chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Last month was deadliest September since 1993, but Chicago police point to decreases in other violen

Last month was deadliest September since 1993, but Chicago police point to decreases in other violence crimes

So far this year , there have been 588 homicides in Chicago compared with 392 last year , according to @ @ @ @ @ does not include killings that occurred in self-defense or on expressways .
More than 3,100 @ @ @ @ @ year , compared with just under 2,000 during the first nine months of 2019 , @ @ @ @ @ the statistics show .

Police officers work at the scene where two people were shot, one fatally, in the 6100 block of South Bishop Street on Sept. 27, 2020, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Last month was the deadliest September in Chicago since 1993, though police officials emphasized Thursday that other violent crime dropped from their summer levels.
At least 81 homicides were recorded last month, according to the Police Department’s latest figures. That’s the most for a September since 1993, when there were 83 homicides. The record for a September in Chicago was set the year before, when there were 109 homicides.
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Overall, homicides are up 50% from last year as 2020 continues to be on pace as deadlier than 2016, when the city was hit with its worst violence since the 1990s.
The shorter days and chillier evenings brought no reprieve from the summer’s staggering gun violence, much of it gang conflicts. The Albany Park patrol district, for example, is experiencing one of its most violent years with more than 60 shooting victims. Those shootings included a burst of violence that left seven people shot, two fatally, within blocks of one another.
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At least 400 people were shot across the city last month. But the Police Department noted that the number of both shooting incidents and victims was down 19% in September, compared with August. There were also declines in robbery, theft and vehicle theft.
So far this year, there have been 588 homicides in Chicago compared with 392 last year, according to police statistics. The data does not include killings that occurred in self-defense or on expressways. More than 3,100 people have been shot this year, compared with just under 2,000 during the first nine months of 2019, a 56% jump, the statistics show.
By mid-September, Cook County had already surpassed all of last year’s homicide totals, according to the medical examiner’s office.
In releasing the latest numbers, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown noted the “unprecedented” challenges his officers have faced this year: the COVID-19 pandemic and the national outrage following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.
“This has been an unprecedented year in policing, as a pandemic and civil unrest have converged to present law enforcement with a crisis on multiple fronts,” Brown said in a statement. “And yet, our officers remain committed to improving public safety despite these challenges. Murders and shootings continue to decline as we make inroads within the community and adjust our strategies to prevent crime before it occurs.”
Floyd’s death sparked demonstrations across the country and reignited the national conversation about systemic racism and law enforcement’s treatment of Black Americans. In other major cities, the protests were accompanied by widespread looting and vandalism.
In Chicago, looters hit high-end stores and boutiques in the Gold Coast, Magnificent Mile and other upscale areas downtown. By mid-August, the department began pulling officers from some of the 22 patrol districts to guard downtown.
Brown also formed a citywide unit of about 500 officers, called the community safety team, to patrol high-crime neighborhoods away from downtown. And he sent the summer mobile patrol unit, which has about 200 cops, to those neighborhoods as well.
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In response to the summer spike in violence, the U.S. Department of Justice started Operation Legend across the country. In Chicago, the effort involves a few hundred federal agents targeting illegal gun offenders, drug dealers and other criminals.


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Oversight agency releases video of fatal Chicago police shooting in Southwest Side park

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released several body camera videos and 911 recordings related to the shooting in Vittum @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Garfield Ridge community as part of the city ’ s video release policy @ @ @ @ @ and other evidence be released to the public within 60 days of shootings involving officers @

COPA released video Thursday showing a man being fatally shot by police Sept. 5 after he was hit with a Taser and lunged at a sergeant with a butcher knife. (Chicago Tribune Handout)
Chicago’s investigative police oversight agency released video Thursday showing a man being fatally shot by police Sept. 5 after he was hit with a Taser and lunged at a sergeant with a butcher knife.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released several body camera videos and 911 recordings related to the shooting in Vittum Park in the Southwest Side’s Garfield Ridge community as part of the city’s video release policy, which requires that video and other evidence be released to the public within 60 days of shootings involving officers.
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Chicago Lawn District officers were called to the area about 1:40 a.m. Sept. 5 for a call of a person stabbed. The victim gave police a description of the suspect, Chicago police and COPA said immediately after the shooting.
At least two officers and a sergeant approached the suspect shortly afterward in the park, located off 49th Street and Lavergne Avenue, the officials said. The officers and the sergeant walked toward the suspect, Shaon Warner, according to body camera video.
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“Hey, get your hands up,” one officer can be heard to say on the video. “My man, put your hands up.”
“Let’s see your hands,” the sergeant also demanded. “Hands up now.”
In the video, the man appeared to hunch over and pick up a bag.
“Don’t you dare,” the sergeant said.
The man then started walking toward the sergeant, prompting her to deploy her Taser on him. He then fell to the ground.
Warner can then be seen getting up.
“(Put) the (expletive) knife down! Drop the (expletive) knife!” an officer shouts on the video. “Drop it!”
Warner can be seen lunging at the sergeant with the knife. According to police officials and COPA, the sergeant’s safety vest was punctured. She was not seriously injured.
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The other officers on the scene fired several shots and Warner eventually fell down before he was rolled over and handcuffed behind his back.
Nearby, the sergeant can be seen attempting to catch her breath as her fellow officers checked on her.
“It didn’t go through! It didn’t go through!” the sergeant said of being attacked with a knife.
Police reports provided by COPA show two officers opened fire on Warner, one of them firing 12 shots and the other nine shots. Warner died at the scene.
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
asweeney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Prosecutors drop case against Jackie Wilson — who claimed Burge torture — after witness irregularity

Prosecutors drop case against Jackie Wilson — who claimed Burge torture — after witness irregularity revealed

“ It should have been dismissed and never gone to trial .
But it did and it was a colossal @ @ @ @ @ , ” Taylor said .
“ We ’ re thrilled that finally the case is @ @ @ @ @ back , 38 years later .
And one must remember that this is one of @ @ @ @ @ Jon Burge torture cases .
”

At the tail end of Jackie Wilson’s third trial for the 1982 slaying of a Chicago police officer, special prosecutors late Thursday abruptly dropped all charges against him.
It was a stunning twist in a case that has had no shortage of them during the past four decades.
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Prosecutors announced the decision after more than a week of trial, just after a current Cook County assistant state’s attorney, Nicholas Trutenko, testified during the defense case.
The decision means that Wilson cannot be tried a fourth time for the killing of Richard O’Brien, who was slain along with fellow officer William Fahey. Wilson was being tried again despite successfully arguing in prior hearings that he was tortured into confessing to taking part in the killings by notorious ex-Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
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Trutenko said Thursday that he had an ongoing friendship with William Coleman, a central witness in Wilson’s 1989 trial in the case. The defense painted Coleman as a con man and well-known fraudster of international renown.
But neither the defense nor the team of special prosecutors trying Wilson this time around knew whether Coleman was alive or dead so many years later.
Trutenko, who had developed a friendship with Coleman while he was in private practice, testified Thursday that he had been in touch with Coleman as recently as this week — which he revealed to gasps in the courtroom.
The two men were so close that Trutenko became godfather to one of Coleman’s daughters some years back, he testified.
When pressed as to whether he had ever disclosed that friendship to the prosecutors' office, Trutenko said he did not believe he had any obligation to do so.
Trutenko became friends with Coleman during a period in which he was in private practice. He has since returned to the state’s attorney’s office to work in the felony review section.
Wilson’s 1989 conviction was thrown out in 2018 by Judge William Hooks after allegations that Wilson had been tortured by Burge, who is now deceased, into confessing to a role in the shooting.
Hooks, who was hearing evidence in the third trial, was expected to call a hearing Friday to speak with Trutenko and his lawyers, who are assistant state’s attorneys assigned to the office’s civil division.
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A lawyer for Wilson, Flint Taylor, said his team was obviously pleased Thursday night that the case was dismissed by the special prosecutor.
“It should have been dismissed and never gone to trial. But it did and it was a colossal waste of taxpayers' money,” Taylor said. “We’re thrilled that finally the case is off of Jackie’s back, 38 years later. And one must remember that this is one of the most outrageous of the Jon Burge torture cases.”
The special prosecutors trying Wilson a third time were relying not on the tainted confession, but instead on decades-old transcripts and a handful of live witnesses.
Undisputed was that Wilson’s brother, Andrew, fired the shots that killed O’Brien and Fahey in a brutal surprise attack when the officers pulled them over.
The central question at the third trial was whether Jackie Wilson, now 60, played an active role in the killing — or whether he is legally culpable because the brothers were on their way to spring Andrew Wilson’s friend from custody when the officers stopped them.
Prosecutors said the Wilsons were “on a mission” that day, having concocted a plan to dress up in smocks, bust an alleged cop shooter out of the hospital where he was under guard, then shoot their way out.
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Jackie Wilson said as much in a sworn deposition much later, prosecutors said, and on top of that he was heard to brag behind bars that he killed the officers. He was also at one point involved in a dramatic jailbreak attempt, prosecutors allege.
But that fell apart under any serious scrutiny, defense attorneys argued. Key witnesses were persuaded to tweak their stories between Jackie Wilson’s first and second trials, they said. When police pulled over the Wilson brothers, they were driving away from the hospital and not toward it.
Wilson’s first conviction was overturned by an appellate court; at a retrial in 1989, he was acquitted of Fahey’s murder but convicted of O’Brien’s.


