* I didn’t realize bar volleyball was such a thing in Lake County…
The Lake County Health Department is warning residents of several COVID-19 cases linked to adult volleyball leagues that competed in Gages Lake this month.
According to health officials, at least 14 people, who played or watched volleyball at Jesse Oaks Food and Drink in Gages Lake in September, tested positive for COVID-19.
“Of these cases, multiple people reported that they also played volleyball at other bar/restaurant locations, which could contribute to further spread of the virus,” Lake County officials said.
“We are currently working diligently to speak with infected individuals and notify close contacts who have been identified,” said Dr. Sana Ahmed, medical epidemiologist at the Lake County Health Department. “However, nearly 200 volleyball players and spectators may have been exposed. This could potentially be a large outbreak, and we need the public’s help to contain the spread of this virus.”
Health officials are asking that anyone who played volleyball at Jesse Oaks this month, or visited and did not wear a mask, to quarantine at home for 14 days from their last visit.
[Larry Mackey, director of environmental health at the county health department] said there is “some disagreement” as to whether the games taking place at Jesse Oaks were in violation of state guidelines, but the health department believes they were league games and therefore prohibited.
However, he said, no enforcement action are being taken against the establishment.
“They voluntarily agreed to stop the games for 14 days and we’re working with them to meet the guidelines,” Mackey added.
Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are announcing COVID-19 resurgence mitigations will be implemented in Region 1, the northwestern most counties in Illinois, beginning Saturday, October 3, 2020. The region is seeing a 7-day rolling average test positivity rate of 8% or above for three consecutive days, which exceeds the threshold set for establishing mitigation measures in the region under the state’s Restore Illinois Resurgence Plan. This announcement follows last week’s warnings to local leaders that additional mitigation measures would be implemented if the region continued to see an increase in cases. Region 1 includes Boone, Carroll, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties.
“The concerning uptick in Region 1’s positivity – jumping more than two percentage points in two weeks even as the majority of Illinois continues to see downward trends – demands increased efforts to stop the spread in our northwestern counties,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “As other regions have demonstrated, stricter mitigations will lead to safer communities when people mask up, keep their distance, wash their hands and respect public health. It is my hope that the residents of Region 1 can turn this situation around quickly, and Dr. Ezike and I continue to coordinate with local officials to make that happen.”
“COVID-19 spread can increase very quickly, as we’ve seen in some regions in the state, now including Region 1,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “As the pandemic continues, so must our fight against it: Please, don’t hold or attend large events or mass gatherings, wear your face covering, and keep six feet of distance between you and others.”
In the past week, Region 1 also had an early indication of increasing hospital admissions for COVID-like-illness. Although this increase has not yet reached the threshold level, it indicates more severe illness is increasing and IDPH will continue to monitor the region’s hospital capacity.
Mitigation measures taking effect October 3, 2020 in Region 1 include the following:
Bars
• No indoor service
• All outside bar service closes at 11:00 p.m.
• All bar patrons should be seated at tables outside
• No ordering, seating, or congregating at bar (bar stools should be removed)
• Tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• No dancing or standing indoors
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table
Restaurants
• No indoor dining or bar service
• All outdoor dining closes at 11:00 p.m.
• Outside dining tables should be 6 feet apart
• No standing or congregating indoors or outdoors while waiting for a table or exiting
• Reservations required for each party
• No seating of multiple parties at one table
Meetings, Social Events, Gatherings
• Limit to lesser of 25 guests or 25 percent of overall room capacity
• No party buses
• Gaming and Casinos close at 11:00 p.m., are limited to 25 percent capacity, and follow mitigations for bars and restaurants, if applicable
These mitigations do not currently apply to schools.
IDPH will track the positivity rate in Region 1 to determine if mitigations can be relaxed, if additional mitigations are required, or if current mitigations should remain in place. If the positivity rate averages less than or equal to 6.5% for three consecutive days, then Regions 1 will return to Phase 4 mitigations under the Restore Illinois Plan. If the positivity rate averages between 6.5% and 8%, the new mitigations will remain in place and unchanged. If the positivity rate averages greater than or equal to 8% after 14 days, more stringent mitigations can be applied to further reduce spread of the virus.
Region 4, the Metro East, remains under additional mitigation measures as well. Although the 7-day rolling average test positivity rate is less than 8%, it remains above 6.5% and has increased in recent days.
IDPH continues to monitor each region in the state for several key indicators to identify early, but significant increases of COVID-19 transmission in Illinois, potentially signifying resurgence. Indictors include an increase in the region’s positivity rate with a simultaneous increase in either hospital admissions for COVID-like-illness or a decrease in hospital capacity, or three consecutive days of greater than or equal to 8% test positivity rate (7-day rolling average). These indicators can be used to determine whether additional community mitigation interventions are needed for a region to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.
A full list of mitigation measures pertaining to some businesses and industries may be found on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) website at www.dceocovid19resources.com/restore-illinois.
Texas-based energy company Vistra plans to accelerate its transition to clean power generation sources and advance efforts to significantly reduce its carbon footprint. The company launched Vistra Zero, a portfolio of zero-carbon power generation facilities, which includes seven new developments — some solar, solar + storage and standalone energy storage — in its primary market of ERCOT that total nearly 1,000 MW.
In addition, Vistra established further long-term emissions reduction targets, released its first climate report and announced its intention to retire all of its generation subsidiaries’ coal plants in Illinois and Ohio. […]
Vistra also announced its next phase of coal plant closures in Illinois and Ohio. The company expects to retire seven Luminant power plants, of which the company owns a combined capacity of more than 6,800 MW, between 2022 and 2027.
Since the company’s leadership change in 2016, Vistra and its subsidiaries have closed or announced the closure of 19 coal plants totaling more than 16,000 MW across Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Massachusetts. In total, Vistra and its subsidiaries have now retired or announced the retirement of more than 19,000 MW at 23 coal and natural gas plants since 2010.
Vistra said it will retire the Baldwin and Joppa plants in southern Illinois no later than 2025, “or sooner should economic or other conditions dictate.” The Kincaid and Newton plants southeast of Springfield will close no later than 2027, again with the same caveat.
The four plants together employ about 400. […]
Under the plan, which requires action in Springfield, Vistra would convert its coal-plant sites into utility-scale solar facilities accompanied by powerful batteries that could store some of the energy when it’s not needed.
Vistra already has announced the planned closure of the Edwards plant near Peoria, which will occur by the end of 2022.
That’ll leave three Illinois coal plants owned by NRG.
* Sierra Club…
Texas based Vistra Energy announced plans today to accelerate its transition to clean energy generation by retiring all the coal plants owned by its subsidiaries in Illinois and Ohio. In a move intended to reduce the utility’s outsized climate impact, the announcement targets more than 6,211 megawatts (MW) of coal based electricity generation at six coal plants, which is equivalent to a year’s worth of carbon emissions from 10,380,659 passenger vehicles. These announced retirements mark 166,395 MW of coal capacity retired with 176,617 MW remaining in the United States.
“Vistra is the largest emitter of climate-warming carbon pollution in the US electric sector, and today they made one of the largest coal retirement announcements in US history, sending a clear signal that the transition from coal to clean energy is accelerating nationwide. Vistra’s plan to stop burning coal altogether in Illinois and Ohio is a testament to a decade of tireless work by advocates fighting for the significant public health and climate benefits that come from moving away from coal to clean energy,” said Mary Anne Hitt, National Director of Campaigns at the Sierra Club. “Supporting a fair and robust economic and community transition is a critical next step for Illinois and Ohio as lawmakers in both states are in dialogue about the future of state energy policy.”
Vistra’s announcement comes amid record low coal use in the US, as clean energy now routinely outperforms coal plants. Vistra announced plans for new solar and storage developments, primarily in Texas, prompting advocates in Illinois and Ohio to redouble calls for state level energy transition planning and policy. Vistra made no changes to its Texas coal fleet, which includes the Martin Lake coal plant; the nation’s largest source of sulfur dioxide pollution and mercury pollution. Martin Lake is the source of ongoing violations of local pollution standards.
“It’s urgent that Illinois plan now to assist the workers and communities that will be affected by these closures, ensure that Vistra cleans up these sites, and that we build clean, renewable energy infrastructure to replace these dirty sources of power,” said Jack Darin, Director of the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club. “The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) is a plan for a just transition for these communities that creates jobs where they are needed most, while holding big polluters accountable for the messes they leave behind. We call on the Illinois state legislature to pass the CEJA this year, to respond to these closures proactively, and ensure a brighter future for our most impacted communities.”
In Illinois, the new retirements include the Baldwin and Joppa Power Plants by the end of 2025, and Kincaid and Newton Power Plants by 2027. The Edwards coal fired power plant near Peoria is already slated to retire by the end of 2022. In Ohio, Miami Fort Power Plant, in North Bend, and Zimmer Power Plant in Moscow, are planned to retire by 2027. The utility added that all these retirements may be sooner than the announced dates should economic or other conditions dictate.
* Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition…
Vistra’s announcement to close five coal plants around Illinois is an urgent call for Gov. Pritzker and the General Assembly to take action to help workers who face lay-offs and local plant communities that will lose significant tax revenue. This announcement leaves out that Vistra’s own proposal is little more than a corporate bailout for cutting and running that does nothing for communities like Waukegan who have a heavily polluting plant in their backyard.
In contrast, the Clean Energy Jobs Act will provide real help to these communities throughout the state by accelerating renewable energy, providing property tax replacement, securing worker benefits and training, and delivering resilient, economic futures. The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition is ready to get to work to pass CEJA this year.”
…Adding… Congressman Rodney Davis…
“I’m deeply disappointed in Vistra’s plan to retire their Kincaid plant, which employs 115 of our friends and neighbors. The Kincaid plant has created good-paying union jobs and reliable, baseload power for households and manufacturers in Illinois and states in the Mid-Atlantic region for decades. Because the plant is a significant employer and generator of local tax revenue in Christian County, our hometowns, schools, and other public bodies will be negatively affected by this closure. Our Congressional office stands ready to support the workers and communities impacted.
“I have always been an advocate for an all-of-the-above energy portfolio, but I am becoming increasingly concerned about the planned nuclear, coal, and gas plant closures across Illinois in the coming years. Our state cannot continue to be a leading net electricity exporter if this trend continues. Additional plant closures will put thousands of good-paying union jobs and reliable, affordable power at risk. I’m committed to making sure American energy policy supports a diverse, reliable, and affordable array of baseload energy sources. American families need certainty that when they flip a switch, they will have access to low-cost, reliable electricity. We can’t let America’s energy future look like California brownouts and blackouts, but the Green New Deal and other far-fetched, left-wing environmental proposals are moving us closer to that sad reality.”
…Adding… Nikki Budzinski, executive director of Climate Jobs Illinois…
As Springfield debates new energy legislation, the final bill must include meaningful policies that support the workers, families and communities affected by Illinois’ transition to clean energy. That means providing workers lost wages and benefits, meaningful job support and apprenticeship opportunities, and replacing the lost tax base in these communities. Climate Jobs Illinois will be an advocate for these issues to ensure workers are not left behind in the state’s move to a clean energy future.
“This contagion, this enemy of the virus, is only going to be conquered if we all stick together,” said Cardinal Cupich.
He does not agree with pastors of some Illinois churches who say they’re opening for regular services against the governor’s stay-at-home order, claiming a constitutional right.
“People do have freedom of religion, the right to worship and so on. And yet, it’s not an absolute right if the public good, and public health, is jeopardized as a result,” Cardinal Cupich said.
The cardinal admits the pandemic is creating a financial challenge for the church, but he notes many people who’ve lost their jobs are in the same situation.
Springfield’s Catholic Bishop is arguing against government-imposed shutdowns, saying the extraordinary measures to mitigate COVID-19 should be avoided in the future. […]
“Yes we should do the ordinary things for protecting life, but we don’t have to do the extraordinary things that are being mandated,” [Bishop Thomas John Paprocki] said. “What we did in the last six months was really extraordinary, in shutting everything down, putting people out of work, telling them to stay home, don’t go to school, don’t go to church.”
He equated the extraordinary steps Pritzker took earlier this year that closed businesses, schools and churches to taking everyone off the road to save from vehicular deaths. […]
“No governor can say, ‘I’m suspending that right until this virus goes away,’ so I think there are real concerns here, avoiding any hyperbole or anything like that, of criticism,” Paprocki said. “But I think there’s some real legal and constitutional concerns of what Gov. Pritzker is doing.”
OK, but I think every court outside Clay County has sided with the governor, so the judicial branch so far has not shared those concerns.
* Jordan Abudayyeh…
The Governor believes it is his duty, as the leader of this state, to protect the health and safety of all Illinoisans. In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, experts warned that lack of action to stop the spread of this virus could result in tens of thousands of Illinoisans losing their lives. As a reminder to those who still question the public health experts, we have lost more than 8,600 Illinoisans to this virus and every person who lives in this state has a moral obligation to follow the public health guidance to lower the risk of spreading this deadly virus to others around them. We must work together, listen to the experts, and continue following the health guidelines as we learn more about this virus. The Governor is proud that Illinoisans have overwhelmingly done their part to follow necessary guidance to reduce the spread of this virus and save as many lives as possible.
The Illinois Department of Public Health dismissed the suggestion by officials in St. Clair County, who say the downward trend in COVID-19 cases warrants an exemption from the stricter safety mitigation placed on Region 4.
On Monday, St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern said the county should stand alone given its improving COVID-19 positivity rate and case numbers. He expressed hope that IDPH would consider excluding the county from metro-east restrictions.
On Tuesday, IDHP dismissed a St. Clair County exemption as a possibility.
“This appears to be a rumor and is not being considered,” IDPH Public Information Officer Melaney Arnold said in an email.
We saw this sort of thing earlier in the pandemic. If people thought the regional maps were unfair, they insisted that counties should be stand-alone. And when the counties refused to budge, they insisted that towns be given the right to decide. And when that didn’t work, they said individuals should just do what they wanted.
