chicagotribune--2020-12-22--The Spin: ‘Hollywood’ Hendon talks about music video ‘Rona Money’ | Ken Griffin backs GOP Sen. Loeff

The Spin: ‘Hollywood’ Hendon talks about music video ‘Rona Money’ | Ken Griffin backs GOP Sen. Loeffler in Georgia runoff | Lightfoot enlists former judge in Anjanette Young case

Lawmakers are facing some blowback for being in the front of the line for the currently scarce vaccinations .
But @ @ @ @ @ ’ re toward the front of the line under a so-called continuity of government protocol @ @ @ @ @ columnist Petula Dvorak is scratching her head about it , writing that some of “ @ @ @ @ @ folks who downplayed the virus , partied maskless at the White House and called the @ @ @ @ @ hurt President Trump are now getting the vaccine ahead of front-line and essential workers , @ @ @ @ @ in long-term-care facilities .
”

Filmmaker Steve James (holding camera) and his partner Zak Piper film former Illinois state senator Rickey Hendon on the West Side of Chicago on Thursday, June 4, 2020, at a gathering of politicians who spoke about the issue of conflict between black and latino communities in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune) (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Crisis management continues over at City Hall. Today, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that former federal judge Ann Claire Williams, a Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench who was once on Obama’s shortlist for the Supreme Court, will lead an outside investigation into the wrongful police raid on social worker Anjanette Young’s home, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and John Byrne report.
That includes a look at how Lightfoot’s administration handled the case in the aftermath.
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Meantime, Chicago aldermen held a hearing on the matter and called for changes in the way such search warrants are served.
Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Chicago-based Citadel hedge fund and investment firm, is opening up his check book in a big way to help GOP U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, forced into a January runoff race by a Democratic challenger, The New York Times reports. It’s one of two high-profile runoff races going on in Georgia that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
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Loeffler’s ties here go beyond that: The self-styled Trump loyalist grew up on a farm in central Illinois’ McLean County, attended the University of Illinois and DePaul University and at age 24 bought a condo in Chicago’s Gold Coast, the Times notes in a piece that examines her campaign narrative of a hardscrabble life.
Rickey “Hollywood” Hendon, a former West Side alderman and state senator who’s still in the politics game, released a new music video that offers a little commentary on the economy, Congress and financial need in the age of COVID-19 as he sings “I need my money – my Rona money.”
That’s ‘rona as in coronavirus. Watch it here.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams was in town today to discuss, along with state and Chicago public health bosses, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, and Dr. Allison Arwady, respectively, how the vaccine will be rolled out in Illinois.
My Tribune colleagues took a deep dive to get a better understanding of the fear, or at least hesitancy, over getting a vaccine in some predominantly Black and Latino communities that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Now a racially and ethnically diverse group in Illinois’ congressional delegation fresh off their first round of the Pfizer vaccine has put together a public service announcement saying it’s safe and to get inoculated when the shots are in wider circulation.
It’s an important message as the latest round of Pew Research Center polling shows, for example, that Black Americans remain “less inclined to get vaccinated than other racial and ethnic groups.”
Welcome to The Spin.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot at a City Hall new conference on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
In a letter to aldermen, Mayor Lightfoot laid out the parameters for Judge Williams as she leads an outside investigation of the Young raid: “Her mandate will include every relevant department, including the mayor’s office,” Lightfoot wrote. “We want a review of the procedures and processes in place that allowed this incident and subsequent actions to unfold as they did.”
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While the raid happened before Lightfoot was elected, she and her administration have made a number of missteps in the run-up to and after WBBM-Ch. 2 airing a story on the mistake raid last week. That includes the city’s law department going to court and unsuccessfully trying to stop Ch. 2 from airing police body camera footage of the raid, which captures a line of mostly white male officers barging into the apartment of Young, who is Black, as she stood there naked and pleaded — more than 40 times — that they had the wrong address.
The mayor initially said last week that she had only learned of the mistaken raid after Ch. 2 aired the story and police body camera footage last week. But she has since acknowledged that members of her team told her about the February 2019 raid via emails in November 2019, as Ch. 2 was reporting on search warrants being served at the wrong addresses. Read the full Tribune story here.
To date, she’s ousted close friend and head of the City Law Department Mark Flessner and her top cop David Brown has put the dozen officers involved in the raid on desk duty.
Today, Chicago aldermen conducted a hearing on the matter.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle ‘deeply disappointed’ as SEIU Local 73 holds one-day strike over pay, other demands, the Tribune’s Alice Yin and Liam Ford write.
Rickey Hendon, left, a retired state senator, speaks at City Hall's fifth floor in Chicago as then-Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson listens on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Hendon tells me he didn’t start out trying to pen political lyrics to go with House music, but it became just that amid months of stalled negotiations in Washington over a new stimulus package. He says the deal Congress inked last night is too little too late, especially the checks the stimulus checks most people in the U.S. are in line for.
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“If you look at the $600 they’re giving Americans now, it’s a ... disgrace,” Hendon said. “What the video is about, what it’s telling the government is to send enough money — everyone knows people are going to go out and spend it if there’s enough.” But there isn’t, he says. “Instead, (Congress has) just shortchanged the economy.” In the video, he suggests “I need my … $10K.”
Hendon said he’s had a rough year, like so many, contracting COVID-19, then burying his oldest daughter after a car accident in Michigan. After that he began writing music “like crazy,” he says. What followed was “Rona Money,” released in a music video last week, and other songs.
“We need music right now — it’s what’s gotten me through all of this,” he said. Hendon said a little humor was in order and the video provides a laugh and the wild ride some folks might need right now as he sings on a grounded boat, a convertible and in what appears to be a bedroom with a choir standing nearby. All of it was shot on the West Side, largely on Madison Street, with no social distancing or masks in sight.
He’s got more songs, too, including one titled “No Justice, No Peace” about the law enforcement killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. But amid a global pandemic, he’s not looking to move into a career in music. Instead, he’ll continue doing work as a political consultant a job he’s been doing, along with getting in the CBD business, since he abruptly quit the state Senate a decade ago.
“You’ve got to eat while you dream,” said Hendon, known as loud, boisterous and during his lawmaker days a flashy dresser.
It’s not the first time Hendon’s popped up on the little screen this year. He was one of many local politicians and activists featured in the four-part documentary on Chicago’s last mayoral election “City So Real.” Look back at his political career, controversies and how he earned that “Hollywood” nickname here.
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Ken Griffin, left, who donated a large sum of money for violence prevention in Chicago, in 2018. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)
Kelly Loeffler, the self-styled Trump loyalist trying to hold on to her U.S. Senate seat, is getting a big assist from Ken Griffin in her contest with Democrat Raphael Warnock, a minister, in Georgia. The New York Times reports Griffin is her No. 2 donor with his Citadel kicking in $6 million to an affiliated Political Action Committee.
It’s part of a larger piece that examines her narrative of a hardscrabble life growing up on a farm in central Illinois. Read the Times’ story here. And more on Griffin’s political donations here.
Dick Durbin, D-Ill., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 10, 2020, during a probe of the FBI’s Russia investigation. (Jason Andrew/AP)
In a call with reporters today, Durbin, Illinois’ senior senator, detailed how the combined pandemic and omnibus spending bill “included funding for specific programs to help Illinois and Chicago, such as increased mass transit aid, support for airlines, restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as Great Lakes restoration and a first-time grant for federal health officials to study gun violence,” the Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes.
“But even with a new administration under former Vice President Joe Biden and the potential of a Democratic-led Senate, pending runoff elections in Georgia, Durbin said the fight for state and local pandemic relief would still run up against Republicans who claim it amounts to a bailout for mismanaged states.” Read the full story here.
COVID-19 data points in Illinois today: 63,000 front-line workers have been vaccinated in Illinois so far, the state announced. Meantime, 6,239 new COVID-19 diagnoses were announced along with 116 additional deaths in the last 24 hours.
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With her ballot in hand, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood heads into vote at the Naperville Library on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020 In Naperville. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia, of Chicago, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, of Matteson, and Naperville U.S. Rep., Lauren Underwood each got the first of the two-part Pfizer vaccine in recent days. Now they’ve issued a video PSA touting the safety of the vaccines. Watch it here.
Garcia points out that Latino, Black and Asian Americans “have the highest rates of COVID infection.” Kelly said the inoculations will stem the COVID-19 illnesses and deaths “so tragically common in our communities.”
Meantime Underwood, a nurse, said the inoculations are “safe and effective” and “developed under strict scientific protocols” and stressed that taking the vaccine is a giant step toward rebuilding the economy.
Lawmakers are facing some blowback for being in the front of the line for the currently scarce vaccinations. But as members of Congress they’re toward the front of the line under a so-called continuity of government protocol. Still, Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak is scratching her head about it, writing that some of “(t)he very folks who downplayed the virus, partied maskless at the White House and called the coronavirus a hoax created to hurt President Trump are now getting the vaccine ahead of front-line and essential workers, and even the vulnerable residents in long-term-care facilities.”
Data points: 60% of Americans polled said they would definitely or probably get a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 51% n September, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. The race and ethnic breakdown is as follows: 42% of African American people polled said they’d get a vaccine, 61% of whites said they would while 63% of Hispanics and 83% of Asian Americans surveyed said they’d take the shot. More on the survey here.
In order to ensure continuity of government, the Attending Physician of Congress recommended Members of Congress receive the #COVID19 vaccine, and today I made sure to arrive for their first available appointment! pic.twitter.com/1b8FyD1bCZ — Rep. Lauren Underwood (@RepUnderwood) December 18, 2020
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chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle ‘deeply disappointed’ as SEIU Local 73 holds one-day st

