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One year ago today

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Illinois

* This tweet prompted me to set the Wayback Machine to March 11, 2020…

March 11, 2020: Went to one final committee hearing downtown. Started calling committee chairs asking if they planned to cancel. Later, I asked @GovPritzker about the state of COVID testing and his answers freaked me out. Last normal day, last time on the Blue Line etc.

Wild. pic.twitter.com/DSSh0wOKFx

— Hannah Meisel (@hannahmeisel) March 11, 2021

* From the subscriber edition a year ago today…

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH SESSION? Despite a growing number of moves across the country to ban some public gatherings, close down universities, move polling places, etc., no state legislatures have yet decided to cancel or drastically curtail spring sessions.

A few committee hearings have been postponed in Texas, Florida’s House chamber was sanitized after five legislators attended conferences where the novel coronavirus was present (the legislators were not tested because they had no symptoms, but were told to practice social distancing and then they all walked onto the House floor together). Alaska’s legislative leaders recently announced restrictions on out-of-state travel for legislators and staff. The state of Washington, which has been particularly hard-hit by the virus, is preparing to close its statehouse if the virus is discovered there. But aside from that sort of thing, legislators are continuing to do their jobs across the country.

“We continue to monitor the situation,” said Senate President Don Harmon’s spokesperson John Patterson yesterday. “We’ve participated in briefings and conference calls and like other employers and workplaces will look for any advice from the state’s public health and emergency preparedness professionals.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown said almost exactly the same thing as Patterson when asked yesterday about the spring session schedule and the chamber’s cooperation with public health officials.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh released a statement yesterday saying: “IDPH and IEMA are working around the clock to monitor this situation as it develops and are studying best practices for containing and mitigating the spread of COVID-19. As we learn more information and the situation develops, the administration will be in contact with our partners in the General Assembly to implement policies that protect the health and wellbeing of Illinoisans.”

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Jesse White, whose office controls the Statehouse, could not say yesterday what it planned to do about already scheduled “lobby day” gatherings and the traditional visits by busloads of school children.

The General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene a week from today, the day after the spring primary. It’s still possible that a session change could be announced. These things tend to escalate quickly, as we saw when Boston all of a sudden decided to cancel its St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Speaking of the parade, Gov. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are holding a press conference this morning at 9:15 to discuss COVID-19 issues. It’s expected that an announcement about the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parades could be in the cards. Check the blog and stay tuned.

And then all heck broke loose.

* Blog headlines for March 11th from earliest in the day to latest…

* Downtown Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is called off (updated numerous times)

* It’s probably time to start thinking about remote legislating (updated x3 with legislative-related cancellations)

* More on the latest AVR snafu (updated)

* COVID-19 morning roundup (updated with news that we were officially in a worldwide pandemic)

* HDems gonna HDem, but the schtick is really getting old

* ICJL says be wary of judicial candidates with Irish surnames during St. Patrick’s Day voting

* Emptying my campaign in-box (updated)

* Session canceled for next week (updated with Senate cancellation)

* Pritzker announces 6 additional COVID-19 cases, for a total of 25 (updated numerous times during his briefing)

* Secretary White bans large groups from Statehouse (updated several times)

* Pritzker will file emergency rules to provide benefits to people unemployed due to COVID-19

* ISU extends spring break, switches to online instruction, closes down university housing (updated with closure of CME trading floor)

* U of I goes online

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 12:24 pm

Comments

Friday the 13th was my first day of working remotely. It’s been groundhog day ever since.

Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 12:27 pm
The invariably prescient Megan McArdle’s 3/11/20 column: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/10/coronavirus-what-matters-isnt-what-you-can-see-what-you-cant/

Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 12:38 pm
The last year is like a blurr. One giant nightmarish blur. I’m so glad we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that elements of normalcy are peaking through the darkness. Four million vaccinated Illinoisans sure helps.

When this is all over, there is going to be a reckoning of who was responsible and helped get us through to the other side and who was reckless and driven solely by the politics and not by the science (Yes, Bailey and Devore, I’m looking right at you). I look forward to that reckoning.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 12:38 pm
And then that night, the NBA shut down after a positive COVID case during the Thunder-Jazz game, and then the next night the NCAA announced the cancellation of March Madness.

Comment by EssentialStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 12:44 pm
14 days to bend the curve?

Comment by Levois J Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 1:12 pm
Will never forget the day. First hearing the Gov’ news then watching our realtor planting the For Sale in yard hoping the housing market wouldn’t slow down (we went 73 days without a showing). House finally sold in November.

I also remember telling my wife don’t freak out, they will figure something out and this locking things down won’t last more than a few weeks at the most.

Thank God there seems to be light on the horizon.

Comment by Give Me A Break Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 1:13 pm
I’m starting to feel a weird sense of deja vu as guidance is being updated so much to take into account better information on indoor/outdoor and school transmission and of course vaccination. It should feel good as these are positive and hopeful steps but it just leave me feeling anxious, remembering what it was like at the outset last year.

Comment by Earnest Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 1:14 pm
I’ve read a few of these one-year retrospectives and the thing that sticks out most is that no one really knew what we were dealing with. Of course, to folk like the eastern blocheads, that just means scientists were wrong and we should never listen to them again. Oof.

Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 1:21 pm
A year later and we’re looking at only having 55 additional deaths reported as a good thing.

Comment by Candy Dogood Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 1:41 pm
Life in America was cheaper than imagined…this past year.

Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 2:07 pm
Capitol Fax had the absolute best reporting on COVID-19 in the earliest stages of the pandemic. It helped me understand very quickly just how serious this was going to get.

Comment by Still Waiting Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 3:15 pm
We were scrambling trying to figure out how it was going to impact DNR - then it actually took until the 15th to get the order - on a spring Sunday afternoon no less - when parks were busy; to get folks out and shut the gates. I ended up helping at one large site that only had 1 staff person trying to clear hiking trails, campers, a dog trial…That was a horrible surreal feeling that left me in tears when those gates locked behind me. I think that’s when it really hit me that this was going to be horrible - far more horrible than we anticipated.

Comment by DownSouth Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 3:26 pm
I was in AZ and thought the Feds would be smart and shut everything down to stop the travel and the spread. Got on the plane shortly after to make sure I could quarantine at home. Airports and flights empty and passengers jumped when anyone coughed. Arrived in Chicago to empty streets and a fairly empty airport. We were picked up by a masked son. Found this so strange, now so normal. Feels like an eternity.

Comment by illinifan Thursday, Mar 11, 21 @ 3:50 pm