The head of the Illinois Department of Public Health took issue Thursday with people who oppose wearing masks to protect others from the spread of coronavirus, saying it’s like playing “Russian roulette.”
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the state’s health department, told mask opponents Thursday: “Your individual actions, or even your inactions, will still affect everyone in this state.
“I’m likening the refusal to wear face coverings to a game of Russian roulette, as we don’t know who’s infected, we don’t know if we are infected,” Ezike said.”We’re just taking a chance.
“This game of Russkaya ruletka is a game that is very risky, the stakes are high. It’s potentially fatal. Let’s not gamble with coronavirus. We don’t even know the longterm affects of having COVID-19 — what might happen to our lungs 5, 10, 20 years after being infected.”
And she said it with what sounded like the proper accent.
…Adding… I’m told Dr. Ezike speaks five languages.
Statewide casino and video gaming operations were indefinitely suspended on March 16, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the pandemic’s impacts, Gaming Board staff across all division have remained at work performing the agency’s functions.
Among other tasks, the Gaming Board has continued its work to implement the provisions of last year’s landmark gaming expansion law, including the analysis and investigation of 10 new casino applications and two new racetrack gaming applications, the launch of online sports wagering, expanded video gaming, and essential rulemaking activities.
The Gaming Board has also been at work planning for the safe, fair, orderly and consistent resumption of statewide public casino gambling and video gaming operations. Guided by public health metrics and safety considerations, and in close consultation with the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Governor’s Office, the Gaming Board issued Resumption Protocols to guide casino and terminals in their resumption planning. The Resumption Protocols were released on June 9, 2020 and are available on the Gaming Board’s website.
Each casino and terminal operator has now provided to the Gaming Board a Pandemic Resumption Plan that will guide their operations when gaming can resume on Wednesday July 1, at 9:00 A.M.
“The Gaming Board worked with the Governor’s Office, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to develop a gaming resumption process that protects the public health of patrons and employees, while restarting gaming activities in meaningful way,” said Gaming Board Administrator Marcus Fruchter. Video gaming and casino gaming can both resume operations on July 1, 2020 at 9 AM. Fruchter continued, “The video and casino gaming industry have worked cooperatively and professionally with the IGB to develop best practices that create the safest possible environment for gaming, while adhering to IDPH, DCEO, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) guidance. We appreciate their cooperation and work toward the mutual goal of a resumption that protects the safety and integrity of Illinois gaming”
Today, Governor JB Pritzker announced that every region of the state meets the health benchmarks to advance into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. Ahead of the transition tomorrow, Gov. Pritzker announced several new efforts to build on the state’s robust response to COVID-19 and help keep Illinoisans safe.
“We’ve seen what’s happened in other states that have allowed politics or short-term thinking to drive decision-making. Many other states are now seeing significant increases in cases, hospitalizations, and intensive care bed usage and they’re being forced to move backward and stay at home – that’s not the story in Illinois,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “Here, we have been gradually restoring business and leisure activities in a highly deliberate manner, guided by doctors’ advice. Illinoisans are following the mitigations that we can each do ourselves, like wearing face coverings, keeping 6 feet distance between us, and washing our hands frequently. It’s because of the people of Illinois that we’re seeing a trajectory of relative success where other parts of the country are not.”
PHASE 4 METRICS
All four Restore Illinois health regions have met the IDPH health benchmarks to advance into Phase 4. Metrics include reductions of positivity rate and hospital admissions and availability of hospital surge capacity.
On a statewide level, Illinois flattened the curve, passed the peak and saw a sustained decline in key metrics since the coronavirus pandemic began. Looking at 7-day rolling averages – which smooth out daily fluctuations and allow trends to emerge – Illinois is seeing marked declines in cases, deaths, case positivity and covid-related hospitalizations.
This post will be updated with some of the Q&A with the governor and Dr. Ezike. Please make sure to pardon all transcription errors when that happens. Thanks.
Blue indicates that the county is experiencing overall stable COVID-19 metrics.
Orange indicates there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county.
Illinois has just one orange county right now, Cass County in west-central Illinois. It has a positivity rate of 10.8 percent.
* On to questions for the governor: Governor you mentioned during this that you lost a family friend or a relative or someone close to you. Can you elaborate on that?…
Yeah. Someone that I’ve known for more than 25 years was a leader in our community when I used to live in Evanston, and he was a real leader in Evanston, somebody who cared deeply about young people, in particular those who had gotten in trouble and he wanted to help them reform their lives as he had himself. A man named Hecky Powell. I grieve for his family and I, when his life had been lost I honestly, I had to call people that we all know that are friends with him, too, and share the grief that I’ve had over that loss. And you know I know many others who are suffering have suffered over the time of COVID-19 with the virus, including our attorney general, that we all know is recovering at home. And so I hope we’ll pray for him and for everybody who’s suffering now.
* You mentioned that you would not be afraid to take a step back. Could that include a stay at home order? I know California’s talking about that as a possibility…
Everything that we’ve gone through over the last three and a half months has led us to this point where things are going well and in the right direction and it allows us to gradually open our economy and to do more have more activity and so on. But I’m not afraid to move us backward to the things that we’ve done in the past I you know you can each one of these phases has aspects of it that we may need to return to. I’ll just give one example you just heard that in Texas that they’ve issued an order to eliminate elective surgeries in Texas because they no longer have enough hospital beds. We allowed elective surgeries more than a month ago back in early May, and if we have trouble with hospital beds with the ICU beds, that might be something that we would need to do that’s one example.
* In the country we’ve seen some spikes in cases among young people. Are we seeing any of that in our new cases that have been reported in the past couple of weeks?…
I will say that we’ve seen numbers of young people contract, COVID-19 and indeed very recently there was an accounting of the cases in in Cass County. And I looked at the specific numbers by age bracket, and there are quite a number of people in their 20s, who had contracted COVID-19 and so I immediately called Dr Ezike after I read this article and saw this graph and, and she explained that much of that had to do with an outbreak at a meat processing plant in that area. But that can happen anywhere. I mean it isn’t just meat processing can happen in any office environment in any manufacturing environment. It could happen anywhere and, you know, in many of the places people work there, young people working there. So, it’s a challenge that we are paying very close attention to I know everybody focuses on seniors because it’s had such a devastating effect on people who are over at over 70, and so on. But we can’t forget that many people who are younger than that contract. And sometimes die from COVID-19.
* With some of the executive orders are going to be filing tomorrow would that also include a moratorium on the evictions, would that be extended?…
We’re continuing the course that we’ve been on there are people that are that are very very challenged in these moments from with, you know, paying their rent, as we’re recovering the economy. You know we don’t we want to make sure people are not thrown out of their homes becoming homeless for something that is, you know, that everybody is suffering from. And we’re trying to balance the interests of the people who own those properties with the people who rent from those properties by giving rent assistance for example and quite a lot of rent assistance, we just recently allocated through our COVID-19 relief funds. Those effect, Carlos was mentioning, you know, those are going to be distributed through many organizations throughout the state.
* What’s your reaction to the lawsuit filed by landlords that seek to stop your ban on residential evictions on grounds including that another executive order doing so exceeds your authority?…
I’d just respond with the answer I just gave. It’s important for us to stand up for people who are working class people who cannot otherwise afford to maintain their home we do not want people to become homeless in this difficult crisis.
