chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Student turns himself in to Chicago cops after Western Illinois University shooting of roommate in r

Student turns himself in to Chicago cops after Western Illinois University shooting of roommate in residence hall, officials say

“ I want to thank the swift work of our Office of Public Safety and other law enforcement personnel and @ @ @ @ @ they provided , ” Abraham said in a statement .
“ I ’ d also @ @ @ @ @ , as well as our student services staff and so many others , who worked @ @ @ @ @ ' safety .
Our thoughts are with our student who remains hospitalized and we pray @ @ @ @ @ ”

A Western Illinois University student who shot his roommate inside a campus residence hall Tuesday night, forcing the university to cancel classes and shut down the campus, turned himself in to Chicago police Wednesday afternoon, according to university officials.
Just before 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, the Western Illinois University Office of Public Safety was notified that a student had been shot in Thompson Hall in Macomb, officials said.
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Police identified the suspect as Kavion Poplous, an 18-year-old freshman at Western Illinois.
Poplous, of Chicago, is listed as being a law enforcement and justice administration major. A warrant with a $1 million bond attached was issued for his arrest, according to McDonough County sheriff’s office records.
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It was not immediately clear what led to the shooting, but the incident was allegedly related to a roommate dispute, officials said.
After the shooting, Poplous fled the scene, which led to the university locking down the campus and police spending hours searching for him.
Poplous turned himself in at a Chicago police station about 1:35 p.m. Wednesday and was taken into custody by police and the FBI, authorities said. He has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to a release.
Kavion Poplous, 18, a freshman at Western Illinois University, is suspected of shooting another student, according to school officials in Macomb. (Western Illinois University)
The wounded student was taken to McDonough District Hospital in Macomb and then transferred to another hospital.
The student who was shot was out of surgery Wednesday morning, but his condition was still unknown, said Derek Watts, Western Illinois' interim director of public safety, in a televised news conference.
“We’re waiting on updates from the family," Watts said.
The residence hall where the shooting occurred was quickly evacuated, and students were relocated to a shelter inside the basketball arena on campus, said Western Illinois interim President Martin Abraham.
Counselors were available to students at the shelter, he said.
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“Our thoughts, of course, go out to his family and his friends, and we pray for a full and speedy recovery," Abraham said. We’re also thinking about all of our other students who are directly impacted by the tragedy.”
Campus was to remain closed Wednesday and Western Illinois will resume classes Thursday, with residence halls kept locked through the weekend “to ensure residents' privacy” university officials said in a release.
“I want to thank the swift work of our Office of Public Safety and other law enforcement personnel and first responders for the assistance they provided,” Abraham said in a statement. “I’d also like to thank law enforcement, as well as our student services staff and so many others, who worked quickly to ensure our students' safety. Our thoughts are with our student who remains hospitalized and we pray for a speedy recovery.”
jaanderson@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Oak Forest man drowns in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

“ Mr .
Patel was walking along a log that extended into the swimming hole when he slipped off the @ @ @ @ @ .
The log was located at the edge of the shore below the waterfalls , @ @ @ @ @ His family was with him at the time .
”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The National Park Service says an Illinois man is believed to have drowned in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park after falling into a natural wonder known as “Midnight Hole."
The park service identified the man as Yogesh Patel, 25, of Oak Forest, Illinois.
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Patel fell into the water at “Midnight Hole” around 7:30 p.m. Monday and was observed struggling, officials said. The spot is on the North Carolina side of the national park. News outlets reported that his body was recovered by rescue divers Tuesday.
An official cause of death has not been released.
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“Bystanders attempted to pull Patel from the water, but were not successful,” the park service said in a news release.
Park spokeswoman Jamie Sanders told The Asheville Citizen-Times that Midnight Hole is actually a small waterfall and local swimming area.
“Mr. Patel was walking along a log that extended into the swimming hole when he slipped off the log and into the water. The log was located at the edge of the shore below the waterfalls,” Sanders said. “His family was with him at the time.”


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Will, Kankakee counties closer to return to looser phase 4 restrictions; Pritzker extends eviction m

Will, Kankakee counties closer to return to looser phase 4 restrictions; Pritzker extends eviction moratorium for 30 days

The last extension of the statewide eviction moratorium Pritzker ordered earlier this year was due to expire later this week @ @ @ @ @ in place for months , in addition to a federal stoppage of many evictions through @ @ @ @ @ , some Chicago area tenants who have struggled to pay their rent have said they @ @ @ @ @ from their landlords .

Bars and restaurants in Will County have been limited to customers in outdoor seating only. (Mike Nolan / Daily Southtown)
State officials offered a slightly more optimistic picture of where Illinois stands in its ongoing battle with COVID-19 on Wednesday, while Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced he would extend a statewide moratorium on evictions for another 30 days.
Over the past two weeks, nearly all of the 11 regions defined in the state’s reopening plan “has seen a stable or declining positivity rate,” including the two regions that have suffered a rollback of their reopening, the governor said at a coronavirus briefing in Chicago.
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The last extension of the statewide eviction moratorium Pritzker ordered earlier this year was due to expire later this week. Despite the moratorium being in place for months, in addition to a federal stoppage of many evictions through the remainder of this year, some Chicago area tenants who have struggled to pay their rent have said they’ve received eviction notices from their landlords.
“We will use every legal tool at our disposal to keep people safe and healthy and employed and housed,” Pritzker said Wednesday.
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State public health officials announced 1,941 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and 35 more deaths. That raises the statewide known case tally to 266,151 throughout the course of the pandemic. The state reported death toll is now 8,367.
The statewide seven-day rolling positivity rate stands at 3.7%.
The region that includes Will and Kankakee counties, which had harsher rules imposed by the state after it surpassed a positivity rate of 8% for three consecutive days, stood at 6.4% as of Wednesday, below the threshold that would restore rules in place statewide under the fourth phase of Pritzker’s reopening plan.
That means if the region’s trend of a declining coronavirus test positivity rate holds under 6.5% for three consecutive days, Will and Kankakee counties could soon see bars and indoor dining reopen.
The seven-county Metro East region has also improved of late, after being the first region in the state to have stricter rules put in place. That region surpassed the state-set 8% positivity rate threshold Aug. 11, and climbed to over 10% at one point, but sat at 8.9%, according to the most recently available data from the state public health agency.
Pritzker called that a “testament to the fact that these doctor-recommended mitigations can work if they are followed.”
The most recently-available state data showed suburban Cook County’s positivity rate at 5.5%, down from 6.3% days earlier, while Chicago’s rate stood at 5.1%.
Some of the other suburban areas were higher than the city, though they’ve seen decreases recently. The region that includes DuPage and Kane counties was at 5.7% and the region to its northeast including Lake and McHenry counties had a 6.2% positivity rate, down from 7% last week.
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But officials continue to urge caution and Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said when outbreaks occur on college campuses, those infected should quarantine at their school residence rather than traveling back to a family home, which carries the risk of “inter-community spread, inter-county spread, interstate spread, depending on where home is.”
“I know the TLC and the food won’t be the same, but we advise you to stay at school,” Ezike said, noting that a number of outbreaks at colleges have been tied to parties and bars.
Pritzker on Wednesday also said he was directing state election officials to utilize a minimum of $4 million in federal funding to expand the availability of mail-in-ballot drop boxes and amp up election judge recruitment, noting that there is a “shortage of thousands of election judges, a position historically filled by older individuals who now are among the most at-risk for COVID-19.”
“This election cycle, where the presidential contest may not be decided on election night while vote by mail ballots are tabulated, will test the limits of our democracy and the faith of our people in it,” Pritzker wrote in a letter to State Board of Elections Executive Director Steve Sandvoss. “These unprecedented times require unprecedented involvement and action by the State Board of Elections.”
Pritzker also wrote to Illinois' congressional delegation on Wednesday to ask for federal funding for states and local governments “facing disastrous budgetary consequences stemming from unanticipated revenue losses” as a result of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the governor announced he had asked state agency directors to make preparations for 5% budget cuts this year and another 10% cut next year, as a plan has yet to emerge from Washington for another stimulus package that would send aid to state and local governments.
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Without nearly $5 billion in federal aid, the state would “have no choice but to cut funding across the board,” Pritzker wrote, which he warned could mean as much as 15% across programs and “could possibly include over a billion dollars in cuts to pre-K-12 schools alone.”
It would also lead to “human services being decimated and thousands of layoffs” across state and local governments, first responders, universities and human service providers.
[ COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area ]
Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella contributed.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Former state Sen. Terry Link pleads guilty to tax evasion charge in federal court

During one recorded conversation , the senator told Arroyo he was “ in the twilight ” of his career and @ @ @ @ @ ” to bolster his income , according to the criminal complaint filed against Arroyo in @ @ @ @ @ would “ make sure that you ’ re rewarded for what you do , for @ @ @ @ @ na do moving forward , ” the complaint alleged .

Former state Sen. Terry Link on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a federal count of filing a false tax return, marking the latest conviction in a series of wide-ranging investigations against Illinois Democratic political leaders.
While the felony conviction capped a swift fall from grace for Link, who resigned from office last week, his case is far from over.
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The Chicago Tribune reported last year that Link agreed to wear a wire for the FBI in a bribery investigation of his colleague, then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo, in exchange for what Link hopes will be leniency at sentencing.
Under preliminary sentencing guidelines, Link would face up to 16 months in prison. However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Stetler said Wednesday that prosecutors intend to recommend a term of probation if he cooperates fully with the government.
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Link’s sentencing hearing will be delayed pending his ongoing cooperation. U.S. District Judge Robert Dow set a status hearing for March 30.
Link, of Vernon Hills, was charged in August with failing to report income on his 2016 tax return to the IRS. His plea agreement with prosecutors unveiled in court Wednesday said he listed his income that year as $264,450 when in fact it was at least $358,000.
Link also admitted in his 18-page plea agreement that he spent more than $73,000 in campaign funds in 2016 on personal expenses. He also underreported income on returns for tax years 2012 through 2015, causing the IRS and Illinois Department of Revenue a total of about $83,000 in lost tax revenue.
It’s unclear where Link’s 2016 income came from. The base salary for lawmakers in that year was $67,836, and Link also was eligible for a stipend of $20,649 as an assistant majority leader.
But Link and other lawmakers went much of 2016 without pay because then-state Comptroller Leslie Munger, a Republican, withheld their salaries amid the long-running budget standoff between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled legislature. As a result, Link was paid only $36,868.75 in that calendar year, according to the comptroller’s office.
The statement of economic interest Link filed with the secretary of state’s office for 2016 originally did not show any outside income. He amended the disclosure in January to report a capital gain of more than $50,000 from the sale of a Florida condo after the Tribune reported on the deal.
Link, 73, who had served in the senate since 1997 and rose to assistant majority leader, entered his plea during a videoconference before Dow. Seated next to his attorney wearing a dark suit and tie, the longtime politician smiled and laughed at the outset of the hearing as the judge joked about technological challenges of conducting court business remotely.
Near the end of the 45-minute hearing, when Dow asked what his plea was to the tax charge, Link said in a firm voice, “Guilty, your honor.”
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Link was the third sitting Democratic senator to be accused of a federal crime in a little over a year.
Last year, Link’s colleague state Sen. Thomas Cullerton was charged in an alleged ghost payroll scheme involving the Teamsters union. Cullerton has pleaded not guilty.
In September, another then-state senator, Martin Sandoval, was accused of taking bribes from a representative of a red-light camera company to act as the company’s “protector” in Springfield. Sandoval pleaded guilty earlier this year and is cooperating.
Meanwhile, the revelation that Link was wearing a wire for the FBI sent ripples through the state’s political landscape.
His cooperation was revealed during the fall legislative session as Link served as the assistant Senate majority leader and a co-sponsor of the state’s massive gambling expansion passed in June 2019.
Link had been integrally involved in efforts to expand casino gambling for many years, and his goal of bringing a casino license to his hometown of Waukegan was finally realized as part of that deal.
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According to the charges against Arroyo, the state representative from Chicago sought an unnamed state senator’s support on legislation involving video gambling sweepstakes games that would benefit one of Arroyo’s lobbying clients.
During one recorded conversation, the senator told Arroyo he was “in the twilight” of his career and was “looking for something” to bolster his income, according to the criminal complaint filed against Arroyo in October. Arroyo said he would “make sure that you’re rewarded for what you do, for what we’re gonna do moving forward,” the complaint alleged.
“Let’s be clear … my word is my bond and my, my reputation,” Arroyo allegedly said.
The state senator was also wearing a wire for the FBI when Arroyo delivered the first of the promised $2,500 checks at a restaurant in Skokie in August 2019.
“This is, this is the jackpot,” the complaint quoted Arroyo as telling the senator — identified as Cooperating Witness 1 — as he handed over the check.
Additional $2,500 payments were expected to be made over the next six to 12 months, federal authorities alleged.
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The complaint against Arroyo revealed that the unnamed state senator first began cooperating with the FBI in 2016 but was terminated as a confidential source after it was revealed he had filed false income tax returns. The senator later agreed to cooperate with the FBI again in the hopes of winning a break at sentencing on expected tax fraud charges, according to the complaint.
Link has repeatedly denied being the cooperating witness mentioned in the complaint.
Arroyo has pleaded not guilty, and his case is pending.
Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella contributed.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--COVID-19 is forcing small stores across Chicago to try online retail, but ‘we’re not Amazon’

“ We ’ ve had a lot of new customers , and I think that ’ s being able to @ @ @ @ @ about before you walk in , ” she said .
“ And who knows if @ @ @ @ @ close down again ?
It ’ s something we have to have .
”

AlleyCat Comics owner Selene Idell staffs the cash register Sept. 15, 2020, at her store in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the store has a new online ordering system for some products. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Two years ago, Esther Fishman shut down her Lincoln Park-area clothing and gifts shop’s online store.
Art Effect’s bricks-and-mortar business was strong, and selling online seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
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It seemed like the right call until this spring.
When the coronavirus pandemic forced all but essential retail stores to close, Art Effect rushed to get its online store back in business. Fishman has since hired a company to build a new, easier-to-use site.
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Small neighborhood retailers used to compete with Amazon by catering to local shoppers who enjoy browsing in person. That’s still true — but in the six months since the pandemic began, a growing number are venturing onto Amazon’s turf.
Most say online sales are a long way from making up for sluggish in-store sales, and some struggled to shift businesses built for in-person shoppers online. Others say it’s a service they can no longer afford to avoid, especially if a surge in cases forces stores to shut down again.
“The old world doesn’t exist anymore. … We’re training people now how easy it is to shop online. There are people who are not comfortable with that, but there are a lot of people with busy lives finding out it’s a good alternative,” Fishman said. “I think it’s only going to grow.”
Ruff Haus Pets employees Crystal Nelson, left, and Michelle Fares talk about the store's new online ordering system Sept. 15, 2020, in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Online shopping has boomed during the pandemic: Estimated U.S. e-commerce sales in the second quarter rose 44.5% compared with the same period last year, while overall retail sales fell 3.6%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Analysts say consumers are likely to shift some spending back to stores as concerns about shopping in person and capacity limits on stores ease.
“It’s a mistake to assume everyone getting online is happy about it,” said Brendan Witcher, e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research.
Still, the pandemic showed that even small shops can’t afford to ignore online retail, said Diana Smith, associate director at market research firm Mintel.
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Big chains like Target and Best Buy reported triple-digit growth in online sales during the second quarter. Target reported especially fast growth in services that let shoppers get online orders the same day they’re placed, including a 700% increase in drive-up orders, where shoppers can have purchases delivered to their car, and a 350% increase in same-day home delivery orders with Shipt.
Other major retailers that let customers shop online but lacked curbside pickup rushed to roll it out, including Ulta, Gap and Paper Source. So did Hawthorn Mall and Fox Valley Mall, and this fall, customers will be able to shop any mall store from the shopping centers' websites, said mall owner Centennial.
Meanwhile, ShopRunner, a Chicago-based service that gives members free two-day delivery when shopping at stores in its network, has added more retailers this year than any year since 2015 and plans to introduce same-day delivery at certain retailers in Chicago this month, said CEO Sam Yagan.
Smaller retailers that traditionally relied on bricks-and-mortar sales, meanwhile, were left scrambling.
“They’re going to be struggling the most because they’re the most behind and have the most challenges to get up and running and catch up with everybody else,” Smith said.
At Milk Handmade, which sells locally made women’s apparel and accessories in the Uptown neighborhood, owner Hallie Borden spent the early days of the pandemic “panic-adding” items to the online version of her store. Before the pandemic, only about 10% of its merchandise was listed.
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The online store brought in business from out-of-town customers who would likely never have visited in person, and web sales now account for about half of Milk Handmade’s business, Borden said.
Still, “we’re not Amazon,” she said.
Borden packs up all online orders on days the shop is closed, something that worries her headed into the holiday season. Shoppers concerned about crowds or whether local shops will struggle to get last-minute orders delivered on time might decide it’s easier to stick with Amazon.
“It’s frustrating big-box stores can get products to customers really fast and I can’t. We’re just trying to prepare customers and set expectations for how long something might take to arrive,” she said.
Some local business groups have launched directories to promote businesses' low-contact shopping options. The La Grange Delivers website lets specialty retailers outline ways to place orders for curbside pickup or delivery and has lists of restaurants offering outdoor seating, pickup or delivery.
“A lot had an online presence, but it wasn’t a priority for them,” said Nancy Cummings, executive director of the La Grange Business Association. “That’s completely shifted.”
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Still, some stores are easier to recreate online than others.
Bras Galore, a Lakeview shop selling bras, intimate apparel and swimwear, has always emphasized the importance of getting an expert fit, said owner Kathy Bonifas. Even selling to existing customers who had previously been fitted would have been hard, because many gained or lost weight during the pandemic and were no longer sure what size they needed.
“That’s always been our adage: Don’t buy online or you’ll buy the wrong size,” she said.
Being limited to bricks-and-mortar sales makes the city’s 25% capacity limit especially challenging, she said. “How are you supposed to be at 25% of your sales and 100% of your rent, and no one is helping you out financially?”
AlleyCat Comics owner Selene Idell explains the store's new online ordering system Sept. 15, 2020, at the store in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The AlleyCat Comics store is seen Sept. 15, 2020, in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Andersonville’s AlleyCat Comics built an online store but most customers avoiding shopping in person still seem to prefer calling the store and having an employee serve as a personal shopper, said Selene Idell, who owns the shop with her husband, Nicholas.
People rarely come in search of a specific title, which makes buying online tougher, she said.
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“They want to browse and look at the pictures and see if they like the art. Comic book shoppers are particular about the book’s condition. It’s a very hands-on kind of business,” she said.
AlleyCat plans to hold online-only sales during the holidays to encourage shoppers to check out the online store.
“I think it’s beneficial for us for running the business, but it’s not making any money right now,” she said.
Selling online is also extra work, especially for stores with inventory that changes frequently.
“It’s a tricky balance. It takes time to take photos, edit them, write the copy, and put it online,” said Merl Kinzie, who owns The Shudio, a shop selling plants, vintage apparel and gifts in the Pilsen neighborhood.
A big chain that will sell dozens, if not hundreds, of a particular shirt only needs to put that effort in once. Vintage or resale clothing is usually one of a kind.
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The Shudio had an online store before the pandemic but it wasn’t a priority because customers drawn to its focus on sustainability seemed to prefer shopping in person.
Lincoln Park-area kids' resale shop The Second Child is more optimistic about online sales even though it has the same challenges with one-of-a-kind merchandise.
Before the pandemic, The Second Child only sold its highest-end pieces — about 3% of the roughly 5,000 items in its bricks-and-mortar store — online. Now, owner Amy Helgren estimates shoppers can find 90% online.
Even before the pandemic, Helgren worried about competition from Amazon, a one-stop shop that lets busy parents buy whenever they have time, even if that’s the middle of the night, when her bricks-and-mortar store is closed.
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“The first thing I do now when I wake up is check my phone for online orders,” Helgren said. “It has to be at their convenience. They want what they need, and they want it now," she said.
Collars and leashes are displayed for sale at Ruff Haus Pets on Sept. 15, 2020, in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Richard Forsythe, who owns Lincoln Square pet supply shop Ruff Haus Pets, said online sales have been growing since it launched an online store about a month into the pandemic, though the bricks-and-mortar store still generates most of the business.
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He just hopes the online growth doesn’t come at the expense of sales at the store, which moved to a larger location last fall. When people come to the shop, they might pick up an extra treat or toy for their pet.
“When you’re online, it’s ‘What do I need?’” he said.
Jewelry and accessories boutique Embellish saw online sales slow once the North Center shop reopened to customers, said owner Carrie Bowers.
She still thinks the days of getting up at 6 a.m. and working until 1 a.m. to get the online store in business were worth it.
“We’ve had a lot of new customers, and I think that’s being able to see what we’re about before you walk in,” she said. “And who knows if we’ll have to close down again? It’s something we have to have.”
lzumbach@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--CPS reports 258 cases of COVID-19 among staff and vendors, including eight deaths, in six months sin

CPS reports 258 cases of COVID-19 among staff and vendors, including eight deaths, in six months since schools shut down

“ We know that bringing more people into school buildings while this pandemic continues to rage will contribute to higher @ @ @ @ @ , ” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a news release .
“ Yet CPS @ @ @ @ @ on guarantees of safety protocols .
At the same time , CPS is forcing workers @ @ @ @ @ are overwhelmingly Black and brown women who hail from the same West and South side @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 — back into their buildings when they could do their work remotely .
That @ @ @ @ @ .
That ’ s dangerous — and tragically , has already been deadly for some @ @ @

In CPS, where schools have been closed for in-person classes since March, about 250 employees or vendors have contracted COVID-19, officials announced. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Since March, when schools closed to students, at least 258 Chicago Public Schools and charter school employees or vendors have tested positive for COVID-19, and eight have died, according to the district.
The numbers, through Sept. 9, include both staff working remotely and those who the district has been requiring to report to work at school buildings. While CPS officials did not clarify how many of those cases involved employees who had been working in-person, they said 123 of the cases were “actionable,” requiring an intervention such as a “pause in operations” at a school.
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CPS did not provide a breakdown of cases by school or date or type of employee. The district employs 37,775 people but that does not include vendors.
Calling the number of cases “relatively small,” CPS stated it has worked with public health officials on contact tracing and notifying close contacts of positive cases.
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CPS attributed most of the cases to exposure in the community or household members who also tested positive. Less than 13% of all cases — 33 of the 258 — have been tied to a cluster, in which multiple cases were identified at a school within a period of 14 days, according to CPS.
“Based on the district’s investigations, we believe transmission is unlikely to have occurred in the workplace in the vast majority of known cases,” according to CPS, which added the district has mitigated the spread of COVID-19 within school buildings.
“The district has been working closely with city leaders and health officials to monitor the progression of the virus and implement stringent health protocols at all operational sites, including mask requirements, health screening and immediate action upon learning of COVID-positive cases,” spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement.
“While workplace transmission is unlikely to have occurred in the vast majority of cases known to the district, we know the virus is still causing harm to so many of Chicago’s communities and our thoughts remain with all members of the CPS community who have been impacted by this virus," she said.
The Chicago Teachers Union said the district has not told them which schools have been affected by COVID-19 or how many known cases were among those working in buildings.
“We know that bringing more people into school buildings while this pandemic continues to rage will contribute to higher numbers of illness and death,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a news release. “Yet CPS continues to refuse to bargain on guarantees of safety protocols. At the same time, CPS is forcing workers like school clerks — who are overwhelmingly Black and brown women who hail from the same West and South side neighborhoods being pummeled disproportionately by COVID-19 — back into their buildings when they could do their work remotely. That’s not just stupid. That’s dangerous — and tragically, has already been deadly for some workers.”
The teachers union filed an unfair labor practice charge last month, saying the district didn’t bargain in good faith before sending school clerks and other employees back into buildings.
Last week, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board decided that CPS could keep requiring school clerks to work in person for now, but board members wanted to hear more directly from school employees before making a final ruling. That charge is to be heard before an administrative judge, and an arbitration trial is going on this week.
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Though summer school remained remote, employees regularly going to work in-person included administrators, custodians, security officers and cafeteria workers who continued providing grab-and-go meals at schools. Clerks were told to start reporting to schools the last week of August, and with fall quarter starting Sept. 8, some teachers have started using their classrooms to teach virtual classes.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--The Big Ten changed its mind on football, but a reversal at the Illinois high school level appears u

The Big Ten changed its mind on football, but a reversal at the Illinois high school level appears unlikely

“ To those claiming that putting your child in danger is about personal choice , I say this is a @ @ @ @ @ at a news conference Wednesday .
“ This is a terrible and unprecedented moment in @ @ @ @ @ parents might choose to send their children out onto the playing field , I can @ @ @ @ @ who becomes ill because of that decision wouldn ’ t call that your personal choice @ @

Jennifer Drevline holds a sign calling for the return of high school football at a back-to-school rally in Barrington on Sept. 14, 2020, at Citizens Park. She’s standing with her daughter, Mosey Drevline, 12. About 500 rallied for an end to e-learning and the return to student sports. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press)
High school athletes across the Midwest are playing football this fall and the Big Ten just announced it will restart the sport for college players too. But Gov. J.B. Pritzker has slammed the door on the possibility that Illinois’ high school athletes might join in, saying football and other contact sports are still too risky in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To those claiming that putting your child in danger is about personal choice, I say this is a pandemic,” he said at a news conference Wednesday. “This is a terrible and unprecedented moment in our country. ... While parents might choose to send their children out onto the playing field, I can tell you that someone else who becomes ill because of that decision wouldn’t call that your personal choice.”
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The Illinois High School Association, deferring to state officials, moved high school football, boys soccer and girls volleyball — sports considered to be at medium to high risk of virus transmission — to the spring. But the organization recently sought to regain authority over its calendar after surrounding states began playing contact sports without reports of major outbreaks.
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In response to Pritzker’s remarks, Executive Director Craig Anderson said that effort is over.
“I think our hands are kind of tied with the governor saying we’re not going to proceed,” he said.
Pritzker said even though other states are allowing high school football and other contact sports, his scientific advisers have been firm that the risk is still too high. One of them, Rush University Medical Center infectious disease specialist Dr. Michael Lin, said at the news conference that the sports can become “super-spreading events,” and not just on the field.
“There are many off the field activities that are associated with contact sports, such as athletes using locker rooms, working out in gyms and traveling together that provide a perfect storm of conditions to enable the virus to spread quickly,” he said.
The example Pritzker offered as a cautionary tale came from the Frontier Community College baseball team in the southern Illinois town of Fairfield. There, 37 players, more than half the team, recently tested positive for the virus.
But Clark Griffith, administrator of the Wayne County Health Department, said the source of the transmission didn’t appear to be team activities but the student housing in which the players live.
“We’re not seeing further infections in the campus setting,” he said.
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That is similar to another outbreak that upset the IHSA’s return-to-play plans. In July, days after high school teams were allowed to start summer practice, Deputy Governor for Education Jesse Ruiz told the organization that physical contact between athletes would be banned after a cluster of COVID-19 cases among sports camp participants at Lake Zurich High School.
Yet further investigation showed that “for the most part, that outbreak was linked to social gatherings prior to the camps,” said Hannah Goering, spokeswoman for the Lake County Health Department.
Dr. Rishi Desai, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who is chief medical officer for the health website Osmosis.org, said COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 30 people under the age of 21 nationwide who had no complicating health problems, and that sports do carry risks for transmission.
“On the (football) field, you’re in close proximity, even inches away from another player’s helmet,” he said. “You’re breathing heavily, you’re yelling in some cases, so you’re getting more virus out there if you are infected.”
Still, he was not aware of any studies that pinpoint the probability of spreading the virus during practices or games.
“To be honest, a lot of this is still very much theoretical,” he said. “The problem is that getting enough data takes time, and not enough time has passed.”
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Sheldon Jacobson, a University of Illinois computer science professor who specializes in risk assessment, has looked at the COVID-19 health risk for athletes participating in various college sports and concluded it is negligible, even for football.
He said as long as players get tested, wear masks and stay inside their “bubble” — avoiding contact with people outside of their teams — they should stave off infection.
“The safest place college athletes can be is playing their sport,” he said. “You take them out of that, you make them subject to a higher level of exposure. We have to look at the whole picture.”
He said bubbles would be harder to maintain for high school athletes, though he guessed that getting the opportunity to play would likely motivate the teens to be scrupulous with preventive measures.
Pritzker, though, said it’s misleading to compare high school and college athletes. A conference like the Big 10, which announced Wednesday it will play football this fall, has resources such as constant virus testing that are unavailable to high schools, he said.
“These decisions are difficult to make but it’s important that I keep in mind, anyway, how we can best keep our kids safe and healthy,” he said.
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Rob Zvonar, head football coach at defending 8A state champions Lincoln-Way East, said the governor’s calculus doesn’t take into account high school students' mental and emotional health.
“(Sports and activities) are very essential to kids and their development, to be around peers in a positive setting,” he said. “Some kids, this takes over as a primary family source to them because they might not have it so good at home.”
He and other coaches plan to rally with athletes and parents in Chicago and Springfield on Saturday, pushing for a restart to the season. Moving football and other sports to the spring would curb college recruiting opportunities and force sports normally played at that time to have truncated seasons, he said.
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Pritzker on Tuesday took a shot at states that are going forward with contact high school sports this fall, saying they “decided to endanger children and families” and have higher COVID-19 positivity rates than Illinois. Michigan’s rate, though, is essentially the same, at 3%.
Like Illinois, it originally moved football, soccer and volleyball to the spring. But Geoff Kimmerly, spokesman for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, said it reversed course after consulting with medical experts and putting together an 88-page set of safety guidelines (football, soccer and volleyball players, for instance, must wear masks when they practice and play).
Though a few teams will be inactive because of positive COVID-19 tests, Michigan will play its first high school football games this weekend, Kimmerly said.
“We think we’ve done everything we can at this point to be ready,” he said. “We have an opportunity to do something special here if we continue to do all the right things.”
jkeilman@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JohnKeilman


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Watch live: Pritzker, Lightfoot discuss census and attend Mexican Independence Day celebration

Gov .
J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot are expected to discuss the 2020 census and attend a Mexican Independence @ @ @ @ @ at 2:30 p.m. CDT .

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chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Two shootings in two days, a block apart in Albany Park. ‘It’s too much blood. It’s not going to sto

Two shootings in two days, a block apart in Albany Park. ‘It’s too much blood. It’s not going to stop because people don’t know how to forgive.’

The teen has also been stopped by police while walking home .
His dad , who asked to only be @ @ @ @ @ Danny , said he told his son that they were just trying to do their @ @ @ @ @ .
He said he had also been pulled over before after circling the block a @ @ @ @ @ for parking .

Police investigate the scene where four people were shot, including a 15 year old boy, in the 3500 block of West Lawerence Avenue on Sept. 16, 2020, in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Mariuxi Benitez heard seven gunshots. Her teenage daughter thought it sounded like two guns firing.
They moved away from the windows of their Albany Park home Monday night and checked a smartphone app that told them someone had been wounded. They went outside and saw a man they didn’t know lying in the grass by a tree and asking for help.
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Paramedics put him on a stretcher and connected him to a monitor that displayed a green line. It was moving and she hoped the man would live.
Benitez and her husband talked to bicyclists at the scene in the 3600 block of West Argyle Street who said they saw a dark sedan speed off after the shots were fired about 8:30 p.m. Monday. They saw the man on the ground hide a gun under a car parked next to him. A law enforcement source said it was a 9 mm handgun.
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The couple stayed and chatted with officers. They learned the man had died. He was identified by authorities as Ernie Perez, 26.
“Another life lost,” Benitez said. “As a mom, I first thought, Oh, my god, his mom, his dad. … The mom is going to look for him. ... No matter what kind of life he lived, he was still someone’s family member.”
The next day, police again strung crime scene tape near her home. This time in the 3500 block of West Lawrence Avenue where five people were shot.
The group was celebrating Mexican Independence when a white Nissan sedan drove by about 10:25 p.m. Tuesday and someone inside fired shots. Two of the wounded were teenagers.
Some shell casings at the edge of the scene. CPD said an unidentified male victim was standing on the sidewalk around 8:30pm in the 3600 block of W Argyle when he heard shots and was hit in the armpit. He later died at Ill Masonic. #ChicagoScanner https://t.co/56sqBY2f4X pic.twitter.com/aBzHrzRvEF — Paige Fry (@paigexfry) September 15, 2020
A 15-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen and left leg and taken to Swedish Hospital in critical condition, police said. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital in critical condition.
The others shot included a 21-year-old woman, taken to Swedish in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the right hand; a 27-year-old man taken to Swedish in fair condition with a graze wound to the chest; and a 37-year-old man shot in the right leg and taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in fair condition.
This shooting did not appear to be directly related to the death of Perez, a source said. No arrests have been made in either shooting.
Chaz Velez rode up to the scene on Lawrence on his bicycle. He grew up in the neighborhood and knows the violence. A friend was shot in the head and killed in a nearby alley in 2011, he said. And now Perez, who had been a friend since early high school.
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A mutual friend had called him and said, “He died in your neighborhood.”
A shoes sits next to evidence markers at the scene where four people were shot, including a 15 year old boy, in the 3500 block of West Lawerence Avenue on Sept. 16, 2020, in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
“I processed it earlier. I was crying at work. I don’t know, growing up here, you get desensitized, but this hit home,” Velez, 27, said. “He was a good kid, but he just hung out with the wrong people, doing the wrong things.”
He saw Perez about two months earlier at a gas station. Perez had bought a new car and said they should meet up again soon.
Perez was well-liked, Velez said. He had an infectious smile and goofy laugh. He was generous and treated others like family. Perez had two young children, an infant and a toddler.
He grew up in a good family but "he just liked the street life at the end of the day,” Velez said. “He was always just a wild kid. Happy and wild.”
Perez had told Velez that officers in the local police district had meetings about him and invited his parents to them. Perez was always changing cars because he was easily recognized, Velez said. “They knew him by his first and last name.”
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“We all just knew that it was something he wanted, like some people played sports,” he said. “He just wanted to make money, and he made a lot of money for sure.”
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 12 Evidence markers are placed next to bullet casings as police officers and detectives investigate the scene of a fatal shooting in the 3600 block of West Lawrence Avenue on Sept. 16, 2020, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Still, Velez was shocked to hear he was killed. Perez was the type of person who always thought ahead, was aware of his surroundings.
Earlier in the day, Velez said he was warned by his own dad to “be careful who you’re hanging out with.”
Benitez said she is also concerned for her kids: 22, 15 and 14.
When her oldest was 16, he was coming home at night from work at a seafood restaurant. He was almost home when a car rolled up and asked what gang he was in. He said he wasn’t with a gang and that he was coming home from work, telling them to smell the sweat and fish on him. He was pistol-whipped.
The teen has also been stopped by police while walking home. His dad, who asked to only be identified by his first name Danny, said he told his son that they were just trying to do their job and stop the violence. He said he had also been pulled over before after circling the block a few times at night looking for parking.
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The family says they keep having to change their habits because of the violence: They only let the kids play in the backyard. They drive them to a store even if it’s within walking distance.
Benitez also started driving the two younger kids to school after a 14-year-old Von Steuben high school student was shot in the back of the head in November while his mom was driving him from the homecoming dance. It occurred a block from where the five people were shot.
She trusts her kids, she said, she just doesn’t know who they may encounter.
“It’s too much blood,” Danny said. “It’s not going to stop because people don’t know how to forgive.”
Hours after he spoke, the police radio was busy with calls of shots fired in his neighborhood.
“I’m getting multiple tickets of shots fired," a dispatcher said around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. "Montrose and Richmond. California and Montrose. ... I’m trying to read all of them. Do I have an available unit? ... About 15 tickets so far and nothing on it. Just five to six shots. Eight shots.”
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No one responded. About a minute later, “The tickets are still coming in.”
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--City Hall, police union’s new leadership at odds in contract negotiations

“ Today marks 1,174 days that your members have been without a contract , ” Frisch wrote in the letter @ @ @ @ @ explained that the offer was intended to be a short-term package deal that did not @ @ @ @ @ , accountability or other issues and was intended to get to a deal as quickly @ @ @ @ @ implored you to take our offer seriously .
”

The Chicago Police Department’s largest union and city officials apparently remain starkly divided on a new police contract after the city’s first proposal for a deal was provided to the union’s new regime.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has offered the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police a 10% raise for thousands of rank-and-file cops over a 4-year period — along with changes to how the city handles disciplinary issues involving allegations of misconduct.
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But the union’s leadership said it would not agree to the proposal and would soon make a counteroffer.
The proposal on Tuesday was the first offered by city officials to the FOP since John Catanzara was elected its president earlier this year. The 10% raises would have been spread out over three years of backpay as well as a fourth year, a period that ends June 30, 2021 — the same day the new contract would have expired.
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The union’s last contract expired at the end of June 2017.
Reached by the Tribune Tuesday evening, Catanzara declined to get into specifics on the city’s offer as it relates to disciplinary issues but acknowledged the union was unhappy with the city’s proposed changes to the contract that could weaken the rank-and-file’s rights when faced with disciplinary investigations by the Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
A police accountability task force headed by Lightfoot during former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration recommended that negotiations over the next contract should focus on removing provisions that prevent people from filing anonymous complaints and force them to sign affidavits describing police misconduct.
The union and city officials have been divided on police disciplinary issues at a time when the FOP has also voiced opposition to a federal consent decree aimed at overhauling how the city’s historically troubled police force operates. Lightfoot has made reforming the department a priority.
“We are not taking the short end of the stick. ... We’re last in line when the teachers should have been last in line,” said Catanzara, lamenting how Chicago Public Schools teachers last year were able to secure a new contract before the city’s 8,000-plus rank-and-file officers.
In a letter to Catanzara from Michael Frisch, a senior adviser and legal counsel for the Lightfoot administration, obtained by the Tribune Wednesday, Frisch expressed “deep disappointment” about Tuesday’s collective bargaining session and noted that every other union the city has dealt with — including Chicago police supervisors and the Chicago Fire Department — have secured their own contracts.
“Today marks 1,174 days that your members have been without a contract,” Frisch wrote in the letter dated Wednesday. “We explained that the offer was intended to be a short-term package deal that did not cover the waterfront of operational, accountability or other issues and was intended to get to a deal as quickly as possible. And we implored you to take our offer seriously.”
“Your response, unfortunately, indicated to us that you would do nothing of the sort,” Frisch continued. “You told us that the city’s financial condition was ‘not our problem to solve,’ and told us to ‘find the money’ for even higher raises.' ”
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“You threatened to walk out of the room when I reminded you that the city would not consider any collective bargaining agreement that failed to include accountability reforms,” Frisch also wrote. “Indeed, you spent the session denigrating the mayor and pointing fingers.”
The FOP plans to present city officials with a counter-proposal by the end of the week, Catanzara told the Tribune. The union also plans to send copies of that proposal to the entire City Council and try to discuss it with all 50 aldermen, he said.
The goal according to Catanzara is for the aldermen to pass a financial package through the City Council that would be fair to the rank-and-file.
“We’re going to see who wants the friendly police and who doesn’t,” Catanzara said.
Any attempt at working around to the mayor is unlikely to be successful, however, as the City Council historically looks to the city for guidance on labor contracts.
Tuesday’s proposal comes as Lightfoot disclosed earlier this month that the city faces a $1.2 billion deficit in the 2021 budget.
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Lightfoot has had a rocky relationship with the FOP since becoming mayor in May 2019, particularly over police accountability measures. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot served as head of the Chicago Police Board, the panel that rules on police discipline, and chaired Emanuel’s police accountability task force, which suggested sweeping changes to Chicago’s policing practices.
At the same time, she has been criticized by police reform activists who say she has been too friendly with law enforcement.
In the letter, Frisch seemed to signal the administration would not back down on issues of police accountability.
“Your members deserve better,” Frisch wrote to Catanzara. "We remain committed to working together toward a fair contract, but will never retreat from the reforms that are essential to restoring legitimacy and accountability.
“It is clear that you are totally misreading this moment, the demands of the consent decree and the needs of the public,” he continued.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Chicago’s architectural biennial keeps the city at the forefront of design. But will it be held in 2

Chicago’s architectural biennial keeps the city at the forefront of design. But will it be held in 2021?

Leaders of the architecture biennial acknowledge that they need to reach a decision soon .
A curator , or team @ @ @ @ @ time to determine an overall theme and recruit participating designers , who , in turn @ @ @ @ @ prepare materials to exhibit .
Funds would also need to be raised from corporate sponsors @

Will there be a Chicago Architecture Biennial next year at this time? Even if you’ve never attended the biennial, which bills itself as North America’s largest survey of contemporary architecture, you have a stake in the answer.
By showcasing rising stars in Chicago’s architecture firmament and introducing Chicagoans to global design talents like Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, the biennial brings Chicago to the world and the world to Chicago.
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It also offers a hint of what’s to come in design and culture, as the 2019 version did by shining a light on suppressed narratives with the MASS Design Group’s memorial to victims of gun violence.
While the biennial has often baffled nonarchitects with jargon-laced wall text and its attendance dropped in 2019, the event, at its best, cements Chicago’s identity as a global architectural capital — a city that’s a forum for design ideas as well as great buildings.
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Yet with a year to go before the scheduled debut of the 2021 biennial, no curator has been named and no decision has been made about the event’s format and timing, a quandary caused by the coronavirus pandemic and uncertainty about when it will end.
The Gun Violence Memorial Project was part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2019. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
“There’s no definitive decision about 2021 or 2022 or the scope or the ability to put on an exhibition,” the biennial’s chairman, Chicago lawyer Jack Guthman, said in telephone interview Tuesday. “There are too many items that are not resolved.”
As Guthman’s remarks suggest, many options are being considered for the event, whose principal home since its 2015 inception has been the Beaux-Arts Chicago Cultural Center across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park.
The alternatives, apparently, run the gamut from an in-person exhibition to a virtual exhibition to a combination of the two.
It is not clear if an outright cancellation is on the table — a course that could diminish the standing of a relatively new event on the international scene that lacks the tradition and prestige of the older Venice Architecture Biennale, begun in 1980.
One option, judging by Guthman’s reference to 2022, is to postpone the exhibition until 2022. That would follow the lead of the Venice Architecture Biennale, which earlier this year postponed its in-person 2020 exhibition to May 22-Nov. 21, 2021.
Another option is suggested by Expo Chicago, the big fall art fair on Navy Pier, which is proceeding with a combination of virtual and in-person events.
In May, Expo Chicago announced it would postpone its in-person exhibition from September until April 8-11, 2021. Recently, as if to remind the art world of the place it traditionally occupies on the September calendar, the event’s leaders said they would mount an online showcase for Chicago art galleries, art institutions and artists on Sept. 25-27.
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The planned in-person April exhibition at Navy Pier is not a sure thing, fair leaders have acknowledged.
Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
Leaders of the architecture biennial acknowledge that they need to reach a decision soon. A curator, or team of curators, would need time to determine an overall theme and recruit participating designers, who, in turn, would need months to prepare materials to exhibit. Funds would also need to be raised from corporate sponsors.
The event is put on by an eponymous nonprofit in cooperation with Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Free to the public, it typically draws an estimated 500,000 people between its opening in mid-September and the end of the show the following January.
“We know we have to resolve the issue, so it is in our best interests and the best interests of the institution to come to closure," Guthman said.
He declined, however, to name a date by which a decision will be announced.
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Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--AJ Freund’s father may plead guilty Friday

An attorney for Andrew Freund , 61 , said a plea deal could come Friday in the death of AJ @ @ @ @ @ death last year and buried in a remote area in Woodstock .

JoAnn Cunningham, 37, reacts as a sentence of 35 years is announced, July 17, 2020, for the murder of son, AJ Freund. (John Starks/Daily Herald)
The father of 5-year-old AJ Freund may plead guilty Friday in connection with his son’s death.
An attorney for Andrew Freund, 61, said a plea deal could come Friday in the death of AJ, who was beaten to death last year and buried in a remote area in Woodstock.
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At a brief status hearing Wednesday in McHenry County court, Freund stood wearing orange jail clothes and a white mask because of coronavirus precautions, according to a pool report from the Northwest Herald.
His attorney Henry “Hank” Sugden said he had a few more details to iron out on the deal with prosecutors.
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Judge Robert Wilbrandt asked prosecutors if that was true, and Assistant State’s Attorney Randi Freese confirmed that negotiations were underway.
Wilbrandt set a hearing for a negotiated plea at 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to the pool report.
Freund is charged with multiple counts of murder, aggravated battery to a child, aggravated domestic battery, concealment of a homicide, failure to report a child’s death, obstruction of justice/destroying evidence and unlawful restraint.
AJ was reported missing in April 2019. His body was found six days later in a shallow grave in a remote area 7 miles from his home in Crystal Lake.
His parents had a long history with DCFS and had temporarily lost custody of AJ after he was born with heroin in his system.
AJ’s mother, JoAnn Cunningham, 37, who pleaded guilty to murdering her son, is serving a 35-year prison term.


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Chicago police search for driver of red pickup truck who hit and seriously injured woman at South Lo

Chicago police search for driver of red pickup truck who hit and seriously injured woman at South Loop bus stop

Witnesses told police the accident occurred during a Mexican Independence celebration that drew caravans of cars and trucks to downtown @ @ @ @ @ A hotel guest told WGN-Ch .
9 that people rushed to help the woman , @ @ @ @ @ flag around her leg to try to help stop the bleeding .

A photo of a red pickup truck whose driver is suspected of hitting a 61-year-old woman about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2020, in the 1100 block of South Michigan Avenue. Police altered this photo before releasing it. (Chicago police photo / HANDOUT)
A red pickup truck hit and seriously injured a woman at a South Loop bus stop late Tuesday night, then sped off, according to Chicago police.
The 61-year-old woman suffered injuries to both legs and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, police said.
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She was sitting at the bus stop in the 1100 block of South Michigan Avenue just before midnight when the truck started swerving across the road and hit her, police said. The driver fled south of Michigan.
Witnesses told police the accident occurred during a Mexican Independence celebration that drew caravans of cars and trucks to downtown Chicago into the night. A hotel guest told WGN-Ch. 9 that people rushed to help the woman, with one person tying a flag around her leg to try to help stop the bleeding.
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No one was in custody Wednesday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to call the police major accidents unit at 312-745-4521.


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Watch live: Family of woman fatally stabbed at the Wicker Park Walgreens holds news conference

The family of 32-year-old Olga Calderon , who was fatally stabbed while working at the Wicker Park Walgreens , is @ @ @ @ @ 9:30 a.m. For more on the homicide , click here .


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--2 inmates die of COVID-19 at Indiana prison where federal executions are carried out

Hocutt , who was serving a 13-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine , had reported that he was suffering @ @ @ @ @ , congestion and nausea ” and had previously tested negative for COVID-19 , the Bureau @ @ @ @ @ Hocutt tested positive on Monday after he alerted medical staff to his condition and was @ @ @ @ @ at the complex ’ s medium-security prison .

The federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind., on Aug. 26, 2020, where federal executions are carried out. (Michael Conroy/AP)
WASHINGTON — Two inmates have died in as many days from coronavirus at the federal prison complex where the U.S. government plans to carry out two executions next week.
The virus deaths are likely to raise alarm with advocates and lawyers for the condemned men over the spread of coronavirus at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. As of Tuesday, more than 40 inmates had confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the agency’s statistics.
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The executions of Christopher Andre Vialva and William Emmett LeCroy are scheduled to be carried out at the prison complex next week. The government carried out three executions in July and two executions in August.
The Bureau of Prisons said a 53-year-old inmate, Tim Hocutt, died Monday at the Terre Haute facility.
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Hocutt, who was serving a 13-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, had reported that he was suffering from a “mild cough, congestion and nausea” and had previously tested negative for COVID-19, the Bureau of Prisons said. But Hocutt tested positive on Monday after he alerted medical staff to his condition and was pronounced dead the same day at the complex’s medium-security prison.
His death came a day after the death of another inmate, Byron Dale Bird, who was serving a sentence at the high-security penitentiary on the prison grounds.
The 65-year-old Bird was taken to a local hospital on Aug. 27 after testing positive for the virus and was admitted to an intensive care unit. He died at the hospital on Sunday. Bird was serving a 74-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexual abuse of a minor, witness tampering, failing to register as a sex offender and other charges.
Witnesses to the federal executions are required to undergo security screening at the high-security penitentiary, where Bird was housed. The witnesses are required to wear masks, and their temperatures are taken before they are permitted on the prison grounds.
The spiritual advisers for two of the men who were executed in July and the family of one of the men’s victims had fought unsuccessfully to delay their executions over coronavirus concerns.
The federal prison system has struggled to combat the coronavirus pandemic behind bars, where social distancing is nearly impossible. As of Tuesday, 13,477 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 at facilities across the U.S.; 11,623 had recovered. Officials said 120 inmates have died since late March.
[ East Moline Correctional Center has COVID-19 outbreak and inmate alleges protocols aren’t being followed ]


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Italian restaurant Nonnina faced closing until it struck a creative partnership with the landlord

So gone are Nonnina ’ s white tablecloths , and the bar area has been given more prominence .
New @ @ @ @ @ tented outdoor space with tivoli lights and a small bites-and-cocktails menu created in collaboration with @ @ @ @ @ next door .
Also new is Nonnina to Go , operating in a separate room @ @ @ @ @ , offering Priolo ’ s pizzas and Italian sandwiches , among other items .
The @ @ @ @ @ has been equipped with tables for more indoor seating .

New to Nonnina is Casa Nonnina, a tented outdoor space with tivoli lights and a small bites-and-cocktails menu created in collaboration with The Kitchen next door. (Shawn Balluyot / HANDOUT)
As we watch Chicago-area restaurants continue to struggle from economic conditions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, it’s clear that returning to normal — or some approximation thereof — is full of complications. This is one such story.
Chef/owner Tony Priolo was blunt about the prospects of Nonnina, one of his three restaurants (Piccolo Sogno and Maillard Tavern are the others).
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“We were overextended, and about to lose Nonnina,” he said. “But then Friedman Properties stepped in and said, 'Let’s figure out a way to save it.”
Thus began a creative joint venture between Priolo’s company and his landlord, Friedman Properties (which has extensive River North holdings). As a result, Nonnina not only remains open, but also has been able to retool and revamp in a way to increase its chances of long-term survival.
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“It was a great time to change and update,” said Tammy McEwen, marketing director of Friedman Properties. “We wanted to attract a younger crowd in the River North neighborhood; they’re the ones more comfortable dining out.”
So gone are Nonnina’s white tablecloths, and the bar area has been given more prominence. New is Casa Nonnina, a tented outdoor space with tivoli lights and a small bites-and-cocktails menu created in collaboration with The Kitchen, the restaurant next door. Also new is Nonnina to Go, operating in a separate room adjacent to the restaurant entrance, offering Priolo’s pizzas and Italian sandwiches, among other items. The building’s lobby area has been equipped with tables for more indoor seating.
In the dining room, Priolo’s regular menu has been augmented with a few more-accessible dishes, including a burger. “But it’s still Tony’s great menu,” McEwen said.
Ewen said partnering with a restaurant tenant “is not something we would typically do. But we thought it was the best way to save a restaurant during these difficult times.” (The details of the partnership were not revealed.)
A portion of all sales at Casa Nonnina will be donated to Big Green, which brings fresh produce to underserved Chicago neighborhoods. On Wednesday and Thursday, Casa Nonnina will host a fundraiser with Big Green and Chicago Grows Food, selling “grow bags” that let guests grow fall vegetables at home; for every bag sold, another will be donated to a Chicago family in need.
As the outdoor-dining days dwindle, Friedman is in the process of winterizing the tented space, adding heaters, radiant heating and a purified air-filtration system, all with the goal of persuading guests to dine out in less-than-optimal temperatures.
“If we can get the people dining outside when it’s a little colder,” Priolo said. “Last weekend at Piccolo (when it was unseasonably chilly), we had a pretty good outcome. People were coming out.”
340 N. Clark St., 312-822-0077, nonninachicago.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Two men shot and wounded, boy, 12, grazed in leg, while standing on sidewalk on South Side

A 20-year-old man was hit in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition @ @ @ @ @ man , 27 , was hit in the chest and shoulder and taken to the @ @ @ @ @ .

A 12-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to the leg and two other people were wounded when gunmen approached them on the sidewalk on the South Side and opened fire Tuesday night, according to Chicago police.
The three were standing together in the 6400 block of South King Drive about 9:10 p.m. when two people approached and fired shots, police said.
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A 20-year-old man was hit in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in serious condition, police said. Another man, 27, was hit in the chest and shoulder and taken to the same hospital in good condition.
The boy declined treatment at the scene, police said.
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No one was in custody.


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Off-duty Chicago cop exchanges shots with gunman on West Side, police say.  No one hit

The officer was stopped at a stop sign in the 700 block of North Noble Street about 9:35 p.m. when @ @ @ @ @ got out of a silver sedan , police said .
The officer announced who he @ @ @ @ @ exchanged shots .

An off-duty Chicago police officer exchanged shots with a gunman after he stopped at an intersection on the West Side Tuesday night, authorities said.
No one was injured, but the officer’s personal car was damaged, police said.
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The officer was stopped at a stop sign in the 700 block of North Noble Street about 9:35 p.m. when someone armed with a handgun got out of a silver sedan, police said. The officer announced who he was, and the two exchanged shots.
The gunman sped away and no one was in custody Wednesday morning.


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--East Moline Correctional Center has COVID-19 outbreak and inmate alleges protocols aren’t being foll

East Moline Correctional Center has COVID-19 outbreak and inmate alleges protocols aren’t being followed

“ Every time I ’ m walking around , everyone is wearing a mask , ” Dornes said .
`` @ @ @ @ @ everyone is wearing their full PPE .
There is hand sanitizer at every single officer @ @ @ @ @ single desk .
I can attest that every time I ’ ve seen staff walking @ @ @ @ @ their mask .
We ’ ve been doing this since March .
There are staff @ @ @ @ @ and PPE for up to 12 to 18 hours a day .

Olegario Banuelos started feeling sick Sept. 6. It began with body aches, fever and a headache.
Banuelos, 45, is an inmate at the East Moline Correctional Center. In a phone call, Banuelos alleged correctional officers have not been keeping their face masks on and are not properly using PPE, including gowns and gloves. He said most officers kept masks down around their chins, leaving their mouths and noses exposed.
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Prison officials disputed his charge, which came as a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility has sickened more than a quarter of inmates and 11 staff members. The number of cases has spiked in the last 10 days.
“If one of their supervisors passes by the unit, they’ll put on the mask real quick,” Banuelos said. "But if no one is around, they won’t wear it.
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“The majority of (officers) don’t wear them properly. Since this started it’s been like this. We’ll get yelled at if we don’t have our masks on, but they can walk around (without masks.) They are not being cautious.”
Banuelos has been incarcerated at the East Moline facility since October 2019. He is serving a six-year sentence for his role in possessing and selling stolen vehicles. He is eligible for parole in Dec. 2021.
Before Banuelos tested positive for coronavirus, he alleges on several occasions he witnessed correctional officers exit the COVID-19 unit adjacent to his, and then enter his unit without changing PPE or washing hands.
Banuelos was told he tested positive for coronavirus Sept. 8. He is among the 267 inmates who have tested positive at the facility, which has a population of 1,055. According to the latest data provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections, EMCC has the second highest number of incarcerated individuals with confirmed cases in the state, behind Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.
The number of cases at EMCC has jumped by dozens in the past 10 days, not including 11 staff who also tested positive. Stateville has 115 staff members who have tested positive.
EMCC is currently on medical quarantine, with no visitors allowed.
Banuelos alleges correctional officers did not take him seriously when he told them he was sick.
“All this week I stayed in bed all day. My body was real sore,” he said. “I have a fever every day and diarrhea. And now I still have fever at nighttime and at daytime I might be OK. But it varies.”
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Cody Dornes, an East Moline correctional officer and president of AFSCME Local 46, says correctional officers do wear face masks and proper PPE.
“Every time I’m walking around, everyone is wearing a mask,” Dornes said. "In the quarantine units, everyone is wearing their full PPE. There is hand sanitizer at every single officer station and at almost every single desk. I can attest that every time I’ve seen staff walking around, everybody is wearing their mask. We’ve been doing this since March. There are staff who have to wear masks and PPE for up to 12 to 18 hours a day.
“We’ve seen an outbreak here for months,” Dornes said. “It keeps bouncing around. What did everybody expect when we decided to open up the state and the country? Cases were bound to happen. I think our staff has been doing the best they can.”
Banuelos said all 94 inmates in his bloc were given coronavirus tests on Friday, Sept. 4. The next day, the inmates were retested after being told the initial tests were faulty. Two days later, on Sunday, he maintains all of the inmates tested were reporting symptoms associated with COVID-19.
Lindsey Hess, public information officer for the Illinois Department of Corrections, said the EMCC has an appointed safety officer who is responsible for identifying potentially hazardous situations associated with COVID-19.
“The safety officer manages quality assurance of proper personal protective equipment use by staff, deep cleaning routines, temperature checks and screening measures,” Hess said.
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“A new swab is used for each COVID-19 test that is administered; swabs are never reused. To manage the outbreak at East Moline, the department is utilizing point prevalence testing in asymptomatic and potentially exposed offenders. As part of this surveillance, offenders who test negative are retested seven days later.”
Hess said staff are closely monitoring all men in custody to ensure their health and safety and temperatures are checked twice daily.
In mid-March, the prison stopped allowing visitors and stopped receiving transfers of inmates from other facilities in an effort to control the spread of coronavirus. Inmates were stopped from eating together and exercising in the outdoor yard. Banuelos said meals were initially being delivered by correctional officers to cells, but when he was moved to the COVID-19 positive unit, other sick inmates were delivering food to him and the others.
Banuelos said the only medical care he was receiving was Tylenol and getting his temperature taken. Until the COVID-19 diagnosis, he was in his own cell. Banuelos has a medical order for a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine to help with sleep apnea. The machine is loud when in use and requires distilled water for proper use.
After his diagnosis, Banuelos was moved to a COVID-19-positive unit and now shares a cell with another sick inmate. He is not being given distilled water for his CPAP and hesitates to use it at night, he said.
“Now I’m with another person. I don’t use my machine because (the other inmate) is coughing above me and my machine would just breathe in what he is coughing out,” Banuelos said. "So I haven’t been using my CPAP machine. They keep moving sick inmates into the same unit. When you start getting better from this, they’re bringing people who are infected with coronavirus into the unit. Everybody is mixed up.
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“We are pretty much fending for ourselves here. We don’t get any type of healthy food, even though we’re sick. We eat the same dry food; we can’t buy stuff from the commissary because they don’t allow us to go. The water is really horrible, and they don’t sell bottled water in the store for us to purchase.”
Dornes said the food served to inmates met the state nutritional requirements and most staff also ate the same meals.
Banuelos alleges information was being withheld from inmates and questions were not always answered when asked. He said about 11 inmates had been transported to local hospitals as their conditions worsened.
“They don’t tell us much of anything,” he said. “I’ve heard ambulances come in and out in the middle of the night.”
[ 2 inmates die of COVID-19 at Indiana prison where federal executions are carried out ]
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chicagotribune--2020-09-16--Daywatch: Pritzker warns of ‘nightmare scenario’ for budget, universities look to contain COVID-19 s

Daywatch: Pritzker warns of ‘nightmare scenario’ for budget, universities look to contain COVID-19 spread and the city’s best soft serve

Need a last summer fling ?
We rounded up some of the city ’ s best soft-serve ice cream to @ @ @ @ @ just a little bit longer .
Our guide — ranked in order of least favorite @ @ @ @ @ comprehensive , but time is running short .
Several of these places close in October @ @ @ @ @ Lawn ’ s Premo ’ s , plan to stay open year-round .
For some @ @ @ @ @ s never too cold for ice cream .

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Good morning, Chicago. Illinois recorded 1,466 new known cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday and 20 additional deaths, as the seven-day statewide positivity rate clocked in at 3.6%.
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For a travel update: Utah was added to Chicago’s mandatory quarantine list, while the city said one of Illinois' neighbors is in danger of going back on the order.
And if you’re a college football fan waiting to hear whether the Big Ten will resume, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Despite leaks from within the conference saying football is on the verge of returning, no new vote has been taken on a restart.
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Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker steps up to speak at the University of Chicago's Harper Center on July 23, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
With Congress and the White House having yet to agree on a coronavirus relief package that would send additional money to ailing state and local governments, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that he’s asked the heads of state agencies to prepare for 5% cuts to budgets for this year and 10% cuts next year.
The $43 billion spending plan Pritzker signed for the budget year that began July 1 relied heavily on federal aid and borrowing to plug a massive hole caused by revenue lost to the COVID-19-induced economic slowdown.
Freshmen Lauren Tamborini and Bailey Donahue move out of a dorm at the University of Wisconsin-Madison after the campus announced a two-week pause in in-person classes. (Mark Hoffmann/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
While its long-term success remains to be seen, more universities are trying the two-week pause of in-person classes to overcome COVID-19 outbreaks, as opposed to the more dramatic move of permanently sending students home. The approach has produced mixed results. It seems to have worked, for now, at the University of Notre Dame, which reinstated in-person classes in early September after a temporary shift to remote instruction
Christine Goggins, a violence recovery specialist at UChicago Medicine, at the University of Chicago Medical Center on Sept. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
There are many ways to measure and consider Chicago’s deadly 2020. One way to understand the toll of the violence is to spend time following Christine Goggins, one of nine violence recovery specialists at University of Chicago Medicine, who, like a doctor or nurse, responds immediately to trauma patients and their families.
Classrooms are empty at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy of Social Justice annd other CPS schools, but among the challenges of remote learning are hackers and pranksters taking over classes. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The first Chromebook wasn’t working, so Valerie Carroll went back to the school and got a new one. The replacement worked, but the first week of remote learning, her daughter’s class at Chicago’s Nicholson Elementary was derailed by images of pornography and guns. Similar incidents have been reported at other schools this fall in Chicago Public Schools and in the suburbs.
The banana cream pie milkshake won our hearts at Premo's, in Oak Lawn. (Jennifer Day/Tribune)
Need a last summer fling? We rounded up some of the city’s best soft-serve ice cream to help you stretch the season just a little bit longer. Our guide — ranked in order of least favorite to most — is hardly comprehensive, but time is running short. Several of these places close in October; others, like Oak Lawn’s Premo’s, plan to stay open year-round. For some of us, it’s never too cold for ice cream.


chicagotribune--2020-09-16--In a career born in her own grief, violence recovery specialist works at a Chicago hospital in a cit

In a career born in her own grief, violence recovery specialist works at a Chicago hospital in a city under siege

“ Justice looks like having someone advocate for them and having someone really give them the resources they need to @ @ @ @ @ she said .
`` It gives them their control back , and I think when @ @ @ @ @ what you really want .
It is not ‘ an eye for an eye ’ @ @ @ @ @ I want somebody to care that this happened to me .
I want some resources @ @ @ @ @ safe .
’ ”

Christine Goggins was just about to check in with the family of a gunshot victim, a new case that had been handed off from the previous shift, when the high-pitched beep of her pager sounded in her office at the University of Chicago’s medical campus.
A middle-age man who had been assaulted and suffered severe head trauma was five minutes out from the hospital.
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Goggins, 30, headed across three buildings, nearly a city block, to the emergency department at the U. of C. Medical Center. She found the man in too much pain to talk. The medical team was getting him stabilized and starting IVs, and Goggins would have wait to see if he was able to talk later in the day.
So she found a spot at the administration station to make a call and returned her attention to the morning’s gunshot victim.
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Goggins used her cellphone to check and see if the family needed anything, after reaching a relative. The victim, a young adult woman, was headed to surgery. Things were going OK, the family member assured Goggins.
It was just 15 minutes into Goggins’ shift on a recent afternoon, and she’d already seen two emergency victims. She was sitting in a coffee shop near her office, still wearing her UChicago face mask, looking at a sheet of paper on what the day would bring.
After dealing with what the prior shift had handed her, she was ready to tackle her own cases.
“Oh,” she said when she got to the bottom of the list. “I have all gunshot wounds. I didn’t even realize that.”
A city struggling with violence
There are many ways to measure and consider Chicago’s deadly 2020.
There are the 175 children age 16 and under who have been shot. There are the weekends when as many as 60 to 70 people have been hit by gunfire. And there was the single mass shooting on the South Side that left 15 wounded.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 19 A woman kneels on the ground outside the University of Chicago Medicine's Comer Children's Hospital where Dajore Wilson, 8, was taken after being killed in a shooting that injured three others near the intersection of 47th street and Union Avenue on Sept. 7, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
But another way to understand the toll of the violence is to spend time following Goggins, one of nine violence recovery specialists at University of Chicago Medicine, who, like a doctor or nurse, responds immediately to trauma patients and their families.
Goggins' care is different, if also complicated and necessary. While the medical team tends to the physical wounds, Goggins offers immediate emotional support in traumatic moments, and she also tries to answer a question that some say isn’t asked nearly enough in Chicago: What other treatment and help do victims of violence need?
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Goggins’ first job is, as she describes it, is to “hold space," for people in those first minutes after they’ve been shot or stabbed or beaten. Some don’t or can’t talk. But if they do, Goggins is there to listen about whatever they want to share, which is often the shock of what it feels like to be targeted for violence or, often, death.
Later, Goggins shifts to the second part of her mission. It is what she calls “finding justice” for her patients by trying to make sure they and their loved ones have what they need to feel safe, whether it is housing, mental health counseling, a job or even something as simple as food.
“Justice looks like having someone advocate for them and having someone really give them the resources they need to be a survivor," she said. "It gives them their control back, and I think when you seek justice that is what you really want. It is not ‘an eye for an eye’. It is, ‘I want somebody to care that this happened to me. I want some resources. I want to feel safe.’”
This work was only more challenging during the exceptionally bloody summer in Chicago, where living with high rates of gun violence in the Black community was complicated by a deadly pandemic, not to mention a national, ongoing, overdue reckoning on racism.
To Goggins, it has made the work more urgent.
“We are seeing all that is happening in the world in our patients,” she said.
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Personal history with grief
Thirteen years ago, it was Goggins who found herself in a hospital waiting room, feeling helpless.
Goggins, then a Gwendolyn Brooks high school student, had just turned 17 in May 2007 when she got phone call from a grade school friend. He asked her if she was sitting down, and then delivered the devastating news.
Their classmate and friend, Blair Holt — the boy with the big curls and bright smile she met when she was 9 or 10 and he was helping behind the counter at his grandparents' store in her Roseland neighborhood, the boy she went to a skating rink with, the boy she hung out with at the River Oaks Center mall — had been shot.
Goggins raced to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with her parents, where she waited for good news that never came. Blair, a Julian High School student, died from the gunshot wounds he suffered that day after a 16-year-old opened fire on a crowded CTA bus in Roseland, aiming at someone else.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 13 Annette Nance-Holt and Ronald Holt hold honorary street signs for their son, Blair Holt, during a street-naming ceremony in front of Percy L. Julian High School on 103rd and South Elizabeth streets in Chicago on May 10, 2017. Blair, 16, was shot on a CTA bus as he shielded a friend from gunfire on May 10, 2007. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Four others were wounded in the brazen shooting, which was captured on a bus security camera and shocked the city. Witnesses reported that Blair, 16, had jumped in front of a friend when the shots rang out.
“At the time I just felt like my entire childhood was shattered,” Goggins said. “How could this happen to a young high school student, getting shot on a bus? It ‘grows you up’ in way there is no bracing for — my friend being gone and knowing he would never come back. I needed to do something with these feelings.”
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Within a month, Goggins was volunteering with organizations that were campaigning for safer gun laws, reaching out to statewide organizations with a determination that stood out to adults who were pushing for change.
“I remember a teenager getting in touch with us because her friend had been shot and killed," said Nina Vinik, who formerly headed the Illinois Campaign to End Gun Violence and is now the director of the Joyce Foundation’s gun violence prevention and justice reform program. “And she was so motivated and outraged and moved by that experience to want to take some action. I remember very much that Christine was just a real example of that kind of outrage and passion kind of all coming together.”
Goggins also joined anti-violence campaigns and foundations on behalf of Blair, supporting the work of his parents, a Chicago Fire Department captain and a Chicago police gang crimes officer, and eventually switched her career goal from emergency room physician to counseling and social work. She is currently enrolled in the master’s program the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
Ron Holt, who retired from the Chicago Police Department two years ago as the commander of the community policing unit, said Goggins became a source of support to him and his family after they lost Blair, and that she has remained involved, making suggestions on how to keep the foundation relevant.
Annette Nance-Holt and Ronald Holt during a street-naming ceremony for their late son, Blair, in front of Julian High School on 103rd and Elizabeth streets in Chicago on May 10, 2017. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
“I think that Christine feels like l feel,” said Holt. “We wish we would have been there for Blair when he was shot on the bus. To see Blair doubled over, on the floor of that bus in the fetal position, we wish we could have been there to prevent it. But we were not there. (That) image became part of Christine’s calling.”
Understand the ‘why’
By about 2 p.m. on a recent day, Goggins was sitting at a table in the lobby of the hospital, eyeing the list of the seven gunshot patients she would be monitoring that day.
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“I look at this daily,” she said, glancing down at the paper. “I pull up this list and go down, one by one. ... During summer, this is typical."
Due to rules instituted during the coronavirus crisis, the Tribune was not permitted to follow Goggins during her time with victims, but met with her at the medical campus during her shift to discuss her work.
The Violence Recovery Program opened in 2018 to serve adult and pediatric trauma patients and their families at University of Chicago Medicine. The hospital had added a Level 1 adult trauma center that same year.
The recovery program is part of an emerging field of hospital-based violence intervention programs that emphasize the urgent need to treat not only physical wounds of violence but also the emotional and mental trauma and social upheaval, such as loss of a job, that victims suffer.
The work is driven by research showing there are strong indicators that a person who suffers a violent injury is at risk to be hurt again. So what Goggins and the other specialists are trying to identify is what has put a patient at risk for injury in the first place and help them address it.
“The more we think about the act of violence as a health issue, the more we start to think about the factors, all of the factors, that are at the root of interpersonal violence,” said Mark Ohrtman, manager of the Violence Recovery Program and Goggins' supervisor. “The housing, the food, the behavioral health. Acute stress and substance use. ... If these things are addressed, there is good literature saying re-injury risk goes down.”
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To that end, the specialists, in addition to being on call three to five days a week to respond to the emergency department, carry a caseload of patients who are still recovering at the hospital or back home.
They become a critical way to hopefully find support and help in a city, where years of disinvestment and drained resources from Black neighborhoods has left many behind even as deadly violence has taken hold.
There are immediate concerns to address, including whether the patient feels they are at risk of being targeted again. Housing is a huge requirement, both the need to immediately relocate people for safety or find a stable long-term living situation. People want help finding jobs too. Goggins provides links to services that can meet their needs, going as far as helping them fill out the necessary paperwork.
Christine Goggins, a violence recovery specialist with UChicago Medicine, at the University of Chicago Medical Center on Sept. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Mental health referrals are a key part of the work. Some need help signing up for food stamps, and there is a state victim-assistance program they can enroll in for financial help.
Glancing at her caseload on a recent day, Goggins ran through to-do list:
She had to follow up with a nonprofit that specializes in reentry for a patient who was shot shortly after getting out of prison. She also needed to come up with a 'discharge plan’ for him, in case it is not safe for him to return home. In that case, she might also need to contact the state parole office on his behalf.
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Another patient, a younger man, had said he didn’t feel safe, so Goggins planned to contact one of the city’s street outreach teams to get him some help. And although he had not indicated he wanted counseling, Goggins planned to continue that conversation, especially because he has children.
And for another patient, who was still in the early, painful stages of recovery, Goggins would continue to check in on his mother, who has been at the hospital regularly.
“Right now, I am just being an emotional support to her,” she said.
As fulfilling as her work is, Goggins gets frustrated too. She can fill out paperwork and get clients on waiting lists, but she can’t make more shelter beds or create more jobs.
That is the work of policymakers. And as she listens to the debate in the city over the seemingly endless violence, she wonders if those in power really understand the problem, how a “culture” of violence has taken hold in this void of opportunity and hope.
“If you don’t understand the ‘why,’ we are never going to get to a real solution,” she said. “The key to any type of change, reform, is understanding that culture. We have to get to those people, what leads them to committing violence?”
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Juggling responsibilities
About an hour before her shift ended that day, Goggins' pager beeped again.
She was on her way to the emergency department to check on the man with the head injury, who had arrived at the start of her shift, when the notification came in — a young adult male with a gunshot wound was about 12 minutes away.
Goggins shifted gears again, continuing over to the emergency department to find the arriving victim’s family. She joined them at his bedside to provide comfort and assistance before he headed into surgery.
For the rest of her shift, she remained with them, talking first about whether they felt he could be targeted again.
Goggins then spent some time explaining the state victim-assistance program, and how they might be able to get some support for medical or mental health costs. She could help with the paperwork.
They had chatted for about an hour, over Oreos and pretzels, before Goggins told them her shift was ending.
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She was going home for the day. Goggins would be handing off her active case to a colleague coming on after her.
asweeney@chicagotribune.com