* The Illinois State Fair starts back up again this Thursday. We didn’t get a State Fair last year, of course, so I was wondering about your thoughts ahead of this year’s event?
Now that he’s a member of the Illinois General Assembly, Nick Smith isn’t embarrassed to say he struggled early in college. As he bounced back and forth between classes and his job, he spent little time on campus.
It wasn’t until Smith got a work-study job at Olive-Harvey College, a Far South Side community college, that things changed. “I started to feel immersed in the academic setting. I started to feel focused,” he recalls. After completing the two-year program, Smith went on to get a bachelor’s degree from nearby Chicago State University, and since 2019 he has represented the 34th District in the State Assembly.
With his personal experience in mind, Smith introduced legislation in Springfield this year that allows community colleges to add student housing for the first time. Signed into law July 9 by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the measure allows for residential projects to begin on or near campuses throughout the state starting in January. […]
“Retention, retention, retention” is the goal of the new law, said Thomas Saban, interim president of Prairie State College, a community college in south suburban Chicago Heights. Saban isn’t planning to become a developer of dorms: The law requires community colleges to partner with their local affordable housing agency to build student housing.
When former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the Freedom to Work Act, or FWA, into law in 2016, the circumstances weren’t all that controversial. The measure, prompted by a Jimmy John’s policy that barred employees from getting hired at rival sandwich shops, would protect low-wage workers from noncompete agreements that stifled their earning potential. Even Rauner, a politician reviled by organized labor groups, got on board with the idea after the Illinois Attorney General’s Office sued the chain known for its “freaky fast” delivery
Now the FWA, originally limited in scope, is set to become much more expansive.
Under a bill passed unanimously by lawmakers this spring, and which Gov. J.B. Pritzker still must sign, employers are prohibited from imposing noncompetes on workers earning below $75,000 and from using nonsolicitation agreements on those making below $45,000. Advocates laud the move as a victory for economic mobility—especially as employees re-evaluate their priorities and job preferences during the pandemic. But some local businesses worry the changes are coming at a time of monumental uncertainty. With President Joe Biden recently directing the Federal Trade Commission to rein in the “unfair use” of noncompetes, the rules could continue shifting, and companies fear more restrictions will put their proprietary information, client lists and employee retention efforts at risk.
* Press release…
Legislation sponsored by State Senator Donald DeWitte (R-St. Charles) that provides units of government with greater opportunities to obtain more favorable returns on invested reserve funds has been signed into law. The new provisions apply to all units of government, from the State of Illinois, down to counties, municipalities, townships, and smaller local units such as schools, park districts, and libraries.
Senate Bill 273, signed by Gov. Pritzker on Friday, provides units of government with a wider variety of investment tools for reserve funds. The legislation was negotiated between the Illinois Association of Park district and the Illinois Treasurer’s Office.
“This legislation gives those who oversee units of government greater flexibility when they invest public funds,” said Sen. DeWitte. “I want to thank Treasurer Frerichs and his staff for their assistance in helping craft language that ensures governmental units have the widest level of choices possible for their investments, while also protecting taxpayers for overly-aggressive and risky investments.”
Specifically, through SB 273, public agencies can invest in up to 1/3 of their reserve funds in specific corporate investments and an additional 1/3 in other corporate investments that meet prescribed parameters.
“This is one small way that we can help units of government grow their revenues internally without having to go to taxpayers,” added Sen. DeWitte.
SB 273 received unanimous approval in the Senate and House, and its provisions take effect immediately.
* One thing that has almost completely gotten lost in the shuffle about this Exelon bailout plan is that the company is planning to spin off its power generation unit later this year and is naturally hoping to juice up the potential stock price. A state deal would most definitely help them do that. Here’s Steve Daniels…
Exelon has struck an $885 million deal to buy out its nuclear partnership with a French utility giant, removing one impediment to quickly separating into two companies.
But the deal with EDF adds $880 million in debt to Exelon’s balance sheet, all of which will be shifted to the financially weaker power-generation business once the company spins it off from its regulated utilities, including Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison. […]
British banking giant Barclays is providing Exelon with an $880 million 364-day term loan to finance the EDF transaction, according to a Securities & Exchange Commission filing. The loan is being made to Exelon Generation, the company’s power-plant unit, rather than the holding company.
As of June 30, Exelon Generation had $1.2 billion in debt due within a year, according to a different SEC filing, so this amount nearly doubles that total. In addition, ExGen has $4.6 billion in long-term debt.
* Meanwhile, here’s the governor’s chief of staff…
Climate change is here, it’s getting worse, it’s not a niche political issue but an every day concern that has real impacts on health, business and the quality of our lives. https://t.co/71Ci7LQIhx
Nearly half of the Illinois children who are currently eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (meaning those aged 12-17) have already received at least one dose, according to new state data.