* Would you be open to carving out exceptions versus a blanket ban for example a ban only on evictions related to renters who cannot pay directly due to COVID-19?…
We could have lots of conversation about different ways in which to preserve people’s homes to preserve the shelter that they live in now and I’m obviously open to conversations like that I always have been. And all the way along I’ve been having conversations. Even with people on the other side of the aisle who deny that those conversations take place. And I’m somebody who’s always looking for a better way to do things. So I would listen to ideas, but suffice to say that my number one focus here is we’ve got to protect the people who are most vulnerable to this virus and most vulnerable to the financial impact of this virus.
* You’ve said if Illinois sees a backsliding in coronavirus data, moving backward through phases is a possibility. But what specific benchmarks will you use to determine whether that’s necessary and to seeing the spiking case and hospitalization numbers in other states that reopened earlier give you pause about Illinois moving into phase four now?…
Well, let me start with the latter part of that question, which is, of course, when I look at states that are moving backward and at such a rapid pace, I always think, are we doing it right, are we handling this right are we measured in our reopening? And I think we are measured in this reopening we’re being careful. So, you know, yes of course I mean, you can turn on the television and see what’s happening in Arizona Florida, Texas, South Carolina, etc. and not ask the question. Are we getting it right?
Sorry, the first part of the question was just, it was benchmark that we’re looking forward to. We’re in the Restore Illinois plan, you can look online we actually do say what what would be the things that would move you backward. Those are examples. But I told you that that we can make adjustments along the way. We start to see hospitalizations go up and are unmanageable. We would cut back on elective surgeries that’s one example of a change that we could make. But, we’re taking this as it comes. We’re watching very carefully the metrics that we’ve been watching all along to move us forward in our phases are the very same metrics that we’re watching about whether or not we need to think about moving backward.
* On the two federal sites have lost the funding yesterday, how will the state be paying for those to stay open?…
We’re going to maintain those sites and you know there has been COVID relief dollars provided by the Federal CARES Act. And so we’ll be using some of those dollars to maintain those sites we obviously can’t use federal personnel anymore. Once those sites are the at least the federal government pulls out of those sites, we’ll be using state contracted providers to manage those sites but it’s very important to us to maintain sites and to grow the number of sites where we’re providing testing especially free testing.
* A study came out today saying that food service jobs are down over 40% due to the strictness of the reopening plan speaking with restaurants in Central Illinois, they say it is hard to hire back for a couple of reasons. One of them being the minimum wage rising on July 1. Has there been any thought of trying to suspend that pay raise to a later date?…
No.
We have a lot of challenges in the state, but one of them is people living in poverty and working at the very low minimum wage that we’ve had. We are working very hard to help our businesses get restarted to open up more you’ve seen me work at this every day we’ve provided relief funds for small businesses across the state. And we’re going to continue to do that but it’s not to the detriment of the people who are working class people in our state it’s to the benefit of them.
* Is Chicago defying the state’s rules by allowing gatherings up to 100 people outside? Have you talked to Mayor Lightfoot about this?…
She has not called me about this. It’s very clear our state has set guidelines and every municipality has the obligation to follow the guidelines, or they can put in guidelines that are more strict than the ones that we’ve set out, but not less strict. So I think that’s known by the city and understood by really all municipalities across the state.
* Amid protests over police brutality and gun violence in Chicago, do you think the city needs police reforms? I know you’ve talked about police reform efforts, but she’s talking about the city specifically…
Yes, I mean I would direct this across the state, but if you’re asking specifically about the city of Chicago, of course we need police reforms, because any question about that… I have stood together with people to protest over that very issue. We have, to address police accountability, we have to address criminal justice reform, something I’ve been working on since day one of my administration and that I worked very closely with the Lieutenant Governor on. And then of course we’ve got to work on investing in our black and brown communities all across the state and that’s something I’ve been doing since day one as well although more recently we’ve been through the federal CARES act, we’ve been able to provide COVID-19 dollars to many of those communities because, unfortunately, in addition to the racial injustice that’s been experienced for hundreds of years in this country by those communities. It’s also being experienced specifically by those communities from COVID-19, which happens to attack Latino communities and Black communities to a larger extent than other communities across the state.
* Gaming reopening…
I’m not an expert about how many times you need to wipe down a video terminal to make it safe, that’s one example of some detail that needs to be handled by people who understand the industry. The gaming board is doing a very good job I think of taking those things into consideration, most especially what we want to make sure is that people are safe when they go back to any activity entertainment or otherwise, but I would caution that we want to be, we’re like other activities we’re trying to do these things in measures, with lots of health and safety guidance, and that what’s the number one driving factor is people should not get sick of doing those activities.
* So we were at 2% positivity rate for three days this week now we’re going back up to 3%. Do we read into that do we need to wait a few more days to see if that goes up?…
…I think you need to wait to really make an evaluation. Here’s why we don’t really look at these on a day to day basis. I know we report them on a daily basis, but the way we look at them the way the IDPH looks at it is really on a seven day rolling average on an ongoing basis. What’s directionally, where are we going, is it stable is it downward is it upward. And also sometimes these get reported as whole numbers, 2% 3% but actually underneath that it’s 2.4% or 2.6%. And if you’re around those, one of them is two and one of them is three. So again, we’re watching closely these numbers but I wouldn’t read anything into the current numbers.
Obviously every day I watch the numbers and I think,are we going the right direction? And I’m rooting for it to go the right direction and we’re making policies that we hope will move it in the right direction. So, I’m,we’re watching. I would wait to make a judgment about whether there’s some direction here that it’s going to right now I would call it stable.
* Three months in with continued restrictions and COVID-19 awareness, why not trust Illinois residents and businesses to make smart decisions about how they conduct themselves?…
Indeed, we are. We’ve set parameters and guidance. We’ve provided people with guidelines at the IDPH and DCEO websites and told them what the limits are. But we are expecting businesses to have to be responsible during this time period they do need to encourage people to wear face coverings when they’re indoors. They do need to encourage people to wash their hands and so on. There are lots of things responsibilities that businesses as you know citizens corporate citizens of the state of Illinois must do and we’re absolutely relying upon them to do that. So, and many have been very very responsible I might add, there are some scofflaws that that have just, you know, throwing caution to the wind, and unfortunately made it much riskier for people.
But the fact is that you’ve seen that it would be terrible for business, I think this is the implication of the question that somehow this is worse for business to do it in a measured fashion. But what’s much worse is going backward after you’ve gone forward. That’s hard. Think about a stay at home order that was put in place, things then open up and then another stay at home order. If you’re a business owner, if you talk about killing a business that is what will do it and unfortunately we’re seeing that in some other states.
* Why is the acting director with the Illinois Department of Employment Security not available to take questions at these briefings?…
He’s answered a lot of questions to legislators, for example. But the fact is, I’ve answered many of the questions that have been asked about IDES and certainly ultimately the responsibility for our agencies falls to me. I’ve also talked here about the Department of Human Services and the work that they do and the and the Department of Children Family Services the work that they do. So, we’re working very hard at making available to everybody all the data that we have about the work that we’re doing to make it easier for people to apply for and get unemployment. And I think people have seen that we’ve largely succeeded in getting unemployment to people who can go online get that done and who can call in, we definitely have a have had a challenge as many, many other states have had. The systems that were built for this were not built for the multiples of unemployment claims that have been filed. And so everybody is, as I’ve said before trying to build the plane as we’re flying it.
