* Hopefully, there’s nothing to worry about here…
Attention members and staff –
I have just been made aware that a member of the BoS Center staff has tested positive for COVID-19. This individual was NOT located in a space that was used for the special session or the public viewing area, and at this time it appears this individual had no interaction with any member or other staff person. This person worked one 8-hour shift on Thursday, May 21.
In an abundance of caution, I encourage everyone who has not already done so to be tested for the virus, monitor your health in the coming days, and isolate from interaction with others for 14 days after the conclusion of session. This is consistent with CDC guidance for those who believe they’ve been in close proximity with a COVID-positive individual, as well as our discussions prior to the beginning of special session.
It was an unprecedented step to hold session at the BoS Center, which greatly minimized the chance of exposure to the COVID-19 virus. This incident notwithstanding, I am not aware of any other person who has tested positive. I am working directly with BoS Staff and have asked that all BoS staff members get tested immediately and ensure that appropriate contact tracing efforts are underway.
Jessica Basham, Chief of Staff
Office of the Speaker
Illinois House of Representatives
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* This is true unless or until somebody sues, and nobody can really predict what the judiciary will do…
Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza wants to clear something up: state lawmakers will not be receiving pay raises.
“Some state legislators seem to think they’ll be getting a pay raise this year. The answer is no, they won’t,” Mendoza says in a new video released by her office.
“So when you hear false rumors or assumptions that Comptroller Mendoza will have to pay legislators more this year, you tell them you heard it straight from the person whose job it is to cut the checks in Illinois: Legislator raises this year will be zero,” she says in the video’s conclusion.
The video message was prompted by ongoing confusion and misinformation among lawmakers and the public over whether or not lawmakers gave themselves a pay raise, or a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget they approved Memorial Day weekend.
Although these raises are included in the budget by law every year, this year lawmakers voted to dedicate zero dollars to raises – which means they will not receive raises, Mendoza said.
“…the General Assembly voted to make the COLA zero, and I’m glad because it’s the right thing to do, especially amid the COVID-19 crisis that has really hit our state budget hard,” Mendoza says.
The video is here.
The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that cost of living adjustments are an integral part of compensation. The state constitution does not allow any change to compensation during a legislator’s term of office, up or down.
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* Gov. Pritzker is in East St. Louis today and he and local officials talked about the challenges they’ve faced and what they’ve done. Dr. Ezike is not in ESL with the governor today. The audio/video connections aren’t great, so there could be some transcription issues. Your pardons will be more appreciated today.
The governor then spoke about George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Brianna Taylor in Kentucky and Christian Cooper in New York City…
…and countless others whose memories we cannot allow time to erase events that echo what we have seen happen to too many people, too many times in too many places. And yet we as a people have not yet found the humanity to stop these vile horrid acts from happening. To truly contend with the racism that permeates our society, and then to root it out as a white elected official, I feel a special responsibility to speak out today and to own the obligation that I have to shape public policy in a more equitable direction. Being black in America cannot be a death sentence. But it is in some ways it is. And it’s dangerous to pretend otherwise.
We must actually do something to change that reality, to make it so that men like George Floyd are not killed on a street corner gasping for air in broad daylight. One moment alive, and the next moment, gone. People deserve to breathe. They deserve to live. George Floyd’s family should not have woken up today in a world without him in it. This investigation requires all possible accountability and transparency to deliver the closest thing [garbled] but it will never bring George Floyd back.
I’m especially saddened that amidst all the other challenges that we are facing right now, people of color have this extra burden to bear. As they have for too long. This moment must become a call to action for Illinoisans, for Americans to see the humanity in every person no matter their race, their religion, their socioeconomic status or their sexual orientation. To George Floyd to his family, may his memory be for a blessing.
On to questions for the governor: The first question has been asked at least half a dozen times and always answered the same way. Federal guidance strongly warns against allowing visitors in nursing homes.
* There still are nursing homes that still haven’t tested their residents or staff yet for COVID-19 …Where are the tests and shouldn’t nursing homes be a priority for test to protect the most vulnerable in our society?…
They are a priority and I think actually there’s an article today about the challenges [click here]. There are more than 1200 nursing homes in the state. If you think about the numbers of people that are represented in those nursing homes, you’re talking about more than 20,000 people. Indeed, it’s actually many more than that staff and others. And so in order to be able to test all of those people we’re only doing about averaging about 23,000 a day. And that’s statewide in every capacity. So that includes all the other congregate settings in which we’re testing. So in order to do it, you know, we’ve got it set aside tests which we’ve done, and then go and get to every single one of those facilities. … We’re also starting with the facilities that don’t have COVID-19 in them so that we can keep it out. If you find one or two people have it you can you can segregate them, get them to isolate and save the facility from having an outbreak. In the facilities where there are outbreaks, we are testing staff first and separating the residents in those, and ask the private owners of those nursing homes to do that to separate the residents so we’re getting to it. And again, I’d like to do it all at once. If we had the national leadership on this subject, if we had the supplies available we could do this much more quickly, but we’re getting to it as fast as we can.
* The CDC says that the current antibody test is wrong half the time [not quite, but close enough I suppose]. What is the status of antibody tests in Illinois. How many have been done. And just the fact that up to half of them could be wrong does this affect any of the day’s policy decisions?…
So, from very early on what we’ve said is, although we receive the serology information, in other words, the results of those tests, we set those tests aside. We actually have a committee at IDPH that has reviewed and come up with their own view of what to do with those serology tests. John O’Connor is correct, half of those tests seem to be inaccurate. So what does one do. Well if we could segregate the ones that we think are inaccurate. In other words, there are different types of serology tests and know which ones are accurate, we’re trying to go through and figure that out. We could then take the accurate ones and determine some things. But I must tell you it’s something I said several weeks ago in one of my press conferences serology tests, tell you, perhaps whether somebody had COVID-19 but it doesn’t tell you whether they’re immune from COVID-19. Even though, originally that was the hope and thought, it’s still not proven that if you have the antibodies that you can’t get it again. And so that’s the challenge here so we’ve put those aside, we’re looking at trying to keep keep people from getting COVID-19 in the first place. We’re certainly looking at all of the studies that are being done of serology tests around the world, not to mention around the United States, and we’ll make some decisions based upon the results of those in those research projects.
* What are you doing for communities like East St Louis? Are you getting them enough testing. How about economic health and what are you doing to clear the gap that exists. This is a second part of the question. What are you doing to clear the gap that exists in downstate Illinois as far as lower case counsel or death counts and and you know what are you doing to help those communities that are frustrated by being having the same rules applied to them at not getting as much aid as cities like Chicago?…
Hopefully I’ll remember all, I think there were three questions.
Let’s start with East St. Louis. East St. Louis is very important to me. From the earliest moments that I came here I was just saying this to some folks earlier from the National Guard that East St. Louis is a community that’s been forgotten, frankly. And so when I think about what we need to do to assist East St. Louis I think about trying to first create economic activity and have it put aside the moment, the moment we’re in which is COVID-19 in which we need to secure people’s lives and their health. But if you, and you’ve seen we have a facility here at the Jackie Joyner kersee Center, where people can get tested, and we provide free treatment and so on. So there’s the and and we’ve worked together with St Clair County and other other facilities other hospitals.
But I’m thinking about the economics of this area. From the beginning my thought has been that we’ve got to make sure that people are able to start businesses that there are people that are able to get on their feet and actually get economic activity going in the communities of East St. Louis. So we’ve been trying to, we’ve had, we have low interest loans we have loans for communities of color, that are dedicated to communities like he’s St Louis, that’s one thing from an economic activity perspective. In this moment when so many people have lost jobs. So many people are struggling, you know, we’ve banned evictions across the state of Illinois. We’ve provided rent assistance for people. We’ve made sure that people have health care whatever they need available to them. We’re trying to build up the resources of healthcare within communities of color in particular here, and so many I mean you really we could go through a whole big long list and I’ve got it to about the economic supports that we’re providing for people, and particularly those who are most impacted financially by COVID-19 and those happen to be, guess what the same as the communities that have the highest rates of death, or the highest rates of COVID positive tests, and those are communities of color. So this has been a focus from early on, I think the minute that we heard and saw statistics that showed that in particular the black community had a higher incidence of death on a per capita basis than any other. That was the moment we began to put in testing sites everywhere that we could in black communities, and making sure that that we were educating people about the importance of washing your hands of putting a mask on, and so on, and focusing that on communities of color in particular. There were a lot of people who had been told and you can actually read articles about this where those [in] the foreign countries that run bots to convince Americans to fight each other. That one of the things they were promoting was with the black community was immune from COVID-19. And so there were many people who had heard this, that the black community was immune and then had not heard that no actually the black community is most susceptible in some ways, at least to the terrible consequences of COVID-19. So there’s so much that we’re dealing with at the same time to try to address this challenge and you St Louis and for communities of color across the state.
* Can you be a little bit more specific about where we’re at with the contact tracing program, you know, how many people have been hired. When will the program be fully up and running. And also, can you address, people who are concerned about their privacy, and people who are unwilling to share sensitive information, what kind of questions can they be expected to answer?…
Sure. So let’s start with, I did a press conference talking specifically about contact tracing I think about a week ago so I would refer you back since they’re recorded online you can see everything that I said in my prepared remarks and answers to questions there.
Having said that, the goal with the contact tracers that we have in the state today, we already have contact tracing, just for people who don’t understand because we were doing contact tracing before COVID-19 our contact tracing for HIV, for example, is one thing that was done for contact tracing. But we have across the state hundreds of people who are in contact tracing. We start with that as a base, these are community health workers that are in St Clair, SIUE, they’re also all over in counties across the state.
So we start with that as a base. But when you need to do something as big as we need to do for COVID-19, what we need is technology so that we’re all connected to the same database. That is everybody’s got the same app, the contact tracers that there’s privacy built into that, meaning that if someone tests positive and they have five contacts in the last 48 hours, that the five contact names and phone numbers which come from this person who was COVID positive, right, that those five contacts are contacted, but not told where they may have come in contact with somebody who’s COVID positive. So the privacy is maintained for the patient. And then the contacts are made directly to the people who need to be contacted. It’s an enormous endeavor, think about it today we had 1100 reported positive cases, in prior days we’ve had 2500 even 3000 on one day. Think about that, multiply that by three or four or five contacts over the prior 48 hours remember 2000 every day, times three or four or five, you know that’s a lot of contacts to make. So you need more than the hundreds of contact tracers that we have. So what we’re doing is working with local departments of public health, to make sure that they get contact tracing dollars, so that they can higher contact tracers and a few other community resource workers and so on, to make sure that we’re contacting everybody. And then that we’re providing those people with resources in the local community. Because if you have to isolate for 14 days, that may not be an easy thing for many people. And so if you need a hotel room, motel room to separate from your family for 14 days. We want to make sure you get fed, we have wraparound services, everything is taken care of for you. If you’re going to remain in your own home and you live alone. We need somebody to deliver groceries and you know other services pharmaceuticals and so on that you may need. So that’s all the case one last thing.
How big is it and how long is it gonna take? We’re at about 30% of the contact tracing that we need today. We’re doing about 30% of the contacts. We need to get above 60%. You might say why not 100%? Because there are many people who don’t want to be contacted who never will answer the phone, you know, lots of reasons some, some people who are COVID positive, who won’t give you names.