Meanwhile, more than a third – 37.6 percent – were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
The numbers for kids ages 12 to 17 were encouraging, said Dr. Anita Chandra-Puri, a Chicago pediatrician and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “That’s fantastic news if that’s the case. I would love that,” she said in an interview. […]
While comparable data wasn’t immediately available for other states, Illinois ranks high nationally in terms of percentage of all children who have been vaccinated.
Nearly a fifth (19.3 percent) of all Illinois children (aged 0-17, including those not currently eligible for the vaccine) have received at least one dose of the vaccine. At that rate, Illinois is in a three-way tie for ninth place among states, according to data published by the Mayo Clinic. Vermont, which had the highest share of kids with at least one dose, had a rate of 25 percent.
Illinois fares a little worse among states when it comes to the percentage of all kids (newborn to age 18) with full vaccinations. Again, Vermont led the pack, with a rate of 21.4 percent. Illinois trailed behind with a rate of 12.4 percent, putting it in a tie for 15th overall.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago will require that all employees, students, contractors, badged vendors, and volunteers be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 18, 2021. The requirement applies to Lurie Children’s workforce of more than 7,500 to stop the spread of the virus and keep all patients and their families, staff, colleagues, and the community safe.
Lurie Children’s will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination, as it does other vaccines, and health precautions (Flu Shot, TDAP, etc.), as a condition of employment noting that exemptions may be made for approved medical or religious reasons.
“Vaccination continues to be the most effective safeguard against coronavirus. As the nation and Illinois experiences a resurgence of cases, we feel that the best way to keep our patients, families, and workforce safe is to continue to follow the proven mitigation protocols and safety precautions including masks, social distancing, hand hygiene and our daily self-screening by employees,” said Thomas Shanley, MD, President & CEO, Lurie Children’s. “The safety of our patients, many of whom are too young to receive the vaccination, and our workforce is our top priority. This vaccination requirement stresses our commitment to the community to help slow and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
The vaccination requirement comes on the heels of rising hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases – particularly of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Early research is showing that current COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective against disease and hospitalization for the Delta variant, and in general, can prevent serious illness or death. Lurie Children’s is a clinical trial site for the Moderna vaccine.
For several years, Lurie Children’s has required vaccination for seasonal flu vaccination and other contagious diseases. “As healthcare professionals caring for children and adolescents, this COVID vaccine requirement is the responsible thing to do and will provide reassurance to the patients and families we serve. We must do everything we can to end this pandemic and save lives,” said Shanley.
A poll of the public by Quinnipiac University has found that 48 percent of those responding favor mandatory vaccines for college students, while 48 percent are opposed. The poll found support for mandatory vaccinations by only 18 percent of Republicans, and 86 percent of Democrats. The poll also found that women and those with a four-year college degree are more likely to support mandatory vaccinations than are men and those who did not earn a four-year degree.
Then came delta — B.1.617.2. It had spread rapidly in India, but in the United States, it sat there for months, doing little as the alpha advanced. As recently as May 8, delta caused only about 1 percent of new infections nationally.
Today, it has nearly wiped out all of its rivals. The coronavirus pandemic in America has become a delta pandemic. By the end of July, it accounted for 93.4 percent of new infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. […]
Hospitals in states with low vaccination rates are struggling to cope with a flood of patients. At the same time, vaccination rates are jumping as the reality of the pandemic and the efficacy of the vaccines overcome fear, inertia and disinformation. […]
The flip side is that the delta surge is expected to peak faster. A more contagious virus finds susceptible people quickly and burns through that “fuel” faster. This may explain why the United Kingdom and India have both experienced surprisingly swift drop in cases after recent delta surges.
Hope is not a plan, but keep your fingers crossed anyway.
Ticketholders in the grandstand track area (also known as Standing Room Only) will be required to provide a print or digital copy of personal Vaccine Card, Vaccine Record, or Negative COVID-19 test within the 72 hours preceding the concert.
Illinois state fair concerts to require vaccine proof or negative test and masks
Grab the mask and your vaccination card, or be ready to prove you don’t have COVID-19, if you plan to attend the concerts at the Illinois State Fair starting Thursday in Springfield.
That’s just a ridiculous over-statement. I sure hope newspapers are actually reading this freely supplied content before publishing it.
DCFS not included in state’s new mask requirements
Gov. JB Pritzker announced sweeping mask and vaccine requirements for multiple state agencies Wednesday, but one was notably left off the list: the Department of Children and Family Services.
Long-term care facilities were among the hardest hit by COVID-19 in McLean County last year. Nursing home employees also were put at the front of the line to receive COVID vaccines when they became available in late 2020.
But many nursing home employees have passed on getting the vaccine.
Records recently posted online by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) show three long-term care facilities in McLean County — Bloomington Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Luther Oaks and Arcadia Care of Bloomington — have staff vaccination rates of less than 25% as of July 25. […]
An advocate for nursing home residents said facility operators need to figure out why some staff members are reluctant to vaccinate. Angie Baker, regional ombudsman with the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging, said unvaccinated staff pose health risks to nursing home residents as the Delta variant fuels a new wave of coronavirus infections.
