chicagotribune--2020-11-10--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened Nov. 9 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

On Oct. 22 , Chicago police said in a prepared statement the department requires all of its officers to wear @ @ @ @ @ coverings in situations where they can ’ t maintain 6 feet of social distance , @ @ @ @ @ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
But the department ’ s COVID-19 online directive @ @ @ @ @ as a requirement for officers if they ’ re on duty for 14 days after @ @ @ @ @ with coronavirus .

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CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced three more regions of the state — including those covering DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties — will be ordered to limit gatherings to 10 people this week as the percentages of positive coronavirus tests in those areas continue to rise.
The suburban and northeast counties along with the state’s 20 southernmost counties, will come under the stricter rules, will also include a limit of six people per table for outdoor restaurant and bar service, beginning Wednesday. They join the northwest region, home to Rockford, DeKalb and Galena, in facing the next level of restrictions in Pritzker’s 11-region reopening plan.
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The governor’s announcement comes as state health officials Monday reported more than 10,000 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day, with 10,573. There also were 14 more deaths reported Monday, bringing the confirmed statewide death toll to 10,210. The seven-day statewide positivity rate increased to 11.4%. A day earlier, the rate was 10.6%.
The nation passed the sobering total of 10 million infections on Monday, and there have been more than 237,000 deaths from COVID-19.
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Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:35 p.m.: Pritzker raises possibility of another stay-at-home order as coronavirus surge continues unabated
With the coronavirus continuing to surge largely unabated, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday that he would impose a 10-person limit on gatherings in parts of suburban Chicago and much of southern Illinois and suggested a statewide stay-at-home order is back on the table as a possible step to bring COVID-19 under control.
DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties, along with the state’s 20 southernmost counties, will come under the stricter rules, which also include a limit of six people per table for outdoor restaurant and bar service, beginning Wednesday. They join the northwest region, home to Rockford, DeKalb and Galena, in facing the next level of restrictions in Pritzker’s 11-region reopening plan.
The latest restrictions came on the fourth consecutive day that state health officials reported more than 10,000 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19. The virus is flaring in much of the country, but there was some good news as a major pharmaceutical company announced significant progress on a coronavirus vaccine.
Pritzker last week said he was considering renewed statewide restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, and on Monday he appeared to open the door to a new stay-at-home order. The stay-at-home order that went into effect March 21 and was lifted May 29 was Pritzker’s most drastic measure to date to combat the spread of the virus.
“We are looking at, really, all the possibilities: the possibility that we would have to go back a phase, the possibility that we would have to, ultimately, have a stay-at-home order,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus briefing. “Those are not things I’d prefer to do.”
It was a subtle shift for the governor, who as recently as Thursday had said a new stay-at-home order was “not something right now that we’re considering.”
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
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4:30 p.m.: CTU seeks mediation in CPS reopening talks, says most voters want remote learning to continue for now
As second quarter began Monday, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union had yet to agree on a plan for reopening schools, and the union has asked for an independent mediator to get involved as the coronavirus pandemic surges in Illinois.
While CPS leaders announced last month that they’d like to offer in-person learning this quarter to students in prekindergarten and special education clusters, eventually phasing in other grades, Mayor Lori Lightfoot last week said she wasn’t ready to “put a specific date on it.”
In a written request for mediation sent to CPS over the weekend, CTU lawyer Thad Goodchild asked CPS officials to confirm they will bargain over the decision to reopen and to ask a mediator to help with negotiations.
“We have a mutual obligation to deliver the best possible education to the children of the City of Chicago under the safest possible conditions,” Goodchild’s letter states. “It is the endeavor of the CTU to meet its obligation in that regard, and the CTU believes a mediator will help us to achieve what it hopes is a shared goal.”
Chicago Public Schools officials on Monday indicated they’re thinking about it.
“While the law does not require the district to bargain over the decision to reopen, the district has received the Union’s request, and we are reviewing it,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement. “We continue to meet and work with CTU, as we have all year, in the hopes they will become a productive partner in getting students safely back to in-person learning.”
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Read more here. —Hannah Leone
4:15 p.m.: CPD launches awareness campaign to make sure officers wear masks or face coverings
The Chicago Police Department has launched an awareness campaign for its roughly 13,000-strong force to make sure officers wear masks or face coverings to protect themselves and the public from COVID-19, officials said Monday
The “I Wear My Mask” campaign includes a video shown to department members that includes officers of different ranks, including police Superintendent David Brown, stressing the importance of wearing face coverings while working city streets during the pandemic.
The campaign comes as the department has faced criticism from Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said last month CPD’s officers must do a better job covering their faces while in the field.
On Oct. 22, Chicago police said in a prepared statement the department requires all of its officers to wear surgical masks or other face coverings in situations where they can’t maintain 6 feet of social distance, as recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the department’s COVID-19 online directive only mentions wearing a mask as a requirement for officers if they’re on duty for 14 days after their last exposure to someone with coronavirus.
As part of the campaign officers will be further reminded with signs in police stations and through regular dispatch radio transmissions, according to a CPD statement. The department also said it had been sending “frequent internal messages” to officers about masks since the pandemic began.
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—Jeremy Gorner
3:30 p.m.: Schaumburg School District 54 halts in-person instruction as hundreds of students and teachers are quarantined and COVID-19 rates hit record levels
With hundreds of students and teachers in quarantine and COVID-19 rates at record levels, Schaumburg School District 54 has halted in-person instruction and returned to remote learning.
Superintendent Andy DuRoss told parents in an email last week that the district may return to a hybrid model — combining face-to-face instruction with online learning — as early as Nov. 30 if "local health conditions and our ability to staff classrooms improve.
“In order to achieve that goal, we need to work together to prevent the spread of this virus,” DuRoss said in Friday’s email.
In the meantime, all students will connect with their teachers and classmates by Zoom, with staff members teaching the remote lessons from their schools, DuRoss said.
The district, which enrolls around 15,500 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, had reopened for in-person instruction in mid-October.
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Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta
3:20 p.m.: After hundreds of Notre Dame students storm the field for football victory, school intensifies exit testing protocols ahead of Thanksgiving break
In the week leading up to the showdown with the top-ranked Clemson football team, University of Notre Dame leaders urged students to stay vigilant against COVID-19 when the players faced off Saturday just outside of South Bend, Indiana.
More than 7,000 undergraduate students were required to take COVID-19 tests to enter the stadium. Emails from administrators reminded fans to keep festivities outdoors and limit gatherings to 10 as cases crept up among students and in the surrounding county.
But that didn’t stop about 2,000 students from spontaneously rushing the field when the Fighting Irish beat Clemson University in an upset win in double overtime, an image broadcast to millions of at-home viewers and shared across social media. The footage showed students crammed together, and while most seemed to be wearing face masks, some mouths and noses were exposed.
A day after the victory, Notre Dame officials expressed “disappointment” about several large off-campus gatherings on Friday and Saturday nights. The messages outlined stricter testing protocols for students who intend to leave campus for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and winter break but did not address the students who stormed the field.
“It was very disappointing to see evidence of widespread disregard of our health protocols at many gatherings over the weekend,” wrote the university president, the Rev. John Jenkins, in a message to students.
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The critical words were directed at off-campus parties, some with groups of about 50 people, and not the short period of time when mostly masked students rushed the field, said university spokesman Paul Browne.
“Father John’s concern was the social gatherings, and not actually rushing the field,” Browne said. County health officials do not think the incident posed a high risk of transmission because of other precautions in place, he said.
About 11,000 people attended the game, the majority of whom were students, Browne said. The school capped attendance this season to 20% of the stadium’s 80,000 seats and curbed ticket sales. Students are given first priority for purchase.
Under the revised exit testing plans announced Sunday, all students intending to leave the South Bend area for Thanksgiving must take a COVID-19 test and cannot depart until the results are back, Jenkins' note says. Those who leave without testing will not be able to register for classes next semester, receive a transcript or return for spring classes.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
2:45 p.m.: DuPage and Kane among counties in Chicago area and southern Illinois to face 10-person limit on gatherings as coronavirus surge continues unabated
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday announced three more regions of Illinois, including those covering DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties, will be ordered to limit gatherings to 10 people this week as the percentages of positive coronavirus tests in those areas continue to rise.
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The suburban and northeast counties along with the state’s 20 southernmost counties, will come under the stricter rules, will also include a limit of six people per table for outdoor restaurant and bar service, beginning Wednesday. They join the northwest region, home to Rockford, DeKalb and Galena, in facing the next level of restrictions in Pritzker’s 11-region reopening plan.
Positivity rates on coronavirus tests in the suburban and southern Illinois regions have continued to increase even after Pritzker ordered the shutdown of indoor dining and bar service and capped gatherings at 25 people in those areas roughly two weeks ago. Many establishments have flouted the governor’s orders, and local officials in some areas have refused to enforce them.
In DuPage and Kane counties, the seven-day average for the test positivity rate was 13.7% as of Friday, up from 9.5% when the tighter restrictions took effect Oct. 23. In Will and Kankakee counties, the positivity rate was 16.4%, up from 9.3% on Oct. 23. Southern Illinois was faring slightly better, with a positivity rate of 11.5% as of Friday, up from 8.7% when tighter restrictions went into effect Oct. 22.
In the nine counties in the northwest corner of the state, the positivity rate hit 17.6% on Friday, up from 13% on Oct. 25, when the region entered the next level of restrictions.
Statewide, the test positivity — the share of positive tests out of all tests take in a 24-hour period — was at a seven-day average of 12.4% as of Sunday, up from 8.2% when the state began reporting the figure on Oct. 29.
Under the governor’s plan, the next step for those regions under tighter restrictions would include suspending indoor and outdoor recreational activities and in-store shopping at nonessential retailers.
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Pritzker said last week that he was not considering a new statewide stay-at-home order like the one he issued in March, his most restrictive step to date, but he is looking at renewing some restrictions from earlier phases of the reopening plan on a statewide basis.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
2:17 p.m.: 2 more judges, four other employees under Cook County chief judge test positive for COVID-19
Two judges, one at Cook County’s main criminal courthouse and the other at Juvenile Court, as well as four other employees of the chief judge, tested positive recently for the coronavirus, the chief judge’s office said in a news release Monday.
A total of 154 employees under the chief judge, including eight judges, have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the release. The most recent of the new cases was discovered late last week, according to Mary Wisniewski, a spokeswoman for the judge’s office.
One of the judges who tested positive most recent works at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, while the other works at the Cook County Juvenile Center, according to the release.
The employees were a juvenile probation officer, who was last at work in May, an adult probation officer who works in the Criminal Court Administration Building, a court reporter at the Skokie Courthouse, and a social service caseworker at Chicago Domestic Violence Court, 555 W. Harrison St.
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A total of 64 juvenile detention center employees and 49 juveniles detained there have tested positive, Wisniewski said. Another 21 employees at Juvenile Court at the juvenile center, not including judges, have tested positive.
When someone tests positive, officials with the chief judge’s human resources department contact anyone “identified as having had close contact with infected persons at the workplace” who may have been exposed, according to the release. The area where the person works also is deep-cleaned.
—Liam Ford
2 p.m.: US hits 10 million confirmed coronavirus cases as Joe Biden implores Americans to wear masks
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday implored Americans to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus, even as he cheered promising news about the development of an effective vaccine.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced strong results from a vaccine trial and said it was on track to file an emergency use application with regulators later this month. But Biden warned Americans against complacency, pleading with them to be aggressive in wearing masks and practicing social distance as cases of the virus surge.
The nation passed the sobering total of 10 million infections on Monday, and there have been more than 237,000 deaths from COVID-19.
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Read more more. —Associated Press
12:21 p.m.: Notre Dame mandates COVID-19 testing after football victory celebration where students rushed the field
The University of Notre Dame has implemented mandatory coronavirus testing for students and strict penalties for those who don’t comply after students rushed the school’s football field to celebrate a double-overtime upset over Clemson and held numerous weekend parties.
The mass of students, players and coaches crammed close together on the field in the minutes following the Fighting Irish’s 47-40 win Saturday night in South Bend over then-No. 1 Clemson. Many of the thousands who stormed the field were not wearing masks or had their masks pulled down.
Now, all Notre Dame students are required to undergo coronavirus testing before they leave South Bend for the extended winter break, Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins told students Sunday night. The email announcement didn’t specifically reference the storming of the field, but rather “many gatherings” over the weekend.
Read more here. —Casey Smith
12:08 p.m.: 10,573 new known COVID-19 cases and 14 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Monday announced 10,573 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 14 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 498,560 and the statewide death toll to 10,210 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 64,760 new tests in the last 24 hours.
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The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 11.4%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
11:43 a.m.: HUD Secretary Ben Carson tests positive for coronavirus as Trump election party draws scrutiny
It was supposed to be a scene of celebration.
Instead, the Trump campaign’s election night watch party in the White House East Room — with few masks and no social distancing — is being eyed as a potential coronavirus super-spreading event and yet another symbol of President Donald Trump’s cavalier attitude toward a virus that is ripping across the nation and infecting more than 100,000 people a day.
Ben Carson, the secretary for Housing and Urban Development, is the latest attendee to test positive, a department spokesman confirmed. The event has been under scrutiny since another attendee, the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, contracted the virus, which has now killed more than 237,000 people in the U.S. alone.
Read more more. —Associated Press
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10:44 a.m.: DePaul won’t have fans at home basketball games to start the 2020-21 season because of COVID-19 guidelines
DePaul will not permit fans to attend men’s or women’s basketball games at the start of the 2020-21 season, the university announced Monday.
The university cited “the ongoing pandemic surging locally in the state of Illinois and city of Chicago.”
If health and safety restrictions ease later in the season, DePaul will sell tickets on a single-game basis.
Read more here. —Shannon Ryan
10:43 a.m.: Chicago-area hospitals again restricting visitors amid latest COVID-19 surge
Some Chicago-area hospitals are again barring visitors, as the number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois continues to climb.
Advocate Aurora Health, which has 12 hospitals in Illinois, last week said that it would no longer allow visitors at most of its hospitals — except in certain cases, such as childbirth, emergency department visits, pediatric appointments, patients with disabilities and end-of-life patients.
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“This is a proactive measure to keep our patients and team members safe and to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” spokeswoman Johnna Kelly said in an email.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
9:50 a.m.: Pfizer says early data signals COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective; company on track for emergency use application
Pfizer said Monday that an early peek at the data on its coronavirus vaccine suggests the shots may be a robust 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, putting the company on track to apply later this month for emergency-use approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The announcement, less than a week after a presidential election that was seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis, was a rare and major piece of encouraging news lately in the battle against the scourge that has killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide, including almost a quarter-million in the U.S. alone.
Pharmaceutical companies and various countries are in a global race to develop a vaccine against the virus.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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7:40 a.m. Biden names COVID-19 task force, including former Chicago public health official
Dr. Julie Morita, a staff member of Chicago’s health department for 20 years who was city health commissioner from 2015 to 2019, was among those named to presumptive president-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 task force Monday.
Also named to the task force was former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s older brother, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biden on Monday named the members of the team of public health and science experts to develop a blueprint for fighting the coronavirus.
The group includes doctors and scientists who have served in previous administrations, many of them experts in public health, vaccines and infectious diseases.
Notable among the members is Rick Bright, a vaccine expert and former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He had filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was reassigned to a lesser job because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug pushed by President Donald Trump as a COVID-19 treatment.
Public health officials warn that the nation is entering the worst stretch yet for COVID-19 as winter sets in and the holiday season approaches, increasing the risk of rapid transmission as Americans travel, shop and celebrate with loved ones.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
6:55 a.m. Chicago’s Christmas tree to be delivered to Millennium Park
Chicago’s city Christmas tree was scheduled to arrive Monday morning at Millennium Park.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the city won’t be holding a tree-lighting ceremony. But the tree, donated by an 85-year-old retired Chicago teacher, will be decorated as usual. And the city will hold a number of online events related to the holidays and involving the tree.
The tree was scheduled to arrive in the park around 10 a.m. Monday.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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chicagotribune--2020-11-11--CTA Blue service suspended on Northwest Side after derailment near Harlem

