* OK, campers, I’m taking next week off. Other than the governor’s campaign announcement, state news is kinda boring and slow these days. I’ll come back if anything big breaks. Peace…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 7,983 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 47 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, July16, 2021. More than 73% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 58% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,407,929 cases, including 23,401 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since reporting on Friday, July 16, 2021, laboratories have reported 241,150 specimens for a total of 26,534,129. As of last night, 670 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 135 patients were in the ICU and 44 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from July 16-22, 2021 is 3.3%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from July 16-22, 2021 is 3.5%.
A total of 13,056,857 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 19,928 doses. Since reporting on Friday, July 16, 2021, 139,495 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
*All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19.
* Because so many people are vaccinated, case numbers aren’t quite as relevant as before. Also, testing is way down. Even so, Franklin County’s test positivity rate is above 12 percent. Just 30.46 percent of the county’s population is fully vaccinated, so that’s a real problem. As always, hospitalizations and ICU usage and deaths are lagging indicators. Hospitalizations are trending sharply up, but still only about a tenth of what they were last November. And ICU availability is getting tight throughout the state maybe because hospitals have shut down temporary facilities since the fall/winter surge ended. But, yeah, it’s not great. DuPage’s ICU availability is 27.6 percent. Cook County’s is at 18.8 percent. 20 percent is the red zone…
Twenty-five counties — nearly a quarter of the state map — are now considered to be at a COVID-19 warning level, including DuPage. That number was 13 a week ago. pic.twitter.com/9TqW5UFt8v
Today, Governor JB Pritzker’s campaign released three ads featuring Illinoisans who came together and stepped up to help lead efforts in their communities to get Illinois through the COVID pandemic.
“It’s the people of Illinois all across the state who came together during tough times to lead the effort to save lives and protect livelihoods during the state’s response to the COVID pandemic,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “It’s the people of Illinois who motivate me every day and I’m excited to be running for re-election to continue to lift up working families and move Illinois in the right direction.”
No word yet if these are scheduled for broadcast or cable. I’ll let you know.
…Adding… The spots will begin running on broadcast and cable TV this weekend throughout the state. [Headline updated to reflect this new info.]
…Adding… The cable/satellite buy so far for the first week is $153,854.
Meet Jenica. When things were at their worst she volunteered to be part of the state’s response to COVID, one of the many nurses who put themselves at risk to save lives, and they needed protection to keep up the fight. Illinois health care workers never wavered, and people like Jenica showed us that together, there’s no challenge we can’t overcome.
Meet Corey. In addition to being a physician assistant, for seven years he’s been a committed member of our Illinois National Guard. And when I called on the Guard to help set up testing and vaccination sites they led the way to getting the job done. Our state is back to business because we refused to let this pandemic beat us, and people like Corey remind us anything is possible for Illinois.
Meet Doris and Rick. When COVID hit, they stopped production of bourbon at their distillery to instead make hand sanitizer for nurses, doctors, and other frontline workers. Like so many Illinoisans they understood that the only way through the pandemic was looking out for each other. Now the bourbon’s flowing again in Rochelle and we’re on our way back. I’m so inspired by the people of Illinois—we can accomplish anything if we continue to work together.
* Background is here if you need it. From the Shriver Center on Poverty Law on behalf of several groups…
Dear Governor Pritzker:
We write in response to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association’s (IRMA’s) July 13 letter. This letter ignores the realities of struggling families in Illinois, grounds its assertions in misleading or inaccurate information, and glosses over the significant effects that the pandemic continues to have on Illinoisans. We want to set the record straight.
Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance is Supporting Families Who Continue to Struggle in the Pandemic
The letter you received last week accuses you of applying “artificial brakes” to the Illinois economy and alleges that employers must compete with a purported $35/hour that unemployed workers have received over the last four months due to “enhanced UI benefits, tax credits, and stimulus payments.” This projection of employee wages is provided with no supporting evidence or documentation, likely because it is wholly baseless. Indeed, were this to be true, unemployed workers in Illinois would be making over the equivalent of $70,000 per year. As organizations who work with low wage workers across the state, we assure you that this is not the case. Indeed, it willfully obscures the reality of the economic challenges facing too many Illinois families.