Andy Ray must have repeated it to himself a hundred times, especially in the minutes before caregivers at HSHS St. John’s Hospital leaned his head back and inserted a breathing tube down his windpipe to keep COVID-19 from killing him.
“I kept thinking, ‘If I had gotten that shot, I wouldn’t be here,’” Ray, 52, told The State Journal-Register Thursday. “That’s all I could think of.”
Before going on a ventilator that would help him breathe for five of the 23 days he spent in the Springfield hospital in May and June, the rural Mount Sterling farmer’s thoughts also dwelled on the close family friend who succumbed to COVID-19 in the fall, before vaccines were available.
Once in the hospital, Ray, who lives about 65 miles west of Springfield, asked whether he could get a COVID-19 shot but was told it was too late for the vaccine to do any good. His wife couldn’t be at his side because she, too, had contracted COVID-19 by that time, though she didn’t need to be hospitalized.
* More…
* Vaccination milestone: 70% of Chicago adults have gotten at least one shot, city says
Vowing to “ensure access to justice for all, the mayor of Highland Park launched her bid for a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court on Friday, setting the stage for what could be a hotly contested race to represent a newly redrawn district on the state’s top court.
Making her third run for higher office in five years, Nancy Rotering, a Democrat in her third term as mayor of the North Shore suburb, joins Democratic and Republican judges in Lake County who are also vying for the seat formerly held by Justice Robert Thomas. […]
Kicking off her run for the state’s top court, Rotering announced a slew of endorsements, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Newman, the mayors of Deerfield, Buffalo Grove and Fox Lake as well as Democratic state Representatives Bob Morgan of Deerfield, Dan Didech of Buffalo Grove, Sam Yingling of Grayslake and Joyce Mason of Gurnee.
Elizabeth Rochford, an associate judge in Lake County, is also running as a Democrat for the Supreme Court seat, which now covers Lake, McHenry, Kane, DeKalb and Kendall counties.
Daniel Shanes, a Lake County judge, plans to run as a Republican for the Second District seat in next year’s June 28 primary.
* Press release from Gary Rabine…
In response to the tragic death of a police officer Saturday night in Chicago and the severe wounding of another officer, Gary Rabine, a candidate for Governor, is calling on Gov. Pritzker to stop ignoring the wave of violent crime in the City of Chicago.
“How many police officers and innocent civilians have to die before Gov. Pritzker takes what is happening in the City of Chicago seriously?” Rabine said. “Where are you Governor? Show us you are not partnered with Kim Fox! A great leader doesn’t sleep as tragedies like this in our state continue because of terrible policies and terrible leadership. JB needs to wake up and hold Kim Fox accountable for violating her professional code of ethics daily when she refuses to enforce the Illinois law she agreed to under oath.”
Rabine said the Governor could put pressure on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to address the rise in violent crime. He could withhold various state funds to the City to force the mayor to solve the problems. He could call a Special Session of the General Assembly to deal with the violence and, as a last resort, he could deploy the National Guard.
“There are ways the Governor could step up and protect the lives of innocent people and the lives of police officers, but instead he has chosen to ignore what is happening in Chicago,” Rabine said. “Chicago’s best – our police officer – show their passion and their bravery as they serve us every single day. A great governor would respond by serving our police and our communities by using his executive powers to retract the bad policies that have handcuffed our police and take bold action to protect the citizens of this state. Unfortunately, we do not ave a great governor. We have a weak, self-serving leader whose policies are benefitting politically connected insiders at the expense of the people.”
Rabine is asking Illinois residents to pray for this heroic young woman’s 2-month-old baby now without a mother, the other officer fighting for his life, and their families.
“My prayers are also for the many innocent families who have lost loved ones in one of the most violent summers in Chicago history,” Rabine said. “I am also praying for our governor, to find the strength to get his hands dirty and the courage to retract bad policy and protect the people in every community of our state.”
I asked what Rabine would have the General Assembly do in a special session…
The point here is to make this issue a priority and use the bully pulpit that is the Governor’s office to bring about meaningful changes.
Um, OK, but if you bring the GA back into special session, you gotta give them something to do.
* Speaking of which, these folks claim Rabine signed an affidavit demanding an audit of Illinois’ 2020 vote…
A successful #2 event yesterday in Villa Park. Not only did we get to support Back the Blue, we got to hear Gary Rabine, candidate for Governor, Peggy Hubbard, for Senate-Christine Shanahan McGovern for Senate and Kathy O’Shea for Congress - yes they all signed affidavits! pic.twitter.com/TaBQf9PBeC
A great governor will show his passion and bravery to serve our police and our communities by using his executive powers to retract the bad policies that have handcuffed our police. Retract his signature on these horrific bills and FIRE Kim Foxx!
Retract his signature? Fire an elected state’s attorney? Does he have even the slightest clue what a governor does?
Few people can say their spouse encouraged them to go into politics.
But when David Palmer, a local former pro basketballer turned youth-development coach turned financial adviser, couldn’t stop chatting at weekly Illini football tailgates, his wife, Chelsea, took notice.
“You’re not the mayor,” she told him. “You know you can just walk out and leave, right?”
Then November 2020 came around, and politics dominated their conversations. Election buzz lit a fire under the couple, and Chelsea chimed in again:
“We talk about this so often, we’re going to have to get off the couch and do something about it,” she said.
Nine months later, Palmer is booting up his campaign for Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, in hopes to unseat five-term U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville.
He has a great story, but nobody has a good handle on what the new districts will look like. We’re losing a seat, so the new map will be drastically different, particularly Downstate.
Please also pray for her wounded partner, who is in the hospital fighting for his life. We're asking for everyone to lift up this officer and his family as we pray for his recovery.
I was told the post doesn’t mean the caucus is “anti-mask.” Um, ok.
* Jordan Abudayyeh at the governor’s office…
While the administration continues to welcome input from the General Assembly, community stakeholders and public health experts, there is no debate on the effectiveness of masks. Masks prevent the spread of coronavirus and the CDC has recommended their use indoors regardless of vaccination status. Insinuating that science is up for debate is reckless and puts the public’s health at risk.
* Jaclyn Driscoll at the House Speaker’s office…
The CDC says students should wear masks indoors. The American Academy of Pediatrics says students should wear masks indoors. Doctors and our most trusted health professionals say students should wear masks indoors. I’m not sure why Republicans don’t trust doctors.
When Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently announced that state employees who work in congregate facilities would have to be vaccinated by Oct. 4, the largest state employee union, AFSCME, released a statement chiding the governor.
“We strongly oppose any effort to define them as part of the problem,” the powerful union claimed on behalf of those workers.
But Pritzker also said that about 80% of new COVID-19 cases in those congregate facilities “have been due to infection among employees.”
“Our most vulnerable residents, such as veterans who can’t live on their own, and adults living with developmental disabilities have no choice but to live amongst these workers,” Pritzker said. “It’s a breach of safety, it’s fundamentally wrong and, in Illinois, it’s going to stop.”
Aside from the danger posed to residents or inmates, outbreaks can also result in potentially exposed unvaccinated workers getting very sick or worse; or being sent home for several days to make sure they haven’t contracted the virus. Most every state facility is under-staffed, so outbreaks have the potential to crush the system, particularly with the highly virulent delta variant spreading like wildfire.
By far, the least vaccinated state agency is the Illinois Department of Corrections, which is infamous for being chronically under-staffed for decades.
Of IDOC’s 34 facilities, only seven had a staff vaccination rate above 50% by late July, which is still too low.
Two IDOC facilities had staff vaccination rates in the single digits: an abysmal 7% at Lawrence Correctional Center and 9% at Vienna Correctional Center. Vandalia CC was not much better at a mere 10%. Pontiac CC was at 14%, Robinson CC was at 18% and Graham CC and its reception and classification center were at 21%, as was Shawnee CC. Six prisons had staff vax percentage rates in the 20s, ten were in the 30s, five were in the 40s, three were in the 50s and just four were in the 60s.
Taken as a whole, 44% of IDOC staff were fully vaccinated at that point in time. Just 45% of the state’s Development Center staff at the Department of Human Services are vaccinated. At the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, 64% of veterans’ home employees are vaccinated, but just 50% at the Anna Home are vaxed and 58% are vaxed at the Manteno facility.
By comparison, as of Aug. 5, 61% of all Illinois adults were fully vaccinated.
“The government has resorted to ‘vaccine shaming’ its public safety employees rather than convincing them that getting an immunization is the best course of action,” said Terry Trueblood, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Illinois Secretary of State Lodge 95, after Secretary of State Jesse White announced that employees must either be vaccinated or tested every two weeks.
But, according to the state, about 70% of prison inmates who are in or who have moved through the system have been fully vaccinated. Eight-two percent of all patients and residents in Department of Human Services facilities are vaccinated. Between 96 and 100 percent of Department of Veterans’ Affairs home residents are vaccinated, depending on the facility. And 62% of young people currently in the Department of Juvenile Justice system have been vaccinated.
It’s time the state stopped waiting on front-line workers to come to their senses while drawing a government paycheck. Too many of AFSCME’s members are not part of the solution, they’re “part of the problem.”
And the FOP can complain about “vaccine shaming” all it wants, but logic and reasoning haven’t worked nearly enough. Not even money has worked. The state rolled out a special cash-and-prizes lottery program just for workers in those four agencies to try to increase vaccination rates. On-site clinics were set up to make it more convenient for employees to get their shots. The union also admirably tried to help convince its members to vax up. The carrots didn’t work. The stick is what’s left.
Pritzker gave the workers two months to comply, likely because he wants to talk details with union leaders at the bargaining table. But AFSCME would do well to remember what the late AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said just last month when explaining why the AFL-CIO supports vaccine mandates: “You have to know what’s around you.”
AFSCME and other unions face a choice between preserving the life and health of their members or standing up for the imagined “rights” of those who would knowingly spread a fatal or debilitating disease to those around them. Something has got to change.
* Meanwhile…
NEW: President of the American Federation of Teachers @RWeingarten calls for support for vaccine mandates on #MTP
Weingarten: “As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates.” pic.twitter.com/2yOIxhUzdB
The Chicago Cubs signed Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to an honorary Major League contract. “I thank the Chicago Cubs and Chairman Tom Ricketts for their heartfelt gesture today. I am humbled and proud to have signed an honorary major league contract with the Cubs.” pic.twitter.com/6DrhOHkIXQ
* AFSCME Council 31 memo to state employee members…
Important Updates for State Employees
Rigid Mandate Won’t Work
More and more employers are turning to vaccination mandates in the epic battle to contain the spread of COVID-19. Tyson Foods and United Airlines are the latest Illinois-based companies to announce that employees must get vaccinated or be fired.
This week Governor Pritzker took a step down that road, announcing that vaccinations would be required for all employees in the state’s congregate facilities in DOC, DHS, DVA and DJJ, citing emergency conditions that not only jeopardize employee health, but that of individuals in the state’s custody or care.
The governor left open how this requirement would be implemented, stating that the details would be worked out in bargaining with the unions representing state employees. AFSCME has already contacted CMS to initiate those negotiations.
AFSCME has already made clear to the Administration that our union opposes a rigid, universal vaccination mandate. Our fundamental priority is to protect the lives and health of every union member and the people they serve. That’s why, since the first availability of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, AFSCME has worked to educate and encourage union members to be vaccinated in order to protect themselves, their families, co-workers and communities.
We have been working collaboratively with state agencies over the past months to increase vaccination rates and reduce the incidence of COVID in veterans’ homes, correctional facilities and care centers. And those efforts have been making steady progress.
In fact, in many of these state facilities vaccination rates now exceed those in the surrounding communities. More importantly, the numbers of COVID cases have declined dramatically in every one of these settings. In fact, some facilities have had no new cases at all—even with the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant.
In other words, the combination of education about vaccine efficacy, rigorous testing, and appropriate protective measures, such as masking, has in fact been highly effective in reducing the spread of the virus in these facilities. Moreover, it is clear that the impacted agencies could do much more to contain the virus through such proactive measures.
First and foremost, they could reverse the extremely irresponsible plan to terminate what’s been called “COVID time” which our union strongly opposes (see more information below).
Vaccinations should not be seen as punitive measures, but rather as protective ones. AFSCME believes that more time and effort are needed to raise vaccination rates through voluntary action. There’s a need for more education—both about the highly reliable science on which the vaccines are based and about the threat that unvaccinated individuals pose to others—as well as incentive programs that have greatly increased vaccination rates in other sectors.
Before its recent action to institute a vaccination mandate, United Airlines already had a 90% vaccination rate among its pilots and an 80% vaccination rate among flight attendants. One factor credited with this strong uptake is an agreement reached with the airline’s unions for an additional day off for all vaccinated employees.
Employees in the state’s congregate facilities have been on the job every day throughout this pandemic, putting their own health and safety at risk to assure public safety and care for vulnerable individuals. In addition to the danger posed by the coronavirus, they have continued to face the dangers posed daily by assaults from patients and offenders and other constant stressors in the workplace. Just over the past few weeks, a nurse at Elgin MHC was beaten nearly to death by a patient, several officers at Pontiac CC were sent to the hospital as a result of injuries suffered in an attack by inmates, and an officer at Shawnee CC committed suicide in the facility parking lot.
There are other paths the state could follow that would not serve to increase tensions and stress in the way that a hard mandate would do. President Biden laid out such a path last week for most federal government employees: All employees must either be fully vaccinated OR be regularly tested. In fact, this is the approach that some agencies in state government are already taking. Such a flexible and balanced approach is preferable to a rigid universal vaccination requirement—and AFSCME will fight for it in the negotiations set to get underway.
Don’t End COVID Time-Off Policy!
Over AFSCME’s strong objections, the State intends to proceed with its plan to end “COVID Time” effective Monday, August 9. The COVID Time policy allows individuals who contract COVID-19 (or are under a health department quarantine) to have paid time off without using their own benefit time.
Under the revised policy, employees will have to use their own benefit time if they become sick with COVID and would have the option of filing a workers’ compensation claim to recoup that time.
AFSCME believes that “COVID Time” is a key means of helping to contain COVID outbreaks, especially in congregate settings such as prisons and veterans’ homes.
In a letter to CMS Chief of Labor Relations, Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch stressed that “AFSCME is very concerned that requiring any employee—whether vaccinated or unvaccinated—to use their own benefit time if they contract COVID could contribute to a heightened risk for all employees,” pointing out that employees who do not have any benefit time on the books may end up coming to work sick and infecting their coworkers.
Our union intends to make the restoration of COVID Time a top priority in the negotiations over the proposed vaccination mandate.
Hey, AFSCME. You wouldn’t need COVID Time all that much if your members were vaccinated. But if it gets you to agree to a firm vax mandate, so be it, I suppose.
Parents of Chicago Public Schools students will soon have more transparency around misconduct and discipline thanks to the efforts of State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago).
“I think every parent probably expects that fights in schools are going to happen, but that doesn’t mean they should be kept in the dark when they do,” Peters said. “If parents aren’t aware of what’s going on at their kids’ schools, then it’s entirely possible that their kids might not get the treatment for trauma they need simply because their parents don’t know they need it.”
House Bill 15 requires CPS to provide written notification of the situation and circumstances to parents or guardians of students who commit or are victims of misconduct. The law defines misconduct as any incident involving offensive touching, a physical altercation, or the use of violence.
“Requiring the creation, storing, and distribution of a written record will help the parents, students, and schools deal with misconduct in an open and transparent way,” Peters said.
The law is effective immediately. It passed the General Assembly with no opposition and became law Friday.
* I’m going to take much or all of this summer afternoon off. I’ll be back if some big news breaks, but there’s plenty to comment on and don’t forget the live coverage post.
Jamey Johnson will provide the afternoon entertainment…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 16,742 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 64 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, July 30, 2021. More than 75% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 59% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,436,353 cases, including 23,503 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since reporting on Friday, July 30, 2021, laboratories have reported 365,210 specimens for a total of 27,188,772. As of last night, 1,200 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 246 patients were in the ICU and 121 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators. Hospitalizations with COVID-19 are up 33% from what was reported last week, those in the ICU with COVID-19 are up 47%, and patients on ventilators almost double in just one week at 95%.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 30-August 5, 2021 is 4.6%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from July 30-August 5, 2021 is 5.2%. However, regional 7-day test positivity averages range from 3.1% to 10.3%. http://www.dph.illinois.gov/regionmetrics?regionID=11.
A total of 13,388,013 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 25,244 doses. Since reporting on Friday, July 30, 2021, 176,709 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.
The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) State Lodge has expressed its opposition to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s order that certain law enforcement officers employed at Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice facilities must receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We are not opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine, we are opposed to being forced to take it,” said Scot Ward, president of FOP Corrections Lodge 263, whose members work for the Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice. “It is always dangerous when the state unilaterally decides to deny the Constitutional rights of targeted groups of citizens, such as our members who work in prisons and juvenile facilities. Even the detainees we supervise are not being forced to take these vaccinations.”
The FOP is also opposed to the move made recently by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who ordered that any Secretary of State employee who cannot provide proof of vaccination must submit to a COVID-19 test every two weeks.
“The government has resorted to ‘vaccine shaming’ its public safety employees rather than convincing them that getting an immunization is the best course of action,” said Terry Trueblood, president of FOP Illinois Secretary of State Lodge 95, whose members include Secretary of State Police officers. “The state should instead do a better job of convincing its citizens, regardless of where they work, to choose to take the vaccine.”
As subscribers know, a much higher percentage of detainees are taking the shots than their guards. And, please, whining about a test every two weeks? C’mon.
Children make up the largest share of new coronavirus cases in McLean County, according to data from the McLean County Health Department (MCHD). […]
People age 18 and under make up close to one-third (32%) of coronavirus cases in the last week in the county. Children under age 12 are still not eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. […]
The county reported 218 coronavirus cases from July 28 to Aug. 4, including 18 new cases on Wednesday. The weekly total includes 58 people ages 1 to 17, three infants under age 1 and seven patients who are 18 years old.
Almost 72,000 children and teens caught Covid-19 last week — a “substantial” increase from a week earlier, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday.
The group counted 71,726 new cases from July 22 - 29. That is a “substantial” increase from the nearly 39,000 cases reported a week before, and five times as many kids who were sick at the end of June. The definition of a child varies by state but generally includes those up to age 17 or 18.
Cases don’t automatically translate into hospitalizations with kids. But that’s also becoming a problem.
In announcing mask mandates for schools and daycares this week, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said there’s an increase of COVID-hospitalizations in cases among young people.
“The percent of hospitalizations among those younger than 20 years old tripled from 2.5% to 7.8%,” Ezike said.
In a sign that the delta variant is affecting more children on a daily basis, an 11-month-old girl from the Houston area had to be airlifted to Temple because no pediatric hospitals in Houston would accept her as a transfer patient.
“She needed to be intubated immediately because she was having seizures,” said Patricia Darnauer, the administrator for LBJ Hospital. “We looked at all five major pediatric hospital groups and none [had beds] available.” […]
“The emergency rooms at the major children’s hospitals here in Houston, the largest medical center in the world, are extremely crowded,” said [pediatrician Dr. Christina Propst]. “They are filling, if not full, as are the hospitals and intensive care units.”
Pediatricians across Palm Beach County are taking on social media, television and email to warn of a surge in COVID-19 cases among children both locally and across the state. They are concerned not only about the growing number of cases among the young but also about the severity of illness they are witnessing.
“Locally, we are seeing an alarming rise in children being hospitalized for COVID-19,” pediatrician Dr. Tommy Schechtman wrote in a letter Sunday to his practice’s 15,000 families.
Schechtman said in an interview this week that he was driven to pen the letter by a variety of concerns, including having learned that on one day in the past week, 24 children were admitted to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Lee Health says the number of children admitted to their hospitals for COVID-19 has tripled during this wave of the pandemic. They’ve seen as many as nine children hospitalized with the virus recently - that includes two children who are currently in ICU at Golisano Children’s Hospital. […]
Armando Llechu, Lee Health’s Chief Officer of Hospital Operations says this time with more children getting admitted to Lee Health hospitals.
“I believe the most we had admitted at any one time, was three, and today I believe there are eight. We’ve had as many as nine admitted in the children’s hospital,” he said.
He says those aren’t big numbers, but just to put things into perspective, he says that’s a 300 percent jump in children hospital admissions for COVID-19 compared to the first wave of the virus.
It’s not wildly out of control, but it is a real problem.
Diane Lipscomb, medical director for inpatient pediatrics and the pediatric intensive care unit at Mercy Springfield, said Wednesday that since June 1, and the onset of the delta variant surge, her hospital has seen an increase in pediatric patients who have been critically ill with the virus.
“In prior surges, we had very few children, if at all any admitted,” Lipscomb said. “During this surge, we are now seeing children admitted at the rates of zero to five per day.”
Infections among children
The number of children under the age of 12 testing positive for the virus increased by 113% from June to July in Greene County, according to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
It’s unclear whether the trend is occurring nationwide because there is no regularly updated, comprehensive data on child Covid-19 cases available. The last report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in early June, found hospitalization rates among children peaked at 2.1 per 100,000 in January 2021. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) releases a weekly report on child cases and hospitalizations, but not all states regularly submit data.
While the [Illinois Department of Public Health] does track the age of those who test positive for COVID-19 over time, the department’s hospital utilization data available on its website does not include the age of the patients.
* And there’s also an unusual summertime problem with RSV…
Hospitals in Rhode Island are seeing an increased number of children being diagnosed with a virus usually only seeing during the winter months.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause at-risk people who become infected to wind up in the hospital.
Hasbro Children’s Hospital tells Target 12 they normally start seeing kids with RSV from November to March, but as of late, there’s been a surge of cases in Florida and more infections are showing up in Rhode Island.
Experts say about a million kids wind up in the hospital every year because of RSV, which infects the lungs and breathing passages.
For most people who get infected, it’s like the common cold, but the virus can cause serious complications for those under the age of 2 and the elderly.
Health officials have expressed concern over a simultaneous rise in delta infections and cases of a respiratory virus known as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV — a highly contagious, flulike illness that is typically more likely to affect children and older adults.
Cases of RSV have risen gradually since early June, with an even greater spike in the past month, according to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV, which can cause symptoms that include a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever, normally begins to spread in the fall, making this summer spike unusual.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Dr. Heather Haq, a pediatrician at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, described an increase in both coronavirus and RSV hospitalizations. Haq is also the chief medical officer for the Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Kids previously tended to do much better at surviving a COVID-19 infection, but deaths are also popping up.
Two children with COVID-19 died over the weekend, according to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
One of the children was a patient at the hospital, said Le Bonheur’s Dr. Nick Hysmith, a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Another child died during transit to the hospital, he said. The child was coming to the regional hospital from a neighboring hospital.
* So, it would be really helpful if news media outlets like the Rockford Register Star stopped glorifying crackpots…
“We are vehemently against mandating masks,” said Jim Mcllroy, founder of Elevate & Inspire, a parents group that held an “unmask our children” rally last month outside the Winnebago County Health Department.
“We are 100% in favor of parental choice. Accountability and responsibility of the children is something that is in the hands of parents, and that is not something that should be in the hands of the governor. It should not be in the hands of the mayor, it should not be in the hands of Dr. (Sandra) Martel from the Winnebago County Health Department,” he said.
So, no local or state public health rules for kids, eh? What could possibly go wrong?
Rod Blagojevich used to joke that “he barely knew where the law library was” as he earned his law degree from Pepperdine University amid surfing the Pacific Ocean and mingling with movie stars in Malibu.
Judging by the lawsuit the disgraced former Illinois governor filed this week challenging a ban on him running for state and local office, Blagojevich still has a penchant for skipping his legal homework, said experts who dismissed his action as baseless.
“This is a frivolous lawsuit,” said Ann Lousin, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Illinois at Chicago law school whose lengthy legal background includes helping draft the state’s constitution and chairing the Chicago Bar Association’s constitutional law committee. “This lawsuit is not going anywhere.”
* And, perhaps I’m being too cynical, but I’m starting to wonder if this is really just about adding a dramatic element to the “documentary” being produced by ABC7, which initially “broke” the story on the disgraced former governor’s lawsuit…
A film crew was on hand for the news conference Monday; Blagojevich would not say who they were, but one crew member shared that he’s with ABC News, which is producing a documentary on Blagojevich set to air in the fall.
I never thought I could get even more disgusted by this guy, or by some of the coverage he receives. And yet, here we are.
Governor JB Pritzker and State Senator Dale Fowler visited the southern tip of Illinois Thursday to announce a new milestone in the effort to construct a Port District in Cairo.
In April, the Alexander-Cairo Port District completed a project labor agreement with the Illinois AFL-CIO to allow for more than 500 local Illinois union workers to fill the jobs created by construction of the port.
On Thursday, Labor Local 773 signed on to provide workers for the project.
Alexander-Cairo Port District Chairman Larry Klein says they’re currently going through the engineering and design work.
“Because anyone in the construction trades realizes you have to have a floor plan before you start constructing anything. So, when we get the floor plan designed that’s when we’re going to put all the people here today to work. That will tickle me to death.” […]
80% of U.S. inland barge traffic travels past Cairo.
When state Rep. Carol Ammons was suddenly replaced on new Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch’s legislative leadership team in late May, the demotion included a roughly $18,000 pay cut for the Urbana Democrat.
But a few weeks later, Welch eased Ammons’ financial pain by appointing her chairwoman of a newly created Small Business, Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Committee, a post that restores more than half of the money she lost.
Records in the House clerk’s office, however, show that Ammons, who receives a $10,574 stipend for her role as chairwoman, is the only member of the new committee to which “at this time, no legislation has been assigned.” […]
The date of Welch’s appointment — the last day of June — allowed Ammons to be paid her stipend as if she had held the position for the entire month.
By tradition, members with her seniority are either put in leadership or given a committee to chair. She was kicked out of leadership, so she was given a committee. The timing is a bit odd, of course, but the appointment itself really isn’t. And the fact that nobody else was appointed to the committee surely sparked some interest. Ammons didn’t show up for June’s special session or participate remotely. A little “member management” may have been in order.
Local state Rep. Carol Ammons’ new Illinois House committee no longer has no members or pending business.
Following last week’s report about the June 30 appointment of Ammons, D-Urbana, as chairwoman of the new House Committee on Small Business, Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Speaker Chris Welch appointed nine Democrats to serve on the panel, including state Rep. Sue Scherer of Decatur. […]
“The caucus was contacted July 1, long before any of your inquiries, to get in touch with our chief of staff if they’d like to be on the committee. Time must be allowed for that, and as already mentioned, there was a lot of interest,” said [said Speaker Welch’s spokesperson Jaclyn Driscoll], who contended that “appointing members to a committee takes longer than one day.” […]
So far, no Republicans have been assigned to the committee by House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, who wrote a letter Monday to Ammons that expressed surprise about the committee’s sudden creation and sought advice on the kinds of people best suited to serve. […]
“Without a clear definition of what the work of your newly created committee will be, it is difficult to appoint members that can bring their expertise to this topic … whatever it may be,” he wrote to Ammons.
That was one snarky letter, so click here and read the rest. Leader Durkin vowed not to appoint any Republicans to the committee until he hears back.
* We talked about Greg Hinz’s interview with Kirk Dillard the other day about a possible run for governor. Since then, he’s talked with Rachel Hinton…
Kirk Dillard, who is currently the chairman of the Regional Transportation Agency’s board of directors, said in a statement Wednesday people “whom I respect and whose opinions I value reached out to me” and asked him to consider running to “restore political balance to Illinois and make it safe and function well again.
“They also believe I am a Republican who can win a general election as the ‘Sun Times’ once opined,” Dillard’s statement continued. “I owe it to them, the people of Illinois and to my family to carefully listen. Currently, I am laser focused on getting the northeastern Illinois transportation system through a pandemic.” […]
“With all due respect, what Illinois needs is not yet another member of the political class running our state,” Rabine’s statement continued. “We know what the failed policies of the political class has done to this state and voters are tired of it. […]
“The political establishment will have their choice and the regular people will have theirs,” Joe DeBose, Bailey’s spokesman, said. “If [Dillard] decides to join the race, I have a feeling the result will be the same as the last two times he ran.”
“People whom I respect and whose opinions I value reached out to me,” Dillard told the Daily Herald Wednesday.
“They asked me to consider running to give Illinois political balance and to make it safe and work again. These leaders think I am a Republican who can win a general election and govern effectively. I owe it to them, the people of Illinois and my family to carefully listen.” […]
It’s early in the game, but “I think our state needs governance,” said former Republican state Rep. Grant Wehrli of Naperville. “Personally, I think, right now, we have somebody who’d rather be king than governor.”
But “I don’t think there’s a candidate out there right now I’m ready to rally behind,” although “I’m intrigued by Kirk Dillard’s name.”
Wehrli seemed far more interested in picking fights than governing when he was in the House, but maybe he’s changed. I dunno.
