chicagotribune--2020-07-31--Column: John Lewis’ funeral was a few hours of hope, away from the doomsday world

“ We do not need bipartisan politics if we ’ re going to celebrate the life of John Lewis , @ @ @ @ @ in a rousing voice .
“ We need the Constitution to come alive .
We @ @ @ @ @ self-evident .
We need the president and the Congress to work unfalteringly for every boy @ @ @ @ @ every baby born on these shores will have access to the tree of life .
@ @ @ @ @ way to honor John Robert Lewis .
That ’ s the only way .
”

Sharron Pearson listens to speakers outside of Ebenezer Baptist Church for the funeral of civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis on July 30, 2020 in Atlanta. (Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)
For a few hours in the middle of the day Thursday, during the funeral of John Lewis, it was possible to hope again.
Inside Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the civil rights legend the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was once the pastor, three former presidents stepped forward, near the flag-draped casket, to praise the U.S. congressman from Georgia. One Republican, two Democrats.
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“We live in a better and nobler country today,” said the Republican, George W. Bush, “because of John Lewis.”
“John Lewis,” said Bill Clinton, a Democrat, “was a walking rebuke to people who thought, ‘Well, we ain’t there yet, we’ve been working a long time, isn’t it time to bag it?’ He kept moving.”
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One after another, the speakers in the sanctuary lauded Lewis: the Black child raised on a farm in the segregated South, the young man who in his youth was beaten and jailed in his nonviolent fight for equal rights, the congressman known for his kindness and his conscience.
Watching the scene inside the church, it was possible to believe that, yes, yes, yes, struggle can bring justice, opponents can reconcile, time can force change and heal wounds.
Outside the church it was a less rosy story.
As I watched the funeral online, I toggled back and forth between Ebenezer and the day’s news.
Coronavirus numbers were rising. So were jobless claims.
Out in the Twitter swamp, Donald Trump, the current president, who is trailing in the polls, was floating the wackadoodle idea of postponing the November presidential election, an unconstitutional notion, popular among dictators, that even prominent Republicans rejected.
And not far from Ebenezer, Herman Cain, former presidential candidate and another Black man who rose to success from poverty in the segregated South, had just died, after a struggle with COVID-19. His death may or may not be connected to his appearance at a Trump rally where, like most other Trump supporters, he didn’t wear a face mask. Either way, his death was another loss in a catastrophically managed plague.
Eventually, I toggled away from the daily doomsday report and back to the church, where hope was still rising.
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“John Lewis,” said former President Barack Obama, recalling Lewis’ youth, “was getting something inside his head, an idea he couldn’t shake, took hold of him, that nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws, but also change hearts and change minds and change nations and change the world.”
Yes. Yes. Here in the church, it was obvious. Change for the good could still come.
Lewis’s death couldn’t have been timed better. It’s as if in this moment when the country seems in more dire chaos than we’ve seen in a long time, his death arrives to show us his life in sharp focus and to sharpen our understanding that this isn’t the first time Americans have struggled for equality.
The history lesson on his life came most vividly alive in the speech — or better to call it a sermon — of James Lawson.
Half a century ago, Lawson, who’s 91, trained Lewis and so many more in the art of nonviolent protest, or, as he instructed the mourners, “satyagraha,” a Sanskrit term borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi.
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“We do not need bipartisan politics if we’re going to celebrate the life of John Lewis,” he told the mourners in a rousing voice. “We need the Constitution to come alive. We hold these truths to be self-evident. We need the president and the Congress to work unfalteringly for every boy and every girl so that every baby born on these shores will have access to the tree of life. That’s the only way to honor John Robert Lewis. That’s the only way.”
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A funeral is a spectacle. It’s theater and words, and it’s fleeting. By now, the mourners at John Lewis’ funeral — whether they were inside the church or watching on a screen — have returned to the world of doomsday news and Twitter, where hope is harder to muster.
But Lewis’ homegoing was more than a spectacle. It was a call to action, a battle cry for the next generation.
Obama warned that the causes Lewis fought for — voting rights, equal opportunity — were in jeopardy. The best way to honor him, Obama said, would be to pass the voting rights act recently named in his honor.
And the homegoing of John Lewis was more than a history lesson. It made the point that history propels the future. In the name of John Lewis, keep moving.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MarySchmich


chicagotribune--2020-07-31--Morning exchange of gunfire at Chicago police station leaves 3 officers and a suspect injured

Between 2012 and 2015 , he was convicted in three different cases for felony drug possession and delivery .
In @ @ @ @ @ aggravated assault after he drove away from police during a traffic stop and then , @ @ @ @ @ accelerated while an officer had reached her hand into the car — nearly driving over @ @ @

Annie Sweeney, Jeremy Gorner, Megan Crepeau, Javonte Anderson

Chicago police investigate the scene where three police officers and a suspect were injured in an exchange of gunfire July 30, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Three Chicago police officers and a suspect in a carjacking were injured in an exchange of gunfire outside a Northwest Side police station Thursday morning, apparently after the suspect concealed a weapon during his arrest, several sources told the Tribune.
The sources said the 25-year-old suspect, who had just been arrested and was handcuffed, opened fire on an officer who opened the rear door of his police vehicle when they arrived at the station to transfer him to a lockup.
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That officer, a 16-year veteran, was shot under his chin and seriously injured, authorities said. He was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Three officers returned fire on the suspect, who was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he remained in custody Thursday.
Two officers who suffered minor injuries in the gunfire and a fourth officer who had chest pains were taken to Loyola University Medical Center, according to a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department. The condition of the most seriously injured cop was not available and the other three were treated and released, police said Thursday evening.
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Sources said as many as 60 shots were fired in the exchange of gunfire, which broke out in or near the station’s sally port, a pathway that is designated for police transports into lockup.
Details on how a suspect managed to hang on to a weapon during an arrest, which typically involves a search, will no doubt be central to the investigation into the shooting, which will be handled by the Chicago Office of Police Accountability. Chicago Police Department officials referred all questions to the agency, which investigates police-involved shootings and officer misconduct.
“COPA’s investigation into the use of force is already underway,” the agency said in a statement. “Responding COPA investigative personnel have begun reviewing body worn camera (footage) and gathering other evidence and relevant materials.”
No charges had been filed against the suspect as of Friday morning. According to court records, the man has been arrested numerous times on the West and Northwest sides.
Between 2012 and 2015, he was convicted in three different cases for felony drug possession and delivery. In 2016 he was convicted of aggravated assault after he drove away from police during a traffic stop and then, after getting stopped again, accelerated while an officer had reached her hand into the car — nearly driving over her foot.
He was released from the Pinckneyville Correctional Center less than four months ago after serving time on a gun conviction, records show. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to five years in prison; with credit for good time and a year in county jail awaiting trial, he was paroled in April.
(Jemal R. Brinson)
At a news briefing late Thursday morning, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said the suspect was arrested earlier Thursday after police officers recognized a vehicle from a carjacking that occurred downtown on Sunday. He did not disclose where the arrest took place.
In his remarks, Brown described the suspect as a “violent” carjacking offender and noted the dangers officers face daily.
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“I want to strongly emphasize the inherent danger that these and all Chicago police officers experience every day protecting the residents of Chicago,” said Brown, who asked for prayers for all the officers. ”When they leave home, they leave their loved ones, and put these stars on and risk everything. They risk everything protecting all of us.”
Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, center, walks outside Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center to provide information about an officer wounded during a shooting on July 30, 2020. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot also asked for prayers. On Twitter Thursday she said, “Today is a searing reminder of the danger our men and women of our Police Department face every day they put on their uniforms and leave their homes,” Lightfoot wrote. “This is the sacrifice they make in order to serve and protect our city and fellow residents.
The shooting comes during a particularly trying time for the department, which has faced the stress of the pandemic and local versions of national protests against police, not to mention a significant spike in violent crime in the city. Then, just this week, a high-ranking department commander died by suicide inside his police office by shooting himself in the chest.
As word of the Thursday shooting outside the police station spread, officers arrived at Illinois Masonic, where the officer who was most seriously wounded was being treated.
At 10:30 a.m., dozens of police officers and several police vehicles were stationed outside the hospital. Yellow police tape was set up around the “ambulance only” entrance at the intersection of Wellington and Mildred avenues.
Police officers directed people looking to visit the hospital around the perimeter.
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The officer was assigned to the Grand Central District, according to police sources. City records show that he started working for the department in 2003.
He was one of three cops from the Grand Central District tactical team in 2016 who were credited with saving the life of a man who had trouble breathing. According to a WGN-Ch. 9 report, the officers were in the Humboldt Park neighborhood when they saw a small group around a man lying on the street.
The officers performed chest compressions on the man before paramedics arrived and continued lifesaving efforts, WGN-Ch. 9 reported. The man and his wife thanked the officers for their responsiveness, according to the report.
Chicago Tribune’s Rosemary Sobol, Madeline Buckley and David Heinzmann contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--House Speaker Michael Madigan polling Democratic colleagues to gauge support amid ComEd bribery scan