St. Clair County didn’t complain a bit when the map was drawn. They may have thought that they’d be hit the hardest, but it turns out it’s most of the other counties that are holding the region back with high average positivity rates…
Bond 10.1
Clinton 12.7
Madison 7.4
Monroe 8.4
Randolph 2.1
St. Clair 6.3
Washington 11.5
An agricultural trade association for pig farmers is reporting the theft of a large grill embedded into a trailer.
A Facebook post from the Illinois Pork Producers Associated (IPPA) said their grill was stolen from their office at 6411 S. Sixth Street Road in Springfield. IPPA said it was last seen Friday, and the trailer was covered in two black, custom fitting tarps that hide the graphics.
* The pilfered grill…
* The Question: What would you do with a sweet but “hot” grill like that?
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,362 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 23 additional confirmed deaths.
• Bond County: 1 male 70s
• Clark County: 1 female 90s
• Clinton County: 1 male 80s
• Cook County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
• DuPage County: 1 female 90s
• Jasper County: 1 male 70s
• Madison County: 4 females 90s
• Marion County: 1 male 80s
• Moultrie County: 1 male 70s
• Peoria County: 1 female 80s
• Rock Island County: 1 female 70s
• Whiteside County; 1 male 70s
• Will County: 1 male 100+
• Williamson County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
• Winnebago County: 2 males 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 291,001 cases, including 8,637 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 22 – September 28 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 45,624 specimens for a total of 5,566,276. As of last night, 1,535 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 363 patients were in the ICU and 151 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
A legislative panel investigating House Speaker Michael Madigan reconvenes Tuesday on the same day a former top Commonwealth Edison official is expected to plead guilty to federal charges tied to the utility’s bribery-stained lobbying efforts targeting the speaker.
The House committee probing potential misconduct by Madigan could hear Tuesday from a top Exelon official and former federal prosecutor who was hired to repair the utility’s damaged reputation following its July acknowledgment of a 9-year illegal effort to woo Madigan.
But perhaps the bigger headline could emerge at a noon hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building, where Fidel Marquez, ComEd’s former in-house lobbyist, is expected to enter a plea to a charge that he engaged in a conspiracy to commit bribery to help the utility advance its Springfield wishlist.
“We’ll be watching the Marquez court appearance closely to see if there is any additional information that comes out of that,” said State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, who serves as the top Republican on the bipartisan committee investigating Madigan.
The former, highly-compensated lobbyist, just accused early this month, is expected to plead guilty to arranging jobs and other perks for Madigan’s political allies in exchange for favorable action in Springfield. “for the purpose of influencing and rewarding Public Official A in connection with his official duties as Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.”
The feds accuse Marquez of working “to obtain jobs, contracts, and monetary payments associated with those jobs and contracts from ComEd and its affiliates, even in instances where such associates performed little or no work that they were purportedly hired to perform for ComEd.”
Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, its chairman, confirmed Monday that David Glockner, ComEd’s executive vice president for compliance and audit, will testify before the committee Tuesday. Glockner will be accompanied by Reid Schar, the company’s defense attorney in federal court.
The committee had also invited several key players in the scandal to testify — including Madigan, his political ally Mike McClain, and former ComEd execs Marquez, John Hooker and Anne Pramaggiore. All have declined to participate except for ComEd, according to Rep. Tom Demmer, the Republican spokesperson on the committee. […]
Finally, Demmer said the committee is likely to discuss last week’s letter from Madigan, in which the speaker said he would not be appearing before the committee while insisting, “I have done nothing wrong.”
Though Madigan wrote that, “I cannot provide information I do not have, and I cannot answer questions about issues of which I have no knowledge or conversations to which I was not a party,” Demmer said members of the committee might still have a few questions for the speaker.
Democrats and Republicans have sparred over what the committee can and can’t ask under guidelines laid down by U.S. Attorney John Lausch.
The U.S. attorney’s office would object, for example, to lawmakers asking witnesses about grand jury proceedings or their conversations with federal authorities, among other subjects. The office also would object if the committee offered immunity in exchange for testimony or documents.
But the letter, sent as a follow-up to a discussion held at the lawmakers’ request, leaves room for the committee to ask about facts laid out in the deferred prosecution agreement.
Lausch clarified in a second letter to Welch and the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon, that he doesn’t object to the committee asking witnesses about “nonpublic” information as long as it doesn’t fall into one of the categories he previously deemed off-limits.
Republicans in the Illinois House Special Investigating Committee looking into Speaker Michael Madigan’s involvement in a nearly decade-long patronage scheme may seek to issue subpoenas. […]
Demmer also expects there may be a motion Tuesday to subpoena not just Madigan and others, but also documents related to the case.
“We know the nature of the investigation means that you don’t just talk to people who are eager to talk to you but you talk to folks who may not be so eager to talk to you in order to get a full picture of the situation,” Demmer said. “The question of a subpoena is one that I think we’ll have to deal with as a committee and decide which witnesses we want to issue subpoenas to and for what documents we might want to issue subpoenas.”
Such a motion could fail if it’s split along party lines in the six-member bipartisan committee. Demmer wouldn’t predict that’ll happen.
Mike Lawrence, a press secretary for former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, said he has “no confidence that legislators can investigate legislators.”
“It is not reasonable to expect lawmakers to be nonpartisan, independent investigators, prosecutors and ultimately judges in this atmosphere — particularly during an election cycle,” said Lawrence, a former Sun-Times Springfield Bureau chief. “Democrats and Republicans on the committee have been unable to agree on the process — let alone determine whether the accusations are valid and, if so, justify his removal.” […]
Republicans are eager to make sure any heat Madigan felt over the summer doesn’t cool down before fall election.
“It’s the biggest issue the Republicans have got going,” [John Jackson, a visiting professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale] said. “They’ve had some difficulty mounting competitive campaigns and particularly funding competitive campaigns for the legislature, and this is their one best single thing they will be using throughout the state.”
JUST IN: Feds say they intend to ask for probation for ex-ComEd VP Fidel Marquez if he cooperates fully — a huge break given the length of the scheme and that ComEd allegedly reaped tens of millions of dollars in illegal benefits.
High school students and parents in Crystal Lake are rallying in a push to resume in-person learning.
Students and event organizers rallied Tuesday night in front of Prairie Ridge High School. Organizers intended for the event to be a place for people to come together to get students back in school.
However, at one point, people began to cheer for the Confederate flag. Some of them held signs supporting President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Some wore Make America Great Again hats. According to organizers, they did not intend for the event to be political.
“The main focus today is getting the kids back in school and putting the kids in the best position they can be in,” Steve Smith, co-organizer of the rally, said. “As parents, we don’t want this to be political and maybe we should make that a little more clear.”
The Trump and MAGA stuff is beside the point. The Confederate flag, however, is inherently racist. Full stop.
Unfortunately, at protests in some places such as Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake, the majority of participating parents were maskless.
The CDC Wednesday released new indicators for decision making for schools to reopen. At the top of the list is the correct and consistent usage of masks.
When you show up in a pandemic to make a protest that children can safely return to school and you fail to follow even the most basic social distancing guidelines, you tend to lose some credibility.
And this also isn’t the first time a Confederate flag has been an issue at the school. Click here for that one.
A mother charged in the fatal stabbing of her 5-year-old daughter was denied bond Monday.
Simone Austin, 27, is charged with with first-degree murder in the death of Serenity Arrington. […]
Police also said they are familiar with the home.
“There were prior calls to the address. We just don’t know at this time why what happened today. But there were multiple calls,” said Chicago Police Officer Jose Jara.
DCFS confirmed to WGN they have had prior contact with the family, but did not give specific dates.
Meanwhile, reporters were told Monday afternoon that 500 DCFS frontline workers – caseworkers and investigators – have been hired in the last year and half since the governor’s announcement. But that number is offset somewhat by retirements.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has reached a “crisis point” at some of its offices in terms of staffing shortages partially related to COVID-19 concerns, the union representing DCFS workers said in an email to its membership.
The email, sent last week from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, addressed concerns regarding caseloads in understaffed offices throughout the state.
AFSCME, which represents Illinois’ DCFS employees, warned DCFS workers that the department had 500 vacant positions and plans to reassign employees to assist with remote investigations in understaffed areas. […]
By the end of August, DCFS had 2,726 of its 3,056 budgeted positions filled, department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said. By the department’s count, that’s 330 vacant positions, or a little more than 10%, about the start of September. That includes all staff, not only case investigators.
Good morning – I’m reaching out to connect you with a source who can talk about why sportsbooks are creating more-accurate political predictions than some of the country’s leading polls.
David Strauss, lead oddsmaker at sportsbook MyBookie, can discuss why political polls are oftentimes wrong, and why sportsbooks have done a better job at getting it right. For example, 2016 polls suggested Clinton would win, while gambling lines were more indicative of the actual outcome.
* Politicians and pundits always reference polls when the results are in their favor but are quick to point out their inaccuracies when they are not. Strauss can discuss why sportsbooks are different, including:
* People are willing to lie on a poll but are unlikely to gamble their hard-earned money on something they don’t believe in
* Sportsbooks/oddsmakers also have money to lose if the political odds are set inaccurately
* Why sportsbooks are seeing a Trump win in the 2020 election, and how that differs from current polls
For more of an in-depth chat on this topic, let me know what time you’re able to connect with David Strauss this week for a phone interview.
Thanks,
Natasha
Um, there’s a reason casinos are so opulent: Gamblers do not generally make rational decisions, even when they’re only betting a few bucks. Add our insane national politics into the equation and you’ve got a real problem on your hands.
…Adding… From a good buddy…
(A)s someone who’s made decent money wagering on elections I’ve always found the prediction markets to be trailing indicators. Also, it’s much easier to make money on the political markets by monetizing the yo-yo than betting on the outcome, I’ve been frustrated by how stable this race has become, it’s interfering with my monetization.
The general idea is to take advantage of the mopes.
* So, in an unfortunate moment of uncoolness which I now regret, I sent this reply…
Seriously, y’all need to watch this video and take me off your list
After a member of Governor JB Pritzker’s staff tested positive for COVID-19, the governor and all other close contacts will self-isolate for a 14-day period, pursuant to state and federal public health guidelines.
The staff member was tested on Wednesday during weekly testing for the governor’s office and was negative. After experiencing symptoms, the staff member was tested again Monday and confirmed as positive. The staffer attended events with the governor on Wednesday in Chicago, Thursday in Marion and Sunday in Marseilles. Both the governor and the staffer were wearing masks during the entirety of their interactions.
The staffer has been interviewed and a contact tracing effort is underway to ensure all close contacts are notified. Event organizers at each impacted event have also been contacted and made aware of the staff member’s positive results as well as appropriate next steps.
In accordance with state and federal guidelines, the governor and all close contacts will self-isolate for 14 days. In addition, all staff who currently report to the office are being tested and must test negative before reporting back to the office. Yesterday, all samples that were ran to test for COVID-19 came back negative.
Staff members reporting to the office have followed all public health safety protocols including weekly testing, daily temperature checks, wearing face coverings, social distancing and strict hygiene procedures. The office undergoes a weekly deep cleaning and an additional deep cleaning was conducted Monday night.
The governor will continue to hold regular COVID-19 press briefings which are live-streamed at illinois.gov/LiveVideo as well as on Facebook and Twitter.
In an effort to promote diverse businesses, Illinois three years ago passed a law that required companies receiving state tax breaks to report how much work they did with minority- and women-owned vendors.
But since the law went into effect, 119 companies that had more than $150 million shaved from their tax bills have not submitted any such reports, a Better Government Association examination has found. And of the 61 firms that did file the required reports, nearly three-quarters reported none of the data the law was intended to gather.
The problems with the state’s largest job incentive program are in large part due to the administrations of both Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Bruce Rauner, failing to enforce the law, according to the sponsors of the legislation.
Both administrations allowed the tax breaks to continue even after companies failed to submit the forms. For those firms that did submit reports, the administrations interpreted the law to mean the companies only had to file paperwork with the state even if the forms were mostly blank of critical information.
The resulting lack of any significant data intended to detail how much major multinational companies seeking taxpayer help are spending on minority- and women-owned vendors has angered both legislative sponsors. Following BGA inquiries, they said they will call for tougher actions by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the state agency that oversees the program.
“We’re asking the enforcement body, which is the Department of Commerce, to tell these companies, ‘If you’re filing these reports, you should be filing them with data,’” said state Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from suburban Homewood and co-sponsor of the changes to the state’s Economic Development for a Growing Economy, or EDGE, jobs program. “That’s the expectation.”
Illinois Sen. Cristina Castro, a Democrat from Elgin who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, said the language in the law is clear, and she is disappointed it has been interpreted so favorably to companies seeking taxpayer assistance.
“We’re giving you state tax dollars. Where are you trying to expand the diversity when it comes to minority-owned spending?” asked Castro. “It’s terrible.”
The law states companies “shall … submit to DCEO an annual report containing the information” on “actual spending for female-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and small business enterprises.”
Lauren Huffman, a spokeswoman for DCEO, said the agency has interpreted the law to exclude, or grandfather, any company that received tax breaks prior to the passage of the 2017 measure. She said the law also doesn’t mandate companies collect minority data they don’t already collect.
“We will continue to work with EDGE companies to expand compliance with the 2017 law,” Huffman said in an emailed statement, “and look forward to working with the General Assembly to determine where changes could be made to the current statute and to enhance diversity reporting by Illinois companies and their contractors.”
A spokesman for Pritzker declined to answer questions about the state’s failure to collect the data, offering only a statement about how the governor is “deeply committed” to diversity in state contracts.