* Is there any plan to open up employment offices?…
Each of our agencies has kind of a reopen plan that either has been developed or is being developed with a goal in mind of keeping first their clients, the people of Illinois safe. And second, of course, the people who work in those agencies safe.
* Today the government accountability office issued a 400 page scathing report on trillions in federal COVID aid. You once called the nationwide competition for PPE the Wild West. Does today’s report vindicate your frequent criticism of administration efforts during the early stages of the pandemic?…
I don’t think it needed vindication. Honestly, I think every state, you’ve heard so many states talk about their challenges with PPE and many other states haven’t been as frank as I have about the difficulty that they’ve had with the federal government not being of any assistance indeed kind of hindrance getting PPE. We’ve asked for PPE from the federal government we I think we’ve received 12% of the PPE that we asked for. And that’s been the experience of so many other states as well. So I’ve just say, I think unfortunately the White House has been an utter and complete failure at delivering on what states needed at the most critical time during this pandemic. And now, here we are in June, we’d love to get more help with the many challenges that we have and we get some help and that’s great. But, I think the criticisms, prove themselves out as factual along the way. I don’t need today’s report to do that but yes it’s another fact.
* There’s an uptick in new cases this week. 601 new cases were reported on Tuesday and 715 were reported yesterday…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 894 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 41 additional confirmed deaths.
Cook County: 2 males 30s, 1 female 50s, 3 females 60s, 2 males 60s, 2 females 70s, 3 males 70s, 4 females 80s, 3 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
DuPage County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 2 male 80s, 1 male 90s
Kane County: 1 male 50s, 1 male 70s
Lake County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 80s
LaSalle County: 1 male 70s
McHenry County: 1 male 70s, 1 male 80s
Monroe County: 1 female 80s
St. Clair County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 80s
Will County: 2 females 80s
Winnebago County: 1 male 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 139,434 cases, including 6,810 deaths, in 101 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 31,686 specimens for a total of 1,460,527. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from June 18–June 24 is 3%.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting 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. See CDC definition of a probable case on its website. IDPH will update these data once a week.
* Let’s move on to a COVID-19 roundup. Here’s Jake Griffin…
More Illinois residents died in April than in any other month since at least 1999, but not all the additional deaths are attributed to known COVID-19 cases.
Illinois Department of Public Health figures shows 12,417 people died in April. From 2015 to 2019, the state averaged 8,875 deaths each April. That’s an increase this year of almost 40% above what the state averaged in the previous five Aprils.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases account for 2,256 of this year’s additional April deaths. But that still leaves almost 1,300 more deaths than what the state sees during the average April.
Public health officials believe those deaths resulted from uncounted COVID-19 cases, heart attacks and strokes in recovered or asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, seasonal influenza, drug overdoses and people who succumbed because they did not seek medical attention while COVID-19 was rampant.
Democratic convention delegates were told Wednesday not to come to Milwaukee later this summer, though the city will “anchor” four nights of programming capped by Joe Biden traveling to the battleground state to accept the presidential nomination.
The COVID-19 pandemic scrambled convention plans for both parties’ conventions in August.
Republicans are still finalizing plans — amid an uptick of COVID-19 cases in Florida — but Illinois delegates to the Republican Convention say they’re all in for attending any variation of an in-person nominating event in the Sunshine State. […]
The GOP’s resounding yes came from an informal survey sent to delegates about whether they’d feel safe traveling and attending a convention during a pandemic, no matter where it’s held.
“At this point from the survey we’ve had no one say that they would not go because of any changes,” said Illinois Republican Party Executive Director Derek Murphy.
A central Illinois Republican state senate candidate who does not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot asked a federal judge Tuesday to also apply loosened election requirements to him.
After the March 17 primary election, Alexander Ruggieri was chosen to fill the Republican Party’s nomination vacancy for the 52nd senate district race. To succeed in qualifying for the general election ballot, where he would challenge incumbent Scott Bennett (D-Champaign), Ruggieri needed to collect 1,000 voter signatures and submit his petition to the Illinois State Board of Elections by June 1.
According to his court filing, he gathered 1,152 signatures. After election officials reviewed the validity of those signatures, though, they determined only 949 were acceptable. That objection “threatens to keep Ruggieri from the general election ballot,” he argued.
A young boy is among the latest people to contract COVID-19 in Adams County.
The Adams County Health Department said he is the first child in the county to contract the virus.
He is among seven new cases announced on Wednesday in what officials describe as a “mini-wave.”
“We have always expected that we would see an increase once we began to reopen following the stay-at-home order,” Quincy Mayor Kyle Moore said, adding that he believes the region “still has a big fight ahead of us” related to the pandemic. […]
The unidentified boy is under the age of 9. No other information about the child was provided.
McDonald’s Illinois operations and a McDonald’s franchise owner should be doing more to protect employees at their restaurants as they continue to work amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an Illinois state court judge said Wednesday.
Cook County Circuit Judge Eve Reilly partially granted the McDonald’s employees’ bid for a preliminary injunction against McDonald’s Restaurants of Illinois and franchise owner DAK4 LLC, requiring the companies to provide workers at three Chicago locations with more adequate social distancing training and stricter mask enforcement practices.
McDonald’s has taken several reasonable steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including providing adequate amounts of handwashing stations and protective gear, Judge Reilly said. But it needs to fix the “two serious failures” that remain in the restaurants at issue — two of which have had employees test positive for the virus, she held. […]
“The hardship McDonald’s would suffer by strictly enforcing its mask policy and retraining employees on proper social distancing procedures is slight,” the judge held. “Now, McDonald’s may need to re-envision how it wants to implement the policy so as to ensure full compliance, but that is for McDonald’s to decide.”
Capacity limitations aren’t as low as some feared they would be for Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan for recovering from the coronavirus shutdown. The state on Monday released rules and guidelines for the phase, which allows indoor dining beginning Friday.
There’s no set maximum for number of customers allowed in sit-down restaurants, as long as tables are spaced 6 feet apart, parties are limited to 10 people or less and standing areas, such as bars, reach no more than 25% of normal capacity. […]
“As far as our plan to go inside, we again are playing it safe,” said [Wine Tap] co-owner Robbie Fogarty-Hayden. “We’re going to hold off a little bit, especially being that we are such a small location. We’re going to continue to kind of evaluate things, especially see what the first week in numbers look like. But we’ll probably be waiting at least two weeks until we do indoor dining.”
To protect its workers and patients, Clinton’s Warner Hospital and Health Services will continue to operate under the guidance of Phase 3 of the ‘Restore Illinois’ plan despite the state moving to phase 4 Friday.
CEO Paul Skowron told Regional Radio News on the WHOW Morning Show Wednesday they are going to continue to require masks by patients and social distancing guidelines of six-feet separation. He believes it is important for them to not let their guard down and demonstrate maximum safety.
* I’ve waited hours for this train in Springfield. Lots of potential for delays between San Antonio and Chicago…
Amtrak service in Springfield will be further reduced this fall when Texas Eagle service will be cut to three times a week.
The reduction is the result of a severe drop in train ridership nationwide that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic.
* Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot still refuses to open the beaches and playgrounds, even though she could tomorrow. But she’s also apparently going beyond the governor’s Phase 4 limit on the size of social gatherings. WBEZ’s Tony Arnold has been working on this for a couple days now…
Overall, the state is limiting all social gatherings at 50 people. Since local governments can establish more stringent rules, however, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is distinguishing between social gatherings inside versus outside. The city has put a limit on social gatherings outside – such as at an outdoor wedding or picnic – at 100 people.
A spokesman for the mayor’s office argued that requirement falls within the state’s 50-person cap so long as two groups of 50 people stay 30 feet apart. When asked about the city’s 100-person limit on outdoor gatherings earlier this week, Pritzker said getting 100 people together is “a goal,” and reiterated that local governments cannot have looser guidelines than what the state has put forward.
*** UPDATE *** The governor was asked about this today…
She has not called me about this. It’s very clear our state has set guidelines and every municipality has the obligation to follow the guidelines, or they can put in guidelines that are more strict than the ones that we’ve set out, but not less strict. So I think that’s known by the city and understood by really all municipalities across the state.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara on Wednesday called Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s bluff — saying if she’s serious about making disciplinary changes to the police contract, she’ll eliminate the requirement that Chicago Police officers live in the city and give them the right to strike.
One proposed disciplinary change would allow anonymous complaints — without a sworn affidavit.
“If they want to get rid of the [sworn] affidavit, then take the residency requirement out of the frickin’ contract and also take the no-strike clause out of our contract and then, let’s see how serious you really are. Give us the same ability that teachers have and give us the ability to live outside the city and then we’ll entertain the conversation about getting rid of the affidavit,” Catanzara told the Sun-Times.
“They’re full of it. … You keep talking about the affidavit. That’s a gigantic ask for us. You’re gonna be willing to give up residency and the no-strike clause? I guarantee they’re gonna say `no.’ But, it’s equal to me. It’s what we want you to give up in exchange for what you’re asking us to give up. They’re not gonna do it any more than we are.” […]
The City Council’s Black Caucus has threatened to block ratification of any police contract that continues to make it “easy for officers to lie” by giving them 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting and also prohibits anonymous complaints (by requiring sworn affidavits) and allows officers to change statements after reviewing video.
(a) Nothing in this Act shall make it unlawful or make it an unfair labor practice for public employees, other than security employees, as defined in Section 3(p), peace officers, fire fighters, and paramedics employed by fire departments and fire protection districts, to strike except as otherwise provided in this Act.
Lightfoot can’t take that out of the contract. The General Assembly would have to pass a bill. And who the heck is gonna carry a bill to allow police officers to strike?
Governor JB Pritzker today announced the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved the state’s request for federal assistance to help businesses in the northern Illinois counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. The declaration stems from looting and other damages that took place in connection to civil unrest occurring May 26 through June 8, 2020. The approved SBA disaster declaration makes low-interest loans of up to $2 million available to eligible for businesses, homeowners, renters, and non-profits.
To help businesses facing damages as the result of recent civil unrest and looting, the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) worked closely with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) to survey the damage from recent civil unrest and help businesses submit documentation. To be eligible for an SBA declaration, at least 25 homes and/or businesses in a county must sustain major, uninsured losses of 40-percent or more.
“Without a question, COVID-19 has placed an unprecedented burden on businesses across our state, and recent damage sustained during civil unrest only makes matters more challenging for business owners,” said Acting Director of DCEO, Michael Negron. “These SBA disaster loans will provide an essential resource for Illinois businesses who are looking ahead to make repairs and reopen safely.”
The DCEO-IEMA survey of damages in Cook County identified at least 40 businesses that sustained major damages and uninsured losses. Another 95 businesses in Cook County sustained minor damage. The damage assessment estimates more than $20 million dollars in damages due to recent civil unrest. This input was critical to receiving the SBA’s disaster declaration, and for triggering the availability of targeted, low-interest loans that will now be made available to small businesses and non-profits impacted by property damage and looting. […]
Applications for loans are available now and can be found on SBA’s website. Businesses and non-profits can borrow up to $2 million, homeowners can borrow up to $200k for real estate, and homeowners and renters may borrow up to $40k for personal property
Will state government be next to announce furloughs, layoffs or pay cuts? As cash-strapped state and local governments look to Washington — and wait — for relief money to help pay for the unexpected costs tied to responding to COVID-19, Pritzker was asked about possible cuts: “Obviously, we look at that all the time because we want to be prepared. But the fact is, I think there is also a growing consensus the Senate will likely take up a (relief) bill of some sort … in July,” said Pritzker, sounding reasonably confident.
Illinois, the first U.S. state to tap into Federal Reserve aid for pandemic-battered governments, has reduced its unpaid bills to the lowest level since 2015. […]
The state used $1.2 billion of proceeds from a short-term Fed loan to help pay down the bills, said Carol Knowles, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Budget and Management. The Fed established its Municipal Liquidity Facility to help state and local governments bridge funding gaps created by the pandemic.
Illinois officials have said that if Congress doesn’t approve additional aid they may need to borrow almost $5 billion more from the Fed facility in the upcoming fiscal year to help close a more than $6 billion deficit. In April, after the state delayed its income tax filing deadline to July, officials forecast a $2.7 billion revenue drop for the fiscal year ending June 30.
Illinois’ backlog reached a peak of $16.7 billion in 2017.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday he is not currently considering asking visitors to Illinois from states with spiking coronavirus infection rates to quarantine upon arrival, a measure the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced they would impose as summer officially begins.
”That’s not something that we are looking at implementing right now, but going forward if we got the advice to do that, we might,” Pritzker said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference in Geneseo. “All I can say is that New York and New Jersey and Connecticut have been through an awful lot. They’ve had so many people die, so many people hospitalized. A really tragic, tragic situation. I can understand why they might feel a need, when they see other places on the rise, when they’re actually doing a good job of keeping the rates down, that they might look at every possible way in which to diminish or keep down the number of cases.”
* The Question: Should the governor mandate that visitors from states with high infection rates, or Illinoisans returning from those states, quarantine themselves for two weeks? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
After a series of changes to protect visitor health, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is finalizing plans to reopen to the public on Wednesday, July 1.
Visitors will find the facility has been meticulously cleaned and disinfected, and protective barriers have been installed in key places to ensure guest and employee safety. Museum-goers will be also be encouraged to stay one “Lincoln” apart – 6 feet, 4 inches, the equivalent of President Lincoln’s height.
“We are thrilled to welcome everyone back to the museum and library,” said acting executive director Melissa Coultas. “In trying times, Abraham Lincoln’s example can be an inspiration and a comfort to all of us. People deserve to be able to come to this special place, learn about one of our greatest presidents and explore some new features we’re proud to offer.”
New measures to maximize public safety include:
• Requiring tickets be purchased in advance, either online or by telephone
• A brief visitor screening, including a temperature check before admission
• Requiring face masks at all times
• Installing signs with outlines of Lincoln’s feet to help visitors maintain proper physical distance
• Reducing the number of theater performances and maintaining safe guest distancing throughout the shows (theaters will be cleaned and disinfected after each performance)
• The temporary closure of the “Mrs. Lincoln’s Attic” play area and Union Station, home to an exhibit on railroad history
• Limiting library access to reservation-only research patrons
• Establishing a strict cleaning and sanitation regimen for the museum and library.
