* You can continue commenting on the Golden Horseshoe Awards post throughout the weekend. I can still see what you write.
We did some good this week, campers. We raised $22,400 as of this writing to help Lutheran Social Services of Illinois buy Christmas presents for foster kids. I’d hug each and every one of you if I could. Thanks!
Jesse Sullivan: Yeah, yeah, let me share. It’s almost laughable because because because I feel like…people in Illinois, these political operative types, they know, they’re scared, because I’m not beholden to them. So I’m not a politician. I know that Illinois is corrupt, and this den of vipers. And so you know what? One of those high and mighty types of this political machine, they showed up at my door before I even decided to run. This political backroom dealing class, they wanted me to be a part of this. And I’m not here to line their pockets. And so you know what? They decided they’re going to come after me. And they’re going to go and try to find, create all these lies. That’s what they do. That’s how these people work, and they’re going to keep at it. And you know what? Donald Trump, he didn’t pay them off, he didn’t bend his knee to the establishment. And I’m not going to either. And so I’m here to fight corruption, not to be a part of it. But I’ll share what I was doing in college…
Dan Proft: Just before we get to that, who was the high and mighty type that showed up at your doorstep?
Jesse Sullivan: So all of this I’m going to share. It’s all going to come out because we need sunshine and bleach on the whole system. And so I am…I’m going to be sharing everything with everybody along the way. And I don’t think you’ll be surprised by it.
Dan Proft/Amy Jacobson: Can you share with us now? Who is it?
Jesse Sullivan: And I don’t think you’ll be surprised by it.
Dan Proft: I’m sure I wont be but I still want a name.
Jesse Sullivan: Well, I’m preparing it with my whole team. And we’re going to share with the people of Illinois what this whole system is like.
Dan Proft: Alright, I want to get to St. Louis University and this, this paper you started, but I would just say this, I would just say this, and I’ll take you to word, and we’ll see what happens. But if if you’re unwilling to name names, and this goes for anybody, if you’re unwilling to name names, including within the Republican ranks, then that tells me it’s going to be more of the same that tells me this is…
Jesse Sullivan: Oh, I will, I will. I promise. Trust me. I will. I’m going to.
Not sure what the holdup is. Spilling to Proft would’ve been a big get for the show.
* OK, now some additional background on that magazine Sullivan started at SLU. This is from the university’s student paper back in 2006…
A group of socially conscious Saint Louis University students will launch a new campus publication early next month. Dubbed One World, the magazine will focus on global issues and promote social justice. Organizers hope that One World will inspire students to take action and to fight poverty and oppression throughout the world.
“[The magazine] is a call to action. It is centered on the notion that every person, regardless of national boundaries or cultural or religious differences, is linked together by our common humanity,” said Jesse Sullivan, the founder of One World.
Sullivan, a junior majoring in theology and international studies, first thought of starting a social justice magazine after returning from a semester abroad in El Salvador last year. Sullivan said that the poverty he witnessed there inspired him to raise awareness about social justice issues once he returned to SLU. […]
“Based on the Jesuit ideal of ‘men and women for others,’ we must take a stand and side with the suffering and the oppressed. We have a responsibility to hear the cries [of the suffering], to let them resonate with us and echo in our lives. Raising awareness on international issues is a necessary first step in taking action to help,” Sullivan said.
Jesse Sullivan: Yeah, so here, here’s what I was doing at St. Louis University. I was working in campus ministry, I was traveling out to Washington, DC to go on right to life marches. And I created an organization and a magazine, largely driven by my faith to focus on global poverty. So I can’t tell you what the magazine has done since then, and what articles they’ve published or haven’t published, because I’ve been living my life since then past college. And so, so if they want to go, that’s the most they can find to try to ruin my good name is that they’re going to say, Oh, this, this magazine that he got started back when he was a college student, has since then wrote articles where I have no oversight or control over what’s said. And, you know, from what the reporting, I would disagree with many of those articles, obviously. And so if that’s the best they can do, it’s pretty sad. And they see me as a threat to this system. And so that’s why they’re coming after me.
Dan Proft: That’s fair. But I want to be a little bit more clear on this then. So you didn’t found this magazine as a social justice outlet?
Jesse Sullivan: Yeah
Dan Proft: You did not?