House Speaker Michael Madigan polling Democratic colleagues to gauge support amid ComEd bribery scandal

“ I can not pretend that we have another minute to wait and see or look the other way and @ @ @ @ @ The stakes are too high , ” said Cassidy , citing how the Madigan controversy @ @ @ @ @ on voters considering a change to a graduated rate state income tax , which she @ @

House Speaker Michael Madigan, left, with House Republican Leader Jim Durkin before a debate in the Illinois House on raising the statewide minimum wage in 2019. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, implicated in a federal bribery and influence scandal involving ComEd, said Thursday he has “no plans to resign” after polling his members.
“I understand that the last couple of weeks have been difficult for our caucus and party, and I have had many candid conversations with members of the Democratic caucus on this matter. The feedback is positive and demonstrates continued support for me and my leadership roles,” Madigan said in a statement issued Thursday night. “I have no plans to resign.”
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Madigan denied any wrongdoing, saying “I have never made a legislative decision with improper motives and any claim otherwise is unfounded.”
Madigan has faced growing calls to step down from his legislative post, as well as his chairmanship of the state Democratic Party, after ComEd paid a $200 million fine and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors who accused the utility of a “yearslong” scheme to provide jobs, contracts and payments to Madigan allies to win favor with the speaker.
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Madigan, described by federal prosecutors as “Public Official A,” has not been charged with any wrongdoing and a spokeswoman said the speaker “has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here.”
Madigan is the nation’s longest-serving statehouse speaker, holding the post since 1983 with the exception of two years in the mid-1990s when the GOP took control.
The sources, two members of Madigan’s 73-member House majority, said the 78-year-old speaker was asking members of his caucus if they agreed with two Democrats, state Reps. Terra Costa Howard of Glen Ellyn and Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego, who have asked Madigan to step down from his governmental post. Howard also said Madigan should resign as state Democratic chair.
The sources asked not to be identified in order to speak candidly about Madigan.
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Costa Howard and Kifowit symbolize the concerns of elected Democrats in what had traditionally been suburban and exurban Republican areas who feel they may be vulnerable politically due to the controversy surrounding Madigan.
Costa Howard, a freshman, is in a Nov. 3 rematch against former Republican state Rep. Peter Breen of Lombard, whom she defeated to win office in 2018. Breen has repeatedly criticized Costa Howard for backing Madigan for speaker and for taking campaign money from him.
Kifowit, elected in 2013, does not have a Republican opponent.
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Later Thursday, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, joined in the call for Madigan to step down from his governmental and party leadership posts.
“I cannot pretend that we have another minute to wait and see or look the other way and hope for the best. The stakes are too high,” said Cassidy, citing how the Madigan controversy could have a negative impact on voters considering a change to a graduated rate state income tax, which she supports.
“Speaker Madigan must step down from his leadership roles, both in the House and in our party,” said Cassidy, who has long been critical of how Madigan wields his power.
The speaker said he’s focused on the effort to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in November and expand Democratic representation statewide.
The personal polling by Madigan indicated the speaker, long known as Illinois’ most powerful politician, was feeling some heat after more Democrats, primarily women, have been calling for the speaker’s departure from his governmental post, his party chairmanship, or both.
Earlier Thursday, state Sen. Iris Martinez of Chicago, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, restated her call for Madigan to step down as party chairman. Martinez first called for Madigan’s ouster as Democrats dealt with issues of sexual harassment in the speaker’s governmental and political office.
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“Though Madigan again claims he did nothing wrong, his many controversies are too distracting for him to remain in leadership,” Martinez said.
“Defeating Donald Trump is a priority matter for all Democrats. Every day that Madigan remains chairman … is another day we are focused on Madigan’s controversies instead of our critical electoral contests,” she said.
Martinez urged other members of the state Democratic Party to call for Madigan’s resignation and to convene the state central committee in a special meeting to elect a new chair.
“Our party and our state deserve better,” she said.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said Madigan should resign if the allegations involving him are proven true.
Republicans, who have long sought to use Madigan against Democrats and have blamed him for the state’s ills, have also stepped up calls for the veteran Democrat’s resignation.
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Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin on Thursday called on Madigan to resign immediately, modifying an earlier position that the speaker needed to step down if the allegations surrounding him were true.
“It is abundantly clear that Michael J. Madigan is unable to execute his responsibilities as speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and as state representative for the 22nd House District,” Durkin said in a statement.
“I call for the immediate resignation of Speaker Madigan from the Illinois House of Representatives and will be filing a resolution to have the House chamber vote on a new speaker immediately,” he said.
Durkin said the details outlined by federal prosecutors against ComEd “are a disgrace of the highest level to the citizens of Illinois and to the institution of which we serve, the Illinois House of Representatives.”
rap30@aol.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--4 wounded in shootings on South Side Thursday, police say

Police said about 8:15 a.m. , two men , ages 36 and 40 , were standing on the sidewalk in @ @ @ @ @ Colfax when they were struck by gunfire from at least four gunmen riding in a @ @ @ @ @ , police said .

Seven people, including an 8-year-old boy, were wounded Thursday in shootings on the South and Far South sides, Chicago police said.
The child was with a 27-year-old woman about 8:40 p.m. in the 700 block of East 132nd Street in the city’s Altgeld Gardens neighborhood when they were both shot, police said.
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The victims were outside on the sidewalk when a gunman approached on foot and fired shots at another male standing nearby, police said. That’s when the 8-year-old suffered a “through-and-through’' gunshot wound to the back and another one to the right arm. The boy was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.
The woman was shot in the abdomen and right leg and was recovering at the University of Chicago Medical Center,where she was listed in fair condition, police said.
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Another Far South Side shooting took place about 5:50 p.m., in the 200 block of West 103rd Street, police said. A 34-year-old man was shot during the incident, and he was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center to be treated.
About an hour earlier, shortly after 4:40 p.m. in the 1000 block of West 115th Street in the Morgan Park neighborhood, a 35-year-old man was attacked.
Police said he was inside of a vehicle when he heard shots and felt pain. He suffered wounds to the arm and back, and was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.
Another person was shot about 4 p.m. in the 7100 block of South Stony Island Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. A 32-year-old man was shot in the left arm and was taken in good condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Earlier Thursday, two men were shot in a drive-by in the South Chicago neighborhood.
Police said about 8:15 a.m., two men, ages 36 and 40, were standing on the sidewalk in the 8300 block of South Colfax when they were struck by gunfire from at least four gunmen riding in a blue sedan with tinted windows, police said.
The youngest suffered a wound to the groin area, and the oldest was shot in the left arm and right knee. Both victims were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, but their conditions were not known.
No one was in custody, and police were investigating.


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--The Spin: President Trump floats delaying election, Gov. Pritzker tweets a no vote | Lightfoot pulls

The Spin: President Trump floats delaying election, Gov. Pritzker tweets a no vote | Lightfoot pulls out of event to avoid being on stage with Minneapolis mayor: sources | Madigan polling Democratic colleagues amid ComEd bribery scandal

ComEd on the hot seat , Part II : “ Chicago aldermen got their chance to tee off on ComEd @ @ @ @ @ utility as its electricity deal with the city is about to end for a yearslong @ @ @ @ @ of state Speaker Michael Madigan , ” the Tribune ’ s John Byrne writes .
@ @ @ @ @ .
It comes a day after ComEd officials outlined their proposed ethics reforms to the @ @ @ @ @ over the ICC meetng was chairwoman Carrie Zalewski , the daughter-in-law of a former alderman @ @ @ @ @ the criminal plot .
The Tribune ’ s Stacy St. Clair wrote the only-in-Illinois politics @ @ @ @ @ .

