chicagotribune--2020-07-02--Column: A different view of the masterful Farnsworth House — hers, not his

Titled “ Edith Farnsworth ’ s Country House ” and part of a larger reexamination of Farnsworth ’ s role @ @ @ @ @ at the house and its visitors ’ complex through December 2021 , the exhibit also @ @ @ @ @ interior designer Robert Kleinschmidt and Nora Wendl , who teaches architecture at the University of @ @ @ @ @ expert on Edith Farnsworth .
The National Trust for Historic Preservation , which has owned @ @ @ @ @ runs it has as a house museum , deserves credit for cooperating with this provocative @ @

The Farnsworth House is a modernist masterpiece designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The house museum in Plano is opening an exhibition, "Edith Farnsworth's Country House," that displays replicas of furnishings of the house's original owner. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The Farnsworth House, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s modernist masterpiece in Chicago’s far southwest suburbs, needs no introduction. As graceful as a Greek temple and as serene as a Shinto shrine, the single-room house seems to float over a meadow alongside the Fox River — one of the purest and most poetic distillations of the International Style.
But what about Dr. Edith Farnsworth, who paid for the house, lived in it and lost a bitter legal battle with Mies over cost overruns and architect’s fees? Who, exactly, was she?
Advertisement
Dr. Edith Farnsworth is seen in a 1938 photo that was attached to her application form for an internship at Passavant Memorial Hospital, now Northwestern Memorial Hospital. (HANDOUT)
A daring and fascinating new exhibition, “Edith Farnsworth’s Country House,” does more than flesh out the impressive resume of this overlooked figure, who grew up on Chicago’s Gold Coast and became a leading kidney doctor and translator of Italian poetry. The show restores her presence to the house that bears her name, but where for years she was all but absent.
The Farnsworth House, seen June 30, 2020 furnished as it was when owned by Dr. Edith Farnsworth, is typically shown with tables and chairs designed by its architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The exhibition performs this trick by dispatching to the warehouse the home’s coolly elegant, metal-framed Miesian furniture, including the architect’s signature Barcelona, Brno and MR chairs. In their place are replicas of pieces that Farnsworth herself chose, like a lovely wood and metal dining room table by the American designer Florence Knoll. Moroccan wool carpets are laid out on the travertine marble floor, along with potted plants.
Advertisement
Dr. Edith Farnsworth's chaise lounge chairs, designed by Bruno Mathsson. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
We also see objects that represent Farnsworth, from a black leather doctor’s bag to bathroom towels with her monogram “EBF” (the “B” stood for “Brooks”) to a bottle of the sweet Vermouth she sipped each afternoon.
For anyone who’s been to the Farnsworth House before, this transformation is likely to elicit a pleasing shock: The interior seems warmer, more in tune with nature and, above all, more livable — in short, more influenced by the humane Scandinavian modernism of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto than the hard-edged, German American counterpart personified by Mies.
To frame matters in terms of gender rather than style, this is her house, not his — the closest we’ve ever come to seeing the Farnsworth House as its namesake lived in it, not as Mies would have furnished it.
There’s a bigger issue here than Farnsworth and Mies. For as long as architects have wielded drafting tools, the designers of houses, almost always men, and their clients — in this case, an accomplished woman who was anything but a typical postwar housewife — have battled for control of the interior.
Some of Dr. Edith Farnsworth's poetry is displayed on a typewriter on her writing desk in the Plano house. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
When Frank Lloyd Wright stayed overnight at houses he’d designed, he was known to rearrange furniture to his liking while his clients slept. Wright even designed dresses for female clients so their outfits would not clash with a home he conceived as a total work of art — a Gesamtkunstwerk, as the Germans call it.
Dr. Edith Farnsworth's bamboo-frame "slipper chairs." (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Not surprisingly, this controlling impulse has generated blowback, as it did one day in the early 1950s when one of Mies’ associates telephoned Farnsworth to inform her that the furniture the architect had chosen for her home, including two Barcelona chairs, was about to be delivered.
The essence of her reply: She hadn’t ordered the furniture and had no intention of using it.
“The fact is that Mies has no taste and if you stop to think about it, that is not surprising,” she said in an exchange with English architect recounted in the well-told, deeply researched new book, “Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth and the Fight Over a Modernist Masterpiece,” by Alex Beam.
Advertisement
“I would hate to be forced to break with him, but I would never consent to his ideas on furnishing,” Farnsworth said. “One’s house is almost as personal as one’s skin. I don’t see how he could seriously think that I would go with him beyond the erection of the house itself.”
Beam’s pro-Farnsworth sympathies pervade the exhibition, which was curated by Scott Mehaffey, the Farnsworth House’s executive director, and was scheduled to open in late March but was postponed because of the coronavirus. During the delay, floodwaters threatened the house, which is located in Plano, about 60 miles southwest of the Loop. It was not damaged, due to the stiltlike steel columns that lift it above the ground.
Dr. Edith Farnsworth's poetry and books are displayed on her writing desk, which was designed by Franco Albini. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Titled “Edith Farnsworth’s Country House” and part of a larger reexamination of Farnsworth’s role that will be on display at the house and its visitors’ complex through December 2021, the exhibit also was shaped by veteran Chicago interior designer Robert Kleinschmidt and Nora Wendl, who teaches architecture at the University of New Mexico and is an expert on Edith Farnsworth. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has owned the home since 2003 and runs it has as a house museum, deserves credit for cooperating with this provocative endeavor.
Dr. Edith Farnsworth's dining table with "Superlight" side chairs designed by Gio Ponti and two end chairs designed by Hans J. Wegner. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
To be sure, the show presents an idealized picture of what was, at first, a weekend retreat. Based on historic photographs and Farnsworth’s writings, the exhibit recreates the house as it looked in 1955, just four years after it opened — not in the 1960s, when Farnsworth was living in it regularly and the house became a cluttered mess.
A doctor's bag is displayed at the Farnsworth House in Plano, an item that represents Dr. Edith Farnsworth, the house's first owner. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
There are no mounds of dirty dishes in the sink, no piles of magazines and newspapers, and no dog vomit from Farnsworth’s poodle — all of which visitors recounted seeing. Also absent is the ungainly screen Farnsworth had installed on the house’s upper terrace to keep away voracious mosquitoes. On the lower terrace, however, are smaller versions of the stone Chinese lion statues (the so-called foo dogs) that Farnsworth placed there in a comically bad departure from Mies’ less-is-more abstraction.
Yet even if the reconstituted house is a little too precious, like a furniture showroom, it has the virtue of putting Farnsworth back into the picture.
Advertisement
She pretty much disappeared after she sold the house to British real estate developer (and now Baron) Peter Palumbo in 1972. Palumbo and Mies’ grandson, Chicago architect Dirk Lohan, lovingly and meticulously restored the house’s exterior and turned its interior into a kind of Mies museum, complete with the décor the architect would have preferred. While that treatment was true to Mies’ idea of the house, it perpetuated a false impression by erasing Farnsworth’s presence, although introductory material in the visitor center always included her.
In the exhibit’s telling, Farnsworth isn’t the sad figure who, as the Mies crowd put it, thought the architect came with the house (for a time, the two were close friends and may have been romantically involved). She emerges as formidable rather than pitiful — first because she hired Mies to design the house, and then because she defied him in furnishing its interior.
As Beam’s book recounts, Farnsworth had help from her friend Kitty Baldwin Weese, the wife of Chicago architect Harry Weese and the co-founder of the influential Baldwin Kingrey design store in Chicago. The store championed furniture and housewares designed by such renowned figures of postwar modernism as Knoll and Aalto.
Indeed, after visitors enter the house and are greeted by a replica of Farnsworth’s 17th century violin, they see the Knoll dining table to the left and to the right, a small circular Aalto table, on top of which are binoculars and a guide to bird-watching by American ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson.
Throughout the exhibition, Farnsworth’s presence is palpable. So is the underlying tension between architect and client, especially in the show’s frank depiction of Farnsworth’s revolt against Mies’ allotment and placement of closet space.
Dr. Edith Farnsworth's contemporary bed and kitchen area. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
Originally, Mehaffey told me, the architect gave Farnsworth a tiny closet in the house’s galley kitchen. Yet she wanted more room and didn’t want food smells to ruin her clothes, so she secretly got a Mies associate to design a tall wood wardrobe that was placed just off the house’s living area. The wardrobe provided the needed storage space and created a roomlike writing nook, furnished with a sleekly modern desk and an Olivetti typewriter. The wardrobe violated the openness of Mies’ interior, a victory of function over form.
Advertisement
The Farnsworth House, seen June 30, 2020, is a modernist masterpiece and house museum in Plano. An exhibition, "Edith Farnsworth's Country House," displays replicas of furnishings of the house's original owner. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The exposure of such tensions is among the show’s strengths. There would be no Farnsworth House without Mies’ singular talents, of course, yet the house also could not have come into existence without the probing mind and innovative spirit of Farnsworth.
Great architecture is impossible without great clients, even when the relationship between architect and client devolves into bitterness, as it did here. It is fitting that this exhibition brings Farnsworth fully back into the house’s story and, in the process, explores the always-fraught relationship between architect and client, art and habitation, transcendent idea and everyday reality.
“Edith Farnsworth’s Country House” runs through December 2021 at the Farnsworth House, 14520 River Road in Plano. Guided tours cost $20 per person; tours are limited to 10 people, plus guide. For $10, visitors can explore the house’s nearly 60-acre grounds and the Farnsworth House from the outside. The exhibit is part of “Edith Farnsworth Reconsidered,” which includes small exhibits about Farnsworth’s life and the restoration of the house by later owner Peter Palumbo at the house’s visitor center complex. For details, go to farnsworthhouse.org or call (630) 552-0052.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-07-02--SUV driver killed after swerving into path of car on Far South Side

The SUV driver was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the Honda , a 30-year-old woman , @ @ @ @ @ Medical Center in serious condition , according to police .

A woman driving a Ford SUV crashed into a Honda Civic in the Roseland neighborhood early Thursday, killing her and seriously injuring the other driver, according to police.
The 28-year-old SUV driver was heading east in the 600 block of West 115th Street about 2:35 a.m. when she swerved into the eastbound lane and hit the Honda, police said.
Advertisement
The SUV driver was pronounced dead at the scene and the driver of the Honda, a 30-year-old woman, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in serious condition, according to police.
Information on the woman’s identity had not yet been released by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Advertisement
No one else was injured. Police were investigating the cause of the crash.


chicagotribune--2020-07-02--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened July 1 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in north suburban Skokie will reopen to visitors July 15 — with free @ @ @ @ @ limits on the number of visitors at any one time .
The museum , devoted @ @ @ @ @ Holocaust in mission but in practice embracing a wide range of subjects and exhibits having @ @ @ @ @ human rights , also has announced an extension of the popular current “ Notorious RBG @ @ @ @ @ of Ruth Bader Ginsburg .
”

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
The Fulton Market area of Chicago is no longer the ghost town it was during the depths of the COVID-19 virus pandemic shutdown. As restrictions on restaurants are eased, a worker takes a woman's temperature before she can enter Federales restaurant on Morgan Street on July 1, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials Wednesday reported 828 new known cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional confirmed fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 144,013 and the confirmed death toll to 6,951.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned the United States is “going in the wrong direction” as novel coronavirus cases surge across the country and said he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”
Advertisement
The next day, some states and cities began pausing their reopening plans, including all of Indiana, as well as Madison, Wisconsin. California ordered a stop to indoor services at restaurants, movie theaters, museums and others in certain counties seeing an increased spread of COVID-19. New York City pulled back on resuming indoor dining Monday.
In Illinois, state health officials have now made it possible for residents to track weekly COVID-19 figures at the county level and watch for signs of concern, such as a rise in cases or more people testing positive.
Advertisement
So how you stay safe when returning to work? Visiting a zoo? Working out at a gym? The Tribune talked to experts to get answers on how to assess the level of risk with which you are comfortable.
[ How to assess your COVID-19 risk when going out in public: Use this chart ]
[ Phase four of Illinois’s COVID-19 reopening: Settle in, folks, we may be here a while ]
[ Illinois enters phase 4 of reopening plan. Here’s a guide to what’s allowed. ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:50 p.m.:McDonald’s plan to reopen dining rooms on hold as COVID-19 cases surge in parts of U.S.
McDonald’s is halting plans to reopen its dining rooms for three weeks as COVID-19 cases rise in more than half of U.S. states.
The announcement by the Chicago-based fast food giant comes as numerous states reimpose restrictions on bars, restaurants and other businesses just as consumers hoped to resume a sense of normalcy.
In a letter viewed by the Tribune, and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, McDonald’s said it is pausing dine-in reopening plans for 21 days. It cited a 65% increase in infections over the last two weeks and rising cases in 32 states over the last seven days.
The letter, dated Wednesday and addressed to the “McFamily,” was signed by McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger and National Franchisee Leadership Alliance Chair Mark Salebra.
The company is advising operators that have already reopened to review local and state guidance to determine whether they should revert to a takeout, delivery and drive-thru model. Owner/operators that wish to pull back even when local regulations don’t require it should consult with the franchisee leaders but can decide on their own how to proceed, the letter said. Read more here. — Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
5:27 p.m.: Taste of Chicago To-Go details announced — a much more modest Taste
The Taste of Chicago was among a host of popular summer events spiked by the city last month out of precaution for the novel coronavirus. On Wednesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events announced the schedule of events for this year’s stand-in, called “Taste of Chicago To-Go.”
Advertisement
The Taste’s original schedule of July 8-12 remains intact, but gone are the dozens of vendors representing Chicago’s restaurants and thousands of customers eager for bites of rib tips, gator bites and Polish sausages. Instead, a more modest Taste To Go will feature a variety of virtual events in lieu of a real-life gathering and eating in Grant Park. Read more here. — Adam Lukach
5:11 p.m.: As other states reverse course amid COVID-19 surge, Illinois and Chicago officials watching metrics but say they have no plans to tighten restrictions
With neighboring Indiana and other states pausing their reopening plans or even moving backward as new cases of the coronavirus surge, officials in Chicago and Illinois said on Wednesday they have no plans to alter loosened rules that took effect statewide last week.
When Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced his “Restore Illinois” reopening plan in early May, he acknowledged that surges in hospitalizations or the percentage of people testing positive, or shortages of intensive-care unit beds or ventilators could lead him to tighten restrictions once again.
Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement Wednesday that the governor and medical experts at the Illinois Department of Public Health are watching the data closely to see whether the looser restrictions in the new phase have any effect on the state’s health care system.
”The governor has been clear that he will follow the guidance of medical experts and if they advise reinstituting previous mitigations he will not hesitate to do so,” Abudayyeh said.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the city tracks its data closely and will “not hesitate” to take action if they see an upward swing. Read more here. — Dan Petrella and Gregory Pratt
Advertisement
4:40 p.m.: Health officials urge coronavirus testing after demonstrator in McHenry tests positive
Health officials are urging anyone who attended a recent protest in McHenry to get checked for the coronavirus after a demonstrator there tested positive.
The demonstrator was asymptomatic, and took part in protest between 1 and 2:30 p.m. Saturday that began at Knox Park in the city of McHenry and ended at the McHenry Police Department, county health officials said.
A map with testing locations can be found here. Read more here. — Chicago Tribune Staff
4:29 p.m.: More companies are making masks to battle the ‘sweat factor’ this summer, but are they effective? Here’s what you need to know.
As a pastry chef who spends her workdays in a surgical-style mask next to hot ovens, Leigh Omilinsky is no stranger to the face mask “sweat factor.”
So she has little patience for those griping about muggy mouths now that Chicago’s weather has turned steamy.
“This has to be more comfortable than a ventilator,” said Omilinsky, 35, of Logan Square.
Advertisement
When health officials began recommending people wear masks in public places to slow the spread of COVID-19, they turned to whatever was available, be it a hand-sewn fabric mask, cut up t-shirt or winter balaclava. Now they’re often required, in places where social distancing is a challenge. As Illinoisans cautiously return to more activities put on hold during the pandemic, some are looking for masks that are tolerable for more than a quick grocery run. Read more here. — Lauren Zumbach
4:13 p.m.: President Trump supports new round of direct coronavirus payments: ‘It has to be done properly’
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he supports a fresh round of government payments to individuals to help them weather the coronavirus pandemic but “it has to be done properly.”
Trump also said he wants payments larger than the $1,200 the government sent to most individuals earlier this year. He did not say how big he’d like the payments to be. Read more here. —Associated Press
4:09 p.m.: Well St Market reopening, becoming the first Chicago food hall to remerge during the coronavirus pandemic
Although food hall operators and chefs expressed much trepidation only a few months ago, Wells St Market announced Wednesday that it will re-open Monday, making it the first Chicago food hall to do so during the pandemic. But not all its vendors are included in its first phase.
Firecakes Donuts, Fry the Coop,Tabo Sushi and Grand Central Bar will offer online ordering and pickup as well as limited seating for now. Piggie Smalls, Dos Toros Taqueria, Tempesta, FARE and Flowers for Dreams may come later, but currently the food hall is focused on the operations that felt comfortable enough to return.
General Manager John Williamson noted that fewer tenants operating means fewer people in the space, which is outfitted with large windows that open to Wells Street.
Advertisement
In addition to Firecakes, Fry the Coop and Tabo Sushi’s normal offerings, Grand Central Bar is working on to-go cocktails that are in compliance with the recently passed bill.
Health and safety regulations apply for both employees and visitors, who are required to wear masks and adhere to distancing guidelines with the help of floor decals. High-touch, non-food surfaces will receive increased sanitation and cashier stations have shields to separate guests and employees. The food hall will also be counting the number of people entering the space and patrons may have to line up outside during peak hours. Read more here. — Grace Wong
3:22 p.m.: Illinois to open more small business development centers, including 5 in Chicago, to help COVID-19 recovery
Illinois will invest $11.5 million to open seven small business development centers, including five in Chicago, to support businesses hurt by the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis and damaged during widespread civil unrest in early June.
The Chicago sites announced Wednesday will be located at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, South Shore Chamber of Commerce, the Build Bronzeville initiative through the Urban Juncture Foundation, Rogers Park Business Alliance and the Chinese Mutual Aid Association. Other locations are being managed by Joliet Junior College and Elgin Community College. Read more here. — Abdel Jimenez
3:19 p.m.: Brookfield Zoo reopens at reduced capacity — right now there may be more animals outside than people
Brookfield Zoo is reopening this week, albeit slowly, with lions and tigers and zoo members first. The zoo’s gates in the west suburbs swung open Wednesday for those holding seasonal memberships, with the general public to follow July 8.
Biggest change from before coronavirus-related closures shut down the zoo to visitors in late March: Tickets are being sold at reduced capacity, with timed admissions and only in advance. Read more here. — Doug George
Advertisement
2:55 p.m.: United adding 25,000 flights in August despite spikes in COVID-19 cases
United Airlines plans to fly about three times more routes in August than it did last month as passengers slowly return to the skies, even as the number of new COVID-19 cases across the U.S. rises.
Chicago-based United will have about 60% fewer flights on its schedule in August compared with the same month last year. But travelers are slowly coming back, particularly when it comes to domestic flights, said Ankit Gupta, United’s vice president of domestic network planning.
The number of people passing through U.S. airport security checkpoints each day topped 600,000 on certain days in late June, down from 2.7 million people a year ago. Still, airports are busier than they’ve been since late March.
United is scheduling about 600 more domestic flights a day in August than July, including more flights between Hawaii and hubs including Chicago. The airline said it has seen interest in beach travel, suggesting passengers may be seeking outdoor vacation spots where social distancing could be easier.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
2:40 p.m., (Updated 4:23 p.m.) : 828 new known COVID-19 cases, 30 additional deaths
Illinois health officials Wednesday reported 828 new known cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional confirmed fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 144,013 and the confirmed death toll to 6,951.
Advertisement
Additionally, the expanded testing hit new record daily high with 33,090 new results.
—Chicago Tribune staff
2:38 p.m.: Health experts slam US deal for large supply of the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19
Public health experts on Wednesday criticized the U.S. for securing a large supply of the only drug licensed so far to treat COVID-19.
The U.S. government announced this week that it had an agreement with Gilead Sciences to make the bulk of their production of remdesivir available to Americans for the next three months. The Department of Health and Human Services said it had secured 500,000 treatments through September, which amounts to all but 10% of production in August and September.
Read more here. —Associated Press
2:30 p.m.: Indiana delays reopening plan, keeps capacity limits on restaurants, bars over coronavirus spike worries
Indiana will keep capacity limits in place for restaurants, bars and entertainment venues because of worries about a possible increase in coronavirus cases across the state, Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday.
Advertisement
The state’s reopening plan had called for those restrictions to be lifted this weekend, but Holcomb said he would keep them in place until at least July 18. The state will also continue its current 250-person limit on social gatherings.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1:52 p.m.: Coronavirus and unemployment: How bad is it? 5 key questions.
With the viral outbreak worsening and unemployment at Depression-era levels, the government on Thursday will issue what will almost surely be another remarkable jobs report.
Hiring in June might have reached the highest monthly total on record — 3 million. Yet so deep were the layoffs this spring that a gain that large would still leave tens of millions of Americans out of work and the unemployment rate in double digits. And even a jobless rate above 10% wouldn't fully capture the scope of the pandemic's damage to the job market and the economy.
On Wednesday a survey by payroll company ADP found that U.S. companies added nearly 2.4 million jobs in June, a large gain that still leaves total employment far below its pre-pandemic levels.
Read more here. —Associated Press
Advertisement
12:57 p.m.: Madison health officials close indoor service at bars ahead of holiday weekend as COVID-19 cases rise in college town
Public health officials are closing indoor service at bars in Madison as the Fourth of July weekend approaches and as the number of reported coronavirus cases accelerate, many involving young people in Wisconsin’s largest college community.
The order from Public Health Madison & Dane County effective Thursday allows bars that have patios to keep them open and it limits the number of people who may eat inside restaurants to 25% capacity, the Journal Sentinel reported. Since June 13, 614 people have tested positive for coronavirus and half of them were between the ages of 18 and 29.
”For the past week, Dane County has seen a sustained, high number of cases. After consultation with our contact tracing team, gatherings and visits to bars and restaurants continue to be implicated in interviews with cases,” Janel Heinrich, the agency’s director said in a statement.
Bar owners are weighing a legal challenge. Tavern League of Wisconsin lobbyist Scott Stenger said public health officials are unfairly punishing bar owners and not taking into account what role recent protests over police brutality may have in the surge.
Read more here. —Associated Press
11:33 a.m.: A COVID-19 surge in your county? New Illinois website offers ways to check.
As Illinois shifts into phase four of its reopening plan, state health officials have now made it possible for residents to track weekly COVID-19 figures at the county level.
Advertisement
Their new website includes a warning system to highlight instances where the latest numbers — such as a rise in cases or more people testing positive — signal trouble.
Score poorly overall and the county will show up as orange on a blue map of the state. (Only one has qualified thus far. More on that in a moment.)
“If your county is colored orange, that’s a caution or a warning that something is going on,” the department’s director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said last week at a briefing with reporters. “And our goal is that, with that caution, you will think twice of your own personal habits and activities.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health unveiled the site just before the state on Friday officially entered the latest phase of its reopening plan, which allows people more freedom to gather and move about.
Read more here. —Joe Mahr
11:32 a.m.: Online auction raises over $10,000 for immigrant restaurant workers
The online auction #AskChefsAnything raised $10,595 in June for immigrant workers in Chicago’s food industry.
Advertisement
Organizers Gaeleen Quinn and Anna Polonsky, two consultants with extensive restaurant experience in New York, said they were moved to start the charity to help those most in need.
”We know a lot of chefs who have had to lay off employees, and many of those were immigrants,” says Quinn. She notes that undocumented immigrants haven’t received unemployment money or stimulus checks from the government. “We realized that they needed some support.”
To help, the two decided to organize an online auction in different cities across the country, where people could bid for the chance to chat with someone in the food world for 30 minutes, and, as the name makes clear, ask them anything.
According to Quinn and Polonsky, the winners take full advantage of the time.
“I witnessed one chef in St. Louis teaching a friend of mine to make St. Louis-style ribs,” says Quinn. “They had such a good time. Some ask for career advice or just about any random subject.”
The event in Chicago pulled together some of the biggest local chefs, including Stephanie Izard, Rick Bayless, Erick Williams and Lamar Moore, along with wine experts like Belinda Chang and Regine T. Rousseau.
Advertisement
Since there is still no vaccine for the coronavirus, #AskChefsAnything is considering whether to return to cities like New York and Chicago for another auction. “
The work is not over,” says Quinn. “We do both have jobs that we have to fulfill, but it’s in my mind every day. We are super stressed out but hoping to make this long term.”
The next stop for #AskChefsAnything is San Francisco. You can bid here.
—Nick Kindelsperger
11:24 a.m.: Bad Hunter, the plant-based darling of Chicago food scene, closes permanently due to coronavirus
Bad Hunter and its second floor event venue The Herbarium are closing for good because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
”While several outliers factored into this decision, ultimately we could not continue to withstand the realities of operating this business during a global pandemic,” according to an Instagram post Tuesday.
Advertisement
The West Loop restaurant, which survived a fire and re-opened in 2019, thanked patrons for their support and for celebrating major milestones with it. It also expressed gratitude to its staff, saying that they created “magic, day in and day out.”
Known for its vegetable-and-grains-forward menu, Bad Hunter was voted the Chicago restaurant with the best plant-based menu in the Chicago Tribune Readers’ Choice Dining Awards earlier this year.
And the restaurant was praised by critics not only for its playful name, but also tasty morsels like fried sunchoke in black garlic butter with a touch of Aleppo pepper-laced honey, maitake mushrooms with a lavender parsnip puree and butter dumplings filled with charred cabbage and shiitake mushrooms served with Asian pear and oyster kimshi. And carnivores weren’t forgotten on the menu, created by Dan Snowden. From chicken thigh skewers with preserved lemon yogurt to salmon crudo with garlic rice “cracklings,” there were exciting bites for everyone.
After the restaurant was forced to close in November 2018 because of a kitchen fire, Snowden moved over to Lone Wolf to create a takeout pizzeria that operated in the dive bar. Named Pizza Lobo, it has moved out of Randolph Row and into a standalone shop in Logan Square (3000 W. Fullerton Ave.) slated to open in late July. With a larger menu featuring pizzas with New York-style crust and duck fat chicken wings, the restaurant will be to-go only, although patrons are able to use its socially distanced patio space for carryout food sans service.
The rest of the staff was given notice late last week and Heisler Hospitality, the restaurant group that also operates Pub Royal, Estereo and Lone Wolf, said in a press release that its goal is to “rehome” as many employees as possible while continuing to pay health insurance costs through the end of July for those laid off.
”Having such a large shift happen at once is extremely bittersweet,” said Heisler Hospitality co-owner Matt Eisler in a press release. “It’s devastating to say goodbye to a place like Bad Hunter, especially when it’s not fully on our terms. But, it’s also the beginning of a new, really exciting chapter with Pizza Lobo.”
Advertisement
—Grace Wong
10:56 a.m.: Little evidence that protests following George Floyd’s death spread coronavirus in US
There is little evidence that the protests that erupted after George Floyd’s death caused a significant increase in U.S. coronavirus infections, according to public health experts.
If the protests had driven an explosion in cases, experts say, the jumps would have started to become apparent within two weeks — and perhaps as early as five days. But that didn’t happen in many cities with the largest protests, including New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C.
In what’s considered the first systematic look at the question, a team of economists determined that only one of 13 cities involved in the earliest wave of protests after Memorial Day had an increase that would fit the pattern.
Read more here. —Associated Press
10:14 a.m.: 20 questions about assessing your COVID-19 risk at restaurants, gyms, the office and more
COVID-19 outbreaks in the south and west have added a layer of anxiety to how to think about the public activities now available to Illinoisans in phase four. Each person must now assess what level of risk they are comfortable with when it comes to activities such as dining out, working out or returning to the office.
Advertisement
Read more here. —Kori Rumore
9:26 a.m.: Fighting over face masks becoming new normal as US workers now have to deal with conflict resolution on top of COVID-19 risks
Masks were already a political flash point, and months of mixed messages about their usefulness have contributed to the confusion. Now, they’re also fodder for viral videos.
A surge of reported cases of coronavirus in states like California, Texas and Florida has led authorities in those states to issue new guidance on masks. Evidence suggests masks can help prevent transmission of the virus even when worn by seemingly healthy people.
Early in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several times that those without symptoms did not have to wear masks. On April 3, the agency shifted, saying that masks should be worn in public.
But President Donald Trump, announcing the new guidance, said, “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself” and has continued to appear in public without a mask. On Sunday, after months of shunning a mask himself, Vice President Mike Pence urged Americans to wear them.
Orders regarding masks that carry the force of law have been left to individual states. And in states where altercations over masks have been reported, those orders have recently changed.
Advertisement
Read more here. —The New York Times
6:55 a.m.: Chicago bringing back normal ticketing enforcement, starting with street sweeping violations Wednesday
After almost four months of suspending ticketing Chicago drivers for various types of code violations and debt collection for unpaid ticekts, refraining from booting vehicles and impounding cars, Chicago begins to return to its normal ways Wednesday.
Street sweeping tickets will be the first to be issued, starting Wednesday, followed Monday by booting of cars with multiple unpaid tickets, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
On July 16, the city will start writing tickets to cars with expired city stickers and those parked in residential parking areas without a permit. Finally, the city will follow the state’s lead and not write tickets for expired Illinois vehicle registration stickers until Oct. 2.
“Now that the City has entered phase four of the reopening framework, debt collection and payment plan defaults will also resume,” according to the news release.
Anyone needing help with outstanding debt can visit the city’s New Start Chicago website here or set up a payment plan here. —Chicago Tribune staff
Advertisement
6 a.m.: Colleges campuses are trying to reopen in the fall. The main source of opposition? The faculty.
Just because students might be returning to college campuses this fall doesn’t mean professors will be joining them.
Controversy over whether instructors need to be in the classroom during the fall term has erupted at campuses including the University of Notre Dame, where professors are pushing back, noting the dangers of face-to-face classes while the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
Notre Dame, however, is asking those with objections to in-person instruction to submit documentation of medical conditions and a formal request for accommodations. Those who taught remotely prior to the pandemic likely will not need to obtain special approval, said Paul Browne, a spokesman for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame’s position on in-person instruction is among the most rigid, showing how far universities are willing to go to compel professors to return to campuses after classes were abruptly moved online this spring.
On the other end of the spectrum, the University of Chicago recently announced that it will not require any of its instructors, including graduate students, to teach in person for the fall quarter, which begins Sept. 29 for most classes. In an update released Tuesday, U. of C. said a limited number of classes will be held in-person. New students will be given priority to enroll in such courses so they can acclimate to the university setting.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
Advertisement
6 a.m.: Are the Blue Men ever coming back? Chicago’s commercial theaters are in serious trouble
Indoor gatherings of more than 50 people remain banned in Illinois and there is still no discernible, let alone bankable, timeline for the return of large-scale live entertainment. COVID-19 has created a world of pain for all sectors of the Chicago theater.
Notably, the city’s commercial, for-profit operations are showing the most immediate and visible stress.
June, the cruelest month so far, saw L. Walter Stearns, the hardy and well-regarded owner of the Mercury Theater, his elegant two-theater venue in the Lakeview neighborhood, declare his intention to close up shop and sell his building. Charna Halpern, the owner of the iO improv theater in Lincoln Park, facing a tsunami of property taxes, running costs and internal criticism over the climate at her theater, also called it quits.
And on Monday in Canada, the venerable but now massively indebted Cirque du Soleil sought protection from its creditors, throwing into question the future of the Blue Man Group, a hugely popular show that has been running since 1997 — that’s 23 years — at the Briar Street Theatre on Chicago’s North Side, along with similar productions in Las Vegas and New York.
Read more here. —Chris Jones
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Tuesday related to coronavirus in Illinois:


chicagotribune--2020-07-01--Wells St. Market reopening, becoming the first Chicago food hall to reemerge during the coronavirus

Wells St. Market reopening, becoming the first Chicago food hall to reemerge during the coronavirus pandemic

“ It ’ ll be a slow process , but we want to get back to operations when it ’ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ Speaking with the ( Wells St. Market ) tenants , this is @ @ @ @ @ .
They want to get their staff back to work , they want to take @ @ @ @ @ they want to do this safely .
”

Wells St. Market in the Loop closed temporarily in March, with the rest of the city's restaurants and dining halls, but will reopen Monday. (Agency H5)
Although food hall operators and chefs expressed much trepidation only a few months ago, Wells St. Market announced Wednesday that it will reopen Monday, making it the first Chicago food hall to do so during the pandemic. But not all of its vendors are included in the first phase.
Firecakes Donuts, Fry the Coop, Tabo Sushi and Grand Central Bar will offer online ordering and pickup, as well as limited seating for now. Piggie Smalls, Dos Toros Taqueria, Tempesta and Fare may come later, but currently the food hall is focused on the operations that felt comfortable enough to return.
Advertisement
General Manager John Williamson noted that fewer tenants operating means fewer people in the space, which is outfitted with large windows that open to Wells Street.
In addition to Firecakes, Fry the Coop and Tabo Sushi’s normal offerings, Grand Central Bar is working on to-go cocktails that are in compliance with the recently enacted city law.
Advertisement
Health and safety regulations apply for both employees and visitors, who are required to wear masks and adhere to distancing guidelines with the help of floor decals. High-touch, nonfood surfaces will receive increased sanitation, and cashier stations have shields to separate guests and employees. The food hall will also be counting the number of people entering the space, and patrons may have to line up outside during peak hours.
Williamson said his staff will be strongly enforcing these guidelines and hopes that guests will pay attention to the displayed instructions when dining in or grabbing to go. He also hopes people will use the nearby Riverwalk to enjoy their food.
“I feel positive about this,” Williamson said. “This is a great food city, and we want people to be able to enjoy the restaurants that we have, and come in and experience great cuisine and feel safe doing it.”
He hopes to have all the vendors back in a few months but is leaving it up to them to decide on their own. In the meantime, Williamson is in contact with Loop businesses to gather information about when tenants are returning to work downtown.
“It’ll be a slow process, but we want to get back to operations when it’s safe,” Williamson said. “Speaking with the (Wells St. Market) tenants, this is incredibly important to them too. They want to get their staff back to work, they want to take care of our guests and they want to do this safely.”
Online ordering is available through Ritual, Toast, Tock to Go and more. Customers can pick up online orders at the exterior window on Wells Street or enter the food hall through Wacker Drive.
gwong@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-03--Nearly 60 Chicago street vendors get $500 relief check from grassroots emergency fund: ‘Thanks to th

Nearly 60 Chicago street vendors get $500 relief check from grassroots emergency fund: ‘Thanks to their own community’

She had almost given up when she was approached by a member of Increase the Peace , a community organization @ @ @ @ @ , who told her she could apply for a $ 500 grant from the group @ @ @ @ @ the group had distributed money to 59 street vendors across Chicago .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ 29,500 , all raised by community members through a GoFundMe created in May .

This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. By remaining on this website, you indicate your consent.


chicagotribune--2020-07-03--Caravans, peace grants and basketball.  Finding ways around the pandemic to keep children and others

Caravans, peace grants and basketball.  Finding ways around the pandemic to keep children and others safe in Chicago this summer.

“ We have to , ” she concluded .
“ This is how we have to do this .
The @ @ @ @ @ out .
And then there is the violence .
We have to make sure we @ @ @ @ @ heats up the violence — as you can see it is already heated up .
@ @ @ @ @ many as we could off the street .
”


chicagotribune--2020-07-03--Column: ‘Boxes of hope': In Little Village, a food pantry turns the COVID crisis into opportunity

Few places were harder hit than Little Village , sometimes known as the capital of the Mexican Midwest .
Many @ @ @ @ @ died .
In the consequent economic crash , thousands were laid off .
Most of @ @ @ @ @ were poorly paid and doing work that exposed them to the virus , which they @ @ @ @ @ a hundred families a week was no match for the need .

Erika Lobatos, 39, checks in families in line for food boxes and milk at New Life Centers in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on July 2, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
It’s 8:55 a.m. A muggy summer day in Chicago.
Outside the former fruteria on South Lawndale Avenue, two dozen people have already lined up on the sidewalk, leaning on empty baby strollers and metal grocery carts, sweating, fiddling with their masks. Along the curb, cars with flashing blinkers stretch from the corner at 27th Street, past old brick cottages and iron fences, on beyond the red stop sign at 28th.
Advertisement
“Let’s pray!” Matt DeMateo calls.
Inside the fruteria the workers stand in a loose circle and bow their heads. The pastor from the church across the street leads the prayer in Spanish
Advertisement
Gracias, he says, for the workers’ patience and good health, and gracias for the privilegio of living in La Villita. And gracias for this opportunity trabajar y dar a los otros: this opportunity to work and give to others.
“Amen,” the workers say.
Then it’s 9 a.m., right on time, and DeMateo claps his hands once, sharp and loud, and says “Awright, let’s do it,” and the workers are out the door for another day of dispensing what he calls “boxes of hope,” less poetically known as food.
‘We started to dream crazy'
Back in the ordinary midwinter of 2020, New Life Centers of Chicagoland, a nonprofit affiliated with New Life Community Church in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, gave out food once a week from the church basement. With a volunteer staff, it fed 100 families, mostly with donations from Trader Joe’s.
Then in mid-March came the pandemic.
Few places were harder hit than Little Village, sometimes known as the capital of the Mexican Midwest. Many people got sick. Some died. In the consequent economic crash, thousands were laid off. Most of those who kept their jobs were poorly paid and doing work that exposed them to the virus, which they risked bringing home. Feeding a hundred families a week was no match for the need.
So in April, after the renowned Chicago chef Rick Bayless donated 50 boxes of food and Trader Joe’s increased its donations, New Life expanded its vision.
Alex Ramon, 18, right, helps pull a pallet with boxes of food at New Life Centers in Chicago's Little Village on July 2, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Kate Rivera, 19, helps to load food boxes into cars for families in need at New Life Centers. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
“We started to dream crazy,” says DeMateo, the organization’s executive director, a 37-year-old who favors jeans and a backward-facing Cubs cap. “Man, what if we fed a thousand families?”
Advertisement
By early May, New Life was in a partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and soon it was feeding 1,000 families a week. Then 2,000. Then 3,000. Truck after truck of food arrived at the fruteria’s back door, and by June, the New Life crew was feeding 6,000 families — 30,000 or so people — at seven sites around the city. DeMateo calls them “lighthouses in the storm.”
“Out of crisis,” he says, “comes opportunity.”
‘You’ll have to move fast'
It’s 9:02 a.m.
“I’m going to follow Abelardo,” I say and from behind his “Stronger Together” face mask, DeMateo laughs. “You’ll have to move fast.”
Abelardo Colin was 16 when he migrated to Chicago from Mexico. He spoke no English. A longtime New Life pantry volunteer, he’s 37 now, and in mid-May, just as he finished his associate degree in social work at Malcolm X College, he took a paid job running the Little Village pantry operation.
On this hot morning, he sprints across the sidewalks, making sure everything’s OK, his walkie-talkie squawking constantly: “Abelardo! Abelardo!” He waves cars into the loading line, calling “Adelante! Buenos dias!” He reminds others to wear their masks.
Advertisement
He also oversees the workers with clipboards who ask each car a few questions: Address? How many in the home? Are you on food stamps? No names required. Anyone who shows up is welcome.
Today that even includes a city bus driver, who has just maneuvered through the long line of waiting cars to reach the corner stop. Colin slides a box of food through the open door.
“Thanks, bro!” the driver says.
But even as he says it Colin is off, hustling back to the fruteria to roll out a giant pallet of frozen meat.
‘Bringing light'
It was well-timed luck that just as the pandemic hit, the owners of Gela’s Fruteria, across from New Life, decided to retire. They hadn’t sold the building yet, so they handed over the keys, along with access to their coolers, which has helped make the operation possible.
And for an operation that didn’t exist at this scale three months ago, the pantry is remarkably efficient. Cars pull up nonstop in front of a tented area where a line of young people load boxes into the popped trunks.
Advertisement
“Speed it up!” someone calls, and the workers gladly do. For many of them, like Alex Ramon, tossing, catching and quickly loading the heavy boxes is a form of competitive sport.
Ramon, 18, lives with his mother, who’s retired from a candy factory, and an older brother, who was laid off from a mall job when the pandemic hit. His father died when he was a child, and for a decade DeMateo, who lives across the street, has been his mentor.
A few years ago, Ramon was shot, yet another child victim of gang crossfire not meant for him, but he carried on. He recently graduated from high school and now is one of the 10 pantry workers who, thanks to the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, is being paid. The money keeps his family afloat, but he’s at the pantry for more than a paycheck.
“It’s bringing light to Little Village,” he says.
Talk to the pantry workers and they all use words such as light, joy, opportunity, community. Their happy energy may make it tempting to forget that their work is made urgent by a deadly, contagious disease.
‘Radical hospitality'
The New Life congregation has buried a dozen people because of it, among them Emilia Martínez.
Advertisement
“Emmy loved on everyone,” says Erika Lobatos, who helps manage the Little Village site. “She gave the best hugs.”
Martinez was a community leader, one of the older women who taught Lobatos, who’s 39, the meaning of “radical hospitality.” Those older women are one reason that on this muggy day, Lobatos stands outside the fruteria, talking to the constant parade of people who come on foot, listening to their stories and their needs, helping them heave boxes into their empty strollers and carts.
Then it’s 10 a.m., then 11, then noon. The lines stay long. A guy named Big Mike shows up to help load a truck for deliveries to people too sick to come themselves. The pantry has also delivered in some Black neighborhoods where the grocery stores closed after recent looting.
Who knows how long this form of radical hospitality will go on in Little Village, but the need will last a while. A new mural across the street from the fruteria will be a reminder of why. It’s dedicated to community members lost during the time of the pandemic, some to violence, others to the disease.
Chicago Tribune Opinion Weekdays Read the latest editorials and commentary curated by the Tribune Opinion team. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our Subscriber Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy >
The names were scheduled to go up Thursday evening. Among the COVID-19-related deaths would be these:
Emilia Lozano Martínez
Advertisement
Maria G. Ayala
María del Carmen Cárdenas
Guillermo Chávez
There will be space for more, just as there will continue to be the need for boxes of hope.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-03--Brothers who were in altercation with Joliet mayor won’t face charges, state’s attorney says

During a court hearing for the two men Thursday , Will County Assistant State ’ s Attorney Chris Koch said @ @ @ @ @ evidence , the state ’ s attorney ’ s office was not filing formal charges @ @ @ @ @ noted the case remains under review by the Illinois State Police and charges could be @ @ @ @ @ .

The Will County state’s attorney’s office on Thursday said it will not bring charges for now against two men involved in an altercation in May with Joliet’s mayor.
The altercation involving Mayor Robert O’Dekirk took place May 31. Victor Williams Jr., 23, of Lockport and his brother, Jamal Smith, 28, of Crest Hill, were arrested while they were participating in a protest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Advertisement
A video of the incident appears to show O’Dekirk grabbing Williams by the collar and forcibly walking him backward toward a police car. Smith then appears to jump on the mayor from behind, and all three are then quickly surrounded by police.
The incident has prompted calls for the mayor’s resignation. The mayor, a former Joliet police officer, has said he acted in self-defense that evening and that Williams was the aggressor.
Advertisement
During a court hearing for the two men Thursday, Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Koch said that based on the available evidence, the state’s attorney’s office was not filing formal charges against the men. Koch noted the case remains under review by the Illinois State Police and charges could be filed at a later date.
“The fact that the state prosecutor is not willing to file charges today, given that their alleged complainant is the mayor of this town, I think speaks volumes,” said Lawrence X. O’Reilly, an attorney representing Williams.
The Illinois State Police have been asked by the Joliet Police Department to review the case. The City of Joliet also has hired an outside firm to review the incident.
O’Dekirk could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter.


chicagotribune--2020-07-03--Joliet police not at fault in death of man who passed away after arrest during drug investigation, s

Joliet police not at fault in death of man who passed away after arrest during drug investigation, state’s attorney says

Michael Oppenheimer , an attorney representing Lurry ’ s widow , said he is not surprised by Thursday ’ s @ @ @ @ @ .
He added he will be asking for a federal investigation into the incident and @ @ @ @ @ .
He suggests officers , who held Lurry ’ s nostrils for more than a @ @ @ @ @ about retrieving drugs for a conviction than rendering medical aid to Lurry .

The Will County state’s attorney’s office Thursday said Joliet police were not at fault for the death in January of a man who was arrested during a drug investigation 11 hours before he passed away.
The state’s attorney’s office and the county coroner’s office issued statements that Eric Lurry, 37, of Joliet, died of an accidental overdose and that Joliet police officers were not at fault.
Advertisement
Dashcam video surfaced this week of Lurry’s arrest. The video, which police showed to reporters Wednesday, shows an officer slapping Lurry — an act officials said might have been done to rouse him — and referring to him in a profane manner. The officer also was seen holding Lurry’s nostrils, an act officials said was done to prevent Lurry from swallowing drugs.
The video also shows another officer putting a collapsible baton into Lurry’s mouth, an action officials said was done to retrieve plastic bags that contained drugs and to prevent the officer from being bitten.
Advertisement
Lurry was transported to Amita St. Joseph Medical Center, where he died. The matter was referred to the Will/Grundy Major Crimes Task Force for review in January, and the coroner and state’s attorney’s office issued statements Thursday following the five-month-long investigation by the task force.
“Eric Lurry’s death was caused by the ingestion of fatal amounts of heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine, and did not result directly from any action or inaction by an officer of the Joliet Police Department,” a statement from the Will County state’s attorney’s office read.
In his written statement, Will County Coroner Patrick O’Neil said Lurry had concentration levels of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine that were more than 10 times the lethal level. The coroner’s office notes that “multiple doses” of Narcan, a drug that reverses overdoses, were given to Lurry to no avail.
“The levels of narcotics in Mr. Lurry’s system were too significant,” the statement reads.
Michael Oppenheimer, an attorney representing Lurry’s widow, said he is not surprised by Thursday’s findings but questioned their validity. He added he will be asking for a federal investigation into the incident and will seek a private autopsy. He suggests officers, who held Lurry’s nostrils for more than a minute, were more concerned about retrieving drugs for a conviction than rendering medical aid to Lurry.
“I think they killed him,” said Oppenheimer, who has seen portions of the video, but the entire video has not been made available to him or Lurry’s widow.
/Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk this week said he found the video concerning, and questioned why the city’s legal department and council members were not made immediately aware of the video’s existence. Police and City Manager Steve Jones rebuffed claims that the video was withheld or covered up, noting that the incident was under investigation and the department was following proper protocol.
Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter.