chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Illinois attorney who filed lawsuits against Pritzker for stay-at-home order now working with dozens

Illinois attorney who filed lawsuits against Pritzker for stay-at-home order now working with dozens of businesses that have reopened

“ I would just suggest to all of them that they are putting the patrons of their businesses and the @ @ @ @ @ counties or in their cities in danger when they simply break the rules , break @ @ @ @ @ and they decide that they want to go it alone , '' Pritzker said .

After pouring time and money into his biker bar, Poopy’s, for 24 years, Kevin Promenschenkel faced a coronavirus reckoning: If he wasn’t able to reopen for his annual Memorial Day concert and summer kickoff, his business would not survive.
So the western Illinois bar owner hired lawyer Tom DeVore to file a lawsuit on his behalf Monday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker because of the executive order he signed, effectively shuttering some nonessential businesses starting March 21.
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The St. Louis-area lawyer has become the go-to guy for businesses in the south and west parts of the state chafing at the stay-at-home rules. He also filed suits on behalf of a hairdresser and two Republican elected officials, and is representing about 80 other small businesses.
When he hasn’t filed suit, DeVore has written letters notifying local authorities that each of the businesses intended to reopen despite the stay-at-home order. Most of the businesses that don’t require special state licenses have already reopened, seemingly trying to force local or state officials to do something about it.
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[ How will Illinois reopen? Three charts breaking down Pritzker’s plan ]
In answer to questions Tuesday partly about Promenschenkel as well as local counties and cities wanting to reopen before the state rolls back its order, Pritzker said they should wait and are “not relying on science in any way whatsoever to make their decisions.”
“I would just suggest to all of them that they are putting the patrons of their businesses and the people who live in their counties or in their cities in danger when they simply break the rules, break the law in fact, and they decide that they want to go it alone," Pritzker said.
But Promenschenkel says he takes COVID-19 seriously and said his heart goes out to those who’ve lost loved ones to it, including friends of his. He believes anyone who is at heightened risk should make choices to protect themselves as best they can.
“I know people are worried about the virus. I’m not in a position to be that person anymore because my business is as important to me as my life," he said. “For those of us that are (suing), everything’s at stake. We have no fallback — this is it for us”
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
The bar owner decided to put his trust in DeVore after a friend on social media recently called Promenschenkel’s attention to the St. Louis-area attorney’s work and he and DeVore spoke.
“We’re putting our faith into it, that’s for sure,” Promenschenkel said by phone Tuesday from Poopy’s in Savanna, a small town in Carroll County on the Mississippi River north of the Quad Cities. “That’s my target, I’ve got to have that weekend. If I miss Memorial weekend, you know, unless some miracle happens, we’re done.”
As the biggest destination biker bar in the state, he said, Poopy’s makes money seasonally, employing about 80 people in the summer. Three businesses in Savanna already have permanently closed as a result of the stay-at-home order, Promenschenkel said. Other businesses — such as hotels and gas stations — rely on the bikers who visit Poopy’s from all over the Midwest.
“This was my dream, and I always put everything we made back into the business, maybe that was a mistake. At this point even if we survive the summer, we won’t survive the winter. We can’t do this forever,” he said.
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[ Pritzker calls on legislature to ‘act expeditiously’ on coronavirus relief package as state reports record 4,000 new cases ]
”
We don't know how our story ends. But it will never say, we gave up. This is everything to us. To lose it all after 24 years in business, is not a option. Not without a fight. Posted by Poopy's on Tuesday, May 12, 2020
DeVore also filed a lawsuit this week for an 800-square-foot “dive” bar called Dookie Set in the Clinton County town of Carlyle, which also has about 3,000 residents. DeVore said because bars require a liquor license and the hair salon a cosmetology license, a lawsuit was more fitting because Pritzker has repeatedly made clear he’s “dangling their licenses in front of them, threatening to take them away,” DeVore alleges.
Pritzker doesn’t have the authority to close businesses under his order, according to the lawsuits. If anyone does, it’s health officials, and they have to follow state law and regulations to shut down businesses.
“Both reflect in a different lens exactly the measures being taken by the executive office to enforce this order that businesses and local entities are beginning to question,” he said.
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DeVore first started attracting attention in late April when he filed a lawsuit on behalf of state Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, alleging Bailey had been “irreparably harmed” by the stay-at-home order. A Clay County judge issued a temporary order freeing Bailey from Pritzker’s directive. The state later appealed the decision and Bailey recently began following the order again, saying he wants the restraining order vacated so he can present new information and keep the case in Clay County.
Days later, DeVore helped a second politician, Rep. John Cabello, a Machesney Park Republican and Rockford police officer, who filed his own suit in Winnebago County, saying he seeks broader results — Bailey’s exemption only applied to himself. Along with the two politicians and two bars that are suing, DeVore represents Sonja Harrison, owner of Visible Changes hair salon in Louisville, also in Clay County.
As word spread about the lawsuits, DeVore’s phone started ringing off the hook, and he had to more than double his team, bringing on three more attorneys to process the influx of inquiries from business owners.
The fight is real. We won't go down easy. Posted by Poopy's on Monday, May 11, 2020
For about 80 other businesses, DeVore’s Greenville firm has used a different tactic.
DeVore has advised the businesses to write letters to their local health boards, citing a portion of a directive from Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the Illinois public health director, that accompanied Pritzker’s order. The directive says health officials have the authority to shut down businesses that violate Pritzker’s order if they’re determined to be public health risks. The letters go on to tell local health authorities that because the owners believe their businesses aren’t public health risks, they will reopen within 48 hours.
The letters then demand if authorities want the business closed, officials should seek a court order to close the business.
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“We haven’t heard back from them objecting in a single case,” DeVore said.
A spokesperson for Pritzker didn’t immediately respond to a request for a detailed comment.
Chicago Tribune reporter Jessica Villagomez contributed.
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Applying for unemployment benefits for the first time? Here are 7 things you need to know.