FILE - In this July 24, 2020, file photo President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign executive orders on lowering drug prices, in the South Court Auditorium in the White House complex in Washington. Trump, like many fellow Republicans, holds out tax reductions and regulatory cuts as economic cure-alls and frames himself as a conservative champion in seemingly endless culture wars. (Alex Brandon/AP)
With his own job on the line, President Donald Trump this morning floated via Twitter the idea of delaying the November election — sending social media into a partisan tailspin. The Republican president can’t unilaterally decide to change the date of November’s presidential election — nor did he say he would try do that.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker responded via Twitter to Trump, saying firmly that the Nov. 3 election will go on in Illinois. The governor also dismissed the president’s unsubstantiated claim — on repeat these days — that expanding voting by mail, an option gaining traction with the pandemic, will lead to widespread voter fraud.
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And former President Barack Obama used the pulpit today to call for expanded voting opportunities and rights. He was eulogizing Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who as a civil rights activist in the 1960s was pivotal to passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In a New York Times essay Lewis wrote before his death — and asked to be published on this, the day of his funeral — the famed activist drew a straight line between his youth, when the lynching of a Black Chicago teen in Mississippi propelled a movement, and the police killing of a handcuffed African American man in Minneapolis, which has reignited the call for racial justice.
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“Emmett Till was my George Floyd.”
Welcome to The Spin.
President Donald Trump at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (Susan Walsh/AP)
The president for the first time is publicly floating a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election, once again making unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud. Read the full Associated Press story here.
Trump tweeted: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
Asked for clarification, Hogan Gidley, his campaign spokesman, responded via email: “The President is just raising a question about the chaos Democrats have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting.”
The rules — As the AP writes, “The date of the presidential election — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — is enshrined in federal law.”
Gov. Pritzker doubled down on that notion in a string of tweets to the president, writing in part “The President cannot move an election. We will not allow you to undermine the foundations of our democracy. Everyone: keep November 3 on your calendar.”
The process: A bill would have to be introduced in Congress to change the date and while the president and Republican-controlled Senate might oblige, it’s doubtful that the Democratic-led House of Representatives would go along with such a change, said Charles Stewart, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of MIT’s Election Science and Data Lab.
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As a practical matter, suspicions about election fraud on both sides of the aisle — beyond questions about mail-in ballots, American intelligence officials recently warned that Russia, China and Iran were trying to influence the election’s outcome — likely means that neither party would to agree to changing the date or anything else at this juncture, Stewart says.
“I think that these sorts of issues are getting to be so fraught — with concerns about legitimacy, and with rising temperatures already about the election” that any efforts to make changes would be seen as “an attempt to rig the election,” Stewart said.
David Axelrod, the one-time Democratic strategist who served in the Obama-Biden White House, called Trump’s tweet a diversion tactic from today’s bad news: a record plunge of the U.S. economy, a key issue for voters.
“Someone knows he’s in trouble!” Axelrod tweeted. “Flinging fraudulent fraud allegations again. But now, calling for a delay in the election! Congress rightly won’t grant him that. And when and if he loses, you can be sure he’ll claim it was ‘rigged.‘”
Other news: East Chicago police officer shown punching Libertarian congressional candidate Mike Strauss placed on leave pending an investigation — Read the Post-Tribune story here.
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Former President Barack Obama at the funeral for Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, on Thursday, July 30, 2020. (Alyssa Pointer/AP)
Obama, speaking from the pulpit of the church that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led, issued a stark warning that the voting rights and equal opportunity that Lewis, the late civil rights icon, championed are under increasing threat heading into the 2020 election. Read the full story here.
Obama called on Congress to renew the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court diminished in 2012.
And he endorsed doing a way with the Senate filibuster if that is what’s needed to pass an overhauled voting law. The first Black president called the procedural hurdle that effectively requires 60 votes to pass major legislation a “Jim Crow relic,” referring to the segregation era. (Associated Press)
Opinion: Redeeming the soul of our nation - Read John Lewis’s essay, written just before his death, in the New York Times here.
Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, left, and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin in Springfield on May 30, 2019. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports that “Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, implicated in a federal bribery and influence scandal involving ComEd, began polling his members Thursday to determine his political viability, sources said.”
According to sources, Madigan, who doubles as the powerful head of the state’s Democratic Party chair, “was asking members of his caucus if they agreed with two Democrats, state Reps. Terra Costa Howard of Glen Ellyn and Stephanie Kifowit of Oswego, who have asked Madigan to step down from his governmental post. Howard also said Madigan should resign as state Democratic chair” Pearson notes.
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What Madigan learned; ‘The personal polling by Madigan indicates the speaker, long known as Illinois’ most powerful politician, is feeling some heat after more Democrats, primarily women, have been calling for the speaker’s departure from his governmental post, his party chairmanship, or both,” Pearson explains.
Earlier Thursday, state Sen. Iris Martinez of Chicago, a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, restated her call for Madigan to step down as party chairman.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said Madigan should resign if the allegations involving him are proven true.
Republicans, who have long sought to use Madigan against Democrats and have blamed him for the state’s ills, have also stepped up calls for the veteran Democrat’s resignation.
Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin on Thursday called on Madigan to resign immediately, modifying an earlier position that the speaker needed to step down if the allegations surrounding him were true. Read Pearson’s full story here.
ComEd on the hot seat, Part II: “Chicago aldermen got their chance to tee off on ComEd officials Thursday, ripping the utility as its electricity deal with the city is about to end for a yearslong bribery scheme allegedly involving associates of state Speaker Michael Madigan,” the Tribune’s John Byrne writes. Read the full story here. It comes a day after ComEd officials outlined their proposed ethics reforms to the Illinois Commerce Commission. Presiding over the ICC meetng was chairwoman Carrie Zalewski, the daughter-in-law of a former alderman who was allegedly part of the criminal plot. The Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair wrote the only-in-Illinois politics story about that meeting here.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker steps up to speak during the announcement of the U.S. Department of Energy's blueprint strategy for the development of a national quantum internet infrastructure at a press conference at the University of Chicago's Harper Center, Thursday, July 23, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois announced 1,772 new known cases of COVID-19 today, the 8th straight day with more than 1,000 new cases. The state also reported 18 additional deaths. That brings the state’s total to 176,896 known infections and 7,478 fatalities.
“We’re at a danger point,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference today in Peoria, warning again that Illinois could be headed for a “reversal” that could once again see the closed signs go up at businesses. He said the biggest rise seems to be in the 29-and-younger age group.
Data point: The state’s seven-day positivity rate remained at 3.8% after rising from 3.6% reported Sunday, NBC 5 reports.
Pritzker reminded that restrictions would be placed on any one of the 11 geographical regions of the state that show a sustained rise in the positivity rate of testing — a rolling average compiled over seven days in a 10-day period — coupled with a sustained increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations or a reduction in the capacity of hospitals to handle a surge.
The governor said restrictions also would be placed in a zone if the positivity testing rate, which has crept up to 3.1% statewide, exceeds 8% for three consecutive days.
COVID-19 cases are increasing in Illinois, making it difficult to bring back jobs: The Tribune’s Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz has the story here.
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Traveling outside Illinois? Chicago residents must quarantine after visiting 22 states. Here’s what you need to know to avoid a large fine: The Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas has the story here.
Chicago Board of Elections office closes after employee tests positive for COVID-19: It comes a day after: The reopening date for the city office is unclear, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt writes. It comes the same week the Illinois State Board of Elections closes its Springfield office after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an agency spokesperson. The state office is expected to be closed for about 2 weeks.
Chicago Park District workers call for more communication and safety protocols when parks are closed because of COVID-19: The Tribune’s Morgan Greene has the details here.
Wendella won’t restart its Chicago Water Taxi service until next year: The Tribune’s Abdel Jimenez has the story here.
Ogden Dunes the latest beach to close, but at Indiana Dunes National Park, it’s ‘like Cancun spring break every day’: The Post-Tribune has the details here.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issues a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases: Read the AP story here.
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Second stimulus check updates: Coronavirus relief package talks at a standstill as $600 per-week jobless aid lapses, GDP drops: Read the updates here.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago on July 9, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulled out of a virtual roundtable hosted by Crain’s Chicago Business to avoid appearing on the same digital stage as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has been a lightning rod for criticism after the police killing of George Floyd, sources told the Tribune.
Lightfoot had been scheduled to join political consultant David Axelrod “and the mayors of two Midwest cities on Wednesday to discuss how COVID-19 and recent civil unrest will define the future of our nation’s cities,” according to a since-deleted Crain’s Facebook post.
But Lightfoot abruptly withdrew from the event earlier this week, and sources with knowledge of the situation said the mayor’s team told Crain’s her cancellation was to avoid being on a virtual stage with Frey.
In a brief statement, the mayor’s office attributed the withdrawal to a scheduling conflict. (Gregory Pratt)
Chicago police investigate the scene in which three police officers and a suspect were injured in an exchange of gunfire outside the Grand Central police station in Chicago on Thursday, July 30, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
My Tribune colleagues report: Three Chicago police officers and a suspect in a carjacking were injured in an exchange of gunfire at a Northwest Side police station during an arrest Thursday morning, according to authorities.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked for prayers, stating on Twitter: “Today is a searing reminder of the danger our men and women of our Police Department face every day they put on their uniforms and leave their homes. This is the sacrifice they make in order to serve and protect our city and fellow residents.” Read the latest here.
‘Lawlessness in Chicago continues,’ says Ald. Raymond Lopez after his Brighton Park office was vandalized for 2nd time in month — Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas has the details here.
Other news: East Chicago police officer shown punching Libertarian congressional candidate Mike Strauss placed on leave pending an investigation — Read the Post-Tribune story here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--As daily COVID-19 case count in Illinois reaches level not seen since May, Pritzker takes reopening

As daily COVID-19 case count in Illinois reaches level not seen since May, Pritzker takes reopening reversal warning downstate: ‘We’re at a danger point, everybody’

