Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Protected: *** UPDATED x1 *** SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: Update to today’s edition

Friday, Sep 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

Comments Off

*** UPDATED x1 *** Governor’s office flatly denies CBS 2 rumor about high school sports

Friday, Sep 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

Parents and students continue to put pressure on Gov. JB Pritzker to reopen schools and school sports.

Rallies were held Thursday in the northwest and southwest suburbs, including Orland Park. As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported, parents said the status quo – rooted in precautions for COVID-19, is doing more harm than good.

Sources said the discussions were continuing Thursday night, and that the Governor’s office is at least reviewing these requests to return fall sports in Illinois.

I asked the governor’s office if the last line of the piece was accurate. “No,” was the answer.

*** UPDATE *** Shaw Media…

IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson joined Bloomington radio station WJBC-AM 1320 on Friday and shot down rumors that the IHSA, the Illinois Department of Public Health and Governor JB Pritzker are close to announcing a full return of fall sports, including football, girls volleyball and boys soccer.

“Well, there’s an insider out there that really truly isn’t an insider that’s really providing some false information to the media,” Anderson said. “And it’s quite unfortunate. That’s what I can share right off the top.”

Anderson said there has been a single phone call by Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, and Dr. Cynthia LaBella, who heads the IHSA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. Anderson said the phone call was “simply a call for an invitation” and no follow-up has been made this week.

“While we hope in one facet it to be some progress toward us resuming more activities for our students that we’re currently offering at the present time, there is no movement and no further conversation other than that request to join and support IDPH in that communication and how they would return,” Anderson said.

Some news outlets need to take a breath already.

16 Comments

Federal judge rules against Cook County GOP lawsuit to block new vote by mail program

Friday, Sep 18, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

[Bumped up to Friday morning for visibility.]

* Rick Pearson…

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid by the Cook County Republican Party to block the state’s enhanced vote-by-mail program, rejecting as conjecture allegations that the program was a scheme aimed at disenfranchising GOP voters.

U.S. District Judge Robert Dow ruled the Cook County GOP also was tardy in filing its lawsuit in August seeking a preliminary injunction over the law approved in May as an effort to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic by offering an alternative to traditional in-person voting.

Dow’s ruling also noted existing state statute is aimed at preventing so-called ballot harvesting by political operatives, requiring a voter authorization signed on the exterior of vote-by-mail ballots that are dropped off to election authorities or at drop boxes as an alternative. […]

“Looking at the record compiled to date in this litigation, however, Plaintiff (the Cook County GOP) has provided no basis for concluding that its alleged harms are anything but speculative and therefore fails to demonstrate that ‘irreparable injury is likely in the absence of an injunction,’” Dow wrote.

Judge Dow was appointed by President George W. Bush.

* Bloomberg…

The disputed measures include expanded use of secure ballot drop boxes and requiring officials to accept ballots without enough postage, among others. Republicans cited news articles and isolated cases of election fraud to back their claim.

But the allegations “rest primarily on unsupported speculation and secondarily on isolated instances of voter fraud in other states and historical examples from Illinois during the prior century,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiff cannot demonstrate either that it is likely to suffer irreparable harm or that it has some chance of success on the merits.” — Erik Larson