It is also dishonest to cite benefits like stimulus payments and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) as disincentives to work. All but the wealthiest Illinois families have been eligible for both tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and stimulus payments regardless of employment status. Consequently, those benefits cannot be the reason that some Illinoisans are not returning to the workforce at this time. Fortunately, we have actual data to show us who may not be working or who may be working less, and the real reasons for these decisions.
Too many jobs in Illinois do not pay a living wage. The United Way’s ALICE report data shows that before the pandemic 35 percent of families did not earn enough to afford the cost of living, and more than half of all jobs paid below a survival wage of $20 per hour. When you consider recent data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition showing that a family living in Illinois must earn more than $22 per hour to simply afford a two-bedroom apartment – a number that is higher in the Chicago metropolitan area – we know that Illinois needs more good paying jobs. While employers may be offering short term bonuses or incentives to bring people back to work immediately, we see no evidence that they are offering ongoing job opportunities that will continue to pay sufficient wages and provide workers with adequate benefits and worker protections against COVID and other on the job safety hazards. If they were, we would expect workers to be responding to those incentives and filling those positions. Instead, however, workers are using their bargaining power to demand truly good jobs that allow them to support themselves and their families and work under safe conditions.
In addition, on May 14 the University of Illinois and the Illinois Economic Policy Institute released a paper showing that nearly 40 percent of working mothers in our state lost jobs or lost work hours due to the pandemic. When their children’s schools or childcare facilities closed, the numbers were worse – 60 percent of women worked fewer hours. And pre-pandemic racial disparities have persisted – more than 50 percent of mothers of color were forced to decline work due to school or childcare closures, versus 39 percent (still far too many) of white mothers.
None of this demonstrates a lack of desire to work; it is plainly because too many parents have had no choice but to stay home and care for young children. Enabling them to work requires meaningful pro family policies, such as expanding childcare, offering paid sick leave, and providing paid family and medical leave. Our organizations would happily join IRMA et al in advancing these policies, though unfortunately we have seen them thwart these vital worker protections for many years.
For Many Illinois Communities, the Pandemic is Not Over.
We also note that the COVID pandemic is not over. As you recently noted, the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 is becoming more prevalent in Illinois and will likely be the dominant strain in the state by fall, if it is not already. Unfortunately, we continue to see severe racial disparities in vaccine rates – 68 percent in the north suburbs versus 45 percent in the South suburbs; more than half of white suburban residents have been vaccinated, while the rate is 40 percent for Black residents and 45 percent for Latin/a/x residents. We commend the state’s efforts to shift away from mass vaccination sites and focus on providing vaccines in community-based settings, to increase uptake among communities who are most in need of vaccines. But until vaccination rates are higher, many people, especially people with underlying health conditions, will remain concerned about working with unvaccinated people. We urge a continued humane focus on vaccine distribution versus a punitive policy of eliminating safety net unemployment insurance benefits.
FPUC Benefits Expire on September 6
The letter of June 13 recommends elimination of “PUA” benefits, suggesting that PUA is the program providing an extra $300 per week to unemployed Illinois workers. This is not correct. PUA is providing a regular weekly benefit to many workers who did not otherwise qualify for regular UI, including gig workers and independent contractors who otherwise would have had no safety net during the pandemic. PUA’s costs are covered by the federal government, and it should not be eliminated before the federal government chooses to do so (currently the end of September). Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) provides both “regular” UI and PUA beneficiaries with an additional $300 benefit during each week of unemployment. We ask you to maintain your earlier decision not to eliminate this benefit; as this letter has established, FPUC is not the reason that some people remain unable to work.
In addition, the additional $300 per week expires in the first week of September. Any decision to end the supplement would require a 30-day notice, which would mean that the earliest benefits could stop would be late August, with mere weeks to go before they will expire. We assume that the organizations who wrote to you are aware of this fact, which helps reveal their letter for what it is – a pure political statement rather than a set of prudent policy recommendations.