The CTA initially said in a tweet that trains were standing near Harlem because of debris on the tracks , @ @ @ @ @ was suspended because of a derailment there .

A crash on the Kennedy Expressway led to the derailment of a CTA Blue Line “L” train Wednesday morning, sending two people to the hospital with minor injuries and disrupting service on the line for hours, officials said.
Service was disrupted for almost three hours between the Rosemont and Jefferson Park stations after a train hit a vehicle tire on the tracks near Harlem and derailed around 5:30 a.m., according to the CTA.
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A vehicle traveling south on Interstate 90 at Cumberland Avenue lost its tire, Trooper Omoayena Williams wrote in an email. It continued and lost a second tire, which landed on the Blue Line tracks near Harlem Avenue.
“A CTA train collided with the tire which landed on the train tracks,” according to Williams.
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CTA workers at the scene of a Blue Line train derailment near the Harlem stop in the 5500 block of North Harlem Avenue on Nov. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Two passengers from the CTA train were transported to a local hospital with minor injuries and no one else was reported hurt, Williams said.
The CTA initially said in a tweet that trains were standing near Harlem because of debris on the tracks, then later clarified that service was suspended because of a derailment there.
CTA officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Morning rush traffic on the inbound Kennedy Expressway passes a CTA Blue Line train beginning to head north after it had derailed earlier in the morning near the Harlem stop in the 5500 block of North Harlem Avenue, on Nov. 11, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Because of the derailment, trains had been operating in two sections, between O’Hare and Rosemont, and between Jefferson Park and Forest Park, with shuttle buses between Rosemont and Jefferson Park, according to the CTA. Full service resumed about 8:15 a.m., with residual delays, according to a CTA alert.
“Some trains and platforms may be busier than usual as crews work to restore normal service,” it said.
For more travel information, check the CTA’s website.
Check back for updates.