You also may receive a dependent allowance in addition to your benefit amount if you have a dependent child under @ @ @ @ @ a nonworking spouse .
You can claim one or the other , and additional children @ @ @ @ @ .
Payment for a dependent spouse can be between $ 15 and $ 93 , @ @ @ @ @ be between $ 26 and $ 185 , according to the state ’ s website @

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A pedestrian passes the closed Chicago Workforce Center on 18th Street in Pilsen on May 1, 2020. A sign on the window stated that "in order to protect everyone through social distancing, IDES offices are closed to the public until further notice. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Millions of Americans are learning a new skill this spring — how to file for unemployment insurance.
The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in job losses, both temporary and permanent. Nationally, the U.S. unemployment rate hit 14.7% in April, the highest rate since the Great Depression.
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The Illinois Department of Employment Security has been swamped with unemployment claims, and many residents have reported problems filing for benefits. Here are some things to know if you’re filing for jobless benefits:
Am I eligible?
To be eligible for unemployment insurance, you must have been laid off or furloughed through no fault of your own. You can’t have been fired or left your job voluntarily. You can get benefits even if you’re furloughed for a week at a time, according to Department of Employment Security spokeswoman Rebecca Cisco.
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But you must be able, available and looking for work. Typically, you need to register with the Illinois Job Link website to be eligible for benefits.
Under emergency rules, someone temporarily laid off because of the pandemic does not have to register, but is assumed to be actively seeking work as long as that person is ready to return to his or her job as soon as the employer reopens, according to the department’s website.
Other factors that can contribute to eligibility are whether you have earned enough wages or have enough work history.
You also can qualify if you are working reduced hours, as long as what you are earning is less than the weekly benefit amount you would get from the state.
How much will I get?
Benefits are calculated based on wages reported during your “base period,” which means the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters, Cisco said. The higher the wages reported, the greater the weekly benefit amount. Benefits range from $51 to $484 per week.
Payments are backdated from when you first became unemployed, so even if it takes a while to get benefits you should still get all the money you are owed.
You also may receive a dependent allowance in addition to your benefit amount if you have a dependent child under the age of 18 or a nonworking spouse. You can claim one or the other, and additional children will not increase your benefits. Payment for a dependent spouse can be between $15 and $93, while a child allowance can be between $26 and $185, according to the state’s website.
Anyone who gets at least $1 of state or federal unemployment benefits between March 29, 2020, and July 25, 2020, gets an additional $600 per week. This is provided under the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.
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How do I file?
While claims can be filed over the phone, the Department of Employment Security asks that individuals try filing online, due to the high call volume. Go to the department’s website, illinois.gov/ides, click on “Individuals” at the top left of the screen, go to “Unemployment Insurance," scroll down to “File for Unemployment Insurance” and follow the prompts.
You can’t file in person, since Illinois Department of Employment Security offices are closed to the public. The Claims Service Center number is 800-244-5631.
When can I file?
The agency is asking that those with last names beginning with the letters A-M go online Sundays, Tuesdays or Thursdays and those with last names beginning with letters N-Z try Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays. Saturdays are open to anyone to accommodate those who can not file on their allotted days.
If you need to call, the schedule is Tuesday and Thursdays between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. for those with last names beginning with the letters A-M; those with last names beginning with letters N-Z are asked to call on Mondays and Wednesdays during the same hours. Fridays are available for anyone.
What do I need to file?
To file a claim, make sure you have your Social Security number, driver’s license or state ID, employment history for the past 18 months, and, if you’re claiming a dependent child or spouse, that person’s name, Social Security number and date of birth.
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After your claim is filed, the state should send you a notice letting you know if you are eligible and what the amount will be.
What if I’m self-employed?
The CARES Act provides benefits for the first time to the self-employed.
Self-employed workers who believe they are eligible for the new benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Act must first apply for regular unemployment insurance, according to the Department of Employment Security.
If applicants get an eligibility finding of $0, they can appeal by providing proof of wages earned, or submit a claim through the new “PUA” portal, which became available May 11, the state said.
What about Uber drivers?
Ride-share drivers for Uber and Lyft in Illinois have been receiving benefits through regular unemployment insurance, rather than through PUA funds, according to Chicago Rideshare Advocates, an advocacy group for drivers.
Asked about unemployment insurance for Uber and Lyft drivers, Cisco said she cannot discuss individual employers. She said the department encourages everyone who thinks they may be eligible to file for regular unemployment benefits, and if that is denied, they can submit a PUA application.
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mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Chicago morgue coping despite historic surge in deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic

Death is in the job description , but that doesn ’ t mean those who work at the medical examiner @ @ @ @ @ the surge in dead , Arunkumar said .
They cope by checking on each other @ @ @ @ @ to a strict rule : Treat the dead with the respect they ’ d want @ @ @ @ @ .