ARPA Funds Should Be Used to Support Illinois Families First
Finally, the letter of June 13 urges you to restore the UI trust fund to solvency. We certainly support this concept, but disagree with the proposal to do so by taking the remaining $5 billion from ARPA fiscal relief funds to fill the Trust Fund. UI is a counter-cyclical program. When the state’s economy is strong, and unemployment is low, fewer people claim UI benefits and the Trust Fund grows. When unemployment is high, as during the pandemic, more people claim benefits and the Trust Fund shrinks. As we are now at such a moment we must look to how the Trust Fund can best be replenished. In considering proposals to do so, we should remember that the primary responsibility for the Trust Fund’s solvency lies with employers, who do so by paying taxes – including increased taxes when the Trust Fund is at a low point. By ignoring the obligation to provide money for the Trust Fund through ordinary and regular means, employer groups are seeking to transfer a significant tax burden away from themselves and to workers who are the primary intended beneficiaries of the state fiscal relief funds. While restoring solvency to state UI Trust Funds may be an eligible use for ARPA fiscal relief funds, there are several reasons why it cannot responsibly be the best way to spend all of Illinois funds that remain.
First, it is premature. Last week you met with President Biden to discuss how to best ensure the solvency of the Trust Fund. Under his leadership and in cooperation with your administration, the US Department of Labor may offer states options ranging from waiving repayment of borrowed federal funds to significantly lengthening the period in which funds must be repaid, to provide employers with more time to pay any needed taxes. Illinois should not take unusual steps to fill any holes in the Trust Fund until the federal response becomes clear.
And second, there are additional important uses for much of the $5 billion in ARPA state funds – uses that would benefit the lowest income people in our state. The signatories to this letter urged that these funds be used to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), further support undocumented immigrants with direct cash payments, offer premium pay to frontline workers who risked their lives daily to keep working during the pandemic, and offer cash payments to workers who could not even qualify for UI , as well as returning citizens and people receiving public benefits. To promote equity, these policies must be prioritized over reducing taxes on big business.
A small group of [Kane County] Republicans, based mainly in the Campton Hills area, have spent the past couple months pushing county officials to have an independent, third-party, forensic audit of the 2020 election. The request is based on the group’s interpretations of election data posted on the Kane County clerk’s website and anecdotal experiences posted on conservative social media. […]
[Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham, a Republican] said all of the concerns are attributable to the group not understanding the election data or attaching worries about fraud that aren’t supported in reality. The 2020 election saw multiple recounts and intense examination after the close 14th Congressional District contest. Nothing illegal or unethical was found to have happened at any point, he said. […]
Republican Party Chairman Ken Shepro, who also serves on the county board, said his examination of the questions and suggested fraud lost all credibility when the major allegation about an impossible growth in the number of registered Kane County voters “carelessly” didn’t account for the dissolution of Aurora Election Commission and Kane County absorbing those voters.
Oh, for crying out loud.
There’s more, so go read the rest if you want a good look at the extent of ignorant conspiracy mongering in this state.
* From the Tribune’s coverage of the US Attorney General’s visit to Chicago yesterday to announce a new “strike force”…
The strike forces — a mix of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other law enforcement agencies — will be tasked with identifying and disrupting pipelines that are responsible for bringing illegal guns onto city streets. Law enforcement officials for years have blamed lax gun laws in neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin for making it easier for Chicago criminals to obtain guns when they’re not allowed to own them. […]
The teams are the latest strategy in the federal government’s effort to fight gun violence, and Chicago has been a focal point of that fight.
Last year, under the Trump administration, Chicago and other cities received a surge of federal agents to fight violence as part of Operation Legend, named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed in Kansas City, Missouri. In Chicago, the operation involved a few hundred federal agents from the ATF, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Chicago police and other big-city police departments routinely work with federal law enforcement on criminal investigations. Such partnerships over the years have included Project Exile, aimed at shifting more gun prosecutions to federal court for tougher penalties, and Project Safe Neighborhoods, designed to better coordinate federal resources and local intelligence on crime.
The difference this time, however, is the federal government is providing grant money for violence prevention and violence interruption, on top of the state’s significant appropriation.
A coalition of gambling companies hoping to get slot machines back into Virginia convenience stores and bars kicked off its legislative push this week with a private flight for four lawmakers to Chicago.