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Former Evanston basketball star Ryan Bost, 20, killed in Rogers Park shooting: ‘I wish I could tell

Former Evanston basketball star Ryan Bost, 20, killed in Rogers Park shooting: ‘I wish I could tell him that everything was going to be OK’

“ Anytime Ryan was involved , you could see the strength and stability that Ryan brought — his impact — @ @ @ @ @ Ellis said .
“ It was a calming comfort , no matter how challenging the @ @ @ @ @ .
Whenever he spoke , because he didn ’ t speak up very often , @ @ @ @ @ respect that his teammates had for Ryan .
”

Evanston Township High School's Ryan Bost puts up a shot during at a state semifinal game against Rockford East in Peoria on March 15, 2019. Bost was shot and killed on Nov. 9, 2020. (Brian O'Mahoney/for the Pioneer Press)
For Ryan Bost, basketball was not just a passion, it was a path toward an exciting future.
That’s how Jaheim Holden, one of Bost’s best friends since childhood, and a fellow starter on Evanston Township High School basketball teams, remembers their conversations about the pair’s basketball goals.
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“We always have had the same dream and goal that we’ve talked about since we first started playing basketball together. That was to make it to college,” Holden said.
Bost was an Evanston basketball standout from a local family with deep roots in the city and long ties to the Wildkits basketball program. As a three-year starter, he was part of Evanston teams that earned second and third place finishes at the state tournament.
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“The environment in the community that we live in, a lot of people don’t get that opportunity,” Holden said. “To us, we were gonna be the first in our families to be able to do something like this, to be able to carry on a legacy.”
Bost, 20, died Monday after he was shot while sitting in the back seat of a parked car in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, officials said. A man walked up to the vehicle in the 6700 block of North Newgard Avenue at 7 p.m., exchanged words with Bost and then fired, police said.
A friend drove Bost to Amita Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he died, according to police.
Evanston Township High School basketball coach Mike Ellis said friends and family gathered outside the hospital Monday night, waiting for updates on his condition and then learning of his death.
Ellis coached the Evanston boys basketball teams that competed for state championships when Holden and Bost were juniors and seniors, he said.
Bost’s grandfather, Bob Bost, “introduced me to life in Evanston” when Ellis moved to town 11 years ago, he said. Bob Bost worked as Ellis' varsity assistant coach.
“I’ve always had a unique fondness for the Bost family,” Ellis said. “To see how his grandson’s life has tragically come to an end, it’s definitely painful.”
Ellis remembered Ryan Bost as “one of the most polite kids you would ever know,” who let senior citizens cut in front of him in restaurant lines and cleaned up after teammates who didn’t bus their tables.
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“Anytime Ryan was involved, you could see the strength and stability that Ryan brought — his impact — to the scene," Ellis said. “It was a calming comfort, no matter how challenging the odds were at that moment. Whenever he spoke, because he didn’t speak up very often, it was impressive, the respect that his teammates had for Ryan.”
Bost’s grandfather, Bob Bost, previously worked as assistant principal at Haven Middle School, and was beloved in the community for his work coaching basketball and volunteering at Family Focus Evanston and elsewhere, said former alderman Delores Holmes.
Ellis said Bost shared his grandfather’s enthusiasm for helping children, and always saw that kids "were taken care of.”
“When we were in holiday tournaments and they were coming around for autographs, Ryan would make sure those kids didn’t feel intimidated and always felt welcome,” Ellis said.
Justin Blake, uncle of Jacob Blake, who grew up in Evanston and was shot by police officers in Kenosha, Wisc. in August, said his family was coming back to Evanston to see how they could help after Bost’s death. While not related by blood, Blake said the two families are so close he calls Bost his nephew.
“Their family is just a pillar in the African American community and has been for many many years. It’s disheartening to hear of this God awful attack,” Justin Blake said. “He was a hell of a young man.”
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Evanston Ald. Peter Braithwaite called Bost’s death a tragedy.
“He grew up a really good kid here in town,” Braithwaite said. “I hope that whoever is responsible for his death is brought to justice.”
Holden said Bost was recruited to play basketball at Post University in Connecticut but it wasn’t a good fit, and he moved back to Evanston and was figuring out what to do next.
“He didn’t really like the school, so he thought he would be better off at home,” Holden said.
Bost was looking for another school to transfer to, but the ongoing pandemic and travel restrictions made that hard, said Holden, who is currently playing basketball at Barton Community College in Kansas.
“He texted me the other day,” Holden said. “He told me he was thinking about life and no matter what we went through, he’d always love me. He said we planned for our goal our entire lives, and you’re the only one who pushed me to get there. And he told me he loved me.”
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Holden said he hopes to play basketball professionally overseas and then attend medical school. He’s studying pre-med and will earn his associate’s degree in May, something he wished Bost was here to see.
“I love Ryan. I wish I could tell him that one more time,” Holden said. “I wish I could tell him that everything was going to be OK, that life is hard. I miss him.”
The Tribune’s Paige Fry contributed
gbookwalter@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Feds: Suburban Chicago businessman formed company as pandemic hit, then swindled more than $2.6 mill

Feds: Suburban Chicago businessman formed company as pandemic hit, then swindled more than $2.6 million from hospitals

After the masks were not delivered on time , Haggerty told one hospital his bank had no record of the @ @ @ @ @ complaint states .
Confronted by his two business partners , Haggerty allegedly altered a bank @ @ @ @ @ the money was never received .

The head of a suburban biotechnology company formed as the pandemic hit has been charged with swindling more than $2.6 million from two hospitals that ordered personal protective equipment.
Dennis Haggerty, 44, of Burr Ridge, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with wire fraud. Federal officials also searched the offices of his company, At Diagnostics in Willowbrook, which was formed in March.
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Haggerty is accused of stealing money from a large university hospital in Chicago and another in Iowa City, Iowa, and using some of it for personal benefit, including two Maserati cars.
Though the hospitals are not named in the complaint, a spokeswoman for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City confirmed officials there contacted the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Federal Bureau of Investigations “after At Diagnostics did not return the funds sent in escrow when the purchase was canceled.”
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The spokeswoman declined further comment, citing the federal investigation.
Chicago is home to a number of university hospitals, including the University of Chicago Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Illinois Hospital.
The hospitals ordered 1 million N95 masks from At Diagnostics and, combined, paid more than $3 million for them, according to the complaint. The hospitals deposited the money into a bank account that was supposedly the company’s but was controlled only by Haggerty.
After the masks were not delivered on time, Haggerty told one hospital his bank had no record of the money being deposited, the complaint states. Confronted by his two business partners, Haggerty allegedly altered a bank statement to make it appear the money was never received.
Haggerty spent some of the money on two Maserati cars and a Land Rover SUV, according to the complaint, which says he failed to return more than $2.6 million to the hospitals.
Haggerty was formally read the charges against him Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court and is due back in court at 1 p.m. Nov. 19 for a pretrial hearing. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Daywatch: Chicago revamps quarantine order, Biden shrugs Trump’s refusal to concede and a 2020 holid

Daywatch: Chicago revamps quarantine order, Biden shrugs Trump’s refusal to concede and a 2020 holiday gift guide

This year has taken many things from us — birthday celebrations , live concerts and simply hugging the people we @ @ @ @ @ not take our holiday season .
The Tribune staff has gathered lists of the best @ @ @ @ @ list , even if you will be hosting your holiday parties over Zoom .
From @ @ @ @ @ your grandma to a tea set for your teacher , this year ’ s guide @ @ @ @ @ little easier .

Good morning, Chicago. Illinois public health officials on Tuesday reported 12,623 new cases of the coronavirus and 79 additional deaths, as the state passed another bench mark: more than 500,000 total known cases for the outbreak. Here’s a look at how to understand this grim milestone in 5 charts.
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in both Illinois and the country, we are also quickly approaching the holiday season. Are you wondering if you should get tested before your Thanksgiving gathering? Here’s what the experts say.
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Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Nurse practitioner Marna Taylor gives Ahmad Bazzi a nasal swab to test for COVID-19 at ACCESS in Dearborn, Mich., on June 12, 2020. (Paul Sancya/AP)
Four months after the city rolled out a mandatory travel quarantine order, officials revamped it Tuesday to a color-coded tiered list in an acknowledgment that most states it wants to restrict movement from are faring the same or better than Chicago in terms of coronavirus rates.
The new travel quarantine system that goes into effect Friday in Chicago also will impose mitigation steps for travelers returning from Michigan, making it the final Midwestern state added to the order as the region grapples with a grueling autumn wave of the virus. Though the fines for someone caught violating the quarantine order are potentially hefty, officials have not announced rigorous enforcement measures to ensure travelers abide by the mandatory two-week quarantine rule.
Chicago’s travel quarantine list now rates states yellow, orange or red. Here’s what you need to know to avoid a large fine.
President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Vowing “to get right to work,” President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday shrugged off President Donald Trump’s fierce refusal to accept the election outcome as “inconsequential,” even as Democrats elsewhere warned that the Republican president’s actions were dangerous.
Election officials nationwide from both parties find no evidence of fraud
Paula Weisseth, a Democratic election judge and Ivan Matko, a Republican election judge, open up mail-in ballots at the Kane County clerk's office on Nov. 9, 2020, in Geneva. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Rep. Lauren Underwood’s lead over Republican challenger Jim Oberweis grew slightly but remained razor-thin as counting continued in a race that will determine whether she will get a second term after flipping the sprawling, suburban 14th District for Democrats two years ago.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, speaks at a news conference Aug. 14, 2020, at Milton Lee Olive Park in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
With Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker cracking down on restaurants and bars around Chicago to try to stop coronavirus spread, aldermen argued Tuesday that large, unregulated parties in hotels and vacation rentals are increasingly causing trouble during this phase of the pandemic.
Cozy gifts for 2020. (Chicago Tribune)
This year has taken many things from us — birthday celebrations, live concerts and simply hugging the people we love. But COVID-19 cannot take our holiday season. The Tribune staff has gathered lists of the best gifts for everyone on your list, even if you will be hosting your holiday parties over Zoom. From finding a mask fit for your grandma to a tea set for your teacher, this year’s guide will help make 2020 a little easier.