CHICAGO — The Chicago area’s chief medical examiner starts her day with a numbers problem: how to manage three times the number of deaths as before the coronavirus pandemic with the same number of pathologists.
On a recent morning when The Associated Press got exclusive access to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office for the day, Dr. Ponni Arunkumar scanned a list of 62 new death cases. The average last year was 20 a day.
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“We’ve never gone through anything like this,” she said of the workloads.
Forty of the 62 cases were coronavirus deaths. The oldest to die was a 105-year-old whose obituary described her as a White Sox fan who loved dancing. The youngest was a 53-year-old man who was jailed for allegedly blinding someone in one eye during a barroom brawl.
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Medical examiners worldwide face similar challenges, and some are buckling under the emotional strain. But there was no sign of that at the Cook County facility, where employees seemed to be coping well with the historic surge in deaths. The pandemic has only deepened their sense of camaraderie, said the office’s director of fatality management, who oversees a temporary morgue set up off-site to handle the influx of corpses.
“We lean on each other,” Victoria Raspante said.
The 45-year-old Arunkumar has an air of calm about her. Soft-spoken and quick to smile, she has a knack for keeping those she supervises at ease.
According to figures updated Tuesday, her office has handled 5,323 cases already this year, 2,551 of them COVID-19 deaths since the first confirmed coronavirus death in mid-March. It had 6,254 deaths for all of 2019. Her 18 pathologists have sometimes worked 12-hour days, seven days a week.
The hope was that stay-at-home orders would sharply reduce gun deaths in Chicago, which has had more homicides than Los Angeles and New York combined for successive years. A drop-off in killings would help keep caseloads at more manageable levels.
Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, puts on personal protective equipment as she prepares to perform four autopsies in as many hours at the county morgue in Chicago. Arunkumar starts her day with a numbers problem. It's how to manage a tripling of death cases with the same number of pathologists and the same number of hours in a day as before COVID-19. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
That hasn’t happened.
The office has had 111 homicide cases since mid-March when the pandemic began in the county compared to 113 over the same period last year. One of the 22 non-COVID cases this day is a 21-year-old man who was killed in a drive-by shooting as he sat on a porch.
At 8:30 a.m., Arunkumar and six fellow pathologists began autopsies on shooting victims and others whose cause of death wasn’t clear.
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She pointed to a bullet hole in the shoulder of the man who was killed in the drive-by, his bloody clothes nearby. Another pathologist retrieved the bullet through the wound.
Between autopsies, Arunkumar walked into the facility’s main morgue, where around 250 bodies lined rows of floor-to-ceiling shelving. It was filled to capacity.
Downstairs, Rebeca Perrone stacked 24 boxes of unclaimed cremated remains on shelves that already had 500 others. Some of those cremated were homeless. Others lived alone, estranged from their families.
An orange biohazard tag hangs from a body bag in an isolated refrigerated unit set aside for bodies infected with coronavirus at the Cook County morgue in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
More remains are going unclaimed these days — a sign that more families can't afford the $250 collection fee because of the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic, said Perrone, who arranges funerals for the unclaimed dead and helps poorer families find resources for burials.
Perrone refused to complain about her heavier workloads. Her job sometimes includes informing relatives that a loved-one has died.
“It’s actually nice to be able to talk to someone on the worst day of their life and say, ‘This is what we can do to help,’” she said.
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Cook County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Ponni Arunkumar, makes reference to digitally projected X-rays of a gunshot victim as she prepares for her share of autopsies at the county morgue in Chicago. Arunkumar starts her day with a numbers problem. It's how to manage a tripling of death cases with the same number of pathologists and the same number of hours in a day as before COVID-19. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
On the second floor, investigative-unit chief Christopher Kalka said his 27 investigators were also putting in long hours. People who witness suspicious deaths are now asked whether the deceased complained of losing their sense of smell or taste, which are possible symptoms of COVID-19.
All homicides require an autopsy. Most COVID-19 deaths don’t, as a hospital records review is considered sufficient.
Not all COVID-19 cases are clear cut. Pathologists concluded in one man’s death that the virus didn’t directly kill him, but that it affected his balance. He then fell and broke his hip, causing fatal complications.
Doing fewer autopsies in COVID-19 cases reduces staff exposure to the virus. Risk of infection from the dead is low since it is often transmitted via spray from a sneeze or cough. No one who works at the office has tested positive.
Staff didn’t conduct an autopsy on the inmate who was allegedly involved in the barroom brawl. They gave his body a swab test like the ones given to the living to confirm the presence of the virus, though they did it in a room with reduced air pressure so that viruses can’t seep out.
His body was wheeled into a smaller refrigerated unit for coronavirus deaths, an orange biohazard tag affixed to his body bag.
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At an afternoon conference call to talk through the day’s cases, Arunkumar sat alone with other pathologists phoning in. Pathologists mostly review records from home these days to reduce the risk of spreading the virus at the office.
One said she had more than 80 cases to review, including many COVID-19 cases.
“This is absurd,” she said without anger.
Upgrades at the office in recent years have helped avert crippling backlogs during the pandemic. Changes included putting records online. That’s enabled staff to work from home and clear cases faster.
A key to operations now is a perishable-goods warehouse that was converted to a temporary morgue. National Guard troops unloaded bodies on the day the AP visited. Medical examiner's office staffers measured and photographed the bodies at the loading dock before soldiers took the body bags to one of three rooms the combined size of a football field. They laid them gently on specially constructed scaffolding.
One room held 130 bodies, but the site can hold up to 2,000. Two of the three rooms were mostly empty — an encouraging sign amid the grimness.
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Raspante worked seven-day weeks for several weeks at the makeshift morgue before recently getting days off. When her kids ask about her job, she doesn't tell them she’s among the dead all day, every day.
“I tell them that I help hospitals learn why people get sick,” she said.
Death is in the job description, but that doesn’t mean those who work at the medical examiner's office are unmoved by the surge in dead, Arunkumar said. They cope by checking on each other more. Staff also adhere to a strict rule: Treat the dead with the respect they’d want extended to their own loved-ones.
Doing that “makes it easier to handle what we are doing," she said.
Associated Press writer Don Babwin and video journalist Noreen Nasir contributed to this report.