While the plush jet raised some eyebrows — Virginia politicians have generally eschewed gifts of private air travel after scandal consumed former Gov. Bob McDonnell — organizers said it was strictly an opportunity to learn from Illinois, which broadly legalized video gambling terminals in 2009.
“It was a fact-finding mission,” said Dylan Bishop, the lobbyist who organized the trip on behalf of the new Va. Video Gaming Terminal Coalition, which represents five gambling operators that have collectively given nearly a quarter million dollars to Virginia politicians in recent years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. […]
Like Bishop, who organized the trip, Morrissey framed the roughly 36-hour excursion as all-business, beginning with a stop in Effingham, Ill., where J&J Ventures Gaming is headquartered. The company is the state’s most profitable video gambling operator, according to industry press. […]
The group then flew into Chicago, where they met with state lawmakers who work on gambling legislation.
1) The City of Chicago has never opted in to legalized video gaming;
2) They flew into Effingham, the heart of the Eastern Bloc, to talk about… gambling.
That’s it. I got nothing else. Talk amongst yourselves.
Gov. JB Pritzker isn’t considering using federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay down a multi-billion-dollar Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund deficit […]
The reason Pritzker won’t consider using federal ARPA funds on the $4.2 billion Trust Fund deficit, he said, is because he did not believe it a permissible use of the funding, and he is hopeful that the federal government will provide aid or rule changes to accommodate the 17 states that have outstanding federal borrowing balances in their trust funds amounting to $54 billion cumulatively. […]
Interim U.S. Treasury rules for ARPA funding and the plans of dozens of other states, however, contradict the governor’s statement on the use of ARPA funds to repay the Unemployment Trust Fund deficit. The Associated Press reported on May 27 that “at least 29 states already have transferred or proposed to use a total of more than $12 billion of federal coronavirus aid for their unemployment trust funds.”
Per the interim final rule, published May 17 in the Federal Register, “recipients may make deposits into the state account of the Unemployment Trust Fund … up to the level needed to restore the pre-pandemic balances of such account as of January 27, 2020, or to pay back advances received under Title XII of the Social Security Act.”
The General Assembly will have to be involved if the state uses the remaining ARPA money to patch the trust fund, but Democrats want to wait to see if the federal government takes any action before proceeding. Pritzker should’ve known this. It’s been in all the papers.
Governor JB Pritzker today announced Mike Ollen will lead his 2022 re-election campaign as Campaign Manager.
“I’m excited to kick off this campaign and continue to fight for the people of Illinois and lift up working families all across the state,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “With Mike at the helm I know we will build a robust operation that is not only going to keep the Governor’s Office blue but also make sure we’re electing Democrats up and down the ticket across Illinois to keep moving our state in the right direction.”
Ollen is a Democratic campaign veteran of numerous US Senate and presidential campaigns, including those of former President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Pritzker also congratulated longtime political advisor Quentin Fulks on his new position as Campaign Manager for Senator Raphael Warnock’s re-election campaign in Quentin’s home state of Georgia.
“Quentin has been instrumental in our work to put Springfield back on the side of working families and make incredible progress for the people of Illinois. I’m so thankful to have had him on my team these past few years working to advance our Democratic values and I can’t wait to watch him continue to fight for the people of his home state of Georgia. I consider him family and I wish him the best of luck,” said Pritzker.
This week Governor JB Pritzker announced he and Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton will run for re-election to a second term in 2022, releasing a video that highlights the strength of the state’s response to the COVID pandemic and JB’s commitment to the people of Illinois.
That’s a huge opportunity for Fulks. Warnock’s campaign will be at the top of the national Democratic priority list, so a potential win there would be a very big thing indeed. And he gets to go back home.
There’s a new mover-and-shaker in Georgia politics who deserves your attention: Quentin Fulks.
The native of Ellaville – the tiny Georgia town that also produced comedien Blaire Erskine – Fulks was deputy campaign manager for J.B. Pritzker’s campaign for Illinois governor in 2018 and later oversaw the Democrat’s political operation while he was in office.
Fulks is now returning to his home state to serve as campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s re-election campaign. The senator called Fulks a “national talent who brings vast experience and a love of our state.”
