chicagotribune--2020-08-05--A gentle force in folk music, Chicago musician Michael Smith is dead at 78

“ I know I was so fortunate to be around such gifted people as Steve , John and Michael , @ @ @ @ @ lives with her husband , writer Bob Wolf , in Iowa .
“ People talk @ @ @ @ @ ago when we were young and so involved in our music .
It was not @ @ @ @ @ was who all of us were .
What a gift to interpret Michael ’ s @ @ @ @ @ so full and interesting .
When I sing his ‘ Crazy Mary , ’ it @ @ @ @ @ little short film .
It has remained fresh and beautiful to me for over a @ @ @ @ @ I loved the literary sense that underpinned all his songs , making them work on @ @ @ @ @ What beautiful gems he has left us , waiting for new interpretations .
”

Long ago at a Miami coffeehouse, Chicago’s Steve Goodman sat in the back, jotting down in the darkness the words to a song being sung by the man onstage.
The man was Michael Smith, the song was “The Dutchman” and it would be a recording hit for Goodman and for many others. It was just one of the hundreds of songs and millions of words Smith gave to the worlds of music and theater in a long and lauded career.
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Smith was, in one word, enchanting.
Rolling Stone magazine once called him “the greatest songwriter in the English language” and earlier this month, the American Songwriter online magazine fairly compared him to the recently deceased John Prine, writing that both men “imbued their songs with heartfelt, sentimental tenderness. Each of them wrote lyrics of unforced grace and elegance, using language wistful and concise to create genuinely poignant songs.”
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Erudite, engaging and wildly prolific, Michael Peter Smith, a creative force on the music and theatrical scenes, died Monday of colon cancer at age 78. He had been staying at the home of his longtime collaborator, manager and devoted friend Jamie O’Reilly and died in his own apartment cared for by his three sisters.
On Tuesday morning O’Reilly said, “It came peacefully.”
Michael Peter Smith was born Sept. 7, 1941 in South Orange, N.J., then a rowdy factory town that would have a profound influence on his music. He spent $15 to buy his first guitar and was soon performing in a series of local bands.
After his family moved to Florida, he attended college and performed, notably in a steady, six-nights-a-week-for-three-years engagement at The Flick Coffeehouse. That is where Goodman saw him and where he met musician Barbara Barrow, who would become his wife and musical partner.
They made a record for Decca Records and lived in Los Angeles for short time. The record bombed and after Goodman’s recording of “The Dutchman” became a hit, Smith and Barrow were drawn to Chicago, where they settled and quickly became part of a thriving folk music scene. They performed with the other grand talents in that realm, which included Goodman, Prine, Bonnie Koloc, Jim Post, Ed Holstein (and his brother, Fred, who died in 2004), Corky Siegel and others. They played all the memorable venues, such as the Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else’s Troubles, Holstein’s, No Exit and Orphans.
Folk musician Michael Peter Smith. A folk musician who also wrote for the stage, his song "The Dutchman" was popularized by Steve Goodman. (Kevin Viol photo/HANDOUT)
It will stun some of those who met Smith later in life and knew him as a sunny personality to learn that he was then, as he once told Tribune reporter Lynn Van Matre, “an uptight, unpleasant young man. I prided myself on telling people exactly what I thought. I had this idea that being grossly frank went hand in hand with being an artist, even if my abrasiveness alienated a lot of people, including club owners. And the more people were in a position to help me, the quicker I was to let them know I didn’t need them. Boy, I said some unbelievable things.”
He was ever admired by fellow performers.
“I know I was so fortunate to be around such gifted people as Steve, John and Michael,” said Koloc, who lives with her husband, writer Bob Wolf, in Iowa. “People talk about those days so long ago when we were young and so involved in our music. It was not a passing fad. It was who all of us were. What a gift to interpret Michael’s songs. Words and music so full and interesting. When I sing his ‘Crazy Mary,’ it’s like a visual little short film. It has remained fresh and beautiful to me for over a long span of time. I loved the literary sense that underpinned all his songs, making them work on more than one level. What beautiful gems he has left us, waiting for new interpretations.”
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As the folk boom went bust by the late 1970s, Smith worked as a clerk for Time magazine, infrequently playing in public and teaching at the Old Town School.
He never stopped writing his happy, sad, poignant, occasionally satirical songs and by the mid-1980s began to regularly perform again, often accompanied by Anne Hills.
In 1988, he collaborated with director Frank Galati on a Steppenwolf Theatre adaptation of John Steinbeck’s magisterial novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” The highly anticipated show was given a lukewarm review upon opening by the Tribune’s Richard Christiansen. But he found a bright spot, writing that “using Michael Smith’s original score and Steinbeck’s words as lyrics, creates much of whatever vitality the production enjoys. The brief musical segment adapted from the novel’s chapter on conniving used-car salesmen is one of the show’s few unalloyed joys.”
The show would go on to play Broadway (winning 1990 Tony Awards for best play and best director) and, after staying with that show for nearly three touring years, Smith would go one to write and perform a biographical play titled “Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate” at Victory Gardens Theater. Essentially a one-man musical show based on his memories of growing up with three younger sisters in New Jersey and his discovering folk music via the Kingston Trio, it was often warm and affecting, though shadowed by the suicide of their hard-drinking father.
In 2000 with Barrow, Mark Dvorak, and Chris Walz, he created Weavermania, celebrating the works of the Weavers. They performed together for more than a decade.
With O’Reilly, he would create, perform and record “Pasiones: Songs of the Spanish Civil War,” followed by their delightful “Hello Dali” (songs for a show about art), “Scarlet Confessions” (with Hills), and a holiday CD/show collaboration with O’Reilly of “The Gift of the Magi.” All enjoyed runs at various theaters here and elsewhere. He also composed the score for a production of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” which he and Barrow performed beginning in 2006.
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There would be more concerts, more songs and more albums, including “Such Things Are Finely Done” and the soundtrack to a children’s production he wrote and performed called “The Selfish Giant,” featuring the puppet wizardry of Blair Thomas.
Early in 2019, a GoFundMe page was launched to help raise funds for Barrow, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It quickly raised more than three times its $15,000 goal. Barrow would die in February of this year, ending the pair’s 52 years of marriage.
Smith spent his last weeks in home hospice care, first at O’Reilly’s home and then in his own apartment, cared for by his sisters.
Assessing Smith’s career, Tribune Critic Chris Jones said, “Michael was a crucial and highly influential link between Chicago’s folk scene and its renowned and growing theater community, especially on the streets of Old Town and Lincoln Park. His brand of musical storytelling at Steppenwolf or Victory Gardens brought together two of the city’s most important homegrown cultural strands, forging a connection that defined a populist aesthetic with which others could and did run.”
If you ever saw Smith, it is unlikely you will ever forget him. If you did not, so much of his material, his more than 500 songs, can be found at various internet sites, including jamieoreilly.com.
Shortly before his death, he spoke to O’Reilly, assessing his life.
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She wrote down what he said. What he said was, "I realize my life was totally complete and everything I asked for in my life was there. Was there for me. And I felt so grateful. I felt so grateful. I had a wonderful true-life adventure."
Smith is survived by a daughter, Colleen, from a previous marriage as well as a granddaughter and great-granddaughter, brother Leo and sisters Pat, Margaret, and Kate. Adhering to Smith’s wishes, there is no public memorial planned.
rkogan@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-05--Chicago police officer shot in leg in Lawndale; suspect in custody, police say

An Ogden District officer was shot in the thigh about 3:40 a.m. Wednesday in the 1300 block of South Lawndale @ @ @ @ @ , police said .
The officer , who has been with the department for two @ @ @ @ @ taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition .

A Chicago police officer was shot in the leg on the West Side early Wednesday after responding to a domestic call and a suspect was in custody, according to Chicago police.
An Ogden District officer was shot in the thigh about 3:40 a.m. Wednesday in the 1300 block of South Lawndale Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. The officer, who has been with the department for two to three years, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition.
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“This is the fourth officer struck by gunfire from suspects in the last week. It just speaks to the courage, bravery and dedication of the Chicago Police Department,” police Superintendent David Brown told reporters outside Mount Sinai early Wednesday.
Before the shooting, the officer and his partner responded to a domestic-related call involving the man, Brown said.
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The man was on the third floor of a three-flat style greystone apartment building and was speaking to officers from a window of the building, police said. Officers spoke with the man and “deployed de-escalation tactics,” but the man took out a handgun and fired “several” rounds at the officers, who were standing at ground level, Brown said.
CPD Superintendent addresses the media about the officer shot at 13/Lawndale this morning.
- Officer and partner responded to a domestic call that included the male suspect.
- They were talking to the man at one point and tried to deescalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/GHf4nPPImb — Paige Fry (@paigexfry) August 5, 2020
It’s not yet clear why the man started firing at officers, Brown said. Officers did not return fire during the shooting.
After the man stopped firing, officers entered the residence and took the man into custody.
The suspect has been convicted in the past of a felony gun offense, Brown said.
A woman, who was the man’s partner, and a child, whose age was not specified, were inside the residence and “are doing OK,” Brown said.
This shooting comes less than a week after three officers were struck by gunfire outside a Northwest Side police station. One officer, a 16-year veteran, was shot under his chin and seriously injured. The other two officers suffered minor injures during the gunfire.
[ Morning exchange of gunfire at Chicago police station leaves 3 officers and a suspect injured ]
The 25-year-old suspect in the shooting outside the Grand Central Police District had a concealed gun and had just been arrested and was handcuffed. He opened fire on an officer who opened the rear door of his police vehicle when they arrived at the station to transfer him to a lockup.
Three officers returned fire during that shooting. As many as 60 rounds were fired in total. The suspect was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he remained in custody.
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“There are officers doing this in unprecedented time and challenging time with not only the pandemic and civil unrest but also the push against police,” Brown said. “And yet officers are continuing to risk everything to protect this city.”
The block where the shooting happened was the scene of an attack last month that left five people injured in a shooting. The shooting July 20 left people ages 31 to 63 with gunshot wounds.
Check back for updates.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-08-05--Community colleges may draw more students this fall as parents balk at paying high tuition for remot

Community colleges may draw more students this fall as parents balk at paying high tuition for remote learning

“ If a bunch of students who are committed to four-year schools in the next three weeks say , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m just not doing that .
I ’ m going to defer for a @ @ @ @ @ m going to withdraw and reapply a year from now or six months from now @ @ @ @ @ we definitely could see a bump in community college enrollments , ” Rhyneer said .

Darius Rindell pushes a dent out of a car hood during a paintless dent repair class at College of Lake County in Grayslake in July. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
It’s quiz day in Robert Gynn’s public speaking class at the College of Lake County, and he’s reviewing material on a whiteboard for the students — all six of them, sitting in nearly empty rows and staggered from one another.
As Gynn discusses the week’s readings, he adjusts his disposable mask whenever it starts to droop below his nose. He calls on a student to repeat an exercise out loud, but a face covering muffles her response: “I can’t hear you,” Gynn says. “You’ve got to say it louder.”
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And in the back of the classroom, paper towels and a bottle of disinfectant sit on a cabinet, ready for use.
Speech instructor Robert Gynn leads a class at College of Lake County in July. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
There’s no escaping the reminders that the college’s Grayslake campus, which is offering a limited number of in-person classes this summer, faces a slew of challenges as it tries to reconvene learning in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The summer classes have been shortened to five weeks, and attendance is capped well below capacity. Gynn’s class, for example, typically has up to 26 students.
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Yet in some ways, community colleges are better equipped to weather the pandemic than traditional four-year universities. Unlike larger institutions, community colleges don’t rely on revenue from residence halls — which will plummet if students don’t return to campus for fear of getting sick.
And local two-year colleges could become more appealing to families who don’t want to pay top-dollar tuition for virtual instruction. Very few universities are discounting the cost of attendance despite offering most classes online.
Over the summer, several community colleges in Illinois — including College of Lake County, Harper College in Palatine and College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn — reported upticks in enrollment. Now, the colleges are watching to see if that trend continues for fall.
Madeleine Rhyneer, vice president and dean of enrollment at the education research firm EAB, said the numbers will likely fluctuate until classes start next month and students are forced to make final decisions.
“If a bunch of students who are committed to four-year schools in the next three weeks say, ‘You know what? I’m just not doing that. I’m going to defer for a year ... or I’m going to withdraw and reapply a year from now or six months from now,’ then I think we definitely could see a bump in community college enrollments,” Rhyneer said.
The situation is not entirely unprecedented. After the Great Recession, community colleges and vocational schools offering programs in cosmetology and automotive training saw enrollment spike by 20% and 7%, respectively, according to EAB. But researchers warn that today’s economic conditions are distinct and note that community colleges have become less popular since enrollment peaked in 2010, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
Local community colleges say it’s still too early to predict how fall enrollment will shape up. None was reporting increases just yet but emphasized that many students prefer to make selections closer to the deadline and could be waiting for four-year schools to finalize their plans.
At the College of DuPage, President Brian Caputo said that new student applications are up about 4% compared with last year, noting that affordability could be enticing more families.
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“We’re certainly optimistic that there will be some sort of bump, but we’re also realistic in that there’s a lot of different variables going on,” Caputo said.
According to College Board estimates, average tuition at two-year community colleges costs $3,440 for local residents, while public four-year universities cost $9,410 for in-state students. The state is divided into 39 community college districts that offer special rates to residents.
For families weighing their options, Caputo summed up the dilemma this way: “Why go to a four-year school and sit in a dorm to take something less than full face-to-face courses and pay precipitously more?”
‘We are gaining more students’
Jose Garcia leans over the hood of a car in College of Lake County’s auto shop ― a large garage where an old SUV is hoisted on a platform and there’s plenty of room for students to space out at individual work stations.
Garcia always wears protective goggles in the shop but the mask, a KN95 that filters air particles, is a new addition that can make breathing more laborious. Nevertheless, Garcia tries to maintain his focus as he smooths out dents on the metal before him.
Though Garcia initially worried about returning to the shop during the pandemic, the 32-year-old Waukegan resident said he’s glad to be back after spring classes abruptly moved online and feels safe with the new protocols.
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“It’s better doing it in person,” Garcia said. “It’s hands-on, and I learn more hands-on. I think it’s better doing it (in person), that way I will be trained better.”
Garcia attends school full time — the auto classes are held for several hours three times a week — and didn’t want to delay his degree. There’s only four other students in the shop, and they’ve all been given their own tool boxes to minimize interactions.
Vocational programs are a major component of the College of Lake County’s five-week summer session, which included classes in manufacturing and hospitality and culinary management. Traditional courses in English composition, ethics and Gynn’s speech class were also available to students.
Emma Burdett, of Round Lake, displays her finished buffalo chicken wings plate during a culinary class at College of Lake County in July. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Though the term was shortened, summer enrollment jumped compared with last year, according to data provided by spokeswoman Lindsey Nemcek.
About 7,300 students took summer classes at College of Lake County, which also has campuses in Waukegan and Vernon Hills, for a total of 35,582 credit hours. Last summer, 6,760 students took classes and completed 31,318 credit hours. Even more students, however, signed up in the summers of 2017 and 2016, the data shows.
College of Lake County declined to share numbers for fall 2020, but Nemcek said in late July, “we are gaining more students as we get closer to August.” Fall classes begin Aug. 24 with in-person, hybrid and fully online formats.
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Colleges take ‘wait-and-see approach’
During times of high unemployment, community colleges typically see more demand for career training and professional development, said Brian Durham, executive director of the Illinois Community College Board.
But even that well-documented trend might be altered by the pandemic. Vocational classes at community colleges often rely on experiential learning, but students might be hesitant to return due to health concerns.
Students sits one per row and wear masks as they listen to instructor Robert Gynn during a speech class at College of Lake County in Grayslake in July. Six students were present, with a room capacity for nine. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
“You can’t be a welder without having actually done a weld,” Durham said. “You may be able to learn English composition online, but you really need to work in the shop and do some welding in order to do that, so there are many occupational areas that require face-to-face.”
The state’s community college board, which oversees 48 community colleges and one consortium across the state, does not collect enrollment data for the summer and fall numbers won’t be available until October, Durham said. Though community colleges are well-positioned to welcome more students, most schools seem to be taking a “wait-and-see approach,” and nearly everyone in higher education is worried about fall attendance, Durham said.
Another major concern, Durham said, is that students might choose to pause their studies or opt out of college altogether because of cost or other uncertainties. To combat that, the board recently launched a messaging campaign against the gap year, instead encouraging students to enroll at their local community college and earn credits that can be transferred to another institution.
Fall numbers at Harper, the College of DuPage and Oakton Community College are all down compared with last year, but the schools predict that will change as the semester approaches.
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At Harper, for example, summer enrollment climbed by 15% from last year, but fall is behind by about 4%, said spokeswoman Kim Pohl. It’s possible the numbers are lagging because Harper opened registration six weeks later this year in order to monitor the pandemic, Pohl said.
“While enrollment for continuing students is up, we’re seeing a number of prospective new students delaying making a decision,” Pohl said in an email. “Many have shared that they are waiting to see what four-year colleges and universities are doing for the fall.”
At City Colleges of Chicago, the picture was less certain. The network of seven schools did not see an uptick in summer enrollment, and a spokeswoman said it was too early to determine fall enrollment, noting that many students usually wait until the final week to register for classes.
It’s also possible that many students who dropped out of programs will sign up again following the city’s recent announcement that those who had not completed their degree or certificate in the last decade can now do so debt-free.
Despite all the debate about fall 2020, Rhyneer said the greatest effects on college enrollment are still to come.
When the pandemic hit, students nearing the end of their college selection process might have been more reluctant to change their plans after persuasive campus visits and other recruitment incentives.
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But with a fresh admissions process about to get underway, students applying for college now might be thinking more about the pandemic, Rhyneer said.
“Oftentimes, enrollment bumps are lagging indicators of economic disruption rather than leading indicators,” she said. “If COVID-19 goes on for a really long time and if there’s not a vaccine, I actually think there may be even a more significant impact in the fall of 2021.”
echerney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-05--Chicago Public Schools is expected to announce move to remote learning after Chicago Teachers Union

Chicago Public Schools is expected to announce move to remote learning after Chicago Teachers Union threatens to strike again: sources

“ And again , the more our numbers are going up in Chicago , the more concern I have about @ @ @ @ @ cases increase , the risk of people having COVID , especially asymptomatic COVID , does @ @ @ @ @ said .