If he’s that “deeply committed” he’ll force a change. Pronto. I am fed-up to my eyeballs with this bureaucratic nonsense. If the law needs fixing, fix the law. Until then, take the most aggressive enforcement route possible and stop making excuses.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) released a new survey last week that underscores the devastating results for the hotel industry. Seventy-four percent (74%) of hotels would be forced to lay off additional employees and two-thirds of hotels (67%) would not make it another six months if Congress fails to pass another COVID stimulus bill. As a follow up, below is a breakdown of this impact by state. […]
Here is a quote from Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association:
“It’s time for Congress to put politics aside and prioritize American workers in the hardest-hit industries. Hotels are cornerstones of the communities they serve, building strong local economies and supporting millions of jobs. Thousands of hotels across America are in jeopardy of closing forever, and that will have a ripple effect throughout our communities for years to come. It is imperative that Congress act now before leaving town, or thousands of small businesses and the jobs associated with them will be lost. The American people cannot wait for relief. Congress needs to act now.”
According to the AHLA, Illinois has lost 22,621 hotel and lodging jobs as of September, out of 59,372. That’s 38 percent, in case you’re doing the math.
The AHLA also projects a loss of 41,560 Illinois jobs without a new stimulus bill. They’re also projecting the closure of 1,020 hotels (out of 1,522) and the loss of 131,665 hotel-related jobs (out of 292,588).
*** UPDATE *** From UNITEHERE…
Rich-
Hope you are well and hanging in there. I read the AHLA entry on the blog and wanted to make sure you had our union’s perspective. Namely, the “relief” the AHLA is seeking from Congress would largely benefit wealthy, sophisticated real estate investors and do little, if anything, about brining hotel jobs back or the corresponding tax revenue for state and local governments. Please see attached letter our President sent up to the Hill on Monday. Links to news coverage on this below. To state the obvious, getting the virus under control and the traveling public comfortable flying and booking hotel rooms again is the key, not bailing out risky mortgage bets made by investors who know (or should have known) what they were doing. Thanks
House Democrats started off the 2020 cycle looking to protect roughly four dozen vulnerable members, including 30 whose districts voted for President Donald Trump four years ago.
Now as they enter the final month, Democrats are scaling back defensive spending and funneling their remaining millions to knock out vulnerable Republicans and expand their 34-seat majority, according to a POLITICO review of recent advertising data. […]
In a sign of their growing optimism, Democrats canceled millions of October TV reservations for lawmakers like Reps. Jared Golden in Maine or Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania — in two districts that Trump had won by about 10 points in 2016. And party officials also nixed ad time in a pair of purple Michigan districts belonging to freshman Reps. Haley Stevens and Elissa Slotkin, which Trump also won in the last presidential election.
Now Democrats are pouring that cash into capturing red seats — in Michigan, Colorado, Montana and Alaska — that the party hadn’t been eyeing until late in the election cycle as Trump sagged in the polls and GOP campaigns entered crisis mode. […]
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” DCCC Chair Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) said in a brief interview, stressing that party officials began early with recruitment and on-the-ground staff in battleground districts. “We’re raising money like it’s falling from the sky.”
Here’s to the doers, the ones who feed the world and make America work, even in tough times.
I’m Cheri Bustos and I’m doing everything I can to get us moving again. Better trade deals, so our farmers sell American products. New infrastructure projects. and demanding they use products made in America, not China.
I’m Cheri Bustos,and I approve this message because we’re doers here and it’s time to get to work.
The northwest region of Illinois could be two days away from triggering increased mitigations from the state to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday announced the rate of positive test results had reached 8 percent in Region 1, which extends from DeKalb and Boone counties west to the Iowa border, on Sept. 25, the most recent day those statistics are recorded. A region that has three consecutive days of positivity rates above 8 percent is subject to increased mitigations that include limited capacity indoors and restrictions for restaurants and bars.
Region 4 in the Metro East area already has increased restrictions. Its daily test positivity rate increased for the first time in 10 days, to 7.1 percent. A region must have a positivity rate below 6.5 percent for a 14-day period to have increased restrictions lifted. The IDPH placed additional restrictions on bars, restaurants and social gatherings in Region 4 on Aug. 18.
Region 7, which includes Kankakee and Will counties, got out from under increased restrictions 10 days ago.
Health Department Administrator Sandra Martell said Winnebago County on Monday had reached a 9% rolling seven-day positivity rate on COVID-19 tests. An additional 225 cases were confirmed since Friday, bringing the county total to 5,935 cases. […]
Case investigations and contact tracing suggest there have been no large events at which the disease has been spread. Family gatherings and out-of-town sporting events appear to be the biggest culprits for spreading the disease, Martell said.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also began reporting daily county testing data but with a three-day lag. For Friday, DeKalb County had a daily positivity rate of 3.6% with a rolling seven-day positivity average of 6.9%. The county’s daily rate had been 9.2% on Wednesday and seven-day rate had peaked at 7.5% on Sept. 21.
In all, there have been 1,651 cases and 38 deaths, with the most recent death reported Sept. 18 in an infant younger than 1 year old.
* According to IDPH, Boone County’s seven-day rolling positivity rate is 10.7 percent, Carroll County’s is 3.8 percent, DeKalb’s is 6.9, Jo Daviess’ is 9.1, Lee’s is 9.9, Ogle’s is 6.9, Stephenson’s is 5.2, Whiteside’s is 6.4 and Winnebago’s is 8.7.
Commonwealth Edison has agreed to participate in next week’s meeting of a special Illinois House committee investigating Speaker Michael Madigan’s alleged role in a bribery scheme involving the utility.
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin informed the committee by letter Thursday that he intends to question ComEd representatives about the company’s deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Durkin also planned to give an opening statement.
* Committee Chairman Rep. Chris Welch press release…
“Today, in a letter sent to counsel for Leader Durkin, I addressed points raised in his Sept. 24, 2020 letter regarding the administration of Tuesday’s Special Investigating Committee hearing. My letter informed Leader Durkin that as a signatory to the petition creating this Committee, he is not eligible to participate in the investigation process, as signatories to the petition are prohibited from serving on the Special Investing Committee under House rules. Granting his requests to make statements and question witnesses would therefore be inappropriate and in violation of the process he invoked.
“Leader Durkin was further informed that the Committee may choose to call him as a witness, due to his significant involvement in the energy legislation referenced in his petition.”
Addressing gatherings at nuclear power plants in Cordova and Clinton, Gov. Bruce Rauner today celebrated the jobs saved and gains made one year in to the state’s tenure with the Future Energy Jobs Act.
“Today we are here to celebrate the bright future of energy jobs in Illinois,” Rauner said. “Thanks to the Future Energy Jobs Act, Illinois is poised to compete head-to-head with any state in the nation to attract energy investment and jobs, while still protecting ratepayers and taxpayers.”
On Dec. 7, 2016, legislators, industry stakeholders and members of the Rauner Administration came together for the signing of FEJA. The landmark piece of legislation prevented the Quad Cities and Clinton power plants from closing, saving 800 jobs in the Quad Cities and 700 in Clinton while ushering in the addition of 100 more permanent Exelon jobs plus 400 construction jobs while capital improvements are under way. […]
“The Future Energy Jobs Act preserved our nuclear plants and protected thousands of jobs for Illinois working families,” said Mitchell, noting that Rauner and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin worked tirelessly on its passage. “This was not an easy bill to pass and they moved mountains to help get it done.”
Whew.
Things are getting seriously ugly, campers.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Leader Durkin…
It is clear that Chairman Welch is not well-versed on the proceedings of an investigatory committee, as he needed a phone call and two letters from U.S. Attorney Lausch after repeatedly misinterpreting his guidance. Furthermore, Rep. Manley was already allowed to question me on the veracity of the petition and the charges in the previous committee hearing. Under my rights as not only the petitioner but also as a member of the General Assembly, I will be making an opening statement tomorrow and questioning the confirmed witness, Commonwealth Edison, on the admitted facts laid out in the petition against Michael J. Madigan. See you there!
*** UPDATE 2 *** According to Chairman Welch, ComEd has “confirmed that David Glockner will be in Springfield to testify tomorrow and he will be accompanied by their attorney Reid Schar.” Glockner is Executive Vice President, Compliance and Audit, for Exelon Corporation.
In a matter of hours, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration changed it’s guidance on hayrides amid concerns over COVID-19, but haunted houses are still prohibited. A state representative says the decision is not based on science and data.
Thursday’s updated document had initially said: “Amusement rides such as train rides, hay rides, and inflatables must remain closed.”
The guidance document was updated late Friday with different language that said hayrides and haunted hayrides were permitted with capacity limits.
“Hayrides/haunted can operate at 50% capacity, with parties spaced at least six feet apart and wearing masks, with the best practice to limit hayrides to members of the same household,” Friday’s update said.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity didn’t immediately respond to why the guidelines changed.
State Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, is a hay farmer. He said hayrides are a big tradition. […]
“Maybe his daughter wants to go on hayrides and that’s what’s happened,” Meier said. “She’s been allowed to go out of state and go to her horse competitions, so maybe she wants to go on a hayride in Illinois and that’s why we’re going to have them, but at least some people are going to enjoy hayrides and for that I’m happy.”
It looks like Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s warning that Illinois will have to cut spending if voters reject his “fair tax” amendment wasn’t persuading anyone. And why would it? After years of busted budgets, rising debts and tax increases, millions of Illinois voters want state government to stop spending so much.
So Team Pritzker on Thursday dispatched Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton to issue a new threat: Approve our amendment or, she said, “lawmakers will be forced to consider raising income taxes on all Illinois residents by at least 20% regardless of their level of income.” […]
We’ll see if Team Pritzker finds new ways to say, “Vote our way — or else.” But we hope nobody asks Lt. Gov. Stratton to be the one issuing future warnings. This was a message the governor should have delivered. This is his amendment, his campaign push, his threat to raise taxes on even the lowest of earners by a whopping 20%. How does the squeeze feel, Illinois?
Here’s the thing, though: Gov. Pritzker first warned of a potential 20 percent tax hike in his very first budget address, a month after taking office, in February 2019. In the very same speech, he spoke of “a fair income tax” as a solution. Two weeks later, he laid out his proposal for a progressive income tax, with brackets that have basically held true to that initial vision: a higher tax rate only for those making more than $250,000 a year, with 97 percent of Illinois taxpayers paying the same or less than they are now under the current 4.95 percent flat tax.
The General Assembly approved a graduated income tax that spring, sending it on to voters in the general election this fall with Pritzker’s initial brackets only slightly altered up to a top tax rate of just under 8 percent for those making more than $1 million a year. The actual Fair Tax Amendment, however, only changes the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax.
None of that has changed over the last year and a half.
Now, journalists have notoriously poor memories. Dealing with news on a daily basis tends to leave old facts and information buried under the new — especially in these turbulent times. But one might well expect better from the Tribune Editorial Board — or Republican politicians.
First, we could choose only to cut state government spending and raise no revenue. To do that, we have to recognize that out of this year’s $39 billion budget, approximately $20 billion is required payments on our debt, on our pensions, on our court-ordered obligations or federally protected programs. That leaves approximately $19 billion dollars. That’s the money we spend educating our children, running our colleges and universities, keeping our streets safe, preserving our natural resources, getting people to and from work efficiently and caring for our veterans. We’ll call that “discretionary spending.” To balance the budget by simply cutting government, we would have to reduce discretionary spending on all these direct services our jobs, our families and our businesses rely on by approximately 15%. That’s 15% fewer state police, 15% fewer students going to college, 15% fewer working parents receiving child care assistance, and 15% less money for your local schools – which likely also means your local property taxes will increase. I should point out that this option was tried in the prior administration, and it failed - because nearly no one thinks it’s a good idea to force our most talented kids to leave the state by diminishing Illinois colleges and universities, drive families away by defunding local schools, make our communities less safe by reducing public safety, and increase poverty by cutting badly needed human services.
Our second option is to raise revenue with our current regressive flat income tax system and impose more flat taxes which fall disproportionately on the working poor and the middle class. This option could require imposing sales taxes on services, implementing a retirement tax, or raising the income tax overall by around 20%. Or all of the above. For a family earning $100,000, that means paying almost a thousand dollars more in income taxes, and their property taxes will continue their upward march as they always have.
Our third option is to reject imposing additional income, retirement and sales taxes on the middle class and instead enact a fair income tax. This would lift some of the tax burden off of middle income earners and instead ask the wealthiest to pay a little more. Just for clarity, a fair tax is what three quarters of states with income taxes have. We can accomplish this with a more competitive rate structure than Wisconsin and Iowa, both of which are outpacing Illinois in job creation and economic growth. We can also implement a fair tax system that’s lower than our metropolitan competitors on the east and west coasts.
Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) today announced that Chicago has made sufficient progress in the fight against COVID-19 to ease certain restrictions on businesses. Effective Thursday, October 1st, new guidelines for businesses will come into effect that will expand indoor capacity to 40% for certain businesses, reopen bars for indoor service, allow restaurants and bars to serve alcohol until 1:00 am, increase maximum group sizes for fitness classes and after-school programming and allow personal services that require the removal of masks. These changes build on Chicago’s status as one of the most open large cities in America and are possible due to continued improvement on crucial COVID health metrics, including a declining number of new daily cases, a test positivity rate now below 5% and the lowest rates of hospitalization and death in months.
“Over the past six months, we have asked so much of our business community. But each time, our businesses have stepped up to the plate,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Thanks to this cooperation, we have met this challenging moment with grace, commitment and resilience, and the sacrifices made by our businesses, workers and residents have saved countless lives. This next step in our reopening is good news for business owners as well as the communities they serve and the thousands of residents that work for them.”
Chicago is now seeing around 300 new COVID cases per day whereas in late August the city was over 350 cases per day and rising. Test positivity (the percentage of COVID tests with a positive result) has fallen to 4.5% and severe outcomes have also improved, with hospitalizations from COVID lower than they’ve been since March and deaths at an average of 2-3 per day, when they were around 50 per day at the peak of the pandemic.
The outbreak continues to have a disproportionate impact on Black and, particularly of late, Latinx communities, but we are seeing improvement there, as well, and declines in the Latinx community outpace the overall averages. As we gradually ease our reopening guidelines, we will continue to watch trends closely, particularly among essential workers and People of Color.