“I know he’s the right person to lead our campaign in 2022,” he said.
* Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman, a Republican, in the Washington Post…
The Democratic Party and national news media have been propagating for months the fiction that election reforms in more than 20 states, especially in Florida, Georgia and Texas, are racist efforts to restrict voting rights. President Biden last week encouraged this gross misrepresentation, denouncing the laws as “21st century Jim Crow” and demanding of Republicans, “Have you no shame?”
The only shamelessness at work here is that of Democrats and their media allies.
As an Illinois election official, I would like to explore how some of the widely attacked Florida and Georgia election measures, and those pending in Texas, hold up when compared with current law in Illinois, a heavily Democratic state.
* Ackerman starts with Georgia and the notorious ban on handing out drinking water at the polls. He claims that in Tazewell County, “if you’re not there to vote and you’re not an authorized person, you’ll be asked to leave,” even if you’re standing outside the 100-foot electioneering border.
But if Ackerman really does that, then he’s not following state law. I asked the governor’s office for a response to Ackerman’s op-ed…
This Republican election official seems to be deliberately misinterpreting the laws in Illinois. The recent laws passed in Georgia and Florida, as well as those pending in Texas, revitalize long-standing disenfranchisement of marginalized communities, specifically Black people and people of color. States justify these restrictive actions by claiming they are necessary to prevent voter fraud, which is, in reality, a figment of their imagination.
1. Georgia’s new law criminalizes offering food and water to voters waiting in line to vote, regardless of how long the line is. In Illinois, food and water can be provided to those more than 100 feet from the polling location.
• This Republican election official’s choice to prevent people from receiving water if they are thirsty is not one that is required by law, but is instead his own interpretation that runs the opposite of the law’s intention.
2. Florida’s new law requires voters to request vote-by-mail ballots every two years rather than every four years.
3. Texas is proposing to legally limit early voting hours, increase voter ID requirements and banning drive-thru voting and 24-hour policing places.
In contrast, Illinois is expanding access to the ballot box by:
1. Allowing election officials to create a permanent vote by mail registry
2. Allowing for optional drop-off boxes for ballots
3. Allowing for curbside voting
The administration welcomes ideas from local officials on ways to continue improving voter access and will continually work to ensure voters are able to exercise their rights in an easy and efficient manner.
* I think Ackerman does make a few good points about the oftentimes over the top reaction to some of this stuff, particularly among national reporters who don’t know the first thing about state laws, so it’s worth a full read.
But, the most important thing to remember is that the states in question claimed they were reversing or tightening up their laws to prevent fraud, but nobody could prove that the fraud actually existed. So, if they were trying to prevent an imaginary thing from happening, then one can justifiably conclude that their stated purpose was a lie, no matter how much one can nitpick.
Also, Illinois has clearly been going the opposite direction of those other states. The new option to be included in a permanent VBM registry is just one of them.
In a decision issued today in Lippert Components, Inc. 371 NLRB No. 8 (2021), the National Labor Relations Board found that a union did not violate the National Labor Relations Act by displaying a 12-foot inflatable rat with red eyes, fangs, and claws (“Scabby the Rat”) and two large banners, one targeting a neutral employer (Lippert Components), near the public entrance to a trade show. The prior General Counsel had alleged that the display of these items was unlawfully coercive, arguing that the Board should overrule precedent. The Board had earlier issued a notice and invitation to file briefs on that question.
Three members of the Board joined in an opinion dismissing the complaint. In her separate concurrence, Chairman McFerran expressed her belief that the outcome of this case was required by Board precedent. In their separate concurrence, Members Kaplan and Ring agreed that the complaint must be dismissed here to avoid creating a possible conflict with the First Amendment, but expressed disagreement with some aspects of prior precedent. Member Emanuel, dissenting, would have found the banner and rat display to violate the Act.
* The case was filed against Local 150 of the Operating Engineers. From the union…
Wednesday afternoon, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) released a 3-1 decision dismissing the Lippert Components lawsuit that sought to limit unions’ use of “Scabby the Rat” and other inflatables in labor disputes.