So we’re going to get to hopefully about 60 plus percent, it’s going to take us weeks and weeks I can’t tell you how long I mean some people think it will take through August to do it. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do it much faster than that. But as we fast as we can. We’re getting the dollars out to the counties, so that they can do the hiring that they need.
Sorry. It was a three parter or something and I wanted to make sure I gave you a full answer.
* Over the weekend, IDPH began posting a statistic called the recovery rate was 92% as of Tuesday. Can you explain that figure and what does it tell us about the nature of the virus?…
What we’re trying to do is to make sure that people understand that when you get COVID-19. It is not a death sentence. When you get COVID-19. In fact about 80% of people who get COVID-19 are experiencing mild symptoms to moderate symptoms, and then recover. It’s really 20%, or so, get it and have something more serious. That doesn’t mean they’re going to a hospital necessarily, but I think all of us at this point knows somebody who has had COVID-19 who has been sick at home, and had a hard time and then recovered.
Also, some of us know people who have had to go in the hospital, and then have passed away. And so, about 1% little less than 1% of people get COVID-19 passed away that’s the international statistic anyway. So what we’re talking about is, you know, trying to report a number that shows how many people have already had COVID-19 that have recovered. Now what I just gave you is a statistic of, if you took a snapshot at somebody of a bunch of people who got at the same time, you’d have 1% 18% and 80% roughly speaking, so the 92% is a reflection of many people who’ve recovered and have gone about their lives and haven’t gotten COVID-19 again. So that’s what we’re trying to give a number we had not before provided a recovery number. But people have asked us to try to put that number out so we are.
* Would it be feasible for Chicago to serve as a hub city for NHL whenever it returns?…
So actually, as you know the state is the one that sets the parameters for any play that might exist in the state. And then the city of Chicago, of course has the ability to be more stringent than the state’s parameters. So we’ve gotten contact by all of the major leagues right by NHL as well as MLB and NFL and so on. And, look, I am as anxious as I think many people are to get our sports up and running again. The problem is we can’t put spectators in the stands today, there’s just no way to do that safely. According to the doctors, what the leagues have asked is not for that, what they’ve asked is for the ability to run games. You know whether we’re talking about hockey or baseball or football at this moment they’re asking for the ability to run games televised with no spectators. Even that as you can imagine, think about two teams. You know all of the surrounding people that work for the team involved. It’s a lot of people. So we’ve worked with them they’ve actually come up with reasonably good plans each one of the leaks. And I’m anxious, starting with baseball. To get baseball up and running again and I’m hopeful that we will be able to do that. Going into July, but NHL I can’t answer what the timing will be when the Blackhawks will be added. But again, we’re working with every League, NBA NHL included.
* Earlier this month, Las Vegas casino started offering sports book betting [garbled]…
So customers will ask, well how big it is and we’re working on them. And we’re also working on the ability for people to do it in person somewhere to sign up for the app to allow them to [bet].
* Personal care guidelines for massage therapy to last 30 minutes or less. Many massage therapists are commissioned by the hour…
[Paraphrase: The guidance may be more about keeping a therapist safe.] I’ll bring that to the doctors I’m not making those individual specific decisions about massage therapy for example. But, but as it’s raised here and I’m sure that people have communicated with IDPH on the subject or dceo as a hotline that you can call if you’re in the industry. So I’ll bring that back to the experts and raise the issue to them.
* What is the earliest point that you think a Chicago casino can be up and running? Do you have any thoughts for the mayor to consider about what the best location in the city would be? Also, can you provide an update about when Illinois existing casinos will reopen, and what specific social distancing requirements?…
I’m not going to dictate to the Chicago City Council, or the mayor when they would start. They have to contract with a lot of people before they could even begin to, they have to choose a site and then start building, but they also have to have a partnership with casino operator. So I can’t tell you when that’ll happen. But I would certainly encourage them to do it as soon as they can.
Now, Let me say that I’m not going to dictate the location of that either or try to discourage or encourage you know I’m very interested in making sure that that we create the most number of jobs, the sooner that they’re able to get it up and running by the way, the better off the people of Illinois will be the people of Chicago to, because there’s a benefit not just to the city of Chicago, but a lot of revenue that will come to the state of Illinois, some of which will come here to St. Clair County. As a result of its funding of infrastructure, because that’s where a lot of those dollars will go.
And the last part of that question was, keep providing an update about what’s specific. No, I mean I honestly, it’s not something in phase three. There certainly are casino owners in the state of Illinois who have presented their ideas for that, but it does, it’s not going to be happening in the next phase. So I have to admit I have not focused specifically on it and in the end. I don’t know what the doctors will say or how long it will take them to kind of agree on something I know that we’re everybody’s looking at Las Vegas and wondering how they’re going to be able to do it, they’ve got rules in place. And, you know, I have to say it looks difficult to me but I am anxious to see what the plans are that the casinos will present.
* Will live horse racing restart on June one, if so what might that look like?…
I don’t think it’ll restart on June one. I think live horse racing will restart. I can’t tell you what date, but again it will be like other spectator sports where you would have to run without spectators at least to begin with.
* Today, Dr Willie Wilson sent a letter to President Trump and Attorney General William Barr asking them to intervene on behalf of churches to help those that desire to worship consistent with the recommendations or guidelines issued by the CDC. Your reaction?…
Well, we’ve done a lot to open churches to provide guidelines for churches and indeed we’ve asked churches to bring us their plans for how to open safely. I want as much as anybody to make sure that people who want to worship in church or a mosque or a synagogue, to be able to do that. I think it’s an extraordinarily personal important thing to so many people across the state of Illinois. I also want to make sure that people people don’t get sick doing it. And so we’ve [provided] guidance for drive up services. We are working with churches on outdoor services. And then the question is, what’s the population that you could get inside? What’s the capacity that you could have inside a church on any given Sunday, as they say any given day? One is having a service, and we just want to make sure that people are safe so you know we’re doing that, the doctors are working on that. As you have heard Dr Ezike say she would like very much for services to go back to some sort of indoor services. So, I am hopeful that we will be able to accomplish something even more than we’re already doing but we’re working very hard to get there.
* The john deere classic is scheduled to begin July 6 in the Quad Cities. The PGA Tour has yet to announce that fans will be allowed to attend the event. Are conversations of any type you and your staff had with the PGA Tour about the event? And is there any scenario in which fans would be allowed?…
I can’t answer that question. I know the PGA has been in touch with my staff the Illinois PGA has anyway. And I just don’t know what the status of those discussions are.
* What does it mean for the future of health healthcare that a hospital Transformation Program [did not pass in the legislature], particularly for hospitals on Chicago’s South Side that say they can no longer move forward but applying pressure now to the legislature. What can or should be done to help residents in these areas?…
This is extremely difficult because I want that transformation to take place as soon as possible. Four hospitals that were looking to merge for in total, a billion dollars in order to make that transformation, take place at this moment with so many things in flux about our state budget. It was nearly impossible for the General Assembly to go forward with a billion dollar program. And I know that that timing makes it very very difficult for those hospitals. We have a real challenge in the state simultaneously with the introduction of Obamacare, which has been so tremendous for expanding health care in our state. We also have had challenges for hospitals that now are doing much more outpatient and not inpatient, and so the result of that is the hospitals don’t have as much business revenue coming in the door, as they were before Obamacare became the law. Now, so you’d have hospitals transforming trying to figure out how to operate with more outpatient procedures to specialize a little more and so on. And then along comes COVID-19, where now that some hospitals have closed. Here we have COVID-19 where we need more healthcare providers. And we have an outbreak and a pandemic and something that’s really affecting much of the population. And so these things are kind of cross currents occurring with a budget that is, you know, has been very, very difficult, revenues dropping off and so on. So I just say there’s a situation none of us wanted to be in. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get to hospital transformation with the assistance again with federal government help to replace revenues that are lost. We want to get back to Transforming Health Care across the state so that everybody gets it, and that we have enough facilities.
* Question about movie theaters being reopening soon…
Yes, but not for phase three. It’s something that we’ve contemplated for phase four, lower capacity and so on but not in phase three. And I know that the theater owners would like it to be in phase three it’s just, it’s very difficult to imagine it happening. Having said that, as we look at how we might do things in churches, you know, the kind of the seating, the way that seating works out in a church looks very much acts very much like it would in a theater, for example, and so we’ll be looking at how we can work these out churches, and then move to the question of theaters.
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1,111 new cases, 160 additional deaths
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,111 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 160 additional deaths.
Clinton County: 1 male 60s
Coles County: 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 100+
Cook County: 1 female 30s, 2 males 40s, 3 females 50s, 4 males 50s, 8 females 60s, 14 males 60s, 7 females 70s, 20 males 70s, 17 females 80s, 13 males 80s, 8 females 90s, 4 males 90s, 1 unknown 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
Kane County: 1 female 60s, 3 females 70s, 3 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 90s
Kankakee County: 1 female 80s
Lake County: 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 1 male 60s, 4 females 70s, 1 male 70s, 2 females 80s, 1 male 80s, 7 females 90s, 2 males 90s
Madison County: 1 unknown 70s
McDonough County: 1 male 80s, 1 female 90s
McHenry County: 1 male 80s
McLean County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 90s
Randolph County: 1 female 80s
Rock Island County: 1 female 80s
Sangamon County: 1 female 80s
Will County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s
Williamson County: 1 male 50s
Winnebago County: 1 female 50s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 114,306 cases, including 5,083 deaths, in 100 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 17,179 specimens for a total of 803,973. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity from May 20-26 is 8.6%.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered.
I’ll post hospitalization numbers when I get them.
…Adding… The governor said that, as of midnight last night, 3,826 are in the hospital with COVID-19, of those 1,031 are in the ICU and 592 are on a ventilator.
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COVID-19 roundup
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* CNN…
Antibody tests used to determine if people have been infected in the past with Covid-19 might be wrong up to half the time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in new guidance posted on its website.
Antibody tests, often called serologic tests, look for evidence of an immune response to infection. “Antibodies in some persons can be detected within the first week of illness onset,” the CDC says.
They are not accurate enough to use to make important policy decisions, the CDC said.
“Serologic test results should not be used to make decisions about grouping persons residing in or being admitted to congregate settings, such as schools, dormitories, or correctional facilities,” the CDC says.
The guidance is here.
* Hannah Meisel…
Of the $4.9 billion Illinois received under the CARES Act, the state took $2.7 billion and local governments were to receive $2.2 billion. Of that, Illinois’ five largest counties — Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will and Kane — received $1.4 billion.
But before lawmakers gathered last week in Springfield, there had been a fight brewing over whether those five counties would be required to pass their funds onto their local governments, or whether those municipalities would be on their own to fight for a share that went to the state.
The budget implementation bill passed by the General Assembly over the weekend ended that debate. It stipulates that municipalities from those five counties are not, in fact, directly eligible for state CARES Act money, and will have to get their share of federal money through distributed from the counties.
Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes said the administration agreed.
“I don’t believe it was the intent of the federal government to just give counties $300 or $400 million to spend,” Hynes said.
