* IDPH reported 6,054 hospitalizations as of late last night, down from 6,258 the previous day. Our seven-day rolling average decrease is now 2.04 percent, essentially unchanged from yesterday, but that’s still good news. You’d like to see the rate of decrease pick up steam, but I’ll take a steady drop, too. Visualization…
The seven-day rolling average decrease for ICU beds, a lagging indicator, is now 1.9 percent.
137 deaths were reported today, down from yesterday’s 198. Seven-day rolling average increase for deaths, the ultimate lagging indicator, is 107.
* IDPH…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 183,722 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 746 deaths since January 14, 2022.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 2,773,362 cases, including 29,845 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since January 14, 2022, laboratories have reported 1,539,013 specimens for a total of 49,488,107. As of last night, 6,054 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 972 patients were in the ICU and 560 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 11.9%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from January 14 – 20, 2022 is 15.3%.
A total of 20,207,132 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 44,420 doses. Since January 14, 2022, 310,939 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, more than 74% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 65% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated, and almost 49% boosted according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
* This is happening way too often everywhere. But what the heck is going on in Aurora lately?…
An Aurora police sergeant has died from complications of COVID-19, the department’s second virus-related death in just more than a week. […]
Under city policy, Aurora police officers are required to either provide proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing to protect against the spread of COVID-19, department spokesman Paris Lewbel said.
When asked if Thurman and Shields were fully vaccinated, Lewbel said the city does not release any information from employee medical files, for privacy reasons. […]
COVID-19 was the leading cause of deaths among U.S. law enforcement in 2021, killing at least 301 officers, according to a preliminary report from the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum.
* Apparently, this is becoming a thing in our age of unnecessary rapid test shortages. Please, don’t share your test swabs to pool your results…
Then there’s the ick factor. “From a public-health perspective, the idea of sticking swabs up each other’s noses doesn’t sound like a great thing to do,” Nuzzo said. If one person in a household gets COVID, the others aren’t doomed to infection just from living in the same space. In fact, the “secondary attack rate” within a home—which describes the chance of transmitting a virus from one household member to another—appears to be just 15 to 35 percent for SARS-CoV-2. But intranasal promiscuity is a surefire way to increase those numbers, Nuzzo warns, and spread untold other germs besides. […]
The problem isn’t that pooled rapid tests definitely don’t work; it’s that they don’t definitely work. The tests available to Americans are in “a total data-free zone” in this regard, Nuzzo said.
*** UPDATE *** Scary stuff in this press release…
Just over two weeks after confirming 13,000 COVID-19 deaths in Cook County, the Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) marked another grim pandemic milestone today. The MEO confirmed the County’s 14,000th death due to COVID-19 infection this morning.
The Office noted that six weeks passed between the County’s 12,000th and 13,000th COVID-19 deaths and more than three and a half months passed between the County’s 11,000th and 12,000th COVID-19 death. The latest milestone comes during the third surge in COVID-19 cases across the County and the nation. The Office confirmed 425 COVID-19 deaths for the week of January 10. Those are the highest totals the MEO has seen since November of 2020, months before the COVID-19 vaccine was widely available to residents.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 6,750 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in the City of Chicago, accounting for approximately 48% of deaths throughout Cook County. Males account for 57% of the County’s COVID-19 deaths.
* More news…
* COVID booster shots needed against omicron, CDC studies show: Three studies released Friday offered more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are standing up to the omicron variant, at least among people who received booster shots.
* Chicago Public Schools to shorten quarantine time for students and staff as city passes omicron peak
* With constant COVID closures, parents with kids in day care are at their wit’s end: ‘I honestly don’t know how we keep doing this.’
* Will Omicron Leave Most of Us Immune?: The variant is spreading widely, but won’t necessarily give us strong protection from new infections.
* Attorney general says COVID-19 testing company won’t reopen in ‘foreseeable future’
* Employers should remain cautious on reopening plans, says UChicago doc: Though it appears Chicago has passed the omicron peak, businesses should be wary of bringing employees back to the office too soon amid crowded hospitals.
* ‘Mask timeouts’ are mandatory in high school basketball. Here’s how coaches use them: Edwards says now, if he does need a timeout around the four-minute mark, he’ll use a 30-second timeout, which triples in time and acts as the mask timeout. It has become helpful to Edwards two-fold.
* Illinois driver services facilities set to reopen Monday after COVID closure
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) announced today that the unemployment rate fell -0.4 percentage point to 5.3 percent, while nonfarm payrolls increased by +22,800 in December, based on preliminary data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and released by IDES. The preliminary report for November monthly payrolls was revised from +19,500 to +19,900 jobs. The November unemployment rate was unchanged from the preliminary report, remaining at 5.7 percent.
The December payroll jobs estimate and unemployment rate reflects activity for the week including the 12th. The BLS has published FAQs for the December payroll jobs and the unemployment rate.