The case initiated over the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150’s use of an inflatable rat to protest Lippert’s Components at the entrance of a trade show in September 2018. An NLRB administrative law judge dismissed the case in 2019, but former NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb intervened, believing that the use of inflatable rats is unlawfully coercive and that NLRB and court precedent should be overturned to restrict their use. Robb, appointed by former President Trump, initiated and revived several lawsuits against unions who had used inflatable rats in strikes and public demonstrations.
Wednesday’s decision upheld Scabby’s longstanding free speech protection, stating that Lippert’s opinion that the display was “embarrassing does not outweigh the First Amendment rights of the union.” Over the past 20 years, federal courts and the NLRB have found that inflatable rats are protected tools of free speech and are afforded First Amendment rights.
“We are pleased with this decision, and have believed since the outset that Scabby’s rights would be affirmed, as they have been time and time again for 20 years,” said James M. Sweeney, President-Business Manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150. “An attack on Scabby the Rat is an attack on workers’ right to free speech, and we must all stand united against such attacks. The use of these rats draws public attention to employers’ crimes and mistreatment of their employees, and so it is no surprise that powerful interests would want to ban their use, but we will never stop fighting to protect workers’ voices – or Scabby’s.”
Local 150 pioneered the use of the inflatable rat, commissioning the very first one in 1988. Local 150 member Lou Mahieu was awarded a jacket for submitting the name “Scabby” in a 1989 naming contest, held by the union in its member newspaper.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB 0135 into law Thursday, granting Illinoisans access to birth control over the counter.
According to state officials, the legislation removes barriers to care that may have previously prevented residents from accessing hormonal contraception, including lack of access to a physician willing to prescribe birth control.
State officials stated HB 0135 also expands Medicaid to cover over-the-counter birth control costs for plans that currently cover physician-prescribed birth control. And to ensure the price of contraception remains feasible, HB 0135 includes mandates for insurance policies regulated by the State to cover birth control that is dispensed by a pharmacist.
* Press release…
Joined by healthcare leaders and elected officials at Mount Sinai Hospital, Governor JB Pritzker today signed HB 3308 into law, increasing access to telehealth services in communities across Illinois. The new law builds upon ongoing efforts to ensure that all Illinoisans have uninterrupted access to telehealth, which they received from trusted health care providers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
The legislation prevents insurance plans from requiring a patient to attend an in-person visit before a telehealth service. It also expands the early intervention services that can be provided through telehealth. To protect confidentiality, the bill bars insurers from requiring patients to provide a reason—such as proof of hardship or an access barrier—for choosing a telehealth visit over an in-person consult. Additionally, an insurer cannot require patients see a healthcare provider virtually if they prefer an in-person visit, nor can an insurer mandate that physicians offer telehealth.
Starting next August, under a law passed unanimously in the General Assembly and signed last week by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, all public and private post-secondary institutions – two and four-year colleges and vocational, technical and business schools — will have to designate someone as a liaison to assist homeless students.
High school districts in Illinois have had liaisons to help homeless kids under a 1987 federal law — the McKinney-Vento Act — with issues like enrollment, access to resources and transportation. There was no such no requirement to help college students in Illinois. The new law changes that situation.
State Senator Suzy Glowiak Hilton, a lawmaker from Chicago suburb Western Springs, said she was eager to take on the legislation because she remembers hosting homeless student friends of her then-college age children.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation that amends the state’s school code to include a media literacy unit in the existing computer literacy curriculum.
State Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez, a Democrat, filed the bill. Some Republicans opposed the bill, concerned that it would lead to school boards picking what media outlets are reputable.
House Bill 234 requires school districts to add media literacy instruction to the computer literacy curriculum.
State Sen. Karina Villa, a Democrat and chief Senate sponsor for the new legislation, said that while students are online more than ever, they are still vulnerable to misinformation.
*** UPDATE *** ISBE…
Hi Rich.
We noticed that you published an excerpt from a publication yesterday re: a media literacy law, describing it as being incorporated into the computer literacy portion of the school code. Computer literacy was incorporated into Article 10 of the school code. Once media literacy is enacted, it will be incorporated into Article 27 of the school code. The two measures are unrelated. The Public Act associated with HB234 does not even contain the word “computer.”
