Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

*** UPDATED x1 *** DeVore’s Quincy school mask lawsuit tossed

Thursday, Aug 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

Judge Roger Thomson sided with the Quincy Public School Board of Education Thursday morning by granting their attorney’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging QPS’s ability to require students to wear face masks and submit to temperature checks to attend in-person learning.

The judge said the board has the power to adopt rules to govern attendance when it is necessary to maintain school function or protect health and safety.

Attorney Thomas DeVore filed the lawsuit on behalf of parent Roni Quinn. DeVore cited several previous cases when the courts ruled against schools’ abilities to pass rules governing attendance in relation to smallpox vaccinations.

Judge Thomson said those cases were between 1897 and 1924. Thomson said in the last 96 to 120 years the General Assembly has acted to significantly change the school code to expand powers and duties granted to school boards.

Thomson granted the motion to dismiss without prejudice, which allows DeVore to file an amended suit within the next 21 days.

Maybe DeVore should try to move the suit to Clay County. /s

*** UPDATE *** WMAY…

Appearing live on WMAY, Thomas DeVore said he is filing suit against Mayor Jim Langfelder’s executive order mandating businesses to enforce face mask and social distancing rules or risk fines and possible loss of food service or liquor licenses. DeVore is representing Fox Run restaurant in the case.

He says Langfelder lacks the legal authority to issue such orders… and calls the lawsuit the easiest case he’s seen yet among the multiple suits he’s filed related to pandemic restrictions.

Maybe it’s easy in Clay County. Sangamon could turn out to be a different animal altogether.

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*** UPDATED x2 - CFO recently terminated - Ouster followed investigation by former US Attorney *** Ingram ousted at TRS

Thursday, Aug 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The vote was unanimous, according to Greg Hinz…

The huge Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System announced Executive Director Richard Ingram resigned Aug. 3, three days after the TRS board placed him on administrative leave “due to performance issues covered by his employment contract.”. […]

According to the agency’s last annual financial report, it concluded fiscal 2019 on June 30, 2019, with $53.3 billion in assets but $134.4 billion liabilities, leaving it with a funded ratio of just 40.6 percent.

In a preface to the report, Ingram openly discussed the possibility that TRS could go “insolvent,” a development he blamed on consistent underfunding by state government. The same report, however, disclosed TRS’ return on assets in fiscal 2019 plummeted from $4 billion to $2.6 billion.

Pritzker aides did not immediately return calls for comment, but sources familiar with TRS tell me there were disputes over investment philosophy and how low to set the fund’s assumed rate of return. Setting that figure lower would force the state to contribute more each year now, something that would pull money from other, arguably more politically popular funding programs.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Greg’s story has been updated…

An investigation by led by former U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon has led to the ouster of the head of the state’s largest government pension plan.

The huge Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System confirmed this afternoon that Executive Director Richard Ingram resigned after the board received results of a review into “performance-based issues” from Chicago law firm King & Spalding, where Fardon is now a partner in the firm’s government investigations practice.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Bruce Rushton…

Ingram’s resignation comes after the recent termination of Jana Bergschneider, the board’s chief financial officer. Bergschneider was paid $191,300 last year, according to Illinois comptroller records. Ingram was paid $303,000 per year, according to the comptroller.

David Urbanek, TRS spokesman, said that he could not give details surrounding the departures of Bergschneider and Ingram, saying that they are personnel matters. Devon Bruce, board chairman did not respond to an emailed request for an interview. After Illinois Times asked to speak with Bruce, Urbanek told the paper that the board chairman is not giving interviews.

“However, I have been authorized to provide the media with one addition piece of information: The Board’s unanimous vote came after an investigation of issues relating to Mr. Ingram’s contract conducted by the Chicago law firm of King and Spalding,” Urbanek wrote. “Leading the investigation for King and Spalding was its managing partner, Zachary Fardon, the former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.”

Asked whether the investigation found any evidence of criminal conduct or whether any law enforcement agency has been contacted, Urbanek wrote in an email that he had no comment.

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1,953 new cases, 21 additional deaths, 4.0 percent positivity rate

Thursday, Aug 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Press release…

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,953 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 21 additional confirmed deaths.

Bond County: 1 female 60s
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 2 males 70s, 2 males 80s
DeKalb County: 1 female 60s
DuPage County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Gallatin County: 1 male 70s
Kane County: 1 male 90s
Knox County: 1 male 90s
Lake County: 1 male 90s
Madison County: 1 female 90s
Rock Island County: 1 male 80s
Saline County: 1 female 60s
Union County: 1 male 50s
Will County: 1 male 80s
Williamson County: 1 unknown 60s

Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 188,424 cases, including 7,594 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 41,686 specimens for a total of 2,937,749. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 30 – August 5 is 4.0%. As of last night, 1,517 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 346 patients were in the ICU and 132 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.

Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.

…Adding… Sun-Times…

“In the next two to four weeks, we’re really going to start seeing the effects,” University of Chicago epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon said. “We just started seeing an increase in patients in the hospital in the last week and a half. Deaths come into the picture a couple of weeks after that.”

That means the worst could be yet to come, as the Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported the latest 1,471 cases of the disease, marking two straight weeks with four-digit daily caseloads.

Illinois has averaged about 1,500 new cases per day over those two weeks — almost double the daily case average in June — but the 19 latest COVID-19 deaths reported Tuesday are just slightly above the average of 17 deaths per day during that time frame.

It takes some time for deaths to catch up to case trends in either direction. When Illinois’ coronavirus curve hit a valley with just 473 new cases reported June 15, the state still averaged about 42 deaths per day for the following two weeks, including 84 on June 17.

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Sheriffs are attempting to transfer as many inmates as possible into prisons after county judge’s order

Thursday, Aug 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller

* News-Gazette…

Illinois’ county sheriffs got a big win Monday in their ongoing battle with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and they wasted little time in taking advantage of it.

A Logan County judge found that the governor has no authority to bar transfers of sentenced inmates or those on holds for parole violations from local jails to state prisons. The judge’s decision prompted Champaign County Sheriff Dustin Heuerman, among others throughout the state, to take immediate advantage of the order.

“We took 20” to the Department of Corrections’ intake facility at Stateville on Tuesday, Chief Deputy Shannon Barrett said. Another 35 inmates are awaiting transfer, and Barrett said “we’ll get them there as soon as possible.”

“There’s a whole line of (county jail vans containing inmates) there today,” Barrett said.

* Pantagraph…

“Space issues” are continuing at the McLean County jail after the Illinois Department of Corrections turned away at the prison gates 33 inmates scheduled for transfer, Sheriff Jon Sandage said Tuesday. […]

Vans filled with 36 inmates left Bloomington at 5 a.m. Tuesday for Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, but IDOC officials said they could take no more than three.

“We were hoping to get rid of 36, but we only got rid of three,” Sandage told the McLean County Justice Committee Tuesday evening. “They said they ran out of space.”

Judge Jonathan Wright ruled in Logan County Monday that the IDOC must accept inmates within 14 days of a transfer. The sheriff’s association estimated about 2,000 inmates are awaiting transfer to state facilities, including about 44 in McLean County.

* WGLT…

“Our first van left Bloomington at 5 a.m.,” said Sandage. But counties from across the state also were bringing their prisoners. So, by 2 p.m. when McLean County’s five vans reached the gate, the prison staff said it already was full.

Yeah, maybe they need a better system in place. Or the sheriffs could call ahead before just hitting the road.

…Adding… The county where the judge lives…

The Logan County Sheriff’s Office attempted to transfer seven inmates to the state-run Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro on Wednesday night, but when the transport vehicle arrived at the state prison, two of the seven inmates tested positive for Covid-19.

The Department of Corrections would not accept the inmates who tested positive, which sparked a short standoff between the state and local agencies. The Logan County transport vehicle insisted the inmates be transferred, and refused to leave the parking lot for a period of about two hours after their tests came back positive, two sources said.

A sergeant at the Logan County jail initially declined to comment on the incident when reached by phone on Wednesday night. Moments later, the vehicle left the state prison parking lot and returned to the county jail in Lincoln with all seven inmates still in their custody.

* ACLU…

News reports in Illinois indicate that a number of county sheriffs have begun the process of transferring prisoners held in county jails to the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). These transfers had been blocked by an order from Governor Pritzker as part of the State’s strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19 in state correctional facilities. After a group of county sheriffs challenged the order, a Logan County Judge ruled against the Governor’s order, and sheriffs quickly began the transfer process before the ruling could be appealed.

The following statement can be attributed to Camille Bennett, Director of the Corrections Reform Project, ACLU of Illinois:

“It is regrettable that some sheriffs appear anxious to resume transfers to IDOC even before the legal process has played out. Elected officials should be mindful of health risks to those being transferred as well as those inside IDOC facilities, including staff and their families.

We know that prisons and jails have been vectors for spread of the coronavirus and moving people in and out – including sheriffs’ personnel managing the transfers – only increases spread of the virus.

The State deserves an opportunity to appeal this ruling before the risk of spread is magnified. Unnecessarily subjecting detainees, staff, and communities to a potentially lethal virus without appropriate public health precautions is needlessly cruel.”