“Overall, we are heading in the right direction, and this affords us an opportunity to further re-open the city and to do so gradually and safely,” said CDPH Commissioner Allison Arwady, M.D. “But I can’t emphasize this enough: Chicagoans need to continue to follow the public health guidance – wearing masks, social distancing, frequent hand washing and staying home when sick – or we risk falling back and experiencing another rise in cases.”
Effective Thursday, October 1st, at 5:00am, the following guidelines will come into effect:
• Increased Indoor Capacity: Restaurants, health and fitness centers, personal services, non-essential retail and all other establishments that have been limited to 25% indoor capacity will now be able to increase their maximum indoor capacity to 40%. The limit of 50 total customers within one room or space at restaurants, venues and other establishments will remain in place, as will the limit of no more than six people per table.
• Reopening of Bars: Breweries, taverns, bars and other establishments that serve alcohol without a food license may reopen with indoor seating, at 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is fewer. Service remains limited to no more than two hours per party, and customers must be seated when eating, drinking or ordering – patrons cannot walk up to the bar to order.
• Extended Hours for Bars and Restaurants:Bars, restaurants and other establishments that serve alcohol will now be able to sell alcohol for on-site or off-site consumption until 1:00 am and may remain open until 1:30 am. Liquor stores, grocery stores and other establishments that sell alcohol to-go through a Packaged Goods license must continue to cease alcohol sales at 9:00 p.m.
• Increased Group Size:Maximum group size for health and fitness classes and after-school programming will increase from 10 to 15 people.
• Expanded Personal Services: Facials, shaves and other personal services that require the removal of face coverings will be allowed.
“The last six months have brought unprecedented challenges for everyone, especially the small businesses that form the pillars of so many of our neighborhoods,” said BACP Commissioner Rosa Escareno. “I want to thank the many businesses that have shown their dedication to their employees and patrons throughout this crisis by strictly following our guidelines. While this crisis has brought extraordinary pain, our recovery has outpaced peer cities and I am confident that this next step will bring much-needed economic support for thousands of businesses and workers while still prioritizing the health of our community.”
To help keep communities safe while supporting the neighborhood economy, the City today also today announced a partnership with homegrown technology company Tock to provide free technology solutions for restaurants and bars in low-income communities. Through this partnership, Tock will offer a free set-up and six-month subscription to Tock Plus Litefor restaurants and bars without a reservation system in areas of the city below 60% of the Area Median Income. This one-of-a-kind program will provide these establishments with the ability to manage reservations, takeout, delivery and events all through one unified system. This program, which is also available at a low cost citywide, can be used by businesses to retain cell phone numbers and email addresses to support contact tracing for reservations and when seating walk-ins.
“As a locally-grown Chicago business, we are thrilled to partner with the City to help expand safe dining and help restaurants build a bridge to the future,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, Tock’s co-founder and CTO. “For many restaurants and bars, especially those in historically disinvested areas, technology can make all the difference. Access to reservation systems during this critical time will help businesses keep pace while ensuring that they comply with regulations to keep their employees and patrons safe.”
While enough progress has been made to ease certain restrictions, Chicago remains in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and calls on all businesses and customers to continue following the phase four guidelines. In order to continue the significant progress, the following additional guidelines will also come into effect on Thursday, October 1st:
• When dining out at a food service establishment or bar, customers must always wear face coverings while seated, except when actively eating or drinking. This protects employees that may interact closely with patrons.
• Patrons at indoor bars, taverns and breweries must order from their seats – they cannot walk up to the bar to order.
• Bars, taverns and breweries that are reopening indoors must partner with a food establishment so that food is available to patrons at all times (e.g., making menus available and allowing delivery, allowing patrons to order from third-party delivery services).
• When taking reservations and seating walk-in customers, restaurants and bars should retain an email and/or phone number for possible contact tracing.
• Personal services that require the removal of face coverings are recommended to be kept under 15 minutes, and the employee conducting the service must always wear a face covering.
• All places of business should provide hand sanitizer for patrons and employees to use upon entry.
Illinois has made good on a promise to remove statues from the Capitol grounds of people associated with slavery.
Statues of Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard have been removed from the grounds and taken to a secure storage area. On Monday, workers were removing the pedestals that the statues rested on prior to the state sodding the area.
In August, the board of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol voted unanimously to remove the statues from the grounds. House Speaker Michael Madigan asked that the statues be removed because both men were slave holders and Douglas had a history of making racist comments.
Madigan also said he would sponsor a resolution in the House to remove a portrait of Douglas that hangs in the chamber. Madigan said it should be replaced with the portrait of someone who reflects the modern positions of the Democratic Party such as former President Barack Obama.
* Pics…
The state removed the Stephen Douglas and Pierre Menard statues from the Illinois Statehouse grounds on Friday night/Saturday morning. I took a few shots of empty pedestals today: pic.twitter.com/5QxLBZolhD
Monday, Sep 28, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Cleaner, greener energy. Fewer emissions. More jobs. That’s what Springfield lawmakers can deliver, thanks to Gov. Pritzker’s leadership in reviving clean energy legislation and putting forward thoughtful, ambitious principles to guide its progress.
As one of Illinois’ diverse energy providers, bp applauds Gov. Pritzker’s vision for a clean, renewable economy and urges state legislators to seize the moment for a comprehensive climate bill that includes a price on carbon.
Why? Because as Gov. Pritzker points out, “implementing a carbon price makes dirty energy less competitive, reduces emissions, creates room for renewable energy development, and raises revenue for the state.”
It’s fair to ask: why is an integrated energy company like bp advocating for carbon pricing? Because it aligns with our own low carbon ambition. Because we see business opportunity. Most of all, because we believe this is the right thing to do.
The baton is officially being passed from Mitchell Trubisky to Nick Foles.
During his Monday press conference, Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy confirmed Foles would get the start at quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts after he led the Bears to comeback win against the Falcons yesterday.
And this isn’t a play-to-play, week-by-week thing. This is Foles’ job until further notice
* The Question: Agree or disagree with Nagy? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,709 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 13 additional confirmed deaths.
• Coles County: 1 female 80s
• Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 female 50s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 2 males 80s
• Crawford County: 1 male 70s
• DeWitt County: 1 male 80s
• Madison County: 1 female 80s
• Marion County: 1 male 80s
• Richland County: 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 289,639 cases, including 8,614 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 21 – September 27 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 41,142 specimens for a total of 5,520,652. As of last night, 1,491 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 346 patients were in the ICU and 135 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. Information for deaths previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
* Sunday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 1,604 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 14 additional confirmed deaths.
Carroll County: 1 male 80s
Cook County: 1 male 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 2 females 90s
DuPage County: 1 female 60s
Hamilton County: 1 male 60s
Monroe County: 1 female 80s
Peoria County: 1 female 80s
Tazewell County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 287,930 cases, including 8,601 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 20 – September 26 is 3.7%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 50,822 specimens for a total of 5,479,510. As of last night, 1,486 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 350 patients were in the ICU and 144 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
* Saturday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 1 female 50s, 3 males 60s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
Effingham County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
Greene County: 1 male 60s
Hamilton County: 1 female 90s
LaSalle County: 1 male 50s
McLean County: 1 male 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 70s
Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
Tazewell County: 1 female 80s
Wabash County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Williamson County: 1 male 60s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 286,326 cases, including 8,588 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 19 – September 25 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 65,217 specimens for a total of 5,428,688. As of last night, 1,597 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 355 patients were in the ICU and 141 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan tried to get state jobs last year for a half-dozen people with close ties to the chairman of a new, special House committee investigating Madigan’s links to a Springfield bribery scandal, according to records obtained by WBEZ.
State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside is the chairman of the bipartisan panel, which is scheduled to meet for the second time on Tuesday to begin hearing testimony.
Welch’s relationship to Madigan has come under heavy scrutiny since he was named on Sept. 2 to lead the “Special Investigative Committee” looking into the federal corruption scandal. Illinois Republicans have accused Welch of inhibiting the probe to protect Madigan, who also chairs the state’s Democratic Party.
Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Westchester) nominated Madigan, saying he was a great leader who listens to the people.
“That’s the most important quality a leader should have,” Welch said. “Watching Speaker Madigan these last four years has been a real case study in true leadership.”
Welch said with Madigan’s leadership, the House stood strong and protected the heart of Illinois.
Following the recent scandal that appears to implicate Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, a group of Illinois Democrats announced sweeping ethics reform proposals [last month]. […]
Illinois Rep. Chris Welch said he agrees with many of the proposals, but not the one calling to remove leaders unless proven guilty.
“We’re not sitting here playing judge and jury..that we have fair processes in place and that we don’t put in systems that’s going to create witch hunts,” he said.
Madigan clearly decided that he wanted loyalists on the investigative committee. There’s not a bit of daylight between himself and those three members. The same basically goes for the Republican members and their leader.
But Welch may be even closer to Madigan than most in the House Democratic caucus, judging by the job recommendations and resumes that the speaker’s chief of staff sent to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office in early 2019, shortly before the ComEd scandal burst into public view. […]
The records show Madigan recommended more people with connections to Welch than anybody else during the months after Pritzker was sworn in, when the rookie governor was looking to fill many job openings in his administration. […]
Only one of those six people with ties to Welch got what they wanted from the governor, even though 35 of the nearly 80 job seekers who appeared on Madigan’s clout lists ultimately would land on the state-government payroll or on a board.
I’d bet a dollar that Madigan passed along pretty much every recommendation from his members. According to the story, Rep. Sue Scherer (D-Decatur) was also mentioned as much as Welch was on the lists Madigan sent to the governor’s office.
Welch recommended his wife, an attorney, for an appointment to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. She didn’t get it. He also recommended his mom for a job, which she didn’t get.
* It turns out all of the people recommended by Welch were Black women. From Welch…
My entire life in elected office I have fought for diversity, equity and inclusion for Black people, especially Black women. My fight is for everyone, people I know and those that I don’t know personally. I, just like other legislators, Republicans and Democrats, recommended several well qualified Black women to the new administration in 2019 as they had requested. I had hoped all were chosen, but I am pleased that at least Dr. Andrea Evans was chosen to serve at IBHE, the only Black Woman on IBHE today. I will continue my fight to diversify boards. As Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, Women belong in all rooms where decisions are made.
That would probably be a far better argument if two out of his six recommendations weren’t immediate family members, but OK.
* Perhaps one of the most under-reported stories about the job of being a state legislator is what they do for constituents. This is mainly done quietly, away from Springfield, so it’s usually almost always invisible. But many are quite conscientious at it and kudos to Mark Brown for sharing this story, which also shows us that the problems people were facing at the beginning of this pandemic are still with us today…
The calls come daily to state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe’s office on the Northwest Side from people who need help navigating the state bureaucracy.
They call about unemployment benefits, housing assistance and food stamps. They call about utility bills, problems with state licenses and support for their small businesses.
Many of the callers these days are in tears, not knowing where to turn. Some can’t pay the rent. Others are worried about feeding their families.
Yet what’s striking to LaPointe’s chief of staff, Jessica Genova, is how apologetic many of the callers are, as if they’re feeling guilty about their predicament and needing help.
“I’ve never done this before,” they say.
Millions of people across the country have found themselves unemployed and needing assistance for the first time in their lives. And then they are faced with state systems that are antiquated, over-loaded and inaccessible.
Dark money is helping to fund opposition to Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride, who is up for retention in November. Judicial Fairness Project just gave $200,000 to the similarly named Citizens for Judicial Fairness to pursue its anti-Kilbride campaign.
The dark money group is listed under the same address as Chicago attorney John Fogerty, who is general counsel to the Illinois Republican Party. Fogerty did not immediately return a request for comment.
Citizens for Judicial Fairness, meanwhile, is headed by Jim Nowlan, a former Republican state legislator and GOP consultant who is president of Stark County Communications newspaper publishing company in central Illinois. Last week, Nowlan accused Kilbride of being “a puppet” of House Speaker and state Democratic Party leader Michael Madigan.
Kilbride is a Democratic judge in a district that’s leaning more Republican than when he was retained a decade ago. Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton 50 percent to 44 percent in the district that includes Kankakee, LaSalle, Peoria, Rock Island and Will counties. Numbers like that show Kilbride could be in trouble given he needs 60 percent to be retained.
The best thing Kilbride has going for him is that his party affiliation is not on the ballot. He also has several GOP endorsements.
Two weeks after a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down the 2020 census, a manager in Illinois instructed employees to get started with layoffs, according to an audio of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.
During a conference call Thursday, the Chicago area manager told supervisors who report to him that they should track down census takers who don’t currently have any cases, collect the iPhones they use to record information, and bid them goodbye. The manager did not respond to an email from the AP.
“I would really like to get a head start on terminating these people,” he said. “All of these inactives that we have, we need to get rid of them. So hunt down your inactives, collect their devices, get them terminated and off of our lists.”
It was unclear whether such actions would violate U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh’s temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations while she considers a request to extend the head count by a month.
Despite assurances from U.S. Census Bureau officials that there would be a final push to reach people this month, the latest data shows the Chicago region employed around 3,000 fewer people the week of Sept. 6-12 compared with the previous week. The move raises more questions about the reliability and completeness of a count that will determine Illinois’ representation in Congress and the state’s and city’s share of billions of dollars in federal aid over the next 10 years.
Late Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Census Bureau to extend its deadline from Sept. 30 to Oct. 31. The Trump administration is expected to appeal, but the judge’s order prohibits the agency from winding down operations until the case is resolved
The Chicago field office would not comment on the recent cutback of workers, but an official in Washington, D.C., said one reason might be that the Chicago area is actually faring very well in the census, with much of its population already counted, contrary to what every local official has been saying. […]
Olson said Cook County is about 90% counted when you combine responses from households and visits by census workers to homes that didn’t respond. But experts say that’s still not good enough.