Thx. Hope all is well your way.
Januari Trader
Communications Specialist
Public Relations
Illinois State Board of Education
* From today’s media availability with the governor…
Q: Lollapalooza is next week. Would you recommend your friends, your family, your teenagers to attend Lolla in the midst of this?
Pritzker: It’s an outdoor festival, as you know, when it’s safer outdoors than it is indoors. And so I know lots of people will attend. I think, again, it’s up to individuals to make a decision about whether they want to be in a large group. And by the way, I would recommend to people that if they’re going to be jammed together, please wear a mask. We encourage you to do that if you’re going to be in large crowds. But if you feel comfortable and you can put a little distance between yourself and other people and if you’re vaccinated, I might add, it’s safer. Just a little distance, and if you’re vaccinated, it’s safe for you to attend something like this.
I intend to go to Lollapalooza. I’m bringing my wife and a few friends to Lollapalooza. So I think it’s okay.
But again, people need to be aware that we are not past this pandemic. It is with us you’re talking about a gamma variant. Just want to be clear, vaccinations keep you safe. But we all need to keep our communities and our friends and neighbors and our family members safe. Wear a mask if you can when you feel like you should.
The governor and his spouse are both vaccinated.
There’s been lots of criticism in the media about allowing the unvaccinated to attend. Those folks are supposed to get tested 72 hours in advance if they have no shots, but that seems like quite a lag time to some. Plus, Lolla always has gate crashers.
Also, as someone who just bought Rolling Stones tickets for the St. Louis show, I won’t be throwing, um, stones on this one.
DD: I’ve got one minute left. You don’t get to be JB Pritzker without having a long-term plan. You’re running for re-election now. But you know, you can walk and chew gum at the same time. What about the longer game, should you be so fortunate beyond the second term?
JBP: Don’t you think thinking about the next four years is a fairly long term to think about?
DD: Not at all.
JBP: It’s an awful long time to think about. We have a lot of challenges in the state of Illinois that I want to work on and overcome. And so I’m gonna continue to do the job and do it well for the people of our state. And that’s really what I’m focused on.
DD: Washington? Maybe even Pennsylvania Avenue?
JBP: I went to Washington. I went to Pennsylvania Avenue and met with President Biden. I think we’re getting things done for our state as a result of a good relationship that I have with him. And we’ll continue to work on that. But I have no plans myself.
DD:Not even in the long, long game?
JBP: [Laughs] Thanks for asking, Dave. I’m flattered by the question.
My own opinion is that those who constantly claim he’s setting up a White House bid are the same folks trying to undercut him here at home. Not talking about Dave here. He just asked a question. After my own interview, I regretted not asking the governor if he’d commit to serving all four years if reelected, just to get him on the record. Then again, the last time I put him on the spot like that (regarding fair maps), he flip-flopped on his response.
…Adding… Good point in comments…
Everyone knows that Kamala Harris will be running after Joe Biden - either in 24 or 28. You really think JB’s going to get between the possibility of the first black woman president and the White House? Ummm, ok.
Democrat candidate for Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced a new program designed to cut wait times at Illinois driver’s license facilities.
Giannoulias wants to implement an online booking system so Illinoisans who need to make in-person visits to renew their driver’s licenses or obtain other services can make an appointment and avoid the lines.
His “Skip the Line” program would be available at every driver’s license facility across the State and allow drivers to schedule an appointment by visiting the Secretary of State’s website or, for those who prefer, calling the office. Walk-in customers would still be welcome.
“The pandemic has taught us that we need to rethink how government provides services, and we need to employ innovative strategies and programs to make it easier and more convenient for people,” Giannoulias said. “Skip the Line will reduce wait times, increase efficiencies, curb redundancies and adhere to protocols and precautions to ensure the health and safety of customers.”
After scheduling, residents will receive a text message confirming their appointment with a link to check in upon arrival, allowing them to enter at the scheduled time and skip the line. Seniors and others with special needs would be given priority, regardless of whether or not they schedule an appointment. In addition to making the process more convenient for customers, the scheduling component will also make it easier and more efficient for employees.