The City of Chicago’s federal distribution was included in that $1.4 billion, by the way.
* WAND…
The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) of Illinois is submitting a plan to Gov. JB Pritzker that would allow movie theaters to reopen sooner than in Phase 4 of his Restore Illinois plan.
Under the governor’s plan, theaters cannot open until June 26th at the earliest, with a strict limit of 50 people per auditorium, something NATO says is an arbitrary number, since some theaters can hold 1,000 people.
The proposed plan would call for theaters to be allowed to reopen with 50 percent of their seating capacity, which NATO says is the standard proposed by the governor for restaurants and bars.
…Adding… From the governor’s office…
Indoor movie theatres are slated to reopen with public health guidance in phase four. Theatres are higher risk environments because people spend significant amounts of time in close proximity. Every phase of the Restore Illinois program is guided by the public health experts and listening to the experts has proven successful thus far. The administration looks forward to working with industry to ensure a safe reopening in a few weeks if health metrics indicate the state is ready.
* CBS 2…
Gov. JB Pritzker is asking the Illinois Appellate Court to vacate a temporary restraining order granted to a Clay County business owner and his tanning salon, essentially exempting them from the statewide stay-at-home order.
James Mainer and HCL Deluxe Tan had filed a new lawsuit on Thursday, seeking to have the governor’s executive order declared null and void. At a hearing on Friday, Mainer and HCL Deluxe sought a temporary restraining order barring the governor from enforcing the order statewide, but instead Clay County Judge Michael McHaney granted an order only for Mainer and his business.
Mainer is challenging the governor’s authority to extend his stay-at-home order beyond the first 30 days of his original disaster proclamation.
* From the filing…
As support for their theory, plaintiffs cite a 2001 informal letter drafted by a member of former Attorney General Jim Ryan’s staff. But this letter— which applied to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease affecting livestock in Illinois —has no binding effect and was superseded by a formal Attorney General opinion.
That new AG opinion is here.
* On to Tribune live blog headlines…
Cook County courts will remain in shutdown mode until July 6
Large majority of CPS students participate in remote learning, but more than 2,200 have had no contact with teachers
Jury trials again put off at federal court in Chicago
AP poll: Only about half of Americans would get a COVID-19 vaccine
CBOE to reopen trading floor, but with far fewer traders and a lot more rules
Congress shifts focus to overhauling Paycheck Protection Program
Deaths of more than two dozen residents of Far North Side nursing home tied to COVID-19: ‘It seemed like there was nothing we could do’
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle vetoes ‘extraordinarily bad’ plan to share coronavirus-positive addresses with first responders
The General Assembly adjourned its special pandemic session in the wee hours of a holiday weekend. Here’s what you might have missed.
More space at restaurants, masks at daycares: Here’s a closer look at Lightfoot’s guidelines for phase 3 of Chicago’s reopening plan
Chicago releases rules for restaurants to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic — but no date yet
Lightfoot announces plans to train hundreds of people to track the spread of the coronavirus
Summer camps are canceling and parents are scrambling: The search for sitters who embrace social distancing
* Sun-Times live blog headlines…
39 more die in Illinois of COVID-19 as all regions of state set to move to Phase 3 on Friday
Radiologists scrap fall event at McCormick Place
Pritzker ready to toast ‘cocktails-to-go’ — but Lightfoot wants a chaser
Nurse fired from Norwood Park senior home for pointing out COVID-19 safety issues: lawsuit
CPD Supt.: Stay-at-home order contributed to most violent Memorial Day weekend since 2015
Temperature checks on deck: Reopening guidelines usher in new normal
Isn’t it time everyone had enough?
As doctors, we are taught ‘First, do no harm.’ That becomes harder during a pandemic
Nobody should ever liken a stay-at-home order to Anne Frank’s hiding in an attic or a Japanese American internment camp
What we leave behind and what we welcome as city moves toward reopening
Cook County’s death toll in less than five months surpasses last year’s entire tally: ‘We do not believe that these deaths had to occur’
Museum of Science and Industry cuts 84 jobs
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Question of the day
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Brenden Moore at the SJ-R…
The Springfield Police Department has issued a cease-and-desist notice to a local restaurant that opened for dine-in service in defiance of Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order. […]
[Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow] said law enforcement often gets caught in the middle when seeking to enforce orders while understanding the struggle people are going through.
“We all empathize with the small business and the struggles that they are going through right now,” Winslow said. “But on the other hand, how do you treat somebody different from those who are compliant and doing the right thing versus somebody who’s openly defiant? … We get caught in the middle … we’ve gotten called by employees. … We’ve gotten calls by competitors. We’ve gotten called by the state. So everybody has an opinion on this … and again, we’re not the jury on these. We’re not the judge on these. We simply just forward that information to the appropriate (agencies) and they can take whatever enforcement action they choose to take.”
Emphasis added because this is something that’s often lost in the media circus surrounding the violators. Law-abiding competitors are often the ones lodging complaints.
* Meanwhile, this is from that NPR story we discussed yesterday…
Eating indoors at a restaurant: medium to high risk
Indoor dining “is still amongst the riskier things you can do,” [Dr. Emily Landon, a hospital epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist at University of Chicago Medicine] warns. The trouble is, says [Dr. William Miller, an epidemiologist at Ohio State University], “people tend to linger in restaurants. So even if spacing is OK, the duration of exposure is longer.” Also, he says, talking “appears to lead to some release of the virus.”
[Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician and public health researcher at Harvard Medical School] notes that one outbreak in Guangzhou, China, took place in a restaurant with no windows and poor ventilation, and the air conditioning appears to have blown droplets between tables.
What alters risk? [Dr. Andrew Janowski, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Washington University in St. Louis] says the risk level depends on how well the restaurant has adapted for the pandemic. Eateries should reduce and space out seating, require servers to wear masks and offer easy access to hand-washing stations.
They should also provide single-use options for condiments so you don’t have to touch shared ones, says Janowski. And they should close all self-serve areas like soda fountains or buffet tables.
If you do go to a restaurant, look for outdoor seating. Landon says she would go with only members of her household, because “I don’t want to have to take my mask off in the close proximity of a bunch of other people.”
* The Question: Do you plan to eat outdoors at a restaurant after your region enters Phase 3 (most likely this Friday)? Explain.
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* From the governor’s press briefing yesterday…
I just read yesterday that there was a 16% increase in hospitalizations in the state of Wisconsin since the stay at home order was rejected by their Supreme Court, and a 30% increase in Milwaukee in hospitalizations. So I think that’s an example of what can happen if people don’t follow the mitigations that are supposed to be put in place that are supposed to keep people healthy and safe. So I would caution people.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the governor’s stay at home order on May 13.
Pritzker appears to have been on the low side. According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose statewide by 19.4 percent between May 13 and yesterday.
The state’s southeast region, which includes Milwaukee, saw its COVID-19 hospitalizations rise 23.4 percent.
And Milwaukee County reported a rise in hospital bed usage of 33.3 percent during the same time period.
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* From the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living…
Hello Rich – Below is the combined cost for COVID-19 testing of every resident and staff of assisted living communities in addition to nursing homes which would cost $672 million nationwide. Click here to download or view a pdf version.
Last week, I sent you cost estimates for testing all residents and staff in nursing homes just once which would cost $440 million nationwide. Today, we are building on that data to include the additional cost to test all residents and staff of assisted living communities, which AHCA/NCAL strongly supports, with an additional cost of $232 million.
Below are quotes from AHCA and NCAL as well as an explanation on the difference between nursing homes and assisted living communities. As we pointed out last week, ongoing testing carries unsustainable costs without continued support from federal and state governments. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Beth
Difference between Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Communities:
• Generally, assisted living communities offer person-centered care to individuals who need some assistance with activities of daily living, but who do not require round-the-clock skilled nursing care, like those residing in nursing centers.
• Many nursing homes are also known as skilled nursing rehabilitation centers, meaning they offer therapy to individuals following a hospital stay to help them return to the community.
• While assisted living communities may offer some therapy services on-site, they focus more on offering a home-like, long term care environment that maximizes independence.
AHCA/NCAL Statements On Why Assisted Living Facilities Need Support In Response to COVID-19:
• “For months now, we have been advocating for expanded and priority testing in long term care facilities to protect our residents and caregivers, but this is a significant undertaking and cost for them to shoulder on their own. Assisted living communities have yet to receive any direct aid, despite also serving vulnerable seniors. While building on support received from HHS, we are asking for additional consideration for all long term care facilities, whether it be in regard to additional testing, personal protective equipment, or funding.” Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of American Health Care Association and National Center of Assisted Living
• “With seniors among those most susceptible to the virus, the assisted living profession, in particular, is facing historic challenges when it comes to our most sacred charge – the health and safety of our residents. Unfortunately, shortages of testing and PPE continue to be a challenge nationwide and because assisted living communities are not medical facilities, they have not been prioritized for testing or supplies. We encourage our elected leaders to prioritize our most vulnerable and those who care for them in long-term care settings as they allocate these critical resources.” Scott Tittle, Executive Director of the National Center for Assisted Living
If you look at the chart, they claim 4,480,295 tests would be needed to test residents and staff one time. Over the past seven days, the average daily testing number was 386,318 (even though the President of the United States said a month ago that the country would soon be testing 5 million people per day). So, at that rate, it would take 11.6 days to accomplish the goal if the nation diverted all tests to nursing home and assisted living residents and workers. And it would cost $672 million. For one round.
According to the AHCA/NCAL, Illinois would need to perform 180,032 tests to cover all residents/employees. Over the past seven days, Illinois has tested an average of 23,587 people every day. So, it would take 7.6 days to test all residents and workers if the state diverted all testing to that purpose. And it would cost $27 million. Again, for just one round.
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* Shot…
Lightfoot also called “fundamentally untrue” a Twitter claim by Chance the Rapper that Chicago Police have been more aggressive in enforcing the stay-at-home order in African-American neighborhoods than they have in predominantly white neighborhoods.
Lightfoot said she starts her day looking at two pivotal numbers — overnight violence and police dispersal orders.
“I can tell you, based upon the statistics we’ve been keeping now for weeks, those dispersal orders are happening all over the city. Yes, in white areas, in Latinx areas, in monied areas of the city,” she said.
“Why the media doesn’t report that with equal interest — well, I think there’s probably some answers to that. But the reality is that the Chicago Police Department is active and engaged all over the city and doing it with an eye toward equity. And I would have it no other way as mayor of this city.”
* Chaser…
Despite the mayor’s claim that police have enforced social distancing equally across Chicago, data shows almost all arrests and citations for congregating have been issued on the city’s South and West sides.
All 13 arrests and 11 of 13 citations have been issued in majority-Black and Latino neighborhoods on the South and West sides, according to public records obtained by Block Club Chicago.
Between March 20 and May 21, 13 people were arrested for violating the stay at home orders. Ten were Black, one was white and two were juveniles whose race and arrest reports were withheld.
Thirteen others received citations. Of those, 11 were located in majority-minority neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. Detailed reports and demographic information were not provided for the citations. […]
Block Club has requested the number of dispersals of groups per police district. Chicago Police did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the dispersal order statistics by police district are available to the mayor every morning, perhaps she can now make those reports available to the public.