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Daywatch: State reports record daily cases, why pools could be last to reopen and dog scams may be o

Daywatch: State reports record daily cases, why pools could be last to reopen and dog scams may be on the rise

He was scared and had good reason to be .
He was over age 60 .
He had health issues @ @ @ @ @ death toll was mounting .
So , as the Rev .
Walter Johnson Jr. lay @ @ @ @ @ isolated from his family for two weeks , the doubt began to creep in .
@ @ @ @ @ coronavirus pushed a man who has been devoted to ministry since age 16 to question @ @ @ @ @ s spent most of his life endorsing .

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Illinois officials on Tuesday announced 4,014 new known cases of the coronavirus — the most in a single-day since the pandemic began — and an 144 additional fatalities, bringing the state totals to 83,021 known cases and 3,601 deaths
In the U.S., there have been nearly 1.4 million cases recorded as the death toll topped 82,300 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday
Worldwide, the virus has infected almost 4.3 million people and killed over 291,000, according to Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, left, stands with Senate President Don Harmon while Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivers his first State of the State speech before a joint session of the Illinois House and Senate at the State Capitol in Springfield on Jan. 29, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
On the same day Illinois reported a record number of coronavirus tests and new cases, Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged state lawmakers to “act expeditiously” on a relief package for families, small businesses and communities across the state, but stopped short of using his power to call them back to Springfield for a special session.
For weeks, the first-term Democrat has said it’s up to legislative leaders to decide when lawmakers should go back to the Capitol, even as leaders in the Republican minorities urged Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President Don Harmon to reconvene the General Assembly for the first time since mid-March.
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Applying for unemployment benefits for the first time? Here are 7 things you need to know.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during the daily news briefing regarding the coronavirus pandemic on May 3, 2020, at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
After pouring time and money into his biker bar, Poopy’s, for 24 years, Kevin Promenschenkel faced a coronavirus reckoning: If he wasn’t able to reopen for his annual Memorial Day concert and summer kickoff, his business would not survive.
So the western Illinois bar owner hired lawyer Tom DeVore to file a lawsuit on his behalf Monday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker because of the executive order he signed, effectively shuttering some nonessential businesses starting March 21.
The Rev. Craig Robinson moves a cross in preparation for filming a Sunday service at St. James AME Church in Chicago on May 7, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
He was scared and had good reason to be. He was over age 60. He had health issues. And the global COVID-19 death toll was mounting. So, as the Rev. Walter Johnson Jr. lay in the hospital bed, isolated from his family for two weeks, the doubt began to creep in. Being infected with the novel coronavirus pushed a man who has been devoted to ministry since age 16 to question the very God he’s spent most of his life endorsing.
Gompers Park pool in Chicago is currently empty of water and visitors, and it remains unclear when pools can reopen. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
It could be a summer without swimming in Illinois, as park districts and private clubs try to determine if and when it’s safe to open pools. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s five-phase plan to reopen the state touches on health clubs and outdoor activities, but there is currently no specific guidance available for opening pools.
Caroline Hanna with daughter Jillian, 16, and their dog Benny at home in Mokena on Friday, May 8, 2020. Hanna and her daughter tried to adopt an Australian shepherd puppy and sent $250 for a dog that didn't arrive. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
While pet rip-offs existed well before the pandemic, they are among the various scams — from fake tests and cures to bogus government aid — that authorities and consumer groups have warned about as fraudsters seek to exploit people’s fears and needs during the crisis.


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Wisconsin special election: Trump-backed senator easily wins US House seat in heavily conservative d

Wisconsin special election: Trump-backed senator easily wins US House seat in heavily conservative district

Unlike Wisconsin ’ s April 7 presidential primary , during which mask-wearing voters endured long lines at congested polling sites @ @ @ @ @ there were no widespread calls to delay or alter voting in the special election .
@ @ @ @ @ rural and hasn ’ t yet been badly hit by COVID-19 , with less than @ @ @ @ @ cases in the state and less than 2.5 % of all deaths .