The pandemic shutdown and the Real ID surge has resulted in long lines and wait times at driver’s license facilities and DMVs across the country as people have experienced delays in obtaining basic services, like renewing an expired driver’s license or vehicle registration or getting a Real ID or commercial driver’s license.
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has already started a pilot at some suburban facilities, and Giannoulias wants to adopt a statewide program using sophisticated software to secure appointment slots.
The “Skip the Line” program is the first component of Giannoulias’ overall effort to modernize the office. Giannoulias also plans to offer more services online and over the phone so residents don’t have to make a special trip to a driver’s license facility. Giannoulias intends to roll out additional modernization plans throughout the campaign.
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Also, I need a new plate sticker. Best place in Springfield to get that done?
Drug maker Johnson & Johnson and three opioid distributors have agreed to pay $26 billion to settle thousands of government lawsuits blaming them for helping create a public-health crisis tied to their mishandling of the painkillers.
The deal—years in the making—calls for McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. to pay almost $21 billion to resolve allegations they turned a blind eye to suspiciously large opioid shipments, the companies and state attorneys general said Wednesday. J&J will pay $5 billion to settle claims it illegally marketed opioid medicines, which it stopped making last year.
The settlement marks a major step forward in litigation over the highly addictive drugs, which have been blamed on more than 500,000 deaths over two decades. States, cities and counties filed more than 3,000 suits against drug makers, distributors and pharmacies seeking compensation for billions spent battling the U.S. opioid epidemic.
The state of Illinois will be signing on to the settlement, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement today. If the agreement is finalized and there is full participation by all local governments, Illinois will get approximately $790 million, the statement says. The substantial majority of the money is to be spent on opioid treatment and prevention.
* From Attorney General Raoul’s office…
The agreement would resolve the claims of states and local governments across the country, including the nearly 4,000 that have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts. Following today’s agreement, states have 30 days to sign onto the deal, and local governments in the participating states will have up to 150 days to join to secure a critical mass of participating states and local governments. States and their local governments will receive maximum payments if each state and its local governments join together in support of the agreement.
The state of Illinois will be signing on to the settlement, making local governments eligible to participate. If the agreement is finalized nationwide, Illinois – if there is full participation by all local governments – will receive approximately $790 million.
Funding Overview:
• The three distributors collectively will pay up to $21 billion over 18 years.
• Johnson & Johnson will pay up to $5 billion over nine years with up to $3.7 billion paid during the first three years.
• The total funding distributed will be determined by the overall degree of participation by both litigating and non-litigating state and local governments.
• The substantial majority of the money is to be spent on opioid treatment and prevention.
• Each state’s share of the funding has been determined by agreement among the states using a formula that takes into account the impact of the crisis on the state – the number of overdose deaths, the number of residents with substance use disorder, and the number of opioids prescribed – and the population of the state.
Injunctive Relief Overview:
• The 10-year agreement will result in court orders requiring Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen to:
o Establish a centralized independent clearinghouse to provide all three distributors and state regulators with aggregated data and analytics about where drugs are going and how often, eliminating blind spots in the current systems used by distributors.
o Use data-driven systems to detect suspicious opioid orders from customer pharmacies.
o Terminate customer pharmacies’ ability to receive shipments, and report those companies to state regulators, when they show certain signs of diversion.
o Prohibit shipping of and report suspicious opioid orders.
o Prohibit sales staff from influencing decisions related to identifying suspicious opioid orders.
o Require senior corporate officials to engage in regular oversight of anti-diversion efforts.
• The 10-year agreement will result in court orders requiring Johnson & Johnson to:
o Stop selling opioids.
o Not fund or provide grants to third parties for promoting opioids.
o Not lobby on activities related to opioids.
o Share clinical trial data under the Yale University Open Data Access Project.
This settlement is a result of investigations by state attorneys general into whether the three distributors unlawfully failed to refuse to ship opioids to pharmacies that submitted suspicious drug orders, and engaged in deceptive and unfair conduct in violation of state law. Raoul and the attorneys general also investigated whether Johnson & Johnson marketed its opioid products in a deceptive and unfair manner and engaged in other fraudulent and unfair conduct in the sale of opioids.