Jesse Sullivan: So I, No, no, I did not. So social justice. Listen to me on this, I say the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning, and I talk about justice. And for me, this notion of justice, for me was talking about people living in poverty, and how we can use our faith to help them that we have an obligation to remove obstacles to opportunity. And so that’s what I’ve always meant in my life and how I’ve always tried to approach things.
In context, that’s actually a fairly decent explanation, although a bit too earnest. Thoughts?
Sullivan, a political neophyte who ran a San Francisco-based nonprofit before launching his gubernatorial bid in early September, founded the magazine One World in 2006 while a student at St. Louis University. The publication had financial support from left-wing groups like the Center for American Progress, whose Goal Was To “counter the growing influence of right-wing groups on campus.”
If you look at page two of this issue of his magazine, it says it’s funded by Center for American Progress’ campus arm. And click here and scroll down and you’ll see that his magazine was listed as one of the 51 progressive journalism outlets funded by Campus Progress while he was still on the masthead.
Reporter: Do you have any plans to institute any kind of further mitigations [and] if I can double up the question, Dr. Arwady said yesterday that Chicago was looking at maybe requiring COVID vaccination proof for restaurants or other large gatherings. Is the state looking at further mitigations and perhaps any kind of vaccine passport?
Pritzker: Well, throughout this pandemic I’ve said that local governments county governments should certainly look at stricter mitigations if they feel that in their area that is warranted.
Let me say specifically about Winnebago County in Rockford. This morning, I spoke with the mayor of Rockford and our IDPH has been in regular contact with the hospitals and the local public health department to make sure that we’re providing what they need. That means help with staffing. For example, they have access to our staff in contract at the state level. And then add to that monoclonal antibodies that we’ve been distributing across the state but now specifically focused on Winnebago County where this morning they declared a disaster in the county.
Reporter: [off mic, so no transcript]
Pritzker: Again, we’re looking at everything that has been done, you know, over the last two years, always. But what we’re really focused on is making sure that people are following the masking requirements indoors. Thank you to all of you who are doing that here. And making sure that we’re providing vaccines everywhere in the state. Please, if you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated and get your booster. It gives you multiple times the protection than even the first two shots did, so I want everybody to listen and go immediately to their pharmacy or their doctor if they can
Please pardon any transcription errors.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Meanwhile, the current Republican frontrunner is holding an event in Rockford, the site of a local disaster declaration…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Might as well put this here…
.@GovPritzker has extended the Illinois COVID-19 public health emergency through January 8. You can see his latest executive order here. #twillhttps://t.co/ZgPYegvY7Z
* Lobbyist extraordinaire Dave Sullivan was elected Speaker of the Third House at the group’s annual luncheon yesterday. Let’s welcome him with a caption contest, shall we?…
* The 2021 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best House Republican Campaign Staffer goes to Ryan Tozer…
He is a behind-the-scenes staffer whose fingerprints are on everything that comes out of the HGOP shop. The dude learned from the tutelage of Nick Bellini. Which means he can win races without plutocrat money.
* The 2021 Golden Horseshoe Award for Best Senate Republican Campaign Staffer goes to Roxanne Owens…
(P)rofessional, upbeat, and able to do the work and do it well. That’s not easy when you’re in the super minority, and is harder still when you’re responsible for the reporting and organizing.
Congrats!
* On to today’s categories…
* Best Senate Democratic Non-Campaign Staffer
* Best House Democratic Non-Campaign Staffer
As always, make sure to explain your votes or they won’t count and please do your utmost to nominate in both categories. Thanks!
Also, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois is getting an offline contribution of $1,000 from a buddy of mine. Our total is now above $22,000 to help LSSI buy Christmas presents for foster kids. Please, click here to contribute (also a shout-out to my mom and dad for donating 50 bucks). Thanks.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 49,668 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including an increase of 266 deaths since December 3, 2021.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,884,744 cases, including 26,801 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since Friday, December 3, 2021, laboratories have reported 1,160,624 specimens for a total of 40,810,633. As of last night, 3,257 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 662 patients were in the ICU and 299 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from December 3-9, 2021 is 4.3%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from December 3-9, 2021 is 5.8%.