Sherrie Taylor, interim head of the State Data Center Network, which works with the bureau, said the agency should not be satisfied with anything less than 99%. “Until there is 99% in every single tract, there’s questions about the reliability of the data,” she said. “In a sample survey, you’re happy to get a 20% response and that’s really good, but this is much more serious than that.”
Q: Will you put it to rest? Are your doctors at IDPH talking with IHSA and their doctors about somehow bringing back soccer, football, volleyball this fall?
A: There is not an ongoing discussion about that. We have talked in the past. And then of course, we’ve put forward our, these are the rules that doctors have put forward about high, medium and low risk sports. So no, there’s not any ongoing dialogue right now. And again, it is doctors and epidemiologists that are leading the way here. It’s what I’ve done all along in this pandemic. I think it’s one of the reasons we have one of the lowest positivity rates in the Midwest, and one of the lowest in the nation. Now, I will also say that if you look at the list of states that, remember, we’ve allowed many, many sports, I want to be clear with people, we have a lot of fall sports that are being played. But if you look at just football, for example, many of the states that do not allow football today are the ones with the lowest positivity. Let’s take a look at that. New York, Massachusetts, etc. Right? They’re the ones who have the lowest positivity rates. So I think we should be striving to get to where they are. We’re not anywhere near there, by the way. We need to get there. And you know, obviously, we’re all concerned to get people back on the field. Right now, they’re able to practice, they’re able to scrimmage, they’re able to do a lot of things. They’re not able to play regular tournaments, for example, or games.
This week, a group plans to level the playing field for students who depend on showcasing their skills on the field to score a college scholarship.
“Student athletes, especially those from the poorest neighborhoods, have virtually no chance to be seen in game action, and are therefore at an extreme disadvantage compared to all neighboring states with kids playing in the fall,” said plaintiff Dave Ruggles. “Scholarships will simply go to players college coaches can actually see in action, and that won’t include kids in Illinois.” […]
Ruggles and others plan to file a legal action against the Illinois High School Association on Monday.
The suit will be filed in DuPage County, according to a press release, and will list the IHSA as the primary defendant. The suit is expected to be filed this week.
A total of 20 students are expected to be listed as plaintiffs in the suit, which will seek a temporary restraining order ordering the state to allow fall sports to get underway.
The suit alleges that prohibitions on some fall sports, including football and volleyball, violates the IHSA’s constitution and bylaws, and has “caused mental health issues and financial hardships” for athletes and their families, according to the press release.
Specifically, the suit alleges that the decision to postpone fall sports will have negative financial impacts on both students and parents, as they will fall behind in their ability to compete for athletic scholarships to make college more affordable.
* Meanwhile…
"The events under investigation include multiple youth sports practices and games" pic.twitter.com/aFNfc1rjBv
As the Governor has said many times, his top education priority is resuming in-person learning for students across the state. In order to make that a reality for our students and teachers, we must do everything possible to keep positivity rates down and reduce the risk of spreading the virus at events outside the classroom. The courts have repeatedly sided with the public health experts who have created guidance that protects the health of people across this state.
Another snippet has been leaked of a now-infamous recorded fundraising call made by state Rep. Amy Grant, R-Wheaton, in late August. And it’s a doozy.
Grant already is reeling badly from the backlash to other comments she made during the call. She has insisted that she is neither a racist nor a homophobe and has tried to claim her words were taken out of context, without explaining how.
You may have seen the news about this. Grant is running against Ken Mejia-Beal, a gay Black Democrat. In the call, Grant dismissed Mejia-Beal to someone she believed to be a potential campaign contributor by saying, “That’s all we need is another person in the Black Caucus.” She mocked “the way he talks,” saying “He’s all LGBTQ. He wants to work for the chronically ill. He just gives us, like crazy, and every week it’s a different reason for why he wants to get into the race.”
In the latest clip, Grant is heard telling the potential contributor how groups like Planned Parenthood would be attacking her for opposing abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
“Well, of course, you know, people don’t want to hear that,” Grant admitted about her position on the issue.
But Grant went on to explain why she continues to stick by her beliefs. “For starters, the percentage of incest,” she said. “Peter Breen, who said, ‘Amy, don’t worry about that; the percentage of incest is so small it’s ridiculous. And in the case of rape it’s even small.’”
Breen is a former Republican state representative who is campaigning to regain the seat he lost in 2018 to Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn. He’s also vice president and chief counsel at the staunchly anti-abortion Thomas More Society.
The House Republicans turned down an opportunity to respond.
Grant’s opponent Ken Mejia-Beal pointed to a series of recent Republican attack mailers that essentially accused him of helping cover up a rape. “It really is the height of hypocrisy,” he said of Grant’s recorded comments.
Similar mailers apparently have been used against Democratic House candidates this cycle. The front of one of the mailers has the words (in all capital letters) “Rape, Cover-Up, Mike Madigan” and the candidate’s name. The headline on the other side was: “Ken Mejia-Beal: Silent When It Mattered.”
“When Mike Madigan’s political organization was implicated in a rape cover-up, top Democrats called for him to step down. What did Ken Mejia-Beal have to say? Nothing.”
The mailer referred to an emailed comment made by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s former consigliere Mike McClain, who was trying to protect a state worker’s job by claiming the guy had kept his mouth shut about “the rape in Champaign.” The explosive story broke in January of this year, less than two months after Mejia-Beal had filed his nominating petitions.
Mejia-Beal said the mailers were particularly hurtful because he’s been a mentor for sexual assault survivors. He issued a press release at the time saying he had no knowledge of the issue and called the attack “pathetic” because Grant was “using the unfortunate story of someone else’s abuse to earn political points for her own campaign.”
After the latest audio clip was leaked, Mejia-Beal issued a formal statement: “While millions of women in the U.S. have become pregnant as a result of rape or incest, Rep. Grant’s heartless and disgusting remarks are a reminder of how out of touch she is with reality. These comments from Rep. Grant also serve as a reflection of her extreme record against women’s health care and victims of abuse.”
Terry Cosgrove, who runs the pro-choice Personal PAC, also weighed in: “It’s the height of cruelty that Peter Breen and Amy Grant are so callous to victims of rape and incest… I would like to see Breen and Grant look into the eyes of a 15-year-old girl who has been victimized repeatedly by a relative or neighbor and tell her ‘it’s ridiculous.’”
One other thing: Grant has some trouble saying what she means during the recording. For instance, she claims, “You know, life is going to come after me, Planned Parenthood.” And “They’re going to say, oh, Amy Grant supports abortion even in case of incest and rape.”
Obviously, what she meant was pro-choice groups were coming after her for opposing abortion even in cases of incest and rape, because it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.
* Let’s keep it Illinois-centric and be polite to each other, please.
Also, best wishes to Rep. Bryant!…
I’ve been delayed in thanking everyone for the awesome turnout at Saturday’s Bryant Birthday Bash. During the event I was battling a gall bladder attack which led to Sunday night surgery. Thank you volunteers and supporters for a very successful event! pic.twitter.com/tQKhmPAE3K
Members of my family have had these attacks and they’re not fun at all. I had mine checked out as part of this summer’s long list of routine medical checkups and it came back negative. Everything else was fine, too, by the way. I hope I’m not jinxing myself, but as of this moment I have no more medical appointments scheduled for at least six months.
*** UPDATE 1 *** From the committee’s chair, Rep. Chris Welch…
“As of 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, the Special Investigating Committee has received no formal indication of any witnesses planning to testify.
“The committee will proceed as scheduled with our Tuesday, Sept. 29 hearing at 2 p.m., and I ask all members to come prepared to conduct themselves in a manner reflective of the serious business before us.”
The correspondence received by the committee is here. Still no statement from Rep. Welch on the planned appearance by an as-yet-unnamed witness from ComEd.
*** UPDATE 2 *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
Speaker Madigan continues to take the path that his own House Rules apply to all except him. The House Democrats and Governor Pritzker must step up and demand answers about Madigan’s involvement in ComEd’s admission of guilt in a bribery scheme lasting nine years.
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state.
The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce launched an initiative Wednesday to get the state to spend a larger share of its advertising dollars on Black-owned media.
The Coalition for Black Media Equity is seeking at least 8% of the state’s annual $2 billion marketing budget, or about $160 million, be spent on Black-owned media, in line with the state’s minority procurement guidelines. […]
Larry Ivory, president and CEO of the chamber, said the state’s actual Black-owned media spend is closer to $10 million a year, or about 0.5% of the total budget. […]
There are 15 initial members in the coalition, Ivory said. Chicago members include Dorothy Leavell, publisher of The Chicago Crusader; Melody Spann Cooper, chairman of Midway Broadcasting Corp., which owns WVON-AM 1690; and Carl West, publisher of TBT News.
Wait. The state is spending $2 billion for advertising/marketing in a $40 billion budget? I found that difficult to believe, to say the least.
* So, I asked the governor’s office to check with its budget office and here’s what GOMB could find for advertising/marketing…
Lottery — $41.4 Million for FY20 and this was paid to the Private Manager, Camelot, and they directly pay for marketing.
DCEO — $18.2 million in FY20 for tourism that’s being used for mask/COVID stuff this year
IDOT – about $4 million for their safety media program
Tollway - they were waiting on this, but isn’t going to make $2 B
DHS – about $3 million
DPH - $717,729.98, which is made up of $64,486.23 in newspaper notices plus $653,243.75 in COVID PSAs
That totals $67.3 million, plus whatever the Tollway spends, and the state has no direct control over Tollway spending. Same with universities.
Black-owned media and PR firms should most definitely be getting every dollar of their fair share. But the terms need to be set using reality.
As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle at the Illinois statehouse continue to offer up ideas they believe must be implemented to curb corruption and clean up ethics, one is looking to give local prosecutors power to wiretap public corruption suspects. […]
State Sen. John Curran Thursday with other Republicans laid out measures he said would help combat such behavior. He said local prosecutors can get wiretaps for drug and gang investigations, but not for public corruption investigations, and that needs to change.
“The federal government has shown us how they effectively use wiretapping evidence to break through the system of corruption here in Illinois, our local prosecutors need to get in the game,” Curran said.
Curran said there’d be judicial oversight to ensure such power wasn’t abused for political reasons.
* The Question: Overall, would you trust state’s attorneys with this power? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
Yesterday, Lt. Gov. Stratton threatened Illinois citizens with at least a 20 percent across the board income tax increase if their cherished tax increase hike amendment fails in November. That 20 percent comment is just a starting point, it is just the beginning, if you believe. Her intimidation and scare tactics used yesterday against Illinois citizens, employers, employees, retirees are a clear sign of desperation by the governor, lieutenant governor, Speaker Mike Madigan because their tax hike amendment is failing and the election is around the corner. […]
Here’s the message in no uncertain words: If you do not pass my tax hike amendment, we will annihilate you with a 20 percent tax increase across the board, across the board, when we return to session.
I spent yesterday with a group of Will County farmers, they all spoke about one thing: That was the fear of this tax amendment. These are not men and women of means, they work with their hands, with a job they love. Same goes for my hardware store owner in my town. The bakery owner. The restaurant owner in my town. Each one of them fears what this is going to do to their livelihoods, particularly at a time of pandemic, with the state of Illinois has forced so many closures upon them. They’re struggling to make ends meet. They’re struggling to keep people on the payroll. But to threaten Illinois citizens with a smile on their face, that if you pass this tax amendment we’re going to oppose a 20 percent income tax increase, increase against you, we will punish you for not following us. It speaks volumes that this tax amendment is failing and the Democrats are desperate.
The comments that were issued yesterday by Lieutenant Governor Stratton were problematic for a couple of reasons. First, because they portrayed a false choice to Illinois voters between one tax hike or another tax hike. And what that misses is a couple of key points that taxpayers across Illinois have been pushing Springfield to consider for years. First, if the choice is only between two tax hike hikes, it means that the administration is not considering any number of meaningful reforms, spending reductions, or efficiencies that they should find within the agencies that they control and operate. It means that any of those meaningful reforms are not coming to the major cost drivers that have pushed us year after year into facing these financial challenges. But second, it misses a very important message that voters have been sending to Springfield for over a decade. And that’s don’t tax more. It’s not that voters who are saying no to the fair tax are getting caught up in the details of this, voters who are saying no to the graduated income tax are saying no because they’re sending a message to Springfield, that says stop coming back to Illinois taxpayers every couple of years to raise income taxes because you refuse to deal with the underlying issues that are causing so much hardship and so much pressure for families across the state of Illinois.
* The House Republicans originally scheduled their press conference for 11 this morning, but then late last night Gov. Pritzker decided to schedule his own presser at 11. The HGOPs changed their start time to 10:30 and I asked Leader Durkin if he did that to avoid appearing at the same time as Pritzker…
We did. I wanted the governor to be able to explain why his lieutenant governor has threatened Illinois citizens that if you don’t vote for this tax amendment we’re going to tax the heck out of you with 20 percent. That is a scare tactic that was done on the same day that early voting is starting in Cook County. That was all planned yesterday, but that was to get into the heads of people who are uncertain, people who are scared about what the future is going to be particularly in a time of a pandemic. But I want the governor to explain why they’re using this intimidation, this scare tactic with Illinois citizens in Illinois voters. I want to hear the answer to this question today.
* OK, on to Gov. Pritzker. The governor was asked today if he thought Stratton’s comments seemed like a threat…
No, that’s your characterization. Here’s what I would tell you. And I said this from the very beginning that there are three choices that are facing the people of Illinois right now, in order to deal with the structural deficit, that’s putting aside the need for state and local funding from the federal government because of the failure of revenues because of COVID-19. We already had a structural deficit in Illinois that you’re aware of. And there are three choices that people have. It’s either you’re gonna see a 20% increase, meaning one full percentage-point increase, in order to cover that structural deficit - by the way, that structural deficit that was there under my predecessor, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. Either that, or you’re going to see a 15% cut in government in our budget, which would significantly reduce education funding at the state level, and significantly, therefore, increase property taxes in the state, and would reduce funding for our public safety, all of which we need to address. And then the third, [crosstalk] and then the third choice, if I may just finish my answer, the third choice the third way, frankly, that we need to go not that the traditional routes, I agree with the you know, with people who understand the three, that we need to go another direction. And the best direction that we should go to deal with this is to make sure that we’re asking those who are most able to step up to pay to do so those are the wealthiest in our state, and to give a tax cut to 97% of people in Illinois. And that’s the direction that I think we ought to go in.
