chicagotribune--2020-06-15--Column: Now that the Lakefront Trail is opening, let’s reimagine biking to work in Chicago

After all , fewer than 2 % of Chicago commuters bike to work .
But the number of pedaling commuters @ @ @ @ @ reaching almost 24,000 in 2018 from just about 2,000 in 1980 , according to a @ @ @ @ @ Active Transportation Alliance .
That increase may be understated because thousands of Metra commuters use @ @ @ @ @ get from the big downtown train stations to their jobs .

A woman runs on a trail near West Wilson Drive on Chicago's lakefront near Montrose Harbor on Feb. 23, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
It was a giddy, guilty pleasure to be one of the hundreds of people who on Sunday defied Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s order to stay off the Lakefront Trail.
The sun shone. The lake sparked. The skyline rose majestically. And the police weren’t handing out tickets, just announcing on speakers that the lakefront is closed.
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The stream of cyclists, joggers and walkers — my favorite was a biker giving his cute little dog a ride in one of those baby bike trailers — said otherwise.
Astute observers interpreted the lack of enforcement as a sign that Lightfoot was ready to lift the ban, which initially made sense but increasingly looked like a heavy-handed response to the coronavirus.
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And that’s what happened Monday when City Hall announced that the 18-mile trail will reopen to walkers, runners, cyclists and in-line skaters on June 22.
Hooray! The people have a sliver of their lakefront back — as long as they keep moving. Congregating, gathering, and things like fitness classes and picnicking are still verboten. Somewhere in urban planning heaven, a smile is spreading across the mustachioed mug of Daniel Burnham, who once wrote: “The lakefront by right belongs to the people.”
But in the spirit of Danny B, who famously made no little plans, why stop at just reopening the trail?
It’s time to think big and explore a paradigm shift in downtown Chicago’s commuting patterns.
With the pandemic making thousands of people afraid to take public transit, city officials shouldn’t simply reopen the trail. They should be doing everything they can to promote bicycling as a way to get to work, from turning car-oriented streets into pop-up bike routes as Paris has done, to ensuring that downtown office buildings have showers so bike commuters don’t stink up the joint.
The benefits — better public health achieved through more exercise and less air pollution — could be enormous.
Is this a pipe dream?
After all, fewer than 2% of Chicago commuters bike to work. But the number of pedaling commuters gradually has been rising, reaching almost 24,000 in 2018 from just about 2,000 in 1980, according to a 2020 report by the nonprofit Active Transportation Alliance. That increase may be understated because thousands of Metra commuters use the Divvy bike-sharing network to get from the big downtown train stations to their jobs.
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In addition, bike sales have been booming nationwide in response to the pandemic. The demand for new bikes is so intense that it’s being compared with the rush to buy toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, bike commuting is playing an essential role as European cities emerge from quarantines.
Last month in Paris, The New York Times reports, street workers put up traffic barriers and painted yellow bicycle symbols onto the pavement, creating pop-up “corona cycleways” that are now heavily used. Residents around Paris even can get a subsidy of about $554 to purchase an electric bike or a smaller subsidy to fix an old bike.
So how about it, Chicago?
Why not a “corona cycleway” on LaSalle Street?
Why not temporarily turn empty garages into bike storage sheds?
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Why not build more downtown bike spots, like the McDonald’s Cycle Center in Millennium Park, which offers secure bike parking, lockers, showers and towel service, and a bike repair shop? And why not reopen the McDonald’s facility, along with other parts of Millennium Park, instead of keeping it closed?
I don’t mean to oversell what an increase in bike commuting can accomplish. Cycling has a gender gap; far more men than women commute by bike. Some suburbanites may be reluctant to bike through crime-ridden areas of Chicago. And there’s this thing called winter, which can make even the most ardent cyclist prefer the warmth and safety of an SUV or a Metra train car.
Nevertheless, this is a moment of tremendous possibility, one that the mayor and her transportation commissioner, Gia Biagi, should seize.
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With some 280 miles of on-street bike lanes and 48 miles of off-street trails, including the Lakefront Trail, Chicago in recent years has made great strides in transforming stretches of asphalt into something other than drag strips for cars.
Yet in response to the pandemic, Chicago’s Transportation Department is taking baby steps, not bold ones, to advance the cause of bike commuting.
The department has been upgrading and restriping old bike lanes, creating new ones and adding bike parking where it’s needed. That’s pretty tame stuff compared to what Paris has done.
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With the Lakefront Trail finally reopening, it’s time to follow the bold strokes of Burnham, who found inspiration in the boulevards of Paris. Let’s write the latest chapter, friendly to both bike commuting and a greener city, in the ongoing story of Chicago as “Paris on the Prairie.”
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Daywatch: COVID-19 delays inmates’ chance at freedom, thousands in Chicago to get Juneteenth as paid

Daywatch: COVID-19 delays inmates’ chance at freedom, thousands in Chicago to get Juneteenth as paid day off and airlines threaten to ban face mask scofflaws

Two days before the hearing , the courthouse closed due to the pandemic .
A court date in June was @ @ @ @ @ Warren , 44 , an ex-gang member who remains in Cook County Jail , is @ @ @ @ @ this is ever going to be over.
” Now the wait for him and other @ @ @ @ @ as some jails and prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks .

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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LaRon Warren looks through a window in the COVID-19 quarantine tier in the Cook County Jail in Chicago on May 20, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
LaRon Warren had been serving life in prison without parole for two South Side murders as a juvenile in the 1990s, but a series of landmark court rulings left him hoping he’d win his freedom at a hearing in March. Then the coronavirus put that dream on hold.
Two days before the hearing, the courthouse closed due to the pandemic. A court date in June was delayed until July. And Warren, 44, an ex-gang member who remains in Cook County Jail, is starting to “wonder if this is ever going to be over.” Now the wait for him and other inmates is becoming more challenging as some jails and prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks.
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Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul at a hearing in 2019 at the Michael A. Bilandic Building in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has tested positive for the new coronavirus, his office said Tuesday. Raoul is the highest-ranking Illinois politician to announce a positive test for COVID-19.
Raoul, who has been working out of the downtown Chicago office over the past couple weeks, attended the South Suburban Day of Action in Calumet City on June 6, which was also attended by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “The governor always wears a mask and will be tested again today after attending a march and other public events,” a Pritzker spokeswoman said.
Pritzker also attended a June 8 march with hundreds of other people in south suburban Matteson, which has drawn criticism from Republicans. Now the Illinois GOP is suing Pritzker over his 10-person gathering limit.
Zakiya Blair is seen at her home in Romeoville on June 15, 2020. Blair, a senior community associate at Lyft, will get Juneteenth as a paid day off this year. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Juneteenth largely has been just another work day at Chicago companies — until now. In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police and the demands for racial equality that have followed, Illinois companies are joining employers elsewhere in marking the day on Friday — by closing offices and giving employees a paid day off.
Some employees and advocates say having workplaces recognize the day is a step toward improved diversity and inclusion, and perhaps a new national holiday.
Juneteenth honors the day all African Americans were freed from slavery. Here’s how you can join the celebration.
Masked passengers fill a Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank, Calif., to Las Vegas on June 3, with middle seats left open. (Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times)
Airlines say they’re cracking down on passengers who flout rules requiring face coverings on flights, with some threatening to ban travelers who refuse to comply.
While there’s only so much airlines can do to force a passenger to keep a mask on after takeoff, Chicago-based United Airlines said it would begin placing passengers who fail to comply with instructions to wear a mask on an “internal travel restriction list” starting Thursday.
The Mercury Theater on Southport Avenue in Chicago in 2014. The theater announced it is closing down at the end of June. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Mercury Theater Chicago in the Southport Corridor, an operation known for homegrown productions of musicals such as “Avenue Q” and “Spamalot,” announced Tuesday it is closing at the end of June. As a mid-size, Equity-affiliated commercial theater, the Mercury is the largest Chicago theater to be closed by the pandemic.


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Column: You really gotta go. But go where? The trials of finding a bathroom in the pandemic

Where to find a bathroom is not the most urgent question of these troubled times , but for many Americans @ @ @ @ @ .
Back in the old days — meaning March — we could leave our homes @ @ @ @ @ of need we could almost always find a bathroom somewhere .
A park , a @ @ @ @ @ .