In December, the three industry sectors with the largest over-the-month gains in employment were: Professional and Business Services (+9,400), Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+8,500), and Leisure and Hospitality (+2,200). The industry sectors that reported monthly payroll declines were: Financial Activities (-1,800), Educational and Health Services (-300), and Government (-100). […]
The state’s unemployment rate was +1.4 percentage points higher than the national unemployment rate reported for December, which was 3.9 percent, down -0.3 percentage point from the previous month. The Illinois unemployment rate was down -2.7 percentage points from a year ago when it was at 8.0 percent.
Compared to a year ago, nonfarm payroll employment increased by +262,600 jobs, with gains across nearly all major industries. The industry groups with the largest jobs increases were: Leisure and Hospitality (+126,000), Trade, Transportation and Utilities (+48,300), and Professional and Business Services (+28,600). Financial Activities (-5,000) was the only industry group that reported jobs losses. In December, total nonfarm payrolls were up +4.7 percent over-the-year in Illinois and up +4.5 percent in the nation.
The number of unemployed workers was down from the prior month, a -6.0 percent decrease to 333,100, and was down -32.1 percent over the same month for one year ago. The labor force was up +0.5 percent over-the-month and up +2.0 percent over-the-year. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment. An individual who exhausts or is ineligible for benefits is still reflected in the unemployment rate if they actively seek work.
Leisure & Hospitality numbers for this month probably won’t be pretty, what with omicron and the complete lack of additional federal and state assistance for laid-off workers, parents of school kids and slammed businesses.
* Related…
* Merchandise Mart owner plans another massive reboot as tech tenants migrate to Fulton Market: A $60 million-plus makeover of the mammoth structure will test the ability of older downtown buildings to compete with new hotspots in an office market transformed by COVID.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
The growth rate for jobs in our state has more than doubled the national growth rate in the past quarter – and tripled it in the last month. Hard #’s & sources below.
• IL gained 23,200 jobs in December (+0.39%), and gained a total of 84,700 jobs during the fourth quarter of CY 2021 (+1.46%).
• This growth roughly doubled that experienced by the US as a whole (+0.13% for December and +0.74% for Q4).
• IL accounted for 7.7% of US job growth during the fourth quarter, compared to its 3.9% share of the population.
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* I went over this with subscribers earlier and we may talk about it again next week, so here’s Greg Hinz…
A fight that’s beginning to have a major impact on the 2022 elections turned more contentious today as Springfield Republicans and Democrats traded new charges over who’s responsible for rising rates of violent crime in the Chicago area.
In dueling events, Republicans called for total repeal of the Democrats’ signature criminal-justice reform package enacted last year, asserting it so hamstrings police and frees criminals from penalty that it’s beyond salvaging.
Democrats accused Republicans of playing a racial card and trying to score political points with a crime-weary public, and urged GOP lawmakers to work with them on tweaks to the law, not wholesale changes.
Republicans began the exchange when, in a remote press conference, they called for repeal of the 2021 equity bill, known as the SAFE-T Act, which, among other things, phases out the use of cash bail, sets new standards for when police use force, requires officers to restrain any colleague who uses excessive or illegal force, and requires timely medical care for injured people held in custody.
* Beth Hunsdorfer…
Tweaks to the bill, including a measure passed last year diluting some of the use-of-force language in the original bill, aren’t good enough, the Republicans said on Thursday, and the SAFE-T Act should be repealed entirely.
Mazzochi said it would only take a few Democrats to cross over to get it done. “Repeal is a realistic solution. The original, underlying legislation passed with a bare minimum of 60 votes,” Mazzochi said. “ … It almost didn’t pass the first time.” […]
Durkin and Windhorst, both former prosecutors, said the bill made the state more dangerous. Durkin said Democrats would have to answer to their constituents for the bill’s passage and Republicans would use public safety as an issue in upcoming elections. […]
Spain said the Safe-T Act will leave half of the county sheriffs in Illinois leaving their posts and has left city and county police departments scrambling to recruit and retain officers after a wave of resignations in the wake of the bill’s passage.
The bill passed 60-50 in the House and 32-23 in the Senate. That’s a lot of ground to make up.
* Advocates and some Democrats were quite upset…
* The Illinois Legislative Black Caucus also issued a statement…
State Rep. Sonya Harper, Joint Chair of The Illinois Black Caucus (ILBC), state Rep. Kam Buckner, House Chair of the ILBC, and state Senator Robert Peters, Senate Chair of the ILBC, released the following statement after today’s Republicans press conference on the SAFE-T Act:
“As usual with the Republican Party, any effort to make the justice system fairer for Black people is called ‘dangerous.’ With this law, we have worked directly with community organizations, legal rights advocates and law enforcement to make our justice system more effective and more just at the same time. That’s why the Illinois State Police and other law enforcement groups continue to work with us on this bill. ”
“Many provisions of the SAFE-T Act have not even gone into effect yet, proving the Republican gambit is all for show. In fact, when fully implemented, experts say the SAFE-T Act will help improve public safety by supporting a more holistic approach for first-responders. Instead of coming up with solutions to address crime, Republicans are just trying the same racial scare tactics we see across the country. Today’s press conference is another instance of the Illinois GOP chasing relevancy after years of budget impasses and budget cuts. We trust the public won’t fall for this. We are improving public safety, supporting law enforcement and ending systemic injustice at the same time. We are not going backwards.”
* The governor was asked about it yesterday…
Governor J.B. Pritzker is also defending the bill and firing back at republicans.
“These are the same people that voted against budgets that provide funding for violence interruption programs, those are the people that held that press conference. They don’t really mean what they said. They’re just trying to bring up some sort of campaign issue and frankly, it’s all pretty false,” Pritzker said.
* Some folks did some homework…
“Illinois has become the wild wild Midwest,” Durkin said.
Rates of violent crime have increased in the past few years, said Dr. Magic Wade, assistant professor of political studies at the University of Illinois Springfield.
But that increase cannot be attributed to the SAFE-T Act, she said, because most of the act has yet to go into effect, and crime rates in some parts of the state have been rising since 2015.
“Violent crime was going up before the pandemic,” Wade said. “So the pandemic sort of put into overdrive a trend that was already happening.”
Wade, who studies the criminal justice system, said the increase in crime observed in Illinois is part of a nationwide trend. Criminologists do not agree on why crime rates rise and fall, which leaves room for people to interpret data in more partisan ways.
…Adding… Miletich…
Yet, many of the frequent talking points about the skyrocketing crime center around eliminating cash bail. The “Pretrial Fairness Act” doesn’t take effect until 2023. House Lead Sponsor Justin Slaughter (D-Chicago) said Republicans need to stop the divisive rhetoric about the law.
“A lot, if not all, of the SAFE-T Act is steeped in strong research and is evidence-based,” Slaughter said in an interview Thursday. “That’s what we relied on, and that’s what we leaned on.”
Slaughter also said it’s important not to turn back the clock on criminal justice reform. He feels the Republican’s approach to “lock ‘em up and toss away the key” hurts communities of color. He nicknamed the GOP effort the “Dangerous Act.”
While some Democrats were hesitant to support the SAFE-T Act, it’s doubtful enough Democrats would join Republicans to repeal this law.
“It’s not going to be repealed,” Slaughter said. “As long as I’m chairing the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee, the Dangerous Act will not see the light of day. I will tell you that.”
* But coverage follows conflict…
Criminal justice legislation that passed a year ago is an anti-cop, anti-safety albatross that some Democrats already want to repeal, according to Illinois House Republicans.
That lede is emblematic of why the Democrats have so much work to do this year, both here and in DC.
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Because… Madigan!
Friday, Jan 21, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller
* BGA…
The noise problems for the Weglarz brothers began in 2014 after a near-accident at the nearby Belt Railway switching yard — the largest in North America — prompted officials to add a second set of brakes to the rails.
After that work was completed, patrons at the Weglarz brothers’ three hotels in Bedford Park complained about sleepless nights due to screeching train brakes, which peaked at 92 decibels, far exceeding the 65 decibel maximum allowed by village ordinance.
For years, the Weglarzes passed along to authorities the complaints of hotel guests including flight crews laying over from Midway. They got local tax dollars to help pay for sound insulation at the hotels. They hired noise consultants, as did suburban officials. They complained to the state’s pollution control board.
They also enlisted the help of Bedford Park Village President Dave Brady, who says he decided to ask Madigan for the money “on a whim.”
“I was stunned when we got the call,” Brady says of the earmark, the largest Rebuild Illinois allocation with direct ties to Madigan.
A spokesman for the Belt Railway yard says the company didn’t request the $98 million grant, under which the Illinois Department of Transportation has begun assessing the noise issues and whether the company’s noise-reduction measures have helped.
Madigan & Getzendanner, the former speaker’s law firm, has represented the Weglarz brothers’ Bedford Park hotels for years, saving them $3 million in property taxes over three years, according to Cook County records.
The hotels are an important source of revenue for Bedford Park and other government bodies, paying $4.1 million in state and local taxes a year, according to a brief the Weglarz brothers filed when they made their since-dropped noise complaint to the pollution control board.
Go read the rest.
* Semi-related…
* State launches next phase of I-80 corridor construction in Joliet: ‘A game changer for this community’: The state investment in the $200 million public-private partnership is $32 million, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. CenterPoint Properties, an inland port, is investing up to $170 million to build a new toll bridge on Houbolt Road over the Des Plaines River.
…Adding… ILGOP…
The Illinois Republican Party calls on JB Pritzker to answer questions about his role in authorizing taxpayer money be spent on secret infrastructure projects at Mike Madigan’s request.
Specifically, Governor Pritzker should start by:
1. Releasing all communications between the Office of the Speaker of the House and the Governor’s office, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, and/or the Illinois Department of Transportation;
2. Releasing all communications between the Governor’s Office and both the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Transportation regarding Rebuild Illinois projects; and
3. Release the full list of projects that fall under the category “Leadership Additions.”
Kinda wonder if the ILGOP realizes it’s throwing their own leaders under the bus here. They got “additions” as well. Also, all the projects are line items.
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