They haven’t been listening, because we’ve been doing it all along. You saw that we negotiated a contract with the unions that cut about $750 million in total from the budget. That’s something that Bruce Rauner never did. Never was willing to sit down at the table. Because of the health care cost cuts that we were able to bring enormous savings. That’s just one item in a whole panoply of other areas. We’ve done that. That’s not something Republicans have ever been interested in engaging in. All they want to do is attack, attack ,attack, and they want to take services away and pensions away from people in the state.
No, they’re the ones that are proposing annihilating the working class and the middle class in Illinois, because they have no solutions. I’ve said from the very beginning that the reason we need the fair tax is so we can avoid these other solutions. These are the ones the Republicans are leaving you with, the idea that you’re going to raise taxes on the middle class, working class; or that you’re going to cut the education, public safety, healthcare services that people rely upon. I mean, the developmentally disabled, all those line items would all be significantly cut if the Republicans had their way. I’m proposing something that will help us get past this problem, a problem that was in part created by them. And that left us with eight downgrades of our credit rating in the state of Illinois, just over the previous governor’s term.
He also said he remained hopeful that Congress would come up with a funding package before the election.
Before we begin, I want to acknowledge some news that came out this morning. We’ve learned that the courts have ruled against the Trump administration’s unjust attempts to and the census earlier. Here in Illinois, we are working diligently to ensure an accurate and complete count. And we will do so until the very end. And that means until the end of October.
* Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law press release early this morning…
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last night issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s attempts to rush the 2020 Census to a close while a legal challenge to that plan plays out in the courts. The court’s order preliminarily enjoins the Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce from using a Sept. 30, 2020 deadline for the completion of data collection and a Dec. 31, 2020 deadline for processing and then reporting the census count to the President. Under the Court’s Order, the census count will continue through Oct. 31, as the Census Bureau had earlier planned, and its data processing will continue under a timeline that allows for a full, fair and accurate overall tabulation and reporting of the total population to the President..
District Judge Lucy H. Koh issued her ruling after a hearing Tuesday afternoon in National Urban League et al. v. Wilbur L. Ross Jr. et al., the lawsuit filed by civil rights groups, civil organizations and tribal and local governments on Aug. 18 to block the administration’s attempt to rush census operations to a close by Sept. 30 and send population numbers for apportionment to the President by Dec. 31. The plaintiffs sought to stop the Trump administration’s plan to force the Census Bureau to shorten the 2020 count against the judgment of the bureau’s own expert staff and in the middle of a pandemic. The court had already issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from shutting down its census operations while the court prepared the ruling it issued today.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are membership and advocacy organizations, counties, cities, federally-recognized Indian tribes and individuals whose communities will be underrepresented in the final census count if the administration succeeds in ending the 2020 Census data collection and processing prematurely. The plaintiffs are the National Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the League of Women Voters, the Navajo Nation, Gila River Indian Community, Harris County in Texas, Commissioners Rodney Ellis and Adrian Garcia of the Harris County Commissioners Court, King County in Washington, the city and county of Los Angeles, the cities of San Jose and Salinas (California) and the City of Chicago, Illinois.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Latham & Watkins, LLP, Public Counsel, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, the Office of the Salinas City Attorney, Edelson P.C., the Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and Holland & Knight LLP.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed new challenges to the decennial census, including massive displacements of people, just as the count was getting underway. It upended all census field operations and undermined outreach to populations that the bureau has long struggled to count, including racial and ethnic minorities, non-English speakers and undocumented persons.
Bureau officials requested an extension of census data collection, processing, and reporting deadlines to accommodate a Covid-19 plan that President Trump publicly supported, and spent multiple months acting on that plan. But on Aug. 3, Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross and Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham abruptly announced that the data-collection would stop on Sept. 30, a full month short of the time census officials had previously said was necessary to complete the count.
The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s new, accelerated census timeline cuts a crucial four weeks from the actual count and four months from the time for processing and reporting the data used to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives. The abrupt change disregards the bureau’s own plans for dealing with the hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also undermine the quality and accuracy of the census as well as produce a massive undercount of communities of color.
The lawsuit argues that the administration’s attempts to rush the census to a close pose a grave threat to the vital functions that rely on census data, from reapportioning the House of Representatives and redrawing state and local electoral districts to equitably distributing over $1.5 trillion annually in federal funds that support basic needs like education, food and health care.
The lawsuit seeks to have the court declare the decision to scuttle the census COVID-19 plan unlawful because it violates the Administrative Procedure Act as well as the Enumeration Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
The suit asks the court to keep the 2020 Census on the schedule proposed by census officials in April in response to Covid-19. Under that plan, the bureau would complete the census, including door-knocking, by Oct. 31, 2020, and deliver apportionment numbers to the president by April 30, 2021. Redistricting data would be reported to the states by July 31, 2021. [Emphasis added.]
* This is just a stay, but if that July 31st redistricting data reporting timeline holds up, it would not be good for Illinois. From the state constitution…
In the year following each Federal decennial census year, the General Assembly by law shall redistrict the Legislative Districts and the Representative Districts.
If no redistricting plan becomes effective by June 30 of that year, a Legislative Redistricting Commission shall be constituted not later than July 10. The Commission shall consist of eight members, no more than four of whom shall be members of the same political party. [Emphasis added.]
Notice, though, that the constitution doesn’t specifically require that the latest census numbers be used for the new map. They might try to use the 2010 census if push comes to shove - at least for the first two years.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,514 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
• Cook County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
• Cumberland County: 1 female 80s
• DuPage County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s
• Green County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s
• Jersey County: 1 male 90s
• Kane County: 1 male 50s
• Menard County: 1 male 90s
• Richland County: 1 male 80s
• Saline County: 1 male 70s
• St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
• Tazewell County: 1 female 70s
• Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
• Williamson County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 283,885 cases, including 8,563 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 18 – September 24 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 69,793 specimens for a total of 5,363,471. As of last night, 1,637 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 371 patients were in the ICU and 124 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 17 counties in Illinois are considered to be at a warning level for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A county enters a warning level when two or more COVID-19 risk indicators that measure the amount of COVID-19 increase.
Seventeen counties are currently reported at a warning level – Bond, Boone, Cass, Christian, Clinton, Crawford, DeWitt, Fayette, Grundy, Hamilton, Macon, Menard, Peoria, Putnam, Washington, Wayne, and Winnebago.
Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with university and college parties as well as college sports teams, large gatherings and events, bars and clubs, weddings and funerals, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools, and cases among the community at large.
Public health officials are observing people not social distancing, gathering in large groups, and not using face coverings. Some communities lack access to convenient testing before people become symptomatic. In some counties, local law enforcement and states’ attorneys are not enforcing important mitigation measures like social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. Additionally, some people refuse to participate in contact tracing and are not providing information on close contacts or answering the phone.
Several counties are taking swift action and implementing mitigation measures to help slow spread of the virus, including increasing testing opportunities, stressing the importance of testing to providers, hiring additional contact tracers, working with schools, meeting with local leaders, and educating businesses and large venues about the importance of mitigation measures.
IDPH uses numerous indicators when determining if a county is experiencing stable COVID-19 activity, or if there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county. A county is considered at the warning level when at least two of the following metrics triggers a warning.
COVID-19 County Metrics
• New cases per 100,000 people. If there are more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county, this triggers a warning.
• Number of deaths. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly number of deaths increases more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly test positivity. This metric indicates a warning when the 7-day test positivity rate rises above 8%.
• ICU availability. If there are fewer than 20% of intensive care units available in the region, this triggers a warning.
• Weekly emergency department visits. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly percent of COVID-19-like-illness emergency department visits increase by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly hospital admissions. A warning is triggered when the weekly number of hospital admissions for COVID-19-like-illness increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Tests performed. This metric is used to provide context and indicate if more testing is needed in the county.
• Clusters. This metric looks at the percent of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks and is used to understand large increase in cases.
These metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do. The metrics are updated weekly, from the Sunday-Saturday of the prior week.
A map and information of each county’s status can be found on the IDPH website at https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics.
If you live in Reid McCollum’s neighborhood you’ll want to keep an eye over your shoulder.
The 37-year-old Democratic activist has a habit of taking photos from his house Bodin Street home overlooking Dietz Park in Hinsdale.
McCollum has taken to snapping photos of children in the park, sometimes those in early grade school, and posting them to Facebook asking for his followers to shame the children and their parents publicly for not wearing masks and playing outside.
“Dietz Park right now,” Reid said in a recent Facebook post. “This is almost every day. If you know their parents shame them.”
Reid has also been posting the photos to Twitter.
Not cool. At all. Creepy, even. Yuck.
* Jeanne Ives followed up with a Facebook video. Here’s the intro…
One of Sean Casten’s operatives recently took photos of other people’s kids playing in a Hinsdale park and posted them to Twitter, saying “If you know their parents, shame them.” Reveille is a wake up call, but the attitudes of Casten’s Crew are truly alarming.
Who puts innocent pictures of children playing on their Facebook and says, ‘I’m going to shame you’? That is terrible.
I actually agree with her. However, there’s just one little thing.
* Prairie State Wire is a publication owned by the same folks who own the DuPage Policy Journal. And you may recall this recent PSW story…
While Gov. J.B. Pritzker has used his executive authority to cancel high school sports for kids across the state this fall, apparently this rule does not apply to his daughter.
Parents have been rallying across the state and at the state capital in an attempt to have the football season reinstated.
Meanwhile, Pritzker’s 18-year-old daughter, Theodora “Teddi” Pritzker, who formerly attended Francis W. Parker in Chicago, has continued to engage in equestrian sports across the country since the state was locked down, including in Illinois.
Teddi is the only daughter of Illinois’ billionaire first family. She jumps horses competitively in the Medium Junior division with Team Welles and is featured on the team’s website.
The story includes photos of the governor’s kid.
* One of those photos was used in a recent Ives tweet about that story…
The number of patients in Illinois hospitals with COVID-19 hit 1,713 as of Wednesday night, the highest number since mid-June, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported.
On June 18, there were 1,852 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and tallies had diminished since then. The state’s hospitals were most crowded with virus sufferers in the spring with counts in the high 4,000s and more than 5,000 on a few days.
The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds as of Wednesday was 400, the highest since June 29 when 401 people with the virus were in intensive care. However, 35% of Illinois’ hospital beds and 38% of ICU beds were available as of Thursday, the IDPH reported. […]
The spike in hospitalizations could be connected with Labor Day, Sept. 7, said Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital physician Daniel Boyle.
According to the latest IDPH numbers, Region 8, which encompasses DuPage and Kane counties, is down to 25 percent availability for intensive care units. Region 6, which is eastern and southeastern Illinois, is down to 24 percent ICU availability.
* As we discussed the other day, a poll conducted September 17-20 for the Betsy Dirksen Londrigan campaign has President Trump trailing by 7 points in the 13th Congressional District, 51-44. Trump won that district four years ago by 5.5 points. With that in mind…
Today, Betsy Dirksen Londrigan’s campaign released its fifth television ad, “Real,” which dives into Congressman Rodney Davis’ record of voting to gut health protections for Central Illinois families. Illinois Trump Campaign Co-Chair Rodney Davis has voted with the Trump agenda 91% of the time, including the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, in contrast to Dirksen Londrigan who is committed to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care and preserving the ACA and the Essential Health Benefits that Illinois families rely on.
The 30-second ad will air in the Champaign-Springfield-Decatur media market as part of a districtwide buy that includes broadcast, cable, and digital platforms.
Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement and repeatedly voted in support of a lawsuit that could lead to the Supreme Court overturning the Affordable Care Act by the end of 2020. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would strip health care coverage from millions, including more than 31,000 in the 13th District, and remove protections from more than 282,500 13th District residents with pre-existing conditions. The repeal would also roll back funding for Medicaid Expansion and risk the closure of rural hospitals, including many in Central Illinois.
“A Supreme Court controlled by Donald Trump could overturn the Affordable Care Act by the end of the year,” said the narrator. “Rodney Davis won’t help us. He votes with Trump and the drug and insurance industries that gave him over $770,000. Davis voted 11 times to gut protections for pre-existing conditions.”
“With the fate of the Affordable Care Act now more uncertain than ever, we can’t trust Rodney Davis to protect our health care,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “Davis has voted 11 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement which would gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and strip health care coverage from millions. We need representatives like Betsy Dirksen Londrigan who will fight to ensure everyone has access to quality, affordable health care.”
Executive Director at St Clair County HD admitted negative test results are not factored into positivity rate
The video below shows a question and answer to what is going on with the bad math on the positivity rate.
Barb Hohlt, executive director at St Clair County health department basically says no the negatives aren’t counted. You can hear her answer to the question at 18:35.
Here we go again.
* From the referenced video…
Q: Is it true that private testing companies are not required to report negative results to the state of Illinois? And if that’s the case does it screw up our numbers?
A: In the state of Illinois, all labs are required to report positive cases of communicable disease to the local health department, the positive cases. The majority of the labs in Illinois report to what we call the ELR - Electronic Lab Reporting System. The majority of them do, especially the larger ones that do the majority of testing in Illinois. Our friends across the river and here at Memorial, BJC is working on becoming a part of that electronic lab recording system. So when we do our daily stats for St Clair County, we get a separate report from BJC that we report in our daily stats, along with the ones that we get through ELR from IDPH. But our daily reports are as accurate as they can be. Because they’re measured on the actual lab report, positive or negative, that we get into our health department. So those are the ones we were acting upon but again those positive ones are all reported, are they’re negative ones that aren’t? That is true. We’re trying to work on that to get everyone into the ER system.
Q: Barb, you’re not just sitting there, the health department’s not just sitting there waiting for information to come in. All of your people are out working hard, mining this information every day to put forth the most accurate number possible. So you’re grabbing numbers from everywhere and putting them in a system to get this number that we talk about every day, which is you proudly say is the most accurate number that you can get on St. Clair County’s positivity rate.
A: Absolutely. Every single day, seven days a week we have staff that are working on what’s coming in as paper reports and fax reports, and what’s coming in through the [garbled] computer system, and on a daily basis we call long term care facilities to get their updates as well. And we gather the most current up information we can every single day. So those are the numbers we report to you.
* Jordan Abudayyeh from the governor’s office…
We don’t use positives that are not on the ELR system to calculate regional positivity rates. We only report data when we have complete sets. People who report positives manually are not counted towards a region’s positivity rate. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
To be clear, this was not an “official” response. We were texting about the situation and there was no groundrule set about off or on the record.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton warned Thursday that Illinoisans could face an across-the-board income tax hike of at least 20% if voters reject a proposed constitutional amendment to shift the state from a mandated flat-rate tax to a graduated-rate tax based on income.
For weeks, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s administration has cautioned that severe budget cuts could be on the way if voters don’t approve the proposed amendment to overhaul Illinois’ income tax system. But Stratton’s threat that all taxpayers, regardless of income, could face a tax hike unless the amendment passes on Nov. 3 appeared to represent a new shift in strategy for the Pritzker administration.
“To adequately address the budget crisis under our current tax system, lawmakers will be forced to consider raising income taxes on all Illinois residents by at least 20% regardless of their level of income,” Stratton said during a virtual rally on behalf of the pro-amendment Vote Yes for Fairness group that marked the start of voting in Illinois. […]
A 20% increase would raise the state’s current 4.95% flat-rate personal income tax by nearly 1 percentage point to 5.94%. It would raise an estimated $4 billion a year, even more than the projected $3.4 billion that would be generated under a graduated-rate levy enacted if the amendment is ratified, said professor David Merriman, a longtime expert on state finances at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
* React from the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment on Tax Hike…
“If you need more proof Springfield has too much power and can’t be trusted look no further than telling voters to support a tax hike amendment or politicians will continue to raise them for you.
“It’s clear there’s only three words the Springfield politicians understand: Raising your taxes.”
Lissa Druss
Spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment
…Adding… Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider…
Governor Pritzker’s team is so worried that his massive tax hike won’t pass that they have resorted to threatening taxpayers with…an even more massive tax hike. I believe the people of Illinois are too smart to be fooled by these outrageous scare tactics.
We deserve a state government that makes the same hard choices families make every day - to cut costs and live responsibly within our means. It’s clear that state government under the direction of Governor Pritzker and Speaker Michael Madigan are not capable of doing that. We shouldn’t reward their terrible decision-making with more of our hard earned money.
…Adding… HGOPs…
MEDIA ADVISORY: Illinois House Republicans Respond to Pritzker Administration Threats to Illinois Residents for Graduated Tax Amendment
WHO: Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
WHAT: House Republicans respond to the Pritzker Administration’s threat to raise income taxes on every Illinoisan by 20 percent if the unfair tax amendment does not pass in November.
A special Illinois House committee’s hearings next week on the Springfield bribery scandal should begin with testimony from executives of Commonwealth Edison, the company at the center of the federal corruption probe, WBEZ has learned.
In a letter Thursday to the Democratic lawmaker heading the legislative inquiry, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said he or his lawyer, the former federal prosecutor Ron Safer, “will be questioning” the ComEd executives at the special panel’s meeting on Tuesday. […]
Durkin told [committee chairman Chris Welch] he “will be presenting an opening statement” at the committee meeting Tuesday, and he added that “a representative” of ComEd has confirmed the company’s executives will appear at the session to testify.
ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez and other executives from the power company – which serves 4 million homes and businesses across northern Illinois – already have testified and taken questions about the scandal at the state board that regulates utilities and at the Chicago City Council. […]
A ComEd spokesman said the company would comment on its participation in the hearings later Thursday. Welch did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday morning.
ComEd has not yet commented, but I’ll post it when they do. I have been able to confirm that a ComEd official will testify.
“ComEd has pledged to respect the legislative process that has been initiated and accepted the invitation to provide testimony at the hearing next week,” company spokesman Paul Elsberg said in a statement.
Six months into the pandemic, the new virus has infected more than 28,000 Illinois long-term care residents and killed more than 4,000. It’s also fueled debate over the Illinois Department of Public Health’s oversight of a mostly for-profit industry. That includes how the agency cut back inspections, at times breaking state law, as the virus raced through facilities.
Although far fewer residents are testing positive now than in the spring, no radical medical breakthroughs are yet in sight. The arrival of fall brings fear of a deadly virus resurgence, continued struggles over testing and protective gear, and restrictions that — in an effort to protect residents — rob them of life’s small joys, from hugging relatives to sharing a meal. […]
The number of facilities inspected dropped from roughly 100 or more a week to less than a dozen, according to a Tribune analysis of available state and federal data. When reviews picked up in mid-April, for weeks they were mostly phone calls to facilities, not on-site visits where problems could be spotted. […]
Pritzker on May 1 also temporarily stopped some state inspections of nursing homes. The order didn’t stop inspections by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (known as CMS). Regardless, government data shows state and federal reviews had largely been stopped by then and did not return to pre-pandemic levels until June.
Ezike and her top aides forced out two IDPH administrators after learning July 8 that their unit — against state law — stopped investigating abuse and neglect complaints, according to IDPH.
Mary Miller (@Miller_Congress) will be a terrific Congresswoman for Illinois! She is Strong on the Border, Life, Low Taxes, and she will always protect and defend your Second Amendment. Mary has my Complete and Total Endorsement! #IL15https://t.co/vE7KFCcMVI
* Miller’s husband, Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) was also in attendance. He’s in the second row on the far right (of course)…
* The three posed together as well…
I’m told when President Trump found out that Rep. Miller (no relation) is in the General Assembly, he talked to Miller for a bit about the governor and Chicago’s mayor.
* From a Miller spokesperson…
Chris and Mary Miller were at the White House for about two hours. President Trump talked to Chris personally for a few minutes about Illinois. The President noted to Chris that “Lori Lightfoot and JB Pritzker are failing the people of Illinois.”
They discussed how sad it is that Illinois has such an abundance of natural resources such as coal, oil and gas, water ways, agriculture products and other resources, and hard-working men and women that just want a chance to thrive. Because of years of mismanagement, the state is in shambles and losing population.
Trump noted that Illinois has a terrible business climate and despite the fact that the state has everything it needs to be successful – Illinois is failing because of the poor leadership of Lightfoot and Pritzker and the Democrats in the Legislature who are pushing businesses away with their anti-business policies.
Thursday, Sep 24, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Cleaner, greener energy. Fewer emissions. More jobs. That’s what Springfield lawmakers can deliver, thanks to Gov. Pritzker’s leadership in reviving clean energy legislation and putting forward thoughtful, ambitious principles to guide its progress.
As one of Illinois’ diverse energy providers, bp applauds Gov. Pritzker’s vision for a clean, renewable economy and urges state legislators to seize the moment for a comprehensive climate bill that includes a price on carbon.
Why? Because as Gov. Pritzker points out, “implementing a carbon price makes dirty energy less competitive, reduces emissions, creates room for renewable energy development, and raises revenue for the state.”
It’s fair to ask: why is an integrated energy company like bp advocating for carbon pricing? Because it aligns with our own low carbon ambition. Because we see business opportunity. Most of all, because we believe this is the right thing to do.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,257 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 30 additional confirmed deaths.
• Bond County: 1 female 90s
• Cook County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s
• Crawford County: 1 female 70s
• DuPage County: 1 female 80s, 2 males 80s
• Edgar County: 1 female 80s
• Lake County: 1 male 70s
• Macon County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 100+
• Madison County: 1 male 50s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
• McLean County: 1 female 30s, 1 female 60s
• Rock Island County: 1 male 60s
• St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
• Will County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
• Williamson County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 281,371 cases, including 8,538 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 17 – September 23 is 3.5%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 62,071 specimens for a total of 5,293,678. As of last night, 1,713 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 400 patients were in the ICU and 155 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately 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.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
* Meanwhile…
Every year the flu sickens millions of Americans, hospitalizes hundreds of thousands, and kills tens of thousands. This season, in addition to flu, we are battling COVID-19. We have already seen almost 7 million Americans confirmed with COVID-19, hundreds of thousands hospitalized, and more than 200,000 deaths.
“This season more than ever, it is critical that Illinoisans get our flu shots,” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “Flu and COVID-19 each can cause serious respiratory illness and co-infection could possibly lead to more severe illnesses, hospitalization, and even death. While a vaccine for COVID-19 is still in development, a vaccine for flu already exists and is your best protection against flu. The choice is yours, but I urge you to not risk co-infection of two potentially deadly viruses. Please try and protect yourself and the people around you by getting the flu vaccine, which has been proven over the years to be safe and effective.”
Everyone six months of age and older should get the seasonal flu vaccine. The vaccine is available in either a flu shot, or in a nasal spray. Talk with a health care provider about what type is most appropriate for you. More information on the types of flu vaccine can be found on the CDC website.
In addition to getting your flu vaccine, IDPH recommends following the 3 W’s for both COVID-19 and influenza.
Wash your hands
Watch your distance
Wear your mask
Viruses spread when people who are infected cough, sneeze, or talk. Flu usually comes on suddenly. Many of the symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are the same, such as fever and cough, but there are some differences. If you have symptoms of either flu or COVID-19, self-isolate and contact a health care provider. They can talk with you about testing and other measures you should be taking.
This morning, Jeanne Ives released a new ad contrasting Sean Casten’s record of self-dealing with her record of leading by example. The ad is entitled Peanuts.
After his inauguration, Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06), lobbied for Congressional pay increases, saying it’s “horrible” that they “work for peanuts” ($174,000 per year). As a state legislator, Ives refused a taxpayer funded pension, health benefits and voted against pay hikes for legislators.
Prior to running for Congress, Casten was a registered lobbyist. During the 2008 Great Recession, he became a wealthy man on the backs of hard working Americans when he got his own company $8 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies that should have gone to provide relief to struggling Americans.
But that wasn’t enough for elitist Sean Casten. Since arriving in Washington, he has advocated and voted to send more of your money to Washington DC to fund his big government ideas at every turn.
At $174,000, the families of IL-06 are not getting the representation they’re paying for, and Sean Casten wants more.
Much of that money is likely for direct mail expenses since the state party receives a significant postage discount. It’s one of the biggest reasons why Madigan retains control of the party. He saves a ton of money on mail.
The largest contribution of the month was the $20 million Ken Griffin sent to the Coalition To Stop The Proposed Tax Hike Amendment.
“If someone had previously requested a [vote by mail] ballot at an out-of-state address, or if the election authority for some other reason has that address on file, the election authority was required under the new law to send an application there,” said Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections. […]
Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said some reminders may be to so-called “snowbirds” who’ve requested absentee ballots for out-of-state addresses in the past, but the updated law breeds confusion.
“I wish this wasn’t happening,” Gray told WMAY radio. “It’s kind of frustrating all of this additional other measures on top which I think are well intentioned but they’re really just confusing people more and it’s eroding the confidence in the system.”
Not sure how this is confusing or bad for the Illinoisans spending their fall in Florida, Arizona or wherever. Most of the folks I know who do that are Republicans, by the way. But some people just love to spin conspiracy theories these days and look for every evil intent possible.
As indictments, charges, and investigations into state legislators continue to make headlines, today members of the Senate Republican Caucus have introduced a package of bills seeking to root out government corruption among members of the General Assembly.
The legislative package focuses on two main objectives: enhancing investigative authority within existing laws and ensuring legislators are serving the public’s interest.
While Illinois already has some strong anti-corruption laws in place, Senate Republicans say many of them are rendered toothless because the appropriate authorities aren’t given adequate ability to investigate wrongdoing.
To address these shortcomings, the legislative package proposes the following enhancements:
* Senate Bill 4012: Allows the Attorney General to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate, indict and prosecute bribery and misconduct by members of the General Assembly.
* Senate Bill 4013: Provides states attorneys with wiretap authority.
* Senate Bill 4014: Grants the Legislative Inspector General the ability to investigate members of the General Assembly without first receiving approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission, and changes the composition of the Legislative Ethics Commission to make them all members of the general public rather than legislators.
“It’s no secret that Illinois is among the most corrupt states in the nation, so to continue to drag our feet on this issue is an insult to the people of Illinois,” said State Senator John Curran (R-Downers Grove). “The laws currently on the books aren’t enough. We need to provide the appropriate authorities with greater tools to investigate legislator misconduct. In a time when the actions of corrupt elected officials have undermined the public’s confidence, continued inaction only further erodes public trust.”
The Senate Republican anti-corruption legislative package also includes measures to ensure that legislators serve the public’s interest and not their own pocketbooks.
Proposals include:
* Senate Bill 4015: Bans legislators from lobbying other branches of state government or units of local government for compensation.
* Senate Bill 4016: Creates a revolving door legislator-to-lobbyist prohibition for one year after leaving office, or until the end of the current term, whichever is longer.
* Senate Bill 4017: Prohibits a legislator from leaving office and continuing to use their campaign fund to support lobbying activities. Also prevents an appointee to a board or commission that is confirmed by the Senate from fundraising for or donating from their campaign committee while serving as an appointed public official.
* Senate Bill 4018: Updates the Statement of Economic Interests to enhance the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.
“These are common-sense reforms that will help ensure that legislators are representing the people’s interests instead of their own,” said State Senator Jil Tracy (R-Quincy). “The recent scandals involving legislators are clear examples that we need ethics reform now. We can’t wait any longer.”
