chicagotribune--2020-10-30--CPS: High school basketball, wrestling postponed indefinitely in Chicago Public League as COVID-19 w

CPS: High school basketball, wrestling postponed indefinitely in Chicago Public League as COVID-19 worries persist

“ Our district has a rich basketball tradition , and we know that this is not the outcome so many @ @ @ @ @ and coaches wanted to see , ” CPS said in its Thursday announcement , “ @ @ @ @ @ ( the Illinois Department of Public Health ) and the Illinois State Board of Education @ @ @ @ @ basketball should not be played this winter as it presents a significant risk to participants @ @ @ @ @ community .
We are following their guidance and committed to supporting all sports that can @ @ @ @ @ ”

Last season, Chicago high school basketball powerhouse Simeon beat Morgan Park to win the Chicago Public League championship. This year, the season has been postponed indefinitely. (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown)
The boys and girls basketball seasons have been postponed indefinitely in Chicago’s storied Public League.
Chicago Public Schools made the announcement late Thursday, also sidelining wrestling and elementary school basketball. The district said the “high-risk” winter sports will be postponed or moved to next spring or summer, with a tentative wrestling season set for April 19 to June 26.
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The decision comes despite the Illinois High School Association announcing that it plans to move forward with the winter basketball season, even though Gov. J.B. Pritzker has contradicted that and said it will be postponed until spring.
“Our district has a rich basketball tradition, and we know that this is not the outcome so many of our students, parents and coaches wanted to see,” CPS said in its Thursday announcement, “but Gov. Pritzker, (the Illinois Department of Public Health) and the Illinois State Board of Education have made it clear that basketball should not be played this winter as it presents a significant risk to participants and members of the school community. We are following their guidance and committed to supporting all sports that can proceed safely this winter.”
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CPS said competitive cheerleading and dance, girls and boys bowling and boys swimming and diving are “currently scheduled to move forward this winter" as they are deemed low risk.


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 6,363 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 — a new high — and 56 addit

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 6,363 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 — a new high — and 56 additional deaths reported Thursday

She ’ s an extrovert , and when Illinois shut down , she said , it was hard not to @ @ @ @ @ .
With an underlying health condition , she felt a lot of fear when COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ job isn ’ t one she can do remotely , but she needed to be @ @ @ @ @ ages 7 and 8 , and help with remote learning , creating extra stress .
@ @ @ @ @ , she felt more pain watching the George Floyd protests and seeing , she said @ @ @ @ @ her were treated .