“ Every region has increasing positivity rates and increasing cases .
This is hugely problematic , ” Pritzker said Thursday @ @ @ @ @ downstate Ottawa .
“ It means that we ’ re going to have to take @ @ @ @ @ do we need to do , what mitigations do we need now in order to @ @ @ @ @ with the direction that we were going , which was reducing those positivity rates .
@

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks at Illinois State Capitol on May 20, 2020. The governor made downstate visits on July 30, 2020, warning about the rising number of coronavirus cases. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker took his admonition that parts of Illinois could be headed for a reopening reversal downstate on Thursday, as the state continues to see elevated levels of COVID-19 cases and other key metrics.
State officials on Thursday reported 1,772 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus over the prior 24 hours. That’s the first time the count has climbed above 1,700 since Memorial Day.
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[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
“Every region has increasing positivity rates and increasing cases. This is hugely problematic,” Pritzker said Thursday at a news conference in downstate Ottawa. “It means that we’re going to have to take a hard look at what do we need to do, what mitigations do we need now in order to get us back in line with the direction that we were going, which was reducing those positivity rates.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health also said Thursday 18 more people with COVID-19 died during a 24-hour period, bringing the statewide death toll to 7,478. The department reports that there have been 176,896 known cases of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began.
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[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks, in 3 charts ]
The state entered the fourth phase of Pritzker’s reopening plan June 26, when gatherings of up to 50 and indoor dining with restrictions were allowed for the first time since March. Museums, performing arts centers and movie theaters were also allowed to reopen. Pritzker on Wednesday announced a range of restrictions for youth sports and adult recreational sports, in the wake of outbreaks being tied to sports teams.
Pritzker’s administration earlier this month produced a new plan for monitoring COVID-19 in the state that included the potential for reimposing stricter rules in regions where metrics portend a resurgence in the virus. Under those rules, if a region has three consecutive days with an 8% positivity rate, the state may reimpose more restrictive rules on gatherings and businesses.
Changes can also be triggered by a sustained increase in the region’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate combined with either a sustained seven-day increase in hospital admissions for coronavirus-like illness or a reduction in the region’s hospital capacity that threatens the area’s ability to handle a potential surge in cases.
If a region reaches one of those benchmarks, state officials will consider a menu of options for reimposing stricter rules on businesses like restaurants, bars and salons; hospitals; and gatherings and meetings, which will be driven by “the types of activities that are most likely causing or could cause greater community spread of the virus,” Pritzker said.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike speaks in the office of Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the Illinois State Capitol on May 20, 2020. The Illinois Department of Public Health director made downstate visits with Pritzker on July 30, 2020, warning about the rising number of coronavirus cases. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
In two downstate stops on Thursday, Pritzker and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike reemphasized wearing masks and social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Ezike said that as bars and restaurants, workplaces and other activities have been able to reopen or resume, “with that, we are slowly starting to see more cases across Illinois,” along with an uptick in the number of hospital admissions.
“Of course these are indicators that we are making a bit of a U-turn,” Ezike said. “And so this may mean that businesses temporarily will have to further reduce capacity limits. It may mean that our favorite restaurant now has to go back to takeout dining. But we do have a say-so in having to make that full U-turn.”
As of Wednesday night, 1,452 people in Illinois were hospitalized with the coronavirus, and 353 of those patients were in the ICU, while 149 were on ventilators.
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The statewide seven-day rolling positivity rate stood at 3.8% as of Wednesday, up from 2.7% on June 29.
“I’m imploring people to follow the guidelines, to follow the mitigations that we’ve put forward, do everything they can, and that we won’t have to move any region backward,” Pritzker said. “But I would say we’re at a danger point, everybody.”
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Pritzker warns ‘we’re at a danger point’ as 1,772 new known COVID-1

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Pritzker warns ‘we’re at a danger point’ as 1,772 new known COVID-19 cases and 18 more deaths reported

Attendees on those dates were notified about the cases but are not considered to be at high risk of transmission @ @ @ @ @ , such as requiring masks and social distancing , Charles said .
Those who had @ @ @ @ @ close contact with an infected person received a phone call or text alert with instructions @ @ @ @ @ to a university message .