People hold signs during a Occupy City Hall Protest outside the Thompson Center in Chicago on Aug. 3, 2020. The Chicago Teachers Union hosted the caravan rally to City Hall for more than 20 community groups and parent organizations as part of a nationwide action day demanding no in-person school. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Public Schools is expected to announce as soon as Wednesday an all-remote learning plan to start the school year amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a move that could avert a potential Chicago Teachers Union strike, sources said.
The switch to an all-remote learning plan could come as the CTU plans to convene its House of Delegates next week to consider a process that eventually could lead to a strike if CPS doesn’t agree to start the school year with full remote learning, sources said Tuesday. The union’s governing body includes members representing schools from across the city.
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A city source emphasized the decision had nothing to do with a potential teachers strike.
Parents and guardians of the district’s 355,000 students have been eyeballing this Friday as the deadline to inform CPS whether their pupils would attend in-person classes or stay home. CPS educators contacted by the Tribune said they were still waiting for word on the plan Tuesday afternoon.
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Educator unions nationwide, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers, have said they’d support local unions if insufficient COVID-19 precautions on the part of school districts lead to “health and safety strikes.” The CTU’s bylaws require a full membership vote to authorize a strike after the matter comes before the House of Delegates, the union’s governing body, whose members represent schools throughout the city.
People hold signs during an Occupy City Hall protest, hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union and more than 20 community groups, outside of the Thompson Center in Chicago on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Earlier Tuesday, however, Chicago’s health commissioner said she wants children learning in classrooms this fall “if the outbreak is broadly in control.”
Dr. Allison Arwady warned that lots of COVID-19 spread in Chicago is taking place right now within households, going so far as to suggest people living with at-risk family members consider social distancing and wearing masks within their homes.
But speaking days before the deadline that CPS set for parents to decide whether to let their children attend classes in person two days per week starting in September, she also said if the city’s pandemic numbers look good, she feels the schools can handle in-person learning safely.
Dozens of Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters take part in street theater outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters in Chicago on July 22, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
“Where the child is at school wearing a mask with the social distancing, with the appropriate procedures in place, I honestly do not think the risk of spread is significant,” Arwady said at her weekly news conference about the city’s travel list. “I wouldn’t be promoting this if I thought it was.”
Arwady didn’t talk specifics, but she and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have pointed to an 8% positivity rate or a seven-day average of 400 new cases per day in Chicago as benchmarks that could indicate the virus is too out of control to risk in-person learning.
Chicago’s positivity rate is currently 4.8%, and the daily case count is at 273 and rising, Arwady said Tuesday.
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Lightfoot’s point person on the pandemic made her comments a day after members of the CTU, parents and students descended on City Hall to protest the mayor’s plan to potentially reopen schools in the fall with a “hybrid model” where children attend classes two days a week and learn from home the other three.
A Chicago Teachers Union member rides a bike as he and several cars drive past City Hall in Chicago during a protest and caravan on Aug. 3, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
CTU President Jesse Sharkey on Monday said it’s not appropriate to have in-person learning “in an environment with raging contagion,” and that the union won’t stand for it.
“The mayor does not have the guts to close the schools,” Sharkey said outside CTU headquarters. “They’re putting it on us to close the schools. That’s what we feel like is happening.”
On Tuesday, Sharkey tweeted: “A win for teachers, students and parents. It’s sad that we have to strike or threaten to strike to be heard, but when we fight we win!”
A win for teachers, students and parents. It’s sad that we have to strike or threaten to strike to be heard, but when we fight we win! https://t.co/vFkeOQpBvr — Jesse Sharkey (@SharkeyCTU1) August 4, 2020
The advantages to children who are around one another in school are significant, Arwady said Tuesday.
“I’m a pediatrician, and I feel pretty strongly that there are benefits for in-person education, especially for younger children who don’t learn well from screens, and all of the social and emotional benefits, and all of the other things we’ve talked about,” Arwady said. “But it all comes back to what that local data looks like.”
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Critics say doing that would put teachers, students and their families at unnecessary risk.
CPS had told parents to choose by this Friday whether they want their children to learn in school using the hybrid model this fall, or stay at home.
Though some celebrated the decision to move to remote learning, others criticized CPS for not announcing it sooner.
“Had CPS made this decision sooner, we would have had more time to plan for robust remote learning and the resources needed for our city’s kids to be able to learn,” Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, tweeted.
Sure I’ll say it. Had CPS made this decision sooner, we would have had more time to plan for robust remote learning and the resources needed for our city’s kids to be able to learn. It’s what I was saying months ago. I’m relieved that they finally announced this today. — Andre Vasquez, Political Account 🌹 (@Andrefor40th) August 5, 2020
School districts across the Chicago area and the U.S. are scrambling to put guidelines in place to prepare for the school year to start in a few weeks even though virus cases are far from contained in many areas.
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Several suburban school districts recently shelved in-person or hybrid plans for the fall, opting instead for all-remote starts to the new year on the grounds it’s too risky to bring students and teachers together.
CPS officials have stressed that they will only reopen schools if it’s safe but also that schools likely will need to reopen at some point before any COVID-19 vaccine is fully rolled out. News of a potential teachers strike, which would follow last fall’s walkout, broke Tuesday afternoon — on Lightfoot’s birthday.
As Chicago’s positivity rate for coronavirus cases continues to rise, Arwady said, “I can’t say the risk is zero, of course.”
“And again, the more our numbers are going up in Chicago, the more concern I have about this. Because as our cases increase, the risk of people having COVID, especially asymptomatic COVID, does go up,” she said.
hleone@chicagotribune.com
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-06--Boy, 8, shot twice in his legs is among 4 people shot in Lawndale driveby

The boy was in fair condition at a hospital after being shot at least once in each leg , according @ @ @ @ @ .
A 26-year-old man was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to his left @ @ @ @ @ was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the left leg , and a @ @ @ @ @ condition also with a gunshot wound to his left leg , police said .

An 8-year-old boy was one of four people shot as they stood on a sidewalk on the West Side on Wednesday night, authorities said.
The shots were fired from a black SUV shortly after 10 p.m. in the 700 block of South Karlov Avenue in Lawndale, police said.
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The boy was in fair condition at a hospital after being shot at least once in each leg, according to a statement from police. A 26-year-old man was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to his left arm, another 26-year-old man was in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the left leg, and a 36-year-old man was in fair condition also with a gunshot wound to his left leg, police said.
No arrests have been made.
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Check back for updates.
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-08-06--Woman in 70s dead, man in 60s seriously injured in house fire in South Austin

The woman was taken to West Suburban Hospital , where she was pronounced dead , police said .
The man @ @ @ @ @ to Loretto Hospita , where he was stabilized .

A woman in her 80s and a man in his 70s died during a house fire on the West Side early Thursday, according to police and fire officials.
Only one smoke detector was found, in the basement of the home in the 1000 block of North Parkside Avenue.
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Mary Lynch, 86, was pronounced dead at 1:55 a.m. Thursday. Preston Lynch, 79, who lived at the home that burned, was pronounced dead at 2:35 a.m. at Loretto Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Public records show the couple owned the building where the fire took place. An autopsy for Mary Lynch performed Thursday died not result in a determination of her cause of death and was marked pending further studies.
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Firefighters entered the home in the 1000 block of North Parkside Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood around 1:10 a.m. after a blaze started in a first-floor bedroom in the center of the home, according to police and Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
The two people, who shared a family relationship, were brought out, Langford said.
The woman was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where she was pronounced dead soon after arriving, police said.
Only one working smoke detector was found, in the basement, according to Langford, who added that careless use of smoking materials may have been the cause of the fire.
sczyzon@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-06--Daywatch: How parents tipped CPS toward remote learning, Pritzker warns of cuts and job loss and lux

Daywatch: How parents tipped CPS toward remote learning, Pritzker warns of cuts and job loss and luxury residences outfitted for the pandemic

With most child care centers closed during the pandemic — some perhaps permanently — companies are offering everything from nanny @ @ @ @ @ to keep employees ’ kids engaged and parents productive .
Flexible work schedules have become @ @ @ @ @ parents shift between their caregiver , math helper and rainmaker roles throughout the extended day @

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Good morning, Chicago. Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Lorna Swan said her son, Kaden Abdur-Rahman, 10, a student at Lenart Elementary Regional Gifted Center, is relieved by the move to remote learning. They read a book together at their home in Chicago on Aug. 5, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The criticism from the Chicago Teachers Union was to be expected, since its leaders came out against reopening schools even before the district proposed it.
But parents around the city, though more split on whether they wanted in-person classes to begin again, also emerged as a significant bloc of opposition in the last week — ultimately helping push Chicago Public Schools to start the year remotely instead.
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CPS backtracks and moves to all-remote learning for fall, but officials say they won’t be ‘cobbling things together’ like last spring
Chicago police investigate the scene of a shooing at 70 E. Oak Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 4, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago police were bracing for retaliation shootings on the South Side after a rapper was killed in a brazen Gold Coast attack, possibly because he had recently made a video featuring “derogatory statements” about rival gang members who have died.
Illinois Gov. J.B Pritzker appears during a news conference at the IEMA State Emergency Operations Center in Springfield on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register)
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned Wednesday that the state faces “extraordinarily painful” budget cuts if the federal government fails to provide states with relief funding to make up for tax revenue shortfalls caused by efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The LaMonica family — Amelia, 9, from left, Liliana, 6, Gina and Phil — at their home in Park Ridge on July 27, 2020. Four months into the pandemic, child care is a growing challenge for working parents and the companies that employ them. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
With most child care centers closed during the pandemic — some perhaps permanently — companies are offering everything from nanny stipends to online activity clubs to keep employees’ kids engaged and parents productive. Flexible work schedules have become the new norm, as parents shift between their caregiver, math helper and rainmaker roles throughout the extended day.
A lobby in Porte, which features contactless key fob entry, is seen Aug. 3, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
In a world grappling with COVID-19, co-working space, rooftop gardens teeming with produce and other amenities are increasingly considered essential for people who are spending more time at home for social distancing reasons.


chicagotribune--2020-08-06--CPS backtracks and moves to all-remote learning for fall, but officials say they won’t be ‘cobbling

CPS backtracks and moves to all-remote learning for fall, but officials say they won’t be ‘cobbling things together’ like last spring

Jackson said the decision was not easy or made lightly .
” As an educator , my desire is to @ @ @ @ @ .
For many of our students , school is the safest and most stable part @ @ @ @ @ course , they depend on us for an education , but many of our students @ @ @ @ @ much more .
They rely on us for meals , encouragement and a lot of @ @ @ @ @ take for granted .
”

Hannah Leone, Sophie Sherry, John Keilman, Claire Hao

Carl Von Linne Elementary School, a CPS building, is among hundreds whose students will be learning remotely again this fall, after CPS reversed course and postponed a plan to reopen in September. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
After weeks of defending a proposal to reopen Chicago Public Schools this fall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson announced Wednesday that the new school year will begin with remote learning instead.
But it will feel different than in the spring, when CPS was “cobbling things together,” Jackson said. Attendance will be mandatory, the district will revert to normal grading, and educators can go to schools and teach in real time from their classrooms, she said.
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“There will be more of a traditional infrastructure that you see in a school setting; we’re going to stand that up in a remote setting,” she said. “... Teachers have to be available throughout the entire day to educate students.”
Jackson said a final plan will be released Friday.
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[ What we know now about remote learning in Chicago Public Schools this fall ]
Officials said the decision to backtrack was based on public health guidelines and feedback from parents, and that the district will aim to move to a hybrid model, with schools open, in the second quarter, which begins Nov. 9.
“In a perfect world, students would be in classrooms more, not less. But, unfortunately, that is not where we find ourselves today,” Jackson said at a news conference announcing the district’s change of course.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced CPS schools will begin the school year with an all-remote model. At left is CPS CEO Janice Jackson. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Having touted their initial hybrid plan, which would have rotated students into buildings two days a week for in-person classes, CPS officials also said all along that they wouldn’t reopen schools unless it’s safe to do so.
Against a backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases in the city, through a series of virtual town halls last week and feedback from parents and students, it became clear families “were not comfortable with the state of the pandemic and the national response,” Jackson said.
The official announcement came the day after word got out that the Chicago Teachers Union was planning on calling its House of Delegates together to consider a possible strike vote because of the union’s skepticism that schools could reopen safely.
Lightfoot on Wednesday said pressure from the union did not influence the decision to go remote.
“As we have now repeatedly said about every decision we’ve made in the context of this pandemic, we have to be guided by the science, period,” Lightfoot said.
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[ ‘Every choice is a sacrifice’: Alternative school options see surge of interest as COVID-19 prompts districts, including CPS, to go remote ]
Yet as reports surfaced late Tuesday of the expected move to remote learning, CTU President Jesse Sharkey tweeted: “A win for teachers, students and parents. It’s sad that we have to strike or threaten to strike to be heard.”
The latest threat came just months after CTU’s battles with the mayor surrounding the 11-day teacher walkout last fall.
This summer, even before CPS announced its tentative hybrid framework, the union had already endorsed an all-remote start to the new school year, and continued to push back against the proposal.
On Wednesday, Sharkey — who days ago said Lightfoot did “not have the guts to close the schools” — congratulated the mayor “for being willing to listen to the concerns of families, educators, community groups and health professionals.”
With one month left before the school year begins, he called for CTU members to be equal partners in improvements to remote learning, family outreach and staff support.
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“We have a long way to go and a short time to get there,” Sharkey said. “CPS must immediately start planning transparently and in partnership with our union to provide every student the educational, social and emotional supports they need to learn and grow.”
[ The school year is starting with many students at home. Some companies are throwing working parents a lifeline. ]
The union is also continuing its campaign for broader community supports that could improve the livelihoods of students and educators, drawing attention to a moratorium on evictions now set to expire Aug. 22.
Parents, who appeared more mixed on the question of reopening, have expressed concerns about the quality of remote learning but also about whether schools could open their doors again safely, even with the 15-student pods that were planned to reduce contact among students and other protocols such as mask-wearing.
Ultimately, only about 20% of Black and Latino families, who make up the majority of CPS students, indicated in a feedback survey that they intended to send their children back to school. District officials said they’re acting on that feedback to improve the remote learning experience.
More than 87,000 parents, students and educators responded to the survey. About 41% of 49,000 elementary school parents and 38% of nearly 20,000 high school parents who responded said they did not intend to send their children back to school when the new year begins Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day.
CPS continues to struggle to get input representative of the district as a whole. Nearly 30% of parents who responded to the online survey were white, compared with 11% of the student population, according to CPS data.
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CPS also faced growing pressure in recent weeks from union and parent groups to close schools.
But as recently as Tuesday, Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Public Health Department, spoke in support of the tentative reopening plan, saying that if the city’s pandemic numbers looked good, she felt schools could handle in-person learning safely.
Then on Wednesday, she cited the increases in recent weeks of the rolling average number of new cases reported daily in Chicago. That number is now 277.
“The fact that over the last four to five weeks, we’ve added between 80 and 100 (daily) cases and not seen signs of that turning around, makes us concerned as we’re planning ahead for a complicated school district like CPS,” Arwady said. “... We very easily could have that many or more in the month ahead.”
Arwady said the prospect of hitting 400 new cases a day would really mark “a line in the sand for us, particularly around major things like planning to open one of the largest school districts in the country.”
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Health officials have not found significant spread locally in settings that bring children together, such as camps and day cares, Arwady said. About 3,527 children 17 and younger have tested positive for COVID-19 out of more than 62,000 confirmed cases in Chicago, according to city data.
The city was in a “very different place in the arc of the pandemic” when they released the hybrid plan in mid-July, Lightfoot said.
“Make no mistake, here in Chicago we are in a better place than most other areas in the country and in the surrounding area,” the mayor said. “But the fact of the matter is, we are seeing an increase in cases. Combined with the trends that we’re seeing, the decision to start remotely makes sense for a district of CPS’s size and diversity.”
The district and others are working on a plan to support parents who need child care during the day, knowing many are essential workers, and CPS will continue providing grab-and-go meals at schools, Jackson said.
School-based police officers won’t report to campuses during remote learning, according to CPS. The Chicago Police Department manages the officers’ time when they’re not assigned to schools, and CPS won’t be charged for those days, district officials said.
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Parents should expect engagement from teachers “for the entirety of a typical school day,” Jackson said, with more live instruction and accountability. CPS is pushing for more small group instruction for English learners and students with special education plans, and is “encouraging” more office hours to support all students, Jackson said. All teachers will be required to use Google platforms, and principals will evaluate educators similarly to how they would in schools, she said.
“Enhanced standards” for remote learning will also involve more rigorous tracking of attendance and renewed efforts to bridge the digital divide — a huge challenge when roughly a third of the 300,000 students who attend district-run schools were found to lack adequate access to computers or internet after the pandemic forced schools shut in March.
Since then, the district distributed about 128,000 computers and tablets, but officials said Wednesday they will continue to work to provide more as needed.
Despite the district’s efforts, participation in remote learning during the spring varied dramatically for students with different learning needs or racial backgrounds. Only 13% of students in grades one through 12 logged into a Google platform at least three days per week for at least 10 weeks of the remote learning period, with white and Asian students engaging the most.
Katherine O’Brien is a parent and Local School Council member at LaSalle Language Academy, and her husband is a CPS teacher.
“I’m on one level relieved; I’m also really sad,” she said of Wednesday’s announcement. “I think we all really, really wanted the returns to schools. We all wanted something to work out. We also recognize that’s not feasible at this time, it’s not physically safe yet at this point.”
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Despite some disappointment, O’Brien said she’s glad a decision has been made.
“The time that we spent debating this reopening plan that really didn’t feel like it was ready to go, I think it caused a lot of families an excessive amount of anxiety and stress and frustration. I think parents and teachers alike were paralyzed with indecision. They were split trying to plan for multiple contingencies, and doing that for a long time is exhausting,” she said.
Jackson said the decision was not easy or made lightly. ”As an educator, my desire is to always have students in schools. For many of our students, school is the safest and most stable part of their day. Of course, they depend on us for an education, but many of our students depend on us for so much more. They rely on us for meals, encouragement and a lot of other things that some people take for granted.”
As for the impact on fall high school sports, CPS’s executive director of sports administration notified principals, athletic directors and coaches Wednesday that the remote learning announcement “did not impact our plans for summer conditioning or fall sports.”
CPS had already adopted IHSA’s modified schedule for fall sports, and “those sports may proceed as scheduled under the guidelines and precautions we previously released pending any potential public health developments that require a change in our approach,” according to David Rosengard’s memo, released by CPS late Wednesday.
Some high school sports perceived to be at higher risk, such as football and boys soccer, have been moved to the spring, while the lower-risk sports of cross-country, golf, and girls tennis and swimming remain in the fall.
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Bob Geiger, boys cross country coach at Whitney Young Magnet High, said earlier Wednesday he hadn’t yet received any official word on fall sports and was optimistic the season would still take place, noting that, besides the IHSA, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration also approved the resumption of youth sports if safety protocols are followed.
Geiger said he had about 45 boys practicing outdoors for three weeks in small, socially distanced groups. He takes the boys’ temperatures and quizzes them about their health, and so far, he said, none of his runners has tested positive for COVID-19.
He said the safety concerns of a sport like his are distinct from the challenges of bringing children back to crowded school buildings.
“You’re taking a group of 50 boys to a field where they’ll be able to spread out, and yet they can still interact, they’re still getting that social-emotional connection many parents are clamoring for,” he said. “There’s a way to do that safely as opposed to cramming 2,100 students into a school and hoping for the best.”
Jean Casserly, girls tennis coach at Walter Payton College Prep, said Wednesday that IHSA has yet to send her safety guidelines for her sport, so she has crafted her own, including chalking off areas where the girls must stay, masks on, when they’re not playing. She’s still deciding whether each player must have her own designated stash of tennis balls, as some professionals are doing.
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If the season commences as planned, she said, she anticipates the hardest part will be making sure the players, who have not seen one another in months and had their last season cut short because of the teachers strike, do not get too close to one another.
But she was hopeful she could impress upon them the importance of adhering to safety precautions.
“If any one of us gets COVID, we’re going to be shut down,” she said. “This is what we’ll have to do in order to continue.”
Ald. Michael Scott, 24th, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Education and Child Development, said his children have had their sports seasons canceled and were excited about the hybrid model. But though she desperately wants to go back to school, his soccer-playing daughter understands the science doesn’t allow for that yet, he said.
“As a parent, I was really scared to send my child back to school,” Scott said. “And I know that there are a lot of parents, a lot of teachers, were also afraid of what was going to happen. I think this gives us the opportunity to reset ourselves, to let us understand what the data is showing.”
Democratic Gov. Pritzker said CPS’ decision to start the year with all-remote learning was a local one and in line with the state’s policy of letting school districts control how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic with public health guidance from the state.
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But he warned that if cases and positivity rates continued on an upward trajectory in the state, it was possible he would order schools closed to in-person learning statewide as he did on April 17.
“That could happen, yes. I don’t want it to happen,” Pritzker said.
“You’ve seen me travel the state encouraging everybody to wear a mask, encouraging local city councils and mayors to impose mitigations locally so that we can bring down the infection rate, bring down the positivity rate because I don’t want to go to those statewide, more extreme measures,” he said. “If it continues to rise and if we don’t keep our positivity rate down, we obviously would have to consider more serious mitigations.”
Though the hope is to have children back in schools next quarter, Jackson said that will require everyone to do their part to slow the spread of the virus.
“If we want schools to reopen, we have to keep wearing our mask, we’re going to have to practice social distancing, and more importantly we’re going to have to listen to our public health officials,” Jackson said.
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-08-05--The school year is starting with remote learning. Some companies are throwing working parents a life

The school year is starting with remote learning. Some companies are throwing working parents a lifeline.

“ It ’ s tough , especially when I have meetings , ” said Hampton , who will be working @ @ @ @ @ the end of the year .
“ They like to make little pop-ins and say @ @ @ @ @ meeting .
But fortunately , everyone that I work with has similar circumstances and they @ @ @ @ @ .
”

The LaMonica family — Amelia, 9, from left, Liliana, 6, Gina and Phil — at their home in Park Ridge on July 27, 2020. Four months into the pandemic, child care is a growing challenge for working parents and the companies that employ them. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
When the state issued its stay-at-home order in March, Gina LaMonica, 39, a partner with Chicago law firm Perkins Coie, had just returned from a work trip.
Overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic turned her Park Ridge home into an office and a school as she and her husband juggled their careers and the care of their two young daughters. Worlds collided, work shifted to all hours of the day and night, and somehow, they made it to the summer, exhausted and fully employed.
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“It was very difficult,” LaMonica said. “Those were long days.”
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For working parents like LaMonica, the pending start of the school year, which brings the anxiety of new teachers, schedules and courses under even the best of circumstances, is looming as a major source of stress.
A growing list of companies are pushing office reopenings to 2021 and many school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, are nixing even a part-time return to the classroom, portending an ongoing work-life family mashup that threatens to derail both career and childhood development.
“It is not sustainable to monitor their schooling at the same time that you’re working full time,” said Cornelia Grumman, education director at the McCormick Foundation, which focuses on funding support for early childhood development programs.
[ CPS backtracks and moves to all-remote learning for fall, but officials say they won’t be ‘cobbling things together’ like last spring ]
With most child care centers closed during the pandemic — some perhaps permanently — companies are offering everything from nanny stipends to online activity clubs to keep employees’ kids engaged and parents productive. Flexible work schedules have become the new norm, as parents shift between their caregiver, math helper and rainmaker roles throughout the extended day.
Tech giant Google recently announced it is pushing back a return to the office until July 2021, in part to help parents plan for remote schooling in the fall and beyond. Uber is also giving corporate employees the option to work from home through June, along with a $500 stipend for home office equipment.
Chicago-area companies are grappling with the COVID-19 child care crisis, but it is a work in progress.
CDW, the Lincolnshire-based information technology products company, has about 4,200 employees in the Chicago area, the vast majority of whom are working from home.
About 300 employees continue to work at CDW’s distribution warehouse in Vernon Hills, but the adjacent CDW@Play child care center run by Bright Horizons remains closed, leaving some working parents without a place to bring their children.
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“Like other things, we’re still trying to figure out what the best plan is for that,” said Liz Connelly, chief human resources officer at CDW.
[ Parent opposition helps tip CPS toward an all-remote start: ‘A lot of stress and anxiety ... could’ve been avoided if we had just made this decision sooner’ ]
In June, CDW launched a virtual summer camp for employees’ children. The camp, staffed by CDW volunteers, features live events and on-demand videos guiding campers through cooking, sports, yoga, crafts and other activities.
More than 2,000 CDW family members are attending the virtual camp, which runs through August, Connelly said.
Brittney Hampton, 33, a sales manager assistant at CDW, shifted from a downtown office to her South Side home when the pandemic hit in March. She’s been working from home with her husband and two children — a 3½-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter, who attended a magnet school remotely in the spring.
Hampton, whose husband has continued to work at his Chicago office during the pandemic, relied on her retired parents for in-home child care assistance. She said the CDW online camp has helped entertain her kids, but with her daughter expected to begin fifth grade on an e-learning schedule adopted by Chicago Public Schools, the fall promises to be complicated.
“It’s tough, especially when I have meetings,” said Hampton, who will be working from home through at least the end of the year. “They like to make little pop-ins and say hi to everyone on the meeting. But fortunately, everyone that I work with has similar circumstances and they just take it in stride.”
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[ ‘Every choice is a sacrifice’: Alternative school options see surge of interest as COVID-19 prompts districts, including CPS, to go remote ]
Closed child care centers like the one for CDW families may reflect a bigger problem as offices gradually bring back workers in the months ahead.
Illinois licenses about 10,000 child care centers. All of them were shut down by the state’s stay-at-home order in March, but some were allowed to resume operations with an emergency license to serve essential workers.
Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced $270 million in funding to help child care centers reopen, but it may not be enough. Fewer than 1 in 5 centers nationwide expect to survive longer than a year, according to a study released July 13 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
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“The majority of early child care programs in Illinois operate as small businesses,” Grumman said. “You’re already seeing a lot of closures across the state of folks that just can’t make it work.”
Massachusetts-based Bright Horizons has 43 child care centers in Illinois. The company declined to say how many of them remain open.
The company offers a backup care service allowing businesses to provide employees with emergency child care at a subsidized rate — either at a center or in-home — when school closes or a nanny cancels. Demand for the in-home service has skyrocketed during the pandemic, said Kristen Raymaakers, a Bright Horizons spokeswoman.
With child care centers closed and parents wary of letting strangers in their homes, many companies have expanded the benefit so that employees can hire a relative or friend for in-home care and receive reimbursement, Raymaakers said.
In June, Fifth Third Bank began offering employees 30 days of subsidized child support this year, either in-home or at a care center, through Bright Horizons’ backup care program.
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The Cincinnati-based bank, which has 186 branches and more than 3,000 employees in the Chicago area, hasn’t announced a return to the office yet. About 1,300 employees work at branches and another 300 in the bank’s suburban Rosemont headquarters, while the other 1,400 work remotely, bank spokesman Larry Magnesen said.
In July, Fifth Third “reloaded” yearly sick time for employees to their full 56 hours for the balance of 2020 and added five vacation days for 2021.
“People ended up using the vacation and sick days to stay home with their kids,” Magnesen said.
Jennifer Svendsen, 41, branch manager of Fifth Third Bank’s Fox Valley Villages branch in Aurora, has used personal days to care for her 10- and 8-year-old daughters.
She and her husband, a corporal with the DuPage County sheriff’s office, have been working at their respective offices throughout the pandemic. Svendsen enlisted her mother to help watch their daughters at their Montgomery home during remote schooling in the spring.
On Monday, Svendsen learned that Lakewood Creek Elementary School in Montgomery, where her kids are entering fifth and third grades, is starting Aug. 19 with a fully remote schedule. That means more studying around the kitchen table for two to three hours each evening, after the workday is done, a “really tough” second job, Svendsen said.
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“I’m scrambling to figure out what I’m going to do,” Svendsen said. “I’m really disappointed. I was shooting for the in-person learning with as much protection as possible — masks and social distancing. But I don’t think school districts want the liability.”
A July survey of 700 parents conducted by Homes.com found 82% report they are unprepared to resume at-home learning if schools do not reopen. Nearly two-thirds of parents said they struggled with job issues because of the added responsibility of supervising their children’s learning.
Tami Simon, a human resources adviser at Segal, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, said there is no one-size-fits-all answer to solving the child care crisis for employees during COVID-19.
Condensed workweeks, flexible schedules and temporary shifts from full- to part-time — without adversely affecting career trajectory — are among the solutions employers are considering, along with job sharing, Simon said.
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Companies are looking at upping child care subsidies, creating support groups for parents and facilitating parent pods, where families jointly hire a tutor and kids go from house to house for ad hoc classes, Simon said.
But with so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, she said flexibility should be the guiding principle for companies.
“The No. 1 thing employees value is flexibility — to be able to know they can deal with whatever comes their way and they’re not going to get in trouble by their employer,” Simon said.
Lana McKenna, 44, managing director for BMO Harris Commercial Bank and a veteran remote worker, believes organization can help parents handle the pandemic.
McKenna has divided her workdays between her Westmont home and the bank’s Chicago office since the birth of her first child in 2013. She and her husband, a suburban insurance executive, worked exclusively from home in the spring, while their two sons attended a private Downers Grove grade school remotely.
BMO provided up to 15 days of paid time off to all employees during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, to support family and child care. McKenna used some of that time at the onset of the pandemic to organize a tight schedule for her family on a color-coded calendar.
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Items marked in red indicated someone needed “alone time” to complete a task. Also written into the calendar was “outside time,” a necessity for both kids and parents.
“There were times that it was raining outside, but no lightning or thunder, and we both had a conference call,” she said. “I said ‘put on your raincoat and rain boots and get outside and go make mud pies.’ Thank goodness we have two little boys and they were more than happy to oblige.”
McKenna is back to splitting time between home and her office and is planning to send their 5- and 6-year-old sons back to nearly full-time classroom learning this fall, an option the family chose over e-learning.
The decision was driven by a “risk-reward” analysis after a challenging spring under one roof, she said.
“I recognize I’m a much better banker than a teacher,” McKenna said. “I fully appreciate everything that our teachers are doing for our kids by taking on those two jobs.”
Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie has about 250 employees in its Chicago office. Most employees have been working from home since March and have the option to continue to do so through at least the end of the year, said Jennifer Bluestein, chief talent officer at Perkins Coie.
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To accommodate remote working during the pandemic, the firm doubled from 20 to 40 the number of days employees may use the backup care benefit through Bright Horizons, Bluestein said. The plan gives employees $100 a day to hire an in-home child care provider of their choice.
LaMonica, who specializes in white collar defense, and her husband Phil, a truck leasing executive, operated in shifts during the spring, alternating between work and overseeing the e-learning curriculum for their daughters, rising public school fourth and first graders.
This week, with a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Illinois, LaMonica decided to opt for more remote learning in the fall after consulting with a pediatric pulmonologist treating her younger daughter for respiratory issues.
She worries about everything from the loss of social interaction for her kids to keeping up with her work, but vows to “power through it” as they did in the spring.
“I try to keep myself from thinking if this is sustainable in the long term, because you can get overwhelmed,” LaMonica said. “But we’re all in the same boat and it’s going to be tough.”
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rchannick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-07--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: State reports the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: State reports the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the end of May as lakefront restaurants are set to reopen this week

“ I encourage people to establish environments that lead them to be as efficient as possible , ” said Stapleton @ @ @ @ @ in orthopedics .
Whatever your setup , he said it ’ s important that you @ @ @ @ @ floor and elbows at a 90-degree angle .
The top of your computer monitor should @ @ @ @ @ and angled upward to take some tension off of your neck , he said .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
For the second time in a week, Illinois officials reported a new daily count of coronavirus cases that hovered just under 2,000.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 1,953 new known cases of COVID-19 in the state over the prior 24 hours, and 21 additional deaths of people with the highly contagious illness. Today’s number is the highest daily count of cases since the end of May.
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Those numbers raise the statewide totals to 188,424 known cases and 7,594 deaths since the pandemic began earlier this year. The seven-day statewide average positivity rate stands at 4%. It was 2.6% a month earlier.
Earlier Thursday, the Chicago Park District has announced that restaurants and concessions east of Lake Shore Drive are now allowed to reopen. Beachside establishments must adhere to the same COVID-19 safety guidelines that pertain to other businesses and restaurants in the city. While the Park District is working with each concession on its health and safety plans, proprietors can open as early as this week.
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[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ Illinois coronavirus graphs: Here's the latest data on deaths, confirmed cases, tests and more ]
Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
9:03 p.m. (update): Coronavirus relief talks in Washington on brink of collapse as sides still ‘far apart’
Washington talks on vital COVID-19 rescue money are teetering on the brink of collapse after a marathon meeting in the Capitol Thursday night generated lots of recriminations but little progress on the top issues confronting negotiators.
“There’s a handful of very big issues that we are still very far apart” on, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who depicted impasses on aid to states and local governments and renewing supplemental unemployment benefits.
Both sides said the future of the talks is uncertain. President Donald Trump is considering executive orders to address evictions and on unemployment insurance, but they appear unlikely to have much impact.
A breakdown in the talks would put at risk more than $100 billion to help reopen schools, a fresh round of $1,200 direct payments to most people, and hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments to help them avoid furloughing workers and cutting services as tax revenues shrivel.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York emerged to give a pessimistic update about the chances for an agreement.
“We’re very far apart. It’s most unfortunate,” Pelosi said.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
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8 p.m.: Chicago alderman who was at news conference with Lightfoot tests positive for COVID-19
A day after attending a news conference with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other top city officials, West Side Ald. Michael Scott announced he tested positive for COVID-19.
Scott, who’s Lightfoot’s education committee chairman on the City Council, said he was tested last week during a community event and received the results on Thursday.
“I am home now, currently with no symptoms,” Scott said. “I am following all the necessary health protocols in accordance with the Chicago Department of Public Health. As a public official, it is my responsibility to share this news because I have a public facing life.”
Scott was at City Hall with Lightfoot, Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson and public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady when they announced Wednesday that CPS would start the year with remote learning in the fall.
A message to Lightfoot’s press office was not immediately returned. Earlier in the day, Lightfoot abruptly canceled an afternoon news conference without explanation.
Read more here. —Gregory Pratt
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7:30 p.m.: What went wrong? How the US has uniquely failed to control the coronavirus
Nearly every country has struggled to contain the coronavirus and made mistakes along the way.
China committed the first major failure, silencing doctors who tried to raise alarms about the virus and allowing it to escape from Wuhan. Much of Europe went next, failing to avoid enormous outbreaks. Today, many countries — Japan, Canada, France, Australia and more — are coping with new increases in cases after reopening parts of society.
Yet even with all of these problems, one country stands alone as the only affluent nation to have suffered a severe, sustained outbreak for more than four months: the United States.
When it comes to the virus, the United States has come to resemble not the wealthy and powerful countries to which it is often compared but instead to far poorer countries, like Brazil, Peru and South Africa, or those with large migrant populations, like Bahrain and Oman.
As in several of those other countries, the toll of the virus in the United States has fallen disproportionately on poorer people and groups that have long suffered discrimination. Black and Latino residents of the United States have contracted the virus at roughly three times as high of a rate as white residents.
How did this happen? The New York Times set out to reconstruct the unique failure of the United States through numerous interviews with scientists and public health experts around the world. The reporting points to two central themes.
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Read more here. —The New York Times
7:11 p.m.: Illinois will test athletes daily in hopes of containing the spread of the coronavirus and kicking off the football season
Illinois offensive tackle Alex Palczewski wore a mask and couldn’t hug his teammates, but he smiled as he talked about returning to the practice field Thursday after limited interaction for months amid COVID-19 restrictions.
“We have to sacrifice a few months,” said Palczewski, a senior from Mount Prospect whose mom is an intensive care unit nurse. “If at the end of the season, we’re Big Ten champs, it’s all worth it.”
Illini players, coach Lovie Smith and athletic director Josh Whitman stressed during video conferences with reporters the importance of reducing the spread of the coronavirus in hopes of completing a season as uncertainty swirls around the nation about the possibility of kicking off this fall.
Illinois athletes will be required to take daily tests, with at least two PCR tests per week required by Big Ten protocol and saliva tests administered through the university. Currently, saliva tests are available only on weekdays, but the university expects those to be available soon on weekends too.
The amount of testing at Illinois exceeds what most programs have announced.
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Read more here. —Shannon Ryan
6:34 p.m.: Tribune Publishing in talks to leave Prudential Plaza offices amid pandemic
The Chicago Tribune’s offices could be on the move for the second time in less than three years, as the newspaper’s parent company seeks an exit from Prudential Plaza amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Tribune Publishing is in talks with Prudential Plaza owner Sterling Bay for a buyout of its approximately 137,000-square-foot lease in the office complex overlooking Millennium Park, according to real estate sources.
Sterling Bay and Tribune Publishing’s brokers from Jones Lang LaSalle have begun informally marketing the entire space to potential tenants in anticipation of the company’s exit, according to sources.
Tribune Publishing is among many companies taking steps to reduce real estate and other costs during a pandemic that has left many office employees working from home since March.
Measures companies are taking include stopping rent payments, seeking rent relief and offering space for sublease. Uber and Groupon are among those with sublease space on the market, and a wave of additional sublease offerings is expected to flood the market in the coming months.
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Read more here. —Ryan Ori
6:10 p.m.: Diversey Express Driver Services Facility temporarily closed after positive test
An employee at the Diversey Express Driver Services Facility tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Office of the Secretary of State. The facility will be closed until August 10 “out of abundance of caution,” according to a news release Thursday afternoon.
“The Illinois Department of Public Health has been consulted and confirmed that public is not directly impacted by this situation,” the statement said.
Employees who work at the facility are being quarantined for 14 days. The facility is scheduled to be cleaned and sanitized.
—Jessica Villagomez
5:32 p.m.: Loyola University Chicago says it won’t open residence halls this fall amid ongoing COVID-19 fears
Loyola University Chicago announced Thursday it will not reopen its residence halls this fall because of continued worries about the spread of COVID-19.
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“Evaluating current health conditions, and factoring for uncertainty in the months ahead, has led us to make the very tough decision to suspend plans to host students in on-campus residence halls until conditions are favorable,” according to a letter that went out Thursday, signed by President Jo Ann Rooney and several other administrators.
“Like you, we hoped that the trajectory of the virus would subside over the summer. In fact, it grew stronger,” the statement reads.
The campus leaders said that under Chicago’s emergency travel rules, 700 dormitory residents would be coming from “hot spot” areas and would have to begin a two-week quarantine upon arrival.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
4:40 p.m.: City Colleges faculty and staff threaten to strike if everyone isn’t allowed to work remotely this fall
Faculty and staff at City Colleges of Chicago are threatening to hold their first strike in more than a decade if administrators don’t allow all employees to work from home when fall classes begin in late August.
While most instructors have been approved to teach remotely next semester, about 450 employees, including academic advisors and technological support and clerical staff, were required to return to campuses on Monday, according to unions representing those workers. Employees deemed essential by the community college network have been working in person since May despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Tony Johnston, president of the Cook County College Teachers Union, said his members plan to hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss taking a vote of no confidence in the administration, a move that could potentially escalate into a safety-related strike.
“The simple truth is that our colleges, much like K-12 schools, were not made to deliver instruction and student services under these pandemic conditions,” Johnston said.
A spokeswoman for CCC, the state’s largest community college system with seven campuses, said in-person services are being offered because not all students can access technology from home.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
4:17 p.m.: Illinois is extending unemployment benefits by 20 weeks. Meanwhile, some gig workers are learning they’ve been overpaid.
Illinois extended jobless benefits another 20 weeks as laid off workers continued to struggle with the claims process, including some who say they have to return funds because they were overpaid.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security, the state agency tasked with handling jobless claims, said the extension was available starting Thursday to people who have gone through 26 weeks of state benefits. Illinois is among 19 states providing 20 weeks of extended benefits, the agency said in a news release.
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More than 25,000 Illinoisans filed for unemployment insurance for the first time in the week ending Aug. 1, down from more than 33,000 the week before, according to the state’s latest figures.
At the same time, several gig and contract workers who were able to apply for benefits under the federal coronavirus relief package told the Tribune they owe thousands of dollars back to the state after learning they were overpaid.
Some claimants say the state is deducting funds from their weekly benefits to pay down the debt.
Chris Markacek, of Orland Park, has been out of work as a DJ since March due to event cancellations. He said the state notified him he owes about $4,000. By late July, Markacek said his benefits were being deducted to pay off the amount.
“There was no explanation for anything. It all happened very sudden and it was confusing,” Markacek, 34, said.
Read more here. —Abdel Jimenez
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3:50 p.m.: Indiana state superintendent says schools can safely reopen
Indiana's top education official said Thursday that she think schools can safely reopen despite mounting reports of students and staffers testing positive for the coronavirus within days of returning to the classroom in some districts.
Jennifer McCormick, the state’s school superintendent, said that she thinks it’s best for medical experts to determine if, when or how schools should reopen.
“Based on what I have been told, we are good to go — with provisions,” she said during a webinar in Indianapolis.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
(Updated: 2:40 p.m.) 12:33 p.m.: Negotiators trade public broadsides on stalled coronavirus relief package, likely to miss agreement deadline
President Donald Trump and the Senate’s top Republican huddled Thursday over a huge COVID-19 rescue package, but hopes on Capitol Hill for a deal are souring and there’s increasing worry that bipartisan congressional negotiations might collapse.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a key player in the troubled talks and possesses far more experience than Trump's negotiating team, which is publicly frustrated by the inflexible tactics of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The Democratic duo has not yielded much ground from an unprecedented $3.5 trillion House-passed rescue package.
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McConnell seemed to downplay the significance of the Trump meeting, telling a reporter “we talked a little bit about everything.”
Pelosi and Schumer are exuding confidence in a political and legislative landscape that’s tilted in their favor. Trump and McConnell both badly want an agreement, but Democrats control the House and may actually provide the lion’s share of votes in the Senate.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
(Updated: 2:08 p.m.) 12:11 p.m.: 1,953 new known COVID-19 cases, 21 additional fatalities
For the second time in a week, Illinois officials reported a new daily count of coronavirus cases that hovered just under 2,000.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Thursday reported 1,953 new known cases of COVID-19 in the state over the prior 24 hours, and 21 additional deaths of people with the highly contagious illness.
Those numbers raise the statewide totals to 188,424 known cases and 7,594 deaths since the pandemic began earlier this year. The seven-day statewide average positivity rate stands at 4%. It was 2.6% a month earlier.
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Officials reported 1,941 new known cases on Friday, which was the highest daily tally of new cases since late May.
—Jamie Munks
1:09 p.m.: Chicago’s legendary FOBAB beer festival canceled due to COVID-19, but the competition will go on
Few things could be less appealing in the era of COVID-19 than getting buzzed on intensely boozy beer while crushed shoulder-to shoulder with a bunch of strangers in a bland event space.
So it comes as no surprise that Chicago’s legendary Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer has been canceled for 2020, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild announced Thursday.
However, the Guild will press on with FOBAB’s annual competition, in which medals are handed out across 12 categories to honor excellence in wood-aging beer and cider.
Read more here. —Josh Noel
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1 p.m.: Millions of Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus endure loss of $600 aid: ‘My worst nightmare is coming true’
An unemployed makeup artist with two toddlers and a disabled husband needs help with food and rent. A hotel manager says his unemployment has deepened his anxiety and kept him awake at night. A dental hygienist, pregnant with her third child, is struggling to afford diapers and formula.
Around the country, across industries and occupations, millions of Americans thrown out of work because of the coronavirus are straining to afford the basics now that an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits has expired.
“My worst nightmare is coming true,” said Liz Ness, a laid-off recruiter at a New Orleans staffing agency who fears she will be evicted next month without the added help from Washington. “Summer 2020 could be next year’s horror movie.”
Read more here. —The Associated Press
12:32 p.m.: Working from home leaving necks aching and shoulders sore? Ergonomic experts weigh in on how to make your workspace work for you.
Neck ache, back pain, sore shoulders — it’s not just you. University of Chicago physical therapist Zachary Stapleton said these are the most common complaints he receives from people who work desk jobs. “Desk jobs” these days may be more aptly called “couch jobs” or “kitchen table jobs” for some, but as more companies move to make work-from-home a more permanent measure, it might be time to reevaluate your workspace for the long term.
“I encourage people to establish environments that lead them to be as efficient as possible,” said Stapleton, who is also board-certified in orthopedics. Whatever your setup, he said it’s important that you have your feet on the floor and elbows at a 90-degree angle. The top of your computer monitor should be even with your brow and angled upward to take some tension off of your neck, he said.
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Read more here. —Lauren Leazenby
11:18 a.m.: Lakefront restaurants to reopen this week, many as early as Friday
While beaches remain closed, you’ll still get a chance to enjoy the sand and surf this summer: The Chicago Park District has announced that restaurants and concessions east of Lake Shore Drive are now allowed to reopen.
Beachside establishments must adhere to the same COVID-19 safety guidelines that pertain to other businesses and restaurants in the city. While the Park District is working with each concession on its health and safety plans, proprietors can open as early as this week.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
10:49 a.m.: Bright Horizons buys Chicago-based Sittercity as parents scramble for in-home child care and tutoring
With families scrambling to figure out child care options for kids attending school remotely this fall, day care company Bright Horizons announced it is purchasing Sittercity, an online platform that matches people with child care providers.
Bright Horizons said the partnership will help it fill the wide range of new child care needs families are facing as a growing list of workplaces and schools, including Chicago Public Schools, delay plans to return to offices and classrooms during the pandemic.
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“With the child care strain families have been experiencing the last five months paired with the prospect of remote learning, this acquisition will allow us to expand our in-home offerings and virtual solutions that are increasingly critical to families,” Bright Horizons CEO Stephen Kramer said in a news release Thursday. Terms of the transaction with Sittercity were not disclosed.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
10:16 a.m.: ‘This is really devastating.’ Airline workers face tough decisions on whether to exit or hold on through COVID-19 pandemic.
American Airlines flight attendants were warned recently that flying won't be the same after Oct. 1, even for those who avoid furloughs and keep their jobs.
Flight attendants will work more hours, trips will be longer and more will be assigned to on-call "reserve" shifts, even those with 35 years of experience. Some flight attendants may have to relocate across the country to remain employed.
The future of flying is starting to take shape at major airlines, and it won’t be as friendly as the past seven years have been for employees.
Read more here. —The Dallas Morning News
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10:13 a.m.: Thinking of home schooling? Here’s how to do it.
Families across the Chicago area will be getting yet another taste of home schooling this fall, as many school districts opt for some degree of remote learning due to risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But others are thinking about untethering from traditional schools altogether, adopting their own, more flexible curricula that can be better adapted to parents’ schedules and children’s needs.
Indeed, interest in home schooling — which first gained traction among religious families over the past few decades — has spiked since the pandemic began. Taking responsibility for your children’s education, however, can seem daunting. We spoke with some experts for their tips on how to home-school this fall.
Read more here. —Jennifer Day
5 alternative school options parents are weighing as more Chicago-area districts opt for remote learning
8:24 a.m.: 1.2 million seek unemployment aid after $600 federal pandemic boost ends
Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired.
The government's report Thursday did offer a smidgen of hopeful news: The number of jobless claims declined by 249,000 from the previous week, after rising for two straight weeks, and it was the lowest total since mid-March.
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Still, claims remain at alarmingly high levels: It is the 20th straight week that at least 1 million people have sought jobless aid. Before the pandemic hit hard in March, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never surpassed 700,000 in a week, not even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
7:20 a.m.: City Colleges unions to announce opposition to in-person classes
Unions representing teachers and other workers at the City Colleges of Chicago was scheduled to hold an online news conference Thursday to “announce (members') willingness to strike for safety,” according to a news release.
The Cook County College Teachers Union as well as other unions representing City Colleges workers were scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday to call on the college system’s leadership to pause reopening “until a safe plan is in place,” according to the release.
The unions say that the City Colleges last week “demanded that student service employees such as college advisors and clerical staff return to buildings,” even though the unions say the workers “have been performing their jobs exceptionally well from home,” according to the release.
Check back for updates. —Chicago Tribune staff
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Here are five stories related to COVID-19 from Wednesday.


chicagotribune--2020-08-06--15-year-old boy fatally stabbed in Glenview; police seek tips in first murder since 2004

“ Elias really connected with wrestling , and he seemed to have found the brotherhood among his teammates that is @ @ @ @ @ ” Fagel wrote .
“ We ’ re glad we had the time we did @ @ @ @ @ a void has been left .
”

Police in north suburban Glenview are asking for the public’s help after a 15-year-old boy was fatally stabbed Wednesday.
An autopsy on Thursday determined the victim, Elias J. Valdez, died of a stab wound to the chest, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
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Valdez, who lived in an unincorporated area near Glenview, was found lying in a grassy area in the 1200 block of Greenwood Road shortly after 7 p.m., police said in a release.
A passerby called 911, said Jim Foley, Glenview police spokesman.
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He was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, but Valdez, of the 10400 block of Dearlove Road, died in surgery at 8:52 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office and police.
Valdez was a rising sophomore at Glenbrook South High School, according to an email sent to the school community by Principal Lauren Fagel.
Fagel called Valdez a “kind, charismatic young man who exhibited great leadership qualities.”
Valdez was a member of the school’s wrestling team.
“Elias really connected with wrestling, and he seemed to have found the brotherhood among his teammates that is often provided by sport,” Fagel wrote. “We’re glad we had the time we did have with Elias and know a void has been left.”
Fagel described Valdez as a student who was devoted to his family, was quick to make friends and could always make others feel welcome.
Glenbrook South is offering support services to students and staff both in person and through Zoom on Friday.
Foley said the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force is actively investigating Valdez’s death, which marks the first time since 2004 the village has had a homicide. Steven L. Zirko was charged with murdering his companion, Mary Lacy, 38, and her mother, Margaret Ballog, 60, in Lacy’s Glenview home on Dec. 13, 2004.
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Anyone with information is urged to contact the police tip line, 847-901-6055, or via email, gpdtipline@glenview.il.us.
rsobol@chicagotribune.com