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CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials Thursday announced 6,363 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, a new daily high for the state. There were also 56 additional fatalities. That brings the statewide total to 395,458 confirmed cases and 9,675 deaths.
The previous high was 6,161 last Saturday and it was the second straight day with more than 6,000 cases reported. There were 83,056 tests in the previous 24 hours, only the sixth time that the state has had more than 80,000 tests reported in a single day. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 6.9%.
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Meanwhile, the 18-county west-central region of the state that includes Springfield and Quincy reached a positivity rate at or above 8% for the third consecutive day, one of the ways a region can trigger a rollback in its reopening under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan. The region will be the ninth of 11 regions in the state to come under state rules that call for temporarily suspending indoor dining and bar service and lowering gathering caps to 25 people, from 50.
Earlier on Thursday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she will reverse a curfew she imposed on liquor sales and allow those businesses to sell alcohol until 11 p.m.
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Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:35 p.m.: CPS says high school basketball, wrestling postponed indefinitely
The boys and girls basketball seasons have been postponed indefinitely in Chicago’s storied Public League.
Chicago Public Schools made the announcement late Thursday, also sidelining wrestling and elementary school basketball. The district said the “high-risk” winter sports will be postponed or moved to next spring or summer, with a tentative wrestling season set for April 19 to June 26.
The decision comes despite the Illinois High School Association announcing that it plans to move forward with the winter basketball season, even though Gov. J.B. Pritzker has contradicted that and said it will be postponed until spring.
Read more here. —Chicago Tribune staff
6:35 p.m.: Libertyville mayor says village won’t enforce indoor dining restrictions
Local officials in central Lake County have been announcing their intentions to not enforce the governor’s indoor dining restrictions, which were put on due to the recent increase of coronavirus cases in the area.
Meanwhile, other economic officials and restaurants in the area have written letters to the governor’s office, deriding the new restrictions, which were announced Wednesday, as unfair and uneven.
In Libertyville, Mayor Terry Weppler posted on Facebook an announcement that the village will not be taking any enforcement action on restaurants that choose to remain open for indoor service.
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Weppler said in the post that the decision came after a conference call with the village’s restaurants and consulting with village trustees.
“I know the COVID virus is dangerous and I am as concerned as many of you that we protect people’s health,” his post read. “However, there have been no issues of Libertyville restaurants causing the spreading of COVID.”
Read more here. —James T. Norman
5:55 p.m.: IHSA executive director says ‘we plan on going forward’ despite Pritzker’s comments to the contrary
Hours after Gov. J.B. Pritzker said basketball would be delayed to the spring, the Illinois High School Association’s executive director said Thursday “we plan on going forward” with the seasons as scheduled.
Another day, another twist in the winter sports saga between the IHSA and Pritzker.
Read more here. —Pat Disabato
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5:25 p.m.: Even while hospitalized, here’s how Illinois patients can vote
Many have been anticipating this election. But what happens if you are hospitalized just before you planned to vote?
In this situation, voters have an option. In Illinois, patients hospitalized within the 14 days before an election can arrange to have a ballot delivered to the hospital.
At Advocate Health Care, hospitals have developed a process to facilitate this absentee voting. For the first time, staffers created an organized program to help patients know they can vote, including signs in hospitals and directly telling patients about this option.
“Because of COVID and this pandemic, it’s causing unexpected hospitalizations, and it’s intersected with this election,” said Tiffany Gardley, manager of volunteer services, communications and transport at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Under Illinois law, qualified voters who have been admitted to a hospital, nursing home or rehabilitation center can request personal delivery of a vote-by-mail ballot.
To get a ballot, they must complete an application stating why they were admitted and that they do not expect to be released before the election, or, if released, expect to be housebound. Along with this application, a doctor, advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant must state that the patient was admitted and not expected to be released or, if released, not able to travel.
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At Advocate, patients are offered a packet with the application to request to vote this way, and a phone number to a 24/7 staffed volunteer line. Volunteers guide them through a process that can be complicated.
Once voters complete the application, a legal relative or a person registered to vote in their same precinct must present this application to an election authority. In Cook County, the application must be delivered to the County Clerk’s Office at 69 W. Washington St.
In a signed affidavit, the ballot-delivery person attests to being a registered voter authorized to get the ballot and deliver it, and states the nature of the relationship with the hospitalized voter.
After it’s verified that the hospitalized person is registered to vote, the ballot-delivery person can take a vote-by-mail ballot to the hospital, where the patient can fill it out and the same ballot-delivery person can return it to be counted.
Read more here. —Alison Bowen
5 p.m.: McHenry County restaurants, bars file lawsuit challenging COVID-19 closure of their establishments
Thirty-seven restaurants and bars in McHenry County filed suit Thursday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and health officials, trying to prevent enforcement of an order to shut down indoor service, which is meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
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A hearing was set in the matter for Friday, one day before the shutdown was scheduled to take place in Lake and McHenry counties. A similar order has been imposed in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties, and other parts of Illinois.
The suit is the latest in a spate of legal actions against the governor’s executive orders aimed at limiting the pandemic. A similar suit in Kane County this week led to a court order allowing FoxFire restaurant in Geneva to keep operating despite the order, which the state is appealing. In addition, numerous restaurants statewide are simply defying the shutdown.
Read more here. —Robert McCoppin
3:55 p.m.: Gaming board pushes back new casino license approvals six months due to COVID-19
The Illinois Gaming Board pushed back approval for the state’s new casino licenses by at least six months due primarily to COVID-19 delays.
The decision, announced at a special gaming board meeting Thursday, set an April 28 target for issuing preliminary approval for casino applicants in Rockford and Williamson County. The process may take longer for casinos in Waukegan and the south suburbs, where multiple applicants are competing for licenses. Earlier this year, an application for the Danville casino license was withdrawn.
“Like all government agencies and private businesses, the board’s work has been impacted by COVID-19,” Illinois Gaming Board administrator Marcus Fruchter said Thursday. “This is not an excuse or a crutch. It is simply a recognition of the realities that work and life are different in a global pandemic.”
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Preliminary approval for five of the six licenses created by last year’s gambling expansion bill was supposed to be issued by Oct. 28 — 12 months after the application deadline.
Once approved, casino operators will be allowed to open in temporary facilities for two years while building permanent locations.
Read more here. —Robert Channick
3:50 p.m.: 4 employees, 4 residents at Juvenile Temporary Detention Center have test positive for COVID-19
Four employees and four residents at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a statement Thursday by the Office of the Chief Judge.
In addition, three employees of the Adult Probation Department, including one who works at the Juvenile Courthouse, have tested positive. The others work at the Bridgeview Courthouse and at the Criminal Court Administration Building.
JTDC is conducting testing on all staff and contractors who are working on site this week, according to the statement. The JTDC also tested residents.
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The most recent positive tests bring the total number of positive cases at the JTDC to 54 staff members and 40 residents.
—Annie Sweeney
3:20 p.m.: Chicago restaurants spent as much as $130,000 on air filtration and other safety measures for indoor dining — only to be left out in the cold
Anybody interested in buying a like-new air-purifying system? How about some custom-made, acrylic table dividers? Barely used.
It might not actually be for sale (yet), but pandemic-weary restaurateurs say they’re not far off.
In addition to the loss of revenue and likely layoffs for large numbers of dining industry workers, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s new ban on indoor dining (which goes into effect Friday in Chicago and is either already in effect or will be Saturday for the collar counties) is dealing another financial blow to restaurants that have invested heavily in safety equipment for their dining rooms ahead of winter.
It’s money that, until the indoor dining ban is lifted, is going to waste at businesses already struggling with drastically lower customer counts and notoriously thin profit margins — even in pre-pandemic times.
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“We’re all trying really, really hard,” said Michael Roper, owner of Hopleaf in Andersonville. “Some of us are going to the absolute limit of our personal finances. People are putting second mortgages on their homes; people are liquidating their retirement accounts in order to save their place. That’s how serious it is.”
Restaurant owners expressed an overarching sense of fear and hopelessness in the wake of Pritzker’s series of announcements over the past week. Just as many were readying their dining rooms for a cold-weather influx, they found themselves back in a hauntingly similar situation: facing layoffs, dropping sales and a precarious future.
“No way to lie about it; I’m scared,” said Michael Lachowicz, chef and owner of Aboyer, Silencieux and George Trois restaurants in Winnetka. “I was in the fetal position for six hours yesterday.”
Read more here. —Phil Vettel and Adam Lukach
1:45 p.m.: All jury trials at Dirksen US Courthouse canceled until further notice due to pandemic
Chicago’s chief federal judge announced Thursday that all jury trials at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse were being canceled until further notice due the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The order by U.S. District Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer comes after a rash of recent COVID-19 positive tests from courthouse employees and visitors over the past several weeks, coinciding with a resurgence of cases across the state.
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The order marked the second time trials have been shut down at the courthouse due to the virus. After an initial suspension this past spring, jury trials had resumed in a limited fashion beginning in July, with face coverings and social distancing measures in place to try to curtail the virus' spread.
Recently, however, Pallemeyer had warned those who work at the courthouse about a series of COVID-19 positive tests among visitors, employees and litigants. The most recent letter went out Monday, when Pallmeyer reported two employees and a courthouse visitor had tested positive within the past 24 hours.
“Three positive tests in our courthouse in a single day suggests a trend in the wrong direction,” Pallmeyer wrote.
Pallmeyer said that while the courthouse and clerk’s office at 219 S. Dearborn St. will remain open to the public, all criminal jury trials were suspended immediately and all civil jury trials were canceled as of Nov. 9. It would be up to the judge presiding over each case to make appropriate findings about a defendant’s Constitutional rights to a speedy trial, she said.
“The court finds that the delay outweighs the interests of the parties and the public in a speedy trial given the need to protect the health and safety of defendants, defense counsel, prosecutors, court staff, and the public by reducing the number of in-person hearings to the greatest extent possible,” Pallmeyer wrote in the order.
The provisions in the order would be revisited no later than Jan. 26, Pallmeyer said.
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—Jason Meisner
1:35 p.m.: Secondhand shopping comes to Michigan Avenue, even in the middle of a pandemic
When The RealReal announced plans in February to open a store selling secondhand Gucci and Louis Vuitton steps away from those brands' Magnificent Mile boutiques, it was yet another sign resale shopping, once stigmatized, had gone mainstream.
Less than a month later, the coronavirus pandemic brought dramatic changes to ways consumers live and shop. Retailers selling anything besides toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other essentials were hit hard, and resale shops weren’t immune.
But while many say sales are down, some of the industry’s biggest players are betting the health crisis hasn’t shaken consumers' enthusiasm for resale.
Resale website ThredUp announced it confidentially filed for an initial public offering earlier this month after adding Walmart to the list of retailers who sell its goods in May. Meanwhile, The RealReal opened its Michigan Avenue store last week after seeing customers gradually return to its four stores in other cities.
“We’re still seeing a lot of people want to shop in person when it’s engaging,” said Dan Ocampo, The RealReal’s head of retail operations.
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Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
1:10 p.m.: Illinois sees another record daily high, another region gets hit with tighter restrictions
Illinois set another daily record high Thursday for newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, and another region was set to be put under tougher rules for restaurants, bars and gatherings under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan.
The state reported 6,363 newly diagnosed cases and 56 additional deaths of people with COVID-19. That raises the statewide totals to 395,458 known cases and 9,675 deaths throughout the course of the pandemic, according to state data.
The previous daily high for new cases was 6,161 last Saturday.
The new cases reported Thursday come from a batch of 83,056 tests conducted during a 24-hour period.
Hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 are also rising, as of Wednesday night 3,030 people in the state were in the hospital, with 643 in intensive care units and 269 patients on ventilators.
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Central Illinois has largely been spared from firmer state-imposed restrictions on businesses and gathering sizes.
But the 18-county west-central region of the state that includes Springfield and Quincy reached a positivity rate at or above 8% for the third consecutive day, one of the ways a region can trigger a rollback in its reopening under Pritzker’s plan.
The region will be the ninth of 11 regions in the state to come under state rules that call for temporarily suspending indoor dining and bar service and lowering gathering caps to 25 people, from 50.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
12:58 p.m.: Park Ridge restaurants file suit against governor’s indoor dining ban; some plan to defy order
Five Park Ridge restaurant owners filed a lawsuit this week against Gov. J.B. Pritzker, objecting to the governor’s latest order shutting down indoor dining at bars and restaurants.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court late Wednesday, claims Pritzker lacks the authority to issue the executive order because the emergency powers he used to issue it expired in April.
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The lawsuit’s argument is similar to that in other legal challenges filed against Pritzker’s executive orders across the state.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the owners of Shakou, Pazzi Di Pizza, Hay Caramba, Holt’s, and the Harp and Fiddle, all located in Uptown Park Ridge. Also named as a plaintiff is Neoteca Pizza and Wine Bar in Barrington.
Read more here. —Jennifer Johnson
12:38 p.m.: Indiana sets new single-day record with 3,649 COVID-19 cases
Indiana set a daily high of newly reported cases of COVID-19 Thursday as the number of hospitalizations and new infections across the state continued to spike.
The 3,649 new infections reported by the Indiana State Department of Health on Thursday marked the first time Indiana has recorded more than 3,000 positive cases of the virus in one day.
Marion County, which has been the state leader in cases since March, reported 361 new positive tests, bringing the county total to almost 27,000. Trailing only Marion County is Lake County, which reported 270 new cases and now tops 15,000 cases, according to the state dashboard. According to the state, Porter County has had more than 3,700 cases. The Porter County Department of Health shows 55 deaths.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
12:35 p.m.: Lightfoot to extend hours for liquor sales at Chicago bars and restaurants
Under pressure from bars and restaurants hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will reverse a curfew she imposed on liquor sales and allow those businesses to sell alcohol until 11 p.m.
Lightfoot was quick to criticize Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to ban indoor service at bars and restaurants due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, but she’d also been criticized by bars and restaurants over her own restrictions, which in some ways had been tougher than the governor’s.
While the state rules dictate bar and restaurant service must end at 11 p.m., the mayor had ordered liquor sales to end at 9 p.m. and for the establishments to close at 10 p.m.
Read more here. — Gregory Pratt
11:53 a.m.: With COVID-19 on the rise, some parents nix trick-or-treating: ‘It doesn’t seem worth the risk’
Halloween is already happening at Angie Grover’s house. The pumpkins are carved. The porch is decorated. The costumes are getting multiple trial runs, with Grover’s younger son, age 7, even taking a scooter ride in full T. rex mode.
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But when the big day comes, one thing will be missing: trick-or-treating.
“We’re just not prepared to expose our family to the uncertainty of COVID,” said Grover, 50, of River Forest.
In the lead-up to a beloved children’s holiday, a sizable number of Americans are quietly opting out of trick-or-treating, handing out candy or both, due to COVID-19. Just 12% of U.S. households will trick-or-treat this year, down from 24% last year, according to a recent survey from NORC at the University of Chicago. The survey found that 25% of families plan to give out candy, down from 38% in 2019.
In Naperville alone, more than 350 “No Trick-or-Treaters” signs have been picked up by residents, according to city spokeswoman Linda LaCloche.
The reasons for opting out range from an illness in the family to a more general concern about the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Illinois, where the seven-day statewide positivity rate for those tested is 6.4%. In interviews and Facebook posts, those who are not participating expressed sadness at missing out, but also confidence in their decisions.
“Health and safety has to come first,” said Siân Stevens, of Forest Park, the mother of 5-year-old twins.
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Read more here. —Nara Schoenberg
11:30 a.m.: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scolds White House over no response in virus relief talks
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a scolding assessment of COVID-19 relief talks on Thursday, blaming Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for failing to produce answers to her demands for Democratic priorities as part of an almost $2 trillion aid package.
Pelosi lobbed her latest public relations volley with a letter to Mnuchin that blames Republicans for the failed talks, which ground on for three months only to crater in the final days before the election. Where the talks go after the election is wholly uncertain.
Pelosi says remaining obstacles to an agreement include more than half a dozen big-ticket items, including a testing plan, aid to state and local governments, funding for schools, jobless benefits and a GOP-sought shield against coronavirus-related lawsuits.
Republicans, who say Pelosi has been unyielding in the talks, will control the White House and the Senate until January regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, and have pressed for a more targeted aid package that ignores key Pelosi demands.
They say items like refundable tax credits for the working poor and families with children aren’t directly related to fighting COVID-19 and charge that Pelosi has slow-walked the negotiations to deny President Donald Trump a victory in the run-up to Election Day.
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Pelosi’s letter to Mnuchin comes as markets are reeling from a coronavirus surge across the country and Washington’s failure to agree on another virus relief package.
Read more here. —Associated Press
10:23 a.m.: United Center to serve as polling place on Election Day
The Chicago Board of Elections plans to utilize the United Center on the Near West Side as a voting super site on Tuesday, giving all city voters another polling site option where they can cast their ballot in person.
Its opening as a polling place on Election Day will mark the first time the indoor arena, home to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, has been utilized as a voting super site. The expansion was meant to provide more “safe and accessible voting options,” according to a Chicago Board of Elections news release.
Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago Bulls chairman, and Rocky Wirtz, Chicago Blackhawks chairman, said in a joint statement they are proud the 950,000-square feet United Center will be used as a voting location for the first time in its 26-year history."
Together, the Blackhawks, Bulls and United Center are happy to play our part and offer our arena to further civic engagement in our communities and expand voting opportunities for Chicago residents," Reinsdorf and Wirtz said in the news release.
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Read more here. — Kelli Smith
8 a.m.: Iowa doctors warn coronavirus spread risks overwhelming hospitals if it continues
Iowa’s number of coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations continued to surge higher Wednesday as medical professionals have begun to express concern that hospitals could be overwhelmed with patients if no action is taken to slow the virus spread.
Iowa hospitals had 596 coronavirus patients Wednesday, by far the highest number so far in Iowa. The 113 patients admitted in the past 24 hours also was the highest seen since the virus surfaced in Iowa in March. The number of patients needing intensive care unit services has also trended upward in the past month.
Iowa doctors and hospital officials are preparing for a system overrun by COVID patients by talking about how to transfer patients between hospitals and enacting surge plans that could turn non-hospital facilities into spots to handle any overflow.
Read more here. —Associated Press
7 a.m.: Pritzker to tour West Side business, hold news conference on business grants
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was scheduled Thursday morning to tour an Austin neighborhood business Thursday morning before announcing where the state stands on distributing the second round of small business grants, according to the governor’s office.
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Pritzker was scheduled to tour L May Creations, 5936 W. Chicago Ave., an event space run by the owner of a small business that according to the Austin Weekly News makes custom jewelry and party decorations.
The second round of Business Interruption Grants has included $220 million for businesses including movie theaters, performing arts venues and concert venues, officials have said. — Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Mental health among Black Chicagoans a concern as suicide numbers rise
Sleeping a lot. Binge eating. Feeling alone.
Casey, 32, knew these were signs in the spring that she was depressed. The Chicago resident didn’t want to be identified by her full name while speaking about mental health challenges.
She’s an extrovert, and when Illinois shut down, she said, it was hard not to be able to see friends. With an underlying health condition, she felt a lot of fear when COVID-19 arrived in Chicago. Her job isn’t one she can do remotely, but she needed to be home with her children, ages 7 and 8, and help with remote learning, creating extra stress. And after all of this, she felt more pain watching the George Floyd protests and seeing, she said, how Black people like her were treated.
“That created a lot of depression and a lot of anxiety,” she said. “I would definitely have those crying spells like, hey, I just need somebody to hug me. Because of COVID, there was nobody available.”
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Casey is not alone. Many are feeling extra and unusual stressors during this time, and people of color shoulder additional burdens.
This year, many Americans have reported feeling anxious and depressed. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows nearly half of Americans reported at least one mental or behavioral health condition, including a trauma- and stressor-related disorder or substance use.
In Illinois, health officials are monitoring the number of suicides. Overall, the number in Illinois actually fell slightly, from 678 suicides from January to June last year to 649 in the same time period this year.
But among Black Chicagoans, suicides have risen.
Last year, from January to June, Cook County saw 31 suicides among Black residents, which was actually down from 38 in the same time period the year before. But this year, from January to June, 51 Black residents in Cook County died by suicide, according to Illinois Department of Public Health statistics. Earlier this year, the Sun-Times reported that the majority of Black suicides in Cook County occurred in Chicago, often in the South and West side neighborhoods.
Read more here. —Alison Bowen
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6 a.m.: Thursday’s the deadline for sending in your mail-in ballot application. If you miss it, here are some options.
Thursday is the deadline for your local election authority to receive your application for a mail-in ballot, although for weeks officials have been encouraging voters to send them in sooner.
Don’t expect to get yours in on time? Don’t fret. You still have options.
If you’d like to vote by mail, you have a couple of choices.
First, if your local election jurisdiction accepts online applications, you can submit one before 5 p.m. Thursday. But that doesn’t guarantee you’ll receive your ballot in time to fill it out and have it postmarked, place it in a secure drop box or hand-deliver it to your local election authority’s office by Election Day.
Your other option is to go to your local county clerk’s office or election authority to request a mail-in ballot in person. The deadline to do that is Monday. Just be sure to complete your ballot and place it in the mail or a designated drop box or return it to your local election office by Tuesday.
Ballots returned by mail and postmarked by Election Day should be counted as long as they’re received by Nov. 17.
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Still, given that election officials encouraged voters to submit vote-by-mail applications by Oct. 15 to make sure they could be mailed out in time, your best bet may be to make other plans for casting your ballot.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
5 a.m.: A vaccine may be ready by January, but a return to normal isn’t. Here’s what we learned from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s virtual Chicago talk.
With COVID-19 cases rising rapidly in Illinois, Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed this latest surge, the president’s name-calling and a vaccine timeline during a virtual Chicago talk Wednesday evening.
He spoke during an event hosted by Chicago Ideas and presented by Horizon Therapeutics called “The Man Behind the Medicine.” Fauci’s remarks came the same day that Illinois reported 6,110 new cases of COVID-19, with a rolling positivity rate of 6.7% up from 4.6% two weeks earlier.
Read more here. — Lisa Schencker
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories from Wednesday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--IHSA says ‘we plan on going forward’ with basketball hours after Pritzker announced sport would be m