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Stay Safe Today, Be Vigilant For Tomorrow
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
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* Hilarious…
An Illinois lawmaker dissatisfied with Gov. JB Pritzker’s handling of the large number of COVID-19-related unemployment claims is calling on his colleagues to support an effort to remove the governor from office.
Republican Rep. Allen Skillicorn, of Crystal Lake, said lack of staffing at the Illinois Department of Employment Security and its website’s disclosure of sensitive information is evidence of Pritzker’s “continued inaction.”
After issuing a news release notifying residents of his initiative, Skillicorn told reporters in a video news conference Tuesday he “would actually prefer to avoid coverage.”
“This is a nonpartisan issue. This is about the people of Illinois,” he said. “This is not my voice, it’s the voice of over 1 million people in Illinois that are now unemployed. … It’s not about me. It’s not about my party.”
Narrator: “It’s about him.”
* Reminder of the constitutional requirements…
The recall of the Governor may be proposed by a petition signed by a number of electors equal in number to at least 15% of the total votes cast for Governor in the preceding gubernatorial election, with at least 100 signatures from each of at least 25 separate counties. A petition shall have been signed by the petitioning electors not more than 150 days after an affidavit has been filed with the State Board of Elections providing notice of intent to circulate a petition to recall the Governor. The affidavit may be filed no sooner than 6 months after the beginning of the Governor’s term of office. The affidavit shall have been signed by the proponent of the recall petition, at least 20 members of the House of Representatives, and at least 10 members of the Senate, with no more than half of the signatures of members of each chamber from the same established political party.
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It’s working!
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* NBC 5…
As much of Illinois prepares for its next stage of reopening, Gov. J.B. Pritzker says numbers show the state may be coming down from a peak.
“We seem to have come off the peak,” Pritzker said during his daily coronavirus press briefing Tuesday.
The state of Illinois is set to move forward into phase three of the “Restore Illinois” plan Friday, and Pritzker says that despite reopening more portions of the state’s economy earlier this month, coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations are continuing to trend in the right direction.
The comments echo ones made by Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who reported the first week-over-week decline in COVID-19 deaths for Illinois so far this pandemic. Ezike said she hoped the decline marks the start of a “downward trend,” but noted “until we have a definitive cure and vaccine, we must prevent further spread.”
The governor also pointed out yesterday that COVID-related hospitalizations have dropped to a six-week low…
* The work is paying off…
Only one state has met all of the criteria contained in guidelines issued by the federal government for safely reopening businesses and easing social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis by ProPublica. Despite the lack of progress by the overwhelming majority of states, Donald Trump is still pushing them to reopen.
ProPublica based its analysis on state-level data, updated daily, for five metrics stemming from the guidelines for reopening issued by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its metrics are the number of positive tests per 100,000 people; the percentage of tests that are positive; the number of tests per 100,000 per day; the availability of ICU beds; and the number of hospital visits for “flu-like illness.”
Thirty states have met only three of the goals or fewer, and three of them — Alabama, Alaska, and West Virginia — have met only one of the five.
As of Tuesday, Illinois was the only state to have met all five.
The analysis is here.
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Open thread
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Keep it Illinois-centric and respectful. Thanks
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Pritzker hits the road
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Subscribers were told about this the other day. From a press release with some contact information redacted by me…
Daily Public Schedule: Wednesday, May 27, 2020
* BROLL OPPORTUNITY *
What: Gov. Pritzker to tour flood preparedness operation along the Illinois River.
Where: Meredosia North Levee, 403 Lake Road, Meredosia
When: 10:00 a.m.
Note: Due to social distancing guidelines, IOCI will provide broll coverage of this event. The broll will be available for download HERE.
What: Gov. Pritzker to hold media availability.
Where: Meredosia City Hall, 924 IL 104, Meredosia
When: 10:45 a.m.
Note: Questions can be sent to the pool reporter: xxx OR to xxx.
What: The Pritzker administration to hold a daily press briefing on COVID-19.
Where: Jackie Joyner Kersee Center, 101 Jackie Joyner Kersee Cir, East St. Louis
When: 2:30 p.m.
Watch live: https://www.Illinois.gov/LiveVideo
Note: Questions can be sent to the pool reporter: xxx OR toxxx. IOCI will provide coverage of this event, available for download HERE.
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* The governor talked about some good news on hospitalization rates and then took questions: The last time we were here was prior to the announcement of your staffer who was diagnosed. Can you give us a quick update on how that person is doing?…
That person is fully recovered, that person is back at work, and doing just fine. So thank you for asking.
Make sure to pardon all transcription errors.
* I have a list of questions here. A lot of them have to do with Allen Skillicorn this morning announcing that he was going to be going out with a recall affidavit for you, claiming you failed to stay with IDES, and you’ve overstepped your authority. Can you respond to that affidavit?…
Well I’m glad to hear that the representative apparently has changed his mind and now believes that we ought to fund state government instead of hollowing out the way that he has voted over the course of his career. Because it is a fact that IDES and other agencies like the Department of Public Health have been frankly left behind after many years of representatives like that one voting to have a budget stalemate for two years in which we had no budget, and no funding for our budget in the state, and has consistently voted against budgets that would fund vital agencies that we now frankly need very badly in this pandemic.
* He said you were late to the ball game to respond and prepare for knowing that your stay at home or was going to cause millions of people to be called not essential and to lose their jobs. He said more should have been done sooner, how much of this problem do you bear responsibility for?…
I think what he forgets is that the stay at home order, which is very much like what’s happened all across the nation, was a vitally important part of slowing down the transmission levels of COVID-19. Many many fewer people have died, many many fewer people have gone into ICU beds or hospital beds than would have had we not acted quickly at the beginning and in the middle of this. Remember what [garbled] the doctor who stood here on the day that we put the stay at home order in place, said, which is, you know, the consequence of all the work that we did is nothing will happen. I understand his point, his point is that now that you see things I assume that he wanted the stay at home order at the beginning, although he never has expressed that
* What he said today was in effect that you should have anticipated. So many people were going to filing for unemployment should have done more with a website sooner should have hired more people sooner to deal with what he says you should have anticipated…
Well, you couldn’t possibly anticipate that we would have a number of unemployment filings that was an enormous multiple of that which occurred during the Great Recession. Nobody expected that, nobody knew in fact, when this pandemic would begin to subside in any way. In fact, the pandemic itself has not, but the reaction of the people of Illinois has really kept people safe. So the IDES website was designed 10 years ago, we’ve talked about this and. And of course, when this became clear that we were going to see a rush of applications. We acted as quickly as we could with a system that frankly you can’t just snap your fingers and replace. You have to be as I have often said, you’re building the plane while trying to fly it and you’re trying to fly it well, putting a million passengers on board, an almost impossible job but one that IDES has handled as best it could. Now, the number of people who man the phones, I have to say that there are federal requirements for the training of somebody who answers the phone because of the privacy considerations. And so we’ve only been able to grow that very modestly. We brought everybody that we could to the front line to answer phones we’ve expanded the number of phone lines, put new systems in. So people are getting their calls answered, and about the clip of 2000 per day. And we continue to work very, very hard to respond to people who could not get their application filed online but again I want to say to anybody out there that has not filed for unemployment that needs to file for unemployment, that your best bet is to go online that system is now handling, many many many multiples of what it could handle at the very beginning of this epidemic. And I want people to make sure that they get the unemployment benefits that they deserve.
* In New York, they got help from Google to get their site up and running. Do more people need to be hired for the phone lines and should another company be brought in to help with the computer system?…
Well as with New York we brought in outside contractors as well. And that’s why our systems are working so much better now than they were at the very beginning. And so I want to compliment the people that IDES working with outside contractors to expand that online capability, as I said just a moment ago. We’re bringing people on as fast as we can, but again with the requirements for the the federal government puts on who can be on those phone lines, really managing incoming filings. What we’ve done is tried to offload the calls that aren’t individual privacy consideration calls and tried to either put them to people who are not trained at taking by the federal government level two, taking those filings. So they can take the kind of helplines sorts of calls or when people go online, they now have the ability to speak with somebody online on a chatbot.
* Over the weekend, first of all, so many people are out and about. My colleague Sarah Sheltie is asking about this memorial day weekend. First of all, were you in Lake Geneva at all and if not, did you at least see the video of all the people that crowded the streets around the lake there as well as the Indiana Dunes and what’s your reaction to so many people, most of these people are probably coming from Illinois just ignoring all the social distancing we’re doing here, going to these other states, and then coming back?…
Well, the answer to the first part of that question is I think you’ve seen me every day on camera with this backdrop, or in Springfield, for the last 75 days or so. I have not been out of the state for, I don’t know since before sometime in very early March before this pandemic hit, before we had a disaster declared in the state.
So that’s the answer to the first part of that question. In terms of people who are going and partying and not wearing masks, leaving the state, doing things that are essentially against the rules here in Illinois. But okay in some other state I think I just want to point out that I just read yesterday that there was a 16% increase in hospitalizations in the state of Wisconsin since the stay at home order was rejected by their Supreme Court, and a 30% increase in Milwaukee in hospitalizations. So I think that’s an example of what can happen if people don’t follow the mitigations that are supposed to be put in place that are supposed to keep people healthy and safe. So I would caution people.
Look, nobody stopped anybody from traveling, that’s never been the case, anybody can travel. What we’ve suggested to Illinois residents because we want Illinois residents to be safe, is to follow the same rules for yourself when you travel that you would have if you were at home. To see these crowds I am terribly dismayed frankly I think that the challenge here is I want every resident of Illinois safe I want them to keep themselves safe. They have the ability to do that. And so people who choose not to either, haven’t been reading the newspaper, aren’t following the rules, don’t seem to understand how dangerous this pandemic is. And I want to be clear to everybody that’s watching and to all the reporters, so that you can report it out, the pandemic is still here. Just because the numbers are moving in the right direction in the state of Illinois, that does not mean that the virus has gone away. It’s still there. The reason that we’re doing so much better here in Illinois than we would otherwise have is because people have worn face coverings, that people are washing their hands, they’re doing the things to keep themselves safe, that they should be doing and following the executive orders that I’ve put in place.
* Some Illinois houses of worship have capacities of hundreds or even thousands California’s letting them reopen with capacity limits this weekend as long as they don’t have more than 100 people at a time. In which phase do you plan to allow houses of worship to be able to do the same. And to that point. Have you asked IDPH to come up with guidelines for churches for when they could open?…
We’ve done even more than that Craig, we’ve asked churches to come with their ideas about how they can do it safely. As you’ve seen, we have allowed drive up services. We are working with churches for outdoor services. We want people to be able to worship. I think it’s vitally important. All we want to make sure is that when they do it that they’re safe and so we’ll work with any churches, or taking plans for churches and trying to work with them you saw that the Catholic Church came up with a very workable plan that I think is, you know, something a model for people to follow. So I encourage anybody that has an interest in putting forward a plan to do it safely because I know the vast majority of faith leaders just want to do it right they want to keep their parishioners safe as IDPH began the process of coming up with its own guidelines, much like they did with the legislature for them.