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois announced 1,772 new known cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the 8th straight day with more than 1,000 new cases. Health officials also reported 18 additional deaths. That brings the state’s total to 176,896 known infections and 7,478 fatalities.
“We’re at a danger point,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday in Peoria, warning again that Illinois could be headed for a “reversal” in its reopening as the state continues to see a resurgence in case numbers.
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Meanwhile, a deadlocked Senate on Thursday left Washington for the weekend without extending a $600-per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped keep both families and the economy afloat as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on the country. Friday’s expiration of the $600 jobless benefit sent Republicans controlling the Senate scrambling to respond.
The news came as the U.S. economy plunged by a record-shattering 32.9% annual rate last quarter, and the pandemic is still cutting a path of destruction, forcing millions out of work and shuttering businesses.
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[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Schools reopening tracker: What suburban Chicago districts are planning for the fall ]
[ 20 questions about assessing your COVID-19 risk at restaurants, gyms and more ]
Here’s what’s happening Thursday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:58 p.m.: America’s 2nd coronavirus surge appears to be leveling off, but deaths are mounting rapidly
While deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are mounting rapidly, public health experts are seeing a flicker of good news: The second surge of confirmed cases appears to be leveling off.
Scientists aren’t celebrating by any means, warning that the trend is driven by four big, hard-hit places — Arizona, California, Florida and Texas — and that cases are rising in close to 30 states in all, with the outbreak’s center of gravity seemingly shifting from the Sun Belt toward the Midwest.
Some experts wonder whether the apparent caseload improvements will endure. It's also not clear when deaths will start coming down. COVID-19 deaths do not move in perfect lockstep with the infection curve, for the simple reason that it can take weeks to get sick and die from the virus.
The future? “I think it’s very difficult to predict,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s foremost infectious-disease expert.
The virus has claimed over 150,000 lives in the U.S., by far the highest death toll in the world, plus more than a half-million others around the globe.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
5:23 p.m. (update): A deadlocked Senate leaves DC for the weekend without acting to extend $600 expanded jobless benefit
A deadlocked Senate on Thursday left Washington for the weekend without extending a $600-per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped keep both families and the economy afloat as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on the country.
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Friday’s expiration of the $600 jobless benefit sent Republicans controlling the Senate scrambling to respond. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell made a procedural move to make it easier to reach a potential compromise next week that would extend the bonus unemployment benefit while talks on a broader COVID-19 relief measure grind on. But ahead of late-night talks at the Capitol, the outlook dimmed.
“I’m not very optimistic that we will have any kind of an agreement on a comprehensive bill in the near future,” said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. He said he even doubted a deal could be struck next week.
But Democrats have so far rejected a piecemeal approach, saying the next relief bill needs to move as a complete package. Any short-term jobless benefits extension of less than $600 per week is likely to be a nonstarter with them.
Talks on the relief bill are at a standstill with few reasons for optimism despite sweeping agreement among Washington’s top power players that Congress must pass further relief in coming days and weeks.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
4:40 p.m.: Art Institute reopens — and returning visitors finally get an art fix
Early visitors, as the Art Institute let the public back in for the first time since mid-March, didn’t go to “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” typically the museum’s most crowded work.
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At one moment during the first hour of Reopening Day Thursday, only a security guard stood in front of Georges Seurat’s routinely besieged pointillist study of a Parisian waterfront park.
Instead, many headed straight to the Modern Wing and the museum’s newly hung Basquiat canvas — the Art Institute’s first by the 1980s art world darling — and many more queued up to get into the big El Greco special exhibition, which was open only a week before COVID-19 forced the shutdown of most public life in Chicago and the U.S.
But this wasn’t your typical, show-me-some-Impressionism crowd. The first folks allowed back in, during the noon hour Thursday, were museum members, people who really have seen it all before.
“We want to see the new painting in the Modern Wing by Basquiat,” said Melissa LaMantia, a middle school arts teacher from Glen Ellyn, in line with her husband Steve Crowley.
They weren’t just in line. They were first in line — partly out of eagerness, partly because they thought the museum was opening at 10 a.m. and decided just to wait there, on those famous, lion-flanked front steps, until the actual 12 p.m. opening.
“It’s just been so dry for culture,” said Crowley, who works in commodities, noting the couple are also “regulars” at the still-shuttered Symphony Center across the street.
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“We’re starved for art and culture,” seconded LaMantia.
Read more here. —Steve Johnson
3:20 p.m.: COVID-19 patients who were first in U.S. to undergo double lung transplants at Northwestern share their stories
Mayra Ramirez’s family hadn’t talked to her in weeks.
The 28-year-old was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on a ventilator with a severe case of COVID-19. She wasn’t allowed visitors. Doctors would call her mother in North Carolina with updates.
Then, one day, her family was told to head to Northwestern as quickly as possible.
“They were told to come, that I wasn’t going to make it past the night, so they took the first flight out of Wilmington, N.C.,” Ramirez said. “They made the trek just with the intention of saying goodbye.”
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By the time Ramirez’s family arrived, doctors had stabilized her. But they asked her mother to make a decision: Would she allow Ramirez to become the first COVID-19 patient in the country to undergo a double lung transplant?Her mother, Nohemi Romero, said yes.
In June, Ramirez became the first COVID-19 patient in the U.S. to undergo a double lung transplant after her lungs were severely damaged by the disease. Ramirez and Brian Kuhns — a Lake Zurich man who was the second COVID-19 patient to receive a double lung transplant — spoke publicly about their experiences for the first time at a news conference at Northwestern on Thursday.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
2:33 p.m.: Chicago Board of Elections office closes after employee tests positive for COVID-19
The Chicago Board of Elections office closed on Thursday after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, according to the agency.
“We will update on the re-opening as soon as possible,” the board said on Twitter. “Limited phone, email and online voter assistance will continue to be provided remotely.”
The city elections board follows the Illinois State Board of Elections decision earlier this week to close its Springfield office Tuesday for about two weeks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, according to an agency spokesperson.
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The state board was notified Sunday that a staff member was showing coronavirus symptoms and had been tested after coming into contact with someone infected with it, the Illinois Times first reported. Test results came back positive Tuesday, which is when the office decided to close until at least Aug. 10, according to Matt Dietrich, a state board spokesman.
Several other staff members began showing symptoms Monday and Tuesday and have been tested, Dietrich said in an email.
—Gregory Pratt
1:37 p.m.: Chicago-based Grubhub sees orders jump amid pandemic but swings to 2Q loss
Grubhub saw its average daily orders jump 32% in the second quarter but swung to a loss as it spent heavily to prop up restaurants and protect drivers as the pandemic shut in consumers.
The Chicago-based restaurant delivery company lost $45 million in the April-June period, down from a profit of $1.3 million in the same period a year ago. Adjusted for one-time items, the company lost 17 cents per share, which was in line with Wall Street’s expectations, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
The earnings report is one of Grubhub’s last as a standalone company. Grubhub announced a $7.3 billion merger with Just Eat Takeaway.com last month. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
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Read more here. —The Associated Press
12:55 p.m.: Wisconsin issues statewide face mask mandate, declares new public health emergency
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases, setting up a conflict with Republican legislative leaders who oppose such a requirement and successfully sued earlier to kill a “safer at home” order.
Wisconsin is one of 22 states that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot listed on a self-quarantine order. Anyone returning to the city from those states are required to self-isolate for 14 days.
The Democrat Evers declared a new public health emergency, after his initial one expired in May, and ordered the wearing of masks for anyone age 5 and up starting on Saturday for all enclosed spaces except a person’s home. The new order also applies to outdoor bars and restaurants, except when people are eating or drinking.
Anyone who violates the order would be subject to a $200 fine. It is slated to run until Sept. 28.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
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12:20 p.m.: Pritzker warns ‘we’re at a danger point’ as 1,772 new cases reported
State officials on Thursday announced 1,772 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker continued to warn that the state could be on track for a reversal in its reopening.
”We’re at a danger point,” Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday in Peoria.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also announced 18 additional deaths of people who had coronavirus in Illinois during a 24-hour period. That raises the statewide death toll to 7,478, while there have been 176,896 known cases of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity rate was 3.8% as of Wednesday.
In an updated reopening plan launched earlier this month, Pritzker’s administration split the state into 11 different regions and set out a plan for a reversal in the reopening of those regions if they reach certain metrics that show a resurgence of COVID-19 there.
On Wednesday, Pritzker said if things don’t change “a reversal is where we’re headed.
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”As of Wednesday night, 1,452 people in Illinois were hospitalized with coronavirus, and 353 of those patients were in the ICU, while 149 were on ventilators.
—Jamie Munks
12:10 p.m.: Coronavirus relief package talks at a standstill as $600 per-week jobless aid lapses, GDP drops
Frustrated negotiators of a massive coronavirus relief bill face heightened pressure with Thursday’s brutal economic news and the rapidly approaching lapse in a $600 per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped prop up consumer demand.
Talks are at a standstill with few reasons for optimism despite sweeping agreement among Washington's top power players that Congress must pass further relief in coming days and weeks.
President Donald Trump is eager for another COVID relief package, also a priority for GOP allies like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer. Democrats hold a strong negotiating hand, with Republicans badly divided over their own proposal.
Raising the stakes, a bleak government report released Thursday said the economy shrank at a 33% annualized rate in the second quarter of the year, a stark reminder of the economic damage afflicting the country as lawmakers debate the size and scope of new relief. Read more here.
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—The Associated Press
10:15 a.m.: Will Chicago teachers strike —again — if CPS schools reopen this fall? Union officials remain mum so far.
The Chicago Teachers Union continues to loudly oppose the Chicago Public Schools preliminary proposal to reopen for in-person learning this fall. Having gone on strike for 11 days last fall, will teachers walk off their jobs again if their demands for remote learning are not met?
Thus far, CTU leaders are evading the question, even as their statewide affiliate, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, announced Wednesday that “health and safety strikes” are on the table if teachers deem COVID-19 protections inadequate.
When asked Wednesday if CTU is open to striking if CPS continues to push forward with reopening, CTU President Jesse Sharkey did not give a direct answer. Instead, he said: “Our own rank and file members deserve and demand protections — including the right to teach without putting our lives or the lives of our students and their families on the line.”
However, in response to what it would take to initiate the process to strike or take CPS to court, Sharkey said: “The tipping point is the continuing threat to the safety of our students, families and educators who serve them — and right now the mayor’s ‘hybrid’ plan simply lacks the essential guarantees or details to ensure the safety of students, families and educators this fall.” Read more here.
—Claire Hao
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8:10 a.m.: US economy shrank 33% in April-June period, the worst quarterly plunge ever
The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter — by far the worst quarterly plunge ever — when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday.
The Commerce Department’s estimate of the second-quarter decline in the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, marked the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1947. The previous worst quarterly contraction, a 10% drop, occurred in 1958 during the Eisenhower administration.
Last quarter’s drop followed a 5% fall in the January-March quarter, during which the economy officially entered a recession triggered by the virus, ending an 11-year economic expansion, the longest on record in the United States.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
8 a.m.: What’s different at Halas Hall this year? Bears Infection Control Officer Andre Tucker details the changes made because of COVID-19.
Chicago Bears Infection Control Officer Andre Tucker spoke with reporters on a Zoom call Wednesday morning to detail the team’s plans to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within Halas Hall this year.
Tucker, who is also the Bears head athletic trainer, is the team’s first point of contact when a player or staff member tests positive for COVID-19. He oversees club screening protocols and its disinfection program and has helped with coronavirus education for team employees.
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He also aided the development of a plan that general manager Ryan Pace said goes “above and beyond” to help make the players feel safe.
Read more here. —Colleen Kane
6 a.m.: Uptick in COVID-19 cases makes it difficult to bring back jobs. ‘Some people may be put out of the job market for a long time.’
Laura Yepez, owner of the Wicker Park Inn, thought the worst would be over by now.
Even as she laid off her small staff in March and steeled herself for the pandemic’s blow to tourism, she figured that by summer — when events like Lollapalooza usually pack Chicago’s hotels — business would perk up and she could make up for lost time.
“That’s certainly not turning out to be the case,” said Yepez, 49, who has owned the bed-and-breakfast since 2004.
With events canceled, the virus resurgent and people wary of traveling, few guests are staying at the inn and Yepez remains reluctant bring back her three employees. She is juggling housekeeping, bookkeeping and other tasks herself.
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As the economy struggles to climb out of the crisis caused by COVID-19, jobs are coming back slowly and unevenly, and worries persist that a resurgence of cases will blunt a more robust recovery.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
6 a.m.: A dozen students at Bradley University test positive for COVID-19, including some at orientation, after social gathering
Twelve students at Bradley University in Peoria have tested positive for the coronavirus — including some who helped lead orientation programs for incoming freshmen last week.
Spokeswoman Renee Charles said Bradley learned of the new COVID-19 cases on July 23, marking the first infections directly linked to campus. Charles said additional testing and contact tracing determined the outbreak appeared to stem from an off-campus social gathering that lacked masks and social distancing.
Bradley, which has about 5,000 students, began offering in-person orientations in early July, and classes are set to begin next month. Some of the infected students participated in orientations held July 20 and July 21 that included both indoor and outdoor activities, Charles said.
Attendees on those dates were notified about the cases but are not considered to be at high risk of transmission because the programs included precautions, such as requiring masks and social distancing, Charles said. Those who had more than 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person received a phone call or text alert with instructions for further action, according to a university message.
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Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
6 a.m.: Park District workers call for more communication and safety protocols when parks are closed because of COVID-19
As the pandemic barrels ahead with no end in sight, and some parks have closed due to coronavirus cases, workers are calling for greater transparency and protection from the Chicago Park District while they helm the parks’ front lines.
Recently closed parks include Columbus Park and Haas Park, according to SEIU Local 73, which represents about 2,500 Park District workers. At least 40 Park District workers have had to quarantine after possible exposure, according to the union, and one Park District worker at Columbus Park recently died from complications of the virus.
Jeffrey Howard, Service Employees International Union Local 73 executive vice president, said “we just want to make sure that our workers are protected.”
Information on closures has been “disjointed” and unclear, he said, and that’s part of the problem. When asked how workers have been notified of closures, Howard said for weeks it was “word-of-mouth.”
“We want to be public citizens. We want to be servants of the community because we know the community needs our parks,” Howard said. “But at the same time, there are things the parks can do to make sure that their workers are safe. "
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Seven positive cases have affected programming at six parks this month, according to the Park District. Four locations are still closed.
Read more here. —Morgan Greene
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Wednesday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Chicago aldermen tee off on ComEd officials for bribery scheme during hearing on utility’s annual re