The museum will maintain its usual schedule of being open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Visitors can buy tickets up to two weeks in advance at www.PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov.
The library will be open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, but admission will be by appointment only. Researchers who want to schedule a visit should email ALPLM.reference@illinois.gov or call the reference desk at 217-524-6358.
When it reopens, the museum will feature a new exhibit called “Spies, Traitors, Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America.” Created by the International Spy Museum, it examines nine major events in history when Americans were threatened by enemies within the United States borders. This temporary exhibit has traveled throughout the nation over the past few years.
The exhibit does include powerful imagery that may be unsettling to some patrons. Artifacts include fragments of the planes that hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and powerful imagery from domestic hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. The ALPLM respects the decisions of parents and guardians but recommends children under 12 may want to avoid the exhibit. Children 12 and over should visit this exhibit with an adult.
And it won’t be long before the museum welcomes its five millionth visitor. That special guest will receive an array of gifts and special access to celebrate this milestone in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s 15-year history.
Glad it’s coming back. Wish they’d get rid of that giant statue of the sweater-wearing white guy standing with Abe, though.
…Adding… I’m now told that the silly statue is leaving in September when its contract expires. The city of Springfield asked the ALPLM board to extend its stay for a year, but the board declined.
If you’ve never seen the statue, here it is at a previous location…
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this ad since Tuesday and have been waiting for someone else to report on it so I could post it here. Dave Dahl did it…
“Remember when JB Pritzker ripped out his toilets to dodge paying property taxes?”
That’s the opening line of a new commercial from a group that says it wants to hold “Springfield politicians” accountable. It’s actually Democrats under the “Illinois Rising Action” microscope.
The PAC’s executive director, Kayleen Carlson, says Gov. Pritzker is just another tax-and-spend Democrat whose solution to anything is to raise taxes. Pritzker is not on the ballot this year, but the ad campaign wants you to remember two words: Vote Republican.
The number of laid-off workers who applied for unemployment benefits declined slightly to 1.48 million last week, the 12th straight drop and a sign that layoffs are slowing but are still at a painfully high level.
The steady decline in claims suggests that the job market has begun to slowly heal from the pandemic, which shuttered businesses and sent the unemployment rate up to 14.7% in April, its highest level since the Great Depression.
Illinois saw an increase in the number of people filing first-time claims. In the week ended June 20, 46,005 people in the state sought unemployment insurance benefits, compared with 44,694 Illinois residents a week earlier.
* Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) submitted this op-ed last night…
In Illinois, we are three months into governance by Executive Order.
40 Executive Orders are already on the books since the beginning of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak.
One-person rule has a poor track record throughout history. Unfortunately, we’ve been living under a one-size-fits-all approach to the Coronavirus, and it’s led to economic, social and educational harm.
According to the Governor’s schedule, Illinois gets to move into Phase 4 of his reopening plans and permissions on June 26:
“Gatherings of 50 people or fewer are allowed, restaurants and bars reopen, travel resumes, child care and schools reopen under guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Face coverings and social distancing are the norm.”
I got news for the Governor, even while we were under his Phase 3 plans (gatherings of 10 people or fewer are allowed), southern Illinois has been getting together in larger numbers, WITHOUT his permission.
We are frustrated. We don’t want a new normal. We want the old normal, and that should have happened at a much faster pace for downstate Illinois.
Our State Fairs in Springfield and DuQuoin are cancelled, as well as the Grand American World Trapshooting competition in Sparta.
I note these particular events because downstate Illinois never experienced the COVID-19 outbreak that impacted Chicago. We should have been farther along on the reopening process.
Wirepoints, an independent online resource for economic research and commentary about Illinois’ government, publishes numerous articles about the Coronavirus’ impact on our state.
In a recent story, Wirepoints claims downstate should have reopened weeks ago even using the Governor’s own data-driven metrics:
“Case positivity rates downstate have collapsed for nearly two straight months…Per capita hospital admissions have also been just a fraction of those in the Northeast region. And there was never the risk of running short of hospital resources downstate like there was in Chicago.”
The Wirepoints article includes a graph showing 90 percent of COVID-19 deaths occurred in northeast Illinois, the Chicago region.
The Governor’s failure to take regionalization into consideration is one of the biggest criticism of his decision-making.
People I talk to are skeptical of what they’re being told about the impact of the Coronavirus, and who can blame them. For example, a Chicago Sun-Times story about virus deaths in nursing homes in April, included an admission by the Governor’s spokesman that a “definitional error” resulted in “cases being counted twice.”
At one news conference, the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health admitted that Illinoisans who died with the virus were counted as the same as those who died because of the virus:
“I just want to be clear in terms of the definition of people dying of COVID. The case definition is very simplistic. It means, at the time of death it was a COVID positive diagnosis, so that means that if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live and then you were also found to have COVID that would be counted as a COVID death.
It means that if technically even if you died of clear alternate cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death. Everyone who is listed as a COVID death, doesn’t mean that was the cause of the death, but they had COVID at the time of death,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike said.
There are other concerns too.
Rules for Illinois daycare facilities under the governor’s lockdown Executive Orders were delayed for weeks before any set of guidelines were released. The delay caused a lot of economic pain for these businesses, and I fear that some may not be coming back, unable to survive the lockdown orders.
Our schools have only now (as of June 23) received information about reopening.
Will our teachers and administrators have a chance to provide input moving forward? Again, can a one-size-fits-all and top-down approach work for both Louisville and Chicago? What if the schools determine the guidelines to be impractical and unworkable; what happens next? The Governor previously talked about a combination of in-school and remote learning, but many students won’t get the same level of instruction and guidance if they are out of the classroom.
The lockdown orders have also had a devastating impact on the state economy. Sadly, there will be businesses that will never come back.
A recent academic study indicates 100,000 businesses across the country permanently collapsed because of the Coronavirus pandemic. That conclusion was reached more than a month ago. The University of Illinois participated in the research. Here’s an important quote:
“A team of researchers at the University of Illinois, Harvard University, Harvard Business School and University of Chicago discovered at least 2 percent of the nation’s small businesses are now gone after conducting a representative survey of more than 5,800 enterprises between May 9-11.”
The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health released a related report on June 1 about the immediate and lasting impact of the Coronavirus on the state economy. The report predicts a loss of more than 550,000 jobs by March of 2021:
“The report says it is likely that somewhere between 1 million and 1.5 million Illinois jobs may be affected overall.”
One person rule doesn’t work fairly and equitably anywhere it’s tried, and neither does one party rule. One party rule of Illinois contributed mightily to the current fiscal failure of state government. The state’s public debt is beyond the ability of us mere mortal taxpayers to pay off, yet the most recent budget passed by the majority spends more than ever before in a single year: $43 billion ($43,000,000,000)!
These same people passed two major state income tax increases with promises of better times. It never happened. Instead, they are constantly looking to raise taxes, and are proposing to radically change the way state income taxes are imposed – all designed to siphon more money out of the pockets of hardworking Illinoisans.
It’s long past time for “all hands on deck.” Leadership is about bringing people together, marshalling the forces to meet challenges head on, clearly mapping out a plan and then executing it, but always remaining flexible to adjust and alter it as you move forward. Illinoisans need confidence in its government and a Governor and the Legislature working together rather than one person’s one-size-fits-all approach, which is a one-size-disservice to all.