* Darren Bailey’s case was in court downstate. My colleague Mike Flannery just asked, the US Department of Justice, saying the stay at home order exceeded your legal power under state law, and that a state judge should handle this case rather than transferring to federal court. No decision made on that today but what is your take on that, what’s your response to the offense getting involved last Friday?…
It’ll be made by a federal judge about whether the case should go to federal court, but they’re clearly those cases have as their basis some accusation that a constitutional right is being taken away. And so, that’s a federal matter if it’s a constitutional right. So they’re just wrong. I understand that that the justice department, which is very much under the political thumb of the White House, is encouraging their appointees to weigh in on things like this. It’s a highly political thing to do, very unusual if you ask most people that have served in those capacities in the past. But, that’s what the White House has chosen to do.
* The ban on evictions is set to expire on Friday, along with your stay at home order that you said, that order will be extended to allow the state to enter into phase three. Will a continued ban on evictions be part of that new order?…
Yes.
* What is the state doing to help fund COVID-19 therapies and can you provide any update on antibody testing information that the state has and why is that not being reported?…
Dr. Ezike: It’s a loaded question. So, the state itself is not the one that does research itself to identify, we don’t have labs where we’re trying to come up with the therapies. Once those therapies go through their normal process and then are FDA approved of course they’ll be used throughout the state so it’s not really within the purview of IDPH.
Your second question was regarding antibody testing. So yes, there is antibody testing that has been happening through the state. Again, I think, as we may have discussed in the past, there’s still a lot of questions out there regarding the significance of the antibody tests. We know that we have a way to look and see if people may be developing antibodies. There are different types of antibodies there’s the [garbled] antibody there’s the [garbled] antibody. And so trying to figure out what level of antibody would would then pretend immunity and if it does pretend immunity is it. How long is that immunity for so not being able to answer those questions not having any reference standards that we can use. We can’t do much with it now. We did convene a group of infectious disease epidemiologists immunologist and biologists to review this issue and see if there was a more definitive role for antibody tests in the state of Illinois, to help with the reopening plan and and that team of experts did deliver that report and said, at this time, we can’t do anything with it yet but we are hoping we will get to a point where it can have a more prominent role in decision making and plans and determining herd immunity etc.
* Can you clarify the numbers when we look at the number of positive COVID-19 tests that does that indicate the number of people infected, when people have multiple tests throughout their illness are those tests counted in the total positive test numbers….
Dr. Ezike: We know that certain people may have multiple specimens that were taken and so if you want to have the positivity rate for people over people tested total positive people over people tested total that would give you that would be comparing the same thing and the numerator and the denominator and so we want to give. How many people are actually positive cases over how many people were totally tested and so that is the number that we’re trying to give as the percent positivity and so we’re trying to make sure that that’s what the data represents, and that’s what we’re trying to report going forward.
Pritzker: It appears to be a very small number of people who are getting multiple tests. So it isn’t like there’s some massive overstatement of the number of positives but it’s very unusual to for people to go get multiple tests.
* A southern Illinois winery announced they will not be requiring their staff to wear masks because they can be a quote reservoir for COVID-19 particles and quote create a false sense of security and risk our staff and guests’ health. Are there any kind of special precautions or considerations wineries across the state should be considering as they move into phase three?…
Dr. Ezike: I think an important point to mention there is that if someone is wearing a mask, again, the primary goal was that you were not expelling a virus. So if someone was wearing their mask we were at a place, a place of business and establishment, and they thought that they were spewing out virus that would suggest that you thought you had infection and were not staying home, and were risking spreading that. So I would say, as the first word of caution, I would say, if you think you are ill or you have signs that you are ill, you should be staying home in the first place and probably shouldn’t be at any place of business. But then in general, when people are a symptomatically transmitting the virus, we know that if there are two people. If one person has the virus. If they wore a mask and this individual didn’t, there would be a lower transmission lower risk of spread because this person had a mass. If both of them were wearing a mask there would be an even lower risk of spread. If both of them were wearing a mask and staying socially distance is six feet, even lower. So, we know that each of these measures are additive and help decrease the overall risk of transmission. And so I think all of our goals should be to decrease transmission because in fact, despite even having a negative test yesterday you could be positive today. And since we don’t know when we’re seeing that there’s a growing amount of asymptomatic transmission, we should all be employing every tool at our disposal to decrease the possibility of transmission.
* Do you recommend self quarantining for anyone who visited Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day weekend? It’s a popular destination for folks in the metro east and some Missouri counties in Kansas have issued a self quarantine recommendation…
Dr. Ezike: I would just say that that is some of the risk that we all are subject to as things start to open up. You know, things will, I think the whole state is going to evolve into phase three. And as you think about going for that haircut, you don’t really know where, you know, the people helping you or people, other people in the shop you don’t know where they have been. And so yes I would love if everyone around me who thinks they have been in a high risk place could stand down, but it’s probably not going to happen. But the least that we can do is to wear our mask and promote the social distancing so that if someone does have something we can decrease the amount of transmission that would be possible to the best of our abilities with the techniques that we have available to us.
* Since both an administrative rule and proposed statute to tighten enforcement have failed to advance, are there any real teeth to your emergency orders what will the state do to those who violate the orders?…
Yeah, well we’re left with the enforcement mechanisms that we have, or any rules that we may put forward going forward. But as you know, I talked about this. We’ve tried to avoid using those other methods of enforcement and that includes taking away people’s license to do business, and includes the possibility of closing a business. Those are not things that I wanted. In fact, I asked, implored the legislature to give me a tool. Our intention when we put an emergency order forward was to have the ability and emergency rule rather forward was to have the ability to simply to issue a citation which is a much lower level of consequence for people than having their license taken away to do business entirely. So, I then asked the legislature simply to pass something. They were unwilling. I think they abdicated their responsibility and a lot of them talked about, we know that they’re a co equal branch, well then you’ve got to take a co-equal a level of responsibility when you’re asked to and they were unwilling to, so we’re going to have to pursue whatever tools are available to us.
* Governor, when will you sign takeout cocktails are you planning any other measures to help bars and restaurants make it through the pandemic?…
Yeah, I’m so glad that that passed and I’m, I hope to sign that as soon as it’s available to me as you know it needs to be passed over by the clerk of the House and the Senate. And I’ll sign it as soon as it comes to my desk.
* How can people safely expand their quarantine circle in phase three when groups of 10 are allowed, can you hug grandparents, should you only see the same family and friends?…
Dr. Ezike: I can’t give anybody a COVID free pass.
As you expand your circles obviously there’s a additional risk of transmission, because, again, we don’t necessarily know who is harboring the virus and who isn’t so hopefully if people are all being as careful as you are and they have used their mask and social distance to the extent possible, hopefully their risk is low. But again, the more you increase your circle the larger that circle is absolutely the more risks but people have to learn to coexist with COVID and so you know we’ve. I know that people have done a really good job and they’ve stayed at home and now as they’re coming out, they will have to make these calculated decisions and assume a risk that they’re comfortable with, so risk benefit ratio again, there’s no way to know for sure if someone is harboring the virus or not. And that’s a that’s a little bit of a wild card. And so you can do what you feel is appropriate, take all the mitigation strategies that we do have an employee those. Use your mask and keep your distance. And after that, that’s the most I can offer, I can’t promise anything after that.
* Illinois is the only state so far that officially plans to tap the Fed liquidity facility. Is that because Illinois has limited options partly and partly given past financial decisions that led to almost no rainy day fund and resulted in higher borrowing costs?…
Well, what I can tell you is that it was the decision of the legislature to not implement more cuts.
And, you know, in a common belief and hope, I guess that the federal government will in fact offer support to state and local governments all across the nation. But look, I think everybody understands that in the middle of this pandemic we’ve, every state has lost tax revenue and had increased expenditures that are you know related to COVID as well as some that are tangential, but only occurred as a result of COVID. So we’re going to need help. There’s no doubt about that. And I think that was the reason the legislature did what it did. But look they’ve also did not cut as much as I think they probably could and so we’ll be, I’ll have to continue to look at the budget along the way. They gave me the authority to do that here.
* Does the state have a backup plan if President Trump goes through with his plan to pull back National Guard troops who helped with contact tracing and delivering food to nursing homes?…
We’re going to need to make those deliveries, we’re going to need to make the, fill in what we need to if the federal government is not going to help out by supporting our National Guard troops. We obviously have the ability to fund those or choose to fund those if we decide to. But either way, we’re not going to let those services fail.
* Could you explain what happened in the GA with the cannabis bill? There’s some confusion about whether a deal had been made with the governor’s office to move it forward…
No. There was no deal made with the governor’s office, they just could not get it moved forward between the House and the Senate.
In the answer to the next question, the governor said he and Dr. Ezike believe “we seem to have come off the peak.”
* New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state will no longer allow COVID-19 patients who are positive to be discharged from hospitals to nursing homes. What is the current policy in Illinois and is there any plan to change it?…
Well, again, it’s the idea here is to keep everybody in nursing homes safe and to make sure that nursing home patients have somewhere to go.
And so, nursing home residents do have the ability to go back to nursing homes. And to the extent that they have not been determined to be entirely COVID free, they would probably not be let out of the hospital. So we’re going to be very careful about that. People have already come out of the hospital and gone home. And we have not seen transmission from somebody who has come out of the hospital and then transmitted it to somebody in their nursing home.
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* Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,178 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 39 additional deaths.
Cook County: 1 male 30s, 2 females 40s, 1 female 50s, 3 males 50s, 1 female 60s, 4 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 11 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s, 1 male 90s
DuPage County: 1 male 70s
Fayette County: 1 male 70s
Kane County: 1 male 80s
LaSalle County: 1 female 90s
Madison County: 1 female 70s, 1 female 80s
McHenry County: 1 female 60s
Peoria County: 1 female 70s
St. Clair County: 1 male 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 113,195 cases, including 4,923 deaths, in 100 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 17,230 specimens for a total of 786,794.
Since this crisis began, there have been 22 positive staff and 47 positive residents at the Illinois Veterans’ Home at Manteno. Sadly, ten of those who tested positive for COVID-19 have passed away. The Veterans’ home in Anna has seen five residents test positive, one resident in LaSalle, and no positive cases at the Veterans’ Home in Quincy.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered.
* Dr. Ezike said today at the media briefing that the above numbers today are lower because of weekend reporting, but the hospitalization numbers are believed to be accurate…
3788 people were hospitalized with COVID-19. And of those 3788, 1035 patients were in the ICU and 590 individuals were on ventilators.
She added…
And I do want to share that for the week ending May 16, we reported a total of 780 deaths. While 780 deaths of course represents 780 individuals who lost their lives, and families and loved ones and communities who are mourning those deaths, it still signals the first week that there have been fewer deaths than the previous week. And so I am hopeful that this fact is the beginning of a downward trend. But of course, that also depends on all of us, and making sure that we’re doing all that we can to decrease the transmission of this virus.
She also said the state received its third shipment of remdesivir last week.
…Adding… Gov. Pritzker…
COVID related hospitalizations, which had been holding steady a couple of weeks ago, have now dropped to a six week low, with nearly 1200 fewer beds in use by COVID positive patients. And hospital beds and ICU Bed Availability are both above 30%.
* Monday’s press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,713 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 31 additional deaths.
Cook County: 1 female 30, 1 male 30, 1 male 40s, 1 male 50s, 2 females 60s, 1 male 60s, 4 females 70s, 3 males 70s, 2 females 80s, 2 males 80s, 1 female 90s, 3 males 90s
La Salle County: 2 male 60s
Madison County: 1 male 70s
McDonough County: 1 female 60s
St. Clair County: 1 male 80s
Union County: 1 female 50s, 1 female 90s
Will County: 1 male 70s
Winnebago County: 1 female 70s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 112,017 cases, including 4,884 deaths, in 100 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 21,643 specimens for a total of 769,564. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate, May16 – May 22 is 12%.
* Sunday’s…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 2,508 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 67 additional deaths
Coles County – 1 female 60s, 1 female 90s
Cook County – 1 female 20s, 2 males 30s, 1 female 50s, 5 males 50s, 1 female 60s, 9 males 60s, 4 females 70s, 9 males 70s, 11 females 80s, 6 males 80s, 7 females 90s, 3 males 90s
DuPage County – 1 female 60s
Macon County – 1 male 60s
Madison County – 1 unknown 80s
McLean County – 1 male 80s
St. Clair County - 1 female 80s
Winnebago County – 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 110,304 cases, including 4,856 deaths, in 100 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 25,674 specimens for a total of 747,921. The statewide 7-day rolling positivity rate, May15th – May 21st is 12%.
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* WUIS…
Reports across the country of retail workers being physically attacked for enforcing safety rules, like the wearing of face masks and social distancing, prompted Illinois lawmakers to take action. A measure was passed getting tougher on those who commit such acts.
Both the house and senate agreed to enhanced penalties – over questions if the plan would actually be a deterrent and concerns the change could be used to target minorities.
Most progressive legislators have long opposed penalty enhancements. But this particular bill was pushed hard by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, so opposition shrank.
* More…
Rep. Marcus Evans Jr., D-Chicago, said the bill “sends a clear message” to workers in Illinois and across the country that they “must be respected and protected.” He said retail workers assaulted for telling people to wear masks showed that the bill is needed.
Rep. Anne Stava-Murray, D-Naperville, said a person striking a retail worker would already be guilty of a crime, so the measure is indeed an enhancement of the charge that would have been filed. She opposed such an enhancement and triggered a heated response from Hoffman, who shouted at her to “vote no” on the measure if she didn’t agree with it.
Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said the measure was proof that penalty enhancements can be an effective tool. But Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, who said she opposes penalty enhancements in general, echoed Evans in saying it was about support for workers rather than increasing penalties. […]
“If we want to help the front-liners, let’s give them and their families some protection, some health care and a pay increase,” [Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago] said.
* More…
Sen. Elgie R. Sims Jr., D-Chicago, said he supports the measure because it is “narrowly tailored” to protect public safety while improving victims’ rights.
The six-month window following state or municipal emergency declarations could be revisited in the fall veto session depending on the status of the coronavirus pandemic, said Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood.
“I think it’s really important that we support those essential workers who are being attacked with some stricter penalties,” she said. “None of us in the Senate Black Caucus, of course, love these enhanced penalties, but we do know that we’re in a crisis and we have to act on this in this way.”
I guess international pandemics can change peoples’ thinking.
* But, in reality, this was a union omnibus bill…
The measure would also extend disability pay for public employees whose recovery is hindered by COVID-19.
Another portion of bill would assure employees of a horse track that receives a state license for video gambling be informed about the ability to form a union. The track workers would be given rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
The bill passed the House 95-10-5 and passed the Senate 47-3.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Dan Petrella goes over some of what didn’t get done during the special session…
∗ A bipartisan commission had a March 31 deadline to propose changes to the state’s government ethics and lobbying laws in response to an ongoing public corruption probe that has stretched from City Hall to the Illinois Capitol. Once the pandemic hit, that was put on hold, and the issue was not addressed in the special session.
∗ Another bipartisan task force was supposed to come up with proposals to ease the state’s enormous property tax burden. Its work devolved into partisan squabbling, and a final report was never issued. In response to the pandemic, lawmakers approved a measure that would allow counties to suspend interest and penalties on late property tax payments for 120 days or until there is no longer a statewide public health emergency due to COVID-19. But nothing was done to deal with the long-term problem.
∗ The special session began with lawmakers on a bipartisan panel blocking Pritzker’s emergency rule that would have made businesses that violate his stay-at-home order subject to a Class A misdemeanor. Lawmakers promised a legislative fix but adjourned until November without approving one.
∗ Two versions of an agreement to make some changes to the state’s recreational marijuana law were in the Senate but never called for House votes.
* Senate President Harmon was asked about the ethics bill after session ended…
* Why didn’t the legislature take up an ethics reform bill? Why did a casino expansion bill and a toll bridge for Will County pass, but not ethics reform?…
As you know, the bipartisan, bicameral Ethics Commission is doing its work. Its report has been delayed. We’re eager to get that report and to act on it. But in this special three plus one day session, we did not think we could responsibly take that up. That deserves more careful and thoughtful legislative…
* Would you consider calling a special session for ethics reform?…
Well if we’d passed the virtual session, perhaps. But I don’t think anyone is eager for us to call everyone back here. I hope everyone goes home, does another test and that we find no one has tested positive as a result of being here in session. But until then, I’m not going to predict any return to Springfield.
* The Question: What issue(s) important to you did not get addressed during the special session? Explain.
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COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* White House to states: You’re on your own…
The Trump administration’s new testing strategy, released Sunday to Congress, holds individual states responsible for planning and carrying out all coronavirus testing, while planning to provide some supplies needed for the tests.
The proposal also says existing testing capacity, if properly targeted, is sufficient to contain the outbreak. But epidemiologists say that amount of testing is orders of magnitude lower than many of them believe the country needs.
The report cements a stance that has frustrated governors in both parties, following the administration’s announcement last month that the federal government should be considered “the supplier of last resort” and that states should develop their own testing plans.
Go read the rest.
* New amended general order from the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois…
Criminal jury trials will not be conducted before August 3, 2020, and trials scheduled to begin before August 3, 2020, will be reset by the presiding judge. This continuance is necessary because criminal jury trials require: (i) the gathering of a large number of persons in the Jury Department; (ii) at least 12 jurors seated in the courtroom to hear evidence; (iii) 12 jurors to deliberate in the jury room; and (iv) five to six weeks’ notice in advance of trial to summon jurors. The advance-notice requirement makes any earlier date impractical because it is not known what large-gathering guidelines will be in place. Social-distancing guidelines might render juror participation difficult or unsafe, including during juror check-in and jury selection. For these same reasons, in cases impacted by this trial continuance, the Court excludes time under the Speedy Trial Act through August 3, 2020, because the ends of justice outweigh the interests of the parties and the public in a speedy trial.
* SJ-R…
Secretary of State offices will begin reopening June 1 with an initial focus on drivers who couldn’t get the services they needed during the last 2½ months during various stay-at-home orders.
Most facilities outside of the Chicago area will not reopen until June 2. The exception is the facility in Springfield on Dirksen Parkway that will reopen June 1.
During the first two months driver services facilities are open, they will focus only on serving new drivers, people with expired driver’s licenses and state ID cards and those who need vehicle transactions such as titles. The secretary of state’s office said there are more than 700,000 expired licenses and ID cards that need to be renewed and 1.9 million expired license stickers.
During that time, people are encouraged to continue using the secretary of state’s web site to conduct business with the office. People can obtain new license plate stickers, obtain a duplicate driver’s license or ID card, obtain a driving record abstract or renew a license through the Safe Driver Renewal program. The secretary of state web site is located at cyberdriveillinois.com.
* News-Gazette…
Illinois football and men’s basketball student-athletes can start returning to campus June 3 in three different waves.
Returning student-athletes are first, followed by transfers and incoming freshmen and then student-athletes that might have higher risk indicators in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first round of the Illini’s return process for just those two sports is expected to take the rest of that week with voluntary workouts tentatively set to resume June 11 for those two sports.
The actual return process is a complex one, with multiple steps that will begin even before student-athletes make their way back to Champaign.
* Illinois does something right…
tates are spending billions of dollars stocking up on medical supplies such as masks and breathing machines during the coronavirus pandemic. But more than two months into the buying binge, many aren’t sharing details about how much they’re spending, what they’re getting for their money or which companies they’re paying.
An Associated Press survey of all 50 states found a hodgepodge of public information about the purchase of masks, gloves, gowns and other hard-to-get equipment for medical and emergency workers.
Illinois has one of the most detailed tracking websites, showing the date, vendor, purpose, quantity and price of each purchase. In most states, it’s not that easy. Some provided similar information only after the AP pointed to laws requiring the release of government documents.
* Comptroller Mendoza compiles that list. Speaking of Mendoza…
* On to headlines from the Chicago Tribune’s live blog…
Home Run Inn suburban Chicago factory churns out nearly 80,000 frozen pizzas a day to meet soaring demand during pandemic
Allstate extends its rebate as motorists continue to stay off the roads during the COVID-19 health crisis
Advocate Aurora Health invests in US maker of N95 masks, other PPE
Preckwinkle vetoes COVID-19 address-sharing with first responders, a first in her tenure
Officials see signs COVID-19 is contained at Cook County Jail, while experts caution measures need to remain in place
Packed pool party gone viral in Missouri earns rebuke from state health director
A different Memorial Day in Chicago: Crowds are out, livestreamed ceremonies are in
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces reopening rules for businesses as Illinois is poised to move to next phase and loosen restrictions
* Sun-Times live blog…
Preckwinkle vetoes plan to give first responders addresses of COVID-19 positive residents
Worry, haste, retail therapy: What have we bought and why?
What casinos look like in a post-pandemic world
Chicago’s new normal: When will tourists come back?
What we leave behind and what we welcome as city moves toward reopening
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* NPR has a pretty comprehensive story online about evaluating risks of various activities…
Getting a haircut: medium to high risk
A haircut involves “close contact and breathing that is extended for several minutes,” [Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician and public health researcher at Harvard Medical School] notes. “This is the primary mode of transmission that we know happens. And cloth masks certainly are not perfect for this.”
[Dr. Andrew Janowski, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Washington University in St. Louis] says this is one of the highest-risk scenarios on this list, because there’s no way to keep 6 feet from someone cutting your hair. “All it takes is [having] one asymptomatic but infected worker, and suddenly many customers are at high risk of infection,” he says.
What alters risk? [Dr. Emily Landon, a hospital epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist at University of Chicago Medicine] believes the risk is not terribly high if both you and your haircutter wear masks and if COVID-19 is not very prevalent in your area. Look for a salon or barbershop that has (and enforces) policies to protect its employees, like wearing protective gear and sanitizing hands, she says: “By protecting their employees, they’re protecting you too.”
And make sure that your barber or stylist is all business, says Karan: “Stopping to chat at close distance like this is something we all love doing with our barbers normally. This is not the time for it.”
I’ll be asking my barber to get tested this week.