"I voted stickers" sit on a table during a presidential primary election at the Journey Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on April 7, 2020. (Kamil Krzaczynski/ Getty-AFP)
MADISON, Wis. — Tom Tiffany, a state senator endorsed by President Donald Trump, easily won a special congressional election Tuesday in a heavily conservative, rural Wisconsin district, cheering Republicans even as Democrats argued the victory revealed vulnerabilities for the president among his base.
Tiffany’s win over Democrat Tricia Zunker in northern Wisconsin’s 7th District comes in the state’s second election amid the coronavirus pandemic the past five weeks. Tiffany will replace former reality TV star Sean Duffy, a Republican who retired in September. The district has been vacant since Duffy’s retirement.
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Trump won Wisconsin by less than a point, but carried the district by 20 points, in 2016. Tiffany's win over Zunker was about 6 points less than that, based on preliminary results. Tiffany rejected Democrats' argument that the smaller margin was a sign that Trump's support was waning.
“Any time you lose by 14 points, I don’t think that’s a moral victory," Tiffany said. “This is a decisive victory here.”
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The win is in a district that Trump will need to once again win big if he hopes to again carry Wisconsin, a state he won by less than a point in 2016. Tiffany’s big victory also helps to erase the taste of a loss by a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice in last month’s election, a race that boosted Democrats’ confidence.
“Tonight was a win for President Trump and Tom Tiffany that demonstrates the enthusiasm behind our president across Wisconsin,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Anna Kelly.
Wisconsin Democratic Party spokeswoman Courtney Beyer said the results showed a drastic swing for Democrats, even though Zunker lost by about 14 points.
“For Trump to win reelection, red areas have to get redder to balance out blue areas getting bluer," she said.
Zunker said the race “laid the groundwork for this seat to turn blue in November.”
Zunker, president of the Wausau School Board, was trying to become the first Native American from Wisconsin elected to Congress. She pulled in big-name endorsements including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but the numbers were against her. The district has been under Republican control since 2011 and was redistricted to more heavily favor Republicans.
There was uncertainty over whether holding a special election in the middle of the pandemic would affect the outcome. Election clerks said they were prepared, about 20% of registered voters had voted absentee, and there were no calls to delay or alter the election like there were before Wisconsin’s presidential primary last month.
Unlike Wisconsin’s April 7 presidential primary, during which mask-wearing voters endured long lines at congested polling sites in Milwaukee and elsewhere, there were no widespread calls to delay or alter voting in the special election. The 18,800-square-mile district is mostly rural and hasn’t yet been badly hit by COVID-19, with less than 2% of all positive cases in the state and less than 2.5% of all deaths.
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Mary Thompson, 64, of Kronenwetter, a village in Marathon County, said she felt safe as she cast her vote for Tiffany on Tuesday, calling herself a “stubborn, very patriotic person.” She said she felt she had to vote in-person to honor ancestors who served in the military.
Peggy Stalheim, 69, a retired public health nurse in Medford, voted absentee for Zunker. Even though no coronavirus cases had been recorded in her county, Stalheim said she wasn’t going to risk voting in person. Her 92-year-old mother-in-law lives at her house.
Tiffany, 62, was born on a dairy farm in the district and ran a tourist boat business for 20 years. Joining the Legislature in 2011, he was a close ally of then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker and voted to pass the anti-union law, Act 10. He also voted in favor of legalizing concealed carry and moving the state forestry division to northern Wisconsin and pushed to locate an open-pit mine in northern Wisconsin that ultimately never came to the state.
With Tiffany’s win, Republicans hold five of Wisconsin’s eight seats in Congress. Tiffany will serve through the end of the year, but will have to run again in November to serve a full two-year term.
Associated Press writer Carrie Antlfinger contributed to this report from Milwaukee.


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Column: An old Chicago dairy is sold, destined to be torn down. A piece of the city’s history will v

Column: An old Chicago dairy is sold, destined to be torn down. A piece of the city’s history will vanish with it.

“ We had the sense that we were keeping something alive , ” she said the other day , standing @ @ @ @ @ home she and her husband shared for 35 years .
She looked around at the @ @ @ @ @ rose-hued brick , the row of linden trees shading the patio , all of it @ @ @ @ @ of the neighborhood ’ s modern mansions .