* FSCJ scientist says Florida COVID-19 data can be misleading: Perle told News4Jax on Wednesday that after watching months of data being released by Florida, he doesn’t think the numbers tell the whole story and have the potential to mislead the public.
The Illinois Rental Property Owners Association (IRPOA) announces our support of the lawsuit filed by IRPOA members JL Properties Group, Mark Dauenbaugh and Steven Cole, challenging Governor Pritzker’s legal authority to deny housing providers access to the courts.
The Governor’s moratorium on evictions essentially ties the hands of housing providers to enforce our lease agreements. While we agree with the Governor’s intent of protecting renters affected by COVID-19, the Governor’s moratorium also applies to people who are not affected by COVID-19 but are choosing not to pay their rent.
Furthermore, the Governor’s moratorium limits a housing provider’s ability to address lease violations that are related to behavior and not COVID-19
Our members have been and will continue to work to ensure that individuals affected by COVID-19 are given every opportunity to remain in their home. We have been waiving late fees, offering payment plans, and directing tenants to resources for rental assistance. But we need access to the courts for those tenants who have been unresponsive or are violating leases in ways unrelated to COVID-19.
Small mom-and-pop landlords, who make up the majority of IRPOA members, have had their interests marginalized by the State of Illinois for too long. Corporate landlords may be able to absorb the losses that the Governor’s eviction moratorium imposes, but the majority of rental housing in Illinois is provided by average working class people who own a handful of rentals and rely on the monthly rent to meet their own obligations. Mom-and-pop landlords cannot go without income for over 5 months when sole proprietors have not been receiving assistance from COVID-19 programs to compensate for the lost income.
The plaintiff’s attorney James Noonan said “While we share the Governor’s concerns on spreading the virus, we believe the eviction moratorium goes too far. It unnecessarily and unlawfully redistributes the cost of protecting tenants to landlords, who deserve the same protection under Illinois law as other Illinoisans.”
We encourage housing providers from across Illinois to join us in this fight. Financial contributions for legal expenses are welcome and we ask all housing providers to add your voices to the growing number of small businesses who are speaking out about being unfairly burdened by the State’s response to COVID-19.
Established in 1994, the Illinois Rental Property Owners Association is an alliance of a dozen independent rental property owner associations across the State of Illinois. With the hundreds of investor-members and the thousands of dwellings they represent, IRPOA advocates for laws and ordinances that are in the best interests of both the owner and the tenant.
*** UPDATE *** Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance…
Yesterday a landlord filed a suit challenging Governor Pritzker’s statewide eviction moratorium in Will County. It is noteworthy that the case concerns tenants who have been in violation of their lease prior to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and who, unlike their fellow residents, have lived free rent since then.
While the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance (NBOA) appreciates the struggles that housing providers face during this difficult time in paying for their costs and maintaining their properties, NBOA believes it is always better to work with their residents to find solutions, and to support rental assistance, both of which have been done successfully at the local and statewide level in recent weeks.
The owners of Augie’s Front Burner have decided to close the restaurant after this week.
Saturday will be their last night in business.
The restaurant has been a part of Springfield for more than 22 years.
August “Augie” and Sharon Mrozowski say it is just time to relax and slow things down.
Sharon tells us that closing the restaurant was something they had been considering for quite a while. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it forced Augie to slow down, which is something he has never done, said Sharon.
Protesting what they call a discriminatory move that will exasperate respiratory health issues in a polluted community, six state legislators representing Chicago’s South Side are asking Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reject metal shredder General Iron’s planned move from Lincoln Park to the East Side. […]
The June 24 letter was delivered the day before a decision deadline on an environmental permit that would give General Iron the green light to move to a site at South Burley Avenue and 116th Street along the Calumet River. General Iron needs the construction and air-pollution control permit to build the new facility with its partner Reserve Management Group. Community groups have said a draft permit written by the state is weak and doesn’t protect residents from harmful air pollution. After accepting public comments, the agency is expected to rule on a final permit Thursday. […]
Pritzker’s office and the Illinois EPA have said state law limits the power they have to deny or write a permit for General Iron. For instance, numerous citations written by city of Chicago inspectors for violations of pollution and nuisance laws won’t be considered, state officials say. […]
General Iron’s Lincoln Park operation is currently closed after two explosions in May. The decision in 2018 to move from affluent Lincoln Park to the working-class Latino neighborhood is cited by activists as environmental racism. While much of that criticism has been directed at Mayor Lori Lightfoot and predecessor Rahm Emanuel, the lawmakers urged Pritzker to take a stand.
* The letter…
As legislators representing Chicago’s Southeast Side, we’re urging you to call for the denial of General Iron’s application for a construction permit in our community.
We’re troubled by reports of concerns from north side residents over the public health risks posed by the General Iron plant especially in light of their desire to relocate to our community. As you know, residents of the South side are disproportionately affected by respiratory issues due to a variety of factors including pollution. As our community grapples with the COVID crisis, now is not the time to fast track a construction permit to a repeat offender of state and federal environmental regulations.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“IEPA”) faces a critical decision testing the agency’s commitment to protecting the health and welfare of my constituents: whether to turn a blind eye to the long history of environmental infractions of General Iron in its current Lincoln Park location and grant it a weak, unenforceable permit to move to a recognized environmental justice community, or to make good on the agency’s duty to protect the rights of all Illinois residents to a healthful environment and deny a permit to this repeat offender. The agency’s choice is clear.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has broad authority and a duty to protect the Southeast Side. This authority includes the discretion to deny permits based on historic violations. It also includes the duty to write stringent permits that go beyond the minimum required as necessary to ensure that regulated industry does not “cause or tend to cause air pollution” and so that those who have polluted our environment do not get a free pass to do so again. Furthermore, both Congress and the Illinois Assembly have prohibited IEPA from implementing its duties in ways that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin. IEPA’s own environmental justice policy, moreover, recognizes that the agency “supports the objectives of achieving environmental equity for all of the citizens of Illinois.”
Rather than uphold these duties and commitments, IEPA has proposed to issue a permit that would enable the relocation of a massive metal shredding facility from a White, wealthy and further gentrifying community to an environmental justice community. It is proposing to issue a permit that lacks any meaningful limits on pollution, while essentially leaving this chronic polluter to police itself with respect to virtually the same emission sources that the company has shown time and time again it cannot or will not control. And it is doing so where the applicant’s own air quality modeling shows the potential for violation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
We urge IEPA to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the public health of all Illinoisans by preventing further pollution in Black and Brown communities of Chicago’s Southeast side and deny this permit.
Sincerely,
Senator Robert Peters of the 13th Legislative District
Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. of the 17th Legislative District
Representative Kambium Buckner of the 26th Representative District
Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr. of the 33rd Representative District
Representative Nicholas K. Smith of the 34th Representative
District Representative Curtis J. Tarver, II of the 25th Representative District
* Gov. Pritzker was in Geneseo today to talk about broadband access…
Launching the state’s largest-ever broadband expansion initiative, Governor JB Pritzker announced $50 million in Connect Illinois grants to 28 projects touching every region of the state. The $50 million in state grants will be matched by $65 million in nonstate funding for a total of $115 million, with plans to expand access for more than 26,000 homes, businesses, farms, and community institutions across Illinois.