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Column: Black women and Latinas are poised to start a political revolution without white women

Once again , Black women made it clear last week that we have no tolerance for a misogynist who has @ @ @ @ @ we are sexual objects .
Just as we led the failed attempt to elect the @ @ @ @ @ , Black women cast ballots at a greater rate for presumptive President-elect Joe Biden and @ @ @ @ @ any other group .

Jailyn Banks, center, King M, right, and others celebrate as presumptive President-elect Joe Biden arrives on stage at the Chase Center to address the nation on Nov. 7, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
This election revealed the potential for a powerful women’s coalition going forward. White women won’t be in the forefront, though. Black women and Latinas will lead the charge.
Of course, many white women will be involved because of their sheer numbers. But the last two presidential elections have shown that white women as a whole are not as reliable as Black women and Latinas when it comes to voting in our best interest.
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So, we are prepared to start the revolution without them.
The mere thought of Black women and Latinas coming together to chart the course of the country terrifies many in mainstream America. Already, some on social media are trying to pit us against each other by making us competitors rather than allies.
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But we’re too focused to allow that to happen. Our eyes are set firmly on the prize that awaits us. And we are poised to go for it with or without an abundance of white women by our side.
Once again, Black women made it clear last week that we have no tolerance for a misogynist who has talked about women as though we are sexual objects. Just as we led the failed attempt to elect the first female president in 2016, Black women cast ballots at a greater rate for presumptive President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris than any other group.
Nine in 10 Black women voted for Biden and Harris, an effort that lifted a woman to the second highest political position in the nation for the first time in history, according to exit polls. Latinas followed at 69%, pushing Biden and Harris over the finish line in states like Arizona and Nevada.
Only 44% of white women voted for Biden and Harris. More of them voted for Donald Trump this time than four years ago.
I don’t know who the 55% of white women who voted for Trump were. I am fairly confident, however, that they were not the white women I know personally, and certainly not the ones I consider as my friends.
However, Trump supporters, particularly women, tend to encase themselves in a shroud of secrecy. They don’t have the guts to admit publicly that they would rather put a man who disrespects them in office than support a highly qualified woman.
While smaller percentages of Blacks and Latinas also voted for the Trump ticket, the white women problem in today’s political society is a much bigger issue. I will leave it up to those with professional expertise to figure out the complex psychological dynamics that cause women of any race to turn against their own.
While Blacks and Latinas are perfectly capable of carrying out a political revolution by themselves, it would move quicker and have a much greater impact if it included a proportionate number of women from the largest racial group in America.
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Six in 10 Asian American women voted for Biden-Harris, according to NBC News exit polls, while Native and Indigenous Americans reportedly helped tip the scales for Democrats in some Western states.
Every woman is welcome in this movement. And every racial and ethnic group, regardless how small, has much to contribute.
As the power of the combined Latina and Black women’s vote becomes more obvious, those with an alternate agenda will desperately try to rip us apart. We saw an example of the fierceness of those attacks days after the election.
In an interview on MSNBC on Sunday, Latina actress Eva Longoria pointed out the significant role Latinas played in last week’s election.
“The women of color showed up in big ways," as she said. "You saw in Georgia what Black women have done, but Latina women were the real heroines here, beating men in turnout in every state and voting Biden-Harris at an average rate of close to 3 to 1.”
She went on to explain that Latinas did this in spite of seemingly insurmountable challenges, including language barriers in some instances.
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There is nothing wrong with what she said. And there is absolutely no reason to think that by pointing out the force of Latinas in the election, she was attempting to diminish the accomplishments of Black women.
But detractors accused the former “Desperate Housewives” star and Democratic activist of being dismissive of Black women to the point that she posted multiple tweets to clarify her remarks and apologize.
Longoria explained that she was comparing Latina women with Latino men. But her most important point was that Black women aren’t in this alone.
“Finally, Black women don’t have to do it alone,” she tweeted. “Latina women and other women of color are standing with them and growing their voice and power. Together we are Unstoppable!!!”
Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
As African American women, we know our political worth, and so does everyone else. On Monday, Harris acknowledged our role in electing the first Black and Indian woman as vice president.
“I want to speak directly to the Black women in our country,” she tweeted. “Thank You. You are too often overlooked, and yet are asked time and again to step up and be the backbone of our democracy. We could not have done this without you.”
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When Black women are focused on taking care of business, we don’t have time to sit around waiting for accolades. But it’s always nice when someone takes note of our hard work and determination.
Black women cannot be threatened by the emergence of Latina women as a political force. We should embrace them, as well as women of all races, as partners in the movement to advance our collective agenda.
There is enough room at the table for all of us. There is no need to fight over scraps. Together, we cannot only plan the menu but also see to it that every woman gets her fill.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Column: Loser: A poem about Donald Trump

This is the latest in my ongoing series of TrumPoems chronicling the presidency of Donald Trump , based , as @ @ @ @ @ and actions .

President Donald Trump gives two thumbs-up to supporters as he departs after playing golf Nov. 8, 2020, at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling Virginia. (Steve Helber/AP)
This is the latest in my ongoing series of TrumPoems chronicling the presidency of Donald Trump, based, as always, on his words and actions.
LOSER
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I WON I WON I WON I WON!
I won I won I won!
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I won I won I won I won!
This race is far from done.
.
I WON I WON I WON I WON!
I’ll tweet it like a scream
And if I tweet it very loud
I’ll wake from this bad dream.
.
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Sniffle.
.
Remember, folks, not long ago?
My rallies proud and large?
The swarm of fans who risked their lives
So I could stay in charge?
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.
They cheered me like a deity
No masks to block their cries
They clapped and roared and loved me
As I superspread my lies.
.
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The fake news said I would not win —
They’re always, always wrong —
The only way that I could lose
Was if the count went wrong.
.
And when the early tally came
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I really did quite well!
But then the votes for Joe rolled in —
As fraudulent as hell.
.
I bellowed: We must stop the count!
The count’s a giant scam!
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I’m still the chosen president
I AM I AM I AM.
.
But still the count kept going
And it did not go my way
In Michigan, Wisconsin
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Even down in red G-A.
.
The libs praised Stacey Abrams
And her leftist voter pack
No way I’d be defeated
By some women?! And they’re Black?!!
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.
Sniff.
.
To prove that I’m the winner
And the leader of this land
I headed to my golf course
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With my putter in my hand.
.
I rode there in my motorcade
Fans cheered me on my path
I wore my all-white MAGA hat
I tried to hide my wrath.
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.
And when the networks called it —
When they said Joe Biden’s name —
I felt a chilling, red-hot rage
But kept on with my game.
.
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Folks partied in the streets, I heard,
Some broke into a dance
They cheered for Joe in Germany
The church bells rang in France.
.
Libs cried “The emp’r has no clothes!”
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Some sang, “The witch is dead!”
But I? I golfed on bravely
And I covered up my dread.
.
They honked their silly, lib’rl horns
But here’s what made me gag —
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The sight of all those Democrats
Who waved our country’s flag.
.
Now Rudy and my lawyers
Figure out what we should do
There’s really just one answer —
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It’s to sue and sue and sue.
.
Concession is for losers
And for those who don’t mind pain
For victims, wimps and Democrats
And guys like John McCain.
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.
Sniff. Don’t get me started on Arizona.
.
Some say I’m throwing tantrums
That I’m just a bratty boy
A kid who’s starved for mommy’s love
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So won’t give up his toy.
.
Some say I’m Putin’s puppet
In some giant Russian plot
To undermine democracy
I tell you I AM NOT!
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.
But strongmen are my biggest fans —
Like Obrador and Xi —
They won’t acknowledge Biden yet —
Their bets are still on me.
.
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We manly men love macho guys
And women love us too!
And what could be more manly
Than a good old-fashioned coup?
.
Chortles.
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.
I think back on the past four years
By God it’s been a trip
I tore this land to shreds so fast
Like flimsy paper — rip!
.
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I never was a leader
But I surely was The Boss
I turned your fears to hatred
Fed my ego with your loss.
.
And still I seed your minds with fear
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I plant the rot of doubt
And if I tweet lies loud enough
I’ll never get kicked out.
.
The GOP still backs my play
They know I hold the ace:
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They cross me and I’ll tweet it —
I’ll divorce them from my base.
.
Yet Sleepy Joe and Kamala
Now act like king and queen
They’re even taking credit
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For my miracle vaccine!
.
I WON I WON I WON I DID!
You know what else is swell?
Inauguration Day is booked
Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
At my D.C. hotel.
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.
And if things go against me
Well, of course, I just might flee
Or maybe I can get a job
As host on “Jeopardy?”
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Woman, 32, critically injured in South Side fire

The fire occurred about 12:55 a.m. in the 500 block of West 72nd Street in the Englewood neighborhood on the @ @ @ @ @ .
The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center .

