Eleven chambers sent a letter Aug. 27 to Gov, JB Pritzker after he announced new restrictions on restaurants and bars in District 7, the COVID-19 tracking zone that includes Will and Kankakee counties, seeking the reasons for focusing on those businesses.
The governor’s office sent a response over the weekend, said Michael Paone, vice president for government affairs with the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“They do allude to the fact that the decision was based on scientists’ opinion that bars and restaurants are places where more risky behavior can occur, such as loud talking, not wearing masks and drinking alcohol,” Paone said.
He said the chambers are still looking for research to be cited that would back up the opinion.
“We trusted the government, but we are being used as pawns. I want to know what is the science behind this?” [said Christina Kollintzas-Pavlis, of Plainfield]
Findings from a case-control investigation of symptomatic outpatients from 11 U.S. health care facilities found that close contact with persons with known COVID-19 or going to locations that offer on-site eating and drinking options were associated with COVID-19 positivity.
Adults with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results.
A large amount of New Yorkers, 41 percent, have developed a new hobby and 13 percent have adopted a pet.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 42 percent say that they have gained weight while 32 percent have lost weight.
Seventy percent say the government’s priority should be to contain the spread of the coronavirus, even if it hurts the economy. That’s the same percentage as it was two months ago.
Ninety percent said they continue to practice social distancing, wash their hands after touching any surface and wear masks as much as they can or completely.
I was hanging out with a buddy in his back yard last week and he said he’d lost 30 pounds during the pandemic.
* The Question: Have you gained or lost weight since March? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
* WIND’s Amy Jacobson tried pressing the governor today on the seriousness of COVID-19 on college campuses after Gov. Pritzker spoke about his trip to Bloomington yesterday and the quarantine at Bradley University…
Jacobson: It should be emphasized that most of these people are asymptomatic, sometimes no symptoms at all and of out of 5,000 colleges across the country only five have been hospitalized.
Pritzker: So what’s your point? Do you think that unless you’ve been hospitalized it’s not worth worrying about?
Jacobson: No, no, no, I’m just saying, of all of the college students in Illinois, how many are in the hospital? Do you have that number?
Pritzker: I don’t have that number, but I mean, I think you’re discounting the idea that getting COVID-19 is serious business. Making sure that someone who has COVID-19 is not spreading it to other people is the reason that you want to quarantine people, so that’s that’s critically important. I know there are lots of people who think ‘Well gee somebody didn’t have to go to the hospital, or they didn’t die and therefore, well there’s nothing to it.’ That’s just not accurate. I realize that there are people, particularly followers of the president, who believe that that’s true that it’s okay to spread COVID-19 because hey if you’re not showing symptoms of it, then it’s fine, Well guess what? When people are not wearing masks, when people are just running around asymptomatic and they’re not getting tested but they are positive, they’re spreading it to other people. And the result is that it’s going into environments in which people who are vulnerable are going to be sick and are going to go to the hospital. And by the way, you should take a look, our hospitalizations in the state are rising. And this is problematic, so we’re watching very closely, even though we’ve got our positivity rates moving in the right direction in many regions, that hasn’t kept people from going to the hospital because, someone who is more likely to end up in the hospital getting it versus somebody who is less likely to end up in the hospital, you just don’t know. You don’t know who’s got a comorbidity. Everybody who knows they’ve got one, that’s fine, you know you’ve got a comorbidity and you should take extra care. Many people don’t know that they have a comorbidity yet, and then they get COVID-19 and then they end up with a problem.
Bradley University in central Illinois is requiring its entire student body to quarantine for two weeks because of clusters of COVID-19 on campus and is reverting to remote learning, officials announced Tuesday.
Officials of the private university said they have linked a spike of the coronavirus to off-campus gatherings. The Peoria university is requiring students to limit nonessential interactions, stay in their off-campus apartments, residence halls or Greek houses and take classes remotely beginning Tuesday.
In announcing the measure, the university said it has tallied about 50 COVID-19 cases so far, adding emergency measures are needed to respond to the outbreak without disrupting academic progress.
Students who gathered en masse and maskless to see YouTube personalities the NELK Boys could face consequences that include suspension, Illinois State University President Larry Dietz said Wednesday.
ISU authorities are working with the Normal Police Department to investigate Tuesday night’s visit by the popular group, stylized as NELK or NELK Boys on YouTube. Its members are known for producing videos of pranks that generate millions of pageviews, but officials said the YouTube stars’ visit to town led to large, flash mob-style gatherings that ultimately were broken up by police.