These funds are being released as part of the state’s $420 million statewide broadband expansion, Connect Illinois—the Governor’s plan to bring basic access to all communities by 2024. This plan aims to improve access through an unprecedented capital investment and with the nation’s largest grant matching program.
Public Health Officials Announce 715 New Confirmed Cases of Coronavirus Disease
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 715 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 64 additional confirmed deaths.
- Cook County: 1 male 30s, 1 male 40s, 2 females 50s, 2 males 50s, 9 females 60s, 6 males 60s, 5 females 70s, 5 males 70s, 3 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 4 females 90s
- DuPage County: 1 female 50s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
- Grundy County: 1 female 80s
- Jackson County: 1 female 90s
- Kane County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
- Lake County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
- Madison County: 1 female 90s
- McHenry County: 1 female 70s
- Peoria County: 1 female 80s
- St. Clair County: 2 males 70s, 1 female 90s
- Will County: 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
- Winnebago County: 1 male 60s, 2 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 138,540 cases, including 6,770 deaths, in 101 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 29,331 specimens for a total of 1,428,841. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from June 17–June 23 is 3%.
* The feds moved to cut off funding for testing sites several weeks ago and backed away. But it looks like it’s now actually happening…
The Trump administration is set to end federal funding and support on June 30th for 13 coronavirus testing sites, which are currently located in five states: Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Context: Pres Trump has said testing is a "double edged sword."
Well, when you say ‘Did we get a say?’ we were informed.
And, you know, it’s a decision that was made by the federal government. We, obviously, all the help we can get we’ll take. But upon learning this, we immediately began to work on making sure that we’re keeping those sites open with local personnel […]
What we want to make sure is the testing is widely available and free to people across our state. And so we are right now on the street actually with an RFP to make sure that we’re taking over those sites with local personnel so we can keep doing what we’ve been doing. […]
We’ll maintain the locations of those sites for now. But we also are adding mobile testing, for example, we’re adding more sites all the time, we want to make sure that it’s easy to locate, people to get to. And so, as long as this pandemic lasts, our job here is to make people safe, to make sure that if people feel like they’ve been exposed to somebody who has COVID-19 that they can get a test as fast as possible so they can either go back to school, go back to work, whatever it is that they need to do and testing helps do that. And so that’s why we’ve been so focused on ramping up our testing, the number of testing sites, and the number of tests. You may have noticed that we had a big ramp up from early on. I was struggling, as all states were, to get the materials necessary for testing. We had just a few thousand tests going for a state as big as ours. We’re now among the top five states in the country in testing, and among the large states were the top two or three in terms of per capita testing, and I want to be number one.
The police chief in Arlington Heights has gone on record making a historic change.
Chief Nick Pecora has added “duty to intervene” to the Arlington Heights Police code of conduct.
According to the new rule, any officer observing another officer using force that is clearly beyond reasonable should stop it and then notify a supervisor.
Any officer present and observing another officer using force that is clearly beyond that which is objectively reasonable under the circumstances shall, when in a position to do so, safely intercede to prevent the use of such excessive force. Officers shall promptly report these observations and your associated action to a supervisor.
* The Question: Do you think this concept should be a state law? Explain.
So as we move forward, we need to get back to the things that we have been putting on hold. Now is the time to schedule your kids’ back to school physicals if you haven’t already. We need to make sure that the kids get checked out by their providers and get their life saving immunizations. Earlier during the pandemic, we had seen a decline in immunization. So now it’s time to catch up. No more waiting.
Doctor’s orders, Illinois.
Yes, there could be another surge of COVID-19 in the fall or perhaps earlier, but let’s make sure we take this opportunity now to get to our doctors. Let’s get our immunizations, let’s get our health screenings. Let’s get as healthy as we can. Your baseline health status affects how you fare against this virus.
This includes parents and teachers. Get your bloodwork done, your mammogram. I went for my mammogram this morning. Get your colonoscopies, take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s continue to do what we know works. I saw somewhere that they referred to as the three W’s. And so I’m going to be using this: wash your hands, watch your distance, you know that’s referring to the six feet, and wear a face covering. Let’s not lose ground. Lives are in our hands. Thank you so much.
* My annual physical is today, so I’ll be back later. Until then…
Ever wonder where your house was located 300 million years ago? Thanks to software engineer Ian Webster, now you can. His interactive map tracks how the globe has changed over the course of the last 750 million years and… lets you pinpoint your address https://t.co/2M3118RulGpic.twitter.com/PBax5nw4Qx
“Wearing a face mask poses a health risk to me,” says a document circulating online that mask-phobes are urged to present to greeters, clerks or managers who try to enforce the requirement and block their entry from a store or other place of business. “Under the ADA and HIPPA (sic) I am NOT required to disclose my medical condition to anyone.”
The document goes on to give toll-free number to the U.S. Department of Justice’s ADA information line and to threaten violators with fines of up to $150,000.
It’s mostly nonsense. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) simply restricts disclosures by health providers. The ADA requires only that businesses provide assistance to people with disabilities so long as that requirement doesn’t cause undue hardships or pose a risk to the health and safety of other customers. Many stores will offer to shop for those who cannot shop independently and bring the merchandise to the door, for instance.
And if you don’t wear a mask, you’re clearly posing a health and safety risk to other customers and employees.
* How people think they can walk onto someone else’s private property and literally do anything they want is just beyond me…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order to close businesses across the state amid the COVID-19 pandemic could cost taxpayers billions of dollars in damages, according to an attorney challenging the governor’s orders.
Attorney Thomas DeVore represents dozens of people and business owners across Illinois challenging the governor’s authority to close parts of the economy to reduce the spread of COVID-19. DeVore said those cases are still alive and important.
Despite some reports that a judge in Madison County threw out a case brought forward by a business group, DeVore said what actually happened was the court denied the group a temporary restraining order. He said that was not a ruling on the merits of the case.
“There’s not been one case yet [to] take on the real underlying factual issues, putting on some testimony,” DeVore said. “I’d love nothing more to get the governor on the stand and ask his some questions … Whether we get to that or whether summary judgment is how this gets resolved I don’t know yet, but we’ll see. We’ve got to get some answers.”
He said since the legislature has failed to provide clarity on the issue, the courts must act.
“They’re very important, but ultimately the people know and I believe in my heart that the people, regardless of what court cases are going say, they already know that this was wrong,” he said. “They already know that this went too far.”
DeVore said despite the pandemic, the overarching issue is due process.
“You can’t strip property rights and liberty rights away from people without due process under any circumstance,” he said.
DeVore said he’s considering additional legal options, including a possible challenge to the state’s decision to cancel the annual state fairs and a challenge to restrictions for school districts.
Pritzker has said the cases challenging his authority were examples of political grandstanding and has defended his actions as being not only lawful, but based on science and data.
Outside of the existing challenges, DeVore expects there to be thousands of other cases brought forward demanding damages be paid.
“That in and of itself should be a deterrent in the future, saying ‘wait a second, we’re going to start shutting down businesses, we need to keep in mind we’re going to have to write a big check for that,’ yeah, that’s coming and it’s coming soon,” DeVore said. “I’m working on that.”
DeVore said it was possible those costs will be borne by taxpayers.