A 32-year-old woman was critically injured due to smoke inhalation after an apartment building fire early Wednesday, according to Chicago police.
The fire occurred about 12:55 a.m. in the 500 block of West 72nd Street in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, police said. The woman was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.
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A family of five was also displaced because of the fire, police said. There were no other injuries.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, police said.
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pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-11-11--Another fire halts work at troubled General Iron scrap shredder

People who live nearby continue to report pungent odors and loud noises from the shredder .
Their observations contradict statements @ @ @ @ @ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , which in 2019 demanded several improvements as part of its @ @ @ @ @ Iron since the mid-1990s .

A fire shut down operations at the General Iron scrap shredder on Tuesday, a week after its owners paid an $18,000 fine for a May explosion at the North Side facility.
Two snorkel trucks from the Chicago Fire Department quickly extinguished the afternoon blaze, which started in a scrap pile while one of the company’s crane-mounted claws stacked flattened cars and used appliances along the Chicago River near Cortland Street and Clybourn Avenue. No injuries were reported.
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It remains unclear what, if any, role the latest fire will play in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision-making as her administration considers whether clout-heavy General Iron should be allowed to move from wealthy, predominantly white Lincoln Park to a low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood on the Southeast Side.
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The Chicago Department of Public Health allowed General Iron to resume collecting and shredding scrap Wednesday after determining the fire did not damage the company’s equipment. “CDPH instructed the company on how to better monitor and process such piles to avoid any future incidents,” the department said.
The company said in a statement that it is “investigating possible causes” and "fully cooperating with city officials.”
Firefighters prepare to exit after extinguishing a scrap fire at General Iron Industries on Nov. 10, 2020, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Lightfoot aides allowed General Iron to continue operating on the North Side shortly after the company repaired damage from the May explosion that tore through equipment intended to prevent metallic pollution from escaping into surrounding neighborhoods.
In return for the fine General Iron agreed to pay last week, the Lightfoot administration absolved the company of any wrongdoing for the explosion and for violations of city health ordinances documented on 11 separate days during late 2019 and early 2020.
People who live nearby continue to report pungent odors and loud noises from the shredder. Their observations contradict statements from city officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which in 2019 demanded several improvements as part of its third legal settlement with General Iron since the mid-1990s.
Top executives at Reserve Management Group, the operation’s current owner, recently told the Chicago Tribune they plan to shut down the North Side facility by the end of the year, fulfilling a commitment they made to Lightfoot after health inspectors began cracking down on code violations.
The company needs final approval from the health department before moving General Iron’s business to the Southeast Side. Aides to Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker already have approved other permits.
General Iron would become the latest polluter in a neglected corner of the city, where residential yards, baseball fields and playgrounds are contaminated with heavy metals and toxic chemicals from other companies, including steelmakers that abandoned the area decades ago.


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 12,657 new COVID-19 cases and 145 additional deaths reported — a ne

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 12,657 new COVID-19 cases and 145 additional deaths reported — a new daily record and the highest death toll since May

“ Unfortunately , the COVID-19 cases continue to rise significantly in our city , in our state and across the @ @ @ @ @ and the continuous interactions with the community at large , we can not completely mitigate @ @ @ @ @ by the most recent results of our surveillance testing , ” Chancellor Michael Amiridis said @ @ @ @ @ students , faculty and staff Wednesday afternoon .
“ And while our contact tracing efforts @ @ @ @ @ no transmission in our classrooms or our labs , out of an abundance of caution @ @ @ @ @ stricter measures to protect the health and safety of our community members and curb the @ @ @ @ @ ”