Chicago aldermen tee off on ComEd officials for bribery scheme during hearing on utility’s annual report

Earlier Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter to ComEd CEO Joseph Dominguez saying she ’ s “ deeply disturbed ” @ @ @ @ @ behavior and wants evidence of reforms before agreeing to renew the utility ’ s franchise @ @ @ @ @ the end of this year .
But it ’ s not clear what alternative city @ @ @ @ @ consider going forward .

ComEd executives, including CEO Joe Dominguez, right, stand following a meeting with the Illinois Commerce Commission in Chicago on July 29, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
As ComEd’s utility deal with the city of Chicago is about to end, aldermen on Thursday ripped the utility over its participation in a yearslong bribery scheme allegedly involving associates of state Speaker Michael Madigan.
ComEd’s annual report on its performance to the City Council Committee on Environmental Protection and Energy came just two weeks after the U.S. attorney’s office announced an agreement for the company to pay a $200 million fine over a bribery charge.
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Aldermen took no action Thursday, but the hearing was a high-profile opportunity for them to vent on behalf of residents.
“As a company, Commonwealth Edison has let us down before, but this time ComEd let down consumers in a spectacular fashion,” said downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd. “And, as far as I’m concerned, ComEd admitting misconduct and paying a $200 million fine is getting off easy.”
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Committee Chairman Ald. George Cardenas, 12th, made note of the years he has spent listening to ComEd officials pledge to improve their accountability to the public. “Was this all a lie?” he asked.
“The damage on people and their ability to trust someone that delivers power on a daily basis, I don’t know how you repair that,” Cardenas said.
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
Earlier Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrote a letter to ComEd CEO Joseph Dominguez saying she’s “deeply disturbed” by the company’s behavior and wants evidence of reforms before agreeing to renew the utility’s franchise agreement set to lapse at the end of this year. But it’s not clear what alternative city officials would be willing to consider going forward.
City Assets, Information and Service Commissioner David Reynolds, whose department oversees ComEd’s contract, underscored what the mayor has been hinting for months, saying a study shows it would not be “financially feasible” for the city to take over its own electricity distribution.
Several aldermen called for Lightfoot to enter into a shorter extension with ComEd than the 20-year pact that’s about to lapse, in order for the city to work on other options.
The utility’s state lobbying, which has involved several associates of Madigan, the Democratic House speaker, has been at the center of the bribery scheme outlined by federal officials. At the city level, ComEd officials said Thursday their only lobbyist is Margaret Houlihan Smith, the wife of James Smith, who’s in charge of Lightfoot’s security detail.
Melissa Washington, ComEd’s vice president of governmental affairs, said the company retains Houlihan Smith as a lobbyist “out of a conservative mode, but she really provides us information and reports, covers City Council meetings and (things of) that nature. But I primarily utilize her services in Springfield.”
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The utility’s annual report to the City Council came a day after ComEd officials outlined their proposed ethics reforms to the Illinois Commerce Commission. That meeting was noteworthy in part because ICC Chairwoman Carrie Zalewski is married to the son of a former alderman who was allegedly part of the criminal plot.
As during his ICC testimony, ComEd’s Dominguez apologized Thursday for the bribery scheme, but defended policies passed in Springfield to increase electrical rates for ComEd customers and modernize the utility’s electricity grid.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne


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chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Art Institute reopens — and returning visitors finally get an art fix

At the other end of the age spectrum , and just behind Stevens in the line to get in , @ @ @ @ @ Evanston had a similar take .
“ I ’ m an enthusiastic art history hobbyist @ @ @ @ @ 75 , an AIC member for an estimated 50 years now .
“ I ’ @ @ @ @ @ since they closed .
It ’ s a big deal to me .
The first @ @ @ @ @ to do is see the El Greco show .
”

People line up outside the Art institute of Chicago as the museum reopens on July 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Early visitors, as the Art Institute let the public back in for the first time since mid-March, didn’t go to “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” typically the museum’s most crowded work.
At one moment during the first hour of Reopening Day Thursday, only a security guard stood in front of Georges Seurat’s routinely besieged pointillist study of a Parisian waterfront park.
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Instead, many headed straight to the Modern Wing and the museum’s newly hung Basquiat canvas -- the Art Institute’s first by the 1980s art world darling — and many more queued up to get into the big El Greco special exhibition, which was open only a week before COVID-19 forced the shutdown of most public life in Chicago and the US.
But this wasn’t your typical, show-me-some-Impressionism crowd. The first folks allowed back in, during the noon hour Thursday, were museum members, people who really have seen it all before.
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“We want to see the new painting in the Modern Wing by Basquiat,” said Melissa LaMantia, a middle school arts teacher from Glen Ellyn, in line with her husband Steve Crowley.
They weren’t just in line. They were first in line — partly out of eagerness, partly because they thought the museum was opening at 10 a.m. and decided just to wait there, on those famous, lion-flanked front steps, until the actual 12 p.m. opening.
“It’s just been so dry for culture,” said Crowley, who works in commodities, noting the couple are also “regulars” at the still-shuttered Symphony Center across the street.
“We’re starved for art and culture,” seconded LaMantia.
The Art Institute was eager to provide it, albeit now with physical distancing, one way door- and stairways, and a mandatory mask requirement.
There were some other changes to be seen in the museum, as well, most notably the removal of the “octagon,” the massive wooden information and membership desk that has long greeted visitors as they entered through the Michigan Avenue doors.
Now that anteroom is open and your eye goes directly to the Grand Staircase, where “Hero Construction,” a 1958 metal sculpture by the Chicago artist Richard Hunt, claims pride of place, centered on the stairway’s first landing.
But the big thing was just getting people back through the doors.
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“I’m overwhelmed and excited and confident,” said President and Eloise W. Martin Director James Rondeau from his office, shortly before opening. “I just peeked outside. There’s a line. And I haven’t felt this enthusiastic about something in a while.”
It’s been a long road back. The museum’s March 14 closure forced scrambling on multiple fronts. Officials were able to extend “El Greco: Ambition and Defiance” from a June closing date to Sept. 7. The big planned May show curated in-house, “Monet and Chicago,” has been reconfigured to allow more distancing and is being prepared to open Sept. 5.
Joe Flores takes in the El Greco exhibit at the Art institute of Chicago on July 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
And expected budget shortfalls pushed the museum, like almost all of its peers, into layoffs. The Art Institute let 8 percent of its staff go in June amid a forward-looking reorganization. Staff who remain have been retrained to handle the new realities of people being out in public.
At some 1 million square feet, the museum is “fairly vast,” said Rondeau. “We can provide space that will make our visitors feel comfortable to return, to see old favorites and to discover new ones.”
The museum will limit attendance to 2,000 people in a day, compared to the 5,000 who might have come through on a busy summer day in previous years. More than 1,800 reserved spots for Day One, and some 8,500 had made reservations for the first week of reopening, when the museum is free to Illinois residents.
The first hour of each day is now open to members only. In new hours, the museum is open Thursday and Friday 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday to Monday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. More details on the new rules, including closed checkrooms and restaurants, can be found at artic.edu/visit.
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All that, though, was almost beside the point to the eager returnees.
People line up for the El Greco exhibit at the Art institute of Chicago on July 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
“I’ve been looking forward to the reopening for the entirety of the shutdown,” said Craig Stevens of Orland Park, a third-year art student at the prestigious Cooper Union in New York City. “I’ve missed artworks.”
At the other end of the age spectrum, and just behind Stevens in the line to get in, retired salesman Steve Taylor of Evanston had a similar take. “I’m an enthusiastic art history hobbyist,” said Taylor, 75, an AIC member for an estimated 50 years now. “I’ve been waiting for this since they closed. It’s a big deal to me. The first think I’m going to do is see the El Greco show.”
As for safety, Taylor drew comparisons to other businesses that have been allowed to remain open. “I can understand why a concert or an opera or a play can’t really be done safely,” he said. “But I don’t understand why this is any less safe than going to a grocery store.”
It was certainly much less crowded. Designer Tynneal Grant exulted in the open space. “It just feels so refreshing to be in here without so many people,” said the West Town resident, who used her membership to bring her niece with her. “It’s like I’m seeing the art for the first time.”
She looked up at the ceiling, where a small sculpture dangled. “I’ve never seen this piece hanging above,” Grant said, “because I’m mostly worried about bumping into people. … It feels peaceful.”
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She’s been cautious about venturing back out into public spaces since the pandemic his, she added, but this felt right. “Baby steps,” she said. “Baby steps are good.”
In the Modern Wing, a steady flow of members was taking in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 grand canvas “Boy and Dog in Johnnypump,” newly hung at the museum after its new owner, Chicago philanthropist and Art Institute Trustee Ken Griffin, loaned it.
The 1982 painting "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump" by Jean-Michel Basquiat is seen at the Art Institute of Chicago on July 24, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
“I think it’s a self-portrait,” said one viewer, noting the similarities between the late painter’s own hair and that of his central figure in the work.
“I was not a big fan of his, and I really, really like it,” said Linda Odegard. “I love how the colors jump out, and I love his signature” in the bottom right corner.
Odegard is a regular museum volunteer. She and her peers have not been called back yet, she said, as the Art Institute works out its reopening, but she was thrilled to be back in the building.
“I missed my fellow volunteers, the visitors, the staff and the artwork,” she said. “It’s very moving. Very, very, very moving.”
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sajohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @StevenKJohnson