“Hopefully that means the taxpayers will remember next time an executive officer tries to do something like this they say ‘uh-huh, we’re not playing that game,’ ” DeVore said.
A takings lawsuit filed against Michigan’s governor was called a ‘very steep uphill battle’ by Michael McDaniel, a Western Michigan University Cooley Law School professor. He told WOOD TV under “normal circumstance,” there might be a case. “But the problem he has here… is these are not normal times,” he told the TV station.
Illinois Right to Life Committee sued Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) in federal court over an emergency Covid-19 order that prohibits most gatherings of more than 10 people.
Executive Order 2020-38 unconstitutionally infringes IRL’s free speech rights, the group told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Tuesday.
IRL is a nonprofit organization that works to make abortion “unthinkable” and to turn Illinois into an anti-abortion state, according to its website. It is an “expressive association,” according to the complaint.
Education is one part of its approach, IRL says. But it hasn’t been able to participate in training sessions, rallies, educational panels, or speaking engagements since April due to the ban on group gatherings, the complaint says.
The order also has made it impossible for IRL to hold fundraising events that pay for its pro-life activities and charitable work, the group says. It also has become more difficult to spread its message throughout the state, IRL says. An internet-based approach isn’t sufficient, because “human-to-human interactions are the best way to compassionately share” IRL’s views, it added.
IRL also alleged that the state is enforcing the ban selectively. For example, the order doesn’t apply to religious organizations, and the state recently declined to insist on compliance by people gathered to protest police brutality, the complaint says.
It’s not often that Illinois Democrats and Republicans are on the same page, but that’s the case this week when it comes to money for nonprofits. Illinois’ GOP delegation in D.C. and state Democrats in the General Assembly are concerned about nonprofits being denied state funding because they accepted cash from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
According to letters they sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois Department of Human Services and Department of Children and Family Services are reducing or delaying state funding for nonprofits that received PPP funds.
These service organizations “serve thousands of Illinois residents,” the state Democrats say in their letter urging Pritzker not to reduce state funding for nonprofits. “While we recognize the state is facing budget constraints, the level of need for social services has exponentially increased” in wake of the pandemic due to unemployment, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and other economic challenges. […]
The GOP delegation’s letter is pointed: “Congress did not intend for the funds provided through the Paycheck Protection Program to supplement state budgets by offsetting the cost they pay for services through private nonprofit service providers,” the lawmakers wrote.
The governor isn’t likely to act on the lawmakers’ concerns. As Pritzker’s office explained to Playbook: The state kept paying social service providers during the pandemic, even when they couldn’t provide services. The goal was to keep those agencies whole. The money the state pays each month is for rent, utilities and personnel costs. The state says the agencies that take PPP funds to pay for rent, utilities and personnel costs, shouldn’t be paid for the same thing twice. Businesses and hospitals, on the other hand, don’t contract with the state for services.
Republican pushed back at the explanation, saying, “The state’s assertion that it may deduct an amount equivalent to any funds nonprofit organizations receive through PPP from what they are paid in their contracts is a clear overreach. Nonprofit service organizations should not be punished at the expense of the state during this difficult time.”
We have to marshal our resources, and when someone’s getting direct federal dollars to cover the very same expenses that would have been covered by the state, it seems logical to me at least for the time being to make to use those resources to cover other challenges that we have during this very difficult time.
* Click here for background information if you need it. Press release from Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery and Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin…
“The guidelines ISBE released today provide a road map as we return to in-person instruction, but they don’t address some of the most pressing concerns that make it difficult to social distance appropriately and monitor the health and well-being of all our education support staff, teachers and students. We are especially concerned about the lack of personal protective equipment and providing a safe learning environment.
It is no secret that remote learning has been a challenge to teachers, parents and students and our membership looks forward to returning to in-person instruction, but anxiety remains high over class sizes and the lack of school nurses and other health and safety resources. We continue to be concerned about the deep disparities that exist in schools, especially in our Black and Brown communities, who still lack access to the internet and computers. We need to also consider our students who live in rural communities and their ability or lack-there-of to access information online. Parents, students and community members will feel safe returning to in-person instruction only when it is done safely by reducing class size and having a school nurse and necessary supplies in every school building.
Successfully incorporating the Illinois State Board of Education’s (ISBE) guidelines will depend largely on the labor management relationship and whether or not all the support staff, teachers and stakeholders have a real voice in determining what school looks like in our new normal.
We are committed to working with ISBE to help update the guidelines and give better guidance on what to do with crowded classrooms and schools, collective bargaining issues, and the lack of critical staff and resources such as school nurses and PPE. We are very much looking forward to working with our students, and we urge ISBE to assist every school in Illinois in getting the resources needed to keep every student and adult safe.
We are our students’ voice. It is imperative that as plans are developed for the year, we get a chance to ensure the safety of our students and our members, that some of our biggest concerns in this document are addressed, including resources and collective bargaining. We treasure the collaborative relationship we’ve had with ISBE throughout this pandemic and look forward to continuing our work together.”
Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery said in an interview that the guidelines raised more questions than answers and appeared more “aspirational” than grounded in “reality” with no certification that safety rules would be implemented and practiced.
“The thing that gives me the greatest pause is that it’s very squishy on social distancing, so I have a real concern that there’ll be districts or schools where they’ll say, ‘Well, let’s just try to keep the kids separated’ as opposed to really working it through and figuring out how you’re going to keep kids actually apart,” Montgomery said.
“The PPE issue is huge. I would really appreciate it if the State Board or the governor’s office could actually make sure every school district has masks and soap and sanitizer, and I don’t have confidence that that’s where we’re going to be anytime soon,” he said.
Montgomery said given safety concerns and the number of students, teachers and staff in schools in the Chicago area, “it’s hard to see how we’re going to have widespread, uniform in-person instruction” and that blended learning, mixing in-person and home teaching, would be the more practical outcome.
The Chicago Teachers Union criticized that guidance. A statement from CTU President Jesse Sharkey reads, in part:
“Today’s guidance from ISBE is both too general and too vague to serve as a useful road map for CPS. In short, we’re going to be required to figure out many of the most critical features of school work for ourselves, in bargaining.
“Science increasingly shows that the virus is spread mainly through people breathing on each other for prolonged periods of time. Unfortunately, so much of traditional school involves exactly that practice.
“Keeping us safe will require more than just hand sanitizer … having a nurse in every building every day is more important than ever.”
IASB Executive Director Tom Bertrand joined state officials for the public announcement. Bertrand commended the Governor’s efforts to provide a path for the safe return of children to in-person learning: “We know that during a national crisis, schools are often the institutions best positioned to address the academic and social-emotional needs of children and the basic needs of many families. It is important to connect every child with caring, committed, competent educators — starting with the first day of school. The opportunity to return to school for in-person learning is an important step toward establishing that connection that is so important to the academic and social-emotional growth of our students.”
Some Mahomet-Seymour students have tested positive for COVID-19 following an “unofficial prom” earlier this month.
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District is investigating a COVID-19 outbreak associated with the “unofficial prom,” which was held in a private home on June 13. The event was not related to, sanctioned by, or endorsed by Mahomet-Seymour CUSD #3.
CUPHD said it is following up with the 10 confirmed cases.
As a precaution, all in-person activities at Mahomet-Seymour High School have been temporarily suspended. This includes athletic conditioning and behind-the-wheel driver’s education.