* Excerpt from the new state guidance for personal care businesses…
PHYSICAL WORKSPACE
i. Minimum guidelines
1. Service provider should display signage at entry with face covering requirements, social distancing guidelines, and cleaning protocols, in multiple languages as needed
2. Service provider should configure space to allow for at least 6-ft. of distance between customers
3. Service provider employees should maintain social distance to the extent possible while performing services
4. Service provider should remove shared items (e.g., magazines) from waiting areas and configure any seating to be 6-ft apart to allow for social distancing
a. Any surfaces in waiting area (e.g., seats) touched by customers should be disinfected after use
5. Service provider should eliminate service of all beverages
6. Water fountains, except for touchless water bottle refill stations, should be made unavailable for use (e.g. turned off, covered, area blocked)
a. If no touchless fountain is available, water may be served in sealed, single-use water bottles
ii. Encouraged best practices
1. Display visual markers 6-ft. apart at customer queuepoints
2. If practical, install impermeable barriers between work stations
3. If practical, implement touchless transactions
4. Reduce number of items on surfaces to allow for easier cleaning, including any retail items available for purchase
5. Remove shared products (e.g., beauty testers) from displays and discourage handling of display items
6. Make hand sanitizing products available for employee and customer use
7. Where building management practices allow,increase air turnover rates in occupied spaces and increase outside make-up air to the maximum extent practical
STAFFING AND ATTENDANCE
i. Minimum guidelines
1. Maximum of 50% of capacity OR 5 customers allowed per 1000 sq. ft. of usable space (see DCEO guidance)
a. For salon suites, capacity limits should be applied within each suite
2. Service provider employees should social distance from customers while not performing services
3. Service provider should limit the occupancy of common areas/ break rooms to allow for social distancing of 6-ft or greater by removing/ decommissioning furniture or staggering break times; this guideline is not intended to diminish employees break time requirements
ii. Encouraged best practices
1. If practical, alter hours of operation to adequately spread out customer traffic and allow for additional cleaning time
2. Stagger shift start and end times to minimize congregation of employees during changeovers
3. If practical, group employees in clusters and schedule groups on same shifts to reduce cross-team exposure
Thoughts?
* By the way, here are all the activities in the story with their associated risks…
A BYOB backyard gathering with one other household: low to medium risk
Eating indoors at a restaurant: medium to high risk
Attending a religious service indoors: high risk
Spending the day at a popular beach or pool: low risk
An outdoor celebration such as a wedding with more than 10 guests: medium to high risk
Using a public restroom: low to medium risk
Letting a friend use your bathroom: low risk
Going to a vacation house with another family: low risk
Staying at a hotel: low to medium risk
Getting a haircut: medium to high risk
Going shopping at a mall: risk varies
Going to a nightclub: high risk
Going camping: low risk
Exercising outdoors: low risk
Click here to see the reasoning behind these risk levels and what can be done to mitigate the risks.
* Related…
* Second stylist at same Missouri hair salon tests positive; nearly 140 exposed to coronavirus
* Great Clips customer who was possibly exposed to COVID-19 speaks out
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Budget roundup
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
The Illinois General Assembly passed a maintenance-level $40 billion state budget Saturday night and early Sunday that would rely heavily on federal funding to close a gaping pandemic-driven deficit. […]
State agencies that have been most affected by the pandemic, such as those dealing with public health and welfare, would see funding increases under the spending plan. […]
The budget would not provide school districts with the $350 million increase in state aid that was set out in a 2018 rewrite of the education funding formula. Districts would instead receive the same amount they received this year. Universities also would be funded at their current levels.
* WBEZ…
The spending plan that the legislature’s Democratic-led majorities settled on relies on borrowing up to $5 billion from the Federal Reserve next year. The governor has also called on Congress to enact another economic relief package to buttress state budgets, though it remains unclear when – or even if – that federal money will arrive.
“There’s a storm – a giant storm – blowing across our land and blowing across the state of Illinois,” House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said as he argued against making drastic cuts in government funding to schools, first responders and other government programs.
“We as a legislature and as a state, do we stand up as a bulwark?” Harris said, speaking at a Springfield convention center where the House convened in order to give representatives more space for social distancing. “Do we stand up as a shield to try to shelter people in our communities from the storm? Or do we say, ‘No, we need to retreat, we need to fold in and we need to do less?’”
The budget plan includes $3.8 billion from the federal CARES Act to deal with the coronavirus crisis in the next year, including funding for testing, contact tracing and additional health measures at the state’s prisons, some of which have been subject to coronavirus-related outbreaks.
All told, the Illinois Department of Public Health’s budget would be increased by 144% compared to last year. School funding to the state Board of Education is slightly increased from last year, accounting for $13.2 billion of the state budget. And lawmakers will make the full required payments to the state’s pension funds – more than $10 billion that’s owed to the vastly underfunded systems that give retirement benefits to teachers, university and state employees.
* Capitol News Illinois…
The $42.8 billion budget keeps spending roughly flat from a year ago despite revenue for next year decreasing by an unknown number of billions and the potential of even further economic devastation should COVID-19 see a resurgence in the fall that coincides with a virulent flu season. […]
“The ability for an administration to engage in emergency rulemaking and have control of more than $7 billion of state funds, with only broad strokes, broad umbrellas of programs and allocations for those dollars, I think should give members of this body pause,” Demmer said.
Rep. Gregory Harris, D-Chicago, said during debate the fact that the Legislature passed a full budget instead of a lump sum appropriation showed that it was exercising more oversight than other states were doing for their governors.
* Mike Miletich at WSIL TV…
“If we’re going to balance this budget, I would rather not do it on the backs of people who would lose their jobs if we were to cut money to our schools, cut money to our first responders,” said House Majority Leader Greg Harris (D-Chicago). “I don’t want thousands of people more out of work.”
Harris notes there is a “huge” revenue shortfall, and it’s still unknown when the federal government will discuss sending the additional funding to states.
“The ability for an administration to engage in emergency rule-making and have control of more than $7 billion of state funds with only broad strokes, broad umbrellas of programs and allocations for those dollars, I think should give members of this body pause,” said House Deputy Republican Leader Tom Demmer.
He adds the budget is only balanced “on a wing and a prayer.” The Dixon native emphasized it relies on $5 billion in borrowing or “magical revenue” coming from the federal government “with no strings attached.”
* News-Gazette…
Democratic State Sen. Andy Manar spoke for many when he said that “we made a choice not to present a budget to this chamber that slashes the state budget at a time when we’re dealing with a global pandemic.”
“That was our choice. That was a simple choice for me because the last thing we need to be doing is cutting public health programs, cutting health care programs, cutting school funding, cutting programs for small businesses, or cutting pensions or laying off state employees,” he said. […]
Despite the obvious risks, Pritzker said he is putting his faith in the federal government “to do the right thing.”
“This isn’t something special for Illinois, it really is a problem that every state is experiencing,” he said of his desire to “get dollars from the federal government to support our state.”
* WBBM…
Other priorities include increased unemployment eligibility and expanding workers compensation protections as well as $500 million to rental and mortgage assistance, help with utilities and homelessness prevention. […]
The new budget includes over $600 million in grants for small businesses and more than $900 million to the Illinois Department of Public Health for COVID-19 testing programs and contact tracing over the next year
That was all from federal funds.
* Hannah…
The troubled Department of Children and Family Services will see a $126 million increase in funding over last year, which represents a 10 percent boost. Small areas of state government like the Illinois Arts Council, State Police Merit Board, and Prisoner Review Board will see decreases in the tens of thousands of dollars, while the community mental health services will see a $10 million decrease from $134 million in funding last year. […]
While the budget modestly trims some line items, the state is authorized to spend $970 million more than it did last year, which State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorne Woods) blasted as irresponsible given the economic downturn Illinois is experiencing along with the rest of the country.
“In that environment, you would think that we would be cutting spending on non-essentials as so many families have been forced to do across the state,” McConchie said. “But no, we don’t reduce the spending given the low drop in revenue that we are expecting.”
McConchie said the General Assembly would’ve been better off approving a short-term budget to keep the state operating until the full economic impact of the virus and accompanying shutdown is known.
A short-term budget would also be a punt, and likely encourage a ratings downgrade. They can come back in the fall and readjust as necessary.
* Finke…
The $42.8 billion is larger on paper than last year’s budget, but Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, a lead budget negotiator said much of the increase is to repay short term borrowing that was needed to keep the state afloat.
“It’s very much of a status quo budget. To keep it where it is now,” said Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, a principal architect of the budget. “There’s a few places that there’s some increases for critical areas that couldn’t keep up, like DCFS. But it is pretty much keep everything as is.” […]
“We have done nothing to try to cut anything,” said Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer. “I feel we are using COVID as a reason to continue to be irresponsible. Anyone who votes for this is voting for irresponsibility.”
As Harris noted in debate, the budgeted amounts are maximum spending levels. Pritzker is “free” to cut as much as he wants within the law (including court rulings). So, yeah, Davidsmeyer was right. The GA basically punted it all to the governor.
* Senate President Don Harmon was asked about whether it was responsible to pass a budget that is so heavily dependent on borrowing…
There is so much we don’t know today that we hope to know in a few months. We don’t know the depths of the economic hit we’ve taken from this virus. We don’t know how much more we’re going to have to spend in order to respond to it. We don’t know whether the voters are going to approve a constitutional amendment in November. We don’t know how the federal government is going to respond, although I believe that they will. And we don’t know who is going to be in charge in Washington for the next four years. In the next several months, we’re going to know all of that, and that will give us much better information about how to put together a durable state budget
* Sun-Times…
House Majority Leader Greg Harris, D-Chicago, in turn acknowledged the plan “may not be the world’s best budget.” And he pointed out that Republicans largely fought alongside former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner during a historic budget impasse.
“But at least we have a budget,” Harris said. “And to be lectured by some people who for two years let another governor run this thing with zero budget and running up a $17 billion backlog of bills, is an interesting experience,” Harris said, before the House approved the bill 62-47.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked if he’d be “comfortable” if Bruce Rauner was wielding the same authority as the GA gave him…
Well no, that’s why I ran against him and beat him.
The problem with giving governors (or presidents, for that matter) so much authority is that every now and then (more often in Illinois) the voters elect somebody who can’t be trusted with it.
Much more here.
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* After the remote legislating bill went down in the House, the Senate unanimously passed a new rule…
The President, in consultation with the Minority Leader, may establish a process by which Senators and members of the public may participate remotely in hearings for standing committees, special committees, subcommittees or special subcommittees, and service committees. […]
In times of pestilence or public danger, the Senate may adopt a motion to allow a member to remotely participate and vote in the regular and special sessions of the Senate, provided that at all times a quorum of members is physically present at the location of session.
If a bill clears the Senate with the bare minimum majority and one of those votes is a remote vote, you gotta wonder if someone will sue.
Thoughts on this?
By the way, the new rule also created a new Pensions committee, which doesn’t yet have any members. It also changed the Government Accountability and Pensions Committee’s name to the Government Accountability and Ethics Committee.
*** UPDATE *** Rep. Ann Williams…
Hi Rich, hope you are well and survived an interesting end of session. Wow. I agree it was not ideal and difficult to really get the work we need done. However, I am introducing a standalone remote meeting bill using the same or similar language that went down in the house. I certainly hope we never get to the point we have to use it, and it’s far from an ideal way to legislate, but I think the current crisis has taught us we need to be prepared for the unexpected and the unthinkable. If the pandemic were to get worse or a second wave were to hit to a degree we simply could not meet safely in person, we need to be prepared. By not doing so, we risk our ability to serve our communities in times of extreme crisis.