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Running list: Chicago-area restaurants closed permanently due to coronavirus pandemic economic woes

Bottled Blonde , the River North bar better known for its legal drama than pizza , closed permanently July 27 @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus , but not COVID-19 violations .
The business “ surrendered their business licenses @ @ @ @ @ North bar after a series of serious nuisance conditions dating back to 2017 , ” @ @ @ @ @ Chicago ’ s department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection .
The bar had not @ @ @ @ @ , wrote the department spokesperson .
The district manager of Bottled Blonde said “ It @ @ @ @ @ battle since we came into this neighborhood .
We had fights with the city , @ @ @ @ @ With the COVID thing , you need revenue to keep up those fights .
We @ @ @ @ @ and operate at limited capacities.
” See the full story here .
— Louisa Chu


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulls out of Crain’s roundtable to avoid being on same stage as Minneapolis May

Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulls out of Crain’s roundtable to avoid being on same stage as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, sources say

For months , Lightfoot has been in a dispute with activists over how a civilian oversight commission of the Police @ @ @ @ @ critics wanting more power given to people outside City Hall .
She initially promised a @ @ @ @ @ within 100 days of taking office .

Mayor Lori Lightfoot pulled out of a virtual roundtable hosted by Crain’s Chicago Business to avoid appearing on the same digital stage as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who has been a lightning rod for criticism after the police killing of George Floyd, sources told the Tribune.
Lightfoot had been scheduled to join political consultant David Axelrod “and the mayors of two Midwest cities on Wednesday to discuss how COVID-19 and recent civil unrest will define the future of our nation’s cities,” according to a since-deleted Crain’s Facebook post.
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But Lightfoot abruptly withdrew from the event earlier this week, and sources with knowledge of the situation said the mayor’s team told Crain’s her cancellation was to avoid being on a virtual stage with Frey.
In a brief statement, the mayor’s office attributed the withdrawal to a scheduling conflict.
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Crain’s Publisher and Executive Editor Jim Kirk declined comment.
Frey has been roundly criticized since Floyd’s killing spurred national protests and civil unrest. After Floyd’s death, a Minneapolis police station was burned down and members of the City Council vowed to radically transform the police department.
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Frey has opposed calls to abolish police but promised changes to the department and created a task force to look into the issue.
Chicago is the biggest city in the United States not to endorse some form of defunding police.
It’s not clear why Lightfoot wouldn’t want to share the stage with Frey.
Lightfoot has a long, complicated history in the local police reform movement. She’s a former federal prosecutor who headed the board that oversees police discipline and chaired the Police Accountability Task Force formed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. But she is often criticized by activists as being pro-police.
For months, Lightfoot has been in a dispute with activists over how a civilian oversight commission of the Police Department would work, with critics wanting more power given to people outside City Hall. She initially promised a new civilian police oversight body within 100 days of taking office.
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She also has a combative relationship with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, which was recently illustrated by a series of insulting text messages she sent to FOP President John Catanzara calling him a “clown.”
gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--AJ Freund’s father may be nearing a plea deal in 5-year-old boy’s slaying, his attorney says

Authorities said AJ died after he was beaten , placed in a cold shower and put to bed .
Andrew @ @ @ @ @ ’ s body and buried it in a shallow grave in Woodstock , authorities said @ @ @ @ @ was missing , which led to a dayslong search that ended when the boy ’ @ @ @ @ @

Andrew Freund appears for a status hearing with Judge Robert Wilbrandt on July 30, 2020, at the McHenry County Courthouse in Woodstock. (Matthew Apgar/Northwest Herald)
The father of slain 5-year-old AJ Freund of Crystal Lake may be nearing a plea deal in the boy’s death, his attorney suggested in court Thursday.
Attorney Henry Sugden said that he was engaged in “pretty serious conversations” with McHenry County prosecutors about a possible plea deal for Andrew Freund, who is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the death of his son in April 2019.
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Andrew Freund’s case was strengthened by the plea and sentencing of AJ‘s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, Sugden said, according to a pool report of Thursday’s court hearing. Judge Robert Wilbrandt — the same judge handling Andrew Freund’s case — sentenced her earlier this month to 35 years in prison for murder for her role in the boy’s death. Prosecutors had asked for the maximum 60 years. .
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 78 JoAnn Cunningham, 37, reacts as a sentence of 35 years is announced, July 17, 2020, for the murder of son, AJ Freund. (John Starks/Daily Herald)
Testimony at Cunningham’s sentencing hearing and the woman’s psychological evaluation helped Freund’s defense, according to Sugden.
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"She basically admitted that she did it," Sugden said after court Thursday. "If you read the psychological report, she didn't even know where he was when it happened."
The attorney declined to address the terms of any plea deal, but said he hopes to have it worked out by Freund’s Aug. 28 court date. Sudgen has previously said he was seeking a plea deal.
The chief of the criminal division for the McHenry County state’s attorney’s office, Randi Freese, declined to comment.
Authorities said AJ died after he was beaten, placed in a cold shower and put to bed. Andrew Freund later took the boy’s body and buried it in a shallow grave in Woodstock, authorities said. The parents reported AJ was missing, which led to a dayslong search that ended when the boy’s remains were found.
Freund appeared in court in an orange jail jump suit and wearing a face mask, like everyone else in court, due to the coronavirus. He remains in McHenry County Jail on a $5 million bail.


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Family of man fatally shot outside North Side bar files lawsuit against Walsh Security Company and g

Family of man fatally shot outside North Side bar files lawsuit against Walsh Security Company and guard

The lawsuit , filed Thursday , alleges Mario Dingillo was unarmed and posed no threat when he was shot to @ @ @ @ @ in the early hours of Nov.r 3 , 2019 , outside the Bluelight , 3251 @ @ @ @ @ guard was employed by Walsh Security , which is also named in the suit .
@ @ @ @ @ defendant in the lawsuit .

Sandra Dingillo poses by her son Mario Dingillo's grave at Warren Cemetery in Gurnee, Ill., on Dec. 27, 2019. Mario Dingillo was killed by a security guard at Bluelight, a bar in Roscoe Village, on Nov. 3, 2019. (Camille Fine/Chicago Tribune)
The family of a man fatally shot by a guard near a North Side bar in November has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the guard and the security company that employed him.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges Mario Dingillo was unarmed and posed no threat when he was shot to death by the security guard in the early hours of Nov.r 3, 2019, outside the Bluelight, 3251 N. Western Ave. The guard was employed by Walsh Security, which is also named in the suit. The bar is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
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A representative of the company did not respond to a request for comment. The guard could not be reached for comment.
Police had previously sought murder charges against the security guard, but they were rejected by prosecutors who determined “there was no evidence to refute self-defense,” according to police records.
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Mario Dingillo in an undated photo. (Family photo)
Now Sandra Dingillo said she hopes the lawsuit will finally bring justice for her son, who left behind a wife and two young children.
“Mario was a loving father, a hard-working husband, he took care of his family, he went to work, he came home,” Dingillo said in a phone interview Thursday. “He’ll never be here to teach his kids what life is about and that’s unfair in every way possible, and I want justice.”
There have been conflicting reports of what happened the evening of the shooting near the Bluelight, in Roscoe Village. Around 3:30 a.m, Dingillo, his wife, Jessica, and his brother-in-law got into an argument with another group outside the Bluelight and were barred from entry, according to police reports.
Dingillo, his wife and brother-in-law began walking back to their car near the 2300 block of West School Street and were followed by at least one security guard, police said. The lawsuit alleges a group of guards following Dingillo and his family were dressed all in black and did not identify themselves as security.
Dingillo’s brother-in-law told police the group began arguing with the guards, who then pepper-sprayed them, and a fight broke out. Dingillo’s brother-in-law said he was punched in the face and fell to the ground, before hearing gunshots.
The guard told police that Dingillo reached for a gun in his waistband, so the guard discharged his own weapon and fired. But the lawsuit filed Thursday says that Dingillo was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
“This should have never happened,” said Karen Munoz, a partner at Dolan Law, the firm representing the Dingillo family. “We believe that the family desperately deserves justice, and they were not able to obtain it yet.”
Bluelight, a 4 a.m. bar on Western Ave. in Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood is pictured on Nov. 19, 2019. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The lawsuit also alleges that the Walsh Security company failed to properly train the guard who shot Dingillo and other employees “with the company’s negligence ultimately contributing to Dingillo’s wrongful death,” according to a news release.
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“Everything was done incorrectly,” Munoz said. “They (the guards) never identified themselves as security guards, they were not wearing anything that would alert anybody walking down the street that they were security guards approaching Jessica and Mario ... it was against training and policy.”
The Walsh Security company is owned by a Chicago police officer, Thomas Walsh, who earlier this year faced a 20-day suspension after being accused of punching a security guard at a bar in the Boystown neighborhood and calling him racial slurs. Walsh also works in the Town Hall District, where the Bluelight bar is located.
For Dingillo’s mother and his two children, every day presents new challenges, she said.
“His son is 5, it’s really hard for him, he talks about him all day, always saying, ’ I love you, Dad, I miss you, Dad, how are you Dad?‘ and the older one wants to be like his dad,” Sandra Dingillo said. “I hope for this to never happen to another family.”


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--R. Kelly lawyers say seizure of sensitive bank records a ‘fishing expedition’

Greenberg said that he was alarmed by the “ clear overreach ” and contacted the U.S. attorney ’ s office @ @ @ @ @ .
According to Greenberg ’ s account , prosecutors said the records “ were necessary @ @ @ @ @ was diverting monies , ” including ongoing royalties he ’ s being paid for his @ @ @ @ @ called SomeBrotherLuv LLC .

A courtroom sketch shows defense attorneys Ashley Cohen, from left, and Jennifer Bonjean with singer R. Kelly at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Sept. 14, 2022. (Cheryl Cook / Chicago Tribune)
Lawyers for indicted singer R. Kelly filed a motion Thursday accusing federal prosecutors of embarking on a “harassing fishing expedition” by seizing the sensitive banking records of a major Chicago law firm and one of the singer’s criminal defense attorneys in New York.
The documents were turned over to Kelly’s defense earlier this month by prosecutors in Chicago as part of the discovery process in Kelly’s pending charges here alleging he sexually abused women and underage girls and paid off witnesses to cover it up.
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In an eight-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Kelly’s lead attorney, Steven Greenberg, said the records contained “all encompassing” financial records for the Chicago law firm dating back to at least 2013.
In addition, prosecutors turned over records from several bank accounts belonging to an individual attorney, including checking and client trust accounts and debit and credit card information, according to Greenberg’s motion.
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While the motion does not name the firm or the attorney, sources told the Chicago Tribune they are Chicago-based Mayer Brown LLP, which has represented Kelly in many civil matters thought the years, and attorney Thomas Farinella, who represents Kelly in his pending criminal case in New York.
Neither Farinella nor Mayer Brown could immediately be reached for comment.
Greenberg said in his filing that most of the records gathered by prosecutors have nothing to do with Kelly or his pending criminal matters, but instead provide a “road map of financial transactions involving (Kelly’s) attorney and the major Chicago law firm, including that firm’s interactions with clients.”
“The government does not have, and never had, any lawful basis to believe that either the New York lawyer or the law firm ever engaged in any type of improper conduct,” the motion stated.
Greenberg said that he was alarmed by the “clear overreach” and contacted the U.S. attorney’s office last week for an explanation. According to Greenberg’s account, prosecutors said the records “were necessary to show that Mr. Kelly was diverting monies,” including ongoing royalties he’s being paid for his music, to an entity called SomeBrotherLuv LLC.
That account was also used to pay a “small retainer” to Farinella to bring him on board the legal team, Greenberg said.
Prosecutors have previously accused Kelly of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in music royalties to a bank account belonging to a friend while claiming to the court that he’s penniless and not a risk to flee if released from custody pending trial.
In his motion, Greenberg asked U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to sanction prosecutors by ordering them to turn over any grand jury subpoenas in the case.
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“Further examination of those records may be necessary to see if the government violated the attorney-client privilege, necessitating that existing prosecutors recuse themselves,” he wrote.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
Kelly, 53, who has been held without bond since his arrest on the federal charges last July, is charged with racketeering conspiracy in U.S. District Court in New York alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.
Kelly is also charged in a federal indictment in Chicago with conspiring with two former employees — longtime manager Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown — to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.
That indictment also alleged Kelly and his co-defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child sex tapes before they fell into the hands of prosecutors.
The singer is charged in four separate indictments in Cook County alleging he sexually assaulted or abused four women, three of whom were underage at the time. Additional charges are pending in Minnesota, alleging Kelly solicited a teenager who asked for his autograph in 2001.
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Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--Chicago elections board office closes after employee tests positive for COVID-19

The state board was notified Sunday that a staff member was showing coronavirus symptoms and had been tested after coming @ @ @ @ @ with it , the Illinois Times first reported .
Test results came back positive Tuesday @ @ @ @ @ office decided to close until at least Aug. 10 , according to Matt Dietrich , @ @ @ @ @

The Chicago Board of Elections office closed on Thursday after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, according to the agency.
“We will update on the re-opening as soon as possible,” the board said on Twitter. “Limited phone, email and online voter assistance will continue to be provided remotely.”
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The city elections board follows the Illinois State Board of Elections decision earlier this week to close its Springfield office Tuesday for about two weeks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, according to an agency spokesperson.
The state board was notified Sunday that a staff member was showing coronavirus symptoms and had been tested after coming into contact with someone infected with it, the Illinois Times first reported. Test results came back positive Tuesday, which is when the office decided to close until at least Aug. 10, according to Matt Dietrich, a state board spokesman.
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Several other staff members began showing symptoms Monday and Tuesday and have been tested, Dietrich said in an email.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-30--2-year-old girl shot, critically wounded in Hammond

Nate S. , who asked that his last name not be used , said he was playing with his children @ @ @ @ @ 3300 block of Craig Drive when he heard the shots .
He ’ d heard @ @ @ @ @ night before around 3 a.m. when he returned home , but the noises were faint @ @ @ @

Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Michelle L. Quinn

A 2-year-old girl was shot Wednesday night in the 3300 block of Craig Drive in Hammond. (Michelle L. Quinn / Post-Tribune)
The apartment complex in Hammond where a toddler was shot Wednesday night was quiet Thursday morning.
Some residents described Kennedy Crossings, in the city’s Hessville section, as always being just that as a 2-year-old girl continues to fight for her life at a Chicago hospital and authorities asked the public for its help.
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Nate S., who asked that his last name not be used, said he was playing with his children inside his apartment in the 3300 block of Craig Drive when he heard the shots. He’d heard what sounded like fireworks the night before around 3 a.m. when he returned home, but the noises were faint, he said.
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What he heard at around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said, was not.
“I couldn’t believe it when someone came to the door and told me what happened,” he said. “I really thought it was fireworks, honestly.”
Another neighbor, Terrence Williams, said he’d heard it but didn’t find out until the morning what happened. Neither did Dominique True, who lives on the next block of Craig Drive. She and her own toddler-aged daughter sat on the Trues’ balcony and recalled seeing the block over cordoned off by police tape.
“We were here last night, and my husband heard it, but we didn’t go out,” True said. “This neighborhood is quiet, though.”
About 9:30 p.m. officers from Hammond police were called to the 3300 block of Craig Drive after someone reported hearing gunshots in the area, according to a statement from Hammond police. When they arrived officers approached a vehicle and found a mother and the girl inside, officials said.
It appeared the girl had been shot in the head and the mother was not injured. Authorities first said they were unsure where the gunfire came from or who the target was.
“The mother and child involved in (the) shooting were caught in the crossfire between two unknown subjects shooting at each other. This is not a domestic situation and the mother and child were not involved with either suspect,” Lt. Steven Kellogg wrote in an email.
The girl was flown by helicopter to Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago; Kellogg said Thursday the girl remained in critical condition and that the department would provide updates as it received information on her condition. Her mother was taken to an area hospital for observation.
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In their statement, sent about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hammond police said detectives were, “still on scene determining the nature of the shooting.”
Anyone with information about the shooting was asked to contact Lt. Mark Tharp of the Hammond police at 219-852-2988.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.