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois officials on Wednesday reported 145 deaths related to COVID-19, the most in a single day since late May and the first time the daily death toll has reached triple digits since early June.
The state also reported 12,657 new confirmed and probable cases, topping the record of 12,623 set a day earlier. There have now been 523,840 cases and 10,434 coronavirus-related deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 12.4% for the period ending Tuesday, up from 8% on Nov. 1.
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Also on Wednesday, Region 7, covering Will and Kankakee counties, and Region 8, covering DuPage and Kane counties, as well as Region 2, which covers southern Illinois, moved back to Tier 2 of the state’s coronavirus reopening plan.
And yesterday, city officials said Chicago is adding Michigan to its travel order this week, but gave travelers coming from that state a way to avoid the mandatory two-week quarantine.
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Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:35 p.m.: Illinois hospitals delay elective surgeries, add beds as COVID-19 cases climb
Faced with a record number of COVID-19 patients, some Illinois hospitals are returning to strategies similar to those they adopted in the early days of the health crisis, including limiting elective surgeries and adding more beds.
One health care provider, NorthShore University HealthSystem, has converted its Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview back into a COVID-19 hospital, meaning it is no longer taking patients in need of overnight care if they don’t have COVID-19. Non-COVID-19 patients who need to be hospitalized are being sent to other facilities in the system.
The five-hospital system also has started evaluating elective surgeries on a case-by-case basis, delaying some depending on their urgency, said Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani, chief medical officer.
“I’m very concerned,” Halasyamani said of the rising statewide numbers. “The numbers we saw in the spring, they look like a little hill compared to the mountain we’re seeing now.”
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
6:50 p.m.: Tier 2 restrictions hit suburban counties. ‘The damage had already kind of been done.’
New COVID-19 restrictions took effect in DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties Wednesday, limiting table size at restaurants and restricting gatherings to no more than 10 people.
It wasn’t exactly welcome news to already-struggling businesses, but some said given the restrictions they already face, the impact has been muted.
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“The damage had already kind of been done,” said Lee Hoener, general manager of the Drake Oak Brook. “We took the big hits earlier.”
He said his hotel had to cancel small meetings it was set to host on Wednesday and Thursday that would have had too many people under the new measures. But much of the Drake’s business, including weddings, has already been moved into next year, he said.
As for the new dining restrictions, which limits parties to six people per table, Hoener said that hasn’t proven to be a big deal, though it might cause families dining together at Thanksgiving to be broken up into separate tables.
John Scudder, commander of American Legion Post 187 Elmhurst, which has a banquet hall attached, said the prohibition on indoor dining announced last week had been a larger blow.
“We’ve had to refund money and we can’t book anything because we don’t know what the future will hold,” he said.
Kaylin Risvold, president and CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, said the big fear is that Tier 2 will soon lead to Tier 3, a near-total shutdown of business operations deemed non-essential.
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“It just puts us one step closer to the edge,” she said. “I feel like everyone’s waiting for what’s coming next, and we’re not expecting good things.”
She added that customers who enthusiastically supported restaurants during the spring shutdown are going through “takeout fatigue,” and aren’t placing as many orders as before.
Tier 2 restrictions also affect recreational sports, but some park districts said they’ve already kept their groups small, so no adjustment was required.
Dawn Hartman of the Downers Grove Park District said it limits groups to 10 people at its fitness center and recreational programs. And while nearly 190 children have signed up for winter basketball — which, in keeping with state guidelines, will feature skill-building but no games — team sizes are small enough that they’ll stay within the restrictions.
But park district officials are mindful that more drastic changes could be coming for them, too.
“We are getting ready to start registration for winter programs, trying to anticipate if we have to move to a virtual format,” Hartman said.
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—John Keilman
5:15 p.m.: Tier 2 restrictions in suburbs prompt Downers Grove church to go back to streaming services
Like other places of worship, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Downers Grove is not legally bound to follow COVID-19 guidelines put forth by Illinois public health officials, but its diocese has chosen to do so.
So when Tier 2 restrictions took effect in DuPage County Wednesday, limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people, the church had to make a severe adjustment to its Sunday service.
“For our size of congregation, 200 households, it takes about eight or nine people to run a service, so we’re at almost 10 pretty quickly,” Pastor Gregg Morris said. “We really can’t accommodate (enough church members), so we just made the decision to go strictly online.”
It’s a throwback to the troubling early days of the pandemic when nearly everything was shut down. St. Andrew’s went virtual in March and just reopened in September, allowing 75 worshippers, or 25 percent of its capacity. As the COVID-19 numbers grew in October, it capped its services at 25.
Now it’s going back to streaming services only, though it will continue a drive-through communion following the livestream.
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“I frame the conundrum we’re in this way: How do you lead a community whose core purpose is to gather when you can’t gather?” Morris said. “The answer is you adapt, you gather differently … We’re able to connect virtually, and we’re finding the virtual presence is indeed keeping people engaged and connected, spiritually fed and enriched.”
—John Keilman
5:10 p.m.: UIC suspends in-person classes for remainder of fall semester
The University of Illinois at Chicago is suspending in-person classes on its campus for the remainder of fall semester, citing rising cases of COVID-19 in the city and state and increased risk of community transmission.
The majority of UIC students are already taking online-only classes, a spokeswoman said, but the changes will go into effect by the end of this week and remain in place until final exams conclude Dec. 10.
“Unfortunately, the COVID-19 cases continue to rise significantly in our city, in our state and across the nation. Given our location and the continuous interactions with the community at large, we cannot completely mitigate these effects, as indicated by the most recent results of our surveillance testing,” Chancellor Michael Amiridis said in a written message to students, faculty and staff Wednesday afternoon. “And while our contact tracing efforts clearly demonstrate that there is no transmission in our classrooms or our labs, out of an abundance of caution, we must now implement stricter measures to protect the health and safety of our community members and curb the spread of this disease.”
Though the positivity rate for saliva tests conducted on UIC’s campus remains lower than averages in the surrounding cities and counties, it has jumped from 0.63% in early October to 2.34% last week, according to the school’s public dashboard. Since Nov. 1, UIC reports 142 positive tests.
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—Elyssa Cherney
5:05 p.m.: With data on restaurant COVID-19 infections in hand, Fulton Market Association decries clamp down on industry, pushes for relief
The Fulton Market Association joined calls across Chicago and the state of Illinois for more financial aid for the hurting restaurant and bar industry, and said more transparency was needed in decisions it says threatens their survival.
On Wednesday, the association criticized the city for what it alleges is unfair targeting of restaurants, and sharing a list of demands the association believes will help restaurants survive the winter.
“We can’t put the blame on restaurants who really don’t deserve it, based on the data,” said Executive Director Roger Romanelli, referring to figures the association said it received from a Freedom of Information Act request seeking statistics on restaurant-related COVID-19 infections.
In his call to action, Romanelli said new financial aid Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday will only help a fraction of the city’s 7,200 restaurants. His association and supporting restaurateurs gathered Wednesday to call for more grant money from the city and other measures like exempting restaurants from paying rent or property taxes for the rest of 2020 — a power the city likely does not have over private transactions between non-governmental parties. Instead, government agencies have opted to provide grant money or loans to help keep restaurants afloat.
Fulton Market Association is a nonprofit economic development agency for the Fulton Market and West Loop neighborhoods and is not restaurant specific. In a FOIA request Sept. 29, the association asked for data on new cases of COVID-19 in restaurant workers and restaurant customers from June through September, plus the number of restaurants fined or temporarily closed for not complying with city safety regulations.
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Romanelli asserts the numbers show that restaurants are not a main source of spread, emphasizing that restaurants have spent thousands of dollars on sanitation and ventilation while facing shutdown directives from the city.
Separately, a recent study from Northwestern predicted that almost 600,000 new infections could be generated if restaurants reopened at full capacity, but that full lockdowns aren’t necessary if masking, social distancing and 20% occupancy is enforced.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
4:45 p.m.: Indiana’s governor reinstates some coronavirus restrictions after weeks of sharp increases in hospitalizations, deaths
Indiana’s governor announced Wednesday that some coronavirus restrictions are being reinstated after several weeks of sharp increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
The new steps being imposed by Gov. Eric Holcomb will limit crowd sizes in those counties at the higher-risk levels of coronavirus spread and would cover 87 of the state’s 92 counties as of Wednesday’s update from the state health department.
Gary Health Commissioner Roland Walker said the city was planning to announce similar restrictions Friday.
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“I’m not surprised at all,” he said. “This is the time of year that we are in. People are in more closed quarters. I’m glad we are taking those steps.”
Read more here. —Tom Davies
4:15 p.m.: CDC declares masks also protect wearers from COVID-19, joining scientific consensus
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says masks, even cloth ones, protect wearers from catching, as well as spreading, the coronavirus.
Yes, this is the same national health agency that initially said masks do not safeguard the general public and are needed only by health-care workers. It is the same agency that, a few months later, said a mask won’t protect the wearer from inhaling the virus — but you should wear one anyway to protect other people in case you’re infected but don’t know it.
On Tuesday, the CDC caught up with the mounting science that shows masks do indeed protect wearers by filtering out any incoming airborne droplets.
Equally significant, the agency endorsed a policy that has been highly politicized in the United States: “universal masking.”
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“Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation,” the CDC said.
An analysis cited by the CDC found a 15% increase in universal masking could prevent economic losses of up to $1 trillion.
Read more here. —The Philadelphia Inquirer
2:45 p.m.: More than a third of Illinois teachers surveyed said they’ve considered leaving the profession amid COVID-19 stress
More than a third of Illinois teachers surveyed said they’ve considered leaving the profession amid the safety concerns and debilitating stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials at the state’s largest teachers union said Wednesday.
The departures would arrive at a critical time coinciding with teacher shortages at many school districts across the state and a spike in teacher retirements.
“This should sound the alarm for every person in Illinois who values our children and their education,” Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin said at a virtual news conference Wednesday.
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Read more here. —Karen Ann Cullotta
12:50 p.m.: Mayo Clinic Health System says its hospital beds are full to capacity in northwest region of Wisconsin
Mayo Clinic Health System says its hospitals in the northwest region of Wisconsin are full to capacity.
System officials say 100% of their beds are full at hospitals in the region, which encompasses Barron, Bloomer, Eau Claire, Osseo and Menomonie. Eighty-three patients have COVID-19, WQOW-TV reported.
They say 50% of the patients in intensive care have COVID-19 and 40% of their medical or surgical beds are filled with cornavirus patients.
Read more here. —Associated Press
12:39 p.m.: Illinois reports 145 COVID-19 deaths, first triple-digit toll since early June; another daily record set with 12,657 new and probable cases
Illinois public health officials on Wednesday reported 145 deaths related to the coronavirus, the most in a single day since late May and the first time the daily death toll has reached triple digits since early June.
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The state also reported 12,657 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, topping the record of 12,623 set a day earlier. There have now been 523,840 cases and 10,434 coronavirus-related in Illinois since the pandemic began.
The figures announced Wednesday include the death of a seventh resident at the Illinois Veterans' Home in LaSalle since the pandemic began. Officials reported three deaths at the state-run long-term care facility on Tuesday. There are currently 72 residents and 72 employees with COVID-19 at the home.
“Our veterans homes really have done an outstanding job of keep our veterans safe,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said early Wednesday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a long-delayed state veterans home in the Dunning neighborhood on Chicago’s Northwest Side. “But you can’t a hundred percent keep everybody safe in this environment, especially when our communities, our mayors, our city councils, our county chairs aren’t living up to the mitigations, are not enforcing the mitigations in many parts of the state.”
As COVID-19 has surged this fall, Pritzker has repeatedly criticized local officials for not enforcing prohibitions on indoor dining and bar service and other measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus that causes the disease.
As of Wednesday, the state is averaging 72 deaths per day from COVID-19 over the past week. A week earlier, the seven-day average was 45 daily deaths. At the beginning of October, the average was 23 deaths per day.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 also have reached an all-time high, with 5,042 patients reportedly in the hospital as of Tuesday night. The previous high was 5,037 patients on April 28.
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The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results statewide — known as the test positivity rate — hit a seven-day average of 13.6% as of Tuesday, up from 8.2% when the state began reporting the figure Oct. 29.
—Dan Petrella
11:56 a.m.: Feds: Suburban Chicago businessman formed company as pandemic hit, then swindled more than $2.6 million from hospitals in Chicago and Iowa City
The head of a suburban biotechnology company formed as the pandemic hit has been charged with swindling more than $2.6 million from two hospitals that ordered personal protective equipment.
Dennis Haggerty, 44, of Burr Ridge, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with wire fraud. Federal officials also searched the offices of his company, At Diagnostics in Willowbrook, which was formed in March.
Haggerty is accused of stealing money from a large university hospital in Chicago and another in Iowa City, Iowa, and using some of it for personal benefit, including two Maserati cars.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
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8:53 a.m.: CVS, nonprofits open free COVID-19 testing site on South Side
CVS Health is working with several local nonprofits to open a free COVID-19 testing site on the city’s South Side.
The site, which opens today, will provide results within 30 minutes and be located at the Chicago Baptist Institute at 5120 S. King Drive.
To get tested, patients must pre-register by calling 844-826-2838 to schedule an appointment. People will also have to meet criteria established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new site comes from a partnership between CVS, New Spiritual Light Missionary Baptist Church and Peer Plus Education and Training Advocates.
CVS already has nearly 170 drive-thru sites in Illinois.
—Lisa Schencker
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7:01 a.m.: 3 Illinois regions move to Tier 2 coronavirus mitigation levels
Three regions of Illinois, including a wide swath of the Chicago suburbs, move Wednesday to Tier 2 coronavirus mitigation efforts.
Region 7, covering Will and Kankakee counties, and Region 8, covering DuPage and Kane counties, as well as Region 2, which covers southern Illinois, moved back to Tier 2 of the state’s coronavirus reopening plan.
The regions’ test positivity rate remains above 8% and “continues to rise” after more than 14-days under Tier 1 mitigations, according to state officials.
Among the new measures are a limit on party size in bars and restaurants to six people; a maximum indoor/outdoor gathering size of 10 people for meetings, social events and gatherings; and a limit to the lesser of 25 guests or 25% of overall room capacity both indoors and outdoors for organized group recreational activities.
—Associated Press
6:11 a.m.: Amid pandemic, Grossman Ensemble makes recording debut
Arts organizations have devised various ways of dealing with the pandemic, and one of the most tangibly satisfying comes from the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (at the University of Chicago).
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The Grossman Ensemble – its resident band – has released “Fountain of Time,” an immensely appealing album that illuminates much of what CCCC is all about: nurturing new ideas in concert music. Each of the CD’s five compositions was given its world premiere by the Grossman Ensemble and is captured here in lustrous detail.
From the mystical opening pages of Shulamit Ran’s “Grand Rounds” to the instrumental sensuality of Anthony Cheung’s “Double Allegories,” from the exquisitely detailed tone painting of David Dzubay’s “PHO” to the subtle textural shifts of Tonia Ko’s “Simple Fuel,” the recording attests to the stylistic breadth the CCCC seeks to foster. It also documents the Grossman Ensemble’s high performance caliber, established during its first performance, in December 2018.
Read more here. —Howard Reich
1:50 a.m.: In reversal, Sangamon County to enter full mitigations Friday
During a striking rise in COVID-19 cases, Sangamon County will enter full mitigations Friday, forcing indoor bar and restaurant service to cease.
The move comes a week after Sangamon County and city of Springfield officials announced that they would defy Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mitigation orders, opting for a “phased-in” approach that would allow hard-hit businesses in the service industry to remain open.
Under the plan, indoor service was allowed to continue at 25% capacity. Customers were required to complete a health questionnaire, which was to be retained by the establishment and provided to county public health officials upon request.
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The altered mitigations, which went into effect last Friday, were to be revisited in two weeks.
But just four days later, it was clear that spread of the virus was continuing unchecked around the county.
County health officials made the call after the county reached a third consecutive day with a seven-day-rolling positivity rate higher than 12%.
Read more here. —The State Journal Register
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In case you missed it
Here are five things that happened Tuesday regarding COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--Illinois reports 145 COVID-19 deaths, first triple-digit toll since early June;  another daily recor

Illinois reports 145 COVID-19 deaths, first triple-digit toll since early June;  another daily record set with 12,657 new and probable cases

In a news release detailing Wednesday ’ s coronavirus statistics , the state health department urged residents to follow guidelines @ @ @ @ @ the stay-at-home order from late March to late May for the next three weeks : @ @ @ @ @ all possible , limiting trips outside the home to essential activities like going to the @ @ @ @ @ getting tested for the coronavirus , and avoiding unnecessary travel .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials on Wednesday reported 145 coronavirus-related deaths, the most in a single day since late May and the first time the daily death toll has reached triple digits since early June.
Officials urged residents to stay home — while stopping short of a stay-at-home order — as they reported 12,657 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, topping the record of 12,623 set a day earlier. There have now been 523,840 cases and 10,434 coronavirus-related deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began.
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Hospitalizations for COVID-19 also have reached an all-time high, with 5,042 patients reported in the hospital as of Tuesday night. The previous high was 5,037 patients on April 28. The number of people in the hospital is key to understanding the spread of the virus because case counts are a function of how many people are tested.
Wednesday’s figures include the death of the seventh resident at the Illinois Veterans' Home in LaSalle since the pandemic began. Officials reported three deaths at the state-run long-term care facility on Tuesday.
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In a letter to residents and families Wednesday, the facility’s administrator wrote that 81 residents and 88 employees at the home have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began, an increase of 36 cases since the previous update just two days earlier.
The LaSalle home suspended visits beginning Nov. 2, though Wednesday’s letter said family members are allowed to visit residents who’ve tested positive, noting “we cannot guarantee you will not contract the virus.” Admissions have been halted, and residents who’ve tested positive are being isolated in a separate wing.
Pritzker on Wednesday said the state’s veterans homes “really have done an outstanding job of keeping our veterans safe.”
“But you can’t a hundred percent keep everybody safe in this environment, especially when our communities, our mayors, our city councils, our county chairs aren’t living up to the mitigations, are not enforcing the mitigations in many parts of the state," he said at a Veterans Day ribbon-cutting ceremony for a long-delayed state veterans home in the Northwest Side Dunning neighborhood.
As COVID-19 has surged this fall, Pritzker has repeatedly criticized local officials for not enforcing prohibitions on indoor dining and bar service and other measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus that causes the disease.
DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties, along with the 20 southernmost counties, on Wednesday came under even stricter state rules as their percentages of positive coronavirus tests have continued to grow despite earlier restrictions. The new rules include a 10-person limit on gatherings.
Some said given the restrictions they already face, the impact was muted.
“The damage had already kind of been done,” said Lee Hoener, general manager of the Drake Oak Brook. “We took the big hits earlier.”
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Like other places of worship, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Downers Grove is not legally bound to follow the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, but its diocese has chosen to do so, meaning the church is now limiting services to 10 people.
“For our size of congregation, 200 households, it takes about eight or nine people to run a service, so we’re at almost 10 pretty quickly,” said the Rev. Gregg Morris, pastor of St. Andrew’s. “We really can’t accommodate (enough church members), so we just made the decision to go strictly online.”
It’s a throwback to the troubling early days of the pandemic when nearly everything was shut down. St. Andrew’s went virtual in March and just reopened in September, allowing 75 worshippers, or 25% of its capacity. As the COVID-19 numbers grew in October, it capped its services at 25.
Now it’s going back to streaming services only, though it will continue a drive-thru communion following the livestream.
“I frame the conundrum we’re in this way: How do you lead a community whose core purpose is to gather when you can’t gather?” Morris said. “The answer is you adapt, you gather differently.”
The state has limited means of enforcing the rules. The Illinois State Police, which can issue misdemeanor citations to businesses that repeatedly violate Pritzker’s orders, had issued only four as of Monday, though the agency has said it’s issued many more warnings.
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Pritzker also has discussed going after the liquor and video gambling licenses of businesses that don’t obey, but no one has faced those consequences as yet.
Over the past week, Illinois has reported more than 17,000 more new and probable cases than any other state, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On a per capita basis, Illinois had the seventh-highest total, with 84 cases per 100,000 residents, trailing North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
On Monday, Pritzker raised the possibility of a new statewide stay-at-home order, the most drastic step he’s taken to combat the virus, after saying days earlier that it wasn’t under consideration.
In a news release detailing Wednesday’s coronavirus statistics, the state health department urged residents to follow guidelines similar to those imposed during the stay-at-home order from late March to late May for the next three weeks: working from home if at all possible, limiting trips outside the home to essential activities like going to the grocery store or pharmacy or getting tested for the coronavirus, and avoiding unnecessary travel.
As of Wednesday, the state is averaging 72 deaths per day from COVID-19 over the past week. A week earlier, the seven-day average was 45 daily deaths. At the beginning of October, the average was 23 deaths per day.
Deaths peaked in early to mid-May, when the state was averaging more than 100 fatalities per day.
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Unlike in the spring, when deaths were heavily concentrated in Chicago and the suburbs, the fatalities reported Wednesday were spread across 43 of the state’s 102 counties. Most of those who died were in their 60s or older, but the youngest were two Cook County men in their 20s and 30s.
While the seven-day average for hospitalizations is still well below its spring peak of 4,822, the number of people in the hospital with the coronavirus has more than doubled in less than three weeks. The surge is being driven, in part, by regions outside the Chicago metropolitan area that are seeing higher rates of infection and hospitalizations than they did during the first wave in the spring.
The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results statewide — known as the test positivity rate — hit a seven-day average of 13.6% as of Tuesday, up from 8.2% when the state began reporting the figure Oct. 29.
The case positivity rate — the percentage of people who test positive out of the total number of tests in a given day — was up to an average of 12.4% for the week ending Tuesday. At the beginning of October, it was 3.4%.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--Illinois hospitals delay elective surgeries, add beds as COVID-19 cases climb

At Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox , the medical staff was treating 94 people who tested positive and another @ @ @ @ @ on Wednesday , compared with a high of 82 cases earlier this year .
The @ @ @ @ @ elective surgeries , but has added an additional unit with negative pressure — which keeps @ @ @ @ @ the hospital — to handle the growing number of COVID-19 patients , spokeswoman Debra Robbins @ @ @ @ @