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle ‘deeply disappointed’ as SEIU Local 73 holds one-day strike over pay, other demands

“ Chicago is a union town .
Chicago is a place that ’ s been built and created off of @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ This is how we build power .
We can ’ t let @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t deserve things or give us pretty names and not give us what @ @ @ @ @ lives and to have a good quality of life .
”

About 1,600 Cook County employees staged a one-day strike on Tuesday morning calling for additional pay and work accommodations amid a contract negotiation that has grown increasingly bitter over the last several months.
Cook County health technicians and maintenance workers as well as Cook County clerk’s and sheriff’s office employees began striking at 6 a.m. to demand a $5-per-hour raise for those working with COVID-19 patients, the right for remote work for employees who are able and additional “pandemic pay” for front-line workers. Workers from the union, Service Employees International Union Local 73, organized picket lines outside various county offices on Tuesday.
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“Our members have put their lives on the line to keep Cook County functioning,” the union’s president, Dian Palmer, wrote in a statement last week. “The complete lack of respect by (Cook County Board President) Toni Preckwinkle and the managers under her supervision is shocking.”
The action “deeply disappointed” Preckwinkle, she wrote in a statement.
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“Cook County respects the rights of its employees under their Collective Bargaining Agreements but is deeply disappointed that the union would ask some of its members to strike during a global pandemic,” Preckwinkle wrote.
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The strike concluded in the late afternoon and was capped off by a virtual rally of more than 100 participants around 5 p.m. Speakers included County Board Commissioner Brandon Johnson, D-Chicago, who said he was in “complete solidarity” with the workers.
Palmer also appeared on the early Tuesday evening Zoom call and showed no signs of backing down.
“Chicago is a union town. Chicago is a place that’s been built and created off of your backs,” Palmer said. “This is how we build power. We can’t let people tell us that we don’t deserve things or give us pretty names and not give us what we need to live our lives and to have a good quality of life.”
SEIU Local 73 also objected to what it described as the county’s use of “strikebreakers,” or workers from outside Illinois to supplement county employees. Preckwinkle’s spokesman said Tuesday the county has “absolutely not hired strikebreakers” and the new contracts were drawn up to brace for a fall and winter surge of the pandemic.
Juanita Ervin, who works at Stroger Hospital, has six family members at home, several of them with illnesses that could make them vulnerable to the coronavirus, she said in a news conference streamed on Facebook Live from outside the hospital.
“We come to work every day, put our lives on the line,” Irving said. “We would like (county officials) to remove the strikebreakers out of our hospital and allow us to make this money ourselves,” she said.
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The county and the union have been negotiating since September, according to the union. SEIU Local 73 said in a Friday statement that the county was not bargaining in good faith, while Preckwinkle said federal coronavirus relief funding has already been used for pandemic pay to county employees who work in hospitals and other packed settings.
Stroger Hospital was operating on a “contingency plan” Tuesday to ensure no services were disrupted, Preckwinkle said.
“The situation is that they’ve gotten to the point where they disrespect us,” county clerk’s office worker James “Big Jim” Phipps said during a picket line that was livestreamed on Facebook. “They disrespect our union. But at the same time, they want us to support them financially.”
ayin@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Concordia University Chicago cuts 51 faculty and staff, closes 15 academic programs after ‘prioritiz

Concordia University Chicago cuts 51 faculty and staff, closes 15 academic programs after ‘prioritization’ review

“ It was a long and challenging process , ” Dawn said during the event , which a Tribune reporter @ @ @ @ @ people from a variety of areas across the institution .
It involved a great deal @ @ @ @ @ had consultants come in and help us put together the data we would need in @ @ @ @ @ thorough job of it .
”

Concordia University Chicago is letting go of 51 faculty and staff members and closing 15 academic programs due to budget concerns that have been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic and a reassessment of its priorities.
The university, affiliated with The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, is offering retirement or severance packages to employees who were laid off, departed voluntarily or had their positions eliminated, said school spokesman Eric Matanyi. That’s about 7% of total employees prior to the reduction in force, he said.
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The 15 programs slated for closure include graphic arts, theater, chemistry, women’s and gender studies and business communication, according to an email sent to students. Current students enrolled in the programs will be able to complete their degrees at Concordia, which might involve the use of adjunct faculty or partnerships with nearby universities, but new students won’t be able to enroll.
Concordia-Chicago, which describes itself as “a Christ-centered Lutheran university,” serves more than 6,000 students at its campus in suburban River Forest. It’s one of eight institutions in the national Concordia University System.
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Addison Hall in the Concordia University Chicago campus at River Forest on Aug. 14, 2019. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
During an online forum with students Monday night, Concordia-Chicago President Russell Dawn said the decisions were finalized by the Board of Regents on Dec. 11 and that they follow a two-year “prioritization” process that evaluated academic programs and the allocation of resources.
“It was a long and challenging process,” Dawn said during the event, which a Tribune reporter watched. “It involved people from a variety of areas across the institution. It involved a great deal of data. We actually had consultants come in and help us put together the data we would need in order to do a really thorough job of it.”
Though the process was underway before the pandemic, new costs for adapting to remote learning and other pandemic-related expenses required Concordia to act quickly, Dawn said. Without making any changes, Dawn said, school leaders predicted financial crisis in two to three years.
But some students questioned why the process wasn’t more transparent and felt blindsided by the changes, which they said were communicated for the first time in a school email Friday.
Esmeralda Torres, a senior studying business, said the news came as a shock to many of her peers and that she was disappointed by the outcome. She said the ongoing program review was not widely known among students.
Torres, 20, of California, said she first learned about the situation because of complaints on social media, before the school sent out the formal message.
“A lot of people were upset, and I don’t blame them,” she said Tuesday. “I have a lot of respect and admiration for the faculty members at Concordia, and at the end of the day, they are not in control of what’s going on.”
Faculty members, however, were working behind the scenes to resist the plans, or at least improve their options.
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In a Nov. 12 letter, the faculty senate raised three key concerns about the prioritization process to university leadership, according to a copy obtained by the Tribune. The letter detailed their reservations about “the suspension of the institution’s responsibility to uphold tenure, the termination of faculty during the height of a global pandemic, and the intermixing of finances with religious-based decisions of who to let go.”
The employees also requested a “respectful” severance package, honoring years of service, that allowed instructors to stay in their positions through May.
A terminated faculty member contacted by the Tribune this week declined an interview, saying she feared she would lose her health insurance and severance benefits for speaking publicly. She said her last day of work will be Jan. 4 and that her severance is equal to two weeks of pay per year of employment.
Matanyi, the school spokesman, declined to comment on whether the severance packages include a nondisclosure agreement, citing employee confidentiality. Instead, he shared a statement sent to alumni that described the changes as “extraordinarily difficult” but necessary for the school to “navigate a challenging higher education landscape and ensure that we are able to thrive in a crowded marketplace.”
Samantha Arreguin, a recent Concordia-Chicago alumnus, said she is in contact with faculty members and speaking on their behalf since they are restricted from talking with media.
Arreguin, who graduated in 2018, said administrators haven’t publicized which faculty members were let go but there’s an unofficial list circulating online.
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“They reached out because their biggest concern is that students are not aware of what’s going on,” Arreguin said.
This isn’t the first controversy to flare up at Concordia-Chicago involving the Board of Regents.
In August 2019, a board member accused of posting offensive comments about women and minorities on social media left his role after his alleged conduct drew scrutiny. Some faculty members shared screenshots of the comments in question but the former board member, Eric Arno Hiller, has not publicly addressed them.
After more than 2,880 people signed an online petition calling for his removal, which was created by concerned alumni, Hiller departed from the board without explanation from the school.
This fall, Concordia-Chicago saw record enrollment of 6,490 students — the majority in graduate programs — and offered solely remote classes this fall because of the pandemic.
Some of the influx might have resulted from the closure of Concordia University Portland in Oregon last spring. Graduate students in some Portland programs were allowed to complete their degrees at Concordia-Chicago.
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echerney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Murder charges dropped against man accused of shooting girlfriend’s brother

Police initially said that Timothy Nickelson was wounded while standing on a sidewalk when a man came up to him @ @ @ @ @ left leg .
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital , in what police initially @ @ @ @ @ according to a police media notification from Sunday morning .
Police did not acknowledge Timothy @ @ @ @ @ until they issued a news release making public that Oglesby-Williams and Yerica Nickelson had been @ @

Prosecutors dropped a murder charge Tuesday against a man they say shot to death his girlfriend’s brother when he started beating her after she shot one of his tires in a confrontation in the Homan Square neighborhood over the weekend.
Levoid Oglesby-Williams, 28, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, no longer faces a murder charge, but he and Yerica Nickelson, 28, of St. Louis, both face weapons charges in the killing of her brother, Timothy R. Nickelson, 32, of Milwaukee. Timothy Nickelson was shot about 4:55 a.m. Sunday in the 1100 block of South Homan Avenue, according to police. All three came to Chicago over the weekend to attend a party, prosecutors said.
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Oglesby-Williams shot Timothy Nickelson after he started beating Yerica Nickelson, Oglesby-Williams’ girlfriend, when she shot one of his tires, prosecutors said Tuesday as they informed Cook County Judge Mary Marubio they were dropping the murder charge.
Oglesby-Williams, Yerica Nickelson and her brother all came down from Wisconsin for a party Saturday in two separate cars, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said. They all attended the party with Timothy Nickelson’s girlfriend. All had been drinking alcohol at the party.
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After the party, Yerica Nickelson and Oglesby-Williams wanted to drive back to Wisconsin, but Timothy Nickelson wanted to sleep at his girlfriend’s home in Chicago. Yerica Nickelson demanded her brother pay money for gas and tolls, and she wanted more than the $20 he gave her, Murphy said.
On the 1100 block of South Homan a little before 5 a.m., Yerica Nickelson shot one of the tires of her brother’s car, Murphy said. This led to a brief shoving match, then Timothy Nickelson took off his sweatshirt, charged his sister and punched her repeatedly.
Oglesby-Williams pulled out a handgun and shot Timothy Nickelson four times, Murphy said.
Levoid Oglesby-Williams, 28, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, left, no longer faces a murder charge but he and Yerica Nickelson, 28, of St. Louis, both face weapons charges in the killing of her brother, Timothy R. Nickelson, 32, of Milwaukee. (Chicago Police Department)
Both guns were legally purchased by Nickelson, a certified nurse’s assistant who had a Wisconsin concealed carry license, Murphy said. Oglesby-Williams has a felony record in Wisconsin and can’t legally own a gun.
The brother and sister previously had been involved in a domestic dispute, Murphy said. Yerica Nickelson told detectives that her boyfriend said he was sick of “her brother” putting his hands on her, Murphy said.
Police initially said that Timothy Nickelson was wounded while standing on a sidewalk when a man came up to him and shot him in the left leg. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, in what police initially described as serious condition, according to a police media notification from Sunday morning. Police did not acknowledge Timothy Nickelson’s death publicly until they issued a news release making public that Oglesby-Williams and Yerica Nickelson had been charged.
Police initially had said no one was in custody in Timothy Nickelson’s shooting, but a release Tuesday said that Oglesby-Williams and Yerica Nickelson were arrested together in the 3300 block of West Harrison Street at 5:10 a.m. Sunday.
Both Yerica Nickelson and Oglesby-Williams were ordered held in lieu of $10,000 bail each and both were allowed to travel to their home state pending trial if they are released on bond.


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Restaurants grateful for new round of aid but still fighting for additional relief

This round of PPP has a few differences from the one earlier this year .
The last round capped individual @ @ @ @ @ , and the maximum amount this time for eligible businesses is $ 2 million .
@ @ @ @ @ relief bill include enhanced PPP loan limits , which allows restaurants to seek forgivable loans @ @ @ @ @ monthly payroll costs whereas other businesses are capped at 2.5 ; and enhanced access to @ @ @ @ @ with fewer than 300 employees per location to qualify for PPP .
The relief bill @ @ @ @ @ .
More information can be found on the Restaurants Act website .

On Monday night, after Congress passed a $900 billion pandemic relief bill, just for a second, restaurants could breathe again.
It’s been a tough year for restaurants and bars, which have had to pivot repeatedly over the course of the pandemic, altering their businesses models to accommodate ever-changing safety guidelines while shouldering their growing debt. The first wave of Paycheck Protection Program loans in July offered assistance to some but was widely criticized for its lack of oversight and inconsistent application.
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Restaurant and bar advocacy groups continually pushed for more federal assistance as the pandemic raged on, saying that the loans were not a long-term solution. All the while, businesses continued to shutter permanently, unable to hold on as profits dried up.
Wazwan owner Zubair Mohajir, left, puts the finishing touches on roasted Brussels sprouts with kimchi butter and halal bacon made from beef Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. He and his team, including Texx Roundtree, center, and Alex Schmidt, are preparing holiday meals in a kitchen at West Line Food Junction, a food delivery hub located in Chicago's River West neighborhood. Mohajir doesn't expect the new relief bill to help him. “I’m not really keeping faith that I’m going to get anything,” he said. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Although the $900 billion relief bill includes elements that will benefit restaurants, such as a second round of PPP, it still is not as much as the $120 billion Restaurants Act, which the Illinois Restaurants Association and others like it have been pushing for since the beginning of the pandemic. Restaurants need much, much more to survive, an IRA spokesperson said Monday.
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”It is a step in the right direction with provisions that will provide much-needed support to our industry,” according to an IRA news release. “The IRA continues to fight for additional targeted relief for the entire restaurant and hospitality industry at the federal, state, and local levels.”
For some businesses, this is another chance at surviving the pandemic. Andy Kalish, who owns two Uptown restaurants, Kal’ish and vegan Jewish deli Sam & Gertie’s with his wife, Gina, said they approached the first round of PPP funds with caution, careful not to use it all within eight weeks and using it to maintain staff at their businesses.
Alex Schmidt grates cheese onto roasted Brussels sprouts with kimchi butter and halal bacon made from beef at West Line Food Junction, a food delivery hub located in Chicago's River West neighborhood, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
[ ‘This saves an entire industry’: Concert venues, theaters, museums find sweet relief in prospect of $15 billion in new federal aid ]
“Having that PPP gave us a buffer to not dig into savings, to carry on and maintain at most some semblance of normalcy,” Kalish said.
They plan to apply for the new round of forgivable loans and hope to bring back staff at the Ravenswood Events Center, their events business that survived a year of canceled weddings and gatherings.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is brightening,” Kalish said. “It would be great to have another infusion if it were available.”
This round of PPP has a few differences from the one earlier this year. The last round capped individual loans at $10 million, and the maximum amount this time for eligible businesses is $2 million. The restaurant-specific elements of the relief bill include enhanced PPP loan limits, which allows restaurants to seek forgivable loans up to 3.5 times their monthly payroll costs whereas other businesses are capped at 2.5; and enhanced access to PPP, which allows restaurants with fewer than 300 employees per location to qualify for PPP. The relief bill also allows several tax breaks. More information can be found on the Restaurants Act website.
“The action taken by Congress today will keep tens of thousands of restaurants from closing in the coming months,” Tom Bené, president & CEO of the National Restaurant Association, said in a press release.“ Although he acknowledged that the loans will help restaurant owners get through the coming weeks, he underscored that “the long-term economic challenges facing independent, franchise and chain restaurants will not end with the new year.”
“We will continue to press federal and state leaders for the support that will put us on the road to recovery,” Bené said.
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Receiving a PPP loan doesn’t guarantee survival, however. Some who received the funds still ended up closing some of their restaurants permanently, like Big Onion Hospitality, which received a $148,100 PPP loan that preserved 10 jobs for several weeks, but still had to close one of its restaurants permanently.
Verlord Laguatan, left, and Zubair Mohajir apply a rub to rib-eye steaks. They are preparing holiday meals in a kitchen at West Line Food Junction, a food delivery hub located in Chicago's River West neighborhood, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Many small restaurant owners like Zubair Mohajir, owner of Wazwan, are not holding their breath on the new round of PPP to save their business. Mohajir, despite applying for the first round of PPP immediately after it was announced, did not receive any funds. Although he hired an accountant onto his team to help with this round of applications, he’s not confident that he’ll receive a loan this time around either.
“I’m not really keeping faith that I’m going to get anything,” Mohajir said, noting that the definition of a small restaurant seemed to change after the pandemic began. “I’m basically operating like I’m not going to get anything. I don’t see anybody come to the help of real small businesses.”
Wazwan’s former home at Politan Row food hall closed, so now Mohajir is operating out of West Line Food Junction in River West, focusing on delivery and takeout to survive. He has been negatively affected by third-party delivery apps, which had charged up to 30% in fees until Chicago’s recent adoption of a 15% cap, and is frustrated that many of the businesses that received the first round of PPP were much larger restaurant groups. Some restaurants that received PPP loans earlier this year include Hogsalt Management, Maple & Ash Management, City Winery, Alinea and Next, Frontera Grill, Little Goat and Gibsons Restaurant Group.
“It’s tough to be optimistic about anybody coming to help us,” Mohajir said. “A lot of small businesses are surviving because of their own grit, their own survival skills, and pushing, and unfortunately there are ones that just can’t make it. It’s heartbreaking, but there’s no other choice than working at it and continuing to fight. I could say that the government isn’t doing enough, and it’s not, but it’s not going to bring any funds magically to my door.”
He anticipates next spring and summer to be a great comeback for the industry, now that vaccinations are rolling out. He’s encouraged by the support the community has shown to Wazwan during the pandemic. He hopes to open a new bricks-and-mortar in Ukrainian Village next spring.
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“Delivery and takeout is great, and we’re surviving fine,” Mohajir said. “But not being able to watch people eat our food is probably taking more of a toll than we imagined.”
gwong@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--OPRF High School investigating  ‘Zoom bombing’ incidents where racist, anti-Semitic language was use