People wait in line for the bathroom before the start of the movie at the McHenry Outdoor Theater in McHenry on May 8, 2020. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The man in the mask looked desperate. He approached one person after another — I saw this in a park a few days ago — asking each one the same question: Do you know where I can find a bathroom?
Over and over, he asked. Over and over, he heard the same sad no.
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“There used to be a port-a-potty over there,” a woman said. He brightened as she pointed across the grass. “But it’s gone.”
The man walked off slowly, just one more victim of this underdiscussed effect of the pandemic: the bathroom shortage.
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Where to find a bathroom is not the most urgent question of these troubled times, but for many Americans it is a pressing one. Back in the old days — meaning March — we could leave our homes knowing that in our moment of need we could almost always find a bathroom somewhere. A park, a library, a coffee shop.
Then the world shut down, and like so many other things we once took for granted, bathrooms could no longer be depended on.
So we’ve learned to improvise, to strategize, to go where we never dared to go before.
“I knelt in a ditch outside a strip mall, wrapped in a towel from the car, two weeks ago to go before a bike ride in the suburbs,” confessed Michelle M., who responded to my Facebook query on this topic Tuesday.
Another Facebook respondent, Valerie D., admitted that she was out for a walk on a recent Sunday “and could not wait. I went into an alley. And peed on the street. Never did that before. I’m 71.”
Do I need to point out that the bathroom predicament is harder on women than men? Few women are as blithe about the issue as a man named Steven Z., who replied to my query by saying, “I believe in watering trees.”
The pandemic’s bathroom shortage has changed where and how we walk, bike, drive.
“No coffee before the early morning bike rides,” said Becky B., a Facebook respondent, “and only sips of water during.”
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Others reported taking long drives equipped with buckets, small garbage bags and toilet paper. Some said their dream of a summer road trip had been quashed by the thought: What if I need a bathroom?
One friend says she’s wishing for the invention of a pandemic-themed adult diaper.
The bathroom quandary plays out in homes, too. Hanging out in a friend’s backyard, at an appropriate distance, is now sanctioned. But then comes the fraught question, “Can I use your bathroom?”
If you’re the guest, do you dare to ask? If you’re the host, do you dare say no? Or yes?
Bob R. recounts the pleasure of visiting his daughter last weekend and, for the first time in months, sitting together out on the patio.
“When it was time to go — no pun intended — my wife needed to go to the bathroom,” he said. “It was as if a total stranger asked to borrow underwear from my daughter.”
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His daughter did, however, say OK, “with some trepidation,” and his wife wiped everything down afterward.
As more places open back up, bathrooms are reopening too, which poses new concerns.
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One Facebook friend reported finding impressively clean truck stop bathrooms while on a recent road trip, and another was satisfied by the precautions she encountered on an airplane. But many people remain squeamish about sinks and toilets used by the madding crowd.
On Tuesday, The New York Times reported on a new study that shows “flushing a toilet can generate a cloud of aerosol droplets that rises nearly three feet. Those droplets may linger in the air long enough to be inhaled by a shared toilet’s next user, or land on surfaces in the bathroom.”
It’s unknown whether the virus is commonly transmitted by public or shared toilets, the story noted, but the “toilet plume” can carry infectious coronavirus particles.
Some businesses hope to ward off more trouble by installing touch-free sinks and soap dispensers; replacing blowing hand dryers with paper towels; and moving toilets farther apart. A Texas barbecue restaurant has reportedly hired bathroom monitors.
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And so we move on, through the mystery and challenges of the coronavirus, learning as we go. And if we go into shared bathrooms, let’s remember basic safety principles:
Wash your hands. Keep your distance. Don’t touch your face. Wear a mask. When in doubt, err on the side of caution. And don’t drink a quart of coffee before you leave the house.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Column: Talking about social justice reform without affirmative action is just hot air

One thing I learned quickly on my journey was that affirmative action was merely a tool that opened the door @ @ @ @ @ do nothing to help me compete once I entered the room .
When it came @ @ @ @ @ , I was entirely on my own to keep up with those who were already @ @

Protesters hold a sign reading "black lives matter" during a peaceful demonstration June 2, 2020, on Division Street in Chicago following the death of George Floyd and others in police custody. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
If America really wants to bring about racial equality, we know exactly how to do it.
There is no need to form commissions to study solutions to generational poverty, poor access to quality education and dismal hiring and promotion policies that systematically keep many African Americans stuck at the bottom.
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These racial disparities comprise the bulk of social injustices in this country. The best idea America ever had to address them was affirmative action.
Some people at the top didn’t like being forced to share, though. They didn’t want to give up the preferential treatment they received in every aspect of American life. So they fought as hard as they could to get rid of the only government program that could level the playing field.
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Before I go further, I must add a side note. I was a beneficiary of affirmative action in the 1970s — and proud of it.
One thing I learned quickly on my journey was that affirmative action was merely a tool that opened the door to opportunity. It would do nothing to help me compete once I entered the room. When it came to doing the required work, I was entirely on my own to keep up with those who were already there.
When the time came to choose a college, I decided to follow the path of three of the top white students in my graduating class and apply to the University of Georgia. I’d worked hard to excel at Hogansville High, but I remained at a disadvantage.
The first eight years of my education were at the all-black elementary school, where I was taught from hand-me-down books discarded by white kids when their shipment of new, updated books came in. My GPA was excellent, but my SAT scores were average.
During this time, state-funded colleges and universities that previously admitted only whites had opened up to African Americans. Affirmation action was an effective recruiting and admissions tool, and the university used it to give me a shot.
I obtained my first job at the Asheville Citizen in North Carolina because of affirmative action too. The white managing editor, Robert Satterwhite, traveled to the University of Georgia specifically looking for an African American to hire as rookie reporter.
Having decided on a journalism career much later than others, I certainly wasn’t the most qualified person for the job. I didn’t even have a suitable portfolio to show. But Satterwhite hired me, and for three years, he and others groomed me to become a more seasoned journalist.
From the moment President John Kennedy issued his executive order in 1961 establishing the concept of affirmative action, it was perceived by some as a tool to give special treatment to African Americans.
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But that was never the intent. The goal of the order, which pertained specifically to government contractors, was to give black people and other marginalized groups equal access to opportunities for employment.
It was a precursor to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which expanded legal protections to African Americans when it came to voting. It also tore down segregated barriers in schools, employment and public accommodations.
No one needs to be reminded of how hard some white Americans fought against civil rights. Over the next half-century, they would be just as determined to dismantle affirmative action. Though barely a remnant of the program remains today, court battles continue in an attempt to rid the country of any sign that it ever existed.
It is not surprising that some whites would misinterpret the attempt to give blacks a fair shot as a direct attack on them. The prevailing argument remains that affirmative action hurts white people because it snatches away opportunities they are entitled to by sheer privilege.
It presumes that I stole a slot from a more deserving white person at the University of Georgia and again at the Asheville Citizen. It does not allow for the reality that those slots never had a white person’s name on them to begin with. Even if they had, most white people would have lost out to other more privileged white people.
The truth is that people who opposed affirmative action didn’t believe black people deserved an equal opportunity. But mostly, they weren’t willing to share the pot.
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That has been America’s history whenever it came to racial equality. Forty acres and a mule was nothing short of affirmative action. And it was taken away too.
The special field order by Union Gen. William T. Sherman to redistribute 400,000 acres of Confederate-owned land to former slaves was a radical move in 1865, but it was fair. African Americans, after all, had spent nearly 250 years sowing that land for free.
Sherman apparently understood that the only way people who had been enslaved for centuries could ever catch up and become contributing members of society was to give them a nudge.
The land, and later adding a mule to the mix, was in the best interest of America because blacks wouldn’t have to depend on the government to take care of them. They would have the resources to compete in a capitalistic society and become self-sufficient.
But America wouldn’t have it. As soon as the war was over, President Andrew Johnson overturned Sherman’s order and returned the land to the white owners who, in fact, had stolen much of it from Native Americans. This early experiment in affirmative action was over before it got off the ground.
Even without the 40 acres and a mule, black people thrived during the Reconstruction era. For 12 years after slavery was abolished, blacks owned businesses, elected representatives to Congress and made strides in all facets of life. When America had enough, it put Jim Crow laws in place to stop it.
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Imagine, though, what America might be like today if it truly believed in fairness. Perhaps there would be no need for mass marches for social justice. Perhaps there would be no impoverished neighborhoods plagued with violence. Perhaps there would be no permanent underclass on which ruthless police officers could prey.
Maybe equal numbers of blacks and whites would be living cohesively in stately homes along Chicago’s Gold Coast and next door to each other in middle-class neighborhoods across the country.
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Perhaps George Floyd would not have needed to pass a fake $20 bill because he would have had a good job and enough real money in the bank to buy as many cigarettes as he wanted.
President Kennedy and Gen. Sherman were on the right track. Reconstruction proved that African Americans, if given opportunities, are as capable of succeeding as any other race. Most black people aren’t sitting around looking for a handout. But we would gladly take a helping hand.
A few years ago, I reached out to Satterwhite, my former editor who is long retired, and asked him why he hired me without seeing a single news article with my byline on it. He said he just saw something in me back then, and decided that I deserved a chance.
As time went on, race played less and less of a role in my subsequent jobs because my rising level of experience allowed me to compete on my own merits. I no longer needed a hiring program to force me through the door. My resume opened it for me.
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That’s what affirmative action is all about.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Two days before a hearing that could have set him free, the courthouse shut down. Now inmates like L

Two days before a hearing that could have set him free, the courthouse shut down. Now inmates like LaRon Warren wait, as they try to dodge coronavirus.

In 2012 , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment for most juveniles @ @ @ @ @ a follow-up state court decision allowed that federal ruling to be applied retroactively .
And @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court drew a bright line saying a 40-year term is long enough to be @ @ @ @ @ without parole for a juvenile .

LaRon Warren looks through a window in the COVID-19 quarantine tier in the Cook County Jail in Chicago on May 20, 2020. Warren, who was serving life in prison without parole for two South Side murders as a juvenile in the 1990s, awaits resentencing. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
LaRon Warren had been serving life in prison without parole for two South Side murders as a juvenile in the 1990s, but a series of landmark court rulings left him hoping he’d win his freedom at a hearing in March.
Then the coronavirus put that dream on hold.
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Two days before the hearing, the courthouse closed due to the pandemic. A court date in June was delayed until July. And Warren, 44, an ex-gang member who remains in Cook County Jail, is starting to “wonder if this is ever going to be over.”
Warren is among an estimated 30 inmates in Illinois still seeking to shorten their sentences based on a series of key court decisions.
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In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment for most juveniles. Two years later, a follow-up state court decision allowed that federal ruling to be applied retroactively. And last year, the Illinois Supreme Court drew a bright line saying a 40-year term is long enough to be considered a sentence of life without parole for a juvenile.
Shobha L. Mahadev, a clinical associate professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, says “It’s an urgent situation" for the inmates. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Now the wait is becoming more challenging as some jails and prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks. At the county jail where Warren is, seven prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19 died at local hospitals.
“It’s an urgent situation,” said Shobha L. Mahadev, a clinical associate professor at Northwestern University Law School’s Children and Family Justice Center.
About 70 of the roughly 100 Illinois inmates once sentenced to life without parole as juveniles have been resentenced following the state and federal court rulings, Mahadev said. Most have received shorter sentences, some have been freed, and a handful have been resentenced to life in prison again, Mahadev said.
Some of those awaiting relief, including LaBron Neal, are still locked in court battles over whether they are even eligible for a resentencing hearing. Neal is in Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet, where a dozen people have died of COVID-19.
Prisoners convicted of murder and other brutal crimes may draw little sympathy outside of family and friends, and the wheels of justice may turn slower for them than other inmates.
Their efforts to win relief often take time because of the complexities of their cases and the vehement resistance from victim families and prosecutors. But advocates of these prisoners contend that the coronavirus amplifies the push for action on their slow-moving cases now.
“When we talk about prisons, we expect people to be held accountable for the crimes they commit,” Mahadev said. “None of this is supposed to be a death sentence by virtue of a horrible pandemic, and we know that prisons are uniquely susceptible to this.”
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LaRon Warren’s case
Warren was convicted of first-degree murder for the April 1994 shooting death of 17-year-old Ebony Higgins as she walked with friends in the Roseland neighborhood less than a mile from her home, court records show.
LaRon Warren stands in his single cell at the COVID-19 quarantine tier in the Cook County Jail on May 20, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The mandatory sentence was life without parole because Higgins’ death was Warren’s second conviction in a murder case. Previously, Warren was found guilty of murder due to his involvement in what court documents describe as a 1993 drug deal gone bad in Washington Heights.
Warren, 17 at the time of the murders, won the right to be resentenced in a 2016 Illinois appellate court decision that cited the evolving case law regarding lengthy sentences for juveniles.
He was transferred from state prison to the county jail in February 2017, where he has learned of even more recent rulings that could help his effort to get out sooner.
But just as Warren was prepping to go to court March 19 for a resentencing hearing, the courts shut down. Warren said he was “devastated.”
“Why I got to sit here?" asked Warren, whose late mother, Grace, was an advocate involved with groups opposed to sentencing minors to life without parole.
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The hearing was rescheduled for June 5, but Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans extended the courthouse shutdown. Now Warren has to wait until July 10, said Mark Douglass, the assistant public defender handling Warren’s case.
Mark Douglass, the assistant public defender handling LaRon Warren’s case. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Warren already has served 26 years. If prior court rulings apply favorably to Warren’s case, a judge could order his release as soon as the next hearing, Douglass said.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is not tipping her hand on what position her office will take at Warren’s hearing.
“We review all matters on a case-by-case basis and take into careful consideration the facts, evidence, and the law,” a Foxx spokeswoman said. “As this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment on our position.”
There are narrow exceptions that give a judge the ability to reaffirm the original term of life without parole for a juvenile. One of them is a determination that an inmate can’t be rehabilitated.
LaBron Neal’s case
LaBron Neal’s sentence of life without parole was for the August 1996 shooting deaths of two teens at a Carbondale trailer park, murders that shook the southern Illinois city.
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At the time, Neal was 17 and in a gang. The victims, Terrance Mitchell, 16, and James Austin Campbell, 15, died from gunshot wounds to their heads.
Neal recently wrote to the Tribune from prison that he has “accepted full responsibility.”
Neal’s case is not as far along as Warren’s appeal — he’s still trying to win a basic resentencing hearing.
Attorney Raymond Wigell has sought one since last summer, but said prosecutors were “opposing us at every juncture.”
Attorney Raymond Wigell is representing LaBron Neal. (Raquel Zaldivar / Chicago Tribune)
Arryn Carson, an assistant state’s attorney in Jackson County, argued in a May 18 court brief that Neal is not entitled to a resentencing hearing. She contended that the sentencing judge already considered the factors that allow for life without parole even when a juvenile is the offender.
The judge noted Neal’s “chronic lack of compassion” and a juvenile record that included “shooting an individual with a BB gun, threatening an individual with a knife, and hijacking a car at gunpoint,” according to Carson’s filing.
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Further, she argued the judge had a chance to consider Neal’s character while in court and review a pre-sentencing report. Carson noted the judge’s words during the 1997 sentencing hearing: "Life without parole is appropriate in this case to protect society from an anti-social, amoral individual like you, LaBron.”
As a result, Carson argued, Schwarz effectively gave Neal what amounted to a “discretionary sentence of life without parole, regardless of the mandatory sentence” that was automatically required at the time for two murders.
But the current judge in the case, Michael A. Fiello, has written in a prior ruling that the original judge had no actual discretion in the sentencing because life without parole was mandatory with two murders. As a result, Fiello said, Neal had “no real opportunity” to present mitigating evidence that could weigh in his favor.
Fiello will take up the matter in a video hearing July 15.
Beyond the legal arguments in the Neal case, though, are the emotions of loss.
“My son is still dead,” said James Allen Campbell, 72. He’s the father of one of Neal’s victims, James Austin Campbell, a distance runner who had won dozens of ribbons and trophies.
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A retired professor of early childhood education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, the father said he “absolutely” opposes a reduction to Neal’s sentence, calling him “just evil."
Campbell said his son had been attending a going-away party for a track athlete who had won a college scholarship when the younger Campbell was shot twice in the back, chased down, robbed and shot in the face.
“And this is the kind of guy they want to give another chance to?” Campbell asked.
Among Neal’s supporters is Eddie Read, a longtime African American activist from Chicago. Read hailed the incarcerated Neal for creating and running a program for nearly 20 years that tries to steer people inside and outside of prison away from gang activity.
“LaBron Neal is the poster child in so many ways for restorative justice,” said Read, chairman of Chicago Black United Communities.
Neal wrote to the Tribune that the program, called the Fallback Movement, "is very important to me.
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“It is the vehicle which allows me to strive toward repaying a debt that I know I can never repay," said Neal, 41.
From inside Stateville, Neal described how three fellow inmates he knew died from COVID-19 and many others have become ill. “I do not feel safe here" due to the prison conditions, he said.
But the elder Campbell called Neal’s statements about changing his life a “bunch of bull” and dismissed Neal’s worries about catching the coronavirus.
“I would give anything to have my son alive even if he was infected with the virus,” Campbell said. “His ashes are in an urn."
rlong@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @RayLong


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Column: With coronavirus cases rising and Trump’s reelection chances falling, it’s clear: The presid

Column: With coronavirus cases rising and Trump’s reelection chances falling, it’s clear: The president needs to attack numbers

One is written by Trump ’ s niece , Mary Trump , and its reported title is an already VERY @ @ @ @ @ “ Too Much and Never Enough : How My Family Created the World ’ s @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s clear the terrible word “ Dangerous ” overtook the very good word @ @ @ @ @ it the way liberals have cancelled so many of our great words . )

President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. (Evan Vucci / AP)
As an ardent supporter of (our great) President Donald Trump, I say it’s high time he demand formal apologies from his two most notorious and dishonest critics: numbers and words.
Let’s start with numbers, which, thanks to extreme radical-leftist concepts like “math,” have become outspoken critics of the president, showing absolutely no respect for the office.
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Between polling numbers and numbers relating to the (TOTALLY SOLVED!) coronavirus pandemic, there’s a clear anti-Trump bias, likely a numerical conspiracy cooked up by Deep State arithmeticians and other assorted sorcerers.
Here are a few recent examples of insidious integers.
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The COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, found only 14% of American adults describe themselves as very happy. That number is clearly lying.
In 2018, the research group found 31% of American adults were very happy. So despite the fact that we’ve had two additional years of President Trump making America great again, you’re going to tell me the number of very happy people in the country has been cut in half?
If that figure was true, I’m 130% sure Trump would have let us know. (According to Trump, Trump has lied zero times since taking office.)
As if that wasn’t enough evidence that statistics have been infiltrated by antifa, check out these doozies.
According to “counting,” a practice closely associated with communism, more than 115,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, directly contradicting President Trump’s claim that the country’s coronavirus response has been a great success.
Numbers are also attempting to harm the president’s upcoming rally in Oklahoma, the first he has had since the pandemic began.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported a record 225 new coronavirus cases Saturday, and the numbers have been increasing since late May. Those numbers directly, and rudely, contradict Vice President Mike Pence’s statement regarding the Trump rally: “The number of cases in Oklahoma has declined precipitously.”
Who are you going to believe? Radical numbers or Trump’s deeply religious vice president? I, for one, choose God.
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But wait, it gets even more ridiculous. A recent poll conducted for American Greatness, a (smartly) pro-Trump website, included socialist numbers claiming Biden is leading Trump 50% to 40% in Florida and is up 13 points in Michigan.
Can you believe that? Even a group that supports our magnificent president can’t count on numbers to behave like patriots. It’s the craziest thing I’ve heard since someone said, “Hillary Clinton didn’t single-handedly attack the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.”
And that’s why President Trump must demand an apology. From numbers.
His reelection campaign recently demanded that CNN apologize for and retract a poll that showed Biden leading Trump 55% percent to 41% nationally.
In a letter to CNN, the campaign wrote: “Media polls such as these are designed to manufacture an anti-Trump narrative and misinform and mislead actual voters. It’s a stunt and a phony poll to cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President.”
There is no way any American should stand by and let numbers stifle momentum and enthusiasm for our capital-P President. We know Trump’s support is through the roof. He tells us that every time he opens his mouth.
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The Trump campaign needs to send a similarly forceful letter to wherever numbers come from (possibly some giant calculator in billionaire George Soros’ office?). They need to demand that numbers get in line, stop lying and start fairly representing the near-universal love Americans have for Donald Trump.
The same goes for words.
There are two upcoming word boxes (books) likely to contain misbehaving words eager to attack the president.
One is written by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, and its reported title is an already VERY WRONG collection of words: “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.” (It’s clear the terrible word “Dangerous” overtook the very good word “Dignified” and canceled it the way liberals have cancelled so many of our great words.)
According to a description of the book on Amazon, the niece “explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office.”
LYING WORDS! The man who currently occupies the Oval Office is not damaged. He is the least-damaged president in American history, even less damaged that Honest Abe!
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Trump niece’s words, which will come out July 28, should immediately apologize.
The second book is written by Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, a dreadful man known for corrupting words with his mustache. That book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” will discuss “the president’s inconsistent, scattershot decision-making process” and include this assemblage of word-traitors: “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations.”
GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN-WORDS! What a scurrilous allegation. There is nothing — and I mean nothing — aside from so-called “overwhelming evidence” to suggest that President Trump factors reelection into every single decision he makes.
Again, like the liberal numbers, these disreputable words must be held accountable and, ideally, prosecuted by Attorney General William Barr.
Nobody wants to live in a country where words and numbers are taken seriously.
Take action, Mr. President. The optimism of your supporters depends on it!
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rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--1 dead, 4 seriously injured in Far South Side crash

The crash occurred before 3:45 a.m. Wednesday at 87th Street and Kedzie Avenue in the Marycrest neighborhood , officials said @ @ @ @ @ , which sends at least five ambulances , was requested to the scene .

Three people were killed when their car spun out of control and hit a fire hydrant and a tree on the South Side early Wednesday.
The accident occurred about 3 a.m. in the 3300 block of West 87th Street in the Marycrest neighborhood, according to Chicago police. Four of the five people in the car were ejected.
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The driver, a 24-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at the scene. An 18-year-old man was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead there. A third person, identified only as a Jane Doe, was also pronounced dead at the medical center.
A 20-year-old woman was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in fair condition, and a 19-year-old woman was also taken to Christ in fair condition.
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The names of those killed were not released.
Check back for updates.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Chicago Police Department’s first deputy superintendent announces upcoming retirement

Earlier in his career , Riccio served as lieutenant of the former Belmont Area violent crimes unit , supervising investigations @ @ @ @ @ the North Side and downtown .
While assigned there , one of the most high-profile @ @ @ @ @ December 2006 fatal shooting of Willie B. Posey , the bodyguard of former Chicago Bears @ @ @ @ @ ” Johnson .
An alleged gang member was convicted of murder in his slaying .

The Chicago Police Department’s second in command announced Tuesday he will retire this summer after about 34 years on the force.
Anthony Riccio will retire Aug. 1 as the department’s first deputy superintendent, a post he’s held since 2018.
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“With more than three decades of experience, he has served as a steadfast example of a true Chicago police officer — someone who simply wants to protect this city,” police Superintendent David Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “Those who have worked with the First Deputy are lucky to have learned from him.”
Traditionally, the first deputy superintendent is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the whole department. But Riccio’s role changed in January when a sweeping reorganization of the department separated its crime-fighting operations from a new bureau focusing on CPD's reform efforts to improve its policing practices.
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When that took shape, Riccio took charge of the crime-fighting operations while another police official, Barbara West, was tapped to head the reform bureau.
There were rumblings of Riccio’s retirement prior to protests late last month that were sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Riccio most recently spoke out last week against Chicago police officers seen on video making popcorn, drinking coffee and sleeping on a couch in a South Side campaign office of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush while, officials said, nearby businesses were being looted amid unrest following those protests during the last weekend in May.
At a news conference with Rush, Riccio called the officers’ conduct “absolutely indefensible” at the same time he was standing shoulder to shoulder with colleagues elsewhere in the city being pelted with rocks.
“They didn’t just let down the community,” Riccio said. “They let down fellow officers.”
Before being named first deputy superintendent under former Superintendent Eddie Johnson, Riccio served as chief of the department’s bureau of organized crime, overseeing specialized citywide units that, among other things, focus on long-term investigations into gang activity, drug trafficking and gunrunning.
He also served as deputy chief of the bureau of detectives under former Superintendent Garry McCarthy. As the second-highest-ranking official in that bureau at the time, Riccio oversaw hundreds of detectives.
Before that, he served as commander of the Area Central detective division, supervising detectives who investigated shootings, homicides, robberies and other crimes for much of the South Side, parts of the West Side and downtown.
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During his time at Area Central, he oversaw detectives investigating the January 2013 slaying of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a high school honor student and drum majorette who was shot and killed in a park just a week after she had performed at festivities for then-President Barack Obama's second inauguration. Two reputed gang members were convicted of murder in the case that drew national headlines and became a symbol of the city's entrenched violence.
Earlier in his career, Riccio served as lieutenant of the former Belmont Area violent crimes unit, supervising investigations into homicides and shootings on the North Side and downtown. While assigned there, one of the most high-profile cases he supervised was the December 2006 fatal shooting of Willie B. Posey, the bodyguard of former Chicago Bears defensive lineman Terry “Tank” Johnson. An alleged gang member was convicted of murder in his slaying.
Riccio himself briefly made news shortly after Mayor Lori Lightfoot was elected last year when it was revealed that he took a vacation in June 2019 despite her order barring CPD’s top leaders from taking time off over the traditionally violent summer months. But Johnson had approved Riccio’s time off before Lightfoot took office, and Riccio was not disciplined.
Chicago Tribune’s John Byrne contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-06-18--No bail for Bronzeville man accused of firing on officers before standoff with SWAT

Those same tactical unit officers had prior run-ins with McGee , easily recognizing him by the distinctive “ Braveheart ” @ @ @ @ @ , prosecutors said .
The four uniformed officers were on patrol looking for McGee , @ @ @ @ @ assault with a handgun on June 10 , when they spotted him and another man @ @ @ @ @ prosecutors said .
McGee took off running after seeing the officers , who had called @ @ @ @ @ street name , authorities said .

Bail was denied Wednesday for a 22-year-old Bronzeville man accused of opening fire on a car full of Chicago police officers, before taking refuge inside an acquaintance’s apartment building earlier this week.
It was revealed in court that one of the officers had not been shot in the knee as previously reported by Chicago police.
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Steven McGee, of the 400 block of East 51st Street, faces four counts of attempted murder of a police officer.
Authorities said they have extensive video and physical evidence and eyewitness statements. The video includes footage of McGee fleeing into a building, where he staged a three-hour standoff with Chicago SWAT officers that ended peacefully.
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McGee is also facing felony charges of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and aggravated discharge of a firearm, police said.
In front of Judge Arthur Wesley Willis at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, prosecutors contended that McGee, a reputed Gangster Disciples gang member who goes by “Lil Steve,” opened fire on an unmarked squad car of cops around 6:30 p.m. Monday in the 5000 block of South King Drive.
Those same tactical unit officers had prior run-ins with McGee, easily recognizing him by the distinctive “Braveheart” tattoo over his right eyebrow, prosecutors said. The four uniformed officers were on patrol looking for McGee, who was wanted for aggravated assault with a handgun on June 10, when they spotted him and another man walking on the street, prosecutors said. McGee took off running after seeing the officers, who had called out to him using his street name, authorities said.
At some point during his escape attempt, McGee, who is on parole for a 2015 armed robbery conviction, pulled a black handgun from his waistband and fired on the squad car, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Deboni told the court.
As all four officers exited the car, one of them heard another gunshot and immediately felt something on his right leg. But the officer suffered a “contusion,” not a gunshot wound, Deboni said.
Reached for comment Wednesday evening, police spokesman Tom Ahern said doctors at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where the officer was taken, told the department the officer suffered a gunshot wound to the knee and referred questions to the state’s attorney’s office.
After the shooting, McGee fired five shots into the glass front door of an apartment building where his barber lived and fled inside the man’s apartment, prosecutors said. Inside, McGee changed out of his clothing, including a bloodstained pair of white Nike Air Force One sneakers, authorities said. McGee put some of his clothing in a bathroom sink with bleach and other belongings in a black garbage bag that he dropped out of the bathroom window, Deboni said.
The standoff ended when the barber and a 30-year-old woman inside the apartment opened the back door and alerted police.
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McGee’s court-appointed lawyer said that the man with McGee also had a gun and that there were possibly others in the area who could have fired on the officers. “With the climate in Chicago, there could very well be someone else shooting,” Assistant Public Defender Bill Finger said.
But Willis ordered McGee to remain in custody for the new charges as well as the parole violation. McGee returns to court July 6.
wlee@chicagotribune.com
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MidNoirCowboy
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-06-18--Woman who says Chicago police pulled her from car by her hair and placed knee on her neck formally a

Woman who says Chicago police pulled her from car by her hair and placed knee on her neck formally asks city to drop charges against her

“ It is clear from the video of the incident , neither Ms. Wright nor any of the occupants were @ @ @ @ @ , ” his letter states .
“ Also , the force used was brutal and @ @ @ @ @ which Ms. Wright was an occupant was not engaged in any form of escape or @ @ @ @ @ and before their brutal attack .
”

Mia Wright, 25, who was pulled from a car by Chicago police at Brickyard Mall, talks with family and supporters after speaking to media in the parking lot of the Brickyard Mall in Chicago on June 4, 2020. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
A woman who says Chicago police grabbed her from a car by her hair and placed a knee on her neck formally asked the city Wednesday to drop disorderly conduct charges that were filed after the incident in late May.
“These charges are baseless, frivolous and, quite frankly, offensive given the circumstances,” wrote Nenye Uche, attorney for Mia Wright.
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Wright and her cousin Tnika Tate said they were parked near a looted mall on May 31 when police officers surrounded the car, broke the windows and searched her and Tate and a group of friends and relatives. Wright said she was thrown to the pavement and a knee placed on her neck.
“Ms. Wright could barely breathe and was in a lot of pain,” Uche said in his letter to the city. She suffered permanent injury to her eye from the glass shattered by the officers.
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Police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli said Wright was placed into custody and charged with disorderly conduct after she was observed by officers “assembled with three or more persons for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace.”
But Uche said a video does not show that.
“It is clear from the video of the incident, neither Ms. Wright nor any of the occupants were engaged in any illegal activity,” his letter states. “Also, the force used was brutal and unjustified because the vehicle in which Ms. Wright was an occupant was not engaged in any form of escape or resistance when the police approached and before their brutal attack.”
Two officers involved with the incident have been relieved of police powers and are being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The city said it had no comment on the letter.
Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Pratt contributed.
jvillagomez@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 546 new known cases and 87 more deaths reported as bars and brewers

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 546 new known cases and 87 more deaths reported as bars and brewers in Chicago reopen and Lightfoot’s COVID-19 spending plan passes

Chicago is currently in Phase 3 .
We fear slipping back to Phase 2 , or free-falling into Phase 1 @ @ @ @ @ Phase 3 has a nice ring , it suggests things are moving ahead , a @ @ @ @ @ of us who never quite stayed home because of work , we see you : @ @ @ @ @ you stumble from bunkers and look about , disoriented , as if waking from a @ @ @ @ @ reacquainting with your surroundings , though to be honest , not everything about Chicago Life @ @ @ @ @ .
Some things are better .
And so , as we tip-toe into old routines @ @ @ @ @ ones , a useless consumer guide to Chicago , June 2020 , what ’ s @ @ @ @ @ what to avoid .
All rated on a four-star scale .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
The Fulton Market area of Chicago is no longer the ghost town it was during the depths of the COVID-19 virus pandemic shutdown. As restrictions on restaurants are eased, a worker takes a woman's temperature before she can enter Federales restaurant on Morgan Street on July 1, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan passed today, in spite of protests from some aldermen who want promises that none of the funds will be spent to pay police. The package succeeded with nine votes against it.
Lightfoot administration finance officials last week declined to guarantee that none of the federal CARES Act funds coming to Chicago would go to police overtime or other Police Department costs, saying only that none of the money is currently earmarked for policing.
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Also, starting today, bars and brewers in Chicago are allowed to serve outdoor customers as the city continues its slow return to normal. But there are restrictions. Tables must be 6 feet apart, with six people or fewer. Customers can’t stay longer than two hours, and alcohol sales at both bars and restaurants must be ended at 11 p.m., while carryout booze or delivery will end by 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, state health officials reported 546 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 87 deaths. The death tally marks nearly two weeks since Illinois saw more than 100 fatalities in a 24-hour period. The state also announced a record number of COVID-19 test results with 29,987.
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[ When can Illinois move to phase 4? Here's where each region stands. ]
[ How will Illinois reopen? Three charts breaking down Pritzker’s plan ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ As the coronavirus spreads, the Tribune is tracking Illinois cases here ]
Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:53 p.m.: Pritzker promotes $900 million federally funded coronavirus relief package
Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday to highlight more than $900 million in funding for rent and mortgage assistance and business grants through the federal coronavirus relief package.
The bulk of the money — at least $540 million, according to the governor’s office — will be doled out as grants to businesses that were forced to shut down or restrict operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of that money will be set aside for businesses providing child care.
Another $300 million will be available through two separate programs to provide rent and mortgage assistance to Illinois residents who’ve been unable to keep up with their monthly payments because of a loss of income connected to the virus.
“While supporting our collective health and keeping our hospitals from becoming overrun is our most important battle, we must address the economic pain that COVID-19 has visited upon us,” Pritzker said during a news conference at the Lawndale Plaza shopping center in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood.
“Just like it went after our most vulnerable people, it also hit the most vulnerable parts of our economy,” Pritzker said. “It’s our small businesses, our working families, our communities of color that have paid the highest price.”
Portions of the funding unveiled Wednesday will be targeted toward businesses in those communities, especially those that also sustained property damage in the civil unrest after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
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4:49 p.m.: The traffic is back. Cars and trucks back on city, state roads as more businesses reopen.
If it’s taking you longer to make a left turn than it did a few weeks ago, or you’re pumping the brakes on the tollway more often than in April, you know what’s happened.
Traffic is back.
A decline in the number of vehicles moving along Chicago-area streets, a byproduct of the state’s stay-at-home order, was nice while it lasted, but it’s over. Congestion and higher travel times are returning as Illinois residents resume activities under phase three of the state’s reopening plan.
After the stay-at-home order took effect in mid-March, weekly traffic volume in Chicago fell to half its normal level. Last week, it was back to 77% of the volume recorded during the same week in 2019, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Read more here. —Mary Wisniewski
4:34 p.m.: The Green Lady serves its first beer in 3 months as it joins Chicago bars allowed to reopen
The Green Lady had its first patron one minute after reopening at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
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It was the first time the Lakeview craft beer bar was allowed to open to sit-down customers since serving its last pint March 16, the final day of business before the pandemic closed all the state’s bars and restaurants.
Melani Dominguez, founder of the nine-year-old bar, seated that customer, 33-year-old Christian Trezvant, at one of the 10 seats that Dominguez was able to carve out for Wednesday’s service — within 8 feet of the bar’s broad windows that open to the street.
Though restaurants and bars across Chicago have been allowed to open for outdoor dining — and drinking — for two weeks, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had excluded bars and brewery taprooms that do not sell food.
Read more here. —Josh Noel
3:50 p.m.: Illinois man, 30, is believed to be 1st lung transplant survivor to receive COVID-19 plasma and recover
Although he received a double lung transplant last year, when Edgardo Diaz became sick with COVID-19 in April, he showed no fear.
“I wasn’t scared,” said the 30-year-old Oak Forest resident. “I’ve been through worse.”
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Diaz has cystic fibrosis, a disorder that causes damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs. He has learned to stay calm when faced with medical challenges.
Now, Diaz is what University of Chicago Medicine doctors believe to be the first lung transplant patient in the world to receive plasma and recover from COVID-19.
Called convalescent plasma, blood is taken from people who have recovered from the coronavirus with the idea that it should be rich in virus-fighting antibodies.
Read more here. —Alison Bowen
2:35 p.m.: 546 new known COVID-19 cases, 87 additional deaths
The state announced a record number of COVID-19 test results Wednesday with 29,987.
Since expanding testing in late April the daily total is usually around 20,000. The state’s total tests now stands at 1,258,328.
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Also among the results Wednesday were 546 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 87 deaths. The death tally marks nearly two weeks since the state marked more than 100 deaths.
—Chicago Tribune staff
1:33 p.m.: Chicago’s cocktails-to-go measure gets the go-ahead
It’s not exactly quaffing hurricanes on Bourbon Street, but Chicagoans can now legally carry away cocktails from local bars as the City Council followed the state’s lead in trying to give taverns another source of revenue to weather the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the law the council approved Wednesday, bars and restaurants can offer delivery and pickup of cocktails in sealed and labeled containers with tamper-proof seals or caps. The drinks cannot be delivered via third-party delivery services like Grubhub.
Read more here. — John Byrne
1:03 p.m.: Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan passes despite objections over possible police funding
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan passed Wednesday, in spite of protests from some aldermen who want promises that none of the funds will be spent to pay police.
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The package succeeded with nine votes against it.
Lightfoot administration finance officials last week declined to guarantee that none of the federal CARES Act funds coming to Chicago would go to police overtime or other Police Department costs, saying only that none of the money is currently earmarked for policing.
Tuesday, a group of aldermen sent Lightfoot a letter, saying they would vote against the package unless she made such a commitment.
”We have heard from tens of thousands of Chicagoans who want to divest from CPD and invest instead in critical social services,” the letter reads in part. “This demand becomes even more important in the context of federal coronavirus relief funds — we want to ensure that dollars that could otherwise go to rental assistance do not instead go towards police pay or offsetting eligible costs incurred by CPD.”
Northwest Side Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said Wednesday he had to oppose it because $330 million was “essentially going in a black box, toward ongoing COVID-19 expenses.”
The possibility that some of it would go toward what he termed “racist policing” since the start of the pandemic forced La Spata to vote against the package, he said.
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Read more here. —John Byrne and Gregory Pratt
10:30 a.m.: Rejoining the world, Chicago? We have a four-star guide for your day as you stumble back into the light
Chicago is currently in Phase 3. We fear slipping back to Phase 2, or free-falling into Phase 1. But for now, Phase 3 has a nice ring, it suggests things are moving ahead, a foundation is there. Those of us who never quite stayed home because of work, we see you: Every day, more of you stumble from bunkers and look about, disoriented, as if waking from a long nap. You need reacquainting with your surroundings, though to be honest, not everything about Chicago Life 1.0 is worth revisiting now. Some things are better. And so, as we tip-toe into old routines, or adjust for new ones, a useless consumer guide to Chicago, June 2020, what’s worth your time, and what to avoid. All rated on a four-star scale.
8:29 a.m.: Indiana casino operators say business was ‘like a busy weekend’ on first day of reopening
Casino operators in the Region were upbeat Tuesday, reporting high attendance numbers, no snafus and guests who were patient and eager to return when they reopened in a modified and more safety-conscious capacity on Monday after a three-month closure.
“Business volumes were terrific, much more like a busy weekend day than a Monday,” said Dan Nita, general manager of Horseshoe Hammond Casino.
The casinos were ordered closed in mid-March by Gov. Eric Holcomb in response to the then growing number of COVID-19 cases in the state. They were allowed to reopen with safety measures in place and with a lesser capacity on Monday in the first phase of the casino reopening plan.
Read more here. —Karen Caffarini
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6:45 a.m.: Inmates waiting for court hearings and a chance at freedom wait as they try to dodge coronavirus.
LaRon Warren had been serving life in prison without parole for two South Side murders as a juvenile in the 1990s, but a series of landmark court rulings left him hoping he’d win his freedom at a hearing in March. Then the coronavirus put that dream on hold.
Two days before the hearing, the courthouse closed due to the pandemic. A court date in June was delayed until July. And Warren, 44, an ex-gang member who remains in Cook County Jail, is starting to “wonder if this is ever going to be over.”
Warren is among an estimated 30 inmates in Illinois still seeking to shorten their sentences based on a series of key court decisions.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life in prison is cruel and unusual punishment for most juveniles. Two years later, a follow-up state court decision allowed that federal ruling to be applied retroactively. And last year, the Illinois Supreme Court drew a bright line saying a 40-year term is long enough to be considered a sentence of life without parole for a juvenile.
Now the wait is becoming more challenging as some jails and prisons have seen COVID-19 outbreaks. At the county jail where Warren is, seven prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19 died at local hospitals.
Read more here. —Ray Long
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6:30 a.m.: Will CPS reopen in the fall? Teachers union says the district has been slow to prepare.
Face masks, daily temperature checks and “stringent cleaning” will be the new reality when Chicago Public Schools reopens its buildings — but whether that happens this fall is still undetermined.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson said in a community message that the district is still developing “draft guidelines" for the next school year but “remains committed” to the new school year commencing on Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day.
When schools do reopen, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, CPS will require that students, teachers and staff wear face coverings in the buildings, and Jackson’s message said the district would provide a “limited set” of PPE to the schools at the beginning of the year.
But the Chicago Teachers Union believes CPS is not doing nearly enough to prepare for the realities of the coming school year amid the continued presence of the coronavirus that shut down schools in March.
Read more here. —Sophie Sherry
6:15 a.m.: Coal union seeks order protecting miners from coronavirus
A union representing U.S. coal miners asked a court Tuesday to force the federal government to take measures to protect them from the coronavirus.
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“The situation confronting miners is urgent,” states the petition filed by the United Mine Workers. “Miners have largely been designated as ‘essential’ workers and thus are currently working at mine sites across the country. Further, as government-imposed stay-at-home orders are lifted and demand for mine-produced resources increases, more miners will return to work at pre-pandemic levels.”
The petition said mine ventilation regulations are not designed to prevent the spread of a virus. UMW President Cecil Roberts said in a statement that social distancing measures are meaningless in underground coal mines, where air is circulated over long distances.
UMW spokesman Phil Smith said there have been 10 known cases of union members who have contracted the virus, with no fatalities. The majority of U.S. coal is produced at nonunion mines.
—Associated Press


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Gov. J.B. Pritzker promotes $900 million federally funded coronavirus relief package

To help renters and homeowners , Pritzker said he will extend his moratorium on evictions through July 31 .
Beginning @ @ @ @ @ 150 million grant programs for renters and homeowners will be available through the Illinois Housing @ @ @ @ @ of the year .
To be eligible , renters and homeowners must be able to @ @ @ @ @ to pay due to COVID-19-related income loss .

Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on Wednesday to highlight more than $900 million in funding for rent and mortgage assistance and business grants through the federal coronavirus relief package.
The bulk of the money — at least $540 million, according to the governor’s office — will be doled out as grants to businesses that were forced to shut down or restrict operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of that money will be set aside for businesses providing child care.
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Another $300 million will be available through two separate programs to provide rent and mortgage assistance to Illinois residents who’ve been unable to keep up with their monthly payments because of a loss of income connected to the virus.
“While supporting our collective health and keeping our hospitals from becoming overrun is our most important battle, we must address the economic pain that COVID-19 has visited upon us,” Pritzker said during a news conference at the Lawndale Plaza shopping center in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood.
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“Just like it went after our most vulnerable people, it also hit the most vulnerable parts of our economy,” Pritzker said. “It’s our small businesses, our working families, our communities of color that have paid the highest price.”
Portions of the funding unveiled Wednesday will be targeted toward businesses in those communities, especially those that also sustained property damage in the civil unrest after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day.
Applications for the first round of business interruption grants, funded by the federal CARES Act, will be available Monday through the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The initial $60 million that will be available beginning early next month includes $20 million for businesses in specific communities that have recently experienced significant property damage, $20 million for bars and restaurants unable to offer outside service as allowed under the current phase of Pritzker’s reopening plan, $10 million for barbershops and salons, and another $10 million for gyms and fitness centers.
Barbershops, salons, gyms and fitness centers were closed by Pritzker’s March stay-at-home order and reopened on a limited basis May 29 with the move to phase three of his “Restore Illinois” plan.
To help renters and homeowners, Pritzker said he will extend his moratorium on evictions through July 31. Beginning in August, two $150 million grant programs for renters and homeowners will be available through the Illinois Housing Development Authority through the end of the year. To be eligible, renters and homeowners must be able to show that they were unable to pay due to COVID-19-related income loss.
Pritzker has faced criticism from some housing advocates for not doing enough to help struggling renters and homeowners. Some have called for him to lift the state’s ban on rent control, something the governor contends isn’t within his power.
Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat, said the programs announced Wednesday will help minority communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19, which she called “another symptom of the disease that is racism in our country,” and by damage inflicted by people “who totally exploited our pain for personal gain.”
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Pritzker unveiled the relief programs the same day state health officials announced 546 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 87 additional deaths. There have been 134,185 known cases and 6,485 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.
The number of new cases has remained below 1,000 for 12 straight days, and the daily death toll has been less than 100 for 13 days, the longest stretches since the state surpassed 1,000 daily cases on March 29 and 100 deaths on April 16.
After Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Tuesday that he’d tested positive for the virus, Pritzker was tested for the third time. The governor said Wednesday that his results were negative.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--Chicago City Council approves Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan for spending $1.1 billion in federal coron

Chicago City Council approves Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan for spending $1.1 billion in federal coronavirus relief money, over concerns it could help fund police

“ We ’ re talking about once ( students ) get into school , once they pass a metal detector @ @ @ @ @ and do all the things that they have to do to get into the school @ @ @ @ @ to focus on learning , focus on being a good person , focus on the @ @ @ @ @ have to succeed in life , ” Sawyer said Tuesday at a news conference outside @ @ @

Mayor Lori Lightfoot got her road map to spend $1.1 billion in federal coronavirus relief money through the City Council with ease Wednesday, in spite of protests from some aldermen who pressed in vain for promises that none of the funds will be spent to pay police.
The package succeeded with just nine votes against it on the same day aldermen trying to get Chicago police removed from public schools also suffered a setback on their long-shot proposal when it got sent to legislative purgatory.
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Lightfoot administration finance officials have spent weeks making the case for their plan to use federal CARES Act money to reimburse various city departments for extraordinary costs during the monthslong pandemic and try to keep those burdens off taxpayers.
With heightened scrutiny on the way police departments across the country are funded in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, progressive aldermen focused on a line item for $330 million in discretionary funding to deal with coronavirus-related expenses that arise.
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City officials last week declined to guarantee that none of the federal funds coming to Chicago would go to police overtime or other Police Department costs, saying only that none of it is earmarked for policing.
A group of aldermen sent Lightfoot a letter Tuesday, saying they would vote against the package unless she made such a commitment. Two of the aldermen who signed it — Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, and Ald. Roberto Maldonado, 26th — voted for it anyway despite the saber rattling.
“We have heard from tens of thousands of Chicagoans who want to divest from CPD and invest instead in critical social services,” the letter reads in part. “This demand becomes even more important in the context of federal coronavirus relief funds — we want to ensure that dollars that could otherwise go to rental assistance do not instead go towards police pay or offsetting eligible costs incurred by CPD.”
And on Wednesday, Northwest Side Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said he had to oppose it because the $330 million was “essentially going in a black box, toward ongoing COVID-19 expenses.”
The possibility that some of it would go toward what he termed “racist policing” since the start of the pandemic forced La Spata to vote against the package, he said.
And Northwest Side Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, said he was a no, “lacking a commitment from this administration that not a single cent of our discretionary COVID-19 dollars will go toward policing.”
The mayor’s package includes big chunks of money to help cover the city’s public health response to the virus, to prop up Chicago’s airports and to set up housing and workforce programs to try to aid people who’ve lost income due to the crisis.
It also sets aside $40 million to respond to a potential resurgence of COVID-19 as the city continues to reopen and more people come into close contact with one another after months of sheltering in their homes.
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Some aldermen have worried $40 million won’t be enough.
Nine aldermen was far from the 26-vote majority needed to derail Lightfoot’s proposal, and the mayor repeatedly has said she’s not going to bargain with council members simply to build bigger majorities as long as she has enough support to get her ordinances passed.
But the objections to the mayor’s CARES Act proposal point to the broader dissent in the council over the pandemic response and the city’s reaction to Floyd’s death.
The nine no votes came from the progressive aldermen — mostly freshmen — who opposed Lightfoot’s first budget: La Spata; Jeanette Taylor, 20th; Mike Rodriguez, 22nd; Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th; Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd; Ramirez-Rosa; Andre Vasquez, 40th; Matt Martin, 47th; and Maria Hadden, 49th.
On Twitter, Ramirez-Rosa criticized Lightfoot for repeatedly cutting off aldermen who wished to speak about their votes Wednesday, noting she “did not attempt to silence aldermen or rush their remarks during discussion on resolutions, but when it came to discussion on substantive matters she’s actively (stifled) debate.”
Also Wednesday, supporters of a proposal to force Chicago police out of Chicago Public Schools learned their ordinance would face even longer odds of getting City Council approval after an alderman used a parliamentary maneuver to move it out of the committee its sponsor wanted.
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South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer wanted his ordinance to end the $33 million deal between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department to station officers in schools to go to the council’s Public Safety Committee.
But that committee’s chairman, Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, requested it instead be sent to the Education Committee.
Once two committees get called for an ordinance, it gets sent to the Rules Committee for a final decision on placement. The Rules Committee is where Chicago mayors traditionally have sent plans they don’t like to wither on the vine without action.
Sawyer has insisted his ordinance isn’t anti-police.
“We’re talking about once (students) get into school, once they pass a metal detector and a wand check, and do all the things that they have to do to get into the school, we need those kids to focus on learning, focus on being a good person, focus on the skills we want them to have to succeed in life,” Sawyer said Tuesday at a news conference outside City Hall.
But Lightfoot opposes it, saying schools need police in order to be safe.
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Though Taliaferro is a Lightfoot ally, the mayor in a call with reporters said she didn’t have a hand in the alderman sending the ordinance to the Rules Committee. Lightfoot said she opposes the move.
“I think that matters of public interest should see the light of day, and there should be a vote,” Lightfoot said.
Still, the mayor reiterated her opposition to banning police across CPS and punted the decision to members of individual schools’ local school council.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me or any member of City Council to usurp the authority of the duly elected local school council,” Lightfoot said.
The ordinance that Sawyer, Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, and Ramirez-Rosa introduced to the council would order police Superintendent David Brown to end the deal that assigns police to schools within 75 days.
The idea has gained traction among protesters and some elected officials around the country in the weeks since Floyd was killed, touching off protests.
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A tenant eviction protection ordinance progressive aldermen introduced Wednesday also got shunted to the Rules Committee. The “Just Cause” ordinance is a competing measure to one the mayor prefers. When Lightfoot introduced her “Fair Notice” ordinance last month, progressive aldermen sent it to the Rules Committee. But the mayor muscled it out of there by a 35-9 vote.
Aldermen whose proposals the mayor opposes often have no luck even getting hearings on their ordinances in the Rules Committee, to say nothing of mustering the votes to get it out of the committee.
As Wednesday’s meeting began, the beeping of horns could be heard on Lightfoot’s livestream from her City Hall office. That’s because protesters were circling the building in cars, trying to draw attention to the need for greater Police Department accountability.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 8 A protester in a car caravan demands a Civilian Police Accountability Commission, or CPAC, outside City Hall in Chicago on June 17, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
The beepers were backers of the Civilian Police Accountability Commission ordinance, a proposal to give an elected board power over Chicago police, including authority to investigate and fire officers. Lightfoot and a majority of aldermen have not supported CPAC, preferring instead a competing measure pushed by the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability.
Also Wednesday, the council approved a resolution to create a panel tasked with studying ways to address reparations for slavery.
In a moment of comity amid Wednesday’s council tumult, aldermen quickly and without dissent approved a plan to allow bars and restaurants to sell cocktails to go, an attempt to help establishments that have seen their revenues crushed by the pandemic.
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And, Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, introduced an ordinance to outlaw flavored tobacco sales in the city.
And Lincoln Park Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, and O’Shea introduced a plan to restrict short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb to the primary residence of the people who are listing the unit.
Smith has long railed against the swaths of her ward that have turned into intermittent ghost towns and giant frat parties because investors use apartments solely for weekend renters. She said it’s time to get a handle on the vacation rental industry.
“During COVID-19, we’ve seen the huge housing shortage here in Chicago, and this could return thousands of units to the rental market,” Smith said. “That was how this whole industry started, what it was supposed to be, and instead we know that well over 60% of the units are purely investments.”
The vacation rental industry is sure to fight the restrictions tooth and nail with an army of lobbyists, as was the case when the city’s original rules were put in place several years ago under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-06-17--The Spin: George Floyd’s death looms large at Chicago City Council meeting | Police union vs. Mayor

The Spin: George Floyd’s death looms large at Chicago City Council meeting | Police union vs. Mayor Lightfoot intensifies | Black GOP U.S. senator takes swipe at Durbin over ‘token’ comment

“ The minute Sen. Durbin heard that he had offended Sen. Scott , he sought him out on the floor @ @ @ @ @ Durbin took issue with in his floor speech was not Sen. Scott ’ s bill @ @ @ @ @ Majority Leader would short circuit this critical debate and fail to make the changes needed @ @ @ @ @ Black Americans by police officers , ” Hampsten said .
“ Addressing systemic racism and @ @ @ @ @ and deserves more than one Judiciary hearing , one floor vote , one conversation .
@ @ @ @ @ the floor , let ’ s not do a half-hearted approach .
This deserves the @ @ @ @ @ the Senate .
”

Chicago Police stand guard outside the police training academy on West Jackson Boulevard as thousands of people protesting against having police in Chicago public schools and against acts of violence by police arrive on a march from Lincoln Park June 4, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
The Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and the resulting calls for social justice continue to echo through the halls of local, state and federal government, including today’s virtual Chicago City Council meeting.
Nine progressive aldermen refused to vote for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 package today, after they were unable to secure a guarantee from the administration that none of the federal money coming to the city for pandemic relief would go to the Police Department. It stems from growing calls for law enforcement reforms amid a line of unarmed African Americans who’ve died at the hands of police officers across the country.
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The power struggle didn’t end there. A group of aldermen pushing a measure to have Chicago police removed from public schools — concerned it creates a school-to-prison pipeline — saw the measure blocked by one of Lightfoot’s top allies.
Meantime, the outspoken head of the Chicago police union is holding his nose — but not his tongue — over the mayor’s move to give the head of her security detail leadership control over the Chicago police officers assigned to guard City Hall and her Logan Square home.
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Welcome to The Spin.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her wife, Amy Eshleman, greet visitors in her City Hall office after Lightfoot's inauguration on May 20, 2019. At left is Lightfoot's head of security, former U.S. Marshal James Smith. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s John Byrne and Jeremy Gorner write: “Mayor Lori Lightfoot has given the head of her security detail — a retired deputy U.S. marshal who was running a private security firm when she got elected last year — leadership control over the Chicago police officers assigned to guard City Hall and her Logan Square home.”
“The units were previously led by multiple commanders all at one time, including different commanders across different floor levels at City Hall,” mayoral spokesman Patrick Mullane said in a statement. “This latest effort will ensure that the department’s operations and resources that are centralized in one or two primary locations are coordinated under one command rather than multiple individuals.”
The directive about the mayoral detail didn’t sit well with new FOP head John Catanzara, a frequent Lightfoot critic: “The mayor was the one who hired an outsider to head her protection up because she didn’t want CPD to protect her,” Catanzara said, referring to Smith. “And after all the railing she’s done against CPD, don’t even bother giving her the courtesy of signing up for that detail.”
Chicago Police Department’s first deputy superintendent announces upcoming retirement: Anthony Riccio who as first deputy superintendent is second in command, will retire Aug. 1 after 34 years on the force. Jeremy Gorner has the story here. His exit comes as a new top cop settles in and his role changed during the the sweeping reorganization of the department.
The justice system: Two days before a hearing that could have set him free, the courthouse shut down. Now inmates like LaRon Warren wait, as they try to dodge coronavirus. The Tribune’s Ray Long has the details here.
"I have always been critical and skeptical of fast-tracking," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)
From The Hill: “Republican Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) took a swipe at Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) after Durbin called the GOP police reform bill a ‘token, half-hearted approach.’”
Scott, the only black Republican senator, took to Twitter and responded: “Y’all still wearing those kente cloths over there @SenatorDurbin?”
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The Hill notes: “Scott was referring to a photo-op by congressional Democrats in the Capitol Visitor Center the day they introduced their own police reform legislation, during which they kneeled and wore traditional African kente cloth stoles.” The move drew criticism, but Durbin’s office reminds that he did not participate in the photo op.
Durbin spokeswoman Emily Hampsten said the senior Illinois senator already has apologized to Scott.
“The minute Sen. Durbin heard that he had offended Sen. Scott, he sought him out on the floor and apologized. What Sen. Durbin took issue with in his floor speech was not Sen. Scott’s bill, but that the Senate Majority Leader would short circuit this critical debate and fail to make the changes needed to prevent the killing of Black Americans by police officers,” Hampsten said. “Addressing systemic racism and changing policing in America requires and deserves more than one Judiciary hearing, one floor vote, one conversation. As Sen. Durbin stated on the floor, let’s not do a half-hearted approach. This deserves the full and bipartisan attention of the Senate.”
Read The Hill’s full story here.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot presides over a City Council meeting as Jeff Levine, attorney with the city's law department, left, and Mark Flessner, right, corporation counsel, look on at the start of the virtual meeting from her office at City Hall on April 22. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Lightfoot’s $1.1 billion COVID-19 spending plan passes despite objections over possible police funding: The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt write: “The mayor’s package includes big chunks of money to help cover the city’s public health response to the virus, to prop up Chicago’s airports and to set up housing and workforce programs to try to aid people who’ve lost income due to the crisis.
“It also sets aside $40 million to respond to a potential resurgence of the disease as the city continues to reopen and more people come into close contact with one another after months of sheltering in their homes.”
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The mayor’s finance team last week said none of the money is currently earmarked for policing, but couldn’t guarantee that would be the case down the line — prompting nine aldermen to vote against the measure, which still passed. It points to the overlapping and urgent crises of COVID-19 and policing in this country and beyond. Read the story here.
Chicago cops-out-of-schools plan potentially blocked by Mayor Lori Lightfoot ally: The Tribune’s John Byrne and Gregory Pratt have the details here.
Activists push for plan that would give community panel the power to fire Chicago cops: The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt has the details here.
Chicago’s cocktails-to-go measure gets the go-ahead: The Tribune’s John Byrne has the details here.
Mayor Lightfoot gives City Clerk Anna Valencia a congratulatory shoutout on the birth of her first child: On April 15, the clerk and her husband welcomed a baby girl. During today’s virtual Chicago City Council meeting the mayor took a moment to congratulate the new mom.
Reyahd and I are excited to announce the arrival of
Reyana Joy Valencia Kazmi, Tuesday April 15th, 6:25am at a fighting weight of 8lbs and 20 inches long.
Thank you for all of the well wishes and prayers for our family. We are healthy and staying home. God Bless! pic.twitter.com/vABJ71fcFZ — Anna Valencia (@AnnaValenciaIL) April 16, 2020
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, from left, appears with Rep. Bill Foster, Jill Biden, Rep. Mike Quigley, and other Illinois Democrats, after they announce their endorsements for Joe Biden, during a news conference at the Union League Club in March 6. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
The mayor and other Chicago-area elected leaders are helping to host an LGBTQ+ social hour on behalf of presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden tomorrow night.
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Lightfoot, Chicago’s first openly gay mayor, with a growing national political profile, is expected to make the case for Biden while hammering Republican President Donald Trump’s record on LGBTQ+ rights; his administration on Friday finalized a rule that overturns Obama-era protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care.
Biden won’t be at the event. Other hosts include Illinois state Rep. Lamont Robinson D-Bronzeville, the state’s first LGBTQ African American legislator; Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore and Cook County Board Commissioner Kevin Morrison, 15th, the first openly LGBT commissioner. More details here.
It’s not a fundraiser, a Biden spokesman tells The Spin. Anyone interested in attending can sign up here.
Lightfoot isn’t the only prominent Chicagoan campaigning for Biden on Thursday. The group “Women for Biden” is holding a national call with hosts Valerie Jarrett, a Chicagoan and senior White House adviser in the Obama-Biden White House, along with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, frequently mentioned as a possible Biden running mate. ABC News reports that the event will "commemorate Juneteenth, which marks the day when the last people who were still enslaved were told they were freed, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery.” For information about attending that virtual event, click here.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle answers questions from media members who call in their questions at a news conference outside of the Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago on May 27, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
It won’t be a throw-open-the-doors-and-put-out-the-welcome-mat moment, but Cook County government offices — largely shuttered since Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a statewide shutdown order amid the COVID-19 outbreak — will reopen to the public July 6, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced this morning.
It’s not exactly big news: Last month, Preckwinkle inked an executive order anticipating county offices under her purview would reopen in July. On Monday, department heads and bureau chiefs in Preckwinkle’s and other elected officials’ offices were required to show up to headquarters and direct employees on returning to work, according to that order. County clerk’s office employees returned June 1.
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Over the next several weeks, staffers who’ve been working remotely will return to government offices in phases, Preckwinkle said this morning at a news conference.
“We’ve been through a difficult time,” Preckwinkle told reporters. “While we’ve made incredible progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 over the last few months, the pandemic is clearly not over,” so face coverings along with social distancing will be required.
Here’s what else will be required: Staff and visitors alike will enter the county’s main offices at 118 N. Clark St. through a large white tent where they’ll undergo an initial health screening and then have their temperatures checked; no one will be allowed in the building with a temperature exceeding 100.4 F.
Once inside the building, physical distancing signs will instruct that no more than three people can be on an elevator at a time, sneeze guards will be in place at information desks, and the building will undergo stepped-up cleaning of bathrooms, elevators and office spaces. Additionally, high-efficiency air filters in the HVAC system will be replaced more frequently.
Rejoining the world Chicago? We have a four-star guide for your day as you stumble back into the light: The Tribune’s Christopher Borrelli has the details here.
The traffic is back as. Cars and trucks back on city, state roads as more businesses reopen: The Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski has the details here.
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Metra says coronavirus will cost commuter rail agency $605 million - $70 million more than expected – through 2021: The Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski has the details here.
Side-by-side photos of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and President Donald Trump.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker was on the call Monday when, as The New York Times reported, Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors to spread a misleading claim that new COVID-19 spikes in some states are the result of increased testing. But unlike a recent governors’ meeting where he mixed it up with President Donald Trump, the governor didn’t speak, his office tells The Spin.
From the Times: “Vice President Mike Pence encouraged governors on Monday to adopt the administration’s explanation that a rise in testing was a reason behind new coronavirus outbreaks, even though testing data has shown that such a claim is misleading.”
Here’s why: “In fact, seven-day averages in several states with coronavirus outbreaks have increased since May 31, and in at least 14 states, positive cases have outstripped the average number of tests that have been administered, according to an analysis of data collected by The New York Times.”
The (sort of) response from the governor’s office: Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh wrote in an email that the governor was on the White House call, but “he didn’t speak.” Asked whether the governor had concerns about Pence’s statement, the written response said: “He has always followed the guidance of public health experts and that’s led to Illinois leading the nation in declining COVID cases.”
Let’s go back to June 1: That’s when Pritzker told Trump during a call with governors that he’s been “extraordinarily concerned” about Trump’s rhetoric in the wake of unrest that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police, and urged the president to call for calm. You can read my Tribune colleague Jamie Munks’ story about that here.
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Amid pandemic, Pritzker signs bill into law that temporarily expands vote by mail: “Roughly 5 million Illinois voters will receive applications to vote by mail for the November election as a result,” the Tribune’s Dan Petrella writes. Read the story here. Petrella also notes that “mail-in voting has become a partisan flashpoint during the pandemic, with President Donald Trump railing against expansion efforts despite having voted by mail in Florida’s March primary.”
Former Illinois legislator, horse racing lobbyist Robert Molaro dies: The Tribune’s Dan Petrella remembers him here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


Corrections and clarifications

· A story in Wednesday ’ s main news section about Juneteenth celebrations said the holiday honored the official end @ @ @ @ @ States .
While Juneteenth ( June 19 ) is the day many black Americans use @ @ @ @ @ end of slavery , there were still four slave states until the 13th Amendment was @ @ @ @ @

· A story in Wednesday’s main news section about Juneteenth celebrations said the holiday honored the official end of slavery in the United States. While Juneteenth (June 19) is the day many black Americans use to honor and recognize the end of slavery, there were still four slave states until the 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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