IHSA says ‘we plan on going forward’ with basketball hours after Pritzker announced sport would be moved to spring; CPS still postpones seasons

“ Our board represents our membership ( schools ) .
That ’ s why the board voted the way it @ @ @ @ @ to start the winter season Nov. 16 .
It ’ s possible our membership might @ @ @ @ @ tell us differently .
But the board wouldn ’ t have voted the way it @ @ @ @ @ would be the case .
”

Lincoln-Way East's girls basketball team holds a contact day practice in Frankfort as the Illinois High School Association ruled on the status of winter sports on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown)
Hours after Gov. J.B. Pritzker said basketball would be delayed to the spring, the Illinois High School Association’s executive director said Thursday “we plan on going forward” with the seasons as scheduled.
Another day, another twist in the winter sports saga between the IHSA and Pritzker.
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On Tuesday, Pritzker put winter sports “on hold.” On Wednesday, the IHSA decided basketball will start on time. On Thursday, Pritzker said basketball would be moved to the spring.
Craig Anderson, the executive director of the IHSA, then followed that up in an interview with the Daily Southtown by saying, “now that the (IHSA) board (of directors) has made its decision, we plan on going forward with practices on Nov. 16 and games on Nov. 30.”
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Late Thursday, though, the state’s largest school system, Chicago Public Schools, announced that it’s abiding by the governor’s guidance and has postponed basketball and wrestling for teams in the Chicago Public League.
After the IHSA announced Wednesday it was going to start the winter sports season as planned on Nov. 16, Pritzker said Thursday “we’ve asked that they be moved to the spring, some later in the spring.
“As with sports in the fall, nothing is ‘canceled,’ just put on hold until we’re through the thick of this pandemic.”
That came as news to Anderson.
“The board didn’t feel comfortable moving winter sports to another season because we would have had an overlap with either the spring or summer season,” Anderson said. “We have a lot of multisport athletes who would be put in a difficult decision.”
Anderson said the IHSA hasn’t had any contact with the governor’s office since announcing its intentions Wednesday.
Pritzker said Tuesday the winter season, which includes basketball, had been put on hold. He had not provided a time frame for a delay, however, until Thursday.
Craig Anderson, the executive director of the Illinois High School Association. (Photo provided by the IHSA)
The IHSA held a special board meeting Wednesday and decided to go against the guidelines announced by Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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“With the state moving basketball to high risk, they determined that basketball wasn’t going to be played in the winter,” Anderson said. "Our board has not been presented any causal evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH or any other health organization nationally or internationally.
“Our board represents our membership (schools). That’s why the board voted the way it did. Most schools want to start the winter season Nov. 16. It’s possible our membership might come back at us and tell us differently. But the board wouldn’t have voted the way it did if it believed that would be the case.”
The IHSA also announced its mitigation policies for winter sports Thursday afternoon, including basketball along with bowling, cheerleading, dance, girls gymnastics and boys swimming.
Pritzker wants schools to understand there are consequences to playing sports outside the guidelines of the IDPH.
“I, finally, will say that schools, I think, as I’ve said several times, will potentially be subject to some legal liability if something happens as a result of their playing a sport that we’ve issued guidance about that is not congruous with what the school is operating under,” he said.
“The fact that the IHSA has a different opinion, I mean, I’ve known that for some time about different areas of sports. We have talked to them on a frequent basis, gotten their opinions about each one of these things, and I think, most importantly, it’s going to be incumbent upon the schools to make a decision for themselves.”
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Staff reporter Dan Petrella contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Chicago Police Department clearing fewer murders this year, officials say

“ I have yet to determine whether I will bring that back or have some different iteration of merit , @ @ @ @ @ But I will just say from a high level , we have to focus on @ @ @ @ @ .
And multiple choice tests doesn ’ t necessarily get us to that point .
@

Chicago police are solving murders at a worse rate this year than they did last year, officials said Thursday.
Police officials revealed the 41% clearance rate, which was around 50% at the end of last year, during the department’s annual City Council budget hearing. The clearance rate was at around 46% at the end of October 2019, according to Police Department records.
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Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said the department is “hoping, obviously, to trend upwards” on solving murders, which are up in Chicago compared with last year.
“Obviously this year has been difficult for many different reasons, and the murder-per-capita has unfortunately gone up, but the detectives are doing an excellent job clearing all the cases that they can,” Deenihan said.
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The clearance rate was at a low of 30% in 2016, Deenihan said.
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The Police Department budget is usually the most closely watched part of the mayor’s annual spending plan. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced she plans to eliminate over 600 vacant Police Department positions in 2021 to help close the city’s $1.2 billion budget hole.
On Thursday, police Superintendent David Brown indicated he’s keeping an open mind about reinstating some form of the Police Department’s controversial merit promotions process, which interim Superintendent Charlie Beck suspended last year amid long-standing complaints that it led to cronyism in how the department made promotions.
“I have yet to determine whether I will bring that back or have some different iteration of merit,” Brown said. “But I will just say from a high level, we have to focus on diversity among all the ranks. And multiple choice tests doesn’t necessarily get us to that point."
Some Black and Latino aldermen have said the merit program — which allowed officers to be promoted not just based on exam scores but also by proving their leadership skills to bosses in other ways — improved diversity in the department’s upper ranks.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Illinois sees another record daily high with 6,363 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, another region ge

Illinois sees another record daily high with 6,363 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, another region gets hit with tighter restrictions

“ In governor ’ s news conference today , one of the speakers talked about all the experts he listens @ @ @ @ @ s not listening to members of the General Assembly , ” Butler said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ to the public .
He ’ s not listening to the owners of these businesses @ @ @ @ @ gutted by these mitigations that are going into effect .
”

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday he’d been hopeful earlier this year, as COVID-19 cases dipped after the spring surge, that the state could stave off a second wave of the virus.
“Boy, was I wrong,” Pritzker said at a coronavirus briefing on Thursday in Chicago. “And by the way, this is now happening across the country.”
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Pritzker announced that the ninth of 11 regions in the state, and the first in central Illinois, will see tightened rules on restaurants, bars and gathering sizes as the state again set a single-day record for newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19, 6,363.
Pritzker has repeatedly voiced confidence in his reopening plan, which divides the state into 11 regions and clamps down on restaurants, bars and gathering sizes once a region reaches a threshold that indicates the virus is surging there.
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The governor acknowledged that “there’s an awful lot of research being done, and we’ve learned a lot. But the fact is, if the question is, is it enough, is this enough: I don’t know.”
“We have this regional plan because it does work. We’re hoping it’ll continue to work,” Pritzker said. “But I have to say one other thing, which is, it’s not like we have every answer to every question.”
The state also reported another 56 deaths of people with COVID-19 Thursday, raising the state-reported death toll to 9,675 throughout the course of the pandemic.
The state has reported 395,458 known cases and 9,675 deaths since the pandemic began. The previous daily high for newly confirmed cases was 6,161 last Saturday.
There are significantly higher numbers of tests being conducted in Illinois now than was the case during its first major coronavirus surge in the spring, but “our cases are rising at a much faster clip than our testing,” Pritzker said.
Hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 are also rising — as of Wednesday night 3,030 people in the state were in the hospital, with 643 in intensive care units and 269 patients on ventilators. It was the first time since early June that the hospitalization number topped 3,000.
Tighter rules in the 18-county west-central Illinois region that includes Springfield will take effect Sunday. Pritzker’s reopening plan faces growing criticism from Republicans and others who question the metrics being used to determine when tougher rules are imposed.
As has become commonplace when Pritzker announces new regional restrictions, a group of Republican lawmakers took to Zoom on Thursday afternoon to question the decision. One of the four central Illinois GOP legislators on Thursday’s call was state Rep. Tim Butler of Springfield, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday.
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“In governor’s news conference today, one of the speakers talked about all the experts he listens to, but he’s not listening to members of the General Assembly,” Butler said. “He’s not listening to the public. He’s not listening to the owners of these businesses that are going to be gutted by these mitigations that are going into effect.”
In making his case Thursday, Pritzker brought in Dr. Emily Landon, head of infection prevention and control at University of Chicago Medicine, who sought to explain why data on the disease sometimes changes.
“Inconsistent recommendations are not evidence of a conspiracy. Nor are inconsistent data,” Landon said. “They are evidence of a changing knowledge in epidemiology. In different situations, different metrics mean different things."
The ban on indoor dining and bar service, as well as a cap on crowds of 25, kicks in Friday in Chicago, Saturday in Lake and McHenry counties, and Sunday in the central Illinois region.
The rest of the collar counties, as well as the northwest corner of the state and both the Metro East and southern Illinois regions, are already under tighter restrictions. The state’s remaining two regions are also on the brink of seeing the state take the same action.
The east-central region of the state that includes Champaign-Urbana, Decatur and a long stretch of the Indiana border surpassed the 8% state-set positivity rate threshold that triggers the state intervention as of Thursday. The saliva tests from the University of Illinois campus are removed from the region’s data.
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The other region, which includes Peoria, Bloomington and the Quad Cities, isn’t far behind — it logged a 7.9% positivity rate in the data the state Department of Public Health put out Thursday.
Beginning Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Public Health began reporting a new statewide positivity rate figure.
This rate, the test positivity rate, reflects the seven-day average of total number of positive results out of all tests reported in a 24-hour period. If one person is tested twice in the same day, for example, that counts as two positive tests. As of Tuesday, the statewide test positivity rate stood at 8.2%.
This is the same figure the Pritzker administration has been using for the 11 regions in his reopening plan when judging when more stringent rules are needed.
Previously, the state has been reporting the seven-day average for the number of positive cases — representing individual patients — out of all test results returned in a 24-hour period. As of Tuesday, that rate was 6.9%.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com
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dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Mother of Black man killed by Waukegan police alleges in lawsuit that medical response took 8 minute

Mother of Black man killed by Waukegan police alleges in lawsuit that medical response took 8 minutes after he was shot

That lawsuit , filed in August , alleges Salinas used excessive force during an incident at an August 2019 baptism @ @ @ @ @ Salinas “ drew his weapon and threatened ” the man who filed the suit , @ @ @ @ @ him and “ initiated a physical altercation following its deployment.
” The man resisted arrest @ @ @ @ @ , and after he was brought into compliance Salinas “ struck the plaintiff in the @ @ @ @ @ his weapon , ” the lawsuit states .
The man pleaded guilty to misdemeanor arrest @ @ @ @ @ lawsuit states .

Madeline Buckley, Sarah Freishtat, Javonte Anderson

Zharvellis Holmes, left, mother of Marcellis Stinnette, and his grandmother, Sherrellis Stinnette, center, listen as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, and others speak Oct. 28, 2020, outside the Illinois State Police headquarters in Des Plaines. They had viewed video of the shooting death Stinnette and the wounding of Tafara Williams by Waukegan police last week. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The mother of a Black 19-year-old shot and killed by a Waukegan police officer filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against two officers and the city of Waukegan alleging that the shooting was not justified and that Marcellis Stinnette did not get medical attention for 8 minutes after he was shot.
Zharvellis Holmes filed the suit on behalf of her son, and names two officers and Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles. Stinnette was killed Tuesday after officer Dante Salinas fired shots into a car, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. The suit also alleges that officer James Keating was the first police officer that encountered Stinnette the night of the shooting.
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Tafara Williams, Stinnette’s girlfriend and mother of his infant son, also was wounded in the shooting and filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Waukegan, Salinas and Keating.
Waukegan resident Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was shot and killed by Waukegan police October 20. (Family photo) (Family photo)
Waukegan police have not identified the officers involved and Walles referred comment to attorney Rick Hammond, who said he had not had sufficient time to review the complaint Thursday afternoon. The officer who shot at the couple was fired late Friday.
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Salinas and Keating could not be reached for comment.
A review of complaints against police officers in several suburban communities, obtained over the summer, shows between 2018 and June neither Salinas nor Keating had complaints filed against them relating to use of force, but the plaintiff’s attorney, Kevin O’Connor, said he had previously filed another federal suit naming Salinas.
That lawsuit, filed in August, alleges Salinas used excessive force during an incident at an August 2019 baptism party. The lawsuit states Salinas “drew his weapon and threatened” the man who filed the suit, then used a Taser on him and “initiated a physical altercation following its deployment.” The man resisted arrest and additional officers were called, and after he was brought into compliance Salinas “struck the plaintiff in the face with the butt of his weapon,” the lawsuit states. The man pleaded guilty to misdemeanor arrest in the incident, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday, Stinnette was a passenger in a car with Williams and parked outside Williams' home with the lights on. Around 11:55 p.m., Keating approached the car and began to question Williams and Stinnette, the complaint said, alleging that he did not have “reasonable suspicion” to detain either of them.
Keating demanded their names, but gave no reason for his approach, the suit said. The officer directed questions at Stinnette, asking, "Aren’t you the dude that got in the accident? You got in an accident, right? What’s yo name? Huh?” The suit notes that Stinnette was in a car accident in August which limited his ability to move.
Body camera footage shows Keating tell Stinnette: “You’re Marcellis right? Yeah, You’re under arrest man,” according to the suit.
Williams asked the officer why Stinnette was under arrest, and Keating replied, “Because I said so.”
Stinnette also asked the officer why he was under arrest, the suit said, referencing body camera footage.
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Keating tells Stinnette: “Show me your hands pal. C’mon, I ain’t playin’ with you cause I know you. Marcellis you’re under arrest.” According to the lawsuit, Stinnette’s hands were visible.
Williams then pulled away from the curb and drove away from the officer, according to the suit. The suit alleges that Keating “falsely reports” that the car ran him over.
Williams tried to make a right turn, but her car struck an electric pole, the suit said.
At that time, Salinas, who had followed Williams, left his vehicle with his weapon drawn, according to the lawsuit. He did not turn on his body camera.
Meanwhile, Williams began to back up her vehicle to return to the road, the suit said. Waukegan police previously said the officer began shooting when the car starting backing up. But the complaint alleges that “at no time was (Williams) driving in the direction” of Salinas.
Salinas then fired five times into the car, “despite being in no immediate danger,” the complaint said.
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“At no point did ... Tafara Williams' vehicle strike any police vehicles or persons, but did strike a small building on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Helmholz Avenue,” the complaint said.
The complaint alleges that neither officer “had any information that any violent crime had been committed and/or that they or any other individuals were in danger of death or serious bodily harm.”
After the shooting, Williams cried for help, saying both she and Stinnette had been shot, but the suit alleges that neither officer responded to help them.
Salinas turned on his body camera after the fact and yelled, “I was right behind you and you almost tried to run me over,” according to the complaint.
Williams screamed, “He got shot, he got shot, he needs help,” the suit said, alleging that Stinnette received no medical attention for eight minutes while he waited for an ambulance.
Police have said no weapons were found in the vehicle.
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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Stinnette’s father, Selvin Holmes, said his son wanted to inspire his younger siblings and led them with his good values.
“My son had a dream,” he said. “He wanted to grow up be a productive citizen.”
While announcing the lawsuit, O’Connor pledged to work to reform policing policies in Waukegan and around the country.
“They are not going to throw blood money at this family,” O’Connor said. “We’re going to make a change. We’re going to end this now.”
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The Waukegan Police Department historically has been troubled by scandals, investigative failures and lawsuits alleging abuse.
A 2015 Tribune investigation found that no city police department in Illinois at that point, other than Chicago’s, shared responsibility for as many wrongful convictions as the Waukegan police, who had helped send six men to prison before they were cleared. Those cases drove the department’s problem with lawsuits, accounting for the bulk of the $26.1 million the city or its insurers paid out in police cases between 2006 and April 2015. That was vastly more than local towns with larger police departments.
Following the Tribune story, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations service agreed to intervene in the city in hopes of improving relations between residents and the police. The next year, the city reached a non-binding agreement that committed the department to increasing diversity in its ranks, updating its use-of-force policy and giving officers cultural awareness and sensitivity training.
Tribune reporter Dan Hinkel contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--United Center to serve as polling place on Election Day

“ We are proud to partner with the United Center to make voting even easier for Chicagoans on Election Day @ @ @ @ @ chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners , said in the release .
“ @ @ @ @ @ to plan their vote — whether that ’ s by mail , early in person @ @ @ @ @ Election Day — there are multiple options and we hope Chicagoans will choose the option @ @ @ @ @ vote .
”

You can now vote in the house that MJ built. The United Center — for the first time ever — is a super voting site in Chicago. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners plans to use the United Center on the Near West Side as a voting super site on Tuesday, giving all city voters another option where they can cast their ballot in person.
Its opening as a polling place on Election Day will mark the first time the indoor arena, home to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, has been utilized as a voting super site. The expansion was meant to provide more “safe and accessible voting options,” the board said in a news release.
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Jerry Reinsdorf, Chicago Bulls chairman, and Rocky Wirtz, Chicago Blackhawks chairman both, said in a joint statement they are proud the 950,000-square feet United Center will be used as a voting location for the first time in its 26-year history.
“Together, the Blackhawks, Bulls and United Center are happy to play our part and offer our arena to further civic engagement in our communities and expand voting opportunities for Chicago residents,” Reinsdorf and Wirtz said in the news release.
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The move comes as NBA players across the nation have urged league owners to address systemic racism and turn facilities into polling sites to increase access to voting, conversations which were sparked in the fallout of the police killing of George Floyd over the summer. Since, more than 20 NBA teams have agreed this year to host election-related activities.
Along with in-person voting, the arena on Election Day will provide same-day voter registration and vote-by-mail ballot return, according to the news release. It also will observe COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The site will be open to all Chicago voters from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 1901 W. Madison St. Voters will be directed to park in Lot K, the gate off Adams Street, and can enter the site through the South Atrium entrance.
“We are proud to partner with the United Center to make voting even easier for Chicagoans on Election Day,” Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said in the release. “We’re encouraging everyone to plan their vote — whether that’s by mail, early in person, or in person on Election Day — there are multiple options and we hope Chicagoans will choose the option most convenient for them to vote.”
In March, the teams used a United Center parking lot to host a personal protective equipment drive that brought in about 13 pallets of health care supplies, including sterile and nonsterile gloves, bleach wipes and bottles, hand sanitizer, clear face shields and masks. The United Center also stored food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository — which acts as a hub for more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--The Spin: Illinois sees record day in COVID-19 cases |  Ricketts sibs, John Rogers among pro team ow

The Spin: Illinois sees record day in COVID-19 cases |  Ricketts sibs, John Rogers among pro team owners contributing to presidential campaigns |  Fauci virtually in Chicago

Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation ’ s top infectious disease expert , was on hand for a virtual discussion @ @ @ @ @ said a vaccine may be available by January , that the public should trust it @ @ @ @ @ question he ’ s been getting a lot lately : What are we to make @ @ @ @ @ Fauci an “ idiot.
” ( Trump has also said he likes “ Tony.
” @ @ @ @ @ s got a thick skin .
My Tribune colleague Lisa Schencker has the details here @

Illinois saw a one-day high in newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases, prompting Gov. J.B. Pritzker to announce he’s tightening restrictions on bar and restaurant operations and gatherings in yet another region of the state. As cases spike, here and around the country, the governor has reinstituted restrictions that have drawn the ire of businesses and elected leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Family members of Jacob Blake, Alvin Cole, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor — African Americans whose killings by police across the country have prompted a national reckoning on race and justice — were part of a get-out-the-vote rally in Grant Park today.
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A few blocks west, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown was among the police bosses in the hot seat at ongoing City Council budget hearings, the annual rite of aldermen grilling department heads about operations and their share appropriations for the upcoming year.
The police department’s rate of solving murders, a dismal 50% last year, has fallen to 41%. Chicago’s police superintendent also said he’s looking at bringing back some form the controversial merit promotion system — long criticized by many rank-and-file cops and decried in a U.S. Department of Justice report on the city’s policing practices.
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And the Cubs-owning Ricketts family figures large in a new story about wealthy sports team owners and their political contributions from ESPN and influential poll tracker FiveThirtyEight. The big picture? Professional team owners lean right overall. Todd Ricketts, the finance chair of the Republican National Committee, is part of that lineup. But Laura Ricketts is one of the top donors to Democrats in the federal election.
Welcome to The Spin.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal government response to COVID-19 on Sept. 23, 2020, in Washington. (Graeme Jennings/AP)
Data points: 6,363 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 — a new high — and 56 additional deaths reported in Illinois today. Details here.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker today took a cue from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chart-filled news conferences in the early days of the pandemic’s grip there. He and the state’s top public health official, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, have made no secret that they’re trying to figure how to deliver their message of wearing a mask and keeping social distance as the numbers climb — evidenced by each slide at his news conference this afternoon.
“Statewide we have a real problem on our hands and people’s lives hang in the balance,” the governor said during this afternoon’s news conference at the downtown Chicago Thompson Center.
More data points: Eight months into the pandemic, he pointed to the highest seven-day average in the spring — 2,565 in May, how it fell to 590 by mid-June and now sits at 5,043. Today alone, 6,363 new cases were announced.
While the state is testing far more people than in the spring, which is good news, Pritzker said, “… cases are rising at a much faster clip than our testing.” The governor explained that even as testing expanded in late June and late July, the state’s positivity rate was steady at between 2.5% and 3%. From late July to a few weeks ago it was largely below. 4.5%. Today it’s up to 6.9%.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was on hand for a virtual discussion here last night: He said a vaccine may be available by January, that the public should trust it and veered away from the question he’s been getting a lot lately: What are we to make of President Donald Trump calling Fauci an “idiot.” (Trump has also said he likes “Tony.”) Fauci says he’s got a thick skin. My Tribune colleague Lisa Schencker has the details here.
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Gaming board pushes back new casino license approvals six months due to COVID-19, the Tribune’s Robert Channick reports.
Mental health among Black Chicagoans a concern as suicide numbers rise, the Tribune’s Alison Bowen writes.
Parents seek answers about masks, distancing, pods as CPS looks to reopen schools and plans for simultaneous teaching of kids who remain home — The Tribune’s Hannah Leone has the story here.
McHenry County restaurants, bars file lawsuit challenging COVID-19 closure of their establishments, the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin reports. Park Ridge restaurants also are suing the governor, Jennifer Johnson writes in the Park Ridge Herald-Advocate.
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speaks during a news conference on Oct. 13, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt: "Under pressure from bars and restaurants hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will reverse a curfew she imposed on liquor sales and allow those businesses to sell alcohol until 11 p.m.
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“Lightfoot was quick to criticize Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to ban indoor service at bars and restaurants due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, but she also had been criticized by bars and restaurants over her own restrictions, which in some ways had been tougher than the governor’s.” Read the full story here.
The new five-part Chicago documentary, “City So Real,” from Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) begins airing tonight, and my colleague Michael Phillips writes in a 4-star review to seek it out “either to confirm your suspicions about how this city functions, or to affirm your idea of Chicago as the brash epitome of American character, from politics on down. Or up.” Details about where to watch it are here.
Chicago police Superintendent David Brown elbow-bumps new recruits after addressing the newest class at the CPD Education and Training Academy in Chicago on Oct. 13, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s John Byrne writes: Chicago police are solving murders at a worse rate this year than they did last year, officials said today.
Police officials revealed the 41% clearance rate, which has fallen from around 50% last year, during the department’s annual City Council budget hearing.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said the department is “hoping, obviously, to trend upwards” on solving murders, which are up in Chicago compared with last year.
“Obviously this year has been difficult for many different reasons, and the murder per capita has unfortunately gone up, but the detectives are doing an excellent job clearing all the cases that they can,” Deenihan said.
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The Police Department budget is usually the most closely watched part of the mayor’s annual spending plan. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has announced she plans to eliminate over 600 vacant Police Department positions in 2021 to help close the city’s $1.2 billion budget hole.
On Thursday, police Superintendent David Brown said he’s keeping an open mind about reinstating some form of the department’s controversial merit promotions process, which interim Superintendent Charlie Beck suspended last year amid long-standing complaints that it led to cronyism in how the department made promotions.
“I have yet to determine whether I will bring that back or have some different iteration of merit,” Brown said. “But I will just say from a high level, we have to focus on diversity among all the ranks. And multiple choice tests doesn’t necessarily get us to that point,” he said, referring to promotional exams.
Some Black and Latino aldermen have said the merit program — which allowed officers to be promoted not just based on exam scores but also by proving their leadership skills to bosses in other ways — improved diversity in the department’s upper ranks.
Tom Ricketts speaks alongside his siblings Laura and Todd on Nov. 4, 2016, as the Chicago Cubs celebrate their World Series championship with a rally in Grant Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
“American professional sports owners have contributed nearly $47 million in federal elections since 2015 … including $10 million to Republican causes and $1.9 million to Democratic causes so far in the 2020 election cycle,” according to research by ESPN in partnership with FiveThirtyEight.
Todd Ricketts is among the 13 owners who have contributed to President Trump’s campaign or Trump super PACs in the 2020 election cycle, with contributions from that baker’s dozen totaling $1.74 million, ESPN and FiveThirtyEight report.
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Laura Ricketts and Chicago Sky co-owners John Rogers and Michael Alter are among 20 owners who contributed to Biden or one of his super PACs with overall contributions of $405,745. The data shows that Laura Ricketts is among the top donors among team owners while Todd and Laura’s brother Tom Ricketts, Cubs chairman, is listed as a “bipartisan” donor. Read the full piece here.
Cook County State's Attorney candidate Pat O'Brien chats with Austin resident Andrew Grant after a news conference at the corner of Division Street and Central Avenue, the site of a CPD "Operation Split Corners" drug bust, on Oct. 1, 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Alice Yin: Patrick O’Brien, the GOP candidate in the Cook County state’s attorney’s race, racked up 20 endorsements from retired judges, his campaign announced Thursday. Fifteen of them are Democrats — one being Sheila O’Brien, a former state appellate justice who petitioned for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the Jussie Smollett case that has dogged the Democratic incumbent in the race, Kim Foxx.
“These judges are supporting my campaign because they know the integrity and professionalism that I will bring to the job,” O’Brien, also a retired judge in Cook County Circuit Court, wrote in a statement. “They have either worked with Kim Foxx’s office or have been watching her office closely over the last 4 years. What they unanimously see is that Kim Foxx has failed the people of Cook County.”
The support comes the same week another Democrat, downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, came out blazing for O’Brien and in the process bucked his party line. But Foxx still has a blue wall of endorsements from high-profile politicians such as Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who recorded a robocall for Foxx this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, both Illinois senators and Mayor Lightfoot.
Today’s the deadline for sending in your mail-in ballot application: If you miss it, here are some options, the Tribune’s Dan Petrella writes.
United Center to be polling place on Election Day: My Tribune colleague Kelli Smith has the details here.
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Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--‘Standing together, they can’t stop us.’ Families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and A

‘Standing together, they can’t stop us.’ Families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and Alvin Cole speak at Grant Park rally to urge people to vote.

Also at the rally were the families of Jacob Blake , a 29-year-old man left partly paralyzed after a police @ @ @ @ @ in the back , Eric Garner , who was killed in New York in 2014 @ @ @ @ @ in a chokehold , Jay Anderson , a 25-year-old shot six times and killed in @ @ @ @ @ in Wauwatosa , Wisconsin , and Alvin Cole , a 17-year-old also shot dead by @ @ @ @ @ .

Greeted by a standing ovation and chants of “say her name,” Breonna Taylor’s mother and the families of other people of color shot or killed by police gathered Thursday for a rally in Grant Park to urge people to vote and “get the change we need.”
“A lot of days it feels like it’s us against them,” said Tamika Palmer, whose 26-year-old daughter was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers during a botched raid on her apartment in March.
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“We’ve been protesting, we’ve been arguing, we’ve been crying in court,” she told the audience of about 40 people. “But unless we vote, we will not get the change we need.”
Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, listens to speakers during a get-out-the-vote rally by the families of George Floyd, Taylor, Jacob Blake and Alvin Cole in downtown Chicago on Oct. 29, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Also speaking was Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
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“They’re trying to stop us, but standing together they can’t stop us,” he said. “Silence is violence. If you don’t vote, you’re leaving your future in someone else’s hands.”
Also at the rally were the families of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old man left partly paralyzed after a police officer in Kenosha shot him in the back, Eric Garner, who was killed in New York in 2014 after an officer placed him in a chokehold, Jay Anderson, a 25-year-old shot six times and killed in 2016 by a police officer in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and Alvin Cole, a 17-year-old also shot dead by a police officer in Wauwatosa.
Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., said the family has petitioned the United Nations and plans to go to the steps of Congress next to “change laws” and “change the world.”
“We came here to Chicago to show unity of the families,” Blake said, raising his voice. “We came here to tell the world that we will not stop.
“I should not have to explain to you that every Black face that you see that walks down the street is a part of humanity,” he added. “And we stand united, and I stand on that, and I will not stop.”
Jacob Blake's father, Jacob Blake Sr., arrives for the vote rally in Chicago Oct. 29, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Cole’s mother, Tracy, said she remains frightened of the police since the confrontation earlier this year. There won’t be peace until “we get justice in Wauwatosa,” she said as the crowd chanted “no justice, no peace.”
“They tried to shut me up, but it’s not going to happen,” she said. “I feel violated. Today I do not trust no cops. Cops supposed to be friendly, but I don’t trust anyone.”
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Garner’s son, Eric Garner Jr., said people are angry for “very good reasons" because injustice continues to happen. "We are working day and night to ensure justice is served,” Garner said.
Earlier, recorded remarks by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Democratic candidate for vice president, Kamala Harris, were played to those gathered in the park.
“No one can truly appreciate the pain that you have experienced and the journey of grief you are moving through,” Lightfoot said, addressing the families. “But I want you to know that we understand and we are standing with you.”
Harris called for an end to cash bails and private prisons and for the initiation of a national police oversight committee, saying she and her running mate, presidential candidate Joe Biden, are committed to “rooting out the systemic racism that still exists.”
“What you all have been through, it is unimaginable, it should’ve never happened, and it is tragic,” Harris said to the families. “But what you’ve done in spite of that pain, the way your strength and dignity have helped fuel a national movement for change is just so inspiring.”
Other speakers included performer Will.I.Am, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, who all reiterated the importance of going out to vote to enact change.
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“We’re standing on the cusp of history,” Rush said.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Even while hospitalized, here’s how Illinois patients can vote

To get a ballot , they must complete an application stating why they were admitted and that they do not @ @ @ @ @ the election , or , if released , expect to be housebound .
Along with @ @ @ @ @ , advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant must state that the patient was admitted @ @ @ @ @ released or , if released , not able to travel .

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Many have been anticipating this election.
But what happens if you are hospitalized just before you planned to vote?
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In this situation, voters have an option. In Illinois, patients hospitalized within the 14 days before an election can arrange to have a ballot delivered to the hospital.
At Advocate Health Care, hospitals have developed a process to facilitate this absentee voting. For the first time, staffers created an organized program to help patients know they can vote, including signs in hospitals and directly telling patients about this option.
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Advocate Trinity Hospital on the South Side of Chicago is pictured on Aug. 12, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
“Because of COVID and this pandemic, it’s causing unexpected hospitalizations, and it’s intersected with this election,” said Tiffany Gardley, manager of volunteer services, communications and transport at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Under Illinois law, qualified voters who have been admitted to a hospital, nursing home or rehabilitation center can request personal delivery of a vote-by-mail ballot.
To get a ballot, they must complete an application stating why they were admitted and that they do not expect to be released before the election, or, if released, expect to be housebound. Along with this application, a doctor, advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant must state that the patient was admitted and not expected to be released or, if released, not able to travel.
At Advocate, patients are offered a packet with the application to request to vote this way, and a phone number to a 24/7 staffed volunteer line. Volunteers guide them through a process that can be complicated.
Once voters complete the application, a legal relative or a person registered to vote in their same precinct must present this application to an election authority. In Cook County, the application must be delivered to the County Clerk’s Office at 69 W. Washington St.
In a signed affidavit, the ballot-delivery person attests to being a registered voter authorized to get the ballot and deliver it, and states the nature of the relationship with the hospitalized voter.
After it’s verified that the hospitalized person is registered to vote, the ballot-delivery person can take a vote-by-mail ballot to the hospital, where the patient can fill it out and the same ballot-delivery person can return it to be counted.
So far, Gardley says, the hospital hasn’t had patients request a ballot; many patients expect to be out of the hospital by Tuesday. But when circumstances change and they end up staying, or realize they may be unable to leave home after they are discharged, she anticipates more interest.
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“This election is huge,” Gardley said. “We feel there’s going to be a huge need on Monday and Tuesday.”
At Rush, a medical student suggested helping with similar outreach after two people asked about how their family members could vote.
Depending on what hospital practice is on giving patients this information, patients around the state might not know about their ability to vote while hospital-bound.
Special protocols exist for COVID-19 patients at Advocate; staff members sanitize the pens before and after use, and they seal the patient’s ballot in a bag before giving it to the person who will deliver it.
Gardley said she sees this as part of taking care of patients and helping them get whatever they might need.
“It’s definitely a holistic approach,” she said.
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abowen@chicagotribune.com


Corrections and clarifications

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· A headline on Page 3 of Thursday’s A+E section misspelled Rosemont.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
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chicagotribune--2020-10-29--McHenry County restaurants, bars file lawsuit challenging COVID-19 closure of their establishments

He based the legal challenge in part on the state law that gives the governor power to issue executive orders @ @ @ @ @ Pritzker first did in March , but limits that power to 30 days .
Some @ @ @ @ @ governor ’ s power to issue consecutive orders to extend that time period indefinitely , @ @ @ @ @ this summer that the governor may not do so , a case that the state @ @ @ @

Thirty-seven restaurants and bars in McHenry County filed suit Thursday against Gov. J.B. Pritzker and health officials, trying to prevent enforcement of an order to shut down indoor service, which is meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A hearing was set in the matter for Friday, one day before the shutdown was scheduled to take place in Lake and McHenry counties. A similar order has been imposed in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties, and other parts of Illinois.
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The suit is the latest in a spate of legal actions against the governor’s executive orders aimed at limiting the pandemic. A similar suit in Kane County this week led to a court order allowing FoxFire restaurant in Geneva to keep operating despite the order, which the state is appealing. In addition, numerous restaurants statewide are simply defying the shutdown.
The attorney who filed the suit, John Dickson, said a co-owner of Andy’s Restaurant of Crystal Lake called him in tears.
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“They’re terrified,” he said. “She’s terrified if they get shut down again, they’re going out of business after a 40-year run. They’re still bleeding from the first shutdown from March to June and haven’t fully recovered. A second shutdown is probably going to put most over the edge.”
[ Park Ridge restaurants file suit against governor’s indoor dining ban; some plan to defy order ]
He based the legal challenge in part on the state law that gives the governor power to issue executive orders in an emergency, as Pritzker first did in March, but limits that power to 30 days. Some courts previously have upheld the governor’s power to issue consecutive orders to extend that time period indefinitely, but a downstate judge ruled this summer that the governor may not do so, a case that the state is also appealing.
Dickson argued that time extension is nowhere in the law, and the governor should negotiate with lawmakers over what emergency powers he should have. The suit also notes that the state Department of Public Health requires a court order to shut down a public place.
State authorities did not respond immediately for comment but have fought restrictions on the governor’s orders in other cases. The McHenry County Department of Health said it had not yet reviewed the suit.
Pritzker and health officials have said the closures are necessary to prevent dangerously rising numbers of deaths, hospitalizations and cases linked to COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the disease primarily is spread by tiny droplets in people’s breath, within a range of 6 feet.
However, prolonged exposure in an enclosed space can encourage transmission beyond that. Health officials say restaurants and bars are at higher risk of spreading the virus because people are close together for an extended time. One study showed people with COVID-19 were twice as likely to have been to a bar or restaurant as those who tested negative.
[ Gov. Pritzker tied COVID-19 cases to restaurants and bars in Kane, DuPage counties. Local health department data is unclear. ]
Restaurant owners counter that health officials should take action against restaurants where outbreaks occur, rather than a blanket closure of all their businesses, while other retail and entertainment businesses remain open.
More than 30 plaintiffs include Tony’s Café in Crystal Lake, BBQ King Smokehouse in Huntley, Cary Ale House and Brewing Co., the Public House on the town square in Woodstock, Cucina Bella in Algonquin, Rosati’s in Harvard, and Around the Clock Restaurant in Crystal Lake.


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Column: ‘Rolling Thunder:’ The Loop 'L’ tracks shaped downtown Chicago and unified a divided city. T

Column: ‘Rolling Thunder:’ The Loop 'L’ tracks shaped downtown Chicago and unified a divided city. They still matter today, a new book reminds us.

Reardon documents other impacts : The elevated structure drove up real estate values within the five-by-seven block area it enclosed @ @ @ @ @ city divided into North , South and West Sides , and further subdivided into enclaves @ @ @ @ @ and economic class .
With its pulsating medley of offices , shops , restaurants , @ @ @ @ @ the Loop became everybody ’ s “ second neighborhood . ''
It was a citadel @ @ @ @ @ did not crumble during the suburban flight of the 1950s and 1960s — battered yes @ @ @ @ @ and too important to fail .

Passing CTA "L" trains in the Loop along Wabash Avenue seen from the Trump International Hotel as shot through a tilt-shift lens on Sept. 23, 2010. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The best transit systems don’t just haul passengers — they become symbols of their cities. In San Francisco, it’s the cable cars gliding gracefully over the steep hills. In London, it’s the bright red double-decker buses rolling past such landmarks as Big Ben. In Chicago, it’s the CTA cars rumbling and screeching over the Loop elevated tracks.
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In the Loop, the French artist Albert Fleury wrote in 1900, “the sky is of iron, and perpetually growls a rolling thunder.”
The Loop elevated — a decidedly unglamorous, rectangular bridge of riveted steel and wood ties that’s 2.1 miles long and rises about 20 feet above Lake, Van Buren and Wells streets and Wabash Avenue — is unavoidable and underappreciated, though not by film directors who love to use it as a gritty backdrop.
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Who built it? Who designed it?
Chances are you have no idea. In fact, some architectural guidebooks don’t even mention the creators of the Loop elevated.
That’s why I dove eagerly into a new book, “The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago” (Southern Illinois University Press, paperback, $26.95, 312 pages), due out Nov. 26. Its author, the award-winning former Tribune urban affairs writer Patrick T. Reardon, makes a bold claim: “The elevated Loop — disregarded, denigrated and often unloved for much of a century — has been the single most important structure in the history of Chicago.”
"The Loop: The 'L' Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago" by Patrick T. Reardon. (Southern Illinois University Press) (Southern Illinois Press / HANDOUT)
Full disclosure: I worked closely with Reardon before he left the Tribune more than a decade ago. That puts me in a bad position to assess his book from the distanced, dispassionate perspective a reviewer should bring to the task. So this is an essay about the Loop, not a review of the book itself. But any reviewer, I’ll venture, would be hard-pressed not to recognize that “The Loop" is deeply researched and vividly written.
On sunny days, Reardon observes, the latticelike structure of the “L” casts “sharp-edged, patterned shadows” on streets and sidewalks. Its steel girders “are a forest through which cars, trucks and pedestrians dart while, overhead, a train rumbles, overwhelming most other street sounds and halting conversations, even though the screeching of metal wheels on metal tracks during turns has been greatly dampened in recent years.”
Passages like that are apt to provoke pangs of nostalgia in office workers who haven’t been downtown since pandemic-related shutdowns began. Ridership for the eight Loop elevated stations dropped by nearly two-thirds during the first nine months of 2020, falling to about 5.5 million riders from nearly 15.9 million during the same period the year before, according to CTA spokesman Brian Steele.
If the book has a hero, it’s Charles Yerkes, the shrewd, bribe-dispensing Gilded Age streetcar magnate who masterminded the construction of the Loop elevated, which opened in 1897. Yerkes, who later helped develop London’s Underground subway, should rank with Daniel Burnham and Richard J. Daley as one of the most consequential shapers of Chicago, Reardon argues.
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Why? Because the Union Loop, as Yerkes’ creation was officially known, was a powerful centralizing force. By bringing thousands of people into a highly compact area that constituted a tiny fraction of the city’s total land area, it joined with towering skyscrapers to make downtown Chicago loom far larger than its actual size. Manhattan’s skyline has no clearly defined center. Chicago’s does, courtesy of the Loop, though the city’s tallest towers have sprouted outside it.
Patrick T. Reardon, author of “The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago." (Steve Kagan)
Reardon documents other impacts: The elevated structure drove up real estate values within the five-by-seven block area it enclosed. It helped unify a city divided into North, South and West sides, and further subdivided into enclaves based on race, ethnicity and economic class. With its pulsating medley of offices, shops, restaurants, theaters and other attractions, the Loop became everybody’s “second neighborhood." It was a citadel of commerce, one that did not crumble during the suburban flight of the 1950s and 1960s — battered yes, but still too big and too important to fail.
Indeed, by Jan. 1, 1912, the elevated structure had become so intertwined with the central business district’s daily life that the word “Loop” was used instead of “downtown" in a Tribune account of the previous night’s New Year’s Eve celebration, Reardon writes. He takes issue with academics who say the name originated with the loops made by the cable car lines.
A CTA "L" Brown Line train passes over the Wells Street bridge, seen against the Chicago skyline on March 5, 2015. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
There’s a reason the Loop elevated resembles the muscular steel bridges that span the Chicago River: It was designed by renowned bridge builder John Alexander Low Waddell. Waddell gave the elevated structure multiple rivets that would tightly connect its large and small steel plates, allowing them to absorb the massive and kinetic gravity loads of moving trains without noticeable shaking.
Even before the “L" tracks were completed, critics called them ugly and obtrusive, a barrier that hemmed in downtown. From the 1920s onward, as Reardon shows, official city plans called for tearing the tracks down and replacing them with subways.
That drive culminated in the 1970s, when Daley and his successor Michael Bilandic unsuccessfully tried to demolish the tracks. But the move was delayed — first, by the Tribune’s then-urban affairs editor Paul Gapp, who revealed Daley’s under-wraps plan to the public, and then by Chicago architect Harry Weese, who conducted a media campaign that championed the Loop’s many virtues, including his contention that, unlike subways, the “L” was fun to use. Ultimately, the demolition plan was upended by the surprise 1979 election of Mayor Jane Byrne.
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She protected the tracks while directing the CTA to rehab or replace all but one of the Loop’s “L” stations (the one at Quincy/Wells Streets).
It was a real-life Chicago version of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1952 classic children’s story, “Maybelle the Cable Car,” which tells the tale of how San Franciscans banded together to defeat a plan to do away with the cable cars.
A person climbs the stairs to a CTA platform in Chicago's Loop in 2004. (ALEX GARCIA / Chicago Tribune)
And so the “L" is still with us even though the name “Loop” is now used in a way that blurs the boundaries between the area within the elevated tracks and the greater downtown outside them. It is commonplace, for example, to refer to the trendy, restaurant-rich Fulton Market district, which sits across the Chicago River and the downtown expressways from the historic Loop, as "the West Loop,”
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The Fulton Market district is part of an ever-expanding downtown, which I’ve dubbed “the Super Loop,” that someday could include such megaprojects as Lincoln Yards to the north and The 78 to the south. Meanwhile, as new office buildings rise along the Chicago River, concern is mounting about the economic viability of the central Loop, including Art Deco office buildings along such legendary locations as the LaSalle Street financial district.
Owing to such shifts, Reardon’s book is nothing if not timely. It reminds us that the fate of the Loop elevated tracks and the historic Loop are deeply interconnected. Both are an essential part of Chicago’s identity and require constant attention and reinvention, like the architecturally dynamic Washington/Wabash station, to thrive.
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The tracks themselves are a reminder that the often-bandied about term, “infrastructure,” should mean more than the vehicle-friendly roads and bridges that politicians invariably mention when they use that term. Transit systems like today’s electricity-powered “L” move thousands of people using far less energy than all those idling pollution-belching cars and trucks on congested roads. The elevated, in other words, was green before green was cool.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Gaming board pushes back new casino license approvals six months due to COVID-19

The decision , announced at a special gaming board meeting Thursday , set an April 28 target for issuing preliminary @ @ @ @ @ Rockford and Williamson County .
The process may take longer for casinos in Waukegan and @ @ @ @ @ multiple applicants are competing for licenses .
Earlier this year , an application for the @ @ @ @ @ .

The Illinois Gaming Board pushed back approval for the state’s new casino licenses by at least six months due primarily to COVID-19 delays.
The decision, announced at a special gaming board meeting Thursday, set an April 28 target for issuing preliminary approval for casino applicants in Rockford and Williamson County. The process may take longer for casinos in Waukegan and the south suburbs, where multiple applicants are competing for licenses. Earlier this year, an application for the Danville casino license was withdrawn.
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“Like all government agencies and private businesses, the board’s work has been impacted by COVID-19,” Illinois Gaming Board administrator Marcus Fruchter said Thursday. “This is not an excuse or a crutch. It is simply a recognition of the realities that work and life are different in a global pandemic.”
Preliminary approval for five of the six licenses created by last year’s gambling expansion bill was supposed to be issued by Oct. 28, 12 months after the application deadline.
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Once approved, casino operators will be allowed to open in temporary facilities for two years while building permanent locations.
In Rockford, where a single applicant is looking to build a Hard Rock Casino, officials expressed disappointment at the delay.
“I hope it won’t be another six months before we have the determination, especially since we submitted only one applicant unlike other communities that have multiple,” Mayor Tom McNamara said in a statement.
There are three applications for the Waukegan license and four applications for the south suburban Cook County license. The board is retaining an investment banker to conduct a competitive bidding process before vetting the two chosen applicants.
The preliminary approval clock for those licenses doesn’t start until six months after selecting the investment banker, and while the board is engaged in a “procurement” process, it did not disclose a target date for that hire.
The owners of Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, one of three applicants for a casino in Waukegan, issued a statement Thursday in support of the extended approval process.
“We understand, as Administrator Fruchter said, that the realities of work and life are different now," said Neil Bluhm, chairman of Rush Street Gaming, which owns Rivers in partnership with Louisville-based Churchill Downs. "We support the gaming board taking the time it needs to do this important work.”
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An applicant looking to build the Southland Live Casino in Calumet City issued a statement expressing disappointment over the board’s delay.
“The delay is unfortunate because Southland Live Casino in Calumet City is the only south suburban applicant that will open a temporary casino within 90 days, quickly creating a significant number of jobs and much-needed revenue for the state,” said Osi Imomoh, regional general manager of Delaware North Gaming Division, which would operate the proposed casino.
Plans for a Chicago casino with up to 4,000 gaming positions — twice the amount allowed at other Illinois casinos — were delayed after a 2019 study determined a 33.3% city gambling tax was too “onerous” to attract developers.
The state approved a revised tax structure for the Chicago casino in June. In August, Mayor Lori Lightfoot put out a request for proposals to build Chicago’s first casino.
Beyond the administrative delays, gambling in Illinois was hard-hit by the pandemic, especially at the 10 existing casinos, which were closed March 16 during statewide stay-at-home orders. The casinos were allowed to reopen with capacity limits July 1.
Adjusted gross revenue for the casinos fell by 30% to $943 million for the fiscal year 2020, which ended in June, according to the state. Adjusted gross revenue is the amount of money casinos keep after winnings are paid out to gamblers.
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rchannick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Campaign trail tracker: Where Trump, Biden and their running mates have traveled in presidential rac

Campaign trail tracker: Where Trump, Biden and their running mates have traveled in presidential race’s final weeks

In the final sprint ahead of the Nov. 3 election , both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden @ @ @ @ @ travel despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic .
Starting in September , Biden abandoned his monthslong @ @ @ @ @ in Delaware while Trump has accelerated his travel and is once again welcoming crowds at @ @ @

In the final sprint ahead of the Nov. 3 election, both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have ramped up their campaign travel despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Starting in September, Biden abandoned his monthslong virtual campaign from his basement in Delaware while Trump has accelerated his travel and is once again welcoming crowds at some events.
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Here’s a look at the campaign trail stops made by Trump, Biden and running mates since Sept. 1.
Campaign trail tracker
Tap or click on a dot to see details of the stop.
Don’t see the map? Some mobile browsers disable it. Try this link.


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Watch live: Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update

Gov .
J.B. Pritzker will give an update on the state ’ s response to the coronavirus in a briefing @ @ @ @ @ live below .

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