’ve been unimaginable even five years ago that we would completely move away from fossil fuels in the power sector. In a state like this, that we got it done, is a testament how the politics has shifted and how quickly the economics of coal has shifted.”
Parkview Christian Academy is scheduled to present its case in court later this month for a temporary restraining order against the Illinois State Board of Education over its move to revoke the school’s recognition for not acknowledging the statewide mask mandate.
Oral arguments are scheduled at 1 p.m., Sept. 29, in Kendall County Court. Plano attorney Carlo Colosimo will represent Parkview Christian Academy and Illinois Assistant Attorney General Samantha Grund-Wickramasekera will represent the Illinois State Board of Education.
A commenter noticed earlier this week that a person named Carlo Colosimo is the treasurer of the Kendall County Board of Health and wondered aloud if it was the same person, which would be really egregious.
So, I reached out to Colosimo on Facebook (of course) and asked if the commenter was right…
Yes that is me.
It’s just a microcosm of what this state is up against.
* The US Census clearly warns: “These data are experimental. Users should take caution using estimates based on subpopulations of the data – sample sizes may be small and the standard errors may be large.” So, be really careful with stories like this…
A new study is revealing some of the reasons why Illinoisans have yet to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, 6.6 million or 61.1% of people 12 and older in Illinois are fully vaccinated.
Nick VinZant with QuoteWizard says there are five main reasons Illinoisans have avoided the shot.
“People are worried about side effects, they are waiting to see what’s going to happen with the vaccine, they don’t believe they need it, they don’t trust the government, or they don’t trust the vaccine specifically,” said VinZant.
Israel’s vaccination rate for those 12 and above is 78 percent. Illinois’ vaccination rate for the same age group is 63.5 percent. Israel’s population is 71.4 percent of Illinois’ population. According to NPR, 600 people are hospitalized in Israel with COVID, which is just 29 percent of the 2,082 hospitalized in Illinois. Israel’s most recent 7-day average deaths is 22, which is 54 percent of Illinois’ 41.
* IDPH…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 25,956 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 285 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, September 10, 2021. More than 80% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and almost 63%% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 67% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 52% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,590,342 cases, including 24,546 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since reporting on Friday, September 10, 2021, laboratories have reported 638,918 specimens for a total of 30,395,751. As of last night, 2,082 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 502 patients were in the ICU and 275 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 10-16, 2021 is 4.1%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from September 10-16, 2021 is 4.4%.
A total of 14,284,288 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 20,292 doses. Since reporting on Friday, September 10, 2021, 142,041 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
*All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
* A couple of relevant tweets…
I work at a thrift store and found this vaccine card from 1956. Felt weirdly timely pic.twitter.com/pjo8nhwwUL
* Some East St. Louis parents demand schools provide remote learning due to COVID cases: “One of the reasons that we’re out here is that since school has started, there have been so many outbreaks of COVID in the school,” Rice-Barnes said during the protest. “We have been reaching out to the school district asking for answers, asking for options for our children. There is no school board, no school district without our kids and our families. We are the collateral. There is no school district without parents and without children. We do not feel safe.”
Creates the Stop Social Media Censorship Act. Provides that the owner or operator of a social media website that censors or deletes a user’s religious or political speech is subject to a private right of action by certain social media website users in this State. Authorizes the recovery of actual damages, statutory damages, and punitive damages. Provides for the award of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Prohibits a social media website from using alleged hate speech as a defense. Authorizes the Attorney General to bring an action on behalf of social media website users. Defines terms. Effective July 1, 2021.
A social media website may not use the social media website user’s alleged hate speech as a basis for justification or defense of the social media website’s actions at trial.
So, website owners could be forced to pay damages if they deleted commenters who used the n-word? Yeah. Hard, hard, hard pass on that one, dude.
* From Hannah Meisel’s story that’s linked and referenced above…
Ralph Rivera of Illinois Right to Life Action didn’t find Cassidy’s bill very funny, though he did say he would be on board for legalizing bounties for rapists. Otherwise, he speculated some of the broader strokes in the bill might be found unconstitutional.
“We’re talking about human life,” Rivera said. “It’s not silly. Taking a serious matter and trying to be flippant…she could’ve just stated that and not filed a bill.”
* House Speaker Chris Welch busted the campaign contribution caps yesterday with a $100,001 contribution to his personal campaign fund. He is now the third legislative leader to break the state’s contribution caps. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has not yet done so, but he has in the past. From Welch campaign spokesperson Alexandra Sims…
This is another step by Speaker Welch to protect Democratic House members, as well as potential Democratic candidates, in the upcoming primary and general elections.
The caps are also off in the governor’s race, among others. [Sheesh! Another SoS mistake. I have a smooth spot on my brain about that office today.]
Greg Hart, a sitting board member from Hinsdale, will run for his party’s nomination for the chairman’s position in 2022.
On the Democratic ticket, Liz Chaplin, once the party’s sole county board member, is vying to take the seat held by Republicans for generations. First elected in 2012, Chaplin took the helm of the finance committee after Democrats won control of the board in 2020 for the first time since the Great Depression.
State Rep. Deb Conroy, a Villa Park Democrat, said she’s also considering a run for the county’s top seat. Her fifth term expires next year.
“I will decide where I can best serve DuPage County in the coming weeks,” Conroy said Thursday.
She represents the one-time seat of former Illinois House speaker and conservative stalwart Lee Daniels, another sign that the traditionally ruby red DuPage has skewed more Democratic.
The last paragraph just blows me away. That part of the world used to be at the very epicenter of Republican politics in this state.
* The second white man with union leadership credentials has said he’s running for the vacant 72nd House District…
Democrat Jeff Deppe has announced his candidacy for state Representative, Illinois House District 72.
Current state Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, is running for 36th District state Senate.
Deppe’s roots run deep in Rock Island County, and he already wears many hats in the Democratic Party: He is vice president of the Rock Island County Democratic Party and is a Rock Island County board member, representing District 9. He was appointed to the county board in 2015 and elected in 2016, currently serving as chairman of the county governance, health and administration committee.
Deppe is employed as the secretary and treasurer of Laborers Local 309 (LiUNA) and was elected Illinois vice president of the Quad-City Federation of Labor in May. He sits on the boards of directors for Arrowhead Youth and Family Services and the Bi-State Regional Commission.
Thurgood Brooks, a young Black activist who narrowly lost the Rock Island mayor’s race this year is also considering a bid.
A Freeburg, Illinois native and newcomer to state politics is making a splash with a lot of cash.
Venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan announced he would run for the Republican nomination for Illinois governor. Sullivan joins three other nominees hoping to unseat Democratic incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker.
Even though some of his competitors have an advantage with their political experience, Sullivan may use his connections and capital to light his way towards the nomination, according to John Jackson of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. […]
Jackson feels the frontrunner is U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL 13th Dist.) who hasn’t announced his candidacy yet.
” I think [Davis] has… [the] political experience and party connections that would make him the automatic frontrunner if he were to announce,” Jackson said.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Gary Rabine press release…
The Job Creators Network (JCN) is preparing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate on companies with 100 or more employees, a move Gary Rabine, a JCN Board member, endorses.
Rabine is issuing the following statement on the JCN lawsuit against the Biden Administration.
“Biden’s Administration, the Administration that Pritzker & AOC support is off their rockers! Their main goal seems to be kill jobs, kill freedom, and tax more!
As one of the founding board members of Job Creators Network, I endorse this lawsuit against Biden. We have been a strong voice against terrible regulations that kill jobs but this mandate by Biden might be the most aggressive, freedom crushing bill that we have ever seen. If we allow this, what freedom will we give up next?
Our businesses at the Rabine Group have amazing people who are like family to us, and some will choose not to take this vaccine for their own personal reasons. Some of these invaluable people will choose to leave the small businesses they call home to work for a smaller company that doesn’t fall under the mandate. Some of them will move to a state that fights for their freedom against a tyrannical federal government. How many more Illinoisans can we afford to chase out?
As Governor, I will fight for the freedom of my teammates and all employees in our state. I will fight against a Biden and Pritzker tyrannical government to maintain a state of Illinois that will honor freedom and create abundant opportunity.
I endorse Job Creators Network 100% and I call on all freedom loving business leaders to join me in protecting the freedom of employees and small business.”
That’s quite… something. I’m not sure which Republican candidate would get crushed worst in a general election at the moment.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Heh…
It’s also super weird for them to claim that somehow the ad proves DGA sees Bailey as the “top contender.” It lumped him in with four people all saying practically the same thing. The DGA ad means one thing: they’ve seen polling on Covid related issues.
* From Ald. Pat Dowell, a Democratic candidate for secretary of state…
My campaign for Illinois Secretary of State will require all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The pandemic has taken its toll in my community and all across Illinois. Every day, I learn of more people losing loved ones to this virus. Everyone must get vaccinated. It is the way to stop the pandemic.
I appreciate that Governor JB Pritzker and his campaign team are taking a strong stand by believing in science and trusting medical experts. I am proud to join him in this fight for the health and safety of the people of Illinois.
I’ll be asking the other campaigns for their reacts.
Your thoughts?
…Adding… Fixed my headline because I need much more coffee. Sorry! I even asked the wrong campaign person for a react earlier. Sheesh! Not sure what’s wrong with me today, but I may need a nap.
And, yes, Secretary White has mandated vaccines for employees already, but the testing opt-out is not exactly strong…
Employees who don’t show proof of vaccination by Sept. 1 will be required to undergo a COVID-19 test every other week, White said.
*** UPDATE *** Anna Valencia…
“Since the City Clerk’s office returned in June 2020, we have been providing crucial essential services since and have done everything to protect constituents doing business with the office. Much like other personnel decisions during the pandemic, we’re working with our partners in labor to ensure we implement vaccination standards in a way that makes sense for our workers and customers. As the only person in the race who has had to manage a large government entity which interacts with our most vulnerable citizens during the pandemic, I know that this policy is the very least we can do. I will also have the same policy on our campaign.”
Nurses work 18-hour shifts while administrators are pulled from their offices and outfitted with personal protective equipment to help staff the hospital’s bustling COVID-19 testing site.
Other workers scramble to clear an intensive care unit bed that’ll immediately be filled by another coronavirus patient.
For the others waiting in line for critical care — including heart attack victims, car crash survivors and others who haven’t come down with severe respiratory symptoms from the virus — they’re looking at a five-hour ambulance ride to find the nearest available ICU bed.
And that’s only if the ambulance isn’t already behind schedule from its last out-of-state run with an infected patient.
It’s not a look back to 2020. It’s a September night in southern Illinois this week, nine months after life-saving vaccines were deployed in the pandemic fight. […]
The Illinois Department of Public Health said by the end of the week, it’ll have sent more than 100 additional health care workers to the region. The state agency also helped receive federal approval to start sending civilian patients to three V.A. hospitals.
Despite increasing the number of available ICU beds to 94 yesterday, from 84 earlier in the week, the region still has none available.
The nominee for the Executive Inspector General for the Illinois Treasurer has withdrawn from consideration after controversial social media posts were revealed.
Acting Treasurer OEIG Dennis Rendleman has been on the job since February 2020 with a $100,000 a year salary.
“Dennis Rendleman is a nationally recognized expert on ethics,” said Treasurer Michael Frerichs spokesman Greg Rivara. “However, Mr. Rendleman has asked us to withdraw his nomination and indicated that he will work with the Treasurer’s Office to provide an orderly transition to a new nominee as Executive Inspector General.” […]
State Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, sponsored Rendleman, saying in committee he supported him, but then requested the appointment be held back after social media posts were revealed.
“We saw bad language, we saw posts that were accusing Republicans of killing people, essentially,” McClure said. “We saw just over the top extremist language which is just totally inappropriate for someone who wants to continue to serve, by the way, he’s been serving in this capacity while making these posts, but someone who’s supposed to be an inspector general, kind of above the fray, fair, impartial, that is not what we were seeing with these posts.”
Some posts obtained by The Center Square showed Rendleman writing on Facebook “White ‘Christian’ nationalists = Taliban/ISIS/Al Qaeda” and linking to separate Politico and NPR online articles. Another post Rendleman shared showed three people wearing Klu Klux Klan outfits with the text “when you accidentally wash your KKK robe with your MAGA hat.”
“They were of the most extreme types of political discussions on his Facebook page and all of us believed they were inappropriate,” McClure said. […]
“In Mr. Rendleman’s nearly 40-year legal career, there have been no issues or concerns raised about his ability to separate his personal opinions from the objective and neutral positions with which he has been entrusted by [University of Illinois Springfield], [Illinois State Bar Association], the [American Bar Association], and the Illinois Supreme Court,” [Treasurer Michael Frerichs spokesman Greg Rivara] said.
His Facebook account is here. And people on the right keep saying that the left is pushing “cancel culture.”
It used to be that running a broadcast TV series was the top of the mountain for those in the small-screen business. These days, you’re more likely to hear about an old broadcast series like “Friends” or “Seinfeld” moving to a streaming platform in search of a second life.
The streaming era has stolen the spotlight from the once-vaunted industry, which is long past the halcyon days of “Must-See TV.” As showrunner Saladin Patterson puts it: “Right now, my kids could not tell you where ABC is on the TV.”
* The Question: How often do you watch traditional broadcast network television, and for what?
All 88 of the [southern Illinois] region’s ICU beds are in use, as COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb, leaving the area worse off than the rest of the state in terms of emergency care, according to state health department data.
There were zero ICU beds available in Region 5 as of early Tuesday afternoon, according to IDPH’s metrics.
* The U of I really needs to get its act together, like today…
As of Wednesday, 449 public school districts and private K-12 school organizations in Illinois had signed up to implement SHIELD testing. About 79 of them had actually started testing, according to SHIELD Illinois. […]
SHIELD leaders say they have plenty of supplies and capacity. But they, and school leaders, say it’s taking time for schools to communicate with parents, get parental permission and then send rosters of participating students to SHIELD.
Further exacerbating the situation, the testing organization was hit with a wave of demand in the month before school started, with hundreds of school districts signing on in late July or August. In late August, Gov. J.B. Pritzker publicly announced that all schoolteachers and staff would be required to get vaccinated or get tested for COVID-19 once a week. That month, the state also detailed an optional new test-to-stay program, in which students and teachers who are close contacts of people with COVID-19 may stay in school so long as they test negative on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 after exposure.
It can now sometimes take days for SHIELD to answer schools’ questions about implementing testing because of the high demand and a limited number of SHIELD staffers, said Ron Watkins, managing director of SHIELD Illinois, which is a nonprofit unit of the University of Illinois system. SHIELD is working to hire more people to help answer schools’ questions in the next few weeks, and upgrading its software to help make the process of getting started more efficient for schools.
The Illinois Department of Public Health was in the hot seat Wednesday during a House committee hearing on nursing home reform.
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities house a small part of the U.S. population, but are estimated to account for about 3 in 10 deaths from COVID-19. IDPH reported 46% of all deaths from COVID-19 in Illinois occurred in long-term care facilities.
Lawmakers had questions for IDPH representative Becky Dragoo, including the number of deaths in long-term care facilities during the pandemic, and the number of nursing homes that were cited by the state for a lack of protocols.
State Rep. Lakeshia Collins, D-Chicago, was not happy that Dragoo did not provide the number of deaths in Illinois nursing homes during the pandemic.
“If there’s no numbers that you can present to us when we get on these calls and you have to give us a follow-up, that’s a problem because you know we are going to ask these questions,” Collins said.
(U)ntil recently, the [Biden] administration had shipped the antibody treatments to states on an as-needed basis — with top health officials in early August going as far as encouraging those battling the Delta surge to seek even more supply.
But demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.
The imbalance prompted an effort to rein in control of supplies, over concerns that the government wouldn’t have enough on hand to respond to Covid-19 surges elsewhere in the country. […]
DeSantis has similarly touted efforts to make the treatment widely available, while downplaying the virus’ threat and criticizing the Biden administration’s support for vaccine mandates and school mask mandates.
* Hospital staff must swear off Tylenol, Tums to get religious vaccine exemption: The move was prompted when Conway Regional Health System noted an unusual uptick in vaccine exemption requests that cited the use of fetal cell lines in the development and testing of the vaccines. … The list includes Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, HIV-1, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin.
Recent charges filed against the Winnebago County Coroner inspire area lawmakers to hold elected officials accountable.
State Senator Dave Syverson is one local lawmaker trying to push a bipartisan bill into the Illinois House and Senate.
Syverson says the piece of legislation addresses how to hold accountable any elected officials potentially abusing their power.
“We want to protect the Constitution, protect those people who are duly elected from being a political victim. But in cases where an elected official, is clearly abusing their, their position, then we have to find a way to take them out of those duties,” Syverson says.
Other area lawmakers, like Senator Steve Stadelman, are also on board with this initiative.
“I think it’s something that needs to be explored it kind of sets up an interesting situation, ultimately comes down, you want the public trust your elected office,” Stadelman says.
The story goes on like that, but never explains what the bill would do. That’s because, according to Sen. Stadelman, there is no bill yet “and I’m not sure there’s a legislative fix to this situation.”
Statutorily requiring the removal of elected officials from office after they’ve only been indicted or charged with a crime would likely be problematic.
The DGA is launching a new video in Illinois that slams the growing GOP gubernatorial field for their reckless disregard for public safety throughout the pandemic.
While the rest of the field have already gotten a head start, Jesse Sullivan, the newest to join the growing primary, has quickly jumped on the anti-science bandwagon. Sullivan has repeatedly opposed measures to mitigate the spread of COVID, and he’s not the only anti-science Republican in the race. Gary Rabine, Darren Bailey, and Paul Schimpf have all similarly opposed common-sense safety measures.
Sullivan, Rabine, Bailey, and Schimpf have baselessly criticized the leadership of Gov. JB Pritzker, who acted swiftly to protect the health of Illinoisans when the pandemic hit. As Republicans flounder on public safety, Gov. Pritzker is putting Illinois back on a firm fiscal footing to emerge from the pandemic even stronger.
“As Republican primary candidates vie for the support of Trump’s extremist base, they’ve taken to spreading dangerous lies and threatening public safety with their negligence,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “The growing primary field is in a full-on race to the far-right, and that means adopting an unpopular anti-science, anti-safety, and anti-Illinois platform that voters will reject at the ballot box.”
I’ve asked whether this is just a YouTube video or if the DGA is putting any money behind it online. My guess from reading lots of releases like this is it’s just a video, but I’ll let you know if I hear back. [I was right. Just a video.]
“The JB for Governor campaign is requiring full vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. We are leading by example and following the same science and medical advice from doctors, nurses and medical professionals that has guided Governor JB Pritzker in his strong leadership to protect the lives and livelihoods of Illinoisans during this deadly global pandemic. The best way to help end this pandemic is for all of us to listen to the science, and that means getting vaccinated. As always, we’ll continue putting the health and safety of all Illinoisans first.”
It’s not unexpected. But they’re one of the first major campaigns in the country to do this, and it’ll mean other Illinois candidates in both parties (statewide, congressional and legislative) will likely be asked about it.
As Ken Ferrie travels through parts of central Illinois this week, he sees a corn crop that has changed radically in the past seven days.
“Disease pressure is bringing fields to their knees, and a lot of that corn here will die before it can finish the race for yield,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist and owner of Crop-Tech Consulting, Heyworth, Ill.
Corn that typically would be filling kernels this time of year is, instead, prematurely shutting down due to a cocktail mix of heavy disease pressure coming at it from many fronts – gray leaf spot, northern leaf blight, common and southern rust, tar spot and, most recently, Goss’s bacterial wilt and leaf blight.
“That picture-perfect photo finish you like to see with the top of the plant still green and the husk turning ripe is getting harder and harder to find as you visit these fields,” he says.
D and L-1 hybrids are a concern. Ferrie says the late disease push is particularly hard on D hybrids. These are hybrids that have kernel depth changes, positive or negative, based on populations and environmental conditions during the last 30 days of grain fill.
This post is mostly snark because I couldn’t resist putting that quote into a headline…
The silver lining is that the pressure has developed late enough that many of the D hybrids will still produce average to even slightly above-average yields but not record-setting yields.
Plaintiffs have shown there exists a clearly ascertainable right in need of protection, namely that the Children, while on school property, are being forced to utilize a device to allegedly prevent the spread of an infectious disease without a lawful order of quarantine having issued against them by the local health department. Plaintiff has shown, have shown there is a fair question that Plaintiffs will succeed on the merits in that the Children cannot be required to utilize a device to allegedly prevent the spread of an infectious disease absent, inter alia, an order of quarantine issuing against any or all of the Children from the local health department.
Plaintiffs have shown they will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction does not issue, namely the Children are being refused access to their education unless they unwillingly utilize a device to allegedly prevent the spread of an infectious disease even in the absence of a quarantine order against them; and
It is clear from the pleadings that given in this order precludes the local health department from issuing a lawful order of quarantine against any or all of the Children, which could compel them to utilize a device to prevent the spread of an infectious disease. […]
WHEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED:
While the Children are on school property, the Defendants, are enjoined from requiring any or all of the Children who attend within the school district to utilize any type of device, including a mask, for the purposes of allegedly preventing the spread of an infectious disease unless an order of quarantine has issues against any or all of the Children from the local health department as required by the Illinois State Board of Education.
* This statement from Annie Thompson at the Illinois Attorney General’s office was issued yesterday regarding the previous case. It’ll suffice for this one, too…
We are reviewing the court’s decision. It is disappointing that some people do not support the right of all students, including those who have disabilities or other comorbidities, to safely access education in the classroom. Because we are dealing with a highly transmissible virus, the decision of some students to not wear masks affects not only them, but also the rights and health of every other student, teacher and staff member with whom they interact in a school setting. We remain committed to defending in court the governor’s actions to protect Illinois residents and our students from the spread of COVID-19, and the highly transmissible Delta variant in particular.
The same dark-money group that fueled opposition to the graduated income tax ballot measure Illinois voters rejected last year is helping launch “a statewide grassroots campaign to give voters the power to recall their elected officials.”
Although the group’s organizers aren’t yet revealing details about their campaign, the Illinois Opportunity Project, a conservative tax-exempt organization that does not have to disclose its donors, is joining forces with state Sen. Jason Barickman and state Rep. Mark Batinick, both Republicans, in the effort. Both lawmakers have been outspoken critics of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the pandemic.
The IOP, which is connected to the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, spent nearly $1 million to successfully oppose the graduated income tax ballot measure. Now we’re wondering how much it would spend to potentially create a recall referendum.
The first step is getting the idea on the ballot.
Plans to kick off its campaign Wednesday were delayed because media attention was focused on Pritzker signing the clean-energy bill. A spokeswoman says the recall effort will be launched next week instead.
All this comes on the heels of California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily beating back a recall effort this week, a signal of the uphill challenge Republicans here would face.
Illinois doesn’t have a recall law on the books and Pritzker is likely to have won a second term before one can be put in place, potentially putting the focus on legislators. […]
Illinois GOP political operative Jon Zahm, who has worked on statewide policy campaigns, says, “I am all for recalls and citizen referendums being easier to access for voters. However, when I was deeply involved in term limits and fair maps, the Democrat-majority Supreme Court threw out the petitions on technical grounds. I support these new efforts to educate voters and fight for change. But it’s a very steep climb.”
1) The press conference wasn’t intended to “launch” any actual recall “effort.” I checked in with Rep. Batinick and asked whether he supports recalling Gov. Pritzker: “Nope,” was his response.
2) Batinick has hardly been an “outspoken critic” of the governor’s mitigation measures. “I’ve supported most of the governor’s mitigations,” he told me today.
3) Yes, we already do have a recall law here. Illinois voters approved a recall amendment to the Illinois Constitution in 2010. It was designed to be almost completely unworkable…
The recall of the Governor may be proposed by a petition signed by a number of electors equal in number to at least 15% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election, with at least 100 signatures from each of at least 25 separate counties. A petition shall have been signed by the petitioning electors not more than 150 days after an affidavit has been filed with the State Board of Elections providing notice of intent to circulate a petition to recall the Governor. The affidavit may be filed no sooner than 6 months after the beginning of the Governor’s term of office. The affidavit shall have been signed by the proponent of the recall petition, at least 20 members of the House of Representatives, and at least 10 members of the Senate, with no more than half of the signatures of members of each chamber from the same established political party.
4) The first step is not getting a recall on the ballot. The media event was designed to highlight HJRCA4, a proposed constitutional amendment that’s stuck in the Rules Committee. Synopsis…
Proposes to amend the Suffrage and Elections Article of the Illinois Constitution. Provides for the recall of all State Executive Branch officers, legislative leaders, the Auditor General, members of the General Assembly, and local government officials. Makes changes to the procedures for the recall of the Governor. Effective upon being declared adopted.
5) The California recall process “sucks,” Batinick told me…
You should never have a system where someone with 49 percent of the vote can be replaced with somebody with 20 percent of the vote. It also should not be used so blatantly for partisan purposes
This proposal, Batinick said via text, would be much better…
What we proposed was to follow the normal replacement process. So if Blagojevich were to be recalled he would’ve been replaced by the lieutenant governor - Quinn.
We have a 60 percent threshold to recall somebody. It needs to be a super majority.
Finally, people only think about recall in terms of governors. We’ve had local officials do their jobs from Florida at townships. When that’s discovered there should be a process to recall those people.
ILL back in the market today with $360Mish sales tax backed Build ILL bonds…trimmed size of tax exempts, raised taxables by 10M…the 10-year in deal landed at 45 basis point spread to AAA with 5% cp, compared to 40 bp spread, 4% cp last month & half of the 89 bp spread in 2018
one more time, in english, which sometimes I forget how to speak…state's 2nd foray into market with remainder of nearly $500M deal fared along same lines as last month & that was good news as the spread to what a top rated borrower pays is at best levels in very very long time.