The number of reported COVID-19 cases on the Northern Illinois University campus nearly doubled over the four-day weekend, as the school reported 73 new cases, bringing the total to 150.
The school also reported 18 new recoveries, bringing the total to 24. The data represents cases of the viral respiratory disease identified on campus since Friday.
All 73 new cases were in students. The school hasn’t reported a case in an employee since Sept. 1, and just three cases have been reported in employees.
According to the school, 31.4% of its quarantine and isolation areas are in use, down from 54% Friday.
In an early glimpse of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on college enrollment, some Illinois universities are seeing declines in international students and freshman class sizes but also a higher number of graduate students, who are taking advantage of online programs.
At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the state’s largest college, undergraduate enrollment fell by about 350 students from record levels last year, the school announced Wednesday. The freshman class size also dropped by about 1.8% to 7,530 students, the school said, and an additional 277 students deferred admission compared with about 60 in a typical year. […]
About 17,800 graduate students enrolled at UIUC, up by 9% from a high last year. Some 42% of graduate students are taking fully online programs, with big increases seen in the Gies College of Business and Grainger College of Engineering. Still, about 2,000 graduate students chose to delay admission.
Citing the pandemic, UIUC said about 576 international undergraduate students discontinued their studies for the fall 2020 semester. Most new international students are taking classes online, with freshmen from China rising by 3.9%.
For the first time in 10 years, new student enrollment at Western Illinois University has increased.
The number of new freshmen enrolling at Western this fall stands at 1,064, 18.9 percent over Fall 2019, while new transfer students total 721 (9.2 percent over Fall 2019) and new graduate students stand at 569 (10.3 percent over Fall 2019), for a total new student increase of 13.7 percent. In addition, the grade point average (GPA) of the incoming freshman class has increased to 3.49 (compared to 3.40 in Fall 2019).
Total enrollment as of the 10th day is 7,490, according to 10th-day data released by WIU’s Institutional Research and Planning.
Besides the increase in new students, WIU’s Fall 2020 enrollment has increased 7.1 percent over Spring 2020. According to Gary Swegan, interim associate vice president for enrollment management, Western has not seen a spring-to-fall increase since 2016.
Eastern Illinois University announced on Tuesday that its fall 2020 enrollment has increased by approximately 10.5% despite the challenges posted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Figures from Eastern’s 10th-day enrollment report show that total enrollment increased from 7,806 students in fall 2019 to 8,626 this fall. The university reported that this marks the third consecutive year of its growth in institutional enrollment. That growth reportedly includes graduate student enrollment increasing by 5 percent from 1,577 to 1,657 and undergraduate enrollment increasing 11.8 percent from 6,229 to 6,969.
Reversing a decade-long trend, student enrollment is up at NIU despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our sister station WLBK reports that NIU student enrollment this fall is up 160 students from last year to a student body of 16,769. Enrollment had been falling since 2009 when NIU had more than 24,000.
The university says this year’s growth was driven by a freshman class that is eight percent larger than last year and improving retention of first-year students by six percentage points.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s School of Nursing (SON) record enrollment of 1,877 students highlights SIUE’s fall 2020 enrollment picture. The University’s overall graduate and professional enrollment hits 2,918 students, its highest mark in 43 years.
With its 5 percent increase from fall 2019, the SON saw record enrollment for the second consecutive year. SIUE’s graduate and professional enrollment includes 849 doctoral students, from all levels, the most in the history of the institution.
Twenty-nine percent of the SIUE student body reports an ethnicity or race other than white, making this fall’s student body the most ethnically diverse for the University. Enrollment includes record numbers of Latinx students (637) and students who identify as Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (370). […]
SIUE total enrollment is 1.5 percent behind fall 2019 (13,061). The University welcomed 1,554 new freshmen or 113 (6.7 percent) fewer than last fall.
The number of first-time college students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale increased by 31.2% this fall. The total reflects a 32.9% increase in new first-time students enrolling from the Southern Illinois region.
The university also saw continued growth in the freshman to sophomore retention rate, reflecting the percentage of last year’s first-time freshmen who returned this fall. This year’s rate is 80.6%, the highest in 20 years and up from 72% in 2017 and 75% last year. […]
Total enrollment stands at 11,366, a decline of 2.8% from fall 2019. The university has seen declines between 8% and 12% in each of the last four years.
Beleaguered Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan could soon be asked to publicly explain his dealings with ComEd.
At least that’s what Republicans were planning Wednesday on the eve of the first meeting of a special bipartisan legislative panel convened to explore the political and legal minefield.
