chicagotribune--2020-07-22--1 in 5 US workers collects unemployment benefits. Without the extra $600, many say they’ll struggle

1 in 5 US workers collects unemployment benefits. Without the extra $600, many say they’ll struggle to buy food, pay bills

Manuela Sepulveda , 50 , who lost her job as a home health aide in April , is earning more @ @ @ @ @ working , but she misses the work and wants to return to her field .
@ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t quite ready as she deals with depression after one of her clients @ @ @ @ @ was asymptomatic when she tested positive for the virus and immediately went home , but @ @ @ @ @ him sick .

Joseph Aleman, 62, at his home in Orland Park on July 21, 2020. Aleman, who is out of work, sold beer at Wrigley Field bar for 39 years and work as an extra on TV show sets. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
For 39 years, Joseph Aleman spent baseball season hawking beer at Wrigley Field, trekking through the stands with 25 pounds of cold brews strapped to his back.
He loved the job, and was good at it, typically earning $1,000 to $1,500 a week in commission and tips during the lucrative summer months. Combined with off-season work as an extra on TV shows shot in Chicago, Aleman, 62, made a decent living for himself and his 19-year-old daughter, who has autism and lives with him in their Orland Park home.
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The COVID-19 pandemic stripped Aleman of both jobs as sporting events and TV productions came to an abrupt halt in mid-March. More than four months later, Aleman doesn’t know when the work might resume.
A saving grace has been unemployment insurance, which has allowed him to pay his mortgage and bills and occasionally splurge on takeout pizza. But he and millions of other people laid off as a result of the pandemic could soon see severe cuts to those benefits.
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Joseph Aleman, 62, at his home in Orland Park on July 21, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The extra $600 weekly in federal unemployment benefits that people have received during the pandemic is set to expire this weekend. After that, the jobless will be eligible only for regular state unemployment aid, which in Illinois pays 47% of a person’s regular wages, up to a maximum of $484 a week.
For the millions who remain out of work, including many in industries that were decimated by stay-at-home mandates and won’t get back to normal for some time, the scenario is devastating. Economists warn that letting the supplement expire could make it difficult for people to buy food and pay bills, dealing a blow to the overall economy.
Lawmakers are debating the future of such supplements as the economic impact of the pandemic drags on. While the unemployment rate has declined from its April peak, in June it was still at 11.1% nationally and 14.6% in Illinois, where more than 946,000 people were out of work. Last week, an additional 38,000 people in Illinois applied for jobless benefits.
House Democrats in May approved legislation that would extend the $600 in extra weekly benefits through Jan. 31 as part of a sweeping $3 trillion stimulus package. Senate Republicans this week introduced a $1 trillion counterproposal that would replace the $600 supplement with a lower amount, because of concerns that some people have been receiving more in unemployment aid than they were through their regular paycheck. They are also reportedly in talks with the White House about proposing a short-term extension of the enhanced unemployment benefits..
Aleman has been upset by the back and forth as the clock ticks. For him, the loss of the supplement would mean he gets $219 per week in unemployment benefits instead of $819, which isn’t enough to make ends meet and may force him to sell belongings or dip into savings meant for his daughter.
“I think it’s a slap in the face,” Aleman said. “There is a lot of people in this country that don’t know when they’re going to work again.”
Andres Moreno, left, 35, and his husband Brad Eickhoff, 29, are currently receiving unemployment compensation due to losing their jobs during the pandemic, July 21, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The enhanced unemployment benefits, part of the $2.2 trillion relief package passed by Congress in late March, were intended to replace the full wages of people who lost their jobs as governments mandated business closures and urged people to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Congress agreed to a flat weekly $600 payment on top of state benefits because old computer systems at state offices couldn’t handle calculating individual replacement pay. It also extended eligibility to independent contractors, gig workers and the self-employed.
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The money has helped prop up the economy. While spending among employed people fell 10% during the pandemic, it increased 10% among those receiving unemployment benefits, according to an analysis by University of Chicago economists. Without the $600 supplement, the authors concluded, there could be a huge drop in overall consumption.
But the supplement has been controversial because, for low-income people, the extra $600 puts them above their regular wages. Two-thirds of unemployed people can receive more in government benefits than they earn while working because of the supplement, and one in five can get twice as much in aid as their usual paycheck, according to another University of Chicago analysis.
That’s raised concerns that people won’t want to return to work as businesses reopen.
“If that means the labor market won’t work as efficiently because these people won’t have incentive to go back to work, that hurts the economy in the short and long run,” said Michael Miller, associate professor of economics at DePaul University. “What can we give them to protect and help them but at the same time not provide so much assistance that they make a decision that is a detriment to the economy?”
Many economists agree that eliminating the federal supplement entirely would be disastrous given that 30 million Americans, or one in five workers, are currently receiving unemployment benefits.
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With many state eviction moratoriums also set to expire at the end of this month, there could be a massive homelessness problem if people can’t pay rent, said Ben Harris, executive director of the Kellogg Public-Private Initiative at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday that the state’s eviction moratorium would be extended through August 22.
“We are really on the cusp of a Great Depression-like situation,” Harris said.
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Laid off workers say the extra $600 in weekly benefits has been critical to maintaining some normalcy while their jobs remain unavailable.
“It has allowed me to stay in my apartment and not have to move in with my mother,” said Paula Blyth, 54, who usually makes about $46,000 a year feeding cast and crew on the sets of TV commercials.
Blyth has been getting $900 weekly in unemployment benefits, on par with her regular wage, which she said has allowed her to “live without fear.” But the benefits would drop to $300 a week if the supplement expires.
“I have always been a happy person and very optimistic,” said Blythe, who lives in Avondale. “Now I wake up with a knot in my stomach. I have a hard time sleeping. I think about what I can do to supplement my income. I’m not really skilled to do anything else.”
Andres Moreno, left, 35, and husband Brad Eickhoff, 29, talk on the deck of their apartment in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood on July 21, 2020. Both are currently receiving unemployment compensation. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Andres Moreno is making slightly less on unemployment than he was working full time as a server at the downtown restaurant Fisk & Co, but it has been enough to pay rent on his Avondale apartment and occasionally buy takeout from neighborhood restaurants and knick-knacks from local shops. Without the supplement, his weekly benefit would drop to $300 and he couldn’t afford to support those businesses, he said.
The enhanced benefits are also helpful as he looks to buy health insurance, since he lost his employer-provided benefits.
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Moreno, 35, thought about getting another job, but safety concerns held him back.
Though he was recently told his temporary layoff is now considered indefinite, he is hopeful he will be called back to work at the restaurant, where he got full benefits and a 401(k).
“I’d much rather have a secure job than the extra $600,” Moreno said.
Concerns that people would rather be idle than working aren’t based in reality, said Jeremy Rosen, director of economic justice at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. People want safe and stable work — the problem is the dearth of stable jobs and safe workplaces, he said.
Manuela Sepulveda, 50, who lost her job as a home health aide in April, is earning more on unemployment than she was working, but she misses the work and wants to return to her field. The challenge is that she isn’t quite ready as she deals with depression after one of her clients died of COVID-19. She was asymptomatic when she tested positive for the virus and immediately went home, but worries she may have gotten him sick.
“This affected me a lot,” she said in Spanish. “It was hard because part of me felt like I was to blame.”
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Manuela Sepulveda, 50, lost her job as a home health aide amid the COVID-19 virus pandemic after getting sick with COVID-19 herself. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Melissa Kearney, director of the Aspen Institute’s Economic Strategy Group, is part of a group of prominent economists that has proposed an alternative to the $600 supplement. Their proposal calls for calculating a federal supplement based on a percentage of the recipient’s wages, and it would phase out as the economy improves.
For example, when unemployment is high people would receive an extra 40% of their wages on top of their state benefits — so in Illinois they’d get nearly 90% of their usual paycheck — and that percentage would decline as the state unemployment rate falls.
The government should also reward work, Kearney said. While some Republicans have proposed offering hiring incentives to pull people out of unemployment, she proposes doubling the earned income tax credit for the year to boost the wages of lower-wage workers who never stopped working through the pandemic.
“There is a bit of an inequity in that we have subsidized unemployment insurance so that people out of work are getting more generous pay than their counterparts who had to work this entire time,” Kearney said.
To Michael Wenz, associate professor of economics at Northeastern Illinois University, nailing the perfect formula is not the priority.
As the health crisis continues, the biggest threat to the economy is weak consumer demand for certain goods and services that is keeping employees in hard-hit industries like travel and hospitality unemployed.
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“Until spending recovers, worrying about whether we’re sending $400 versus $600 is looking at the wrong problem,” Wenz said. “Right now the real concern has to be that people keep a roof over their heads.”
Roushaunda Williams, who worked for 19 years as a bartender at the Palmer House Hilton before she was laid off in March, said her unemployment insurance is enough to cover her rent but not much else. She used to make, on average, $1,500 weekly bartending, and now gets, after taxes, just over $900 a week in aid.
Williams, 52, said she has depleted her savings to pay bills and is running out of costs to cut. She stopped running her air conditioner, traded her pricey skin cream for a $5 drug store version and cut back on visits to the hair salon.
If she loses the extra $600, she expects she will lose her Uptown apartment and have to move in with friends.
The sharp drop in benefits might force some people to look for other work rather than wait for their jobs to come back. But Williams, who is applying to be a Census worker, isn’t willing to take just any job after fighting hard for years for a good wage.
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“To go backwards and be under the poverty line is just not something I want to do,” said Williams, a steward with her union, Unite Here Local 1, which represents the area’s hotel workers.
Aleman, the Wrigley Field beer vendor, bristles at the notion of finding another job when he had one he loved.
“Are they going to put me in a chicken place where I’m plucking chickens?” he said. “Or will they put me at Jewel stocking on the midnight shift? I’m not going to go anywhere with that.”
As the expiration of the extra unemployment benefits nears, Aleman has faith that those in power won’t cut off the lifeline keeping many people like him afloat.
“You’re dealing with the benevolence of other people,” he said. “And I hope, and I pray, that they come up with the compassion.”


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Boy dies after 9 people rescued when boat capsizes near South Loop

Nine people were pulled out of the water , officials said , including the boy , who was taken to @ @ @ @ @ in serious to critical condition .
He later was pronounced dead in an apparent drowning @ @ @ @

A 7-year-old boy died and eight others were rescued Wednesday evening after a boat capsized in the South Branch of the Chicago River and the child became trapped underneath it.
All of the victims were wearing life vests, but the boy was underneath the 16- to 18-foot-long vessel before being pulled out of the river, Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Jason Lach told reporters during a Thursday afternoon news briefing.
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Earlier, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said none of boat’s occupants were wearing jackets.
Lach, who said he wasn’t 100% sure how the boat overturned yet, urged boaters to be very careful.
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“Keep in mind, the beaches are closed now. We have a lot of incidents … the lake is at an extremely high level. Dangerous conditions can occur at a moment’s notice,” Lach said.
“The water out here is extremely dangerous,” he added.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Joshua Jurgens, who reminded boaters to obey signs that display a “no wake zone,” told reporters he believes they were successful at saving as many lives as they did because they were already patrolling nearby.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications began getting 911 calls about 6:40 p.m. of people in distress at 1500 S. Lumber St., and a full water response with about 20 crew went into action, Langford said. Emergency responders from the Coast Guard and the Chicago police marine unit were also on hand.
Nine people were pulled out of the water, officials said, including 7-year-old Victor Lobato, who was taken to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center in serious to critical condition. He later was pronounced dead in an apparent drowning, police said.
They learned the motorized boat Vincent was aboard with eight adults hit a wake caused by a passing tugboat and flipped over, Langford said. “When that happened, everybody was thrown into the water.”
Two Fire Department divers who jumped from a helicopter began an underwater rapid grid search, starting at the point where the boat overturned, Langford said.
“That’s what they’re trained for. The visibility is usually zero and you can’t see a foot in front of you. A lot of it is done by feel. They search with their hands more than their eyes,” Langford said. “You also look to see if there is any kind of motion ... anything that you notice in your field of vision, you check it out.”
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A few minutes later, they found the boy underwater, apparently trapped under the boat.
Divers plucked him out of the river and passed him over to a marine unit boat, where first responders began CPR on him. They didn’t stop until Mercy Hospital & Medical Center staffers took over, Langford said.
“We don’t stop. We don’t give up on somebody,” he said. “But a 7-year-old is not as strong as an adult.”
Eight other adults from the same boat were also pulled from the water and taken to various hospitals, including the University of Illinois Medical Center, all in good condition.
The cause of death for Victor, of the 3000 block of South Homan Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side, was drowning, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled an accident.
The boat, which was moving at the time, was privately owned, Lach said.
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The passing tugboat likely caused a “substantial wake,” but “all boats are going to make a wake,” Langford said.
There are things the boat can do to navigate through a wake — sometimes by going parallel with it or other times plowing right through it.
“It’s not to say the larger boat was improperly operating,” he said.
Check back for updates.


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Daywatch: ‘Surge’ of federal agents coming to Chicago, CPS gives remote class option and the city’s

Daywatch: ‘Surge’ of federal agents coming to Chicago, CPS gives remote class option and the city’s best Italian beef

President Donald Trump , who once insisted Chicago ’ s crime problem could be solved within a week , announced @ @ @ @ @ “ surge of federal law enforcement ” to the city to address ongoing violence .
@ @ @ @ @ sent to Albuquerque , New Mexico , and could eventually be seen in New York @ @ @ @ @ , Trump singled out Chicago as being in the most critical need of additional resources @

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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President Donald Trump speaks about Operation Legend in the East Room of the White House, July 22, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
President Donald Trump, who once insisted Chicago’s crime problem could be solved within a week, announced plans Wednesday to send a “surge of federal law enforcement” to the city to address ongoing violence. Though agents also will be sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and could eventually be seen in New York and Philadelphia and other locations, Trump singled out Chicago as being in the most critical need of additional resources.
“Perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of Chicago, a city I know very well,” Trump said.
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Teacher Andrew Van Herik protests plans to reopen Chicago Public Schools outside CPS headquarters Wednesday. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson on Wednesday said all families should have a schooling option that works for them. Parents will be asked to choose hybrid or remote when registering students for the upcoming school year, though if a family starts out participating in the hybrid program and decides later that they don’t feel comfortable, they can pull out and switch to at-home learning.
John Catanzara holds up a pro-police blue stripe flag in the Loop in Chicago on April 1, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday defended sending a series of insulting text messages to Chicago FOP President John Catanzara in which she called him a “clown,” “fraud,” “cartoon character” and “liar,” saying the comments were justified because he supported President Donald Trump sending “troops” into the city.
Joseph Aleman, 62, at his home in Orland Park on July 21, 2020. Aleman, who is out of work, sold beer at Wrigley Field bar for 39 years and worked as an extra on TV show sets. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The extra $600 weekly in federal unemployment benefits that people have received during the pandemic is set to expire this weekend. After that, the jobless will be eligible only for regular state unemployment aid, which in Illinois pays 47% of a person’s regular wages, up to a maximum of $484 a week.
A search for Chicago's best Italian beefs led through more than 50 restaurants and Italian beef stands. (Nick Kindelsperger/Chicago Tribune)
As soon as Illinois moved into phase four of its COVID-19 reopening plan, Tribune food writer Nick Kindelsperger couldn’t wait any longer. He drew up a list of more than 50 restaurants, and then set off to find the ultimate Italian beef in the Chicago area. Here are his results.


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Column: Christopher Columbus was a fraud. He doesn’t deserve statues or a holiday in his honor.

We are no longer children , brainwashed by the valiant story of a man who sailed the ocean blue .
@ @ @ @ @ moment when America is painfully pulling back the curtains of its hideous past .
Now @ @ @ @ @ be timid about choosing between what we now know is correct over the fantasies of @ @ @ @ @ to a lie .

The Christopher Columbus statue in Chicago's Arrigo Park has been wrapped in a tarp and fenced off, with security cameras added. The statue and plaza was dedicated on Columbus Day in 1966. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
If anyone had asked me as a child to define Christopher Columbus, I would have simply said that he discovered America.
That’s what I was taught in grade school. As children, we honored him by repeating the slogan, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” We could recite the names of his fleet of ships — the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria — as easily as we could say our own names.
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He was a hero, our textbooks said, not only because he was the first European to arrive in North America, but because he proved a fact that had been in contention. His ships did not fall off the edge of the earth because it is round and not flat.
Years after becoming an adult, the story of the great voyager still seemed harmless. But not anymore. Our textbooks were full of lies. It is time America set the record straight.
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Christopher Columbus was a fraud.
He was indeed a brave and prolific explorer, but he also was a brutal, evil man who never even made it to the place that is now the United States. He landed by chance in the Caribbean, leaving a legacy of pillaging and slavery that eventually resulted in his arrest and return to Spain in chains, stripped of nobility.
For most white Americans, Columbus is the brave conqueror who started the trans-Atlantic colonization that made it possible for them to be here. But for many Native Americans, he represents the quintessential barbaric settler.
The bloody trail of the colonial takeover of the Americas began with him. In the wake of colonization, countless Native Americans were killed, enslaved or otherwise driven from their land.
Monuments to this man do not deserve a place in our public spaces, much less should there be an American holiday in his honor.
The recent social awakening in America has had an unexpected consequence. Not only has it prompted us to reexamine the role of race in the progression of African Americans, it has reopened a new chapter on Indigenous peoples.
Representing just 1.6% of the U.S. population, Native Americans never have had a strong voice. From the moment the first settlers arrived on their property, history has attempted to relegate them to a footnote.
They are the true founders of this land. African Americans should embrace them as co-beneficiaries of the movement for social justice. The plight of Native Americans is as shameful as ours.
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In Chicago, city officials are grappling with what to do about the larger-than-life statues of Columbus in Grant Park and Arrigo Park in the University Village/Little Italy neighborhood. There is only one thing that must be done — take them down.
And while they’re at it, they should rename Columbus Drive. It doesn’t necessarily have to become George Floyd Drive, as some have suggested, but Christopher Columbus’ namesake should be retired.
Many Italian Americans disagree. They see Columbus, who was born in Italy though he represented Spain in his voyages, as a symbol of their heritage. They argue that the statues represent pride in the achievements of not just those of Italian descent, but all European immigrants who came to this country with nothing and prospered.
They insist that Columbus’ legacy has been negatively distorted. It has not. If anything, it was distorted in his favor, as were the legacies of many early Americans we have lifted up as heroes for centuries.
We are no longer children, brainwashed by the valiant story of a man who sailed the ocean blue. We are living a rare moment when America is painfully pulling back the curtains of its hideous past. Now is not the time to be timid about choosing between what we now know is correct over the fantasies of those who want to cling to a lie.
The contributions Italian Americans have made to this country are much greater than the image of the Columbus history has created. Among the many business leaders, scientists, educators, artists, architects and even Civil War heroes, there are many Italian Americans more deserving of a statue.
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From their arrival in large numbers during the late 1800s, Italian Americans have contributed heartily to the building of this nation. The early immigrants provided unskilled labor to help build a booming industrial economy. In addition to constructing factories, they helped build the sprawling infrastructure of roads, dams and tunnels to transport goods from one part of the country to the other.
And they did this, for the most part, without reaping the benefits of the economic gains their tireless work should have afforded them. With such a rich history, it makes no sense to enter into a philosophical battle with Native Americans.
The bottom line is that Columbus did not “discover” the Americas. Historians say he encountered Indigenous peoples, whom he called Indians, on each of his four voyages across the Atlantic. In his diaries, he described them as ignorant people who would “make fine servants.”
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It is ridiculous to pit one side against the other. But if we must choose, there is only one rightful winner — Native Americans.
Many Americans side with them, just as we did in forcing the Washington Redskins to rename their NFL team. And we will continue to insist that the Chicago Blackhawks do the same, despite the hockey team’s assertion that its name and logo symbolize a real life Native American hero.
A month ago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she did not support removing the statues from the city’s landscape. She preferred instead to use them to help educate people about the “full history” of the United States.
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Many Americans are reexamining the history we were taught for years, and we don’t like what we’ve found. Columbus’ legacy is as dirty as Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ or Gens. Robert E. Lee’s and Stonewall Jackson’s.
Clinging to a heritage represented by Columbus is no more noble than claiming the Confederate flag as a birthright. To condemn Confederate monuments and allow statues of Columbus to remain standing is simply hypocrisy.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Feds subpoena AT&T as part of investigation into Speaker Madigan and lobbying

Also mentioned in last week ’ s federal subpoena to Madigan ’ s office was Walgreens .
Like AT & @ @ @ @ @ giant company that has long had an interest in the state ’ s political process @ @ @ @ @ not been quite as generous with its political contributions .
From the start of 2016 @ @ @ @ @ contributed nearly $ 853,000 to political campaigns .
Madigan ’ s three primary campaign committees @ @ @ @ @ about 6.7 % of the total .

Jason Meisner, Hal Dardick, Jamie Munks, Ray Long

House Speaker Michael Madigan, before the start of a budget address by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in February 2020, at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Telephone giant AT&T has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors amid a widening criminal probe encircling House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political operation, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Chicago Tribune.
The subpoena, delivered earlier this year by the U.S. attorney’s office, is part of an inquiry into whether companies improperly used a stable of consultants with ties to the longtime House speaker as they pushed for legislation in Springfield.
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The revelation comes after prosecutors asked Madigan’s office last Friday for “any and all documents and communications” concerning AT&T, including contracts and correspondence related to the hiring of anyone to provide consulting or lobbying services to the public utility, according to a subpoena the Tribune obtained.
In a statement, the company said only that, in general, it cooperates with any requests from law enforcement.
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“Like all companies, from time to time we are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement agencies,” the statement read. “As always, we cooperate with their fact gathering process.”
Records show that AT&T has used several of the same former Madigan staffers and ex-Democratic state representatives as Commonwealth Edison, which was accused in federal charges unveiled last Friday of orchestrating a “years-long bribery scheme” involving jobs, contracts and payments to Madigan allies in exchange for favorable action in the state Capitol.
Among those who have lobbied for both ComEd and AT&T are Tom Cullen, who served as Madigan’s political director and was considered part of the speaker’s “inner circle”; former Madigan legal counsel Heather Wier Vaught; and onetime Madigan staffers Liz Brown-Reeves and D’Javan Conway, state lobbying records show.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan appears with Heather Wier Vaught, then-attorney for Madigan, Feb. 13, 2018, in Springfield. (John OConnor / AP)
Also on both companies’ lobbying teams: former Democratic state Reps. Kevin McCarthy and James Brosnahan, both of whom represented areas close to Madigan’s Southwest Side base.
Meanwhile, AT&T Illinois President Eileen Mitchell was a top Madigan staff member during the 1990s before joining AT&T in 2003 as a vice president of external affairs. She also worked briefly as chief of staff to then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
AT&T and its employees have given heavily to Madigan’s campaign coffers, racking up more than a quarter of a million dollars in donations to three separate funds the speaker controls since 2016 alone, state election records show.
The subpoena issued to Madigan’s office late last week showed investigators were interested in a wide range of information, including dealings with Walgreens and Rush University Medical Center, records related to Madigan’s political organization and private property tax appeals law firm, as well as former state lawmakers and current or former Chicago aldermen.
In announcing the case against ComEd, U.S. Attorney John Lausch said his office was not finished, while not addressing Madigan specifically.
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“Our investigation is ongoing” Lausch said. “It’s vibrant, and it will continue.”
Madigan previously has denied being a target of the investigation. A spokeswoman said last Friday that Madigan “has never made a legislative decision with improper motives” and had engaged in no wrongdoing.
Prosecutors said the ComEd scheme began around 2011 — when key regulatory matters were before the Illinois House that Madigan controls — and continued through last year.
Prosecutors said ComEd attempted to “influence and reward” Madigan by providing financial benefits to some close to him, often through Mike McClain, a key confidant and adviser at the center of the probe. Madigan, the nation’s longest-serving speaker who also is the Illinois Democratic Party chairman, has not been charged.
McClain, a retired longtime ComEd lobbyist, kept a “magic lobbyist list” of favored firms that he claimed the speaker helped maintain, WBEZ reported in November, citing an unnamed source. McClain also had a list of key fundraisers for House Democrats that he called “The Most Trusted of the Trusted” and frequently referred to the speaker as “Himself,” the Tribune has reported.
This week, the Tribune attempted to contact more than a dozen former Madigan aides and speaker-allied lawmakers who were hired by AT&T to lobby the state, but nearly all of them could not be reached or declined to comment.
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Brown-Reeves said she was on Madigan’s legislative staff for eight years, and records show she registered as a lobbyist in 2009. She began lobbying for AT&T in 2019, records show.
Asked if Madigan helped her land AT&T as a client, Brown-Reeves said, “I don’t think so.” She also said she did not ask Madigan for help. “It’s not traditional for people to ask Speaker Madigan for help,” she said.
Asked if she knew why prosecutors might be interested in AT&T and its relationship with Madigan, she added, “I have no idea.”
Perhaps the most significant AT&T-related law to be approved in the past five years was a deregulation measure that gave the company permission to stop maintaining traditional copper-wire landlines, as the company had been required to do for decades.
At the time, AT&T said maintaining landlines was a costly mandate that was no longer necessary, given the proliferation of cellphone technology and internet-based phone services.
Although then-Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the bill, the General Assembly overrode him in a lopsided vote in July 2017, giving the phone company the approval in 20 of the 21 states where it is the legacy phone carrier. California was the holdout at the time, and the Federal Communications Commission has yet to give its required permission to disconnect the lines.
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The legislation passed in Springfield despite the opposition of the Citizens Utility Board, the Illinois chapter of the AARP and Illinois Public Interest Research Group.
They proved to be no match for AT&T’s phalanx of bipartisan lobbyists, which included at least a dozen former Madigan aides and onetime House Democratic lawmakers, state records show.
“It always felt like a fait accompli,” said Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG. “They just had the whole thing bottled up. There was no stopping them.
“They are old-school, and they know how to pull the levers of power,” Scarr added. Nevertheless, Scarr said he has no direct knowledge of any improper behavior and his agency has not been contacted by federal authorities on the matter.
Jim Chilsen, a spokesman for the Citizens Utility Board, issued a statement indicating his organization doesn’t know if there was anything improper about the lobbying effort on behalf of the landline disconnection bill.
AT&T has long been involved in the state’s political process, whether through efforts to influence lawmaking or by making contributions to influence campaigns.
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Of more than $2.2 million contributed by AT&T and its employees from the start of 2016 until mid-July, more than $263,000, or nearly 12%, went to three Madigan-controlled campaign funds. No other politician’s committees received as much, state election board records show.
Also mentioned in last week’s federal subpoena to Madigan’s office was Walgreens. Like AT&T, Walgreens is a giant company that has long had an interest in the state’s political process, but the company has not been quite as generous with its political contributions. From the start of 2016 until mid-July, it had contributed nearly $853,000 to political campaigns. Madigan’s three primary campaign committees got $56,000, or about 6.7% of the total.
Like ComEd, Walgreens’ lobbyist lineup at one point had a link to Madigan in the form of McClain, a close associate of the speaker whom prosecutors have looked at in connection with the ComEd scheme. McClain is listed in state records as a lobbyist for the company for a decade ending in 2016.
Lobbyist Mike McClain, seated, talks outside House Speaker Michael Madigan's office on the last day of the Illinois General Assembly at the state Capitol in Springfield on May 31, 2016. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said the company declined to comment after the Tribune asked a series of questions about whether federal authorities had contacted the Deerfield-based international company.
Walgreens also has advocated on regulatory issues in recent years.
Pharmacies, including Walgreens, lobbied heavily against a bill that sought a number of safety measures following the “Dangerous Doses” investigation, which the Tribune began publishing in late 2016.
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That push resulted in a task force, which continues to meet. Legislation also was enacted to limit pharmacists and pharmacy techs to 12-hour shifts, instituted additional training requirements and reconstituted the task force. That took effect at the start of this year.
As for ComEd, the Illinois Commerce Commission has asked the company to appear at a hearing next week to discuss ethics reforms. McClain, its longtime retired lobbyist, could be a topic of discussion.
Federal agents raided McClain’s home in Quincy in May 2019, and the Tribune exclusively reported in November that authorities secretly recorded McClain’s phone calls. In the court filing laying out the ComEd allegations, federal prosecutors appeared to have included quotes from those recordings.
Referring to the speaker as Public Official A and McClain as Individual A, prosecutors alleged the two “sought to obtain from ComEd jobs, vendor subcontracts, and monetary payments associated with those jobs and subcontracts for various associates of Public Official A.” McClain has not been charged.
Those included precinct workers and other associates, the filing states, and prosecutors alleged the total they received was $1.32 million.
In all, prosecutors put a value of at least $150 million on the legislative benefits ComEd received. The federal documents in particular noted the 2011 passage of the Energy Infrastructure and Modernization Act, which “helped improve ComEd’s financial stability” by establishing rate guidelines and a smart grid overhaul.


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Can endowment funds make up for pandemic losses? At Chicago’s big institutions, leaders balance tomo

Can endowment funds make up for pandemic losses? At Chicago’s big institutions, leaders balance tomorrow’s stability against today’s needs

Knowing that some people think an endowment is a sort of piggy bank you can reach into to pay the @ @ @ @ @ Association President Jeff Alexander said , “ That comes up even if we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s the balance that all of us who manage arts organizations have to @ @ @ @ @ heart of hearts we do everything we can to protect our employees and to protect @ @ @ @ @ we can continue to have employees in the future , ( and ) … the @ @ @ @ @ .

As cultural organizations across the city have laid off workers and otherwise tightened their belts in anticipation of dismal revenues at least through 2020 and likely beyond, a question keeps coming up: What about the endowment?
Many of Chicago’s most prominent arts institutions have big piles of money on their balance sheets, hundreds of millions of dollars earning revenue that contributes mightily to the annual budget. And if a once-in-a-century global pandemic that forces museum and auditorium doors to shut for months on end isn’t the time to tap that pile more aggressively, when is?
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We put that question to leaders at a range of organizations, from Lyric Opera to the Field Museum. Some said, yes, circumstances will force them to skim some number of millions extra from the endowment to make up for COVID-19-related shortfalls. All explained that endowments come with restrictions and encumbrances that complicate the very thought of dipping into them.
But several gave a version of the same answer: not even now.
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Allow James Rondeau, president and CEO of the Art Institute, with an endowment of almost $1.1 billion as of mid-2019, to explain his heck-no thinking. Like most of its peers, the Michigan Avenue museum funnels 5 percent of the endowment into the budget each year, a figure that is roughly what the invested pool of money earns.
“For me, it’s a simple answer. It’s not only not now, it’s never,” he said. “Endowments are about sustainability, about the future, about potentiality. They’re a long-term stabilizer. They’re not a short-term solution. And there’s plenty of cautionary tales. Look what happened in Los Angeles coming on 10 years ago, where MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art) spent their endowment down almost by half and almost put the institution into bankruptcy or failure or closure.”
Beyond endowment earnings, revenue from admission and events and “straight-up philanthropy” provide the other two main revenue streams, Rondeau explained, and even when the museum is able to reopen -- which it plans to do July 30 -- it’ll be at no more than 25 percent of capacity. The public’s appetite for filling even so few slots remains unknown.
“Both of those channels are going to be radically depressed since the pandemic,” he said. “So, in fact, we’re seeing our business model jeopardized even without increasing our dependence on the endowment.”
A jogger runs in front of one of the lions wearing newly installed large Chicago flag at the Art Institute lion in Chicago on Thursday, April 30, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
At the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (which planned to reopen July 24) Director Madeleine Grynsztejn calls the unrestricted portion of her museum’s endowment — the portion that was donated without specifying what its earnings must be spend on — “our greatest freedom machine” for management to deploy.
“That is very, very, very important money, because it is the money that is most closely tied to the freedom to pivot the institution towards the future and towards actions that promulgate the society we wish to be,” she said in a June interview.
“Our endowment value went down from $134 million before the pandemic to, today, $127 million. That’s a substantial loss. To draw down on top of that would only lengthen the recovery phase of that unrestricted freedom money. I really need to protect that for the sake of our staff.”
Knowing that some people think an endowment is a sort of piggy bank you can reach into to pay the bills, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Jeff Alexander said, “That comes up even if we’re not in a pandemic. That’s the balance that all of us who manage arts organizations have to deal with. In our heart of hearts we do everything we can to protect our employees and to protect the organization, so that we can continue to have employees in the future, (and) … the wonderful concerts and educational activities.
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“There have been any number of cases through history in the orchestra world where too much has been taken out of an endowment fund over too many years. If you do that for 3, 4, 5 or even 10 years in a row, all of a sudden that 5 percent revenue has diminished so much on an annual basis that things get even more difficult.”
In other words, if you’re depending on a five percent annual draw from the endowment — which at the Art Institute, for example, pays 28 percent of the annual budget — and you start diminishing that endowment, then, yes, you have short-term cash. But every year going forward, that five percent take is going to be worth less.
A not-terrible analogy is the City of Chicago parking meter deal, where Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2009 sold off a kind of civic endowment, long-term rights to parking meter revenue, in exchange for $1.15 billion up front. Instead of having tens of millions in parking revenues feeding the budget every year for the 75 years of the contract, the city spent almost all of that up-front money on immediate needs, the budget has a near-perpetual hole, and the money people pay to park in Chicago goes to a private firm.
“It’s very, very important to protect endowment funds as much as we can,” said Alexander, whose organization’s endowment was $324 million before the pandemic and had dipped to $290 million by the end of May because of investment declines.
Still, however much it feels like it now, the pandemic won’t be around in perpetuity, and the institutions have every intention of doing so.
A pedestrian walks by Symphony Hall in Chicago on Thursday, March 12, 2020, where a concert was cancelled due to fears over the spread of the COVID-19 virus. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
“Institutions have to constantly calibrate the current near-term needs with being in the forever business,” said Grynsztejn, “and the endowment sits at the liminal threshold of those two equally important arcs.”
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For her institution, projected revenue losses and belt tightening caused by the pandemic aren’t the only big factor in her thinking. The Black Lives Matter protests and their cry for civil rights are just as central.
“What I’ve been saying to my team — and by my team, I mean, my board and staff — is we are rightfully being mandated as a field to become post-COVID and racially equitable at once. It is excruciating, and it is the work,” she said.
And while other institutions have laid off staff — 8 percent at the Art Institute and Shedd Aquarium, for instance — Grynsztejn felt that part of striving for racial equity was to not let people go.
Instead, as one example of belt-tightening, the MCA has replaced two major upcoming exhibitions with “less expensive shows,” she said, and it is cutting its budget for the fiscal year by almost a third, from $27 million to $19 million.
“We are back to 2008 levels. That’s how much we’ve cut back,” she said. “We pulled every cost saving lever we could find because we can’t find revenue. We are conservatively budgeting a comeback of 25 percent of revenue.”
Projected losses at other major institutions have them acknowledging that some of the meat of the endowment will need to be spent.
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Lyric Opera of Chicago this spring was forced to cancel a hugely expensive, years-in-the-making production of Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle and to postpone other productions.
You don’t touch the principal in an endowment “except in the most extraordinary of emergency situations,” said Anthony Freud, the company’s general director, president and CEO. “And we currently find ourselves in an unprecedented emergency. So that when we canceled the ‘Ring’ and postponed ’42nd Street’ and ‘Blue’ and the rest of the activities for the season, even after we had done a great deal to reduce the potential worst-case loss stemming from those cancellations, we still faced a loss.
“The current projection is $13.6 million dollars. And when you’re in the last quarter of a fiscal year, there is no way of funding that loss, other than through the endowment … We have not used any of the donor-restricted investment asset to provide us with short-term solutions. But the short-term solution, which couldn’t be provided in any other way, has come from unrestricted investment assets.”
The Lyric has instituted “a combination of salary reductions, furloughs and reductions in working hours that have affected between 50 and 60 members of our administrative staff,” said Freud.
Field Museum reopens to members, with a series of guidelines and signage to guide their visit, after more than four months closed due to coronavirus, Friday July 17, 2020. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
At Field Museum, executives moved in mid June to eliminate 71 positions from a 496-person staff, 27 by layoff, 27 by not filling open jobs and 17 by not renewing expiring contracts. Another 56 workers were furloughed and the museum hopes to bring them back as it reopens, a process that began for members July 17 and for the public on the 24th.
The move came as the natural history museum anticipated a $20 million — or 36 percent — budget shortfall this year, President and CEO Richard Lariviere said in an open letter explaining the staff cuts.
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Some of that hole, he said in an interview, will have to be filled by tapping the endowment.
The museum’s endowment is about $400 million, he said, and half of that is unrestricted money. Endowment yields — the 5 percent take — provide about 20 to 25 percent of the annual operating budget.
“If we dipped into that right now, that means we’d have that much less money going forward forever,” Lariviere said. “Having said that, we are dipping into our endowment to the extent we possibly can. We’re going to finish this fiscal year almost certainly in the red, and we’ll have to pay those bills out of the endowment” — to the tune, he figures, of $4 to $7 million.
“This is an extraordinary time and in order to preserve the institution we’re willing to dip into that future capacity,” he said. “We’ve had two goals since this happened: Protect staff safety and security as long as we possibly can. That’s why we postponed layoffs as long as we did. And the second thing is to make sure there’s a viable institution for people to come back to work in after the furlough period is over.”
The Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and presenter of various classical and pop attractions -- and of a canceled season -- expects to dip into its endowment, which was valued at $119.2 million before the pandemic and is $109 million now.
“Last year we used $5 million,” or the roughly 5 percent standard, said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. “This year, I estimate maybe around $10 million.”
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Goodman Theatre, too, will be tapping its rainy-day funds. Executive director Roche Schulfer said that the theater does not have a traditional endowment, but “working capital which is leveraged against debt.”
Schulfer said that the theater’s board of directors approved drawing up to $1.5 million from that “working capital” of about $20 million in March, “in order to maintain the employment of the artists and staff, including paying the cast of “Schoolgirls” for the full run, even though the production closed in previews.”
The Vanderplow family left to right: Mary, Amelia, 4, Clara, 6, and Jonathan, react to a stingray in the Stingray Touch exhibit on Friday, July 3, 2020 in Chicago. After being closed for 111 days, the Shedd finally opened to a limited number of the public today. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Shedd Aquarium handles its roughly $250 million endowment -- down about $25 million -- a little differently than its peers, President and CEO Bridget Coughlin said.
Instead of funding annual operations, endowment earnings go into a pool that is tapped once a decade or so to fund major improvements, such as the addition and subsequent renovation of the lakeside Oceanarium building, she explained.
What the aquarium has done in the pandemic, as it’s fought to retain staff for as long as possible, she said, all while continuing to care for the animals in an empty building, is spend about half of the aquarium’s roughly $12 million in cash reserves.
The Shedd reopened to the public July 3, but at no more than one-quarter capacity, meaning “we are not sure how quickly we will start operating at a cash-positive position,” Coughlin said. “So while we have spent to date lots of our cash reserves, we also know we will need to continue to spend some of that moving forward. And so that run rate of liquidity is pretty ambiguous.”
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Still, despite the prospect of continued deficits, she said she doesn’t see raiding the endowment as a solution.
“It’s the wrong way to solve the problem because ultimately it won’t solve the problem,” she said. “Hitting the endowment is really a one-time fix for something that’s going to be a problem for many years ahead.”
While the pandemic “is unprecedented,” Coughlin added, “we are a 90-year-old organization, and it is my fiduciary obligation to make sure it’s around for another 90 years… It is an acute moment in time. The core of the endowment is the long view.”
Tribune Theater Critic Chris Jones contributed to this story.
sajohnson@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @StevenKJohnson
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hreich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Calumet Fisheries ‘ambassador’ Carlos Rosas dies at 41 of COVID-19

“ Bourdain aired on a Monday night , ” he said about the Chicago episode in which they appeared .
@ @ @ @ @ t get anyone in the store until about 10 or 11 .
We have a @ @ @ @ @ ’ re in the back , and that was buzzing off the hook .
I @ @ @ @ @ I come out and there ’ s 50 people waiting for us .
We sold @ @ @ @ @ days of smoked fish by about 1 o ’ clock .
We called our vendors @ @ @ @ @ .
Carlos was driving his little Toyota Corolla to pick up a couple of hundred @ @ @ @ @ .
”

Carlos Rosas, store manager and "ambassador" at Calumet Fisheries on Chicago's Far South Side, has died. Here he is seen with smoked salmon at the business in 2012. (Louisa Chu/Chicago Tribune)
If fish shacks had maitre d’s, then that was Carlos Rosas at Calumet Fisheries, the James Beard award-winning smoke stand on the Far South Side of Chicago.
Rosas was more than a store manager, though that was the title he proudly claimed. He was the storyteller at the site first made famous by “The Blues Brothers” car jump at the bridge next door. He was the history keeper on a visit by Anthony Bourdain, immortalized on the late chef’s food and travel television series “No Reservations.”
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Rosas was the heart, soul and beacon to the red-roofed store to generations of Black, white, Asian and Mexican families like his own, who came for fish, and left imprinted by his larger-than-life hospitality.
Rosas died Monday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after six weeks of hospitalization from complications related to COVID-19. He was 41 years old.
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“Carlos was our ambassador. He always had a smile on his face and would greet you with a warm hello. He was a big guy with a heart to match,” read a message on the Calumet Fisheries Facebook page written by co-owner Mark Kotlick. “I will miss him dearly as an employee and my friend. Please leave a message if you knew Carlos for his family to read. A big part of the spirit of Calumet Fisheries went to heaven yesterday.”
It’s with a heavy heart that I sadly inform all our customers that our long time Store Manager Carlos Rosas passed away... Posted by Calumet Fisheries on Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Hundreds of messages have poured in so far. Some from fellow employees, others from old friends, and more from customers he made feel like family.
“I called him my Lil Brother but he was Mr. Hospitality at the Store,” wrote Rudolph Zavala Jr. “He got a smile out of everyone and made sure you left with a smile and Loved his workers, He was a Big Guy with a Big Smile and a Huge Heart. I will miss him so. Love you Lil Brother.”
“Carlos my friend. We’ve known each other since high school. You’ve always been a kind person. I’m so glad that I got to call you my friend,” wrote Christy Mercado. “You will be missed. Your family will be in my prayers. The fish place will never be the same without you.”
“He was a warm and friendly person. I was without transportation for several months and when I went in for a shrimp dinner after a long absence he said ‘where have you been? We almost took you off the Christmas card list,’” wrote John Gabrysiak. “My condolences to his family and his family of co-workers.”
His family immigrated from the city of Cuerámaro in central Mexico. Rosas was a lifelong resident of the Southeast Side. He graduated from John L. Marsh Elementary School, George Washington High School and The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago.
“Carlos was a line chef on the riverboats over in Indiana,” said Kotlick. That was all before Rosas was hired at Calumet Fisheries on New Year’s Eve in 1997, he added.
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Rosas also studied nursing at Richard J. Daley College.
“He didn’t pass the test,” said older brother Jaime Rosas. “When Carlos finished school, our sister Sanjuana got into a serious car accident going to work, which left her in a coma for about seven months. We thought we were going to lose her. My parents couldn’t take it, so he went through the legal process to take custody of her through that period of time. Carlos couldn’t focus on school and tests. When he got her home, he nursed her himself.
“He said, ‘Maybe there’s a reason God didn’t let me pass it,‘” said Jaime. “So he ended up staying at the fish house.”
Locals call Calumet Fisheries the fish house.
“He loved the fish house,” said Jaime. “He honestly, honestly, honestly loved the fish house. The last thing I remember was he was really worried about the fish house.”
Kotlick shared one of his funniest memories.
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“Bourdain aired on a Monday night,” he said about the Chicago episode in which they appeared. “Saturdays we don’t get anyone in the store until about 10 or 11. We have a little doorbell in case we’re in the back, and that was buzzing off the hook. I thought it was broken. I come out and there’s 50 people waiting for us. We sold out of four to seven days of smoked fish by about 1 o’clock. We called our vendors and had them open up. Carlos was driving his little Toyota Corolla to pick up a couple of hundred pounds of salmon in there.”
Rosas also found love through the fish house.
“We met each other when he was 25,” said Mary Quiroz. “My father and my husband at the time worked right behind Calumet Fisheries. My father would always go to get fish. He would always call Carlos his son. He would tell me this is your brother from another mother, because he was that close to him.
“After I got divorced, and later on when I lost my mom, Carlos was my savior,” said Quiroz, her voice breaking. “He was my rock.
“He was a big casino guy and got a lot of free trips, but would never go because he didn’t have anyone to go with,” she said. They traveled to Nevada, on an Alaskan cruise, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Lake Tahoe. “We were stuck in a hurricane together,” she added laughing.
“His generosity would go above and beyond,” said Quiroz. “If he went to a restaurant and saw an elderly person sitting by themself, countless times he’d tell the waitress give me that person’s bill, but don’t tell them.
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“If you knew him, you couldn’t help but love him.”
Rosas is survived by his parents, Eusebio and Maria DeJesus; sisters Esperanza Frausto and Sanjuana; and brothers Martin, Jaime and Eusebio.
A wake will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Sadowski Funeral Home at 13300 S. Houston Ave. At 10 a.m. Friday, Mass will be held at St. Kevin Church (Iglesia de San Kevin) at 10509 S. Torrence Ave. Burial will follow at St John/St Joseph Cemetery at 1547 167th St. in Hammond.
Masks are required at all the gatherings.


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--CPS students will get the option to do remote learning in the fall, schools CEO says, but opponents

CPS students will get the option to do remote learning in the fall, schools CEO says, but opponents are still pushing for all-virtual classes

“ We know that there are a variety of things going on and we know that there are communities that @ @ @ @ @ she said .
“ These are also the same communities that are still reeling from @ @ @ @ @ and others and also dealing with the racial injustice and violence .
And so when @ @ @ @ @ things and try to put a plan together , it becomes extremely complex and complicated @ @ @ @ @ to working through that .
”

Ray Elementary School teacher Gabriel Sheridan gives a thumbs-up during a Chicago Teachers Union caravan rally to Chicago Public Schools headquarters Wednesday. The union is protesting plans for a partial school reopening this fall. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Outside the Chicago Board of Education’s Loop office Wednesday, teachers taped poster boards to the backs of chairs to represent what they worry classrooms could look like if schools open in the fall.
One imaginary student had a coronavirus infection in the spring. Another didn’t have health insurance. A classmate was an asymptomatic carrier who had passed the temperature check.
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“We’ve got a student here who lost a family member to COVID,” narrated Gustav Roman, an English teacher at Kelly College Prep. “We’ve got ... a student in a temporary living situation, who we’re supposed to be supporting.”
The mock school, shared in a livestreamed panel on the Chicago Teachers Union Facebook page, was one of several actions designed to draw attention to two central issues as the board convened its monthly meeting Wednesday: Schools reopening in the fall and police on campus.
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Though votes were not scheduled on either matter, many people saw the meeting as a chance to make their voices heard by decision makers.
Teacher Andrew Van Herik protests plans to reopen Chicago Public Schools outside CPS headquarters Wednesday. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Last week, Chicago Public Schools released a draft plan for fall instruction — a hybrid learning model that would assign most students to “pods” that would return to campus for two consecutive days of in-person learning on a rotating basis, pending public health guidance. On Wednesdays, in between pod rotations, schools would get deep cleaning.
CPS has created a survey and scheduled five virtual meetings next week seeking feedback before finalizing a plan. CEO Janice Jackson on Wednesday stressed the importance of community input over the next 10 days.
So far, student respondents have reported feeling a lack of connection and desire for more live interaction with their teachers and classmates, she said. Families want more rigorous health protocols in schools and more transparency from CPS, and parents want to see kids back in school but are concerned with health and safety.
The district aims to release a revised plan in early August.
“We need all of our stakeholders to help us decide how we safely reenter schools in the fall,” she said. “It’s important for people to know that the plan we are putting in place is just that. Our goal is to ensure that we can cautiously reopen schools, and we will only do that if it is a safe and responsible thing to do.”
However, even with an optimistic outlook about a vaccine or treatment, Jackson doesn’t see schools returning fully to in-person instruction for the remainder of the year. And the district is prepared to switch back to remote learning if there’s a spike in cases.
“If we magically had a vaccine in the next week or so, we’re still, this entire year will be a year where we will either be in a hybrid model or an all remote model. I am certain of that,” Jackson said.
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But teachers who spoke during events hosted by the CTU said in addition to the concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19 within schools, they risked endangering their own families.
“Reopening school is not the safest option,” said Yvette McCaskill, who teaches at Morrill Math and Science Elementary. She appeared in a video from a car caravan organized by the teachers union.
Marilyn Piggee, a first-grade teacher assistant at Murray Language Academy, said paraprofessionals like herself are the “first responders” within schools, yet many are over the age of 50 and at a higher risk for complications if they get the coronavirus.
“We are the first to get to work and the last to leave work. We interact with all the students,” she said. With school starting just after Labor Day, she said staff also have concerns about children returning from family vacations having not quarantined for 14 days.
“How would we know where co-workers or students have been?” she asked. “If nobody can have more than six people in their house ... or bar, how can we have 16 in a classroom?”
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During a morning news conference, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates brought up the challenges faced by immunocompromised students and teachers. “How can you say with a straight face that this plan works for them?”
Jackson said all families should have an option that works for them. Parents will be asked to choose hybrid or remote when registering students for the upcoming school year, though if a family starts out participating in the hybrid program and decides later that they don’t feel comfortable, they can pull out and switch to at-home learning. The draft plan also has most 11th and 12th graders continuing school at home, and preschoolers entirely in-person, with Kindergarten through 10th graders in the hybrid attendance model.
“If you have preexisting health conditions or you’re uncomfortable with returning to a school setting, you can opt into the fully remote option,” Jackson said. “Similarly we heard from a lot of parents who want to see their children in school and so they will have that hybrid model.”
If a student opts for remote-only, they will have to commit to that for at least 10 weeks, the length of a quarter, to allow schools adequate planning time and to make sure they’re not breaking up the pod system, Jackson said.
“There will be a very strict process for opting back in ... making sure people are quarantining,” Jackson said.
Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said lessons from spring remote learning are guiding the district in fall changes, including moving all schools to one platform to capture student participation; having more live virtual instruction; providing clearer expectations for educator engagement during remote learning; and increasing monitoring by principals and district leaders.
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In the upcoming month, schools will have trainings on strategies for rebuilding a sense of community, whether in school or virtual classrooms. CPS is also expanding mental health interventions and supports, including grief curriculum, classroom activities for managing stress and anxiety, and more partnerships with community agencies, McDade said.
While summer sports programming is underway with COVID-19 restrictions, district leaders have not yet made a decision about prep sports.
“While we haven’t made a decision about high school sports in the fall, we know athletics are important to many of our students and we are committed to supporting their talents,” McDade said.
Separately, the Board of Education also needs to vote next month on a new contract with the Chicago Police Department for school-based officers.
During the CTU panel, Darla Wynn, an elementary teacher at Casals School of Excellence, said she’s working on the push for police-free schools because CPS is paying $33 million for the contract with Chicago police while other needs go unmet, such as full-time nurses at all schools.
“That sends a very powerful message,” she said.
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As the meeting began with the board honoring Golden Apple award winners, some recipients used their platform to draw attention to similar issues.
Jenine Wehbeh, a Murphy Elementary teacher honored for excellence in teaching, recognized “the Chicago students who are leading our community and demanding justice,” particularly Miracle Boyd, a 2020 graduate who had teeth knocked out by Chicago police officers at a weekend protest “for standing up for what she believes in.” Wehbeh said as an educator, it’s unacceptable to her that CPS is sending $33 million to CPD, protecting “white supremacy instead of Black and brown youth.”
Jackson said the district is trying to meet the evolving needs stemming from COVID-19 and racial injustice in the city.
“We know that there are a variety of things going on and we know that there are communities that are disproportionately impacted,” she said. “These are also the same communities that are still reeling from the murders of George Floyd and others and also dealing with the racial injustice and violence. And so when you compound all of these things and try to put a plan together, it becomes extremely complex and complicated. But we remain committed to working through that.”
After recent virtual meetings, Wednesday’s was hybrid, with two members calling in and five in the board room, including board President Miguel del Valle and Vice President Sendhil Revuluri, along with Jackson, McDade and minimal board staff. All present sat with extra spacing and wore masks
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Del Valle noted it was the first meeting since Illinois moved into phase four of its reopening plan, and CPS will announce at a later date if the August meeting will be in person or virtual. Citing technological limitations, he said public comment Wednesday remained capped at 15, but CPS is “planning to adopt systems” to increase the number of public participants for future meetings with the intention of one day getting back to the customary 60.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Pritzker on rising COVID-19 numbers in Illinois and neighboring states: ‘It remains a serious threat

Pritzker on rising COVID-19 numbers in Illinois and neighboring states: ‘It remains a serious threat’

“ If there had been a federal mandate perhaps things would be different , we can ’ t rely on @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ A rise is still a rise and it is on all of @ @ @ @ @ down … you can go from 3 % positivity to Arizona ’ s 23 % @ @ @ @ @ an eye .
”

Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
As COVID-19 cases rise in neighboring states, Illinois has expanded testing across the state and on Wednesday announced the highest number of new cases in the month of July with 1,598. There were 23 deaths reported.
“Let me start with the unfortunate truth, COVID-19 has not gone away and it remains a serious threat,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
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Though Illinois has a positivity rate half that of neighboring states, Pritzker said COVID-19 has “no boundaries” and it would not take long to reverse the state’s progress.
“If there had been a federal mandate perhaps things would be different, we can’t rely on that possibility,” he said. “A rise is still a rise and it is on all of us to bring these numbers down … you can go from 3% positivity to Arizona’s 23% positivity in a blink of an eye.”
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Pritzker also addressed virus deniers and encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public settings.
“This virus is not a blue state virus or a red state virus … going out without a mask is not a political statement,” he said.
There are more than 280 testing sites around the state and about 1,600 contact tracers to address coronavirus spread.
The eviction moratorium will extend through Aug. 22, Pritzker added.
jvillagomez@chicagotribune.com
[ Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here's what's happening Wednesday ]


chicagotribune--2020-07-24--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,624 new known COVID-19 cases reported, the highest number of new

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,624 new known COVID-19 cases reported, the highest number of new infections in nearly 2 months

We put that question to leaders at a range of organizations , from Lyric Opera to the Field Museum .
@ @ @ @ @ circumstances will force them to skim some number of millions extra from the endowment to @ @ @ @ @ .
All explained that endowments come with restrictions and encumbrances that complicate the very thought @ @ @ @ @

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 1,624 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the highest daily total of new cases since Memorial Day, when the state recorded 1,713 new infections. Officials also reported 20 additional fatalities Thursday, bringing the statewide death toll to 7,367.
Also on Thursday, the count of U.S. infections passed 4 million as the nation got another dose of bad economic news. The number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week for the first time since late March, intensifying concerns the resurgent coronavirus is stalling or even reversing the economic recovery. Meanwhile, an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits, provided by the federal government on top of whatever assistance states provide, is set to expire July 31.
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[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Schools reopening tracker: What suburban Chicago districts are planning for the fall ]
[ 20 questions about assessing your COVID-19 risk at restaurants, gyms and more ]
Here’s what’s happening Thursday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:02 p.m.: Upcoming opening show at the Greenhouse Theater gets some fervent opposition
The Greenhouse Theater Center’s plan to open “Judy & Liza,” a musical tribute show to Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli, Friday night has provoked intense criticism on social media from members of the theater community and a resignation from a staffer.
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Derek Rienzi Van Tassel said in a Thursday interview that he had left his position as general manager of the Greenhouse, located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., over the theater’s decision to reopen. “I am opposed to any show opening while the (COVID-19) numbers are raging,” Van Tassel said. “I don’t think that any show should be open in any part of the world until there is a vaccine.”
William Spatz, the owner of the Greenhouse, said that Van Tassel had been furloughed in March, when theaters closed, and had agreed to come back to work and had been actively working on preparations for the show’s return. Spatz suggested that Van Tassel had “changed his mind at the last minute” due to the community opposition.
Van Tassel said he had not realized the theater’s intention to reopen so soon and had assumed these were merely advance preparations for a later opening. He also said the current rate of infection in Illinois should cancel out any earlier arrangements.
“Right now,” he said, “it is just not safe. We need to learn that. We need to put aside our desire to create theater in service of the greater good.”
Read more here. —Chris Jones
7:28 p.m.: Tighter restrictions take effect at Chicago fitness centers Friday, and club owners are worried
Gym-goers have been cautiously but steadily returning to health clubs and fitness studios in the 3½ weeks since those businesses were allowed to let members back in for more than personal training.
But gym operators worry a new 10-person cap on the size of indoor fitness classes, which takes effect Friday, will hamper their efforts to rebuild business after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close temporarily. More stringent rules for bars that also take effect Friday have prompted some to call it quits for good.
Some fitness clubs and studios were surprised by the more stringent regulations. They’ve already taken precautions like temperature checks and more aggressive cleaning, and in Chicago, members must wear masks during exercise in addition to practicing social distancing.
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“We definitely didn’t think we’d be the subject of being pulled back given all the vigilant measures we’re taking,” said David Blitz, CEO of Chicago-based Studio Three.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
5:50 p.m.: Disparities between Black and white students seen in CPS remote learning participation
Participation in remote learning after the coronavirus pandemic closed Chicago Public Schools varied significantly for students with different learning needs or racial backgrounds, despite efforts to connect children citywide with computers and internet, according to data released Wednesday.
“I think we are all disheartened to see the gap between African American student participation and their white peers,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson said at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting. “I think that begs for greater examination across the board, from the district level all the way down to the classroom level.”
For the entirety of the remote learning period this spring, CPS was unable to make contact with 559 students, mostly elementary age. The district is missing data for another 405 students.
Overall, slightly more than half of students in grades one through 12 logged into a Google platform on any given day, according to CPS data.
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That measure almost represents “an approximation of attendance,” said CPS administrator Shannon Heston, who presented the data to the board. “It gets us started on talking about, what does attendance look like for next year?”
On average, during any one of the last six weeks of the school year, contact was reported with 85% of students — meaning another 15% were not contacted that week, no change from early data released in May.
The new engagement data was released as CPS seeks public input on its draft plan to institute a hybrid of remote and in-person learning this fall. The Chicago Teachers Union and some parent advocacy groups are pushing for remote learning only.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
4:44 p.m.: Indiana AG criticizes Gov. Holcomb’s mask mandate executive order
The day after Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced he would sign an executive order mandating wearing masks in public, Attorney General Curtis Hill stated the state legislature should make that decision.
The governor announced Wednesday afternoon that beginning July 27 anyone ages 8 and older will have to wear a mask in any indoor public or business areas and at outdoor public spaces when sufficient distancing can’t be maintained.
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By Wednesday evening, Hill issued an advisory opinion stating the governor should call a special legislative session to consider a statewide mask mandate instead of issuing an executive order, according to a statement from Hill’s office.
Read more here. —Alexandra Kukulka
3:54 p.m.: US coronavirus cases pass 4 million as jobless claims rise, cutoff of $600 unemployment benefit nears
The nation got another dose of bad economic news Thursday as the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week for the first time since late March, intensifying concerns the resurgent coronavirus is stalling or even reversing the economic recovery.
And an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits, provided by the federal government on top of whatever assistance states provide, is set to expire at the end of the week. It is the last major source of economic help from the $2 trillion relief package that Congress approved in March. A small business lending program and one-time $1,200 payment have largely run their course.
With the count of U.S. infections passing 4 million and the aid ending, nearly 30 million unemployed people could struggle to pay rent, utilities, or other bills and economists worry that overall consumer spending will drop, adding another economic blow.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
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3:45 p.m.: More college faculty and staff add their voices to call to keep campuses mostly closed this fall
A coalition of faculty and staff from Illinois colleges and universities insisted Thursday that their institutions stick with remote learning in the fall, with very few exceptions for courses that require face-to-face interaction.
The group released a joint statement voicing their demands, which included predominantly online learning in the fall until more is understood about COVID-19, extended health insurance, more collaboration with administrators and increased attention to science, rather than economics or the need for normalcy.
“We want to speak in unity to express our concerns and demands that the latest science dictate and guide the reopening of our colleges and universities to protect the safety of our students, faculty, employees, their families and communities,” John Miller, president of University Professionals of Illinois,cq said at a Thursday press conference. “With so much still unknown about COVID-19, this is not the time to rush to reopen our institutions.”
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
1:23 p.m.: Illinois bar exam will move to remote format this year because of lingering coronavirus concerns
The Illinois bar exam, which was to take place in person in September, has been canceled and will be replaced with a remote version in October “due to continuing public health concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Illinois Supreme Court announced Thursday.
The change comes after months of student advocacy and a letter earlier this week from nine Illinois law school deans to the court recommending a remote exam.
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Read more here. —Claire Hao
12:07 p.m.: 1,624 new known COVID-19 cases, 20 additional deaths
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 1,624 new known cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 166,925 and the statewide death toll to 7,367 since the start of the pandemic. The state also announced the results of 39,706 new test results.
—Chicago Tribune staff
11:30 a.m.: Worries about COVID-19 spreading through the vents send building owners in search of cleaner air
There’s an invisible obstacle to reviving Chicago’s economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
Potential transmission of the virus through air conditioning and heating systems is the latest issue employers and building owners are focusing on as they prepare for more people to head back to office towers and other non-residential buildings, whether they’re office workers or school teachers and students.
Research on the coronavirus continues to evolve, and there’s no clear consensus from public health agencies on how great the threat of airborne illness is compared with close personal contact. The World Health Organization only recently acknowledged the potential for airborne transmission.
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As a precaution, some building owners are making big investments toward cleaner air. Changes to heating and cooling systems are being made late in construction or soon after a building’s completion.
Read more here. —Ryan Ori
11:15 a.m.: Elementary schools may be safer to reopen, doctors say
Elementary schools could potentially more safely reopen than schools for older students, infectious disease doctors said Thursday.
A panel with doctors from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) expressed concern about reopening schools, but also noted research that indicates younger children might be less likely to get COVID-19 or transmit it.
“There’s very good data that suggests that younger children are infected less frequently,” said Wendy Armstrong, a member of the board of directors at the IDSA and a professor at the Emory University School of Medicine. “There seems to be a difference between children under 10 and over 10.”
Opening elementary schools, versus schools with older children, “is definitely a strategy that should be considered,” she said. But even as studies indicate younger children may be less likely to have or transmit COVID, doctors emphasize that much depends on whether local cases are rising and schools use correct protocols.
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Read more here. —Alison Bowen
10:53 a.m.: Virus resurgence sends jobless claims up for first time since March
The viral pandemic's resurgence caused the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits to rise last week for the first time in nearly four months, evidence of the deepening economic pain the outbreak is causing.
The increase in weekly jobless claims to 1.4 million served to underscore the outsize role the unemployment insurance system is playing among the nation’s safety net programs — just when a $600 weekly federal aid payment for the jobless is set to expire at the end of this week.
Last week’s pace of unemployment applications — the 18th straight time it’s topped 1 million — was up from 1.3 million the previous week. Before the pandemic, applications had never exceeded 700,000. An additional 975,000 applied last week for jobless aid under a separate program that has made self-employed and gig workers eligible for the first time.
The weakening of the labor market has raised fears that the economy will shed jobs again in July, after two sharp hiring gains in May and June, and derail prospects for a recovery from the recession.
—Associated Press
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10:05 a.m.: Aurora schools to offer families choice of partial return to classes or full remote learning
West Aurora School District 129 and East Aurora School District 131 will give students options for in-person learning for part of the week and virtual learning for other days as the coronavirus pandemic continues, the districts announced Wednesday.
The models will bring students back to school campuses 2 to 3 days a week on rotating schedules.
The two plans similarly will give families an option for their children to devote their entire year to remote learning as well.
Read more here. — Linda Girardi
7:30 a.m.: Group of unionized university faculty to call for online classes
A group of higher education unions was scheduled to hold an online news conference Thursday morning to call on Illinois colleges and universities to hold online classes this fall because of the dangers of the spread of the coronavirus.
A group of unions including the University Professionals of Illinois, the Cook County College Teachers Union , the UIC United Faculty, the Columbia College Chicago Faculty Union, and the Illinois Education Association - Higher Education Council planned to “demand that campus presidents put science before politics and economics,” according to a news release.
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—Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Can endowment funds make up for pandemic losses? At Chicago’s big institutions, leaders balance tomorrow’s stability against today’s needs
As cultural organizations across the city have laid off workers and otherwise tightened their belts in anticipation of dismal revenues at least through 2020 and likely beyond, a question keeps coming up: What about the endowment?
Many of Chicago’s most prominent arts institutions have big piles of money on their balance sheets, hundreds of millions of dollars earning revenue that contributes mightily to the annual budget. And if a once-in-a-century global pandemic that forces museum and auditorium doors to shut for months on end isn’t the time to tap that pile more aggressively, when is?
We put that question to leaders at a range of organizations, from Lyric Opera to the Field Museum. Some said, yes, circumstances will force them to skim some number of millions extra from the endowment to make up for COVID-19-related shortfalls. All explained that endowments come with restrictions and encumbrances that complicate the very thought of dipping into them.
But several gave a version of the same answer: not even now.
Read more here. —Steve Johnson and Howard Reich
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Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened related to COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said rising COVID-19 numbers in Illinois and neighboring states show virus “remains a serious threat.”
CPS students will get the option to continue remote learning in the fall, schools chief says.
Laid-off workers brace for expiration of the extra $600 in unemployment benefits helping them get by.
United Airlines is broadening requirements for where passengers must wear masks as a surge in COVID-19 cases stalls slowly recovering interest in air travel.
Chicago tightens restrictions on workout class sizes, even as gyms say members aren’t rushing back.


chicagotribune--2020-07-24--Black Lives Matter, activists go to court to avoid Portland-style federal response to protests, whil

Black Lives Matter, activists go to court to avoid Portland-style federal response to protests, while other groups say CPD has abused protesters

That court order is one of the most substantive consequences of the protests that erupted in late 2015 after the @ @ @ @ @ Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times .
That spurred a @ @ @ @ @ that castigated the police in January 2017 as poorly trained , badly supervised and prone @ @ @ @ @ report helped make way for the consent decree now being implemented under the supervision of @ @ @ @

People listen to speakers at Federal Plaza in Chicago on Thursday, July 23, 2020. A coalition of activist groups complained in federal court that Chicago police have abused and insulted protesters for weeks. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
As federal agents prepared to come to Chicago with the stated goal of stopping violence, activist groups voiced fear that those forces would be used to quell protests against police brutality and sued federal officials Thursday to prevent the kinds of civil rights violations alleged during protests in Portland, Oregon.
At the same time, a different coalition of activist groups complained separately in federal court that Chicago police have abused and insulted protesters for weeks. The groups demanded the city restrain the cops and threatened litigation if Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration doesn’t move to stop the alleged abuse.
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The court filings spelled out concerns that President Donald Trump is using federal agents to attack protesters who oppose him. They also illustrated the ways local protests over policing have worsened the already tense relationship between Chicago cops and those who allege that they hurt minorities with impunity.
Trump announced Wednesday he planned to send a “surge of federal law enforcement” to Chicago, among other cities. Attorney General William Barr said hundreds of federal agents could take part and engage in “classic crime-fighting” actions such as investigating homicides, gangs, gun crime and drug trafficking organizations. The new agents will include members of the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security, among others.
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[ What is Operation Legend? A breakdown of Trump’s federal agent surge and what it means for Chicago. ]
Lightfoot has expressed both cautious optimism about the additional resources and skepticism of Trump’s motives. She repeatedly has said Chicago would not welcome the kind of force captured on camera on the streets of Portland, where agents appear to have arrested protesters and whisked them away in unmarked vehicles.
In that city, federal agents have fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and their presence has intensified protests that started after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in late May.
Concerns over a Portland-style response run through the lawsuit filed in Chicago federal court by groups including Black Lives Matter Chicago. The suit alleges that Trump is sending agents to Chicago in an effort to “intimidate and falsely arrest civilians who are exercising their constitutional right to speak and to assemble.”
The groups — including Black Abolitionist Network, Chicago Democratic Socialists of America and GoodKids MadCity — seek an injunction preventing federal authorities from “interfering in or otherwise policing lawful and peaceful protests” in Chicago or arresting people without cause.
At a news conference Thursday in Federal Plaza, activists pointed to Portland as evidence of what could come this weekend in Chicago. Still, they called on people to continue to protest.
“We want to be clear that what is happening nationally is an attempt to stifle righteous rage and anger at the continued killing of Black people by police,” said Aislinn Pulley, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Chicago. “We have been fighting back consistently for two months and we will not stop.”
Aislinn Pulley, a founding member of Black Lives Matter Chicago, speaks at Federal Plaza in Chicago on July 23, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Activists pushed back on the claim that surging gun violence calls for more law enforcement officers, arguing that community investment, not more policing, will reduce violence.
“What we need is funding, what we need is investment in Black and brown communities, we don’t need police, we don’t need feds coming in,” said Alycia Kamil, of GoodKids MadCity. “As Black and brown people who are already targeted, already under surveillance, I fear for my life.”
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Barr is one of the federal officials the lawsuit names as a defendant. Spokespersons for the U.S. Department of Justice could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Portland federal judge on Thursday signed a two-week temporary restraining order barring federal officers from using force or taking other actions against journalists or legal observers to the protests.
One plaintiff in the Chicago suit is a union bargaining unit representing journalists from the Chicago-based progressive magazine In These Times. Many Chicago Tribune journalists are represented by a different unit organized under the same national union, the NewsGuild-CWA.
Even as those activist groups voiced concerns about federal authorities, lawyers for a separate coalition of activists sent City Hall a letter decrying what their lawyers described as the Chicago Police Department’s “brutal, violent, and unconstitutional tactics that are clearly intended to silence protesters.” The letter also was filed in federal court as the groups threatened legal action related to the ongoing court process of reforming the Police Department.
The suit against federal authorities and the letter to City Hall mostly involve different groups, though Black Lives Matter Chicago is involved in both efforts.
[ Watchdog to review conduct of federal agents who responded to unrest in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C. ]
The lawyers for the groups that sent the letter accused officers of clubbing protesters over the head with batons and knocking out the teeth of 18-year-old activist Miracle Boyd.
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During a protest downtown May 30, officers inflicted “massive head trauma” on a woman and then pepper sprayed a woman who tried to help her, the letter alleges. The letter states that on the same day outside Trump Tower, an officer hit a protester with a baton and said, “If you aren’t trying to get hurt, then don’t come to a protest.”
The letter goes on to accuse police of using degrading language about women and homophobic slurs. It states that one officer yelled at protesters, “Wait ‘til I get my badge off, you f---ing (anti-gay slur).”
Some officers did not wear masks as a precaution to avoid getting or spreading COVID-19 and told protesters, “I don’t care if you get sick,” the letter alleges.
The letter accuses officers of violating both department policy and the consent decree, a broad federal court order designed to change the way the troubled police force treats people.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, speaks at Federal Plaza in Chicago on July 23, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
That court order is one of the most substantive consequences of the protests that erupted in late 2015 after the release of video of white Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. That spurred a Justice Department investigation that castigated the police in January 2017 as poorly trained, badly supervised and prone to excessive force. The report helped make way for the consent decree now being implemented under the supervision of a federal judge.
The city has moved sluggishly to enact the decree, missing more than 70% of its deadlines in the first year under the order. The activists’ letter cited the city’s slow progress, stating that “the CPD has failed to make any meaningful changes to its operations, policies, patterns, and practices.”
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In addition, the letter called on Lightfoot’s administration to bar cops from using force against peaceful protesters. The lawyers also demanded the city punish cops who abuse protesters and avoid arresting people on minor charges. Activist groups have alleged that protesters were held for long periods without access to lawyers, and the letter calls on the police to promptly allow arrestees to use phones and talk to lawyers.
The letter asks the city to make the changes voluntarily but threatens to seek court enforcement of their demands under the consent decree. The letter threatens a separate lawsuit if they’re not allowed to push for enforcement under the consent decree. The lawyers asked the city to respond by Friday afternoon, and a hearing is scheduled in the consent decree case earlier that day.
Asked about the letter, Law Department spokeswoman Kathleen Fieweger said the city was reviewing it and added that the Lightfoot administration is “committed to ensuring and protecting all individuals’ First Amendment rights to peacefully protest in this city.”
She did not respond to a request for comment on the separate suit over federal agents’ involvement in Chicago.
Thursday’s filings add to the mounting legal paperwork stemming from recent protests. In June, the Cook County public defender’s office and others sued the city over allegations that police have routinely denied arrestees access to lawyers, including during the protests. And a youth-activist training organization is suing the city over allegations that police and consumer protection officials illegally ordered the group to stop its efforts to aid protesters in May.
Meanwhile, the former federal prosecutor tasked with monitoring the city’s progress on the consent decree, Maggie Hickey, is working on a report on alleged civil rights abuses during the protests.
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