chicagotribune--2020-11-01--Prosecutor: Peacekeeper killed in July dispute related to dice game

Just then Berberena ran up to put a gun to the victim ’ s head , prosecutors said .
Despite @ @ @ @ @ times and repeated tries to calm the situation , Berberena shot King once in the @ @ @ @ @ brother took a gun that was inside the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with Berberena as @ @ @ @ @ scene , authorities said .

Prosecutors told a judge on Sunday that a Northwest Side man’s efforts to play peacekeeper in an angry dispute related to a dice game was rewarded with gunshot to the head, as the victim’s brother and a friend looked on.
Multiple eyewitnesses identified Saalik Berberena, 32, as the gunman who shot Jovante King in the area of the Lathrop Homes in the 2800 block of North Leavitt Street on early July 11, Cook County prosecutors said during a bail hearing broadcast on YouTube.
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Berberena, who was arrested about 10:30 a.m. Friday in Crystal Lake by fugitive apprehension officers, faces first-degree murder charges in King’s death.
Saalik Berberena (Chicago Police Department)
Before Circuit Judge John F. Lyke Jr., prosecutors told how the victim King, his brother and a friend went to the Chicago Housing Authority property that morning to defuse mounting tensions from a dice game that occurred days prior. But soon after arriving, authorities said an unidentified man and woman approached the vehicle King arrived in and warned him that he had to leave.
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Just then Berberena ran up to put a gun to the victim’s head, prosecutors said. Despite pushing the weapon away several times and repeated tries to calm the situation, Berberena shot King once in the head. King’s brother took a gun that was inside the vehicle and exchanged gunfire with Berberena as he ran away from the scene, authorities said.
King was taken to Advocate Illinois Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Berberena, who now lives in Los Angeles, according to court-appointed attorney, also faces aggravated battery to a police officer charges after he allegedly became uncooperative during a physical lineup at the Belmont Area detective area, prosecutors said.
During the line-up, authorities said Berberena closed his hooded sweatshirt and shouted into the one-way glass to intimidate the unidentified witness. He then shoved over one officer and spat on three others. All of the Berberena’s action’s inside the police station were captured on video, authorities said.
Prosecutors also noted that the three-time felon once had murder case against him rejected by the felony review unit because a witness refused to cooperate.
Judge Lyke denied Berberena bail, noting that the victim was trying to de-escalate tension for “a stupid dice game.”
“I know most people say it’s not about the dice game, it’s about respect. That’s even more stupid,” Lyke said, calling Berberena a threat to witnesses and the public.
Berberena returns to court on Nov. 9.
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pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--General Iron scrap shredder pays $18,000 fine for explosion, noxious air pollution on the North Side

Critics noted the price paid by General Iron ’ s owners pales in comparison to the profits of selling shredded @ @ @ @ @ the past decade alone , court records show , two members of the Labkon family @ @ @ @ @ Side operation each collected $ 64 million from General Iron .

Faced with abrupt and intense scrutiny from Chicago health inspectors, the new owners of a troubled North Side scrap shredder agreed Monday to pay an $18,000 fine and overhaul equipment intended to prevent explosions and stop metallic pollution from drifting into surrounding neighborhoods.
The legal settlement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration comes as General Iron Industries seeks final city approval to move from wealthy, predominantly white Lincoln Park to a low-income, mostly Latino neighborhood on the Southeast Side.
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During the five months before a May explosion at the North Side site, a city health inspector cited the company on 11 separate days for “untreated emissions” from the company’s massive scrap shredder along the Chicago River near Clybourn Avenue and Cortland Street.
Each time the inspector described smelling “the pungent odor of sweet metal that burns my nostrils,” echoing years of complaints from neighbors.
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The inspector said she also found scrap yard residue littering sidewalks outside General Iron, including shards of metal, glass and plastic that by law should be dumped in a landfill.
The city of Chicago ordered the immediate closure of the General Iron Industries facility in the Lincoln Park neighborhood after fire crews were called to two separate explosions there in May 2020. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Aggressive ticketing by the Lightfoot administration marked a dramatic change of tone from City Hall, where General Iron courted aldermen with campaign contributions and hired lobbyists close to former Mayors Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley.
As part of the newly announced legal settlement, Lightfoot’s aides absolved General Iron of any wrongdoing for the May explosion or pollution observed during late 2019 and early 2020.
A portion of the fines assessed by the city will be spent on two air quality monitors designed to measure smells, the Chicago Law Department said in a statement.
“The penalty and mitigation measures represent significant steps to protect local residents and ensure that General Iron lives up to its stated promises to operate responsibly throughout the duration of their tenure at this facility,” said Mark Flessner, the city’s chief lawyer.
In addition to the fine, the settlement demanded improvements to the North Side operation that city officials estimated cost $307,000.
“We believe that the substantial mitigation and explosion prevention measures we’ve installed are enhancing our processes,” the company said in a statement.
Critics noted the price paid by General Iron’s owners pales in comparison to the profits of selling shredded scrap to steelmakers. During the past decade alone, court records show, two members of the Labkon family that formerly owned the North Side operation each collected $64 million from General Iron.
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Before the Labkons sold their scrap business last year to Ohio-based Reserve Management Group, they had settled three anti-pollution lawsuits filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — one as recently as 2019.
Family members are now trying to sell 21 acres of riverfront property they own near the upscale Lincoln Yards development.
“Even Donald Trump’s EPA thinks General Iron is a bad neighbor,” said Lara Compton, who lives near the shredder and is a member of Clean the North Branch, an organization pushing to drive General Iron out of the city. "Why doesn’t Chicago?”
Top executives at RMG, the operation’s current owner, told the Chicago Tribune last week they still plan to shut down the North Side facility by the end of the year.
They need final approval from the Chicago Department of Public Health before moving General Iron’s business to the Southeast Side. Aides to Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker already have approved other permits.
General Iron would become the latest polluter in a neglected corner of the city, where residential yards, baseball fields and playgrounds are contaminated with heavy metals and toxic chemicals from other companies, including steelmakers that abandoned the area decades ago.
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Prompted by a complaint filed by community activists, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating accusations that Lightfoot’s steps on behalf of General Iron perpetuate racial segregation and housing discrimination.
mhawthorne@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--Chicago’s Election Day should be ‘no different’ from past years and most results should be in by 10

Chicago’s Election Day should be ‘no different’ from past years and most results should be in by 10 p.m., election official says

Hernandez urged voters who encounter any legal issues to call the election central hotline at 312-269-7870 .
Voters in line @ @ @ @ @ at 7 p.m. can still vote at their site , and people who have not @ @ @ @ @ same-day voter registration on Tuesday to cast a ballot .

Dozens of voters line up outside as they wait to cast their ballots at the Election Day super site polling place set up inside the United Center in Chicago, Nov. 3, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Board of Elections is expecting this year’s Election Day to be no different from past elections and hopes to have 90% of the city’s results in by 10 p.m. Tuesday, Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez said.
As each precinct’s results come in on Election Day, they will be merged with that same precinct’s early votes and vote-by-mail ballots, Hernandez said during a Monday news conference, adding that the earliest results should be in by 8 p.m.
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“We have historically had 90% of the results in by 10 p.m. and we’re hoping to do the same for this election,” she said.
Though the city anticipates having many of the results in Tuesday night, mail-in ballots won’t finish being tabulated for some time as they’ll continue arriving over the two weeks following Election Day. Even so, Hernandez said election officials have already begun scanning and approving many.
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The city has received 402,000 vote-by-mail ballots of more than 505,000 applications, and election officials have approved “at least 250,000,” according to Hernandez. The number of ballots returned shatters the city’s previous record, which was 94,000, recorded during the 2016 presidential election.
Chicago also has broken its in-person early voting record with more than 354,000, compared with about 325,000 for the duration of early voting in 2016.
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“Early turnout has been incredible,” Hernandez said.
Asked about potential voter intimidation at the polls, Hernandez said it’s been “fairly quiet” and the city feels “very prepared” to deal with any threats. Illinois party officials had previously voiced plans to fan out thousands of volunteers to “protect the vote” on Election Day.
She also said election judge enrollment has remained steady, with 13,500 scheduled to work Tuesday and others on standby in case last-minute cancellations occur, as they did during the March primary when the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold.
The city’s Election Day polling places are slated to open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Hernandez said she expects all polling places to open on time.
“There’s always a handful that may not open up on time for one reason or another and we’ll deal with those as they come along,” she said.
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She encouraged voters who have yet to cast their mail-in ballot to drop it off at a secured drop box — located at every early voting site, the United Center, Wrigley Field and Guaranteed Rate Field — or to surrender it at their home precinct voting site on Election Day and cast a standard ballot in person.
Suburban Cook County voters can drop their mail-in ballots off at one of seven super site locations on Election Day, which will be in Union Station, the county clerk’s office and the suburban courthouses in Skokie, Rolling Meadows, Maywood, Bridgeview and Markham.
Hernandez urged voters who encounter any legal issues to call the election central hotline at 312-269-7870. Voters in line by the time polls close at 7 p.m. can still vote at their site, and people who have not yet registered can still use same-day voter registration on Tuesday to cast a ballot.
“We are ready and excited for tomorrow,” Hernandez said.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--Immigrant-focused coalition canvasses in Little Village ahead of Election Day: ‘We left it all out t

Immigrant-focused coalition canvasses in Little Village ahead of Election Day: ‘We left it all out there’

“ This was that last touch we could do before Election Day , ” Castro said , “ so it @ @ @ @ @ able to have that presence in the community , I think , as we could @ @ @ @ @ still in the midst of a pandemic .
”

Canvassers with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights do a final push to get out the vote Nov. 2, 2020, in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
On the eve of Election Day, four teams of two went door-to-door Monday morning in Little Village with flyers advocating one central message: Vote a pro-immigrant ballot.
The effort was part of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights’ voter outreach campaign meant to turn out the “pro-immigrant vote,” meaning immigrants, first-time naturalized citizens or anybody who wants to vote on issues that matter to immigrant communities, said Veronica Castro, deputy director of the coalition.
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The nonpartisan group, which partnered with 17 partner agencies to promote civic participation this election, ventured out in teams to immigrant-heavy Chicago-area neighborhoods throughout Monday and over the weekend, leaving election-related literature at doorsteps to minimize face-to-face contact because of COVID-19.
“This was that last touch we could do before Election Day,” Castro said, “so it was really important to be able to have that presence in the community, I think, as we could, given that we are still in the midst of a pandemic.”
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Citlalli Bueno, 24, of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, canvasses in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Nov. 2, 2020, in the final push to get out the vote. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The coalition has put on similar canvassing events in past elections, though this year required significant adjustments and extra sensitivity with the pandemic since Black and brown communities have been hit hardest by it, Castro said.
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The adjustments also have extended beyond Monday’s event, with most events in the coalition’s voter outreach campaign held virtually, Castro added. But even with the alterations, the group has been able to reach more than 70,000 people and has made 1.3 million calls to Illinois voters.
Brandon Lee, a coalition spokesman, said the organization has reached many voters who plan to cast their vote on Election Day. He said the coalition has been trying to reach neighborhoods across various Chicago-area counties because the immigrant community is growing “outside of the city of Chicago.”
“The immigrant community is diverse in itself,” Lee said. “And I think that one of the great things ... is that we’re really trying to build capacity and build political power in immigrant communities across the board.”
Citlalli Bueno, 24, left, and Brandon Lee, 32, of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, canvass the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago on Nov. 2, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
People have been receptive to the coalition’s outreach and are engaging in the election in a way they haven’t before, Castro said. In Latino and immigrant communities, part of that drive is “feeling the weight of what’s on our shoulders.”
“The criminalization of our communities is very real,” she said. “And so the fearmongering that’s been out there is very present, and one way that people are going to push back is by going out to the polls or encouraging or educating people that can vote.”
Heading into Election Day, the coalition plans to conduct about 200,000 calls before the polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Though Lee said the coalition is aware it may not know the results by that night, he feels confident “that we’ve done our job.”
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“If you ask any one of our staff, any one of our fellows, ‘Could you have done an extra day of this?’ — we left it all out there,” Lee said. “We’ve done what we can and we’ll see how it goes.”
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--Judge scolds 2 men allegedly caught with paintball gun in car. ‘(Police) don’t know if what they’re

Judge scolds 2 men allegedly caught with paintball gun in car. ‘(Police) don’t know if what they’re seeing is a real firearm ... and it’d just get worse from there.’

Among those injured was George Morales , 44 , a Southwest Side man who lost sight in his left eye @ @ @ @ @ week in Little Village .
“ I turned around and saw a white car parked @ @ @ @ @ .
I saw two guys in the car , ” Morales said , adding they @ @ @ @ @ early 30s .
One pointed a long gun that looked like a real gun .

David Cox, left, and Deonte Gibson have been charged with aggravated battery/deadly weapon, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. They were allegedly caught with a paintball gun in their car. (Chicago Police Department)
A Cook County judge lectured two young men Monday about the possible deadly consequences they faced when Chicago police stopped their car last week and said they spotted the long barrel of a gun inside.
It turned out to be an unloaded paintball gun.
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“(The officers) don’t know what these weapons are,” Circuit Judge David R. Navarro told the men during an afternoon bail hearing broadcast on YouTube. “They don’t know if ... what they’re seeing is a real firearm or a paintball gun, and it’d just get worse from there.”
As officers ordered the men and a third person out of a silver Nissan, a 53-year-old man approached and said he’d just been shot with three paintballs by one of the passengers, according to prosecutors.
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The alleged shooter, David Cox, 20, and the driver, Deonte Gibson, 18 — high school graduates with clean records who still live with their parents — each face a charge of aggravated battery/deadly weapon, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The third person in the car, a juvenile not identified in court, was cited for reckless conduct in juvenile court.
Prosecutors gave no indication whether they believed the incident in the 8100 block of South Troy Street in the Wrightwood neighborhood was an isolated case, or whether it was related to a rash of paintball shootings in neighborhoods across the city that has left dozens injured.
The judge placed Cox and Gibson on electronic house arrest if they post bail.
Monday’s case against Cox and Gibson are the only felonies brought since police began beefing up patrols to crack down on paintball attacks from Streeterville to West Englewood.
Heading into Halloween, Chicago police officers conducting a mission on the West Side arrested six people on Friday in the Ogden police district, which covers Little Village and Lawndale.
The rise in attacks recently led emergency medical officials from the University of Chicago Medicine to sound the alarm to the public about the permanent damage a high-speed projectile can cause to the eyes.
Among those injured was George Morales, 44, a Southwest Side man who lost sight in his left eye after a paintball attack last week in Little Village. “I turned around and saw a white car parked right in front of me. I saw two guys in the car,” Morales said, adding they looked to be in their early 30s. One pointed a long gun that looked like a real gun.
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Following the arrests, Harrison Area Deputy Chief Ernest Cato said detectives were working to link the arrests to the recent attacks.
However, police released the six suspects on Saturday without charges, according to a Chicago police spokeswoman. The status of that case is unclear.
Both Cox and Gibson are scheduled to return to court Nov. 9.


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--The Spin: Final countdown to Trump vs. Biden begins tomorrow | Biden’s big Chicago fundraisers | Pri

The Spin: Final countdown to Trump vs. Biden begins tomorrow | Biden’s big Chicago fundraisers | Pritzker has Illinois National Guard ‘in state of readiness’ in case of election unrest

The Next News Network is a YouTube channel produced in Chicago ’ s western suburbs that pumps out a dozen @ @ @ @ @ each day , the Tribune ’ s John Keilman reports .
While they tend to @ @ @ @ @ attacking his critics , in just the last few months , the channel ’ s @ @ @ @ @ Franchi , has showcased several baseless allegations , including a suggestion that antifa might be @ @ @ @ @ an osteopath ’ s insistence that the COVID-19 pandemic was “ a false flag operation @ @ @ @ @ Democratic politicians had members of Seal Team 6 killed to cover up a dirty deal @ @ @

On this election eve, a little ’80s Swedish glam rock is in order to mark the final countdown.
Republican President Donald Trump is in Kenosha tonight, one of five rallies in four states in a closing pitch to voters in key battleground states. Trump has made double the number of stops in the final campaign’s final stretch compared with former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden, the Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart reports. Their travel during the closing weeks illustrates the candidates’ different styles — Trump has downplayed COVID-19 with big rallies, briefly pausing his campaign after catching it, while Biden has had smaller and fewer events.
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Biden is en route to being the first presidential candidate to raise $1 billion, according to the Federal Election Commission and fundraising watchdog organization Center for Responsive Politics, and now we know the wealthy and well-connected Chicagoans who helped make that happen. Over the weekend, Biden released his list of campaign bundlers who helped him raise at least $100,000 during the cycle.
Trump, who trails Biden in fundraising so far this cycle, has not released such a list, but he’s notched a healthy $600 million and counting this election cycle, according to the FEC.
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A reminder that Nov. 3 is Part 1 of a series of upcoming events and deadlines to pick the next president as set forth by the U.S. Constitution and federal law. In December, the Electoral College makes a final decision and in January, Congress certifies the results. But by now we know Trump and Biden have threatened to take legal action over the vote count, and the complicated Electoral College process could get even messier.
And my Tribune colleague Jamie Munks writes: “Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday urged patience in the coming days as election authorities grapple with historic levels of mail-in ballots, and said the Illinois National Guard is in a ‘state of readiness,’ amid the possibility of election-related unrest.” Read the rest of her story here.
Welcome to The Spin.
An information sign at the Loop Super Site in downtown Chicago on Oct. 11, 2020. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)
From the Tribune’s Rick Pearson: To some degree, every election is a referendum, and perhaps never more so than in a presidential year.
But peeling back the Nov. 3 ballot beyond the decision on whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden should sit in the White House, there are a number of issues and candidacies that present their own referendums.
There’s a proposed constitutional amendment that would change Illinois from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated-rate levy. That top-of-the ballot item also could present a referendum on voter trust in state government or how they view the state’s financial future.
In Cook County, the race between reelection-seeking Democratic State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Republican Pat O’Brien could be considered a referendum on her first term amid controversy as well as what’s left of the power of the county’s machine to deliver. Read the full story here.
Related: Graduated-rate tax amendment rally gets sidetracked by Toni Preckwinkle pitch for Kim Foxx’s reelection — Pearson has that story here.
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Everything you need to know if you still need to vote — the Tribune has the details here.
In Illinois, 3.45 million voters have cast their ballots so far — and what it means: It’s nearly evenly divided between those who voted by mail and those who cast a ballot at early voting sites, according to the U.S. Elections project. The conventional wisdom is that early voters are backing Biden, but experts count on Republicans to make up the difference tomorrow, and polling shows the race is neck and neck.
Final FiveThirtyEight polling averages: Track the race for president in the key battleground states —The Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart, Chad Yoder and Jonathon Berlin take a look, here.
Related: Chicago labor unions say a general strike is an option if there are threats to a free and fair election Tuesday, the Tribune’s Hannah Leone reports.
Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, longtime Cook County jurist, dies after long medical leave: She had quietly declined to seek retention on this year’s ballot, the Tribune’s Megan Crepeau reports.
The Next News Network is a YouTube channel produced in Chicago’s western suburbs that pumps out a dozen or so aggressively partisan videos each day, the Tribune’s John Keilman reports. While they tend to stick to praising Trump and attacking his critics, in just the last few months, the channel’s owner and host, Gary Franchi, has showcased several baseless allegations, including a suggestion that antifa might be behind the Western wildfires, an osteopath’s insistence that the COVID-19 pandemic was “a false flag operation” and a claim that Democratic politicians had members of Seal Team 6 killed to cover up a dirty deal with Iran.
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The channel’s growth has continued even as YouTube has pledged to crack down on conspiracy theorists and misinformation. Read the story here.
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President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, take the stage with their daughters, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, in Grant Park in Chicago. (Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo)
From the Tribune’s Rick Pearson: In deeply blue Illinois, expectations are for a quick result in the presidential race — the Democratic candidates have taken the state by 17 percentage points in the previous two elections. Illinois also processes its mail-in and early voting ballots as they are received through Nov. 1, stopping short only of hitting the total button, which is done when the ari close at 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Barring an overwhelming result one way or the other, Illinois voters are unlikely to know the outcome of the most expensive state contest on this year’s ballot — a proposed state constitutional amendment asking voters to end the state’s mandated flat-rate income tax system and replace it with a graduated-rate structure that increases the tax levy along with income.
Election Day also figures to feature some close local races. Two years ago in central Illinois’ 13th Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville won reelection by 2,058 votes out of nearly 271,000 ballots cast over Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigran of Springfield. Read the full story here.
Chicago’s Election Day should be ‘no different’ from past years and most of the city’s results should be in by 10 p.m., election official says — The Tribune’s Kelli Smith has the details here.
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In Chicago’s collar counties, some clerks said they expect election night to proceed as usual and some winners will be quickly identified, Sarah Freishtat with the Aurora Beacon-News reports. Full story here.
The Electoral College is the true body that decides the winner and loser in the presidential race, delivering the winning 270 or more votes to the victor. But there is a scenario where that process could get gummed up in partisan politics and even result in a tie (that would be broken by the U.S. House of Representatives). Either way, it could draw out the process. Reuters breaks it down here.
Workers board up the Macy's on State Street in Chicago on Oct. 30, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Lauren Zumbach and Ryan Ori: Between the civil unrest this summer, the coronavirus pandemic and a divisive election whose outcome may not be known Tuesday, business owners are weighing the prospect of further unrest in a way they haven’t during past elections, said Eric White, executive vice president at security firm Brosnan Risk Consultants.
Shoppers may see more stores boarding up or closing early Monday and Tuesday as businesses take extra safety precautions, and make sure employees have time to vote.
On and around Clybourn Avenue, the retail corridor on the city’s North Side that has been hit hard by property damage and theft during previous unrest this year, many stores were boarded up as of Monday morning. A few crews were in the area covering up windows. Read the full story, which details stepped up police patrols and other security measures across the city, here.
Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin talk during an early voting rally Oct. 22, 2014, at the Sullivan Community Center in Vernon HIlls. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Over the weekend, the Biden campaign released its list of bundlers — the deep-pocketed and well-connected who’ve raised $100,000 or more for Biden’s campaign or affiliated joint fundraising committees.
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Of the 800-plus donors, 30-plus hail from Illinois — largely Chicago and the suburbs.
The bold-faced names in politics include Democratic U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates and Dick Durbin, of Springfield, along with U.S. Reps. Bill Foster of Naperville and Brad Schneider of Deerfield.
Going back to the Obama-Biden days: Penny Pritzker, former Commerce secretary in the Obama-Biden White House; Desiree Rogers, former Johnson Publishing executive and former White House social secretary in the Obama administration; Dania Leemputte, a local donor to the former president’s campaign; and Michael O’Neil, one-time Obama White House aide; Vicki Heyman and her husband, former Canadian Ambassador Bruce Heyman, a key fundraiser for former President Barack Obama.
Also in the political world: Valerie Alexander, Sen. Durbin’s one-time chief of staff; Jake Braun, Biden’s political director in Iowa and executive director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; a William Brodsky, former longtime CEO of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange; Linda Rae Sher, founder of the Highland Park-based Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, along with Marcia Balonick, who is the organization’s executive director.
Some of the city’s most high-profile people in business also pitched in, including: John W. Rogers, chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments; Michael Sacks, GCM Grosvenor chairman and CEO; venture capitalist Glen Tullman; Lee Rosenberg, CEO of Rosenberg Advisory; Roger Hochschild, Discover Financial Services CEO; and Ryan VanGrack, deputy general counsel at Chicago-based Citadel hedge fund and investment firm run by billionaire Ken Griffin, who tends to back Republican candidates and causes.
Legal and business world: Billionaire Rivers Casino co-owner Neil Bluhm, and his daughter Leslie Bluhm, a philanthropist; Catherine and Brent Gledhill, an investment banker; Richard Chelsey, comanaging partner of law firm DLA Piper U.S.; and attorney Mike Clifford.
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A line of local attorneys also helped with big-ticket fundraising, including Joseph Power, William Singer and Todd A. Smith.
Celebrity Star Jones, who married Chicago attorney Ricardo Lugo, also was among the high-profile.
Phlebotomist Tatiana Young places a cotton swab into a tube for testing after administering a nasal COVID-19 test to a person in the parking lot of the Foreman Mills Shopping Center on Oct. 19, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois finally nears its goal of employing 3,800 people to track down and warn the contacts of people infected with COVID-19, experts say that number may no longer be sufficient to help control the virus.
He notes that number was an initial recommendation set by the National Association of County and City Health Officials, which called for having 30 tracers for every 100,000 residents. The Johns Hopkins center initially concurred with that goal, with the hope that the case count curve would be flattened by the time they were all in place.
Since then, however, the center has revised those numbers upward for each state, based on case counts. Illinois would now need 8,300 or more contact tracers to handle the caseload, the center estimated in its recent report.
Today: 6,222 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths reported in Illinois — More here.
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Pandemic recession becomes ‘shecession’ as more working moms are forced to quit jobs, the Tribune’s Katie Surma writes in a new piece here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-11-03--Cal City man, Lynwood juvenile held in carjacking that started in Munster: police

Munster Police were called around 5:37 p.m. to the BP Gas Station at 747 Ridge Road , for a carjacking @ @ @ @ @ said .
The victim said the two men — later identified as Terry L. Lee @ @ @ @ @ Illinois ; and a 17-year-old from Lynwood , Illinois — approached her pointing large guns @ @ @ @ @ .
At gunpoint , they stole her white Dodge Durango but eventually allowed her to @ @ @ @ @ heading north on Calumet Avenue , according to the affidavit .

Two Illinois men have been charged in an Oct. 29 carjacking — as well as an attempted carjacking earlier that evening — that resulted in a bi-state car chase.
Munster Police were called around 5:37 p.m. to the BP Gas Station at 747 Ridge Road, for a carjacking, court records released Monday said. The victim said the two men — later identified as Terry L. Lee, of Calumet City, Illinois; and a 17-year-old from Lynwood, Illinois — approached her pointing large guns and masks, records said. At gunpoint, they stole her white Dodge Durango but eventually allowed her to run away from them before heading north on Calumet Avenue, according to the affidavit.
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Chicago Police found and tried to stop the Durango later in the evening, police said. The men gave chase and fled, records said.
Shortly after midnight, Illinois State Police alerted Munster to the chase, which was headed east on Interstate 80-94, records said, so officers from several departments, who were all working a detail, headed east and saw the Durango exit south on Kennedy Avenue. The Durango crashed into a ditch, and the suspects fled on foot into a wooded area, records said.
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One of the men was apprehended by a K-9 officer, while the police caught the other man after a foot chase. A handgun believed to be used in the carjacking and two other weapons were recovered at the scene, records said.
Earlier in the evening, Lee and the juvenile approached a woman at BP gas station at Hohman Avenue and 169th Street from a black Dodge Challenger trying to get her to give up her vehicle, records said. That woman refused because she had her grandchild with her.
The Challenger followed her and one point one of the men got out of the car at a stoplight and tried to open the door and force her out, records said. When she sped away, the man shot at her, the bullet breaking her window and grazing her arm, records said.
The first woman identified Lee as her attacker, the affidavit said.
Lee has been charged with Level 3 Attempted Armed robbery; level 5 battery by means of a deadly weapon;and two counts of criminal recklessness. He’s currently being held at the Lake County Jail.
Charges rendered against the juvenile weren’t released.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--City watchdog says lack of civilian oversight could lower public trust in Chicago Police Department

City watchdog says lack of civilian oversight could lower public trust in Chicago Police Department reforms

“ The one missing piece that I think is really hurting us right now is the absence of a civilian @ @ @ @ @ General Joseph Ferguson said during his annual budget hearing .
“ And again ... that @ @ @ @ @ , both the police accountability task force headed by the mayor thought it was critical @ @ @ @ @ thought it was critical .
And we ’ re three years gone and that ’ @ @ @ @ @ ”

The city’s watchdog expressed concern about Chicago Police Department reform efforts on Monday, saying it risks losing legitimacy with the public because plans for a civilian oversight body have stalled.
“The one missing piece that I think is really hurting us right now is the absence of a civilian commission,” City Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said during his annual budget hearing. “And again ... that was a really important component, both the police accountability task force headed by the mayor thought it was critical, and the Justice Department thought it was critical. And we’re three years gone and that’s still not there.”
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“My fear is, we’re just going to pass a tipping point where all that hard work that we are doing is not going to be seen with the requisite legitimacy because we don’t have the community piece in place,” he said.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot in September said she planned to negotiate with aldermen on a plan for civilian oversight of Chicago police after negotiations with a community coalition stalled. She had been working with the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability. Those talks ultimately didn’t work out, Lightfoot said, blaming GAPA.
Earlier in September, GAPA sent Lightfoot a letter blaming her for being unwilling “to create something (transformational), despite the promises you made as candidate for mayor.”
Lightfoot has long been a proponent of civilian oversight but as mayor has disagreed with activists over how it would work. Negotiations between Lightfoot and community groups stalled in March over who would ultimately approve Police Department policy.
Ferguson on Monday also said there should be a look at the way Chicago Police Department beats are aligned, noting they haven’t been changed in 50 years despite the big changes in city population patterns in that time.
He declined to take a position on whether the city corporation counsel should release his department’s full report on the October incident that led Lightfoot to fire police Superintendent Eddie Johnson.
While the city has released parts of the inspector general’s office report, Lightfoot has declined to support releasing the full report, saying it doesn’t meet the standards for doing so in an ordinance she supported that the City Council passed last fall.
“The City Council last October passed legislation that allowed the corporation counsel and the mayor’s office to release IG reports if they are, one, a matter of high public interest, and, two, either involved conduct that involved the death of an individual or involved a felony,” Ferguson said. “But in those instances it’s not mandatory for the corporation counsel and the mayor to issue those reports. It’s discretionary. So we can’t do anything about it.”
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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Twitter @_johnbyrne


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 6,222 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional deaths re

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 6,222 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional deaths reported Monday

“ It will possibly take until Wednesday , or Thursday , or even Friday to get results for some races @ @ @ @ @ across the country , ” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus news briefing .
“ @ @ @ @ @ , particularly on the national level .
It is very important that we are patient @ @ @ @ @ We may very well not know who won the election on Wednesday , let alone @ @ @ @

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials Monday reported 6,222 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19. There were also 20 additional deaths reported.
The statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total test for the past 7 days is 8.1%. There were 68,118 tests reported in the prior 24 hours. The state has now reported 423,502 cases since the pandemic began, and 9,810 fatalities.
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Meanwhile, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike had a message for voters going to the polls in person on Tuesday, as COVID-19 continues to surge statewide.
“Please make sure that your mask is securely fitted over both your nose and your mouth, and please make your selections before you get to the polling booth so you can get in and out as quickly as possible,” she said.
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Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
5:50 p.m.: Pritzker urges patience with election results, has National Guard ‘in a state of readiness’ in event of unrest
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday urged patience in the coming days as election authorities grapple with historic levels of mail-in ballots, and said the Illinois National Guard is in a “state of readiness,” amid the possibility of election-related unrest.
“It will possibly take until Wednesday, or Thursday, or even Friday to get results for some races in Illinois and in states across the country,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus news briefing. “Every vote must be counted, particularly on the national level. It is very important that we are patient with the presidential election. We may very well not know who won the election on Wednesday, let alone Tuesday night.”
Pritzker likened the National Guard’s “state of readiness” leading into Election Day to the action his administration took in September to ensure members were available before the Kentucky attorney general announced charges in the controversial police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Taylor’s killing sparked protests against police brutality earlier this year.
“We want to make sure that the cities, counties that call upon us for help, from the state of Illinois, that we have those resources available to them,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker also warned against sourcing election information solely from social media sites expressing concerns about “foreign actors, specifically Russia, Iran and others, who intend to promote misinformation throughout Election Day, and in the days after.”
“They would like nothing more than to promote conspiracy theories and sow discontent,” Pritzker said.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
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4:35 p.m.: Park Ridge restaurants fined for defying Pritzker’s order and continuing indoor dining amid soaring rates of COVID-19
Park Ridge restaurants that defy the governor’s indoor dining ban and continue to serve customers inside are being fined daily, a city official said.
Between Thursday and Saturday of last week, the city issued three restaurants a total of $750 in fines for continued non-compliance with the governor’s order, said Jim Brown, director of community preservation and development.
The restaurants were fined $250 for the first violation and $500 for a subsequent violation, Brown said.
Daily fines of $500 “will continue as long as they remain open,” the director said, adding that the city is also exploring other options, such reporting the establishments to the county and state health departments or recommending a suspension of their liquor licenses.
No restaurants were ordered to close by the city after owners or managers were informed they were being cited, Brown said.
Read more here. —Jennifer Johnson
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2:35 p.m.: University of Chicago Medicine looking for 2,000 participants for COVID-19 vaccine trial
University of Chicago Medicine will soon begin testing another potential COVID-19 vaccine, and is looking for up to 2,000 people to enroll in the phase three clinical trial.
The trial is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a single dose of a vaccine produced by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. The trial began enrolling 60,000 adults across the world in September.
It’s one of a handful of potential vaccines now in advanced clinical trials in the U.S.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
12:05 p.m.: 6,222 new known COVID-19 cases and 20 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Monday announced 6,222 new known cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 423,502 and the statewide death toll to 9,810 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 68,118 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 8.1%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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11:38 a.m.: Chicago’s jazz clubs struggle to stay afloat
Business had been improving recently at Chicago’s jazz clubs, as listeners ventured out again to hear live music.
But the latest pandemic restrictions prohibiting indoor dining and bar service mean that three of the city’s leading jazz rooms temporarily have closed their doors: the Jazz Showcase (806 S. Plymouth Court), Green Mill (4802 N. Broadway) and Andy’s Jazz Club (11 E. Hubbard St.). (Winter’s Jazz Club has been closed since March.)
“You just start building it up, and it was starting to work,” says Green Mill owner Dave Jemilo, whose club was entertaining audiences indoors and outdoors (at an adjacent space).
“It was starting to work really well, where you’d be full outside and full inside – with the smaller capacity” that had been mandated.
“And now it’s like the world’s coming to an end again. Everyone’s afraid to do anything, no one’s going to go out, and you’re going to have to do it all over again. It’s hard on your emotions.”
Read more here. —Howard Reich
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11:18 a.m.: National Guard arriving Monday at some Indiana nursing homes hard hit by COVID-19 cases
The first wave of Indiana National Guard soldiers are scheduled to arrive at a dozen local nursing homes starting Monday.
Gov. Eric Holcomb announced the move Oct. 28 across Indiana at a weekly press conference in Indianapolis.
Indiana National Guard Adjunct General Dale Lyles said last week that 399 guardsmen will go to 133 hard-hit nursing homes and longterm care facilities Monday. On Nov. 9, that total will grow to 750 in 250 facilities, increasing to 1,350 in all 534 facilities by Nov. 16.
Their job is to free up staff for patient care by helping with infection control and monitoring cleaning high touch areas like door handles, virus prevention checklists, data entry, testing registration, staff and visitor screenings/wellness checks, he said. They trained at Camp Atterbury last week, Lyles said. The assignment is scheduled through Dec. 31.
Each will get a COVID-19 test before their arrival, and will be regularly tested and monitored. They will also get personal protective equipment.
Read more here. —Meredith Colias-Pete
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7:01 a.m.: COVID-19 restrictions take effect in east-central Illinois
Coronavirus restrictions were to take effect Monday in Region 6 in the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan, including Champaign-Urbana and Decatur.
The 21-county area, which includes a long stretch of the state along the Indiana border, saw its seven-day rolling positivity rate for coronavirus tests hit 8.6% on Tuesday, exceeding the state-established threshold of 8% for the third straight day and triggering the reopening rollback. The restrictions, which go into effect Monday, include including a ban on indoor dining and bar service and a 25-person cap on gatherings, down from 50.
The state announced Sunday that Region 11 in north-central Illinois, including Kendall County, the last in the state not under the new coronavirus restrictions, had passed the 8 percent positivity rate that trigger the restrictions. Restrictions will go into effect there on Wednesday. — Chicago Tribune staff
6:50 a.m.: Chicago health officials urge people to get flu shots
City health officials are urging Chicago residents to get flu shots this season to protect against the influenza virus and help keep beds open in hospitals for coronavirus patients.
The city Health Department is holding 12 flu clinics in the next two weeks. Chicago residents can get flu shots at the clinics “for no out-of-pocket cost, regardless of their immigration status and ability to pay,” according to a release from the mayor’s office.
Clinics will be held at locations including city colleges, and people are encouraged to make an appointment, although walk-ins are welcome.
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For more information and to see list of flu clinics, check chicago.gov/flu. The city also has restarted its Chicago Flu Vaccine Finder page to help people find places to get a flu shot; residents can also call 311 to find a city flu clinic. — Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Illinois is nearing its contact tracing hiring goal. Is it too late?
As Illinois finally nears its goal of employing 3,800 people to track down and warn the contacts of people infected with COVID-19, experts say that number may no longer be sufficient to help control the virus.
That’s because contact tracing — which aims to reduce disease spread by identifying and isolating people who could be infectious — works best when infection rates are relatively low. The state is seeing record numbers of daily confirmed cases.
“Contact tracing is not a silver bullet, and it can be overwhelmed very quickly with an expanding epidemic, because cases will appear and transmission will occur much more quickly than a health department can hire contact tracers,” said Crystal Watson, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. "So, there is kind of a threshold at which contact tracing becomes much less effective.
“And so, what we need to do in those cases is use other interventions like enforcing mask use and physical distancing and shutting down indoor areas.”
Watson is part of a team at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and National Public Radio that has tracked the status of contact tracing in the United States. They concluded in a recent report that once a state is logging more than 10 new COVID-19 cases daily for every 100,000 residents, contact tracers become overwhelmed.
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Illinois is far above that level, logging a seven-day rolling average of more than 40 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 each day for every 100,000 people. In response, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has shut down indoor dining and drinking and limited gathering capacities to try to quell the surge that is taking dozens of lives every day.
Those moves have fueled questions about how contact-tracing information plays into the state’s decisions about tightening restrictions. The state has said it will soon post data collected by local health departments related to outbreaks and exposures.
Five months since Pritzker said vigorous contact tracing was key to keeping the pandemic in check and safely reopening society, public officials still view it as key, despite the challenges.
Read more here. — Hal Dardick
6 a.m.: As the pandemic wears on, more working moms are forced to quit their jobs, and the impact of the ‘shecession’ could be long-lasting
Millions of working mothers have seen their financial security and career prospects upended by the coronavirus, and experts say it could take years for women to recover. In September alone, 865,000 women left the workforce or were laid off nationwide, compared with 216,000 men, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Called the “shecession” by some economists, the coronavirus pandemic is unlike other modern recessions in that job losses are greatest among women, who dominate jobs that cannot be done remotely, like food service, retail and hospitality.
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At the same time, they’re being required to do more at home. As schools and day care centers close, parents — mostly mothers — are forced to take on more responsibility, an escalation in child care needs that hasn’t happened in past recessions.
Some women in two-parent households are being forced to drop out of the workforce altogether, at least temporarily.
“The pandemic has forced millions of families to decide who scales down or drops out of the workforce for the next few months, and it’s going to be mostly women,” said Titan Alon, an economics professor at the University of California at San Diego who has researched the impact of the coronavirus on gender equality.
Read more here. — Katie Surma
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories from the past week related to COVID-19.


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Pilsen mural honors essential workers, residents

290 Shadowood Lane , Northfield : $ 3,499,000 | Listed : Oct. 2 , 2020 This six-bedroom Cape Cod-style home in the North Shore suburb of Northfield has six bathrooms and four half-bathrooms .
The expansive kitchen features two islands , a wood-burning pizza oven and high-end appliances .
It opens to a family room with vaulted ceilings fitted with wooden arches in an impressive display .
The home has six fireplaces in rooms including the heated sunroom and a living room with a coffered ceiling and a wall of windows .
Another fireplace can be found in a suite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes two private offices , a study with built-in bookshelves and a printer room .
The spacious primary bedroom suite offers a large dressing room with a coffee bar and refrigerator , along with dual walk-in closets and French doors that open to a private balcony .
An elevator , radiant heated floors throughout , multiple outdoor patios and a four-car garage complete the home .
Agent : Beth Hager and Tamara Duckler of Jameson Sotheby ’ s International Realty , 847-716-5152 *Some photos are “ virtually staged , ” meaning they have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or decorating options .
To feature your luxury listing of $ 800,000 or more in Chicago Tribune ’ s Dream Homes , send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate @ chicagotribune.com .
Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news .

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 17 Artist Pablo Serrano paints a mural on the sidewall of Carnitas Don Pedro in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, Oct. 30, 2020. Serrano and Mateo Zapata are painting portraits of residents and essential workers on a mural that would be Pilsen's largest piece of art. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Artists Mateo Zapata and Pablo Serrano are painting a massive mural on the sidewall of Carnitas Don Pedro restaurant in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. The owners of the carniceria wanted to help beautify and empower their community by painting portraits of some residents and essential workers on a mural that would be Pilsen's largest piece.


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Pritzker urges patience with election results, has Illinois National Guard ‘in a state of readiness’

Pritzker urges patience with election results, has Illinois National Guard ‘in a state of readiness’ in event of unrest

Dozens of voters line up outside as they wait to cast their ballots at the Election Day super site polling place set up inside the United Center in Chicago, Nov. 3, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday urged patience in the coming days as election authorities grapple with historic levels of mail-in ballots, and said the Illinois National Guard is in a “state of readiness,” amid the possibility of election-related unrest.
“It will possibly take until Wednesday, or Thursday, or even Friday to get results for some races in Illinois and in states across the country,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus news briefing. “Every vote must be counted, particularly on the national level. It is very important that we are patient with the presidential election. We may very well not know who won the election on Wednesday, let alone Tuesday night.”
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Pritzker likened the National Guard’s “state of readiness” leading into Election Day to the action his administration took in September to ensure members were available before the Kentucky attorney general announced charges in the controversial police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Taylor’s killing sparked protests against police brutality earlier this year.
“We want to make sure that the cities, counties that call upon us for help, from the state of Illinois, that we have those resources available to them,” Pritzker said.
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Pritzker also warned against sourcing election information solely from social media sites expressing concerns about “foreign actors, specifically Russia, Iran and others, who intend to promote misinformation throughout Election Day, and in the days after."
“They would like nothing more than to promote conspiracy theories and sow discontent,” Pritzker said.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike had a message for voters going to the polls in person on Tuesday, as COVID-19 continues to surge statewide.
“Please make sure that your mask is securely fitted over both your nose and your mouth, and please make your selections before you get to the polling booth so you can get in and out as quickly as possible," she said.
The state on Monday reported 6,222 newly-diagnosed cases and 20 additional deaths of people with COVID-19. The state has reported 423,502 cases and 9,810 deaths through the course of the pandemic.
The state on Monday reported 68,118 tests conducted over the previous 24 hours, and as of Sunday night, 3,371 people were in the hospital with COVID-19, with 722 patients in intensive care units and 298 on ventilators.
The seven-day average for the case positivity rate, which is the share of confirmed cases resulting from the total number of tests conducted, was 8.1% for the period ending Sunday, more than double what it was a month earlier, and up from 5.4% two weeks ago.
Starting Wednesday, all 11 regions of the state, as defined by Pritzker’s Restore Illinois reopening plan, are under tighter rules imposed by the state that include shuttering indoor dining and bar service and lowering the limit on gatherings to the lesser of 25 people or 25% capacity.
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The 20-county north-central region that includes the Quad Cities, Bloomington and Peoria, will be the last one to come under those tougher rules on Wednesday.
In the face of growing opposition to his coronavirus-related restrictions, Pritzker on Monday highlighted the state’s Business Interruption Grant program, meant to give a financial boost to some of the types of businesses that have been hardest hit by closures or drastic operational changes forced by the state’s coronavirus restrictions.
As of last week, Pritzker’s office said more than $46 million in Business Interruption Grants had gone out to businesses as part of the state’s second round of awards, with nearly $20 million going to bars and restaurants.
“Many, many restaurants and bars are doing the right thing, they’re either tenting, using outdoor tents, or they’re just providing pickup or delivery service or drive-thru during this difficult period,” Pritzker said. “And what we’re asking is that the enforcement be brought where people are not following the closure of indoor bars and restaurants. I do believe that law enforcement locally, health departments locally, mayors, will, should do the right thing. And some are choosing not to.”
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Final FiveThirtyEight polling averages: Track the race for president in the key battleground states

The final FiveThirtyEight polling averages Nov. 2 show Biden ahead of Trump in 12 of 15 key battleground contests and @ @ @ @ @ Biden ’ s widest margin is New Hampshire with a lead of 10.9 percentage points @ @ @ @ @ Biden leads Minnesota by 9.3 , Wisconsin by 8.2 and Michigan by 8 points .
@ @ @ @ @ Texas and Ohio .
His largest margin is Iowa with a 1.4 percentage point lead @ @ @ @ @ closer than 1.9 percentage points .

Bill Ruthhart, Chad Yoder, Jonathon Berlin

Going into Tuesday’s voting, the list of battleground states that President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden were fighting for was a long 13. By the end of the night, that list had shrunk to a half-dozen.
By Wednesday morning, all eyes were on three familiar battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Propelled by the late counting of votes from Democratic strongholds, Biden had taken a lead in Michigan and Wisconsin by late morning Wednesday, while Trump remained in front in Pennsylvania with hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding.
Regardless of where those states land, the margin in the race to 270 Electoral College votes promises to be thin. Here is a look at results in hand so far from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as some of the other battlegrounds that have been projected already or are closer to projection.
Also included here are final FiveThirtyEight polling averages for those states — polling that, as in 2016, proved to underestimate Trump’s sway with voters.
Those polls had Biden up 8.2 points nationally, for example. In key Midwest states, Biden led Minnesota by 9.3, Wisconsin by 8.2 and Michigan by 8 points. Trump won states where he was leading — Iowa, Texas and Ohio.
State by state


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Waukegan man killed in crash

Waukegan man killed in crash

The Cruze driver was transported to a hospital , but died from his injuries , police said .
The Eclipse @ @ @ @ @ man in his 20s , suffered serious injuries , according to police , but is @ @ @ @

A Waukegan man was killed Friday when the car he was driving crossed the center line and struck another vehicle, police said Monday.
Police have not identified the victim other than to say he was a Waukegan man in his 20s.
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The accident happened at about 7:20 p.m. on North McAree Road, near the Sycamore Drive intersection, authorities said. The driver of a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze was northbound on McAree when his car drove into the oncoming lane and struck a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
The Cruze driver was transported to a hospital, but died from his injuries, police said. The Eclipse driver, also a Waukegan man in his 20s, suffered serious injuries, according to police, but is expected to survive.
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Neither driver was wearing a seat belt and each was the sole occupant in his car, police said.


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Numerous businesses in Burr Ridge and Willowbrook report mail theft and check fraud

The Reaching Across Illinois Library System , which has offices at 125 Tower Drive in Burr Ridge , also was @ @ @ @ @ and check fraud .
Officials of the library system , which provides e-books , continuing @ @ @ @ @ other services to about 1,300 libraries statewide , reported Oct. 28 three checks totaling $ @ @ @ @ @ arrived at their destination .
Instead , someone took them and changed who the checks @ @ @ @ @ ’ s not clear whether the checks were cashed or not .

Industrial Valve & Automation Co. is one of several Burr Ridge businesses that discovered the checks they were mailing were intercepted and altered.
“Some were cashed, some were not,” said Tina Henderson, the Burr Ridge Police Department records coordinator.
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Jim Breslin, the owner of Industrial Valve, said a postal carrier picked up mail at the company’s offices, on South Frontage Road, just southeast of Interstate 55 and Route 83, on Oct. 5 or 6. The outgoing mail included checks payable to the company’s vendors.
Some days later, Industrial Valve learned from one of the vendors their check had not arrived.
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The company’s bank records showed the check for about $2,940 had cleared on Oct. 23, but Breslin learned the payee’s name had been changed to a name unknown to the company.
The Reaching Across Illinois Library System, which has offices at 125 Tower Drive in Burr Ridge, also was a victim of mail theft and check fraud. Officials of the library system, which provides e-books, continuing education, cooperative purchasing and other services to about 1,300 libraries statewide, reported Oct. 28 three checks totaling $80,928 that were mailed never arrived at their destination. Instead, someone took them and changed who the checks were payable to. It’s not clear whether the checks were cashed or not.
Law enforcement officials refer to the crime as check washing, when someone uses chemicals to remove the printing on a check and rewrite it for a different amount or make it payable to someone else.
Another business on Tower Drive in Burr Ridge reported Oct. 20 that two of its checks were “washed” and endorsed to unauthorized individuals. The checks were signed and fraudulently deposited into accounts, but the funds were not transferred before the fraud was discovered.
A business on Grant Street, like Industrial Valve, reported giving an envelope containing a business check to the mail carrier on Sept. 16 to mail, as they normally did. It was not until Oct. 21 that the business learned the check was not mailed to the intended recipient.
An employee of a Burr Ridge business on Shore Drive said he brought 50 checks to the U.S. Postal Service Office Annex, at 7410 Monroe St., in Willowbrook at about 5:15 p.m. Oct. 9 and put them in an outside mailbox there. On Oct. 22, he noticed the company was short about $15,000 and contacted the Burr Ridge Police Department.
More than five businesses in Willowbrook also reported checks they mailed were intercepted, Willowbrook police officials said.
Local police departments have referred the companies to the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General, who is conducting an investigation.
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Breslin said he has learned about 25 of Industrial Valve’s checks payable to vendors never arrived. He has placed stop payment orders on the outstanding checks.
“They were high security checks,” Breslin said. “I guess they were not high security enough.”
For the near future, at least, he plans to make payments via wire transfer instead of paper checks, he said.


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Kyle Rittenhouse’s bail remains at $2 million as dead man’s father makes emotional plea for higher a

Kyle Rittenhouse’s bail remains at $2 million as dead man’s father makes emotional plea for higher amount

Both Rittenhouse ’ s lawyer and the father of one of the men killed spoke loudly and pointedly as they @ @ @ @ @ the case and whether the teen might flee if released from the Kenosha County jail @ @ @ @ @ Court Commissioner Loren Keating ruled for a bail amount the same as the one a @ @ @ @ @ earlier when Rittenhouse was charged .

Kyle Rittenhouse, center, walks into the courtroom with attorney Corey Chirafisi for a motion hearing in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2021. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News )
A Wisconsin court commissioner left Kyle Rittenhouse’s bail unchanged at $2 million Monday after an occasionally heated online hearing for the Antioch 17-year-old, who faces charges stemming from the fatal shooting of two men and the wounding of a third during August protests in Kenosha.
Both Rittenhouse’s lawyer and the father of one of the men killed spoke loudly and pointedly as they clashed over the facts of the case and whether the teen might flee if released from the Kenosha County jail. In the end, Court Commissioner Loren Keating ruled for a bail amount the same as the one a judge set some two months earlier when Rittenhouse was charged.
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The hearing was the first since Lake County sheriff’s deputies handed off Rittenhouse to Kenosha County officers Friday afternoon. His transfer came immediately after a Lake County judge rejected his lawyers' efforts to block his extradition to from Illinois to Wisconsin.
Kenosha County prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with shooting three men with an AR-15-style rifle Aug. 25 during protests over white police Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man, days earlier.
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One speaker at Monday’s hearing was John Huber, the father of Anthony Huber, a 26-year-old skateboarder from Silver Lake who was shot and killed in the middle of a Kenosha street. John Huber asked Keating to increase Rittenhouse’s bail to $4 million or even $10 million, calling the defense argument that Rittenhouse was defending himself “impossible.” He also lashed out at President Donald Trump, who told reporters the teen “probably would have been killed” during the confrontation.
“How dare he? He needs to just stay on Twitter,” Huber said. “My son was a hero. He tried to stop (Rittenhouse).”
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked for the bail amount to remain at $2 million and suggested the teen might flee if released. He noted that Rittenhouse is from Antioch, and that his lawyers fought his extradition to Wisconsin. Binger pointed out that the teen is charged with murder, along with several other counts, and he could face a life sentence if convicted.
“These charges are as serious as we get in Wisconsin,” Binger said. "Someone who is facing these types of charges has the strongest possible incentive not to return to court.”
One of Rittenhouse’s lawyers, Mark Richards, argued that the teen wouldn’t flee and noted that video from the night of the shootings showed him apparently trying to surrender to police at the scene, who let him leave. Richards pointed out that Rittenhouse was arrested the next day after he voluntarily went to the Antioch police station with his mother. Records released Friday showed that Rittenhouse tearfully told police “I shot two white kids."
Richards — who asked for a $750,000 bail — continued the teen’s legal team approach of attacking prosecutors and arguing that the self-defense case is “overwhelming."
“We’re not talking about demonstrators. We’re talking about rioters, who had ill-intent in their heart and, unfortunately, they came in second,” he said.
The man who was shot and wounded that night, Gaige Grosskreutz of West Allis, was present for the online hearing but did not speak. His lawyer, Kimberley Motley, asked for a bail amount of $4 million.
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Rittenhouse appeared via video in a dark jail shirt and an orange face mask because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. He spoke only briefly, after the judge asked him if he understood a technical legal question about his rights.
In setting the $2 million bail, Keating pointed to the “incredibly serious” charges and heavy potential penalties as he found that Rittenhouse would pose a risk of fleeing. He barred him from having contact with various people involved in the case and set another hearing for Dec. 3.
In Illinois, detainees generally need to pay 10% of their bail amount to be released, but the rules are different in Wisconsin. Officials from the Kenosha County prosecutor’s office said Rittenhouse’s allies would need to pay the full amount.
His lawyers have promoted fundraising efforts for the teen’s legal defense, and since his extradition Friday have called for donations to pay his bail. An attorney linked to his legal team estimated Monday that they were $600,000 short.
Rittenhouse’s case became a popular cause among conservatives and gun rights advocates almost immediately after the shootings, which happened as the teen and other heavily armed people inserted themselves into the protests that raged for several nights in Kenosha.
Kenosha County prosecutors have written that video from the night of the shootings showed the teen running across a parking lot, trailed by Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha. A witness told police that Rosenbaum, who appeared on video to be unarmed, had tried to grab the gun before he was fatally shot, prosecutors wrote.
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The teen’s lawyers alleged in their petition fighting the extradition process that Rosenbaum threatened Rittenhouse, chased him and lunged for his gun. The teen fired “under grave risk of immediate harm,” the petition stated.
Rittenhouse ran before someone knocked off his hat, and he tripped and fell, prosecutors wrote. Then, Huber approached with a skateboard and tried to grab the gun as the skateboard “(made) contact” with Rittenhouse’s shoulder, prosecutors wrote. The gunman then fired a shot that killed Huber, prosecutors alleged.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers argued in their filing that the skateboard hit the teen’s head and he shot Huber as they wrestled over the rifle.
Prosecutors wrote that Rittenhouse then shot Grosskreutz, who appeared to be holding a handgun when he was wounded in the arm.
The teen’s lawyers contended in their filing that Grosskreutz “lowered his handgun in Rittenhouse’s direction.”
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Election Day 2020 in Illinois

Election Day 2020 in Illinois

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· A story on Page 3 Monday mischaracterized a statement from Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro. The story quoted an unidentified student who said that Schapiro had called the protests an abomination. In Schapiro’s statement, he denounced protesters who used hateful language to him outside his home.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
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chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Chicago labor unions say a general strike is an option if there are threats to a free and fair elect

Chicago labor unions say a general strike is an option if there are threats to a free and fair election Tuesday

The unions “ are very concerned about some of what is being said about how this election is going to @ @ @ @ @ few days , '' said Carl Rosen , president of United Electrical , Radio and @ @ @ @ @ which represents 35,000 members nationwide .
“ ... And when we have a candidate who @ @ @ @ @ s going to try to shut down the vote count as soon as the polls @ @ @ @ @ not how democracy works , that ’ s not how our election system works , @ @ @ @ @ is saying it is because he knows he is losing this vote , that he @ @ @ @ @ of the American people .
”

SEIU President Dian Palmer, second from left, and CTU President Jesse Sharkey, second from right, are among local labor leaders who say they are preparing to act to ensure a free and fair election. They're shown after the teachers strike ended last year. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago-area labor leaders are preparing to take nonviolent action, from a rally planned for Wednesday up to a general strike, in the event Tuesday’s presidential election does not go smoothly.
Some of the city’s powerful labor groups stood outside the Thompson Center on Monday morning and declared the measures they’re willing to take to ensure every vote is counted and any transfer of power is peaceful.
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Their endorsements have gone to former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris, and they say they are worried because President Donald Trump has not committed to a peaceful transition should he lose. The latest polls show Biden leading Trump in key swing states.
“Donald Trump wants to steal this election. We won’t let him, and we are prepared to engage in mass non-violent protest — up to and including a general strike of all working people, if necessary — to protect and defend our democratic rights,” eight Chicago-area unions said in a joint statement released later Monday.
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Downtown, some businesses were boarding up their windows in anticipation of possible unrest tied to the election, which may not even be called on Election Day.
Chicago Board of Elections officials have said they anticipate having most results Tuesday night, though they will continue counting mail-in ballots arriving after Tuesday. While Chicago has already started processing mailed ballots, some states wait until Election Day.
Trump, who has tweeted that the election should end Tuesday, said last week at a Nevada news conference that, “Hopefully, the few states remaining that want to take a lot of time after Nov. 3 to count ballots, that won’t be allowed by the various courts.”
The unions “are very concerned about some of what is being said about how this election is going to play out over the next few days," said Carl Rosen, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, which represents 35,000 members nationwide. “... And when we have a candidate who is saying that he’s going to try to shut down the vote count as soon as the polls close, that’s not how democracy works, that’s not how our election system works, and the only reason he is saying it is because he knows he is losing this vote, that he’s lost the support of the American people.”
The Election should end on November 3rd., not weeks later! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020
The world is already “upside down and inside out,” from fires on the West Coast to hurricanes in the Southern United States and a pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans, said Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the 25,000-member Chicago Teachers Union.
“Now we are in the middle of an electoral process that we have done many times before, that we fully intend to shift the trajectory of everything that is upside down and inside out at this moment,” Davis Gates said. “And in order to do that, every single vote has to be counted. That’s not an if, there is not a but, there is an expectation, there is past precedent, there is law that undergirds the sanctity of our vote in this country. Our democracy depends on it. Our freedom depends on it. Our lives literally depend on it.”
The labor movement has a proud history of standing up for democracy and fair elections, said Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, representing 29,000 public employees in Illinois and northwest Indiana.
“We intend to stand up and speak out peacefully and legally to protect every single vote,” Palmer said.
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Others brought up the contested election 20 years ago between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which was ultimately decided in Bush’s favor by the U.S. Supreme Court.
History doesn’t need to repeat itself, said Roberto Clack, associate director with Warehouse Workers for Justice.
“We need the labor movement to be in there, to fight for workers, to make sure that we have justice, to make sure that every vote counts,” Clack said. “We will be there, we will stand in solidarity, we will fight back against any attempt to steal this election. Twenty years ago when the election was stolen, it brought us the Iraq War, it brought us lower labor standards. ... We need our members to continue to show up to the polls, we need the labor movement to be out in the street if they do try to steal this.”
The labor groups have scheduled a protest for 5 p.m. Wednesday at Daley Plaza “to defend the vote.”
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Rosen said that’s the plan “unless there has been a concession at that point, which we aren’t guessing there will be, given the propaganda that’s coming out of out of one of the campaigns.”
He said the unions “are prepared to continue action, whatever it takes to make sure that democracy is sustained in this country. We know what it’s taken in other countries that have faced tin-pot dictators trying to stay in office after the people of their country have voted them out, and people have to stay in the streets. There may have to be general shutdowns of workplaces, which would be called a general strike. There may have to be ongoing peaceful mass protests.”
In addition to safeguarding the outcome of the election, the labor leaders also made a last-minute voting plea.
Shantonia Jackson, a certified nursing assistant and member of the SEIU Healthcare Illinois union, said this vote feels especially important after losing co-workers at City View Multi-Care center in Cicero, one of the many Illinois nursing homes affected by a COVID-19 outbreak. Throughout the Midwest, SEIU Healthcare represents more than 91,000 workers.
“My vote counts and I’m voting for them, to make sure that all our votes count, and all our union brothers and sisters are together and we stand as one,” Jackson said. “... I need all the essential workers to get out and vote, I need everyone to get out and vote, because the world is changing. And it’s been very hard for me, as an essential worker, I’ve worked 16 hours a day. I’ve worked to help care for the loved ones ... people who can’t get their loved ones at home, I’m there for them and I want the American people to know this is a very important election.”
In the “Joint Statement of Chicago-area Labor on Protecting Our Democracy," labor leaders called for every vote to be counted.
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“We stand firmly in opposition to any effort to subvert, distort, misrepresent or disregard the final outcome,” the statement begins, asking other workers, public figures, and community and religious leaders to join their cause.
“We believe that the labor movement has an essential role in demanding and defending democracy,” the statement continues. “We believe in the power of the people — the multiracial, working-class majority — and we are ready to defend our right to a free and fair election and a peaceful transition of power.”
Signers to the statement included Rosen, Clack, Palmer, Davis Gates, CTU President Jesse Sharkey, SEIU Healthcare regional President Greg Kelley, AFGE Local 704 President Nicole Cantello and Cook County College Teachers Union President Tony Johnston.
hleone@chicagotribue.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Aurora man charged with murder after Elgin man found dead in house being renovated

Police were approached by a witness who had suspicions about a person who lives in the 1700 block of Indian @ @ @ @ @ half-mile away from the crime scene , officials said .

An Aurora man has been charged with murder after a man was found dead inside a home under renovation in Aurora Township.
Carlos Fonseca-Gutierrez, 40, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and armed robbery in connection with the case.
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Carlos Fonseca-Gutierrez (Kane County Sheriffs Office / HANDOUT)
Kane County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a residence under renovation in the 1500 block of Solfisburg Avenue in Aurora Township Saturday for a report of a body located inside the home, Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain said in a news release.
A man, later identified as Mario A. Ying, 51, of Elgin, was found dead inside the home. Detectives began processing the scene, speaking to witnesses and canvassing the neighborhood for video surveillance, according to the release.
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Police were approached by a witness who had suspicions about a person who lives in the 1700 block of Indian Avenue, less than a half-mile away from the crime scene, officials said.
Detectives went to the residence and spoke briefly with Fonseca-Gutierrez, who agreed to come to the sheriff’s office to speak more, according to the release.
Kane County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said Fonseca-Gomez was taken into custody Saturday as a suspect.
An autopsy was conducted on Ying Monday morning, officials said.
Fonseca-Gutierrez is expected to appear at a bond call in Kane County court Tuesday morning.
mejones@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-02--Illinois is nearing its contact tracing hiring goal. Is it too late?

“ I think all of us would love for this to move so much more quickly than it is , @ @ @ @ @ But I would say the local health departments are wonderful partners and they are moving @ @ @ @ @ and we ’ ve been all working together to get into a position to try @ @ @ @ @ can stop and contain and reduce the problems of this disease .
”

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois finally nears its goal of employing 3,800 people to track down and warn the contacts of people infected with COVID-19, experts say that number may no longer be sufficient to help control the virus.
That’s because contact tracing — which aims to reduce disease spread by identifying and isolating people who could be infectious — works best when infection rates are relatively low. The state is seeing record numbers of daily confirmed cases.
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“Contact tracing is not a silver bullet, and it can be overwhelmed very quickly with an expanding epidemic, because cases will appear and transmission will occur much more quickly than a health department can hire contact tracers,” said Crystal Watson, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “So, there is kind of a threshold at which contact tracing becomes much less effective.
“And so, what we need to do in those cases is use other interventions like enforcing mask use and physical distancing and shutting down indoor areas.”
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Watson is part of a team at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and National Public Radio that has tracked the status of contact tracing in the United States. They concluded in a recent report that once a state is logging more than 10 new COVID-19 cases daily for every 100,000 residents, contact tracers become overwhelmed.
Illinois is far above that level, logging a seven-day rolling average of more than 40 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19 each day for every 100,000 people. In response, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has shut down indoor dining and drinking and limited gathering capacities to try to quell the surge that is taking dozens of lives every day.
Those moves have fueled questions about how contact-tracing information plays into the state’s decisions about tightening restrictions. The state has said it will soon post data collected by local health departments related to outbreaks and exposures.
Pritzker said Monday that the state was “in a decent position” on contact tracing but officials “definitely should hire more if we continue to have this increasing caseload.” The federal government needs to provide more funding for the effort, he added.
“I should remind everybody that the federal government has a testing and tracing bill before it — the Congress does — and it hasn’t acted upon that,” the governor said. “We need additional help in order to continue to grow our contact tracing in any significant way.”
Five months since Pritzker said vigorous contact tracing was key to keeping the pandemic in check and safely reopening society, public officials still view it as key, despite the challenges.
“Case investigation is always important,” said Christina Anderson, the city of Chicago’s chief of operations for COVID-19 response. But she also said people’s individual behaviors — whether they are adhering to public health guidelines for masks and physical distancing — have consistently proved to be the main driver of case trends in the city.
As of Friday, local health departments across the state had a total of 3,213 people doing contact-tracing work, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which is overseeing the effort.
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The Chicago Department of Public Health said it expects to complete its staffing effort soon, having brought on more than 500 of 580 planned new hires. Officials said the city also has used workers from other departments to do contact tracing in the meantime.
The Cook County Public Health Department, meanwhile, has hired only about 60 of the 375 new staffers planned, on top of its permanent complement of 25 contact tracers.
“It’s a fraction of where we want to be, absolutely,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, one of two senior medical officers running the department. A spokeswoman said plans are in the works to offer jobs to 160 more candidates, which would still leave the county 155 short of its goal.
Dr. Rachel Rubin at her office at the Cook County Department of Public Health in Forest Park, Nov. 2, 2020. Dr. Rubin is one of two senior medical officers at the department. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The statewide target of 3,800 contact tracers was based on an initial recommendation set by the National Association of County and City Health Officials of having 30 tracers for every 100,000 residents. The Johns Hopkins center initially concurred with that goal, with the hope that the case count curve would be flattened by the time they were all in place.
Since then, however, the center has revised those numbers upward for each state, based on case counts. Illinois would now need 8,300 or more contact tracers to handle the caseload, the center estimated in its recent report.
Off to a slow start
Contact tracing has been used for decades to control disease outbreaks across the world, but the effort to scale it up sufficiently to battle COVID-19 is off to a very slow start in the United States.
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It works like this: When a positive coronavirus test is reported, an investigator urges the infected person to isolate themselves from everyone for 14 days, as well as asking them to identify all the people they’ve had close contact with for 15 minutes or more during the two weeks before their diagnosis. If the infected person is too sick or has died, the investigator talks to the person’s family.
A contact tracer then tries to track down those close contacts and urge them to get tested. Even if they test negative, they are asked to quarantine themselves at home, since it’s possible the disease will yet emerge.
Contact tracing has been effective in other countries during the pandemic, perhaps most notably in New Zealand. But that island nation, with a population of less than 5 million, was able to bring its epidemic completely under control, making it easier to carry out contact tracing when new cases occurred.
The process also is credited with tamping down virus spread in Japan, where officials took the approach of focusing largely on superspreading events, which can play an outsize role in accelerating infection rates.
But in the U.S., which has struggled to contain the spread of the virus, only six states and Washington, D.C., have enough dedicated or reserve contact tracers to handle their current caseloads, according to the Center for Health Security’s analysis.
The country’s problems with testing have also been an obstacle to effective contact tracing. “In many places the turnaround time for tests is just so long,” Stephen Kissler, a research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, said at a recent forum.
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“By the time you actually get a confirmed case, if you want to trace that person’s contacts, you have no idea when they were exposed,” he said. “And if we were able to trace those contacts, those contacts have had contacts who have already spread COVID, so that it just becomes this nightmare to follow.”
Still, there’s some evidence that contact tracing is helping. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described how contact tracing helped to quell an outbreak among men’s and women’s soccer teams at an unnamed Chicago university.
Seventeen COVID-19 cases were identified among the players, who tracers found had been involved in 19 social gatherings. The infected players were isolated, and the rest of the teams were quarantined until the outbreak died out. The university also established a testing regimen among athletes, performing artists and students living in campus housing, according to the study.
In Illinois, state government does not directly run contact tracing programs, which are thought to be more effective when managed by local communities. But the Illinois Department of Public Health doles out federal money to local health departments, provides expertise and training, and establishes reporting requirements.
Concern about the state not yet reaching full staffing for contact tracing “is understandable,” said Kia Coleman, an assistant secretary in the Illinois Department of Human Services who is heading up the state’s effort.
She said it takes time to hire and train people, make sure testing is adequate and set up a statewide reporting system. She said new people are being brought on every day and local departments are now feeding information into the reporting system, with plans in the works to start making that data public.
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“I think all of us would love for this to move so much more quickly than it is,” Coleman said. "But I would say the local health departments are wonderful partners and they are moving at a steady clip, and we’ve been all working together to get into a position to try to make sure that we can stop and contain and reduce the problems of this disease.”
Coleman conceded that the 3,800 hiring target may need to be adjusted, perhaps with increases in hot spots where cases are surging. “It’s a moving target, and it depends on many things, including positivity rate,” she said.
Chicago and Cook County
In Chicago, city workers from other departments have been temporarily shifted to the contact tracing program to keep up with cases until full staffing is achieved, said Anderson, the city’s COVID-19 response chief.
As a result, investigators in recent weeks have been making contact with more than 4 out of 5 city residents diagnosed with COVID-19, Anderson said.
In addition to the 580 new people being brought on board, the city also has about 150 employees of the Chicago Department of Public Health involved in the effort. “In addition, we have made $14 million in grants to 28 hospital systems or federally qualified health centers to hire even more contact tracers,” Anderson said
On hiring, the city is “working to balance speed and inclusion,” Anderson said. That means officials want to hire people from communities that are struggling economically as well as with high rates of COVID-19; the aim is to provide employment where it’s needed most and employ people who can understand and empathize with individuals they are contacting.
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Anderson said that, in the interest of efficiency, the contact tracing corps is focusing on identifying so-called superspreader events — both large and small — as those situations are causing much of the current growth in cases.
“It can happen with six or seven people, where they get together for a birthday party,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of events where people are with people they are familiar with, and so they let their guard down. And so our investigators are working on strategies to identify those events.”
In June, Cook County announced a $41 million effort to beef up its contact tracing corps. Unlike the city, which has a larger workforce, the county has not shifted people from other duties as it scales up the program, said Rubin of the county health department. So for now, contact tracing remains limited at that level.
“Am I concerned that we’re not doing more case investigations and tracing? Sure,” Rubin said. “But I also know we are doing a whole bunch of things that are probably making a difference.”
Those include investigations of inadequate protections at workplaces, working with schools to quell nascent outbreaks and campaigns to emphasize the important of mask-wearing and other precautions.
Anderson similarly stressed that although testing and contact tracing are important, the best weapon against COVID-19 is prevention.
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“We can test and trace all day,” Anderson said. “That doesn’t protect you from the spread of COVID. Social distancing, hand-washing, wearing your mask — those do. ... We really need to remain vigilant as we go into the winter months.”
Chicago Tribune’s Joe Mahr and Dan Petrella contributed.
hdardick@chicagotribune.com