Faced with a record number of COVID-19 patients, some Illinois hospitals are returning to strategies similar to those they adopted in the early days of the health crisis, including limiting elective surgeries and adding more beds.
One health care provider, NorthShore University HealthSystem, has converted its Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview back into a COVID-19 hospital, meaning it is no longer taking patients in need of overnight care if they don’t have COVID-19. Non-COVID-19 patients who need to be hospitalized are being sent to other facilities in the system.
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The five-hospital system also has started evaluating elective surgeries on a case-by-case basis, delaying some depending on their urgency, said Dr. Lakshmi Halasyamani, chief medical officer.
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On Wednesday, the state reported a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, at 5,042, compared with a previous high of 5,037 patients April 28.
Swedish Covenant Hospital, which is part of the NorthShore University HealthSystem, is pictured on June 26, 2019. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“I’m very concerned,” Halasyamani said of the rising statewide numbers. “The numbers we saw in the spring, they look like a little hill compared to the mountain we’re seeing now.”
Edward-Elmhurst Health on Wednesday was caring for 161 COVID-19 patients at its two hospitals in Elmhurst and Naperville — the greatest number of patients in a single day since the health crisis began. The hospital is not delaying elective surgeries, but has been adding beds to accommodate the surge, spokesman Keith Hartenberger said in an email.
At Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, the medical staff was treating 94 people who tested positive and another seven possible cases under investigation on Wednesday, compared with a high of 82 cases earlier this year. The hospital has not started postponing elective surgeries, but has added an additional unit with negative pressure — which keeps contaminated air from circulating throughout the hospital — to handle the growing number of COVID-19 patients, spokeswoman Debra Robbins said in an email.
Some hospitals outside the Chicago area also are hard-hit.
Memorial Health System, which has five hospitals in central Illinois including Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, had 138 patients Wednesday, about four times as many COVID-19 patients as in the spring, said Dr. Rajesh Govindaiah, senior vice president and chief medical officer.
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Memorial plans to begin delaying some non-urgent elective surgeries Monday, he said.
Earlier this year, Illinois hospitals suspended a majority of elective surgeries when much was unknown about how high the COVID-19 caseloads would climb and how COVID-19 patients would be treated. The term “elective surgery” can be deceiving, as many elective surgeries are necessary, and often time-sensitive, procedures.
Now that hospitals have more experience with COVID-19 patients, they’re trying to take a more measured approach.
At Memorial, for example, a person in need of a knee replacement might have to wait, while someone who needs a broken ankle or wrist repaired might get the surgery sooner so the injuries don’t heal incorrectly, Govindaiah said.
“I think there’s broad recognition nationally and at the state level that turning everything off again would harm patients,” he said.
Hospital Sisters Health System, which has nine hospitals across central and southern Illinois, also has more COVID-19 patients than earlier this year, though it has not had to delay elective surgeries, said Dr. Gurpreet Mander, chief physician executive for HSHS Illinois.
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Concerns also are growing about staffing levels. Though hospitals can add beds, they can only add as many beds as they have the ability to staff. Amid this second COVID-19 surge, hospitals are seeing their medical workers catch COVID-19, outside the hospital, preventing them from working. Nurses are in high demand nationwide, unlike in the spring when some areas had many COVID-19 cases and others did not.
Hospital leaders are pleading with community members to wear masks and social distance.
“There is a lot of polarization nationally and unfortunately in our community about what COVID means and how serious it is,” Govindaiah said. “There’s a lot of sick people out there that are requiring a lot of care, and that is important for people to understand so they can act appropriately.”


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--Rep. Lauren Underwood extends slim lead over Republican challenger Jim Oberweis

The district includes all or parts of seven counties : DuPage , Kane , Lake , Will , McHenry , @ @ @ @ @ 17 is the deadline for any mail-in votes to be counted if they were postmarked @ @ @ @ @ on Nov. 3 .

Freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood extended her slim lead over Republican challenger Jim Oberweis as ballots continue to be counted in the west and northwest suburban and exurban 14th Congressional District.
As of Wednesday night, Underwood’s advantage over Oberweis grew from 3,524 votes to 4,288 votes after an additional 2,910 ballots were reported by Will County authorities. On a percentage basis, Underwood leads Oberweis 50.5% to 49.5%.
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Two years ago, Underwood, of Naperville, defeated three-term GOP Rep. Randy Hultgren of Plano by 5 percentage points, or roughly 15,000 votes, in a district that has long backed conservative Republicans.
Oberweis, a state senator from Sugar Grove and an investment and dairy magnate, made unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate in 2002, 2004 and 2014, for governor in 2006 and for the 14th Congressional District seat in 2008.
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The district includes all or parts of seven counties: DuPage, Kane, Lake, Will, McHenry, DeKalb and Kendall. Nov. 17 is the deadline for any mail-in votes to be counted if they were postmarked before or on Election Day on Nov. 3.
rap30@aol.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--In last week’s presidential election, Chicago tallied its most votes cast since 1984

During this year ’ s election , the city already had shattered records on vote-by-mail ballots received as well as @ @ @ @ @ of which had been set in 2016 .
There are still more than 6,700 vote-by-mail @ @ @ @ @ ballots to be counted , as well as about 9,200 pending provisional ballots , Chicago @ @ @ @ @ Allen wrote in a statement .

Signs reminding people to vote are still up at a polling station at Welles Park in Chicago on Nov. 4, 2020, a day after the election. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
As Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden challenged Republican President Donald Trump for the Oval Office in last week’s election, Chicago saw the most voters cast ballots in nearly four decades, officials announced Wednesday.
More than 1.1 million people voted in the 2020 general election, with thousands more ballots still to be counted, according to preliminary Chicago Board of Elections numbers. That’s the highest vote count in Chicago since the 1984 general election, when Republican President Ronald Reagan defeated Democratic former Vice President Walter Mondale, according to the elections board. More than 1.2 million ballots were cast in Chicago that year, it said.
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During this year’s election, the city already had shattered records on vote-by-mail ballots received as well as in-person early voting, both of which had been set in 2016. There are still more than 6,700 vote-by-mail ballots and military and overseas ballots to be counted, as well as about 9,200 pending provisional ballots, Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen wrote in a statement.
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In Illinois, election officials have until Nov. 17 to complete their count of vote-by-mail ballots. That includes ballots postmarked by Election Day but delivered after Nov. 3 and those deposited into drop boxes in the hours leading up to the polls closing.
At the top of this election’s ballot was the race for the White House, where Chicagoans unsurprisingly stayed blue in the race between Trump and Biden, the latter of whom is now the presumptive president-elect and garnered 82.5% of the city’s vote to Trump’s 15.9%, according to Wednesday numbers.
Other issues on the ballot were the Gov. J.B. Pritzker-backed proposed constitutional amendment to replace the state’s flat-rate income tax with a graduated structure and the choice between Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her GOP challenger, Patrick O’Brien. The proposed tax amendment failed despite a favorable 71.4% to 28.6% showing in Chicago, while Foxx coasted to victory, aided by the city’s 63.7% share of the vote over O’Brien’s 29.5%, Wednesday numbers show.
ayin@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-12--IHSA invites Gov. Pritzker’s office, IDPH and others to meet as survey indicates few schools ready t

IHSA invites Gov. Pritzker’s office, IDPH and others to meet as survey indicates few schools ready to play basketball

“ I feel like they just keep kicking the can down the road , ” Pittman said .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ coming out and saying there won ’ t be a season .
But there ’ @ @ @ @ @ to play right now by adhering to the safety guidelines .
Let us do that @ @

St. Rita’s Christian Henry, left, takes a shot against Leo during a game in Chicago on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. (Vincent D. Johnson / Daily Southtown)
The ongoing saga of high school basketball took another turn Wednesday.
And it’s a turn that won’t lead to a firm answer until at least Nov. 19.
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The Illinois High School Association announced its board of directors had invited representatives from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office and the Illinois Department of Public Health to attend the IHSA’s next board meeting on Nov. 19.
Those aren’t the only invitations. The IHSA also is seeking representation at the meeting from the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Association of School Administrators, the Illinois State Board of Education and a group of nearly 200 school superintendents who recently contacted Pritzker’s office about sports.
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“The board hopes to create a dialogue and build a more collaborative relationship with all the entities involved with developing sports policy in our state as everyone tries to navigate the myriad issues caused by the pandemic,” IHSA executive director Craig Anderson said.
The IHSA announced Oct. 28 that basketball practices could start Nov. 16 and games could be played beginning Nov. 30. That came a day after Pritzker said winter sports were “put on hold.”
The IHSA board also said Wednesday that schools planning to begin basketball practice on Monday should adhere to the IDPH’s Level 1 mitigations until at least Nov. 19.
Despite being able to start practice Monday, Chicago Christian boys basketball coach Kevin Pittman is skeptical about the possibility of games being played Nov. 30.
“I feel like they just keep kicking the can down the road,” Pittman said. “It’s better than them coming out and saying there won’t be a season. But there’s an opportunity for us to play right now by adhering to the safety guidelines. Let us do that.”
Most local coaches rejoiced when the IHSA announced Oct. 28 the season was going forward as planned. The celebration was short-lived.
Without adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines set forth by the governor and the IDPH, insurance companies would not cover the liability costs for schools.
The risk was too great, according to Ty Harding, the superintendent of District 218, which includes Eisenhower, Shepard and Richards.
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“We want our students to play basketball,” Harding said. “We know it’s good for them physically and psychologically. No matter how people feel about the health risk, when you add in the liability on top of it, it’s a no-go.”
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That was apparent from the results of a survey completed Tuesday. The IHSA sought greater direction from its 813 member schools.
The survey revealed that among the 546 schools that responded, nearly 300 don’t plan to start basketball on Monday, and another 212 schools are unsure.
Pittman confirmed Chicago Christian was one of the few schools that agreed to start the season on time.
“We didn’t have any issues during our contact days,” he said. “We wore masks. We sanitized. We maintained a clean, healthy environment. The same thing during our summer camps. We didn’t have one positive test. We are proof that it can be done.”
Homewood-Flossmoor boys basketball coach Marc Condotti is sympathetic to the IHSA’s dilemma.
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“You have to err on the side of caution,” he said. “The numbers for people getting sick from the virus is going up. So is the positivity rate. It’s not only what’s best for the athletes, it’s what’s best for everyone.
“Our contact days were a good indicator of how things could go. We had no issues. But if the IHSA decides to delay the start of the season, I’m fine with it. Of course, I want to have a season. But people have to feel safe.”