* Sen. Rob Martwick…
The past four days of special session were an incredible success. The GA came together, worked in the most collaborative and bi-partisan manner, passed legislation that is crucial to the response to and recovery from the pandemic, and provided for the continuity of essential government services. As wonderful as it was, there was one epic failure: remote operation of the General Assembly. I have underlying health conditions. If I contract Covid-19, I am at high risk of serious complications and death. So, I followed the IDPH guidelines and stayed home. When President Harmon told me the Chicago Casino bill was at risk of failing, I drove down to Springfield to do my part to ensure the bill’s passage. The revenue from the Chicago casino is crucial to stabilizing Chicago’s finances, securing pensions for our police and firefighters, and protecting our homeowners from huge property tax increases. Honestly, I was terrified, but I had to go. No one should be required to risk their lives to participate in democracy. However, put my personal case aside and consider what this means: While this “special session” was a huge success, there was NO regular session. There are thousands of bills and initiatives that did not get their due process. People in Chicago have been waiting a dozen years for an Elected Representative School Board, yet that, like so many thousands of other important measures, was not deemed “essential” legislation. We did not do the work of the people, and until there is a vaccine or effective treatment, we probably will not. Every legislative body in this state and in many other states have recognized that they must get back to work and have adopted virtual operations to allow them to do so. The technology supports it and it is working well. I am grateful for the leadership of President Harmon and Leader Brady in adopting rules that will allow the Senate to convene committees, take testimony, and vote to advance legislation. This is good for me, but we need to do more to ensure that there is seamless operation for every member of the GA to advance the interests of their constituents and I am committed to working with Ann Williams and my former colleagues in the House to ensure they, like the Senate, join this movement so that they can get back to work too.
* But check this out from the NRCC…
Hey –
Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood recently voted along partisan lines to allow Members of Congress to collect their taxpayer-funded paychecks by sitting at home and phoning in their vote to the US Capitol instead.
Quite a few of Nancy Pelosi’s minions are already taking advantage of their proxy voting scheme.
So while nurses are on the frontlines risking their lives to treat COVID-19 patients, Fake Nurse Lauren and her Democratic colleagues can’t even show up to work.
–
Carly Atchison
NRCC
Regional Press Secretary
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ISP: “We’re between a rock and hard place”
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hannah Meisel at the Daily Line…
Also left on the cutting room floor was a bill that would have allowed the Illinois State Police to cite businesses who defied his stay-at-home order with a Class A misdemeanor instead of the Illinois Department of Public Health pulling a business’ license.
Earlier in the week, Pritzker withdrew emergency rules that would have allowed for the same after public outcry over the rules. He instead asked the legislature to codify the rules, but Democrats were wary of forcing it through.
On Sunday, Pritzker said he was “very disappointed” lawmakers did not take up the bill and that the legislature “failed” on the matter.
“It was a complete abdication of responsibility,” Pritzker said.
* Jamie Munks at the Tribune…
“They were unwilling to vote on anything like that or they didn’t get it done and so we’re going to have to look at other mechanisms,” Pritzker said. “But the fact is I think the legislature failed in this regard.”
* The problem here is that state law mandates a Class A misdemeanor for violations. Pritzker’s emergency rule had to conform to state law. It would be preferable if violations were a business offense or some other such thing. Legislators, however, were in no mood to touch the topic because IDPH’s emergency rule kicked up such a hornet’s nest. Senate President Don Harmon…
We could not agree on what the appropriate measure would be. It was a compressed schedule. This all came to light on the first day of our session. We remain committed to working with the governor to find a path. We just didn’t have the bandwidth to get that done.
Except the General Assembly isn’t scheduled to return to Springfield until November.
* From Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly…
State agencies, the AG, local police, local health departments and emergency management have all asked the Illinois State Police for help with enforcement. We don’t want to take anyone to jail, we don’t want to harm struggling business licenses, and we provided language for a civil penalty so these agencies and first responders could get the support they asked for. These folks are now all left with closing a business or letting the virus spread. We’re between a rock and hard place.
Thoughts?
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Stay Safe Today, Be Vigilant For Tomorrow
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
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Our Democracy Is Too Important, The Fight Continues
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
The deadline to let voters decide if we should reshape our constitution and redistricting process has passed, but our fight continues. Fixing the foundation of our democracy is too important and we still can move forward toward a better redistricting process.
The Illinois Redistricting Collaborative, a diverse coalition of 34 organizations, is committed to standing with the 75% of Illinois voters who want an independent citizen-led commission.
Lawmakers can stand with Illinois voters and our diverse, statewide coalition by committing to passing meaningful legislative reforms before next year’s decennial redistricting.
Gerrymandering is voter suppression and we must end it. We can join the ranks of people in both red and blue states across the country who have made improvements to their redistricting process.
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Always zoom out on crowds
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WGN…
A group of protesters gathered downtown on Memorial Day to voice their concerns over the on-going Illinois stay-at-home orders.
Demonstrators gathered at Grant Park Monday because they think the shutdowns have gone on long enough and want the state to reopen.
The group gathered at the lakefront and came waving flags and carrying signs. They said their purpose was to honor the fallen on Memorial Day. But they were also protesting what they think is the unconstitutional lock down across America by certain politicians on a day that honors 1.4 million servicemen and women who died in defense of the country.
In a statement to WGN, Clay Clark with the group Thrive Time, said they were seeking to free fellow Americans from what it considers to be oppression.
* Sun-Times...
Some demonstrators hoisted signs that promoted conspiracy theories and many chose not to wear face coverings, flouting measures recommended by health experts to contain the deadly disease as they pressed closely together to hear the speakers yell into a megaphone.
The rally, which overshadowed a similar event outside the Thompson Center on Monday, was ultimately shut down by Chicago police officers enforcing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s order.
For hours, the crowd was whipped into a frenzy by a cast of Republican firebrands that included Darren Bailey, a state representative from downstate Xenia who’s locked in a court battle over Pritzker’s order; and Stephen Moore, a writer and television pundit who advised President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.
Bailey, who was ejected from the Illinois House last week for refusing to wear a mask, has emerged as the Legislature’s loudest critic of Pritzker’s order.
* Tribune…
The crowd, which held signs saying “F-U-J-B” and “Fire Pritzker,” called on Bailey to run for governor. He told the audience it was “time to replace career RINOs,” a pejorative term for Republicans who aren’t considered conservative enough.
“If God opens a door, I’ll go through that door,” Bailey said as the crowd erupted in cheers. “But it’s going to take a lot of work.”
He’s far more concerned with making the GOP a smaller, more “pure” party than he is winning a governor’s race, which he cannot possibly do. Beware all purists.
* The group wasn’t exactly large, however…
* Historical factoid…
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* My weekly syndicated newspaper column…
Last winter, a buddy of mine asked me if I thought I could cover state legislative sessions from a remote, perhaps warmer, location.
I’ve been writing about Illinois politics and government for 30 years. Like many of my more experienced colleagues, I’ve developed an extensive list of sources and contacts that I can reach out to. I can also watch General Assembly floor debates and many committee hearings on the Internet.
So, after pondering the question for a bit, I said I might be able to do it for three years.
You may not believe this because House Speaker Michael Madigan has been in office since 1971, but there is a huge and regular turnover of legislators.
As of January, the median number of years served by House and Senate Republicans was four. The median was six years for House and Senate Democrats, according to data compiled by my pal John Amdor.
Because of that turnover, I’d eventually become too unfamiliar with the players and couldn’t effectively do my job.
And then came COVID-19. The spring legislative session was canceled for two months. I, like everyone who covers this stuff, became focused almost solely on the pandemic’s impact on Illinois and the state’s response and wound up working longer hours than during normal sessions, which usually keep me busy night and day.
The legislative leaders eventually decided to reconvene for a few days in late May and as I write this the General Assembly is on its third day in Springfield.
The leaders announced that reporters would be corralled into tiny spaces and, as a result, have no direct, ethical access to legislators and other Statehouse players beyond maybe catching up with them as they walk or drive to their Springfield isolation residences.
So, I figured this would be a good time to test my theory about remote reporting. I decided not to go to the Statehouse (where the Senate met) or to Springfield’s convention center (where the House met) and work from my Springfield home instead.
It’s been a weird experience.
After a while, you develop a sense of the Statehouse. You can, for instance, learn to spot a relevant group of people talking outside the legislative chambers or the governor’s office and then try to peel off one or more of them to find out what’s going on.
You can watch who is entering or leaving the governor’s office, or the House speaker’s office or some other important place and follow up.
You can stake people out who won’t return your calls or texts. You can hang outside of meeting rooms or in areas where interesting and knowledgeable people tend to gather (I call them “watering holes”).
You can roam the halls and wander into offices and hope you hear something useful. You can also get totally lucky by literally bumping into people as you walk around a corner or after popping into some random hearing.
After session ends for the day, you can buy drinks and dinner to maybe loosen lips or build working relationships, or pull other folks aside in restaurants and taverns.
You can make your own luck, but you have to be there.
None of that has been possible during this special session. If legislators are wandering around, reporters and lobbyists aren’t allowed into the area to chat with them. Members are also advised not to meet with anyone and the restaurants and taverns are all closed.
It hasn’t been easy, but I think I’ve done OK. I’ve been constantly worried that I’m missing something, but come to think of it, I’m always like that.
Still, I have not enjoyed the experience. I like my privacy, but I’m also a very social person. I need to be around people and the session has been driving me a little nuts. No more remote reporting during crunch time for me.
The session also has allowed me to think about the concept of remote legislating. When the pandemic began, I was for it. Why risk bringing in folks from literally every corner of the state to one centralized location? The Statehouse is a virus petri dish on a good day. But a deadly virus circulating through the state wasn’t worth the risk.
I’ve since had a change of heart.
I completely understand that we’re in an international crisis right now and I’ll give them this session without further complaint. But this cannot continue. My experience is showing me that a representative democracy is impossible to maintain without including the public. It should be used only in rare and limited circumstances.
*** UPDATE *** Hannah Meisel at the Daily Line has some of the debate on the remote legislating bill that failed to pass…
State Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield), who represents the capital city, defended the Illinois constitution’s contention that the General Assembly’s meetings be held in the “seat of state government” and doubted the efficacy of virtual meetings.
“I know for a fact that gaming bill that we passed earlier today would not have passed if we weren’t in this setting right now because all the conversations we had back and forth allowed that bill to happen,” Butler said.
Others backed him up, including State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) who said virtual meetings were not nearly as effective and denied the public the right to be part of the process.
“This is the people’s house, it’s not the people’s Zoom,” Flowers said.
But State Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) said remote voting was about protecting the health and safety of lawmakers, staff and the public.
“It seems like some of this body forget that we are in the midst of a global pandemic,” Williams said.
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Open thread
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Pearson and I both tried to relax yesterday after an insane week of work…
Many thanks to Chef Mike at Maldaner’s for the pickled wild ramps that he hunted himself and the honey from his rooftop hive. The man is a complete gem.
Also, just FYI, I’m seriously thinking about taking two or three days off next week.
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