“We have an admission of facts from Commonwealth Edison to the federal prosecutor’s office that have laid out a series of very concerning occurrences that happened,” state Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, said. “I think that as of right now, those facts are uncontested. We’d invite the speaker to contest those facts if he does not believe that those are accurate.”
A day before the Thursday meeting, Demmer said at a news conference that he and his GOP colleagues on the panel — Deanne Mazzochi of Westmont and Grant Wehrli of Naperville — will seek answers to the “legitimate, good-faith questions being asked” by their peers in the General Assembly and the public as part of the committee investigating any potential wrongdoing by Madigan.
The object is to discern whether Madigan behaved in a manner unbecoming of a legislator and/or behaved in a way that breached the public trust.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, Michael McClain, Anne Pramaggiore, Fidel Marquez, John Hooker, Jay D. Doherty, Michael R. Zalewski, any individual currently or formerly employed by Commonwealth Edison with knowledge of the matters contained in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement.
I’m thinking none of those named people are gonna speak. The committee could, in theory, subpoena witnesses, but that would require Democratic cooperation and the witnesses can always take the Fifth.
* Anyway, the hearings are on hold until the committee hears back from the US Attorney’s office to see whether it wants them to back off (which is what happened to then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s investigation of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich) or if it’s OK to proceed and under what terms. [ADDING: The US Attorney allowed an FBI special agent to testify at Blagojevich’s impeachment trial under ” sharply limited” terms.]
Lawmakers bristled as they discussed how to proceed after they unanimously agreed to contact the U.S. attorney’s office about how they can conduct their own investigation of Madigan without interfering with the ongoing criminal investigation.
They did not set another hearing date.
Rep. Natalie Manley, D-Joliet, sought clarification as to what it is that the committee is investigating considering that the speaker faces no criminal criminal charges himself.
Ronald Safer, a former federal prosecutor who is representing Durkin in the House investigation of Madigan, responded by noting that the deferred prosecution agreement between ComEd and prosecutors itself is evidence of factual wrongdoing, and it warrants investigation of Madigan by the committee.
I’m gonna nitpick a bit here and say the feds have not yet presented any evidence of specific wrongdoing by Madigan himself. Others, yes. Lots.
Republican member, state Rep. Grant Wehrli, R-Naperville, said Madigan has to respond to what was laid out in the deferred prosecution agreement ComEd entered into.
“Here we have statements of fact and if the Speaker doesn’t refute them, I think the logical conclusion can be drawn,” Wehrli said.
Rep. Wehrli is not a big fan of the 5th Amendment…
BREAKING: Auditor General Frank Mautino invoked his 5th Amendment right in response to Illinois State Board of Elections subpoena#twill
* To be super clear, I’m not saying that the feds won’t get Madigan. They could very well succeed. And, as I wrote in Crain’s, I’m not sympathetic to the House Democrats’ grumblings about these hearings…
So is Madigan right that this is all about politics? […]
But, really, who cares? Madigan isn’t answering questions, so maybe this will help shine a little light on things. And the committee won’t do much except take testimony. The panel is evenly divided between the two parties, and three staunch Madigan loyalists will be there to stop any majority vote to proceed with discipline. The open-minds thing goes both ways.
And if the Republican maneuver and Pritzker’s subsequent comments about how Madigan ought to answer the committee’s questions make House Democrats angry, well, so be it. Only a tiny handful of them have spoken up about Madigan, and even fewer have called on him to resign. That’s their prerogative, but it also means they’ve deliberately chosen this path. You wanted it, you got it, so deal with it.
Preliminary data suggests that the June 2018 Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, et al. Supreme Court decision that allowed state and local government employees to “free ride” may have affected public sector union membership.
• In Illinois, total public sector union membership has fallen by 6.8 percent since 2017, the year before the Supreme Court decision.
• Still, nearly half of all public sector workers are unionized in both Illinois (45.8 percent) and the Chicago metro area (45.4 percent), exceeding the national public sector average (33.6 percent).
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced 1,953 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 28 additional confirmed deaths.
• Adams County: 1 male 90s
• Christian County: 1 female 50s
• Cook County: 2 males 60s, 1 female 70s
• Edgar County: 1 male 80s
• Ford County: 1 male 80s
• Henry County: 1 male 70s
• Jersey County: 1 female 70s, 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s
• Kane County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
• Lake County: 1 male 70s
• Madison County: 1 male 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
• McLean County; 1 male 70s
• Montgomery County: 1 female 70s
• Randolph County: 1 female 50s
• Rock Island County: 1 female 80s
• Sangamon County: 1 male 40s
• Shelby County: 1 male 90s
• Will County: 1 female 40s, 1 male 60s, 1 male 90s
• Winnebago County: 1 male 60s
• Woodford County: 1 male 80s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 255,643 cases, including 8,242 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 3 – September 9 is 3.8%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 48,982 specimens for a total of 4,575,721. As of last night, 1,609 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 346 patients were in the ICU and 141 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. Information for deaths previously reported has changed, therefore, today’s numbers have been adjusted. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
Highland Mayor Joe Michaelis hasn’t yet gotten a response to his letter to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, but he’s okay with it.
“It may sit on his desk for a while,” Michaelis said. “He probably gets a laundry basket full of mail.”
Michaelis wrote a letter to Pritzker dated Sept. 4, and posted it on Facebook, citing his “grave concern” about the impact of the heightened restrictions on businesses in his community.
[St. Clair County’s] daily positivity rate dropped sharply from 9.3% on Tuesday to 8.2% on Wednesday. The daily positivity rate is the percentage of positives from a day’s worth of coronavirus tests.
The county’s seven-day positivity rate was 6.8% as of Wednesday, up slightly from 6.6% as of Tuesday.
“If the spread had been stopped back in January or February, this never would have gotten here,” St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said during the county’s daily briefing Wednesday. “We never would have had to deal with this. We’re doing what we can in St. Clair County to contain the virus and keep as many people as possible from getting it. If we take our foot off the gas, we might see those numbers go up. We’re making progress here.”
Looks like St. Clair County is being held back by Madison County.
Gov. JB Pritzker joined with faith leaders at a memorial in Springfield Wednesday evening dedicated to the 8,214 Illinois residents who have died from complications to COVID-19 and their families.
The socially-distanced event, hosted at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Springfield, featured families from across the state who have lost loved ones to the virus.
Pritzker and faith leaders assembled said they hoped to offer a moment for Illinois residents to take a step back and process their “individual and collective” grief.
“Let’s allow this pandemic to remind us of at least one important thing: We need each other. We need each other,” Pritzker said. […]
“The hearts of our people are big enough to hold both of those truths at once — that we are courageous enough to meet this moment and that we’re human enough to grieve about it,” Pritzker said.
“Pritzker is a far-reaching, power abusing, tyrant that is destroying small business,” said Santino Patragas, owner of Tap House Grill in Plainfield, which along with all other restaurants in the area had to suspend indoor dining once again Aug. 26. […]
Patragas said he feels that if masks help in containing the virus, then shutting down dining rooms was a baseless step. He misses serving his loyal customers.
“We are sorry to you that we are being blackmailed by this state,” he said. “The government is best which governs the least.”
Bruce Springsteen made a surprise return on Thursday morning (Sept. 10) with the heartbreaking rocker “Letter To You,” the title track to his upcoming 12-song album with the E Street Band. The rock icon’s 20th studio album is due out on Oct. 23 on Columbia Records and is described as a “rock album fueled by the band’s heart-stopping, house-rocking signature sound” in a statement.
“I love the emotional nature of Letter To You,” Springsteen said in a statement about the album recorded at his home studio in New Jersey. “And I love the sound of the E Street Band playing completely live in the studio, in a way we’ve never done before, and with no overdubs. We made the album in only five days, and it turned out to be one of the greatest recording experiences I’ve ever had.”
The album includes nine songs recently written by Springsteen, and three new versions of previously unreleased tracks from the 1970s: “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest” and “Song for Orphans.” The collection — produced by Ron Aniello with Springsteen, mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig — is The Boss’ first time performing with the E Street Band since their 2016 The River tour.
The title track is classic E Street Band energy, with poignant piano, layers of guitars and Springsteen’s weatherbeaten vocals floating above it all as he works out some existential angst about an all-encompassing love. “Dug deep in my soul/ And signed my name true/ And sent it in my letter to you,” he sings in the stark black and white video that features images of Bruce writing the lyrics in a notebook, sharing tender moments with wife/bandmate Patti Scialfa and working the track out with his trusty sidekick guitarist “Little” Steven Van Zandt.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits was unchanged last week at 884,000, a sign that layoffs remain stuck at a historically high level six months after the viral pandemic flattened the economy.
The latest figures released by the Labor Department Thursday coincide with other recent evidence that the job market’s improvement may be weakening after solid gains through spring and most of summer. The number of people seeking jobless aid each week still far exceeds the number who did so in any week on record before this year.
Hiring has slowed since June, and a rising number of laid-off workers now say they regard their job loss as permanent. The number of people who are continuing to receive state unemployment benefits rose last week, after five weeks of declines, to 13.4 million, evidence that employers aren’t hiring enough to offset layoffs. Job postings have leveled off in the past month, according to the employment website Indeed.
“The claims data were disappointing,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “It is especially concerning that the pace of layoffs has not slowed more materially even though the economy has reopened more fully and more and more businesses have come back online.”
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 23,305 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of August 31 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday.
That’s down from 26,194 claims filed the week before.
While the new claims reported Thursday morning are based on advanced estimates, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) will be releasing a final number later Thursday.
* From a July fundraising email sent by GOP congressional candidate Jeanne Ives…
Sean Casten is ranked to the LEFT of the most well known socialist extremists in the Democratic Party.
* This press release today should help counter that sort of rhetoric…
Pat Brady, former chair of the Illinois Republican Party and former member of the Republican National Committee, announced today that he has endorsed Rep. Sean Casten in his re-election campaign against Jeanne Ives.
In addition to his endorsement of Rep. Casten, Brady is featured in multiple digital ads for the campaign. The ads are part of a six-figure digital buy that will run through Election Day on Facebook, Hulu, and Google.
Pat Brady, former chair of the Illinois Republican Party and former member of the Republican National Committee, announced today that he has endorsed Rep. Sean Casten in his re-election campaign against Jeanne Ives.
In addition to his endorsement of Rep. Casten, Brady is featured in multiple digital ads for the campaign. The ads are part of a six-figure digital buy that will run through Election Day on Facebook, Hulu, and Google.
“Jeanne Ives showed us her true colors in her unsuccessful campaign for governor when she ran the most sexist, racist, and hate-filled ad I’ve ever seen. That anger, bigotry, and lack of judgment doesn’t belong in the United States Congress. And most importantly, it doesn’t represent the people of the 6th congressional district.
“Sean Casten is a good man, a family man, and a businessman, who cares deeply about the district and all who live in it. As a Republican, I might not agree with him all the time. But I know he will always do what he believes is best for us, and for the country.”
Rep. Sean Casten released the following statement:
“I believe that public officials should always lead with their values. Jeanne Ives has made it clear that her values don’t represent the 6th District, and Pat Brady has made it clear that her values don’t represent the Republican Party. I am honored to receive his endorsement.”
*** UPDATE *** Joint statement from ILGOP Chairman Tim Schneider and National Committeeman/woman Richard Porter and Demetra Demonte…
Identifying and labeling Pat Brady as a Republican is false and misleading. If you spend all your time attacking and betraying Republicans - whether out of newfound convictions or to continue booking TV appearances - you are a Democrat. Pat Brady is a liberal Democrat and has been for some time. Sean Casten may have the backing of political hacks but Jeanne Ives is supported by hard working taxpayers.
* Meanwhile…
US House candidate (IL-06) Jeanne Ives released her first campaign ad of the 2020 election, Step Up, this morning to introduce herself to suburban voters.
In the ad, Ives, a West Point graduate, mother of five and former state legislator, illustrates her record of stepping up through the imagery of the different shoes Ives has worn in service to her country, community and family: jump boots at West Point and in the Army, running shoes as a coach, and high heels as a legislator.
Ives concludes the ad by emphasizing her record of independent leadership, saying, “When you need me, I always step up.”
A :30 second version of the ad will run on cable in the Chicago Media Market – Watch the ad here.
A :60 second version of the ad will run on Ives social media channels - Watch the ad here.
Transcripts:
Step Up - TV Version, :30 Seconds
A journey of service starts with one step.
I took my first step in jump boots, serving my country in the Army - just out of West Point
In the Statehouse, I traded my boots for heels to bring both parties together, battle corruption and protect taxpayers.
Now, I’m stepping up to grow our economy, and to get our nation working again;
To build on the promise only American can keep.
I’m Jeanne Ives,
When you need me, I always step up.
++++
Step Up - Digital, :60 Seconds
I’m Jeanne Ives.
Want to know why I’m running for Congress?
Walk a mile in my shoes.
A journey of service starts with one step.
I took my first step in jump boots, serving my country in the Army - just out of West Point.
Then I traded my Army boots for athletic shoes, coaching cross country and raising my kids.
But duty called again.
I stepped into heels, and a new job.
In the Statehouse, I battled corruption wherever I found it;
Protected taxpayers with every vote;
And reached across the aisle to work for you.
Now, I’m stepping up for a new fight:
To save this country from those who would destroy the values that forged our nation and make it strong;
To rebuild our economy;
And to get our nation working again - to build on the promise only America can make and keep.