A total of 18,007,906 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 72,775 doses. Since Friday, December 3, 2021, 509,428 doses were reported administered in Illinois. Of Illinois’ total population, approximately 70% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 62% of Illinois’ total population is fully vaccinated according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Approximately 41% of Illinois’ eligible adults have received a booster dose of vaccine.
Monoclonal antibodies therapy is a prevention as well as treatment option for COVID-19 illness for non-hospitalized people and is a way to lower the chance of progression to severe illness or hospitalization. An estimated 235 or more hospitalizations were avoided over a 4-week time period due to monoclonal antibody treatment. IDPH continues to encourage health care providers, including primary care offices, outpatient clinics, urgent care centers, infusion centers, dialysis centers, home health services, and hospitals to assess their capabilities to provide this treatment to their patients quickly after they have been identified as having COVID-19 and are determined to be at risk for severe illness or hospitalization.
All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
Pursuant to House Rule XI, clause 3(b)(8)(A), and Committee Rules 17A(b)(1)(A) and 17A(c)(1), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics have jointly decided to extend the matter regarding Representative Marie Newman, which was transmitted to the Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on October 25, 2021.
The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.
The Committee will announce its course of action in this matter on or before Monday, January 24, 2022.
Rep. Marie Newman has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging she bribed a potential primary opponent not to run against her, putting to rest a bizarre episode in Illinois Democratic politics.
Iymen Chehade had alleged that he and Newman entered into an employment contract in December 2018 that said if Newman won the congressional race in Illinois’ 3rd District in 2020, Chehade would be hired in her office and paid between $135,000 and $140,000 annually.
“In an effort to induce Chehade not to run against her in the primary, Newman offered Chehade employment as Foreign Policy Advisor and Legislative or District Director,” the lawsuit said. […]
In a May filing, Newman’s lawyer in her official capacity as a member of Congress, House General Counsel Douglas Letter, acknowledged that the contract was signed by Newman but she did so as a private citizen, not as a member of Congress. The reasoning that follows is that Newman in her private capacity could not bind Newman in her public capacity.
“Although the agreement was signed by Congresswoman Newman in her personal capacity (because she had no official capacity in which to act before her election), it purports to bind her in her official capacity to hire Mr. Chehade in her Congressional office,” Letter said in the filing.
Click here to see the lawsuit, and click here to see the Federal Election Commission disclosure by Marie Newman for Congress of about $29K in payments to Chehade this year.
* Meanwhile, in other news, I told subscribers about this the other day…
Springfield Republican seeks House appointment as springboard to Senate
Springfield resident Kelly Thompson, a project manager for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce-affiliated Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, confirmed Wednesday that she plans to seek appointment to [former Rep. Mike] Murphy’s seat. […]
Though she did not address a possible Senate bid, the Herald & Review has confirmed that Thompson plans to run against [appointed Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield] in 2022. In that contest, she will have the backing of the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus’ campaign arm.
Regardless of Thompson’s campaign plans, her appointment to the House seat is not a certainty. In a Tuesday email to committeepersons, county party chair Dianne Barghouti Hardwick said there would be an open application process.
— Jonathan Logemann has been endorsed by Democrats Serve PAC in his run for the 17th Congressional District. The political action committee supports Democrats running for office with public service backgrounds. In making the endorsement Brett Broesder, the PAC’s executive director, highlighted Logemann’s experience as a teacher, veteran, and alderman.
— Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) has been endorsed by all the Republican state senators and representatives in the newly redrawn 16th District. “Coming together as a party is critical in the 2022 election cycle,” LaHood said in a statement. List of endorsements
— Congresswoman Marie Newman has received an endorsement from the Transportation Communications Union/IAM, which represents more than 44,000 active and retired members across the country, including Metra and Amtrak employees in Illinois.
— Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has been endorsed by six Chicago aldermen and state Sen. Sara Feigenholtz in his reelection campaign. Along with Feigenholtz, the council members endorsing are Alds. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), Rosanna Rodríguez Sanchez (33rd), Nicholas Sposato (38th), Andre Vasquez (40th), James Cappleman (46th), and Maria Hadden (49th).
After months of warnings that vaccinations would ward off a COVID-19 disaster, the U.S. is sailing toward a holiday crisis.
Cases and hospital admissions are rising amid a season of family gatherings. Most victims have shunned inoculations. The situation is especially dire in the chilly Northeastern states, but doctors in many places report a grimly repetitive cycle of admission, intensive care and death. There are shortages of beds and staff to care for the suffering.
“We’re in desperate shape,” said Brian Weis, chief medical officer at Northwest Texas Healthcare System in Amarillo, the state’s worst hot spot.
In 12 states and the nation’s capital, the seven-day average of admissions with confirmed Covid-19 has climbed at least 50% from two weeks earlier, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data. The areas with the largest percentage upticks were Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Vermont and Rhode Island. […]
Illinois had 3,178 Covid hospitalizations as of Wednesday, the highest since January, according to the state health department. Six of the state’s 11 regions had 20 or fewer intensive-care beds available.
All 102 counties in the state of Illinois are currently experiencing “high transmission” levels of COVID-19, while many are also experiencing dramatic growth in other metrics designed to illustrate how rapidly the virus is spreading.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a county to have a “high transmission” rate of COVID if 100 or more residents per 100,000 individuals have contracted the virus in a given week.
Currently, all 102 of Illinois’ counties have hit that threshold, according to the latest data from IDPH and the CDC, and no state is currently lower than 208 cases per 100,000 residents.
Piatt County, located just to the west of Champaign County, is reporting one of the state’s highest totals, with 881.06 cases per 100,000 residents in the last week. That is nearly nine times more than the CDC’s “high transmission” threshold, and the county’s positivity rate is also above 10%, according to IDPH data. […]
Cook County has one of the lowest positivity rates in the state, currently sitting at 4.15% in the last week. The county has reported 14,878 new COVID cases in the last week, averaging 288.88 new cases per 100,000 residents. That mark is nearly three times higher than the “high transmission” threshold from the CDC, but is also one of the lowest rates in the state.
* Via the BN-D, our southwestern neighbor has gone plum crazy…
Although COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in the St. Louis area and in the metro-east, St. Louis County rescinded its mask mandate on Thursday based on a judge’s ruling.
The Illinois mask mandate remains in effect in the metro-east. Herb Simmons, director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, said he “can’t say for sure” whether St. Louis County’s decision would affect infection rates in the metro-east but he noted “that’s a possibility.” […]
The St. Louis Pandemic Task Force, which has 24 hospitals, including three in the metro-east, said the seven-day average of COVID patients has doubled over the past month. This number stood at 440 on Wednesday and 454 on Thursday.
Hospitals in central Illinois are filling up as a post-Thanksgiving surge leaves many with severe cases of COVID-19.
In Region 6, which includes Macon and Champaign counties, there are just 20 ICU beds available.
“A lot of patients are dying. We are not in good shape nowadays, it’s really bad,” said Dr. Imtiaz Bangash, who has been working in the COVID-19 unit of St. Mary’s Hospital throughout the pandemic.
He’s treated hundreds of patients over the past 20 months, but some faces he’ll never forget.
“The patient was young, and he died actually, and I took care of that patient for almost 7 to 10 days,” Bangash said as he described a COVID-19 patient that passed away just a few days ago.
In the past two weeks, Bangash said he’s started treating more young COVID-19 patients with more severe symptoms.
Though [St. John’s registered nurse Ashley Rodrick] said she tried to tell one patient that there was no need to fear COVID-19 vaccines, which has been proven more than 90% effective at preventing severe illness and death, the patient told her, “I don’t want it messing with my DNA.”
Rodrick said she witnessed one COVID-19 patient argue with a doctor over whether St. John’s medical equipment confirming the patient’s reduced blood-oxygen level related to COVID-19 was accurate.
The patient asked the doctor, “How do you know the machine’s not lying?” according to Rodrick.
Some unvaccinated patients have refused antiviral medicines such as remdesivir, which are accepted treatments to help COVID-19 patients recover, she said.
The patients viewed the treatment as a conspiracy by the medical establishment, Rodrick said. “They really want to believe there’s someone to blame,” she said.
Chicago officials are considering requiring those who gather in “high-risk settings” where masks cannot be worn to offer proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have tested negative for the virus, Chicago’s top doctor said Thursday.
Several members of the Chicago City Council’s Health and Human Relations Committee urged Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, to put those requirements in place quickly as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Chicago reached the highest level since January 2021, according to city data.
“We have to do more if we want to get past this economically,” said Ald. Michele Smith (43rd Ward).
Arwady said “preliminary conversations” were taking place with representatives of business groups about requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test for diners or revelers, but no decision had been made.
The rules may be necessary “while we are in a big surge like this,” especially in places where people cannot keep their masks on, Arwady said, telling alderpeople that there was no timeline for a decision to be made.
The Chicago Bulls are down to 11 players as they travel to Florida for Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat after Derrick Jones Jr. on Thursday became the fifth player to enter the NBA’s COVID-19 protocol in the last nine days.
The Bulls have not gone more than two days in nearly two weeks without a player entering the COVID-19 protocol — Coby White (Dec. 1), Javonte Green (Friday), DeMar DeRozan (Sunday), Matt Thomas (Tuesday) and now Jones.
“What we see is lines drawn where Latinos and Anglos are moved in and out … in a way that makes it so two incumbents are prevented from a Latino challenge,” said MALDEF attorney Ernest Herrera.
Civil rights attorney Ami Gandhi, on behalf of the NAACP, said Black voters in a House district in East St. Louis that has been represented by a Black legislator since 1975 have been dispersed into adjoining districts in an effort to shore up white Democratic incumbents by “using Black population to offset Republican rural voters.”
The challengers also argued that the large numbers of minority officeholders in the General Assembly was largely due to appointments to fill vacancies, rather than the will of the voters. Of the legislature’s 16 Latino members, nine gained office through appointment.
Democrats sought to discount those arguments by noting that appointments are made by local party leaders who reflect the areas where they serve, and that most appointees are subsequently elected and reelected.
The law does not require that districts be created with a majority of minority voters, they said, but only that minorities are allowed to elect a candidate of their choice.
As local hospitals are overwhelmed with the highest number of Covid-19 patients they’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic, healthcare professionals say suiting up is like walking through the five stages of grief.
“I say you go through those cycles probably 20 times in a shift,” says UW Health SwedishAmerican critical care unit nurse Emily O’Brien, “It hits you in different ways.”
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance becoming all too common feelings amongst nurses and doctors as they continue to fight Covid-19.
“I think there will be a lot that have PTSD after this,” says O’Brien. “I know a lot of people are seeking counseling, we’ve lost a lot of nurses. I don’t think anyone is emotional equipped to watch so many people suffer day in and day out.”
According to UW Health SwedishAmerican surgeon in chief Dr. James Cole, the health system has seen a 30% increase in need, but a reduction in staff. He says this has set up the system to operate in crisis mode.
“We have people quitting because they just can’t do this anymore,” says Dr. Cole, “they’re tired of all these sick patients with Covid, some are burned out, some truly have PTSD because of Covid and it’s lead to a massive staffing crisis.”
Winnebago County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli is seeking to have the county declared a disaster in response to a rising rate of people being admitted into area hospitals with COVID-19.
The disaster would be over a seven-day period, effective Dec. 8.
The declaration is pending county board approval.
According to the Winnebago County Health Department, the County is now seeing 620 cases of the virus per 100,000 people and a test-positivity rate of 10.4%, an indication of another winter surge.
Chiarelli said declaring a disaster supports the efforts of the county health department and the local Emergency Management Agencies for the county and the City of Rockford to coordinate resources and activates the Emergency Operations Center. It will also make state and federal resources available to the county.
Chiarelli tested positive for the life-threatening virus on Nov. 3 and a week later he was hospitalized before being released on Nov. 13.
Just one day after the 16-team bracket was released, the annual Forreston holiday boys basketball tournament was canceled when the high school went to remote learning following a COVID-19 outbreak.
According to Forreston athletic director Kyle Zick, there were 19 positive COVID-19 cases traced back to the high school, and they were looking at quarantining 105 students, which was more than 40% of the school’s population. So instead, in conjunction with health department protocol, the school went into an adaptive pause expected to last from Dec. 7-17.
* Great news! Our fundraiser to help Lutheran Social Services of Illinois buy Christmas presents for foster kids hit $20,000 this morning. Thanks! If you haven’t donated yet, please click here.
* If you’ve contributed to Lutheran Social Services of Illinois during our December fundraising drive, thanks. If not, please click here. Follow along with ScribbleLive…
