chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Daywatch: Pritzker not expecting federal help, what re-opened schools may look like and Gold Coast h

Daywatch: Pritzker not expecting federal help, what re-opened schools may look like and Gold Coast hotel becomes haven for those at risk

“ I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they @ @ @ @ @ delivered , ” Pritzker said .
“ Very recently they promised a lot of swabs @ @ @ @ @ to arrive today , the first shipment of those .
I ’ m looking forward @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re doing is we ’ re going it alone , as the White @ @ @ @ @ states to do .
”

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said on CNN on May 10, 2020, that the state will note reopen "unless we meet all of the standards I’ve set for doing so." (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tries to meet goals for daily COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, he’s not banking on any help from the federal government, he said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.
“I have not been counting on the White House because there have been too many situations in which they’ve made promises not delivered,” Pritzker said. “Very recently they promised a lot of swabs. They’re supposed to arrive today, the first shipment of those. I’m looking forward to that. But what we’re doing is we’re going it alone, as the White House has left all the states to do.”
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John Catanzara holds up a pro-police blue stripe flag as members of the Fraternal Order of Police and their supporters clash with counterprotesters as they gather in the Loop on April 1, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
The newly elected president of the Chicago Police Department’s largest union got a special shoutout on Sunday from a famous person he admires: President Donald Trump.
The commander in chief took to Twitter to congratulate Officer John Catanzara on his victory Friday night in a runoff election to become the next president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7.
Teacher Daniel Michmerhuizen helps his sons Mateo, 6, and Mario, 11, both CPS students, with remote learning at home in Chicago, May 8, 2020. Daniel Michmerhuizen is a civics teacher at Benito Juarez Community Academy. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
School officials in Chicago and the suburbs are worried about the uncertainty of how Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan for reopening the state amid the coronavirus pandemic might affect millions of children in Illinois when school resumes in some form in the fall.
Mariel Boden, second from left, and sister Alexa Boden returned from their college campuses to find both their parents ill with what turned out to be the coronavirus. David Boden and Nancy Frohman were both in the ICU but are now in recovery. (HANDOUT)
Two suburban sisters whose parents both landed in intensive care with COVID-19 say they feel hope and gratitude as their parents begin what is expected to be a long road to recovery.
Joeal Hamlin on May 4, 2020, at Hotel One Sixty-Six Magnificent Mile. He was offered a ninth-story room inside the pricey hotel where the Lawndale Christian Health Center oversees a makeshift isolation facility for people who are homeless. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The city of Chicago has rented nearly 400 rooms in two downtown hotels to isolate people considered to be at high-risk during the pandemic, in effort to shelter those who have nowhere to go. To date, 251 people experiencing homelessness have stayed in the isolation and quarantine hotel rooms and given free meals, with 152 guests still in the hotel.


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Legal aid organizations strained by increase in pandemic-related cases, including  domestic violence

Legal aid organizations strained by increase in pandemic-related cases, including  domestic violence, unemployment claims

“ I think there has been a feeling in the legal community that we should use our skills to help @ @ @ @ @ of disaster and crisis , ” Picciola said .
“ This particular crisis and pandemic @ @ @ @ @ us feel fine , right ?
Many of us are not directly affected and we @ @ @ @ @ want to help people who aren ’ t in that same situation .
”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck Chicago, attorneys who offer legal work to the poor say they have seen a significant rise in people seeking assistance with domestic violence and unemployment benefits.
With demand for free legal help expected to further rise after Cook County courts reopen, lawyers say the public health crisis will intensify preexisting legal inequities.
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While the pandemic has led to an increase in pro bono volunteers from the city’s law firms, the surge in cases figures to exacerbate the strain on the already limited resources of Legal Aid Chicago, a roughly 150-person organization that provides legal services to city residents living in poverty, said Executive Director John Gallo.
“Immediately after the courts open, there is going to be an explosion of need in eviction cases, foreclosure cases, consumer debt, and bankruptcy cases. That’s a foreseeable need that hasn’t hit yet,” Gallo said.
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Most criminal and civil cases in Cook County have been postponed since March 17. At the beginning of the month, Chief Judge Timothy Evans extended the order through at least May 31.
While Legal Aid Chicago serves approximately 30,000 people per year, its services only meet a fraction of the demonstrated legal needs of Chicago residents. Even before the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization was able to accept just 10% to 20% of the cases that were presented to it, Gallo said.
Jo-Ann Wallace, president of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association, said legal aid organizations nationwide have faced a similar upturn in cases as the economic consequences of the pandemic continue to grow.
“What we’re going to see in the future is that — as the economic impacts really begin to hit — more people are going to be eligible for legal aid at a time when resources will be much scarcer,” Wallace said.
The challenges for legal aid organizations are compounded by the inability of many of their clients to access the internet or email. That has sometimes made communication with clients difficult given the restrictions of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order.
Melissa Picciola, director of volunteer services at Legal Aid Chicago, is seen in the organization's downtown Chicago offices on May 8, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Last year, outside attorneys working pro bono provided 12% of Legal Aid Chicago’s total services. But as demand for free legal services has ballooned during the pandemic, so has volunteer interest, said Melissa Picciola, Legal Aid Chicago’s director of volunteer services.
“I think there has been a feeling in the legal community that we should use our skills to help people respond to those areas of disaster and crisis,” Picciola said. “This particular crisis and pandemic is unique because many of us feel fine, right? Many of us are not directly affected and we feel good, but we want to help people who aren’t in that same situation.”
In addition to these altruistic impulses, the strained economy has left some attorneys with more free time, Picciola said. Some soon-to-be law graduates have reached out to Legal Aid Chicago after job offers were rescinded or deferred.
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Increased volunteer manpower will not automatically compensate for the escalating demand that arises from the COVID-19 pandemic, Legal Aid Chicago staff said. While attorneys and paralegals can be trained remotely in less than two hours to assist clients with public benefits applications, other areas of civil legal aid are too complex for novices to take on.
“I can’t really provide the training on how to do a bankruptcy case over zoom in an hour. That’s a much more intense type of case and it really does require more training and more practice. So there are those categories of things where we do say, ‘If you don’t have this type of experience, this opportunity is not for you,’” Picciola said.
During the pandemic, Legal Aid Chicago has piloted a remote domestic violence clinic and public benefits enrollment hotline. When Picciola sent an email announcing the hotline to Chicago-area law firms, she received over 200 responses within a couple days.
Anne Geraghty Helms, pro bono counsel at the multinational law firm DLA Piper, is among the attorneys assisting Legal Aid Chicago with these projects. Recently, she helped coordinate the domestic violence clinic and recruited colleagues and attorneys from other firms to get involved.
“It just feels to me like this is a crisis where actually legal issues come up a lot, and I think our lawyers feel a sense of responsibility. It’s like they’re called to action -- the same way that the medical profession does right now,” Helms said.
Like many health care professionals who have stepped up to fight COVID-19, most private attorneys who volunteer their services — for eviction or domestic violence cases — will also have to venture outside their fields of expertise.
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“Corporate lawyers don’t do this kind of work every day, but we’re also trained as lawyers, so we can learn,” Helms said.
Legal Aid Chicago continues to develop partnerships with private Chicago law firms, but Gallo is realistic that — even with a new flock of volunteers — the organization will face difficult decisions if a surge in pandemic-related legal troubles outstrips his team’s capacity after the courts reopen.
“Sadly, we’re experienced at figuring out which are the worst cases and the cases where people need us most,” Gallo said.
aayres-brown@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Food, iPads, care packages part of groundswell of donations to Roseland hospital following Tribune s

Food, iPads, care packages part of groundswell of donations to Roseland hospital following Tribune story

The donated meals are critical at Roseland , which closed its kitchen in late March after an employee tested positive @ @ @ @ @ reopened to cook patient meals a few weeks later , but the cafeteria remains closed @ @ @ @ @ about the plight , the company that made the baked chicken meal — Back of @ @ @ @ @ — added drinks and cookies to the buffet at no cost .

Roseland Hospital personnel line up for pizza and salad from Gianna's Pizza, all donated by community members, on May 9, 2020. Erica Roewade of the Pullman neighborhood, raised the money through a GoFundMe account after reading a Tribune report about the hospital. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Vanessa Williams-Johnson was having a rough day.
The principal of W.E.B. DuBois Elementary School near the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood still goes in to manage remote learning efforts and help distribute meals to families. It’s a draining job, both physically and emotionally, and occasionally she finds it hard to push aside her fears about contracting the coronavirus.
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She was feeling sorry for herself one day last month when she read a Chicago Tribune story about the plight of Roseland Community Hospital, which serves underprivileged neighborhoods on the Far South Side. The intensive care unit and emergency departments are full. The hospital president declared the facility “outgunned, outmanned and underfunded” while fighting COVID-19, which is disproportionately killing Chicago’s black residents.
“It put everything in perspective for me,” Williams-Johnson said. “I was frustrated with my situation, but then I stopped and read about Roseland. These are the real front lines, and these are the people showing real courage. I knew right then that I wanted to do something to help.”
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Donte Blackmon, right, a cook at Roseland Hospital, takes three pizzas from Rafael Corona, of Gianna's Pizza that was donated on May 9, 2020. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Williams-Johnson rallied other principals in her Chicago Public Schools network and began collecting donations for the hospital, becoming one of dozens of people who have reached out to help since the story was published. In the past few weeks, Tribune readers have donated staff meals, gift bags for nurses, care packages for patients, personal protective equipment and technology to make the virus testing operation run more efficiently.
Roseland President Tim Egan said the outpouring has boosted morale among a hospital staff where one member previously described efforts to treat the virus as “fighting with one arm tied behind our backs.”
“We’re still outgunned, outmanned and underfunded, but boy, have we gotten a lot of aid to our front lines," Egan said. "It’s truly stunning.”
That aid includes patient care packages that Williams-Johnson assembled on behalf of local schools. She filled baskets with nonperishable foods, inspired by the experience of a relative who was hospitalized for the virus and then placed in quarantine upon discharge, unable to go to the store.
She recruited her 14-year-old triplets to help shop and put together 60 baskets packed with soup, canned fruit, tuna fish, macaroni and cheese, and pudding cups.
“I wanted my kids to really understand service to others,” Williams-Johnson said. “I wanted them to remember how sad we were about our relative and how thankful we are that she survived. I’m glad they understood the ‘why.'"
Pullman resident Erica Roewade and her neighbors organized a GoFundMe page after reading the story, with the initial goal of raising $500 to buy the staff lunch. They raised more than $2,300, which paid for a catered baked chicken and ziti meal for 125 hospital staff members, five dozen doughnuts for workers on a rainy Saturday morning and a pizza party scheduled for this weekend.
Roewade is still hoping to raise another $300 to buy sandwiches for the staff.
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The donated meals are critical at Roseland, which closed its kitchen in late March after an employee tested positive for the virus. It reopened to cook patient meals a few weeks later, but the cafeteria remains closed to the staff. Knowing about the plight, the company that made the baked chicken meal — Back of the Yards-based Nicole Jordan Catering — added drinks and cookies to the buffet at no cost.
Rafael Corona, of Gianna's Pizza, delivers food to Roseland Hospital on May 9, 2020. The donation was organized by Erica Roewade, right, through a GoFundMe account. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
All of the meals have been purchased through local businesses, which gives an added bonus to Roewade’s efforts.
“I’m trying to help on both ends,” she said. “I’m trying to work with South Side businesses that have been hurting and help out Roseland at the same time.”
Further north in suburban Wilmette, the hospital’s story inspired Larisa Olson, owner of Chantilly Lace lingerie, and Karen O’Sullivan, owner of SHARE gift shop, to create more than 100 gift bags filled with pampering items such as candles, lotions and comfortable clothing. The shops donated some of the bags, while their customers donated $50 apiece to sponsor the rest.
Olson had been delivering the care packages to nurses at North Shore medical centers since March as part of her store’s Comfort Project, which provides gift bags to front line hospital workers. Roseland, which was built in 1924, was the first South Side hospital to receive them.
“I cried a little bit when I saw the hospital,” Olson said. “I’m just so glad we did it."
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Big businesses also have made contributions, including Verizon Wireless, which donated 25 iPads to use for patient registration at the hospital’s COVID-19 testing facility. Another company, CSG, set up a mobile command center that allows hospital staff to connect their devices to the internet.
The technology has allowed the hospital to provide faster results to patients by eliminating the transcription problems that occur when handwritten records are entered into the computer system. Where it once took three weeks for results, the iPads and the hospital’s new in-house lab are helping to turn the tests around in about 72 hours, Egan said.
And Constellation Brands, which markets Corona and Modelo beers in the U.S., sent tacos on Cinco de Mayo, complete with a mariachi band performance.
“The support literally has come from everywhere,” Egan said.
That includes the Chicago Irish Brotherhood, a service organization to which Egan, the 2nd Ward Democratic committeeman, belongs. The group came to the hospital on a recent Friday night to make the staff a homemade dinner that included Italian sausage, lasagna and garlic bread.
With all the donated meals, the staff jokes that they’ve gained 10 pounds in the past three weeks, Egan said.
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“Never could I have imagined this outpouring of love and support for Roseland,” he said. “It has been something truly special to see.”


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--During pandemic, swanky Gold Coast  hotel has become a haven for people living on the street and oth

During pandemic, swanky Gold Coast  hotel has become a haven for people living on the street and others at risk. 'Housing is health care.’

“ This crisis really is pushing the whole system to do something that a couple of weeks ago they ’ @ @ @ @ @ s no way , ” said Nia Tavoularis , director of development at Connections for @ @ @ @ @ relocated 194 homeless residents to two hotels in the northern suburbs .
“ People are @ @ @ @ @ it looks like it ’ s gon na cost to end homelessness , but the @ @ @ @ @ that over and over again in how other systems end up failing .
”

Joeal Hamlin on May 4, 2020, at Hotel One Sixty-Six Magnificent Mile. He was offered a ninth-story room inside the pricey hotel where the Lawndale Christian Health Center oversees a makeshift isolation facility for people who are homeless. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Joeal Hamlin eased himself into a plank position on the carpet, resting the weight of his body on his forearms, elbows and toes. Sweat dampened his cropped gray hair.
His goal was 125 pushups, done in bunches of 25. Up, down. Up, down. Next were 75 squats atop the chair in his hotel room downtown. Up, down. Up, down.
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The 66-year-old couldn’t do this just a month ago. He believed he was going to die when he overdosed on drugs in March. He recovered but became homeless, bouncing around friends’ houses before showing up with a cart of belongings at a West Side shelter.
In mid-April, Hamlin was offered a ninth-story room inside the pricey Hotel One Sixty-Six Magnificent Mile, where the Lawndale Christian Health Center oversees a makeshift isolation facility for people who are homeless. Hamlin has gained a needed 20 pounds since moving in. While taking breaks on the rooftop, he enjoys views of the skyline while chatting with new friends — from 6 feet away.
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“I actually was leading to a depression, anxiety,” Hamlin said. “I felt I could do better for myself, but I couldn’t do it by myself. With the help of Lawndale Christian Health, I’m not by myself anymore.”
Hamlin’s new living quarters are part of the city’s effort to shelter those who have nowhere to go as the death toll from COVID-19 in Illinois tops 3,000. The city has rented nearly 400 rooms in two downtown hotels to isolate people considered to be at high-risk during the pandemic.
Dr. Thomas Huggett at Hotel One Sixty-Six Magnificent Mile on May 4, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
To date, more than 200 people experiencing homelessness have stayed in the isolation and quarantine hotel rooms and given free meals, with 152 guests still in the hotel. It’s an evolving experiment that Thomas Huggett — lead doctor of the Lawndale Christian Health Center’s medical team at Hotel One Sixty-Six — hopes will transform how society cares for such people.
“There are stay-at-home orders,” Huggett said. “What does that actually mean for people who don't have a home? From our angle, housing is health care. If we can really learn through these liminal times, then perhaps we can make some long-lasting, positive changes.”
‘The end of my time’
Hamlin had never been homeless before. He was living in his parents’ basement in Austin when he overdosed on heroin laced with the powerful painkiller fentanyl in March. “I thought it was the end of my time,” he said.
He recovered, but his mother and father, both 84, contracted coronavirus, so he couldn’t go back home after his discharge.
After making his way to a Salvation Army shelter operated by the city, Hamlin said he found social distancing to be nearly impossible and panicked as people waited for food without masks, coughing and sometimes vomiting. When a staff member at Lawndale Christian Health Center informed him he was on a list of seniors eligible to stay at Hotel One Sixty-Six, he eagerly awaited the bus to downtown.
“I had panicked,” Hamlin said. “I was almost ready to stay on the streets. But by the grace of God, Lawndale Christian Health came to my rescue.”
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Not everyone in shelters is able to move into a hotel room. The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, which provides funding for about 3,000 of the city’s 4,000 shelter beds, works with the city’s Department of Public Health to determine if a person needs isolation.
At first, DFSS moved only healthy people younger than 60 to emergency locations at the YMCA or Salvation Army, to “decompress” the shelters. As the city started testing more — 1,153 residents and staff as of May 1 — people with COVID-19 who had mild to no symptoms were kept isolated at shelters. So far, the city has conducted testing at 14 shelters, and 302 people have tested positive, according to DFSS spokeswoman Quenjana Olayeni.
Brian Henry said he’s trying to stay out of the shelters, preferring Airbnbs for now. He believes empty hotel rooms should be made more widely available, arguing that the process to get into them is too restrictive to effectively contain the virus.
“Do I have to go to the hospital and get diagnosed with COVID-19 first?” said Henry, who said that as his savings dwindle, he’s considering renting a room with others, though he is nervous about contracting the virus. “It seems like (the hotel rooms) is just to make people think they were helping and they really weren’t.”
In a statement, the city said that its response to the pandemic “has been able to further ensure every resident — regardless of status or where they live — are (sic) able to obtain the care and refuge needed to prevent the spread of this disease and keep every Chicagoan safe and secure.”
Better housing, better health
Huggett, the doctor from Lawndale Christian Health Center, is staying on the 28th floor of Hotel One Sixty-Six, in a room that also serves as a medical supply closet. He wakes up about 5 a.m. each day with suitcases of medications feet from his bed. Also vitamins, nicotine patches, pillboxes, Vaseline, cough drops, epinephrine, Narcan and other necessities.
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Usually Huggett spends the morning touring shelters to find potential guests for the hotel program. Then he tends to the patients assigned to him, taking their temperature and pulse. Some of the hotel guests are already familiar to him because he’s been working with the homeless for more than two decades.
Lawndale Christian Health Center has treated 231 people at Hotel One Sixty-Six, as of Thursday, Huggett said. The space was originally imagined as a place for homeless people with coronavirus symptoms, but the medical team over the last weeks has focused its efforts on prevention, recruiting as many high-risk people to stay at the hotel as possible.
Since the beginning of the program, 66 guests at the hotel have tested positive, though there were only five current COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, Huggett said. Eighteen guests have been transported to the hospital.
“Our job now is really to shield high-risk persons experiencing homelessness so they don't get coronavirus,” Huggett said. “We've been able to get them out of the shelters before they were infected.”
For Huggett, the biggest challenge lies ahead. Will these guests be able to secure housing? Or will they have to return to the shelters, uncertain like the rest of the country whether it’s safe to go back to the way things were?
As a physician working with the homeless, Huggett has seen just how intertwined housing and health are. From 2003 to 2006, researchers followed 400 homeless adults who had been taken to two Chicago hospitals, most of them for chronic illnesses. Half of them were offered transitional housing upon discharge, and they went on to experience 29% fewer hospitalizations.
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That’s why Lawndale Christian Health Center is helping guests find permanent housing. Hamlin is corresponding with the Chicago Coordinated Entry System to see if he can be moved up the waiting list for a Section 8 housing subsidy.
“We just feel like people should be in their own home,” Huggett said. “Let’s say the hotel shuts down and the folks here all go back to shelters. Well, what if there’s another coronavirus blip in the fall?”
That question is being asked across the country as the emergency public health response is challenging how people see homelessness.
“This crisis really is pushing the whole system to do something that a couple of weeks ago they’d have said there’s no way,” said Nia Tavoularis, director of development at Connections for the Homeless, which has relocated 194 homeless residents to two hotels in the northern suburbs. “People are overwhelmed by the amount that it looks like it’s gonna cost to end homelessness, but the truth is we pay for that over and over again in how other systems end up failing.”
Chicago’s DFSS says it is looking for ways to place those hit hardest by the coronavirus into permanent housing, though advocates say the city can start now by diverting hotel funds into rent for more permanent housing.
The city paid a nearly $1.5 million deposit for the rooms in the five hotels, equivalent to the cost of two weeks’ stay in the rooms, according to initial contracts with the hotels. The city renewed contracts at two isolation and quarantine hotel rooms for an additional month. At Hotel One Sixty-Six, rooms now cost $104 per night, while at Hotel Julian, which is now also open to nursing home workers, each night costs the city $99.
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Stopping the seesaw
Three weeks into his stay at Hotel One Sixty-Six, Hamlin still maintains a tidy room. Every day, he makes his bed and double-checks for crumbs on the floor. The only clutter is the jigsaw puzzle at his desk, which still has him stumped.
He has stayed sober for his longest stretch in three years after long struggling with addiction to crack cocaine. “I can’t be around people who care about me, because I don’t care about me,” he explained.
As he waits for word about housing, Hamlin said he feels freer than ever to return to the workforce and reconnect with his children. He prays he can start fresh in the Austin neighborhood, where he lived for 50 years in a “seesaw” state: clean from drugs one day, relapsing the next.
“I know that my destination is going to be worth the wait,” Hamlin said. “I don’t care how long I got to be inside this room. When I leave here, I’m going to have my own place.”


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Column: Do murder charges in the Ahmaud Arbery killing signify a turning point for America? Not when

Column: Do murder charges in the Ahmaud Arbery killing signify a turning point for America? Not when other young black men still walk in his shoes.

Obviously , 64-year-old McMichael still considered himself to be an authority figure .
That could be why he summoned his @ @ @ @ @ making a citizen ’ s arrest of a black man he thought to be a @ @ @ @ @ could explain why they armed themselves with a rifle and a handgun and set out @ @ @ @ @ he jogged through the neighborhood .

A child views a memorial for Ahmaud Arbery near where he was shot and killed in Georgia. (Sean Rayford/Getty)
Something about Ahmaud Arbery’s death struck a chord with a lot of people. This time, the gunning down of an unarmed black man seemed different from the countless times it has happened before.
Or maybe we are different now.
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Forced to live in social isolation for weeks with no clear sight of an end, some of us have begun to look at life through a different lens. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our vulnerabilities and cautioned us to take less for granted.
Every moment of life — everyone’s life — seems more precious now.
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In death, Arbery appears to have brought the nation to a collective state of mourning. We would like to believe he closed the circle that too often is broken by the divisive things that make us different — race, ethnicity, economic status and class.
But all grieving is not the same. For African Americans who watched the video of a white father and son chase Arbery down in a pickup truck and the subsequent events that left him lying dead on the pavement, the mourning is personal.
In him, they see the people they love most — sons and grandsons, nephews, uncles and cousins. They see in him the faces of young men who sit next to them on the buses and trains as they make their way home from integrated streets downtown to black enclaves on the South and West sides.
A friend, a professional woman in her 40s, told me that she woke up from a nightmare the other night, scared and trembling. In her dream, she was being chased by vigilantes. She thought she was going to die.
In time, the visual image of this blatant act of racism will fade from other people’s minds, as more urgent or even mundane events take its place. But for many African Americans, it will linger much longer, chipping away at them emotionally and physically until they are too sick to recover.
Research has found that racism has an adverse effect on the health of African Americans. They internalize it, and because discrimination is built into America’s the health care system, it often is undiagnosed, untreated and pervasive.
A couple of years ago, I spoke with Dr. David R. Williams, a social scientist at Harvard University, about the impact of police violence and the killing of unarmed black men. He has done extensive research on the relationship between racism, socioeconomic status and stress on physical and mental health.
In a study published in 2018, Williams linked a police database that records every incidence of police violence to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s database on mental health. What he found was astounding.
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This kind of race-related violence not only affects those closest to the victim, it has a negative impact on the black population of the entire state for three months after the incident occurs. Following a police shooting, African Americans reported experiencing more mental health days than they did the rest of the year. There was no such effect on white people, even when the unarmed victim was white.
Black people, however, were depressed, worried and anxious. Stress levels were elevated, and they worried that it could happen again — because blacks are nearly three times as likely to be killed by police as whites, and five times more likely to be killed unarmed.
One reason for the elevated mental health issues, Williams told me, is that people perceive these shootings to be acts of racism when the black male is unarmed. “It’s something unjust and unfair,” he says.
Of course, health disparities are related to socioeconomic status as well, but there’s more to the story, Williams says. Science proves that the impact of racism and discrimination work in conjunction with social and environmental factors to negatively affect overall heath.
This leads to a ripple medical effect on the black population. And early exposure to all of these things can affect people from childhood throughout their life.
Greg McMichael was not a police officer, nor was his 34-year-old son, Travis. But the elder man had been a longtime officer with the Glynn County Police Department. After his retirement, he worked as an investigator for the district attorney’s office.
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Obviously, 64-year-old McMichael still considered himself to be an authority figure. That could be why he summoned his son to join him in making a citizen’s arrest of a black man he thought to be a burglary suspect. It also could explain why they armed themselves with a rifle and a handgun and set out to track Arbery down as he jogged through the neighborhood.
People of fair conscience were appalled by these men’s actions and demanded that charges be brought against the assailants. Soon after the graphic video of the shooting became public, officials in Georgia did what they should have done nearly three months ago. They charged the men with murder.
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People who believe that racism is a cancer on our nation want to know how they can stop this kind of thing from happening again. Unfortunately, they cannot.
Racism is embedded in the fabric of America. We cannot eliminate it entirely, but we can stifle it by standing together to send a strong message to racists that their actions will not be tolerated.
Hundreds of people of various backgrounds came together Friday for a rally in Brunswick, Georgia, calling for justice for Arbery, who would have turned 26 that day.
Meanwhile, across the nation, runners jogged 2.23 miles on his behalf, symbolizing the date of his death, Feb. 23. Some wore handwritten signs on their chests bearing the hashtag, #IRunWithMaud. Others memorialized him in silence.
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I walked 4 miles in his honor. It cleared my head and briefly calmed my aching heart, but did nothing for Arbery or the other young black men who continue to walk in his shoes. Their lives remain in peril.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Teachers in face masks? Staggered attendance? Lunch in classrooms? How and when Chicago-area schools

Teachers in face masks? Staggered attendance? Lunch in classrooms? How and when Chicago-area schools will reopen remains elusive, despite ‘Restore Illinois’ phase-in plan.

“ The idea that we are going to open school in the fall when you haven ’ t even figured @ @ @ @ @ access to the students that you ’ re dealing with now ... those are the @ @ @ @ @ school that we know are going to be part of any plan that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ ...
If someone ’ s positive at a school , you @ @ @ @ @ it because it means everyone who was exposed to them could potentially be positive and @ @ @ @ @ na know for two weeks .
”

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
When classrooms went virtual more than six months into the school year, Daniel Michmerhuizen leaned on the relationships he’d built with his students at Chicago’s Benito Juarez Community Academy.
If remote learning continues in the fall, the freshman civics teacher knows that, without the opportunity to get to know his students in person, he’ll have to find new ways to get them engaged.
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“They come from a variety of elementary schools to high school. How do I bring them together and build those relationships in a remote, digital environment?” he said.
Just what school will look like come fall remains an open question, even with Illinois’ new plan to reopen the state in phases.
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“We may see the start of school in a remote fashion. We may see a combination where some children are allowed to come to school on certain days, or we take the upper grades and we are able to spread them out in a school building with social distancing norms, or we may be able to come back full force,” state Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said last week in a Facebook Live conversation with state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch. "We just don’t know, but we have to be ready.”
School officials in Chicago and the suburbs are worried about the uncertainty of how Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan for reopening the state amid the coronavirus pandemic might affect millions of children in Illinois when school resumes in some form in the fall.
Teacher Daniel Michmerhuizen helps his sons Mateo, 6, and Mario, 11, both Chicago Public Schools students, with remote learning May 8, 2020, at home in Chicago. Michmerhuizen is a civics teacher at Benito Juarez Community Academy. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Restore Illinois, a five-phase approach Pritzker unveiled last week, indicates the earliest the state’s schools could reopen is during phase four, at which point gatherings of 50 people or fewer will be allowed and schools may reopen with social distancing policies and safety guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The governor said his plan is based on public health bench marks.
When the Chicago region will reach phase four, and whether that will be by the traditional start of the school year, will depend on a continual decline in the positivity rate among those tested and in the number of patients admitted to the hospital. Even with loosened restrictions, face coverings and social distancing are still expected to remain the norm, officials said.
The phased-in approach to reopening is tied to how COVID-19 has affected a particular region of the state, meaning areas hit hardest by the virus, including Chicago, suburban Cook County and the rest of the Chicago area, could see their school buildings reopen later than rural areas in Illinois that have seen fewer cases.
For Chicago Public Schools, reaching phase four won’t be the only bench mark needed to reopen. Chicago Teachers Union leaders said they intend to bargain over how schools reopen, prioritizing safety. Class sizes will have to be smaller, and more supports like hand-washing stations will be needed, they said.
Even then, contingency plans will need to be in place for when there’s a coronavirus case in a school community.
Teacher Daniel Michmerhuizen helps his son, Mateo, 6, with remote learning at his home in Chicago. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
“Everything that I am hearing from medical professionals throughout the world is that there are going to be intermittent outbreaks, so to act like ... this world is going to return to a normal that people are used to is dangerous,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “There has to be complete and total recognition of what we’re dealing with.”
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CTU President Jesse Sharkey said it would be “foolish” to think there won’t be elements of the crisis that continue to affect schools for a long time, and schools will likely reopen before there’s a vaccine available.
“The idea that we are going to open school in the fall when you haven’t even figured out how to get internet access to the students that you’re dealing with now ... those are the necessary components for returning to school that we know are going to be part of any plan that’s going to work,” he said. “... If someone’s positive at a school, you’ve got to close it because it means everyone who was exposed to them could potentially be positive and you’re not gonna know for two weeks.”
While some Chicago-area administrators said reaching the required public health bench marks by mid- to late August could prove elusive, others said that even if schools reopen, teachers in face masks and strict social distancing measures could create new challenges for students and educators.
At Arlington Heights School District 25, Superintendent Lori Bein said among the possible scenarios that could play out in the fall is a partial reopening of the district’s nine schools, with only half of the students in the building at any given time, or perhaps a staggered schedule, with some kids attending classes on Monday and Tuesday, and others on Wednesday and Thursday.
While the district’s small class sizes, which are typically between 20 to 24 students per class, are well below the 50-person maximum allowed by the state guideline, Bein said that far more problematic is figuring out the logistics of holding group activities like lunch and recess.
“It’s not as easy as just saying, ‘OK, kids can eat lunch in their classrooms,’ because what about our students who have severe food allergies? It would be like solving one health concern and creating another,” Bein said.
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Meanwhile, parents are figuring out how to manage their kids’ expectations.
Eighth grade twins Anthony, left, and Connor Cambria react to the cheers of their teachers May 7, 2020, after picking up their caps and gowns for a virtual graduation at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Meredith Kroot said she’s been keeping up with the guidance and preparing her fourth and sixth grade children for the possibilities, such as alternating classes at school with remote learning days.
While the family in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood has been wearing masks on short adventures outside, it’s another thing for the children to cover their faces for the entire day, she said.
“I think it’s not going to fully hit they might be at school or sit in a classroom or talk to their friends with a mask on all the time," Kroot said. “We are all getting used to it.”
Kroot, a consultant, said she’s worried about the effects of the economy reopening before schools do, putting pressure on working parents. She wondered where kids will go during phases three and four, when more parents need to be back at work but restrictions on gatherings remain.
“This disconnect between the economy and what happens with the kids feels like, in my world, it’s an issue for a lot of people,” Kroot said.
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Trisha Kocanda, superintendent at Winnetka School District 36, also expressed uncertainty about what next fall will look like for the district’s roughly 1,700 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“As of today, we have no definitive plans for the fall," Kocanda said, adding that the North Shore district “is examining a number of ideas that will prioritize the health of our students and staff and ensure learning continues. ... More than anything, we look forward to when we can resume school safely, yet remain committed to making plans with public health guidance and best practices."
At Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214, Superintendent David Schuler said officials are considering a range of initiatives to launch the 2020-21 school year.
Physical education teacher Carol Golemo, left, and school nurse Shelly Grossman, along with other staff, cheer on eighth graders picking up their caps and gowns May 7, 2020, for a virtual graduation at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“We appreciate Gov. Pritzker’s details on a phased reopening of Illinois and also appreciate his reliance on a timetable guided by science and the progress in controlling the pandemic, rather than fixed calendar dates,” Schuler said.
Schuler said the reopening plan’s decree that public gatherings remain limited to 50 or fewer people during phase four underscores the necessity for schools to remain open to all possibilities.
“This detail reinforces what we knew — that our options for the new school year must be innovative, creative, and must include the possibility of an e-learning phase or phases,” Schuler said. “We are confident that we can offer academically robust e-learning and/or blended learning if necessary to begin the new school year until it is safe to return to pre-pandemic conditions.”
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With President Donald Trump last week asking the nation’s governors to “seriously consider” reopening schools as part of his aim to restart the economy, the head of the National Education Association, which represents more than 3 million employees in public schools and colleges, said in a statement Wednesday: “The health and safety of our students, families, and educators must be the primary driver of when it is safe to re-open school buildings in each community.
“We are listening to the health experts and educators on how and when to reopen schools — not the whims of Donald Trump,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said. “... Bringing thousands of children together in school buildings without proper testing, tracing, and social isolation is dangerous and could cost lives.”
Michmerhuizen, of Benito Juarez, said he’s presented the situation in that light to his students, many of whom live with multigenerational families or have parents who are essential workers. When the initial shutdown was announced in March, he told his class it wasn’t what he wanted, but it’s what he knows is best for everyone. That’s also how he feels about the “Restore Illinois” plan, he said.
“It’s an incredible time to be a civics teacher,” he said. “There are times you make personal sacrifices for the common good. That’s something we’ve talked about all year in my class.”
Teacher Daniel Michmerhuizen helps sons Mario, 11, and Mateo, 6, left, both CPS students, with remote learning at his home in Chicago. Michmerhuizen, a civics teacher at Benito Juarez Community Academy, said relationships built in person throughout the school year helped him continue to connect with students during remote learning. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
He wondered if some of the ideas going around, like staggering the times or days students attend class in person, would really be much safer for all than full-on school, or if the measures would simply make people feel better.
“I’ve heard those ideas ...,” Michmerhuizen said. “On the one hand ... something is better than nothing. Then, back to the discussion about doing what’s best for everybody, if we do that, does that really mitigate exposure?"
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What he’s sure of: He’s going to do his best to make the experience as “robust and fulfilling” as possible.
“Alternating schedules, teaching with a mask on, little plastic dividers. ... I think any one of us, we would do whatever it takes to be back in the classroom with our kids. There’s nothing that can replace that.”
Michmerhuizen has been sticking as closely as he can to the routine of school, teaching hourlong classes and posting them online so that students who don’t make it can catch up. Some of his students work or are primary caregivers for younger siblings during the day and send him emails late at night. He tries to answer first thing in the morning but knows it’s frustrating for those students to have to wait. It’s also harder for him to know who needs help.
While the majority of his students have been participating in remote learning, there are a few he hasn’t heard from at all, and despite his efforts, he doesn’t know why. They aren’t bad students and wouldn’t normally miss class. He worries about them and other students who are slipping or burning out on screen time.
Diego Garcia, a senior at Mansueto High School in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood who has two younger brothers in CPS, said remote learning has exposed long-standing inequities in Chicago schools, and that students from low-income families have much more to worry about than virtual graduation ceremonies — bigger issues like having food to eat and safe places to sleep. Some of his classmates have been working to help their families, he said.
“People are still dying, and it’s ridiculous that people are even considering opening the state up," Garcia said. “Nine times out of 10, they’re ignoring the needs of the working class."
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However, he said, “this way of teaching, it’s just not right for all students. At least speaking on my behalf, I’m not learning this way. This is just stressful.”
kculotta@chicagotribune.com
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Tracking Illinois coronavirus: 3,406 deaths, 77,741 confirmed cases, 429,984 tests, 25% ICU beds and

Tracking Illinois coronavirus: 3,406 deaths, 77,741 confirmed cases, 429,984 tests, 25% ICU beds and 61% ventilators open

As the coronavirus spreads and local , state and national governments work to contain and mitigate the outbreak , the @ @ @ @ @ .

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--2020-05-11--DIY projects to e-sports, here’s a list of virtual summer camps for kids K-12

iD Tech If your child is into making video games instead of playing them , then Virtual Tech Camp may @ @ @ @ @ The five-day camp offers courses with live instructors and up to five students per class @ @ @ @ @ multitude of STEM topics for ages 7 to 19 , such as making a YouTube @ @ @ @ @ and learning the ins and outs of Java Script coding .
The courses last up @ @ @ @ @ : two hours of instruction and engaging with peers , and two hours to develop @ @ @ @ @ start at $ 399 .
Learn more here .

Virtual summer camps are available to children as the uncertainty of the coronavirus leaves traditional camps up in the air. (Flavio Coelho / Getty Images)
Summer is approaching, and thankfully, parents, you’ll get a break from facilitating e-learning.
But as those kids get more restless by the minute, and the stay-at-home order persists until the end of May, it’s still up in the air whether traditional summer camps can take place as normal.
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To give those stir-crazy kiddos something to do if their usual camp doesn’t open this year, we’ve rounded up a few online platforms that offer an array of fun options to keep the young ones occupied. Courses range from science and technology to crafts, and some options are free while others cost a pretty penny.
We’ve also provided a few national options, since now is a good time for your child to partake in something he or she may not otherwise be able to do.
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This list will be updated.
Experiment in Landscape Architecture Held annually by Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, this summer workshop will now take place via Zoom, allowing high school students throughout the country to participate. The weeklong workshop exposes students to landscape architecture through drawing exercises, urban design and ecology lectures, a public space design project, and more. The program takes place July 20 to 24 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and costs $475. Scholarships are available; supplies will be shipped to each participant. Applications and payment are due May 29. For more information go here or e-mail Nilay Mistry at nmistry1@iit.edu.
Virtual Film Camp The Sarasota Film Festival, a film celebration that’s taken place for more than 22 years, offers this online camp for kids ages 8 to 14. They’ll learn filmmaking skills, like screenwriting, directing, producing, cinematography and more. Classes are from 8 to 11 a.m., and costs $175 for a week. Camps are set for June 1-19, but more dates will be added. More information can be found here.
The BoomWriter Haunt This writing camp will help kids ages 9 to 12 unleash their imaginations, while also getting guided feedback and instruction. Campers will read a chapter of a story, then write their own chapter to accompany it. After this, the group will vote on the best chapter and a winner will be chosen. The camp costs $59 for a month and is over if you choose to cancel the subscription. Learn more here.
Sew a Softie Every day in July, kids ages 6 and older will be able to learn how to hand sew a small item. Two tutorials will be posted on the group’s Facebook page daily, as well as on the website. There is also a call for kid ambassadors to teach others how to sew. Find more information here.
Numerade STEM Camps Numerade, which has more than 300,000 STEM video lessons, is offering free online summer camps for students to prepare for specific STEM-related courses, like chemistry, calculus and physics. The camps are eight weeks long and are instructed by college professors and others. The camps start June 1. Learn more here.
Merit School of Music With virtual camps, workshops, electives and classes, there’s an abundance of options for your little music lover. Courses range from percussion camp, to guitar and saxophone workshops, to conducting and sound engineering electives to piano and singing classes. The dates, times and prices vary depending on which course you choose, and financial aid is available for qualifying families on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration is open through June 7. Learn more information here.
Northwestern Center for Talent Development With offerings for pre-K to 12th grade, the Center for Talent Development has a variety of expansive online courses that are available for school credit or enrichment. Options vary through subject areas, from arts and humanities to leadership. There are more than 200 options, and many of the classes last at least three hours. Check here for the list of programs.
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Activity Hero From clay-making and fashion sketching, to art and cooking, and economics and statistics classes, there are more than 200 interactive courses available to kids of multiple ages. The courses can be as short as one hour, or as long as a full workday. Some classes start as early as May 14. Find a class here.
iD Tech If your child is into making video games instead of playing them, then Virtual Tech Camp may be a good fit. The five-day camp offers courses with live instructors and up to five students per class. The camps cover a multitude of STEM topics for ages 7 to 19, such as making a YouTube channel with animation and storytelling as well as learning the ins and outs of Java Script coding. The courses last up to four hours a day: two hours of instruction and engaging with peers, and two hours to develop a project individually. Prices start at $399. Learn more here.
DIY.org While this online space isn’t a camp per se, it does give your child access to creative projects and allows them to turn those DIY projects into videos. There are moderators who oversee the space, and the projects range from Lego building to drawing and photography. Courses are available for ages 4 to 17, and after a free two-week trial, prices are between $15 and $25 a month (there’s also an annual option), depending on how many kids use the subscription. Check here for the course list and other information.
Varsity Tutors This site has a summer catalog chock full of free options, from learning comedy to taking a “world tour” via Google. Most sessions are one to two hours, and take place multiple times throughout the week. New camp ideas are added regularly, so be sure to check out the options here.
Connected Camps For kids ages 8 to 13, Connected Camps provides weeklong courses that last 90 minutes each day. General topics cover the arts, e-sports, technology and more. Classes are coed and there are some girls-only options. Camps begin June 1. Find the schedule here.
Joffrey Ballet Chicago While the Joffrey’s usual intensive camps have been canceled, classes for ages 9 to 16 have been moved to three one-week sessions online. The weeklong classes cover different dance techniques and genres, like ballet and jazz, and are 2½ hours a day. Registration begins May 26 at 10 a.m. See more here.
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Music Institute of Chicago Online sessions abound for all ages at the Music Institute of Chicago. From intensive piano and oboe lessons to learning the ukulele for the first time, almost all of the camps and classes are held online via Zoom and are offered to grades K-12 (there are courses for adults too). There also are options for musical theater camp, in addition to the variety of instrument camps, like guitar, strings and woodwinds. Dates, times and prices vary. Check out the listing here.
chrjohnson@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Chicago to open six more testing sites in neighborhoods, will work with actor Sean Penn’s charity to

Chicago to open six more testing sites in neighborhoods, will work with actor Sean Penn’s charity to try reaching goal of 10,000 tests per day

Under Lightfoot ’ s plan , the city also would need to be able to test 135,000 residents per month @ @ @ @ @ below 15 % of those tested in the community and at least 14 days of @ @ @ @ @ , on average .
Positive rates of below 30 % would be needed in “ @ @ @ @ @ nursing homes , shelters and jails , according to the Lightfoot plan .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
In an attempt to address disparities among black and brown residents while ramping up Chicago’s COVID-19 testing capacity ahead of a potential reopening, Mayor Lori Lightfoot will add six new examination sites around the city with an assist from actor Sean Penn’s charity.
Chicago officials will work with Community Organized Relief Effort, founded by Penn, and Curative-Korva to run sites primarily in African American and Latino neighborhoods. They also will work with community groups to help with registration for tests.
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One of the sites will open in the parking lot at the White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate Field in Bridgeport for asymptomatic first responders and health care and other essential workers, the city said.
The others largely will be aimed at the city’s black and Latino communities, including sites at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy in Little Village, Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academies in Hanson Park, Kennedy-King College in Englewood, Senka Park in Gage Park and Gately Park in Pullman. Locations have been chosen because they’re near public transportation, easily accessible by vehicle and have large spaces for proper social distancing, city officials said.
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[ Coronavirus testing sites in Illinois: Search our map for existing sites near you ]
“We are specifically focusing our community-based sites in neighborhoods experiencing disproportionately high levels of cases, and we are thrilled to announce that our first sites will launch later this week," Lightfoot said.
Symptomatic residents from throughout the city can visit the sites, and while they’re encouraged to preregister, they can register on-site after answering basic questions about their symptoms, officials said.
CORE, Penn’s charity, is running seven sites in Los Angeles and testing 7,000 people per day, according to company representative Piet DeVries. They’ve expanded into Northern California and Atlanta, and now Chicago, DeVries said at the news conference.
Ultimately, Lightfoot’s administration wants to be able to perform 10,000 tests per day, though the city’s goal for potentially beginning to ease stay-at-home restrictions is 4,500. Public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the city is currently doing roughly 3,000 tests per day.
There are more than 55 testing sites across Chicago, according to city and state public health websites. The sites announced on Monday are the first in Chicago where the city is directly involved, a Lightfoot spokeswoman said. As of Monday, more than 111,000 Chicagoans had been tested. There were 31,477 known confirmed cases, and 1,400 deaths from COVID-19 in the city.
The city’s latest move addresses two long-term goals amid the pandemic: helping black and brown residents who have been hit especially hard by the disease while also getting closer to testing goals that will allow the city to begin partially reopening.
Late last month, Lightfoot noted the city’s African American community continues to be disproportionately affected by the coronavirus compared with other populations in the city.
And last week, Lightfoot said the city will create teams to address a “breathtaking” spike in coronavirus cases among the city’s Latino population.
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In response to the ongoing problem, Lightfoot’s administration has teamed with community groups to target the Austin, Auburn Gresham and South Shore neighborhoods, which the city said have been particularly hard hit.
Lightfoot also unveiled several measures to address COVID-19 in Latino communities, including a plan to host virtual town halls to raise awareness, expanding the city’s so-called Rapid Response Racial Equity Team to further target areas with high case rates and working with unions to reach Latino workers in hard-hit industries.
Southwest Side Ald. George Cardenas, 12th, whose ward includes parts of Little Village, said city leaders have been working nonstop to get kits in underserved communities.
“It needs to be done fast. It needs to be done right. It needs to be done with a strategy that minimizes risk and gets our folks tested and gets them well and gets them to a point where they feel safe in the city," Cardenas said.
Last Friday, Lightfoot laid out a five-phase plan that layers additional standards for rates of infection and testing capacity on top of the state rules Gov. J.B. Pritzker unveiled earlier. As with Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” plan, Lightfoot’s framework sets a high bar for returning to normalcy.
Lightfoot can’t set looser standards than the statewide ones laid out by the governor, but she can tailor them to the city. Her plan is “specifically designed for Chicago’s residents and businesses, and encompassing a clear, data-driven five-phase process," she said.
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Under Lightfoot’s plan, the city also would need to be able to test 135,000 residents per month, with positive rates decreasing below 15% of those tested in the community and at least 14 days of declining rates of new cases, on average. Positive rates of below 30% would be needed in “congregate” settings such as nursing homes, shelters and jails, according to the Lightfoot plan.
Those standards are stricter than what Pritzker laid out last week for his statewide plan. The governor called for positive rates at or below 20% and an increase in the positive rate of no more than 10 percentage points over 14 days.
Chicago is currently in what the city calls phase two of its recovery, a period Lightfoot’s plan dubs “stay-at-home.”
Before moving into phase three, labeled “cautiously reopen,” the city would need to see a decline in the COVID-19 case rate over 14 days and a declining rate of new cases, stable or declining rates of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths, fewer than 1,800 coronavirus patients in hospital beds, fewer than 600 coronavirus patients in ICU beds, and fewer than 450 coronavirus patients on ventilators, Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot on Monday also noted the new testing’s key role in helping reopen the city down the line.
“As we look toward Chicago’s gradual reopening, a crucial piece will be increased testing so that we can better understand COVID-19 and know when to safely move to the next phase," Lightfoot said.
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Church leaders push back on Lightfoot and Pritzker stay-at-home orders: ‘We have to stand up for our

Church leaders push back on Lightfoot and Pritzker stay-at-home orders: ‘We have to stand up for ourselves at some point’

“ And that 's something that I think people should be thinking about , the parishioners and the faith leaders @ @ @ @ @ , that it 's not just about yourself , it 's about all the many @ @ @ @ @ even more importantly , the many people who will … come in contact with the @ @ @ @ @ .
”

Gregory Pratt, Javonte Anderson, Dan Petrella

Pastor Joseph Wyrostek, 43, sits outside the Metro Praise International Church in the Cragin neighborhood of Chicago on May 11, 2020. The church held a service on Sunday ignoring guidelines set forth by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Two Chicago church leaders vowed to continue holding religious services despite social distancing requirements, and criticized Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for not consulting them about shutting down houses of worship.
Lightfoot, meanwhile, criticized one of the churches for reopening its doors over the weekend but said she would continue education efforts about the importance of stay-at-home orders to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The dispute kicked off after Metro Praise International Church on the Northwest Side opened its doors for in-person services in an act church officials described as “passive resistance” to Pritzker’s ongoing stay-at-home order.
That defiance led Lightfoot to tweet Monday morning, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’re doing. When you gather like this, you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger.”
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It doesn't matter who you are or what you're doing. When you gather like this, you are putting yourself and your loved ones in serious danger. https://t.co/rNIwDJlo1i — Mayor Lightfoot #StayHomeSaveLives (@chicagosmayor) May 11, 2020
Another church, Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, hosted Sunday services in Albany Park despite the stay-at-home order.
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At a Monday afternoon news conference, Lightfoot said she spoke with the pastor of Elim Romanian and had a “very pleasant” talk with him. She said she hoped to do more outreach but expressed reluctance to take harsher action.
“We’re not going to send in the police to arrest parishioners,” Lightfoot said.
Churches pose a thorny enforcement problem due to potential First Amendment questions and a political one, too, as no elected official wants to cross local ministers.
Lightfoot and Pritzker unveiled plans last week for reopening the city and state, though each official made clear normalcy is a long way away. Still, they are facing pushback from restive citizens, local business owners and other elected officials as warm weather arrives and various stay-at-home restrictions carry into their third month.
In interviews with the Tribune, church leaders pushed back.
Cristian Ionescu, the pastor at Elim Romanian, called his church’s first in-person service in two months an “extraordinary success" and said the church took extreme measures to ensure all participants were safe.
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There were only 110 people at each service, occupying only 15% of the seating capacity.
The Metro Praise International Church held a service on Sunday ignoring guidelines set forth by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
The church checked the temperature of parishioners before they were allowed inside the church, he said. People were given gloves and masks, and there were sanitizer dispensers stationed inside the church.
The church also created some guidelines before allowing people to attend church. People were barred from attending service if they were older than 60 or younger than 10, had underlying medical conditions, or had recently used public transportation, Ionescu said.
“We created the ultimate filter,” Ionescu said. “We said if anybody is not 100% confident in attending service, they better stay home.”
Ionescu said it was offensive that politicians didn’t consult with religious leaders when developing a statewide and citywide plan for reopening.
“They should cooperate with us, not dictate to us,” he said. “I take offense that they think they care more about our people than us.”
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Joe Wyrostek, pastor of Metro Praise International Church, shared Ionescu’s frustration.
“I just feel like we were put at the back of the bus,” he said, referring to religious leaders. “We were not in any of the discussions.”
Wyrostek said he decided to resume church services after seeing Pritzker’s “cautious” reopening plan, which wouldn’t allow for gatherings of more than 50 people until the fifth and final phase.
"We have to stand up for ourselves at some point,” Wyrostek said. “We’ve lost trust in what they’re doing. We have to peacefully resist and see where it goes.”
Wyrostek said there was plenty of space during the church services, and only people who wanted to wear masks were obligated to do so.
“The first place people should be able to take off their masks should be a place of faith,” he said.
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Asked Monday about his message to churches holding large services in defiance of his stay-at-home order Pritzker said: “You’re likely not only breaking the law. … But also, you’re potentially putting hundreds of people in danger.
“And that's something that I think people should be thinking about, the parishioners and the faith leaders who are conducting those services, that it's not just about yourself, it's about all the many people who attend. And even more importantly, the many people who will … come in contact with the people who attended those services.”
Because all faiths place an importance on caring for others, Pritzker said he hopes religious leaders will “take into account that caring for your fellow human beings means keeping them safe.”
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, 33rd, told the Tribune she understands people’s desire to return to their houses of worship but said they should remain home due to the public health crisis.
“We need to care about our neighbors,” she said. “Staying at home is an act of very Christian love.”
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
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dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--The Spin: Gov. Pritzker self-isolating after staffer tests positive for COVID-19 | Illinois peak not

The Spin: Gov. Pritzker self-isolating after staffer tests positive for COVID-19 | Illinois peak not expected until mid-June | Sean Penn’s charity to help boost Chicago  testing

Metrics show all regions of state – with the possible exception of the Chicago region - on pace to advance @ @ @ @ @ 3 of the 5-phase “ Restore Illinois ” plan to reopen the state : Of @ @ @ @ @ state – divvied up to take into consideration the population and other differences – all @ @ @ @ @ below the 20 % COVID-19 “ positivity rate ” cap over a 28-day stretch that @ @ @ @ @ of midnight May 8 , the rate was 22.3 % , so there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ Chicago or Northeast region to see that rate fall and remain below 20 % for @ @ @ @

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the latest public official to report that a senior staffer with whom he and others have been working with through the pandemic has tested positive for COVID-19. The governor was tested Sunday and while the results turned up negative he and others who came in contact with the employee will self-isolate at their homes.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s valet tested positive for COVID-19 as did Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary — but both leaders continue showing up at the office.
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Meantime, the governor announced today that the projected peak in the COVID-19 pandemic could be delayed until mid-June.
And the city of Chicago will open six new testing sites to address disparities among African American and Latino residents and increase screenings ahead of a potential reopening with help from a charity founded by actor Sean Penn, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced this afternoon.
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Welcome to The Spin.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the Thompson Center on April 19, 2020. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Illinois may not hit its coronavirus peak until somewhere between mid-May and mid-June, the governor said today during a virtual news conference. That’s later than earlier projections via scientific models showing late April to early May. Pritzker said it’s “disheartening," but that there’s other data showing signs of hope.
Metrics show all regions of state – with the possible exception of the Chicago region - on pace to advance from phase 2 to phase 3 of the 5-phase “Restore Illinois” plan to reopen the state: Of the four regions of the state – divvied up to take into consideration the population and other differences – all but the Chicago region is below the 20% COVID-19 “positivity rate” cap over a 28-day stretch that began May 1. As of midnight May 8, the rate was 22.3%, so there’s plenty of time for the Chicago or Northeast region to see that rate fall and remain below 20% for 14 days straight.
The governor on testing and reopening the state’s economy: The governor was sufficiently vague over the weekend when asked on CNN about whether Illinois could ramp up daily coronavirus testing to 64,000 daily, as a recent Harvard analysis suggests needs to happen before the state can safely think about reopening.
“We’re going it alone as the White House has left all the states to do and we’ve done well spinning up testing,” he said when CNN’s Jake Tapper asked whether Illinois could reach that 64,000 mark without federal assistance. “We will continue to grow our testing — we have the ability to do that on our own.” Watch Pritzker’s interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” politics show here.
The governor’s five-phase plan, which would allow an individual region to reopen if it meets a series of bench marks, would ideally see testing availablity for a widerange of patients, regardless of whether someone is exhibiting symptoms or risk factors. We’re not there yet.
Pritzker’s CDC hire for ramping up contact tracing system: The state has hired someone formerly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outbreak intelligence office to expand a contact tracing system — that is reaching out to those who may have been in proximity of someone who’s tested positive for the virus and suggest they self-isolate — already started by county and state health departments. "We think that we can have a massive contact tracing effort up in the next few weeks,” he said on CNN.
Pritzker vs. the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board on reopening plan: The governor pushed back when asked about a Chicago Tribune editorial critical of his approach to reopening the economy. According to the editorial, published last, week, Pritzker’s “latest plan extends the bench marks for victory from bending the infection curve to defeating the virus altogether” in order to slowly reopen businesses and further states “he’s being more than just cautious. He has moved the goal posts.”
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"If the Chicago Tribune thinks we are going to go back to completely normal without us having a very effective treatment or a vaccine they’re just dead wrong,” Pritzker said.
Self-employed started applying for unemployment benefits Monday, but there’s a catch: The Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski has the details here.
Pritzker, governor’s team self-isolating and working from home after senior staffer tests postive for COVID-19: The unidentified employee was among 20 people working at the James R. Thompson downtown state office building amid the pandemic - most are telecommuting - and, per Illinois Department of Public Health instructions, are nowat home and self-isolating.
The employee, who was and continues to be asymptomatic, was tested last week and results came back over the weekend, Pritzker said. The governor was tested as recently as Sunday and the results came back negative. The other staff also underwent testing and the results were negative.
Who is it? While the White House has released the names of those people who came down with COVID-19, Pritzker said he isn’t going to do that because the staffer isn’t a public person, contact tracing is underway – so people are notified about that person coming down with the virus but that protocols don’t otherwise call for them to be identified publicly. Pritzker said he talked with the employee who remains asymptomatic and “feeling fine although obviously it’s an anxious-ridden moment for that person.”
Pritzker’s self-isolating at his home in Chicago: In response to a reporter’s question, he said that there’s a succession plan in the state constitution should he fall ill and need to hand the reins over and that Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton would be “terrific at managing everything.”
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Pritzker will continue his afternoon news briefings on the pandemic. They’ll be done via teleconference. Until this weekend, he’d been doing them seven days a week. Now Monday-Friday, the 2:30 p.m. briefings are televised on some local television stations and livestreamed here.
He got a haircut: The governor laughed when another reporter said he looked like he’d been to the barber. He said he’s got a trimmer and took care of the sides while his 15-year-old helped clip the back. Mayor Lightfoot got some grief several weeks ago when a stylist came to her home amid a shelter-in-place order that closed salons, cut her hair and then posed for photos that were posted on social media.
Navy’s Blue Angels to fly over Chicago in show of ‘national solidarity,’ thanks: Read the Tribune story here.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker along with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and public health officials provide updated public guidance around the coronavirus, during a new conference at the Thompson Center on Feb. 28, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago officials will work with a charity founded by actor Sean Penn, Community Organized Relief Effort, and Curative-Korva to open six new testing sites in the city, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt writes. They also will work with community groups to help with registration for tests. Read the whole story here.
Pratt writes: “Ultimately, Lightfoot’s administration wants to be able to perform 10,000 tests per day, though the city’s goal for potentially beginning to ease stay-at-home restrictions is 4,500.”
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Reminder: Lightfoot released a five-phase plan to reopen the city’s economy — one that must abide by Gov. Pritzker’s statewide plan. Chicago is currently in “Phase 2” and before moving into Phase 3, labeled “cautiously reopen,” Lightfoot has said the city would need to see a decline in the COVID-19 case rate over 14 days and a declining rate of new cases, stable or declining rates of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths, fewer than 1,800 coronavirus patients in hospital beds, fewer than 600 coronavirus patients in ICU beds, and fewer than 450 coronavirus patients on ventilators.
Mayor Lightfoot criticizes Northwest Side church for holding in-person Sunday services: My Tribune colleagues have the story here. Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church on Chicago’s Northwest Side filed a federal lawsuit last week challenging Pritzker’s stay-home order, making it clear they intended to hold a Sunday service.
Today, Lightfoot was asked if the city was asked about enforcing social-distancing rules in place to curb the spread of the virus: “We’re not ever going to look away.” When pressed about why the service wasn’t shut down or people weren’t arrested she said: “We’re not going to send the police in to arrest parishioners, people are expressing their faith and I understand that, but it’s a mistake to gather in large congregate settings there and arrest people.”
Lightfoot advances plan to delay part of so-called Fair Workweek rules due to virus outbreak: The delay prevents workers from suing their bosses for violating rules requiring large Chicago businesses to give at least two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules, the Tribune’s John Byrne writes. One city official said it would help businesses navigating the pandemic. Read the story here.
Members of the Fraternal Order of Police and their supporters clash with counter protesters and pro-Kim Foxx supporters as they gather outside the Daley Plaza in Chicago on April 1, 2019. Holding the flag is John Catanzara. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner: “The newly elected president of the Chicago Police Department’s largest union got a special shoutout on Sunday from a famous person he admires: President Donald Trump.”
John Catanzara, elected president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 on Friday, took notice of the “congratulations” the commander-in-chief posted on Twitter Sunday morning, sharing it on his own Facebook page with a message that read: “Great way to start my day! Happy Mothers Day to all the moms, especially all the police, Fire and Medical moms working today.”
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A 25-year veteran of the police force, Catanzara has a lengthy complaint history and has criticized police brass and city government. Catanzara is currently relieved of his police powers and under investigation by the department on allegations related to a 2018 police report he filed against then-police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, accusing him of breaking the law by allowing marchers onto the Dan Ryan Expressway to protest city violence.
Mayor Lightfoot said today she reached out and congratulated Cantanzara after his victory. The two will be on opposite sides of the table as the FOP works to hash out a new contract amid court-ordered reforms that began last year to improve police training, supervision and handling of misconduct complaints.
“I hope that we’ll be able to find common ground on issues that are important not only to his members but the department and the city,” Lightfoot told reporters, when asked if she thought the two could work together on a contract.
Congratulations to Officer John Catanzara for being elected President of the Chicago Police Union. He always “Gets the Job Done”. #MAGA @foxandfriends — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2020
Other city news: FAA proposes $1.3 million fine against city of Chicago over alleged violations including falsified training logs. The Tribune’s Pratt has the details here.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., departs the Capitol on Jan. 22, 2020, following arguments in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in Washington. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois’ junior senator, is among those who reflect on prejudice in their community in a new PBS documentary series “Asian Americans” starting tonight, The Associated Press reports. The two night miniseries offers a sweeping look at Asian Americans’ impact on society, politics and pop culture from the mid-19th century through 9/11 and includes reflections from Duckworth and others. Read more here.
Duckworth, a Democrat, was born in Thailand, to a Thai mother and an American father.
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And Duckworth continues media rounds: Over the Mother’s Day weekend, we heard Duckworth talking about motherhood in the age of coronavirus on CNN’s “The Daily DC” podcast. The married mother of two girls, ages 5 and 2, made it clear that she’s fortunate that she still has a job and that “I have child care. And I’m very fortunate that my mother also lives with us.” But she took listeners inside her world. Listen or read the transcript of the interview here.
Tomorrow morning, she’ll be on ABC’s “The View."
FILE - This Oct. 10, 2012 file photo shows a man walking by the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison, Wis. The state Capitol, the highest point of Madison’s modest skyline at just over 284 feet, marks both the geographic and cultural center of the city. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File) (Scott Bauer/AP)
The Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes: "Members of Wisconsin’s Republican legislative majority are asking the state’s congressional delegation to oppose using any federal coronavirus relief package money to help bail out Illinois and other states with a history of “reckless budgeting.”
"The letter, sent Friday by 43 GOP lawmakers to Wisconsin’s two U.S. senators and seven House members, acknowledged states and the nation are facing “unprecedented challenges” dealing with COVID-19.
"The letter from Wisconsin Republicans, first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, references Illinois’ worst in the nation $138 billion public employee pension debt as well as a recent letter Illinois Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park sent to the state’s congressional delegation seeking at least $41 billion in federal aid, including $10 billion to help stabilize the pension system.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
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Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-05-11--Column: Trump thinks he has found coronavirus cure: Blame Obama

As you were coming in , you may have noticed two large signs from Monday ’ s news briefing that @ @ @ @ @ THE WORLD IN TESTING.
” If your mind is beginning to form the sentence “ @ @ @ @ @ not at all true if you ’ re talking about per capita testing … ” @ @ @ @ @ .
You are not welcome here .
And if you stay , we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ third time , and if you find it odd that we seem to have an @ @ @ @ @ available , we will test you a fourth time .

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus during a press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 11, 2020, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Hello, and welcome to the White House, where everything is fine and we are encouraging Americans to be warriors and get out there, get back to work and face the coronavirus head-on. Please excuse this recorded message. We are currently experiencing a coronavirus outbreak that is being handled perfectly.
Before entering, we must ask you to undergo a quick coronavirus test. If you are wondering why you are able to receive a speedy test here when tests are still not widely available in communities across the country, there are two answers:
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1. That is fake news.
2. It is the fault of former President Barack Obama, who failed during his presidency to prepare an adequate number of tests for a virus that didn’t exist before 2019.
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You will also be asked to wear a mask and practice social distancing, as we have recently had two people — one of President Donald Trump’s valets and Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary — test positive for the coronavirus. We suspect Obama is to blame, though Hillary Clinton’s involvement has not been ruled out.
Any sense you might be getting that there is hypocrisy in implementing mandatory face coverings at the White House while President Trump simultaneously lauds people across America who are flaunting such rules is preposterous and likely the result of being so close to the president’s well-known Aura of Awesomeness. It can be disorienting.
Also, if you’re wondering why President Trump did not wear a mask at his Monday news briefing, just hours after the White House announced its mandatory mask-wearing policy, your mind is likely addled from the coronavirus and we’re going to test you again.
As you were coming in, you may have noticed two large signs from Monday’s news briefing that read: “AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING.” If your mind is beginning to form the sentence “Well, that’s not at all true if you’re talking about per capita testing …” then you should immediately leave. You are not welcome here. And if you stay, we’re going to test you a third time, and if you find it odd that we seem to have an unlimited number of coronavirus tests available, we will test you a fourth time.
Unless you want a fifth test, don’t even begin weighing the president’s comment Monday that, “We have met the moment and we have prevailed” in terms of testing with the fact that no reputable health official has said America is anywhere close to where it needs to be in terms of testing.
Before entering, it is important that you disregard the entire coronavirus pandemic (and the horrible way it has been handled by Barack Obama) and instead focus on the many devious and worse-than-Watergate things for which Obama should be blamed.
President Trump, because of his great mind, has found that the best way he and other Americans can protect themselves from the coronavirus — which is being perfectly handled and is totally under control and is entirely the fault of the Obama administration — is to blame everything on former President Barack Obama.
To that end, the president devoted Mother’s Day to posting more than 120 tweets on his Twitter account, many dealing with Obama scandals previously known only to people fortunate enough to receive secret messages from Fox News host Sean Hannity through fillings in their teeth.
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All of Trump’s hard work on Mother’s Day proved conclusively that Obama conspired to bring down the Trump administration by not revealing an investigation into the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, instead waiting for Trump to win the election and serve for three years before unleashing a deadly virus that Hillary Clinton created when she bit a bat in China. Then, presumably drunk on power and coup-enthusiastic, Obama’s Deep State shadow government failed to respond quickly enough to the virus outbreak here in America and foolishly said it would be gone by April and then murdered tens of thousands of Americans using 5G cellular communications technology.
It’s all in there on President Trump’s Twitter account, you just have to read between the lines. And if you see those tweets and think they reflect poorly on the president, you should know that Obama hacked Trump’s Twitter account and put all those tweets there to make him look bad. That guy will stop at nothing to destroy our country.
So now that you have received your fifth coronavirus test, donned your mask that everyone except the president has to wear and focused all your blame for everything bad that has ever happened on Obama, you are ready to enter the White House, where we are perfectly handling the coronavirus outbreak that nobody outside the White House should be worrying about at all.
Please enjoy your stay. If you have any complaints, please direct them to Barack Obama.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com