Deborah and Ron Clarkson's Lincoln Park home they bought in 1982 is shown on May 5, 2020. In 1982, Deborah and Ron Clarkson bought a dilapidated 19th century dairy on Howe Street in Lincoln Park. By the time they arrived, the neighborhood — once working-class German — had turned into a place of drugs and crime and the dairy was in demolition court. But they were young and hopeful and saw the beauty of the old brick dairy, redolent of a time when the milk was delivered by horse-drawn lorry. So they fixed it up and lived in it while, year by year, the neighborhood got fancier and pricier. Now they’ll be leaving and soon the dairy will disappear. They’d hoped someone would buy and preserve it but never found a buyer willing to do that. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
They always called it the dairy.
“Come to the dairy,” Deborah Clarkson would often say when she invited people to her home. She liked how the word contained the history of the house and of Chicago.
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“We had the sense that we were keeping something alive,” she said the other day, standing in the sunlight outside the home she and her husband shared for 35 years. She looked around at the low walls, the old rose-hued brick, the row of linden trees shading the patio, all of it now towered over by one of the neighborhood’s modern mansions.
She sighed. She and her husband were moving out and the dairy would soon be torn down.
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“Buildings have so many lives,” she said. “We were one of them. And they’re meant to have a lot of lives. They give a voice to the past.”
But when the old dairy on North Howe Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park vanishes, so will the past it represents, which is why today I want to give it a brief eulogy.
Deborah and Ron Clarkson stand on May 5, 2020, in the courtyard of the former dairy building in Lincoln Park where they'd lived since they bought and rehabbed it in the 1980s. They've now moved out of the building, which is expected to be demolished soon. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Imagine Chicago. Late 1981. Deborah and Ron Clarkson are in their 20s. He’s in construction, she’s an architect. On the weekends, they drive from their Evanston home into the city looking for a place they can afford to buy and fix up. One day, on a Lincoln Park street shared by longtime German residents and newer African American ones, they spot a long, low, decaying brick building with a black iron fence out front.
At the Tap Root Pub on the corner, they meet Harley Budd — aka Buddy — a legendary tavern owner known for driving his black Cadillac backward up the street. From him and others, they piece together the dairy’s past.
In the 1880s, the brick buildings that became the North Shore Dairy were erected as workers’ cottages. In the early 20th century, they merged to become the dairy. Farmers from outside the city carted milk in for bottling, and the bottles were then delivered by horse-drawn carriage.
By the time the Clarksons found it, the dairy, which went out of business in the late 1940s, was in demolition court. Homeless people had been living inside, setting small fires, leaving piles of clothes. Shattered glass lay on the floor. Coal ash covered the yard. The Clarksons bought it for $179,000, and went to demolition court once a month for a year to testify to their improvements.
They couldn’t afford to rehab it all at once so they lived in an upstairs apartment next door, while on the weekends they rebuilt the dairy’s walls, replacing the windows and doors, saving and reusing whatever they could. In 1985, they moved in and within a few years had two children.
In that era, the street was caught in the shifting times. There was still a general store and a shop where kids bought penny candy. Old German women sat on their stoops. Not far from the Tap Root Pub was a Boys & Girls Club.
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A couple of doors down from the dairy was a drug house. One hot night the Clarksons watched a car pull up outside, an arm appear and a gun shoot a man on the sidewalk.
After the shooting, the drug house shut down, and a radical change began.
“It was the go-go-go economy of the late ‘80s,” Clarkson says.
At first, rehabbing was in vogue, but that gave way to the teardown trend. Developers swarmed. Rickety old houses came down, along with solid, brick bungalows, two-flats and three-flats. The new homes were taller and wider, sometimes stretched across more than one lot. Roof decks replaced yards.
The people changed too. Buddy died and the Tap Root was torn down. The old German women who once sat on their stoops disappeared. So did the black and Puerto Rican neighbors.
Through it all, the dairy lived on, a relic of a more modest time. It never seemed big in comparison with the modern mansions, but it occupied three lots — three lots that were highly desirable for developers, three lots that had grown very expensive for the Clarksons, whose property taxes soared.
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By the time the annual taxes hit the vicinity of $75,000, they decided it was time to go.
“We thought most certainly someone would want to live in this gracious place, these happy walls and this really nice outdoor space,” Clarkson says. “We thought surely someone would come along and love it as much as we do.”
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But, as she puts it, “the developers are the ones setting the prices,” and a buyer was willing to pay $5.85 million to tear it down.
And so they sold. Clarkson says she feels like she’s selling out, but her husband is 70 and she’s 63 and it’s more house than they want.
Last week the moving truck came. She looked around for the last time, at the living room that had once been the dairy loading dock, at the window that had once been the dairy’s walk-up window, at a past much longer than her own.
Gone.
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She hears the new owners are nice and have hired a good architect. But whatever replaces the dairy won’t give voice to history, so she wrote them a letter telling them about the dairy’s past and encouraging them to keep the trees.
“We would also be grateful,” she concluded, “if you could let us know the date you set for demolition, for closure.”
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Black Chicago churchgoers join one-quarter of Americans who say their faith’s grown stronger during

Black Chicago churchgoers join one-quarter of Americans who say their faith’s grown stronger during the COVID-19 pandemic

Even as the gap has shrunk in the past few weeks , in Chicago , African Americans account for nearly @ @ @ @ @ those who have tested positive and more than half of coronavirus-related fatalities , despite being @ @ @ @ @ the city ’ s residents .
Latinos make up a little less than half for @ @ @ @ @ about a quarter of COVID-19-related deaths .

The Rev. Craig Robinson and his wife, associate pastor Dr. Shakira Sanchez-Collins, film their Sunday service at St. James AME Church in Chicago on May 7, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
He was scared and had good reason to be. He was over age 60. He had health issues. And the global COVID-19 death toll was mounting.
So, as the Rev. Walter Johnson Jr. lay in the hospital bed, isolated from his family for two weeks, the doubt began to creep in. Being infected with the novel coronavirus pushed a man who has been devoted to ministry since age 16 to question the very God he’s spent most of his life championing.
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“Lord, why me?” Johnson, the pastor at Greater Institutional AME Church, recalled asking as he lay in his hospital bed. “Why now?”
Johnson was one of the lucky ones and escaped Northwestern Memorial Hospital with his life. And somehow, the ordeal fortified his faith.
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A recent Pew Research study found that like Johnson, 1 in 4 Americans said the coronavirus pandemic has deepened their faith. Only 2% said the pandemic has weakened their faith. The study also found the trend of strengthened faith was more pronounced among black American adults. Forty-one percent of black adults said their faith is stronger, compared with 20% of white adults and 30% of Hispanic adults.
And 56% of people who attend historically black churches say their faith has intensified during the pandemic, higher than any other group.
Nichole Phillips, director of Black Church Studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, said the trend of stronger faith among black Americans is linked to the role the black church historically has played in the African American community.
The church has been a place of refuge and a fortress for black people against a hostile world, Phillips said.
“COVID-19 has caused crisis and trauma throughout the world, so it makes sense that black people would find an institution that provides the hope, the stability, as well as the understanding of the historic suffering Black folks have been through,” Phillips said.
The Rev. Craig Robinson of St. James AME Church in Chicago on May 7, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
It’s usually in the sanctuaries of black churches where the community’s religion and worship can be seen in all its majesty — with gospel choirs singing and spirited pastors preaching. The Rev. Craig Robinson Jr., pastor at St. James AME Church, 9256 S. Lafayette Ave. in the Princeton Park neighborhood, said his congregation’s ability to remain connected online when they can’t have that customary physical connection has strengthened his faith.
On a recent weekday, with the pews emptied, Robinson and his wife, the Rev. Dr. Shakira Sanchez-Collins, stood in the pulpit and recorded their sermon for the upcoming Sunday. Standing under studio lights and staring into an iPhone camera, they pieced together a service that would post online a few days later.
Their last service was viewed more than 1,700 times on Facebook, far exceeding the 500-seat capacity of the church.
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[ Church leaders push back on Lightfoot and Pritzker stay-at-home orders: ‘We have to stand up for ourselves at some point’ ]
Sanchez-Collins, the associate pastor at St. James, said she believes people are turning to their faith to cope with the devastating effects of the virus.
"It's a time where you can really feel hopeless, and I think the church is actually how people are getting through this," she said.
The surge in faith comes as the virus infects and kills black Americans at a disproportionately higher rate.
The Rev. Craig Robinson moves a cross in preparation for filming their Sunday service at St. James AME Church in Chicago on May 7, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Even as the gap has shrunk in the past few weeks, in Chicago, African Americans account for nearly more than a third of those who have tested positive and more than half of coronavirus-related fatalities, despite being less than a third of the city’s residents. Latinos make up a little less than half for 40% of infections and about a quarter of COVID-19-related deaths.
Darryl Person, the pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, 4501 S. Vincennes Ave. in the Bronzeville neighborhood, said his church is feeling the devastation of the virus firsthand.
Several members of his congregation have contracted COVID-19. Two weeks ago, Person buried a church member who died of coronavirus-related causes.
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During crisis moments, Person, 57, said he relies on his experience as a Navy combat chaplain to manage his faith.
“Having experienced the challenges of war ... I recognize my role is to shepherd my flock and to care for my people, and I’m motivated by that.”
And while Person said he is secure in his faith, he acknowledged the pandemic has been tough.
“Is it challenging? Absolutely," he said. "Is It difficult? No doubt about it. But you have to do it. This is my task.”
The enthusiasm that typically exists in black churches is now visible online, shifting from sanctuaries to people's homes.
Words of encouragement customarily shouted from the pews are now being typed online.
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"Amen!"
“Hallelujah.”
"Preach, preacher!!!"
“Alright, pastor!” someone commented during a service livestreamed on a recent Sunday.
Melanie Nero, who attends New Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in East Garfield Park, said she regularly chimes in with a comment when watching services Sunday mornings.
Moved by the music, she can't resist cheering while the choir performs.
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"Alright, choir, y'all better sing!" she typed while watching an online service.
“It encourages and excites everyone, so they feel like we’re there together enjoying the experience,” Nero said about the communal participation online during religious services.
[ Lightfoot says city will ‘take action’ if defiant churches hold in-person services despite stay-at-home orders ]
Each Sunday, Nero and her family eat breakfast, then line up some chairs in front of the couch for her three children, and the family watches the service on television, she said. They also stream it on their tablets or phones so that they can be the “peanut gallery,” she said.
“It’s still an event,” Nero said. “We’re up, giving our full attention.”
Muriel Nelson-Godfrey, a member at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1252 S. Wolcott Ave. on the Near West Side, said she enjoys watching multiple church services on Sundays. She is standing firm in her beliefs and relying on Scripture, particularly Isaiah 54:17, which tells of the God of the Israelites keeping the faithful safe, to keep her grounded.
"He said no weapon formed against me shall prosper, so when he says that I know for a fact that the weapons will form, but they won't prosper."
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Johnson, who avoided becoming a casualty of COVID-19, understands the power of that Bible verse.
It’s been more than a week since he left the hospital, and he is still grateful.
As he spoke from the comfort of his home recently, he grew emotional as he recalled what could have been the end for him.
He admitted he questioned why God would let him, a man with kidney disease, catch the virus. But the moment was fleeting.
"God said, 'I got something for you to do,'" Johnson said as his voice cracked, and he began to weep.
"Thank you, Lord," he muttered.
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“Thank you.”


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Column: Chicago’s DuSable Bridge, originally the Michigan Avenue Bridge, turns 100 Thursday. Here’s

Column: Chicago’s DuSable Bridge, originally the Michigan Avenue Bridge, turns 100 Thursday. Here’s why the centennial matters.

If nothing else , such a span is about making connections both physical and social , But with the office @ @ @ @ @ side of the bridge emptied out , the span ’ s identity has been turned @ @ @ @ @ s a mirror of Chicago on hold ― the polar opposite of the hustler ’ @ @ @ @ @ s memorably termed the “ city on the make .
”

The sun sets on buildings along the Chicago River near the DuSable Bridge, originally the Michigan Avenue Bridge, on May 11, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
When I crossed the DuSable Bridge, originally the Michigan Avenue Bridge, for the umpteenth time on Monday, I noticed something I’d never noticed before: Roman numerals, high on the bridge’s pylons, which proclaim that the bridge was begun in 1918 and opened in 1920.
Talk about an a-ha moment!
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The elegant Beaux Arts bridge doesn’t just span from one side of Chicago River to the other. It spans the history of two pandemics.
Its construction started in the same year as the Spanish flu, which killed at least 50 million people worldwide. And its 100th anniversary will be marked Thursday by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other leaders as the global death toll from COVID-19 stands at about 300,000.
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Amid such tumult, the bridge, a marvel of architecture, engineering and urban planning, presents a reassuring, “I’ve seen it all before” presence, seemingly a fixed point on Chicago’s map. In reality, it has been both a shaper — and a mirror — of change.
By linking the Loop and the Gold Coast, the 256-foot span laid the groundwork for the eye-popping flagship stores and five-star hotels of today’s Magnificent Mile shopping mecca. It remains the proud gateway to the district.
Yet 10 years ago, reflecting a more diverse view of Chicago’s past than the one that overwhelmingly stressed the pioneering role of white explorers and settlers, the bridge was renamed in honor of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man born in Haiti who was the city’s first non-Native American settler.
The group spearheading Thursday’s presentation, Friends of the Chicago River, originally planned a big celebration on the adjoining downtown Riverwalk.
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But with the Riverwalk closed and large gatherings verboten because of the pandemic, the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, a facility of Friends of the Chicago River, will present the centennial tribute at 7 p.m. Thursday on its Facebook page.
On Friday, the museum will post the program on its website and Friends of the Chicago River’s YouTube channel, the museum’s director Josh Coles told me in a telephone interview.
Lightfoot and the city’s transportation commissioner Gia Biagi will participate, along with Chicago’s official cultural historian, Tim Samuelson, and Margaret Frisbie, executive director of river group.
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“We still hope to make this a special occasion that folks will be able to celebrate from their homes,” Coles wrote to me in an email touting the event.
Viewership won’t approach that of “The Last Dance,” the 10-part ESPN documentary about the final season of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls. But the long-term significance of the bridge, an official city landmark, is beyond dispute.
Under normal circumstances, the bridge is packed with office workers as well as tourists who inconveniently pause to pose for pictures.
But on Monday, with the temperature in the mid-40s and a stiff eastern breeze snapping the bridge’s American, Illinois and Chicago flags, the span was a ghost-town version of its usual self.
The docks to the east and west of the bridge, normally lined with bright yellow water taxis and architectural tour boats teeming with visitors, were eerily empty.
If nothing else, such a span is about making connections both physical and social. But with the office towers and shops on either side of the bridge emptied out, the span’s identity has been turned upside down: It’s a mirror of Chicago on hold ― the polar opposite of the hustler’s town Nelson Algren’s memorably termed the “city on the make.”
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The DuSable Bridge over the Chicago River on May 12, 2020. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Such a scene would have been unimaginable for architects Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett, who envisioned the bridge in their celebrated 1909 Plan of Chicago.
Anticipating that enormous crowds would flock to the city’s heart, the architects called for a double-deck span that would handle automobile traffic on its upper level and heavy commercial vehicles below. It would mesh with the double-deck ring road to the south — eventually called Wacker Drive — that the 1909 plan also foresaw.
After the bridge opened to great fanfare on May 14, 1920, it transformed once-humble Pine Street to its north.
Pine Street, which had been an unpaved thoroughfare of soap factories, breweries and homes, was given the grander name of North Michigan Avenue.
Skyscrapers, including like neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, sprouted. Property values soared. After World War II, Chicago real estate developer Arthur Rubloff, in a masterstroke of urban branding, dubbed North Michigan Avenue “The Magnificent Mile.”
The bridge itself was the foremost example of a type of span well-suited to compact waterways and urban spaces of Chicago — the trunnion bascule bridge.
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The two leaves of such bridges swing vertically on large pivots that are balanced by counterweights sunk into a pit below street level, (“Bascule” comes from the French word for “seesaw.”)
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 27 Looking south across the Michigan Avenue Bridge during formal ceremonies on opening day in 1920 with city officials riding in the first automobile across the span. (ACME photo)
Unlike the swing bridges they replaced, the Chicago River’s trunnion bascule bridges opened quickly and didn’t have a center pier. Those were key functional advantages in the days when there was more commercial traffic on the river than there is today.
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Bennett, who designed the bridge with engineers Thomas Pihlfeldt, Hugh Young and William Mulcahy, modeled it after the spans that cross the Seine River in Paris. The span is both economical and graceful, particularly its four corner pylons, which are adorned with bas-relief sculptures by Henry Hering and James Earle Fraser. The decorative portions of the bridge were completed in 1928.
With practically no one around on Monday, I had the bridge to myself and could enjoy the expansive views from its upper level as well as the great urban space shaped by its pylons and the 1920s skyscrapers on its flanks. It’s an extraordinary gathering of architecture and infrastructure — marred only by the massive, oafish Trump sign to the west.
I looked closely at those bas-relief sculptures, especially the one called “Regeneration," which is on the bridge’s southeast flank. It depicts muscular construction workers wielding hammers and other tools, toiling as they rebuild the city devastated by the Great Fire of 1871. An angelic figure soars above them, seemingly trumpeting Chicago’s rebirth.
More than a century after the pandemic which accompanied its birth, the DuSable Bridge remains a source of inspiration as we struggle to overcome the health crisis of today.
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Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin