chicagotribune--2020-10-30--A crime revisited: Ex-prosecutor’s role in decades-old wrongful conviction of ‘Roscetti 4’ takes spo

A crime revisited: Ex-prosecutor’s role in decades-old wrongful conviction of ‘Roscetti 4’ takes spotlight in Foxx-O’Brien race

“ I was part of the system , ” he said .
“ Until the results of the DNA tests @ @ @ @ @ that they were innocent .
With the DNA tests , tests that were not available @ @ @ @ @ am now convinced that they were not involved and am grateful that scientific advancements enabled @ @ @ @ @ ”

Political ads from the campaign of incumbent Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx make a serious charge in the starkest of terms: that her opponent Pat O’Brien secured wrongful convictions against four Black teenagers in the haunting 1986 rape and murder of a promising medical student.
The exonerated men in question are known as the Roscetti 4, and three of them spent about 14 years behind bars before advances in DNA testing cleared them and identified the actual killers. They appeared in one of Foxx’s videos blaming O’Brien for the injustice that befell them, while he has sought to blunt those accusations.
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Omar Muhammad, formerly known as Omar Saunders, from left, Marcellius Bradford, and Larry Ollins and his cousin Calvin Ollins gather at the Daley Plaza on Aug. 27, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Despite the passage of time, questions persist about the case, but just how much responsibility O’Brien should bear is not clear-cut.
By the fall of 1987, he was a trial supervisor at the courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue and assigned with another assistant state’s attorney to prosecute the teens.
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One defendant was an eighth grader who along with another teen signed written confessions. But they later blamed the coercion that produced their faulty statements on police, and O’Brien has said while he was a part of the state’s attorney’s felony review unit at the time, he was not part of the decision to charge them.
A recent Foxx ad opens with its most shocking claim: One of the men, Marcellius Bradford, said he will never forget O’Brien allegedly telling him at the time that he knew the four were innocent but the victim was “a white woman … somebody’s got to pay for this crime.”
An outraged O’Brien said the statement is a lie, citing the improbability of a prosecutor speaking alone to a murder defendant outside his attorney’s presence. The Tribune found no record in voluminous court filings of Bradford’s accusation, though his lawsuit did allege secret meetings.
John, left, and Lora Roscetti leave court in 1988 after the first of four defendants was convicted of killing their daughter. At right is then-Assistant State's Attorney Patrick O'Brien. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)
O’Brien noted Bradford pleaded guilty in 2003 to theft by deception for trying to extort money from the attorney whose work had led to his exoneration. He said Foxx’s reliance on Bradford “shows either a complete lack of regard for the truth or incomprehensible naivete — neither quality that is becoming of a state’s attorney.”
Foxx stopped short of accusing O’Brien of misconduct when the Tribune asked about the ad, instead saying he should have done more to vet the credibility of the confessions. She described him as part of an old culture of “win at all costs," citing what she said were 27 wrongful convictions in the office when he held supervisory roles before returning to private practice in 1993.
O’Brien responded by saying Foxx had “cherry-picked” those cases, including a small number which involved prosecutorial misconduct, and that he did not try any involving such problems. O’Brien did prosecute another 1980s-era murder case included on Foxx’s list that an appellate court later reversed, citing insufficient evidence.
In the Roscetti case, the trial judge, juries and the appellate court found their confessions credible. The case came under scrutiny in 2001 after key witnesses recanted, scientific expert testimony was discredited and, most significantly, DNA tests — science that was unavailable during the trials — failed to link the four men to the evidence.
Two other defendants were charged after tests matched to their genetic profiles. Both have since died from cancer.
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O’Brien said he now believes in the innocence of the Roscetti 4, but he defended the police work and the decisions he made. Prosecutors followed the evidence in good faith, he said, which included the court-reported confessions from two defendants, admissions to acquaintances and Bradford’s cooperation as a witness.
Experts consider it a key case that helped lead to the creation of a state’s attorney conviction integrity unit. It still is used as a training tool for prosecutors to better recognize false confessions.
‘This never ends’
Lora Roscetti, 91, has lived the terrible arc of her daughter’s slaying for 34 years.
“It’s like a kick in the stomach,” she said upon learning of its renewed spotlight in the election. “I just thought, boy, this never ends.”
Her daughter, Lori Ann, the youngest child of six, grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Springfield and was valedictorian of her high school class.
“She was my baby,” Roscetti said. “She was really smart and a hard worker. If she was sick when she was young and I didn’t let her go to school, she would have me go to get her homework.”
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In 1986, the 23-year-old was studying to become a doctor at Rush University’s medical college. She was last seen driving to her apartment about 1 a.m. on an October night after a late night of studying. Hours later, a railroad officer found her badly beaten body on a desolate access road near the former ABLA Homes, a gang-afflicted West Side public housing complex.
Three months later, police brought in Bradford, 17, and 16-year-old Larry Ollins for questioning. Both teens lived at ABLA and had been arrested weeks after the murder for breaking into boxcars on the tracks not far from the crime.
Police said Bradford eventually confessed, implicating himself and Ollins, as well as Ollins' cousin, Calvin, a 14-year-old with a low IQ in special education classes with a clean juvenile record. Calvin also signed a written confession, while Larry Ollins maintained his innocence.
Omar Muhammad, then known as Omar Saunders, 18, was arrested two weeks later. Authorities alleged the motive was robbery so that Calvin Ollins could get fare to get back to his home in the Cabrini-Green public housing complex.
A troubled case
Calvin Ollins was the first to face a jury in 1988. Prosecutors told the panel the teen had signed a written statement describing crime-scene evidence that only someone who was there would know.
But defense attorney Ron Menaker told the Tribune detectives manipulated the boy, who could barely read. The teen alleged police led him to falsely believe his cousin had implicated him and if he signed the confession, he could go home — a defense the jury rejected.
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Juries also convicted Muhammad and Larry Ollins in separate trials. Too young to face the death penalty, Muhammad and the Ollinses received life sentences. Bradford, who testified against Larry Ollins, received a 12-year plea deal for aggravated kidnapping. He served six.
O’Brien was repeatedly promoted between summer 1988 and fall 1993 before again returning to private practice. His final position was as then-State’s Attorney Jack O’Malley’s executive assistant.
Meanwhile, the defendants' appeals were rejected. In 2000, Muhammad wrote to noted defense attorney Kathleen Zellner, a specialist in wrongful convictions, for help. He cited recent Tribune articles about a former Chicago crime lab analyst at the center of allegations of wrongful convictions in other cases and who he argued falsely represented scientific evidence in their trials as well.
Zellner was intrigued. She hired a leading forensic expert who authored a 2001 report highly critical of the analyst’s work in nine cases, including the Roscetti murder, and found her testimony comparing the men’s blood to semen evidence from the victim’s body contradicted her own report.
A battery of DNA tests later excluded the four men, and instead matched two unidentified profiles. Muhammad and the Ollinses were freed in December 2001, and the four were later pardoned. Richard Devine, then state’s attorney, called the case a “real failure of the system.”
Within months, prosecutors charged Duane Roach and Eddie “Bo” Harris, men with long criminal records, both linked through DNA. Neither had a recorded crime of violence after Roscetti’s murder. They provided videotaped confessions, admitting they abducted her after smoking crack cocaine after she parked her car. They pleaded guilty, and both died from cancer while serving 75-year sentences.
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Robert Milan, the supervising prosecutor who led the 2001 reinvestigation for Devine, recalled telling O’Brien about the new DNA results. “He said, ‘Bob, if that’s what the DNA says, you got to do what you got to do,’” Milan recalled. “No arguing, no yelling or saying we were wrong, just a total gentleman.”
‘Saddens me deeply’
The Roscetti 4 later sued. O’Brien was dismissed as a defendant before the settlements were reached.
Calvin Ollins settled for $1.5 million and Bradford for $900,000. Muhammad and Larry Ollins later split an $8 million settlement. “He never apologized to our city, to the people, to us,” Muhammad said of O’Brien. “He never apologized to Lori Roscetti’s family.”
Menaker and Tom Allen, who was Muhammad’s attorney, said police and prosecutors back then were bulletproof and, in high-profile cases like Roscetti, losing was not an option.
“The Roscetti prosecutors were handed a piece-of-crap case and they knew it,” said Allen, a retired judge. “But, they also knew how to work the system which was always tilted in their favor. And that’s what they did.”
O’Brien went on to become a judge for eight years, elected in 2006 as a Democrat, but he became a Republican before announcing his bid for state’s attorney. His trial partner in the Roscetti case, George Velcich, is now a member of his campaign team.
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O’Brien acknowledged the reality that confessions can be false, but the former prosecutor defended the police work, saying the confessions were due “to the fact that the defendants themselves had IQs that weren’t very high. They were young and they were subject to believing that their wills were overborne, but it wasn’t by force.”
When asked if he owed the Roscetti 4 an apology, O’Brien did not offer one, but he said it “saddens me deeply” that the criminal justice system failed the victim and the men.
“I was part of the system,” he said. “Until the results of the DNA tests, I did not believe that they were innocent. With the DNA tests, tests that were not available at the time, I am now convinced that they were not involved and am grateful that scientific advancements enabled them to be exonerated.”
As for Lora Roscetti, the victim’s mother, she said she supports his election efforts despite the painful memories the Foxx ads against him resurrected.
“It’s politics,” she said. “What can you do?”
cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Watch live: Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update

Gov .
J.B. Pritzker will give an update on the state ’ s response to the coronavirus in a briefing @ @ @ @ @ the latest updates on COVID-19 in Illinois here .

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chicagotribune--2020-10-30--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer .

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 36 new deaths, 6,943 new confirmed cases and 95,111 new test resu

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 36 new deaths, 6,943 new confirmed cases and 95,111 new test results

Illinois announced 6,943 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Friday for a total of 402,401 .
The state also announced 36 @ @ @ @ @ of 9,711 and 95,111 new test results for a total of 7.64 million .

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Is a 96% attendance rate a bright spot in a pandemic stricken school year? Not exactly, as remote le

Is a 96% attendance rate a bright spot in a pandemic stricken school year? Not exactly, as remote learning skews annual report card.

“ We have to help high school students and career changers see the benefits of becoming teachers .
Right now @ @ @ @ @ sell for anyone , '' she said .
`` We need to help people see @ @ @ @ @ it .
”

The Illinois State Board of Education released its annual school report card Friday as students across the state adjust to remote and hybrid learning this school year.
Typically, the card is a comprehensive analysis of academic and test performance, demographics and a financial summary of every school and district in the state. However, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect in-person teaching, many metrics in this year’s analysis are not comparable to previous years.
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“This year, COVID-19 had a significant impact on the data we normally collect for the report card,” Carmen Ayala, state superintendent of education, told news media Tuesday.
One example is an increase in the attendance rate. Schools reported higher attendance, even as they closed their doors completely.
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Of the state’s 865 school entities that receive report cards, the median attendance rate for the 2019-20 school year was more than 96%. Only 100 districts didn’t post higher attendance rates this year than last, a Tribune analysis shows. Last year’s attendance rate was just under 95%.
For some metrics, such as surveys on school culture and climate, ISBE collected no data for the 2019-20 school year. For other metrics like attendance, the suspension of in-person instruction likely affected the results, according to the school board.
“A standardized method of reporting attendance was not possible in the spring during the suspension of in-person instruction, some schools had access to technology while other schools had paper packets,” Ayala said.
With districts deciding on their own when a student should be considered absent, the vast majority logged high attendance rates — even with the disruption of the pandemic.
Districts that previously indicated struggles with chronic truancy reported that it wasn’t as significant a problem last year. For example, Chicago Public Schools reported more than 20,000 fewer chronically truant students.
Ayala said there will have to be higher-quality attendance data going forward, regardless of whether a school is hybrid, in person or online.
Another metric impacted by the pandemic is graduation rate data, according to the school board. Graduation rates cannot be compared to previous years because the state changed requirements for students expecting to graduate in spring 2020.
However, some data points were included in the 2020 report card.
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More than 2,000 teachers were added to the workforce, and the teacher retention rate is at 86%, according to the school board. The 2019 teacher retention rate statewide was about the same.
Ayala said the state has prioritized teacher recruitment through grants, teacher leadership programs and recruitment plans for educators of color.
“While we have increased the number of teachers, the profession remains overwhelmingly white and female ... we still have much more work to do,” Ayala said.
Eighty-two percent of teachers in the state are white, while nearly 77% identify as female.
In order to diversify the teaching force across the state, Roxanne F. Owens, chair of the teacher education department at DePaul University’s College of Education, said universities must support students studying to be educators.
“We have to help high school students and career changers see the benefits of becoming teachers. Right now, teaching is a tough sell for anyone," she said. "We need to help people see all of the upsides to it.”
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Owens said programs like the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois alleviate the financial burden of getting a college degree, for example. Connecting students to community schools early also increases their likelihood of continuing to pursue teaching, Owens said.
“We want our students to go into communities and see how they can help people that look just like them; that’s a very powerful thing in this profession.”
In another category, the report card shows more students excelling in advanced placement tests with students achieving a 70% pass rate, 2 points higher than the class of 2019. More than 8,000 more high school students took career and technical education, dual credit, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses in the 2019-20 school year, compared with the prior year, according to the report.
Illinois schools are usually given designations that rank how well a school educates all demographic groups of students, taking into account student improvement in standardized testing.
Because of inconsistencies in the analysis, this year the state did not issue new rankings and carried over school rankings from the last school year.
The rankings rate schools as: exemplary, commendable, underperforming and lowest performing. For 2020, the lowest performing designation was changed to “comprehensive” and underperforming was changed to “targeted," according to the school board.
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But there was one addition.
For the first time, the 2020 Illinois Report Card includes Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) data, a tool used to track student developmental readiness in the first 40 days of kindergarten.
Chicago Tribune’s Jennifer Smith Richards contributed.
jvillagomez@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @jessicavillag


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Column: In a shift, city will take first steps to grant landmark status to Pilsen’s shuttered St. Ad

Column: In a shift, city will take first steps to grant landmark status to Pilsen’s shuttered St. Adalbert Catholic Church

City officials replied that the ornate edifice , which has been called the mother church of Polish parishes on the @ @ @ @ @ South sides , was in no danger of demolition .
If someone moved to tear @ @ @ @ @ , they would have ample time to safeguard it .

Bronislawa Stekala speaks about preserving the closed St. Adalbert Church during a celebration of the feast of St. Adalbert, outside of the church on April 23, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar / Chicago Tribune)
As debate has raged over a proposed landmark district in Pilsen, activists kept asking why the city was moving to protect 900 buildings in the Near Southwest Side neighborhood, but not one of its most prominent structures, the shuttered St. Adalbert Catholic Church.
City officials replied that the ornate edifice, which has been called the mother church of Polish parishes on the city’s West and South sides, was in no danger of demolition. If someone moved to tear it down, they said, they would have ample time to safeguard it.
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This week, however, they said they would take the first step to grant the church official landmark status — and that they have authority to begin that process without the consent of the church’s owner, the Archdiocese of Chicago.
“We have heard you,” Maurice Cox, commissioner of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, said Tuesday at the last of three online meetings about the proposed landmark district. “This is an iconic landmark in Pilsen. That is without dispute.”
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Parishioners gather for Mass at St Adalbert's Catholic Church on July 14, 2019, in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The city, he said, would start to prepare a report to make the case that the building deserves to be protected from demolition or character-destroying alterations. City officials would work with the archdiocese on the proposed landmark designation and plans to redevelop it, he said.
If a house of worship is still being used, its owner must consent before it can become a city landmark, but, if like St. Adalbert, it is no longer in use, the owner’s consent is not required, Peter Strazzabosco, a spokesman for the planning department, said Friday.
City officials have been discussing landmark status for the church with the archdiocese since last year, he said.
In a statement, the archdiocese said it looks forward to working with the city "to understand their goals and to develop a plan for the property that recognizes its historical significance to the community while supporting the needs of St. Paul parish.”
St. Adalbert, which was officially desanctified last year, was combined with St. Paul Catholic Church in Pilsen as part of a consolidation that church officials attributed to a declining parish population and high renovation costs.
Designed by prolific Chicago architect Henry Schlacks and located a block north of Pilsen’s 18th Street commercial corridor, the 106-year-old church at 1650 W. 17th St. combines the austere basilica form of early Christian churches with baroque flourishes that symbolize Polish national identity.
St. Adalbert Catholic Church at 17th and Paulina streets, circa June 1926. (Chicago Tribune historical photo )
Thousands of Eastern European immigrants, including Czechs and Poles, lived in Pilsen before it became predominantly Mexican American in the 1960s.
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When the archdiocese announced in 2016 that it would close St. Adalbert as part of its cost-saving consolidation plan, some church members complained they no longer would have access to a place that echoes with memories of baptisms, weddings and funerals.
Historic preservationists, who have been fighting to protect St. Adalbert, expressed satisfaction at the shift by city officials.
“We’ve been encouraging the city to demonstrate that the crown-jewel and one of the iconic and gateway buildings of Pilsen needs to be landmarked,” Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, wrote in a text message Thursday.
It is unclear whether the city’s decision on St. Adalbert will affect its controversial landmark district proposal.
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The church would be an individual city landmark. It is not being included in the proposed Pilsen landmark district, which covers commercial and residential buildings primarily built between the 1880s and the late 1940s.
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Cox said at the meeting that Ald. Tom Tunney, 44th, chair of the City Council Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards, will conduct a special meeting Dec. 1 to consider the proposed landmark district.
Opponents of the proposed district, led by Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, argue it would burden Pilsen residents and property owners with costly building repair standards, a claim city officials deny.
The opponents also charge that the district would accelerate gentrification in Pilsen. City officials point to the need to preserve old, multiapartment buildings in Pilsen so they are not replaced with expensive, single-family homes.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--‘We’re not going to control the pandemic’: Divide between government’s health advisers and President

‘We’re not going to control the pandemic’: Divide between government’s health advisers and President Trump is apparent

“ I wasn ’ t an English major , but ‘ tenuous ’ seems like the right word ” to @ @ @ @ @ country , Giroir said this week on NBC .
The surge can be controlled by @ @ @ @ @ 3W ’ s ” but “ if we don ’ t do those things it @ @ @ @ @ government officials in the states to have more draconian measures .
”

WASHINGTON — A multi-state coronavirus surge in the countdown to Election Day has exposed a clear split between President Donald Trump’s bullish embrace of a return to normalcy and urgent public warnings from the government’s top health officials.
It’s the opposite of what usually happens in a public health crisis, because political leaders tend to repeat and amplify the recommendations of their health experts, not short-circuit them. “It’s extremely unusual for there to be simultaneous contrary messaging,” said John Auerbach, who heads the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health.
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The Republican president and the health officials appear to be moving farther apart since White House chief of staff Mark Meadows declared last Sunday “we’re not going to control the pandemic.”
Since then, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Adm. Brett Giroir has done a round of interviews warning that the country’s situation is “tenuous” but that Americans can indeed control the virus by practicing what he calls the “3W’s” — watching your distance from others, wearing a mask and frequently washing your hands.
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Dr. Deborah Birx, left, on the campus of Bismarck State College in North Dakota on Oct. 26, 2020. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune)
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Deborah Birx, touring the states to raise prevention awareness, lamented in Bismarck, North Dakota, that she hadn’t seen such disdain for mask wearing elsewhere. “We find that deeply unfortunate because you don’t know who’s infected and you don’t know if you’re infected yourself,” she told reporters. The state’s positive test rate is 11%, above the level indicating widespread transmission.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar, for his part, has a profile photo of himself masked up on his Twitter account.
Getting a #FluVaccine is more important than ever. That's why senior leaders from across HHS are getting their #flu vaccines and are encouraging Americans to do the same. Do your part to protect yourself and your community – #SleeveUp and #FightFlu! https://t.co/Tm0QIF6OSn — HHS.gov (@HHSGov) October 26, 2020
But Trump continues to ridicule masks and mask-wearing as he insists the U.S. has turned the corner on the virus. At a reelection rally Wednesday in Bullhead City, Arizona, the president painted a sardonic word picture of left-coast Californians trying to eat through their masks.
“How about California ... where you are supposed to eat with the mask (and) can’t take it off?” Trump said. “You see people and, boy, you know when you have spaghetti and meat sauce ... you walk out it looks like you got into a fight.”
That’s not actually what the California governor’s office recently recommended to restaurant-goers. The advice was to keep the mask on when not eating, or “between bites.” An illustration showed a diner masked while reading the menu and, later, while wiping her hands with a napkin after eating.
It might all be considered political theater if the nation’s situation weren’t so serious.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump during a campaign rally in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 29, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
“We are in a third wave,” said Marta Wosinska of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. “We are seeing pretty dramatic increases in the number of people hospitalized and an uptick in deaths.”
The White House insists there’s no conflict between Trump and the health advisers who back in the spring shared the briefing room podium with the president on many an occasion.
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“As the president has said, the cure cannot be worse than the disease and this country should be open armed with best practices, such as social distancing, good hygiene, and face coverings, to limit the spread of COVID-19,” spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
The health officials do not invoke Trump in their warnings, and they sidestep questions that might lead them into anything that could be perceived as a direct criticism. But their message reflects a different view of reality than what’s coming from the president and senior White House officials.
“I wasn’t an English major, but ‘tenuous’ seems like the right word” to describe the condition of the country, Giroir said this week on NBC. The surge can be controlled by going back to the “3W’s” but “if we don’t do those things it may force local officials or government officials in the states to have more draconian measures.”
The numbers bear him out.
According to data through Wednesday from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose over the past two weeks from 52,350 to more than 74,180. That marks a return to levels not seen since the summer surge.
The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths rose over the past two weeks from 724 to 787.
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Fifteen states have test positive rates of 10% or higher, considered an indicator of widespread transmission. The picture is not all bleak because there are also states that have succeeded in curbing previous surges.
But test positive rates have been rising in 45 states, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Giroir also said the facts contradict the notion that the U.S. has more cases because it tests so many people. That’s an assertion often heard from Trump.
“We do believe, and the data show, cases are going up — it’s not just a function of testing,” he said on NBC. Rising numbers of hospitalizations and deaths confirm that.
Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services, testifies before the Senate on Sept. 16, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
Trump’s clashes with science and the scientists around him have been a running story throughout the pandemic. He’s often lashed out at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist. He’s called CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield “confused” about the timeline for the availability of vaccines.
But the split is only growing wider.
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With the arrival of cold weather, the virus risk is greater because people will spend time indoors where it can spread more readily. Contradictory messages from the top don’t help.
“The risk is enormous,” said Auerbach. “We are literally talking about lives being at stake.”


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Mother of Black man killed by Waukegan police alleges in lawsuit that medical response took 8 minute

Mother of Black man killed by Waukegan police alleges in lawsuit that medical response took 8 minutes after he was shot

That lawsuit , filed in August , alleges Salinas used excessive force during an incident at an August 2019 baptism @ @ @ @ @ Salinas “ drew his weapon and threatened ” the man who filed the suit , @ @ @ @ @ him and “ initiated a physical altercation following its deployment.
” The man resisted arrest @ @ @ @ @ , and after he was brought into compliance Salinas “ struck the plaintiff in the @ @ @ @ @ his weapon , ” the lawsuit states .
The man pleaded guilty to misdemeanor arrest @ @ @ @ @ lawsuit states .

Madeline Buckley, Sarah Freishtat, Javonte Anderson

Zharvellis Holmes, left, mother of Marcellis Stinnette, and his grandmother, Sherrellis Stinnette, center, listen as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, right, and others speak Oct. 28, 2020, outside the Illinois State Police headquarters in Des Plaines. They had viewed video of the shooting death Stinnette and the wounding of Tafara Williams by Waukegan police last week. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The mother of a Black 19-year-old shot and killed by a Waukegan police officer filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against two officers and the city of Waukegan alleging that the shooting was not justified and that Marcellis Stinnette did not get medical attention for 8 minutes after he was shot.
Zharvellis Holmes filed the suit on behalf of her son, and names two officers and Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles. Stinnette was killed Tuesday after officer Dante Salinas fired shots into a car, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. The suit also alleges that officer James Keating was the first police officer that encountered Stinnette the night of the shooting.
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Tafara Williams, Stinnette’s girlfriend and mother of his infant son, also was wounded in the shooting and filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Waukegan, Salinas and Keating.
Waukegan resident Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was shot and killed by Waukegan police October 20. (Family photo) (Family photo)
Waukegan police have not identified the officers involved and Walles referred comment to attorney Rick Hammond, who said he had not had sufficient time to review the complaint Thursday afternoon. The officer who shot at the couple was fired late Friday.
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Salinas and Keating could not be reached for comment.
A review of complaints against police officers in several suburban communities, obtained over the summer, shows between 2018 and June neither Salinas nor Keating had complaints filed against them relating to use of force, but the plaintiff’s attorney, Kevin O’Connor, said he had previously filed another federal suit naming Salinas.
That lawsuit, filed in August, alleges Salinas used excessive force during an incident at an August 2019 baptism party. The lawsuit states Salinas “drew his weapon and threatened” the man who filed the suit, then used a Taser on him and “initiated a physical altercation following its deployment.” The man resisted arrest and additional officers were called, and after he was brought into compliance Salinas “struck the plaintiff in the face with the butt of his weapon,” the lawsuit states. The man pleaded guilty to misdemeanor arrest in the incident, the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit filed Thursday, Stinnette was a passenger in a car with Williams and parked outside Williams' home with the lights on. Around 11:55 p.m., Keating approached the car and began to question Williams and Stinnette, the complaint said, alleging that he did not have “reasonable suspicion” to detain either of them.
Keating demanded their names, but gave no reason for his approach, the suit said. The officer directed questions at Stinnette, asking, "Aren’t you the dude that got in the accident? You got in an accident, right? What’s yo name? Huh?” The suit notes that Stinnette was in a car accident in August which limited his ability to move.
Body camera footage shows Keating tell Stinnette: “You’re Marcellis right? Yeah, You’re under arrest man,” according to the suit.
Williams asked the officer why Stinnette was under arrest, and Keating replied, “Because I said so.”
Stinnette also asked the officer why he was under arrest, the suit said, referencing body camera footage.
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Keating tells Stinnette: “Show me your hands pal. C’mon, I ain’t playin’ with you cause I know you. Marcellis you’re under arrest.” According to the lawsuit, Stinnette’s hands were visible.
Williams then pulled away from the curb and drove away from the officer, according to the suit. The suit alleges that Keating “falsely reports” that the car ran him over.
Williams tried to make a right turn, but her car struck an electric pole, the suit said.
At that time, Salinas, who had followed Williams, left his vehicle with his weapon drawn, according to the lawsuit. He did not turn on his body camera.
Meanwhile, Williams began to back up her vehicle to return to the road, the suit said. Waukegan police previously said the officer began shooting when the car starting backing up. But the complaint alleges that “at no time was (Williams) driving in the direction” of Salinas.
Salinas then fired five times into the car, “despite being in no immediate danger,” the complaint said.
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“At no point did ... Tafara Williams' vehicle strike any police vehicles or persons, but did strike a small building on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Helmholz Avenue,” the complaint said.
The complaint alleges that neither officer “had any information that any violent crime had been committed and/or that they or any other individuals were in danger of death or serious bodily harm.”
After the shooting, Williams cried for help, saying both she and Stinnette had been shot, but the suit alleges that neither officer responded to help them.
Salinas turned on his body camera after the fact and yelled, “I was right behind you and you almost tried to run me over,” according to the complaint.
Williams screamed, “He got shot, he got shot, he needs help,” the suit said, alleging that Stinnette received no medical attention for eight minutes while he waited for an ambulance.
Police have said no weapons were found in the vehicle.
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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Stinnette’s father, Selvin Holmes, said his son wanted to inspire his younger siblings and led them with his good values.
“My son had a dream,” he said. “He wanted to grow up be a productive citizen.”
While announcing the lawsuit, O’Connor pledged to work to reform policing policies in Waukegan and around the country.
“They are not going to throw blood money at this family,” O’Connor said. “We’re going to make a change. We’re going to end this now.”
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The Waukegan Police Department historically has been troubled by scandals, investigative failures and lawsuits alleging abuse.
A 2015 Tribune investigation found that no city police department in Illinois at that point, other than Chicago’s, shared responsibility for as many wrongful convictions as the Waukegan police, who had helped send six men to prison before they were cleared. Those cases drove the department’s problem with lawsuits, accounting for the bulk of the $26.1 million the city or its insurers paid out in police cases between 2006 and April 2015. That was vastly more than local towns with larger police departments.
Following the Tribune story, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations service agreed to intervene in the city in hopes of improving relations between residents and the police. The next year, the city reached a non-binding agreement that committed the department to increasing diversity in its ranks, updating its use-of-force policy and giving officers cultural awareness and sensitivity training.
Tribune reporter Dan Hinkel contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--He was shot to death at a CTA station in Rogers Park, a neighborhood he loved and always came back t

He was shot to death at a CTA station in Rogers Park, a neighborhood he loved and always came back to, even when it became dangerous for him

The group of gang members who had allowed him to sell in their area went to jail , she said @ @ @ @ @ street didn ’ t want him around , so she warned him to stop going @ @ @ @ @ especially after seeing several killings in the neighborhood on the news .
She would even @ @ @ @ @ at Morse Avenue if she heard he was there .

Cynthia Howard and her granddaughter, Ahniyah Jenkins, 8, arrange a memorial for her son, and Ahniyah's father, Joel Jenkins, at Loyola Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 17, 2020. Jenkins, 26, was fatally shot on Sept. 15 at the nearby Morse Red Line "L" station. Howard arranged the memorial near a basketball court at the park where her son often spent time with friends. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Ahniyah Jenkins carefully held the small urn in a dark blue velvet box.
“I don’t want to drop my dad on the floor,” the 8-year-old said, only half-serious as she shivered at a makeshift memorial for her slain father. “He would hold my hands when I was cold.”
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Ahniyah was bundled in an army green coat and rocked back and forth. The pink beads and white plastic bows in her hair bounced as a breeze whipped across Leone Beach Oct. 17.
Her grandmother Cynthia Howard stood nearby, tying a string of purple and silver balloons around two skinny trees. “He would be saying, ‘No, Mom, do it like this,’” she said to herself as she struggled to tie them.
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Ahniyah Jenkins, 8, displays an urn containing the ashes of her father, Joel Jenkins, at Loyola Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 17, 2020. Jenkins, 26, was fatally shot on Sept. 15 at the nearby Morse Red Line "L" station. His mother, Cynthia Howard, arranged a memorial near a basketball court at the park where her son often spent time with friends. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The balloons were originally for Howard’s five-year substance recovery anniversary party, but now they were serving a another purpose: honoring the memory of her 26-year-old son, Joel Jenkins, shot to death half a mile away at the Red Line “L” Morse station in Rogers Park, a neighborhood he loved and always came back to, even when it became dangerous for him.
There was a sense of a community among the people who gathered around the station after the shooting on Sept. 15, watching police work outside a glass door shattered by gunfire. Some were shocked at the brazenness of the attack so close to home, and others were shocked that it was Jenkins on the stretcher being carried out.
They remembered regularly seeing him and his girlfriend walking down Morse Avenue. They were familiar faces. They were not known to bother anyone.
His family said Jenkins loved the openness of the lakefront. He attended Sullivan High School, a half-mile from the shooting. He ordered chicken wings at J.B. Alberto’s, a local pizza staple on the same block as the station. He liked to charge his phone at the Dunkin’ that faces the station.
Ahniyah and her grandmother decided to make the memorial near a basketball court where his friends knew they could find him. Grinning, Ahniyah remembered how fast her dad ran, but not as fast as her.
Howard placed a bouquet of red and white roses at the base and a photo of her son. His tilted head was framed by dreads and his mouth was slightly parted, but not enough to show his teeth.
“My dad never smiled in photos,” Ahniyah laughed.
“Because of his crooked teeth,” her grandmother added. “She has her dad’s teeth.”
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Howard stepped back and took a look. “What do you think, Ahniyah?”
“I like it,” she said, skipping forward. “I wish I could hug him one more time.”
‘I lost my son to the street’
Cynthia Howard believes her son was shot because he used to sell drugs in Rogers Park but was no longer allowed there by gang members. She says he was putting that life behind him, but it still caught up with him.
Jenkins was born in Evanston on Christmas Day, the third of four children. He learned to hold his own in elementary school by defending his nephew and brother from bullies on the West Side. He stayed up north during his teen years, then went back west. He and his friends liked to take trips downtown. They rode the water taxi without a destination, just to see the sights.
Jenkins’ father wasn’t around, but his half-brother’s father and his oldest sister, Carolyn, helped raise him. Still, his childhood was unsteady, with his mother slipping in and out of addiction. She got a divorce before Jenkins entered high school and relapsed yet again.
“We moved to Rogers Park after the divorce. I went into recovery. I got myself together. I got an apartment. I put Joel in school at Sullivan. I did some security work at the high school,” she said. "And then I relapsed, again.
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“I feel, during that time, I lost my son to the street.”
Cynthia Howard arranges a memorial for her son, Joel Jenkins, at Loyola Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 17, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
In his junior year, Jenkins asked one of the local gangs if he could join. He needed support, his mother said.
“They wouldn’t let him. They told him that he wasn’t made for the gang,” Howard said. “He was fine the way he was, and they gave him permission to sell drugs in that area, which is really not heard of. It’s against street rules.”
So, at 16, he started dealing marijuana and crack cocaine.
Chicago police labeled Jenkins as a member of a Gangster Disciples faction known to be in Rogers Park, but his mother said he never became a member. He sold drugs and made rap videos, but he wasn’t violent, she said.
Howard and Jenkins moved out of Rogers Park in 2013. Two years later, Howard said she got clean “for real.” She set rules for her son: no drugs or girls in her house. But Jenkins was now an adult, and he had his own belief system and became addicted to the lifestyle. He wanted to be independent.
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The group of gang members who had allowed him to sell in their area went to jail, she said. Those still on the street didn’t want him around, so she warned him to stop going up to Rogers Park, especially after seeing several killings in the neighborhood on the news. She would even drive to pick him up at Morse Avenue if she heard he was there.
“I tried my best to save my son,” she said.
Eventually, he started to phase out of dealing and moved to the north suburbs with his girlfriend. They thought about moving to Arizona. But the answer to where he was from was always the same: Rogers Park.
For the last year and a half, Jenkins had been holding down his first real job, which was difficult to get after his arrests, mostly for possession and theft. His boss even spoke at his funeral.
‘You got hit? No, no, no’
Jenkins’ girlfriend, Dominique Douglas, scrolls through videos of him dropping off flowers, being playful with his youngest son, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She said Jenkins wasn’t originally planning to be in the neighborhood on the day he was killed. He didn’t visit as much because of the long commute to his job at a Family Dollar store on the West Side.
An undated photo of Joel Jenkins with his girlfriend, Dominique Douglas. (Dominique Douglas)
The day before, he started to get a head cold. Douglas asked him to call in sick and stay home since she was off work. He decided against it. He needed the money. He left for work in the morning.
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Jenkins texted Douglas throughout the day about buying her a puppy. He found a woman who was selling a young black-and-white pit bull, and he would have enough to buy it if he got money back from a friend who owed him. They decided to meet in Rogers Park.
Douglas took the Metra to meet him and his friend at Morse Fresh Market to get the money for the dog. They made stops at two storefronts on Morse before they walked toward the train station. She handed him his jacket, then remembers Jenkins running. “I’ve never seen him run or look that scared in his entire life,” she said.
They dove into the train station. He crawled toward a pillar and she tried to go behind the turnstile. A car screeched off and police sirens blared. Douglas said she saw the shot-out door and Jenkins lying on his stomach. He rolled over and tried to stand up. “Bae, you got hit? No, no, no,” she said.
She grabbed her purse and called 911. She lifted his shirt but couldn’t find a wound. “I’m telling him to stay with me.” She yelled for help.
A man visiting from Philadelphia helped her with CPR until an officer tagged him off. Another man held Jenkins’ head.
“Oh, my God. This isn’t real,” Douglas thought to herself.
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Paramedics arrived and took over and transported him to Amita Health St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he died.
“I was standing there so helpless, praying to God that he was OK,” Douglas said.
Joel Jenkins is transported by stretcher to an ambulance after he was shot outside the Morse Red Line CTA station on Sept. 15, 2020. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
According to a Chicago police report, a man in a white hoodie approached Jenkins and Douglas as they stood on the sidewalk outside the station and started shooting. The man then ran east on Morse and got into a black Nissan Infiniti waiting on Glenwood Avenue. A squad car chased the Infiniti until a supervisor terminated the chase when it started south down Sheridan Road.
Jenkins was shot in the abdomen, lower back and left side, and had a graze wound to his right thigh, according to the report. Six .40-caliber shell casings and one unfired cartridge were found at the scene.
Jenkins is among eight people killed in the Rogers Park police district this year. Others include a 20-year-old DePaul University student who was walking home from work; a 17-year-old activist who was accidentally shot by a friend aiming at a passing car; and a 36-year-old man whose fatal shooting was captured on security photo and spread on social media.
The fatal shootings have been scattered across the district, which spans from the Evanston border south to Ridge Avenue and from Lake Michigan west to Kedzie Avenue. The district has some of the fewest homicides and shootings among the city’s 22 police districts. But it ranks higher than other North Side districts, Town Hall and Lincoln, and the downtown districts of Central and Near North. (View map of the homicides)
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Mothers of other slain sons reach out
Cynthia Howard visited Rogers Park last Saturday for the first time since her son was killed. She was scared to make the drive up from her South Side home, but she wanted to honor him at the place he loved the most. She went inside the Red Line Morse “L” station, where between the front door and the turnstiles, his girlfriend, strangers and a police officer tried to save him.
Family members of Joel Jenkins, including his daughter, Ahniyah Jenkins, 8, sister Carolyn Howard, and mother Cynthia Howard, view a memorial at Loyola Park on Oct. 17, 2020. The memorial was placed near a basketball court at the park where he often spent time with friends. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Howard heard a rumor that if she put a memorial inside the station, it may be thrown away. A CTA employee told her she’d have to call and ask for permission.
Maybe next year, she thought. It was a step.
If she wasn’t in recovery, she’d “be drunk right now,” she said, but she would never dishonor him by using drugs again.
Howard wanted to show her children that people could change. She told Jenkins that he could be better and he was almost there. He was goofy and personable. People were drawn to him. He adored his three young kids. He had a lot of people in his corner who could help him and loved him.
Many men in Chicago don’t have anyone, she said. The boy who shot him may have been one of those people. There are rumors about who the shooter is, and detectives have theories, Howard said. But that is not same as proving it.
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After Jenkins died, Howard received many phone calls from other mothers who confided in her that their sons also died from gun violence. Every week there is someone else added to the list.
Her path forward, she says, is to “stay clean, help another mother.”


chicagotribune--2020-10-30--Man pelted by paintballs in Streeterville, latest in burst of such attacks across city this fall

On Monday , a CTA bus driver was hurt when someone fired a paintball gun at him in the Chatham @ @ @ @ @ , according to police .
The attack happened around 9:40 p.m. as two passengers were @ @ @ @ @ the 8000 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue .
He was taken to Jackson Park @ @ @ @ @

A man walking on a sidewalk in Streeterville was repeatedly hit by paintballs Thursday night, the latest in a burst of such attacks across the city this fall, according to Chicago police.
The man, 33, told police he suddenly felt something hitting him all over his body around 10:20 p.m. in the 400 block of East Illinois Street and realized he was being pelted by paintballs, police said. He suffered bruising and swelling to his hand but refused medical treatment.
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Earlier Thursday, two glass workers at a Vans store on State Street in the Loop told police they were targeted in a paintball attack that left the store’s windows splotched with yellow paint. They also declined medical treatment.
Chicago police say there has been a sharp rise in paintball attacks in the city in September and October.
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On Monday, a CTA bus driver was hurt when someone fired a paintball gun at him in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side, according to police. The attack happened around 9:40 p.m. as two passengers were getting off his bus in the 8000 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue. He was taken to Jackson Park Hospital in good condition.
Three paintball attacks occurred Oct. 20 and 21 on the West and South sides, police said. None of the victims were seriously injured.
The first attack happened around 10 p.m. Oct. 20 when someone in a white sedan fired a paintball at a 34-year-old man riding a bicycle in the 1800 block of West Hubbard Street in the West Town neighborhood, police said. The man was hit in the right arm and groin but refused medical attention at the scene.
Also around 10 p.m., someone in a white sedan fired a paintball at a man walking his dog on the sidewalk at South Morgan and West Monroe streets in the Near West Side neighborhood, less than 2 miles away, police said. He was not transported to a hospital.
About 1:20 a.m. the next day, someone in a red SUV fired a paintball at a 61-year-old woman standing on a sidewalk in the 6100 block of South Ashland Avenue in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, police said. The woman was hit in the right hand and refused medical attention at the scene.


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Hospitalized in Illinois? You can request a ballot to your bedside.

To get a ballot , they must complete an application stating why they were admitted and that they do not @ @ @ @ @ the election , or , if released , expect to be housebound .
Along with @ @ @ @ @ , advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant must state that the patient was admitted @ @ @ @ @ released or , if released , not able to travel .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Many have been anticipating this election.
But what happens if you are hospitalized just before you planned to vote?
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In this situation, voters have an option. In Illinois, patients hospitalized within the 14 days before an election can arrange to have a ballot delivered to the hospital.
At Advocate Health Care, hospitals have developed a process to facilitate this absentee voting. For the first time, staffers created an organized program to help patients know they can vote, including signs in hospitals and directly telling patients about this option.
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Advocate Trinity Hospital on the South Side of Chicago is pictured on Aug. 12, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
“Because of COVID and this pandemic, it’s causing unexpected hospitalizations, and it’s intersected with this election,” said Tiffany Gardley, manager of volunteer services, communications and transport at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Under Illinois law, qualified voters who have been admitted to a hospital, nursing home or rehabilitation center can request personal delivery of a vote-by-mail ballot.
To get a ballot, they must complete an application stating why they were admitted and that they do not expect to be released before the election, or, if released, expect to be housebound. Along with this application, a doctor, advanced practice registered nurse or physician assistant must state that the patient was admitted and not expected to be released or, if released, not able to travel.
At Advocate, patients are offered a packet with the application to request to vote this way, and a phone number to a 24/7 staffed volunteer line. Volunteers guide them through a process that can be complicated.
Once voters complete the application, a legal relative or a person registered to vote in their same precinct must present this application to an election authority. In Cook County, the application must be delivered to the County Clerk’s Office at 69 W. Washington St.
In a signed affidavit, the ballot-delivery person attests to being a registered voter authorized to get the ballot and deliver it, and states the nature of the relationship with the hospitalized voter.
After it’s verified that the hospitalized person is registered to vote, the ballot-delivery person can take a vote-by-mail ballot to the hospital, where the patient can fill it out and the same ballot-delivery person can return it to be counted.
So far, Gardley says, the hospital hasn’t had patients request a ballot; many patients expect to be out of the hospital by Tuesday. But when circumstances change and they end up staying, or realize they may be unable to leave home after they are discharged, she anticipates more interest.
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“This election is huge,” Gardley said. “We feel there’s going to be a huge need on Monday and Tuesday.”
At Rush, a medical student suggested helping with similar outreach after two people asked about how their family members could vote.
Depending on what hospital practice is on giving patients this information, patients around the state might not know about their ability to vote while hospital-bound.
Special protocols exist for COVID-19 patients at Advocate; staff members sanitize the pens before and after use, and they seal the patient’s ballot in a bag before giving it to the person who will deliver it.
Gardley said she sees this as part of taking care of patients and helping them get whatever they might need.
“It’s definitely a holistic approach,” she said.
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abowen@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-29--Column: ‘Rolling Thunder:’ The Loop ‘L’ tracks shaped downtown Chicago and unified a divided city. T

Column: ‘Rolling Thunder:’ The Loop ‘L’ tracks shaped downtown Chicago and unified a divided city. They still matter today, a new book reminds us.

Reardon documents other impacts : The elevated structure drove up real estate values within the five-by-seven block area it enclosed @ @ @ @ @ city divided into North , South and West sides , and further subdivided into enclaves @ @ @ @ @ and economic class .
With its pulsating medley of offices , shops , restaurants , @ @ @ @ @ the Loop became everybody ’ s “ second neighborhood . ''
It was a citadel @ @ @ @ @ did not crumble during the suburban flight of the 1950s and 1960s — battered yes @ @ @ @ @ and too important to fail .

Passing CTA "L" trains in the Loop along Wabash Avenue seen from the Trump International Hotel as shot through a tilt-shift lens on Sept. 23, 2010. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The best transit systems don’t just haul passengers — they become symbols of their cities. In San Francisco, it’s the cable cars gliding gracefully over the steep hills. In London, it’s the bright red double-decker buses rolling past such landmarks as Big Ben. In Chicago, it’s the CTA cars rumbling and screeching over the Loop elevated tracks.
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In the Loop, the French artist Albert Fleury wrote in 1900, “the sky is of iron, and perpetually growls a rolling thunder.”
The Loop elevated — a decidedly unglamorous, rectangular bridge of riveted steel and wood ties that’s 2.1 miles long and rises about 20 feet above Lake, Van Buren and Wells streets and Wabash Avenue — is unavoidable and underappreciated, though not by film directors who love to use it as a gritty backdrop.
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Who built it? Who designed it?
Chances are you have no idea. In fact, some architectural guidebooks don’t even mention the creators of the Loop elevated.
That’s why I dove eagerly into a new book, “The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago” (Southern Illinois University Press, paperback, $26.95, 312 pages), due out Nov. 26. Its author, the award-winning former Tribune urban affairs writer Patrick T. Reardon, makes a bold claim: “The elevated Loop — disregarded, denigrated and often unloved for much of a century — has been the single most important structure in the history of Chicago.”
"The Loop: The 'L' Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago" by Patrick T. Reardon. (Southern Illinois University Press) (Southern Illinois Press / HANDOUT)
Full disclosure: I worked closely with Reardon before he left the Tribune more than a decade ago. That puts me in a bad position to assess his book from the distanced, dispassionate perspective a reviewer should bring to the task. So this is an essay about the Loop, not a review of the book itself. But any reviewer, I’ll venture, would be hard-pressed not to recognize that “The Loop" is deeply researched and vividly written.
On sunny days, Reardon observes, the latticelike structure of the “L” casts “sharp-edged, patterned shadows” on streets and sidewalks. Its steel girders “are a forest through which cars, trucks and pedestrians dart while, overhead, a train rumbles, overwhelming most other street sounds and halting conversations, even though the screeching of metal wheels on metal tracks during turns has been greatly dampened in recent years.”
Passages like that are apt to provoke pangs of nostalgia in office workers who haven’t been downtown since pandemic-related shutdowns began. Ridership for the eight Loop elevated stations dropped by nearly two-thirds during the first nine months of 2020, falling to about 5.5 million riders from nearly 15.9 million during the same period the year before, according to CTA spokesman Brian Steele.
If the book has a hero, it’s Charles Yerkes, the shrewd, bribe-dispensing Gilded Age streetcar magnate who masterminded the construction of the Loop elevated, which opened in 1897. Yerkes, who later helped develop London’s Underground subway, should rank with Daniel Burnham and Richard J. Daley as one of the most consequential shapers of Chicago, Reardon argues.
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Why? Because the Union Loop, as Yerkes’ creation was officially known, was a powerful centralizing force. By bringing thousands of people into a highly compact area that constituted a tiny fraction of the city’s total land area, it joined with towering skyscrapers to make downtown Chicago loom far larger than its actual size. Manhattan’s skyline has no clearly defined center. Chicago’s does, courtesy of the Loop, though the city’s tallest towers have sprouted outside it.
Patrick T. Reardon, author of “The Loop: The ‘L’ Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago." (Steve Kagan)
Reardon documents other impacts: The elevated structure drove up real estate values within the five-by-seven block area it enclosed. It helped unify a city divided into North, South and West sides, and further subdivided into enclaves based on race, ethnicity and economic class. With its pulsating medley of offices, shops, restaurants, theaters and other attractions, the Loop became everybody’s “second neighborhood." It was a citadel of commerce, one that did not crumble during the suburban flight of the 1950s and 1960s — battered yes, but still too big and too important to fail.
Indeed, by Jan. 1, 1912, the elevated structure had become so intertwined with the central business district’s daily life that the word “Loop” was used instead of “downtown" in a Tribune account of the previous night’s New Year’s Eve celebration, Reardon writes. He takes issue with academics who say the name originated with the loops made by the cable car lines.
A CTA "L" Brown Line train passes over the Wells Street bridge, seen against the Chicago skyline on March 5, 2015. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
There’s a reason the Loop elevated resembles the muscular steel bridges that span the Chicago River: It was designed by renowned bridge builder John Alexander Low Waddell. Waddell gave the elevated structure multiple rivets that would tightly connect its large and small steel plates, allowing them to absorb the massive and kinetic gravity loads of moving trains without noticeable shaking.
Even before the “L" tracks were completed, critics called them ugly and obtrusive, a barrier that hemmed in downtown. From the 1920s onward, as Reardon shows, official city plans called for tearing the tracks down and replacing them with subways.
That drive culminated in the 1970s, when Daley and his successor Michael Bilandic unsuccessfully tried to demolish the tracks. But the move was delayed — first, by the Tribune’s then-urban affairs editor Paul Gapp, who revealed Daley’s under-wraps plan to the public, and then by Chicago architect Harry Weese, who conducted a media campaign that championed the Loop’s many virtues, including his contention that, unlike subways, the “L” was fun to use. Ultimately, the demolition plan was upended by the surprise 1979 election of Mayor Jane Byrne.
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She protected the tracks while directing the CTA to rehab or replace all but one of the Loop’s “L” stations (the one at Quincy/Wells Streets).
It was a real-life Chicago version of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1952 classic children’s story, “Maybelle the Cable Car,” which tells the tale of how San Franciscans banded together to defeat a plan to do away with the cable cars.
A person climbs the stairs to a CTA platform in Chicago's Loop in 2004. (ALEX GARCIA / Chicago Tribune)
And so the “L" is still with us even though the name “Loop” is now used in a way that blurs the boundaries between the area within the elevated tracks and the greater downtown outside them. It is commonplace, for example, to refer to the trendy, restaurant-rich Fulton Market district, which sits across the Chicago River and the downtown expressways from the historic Loop, as "the West Loop,”
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The Fulton Market district is part of an ever-expanding downtown, which I’ve dubbed “the Super Loop,” that someday could include such megaprojects as Lincoln Yards to the north and The 78 to the south. Meanwhile, as new office buildings rise along the Chicago River, concern is mounting about the economic viability of the central Loop, including Art Deco office buildings along such legendary locations as the LaSalle Street financial district.
Owing to such shifts, Reardon’s book is nothing if not timely. It reminds us that the fate of the Loop elevated tracks and the historic Loop are deeply interconnected. Both are an essential part of Chicago’s identity and require constant attention and reinvention, like the architecturally dynamic Washington/Wabash station, to thrive.
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The tracks themselves are a reminder that the often-bandied about term, “infrastructure,” should mean more than the vehicle-friendly roads and bridges that politicians invariably mention when they use that term. Transit systems like today’s electricity-powered “L” move thousands of people using far less energy than all those idling pollution-belching cars and trucks on congested roads. The elevated, in other words, was green before green was cool.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin