* I explained this in detail to subscribers earlier today, but here’s Politico…
Another FEC advisory opinion is issued on Kelly as Dem Party Chair: The opinion is out before the Federal Election Commission meets Thursday. At issue is to what extent Rep. Robin Kelly can continue to lead the Illinois Democratic Party given FEC rules don’t allow a federal officeholder to raise local funds.
The latest advisory calls for a “special committee” to be formed “without review or approval by Congresswoman Kelly and Congresswoman Kelly has no role in the appointment of any member of the special committee.”
The proposed advisory opinion is here. Kelly had initially suggested that she be allowed to appoint a minority of the special committee’s members, which will have sole authority over raising and spending all money that isn’t federally regulated. But the FEC is moving away from that idea.
So, the state party chair can’t be directly involved in any state and local campaigns. Brilliant.
* Back in May, some remap reformers criticized Democrats for not asking the Illinois Supreme Court to somehow set aside the constitutional timeline to craft a new map. Well, some Michiganders tried that avenue and lost…
The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday denied a petition to grant relief to the state’s redistricting panel, who expects to adopt new congressional and legislative maps months later than allowed by the constitution.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in April asked the state Supreme Court to extend the existing Nov. 21, 2021 deadline to redraw districts in the state, as census data required for redistricting has been significantly delayed amid the pandemic.
* Press release issued yesterday morning…
Secretary of State candidate Pat Dowell is announcing the members of the Finance Committee for her campaign for Secretary of State. “I am honored that these community and business leaders have committed to help our campaign,” said Dowell. “While I just joined this race only a short time ago, I am humbled by the support and generosity of so many. I look forward to more events around the state including the suburbs, southland and the city.”
Dowel entered the race recently and her fundraising during second quarter outpaced others in the race. This committee will build on this fundraising progress achieved in the second quarter with $375,000 raised and $440,000 cash on hand.
* Back to Politico…
Congressman Adam Kinzinger has raised a whopping $1.3 million in the second quarter of the year, according to a source close to his campaign. Broken down, that’s $800,000 for his re-election campaign and $500,000 for his leadership PAC.
In the past six months, Kinzinger has raised $3.6 million, nearly all from individuals, and more than $700,000 from within Illinois.
* WVIK…
Tim Arview from West Frankfort ran unsuccessfully last year in the Republican primary for state representative.
“I’ve always been interested in politics, always voted, always followed the issues, but never felt like that was something that I would want to do or feel like I need to do. But just the way things are going now, and through prayer and consideration, we decided it was the time to do it.”
He doesn’t want to challenge any fellow Republicans again, which eliminates running for state house or senate or even Congress in southern Illinois, so the only Democrat left for him to run against is Senator Duckworth.
Arview is pro-life and pro-gun rights, and thinks Duckworth has not done enough to help veterans, despite being a veteran herself.
“Ran unsuccessfully” is a pretty huge understatement. Dude got 14.4 percent against Rep. Dave Severin in the 2020 primary.
*** UPDATE *** Oops. Forgot to post this media advisory…
Judge Elizabeth Rochford to Announce Candidacy for Illinois’ 2nd Supreme Court District
WHAT: The Hon. Elizabeth M. Rochford, a sitting judge in Lake County’s 19th Judicial District, is announcing her candidacy for the newly redrawn Supreme Court seat that encompasses the counties of DeKalb, Kendall, Kane, Lake and McHenry. Judge Rochford has been an associate judge in Lake County since her appointment in 2012, hearing civil and criminal matters, with a significant focus in family law. She is currently sitting in probate court.
Judge Rochford is a former assistant state’s attorney and solo practitioner. She has served on the Illinois Judges Association (IJA) Board of Directors since 2015 and is currently Secretary, in addition to chairing literacy and access to justice initiatives.
Judge Rochford also served on the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) Board of Governors, and as Secretary and past President of the Lake County Bar Association (LCBA). She remains active in both organizations. Her recent distinctions include the 2020 ISBA Carole K. Bellows Woman of Influence Award, the Lake County Women’s Association (LCWA) 2019 Woman of Significance Award, and the LCBA’s 2019 Access to Justice Award.
* Related…
* With remap of Chicago wards pending, Latino aldermen aim to protect, and expand, their City Council footprint
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* CNBC…
To rank America’s Top States for Business in 2021, CNBC scored all 50 states on 85 metrics in 10 broad categories of competitiveness. Each category is weighted based on how frequently states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials. That way, our study ranks the states based on the attributes they use to sell themselves. We developed our criteria and metrics in consultation with a diverse array of business and policy experts, and the states. Our study is not an opinion survey. We use data from a variety of sources to measure the states’ performance. Under our methodology, states can earn a maximum of 2,500 points. The states with the most are America’s Top States for Business.
* There’s some really good (and surprising) news and some not so good (and unsurprising) news in here. But the state’s overall ranking has really shot up…
* The above link was sent to me from someone in the governor’s office who offered up this accompanying commentary…
So let me get this straight: A Democratic governor led Illinois to two credit upgrades and helped vault us from bottom half to top third of states to do business in?
Just wanna make sure I got that right.
Your own thoughts?
…Adding… Related…
* Pritzker announces $8 mil. expansion of Apprenticeship Illinois program
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*** LIVE COVERAGE ***
Tuesday, Jul 13, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Today’s post is sponsored by the Association Of Illinois Electric Cooperatives. Follow along with ScribbleLive…
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is fully adopting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in Kindergarten (K)-12 Schools released today.
“Our goal is to protect the health of students, teachers, and staff so that in-person learning can resume as safely as possible,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “The CDC is right: vaccination is the best preventive strategy. As school board members, parents, teachers and superintendents plan for a return to in-person learning in the fall, we strongly encourage those who are not vaccinated to continue to mask. IDPH is proud to fully adopt school guidance issued by CDC, which is based on the latest scientific information about COVID-19.”
The updated school guidance now aligns with guidance for fully vaccinated people, which allows activities to resume for fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask except where required by federal, state, and local rules and regulations.
Major elements of the updated guidance include:
• Masks should be worn indoors by all individuals (age 2 and older) who are not fully vaccinated.
• CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing by people who are not fully vaccinated, to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as indoor masking.
• Screening testing, ventilation, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick and getting tested, contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation, and cleaning and disinfection are also important layers of prevention to keep schools safe.
• Many schools serve children under the age of 12 who are not eligible for vaccination at this time. Therefore, this guidance emphasizes implementing layered prevention strategies (masking, distancing, testing) to protect people who are not fully vaccinated.
Schools and communities should monitor community transmission of COVID-19, vaccination coverage, screening testing, and outbreaks to guide decisions about on the level of layered prevention strategies being implemented.
State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen I. Ayala issued the following declaration mandating in-person learning with limited exceptions:
Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, all schools must resume fully in-person learning for all student attendance days, provided that, pursuant to 105 ILCS 5/10-30 and 105 ILCS 5/34-18.66, remote instruction be made available for students who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine or who are not eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, only while they are under quarantine consistent with guidance or requirements from a local public health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“All our students deserve to return safely in-person to schools this fall,” said Dr. Ayala. “With vaccination rates continually rising and unprecedented federal funding to support safe in-person learning, and mitigations such as contact tracing and increased ventilation in place in schools, we are fully confident in the safety of in-person learning this fall. We look forward to a great school year and to the energy of Illinois’ young minds once again filling our school buildings.”
The updated school guidance can be found at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19/community-guidance/school-guidance. This guidance is subject to change pursuant to changing public health conditions and updates from CDC.
*** UPDATE *** IEA…
The Illinois Education Association released the following statement attributable to IEA President Kathi Griffin:
“We are very excited that the Illinois Department of Public Health has decided to adopt the Centers for Disease Control’s guidance for schools. Both agencies are correct that vaccines are the best way to keep students and staff safe and for those who can’t get vaccinated, wearing a mask is the next best option. This news has been highly anticipated. Our members are looking forward to the start of this school year and now we have an idea of what the year will look like, and it is based on science, which is a great comfort.”
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* AP…
Vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside school buildings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.
The changes come amid a national vaccination campaign in which children as young as 12 are eligible to get shots, as well as a general decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
“We’re at a new point in the pandemic that we’re all really excited about,” and so it’s time to update the guidance, said Erin Sauber-Schatz, who leads the CDC task force that prepares recommendations designed to keep Americans safe from COVID-19.
The nation’s top public health agency is not advising schools to require shots for teachers and vaccine-eligible kids. And it’s not offering guidance on how teachers can know which students are vaccinated or how parents will know which teachers are immunized.
* NYT…
The agency will also call on school districts to use local health data to guide decisions about when to tighten or relax prevention measures like mask wearing and physical distancing. Officials said they were confident this is the correct approach, even with the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, and the fact that children under 12 are not yet eligible for vaccination.
The guidance, which The Times has seen in draft form, is a sharp departure from the C.D.C.’s past recommendations for schools, bluntly acknowledging that many students have suffered during long months of virtual learning and that a uniform approach is not useful when virus caseloads and vaccination rates vary so greatly from city to city and state to state. […]
The new guidance will continue to recommend that students be spaced at least three feet apart, but with a new caveat: If maintaining such spacing would prevent schools from fully reopening, they could rely on a combination of other strategies like indoor masking, testing and enhanced ventilation. The guidance recommends masks for all unvaccinated students, teachers or staff members. […]
It also strongly urges schools to promote vaccination, which it called “one of the most critical strategies to help schools safely resume full operations.” Studies suggest that vaccines remain effective against the Delta variant. […]
The guidance relies heavily on the concept of “layered” prevention, or using multiple strategies at once. In addition to masking and social distancing, those strategies may include regular screening testing, improving ventilation, promoting hand washing, and contact tracing combined with isolation or quarantine.
The recommendations call on local officials to closely monitor the pandemic in their areas, and suggest that if districts want to remove prevention strategies in schools based on local conditions, they should remove one at a time, monitoring for any increases in Covid-19.
* WaPo…
The guidance, which is not binding, reflects many of the same concepts that the CDC released in April and May for the broader population.
But it may fuel a new round of political debate about masking and vaccinations — heralded by some, derided by others — as divisions carry over to practices in schools.
And practically speaking, it may be difficult to implement: It does not spell out how schools would collect accurate information about who is vaccinated — and thus able to go without a mask — and who is not.
“The school has to decide if and how they’re able to document vaccination status,” Sauber-Schatz said. If that is not possible, she said, “the safest thing to do to protect those people who are not fully vaccinated” is to go with a universal policy requiring masks.
I’ll post the guidance when it’s published by the CDC.
* ABC…
The CDC also recommends that all bus drivers and their passengers — vaccinated or not — wear a mask while traveling to school.
The biggest sticking point for schools though will likely be whether to require proof of vaccination. Most schools already require proof of childhood immunizations with few exceptions.
The CDC, which does not set vaccination requirements for schools or child care centers, makes clear in its recommendations that it will be up to schools and local officials to decide what to do. The agency specifically notes that schools may opt for a universal masking policy, particularly if they have unvaccinated populations and don’t want to require verification that a person has been vaccinated.
“We do allow for flexibility in our guidance,” said Capt. Erin Sauber-Schatz, who helped to write the guidelines as a member of CDC’s COVID response team.
*** UPDATE *** The new CDC guidance for K-12 is here. The new guidance for daycare is here.
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