“These aren’t new ideas. In fact, many of these concepts have been supported by legislators on both sides of the aisle for years and yet here we are still fighting for real reform,” said State Senator Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods). “There is no good reason to continue to delay addressing government corruption.”
“Within the last year, four legislators have recently been indicted, and another one is under investigation, yet there have been zero anti-corruption bills signed into law,” said State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon). “It makes us wonder what exactly it will take for Democrats to get serious on the issue.”
* John Patterson with the Senate Democrats…
They’ve got some interesting ideas. We look forward to them working with us to pass and enact meaningful ethics reform for the people of Illinois.
* These folks have zero chance of winning, but here’s a Tribune editorial…
QAnon is a sprawling internet conspiracy theory as ugly as it is unfathomable. It weaves together anti-government fever dreams into an absurd narrative that portrays President Donald Trump as waging a secret battle against Satan-worshiping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking ring. Allegedly Hillary Clinton, Tom Hanks and the Dalai Lama may somehow be in on it. (They’re not.)
The QAnon theory centers in part on the discredited notion that there is a “deep state” anti-Trump cabal within the U.S. government. QAnon has links to an earlier loony tale known as “Pizzagate,” which claimed a Washington, D.C., pizzeria was the headquarters of a sex trafficking ring involving Clinton. Pizzagate compelled a North Carolina man to fire a rifle inside the restaurant in a misguided attempt to free imprisoned children, so there is danger connected to these hoaxes.
Ideally, Illinois voters could spend their lifetimes never hearing about this except that QAnon talk is spreading this election season, and two Chicago-area Republicans seeking U.S. House seats have promoted the movement on social media and declined to denounce it. Philanise White of Chicago, running against Rep. Bobby Rush in the 1st Congressional District, and Theresa Raborn of Midlothian, running against Rep. Robin Kelly in the 2nd Congressional District, both have promoted QAnon by tweeting a recognized QAnon slogan as a hashtag.
Not included in the editorial was a demand that the state GOP address this issue.
“QAnon” is a baseless internet conspiracy theory whose followers believe that a cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and billionaires runs the world while engaging in pedophilia, human trafficking and the harvesting of a supposedly life-extending chemical from the blood of abused children. QAnon followers believe that Donald Trump is waging a secret battle against this cabal and its “deep state” collaborators to expose the malefactors and send them all to Guantánamo Bay.
The core of the QAnon theory is that Donald Trump is waging a war against a Satanic, child-molesting cabal of top Democrats. QAnon dovetails with the more secular “deep state” narrative, which claims that holdovers from the Obama administration are secretly conspiring to destroy Trump’s presidency from within. Deep-state theories—whether or not the term “deep state” is used—animate the false claim that Democrats and public health experts are in cahoots to exaggerate or outright lie about the Covid-19 threat in order to tank the economy and ensure Biden’s victory. Recently Trump has been tinkering with this narrative as a post-election incendiary device: If he loses, he’s almost certain to blame the deep state for his administration’s failures.
QAnon has spun off the “Save the Children” movement, too, which purports to be opposed to child sex trafficking. In some cases, QAnon believers have been organizing Save the Children rallies and Facebook groups as a way to launder the more extreme elements of the conspiracy theory into mainstream circles. In other cases, such rallies and groups aren’t knowingly tied to QAnon but still draw narrative threads and other information from the QAnon mythology. Either way, Save the Children has made the work of professional child welfare advocates much more difficult.
Beliefs in QAnon and the deep state are unified by one basic factor: their reliance on deep memetic frames. As Ryan Milner and I have explained, these are sense-making orientations to the world. Everyone, regardless of their politics, has a set of deep memetic frames. We feel these frames in our bones. They shape what we know, what we see, and what we’re willing to accept as evidence. In the context of conspiracy theories, deep memetic frames establish the identity of the bad “them,” as opposed to the valiant “us,” and prescribe what can or should be done in response. QAnon and deep-state theories don’t magically transform nonbelievers into believers; they’re not viral in that sense. People are drawn to these theories, instead, because the narratives line up with their deep memetic frames. QAnon and the deep state feel familiar for those already inclined to believe.
Those believers are steeped in a particular kind of distrust: of the mainstream news media, of the scientific establishment, of any other institution claiming specialized expertise. This is where they plot against us. Such distrust has a long history within right-wing evangelical circles, where QAnon and deep-state beliefs have been spreading quickly. But wariness of institutions isn’t restricted to the MAGA orbit. People with a wide range of political views can be deeply mistrustful of the press, science, and “liberal elites,” and at least open to QAnon’s assertions of a shadowy, string-pulling cabal. (Anti-vaxxers are especially susceptible.)
QAnon is not something to joke about. The mere concept — a global Satan-worshipping cabal led by prominent Democrats, under the eye of Hillary Clinton, who are kidnapping, abusing, and eating children and drinking their blood in order to live forever — is cartoonish on its face. But it’s not to be underestimated, and it can’t be treated simply as an online phenomenon. The real-world effects of QAnon have already been made clear: In 2018, a Q believer engaged in an armed standoff at the Hoover Dam. Recently, they’ve worked to hijack legitimate attempts to fight child sex trafficking.
Not everyone who subscribes to parts of the QAnon mass delusion believes in all of it. Some people could be sharing the material in ignorance of its true depth. Others could be using it to carry out identity signaling — disenfranchised people seizing on a bizarre narrative to show that they are “Patriots,” regardless of the content of the messages. And with such a mess of entry points, someone could very well pass along parts of the QAnon narrative without realizing what the whole entails — just look at the recent false rumors that Wayfair was involved in sex trafficking. […]
But delusion does illustrate the reality better than conspiracy theory does. We are discussing a mass of people who subscribe to a shared set of values and debunked ideas, which inform their beliefs and actions. The impact of QAnon is an example of “the real-world consequences of our broken information ecosystem,” the New York Times recently wrote. The proliferation of this delusion is in part a media literacy problem — which has become a reality problem.
* More info…
* FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat: The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement). “The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts,” the document states. It also goes on to say the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 presidential election cycle.
* The conspiracy theory-based movement poses a different type of terrorist threat: But unlike jihadists and white supremacists, many followers of QAnon aren’t ideologues or interested in violence. As game designer Adrian Hon argues, much of their participation resembles play in an alternate reality game, with a large cast of characters and clues to decipher with your friends. A common type of QAnon believer is a 60-something white, church-going woman who’s retired, or a full-time mom whose kids are grown. In QAnon Facebook group chats, many participants come across as lonely, not fanatical. But the movement is so large that a small percentage of violent adherents would present a national security problem.
* QAnon Is Like a Game—a Most Dangerous Game - The conspiracy theory has the best attributes of a multiplatform game, except that it can cause harm in the real world: QAnon poses a mystery that feels so big it can only be solved by crowdsourcing. It’s thrilling to be involved with other people in something bigger than yourself. Plus, it turns one’s armchair-warrior Googling into a heroic quest for truth. “They’re all saying, ‘I’ve done my research,’” Hon told me of Q followers. “They’re looking for signals in the noise.” There’s also the thrill of creativity, of adding to a canon. QAnon followers “don’t just passively receive Q drops. They create new videos and texts,” notes Marc-André Argentino, a public scholar at Concordia University who researches QAnon. Q’s followers behave like religious devotees who pore over their faith’s central texts, crafting interpretations that become part of the official creed.
* QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement: Sometimes, QAnon followers spin factual information in a way that serves their aims. Last week, an Associated Press article about a $35 million Trump administration grant to organizations that house trafficking survivors became one of the most-shared stories on Facebook, after QAnon groups picked it up and cited it as evidence that President Trump’s secret crusade against elite pedophiles was underway.
* Mothers for QAnon: “I do think that there is something about the intense focus on harm being done to children and the graphic nature of the images and videos associated with Q” — including photos of children with black eyes or badly bruised bodies — “that is catered toward evoking shock and empathy, and it’s possible that these are chiming with a lot of women in particular,” said Blyth Crawford, a research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London.
* The men behind QAnon - Experts and researchers said the key to “Q” is hiding in plain sight.
* Under Tom Emmer, NRCC embraces QAnon-affiliated candidates - While publicly disavowing the QAnon conspiracy, Emmer and the National Republican Congressional Committee are still backing candidates that have publicly promoted the fringe theories.
The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid rose slightly last week to 870,000, a historically high figure that shows that the viral pandemic is still squeezing restaurants, airlines, hotels and many other businesses six months after it first erupted.
The figure coincides with evidence that some newly laid-off Americans are facing delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state agencies intensify efforts to combat fraudulent applications and clear their pipelines of a backlog of jobless claims.
California has said it will stop processing new applications for two weeks as it seeks to reduce backlogs and prevent fraudulent claims. Pennsylvania has found that up to 10,000 inmates are improperly receiving aid.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment benefits declined to 12.6 million. The steady decline in that figure over the past several months reflects that some of the unemployed are being re-hired. Yet it also indicates that others have exhausted their regular jobless aid, which last six months in most states.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 23,113 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Sept. 14 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday.
While this number is based on advanced estimates, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) will be releasing a final number later Thursday. […]
There were 27,384 new unemployment claims were filed in Illinois during the week of Sept. 7.
* WalletHub looks at where Illinois stands in relation to other states. 1 equals the quickest recover and 25 is the average…
• 253.52% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Last Year)
o 23,113 the week of September 14, 2020 vs 6,538 the week of September 16, 2019
o 19th quickest recovery in the U.S.
• 96.22% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Start of 2020)
o 23,113 the week of September 14, 2020 vs 11,779 the week of January 1, 2020
o 26th quickest recovery in the U.S.
• 762.89% Change in Unemployment Claims (Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis vs Last Year)
o 1,671,157 between the week of March 16, 2020 and the week of September 14, 2020 vs 219,055 between the week of March 18, 2019 and the week of September 16, 2019
o 4th quickest recovery in the U.S.
The number of nonfarm jobs decreased over-the-year in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas in August, with five metro areas at record low payrolls for that month, according to preliminary data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). The unemployment rate increased over-the-year in all metro areas and to record highs for the month of August in two metros. The official, BLS approved sub-state unemployment rate and nonfarm jobs series begins in 1990. Data reported prior to 1990 are not directly comparable due to updates in methodology.
“With the state’s COVID-19 mitigation plan in place, we are working hard to keep people safe while restoring confidence in and strengthening our economy,” said Deputy Governor Dan Hynes. “IDES is continuing to work tirelessly to support working families by connecting them to job training and workforce matching programs and ensuring benefits get to those impacted by this pandemic.”
The number of nonfarm jobs decreased in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas. Total nonfarm jobs were down in Peoria (-11.0%, -19,000), Elgin (-9.7%, -25,300) and Decatur (-8.4%, -4,300). In Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, jobs were down -7.6% (-291,600). No industry sector saw job gains in a majority of metro areas.
Not seasonally adjusted data compares August 2020 with August 2019. The not seasonally adjusted Illinois rate was 10.9 percent in August 2020 and the highest August unemployment rate since 1983, when it was 11.3 percent. The official, BLS approved, statewide unemployment rate series begins in 1976. Nationally, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in August 2020 and the highest August unemployment rate since 2011, when it was 9.1. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment.
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, the Republican representative from Illinois’ 18th Congressional District, introduced the Taxpayer Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 24. The bill would create a “Taxpayer Protection Program” to prevent blank-check bailouts of state and local governments.
Similar to the Paycheck Protection Program — which required businesses to use the funds to maintain their workforce in order to receive forgiveness on federal loans— the Taxpayer Protection Program authorizes state and local governments to seek forgivable loans from the federal government, with loan forgiveness available only to states with sound pensions, truly balanced budgets and sufficient rainy-day funds. Both programs implement basic financial safeguards to ensure federal aid is used to support those in need.
States with unsustainable pension debt and a history of fiscal mismanagement would be required to implement reforms to protect their residents and ensure federal money achieves its intended purpose of supporting essential government services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The requirements for loan forgiveness are:
1. Sound pensions: States and counties with populations of 500,000 or more and local governments with populations of 250,000 or more must be able to eliminate 100% of pension debt over no more than 25 years, using best practices for funding schedules and realistic accounting assumptions. States such as Illinois and New Jersey with unsustainable levels of pension debt must reduce pension debt to the level they can truly afford, without increasing taxpayer costs.
2. Truly balanced budgets: States would be required to have a constitutional or statutory requirement for “end of year” balanced budgets. Only actual revenue, such as from taxes and fees, would count toward the balancing requirement. States would not be able to count borrowing or money swept from other government accounts toward the requirement, preventing the budget gimmicks that have allowed Illinois politicians to avoid balancing the budget for 20 years.
3. Sufficient rainy-day funds: States would be required to save for emergencies and recessions on their own going forward, holding 5-10% of their annual revenue in a rainy-day fund. Rainy-day funds allow states to cover revenue shortfalls without resorting to essential service cuts or tax hikes. The average state held 8% of its budget in reserve before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Illinois had virtually nothing saved.
The bill prohibits states from using federal money to bail out legacy debt and deficits that are unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill also guarantees no state or local government would receive more revenue than they actually lost as a result of the pandemic, limiting quarterly payments to the difference between current own-source revenue collections and collections during the same period in fiscal year 2019. It allows for up to $186 billion in federal and state aid, with $100 billion for states, $75 billion for local governments, $8 billion for tribal governments and $3 billion for the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
States that fail to achieve the conditions for sound finances will need to repay the loans with an interest rate that goes up as a state’s credit rating goes down. Illinois, which holds the worst credit rating in the nation, would face a “spread” or interest rate penalty of 3.3% compared to 1% for top-rated states.
On Sept. 16, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote a letter to members of Illinois’ Congressional delegation urging them “to come together in a bipartisan fashion to provide critical support to states and local governments facing disastrous budgetary consequences stemming from unanticipated revenue losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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