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Chicago won’t cancel Halloween as Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveils pand

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Chicago won’t cancel Halloween as Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveils pandemic rules; 2,166 new known COVID-19 cases and 25 more deaths reported Thursday

Stress is also what makes the annual admiring of foliage — aka leaf peeping — so poignant this pandemic year @ @ @ @ @ stressed , yet so is everyone else , ” said David Lorenz , vice president @ @ @ @ @ agency that produces those nearly somnolent , stress-relieving “ Pure Michigan ” tourism spots .
@ @ @ @ @ sacrifice and hunkering down — leaves change colors because their trees are prepping for months @ @ @ @ @ fall foliage is all metaphor and melancholy .
Because “ nothing gold can stay ” @ @ @ @ @ we spend three too-short months noticing what Gwendolyn Brooks called “ summer-gone.
” We wonder @ @ @ @ @ comfortable it will be to touch the earth ” ( Mary Oliver ) .
We @ @ @ @ @ need for calm .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday unveiled a series of rules for Halloween that she said will allow people to celebrate safely, including a requirement that everyone including candy-givers wear masks.
Among the rules, candy-givers are asked to leave a light on or hang a sign in their window letting people know whether they’re participating in the holiday while following social distancing rules and providing hand sanitizer. Trick-or-treaters are asked to stay on the move in groups of six people or fewer.
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The mayor’s announcement came as Illinois public health officials on Thursday reported 2,166 newly diagnosed cases and 25 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 295,440 known cases and 8,696 deaths.
Additionally, on Wednesday state public health officials warned the central Illinois region around Champaign-Urbana could be hit with stricter restrictions on restaurants, bars and other businesses as the percentage of positive coronavirus tests is on the rise.
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Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:30 p.m.: House Democrats pass partisan $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill as talks on smaller measure drag on
Democrats controlling the House narrowly passed a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Thursday night, a move that came as top-level talks on a smaller, potentially bipartisan measure dragged on toward an uncertain finish. An air of pessimism has largely taken over the Capitol.
The Democratic bill passed after a partisan debate by a 214-207 vote without any Republicans in support. The move puts lawmakers no closer to actually delivering aid such as more generous weekly unemployment payments, extended help for small businesses and especially troubled economic sectors such as restaurants and airlines, and another round of $1,200 direct payments to most Americans.
Passage of the $2.2 trillion plan came after a burst of negotiations this week between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The Trump administration delivered concessions Wednesday, including a $400 per week pandemic jobless benefit and a markedly higher overall price tag of $1.6 trillion, but that failed to win over Pelosi.
“This isn’t half a loaf, this is the heel of the loaf,” Pelosi said in a televised interview Thursday. Pelosi spoke after the White House attacked her as “not being serious.”
Read more here. —Associated Press
7:45 p.m.: Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides, tests positive for coronavirus
Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump’s closest aides, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Hicks, who serves as counselor to the president and traveled with him to a rally Wednesday, tested positive Thursday, according to an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private health information. She is the closest aide to Trump to test positive so far.
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Hicks traveled with the president multiple times this week, including aboard Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to a rally in Minnesota Wednesday, and aboard Air Force One to Tuesday night’s first presidential debate.
Read more here. —Associated Press
5:25 p.m.: In August, Pritzker said FDA had given emergency use authorization to the U. of I.'s saliva-based COVID-19 test. FDA now says it never issued any such OK.
With great fanfare, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced over the summer that a new saliva-based COVID-19 test developed by the University of Illinois had been granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, calling this “some of the best news” since the pandemic began.
The FDA, however, says the university’s test has never operated under an emergency use authorization, as the governor and university leadership have repeatedly claimed.
“The University of Illinois is not authorized under an umbrella emergency use authorization, and they have not had an emergency use authorization,” an FDA spokesman said.
The university can continue to administer its saliva-based test — which has already been used to test tens of thousands on campus and in the university community — but had to change the language it uses regarding FDA regulation.
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The university blamed the situation on confusion over FDA protocols. The university said it believed the saliva-based test had earned emergency use authorization through a study comparing it with a separate FDA-authorized test developed by Yale University researchers.
Read more here. —Angie Leventis Lourgos
5 p.m.: Suburban judge rejects attempt to revive high school football during pandemic
A DuPage County judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order that might have helped high school football and other contact sports return this fall, saying the Illinois High School Association is within its rights to delay the sports for safety reasons.
“We are in a pandemic, and I think what the IHSA did was within their authority under (the organization’s) bylaws and constitution,” Judge Paul Fullerton said Thursday.
The parents of four high school athletes had sued the IHSA, saying the group violated its own rules in agreeing to delay football, boys soccer and girls volleyball — sports the Illinois Department of Public Health determined were at medium to high risk of virus transmission — until the spring.
Read more here. —John Keilman
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2:50 p.m.: State of Illinois says haunted houses are not allowed to operate, but several are already open
In what would seem to be a stake through the heart of commercial haunted houses open for the Halloween scare season, an Illinois Department of Public Health statement issued Wednesday said those businesses were not allowed to operate.
Along with suggestions about safe ways to trick-or-treat during the pandemic, the directive said that haunts “currently are not allowed in Restore Illinois Phase 4.” An earlier Phase 4 FAQ from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office said indoor haunted houses “should remain closed.” (Hayrides and “haunted trail”-style attractions are allowed with COVID-19 precautions in place, since outdoor activities are considered less risky.)
That earlier FAQ came Sept. 25, during what was the unofficial opening weekend for haunted houses in the Chicago area.
About six large indoor haunts currently are open across the suburbs — places like The Massacre in Montgomery and 13th Floor in Melrose Park. The latter of those is run by the Denver-based Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, a national franchise; the rest are locally owned. (None of them is in Chicago.)
Read more here. —Doug George
1:53 p.m.: Chicago ‘Tamale Guy’ Claudio Velez discharged from hospital after more than a month due to COVID-19
Claudio Velez, owner of the Tamale Guy Chicago restaurant, previously known as the patron saint of late night drinkers at bars across the North Side of the city, was discharged Thursday afternoon from Rush University Medical Center hospital.
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Velez was hospitalized with COVID-19 Aug. 27, and placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. He had opened his long-awaited namesake restaurant just two weeks earlier, with lines 10 blocks long and two hour waits.
A GoFundMe for Velez’s medical expenses has raised more than $56,000 to date. His family had planned to close the fundraiser. They decided to keep it open until Velez could decide for himself as his condition improved.
Read more here. —Louisa Chu
1:30 p.m.: Chicago won’t cancel Halloween as Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveils pandemic rules for the holiday
Halloween in Chicago isn’t canceled after all.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday unveiled a series of rules for the holiday that she said will allow people to celebrate safely, including a requirement that everyone including candy-givers wear masks.
Candy-givers are also asked to leave a light on or hang a sign in their window letting people know whether they’re participating in the holiday while following social distancing rules and providing hand sanitizer, according to the city’s rules.
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Trick-or-treaters are asked to stay on the move in groups of six people or fewer, avoid sticking their hand into candy bowls, and wait until they get home and wash their hands to eat candy, the rules said.
The city doesn’t want to see any haunted houses this year and also forbids house parties “large or small,” the rules said.
Read more here. —Gregory Pratt
1:02 p.m.: Christkindlmarket cancels in-person holiday markets in Chicago and Milwaukee, will begin selling online instead Nov. 1
Organizers of Christkindlmarket have canceled the popular outdoor holiday market and moved it online as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hamper large-scale events and travel.
The event, which typically takes place at Daley Plaza and in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood, will be virtual this year from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.
Read more here. —Abdel Jimenez
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12:11 p.m.: 2,166 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional deaths reported
Illinois public health officials reported Wednesday they had logged 2,166 newly diagnosed cases and 25 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 295,440 known cases and 8,696 deaths.
—Chicago Tribune staff
11:41 a.m.: White House ups offer to $1.6 trillion in last-ditch COVID-19 relief effort
The White House is backing a $400 per week pandemic jobless benefit and is dangling the possibility of a COVID-19 relief bill of $1.6 trillion as last-ditch, pre-election negotiations hit a critical phase Thursday.
The offer by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on unemployment is higher than many Republicans would like in any potential COVID deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Significant, possibly unbridgeable hurdles remain.
After Pelosi said the new offer still fell short, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the speaker was “not being serious” in the negotiations.
“We raised our offer to $1.6 trillion,” McEnany told reporters Thursday. “It’s one that she is is not interested in.”
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Mnuchin and Pelosi are scheduled to talk by phone early Thursday afternoon, a Pelosi spokesman said.
The Trump administration is pressing for an agreement, more so than Capitol Hill Republicans.
Read more here. —Associated Press
11:05 a.m.: ‘I’m ready to do it’: Chicago voters flock to Loop Super Site on city’s first day of early voting in Nov. 3 election
While in-person early voting for Chicago voters began Thursday at the Loop Super Site location, all 50 wards will open their polls on Oct. 14. The locations of the ward sites can be found at chicagoelections.gov/earlyvoting. Suburban Cook County voters can begin early voting in person later this month.
The poll booths will be more spread out at the sites than usual to comply with coronavirus social distancing rules, said Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Masks will be available for voters who arrive at polling sites without them, she said.
People who want to instead vote by mail need to have their ballot envelope postmarked by Election Day, Hernandez said. If voters applied and were approved for a mail-in ballot but decide to vote in person instead, they must bring their mail-in ballot with them to an early voting location and surrender it to an election official. Voters who apply for a mail-in ballot but don’t receive one can vote in person but must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury.
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Read more here. —Alice Yin
10:25 a.m.: In ‘painful’ decision, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago cancels 2020-21 season
The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago said Thursday that it has canceled its entire 2020-21 season at the Lyric Opera House.
The canceled programing includes the world premiere of Cathy Marston’s “Of Mice and Men” and the Joffrey premiere of George Balanchine’s “Serenade” (slated for Feb. 17-28, 2021), as well as the Chicago premiere of John Neumeier’s “The Little Mermaid” (April 21-May 2, 2021). Previously, Joffrey had canceled this fall’s production of Kenneth MacMillan’s “Manon” (Oct. 14-25) and the first staging at the Lyric of Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Nutcracker” (December 5-27), typically a huge source of revenue for the company and a highlight of the holiday season in Chicago, drawing tens of thousands to the Loop.
The Joffrey said that the decision, sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, will cost the non-profit institution in excess of $9 million at the box office. A philanthropic fund, dubbed the Joffrey Crisis Stabilization Fund, has been set up to address the disparity and cover basic operations costs through the fall of 2021.
Read more here. —Chris Jones
9:30 a.m.: Illinois launches small business COVID safety program to help workers and customers returning to the office
After six months of working from home, many small businesses are facing a new challenge — how to safely return to the cubicle farm in the age of COVID-19.
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The Illinois Department of Labor is launching the “Back to Business” program to help small businesses protect workers and customers as they begin to reopen.
“There’s so many businesses now that are wanting guidance on how to come back safely,” Mike Matulis, an Illinois Department of Labor spokesman, said Wednesday. “This is aimed at giving them the best guidance for keeping their customers, employees and visitors … from getting sick.”
Open to businesses with 250 or fewer employees, the program combines online training with a virtual consultant — a Department of Labor employee — to navigate everything from configuring office space to quarantining a symptomatic sales manager.
Read more here. —Robert Channick
7:10 a.m.: Lightfoot, Arwady to announce Chicago plans regarding Halloween
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady were scheduled to announce plans Thursday afternoon “for a safe and healthy Halloween.”
Arwady has previously talked about possible restrictions the city could put in place for Halloween revelry. Asked specifically about door-to-door trick-or-treating, the health commissioner has said there’s still time to get cases down, but things will certainly be different from normal.
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“We’re going to have to have guidance that will be different in some way. I’m not going to get into the details of exactly what that’s going to look like,” she said. “People have said, ‘Are you canceling Halloween?’ I’m not canceling Halloween. We are going to be thinking about how to do this in ways that are as safe as they can be.”
State health officials Wednesday released guidelines for the holiday Wednesday, urging trick-or-treaters to socially distance on Halloween, while cautioning the holiday is best celebrated without the usual celebrations.
—Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Column: As arts in Chicago and the nation suffered, the Kennedy Center in D.C. was about to open a nightclub on its roof
Of all the strange and desperate cultural stories to emerge from a pandemic that has sent daggers straight through the heart of the performing arts in America, here is one of the weirdest. It comes from Washington, D.C. (where else?) and is the tale of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a planned rooftop nightclub called, believe it or not, “Heist.”
There was a sudden reversal Wednesday. But first some backstory.
In March, the Kennedy Center found itself on the defensive after the Congress earmarked $25 million within the initial $2.2 trillion federal coronavirus relief bill. Around Capitol Hill, there was some predictable back-and-forth with Republicans complaining that Democratic members had privileged a “swanky opera house” over needier causes, but the Kennedy Center and its allies were able to effectively counter by rightly reminding people that it was a job creator, a crucial cultural asset and a shuttered institution so deprived of critical revenue as to be in the middle of an existential crisis not of its own making.
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All of that was true. The Kennedy Center is a glorious place. The bigger issue, though, which neither party seemed to see, was that the politicians' notion of earmarked arts relief was limited to their own back yards.
Read more here. —Chris Jones
5 a.m.: A nervous person’s guide to viewing fall foliage in the Midwest. —
Watching leaves turn color and drop dead — “Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away” (Emily Bronte) — may be one of the few activities this autumn you can do safely, without too many caveats. Maybe don’t get into a bus full of leaf peepers this year. Maybe don’t call yourself a leaf peeper to begin with. Look, just stay in your car, OK? Roll down the window and peep, then roll up the window. Peep with familial peepers. Maybe don’t stay overnight, all right? Do I sound stressed? I am stressed. Here’s the thing: So are trees.
Stress creates fall foliage.
Stress is also what makes the annual admiring of foliage — aka leaf peeping — so poignant this pandemic year. “The trees are stressed, yet so is everyone else,” said David Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, the agency that produces those nearly somnolent, stress-relieving “Pure Michigan” tourism spots. Scientifically, foliage is all sacrifice and hunkering down — leaves change colors because their trees are prepping for months of austerity. Aesthetically, fall foliage is all metaphor and melancholy. Because “nothing gold can stay” (Robert Frost), we spend three too-short months noticing what Gwendolyn Brooks called “summer-gone.” We wonder if leaves dream “how comfortable it will be to touch the earth” (Mary Oliver). We ascribe to foliage our own need for calm.
Read more here. —Christopher Borrelli
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In case you missed it
Here are five stories from Wednesday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Family of Miguel Vega speaks out after footage of fatal Chicago police shooting in Pilsen released:

Family of Miguel Vega speaks out after footage of fatal Chicago police shooting in Pilsen released: ‘It was hard to watch those videos’

Vega said it hurt to watch his brother on the ground as officers searched for a weapon , and questioned @ @ @ @ @ t make more of an effort to help his brother .
Maria Vega , the @ @ @ @ @ cried and said watching the videos was painful .
She previously called for the release @ @ @ @ @ incident , saying she did not believe the police version of events and that officials @ @ @ @ @

The family of Miguel Vega — father Miguel Vega Sr., from left, mother Maria Vega and brother Erik Vega — speak with members of the news media near the intersection of 18th Street and Blue Island Avenue on Oct. 1, 2020, in Chicago. Miguel Vega was fatally shot by police on Aug. 31 on the 1300 block of West 19th Street. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
One month after Miguel Vega was fatally shot by police, his family is calling for accountability and transparency after the release of a video depicting the August shooting in the Pilsen neighborhood.
On Thursday afternoon, Erik Vega, the brother of 26-year-old Miguel Vega, addressed reporters in Pilsen and said he was “deeply disappointed” with Chicago police for not reaching out to the family.
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“The police officer that shot my brother did not have any right shooting him behind his head or shooting at people that were running,” Erik Vega said.
“And it hurts that he let off so many rounds,” Vega said. “I think that’s unjust and that’s more than enough firepower to stop one person.”
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Chicago’s civilian investigative police watchdog last month released video of the Aug. 31 shooting by a Chicago police officer that killed 26-year-old Miguel Vega in the 1300 block of West 19th Street. Chicago police have said Vega was shot after officers were fired upon as they got out of their unmarked car about 10:45 p.m. Officers from the Near West patrol district had been responding to a call of a suspicious person when they noticed a group of five people standing on the sidewalk, the department has said.
On Thursday, Erik Vega addressed a moment in the video in which a supervisor said, “Let it roll," but motioned to an officer to not say anything.
“Why not say anything else? What are you trying to hide?” Vega said.
Vega said it hurt to watch his brother on the ground as officers searched for a weapon, and questioned why the officers didn’t make more of an effort to help his brother. Maria Vega, the mother of the 26-year-old, cried and said watching the videos was painful. She previously called for the release of any video of the incident, saying she did not believe the police version of events and that officials refused to answer questions.
Father Miguel Vega Sr. similarly spoke of the anguish in watching his son’s death.
“It was hard to watch those videos and see my son be killed that way,” he said. “But we needed to watch it because we knew that our son had not shot at police and he did not deserve to be killed that way.
“We were able to confirm that my son did not have a gun,” Miguel Vega Sr. added. “We know our son and knew that the story police were sharing was not entirely true.”
Community resident Mateo Zapata said the shooting was an example of white supremacy in Chicago communities, noting President Donald Trump just declined to explicitly denounce white supremacy on a national platform at the first presidential debate. But Zapata credited the community’s actions with the quick release of the footage, just three weeks after the shooting.
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“This was because our community stood up and marched and protested, demanding transparency and justice for Miguel Vega,” Zapata said. “This level of policing is not going to fight crime in Chicago. As a community, as residents, we need to start working together and have a dialogue.”
In the bodycam video released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, officers can be seen hurriedly exiting their squad car, one of them firing a pistol over the open door of the vehicle up the sidewalk.
The shooting officer’s passenger-side window was also broken. Audio of the shooting officer’s camera does not come on until he has moved up the block to arrest a man he finds near a curb.
“My whole window is shot up! Good thing I (expletive) ducked!” the officer said to other cops on scene.
Another man, apparently Vega, can be seen lying on the sidewalk after being struck by a bullet.
“We’ve got an ambulance coming to you, brother, OK?” the officer said to Vega, who was shot in the head and was seen with blood on his face. “Keep talking to me, man. Keep talking to me, brother. You’re going to be all right.”
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The officer can be heard directing others to look for a weapon that might have been discarded as police approached the area. Officers eventually can be heard to say they located a gun, a few parked cars from where Vega could be seen lying in the sidewalk.
“Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it! Do not touch it!” one officer exclaimed. “We got it. We got it.”
The shooting remains under investigation by COPA, but the September release of 12 video clips, most of them from body cameras and released 21 days after the shooting, marked one of the shortest time frames the agency has taken to release such material to the public.
The officer who shot Vega fired 11 times, according to a police report that’s part of the case.
In the hours after the shooting, the Police Department issued an official statement claiming Vega was armed with a gun that was recovered at the scene. But an internal report issued by Near West’s commander on Sept. 1, and obtained by the Tribune, was more vague, saying Vega was with at least three other people and someone from that group fired shots. Vega’s family has maintained Vega was unarmed when he was shot.


chicagotribune--2020-10-03--Secure drop boxes, extra sorting machines and a decade of experience: Here’s why Illinois election o

Secure drop boxes, extra sorting machines and a decade of experience: Here’s why Illinois election officials say voting by mail is safe

Even if someone drops a ballot in the mailbox on the way to the polls on Election Day , the @ @ @ @ @ because an in-person vote already would be recorded by the time the ballot is received @ @ @ @ @ .
Though rare , knowingly voting or attempting to vote more than once in an @ @ @ @ @ felony in Illinois , punishable by two to five years in prison .

President Donald Trump for months has been making unsubstantiated statements about the potential for “massive fraud” as millions of Americans are expected to cast their ballots by mail ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
But the president’s frequent claims don’t jibe with reality in Illinois, which for a decade has allowed any voter to request a mail-in ballot without having to explain why they can’t show up to the polls on Election Day. The percentage of ballots cast by mail has been on the rise since 2010 without any widespread problems, election officials say.
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“We have had extensive, extensive experience with vote by mail, and we just don’t have the problems that some other sources are relating,” Chicago Board of Elections Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez said.
What’s different in this election is the record-shattering number of voters in Chicago and across the state requesting mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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As of Friday morning, nearly 2 million Illinois voters had applied to vote by mail, according to the State Board of Elections. That’s roughly a quarter of all active registered voters in the state and more than the combined number of those who cast votes by mail in all general elections since 2010.
The secured drop box inside of the Chicago Board of Elections' Loop Super Site on Sept. 30, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago alone had received more than 457,000 applications as of Friday — a greater number than all the ballots cast by mail statewide in the 2018 election. Statewide, 85,951 ballots had been cast by mail as of Friday morning, outpacing in-person early voting, which has traditionally been more popular in Illinois.
The numbers were likely boosted by new state law in effect just for the Nov. 3 balloting that automatically sent applications to millions of voters and allowed the use of secure drop boxes to collect completed ballots.
While local election officials say they’re well-prepared for the anticipated deluge of mail-in ballots, the process so far has not been without hiccups. Problems have included a letter from the secretary of state’s office informing some voters that they hadn’t returned their ballot application, even though they had; voters showing up at some early voting sites after applying for a mail-in ballot but before receiving it; and, in one downstate jurisdiction, ballots printed with some races omitted.
“It’s just a matter of scale,” James Nally, an attorney with Cook County Electoral Board, said of the steps officials are taking to ensure a smooth election. “We’ve been conducting early voting, we’ve been conducting voting by mail for quite some time now, but certainly not with the volumes that we’re going to see in this election.”
Ballots began going out to voters who requested them on Sept. 24 and should be counted as long as they’re postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 17.
It remains to be seen how many voters will choose to return their ballots by mail or through the secure drop boxes approved in the new state law, but election officials in Chicago, Cook County and elsewhere have invested in additional equipment to process the anticipated influx.
Cook County has spent $315,000 on additional mail sorting machines that can process thousands of ballots per day and $25,000 on secure ballot drop boxes, which will be placed at each early voting site. A large portion of the funding came from the federal coronavirus relief package approved earlier this year.
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Chicago election officials also worked with the U.S. Postal Service to refine the outgoing and return envelopes to reduce the chances of ballots being lost in the mail.
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Both Chicago and Cook County are sending ballots with return postage prepaid — which is not required by law — and have set up systems to notify voters via email when their applications have been received, when their blank ballots are mailed out and when their completed ballots have been successfully returned.
A voter casts her ballot during early voting at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton on Sept. 30, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Here’s how the process works once election authorities receive a mail-in ballot:
As election authorities receive mail-in ballots, bipartisan, three-person panels of election judges review the outer envelope to make sure it is signed and that the voter’s signature matches the one on file. The three-judge panel can vote to reject a ballot if the signatures don’t match, the envelope is unsigned or unsealed, or the voter already cast a ballot in person, among other reasons. The vote must be unanimous, and every ballot gets reviewed.
Cook County will have multiple three-judge panels reviewing ballots throughout election season.
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Nally, the Cook County election attorney, said the most important thing voters can do to make sure their ballots are counted is to clearly sign the outer envelope.
If a ballot is rejected, election officials must notify the voter within two days if it’s prior to Election Day or within one day after Election Day. If a ballot is rejected because of a signature issue, the voter can submit a statement attesting that they cast the ballot. If it’s rejected due to an open envelope, the voter can request a new ballot or vote in person if the polls are still open.
Mail-in ballots are processed as they’re received but cannot be counted until 7 p.m. on Election Day. In Chicago, Cook County and other jurisdictions, automated machines are used to process ballot and to separate voters' identifying information from their ballots.
Voters who apply for and receive a mail-in ballot may still choose to vote in person instead. In that case, officials say voters should surrender the ballot to election judges at an early voting site or Election Day polling place before voting in person.
The use in jurisdictions including Chicago and Cook County of real-time electronic poll books, which allow election judges to quickly look up information such as voter registration details and whether someone has already cast a ballot, should prevent anyone from being able to cast two ballots — as Trump urged supporters to do last month at a rally in North Carolina.
Even if someone drops a ballot in the mailbox on the way to the polls on Election Day, the mail-in ballot would be rejected because an in-person vote already would be recorded by the time the ballot is received via mail, officials said. Though rare, knowingly voting or attempting to vote more than once in an election is a Class 3 felony in Illinois, punishable by two to five years in prison.
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Ballot drop boxes, a new option for election authorities this year, must be emptied daily and are subject to security guidelines established by the State Board of Elections. The board recommends 24-hour video surveillance for any unmanned drop box.
There are also provisions in place in the event that a voter returns a ballot to the wrong jurisdiction — if a Chicago voter slips his or her ballot into a suburban Cook County drop box, for instance. In that case, the election authority must send the ballot to the proper jurisdiction. If feasible, a bipartisan pair of election judges can hand-deliver the errant ballots.
Vote-by-mail applications must be received by election authorities by Oct. 29 if sent by mail. Voters can also request a mail-in ballot in person at their local election authority’s headquarters until Nov. 2.
Once the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day, the counting of mail-in ballots can begin, with officials continuing to tabulate ballots received through Nov. 17. Local officials have until Nov. 24 to certify the results in their jurisdictions, and the State Board of Elections has until Dec. 4 to certify the results.
Despite a high degree of uncertainty given the historically large share of votes expected to be cast by mail, election officials said they don’t anticipate major delays in tabulating results — especially if most voters don’t wait until the last minute to mail back their ballots.
An election worker keeps watch as early voting begins in Chicago's Loop on Oct. 1, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
“It’s not going to be anything out of the ordinary,” said Hernandez, of the Chicago Board of Elections. “I think we will be seeing reports, numbers coming in as we did in March. And I think a lot of it is due to the automation. So I’m confident, I’m hopeful that we’re not going to be seeing the delay that others are claiming.”
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Election officials have an interest in instilling voter confidence in the electoral process, but voting by mail is not error-free or fraud-proof, said Brian Gaines, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign political science professor who specializes in elections, including a study of the benefits and drawbacks of “convenience voting.”
While the president and others who make claims about “massive fraud” fail to provide evidence, Gaines said, “it isn’t as if there’s no fraud at all.”
As an example, Gaines cites cases from southern Illinois in 2000 in which he testified as an expert witness.
In that year’s Democratic primary for Alexander County circuit clerk, a challenger appeared to narrowly defeat the incumbent, but shortly before Election Day, police found nearly 700 absentee ballots in the home, office and truck of the county clerk, along with evidence that she was replacing ballots cast in favor of the incumbent with ones in favor of the challenger. A judge threw out the election results, but local Democratic leaders then appointed the challenger to fill the vacant office.
Although cases like that aren’t the norm, “it’s likely that when all is said and done there will be some discussion of irregularities" in this election, Gaines said.
With more people than ever voting by mail, there’s also the chance for inconsistencies in the way different election authorities deal with challenging cases, such as missing or unclear postmarks or evidence of someone turning in a large number of ballots without authorization.
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“Maybe none of that will happen," Gaines said. “It has to play out first before we know if some particular bad scenario has arisen.”
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-03--Blessing of the Animals

Blessing of the Animals

Gail Kaplan , right , gets a greeting from a dog named Gertie after a Blessing of the Animals event @ @ @ @ @ the Old Town neighborhood on Oct. 2 , 2020 , in Chicago .
About 40 @ @ @ @ @ Rev .
Larry Sanders , as animal blessing events take place around this time of @ @ @ @ @ Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi , the patron saint of animals and the @ @ @ @ @ .

Helena Gonzalez is surrounded by dogs playing before a Blessing of the Animals event outside St. Michael Church in the Old Town neighborhood on Oct. 2, 2020. About 40 dogs were blessed by the Rev. Larry Sanders, as animal blessing events take place around this time of the year to mark the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment, on Oct. 4. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)


chicagotribune--2020-10-03--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Daily death toll of 47 is highest since late June as total cases cl

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Daily death toll of 47 is highest since late June as total cases climb toward 300,000; state puts 28 counties on latest warning list

Americans awoke Friday to find that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the novel coronavirus .
Additionally , the University of Notre Dame ’ s president has tested positive for COVID-19 , a school spokesman confirmed Friday morning , less than a week after he attended Amy Coney Barrett ’ s Supreme Court nomination ceremony at the White House without wearing a mask .
In Illinois , public health officials on Friday said 28 counties , none in the Chicago area , were considered at “ warning level ” for the coronavirus , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” mitigation measures such as social distancing .
The warning list came out as the state reported 2,206 new known cases of COVID-19 and 47 deaths connected to the virus .
The death toll is the highest daily count since late June , but still far below the 24-hour numbers reported during the pandemic ’ s peak in June .
There have now been 297,646 known cases and 8,743 deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began .
A day earlier , Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled Thursday a series of rules for Halloween @ @ @ @ @ @ @ celebrate safely , including a requirement that everyone including candy-givers wear masks .
Among the rules , candy-givers are asked to leave a light on or hang a sign in their window letting people know whether they ’ re participating in the holiday while following social distancing rules and providing hand sanitizer .
Trick-or-treaters are asked to stay on the move in groups of six people or fewer .
7:15 p.m. : Someone present at Lane Tech high during SAT exam has tested positive for coronavirus At least one person who was at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SAT testing last week has tested positive for the coronavirus , according to an email from principal Brian Tennison .
Despite Chicago Public Schools giving classes remotely this fall , many of its high schools opened last Wednesday for the SAT test , a makeup date for seniors who missed the test last year because of the pandemic .
State education officials have been criticized for not waiving the SAT as a graduation requirement and providing the in-person testing .
7 p.m. : CPS violated union contract by failing to provide safe work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arbitrator has ruled that Chicago Public Schools violated its contract with the Chicago Teachers Union by making employees such as clerks work in school buildings that may not have been safe .
The ruling that CPS did not fulfill its “ promise ” of “ safe and healthful ” working conditions came a day after a teacher at Funston Elementary died from COVID-19 , according to the union .
The arbitrator ruled that clerks , assistants and others who have been reporting to school buildings during remote learning should be allowed to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the parties two days to agree on how to move forward .
6:05 p.m. : Cubs co-owner , RNC finance chair Todd Ricketts was tested for COVID-19 after attending Trump fundraiser in Minnesota A member of the Ricketts family that owns the Chicago Cubs got tested for COVID-19 after attending a Minnesota fundraiser this week with members of President Donald Trump ’ s family .
Todd Ricketts , the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and a co-owner of the Cubs along with other members of the Ricketts family , has not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but is exhibiting no symptoms , a Ricketts family spokesman said Friday afternoon .
Ricketts attended a Wednesday fundraiser with Trump in a suburb of Minneapolis , the spokesman said .
Trump announced late Thursday night on Twitter that he and first lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19 .
Ricketts got the test after learning of Trump ’ s positive test .
The Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs Friday by the Miami Marlins .
Ricketts did not attend the game and is quarantining until he gets the results , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Looking to buy a new car ?
Auto industry is rebounding from pandemic shortage , but you still may need to wait till 2021 for next year ’ s model .
The hardest part about buying a new car during the pandemic may be finding a new car .
While the automotive industry is showing signs of recovery , months of production stoppage , supply chain interruption and stay-at-home disruption has left many Chicago-area dealers with few new cars and lots of empty spaces .
Adding to the inventory shortage , the new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall — has yet to hit showrooms in any significant numbers .
Many 2021 models may not actually arrive until 2021 .
“ It ’ s kind of hard to sell from an empty cupboard when you don ’ t have any new vehicles , ” said John Webb , a principal with family-owned Packey Webb Ford , a 58-year-old Downers Grove dealership .
3:14 p.m. : Trump ’ s COVID-19 diagnosis sends final stage of election into further chaos — and no one knows exactly what comes next An election year already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ descended further into chaos Friday , with President Donald Trump declaring that he ’ s tested positive for the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat .
Democratic challenger Joe Biden , who spent 90 minutes on stage with Trump in their Tuesday debate , tested negative and moved forward with plans to attend a campaign event in Michigan Friday afternoon .
No one knows exactly what comes next .
2:53 p.m. : Illinois puts 28 counties on latest coronavirus warning list ; daily death toll of 47 is highest since late June @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health officials on Friday said 28 counties , none in the Chicago area , were considered at “ warning level ” for the coronavirus , and again scolded businesses that “ blatantly disregard ” mitigation measures such as social distancing .
The warning list came out as the state reported 2,206 new known cases of COVID-19 and 47 deaths connected to the virus .
The death toll is the highest daily count since late June , but still far below the 24-hour numbers reported during the pandemic ’ s peak in June @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases and 8,743 deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began .
The counties on the warning list are put there after surpassing two more metrics such as the number of cases per 100,000 people and test positivity rates .
The counties on the latest list are : On Saturday , the northwest region of the state , which includes Rockford , DeKalb and Galena , will be placed back under tighter restrictions after its seven-day average of positive cases reached 8 % or higher for three consecutive days .
The Metro East region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same stricter rules since Aug. 18 .
12:38 p.m. : Notre Dame president also tests positive for COVID-19 after attending Rose Garden ceremony The University of Notre Dame ’ s president has tested positive for COVID-19 , a school spokesman confirmed Friday morning , less than a week after he attended Amy Coney Barrett ’ s Supreme Court nomination ceremony at the White House without wearing a mask .
The Rev .
John Jenkins has mild symptoms and contracted the illness “ from a colleague he was in regular contact with at Notre @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paul Browne .
Jenkins , who ’ s led the Catholic university since 2005 , has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for appearing not always to follow COVID-19 safety precautions .
Illinois public health officials reported Friday they had logged 2,206 newly diagnosed cases and 47 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19 , raising the statewide tally to 297,646 known cases and 8,743 deaths .
8:05 a.m. : US hiring slows for 3rd month but jobless rate falls to 7.9 % America ’ s employers added 661,000 jobs in September , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence from the final jobs report before the presidential election that the economic recovery has weakened .
With September ’ s hiring gain , the economy has recovered only slightly more than half the 22 million jobs that were wiped out by the viral pandemic .
The roughly 10 million jobs that remain lost exceed the number that the nation shed during the entire 2008-2009 Great Recession .
The unemployment rate for September fell to 7.9 % , down from 8.4 % in August , the Labor Department said Friday .
Since April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a peak of 14.7 % .
7:32 a.m. : Amazon : Nearly 20,000 workers tested positive for coronavirus Amazon says nearly 20,000 of its workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 .
Amazon says in a corporate blog it examined data from March 1 to Sept. 19 for its 1.37 million workers at Amazon and Whole Foods Market .
It said it compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population , as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period .
Based on that analysis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Whole Foods employees were the same as it is for the general population , it estimated it would have seen 33,952 cases among its workforce .
“ We strongly recommend families social distance and choose alternative ways to celebrate Halloween this year , ” Normal police Chief Rick Bleichner said in a statement released by the Bloomington Police Department .
“ We recognize some families are going to participate and we want them to do this as safely as possible .
To ensure this , we ’ ve set trick-or-treat hours and released @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Illinois Department of Public Health.
” 5 a.m. : Loss , heroism and hope : Catching up with Chicagoans whose lives were forever changed by COVID-19 Some of them fought the new coronavirus from hospital beds , others at makeshift testing sites .
Some mourned their closest loved ones ; others came to the aid of strangers .
And some saw the pandemic upend their lives and dreams .
Six months into the greatest public health crisis in a century , how are they now faring ?
Here ’ s an update @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heroism and resilience .
Read more here .
—Stacy St. Clair , Christy Gutowski , Karen Ann Cullotta and Susan Berger Here are five stories from Thursday related to COVID-19 :

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Americans awoke Friday to find that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Additionally, the University of Notre Dame’s president has tested positive for COVID-19, a school spokesman confirmed Friday morning, less than a week after he attended Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination ceremony at the White House without wearing a mask.
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In Illinois, public health officials on Friday said 28 counties, none in the Chicago area, were considered at “warning level” for the coronavirus, and again scolded businesses that “blatantly disregard” mitigation measures such as social distancing.
The warning list came out as the state reported 2,206 new known cases of COVID-19 and 47 deaths connected to the virus. The death toll is the highest daily count since late June, but still far below the 24-hour numbers reported during the pandemic’s peak in June.
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There have now been 297,646 known cases and 8,743 deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began.
A day earlier, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled Thursday a series of rules for Halloween that she said will allow people to celebrate safely, including a requirement that everyone including candy-givers wear masks.
Among the rules, candy-givers are asked to leave a light on or hang a sign in their window letting people know whether they’re participating in the holiday while following social distancing rules and providing hand sanitizer. Trick-or-treaters are asked to stay on the move in groups of six people or fewer.
Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:15 p.m.: Someone present at Lane Tech high during SAT exam has tested positive for coronavirus
At least one person who was at Lane Tech College Prep High School during SAT testing last week has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an email from principal Brian Tennison.
Despite Chicago Public Schools giving classes remotely this fall, many of its high schools opened last Wednesday for the SAT test, a makeup date for seniors who missed the test last year because of the pandemic. State education officials have been criticized for not waiving the SAT as a graduation requirement and providing the in-person testing.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
7 p.m.: CPS violated union contract by failing to provide safe work environment for clerks: arbitrator
An independent arbitrator has ruled that Chicago Public Schools violated its contract with the Chicago Teachers Union by making employees such as clerks work in school buildings that may not have been safe.
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The ruling that CPS did not fulfill its “promise” of “safe and healthful” working conditions came a day after a teacher at Funston Elementary died from COVID-19, according to the union.
The arbitrator ruled that clerks, assistants and others who have been reporting to school buildings during remote learning should be allowed to work from home when feasible, and gave the parties two days to agree on how to move forward.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
6:05 p.m.: Cubs co-owner, RNC finance chair Todd Ricketts was tested for COVID-19 after attending Trump fundraiser in Minnesota
A member of the Ricketts family that owns the Chicago Cubs got tested for COVID-19 after attending a Minnesota fundraiser this week with members of President Donald Trump’s family.
Todd Ricketts, the finance chair for the Republican National Committee and a co-owner of the Cubs along with other members of the Ricketts family, has not received results from the COVID-19 test, but is exhibiting no symptoms, a Ricketts family spokesman said Friday afternoon.
Ricketts attended a Wednesday fundraiser with Trump in a suburb of Minneapolis, the spokesman said. Trump announced late Thursday night on Twitter that he and first lady Melania Trump had both tested positive for COVID-19. Ricketts got the test after learning of Trump’s positive test.
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The Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs Friday by the Miami Marlins. Ricketts did not attend the game and is quarantining until he gets the results, the spokesman said.
—John Byrne
3:49 p.m.: Looking to buy a new car? Auto industry is rebounding from pandemic shortage, but you still may need to wait till 2021 for next year’s model.
The hardest part about buying a new car during the pandemic may be finding a new car.
While the automotive industry is showing signs of recovery, months of production stoppage, supply chain interruption and stay-at-home disruption has left many Chicago-area dealers with few new cars and lots of empty spaces.
Adding to the inventory shortage, the new model year — an automotive rite of fall — has yet to hit showrooms in any significant numbers. Many 2021 models may not actually arrive until 2021.
“It’s kind of hard to sell from an empty cupboard when you don’t have any new vehicles,” said John Webb, a principal with family-owned Packey Webb Ford, a 58-year-old Downers Grove dealership.
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Read more here. —Robert Channick
3:14 p.m.: Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis sends final stage of election into further chaos — and no one knows exactly what comes next
An election year already defined by a cascade of national crises descended further into chaos Friday, with President Donald Trump declaring that he’s tested positive for the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who spent 90 minutes on stage with Trump in their Tuesday debate, tested negative and moved forward with plans to attend a campaign event in Michigan Friday afternoon.
No one knows exactly what comes next.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2:53 p.m.: Illinois puts 28 counties on latest coronavirus warning list; daily death toll of 47 is highest since late June as total cases climb toward 300,000
Illinois public health officials on Friday said 28 counties, none in the Chicago area, were considered at “warning level” for the coronavirus, and again scolded businesses that “blatantly disregard” mitigation measures such as social distancing.
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The warning list came out as the state reported 2,206 new known cases of COVID-19 and 47 deaths connected to the virus. The death toll is the highest daily count since late June, but still far below the 24-hour numbers reported during the pandemic’s peak in June.
There have now been 297,646 known cases and 8,743 deaths in Illinois since the pandemic began.
The counties on the warning list are put there after surpassing two more metrics such as the number of cases per 100,000 people and test positivity rates. The counties on the latest list are:
Bond, Boone, Brown, Calhoun, Christian, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, DeKalb, DeWitt, Fayette, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Lee, Livingston, Macon, Massac, Monroe, Morgan, Pulaski, Putnam, Richland, Saline, St. Clair, Wabash, Washington and Winnebago.
On Saturday, the northwest region of the state, which includes Rockford, DeKalb and Galena, will be placed back under tighter restrictions after its seven-day average of positive cases reached 8% or higher for three consecutive days. The Metro East region outside St. Louis has been under the same stricter rules since Aug. 18.
Read more here. —Chicago Tribune staff
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12:38 p.m.: Notre Dame president also tests positive for COVID-19 after attending Rose Garden ceremony
The University of Notre Dame’s president has tested positive for COVID-19, a school spokesman confirmed Friday morning, less than a week after he attended Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination ceremony at the White House without wearing a mask.
The Rev. John Jenkins has mild symptoms and contracted the illness “from a colleague he was in regular contact with at Notre Dame,” according to university spokesman Paul Browne.
Jenkins, who’s led the Catholic university since 2005, has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks for appearing not always to follow COVID-19 safety precautions.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
12:10 p.m.: 2,206 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 47 additional deaths reported
Illinois public health officials reported Friday they had logged 2,206 newly diagnosed cases and 47 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 297,646 known cases and 8,743 deaths.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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8:05 a.m.: US hiring slows for 3rd month but jobless rate falls to 7.9%
America’s employers added 661,000 jobs in September, the third straight month of slower hiring and evidence from the final jobs report before the presidential election that the economic recovery has weakened.
With September’s hiring gain, the economy has recovered only slightly more than half the 22 million jobs that were wiped out by the viral pandemic. The roughly 10 million jobs that remain lost exceed the number that the nation shed during the entire 2008-2009 Great Recession.
The unemployment rate for September fell to 7.9%, down from 8.4% in August, the Labor Department said Friday. Since April, the jobless rate has tumbled from a peak of 14.7%.
Read more here. —Associated Press
7:32 a.m.: Amazon: Nearly 20,000 workers tested positive for coronavirus
Amazon says nearly 20,000 of its workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.
Amazon says in a corporate blog it examined data from March 1 to Sept. 19 for its 1.37 million workers at Amazon and Whole Foods Market.
Advertisement
It said it compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period. Based on that analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods employees were the same as it is for the general population, it estimated it would have seen 33,952 cases among its workforce.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:35 a.m.: Bloomington-Normal police discourage door-to-door trick-or-treating this Halloween
Bloomington and Normal police are discouraging door-to-door trick-or-treating on Halloween because of COVID.
“We strongly recommend families social distance and choose alternative ways to celebrate Halloween this year,” Normal police Chief Rick Bleichner said in a statement released by the Bloomington Police Department. “We recognize some families are going to participate and we want them to do this as safely as possible. To ensure this, we’ve set trick-or-treat hours and released safety tips in line with guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health.”
If residents do take part, the agencies encouraged them to take steps to prevent the spread of infection. State officials earlier this week released guidelines for safely celebrating the holiday.
—Bloomington-Normal Pantagraph via Tribune Content Agency, Tribune staff
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5 a.m.: Loss, heroism and hope: Catching up with Chicagoans whose lives were forever changed by COVID-19
Some of them fought the new coronavirus from hospital beds, others at makeshift testing sites.
Some mourned their closest loved ones; others came to the aid of strangers.
And some saw the pandemic upend their lives and dreams.
Six months into the greatest public health crisis in a century, how are they now faring? Here’s an update on six COVID-19 stories of loss, heroism and resilience.
Read more here. —Stacy St. Clair, Christy Gutowski, Karen Ann Cullotta and Susan Berger
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories from Thursday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-10-03--CPS violated union contract by making clerks work during the pandemic in schools lacking ‘safe and h

CPS violated union contract by making clerks work during the pandemic in schools lacking ‘safe and healthful conditions,' arbitrator rules

Charles wrote that the district should let school clerks , assistants and technology coordinators do remote work when feasible , @ @ @ @ @ to the two parties to attempt to come to an agreement about what can and @ @ @ @ @ remotely .
If , as often is the case , they can ’ t agree @ @ @ @ @ implementing the ruling , it will go back to arbitration .

An arbitrator found "insufficient evidence" that Chicago Public Schools' buildings "are safe and healthful for these employees to work in." (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
An independent arbitrator has ruled that Chicago Public Schools violated its contract with the Chicago Teachers Union by making employees such as clerks work in school buildings that may not have been safe.
The ruling that CPS did not fulfill its “promise” of “safe and healthful” working conditions came a day after a teacher at Funston Elementary died from COVID-19, according to the union.
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The arbitrator ruled that clerks, assistants and others who have been reporting to school buildings during remote learning should be allowed to work from home when feasible, and gave the parties two days to agree on how to move forward.
A school district spokesman said late Friday that CPS is “deeply disappointed” in the ruling.
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The arbitrator’s decision “fails to identify any specific deficiencies or acknowledge the thorough supports that have been in place to protect the small number of staff whose roles can only be conducted in person,” CPS spokesman Michael Passman said in a written statement. “Under the flawed logic presented by the arbitrator, no workplace in the country would be safe at this time, which defies the best available public health guidance and outcomes.”
He added that CPS has “taken a comprehensive health and safety approach built upon the strongest available public health guidance” because “there is nothing more important than the health and safety of everyone who enters our school buildings.”
Arbitrator Jeanne Charles issued the ruling Friday after remote hearings in September. For the arbitration trial, the union presented more than a thousand pages of evidence and testimony about conditions in schools.
The union has also sought relief through the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
According to the union, Funston Elementary teacher Olga Quiroga died Thursday. She’d helped distribute school supplies at Funston starting before the new school year began until Sept. 10 and was taken to the emergency room by her family the following day, the union said.
CPS has not released information on COVID-19 cases at schools since the fall quarter began Sept. 8, but the union has identified cases at Funston, Canty and Mount Greenwood elementary schools, along with Lane Tech High School, where at least one case has been linked to last week’s in-person SAT testing.
“Reporting to work inside CPS school buildings increases the danger of infection by COVID-19, an airborne, highly communicable, deadly, and still not fully understood disease,” Charles wrote in the ruling. “The only way to eliminate the risk of COVID-19 infection and death is for School Clerks, School Clerk Assistants, and Technology Coordinators to work remotely.”
While acknowledging the district’s efforts to mitigate the risk of infection, Charles said that subjecting employees to increased risk for work that can be performed remotely "does not fulfill CPS’s contractual promise that its employees work in ‘safe and healthful conditions.’”
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Whether each school building is safe to work in can’t be determined, so it’s “better to err on the side of allowing remote work, where feasible, since the extent of the inherently hazardous conditions presented by COVID-19 in each school building is unknown," the arbitrator wrote.
Letting people work remotely balances the needs of the employer and employee, Charles wrote.
"I find insufficient evidence that the Board’s school buildings are safe and healthful for these employees to work in; that the Board does not sufficiently mitigate the risk to these employees by directing them to work full time inside school buildings when certain duties can be performed remotely; and that CPS has therefore violated (the CTU contract),” Charles wrote..
Charles wrote that the district should let school clerks, assistants and technology coordinators do remote work when feasible, and sent the issue back to the two parties to attempt to come to an agreement about what can and can’t be done remotely. If, as often is the case, they can’t agree or have other disputes about implementing the ruling, it will go back to arbitration.
CPS said in it’s “evaluating its options and will be in touch with staff in the near future."
The district noted that, in its schools, “masks are provided and required, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes are readily available, stringent cleaning and disinfection protocols are in place, social distancing is mandated, and sneeze guards are installed to protect staff and visitors.”
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Teachers union leaders pointed out the timing of the ruling amid reports that principals have been told to prepare for the potential of a hybrid second quarter, and the day after a teacher’s death.
“It’s tragic that this ruling — which irrevocably establishes that CPS schools are not yet safe to reopen — has come too late to have helped protect Olga’s life or protect other workers from COVID infection,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a news release.
“We expect CPS to move immediately to protect the rest of our members in buildings by allowing them to begin working remotely today, as those workers did effectively from March through August," he said. “ ... The path to a truly safe reopening of our school buildings is through engagement with parents, talking to school communities and negotiating with the educators who know these schools best.”
According to the union, CPS hasn’t conducted government-recommended hazard assessments or tested the air quality in school buildings, many of which have poor ventilation.
More than half of CPS buildings were built before 1950, the oldest in 1893, according to CTU.
“We cannot succumb to the temptation to reopen schools because our lives may be easier for it," the union argued in arbitration documents. "The simple truth is that every time businesses and restaurants reopen, Covid-19 infection rates spike. And CPS is even less prepared to reopen than most. Its antiquated buildings are barely functional and do not provide the necessary air filtration and ventilation necessary for safety.”
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CTU has called for a hold on reopening schools until conditions are safe and has demanded that CPS bargain with the union on that.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-03--Third trial of Jackie Wilson after allegations of torture at the hands of Burge ends stunningly, wit

Third trial of Jackie Wilson after allegations of torture at the hands of Burge ends stunningly, with judge turning ire toward prosecutors

“ In Chicago , you can end up anywhere despite of what you did in public service , because you @ @ @ @ @ like this , '' he said , shaking the memo in the air .
`` @ @ @ @ @ drawer , licensed attorneys come in and try to hide it .
”

Jackie Wilson is flanked by his wife, Sandra, left, and daughter Candice Wilson after a news conference outside the Leighton Criminal Court Building Oct. 2, 2020. His murder case was abruptly dropped after allegations that a Cook County prosecutor lied under oath. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
A murder case with decades of baggage — three different trials, a high-profile exoneration, a legacy of police torture — was abruptly dropped this week after allegations that a Cook County prosecutor lied under oath.
The defendant, Jackie Wilson, proclaimed his innocence in the 1982 cop killing with tears in his eyes. Wilson long alleged he was abused by notorious Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge after his arrest.
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The prosecutor, Nick Trutenko, was fired from the office late Thursday after testifying that he had a long-standing relationship with a witness reputed to be an international con man. He returned to court Friday under threat of contempt charges.
The judge, William Hooks, spent two hours Friday dressing down the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for its role in the series of bizarre events, but did not make good on his repeated hints that he would find multiple players in contempt of court.
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And the third trial in a shocking 1982 cop killing ended without a formal finding of guilty or not guilty. Wilson’s defense attorneys openly speculated that the team of special prosecutors trying the case knew Hooks was about to acquit when they threw out charges Thursday.
“Jackie Wilson is innocent, he was going to be acquitted, they had an ethical obligation to dismiss this case with prejudice after a sitting state’s attorney committed perjury on the stand,” Elliot Slosar told reporters Friday.
Hooks on Friday called Wilson’s case perhaps the most complicated Burge-related case that has surfaced.
Undisputed is that Wilson’s brother Andrew fired the shots that killed Chicago police officers William Fahey and Richard O’Brien in 1982. Both brothers alleged they were tortured at the hands of police after their arrest. Wilson’s first conviction was thrown out on appeal; at retrial in 1989 he was convicted of O’Brien’s murder but acquitted of Fahey’s.
Hooks threw out Wilson’s second conviction in 2018 after extensive litigation on whether Wilson was tortured.
As in most Burge-related cases, a team of specially appointed private attorneys handled the prosecution, not Cook County state’s attorneys. In the Wilson case, they were tasked with prosecuting a nearly 40-year-old murder, and decided to move ahead.
Much of their case centered on a key witness from the 1989 trial: one William Coleman, who testified that Wilson confessed the murder to him while they were both locked up in Cook County Jail.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys both made efforts to find Coleman, who is reputed to be an international con man and fraud. Since he could not be located, prosecutors introduced his 1989 trial testimony into evidence, three decades later, by reading it into the record.
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Trutenko, a longtime assistant state’s attorney, was a lead prosecutor in that trial. He testified Thursday that he considered the prosecution of the Wilson brothers to be one of the proudest moments of his career — a “crown jewel.”
In Wilson’s recent trial proceedings, the defense alleged that Trutenko leaned on witnesses to change their stories in between Wilson’s first and second trials. And they made it their goal to attack Coleman’s credibility, painting him as a liar.
On Thursday, defense attorneys even called Coleman’s ex-wife and grown son as witnesses. Testifying over Zoom from England, both said he abused them, lied to them and was a habitual con man.
Neither knew whether he was alive or dead.
An investigator for the defense, former Chicago Reader journalist John Conroy, also tried to find out if Coleman was alive. He could not, and added that someone had specifically warned him against affirmatively saying he was dead, since “he had died before.”
When Trutenko hit the stand shortly afterward, he testified that he had developed a close friendship with Coleman after Wilson’s 1989 trial, during a period when Trutenko was in private practice. Trutenko even flew to England on Coleman’s dime to become godfather to Coleman’s daughter.
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But the true bombshell came when defense attorney Slosar asked Trutenko when he last had contact with Coleman.
“You formed a bond with Mr. Coleman,” Slosar asked. “How many years did that bond last, sir?”
“To this day,” Trutenko said, then adding he last heard from Coleman only a few days prior.
The admission stunned the courtroom.
But the case was not dropped until slightly later, after Trutenko testified that he had not discussed Coleman in his previous conversations with the special prosecutors.
A recess was called; Trutenko left the room at Hooks' bidding.
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Special prosecutors told Hooks that Trutenko’s testimony was false. They had, in fact, discussed Coleman with him.
And they then dropped the charges against Wilson entirely. He cannot be tried a fourth time for the slaying.
Trutenko was fired from the office Thursday evening. An internal job posting for his position was emailed to assistant state’s attorneys the next morning, and then, apparently inadvertently, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx herself hit reply-all.
“Well that’s fast,” she wrote.
The Cook County state’s attorney’s office will not be determining whether to criminally charge Trutenko, due to a conflict of interest, according to a statement from the office. Instead, it is referring the matter to “the appropriate agencies.”
When asked which agencies would be receiving the referral, the office said only that they would “provide an update when we have additional information to share.”
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Hooks ordered Trutenko to appear before him in court Friday, and expounded at length on the history of the case. At that hearing Friday morning, special prosecutors initially balked at giving the reason for their decision.
Only under aggressive questioning from Hooks — “this is not the time to play games” — did they repeat that Trutenko’s testimony had been perjured.
“State’s attorneys cannot stand by and hear perjury in a courtroom where a person is under oath,” Hooks said Friday, commending the special prosecutors for dropping the case after the ethical concern arose.
But Hooks turned his ire on the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, noting that they too presumably knew Trutenko was not truthful on the stand, and instead of bringing it to his attention, “they book out the courtroom … and I can’t get the sheriffs to find them.”
In another shock, a Cook County prosecutor assigned to represent Trutenko apparently advised special prosecutors not to ask any questions about Coleman while they prepared Trutenko for his testimony.
“It’s nothing illegal, it’s nothing unethical, but it’s weird,” the prosecutor told Special State’s Attorney Larry Rosen, according to Rosen’s statements in court Friday.
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And Hooks was particularly furious that before the trial Cook County state’s attorneys had fought hard to keep secret a 2019 memo about Trutenko’s alleged misconduct in a different case. Prosecutors on Friday largely removed their objections, since Trutenko had been terminated.
"What you have done is suggest a pattern and practice of hiding materials relative to bad prosecutors,” he said.
If there were more transparency, Hooks said, the bad prosecutors wouldn’t become judges, and bad cops wouldn’t become top police brass.
“In Chicago, you can end up anywhere despite of what you did in public service, because you don’t have stuff like this," he said, shaking the memo in the air. "It gets put in a drawer, licensed attorneys come in and try to hide it.”
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Positive COVID-19 test linked to in-person SAT exam at Lane Tech high school last week

At least one person who was at Lane Tech College Prep during SAT testing last week has tested positive for @ @ @ @ @ an email from principal Brian Tennison .
The email did not make clear how the @ @ @ @ @ school .

At least one person who was at Lane Tech College Prep during SAT testing last week has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an email from principal Brian Tennison. The email did not make clear how the person is associated with the school.
“A person who was at our school campus tested positive for COVID-19," states a letter Friday morning to the Lane Tech community. In bold, the letter adds: “We are sending this notification for your awareness, and you do not need to take any further action at this time.”
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The school was cleaned and sanitized, according to the letter.
“As a reminder, we can slow the spread of COVID-19 as a school community by social distancing whenever possible, wearing masks in public, washing our hands thoroughly, and avoiding close contact with people who are sick,” Tennison wrote.
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CPS said last month there had been 258 known COVID-19 cases among school staff and vendors, including eight deaths, through Sept. 8 but has not provided a school breakdown.
Someone who was present during an SAT exam given at Lane Tech last week has tested positive for the coronavirus. The school is shown in a 2016 photograph. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)
CPS has also not released information on COVID-19 cases at schools since fall quarter began, but the union has identified cases at Funston, Canty and Mount Greenwood elementary schools, along with Lane Tech.
Though classes have been remote since mid-March at many school districts in the region, thousands of high school students across the Chicago area returned to schools last Wednesday to take the college admissions exam.
While many colleges and universities are suspending SAT and ACT test requirements during the pandemic, the Illinois State Board of Education has defended the decision to keep the SAT as a high school graduation requirement while allowing districts to seek exemptions for individual students.
Many schools are hosting in-person exams this fall for seniors who normally take the SAT as juniors but missed it last spring because of the pandemic.
The Chicago Teachers Union, critical of holding tests in person and using teachers as proctors, had called for a waiver for CPS, posting on its website: “During this stressful time, CPS should not ask seniors to endure the additional stress of taking a test where what they have learned takes a back seat to their ability to answer multiple choice questions.”
District officials, however, countered that offering the exams was necessary to give students the best shot at success after high school and that they have to follow ISBE regulations anyway. Thousands of students were planning to take canceled exams in the spring, according to CPS.
The day before testing, the district said 88 schools were expecting 6,500 students, who were required to wear masks except when eating or drinking, as is anyone else in a school building. Rooms were sanitized before and after testing, and staff and students were supposed to pass an online health screener and temperature check to get in the door.
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CPS officials said students testing were seated 6 feet apart, with additional capacity limits. But, according to the district, testing and proctoring were both optional. The district had schools ask for staff volunteers to help proctor the tests and seek substitutes if they didn’t have enough volunteers.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Chicago judge accused of trying to kiss cop, propositioning court reporter in elevator, making sexua

Chicago judge accused of trying to kiss cop, propositioning court reporter in elevator, making sexually suggestive comments to assistant state’s attorney resigns

In September 2018 , Araujo was placed on administrative leave and reassigned from the bench at the criminal courthouse following @ @ @ @ @ to a female assistant state ’ s attorney as “ a bitch ” and suggested @ @ @ @ @ with her .

A Cook County judge accused of sexually harassing multiple women has resigned, an Illinois courts' spokesman confirmed Friday.
The Judicial Inquiry Board filed a complaint against Judge Mauricio Araujo last year, alleging that he “engaged in a pattern of inappropriate and harassing behavior toward women” he interacted with “in professional settings and in his official judicial capacity.”
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The board charged that Araujo’s alleged misconduct spanned six years, from 2012 to 2018, and detailed several instances of alleged misconduct by Araujo, which included making unwanted sexual advances and comments to women in the workplace.
Araujo, 55, who was first elected in 2008, could not be reached for comment Friday.
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On two separate occasions in 2012, Araujo made sexual advances toward a court reporter while the two were in an elevator in the Domestic Violence Courthouse on the Near West Side, according to the complaint.
While riding the elevator, Araujo allegedly moved close to woman and asked “how much money” she wanted to have sex with him, the complaint states.
By August 2016, Araujo was presiding over a courtroom inside the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th Street and California Avenue. A 15-year veteran Chicago police officer entered Araujo’s chambers so he could sign a search warrant.
The judge approached the officer with his arms extended and moved his face close to hers “in an attempt to kiss” her on the mouth, the complaint alleged.
The officer extended her arm to prevent him from getting closer and told him “back sir,” a technique she learned during police training, according to the complaint.
The judge later grabbed the officer’s hand and said, “just touch it,” the complaint alleged. When the officer pulled her hand away and asked, “touch what,” the judge allegedly said, “touch my butt.”
In September 2018, Araujo was placed on administrative leave and reassigned from the bench at the criminal courthouse following a complaint that he referred to a female assistant state’s attorney as “a bitch” and suggested he may have had sex with her.
The court commission, made up of five judges and two citizens, heard testimony from the alleged victims during a two-day hearing earlier this week. The commission can reprimand, censure, suspend with or without pay, remove from office or retire a judge.
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jaanderson@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-02--Column: From Chicago’s South Side to a seat on the federal court: RIP to a trailblazing judge who pl

Column: From Chicago’s South Side to a seat on the federal court: RIP to a trailblazing judge who played a sweet sax

Eventually Manning resumed her legal studies and earned a law degree at John Marshall Law School , which she later @ @ @ @ @ laws from the University of Virginia School of Law .
Through the years , she @ @ @ @ @ government , as well as the corporate world , so that by the time she @ @ @ @ @ knew something about almost everything .

Blanche Manning died in late September without the public fanfare typically offered to trailblazers, which is why one of her fellow judges alerted me to her death the other day.
“She was a remarkable person who deserves a full obituary,” her former colleague emailed. “I think that, had she been a man, her death would have been noticed.”
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Blanche Marie Manning was born in 1934 on Chicago’s South Side, daughter of a homemaker and a hotel manager. She rose to become the first African American woman elected to serve on the Illinois Appellate Court and after that to work as a federal judge.
Judge Blanche Manning, photographed at the Women's Bar Association in Chicago on Feb. 20, 1990. Manning, a former federal judge who died recently at 85, was the first African American woman elected to the Illinois Appellate Court. (Charles Osgood/Chicago Tribune)
“She was a Black female judge when we didn’t have very many Black female judges,” says Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks. “It was a predominantly white male industry, and there was a testing process. It took a while for them to know that Blanche Manning was not the person to disrespect.”
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Manning didn’t grow up dreaming of the law. She wanted to be a musician. At Fenger High School, equipped with a secondhand clarinet, she played in the orchestra and the marching band. Afterward, she attended the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University. But her father worried that jobs were scarce for female jazz musicians and persuaded her to be more practical.
Along her practical path, Manning held jobs as a legal secretary and a Chicago Public Schools teacher. In 1961, she enrolled in law school but dropped out when she and her husband, William “Billy” Manning, took five nieces and nephews into their home to raise as their own. Among them was Jack Porter, who was 2 when his mother died and Manning stepped into the role.
“She was a very kind and caring person who was generous with herself in all aspects of life,” Porter says. “She was a very humble person. She never went out of her way to say anything about her accomplishments.”
Eventually Manning resumed her legal studies and earned a law degree at John Marshall Law School, which she later supplemented with a master of laws from the University of Virginia School of Law. Through the years, she practiced in various realms of government, as well as the corporate world, so that by the time she reached the federal bench she knew something about almost everything.
As a federal judge, she handled a wide variety of cases, some high profile. There was the tiger killer. And the Chicago cop doubling as a kingpin for a drug-dealing street gang. Once a convicted murderer sent her a threatening letter and a bomblike device hidden in a hollow book.
“I remember her as a proponent of the news media’s First Amendment rights — always something I was on the alert for with the judges,” recalls former Tribune reporter Matt O’Connor.
Manning was known as quiet, reflective, no-nonsense, humble, perfectionist, fair, and committed to charitable causes and young people who lacked advantages. She spoke and taught widely, and took her duties as a role model seriously.
“Sometimes,” Hooks says, “I try to have the quiet and peace of Blanche and the sureness of her decisions. She would say powerful things but she didn’t raise her voice.”
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That description, echoed by others, doesn’t, however, take into account the woman who whipped around in a sporty Mercedes.
“Once when I was a practicing lawyer, I saw a little Mercedes pass me on the Dan Ryan Expressway,” Hooks recalls. “I won’t say she was speeding, but she needed to get where she was going faster than me.”
Afterward he called her and said, “Judge, I know you move fast on the bench, but on the Dan Ryan you need to slow down.”
Blanche Manning in 1970 when she was an assistant state's attorney in Chicago. (John Bartley/Chicago Tribune)
In the practice of law, Manning found the practical work her father wished for her, and with it the chance to help repair the world. But she never abandoned music. Once, when asked how she’d like to be remembered, she answered, “As a skilled jazz musician and a fair judge.”
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She was a founding member of the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra, just one of several bands she founded or played in. They had names like Diversityand Scales of Justice. In 2000, she helped form the Barristers Big Band, a popular entertainment at legal and charity functions. The group rehearsed every Monday night from 5:30 to 7 in her office at the federal courthouse.
“She was a fantastic soloist,” says John Vishneski III, a lawyer in the band. He describes her playing as “light and tasteful.”
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Manning’s husband died in 2004, and after her retirement in 2012, she lived out her life at their home in Olympia Fields. Until a year or so ago, she took music lessons every Wednesday morning, though arthritis cramped her style.
In late winter, around the time the pandemic started, Hooks called to ask her opinion on a conflict of interest situation involving attorneys.
“She collapsed 15 hours of legal research into a telephone discussion,” he says.
A full obituary of Manning, who died on Sept. 20 at 85, would be much longer. It would include a long list of people she touched, organizations she helped, songs she loved to play, including her signature tune “Autumn Leaves.” Suffice it for now to say: She made Chicago better.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com