OPRF High School investigating  ‘Zoom bombing’ incidents where racist, anti-Semitic language was used during classes

“ I hope you can see racism and bigotry at OPRF High School will not just dissipate if you sweep @ @ @ @ @ ” Grant said .
“ Racism and bigotry at the school level must be met @ @ @ @ @ be approached with absolute clarity and straightforwardness that is transparent to the student body , @ @ @ @ @ and the community at large .
OPRF has failed at taking these measures and still @ @ @ @ @ and manage incidents .
Marginalized students have an incredible amount of knowledge and methodology and @ @ @ @ @ the adult staff should take a cue from .
”

Oak Park and River Forest High School officials are investigating after someone entered remote student learning sessions last week and used racist and anti-Semitic language. (Steve Schering / Pioneer Press)
Officials at Oak Park and River Forest High School are investigating multiple incidents in which someone entered remote learning sessions and made racist and anti-Semitic comments.
School officials said the incidents occurred last week. On two different days, someone was able to access four virtual classrooms and make the offensive comments.
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Approximately 95 students were affected, and officials said follow-up action was “immediate.”
“Racial incident reporting forms were submitted to the office of equity, and the deans and educational technology began fact-finding to try to determine who was responsible for the incidents,” the school said in a statement. “The perpetrators have not yet been identified, but if they turn out to be OPRF students, appropriate disciplinary consequences will be issued.”
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School officials said emails went out to parents and guardians of the affected students on the same day of each incident. The emails included plans for how OPRF would address the matter.
As a first step, school officials said OPRF staff trained in restorative practices met with the classes to help students and teachers “process the incidents in a healthy manner.”
Officials say next steps include following up with each of the teachers to determine whether further support is needed for anyone who was affected.
“Additionally, the office of equity, deans and educational technology will collaborate to identify strategies to mitigate and ultimately eliminate instances of racism and anti-Semitism from occurring in virtual classrooms,” the school said in a statement.
Other school districts have reported similar “Zoom bombing” incidents, including Maine South High School, where a 14-year-old boy was accused of sharing login information for remote learning sessions, which resulted in people disrupting class sessions with profanity and racial slurs.
Resident Marcy Grant spoke to the incident during the public comment portion of the OPRF school board’s Dec. 17 meeting, saying she wants the district to help serve and heal the students affected.
“I hope you can see racism and bigotry at OPRF High School will not just dissipate if you sweep it under the rug,” Grant said. “Racism and bigotry at the school level must be met face-to-face. Hate crimes must be approached with absolute clarity and straightforwardness that is transparent to the student body, parents, staff, administration and the community at large. OPRF has failed at taking these measures and still exhibits a desire to minimize and manage incidents. Marginalized students have an incredible amount of knowledge and methodology and best practices for fighting injustices the adult staff should take a cue from.”
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
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Twitter: @steveschering


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Chicago makes plans for first mass vaccination sites as health care workers outside hospitals are sl

Chicago makes plans for first mass vaccination sites as health care workers outside hospitals are slated for shots

“ That would be doctors ’ offices and COVID testing sites that are at higher risk for COVID , ” @ @ @ @ @ ’ re looking at which sites are doing a lot of COVID testing , where @ @ @ @ @ of positive tests , where do we see a lot of deaths ?
”

Chicago plans to open its first mass vaccination sites next week to help inoculate more health care workers against the coronavirus, the city’s top health official said Tuesday.
Vaccinations will be available by appointment only starting next week exclusively for health care workers in Chicago, city Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said. Further details will be coming later.
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Like in the rest of Illinois and the country, Chicago’s first wave of immunizations with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine focused on hospital staff members. But as shipments of a second vaccine from Moderna begin to arrive, the city will be expanding to include workers in outpatient facilities, Arwady said.
“That would be doctors’ offices and COVID testing sites that are at higher risk for COVID,” she said. “We’re looking at which sites are doing a lot of COVID testing, where are we seeing a lot of positive tests, where do we see a lot of deaths?”
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Arwady previewed the plan for the city’s first mass vaccination sites at a news conference at the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, left, elbow-bumps ER technician Demetrius Mcalister after Mcalister got a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination at St. Anthony Hospital in Chicago on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Earlier Tuesday, the trio visited St. Anthony Hospital in the South Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side and saw workers being vaccinated.
“Your health care workers out there are busting their tail to continue to provide top-notch care,” Adams said.
The surgeon general commended Illinois and Chicago on recent positive developments in their fight against the pandemic but said ongoing adherence to public health recommendations is needed to continue those trends.
State health officials on Tuesday reported 6,239 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, a significant jump from the 4,699 cases reported a day earlier, though health officials caution against reading too much into day-to-day fluctuations in the data.
The seven-day average of new cases statewide was down to 6,833 as of Tuesday, the lowest it’s been since the week ending Nov. 3, which was before the state started reporting both confirmed and probable cases.
In all, there have been 911,308 cases of COVID-19 in Illinois since the pandemic began.
The state also recorded 116 more fatalities Tuesday, bring the December death toll to 3,136, surpassing May as the deadliest month of the pandemic. There have been 15,414 coronavirus-related deaths statewide since March.
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Illinois averaged 129 deaths per day over the past week, still above the spring peak of 118 daily deaths in mid-May but down from an average of 146 deaths per day a week earlier.
The statewide case positivity rate — the percentage of positive cases as a share of total tests — reached a seven-day average of 7.4% for the week ending Monday, the lowest it’s been since late October, when Illinois and much of the nation were in the midst of a fall COVID-19 surge.
While Ezike, the state health director, has said Illinois as a whole didn’t see another surge in cases and positivity rate due to the Thanksgiving weekend, Arwady said Chicago is just starting to see its holiday-related upswing subside.
All three doctors encouraged the public the refrain from unnecessary travel and gathering with people outside of their own households over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--A patient saying over and over, ‘Please save my life,’ will forever be remembered. 2 Chicago nurses

A patient saying over and over, ‘Please save my life,’ will forever be remembered. 2 Chicago nurses who treated COVID-19 patients have been journaling their experiences.

Lindsey Gradone , a nurse practitioner in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital , kept a journal to @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 patients .
At the beginning of the pandemic , she said , `` There @ @ @ @ @ : It 's here and we 're going to fight this .
There was kind @ @ @ @ @ coach ' kind of a feel , '' she said .
`` But there 's @ @ @ @ @ there 's so much that 's unknown . ''

Lindsey Gradone, a nurse practitioner, and Blair Bobier, a stem cell transplant nurse, both at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, kept journals to document their time working with COVID-19 patients. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A dying man grabbing a nurse’s wrist, asking if God could save him. A patient celebrating a birthday, delighted to find out her nurse also had a birthday that week. A man with his mask on his chin at a Walgreens.
These moments are etched into the memories of two Chicago nurses who treated COVID-19 patients this year. And it has been a year like no other.
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Knowing she would want a record of what she experienced, Northwestern Memorial Hospital nurse Blair Bobier, 30, began keeping a journal. Lindsey Gradone, 34, a Northwestern nurse practitioner in the COVID-19 intensive care unit, felt the same and thought of how her family treasures her grandfather’s journal chronicling World War II, so she started her own.
In the beginning, the journal entries referenced a “novel coronavirus,” and recounted the stockpiling of toilet paper and how an entire floor was secured for virus patients. In March, Gradone wrote, “Within the past few weeks it’s started to spread globally.”
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The entries continue as the nurses treat a surge in patients, make call after call to frightened family members and hold the hands of the dying.
Blair Bobier, a stem cell transplant nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, prepares a chemotherapy treatment. Bobier kept a journal to document her time working with COVID-19 patients. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
“It goes beyond writing as a cathartic exercise,” Bobier said. “The written product itself is really important to me as a reminder of what I’ve been through, and a tribute to my patients and their families, and my co-workers.”
Before the pandemic, Bobier would write maybe one page in a journal, every now and again. This year, writing became a way to process what she saw. Even as an oncology nurse used to treating patients who might be dealing with unknowns, COVID-19 brought existential challenges, she said.
Similarly, for Gradone, writing became a way to keep memories alive of patients and their families. To remember them as people, even after they died. Family members sent photos of their loved ones that staffers posted on hospital room doors so nurses could see who they were without intubation, without illness. There were photographs of them on cruises, with their grandchildren, in better times.
“You can’t forget what this really means, what these numbers really looked like,” Gradone said. “What I’ve written and shared, it’s not unique. Ask every person who’s working in a COVID unit and they’ll have these same stories. And that’s what’s heartbreaking.”
Lindsey Gradone, a nurse practitioner in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, kept a journal to document her time working with COVID-19 patients. At the beginning of the pandemic, she said, "There was that bizarre adrenaline rush: It's here and we're going to fight this. There was kind of that 'put me in coach' kind of a feel," she said. "But there's also this fear of, there's so much that's unknown." (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
These are some of the details Gradone will remember when the pandemic is over: A tan line from a wedding ring that was removed. The sound of music playing from an iPad a patient’s wife loaded with their favorite songs. Holding the hand of a patient whose family missed his death by moments, telling him he was loved.
Both nurses allowed the Tribune a lens into their journals. They recount fears, and bright spots, like the moment Bobier entered a non-COVID-19 patient’s room that was filled with balloons and a half-eaten Mariano’s cake.
The journal kept by Lindsey Gradone, who wrote about her experiences working with COVID-19 patients. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
The number of COVID-19 cases in the intensive care unit “has really exploded,” Gradone wrote in April. That same day, she wrote, “It’s surreal to see so many people on vents.” She mentioned a friend with colleagues in New York being “completely overwhelmed.”
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The lines at Trader Joe’s reminded Gradone of a panic before a hurricane. She wrote that a family member told her not to be afraid, and she added the Bible verse the person recited: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Bobier was frustrated to see people in public spaces without masks. She saw firsthand what happened when someone contracted the virus. She wrote about a man with his mask under his chin as he passed by her in a Walgreens.
A journal entry by Blair Bobier, a stem cell transplant nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, recounts an encounter with a stranger at Walgreens. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
She commented that his mask was down, hoping he’d recognize it as a mistake. He told her to “grow up.” After this incident, she did not approach people publicly. But she never found a way to stanch the rage she still feels when people mock precautions that could keep them from becoming her patient.
In late summer, Gradone took a break from journaling. “It’s been difficult to keep writing,” she wrote in October. “I’ve been burned out and depressed.”
She said it was hard to watch patients be so isolated. Difficult to be the person who heard their final fears and pleas. She said she felt guilty when she issued orders for COVID-19 patients that required a staffer to go into their rooms, further exposing colleagues to the virus.
In September, she wrote, the unit had a string of “really sad deaths.”
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Recently, Bobier arrived at work and took over care for a patient with the virus. He was dying of cancer, and because he also now had COVID-19, he was transferred from hospice at home with family to being alone at the hospital.
Bobier said she writes to remember. But she will never forget his voice.
“Some of them are burned in my memories,” she said in an interview with the Tribune. “His voice, the over and over, ‘Please save my life,’ it will always be in my memory.”
Blair Bobier wrote about the time a patient asked if God could save him. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Personally, this time has been difficult for Bobier. She misses her extended family. She said she lost weight because she’s not eating at work over her concerns about germs. In October, she wrote about her husband being worried about her. “He’s right,” she journaled. “I’m not okay. I’m at a loss for ideas for what will make it better though.”
As a new wave of rising cases hit, she wrote, “When I think about this winter coming, all I think about is darkness. I don’t want to go back to COVID full time. I can’t quite place what about it, but I think it’s the idea of how isolating it all is.”
“I keep thinking,” she wrote, “about the day when I get to go on vacation somewhere with white, white sands and blue, blue water. I’ll fall to my knees in the sand and just cry.”
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Blair Bobier often wrote in her journal after hard days treating COVID-19 patients. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
When people asked what it was like to work with COVID-19 patients, Gradone was hesitant to share. People seemed interested in the dark details but not much more.
“You don’t get to read these stories and go to brunch,” she said. “You need to be part of the solution.”
Gradone found it increasingly hard to tell family members they couldn’t visit patients.
“Last night made me cry,” she wrote in a March entry.
She recounted a patient who “looked like a corpse.” She discussed end-of-life goals with his son and had to tell him his father could not have visitors. When he was closer to death, the family could say goodbye, but only for a few minutes, and in full protective gear. She wrote, “We were all tearful in that very quiet, very empty waiting room. I’ve never gotten so emotional during these conversations.”
Lindsey Gradone wrote about many of the deaths she witnessed and the pain of COVID-19 victims' families. "I think a lot of what I was writing and processing was the deaths, and what we've seen, and how tragic that was for patients to be alone," she said. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Just weeks earlier, she’d been at her own grandfather’s bedside as he died. She knew, she said, “how important it was to be able to be there, to hold someone’s hands.”
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One of Gradone’s patients got COVID-19 from a friend who thought he had allergies. That friend lived, but her patient died. She wrote, “I got to know him a little bit when he was awake and before he was intubated, but felt like I really found out who he was through talking with his wife.”
Another man’s kindness was evident from his wife’s stories. After he died, the wife called the ICU one more time, even though her husband was no longer there, to hear again he’d had everything possibly done to save him. Gradone could hear vacuuming in the background, as family worked to clean and sell his business.
“They were loved, and even if they didn’t do something extraordinary, they shouldn’t have died. And it was tragic,” Gradone said in the interview. “You just don’t want to forget the faces of the people who died from this.”
Lindsey Gradone struggled with how to comfort family members, who she often called day after day with updates. "You want so desperately to give them a good report," she said. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Both nurses spoke to the Tribune on the first day vaccines were rolled out across the U.S. That day, Bobier felt cautiously hopeful, saying it was “surreal.” She said, “I certainly have a lot of hope for it, but we’re definitely not out of the woods.”
Gradone felt similarly. She knows it will take more than one moment to erase this year.
“It’s really emotional,” she said. “It’s just good to feel some hope that this will end at some point.”
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Both nurses received a vaccine Dec. 18.
abowen@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Durbin says Illinois shouldn’t count on Washington for future pandemic aid to deal with state’s budg

Durbin says Illinois shouldn’t count on Washington for future pandemic aid to deal with state’s budget deficit

The governor has laid out $ 711 million in cuts but says that is only a first step and that @ @ @ @ @ more .
The state also has borrowed $ 3 billion under a loan program run @ @ @ @ @ which must be paid back in three years .
Pritzker had expected to use direct @ @ @ @ @ back the loan , funding Durbin says he pushed for .

Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Tuesday touted the benefits a combined pandemic and omnibus spending bill will have for Illinois while also warning Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers not to count on federal funds to help balance a budget filled with deficits fueled in part by a loss of tax revenues caused by COVID-19 restrictions.
In a call with reporters, the state’s senior senator noted the bill included funding for specific programs to help Illinois and Chicago, such as increased mass transit aid, support for airlines, restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as Great Lakes restoration and a first-time grant for federal health officials to study gun violence.
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But even with a new administration under former Vice President Joe Biden and the potential of a Democratic-led Senate, pending runoff elections in Georgia, Durbin said the fight for state and local pandemic relief would still run up against Republicans who claim it amounts to a bailout for mismanaged states.
“I wouldn’t make any assumption that money is coming from Washington for the help of the state. They have to prepare their budget on the possibility there’ll be no assistance,” Durbin said.
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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Nov. 10, 2020, on a probe of the FBI's Russia investigation. (Susan Walsh/AP)
“This bill … has provided a lot of assistance to states, but not in the substantial sums we were hoping,” he said.
Pritzker has forecast a $3.9 billion deficit for the budget year that ends June 30, attributing about half of the hole to tax revenues lost due to pandemic restrictions affecting business and jobs.
The governor has laid out $711 million in cuts but says that is only a first step and that legislators will have to do more. The state also has borrowed $3 billion under a loan program run by the Federal Reserve, which must be paid back in three years. Pritzker had expected to use direct federal relief dollars to pay back the loan, funding Durbin says he pushed for.
“I was hoping for and insisting on money for states like Illinois and for local units of government like Cook County and Chicago. There was resistance on the other side of the table. They were not accepting,” Durbin said.
“We are not rewarding mismanagement. We’re trying to find a formula that is fair across the board, and we certainly are not solving the pension problems of states. That is not our responsibility and that is not an undertaking which I endorse,” he said.
Illinois’ public employee pensions have the nation’s highest unfunded liability totaling $141 billion — up nearly $4 billion from last year.
“I believe that President(-elect) Joe Biden sees that differently (than Republicans), that it’s going to be a priority for him. And we’re ready for that fight if that’s what it takes to provide this money,” he said.
“The difficulty if we don’t is these units of government will have to lay off firefighters, policemen, health care workers, teachers. That’s exactly the wrong thing at this point in history.”
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Durbin was among eight centrist U.S. senators — four Democrat and four Republican — who helped broker the compromise leading to passage of a $900 billion pandemic relief package that includes a $300 federal stipend to unemployment checks and $600 in direct payments to taxpayers along with a variety of aid packages for various industries.
Durbin said as Democrats pulled state and local aid from their demands, Republicans agreed to withdraw their push for liability waivers for businesses hit with pandemic-related lawsuits. Durbin said studies have shown that such cases have resulted in only a few hundred lawsuits nationwide.
Durbin said the bipartisan group, meeting for weeks, sometimes twice a day, could become a factor in the new Congress with the new Biden administration.
“That’s a good thing to have a grassroots bipartisan effort in the Senate. It’s refreshing when you’re stalled for so many years in getting little or nothing done,” Durbin said. “So yes, I think this can be a force for change, whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in charge” of the Senate.
rap30@aol.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Final suspect in July 4 Natalia Wallace killing charged with murder

The surviving victim identified Boyd as the gunman he saw exit the rear driver-side door and fire shots .
A @ @ @ @ @ in the rear passenger area of the vehicle was positive for Boyd ’ s DNA @ @ @ @ @ Attorney James Murphy told the court .
Boyd was also identified in a photo by @ @ @ @ @ Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives who had previous dealings with him @ @ @ @

Nine-year-old Nathan Wallace holds balloons during a vigil July 5, 2020, for his 7-year-old sister Natalia Wallace, who was shot and killed as her family gathered to celebrate the July Fourth holiday in the South Austin neighborhood of Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The final suspect tied to a July 4 ambush shooting that killed a 7-year-old girl as she played with neighborhood children was denied bail Tuesday during a bond hearing broadcast on YouTube.
Kevin Boyd, 28, faces first-degree murder charges in Natalia Wallace’s death outside her grandparents’ home in the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue just after 7 p.m. on Independence Day. Boyd recently was extradited to Illinois after being arrested in Wisconsin. The man accused of being the getaway driver and two others, including Boyd’s older brother Terrell, have already been charged with murder.
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Kevin Boyd, 28, charged with three others with first-degree murder in the July 4, 2020, death of Natalia Wallace, 7. (Chicago Police Department)
Before Judge Mary C. Marubio, prosecutors said high-quality surveillance video on the block captured Boyd’s face as he exited the rear of a white 2016 Subaru Legacy and opened fire at a 32-year-old man who was walking in the direction of the children.
The surviving victim identified Boyd as the gunman he saw exit the rear driver-side door and fire shots. A black face mask later found in the rear passenger area of the vehicle was positive for Boyd’s DNA, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy told the court. Boyd was also identified in a photo by an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had previous dealings with him, Murphy added.
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All three shooters and the getaway driver belong to the 2 Risky street gang, prosecutors said. A third Boyd brother was killed June 29, prosecutors said, and members of 2 Risky believe that someone on Latrobe was responsible for that shooting, prosecutors said.
Boyd, a father of two young children, has been employed as a dishwasher at Red Lobster, according to his court-appointed attorney.
Marubio approved a request denying bail, citing the weight of the evidence, including the surveillance video, along with phone, social media and DNA evidence. She added that his flight to Wisconsin after the shooting and his attempt to fight extradition gave her concern that he is a flight risk.
He is scheduled to return to court next month.
Natalia was one of at least 50 children age 12 and younger to have been wounded or killed by gunfire in Chicago so far in 2020, among more than 4,000 people shot in the city, according to Tribune data.


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Holiday food distribution in Little Village

Cabrini-Green , the public housing complex once infamous nationwide as a symbol of crime and urban blight , has been @ @ @ @ @ two decades .
Its mostly black residents were scattered around the city , replaced by @ @ @ @ @ for wealthier white taxpayers .
At one time , the crime-ridden complex was home to @ @ @

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 9
Diana Franco, left, and Epi Diaz greet a customer as New Life Centers of Chicagoland holds its holiday food distribution in Little Village in Chicago, Dec. 22, 2020. New Life expanded its food distribution, in partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to meet the rising need in several West Side communities. The Little Village community, in particular, has been hard hit by COVID-19, including job losses and food insecurity. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)


Corrections and clarifications

Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune ’ s news responsibility and a value @ @ @ @ @ .
Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards .
Everyone in @ @ @ @ @ live up to this code of conduct .
Download the file .

· A caption on Page 1 on Monday for a story about hospital workers misspelled Dr. Shameeta Thanki’s first name.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
To report an error, fill out this form.


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Chicago judge puts ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star Erika Jayne on notice to not sell any of

Chicago judge puts ‘Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star Erika Jayne on notice to not sell any of her husband’s assets

“ Apparently these are clothes she is selling that belong to her .
I don ’ t know whether assets @ @ @ @ @ community property ( but ) if she ’ s selling assets that are property of @ @ @ @ @ or in part , you need to inform her of the danger that puts her @ @ @ @ @ attorney Matthew Wasserman .

A Chicago judge on Tuesday warned “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne not to sell any of her husband’s assets amid allegations that he misused $2 million in settlement money stemming from a fatal airline crash in Indonesia.
The admonition from U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin came a week after the judge froze the assets of Jayne’s husband, Thomas Girardi, and ordered him held in civil contempt in an attempt to recover funds owed to relatives of victims in the October 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610.
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Attorneys for Girardi, who represented about a dozen families who lost loved ones in the crash of the Boeing jet, have said that he has no ability to repay the missing money and that his law firm is insolvent.
On Friday, Chicago law firm Edelson PC alleged in a motion that Jayne, whose real name is Erika Girardi, was still offering “tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of her designer clothing on the secondhand market” even though her husband has a financial stake in the merchandise.
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“Simply put, the court froze all of Tom Girardi’s assets, and that means all community assets are frozen too,” the motion stated. “Erika Girardi must stop selling her clothes.”
The motion was withdrawn during Tuesday’s hearing since bankruptcy proceedings initiated in California against Girardi and his law firm, Girardi Keese, rendered the issue largely moot.
Erika Jayne appears at the 2019 E! People's Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty)
Durkin, though, told Jayne’s attorney that she should be on notice that selling anything owned by her husband would violate his order.
“Apparently these are clothes she is selling that belong to her. I don’t know whether assets she is selling are considered community property (but) if she’s selling assets that are property of Thomas Girardi, either whole or in part, you need to inform her of the danger that puts her in,” Durkin told attorney Matthew Wasserman.
The developments came after Edelson PC filed a separate lawsuit in Chicago alleging the couple continues to lead “notoriously lavish lifestyles” even as funds from the settlement have gone missing.
Among the expenditures alleged in the suit were $40,000 per month Jayne reportedly spends on maintaining her “look” and an exclusive table at a pricey Los Angeles steak joint.
The litigation is playing out in Chicago, where Boeing is headquartered. The crash was the first involving a 737 Max aircraft, which was later grounded and recently cleared to begin flights again.
Durkin, meanwhile, found Thomas Girardi has referred his contempt order to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago and granted prosecutors access to sealed documents in the case.
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Jayne, 49, is a pop singer who joined “The Real Housewives” on Season 6, which premiered in 2015. She’s known for her over-the-top designer outfits and her glam squad, which follows her around wherever she goes.
Her husband has also occasionally appeared on the show. She also had a turn on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.” In January, she made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the Tony-winning revival of “Chicago.”
Chicago Tribune’s Tracy Swartz contributed.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Watch live: Surgeon general, Illinois health officials hold news conference

U.S .
Surgeon General Jerome Adams , Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike and Chicago Department of @ @ @ @ @ Arwady will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. at the Thompson Center .

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chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Indiana officials add 143 deaths to coronavirus toll, up 40% in past month

The Indiana Department of Health ’ s daily update showed coronavirus hospitalizations going back over 3,000 as of Monday after @ @ @ @ @ Friday for the first time since Nov. 16 .
The COVID-19 hospitalizations are down about @ @ @ @ @ 30 but remain nearly four times higher than in September when the state ’ s @ @ @ @

Indiana’s COVID-19 deaths have jumped 40% in the past month, with health officials adding 143 coronavirus deaths to the state’s pandemic toll on Tuesday.
The Indiana Department of Health’s daily update showed coronavirus hospitalizations going back over 3,000 as of Monday after falling below that mark on Friday for the first time since Nov. 16. The COVID-19 hospitalizations are down about 10% since peaking Nov. 30 but remain nearly four times higher than in September when the state’s illness surge began.
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Health leaders have discouraged Christmas gatherings involving multiple households while warning it could be several months before the new vaccines become available to all residents.
Gov. Eric Holcomb and state health officials have scheduled a Tuesday afternoon briefing on the state’s coronavirus response.
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Most of the state’s newly recorded deaths occurred in the past week, but some dated to mid-November. Those deaths raised Indiana’s toll to 7,581, including victims with both confirmed and presumed infections.
The state’s seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 deaths has grown to 80 per day after that average was in the low 40s in mid-November and below 10 a day during July.


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

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

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

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


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

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

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


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 116 new deaths, 6,239 new confirmed and probable cases and 84,764

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 116 new deaths, 6,239 new confirmed and probable cases and 84,764 new test results

Illinois announced 6,239 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Tuesday for a total of 911,308 .
The state also @ @ @ @ @ a total of 15,414 and 84,764 new test results for a total of 12.61 million @

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


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--COVID-19 Q&A: Should people be concerned about the highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus

COVID-19 Q&A: Should people be concerned about the highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England? How can the medical field alleviate vaccine concerns for those in the Black community? Coronavirus questions answered.

Should Americans be concerned about the highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in the U.K. ?
How can we ease the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Black community ?
These are some of the many questions readers have sent us that we ’ ve put to health and science experts .
This resource will be updated as more questions arrive , so check back often .
Have your own pandemic question ?
Send it to the Tribune here .
Get the latest Chicago COVID-19 information and updates from Chicago Tribune reporters and editors on our COVID-19 Facebook page @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about a highly contagious coronavirus mutation circulating in England .
According to University of Chicago Medicine ’ s Dr. Allison Bartlett , who specializes in the medical management of acute and chronic infectious diseases , it is important that Americans be aware that this variant has been detected .
But because scientists actively have been looking for potential variants throughout the pandemic , news of mutations lets us know that the process is working .
“ This variant has multiple mutations , several of which are in the spike protein , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) cells and which is the target for the currently available vaccines , ” she said .
“ There are many parameters that influence transmission of SARS-CoV-2 ( COVID-19 ) .
The structure of the virus is one important parameter , but the behavior and environment of the population is critical as well .
Mask use , physical distancing , ventilation , hand-washing all impact the risk of transmission , and will remain effective and essential components of controlling the pandemic.
” Bartlett says the mutation news does not have an impact on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is no evidence to suggest that the spike protein in the variant is distinct enough that the current vaccines will not be effective .
“ The virus ( as with all viruses ) is constantly mutating .
Many mutations lead to dead ends ; some lead to virus that can be spread from person to person , ” Bartlett added .
“ Our hope is that when millions of people are vaccinated , there will be less virus circulating in the community and , therefore , fewer opportunities for mutations to develop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ develops that is not susceptible to the vaccine-derived immune response , that strain could spread from person to person if people have let down their guard and are not masking , physically distancing , etc.
” While the pandemic has affected all of our lives , it has disproportionately affected Black and brown communities .
Over one-third of Black adults in a June survey said they knew someone firsthand who ’ d died after contracting COVID-19 .
And yet , in a recent poll , fewer than half of Black Americans said they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Brandi Jackson and Brittani James discussed COVID-19 and the Black community in a Chicago Tribune Facebook Live .
James , a family practitioner with the University of Illinois health system and assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine , offered some suggestions on how to alleviate vaccine concerns for those in the Black community : “ Think of the people who will be trusted by the Black community , who are already trusted by the Black community , ” she said .
“ I ’ m talking about Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community centers , we turn to local activists , nonprofits .
Those are the people and the institutions , really , that the Black community trusts .
So , any intervention that is serious about getting their buy-in , you have to go through these authorities in the local community , Black and brown communities , to spread that message ( to take the vaccine ) .
From everything that I can evaluate , this is safe , not just for white people , for all people.
” “ When you ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fall into the trap of only attending to the potential side effects , ” she said .
“ The question people need to be asking is : How does that compare to what happens if I don ’ t get the vaccine ?
How does that compare to my risk of contracting and passing away from coronavirus ?
That number is so far from zero , that risk is not negligible , particularly if you ’ re in the Black community .
We know that being a Black person in America right now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white person of contracting and dying from COVID-19 .
So , you should think about that.
” The vaccine starts to work right away within the body , said University of Chicago Medicine infectious diseases expert Dr. Emily Landon .
In a Chicago Tribune Facebook Live , Landon explained how it signals our immune system : “ We create molecules that have our body make the proteins that basically act like a wanted poster for your immune system .
They say , ‘ This is what you ’ re looking for .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Although the vaccine starts to work right away , how long it takes until you ’ re immune or able to fight off the disease is hard to say .
Landon said with the Pfizer vaccine , about half of the time , data showed people had antibodies a few weeks after getting the vaccine .
Researchers are still learning about how long this might protect people .
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , it typically takes a few weeks for the body to provide protection , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be infected and become sick with COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination .
The first thing to understand , Landon said , is “ it ’ s not a single-file line.
” Rather , when the vaccine is released to approved populations , it will be groups of people that are first priority , second priority , third priority .
Groups of people will be able to get vaccines all at the same time .
And this is important to understand because there might not be enough vaccines for everyone in those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is able to be vaccinated .
So there might be some waiting , but , Landon added , “ It doesn ’ t matter too much in the grand scheme of things if you get vaccinated this Wednesday or next Wednesday.
” She added that you don ’ t have to go when your group is called .
You can wait until the next group , if you still have some concerns about some aspects of the vaccine .
For example , some people who are pregnant are assessing whether to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I am raring to go .
I am signing up right away for my first time.
” Given the speed with which these vaccines were developed and tested , what long-term safety concerns , if any , do you have ?
Landon emphasized that there aren ’ t long-term consequences of other vaccines we already know more about .
And for any issues that vaccines can cause , “ They start upfront .
They don ’ t start 10 years later.
” So with the data we already have , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to expect .
“ The short-term problems are all mild , ” she said .
“ They may not feel awesome to you , because you have a pretty bad headache and you may feel really tired afterwards .
But that is way better than having COVID.
” What should people with allergies know about the Pfizer vaccine , now that British regulators are investigating 2 possible allergic reactions ?
First , don ’ t panic , says Dr. William Schaffner , a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Society of America .
The recent news of possible allergic reactions is “ a bit of a surprise , ” he said , as this did not occur during Pfizer ’ s clinical trials .
But varying things can happen after a person is vaccinated — we are , after all , giving them to many different people .
The system is working as it should , he said .
Experts have detected this issue , and British officials are going to investigate further .
“ And they ’ ve said in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had allergies to other things , stand aside for the moment , and we ’ ll call you when we ’ re comfortable with this , ” Schaffner said .
If someone has already had COVID-19 , could they still get the vaccine ?
Yes , Schaffner said .
In fact , experts hope the vaccine will offer even more robust protection than whatever protection someone gets from the infection itself .
“ If you ’ ve had COVID before , that ’ s OK , ” he said .
“ You ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe reaction to the vaccine or anything like that.
” It ’ s hard to say , Schaffner said , and he knows this might be an unsatisfactory response .
He , too , is eager to find out .
“ Just as soon as we start vaccinating a large number of people that will be assessed , and we ’ ll just have to stay tuned for further information down the road , ” he said .
He would not offer any estimate , saying this is a new vaccine and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needed .
Pregnant women are commonly excluded from research , and have not been included so far in clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccine , despite groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists calling for their inclusion .
This is an issue , said Dr. Kathleen Neuzil , co-director of the National Institutes of Health ’ s COVID-19 Prevention Network , as many in the health care field are women .
Dr. Emily Miller , assistant professor in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Northwestern Medicine ’ s Feinberg School of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ balanced against the risk of not getting the vaccine , which is the risk of acquisition of ( COVID-19 ) , which has concrete and well-documented risks .
...
Through that lens , if we can remember that there is no zero-risk option , then the balance at this point favors receiving the vaccine.
” Women considering becoming pregnant will similarly have no available information on pregnancy after getting the vaccine .
Miller said she will be watching closely to see if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ’ s Advisory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidance .
She encourages patients to discuss their options with their health care provider .
The full impact of COVID-19 on alcohol use is not yet known , but rates of alcohol usage have been rising during the pandemic .
According to the World Health Organization , alcohol compromises the body ’ s immune system and increases the risk of adverse health outcomes .
The organization suggests people minimize their alcohol consumption — particularly during the pandemic .
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ( NIAAA ) has issued communications warning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A person ’ s pattern of alcohol consumption can have an impact on health , ” he said .
“ The current 2015-2020 guidelines suggest limiting drinks to up to one drink per day for women or two drinks per day for men .
Having one drink per day is not the same as having seven drinks all at once in a single day .
It ’ s best to spread them out as recommended in the guidelines.
” Need to get tested for COVID-19 during the post-Thanksgiving rush ?
Here ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affordable options .
Start with your primary care doctor ; many doctors offer in-office testing .
If you don ’ t have a doctor who does testing , then rapid testing , in-home testing or drive-thru testing are options .
If an option is not affordable enough or closed to you due to restrictions , try crowdsourcing information to get up-to-date information about local testing sites , appointment availability , cost and wait times .
Looking for a rapid test with same-day results ?
Those tests are best for people who actually have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nurse and vice president of operations for Northwestern Medicine Immediate Care .
If you don ’ t have symptoms , the PCR test , which can detect very small amounts of the coronavirus , is a better choice , she said .
For those who care more about convenience than cost , private clinics offer shorter waits .
Many require upfront payments of $ 175 to $ 300 .
If you want to submit a claim to your insurance company , check the rules for coverage .
Your insurer may require that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctor .
Is it OK to travel if you don ’ t have any co-morbidities , and is it possible to do so safely ?
The short answer is no , according to Dr. Gregory Poland , professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the Mayo Clinic .
“ The other side of the coin is the more times you bring more people together , the greater the risk for super spreader and transmissibility , ” he continued .
“ So that healthy 22-year-old may have an upper respiratory mild symptom , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can spread the virus to the people he walks by , or sits next to , or in that airplane with him .
So it actually does add risk.
” Poland predicts that there ’ s going to be a “ continued exponential increase ” in COVID-19 cases , followed by increases in hospitalizations and deaths , he said .
“ So it makes absolutely no sense to be traveling right now — unless you have no possible alternative.
” To some degree , that does cut down on exposure , as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll encounter and who will encounter you , Poland said .
Yet , the current surge stems from small gatherings , he said .
“ Here ’ s what ’ s driving a lot of this current surge : It is this seemingly deceptively safe family gatherings and small group gatherings , ” Poland said .
“ So when your relatives drive a day or two to come and see you , now both of you are trading whomever you ’ ve been in contact with at school , work , church ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and so you ’ re just giving more and more opportunity.
” “ You would drive , you would quarantine — as you say — the two weeks before , ” he said .
“ You might even get a test to be sure that even though you ’ re asymptomatic , that you ’ re not infected .
You would then drive without staying in a hotel or going to restaurants .
You ’ d have a procedure for how you ’ d get gas and go to the bathroom.
” Once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not stay in the same house as other family members , or at least sleep on different floors , he said .
When sharing common areas , everyone would wear masks and maintain their distance .
Meals would have be to eaten in separate rooms .
“ So do you really want to do all that ?
” Poland asked .
“ Or do you want to say , like our family is saying , ‘ We ’ re really thankful that everybody ’ s in good health , and we want everybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people test positive , they should isolate themselves immediately , said Robert Citronberg , Advocate Aurora Health ’ s executive medical director of infectious disease and prevention .
Isolate for 10 days from the onset of symptoms .
If someone tested positive but never had symptoms , they should isolate 10 days from the date of the positive test .
Here ’ s the good news : those who test positive can still go outside .
“ Truthfully , if you ’ re cooped up inside your house for 10 days you may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Citronberg said .
They should wear a mask and avoid being close to people , but it ’ s OK to get some fresh air .
What can college students do to best protect themselves and their families when they come home for the holidays ?
No matter what students do , it won ’ t be without risk , Citronberg said .
If any family members at home are high risk , students should be especially cautious .
He recommends two layers of testing — one test before leaving campus and another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s what he acknowledged will be the tough part : Until you have passed the 14-day incubation period , everyone should remain masked inside the home except while eating .
Families should try to eat separately .
He recommends remaining masked until 14 days after the student last had other social contact .
It might be mandated for people at high risk , but likely not for the general population , said Tina Tan , pediatric infectious disease physician at the Feinberg School of Medicine .
She noted there is not enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children or pregnant women , for example , who have not been included in trials .
Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine may be 90 % effective .
The vaccine uses genetic code that trains the immune system to recognize the spiked protein on the surface of the virus .
How does it work ?
Pfizer , which is developing the vaccine with its German partner BioNTech , is among four candidates already in huge studies in the U.S. , with still more being tested in other countries .
Another U.S. company , Moderna @ @ @ @ @ @ @ application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month .
Neither company ’ s shot is made with the coronavirus itself .
Instead , the vaccine contains a piece of genetic code that trains the immune system to recognize the spiked protein on the surface of the virus .
It ’ s called a messenger RNA vaccine .
( A refresher on basic biology : DNA is transcribed , or copied , into RNA , which then makes proteins that carry out the actual work of living cells .
Molecules called messenger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DNA to proteins . )
Chemist and biochemist Chuan He , the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago , says what Pfizer has done has taken advantage of the basic knowledge about messenger RNA generated in the last several decades .
“ mRNA therapy in the vaccine field supplies proteins that mimic viral proteins to induce an immune response , ” he said .
“ mRNA comes in , will express the encoded protein for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response , then the immune cells will keep this memory .
The RNA is gone and your body goes back to its normal state , but your immune cells have been trained by the presence of this foreign protein produced from the delivered mRNA.
” Pfizer ’ s news , however , doesn ’ t mean a vaccine will be here soon .
Pfizer ’ s study is continuing , and the company cautioned that the protection rate might change as more COVID-19 cases are added to the calculations .
Scientists have warned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be only as good as flu vaccines , which are about 50 % effective and require yearly immunizations .
Earlier this year , Fauci said he would be happy with a COVID-19 vaccine that was 60 % effective .
Chicago ’ s travel quarantine list moved Nov. 10 from a list of states under travel quarantine orders to a color-coded list comparing the rate of infection here with other states .
Under the original version of the emergency travel order , states were added to the list when they had an infection rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and were removed once the daily case average remained below that rate for two consecutive weeks .
The city ’ s new color-coded list will be updated every two weeks .
Visitors of red states will face fines of $ 100 to $ 500 per day if they don ’ t quarantine , according to the city .
Those who visit orange-listed states are subject to the same fines if they don ’ t have a negative COVID-19 test or quarantine .
There are exceptions based on how long travelers spend in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Indiana or Wisconsin state line to or from Chicago to work or go to school will be exempt from the quarantine rule .
But workers in Chicago from Indiana will be expected to avoid restaurants , bars and other public spaces in the city .
Read on for the rolling list of states on Chicago ’ s orange and red lists .
The Illinois Department of Public Health encourages people to get tested before and after any gatherings and to curb activities outside their homes before getting together .
The Centers for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk Thanksgiving plans include celebrating only with those who already live in your home , or a virtual dinner with friends and family .
People who want to get tested for COVID-19 before the holidays are looking at two basic types of tests .
One is an antigen test , which looks for specific proteins on the surface of the virus and often returns results within 15 minutes .
However , it is not considered as accurate as the other type of test , a molecular test , such as a PCR test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s genetic material .
It can take a day to a week for results , depending on the testing facility .
“ At this time the CDC estimates that on average immunity to COVID-19 lasts about 3 months , making re-infection before that time unlikely , ” wrote Pho .
“ Chances go up the more someone is exposed to the virus.
” Is there any way to safely have an indoor holiday gathering with a small group of family , around six people ?
Should we quarantine for two weeks prior or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , if you do choose to congregate with loved ones for the holiday season , he suggests keeping groups small and spending most of the time outside .
Masks should be worn , said Singer , and social distancing rules should be followed .
The risk isn ’ t gone , but these precautions can “ reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.
” Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said Nov. 5 that even though we all desire to spend the holidays with friends and family , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not , she said previously , it could result in a funeral down the line .
“ Perhaps this holiday — as we have already done for most of 2020 — we are going to have to do it COVID-style , and that means virtual , ” she said .
“ We ’ ll have to stay at home and forego the large gatherings so that we will have future events that we can be with our friends and family.
” “ Travel will increase your chances of contracting and spreading COVID-19 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as will having multiple people in your home for Thanksgiving , ” she said .
“ So in terms of travel , we do recommend avoiding travel to areas of higher risk , but as you are seeing , that is almost everywhere.
” What is the risk of eating or meeting outside , and not socially distancing from people sitting at the table , especially when we ’ re all from different households and all have been following different levels of precautions ?
While spending time outdoors has been said to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some degree , Singer reiterates that there is no “ risk-free gathering.
” In May , when the state was beginning to reopen and loosen restrictions after the quarantine period , the general rule of thumb for meeting up with friends was that outside is better than inside , and masks are better than no masks , said Dr. Emily Landon , executive medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at the UChicago Medicine .
What is the most recent breakdown of age groups that have died of COVID-19 ?
There have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as of Nov. 5 since the start of the pandemic .
A breakdown on those deaths by age , race and gender can be found here .
Data on available hospital beds and ventilators can also be found on the same page .
Is it safe to visit your doctors if you ’ re at higher risk now ?
What about colonoscopies and other scoping procedures ?
How serious is the potential for ocular transmission of COVID ?
Should I wear goggles when in proximity to others , like on an airplane or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are receptors for the virus present in the structures of the eye , but this route ( of transmission ) is less common , ” explained Pho .
“ In situations where masking and social distancing can ’ t be guaranteed , such as in crowded places , or more enclosed areas like airplanes , I do recommend wearing eye protection .
I also strongly recommend them for people who are knowingly in close proximity to someone who is infected , such as caregivers for household members with COVID-19.
” Could we make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death tolls by changing our diet and health habits ?
How does your personal health increase or decrease your chances of COVID-19 complications or death ?
Which health conditions are mostly linked to higher death tolls ?
While pursuing a healthy lifestyle with good eating habits and regular exercise can be beneficial , Pho says prevention methods are the best way to evade COVID-19 and the complications that can come with it .
“ Avoiding exposure to the virus through masking , social distancing and hand sanitizing are essential , ” she wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even if masks aren ’ t 100 % effective at preventing all infections , they reduce the amount of virus ... that is inhaled , leading to an overall milder illness.
” Older age , pregnancy , medications that weaken the immune system and medical conditions including diabetes , chronic kidney disease , heart disease , obesity , sickle cell disease and more can increase the risk for severe complications or death in someone who has contracted the virus , said Pho .

Alison Bowen, Christen A. Johnson, Darcel Rockett


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Chicago mariachis sing farewell to fellow player Florentino Chavez


chicagotribune--2020-12-22--Read Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s letter to the City Council on the Anjanette Young case

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has enlisted former federal judge Ann Claire Williams to lead an outside investigation into the Anjanette Young @ @ @ @ @ how it was handled , she wrote in a letter to the City Council .
@ @ @ @ @ read the full story here .

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has enlisted former federal judge Ann Claire Williams to lead an outside investigation into the Anjanette Young Chicago police raid case and how it was handled, she wrote in a letter to the City Council. Read the letter below and read the full story here.