chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Body found after swimmer becomes separated from boat near Monroe Harbor when weather kicks up, offic

Body found after swimmer becomes separated from boat near Monroe Harbor when weather kicks up, officials say

Divers were sent to the harbor near the Museum Campus , but didn ’ t find anyone , and the @ @ @ @ @ according to police .
Efforts resumed Wednesday morning , with the marine unit deploying divers @ @ @ @ @ with assistance from a police helicopter , authorities said .
The body was found about @ @ @ @ @ resumed , police said .

A Chicago police boat searches along the nearly hidden break wall on July 8, 2020, for a person missing after an overnight boating accident when a boat struck the wall north of the Shedd Aquarium in Monroe Harbor. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Emergency crews Wednesday morning found the body of a 24-year-old woman who became separated from a boat while swimming Tuesday night near Monroe Harbor, officials said.
Initial information that the woman fell off the boat was incorrect. Instead, she and three other people were in the lake swimming near a boat when storms moved in about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to Deputy District Chief Jason Lach, who is in charge of Chicago Fire Department divers.
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While the group was in the water, winds pushed the boat away from them and into the breakwall, with a group of people still on board, Lach said.
Crews searched for the woman, who had not been wearing a life jacket, until about 3 a.m., then resumed later Wednesday a few hours after daybreak and found the body about 9 a.m., Lach said.
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Witnesses told WGN-TV that a quick storm had suddenly come up around the time of the crash.
“It just came out of nowhere, like … with just drips and drizzles,” witness Matt Fusello told WGN. “And then it just came like a Chicago storm, lightning everywhere, you knew it was going to pass. … There’s nothing worse than thinking about drowning in Lake Michigan. It’s horrible.”
#ChicagoPolice Marine Unit resume searching for missing boater who fell of a boat that struck the breakwall in #MonroeHarbor late last night. M5 will begin a sonar search, M4 will will be deploying divers and PH1 will be conducting an aerial search. — Chicago Police Marine Unit (@CPDMarineUnit) July 8, 2020
Divers were sent to the harbor near the Museum Campus, but didn’t find anyone, and the search was suspended overnight, according to police. Efforts resumed Wednesday morning, with the marine unit deploying divers and doing a sonar search with assistance from a police helicopter, authorities said. The body was found about an hour after the search resumed, police said.
None of the four swimmers was wearing a life vest, according to Lach.
“Even the best swimmer has a bad day,” Lach said Wednesday, “If you see somebody struggling you need to say something.”
Boating and swimming in the lake can be particularly dangerous this year, as water levels are near record highs, about 6 to 8 inches above last year, according to Lach.
There have been three other times boats have hit breakwalls this summer, as the barriers have become submerged and difficult for boaters to see, Lach said.
There were 12 to 16 passengers on the boat Wednesday, a group of friends “just enjoying the evening out,” according to Lach. No other information was shared regarding the identity of the woman found in the water.
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WGN-TV reported the boat involved was a speedboat and at least eight people got off the boat once it docked following the accident.


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for national mask mandate and COVID-19 containment strategy in congressiona

Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for national mask mandate and COVID-19 containment strategy in congressional testimony

“ That isn ’ t to say that the cascade of decisions that got Illinois to this point were easy @ @ @ @ @ .
“ In fact , every one of them has been a choice between bad @ @ @ @ @ by the White House ’ s broken promises on testing supplies and PPE deliveries .
@

Gov. J.B. Pritzker puts on a mask during his daily coronavirus briefing at the Illinois Capitol in Springfield in May. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for a national mask mandate, a national containment strategy for COVID-19 and additional federal aid for states to offset large revenue losses created by the pandemic in testimony before a Congressional committee on Wednesday.
Pritzker said a national containment strategy for the highly contagious COVID-19 should involve additional testing and contact tracing.
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“It may even mean national restrictions that will be followed in every state,” Pritzker said, testifying remotely to the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.
[ Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here's the latest on COVID-19 ]
The mask mandate that took effect in Illinois May 1 “aligns with our most significant downward shifts in our infection rate,” Pritzker said. “It’s not too late for the federal government to make an impact. In fact, it’s more important than ever.”
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The governor also called for more clarity from the federal government regarding insurance coverage and coronavirus testing.
“Testing in not a one-off tactic. We need regular testing across our population,” Pritzker said. “That means people need to know their insurance will cover their testing every time.”
[ COVID-19 cases are spiking in states across the country. How does Illinois compare? ]
Pritzker detailed the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic since March, a month when he issued sweeping measures that included closing down schools for in-person instruction and a statewide stay-at-home order.
The state’s coronavirus positivity rate at one point this spring stood at 23%, and is now 2.5%, Pritzker said.
“That isn’t to say that the cascade of decisions that got Illinois to this point were easy,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “In fact, every one of them has been a choice between bad and worse — muddled further by the White House’s broken promises on testing supplies and PPE deliveries.”


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus

As the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 ticks upward , the Tribune is working to chronicle those who have @ @ @ @ @ Chicago area or who have connections to our region .
These are some of those @ @

They were mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. Many were proud grandparents. Two were sisters from a tight-knit South Side family. All were loved, relatives say, and will be forever missed.
As the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 ticks upward, the Tribune is working to chronicle those who have lost their lives in the Chicago area or who have connections to our region. These are some of those victims.
If you know of someone or would like to offer a remembrance of someone please share your information here. To file a death notice, go here.
Subscribe to the Chicago Tribune: Our mission is to deliver trusted and meaningful local news. Your support allows us to continue providing the award-winning, watchdog and in-depth journalism our community deserves. Subscribe here.


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Black Lives Matter mural in Oak Park vandalized overnight; talks planned to restore it

“ The public works department did a really good job of getting that [ material ] that was used to @ @ @ @ @ ” Oak Park Area Arts Council Executive Director Camille Wilson White said .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ There are some areas that the artists eventually may want to look at restoring some @ @ @ @ @

Village crews clean off the Black Lives Matter mural on Scoville Avenue just south of Lake Street in Oak Park the morning of July 8 after it had been vandalized overnight. (Matt Baron)
Police in Oak Park are investigating after the village’s Black Lives Matter street mural, painted just two weeks ago, was vandalized overnight.
Public works crews spent Wednesday morning power washing the mural, which sits on Scoville Avenue just south of Lake Street near Oak Park and River Forest High School.
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Photos posted to social media show portions of the mural were covered up in order to read “All Lives Matter.” The graffiti was largely cleaned off the mural by 10 a.m.
Village crews clean off the Black Lives Matter mural on Scoville Avenue just south of Lake Street in Oak Park the morning of July 8 after it had been vandalized overnight. (Matt Baron)
Officials with the village, Oak Park Area Arts Council and artists who created the mural said they will meet to see if additional work is needed to fully restore the mural to its original condition.
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“The public works department did a really good job of getting that [material] that was used to deface the mural up,” Oak Park Area Arts Council Executive Director Camille Wilson White said. “It cleaned up really well. There are some areas that the artists eventually may want to look at restoring some of the paint.”
The colorful mural includes nods to the colors of the LGBTQ+ pride flag and navy blue and orange for OPRF High School.
“The mural is quite stunning,” White said. “It’s radiant.”
The mural was the idea of artists Cullen Benson, Cortlyn Kelly and Franka Del Santo, who worked with community volunteers to design and paint the mural at the end of June.
Work began on the mural June 24, and the entire “Black Lives Matter” message is nearly 100 feet in width. Artists completed the project in less than two days, Benson said.
Village officials say Oak Park police have “gathered evidence they hope will identify the vandals.” Anyone with information about the vandalism is encouraged to contact police at 708-386-3800. Information may also be provided anonymously by calling 708-434-1636 or online at www.oak-park.us/crimetip.
Earlier in the week, the Oak Park village board gave direction to work with the Oak Park Area Arts Council on a plan to protect the mural, which received unanimous support at the board’s July 6 meeting.
Village crews cleaned off the Black Lives Matter mural on Scoville Avenue just south of Lake Street in Oak Park the morning of July 8 after it had been vandalized overnight. (Matt Baron)
Village staff was directed to work with the arts council to determine a protection plan and costs, which will be presented back to the village board in the future.
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“From what the artists sent us, what they’re asking for is that if the mural is vandalized or defaced, as has happened in at least one other city, the village would fund and support the restoration of that artwork if it was vandalized or defaced,” trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla said at that meeting.
The protection plan is expected back in front of the village board within 60 days.
sschering@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @steveschering


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--A man is shot 19 times. And his young assailant laughs, prosecutors say.

She warned him that the occupants could be Latin Kings , the bitter rival to his Two-Six gang , a @ @ @ @ @ bad blood in the Little Village neighborhood that stretches back to the early 1970s .
@ @ @ @ @ on the West Side street until two people emerged from the car , each wearing @ @ @ @ @ carrying handguns with attached laser sights , according to Cook County prosecutors .

The girl got a bad feeling as she walked with her boyfriend toward the intersection of Karlov Avenue and 27th Street, where a dark-colored sedan seemed to lie in wait on the northwest corner.
She warned him that the occupants could be Latin Kings, the bitter rival to his Two-Six gang, a dispute with a history of bad blood in the Little Village neighborhood that stretches back to the early 1970s. The pair maintained their course on the West Side street until two people emerged from the car, each wearing hoods, face masks and carrying handguns with attached laser sights, according to Cook County prosecutors.
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The alleged gunmen, ages 15 and 16, fired a volley of gunfire as Noe Mondragon-Jimenez, 27, and the girl fled in terror about 9:30 p.m. on July 2, authorities said.
But Mondragon-Jimenez could not escape.
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After he fell to the ground with 19 gunshot wounds, the 15-year-old approached the victim’s bullet-riddled body and struck him with his gun before running off, laughing, to the getaway car, authorities told a judge during a bail hearing for the older teen.
The girl described in court as Mondragon-Jimenez’s girlfriend, who is still a minor herself, told authorities she thought she recognized the shooters.
Both teen suspects were arrested at their homes on Sunday and later charged with first-degree murder in Mondragon-Jimenez’s death, though the 15-year-old was charged as a juvenile. In separate hearings, judges remanded both to custody, authorities said.
The 16-year-old was charged as an adult, but his Tuesday hearing was not televised publicly online. The judge, Mary Marubio, cut the public feed before the hearing because of the defendant’s age.
But before the hearing got underway, she said she would bring the matter up for future review, as she did not want to exclude the defendant’s family from the proceedings.
The shooting happened a day before the start of the violent July 4 holiday when at least 80 people were shot, at least 17 of those fatally, across the city. Many of those shooting incidents were believed to be gang-related.
Mondragon-Jimenez, of the 3100 block of West 27th Street, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. Police recovered eight spent shell casings from a 9 mm at the scene, authorities said.
Police pieced together the events from private and city video surveillance and eyewitness accounts, including a caller to 911 who spotted the getaway car fleeing the scene moments after hearing the event on a police scanner, according to prosecutors.
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Authorities even located a city camera footage showing the 16-year-old later that night where he appeared to pantomime shooting a gun and then fell to the ground against a vehicle in a similar way to how Mondragon-Jimenez did, prosecutors said.
Two of the witnesses, one who saw the younger teen laughing as he fled, also identified the teens from photos, authorities said.
Marubio denied bail for the 16-year-old, while Juvenile Judge Linda Pauel ordered the 15-year-old held in custody, according to state’s attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. The 15-year-old is expected to return to court Monday, while the 16-year-old was scheduled to return July 27.
wlee@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MidNoirCowboy


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Column: Trump demands schools reopen or funds might be cut — our (expendable) kids must face the vir

Column: Trump demands schools reopen or funds might be cut — our (expendable) kids must face the virus!

Listen , back when I was your age , we didn ’ t have the luxury of worrying about touchy-feely @ @ @ @ @ or communicable diseases or continuing to live .
We went to school and learned , @ @ @ @ @ or smallpox , we just went about our day and said , “ Thank you @ @ @ @ @ sometimes even ran back to the ol ’ polio man and asked for seconds .

All right, you little whippersnappers, listen up. I’ve had it with all the whining and griping about the “coronavirus pandemic” and the “debate over whether to open schools in the fall” and all that lily-livered blah-blah.
You brats are going to listen to me and to your president, Donald J. Trump, and you’re going to march your little rear ends off to school come fall. I don’t care if you have to wade through 5 feet of coronavirus to get there, you’re going!
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As the president said Tuesday: “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”
He drove that point home Wednesday morning, tweeting the smartly incomplete sentence: “May cut off funding if not open!”
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Also Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on a conference call with governors from across the country that she expects schools to be “fully operational” in the fall and that anything less would be unacceptable.
That, children, is a little thing we used to call “toughness.” Not that you or your latte-sipping, America-hating parents would understand the concept.
Brian Kilmeade, Fox News host and person who might have gone to school, gets it. That’s why he said Wednesday morning: “Life is full of risks. Kids should learn early that life is full of hurdles, you’ve got to find a way to overcome.”
Listen, back when I was your age, we didn’t have the luxury of worrying about touchy-feely things such as deadly viruses or communicable diseases or continuing to live. We went to school and learned, and if we got polio or smallpox, we just went about our day and said, “Thank you very much,” and sometimes even ran back to the ol’ polio man and asked for seconds.
But you modern-day children and your soft, liberal parents see one deadly pandemic killing more than 130,000 Americans and still infecting thousands more each day and you darn near wet your shorts. TOUGHEN UP, BUTTERCUPS!
Clearly the smart move is to decide RIGHT NOW, in early July, while the number of COVID-19 cases is exploding across huge swaths of the country, that all schools will be open come September and that any state that refuses to open all its schools will be duly punished by the federal government.
Is it possible some of you will get coronavirus? Sure. But who the heck cares? Most of you won’t die from it, so really the only thing to worry about is the uncertain and possibly life-shortening aftereffects of a disease scientists still know relatively little about. That’s the kind of thing that makes life exciting!
And it’s not like you kids could catch something at school and then go home and spread it to your entire family. That’s just silly talk. Whoever heard of a kid bringing any kind of illness home? Poppycock.
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So strap on your little backpacks and get ready to march out there and face the virus like a real American.
Between now and when we finally ship your expendable tail-ends off in a righteous display of anti-science stubbornness, you’re likely to hear a bunch of left-wing nonsense spouted by those who dare criticize the Trump administration’s bold, keep-pretending-everything-is-fine approach to the pandemic.
They’ll say things like: “Perhaps it would be best to mandate mask-wearing, ramp up contact tracing and present a science-based federal plan to reduce the number of cases at least down to the levels being seen in other wealthy nations, and then start considering the best ways to proceed with opening schools.”
Or they’ll blabber something like: “Schools across the country are going to reopen in ways that are based on the status of the virus spread in their areas, and under conditions parents feel will best protect their children and families. Any general demand that ‘All schools must open or they’ll be punished!’ is as ignorant as it is shortsighted.”
Worse yet, you’re bound to hear: “Maybe a better path forward is for the federal government to help school districts and states figure out various plans of action that can be implemented depending on conditions on the ground in the fall, while also setting up provisions to help families and children who would struggle most if schools aren’t able to open for in-person classes.”
What a bunch of claptrap. And you better get used to it, kids. These liberals never shut up.
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I prefer to live by these words, which someone said to me right before he bravely and unexpectedly died in a massive Shell station explosion while smoking a cigarette and pumping gas: “Pray hard, breathe free and don’t let nobody tell you what to …”
You kids enjoy the rest of your summer. Come fall, we’re shipping you off to your poorly ventilated school hallways, coronavirus or not.
Here’s hoping you come out of it smarter than the rest of us.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Rock Island service stopped near Mokena after train hits pedestrian

Service on Metra ’ s Rock Island line has been halted near Mokena after a train struck a pedestrian at @ @ @ @ @ to a Metra spokeswoman .

Service on Metra’s Rock Island line has been halted near Mokena after a train struck a pedestrian at around 9:30 a.m., according to a Metra spokeswoman.
The inbound train was approaching the Mokena station when it struck the pedestrian near Francis Road/West LaPorte Road, Meg Reile said.
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The train had left the Joliet station at 9:15 a.m. and carried 11 passengers.
Inbound and outbound service south of Mokena has been halted while an investigation continues, Reile said.
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mnolan@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Man visiting Portage apartment shot; police suspect domestic issue

Portage police are investigating a shooting early Tuesday morning at an apartment complex in which at least 40 rounds were @ @ @ @ @ weapons and one man was injured in what police said appeared to be a domestic @ @

Portage police are investigating a shooting early Tuesday morning at an apartment complex in which at least 40 rounds were fired from at least four weapons and one man was injured in what police said appeared to be a domestic issue.
“We have received information this was an isolated incident related to a domestic issue and not a random act,” Police Chief Michael Candiano said in a release.
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Around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday, Porter County Central Communications received multiple calls about a disturbance, followed by multiple shots fired, outside an apartment complex near the 6000 block of Canden, police said.
Responding officers located a man with a bullet wound who was taken to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, Candiano said.
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A 27-year-old man from Gary told police he arrived at his girlfriend’s residence around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday and that he was immediately fired upon by unknown suspects and struck in the buttocks.
The man told police he didn’t know who fired at him and he was unable to provide any description of the suspects or any vehicles.
Witnesses described a dark colored sport utility vehicle leaving the scene but there were no further descriptions of suspects or vehicles given.
Preliminary information obtained at the scene indicated at least 40 rounds were fired from at least four different caliber weapons. In addition to the man who was injured, numerous vehicles and buildings were struck by gunfire, police said.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Chris Burch at 219-762-3122.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Pet store owners, activists clash on Chicago proposal that would block pet stores from selling breed

Pet store owners, activists clash on Chicago proposal that would block pet stores from selling breeders’ puppies

“ If you could see the inhumane manner in which these puppy mills operate , no Chicago pet owner that @ @ @ @ @ money to go to support an industry like that , ” Ald .
Brian Hopkins @ @ @ @ @ .
“ It ’ s abhorrent , it ’ s offensive , and the only @ @ @ @ @ in the darkness .
”

A proposed ordinance sent to the full Chicago City Council this week would bar pet stores from selling dogs and only allow them to take fees for adoptions of pets from shelters and animal rescue groups.
The proposal aims to close a loophole from an ordinance passed in 2014 that attempted to prevent the sale of dogs from large-scale breeders at Chicago pet stores.
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The 2014 ordinance’s language allowed breeders to sell pets to retail stores under the guise of nonprofit organizations, a 2018 Chicago Tribune investigation found. The city’s Committee on Health and Human Relations on Monday recommended the revised ordinance for approval by the City Council. The guidelines also would apply to cats and rabbits.
“If you could see the inhumane manner in which these puppy mills operate, no Chicago pet owner that I know would want their money to go to support an industry like that,” Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, said Monday. “It’s abhorrent, it’s offensive, and the only way it can exist is in the darkness.”
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Pet store co-owners Stephanie and Lane Boron said the pet rescues that supply their store get dogs from commercial breeders, surrenders and other sources. The pair owns Pocket Puppies, 2479 N. Clark St.
“Rescues are not required to provide disclosures on sourcing. We do,” Stephanie Boron said. “There’s no loophole. There’s no fraud. ... We should not be put out of business for doing it better with stricter control.”
David Dinger, vice president of operations for the Anti-Cruelty Society, said his rescue does not get dogs from breeders. He said they get dogs from other rescues and humane societies to prevent overcrowding issues.
“If it’s true that there are agencies that are participating in this charade, then we should shine a light on that because that is unethical behavior that flies in the face of the important work that real animal advocates are struggling with each and every day,” Dinger said.
Hopkins challenged pet store owners to find other ways to remain profitable without selling dogs at high prices from breeders.
“If any business is incapable of staying open unless they have the opportunity to make their profits on the backs of these animals, then they deserve to close,” Hopkins said.
Stephanie Boron added that the ordinance could prohibit rescues from holding adoption events at retail stores like Petco and PetSmart.
Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, said the ordinance does not do anything to end puppy mills, while Hopkins said preventing retailers from purchasing dogs from breeders could shut down puppy mills.
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“We’ve heard a lot of impassioned rhetoric today about that, but this has nothing to do with that,” Lopez said. “This has to do with three businesses in the city of Chicago.”
Pocket Puppies is one of those three stores. The other two were notified of the hearing, but did not testify.
Cari Meyers, president of the Puppy Mill Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate the public about what it considers inhumane breeders, said no responsible breeder would ever sell to pet stores. She said responsible breeders will want to meet potential owners, sometimes on multiple occasions, to make sure they are a good fit for a dog.
“They have been committing fraud against consumers, as well as the city of Chicago, by saying these are rescue dogs, which they are not,” Meyers said. “They are coming from the mills — they are the exact same dogs that have been in the stores before — and they are charging thousands of dollars for these dogs.”
The City Council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance July 22.


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Video shows 7 staffers restraining, sitting on teen before his death at Michigan youth facility

On the video , several of the men appear to pull on and hold down Fredericks ’ arms and legs @ @ @ @ @ atop his chest and abdomen .
Toward the end of the video , the teen @ @ @ @ @ to the floor when staffers try to sit him up .
Others then move in @ @ @ @

At least seven men forcibly restrained a teenager who had a heart attack and died two days later. The staffers at a youth facility in Michigan held down the boy's arms and legs and sat on him as he screamed that he couldn't breathe, an attorney representing the boy's estate said Tuesday.
Surveillance video footage from the Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo shows 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks being pushed to the floor and held down by staff members because he threw a sandwich in the cafeteria. About a dozen teenagers can be seen sitting in the cafeteria at the time.
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The video was released Tuesday by Detroit-area attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who represents Fredericks’ estate. A civil lawsuit filed by the estate in June says the boy screamed “I can’t breathe” on April 29 as he was restrained for what appeared to be about 12 minutes on video released by the state late Tuesday.
Cornelius Frederick (Courtesy Marko Law / TNS)
On the video, several of the men appear to pull on and hold down Fredericks’ arms and legs while others sit or lay atop his chest and abdomen. Toward the end of the video, the teen appears limp and falls back to the floor when staffers try to sit him up. Others then move in and start CPR.
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“He’s not fighting at all ... his shoes and his feet are just lying there,” Fieger said, referring to the videotape.
The teenager went into cardiac arrest, was hospitalized and died two days later, authorities said. The death was ruled a homicide and the doctor who performed the autopsy said Fredericks died of asphyxia.
Two male staffers and a female nurse — Michael Mosley of Battle Creek, Zachary Solis of Lansing and Heather McLogan of Kalamazoo — were fired and have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse in Fredericks’ death.
Fieger said he is urging authorities to recommend charging others.
“As you can see in the video, far more than two people are involved in suffocating him,” Fieger said. “I would urge them to reconsider the other people ... who are clearly involved in the killing of Cornelius.”
Fredericks had been a ward of the state for several years, following his mother’s death when his father was incarcerated.
Fieger said his office had a forensic examiner review the footage and that portions of the videotape are missing. He didn’t specifically say that he believed the video had been edited or explain what had happened, or why.
“It jumps and there suddenly people are no longer in the scene that were there one second before,” he said.
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In its investigation, the state of Michigan disclosed that staff members at Lakeside had also suffocated Fredericks as a form of discipline, according to Fieger.
“It is a horrific videotape and it demonstrates what other employees have told us is a culture of fear and abuse at the Lakeside facility,” Fieger said. “One employee told us that in order to work there all you needed was to be breathing and accept $13 per hour.”
“The mechanism for dealing with children in this facility was abuse and fear,” he added. “In fact, suffocation was regularly practiced upon children. They called it ‘fearing.’”
Lakeside Academy and its operator, Sequel Youth and Family Services, are named in the civil lawsuit.
The staff members’ actions shown in the video don’t “adhere to the Sequel and Lakeside Academy policies and procedures related to the use of emergency safety interventions,” Sequel Youth and Family Services said in a statement Tuesday.
It also said Lakeside employees are trained in deescalation techniques and that its policy is to only use restraints as emergency safety interventions when “a student exhibits imminent danger to themselves and ... when a student exhibits imminent danger to others, and in those cases to use the minimal level of intervention possible.”
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“Otherwise, a restraint is not an appropriate first response, and restraints are never to be used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff,” the company said.
Lakeside had a contract with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to care for youths in the state’s foster care and juvenile justice systems. The state said last month that it had terminated that contract with Lakeside Academy and removed all 125 youth being housed there.
JooYeun Chang, who oversees Michigan’s child welfare system, said the state needs to “totally overhaul” its oversight of residential facilities for youth.
“What’s important is we look at the totality of what’s happening, how these institutions are being used and how we monitor and provide oversight and training,” Chang told WOOD-TV.
Sequel Youth and Family Services operates facilities in other states, according to Fieger.


chicagotribune--2020-07-08--Demand escalates for pet food pantries during COVID-19 crisis: ‘We didn’t know how we were going to

Demand escalates for pet food pantries during COVID-19 crisis: ‘We didn’t know how we were going to manage’

Care for Real , which also provides food and clothes for people , started a pop-up food pantry in Rogers @ @ @ @ @ down in the area , Meyerson said .
The added labor meant their pet food @ @ @ @ @ while a smaller number of staffers tried to help more people in need of other @ @

Volunteer Max Duran, left, helps Robert Hall load up food for his dog, Aura, as the Care for Real pet food pantry reopens on July 2, 2020, in Edgewater. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Nancy Meyerson struggled to fall asleep for weeks after the pet food pantry she oversees closed because of COVID-19.
“We didn’t know how we were going to manage,” said Meyerson, board chair of Care for Real, a nonprofit with a pet food pantry in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood.
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“I personally have never been terrified for myself,” she said. “But the thought of closing down when there were so many people in need kept me awake at night. It kept all of us awake.”
Chicago animal shelters and pet food pantries have scrambled to provide enough resources for pet owners as demand has escalated as people have lost their jobs and suffered financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Many pet food pantries in the region have shut down, while others looked to new ways of doing things to stay afloat.
“From the 15th of March to ... the end of May, we registered 600 new households,” Meyerson said. “That’s almost as many clients as we registered for all of 2019.”
Pantries have had to abandon their reliance on volunteers, many of whom have been told to stay at home to adhere to social distancing guidelines and minimize exposure to COVID-19. As a result, fewer workers are picking up more work.
Volunteers Patti Colandrea and Stephen Klozik pack up orders for cats and dogs as the Care for Real pet food pantry reopens on July 2, 2020, in Edgewater. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Care for Real, which also provides food and clothes for people, started a pop-up food pantry in Rogers Park because others had shut down in the area, Meyerson said. The added labor meant their pet food pantry had to temporarily close while a smaller number of staffers tried to help more people in need of other essentials.
But during the three months the pet pantry was closed, inquiries poured in about its reopening, Meyerson said.
“We found out that many of the people, particularly seniors, would choose to feed their pets rather than themselves,” Meyerson said. “So they would go hungry to provide food for their animals.”
Several other groups that provide food to people struggling to feed their pets also have seen an uptick in demand.
Evanston Animal Shelter has been giving out about 1,000 pounds of pet food a week since COVID-19 reached Chicago, said Vicky Pasenko, shelter executive director. The need has been so strong that the organization now buys its own pet food to give out instead of relying on donations.
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“We’re basically tapping into every resource we can find to make sure that we can continue to keep the pantry funded,” Pasenko said.
The result has been a shift in focus to finding donations, instead of new homes, for pets in the community. Organizations have turned to virtual pet food drives and events to bring in the money needed to sustain themselves.
“Everybody realize(s) the need for the pet food pantry,” said Megan Lutz, vice president on the board of C.A.R.E., a Skokie animal rescue that operates a pet food pantry twice a month.
“We’re still doing the animal rescue, but now it’s part of our mission to support pet owners and keep animals out of shelters,” Lutz said.
C.A.R.E. grew from 15 pet food pantry clients before the coronavirus pandemic to about 150, Lutz said. She noticed pet owners scrambling as local shelters and pet food pantries shut down in the pandemic’s wake.
But as the community’s need for pet food grows, help from the community also has skyrocketed.
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Cook County awarded $8 million in animal shelter grants to the city of Evanston in late May to prevent animal overcrowding. Pet adoptions have soared for many organizations.
According to PetPoint, which compiles data related to animals in rescue and welfare organizations, since March Illinois has seen a 23% rise in foster care for dogs and 22% increase for cats as compared with the same time period in 2019.
All of the animals in C.A.R.E.’s shelter were taken in by foster homes two days after the group advertised the need, Lutz said. In addition, during a recent virtual food drive, C.A.R.E. brought in more than 2,300 pounds of dry pet food and 1,000 cans of pet food.
“This is pretty unprecedented how it hit so many people personally, either through family members getting sick or people getting laid off work,” Lutz said. “People are still putting their volunteerism first is what we’re realizing.”
Lutz compared the community’s response to the aftermath of a hurricane. Just as people come together to rescue animals after a natural disaster, donors and foster families have stepped up to help others impacted by COVID-19.
“We have over 350 volunteers so we know what the community does,” Lutz said. “This just reinforces that when something that’s bigger than all of us is happening, people will still come together for a cause that they believe in.”
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kelsmith@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-07--The latest from editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis

To come up with the best pizzas in America , The Daily Meal researched the newest and highly rated places @ @ @ @ @ of great pizzas from across the country — nearly 1,000 pizzas in total were considered @ @ @ @ @ then called upon a geographically diverse list of pizza panelists — chefs , restaurant critics @ @ @ @ @ other pizza authorities — to take the survey .
The states with the most entrants @ @ @ @ @ York ( 28 ) , Illinois ( 9 ) , California ( 7 ) , @ @ @ @ @ ( 6 ) and New Jersey ( 6 ) , but Texas , Michigan and @ @ @ @ @ as well .

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chicagotribune--2020-07-09--Daywatch: Pritzker says US needs mask mandate, COVID-19 final straw for some storied retailers and B

Daywatch: Pritzker says US needs mask mandate, COVID-19 final straw for some storied retailers and Blackhawks appear intent on keeping nickname

“ Making some broad declaration at the federal level and ignoring the particular circumstances of a locality , where they @ @ @ @ @ are , eliminating the possibility for some kind of a hybrid model , that doesn @ @ @ @ @ , ” Lightfoot said , adding that the city doesn ’ t know what ’ @ @ @ @ @ September .

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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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Gov. J.B. Pritzker wears a mask at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on May 20, 2020. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for a national mask mandate, a national containment strategy for COVID-19 and additional federal aid for states to offset large revenue losses created by the pandemic in testimony before a Congressional committee Wednesday.
The mask mandate that took effect in Illinois May 1 “aligns with our most significant downward shifts in our infection rate,” Pritzker said. “It’s not too late for the federal government to make an impact. In fact, it’s more important than ever.”
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Pritzker’s testimony came as Americans confront a resurgence of the coronavirus after four months, 3 million confirmed infections and over 130,000 deaths.
Also on Wednesday, Pritzker announced that more than 500 Illinois National Guard members will end their missions at 11 state-run COVID-19 testing sites this month.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks to the media on June 18, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said the question of whether schools should reopen this fall must be a local decision, and she doesn’t put much thought into what President Donald Trump says, adding that it’s ironic for a Republican to advocate against individual states’ rights.
“Making some broad declaration at the federal level and ignoring the particular circumstances of a locality, where they are ... what their plans are, eliminating the possibility for some kind of a hybrid model, that doesn’t make any sense,” Lightfoot said, adding that the city doesn’t know what’s going to happen in September.
Determined to reopen America’s schools despite coronavirus worries, Trump threatened to hold back federal money if districts don’t bring students back in the fall.
Column: Trump wants kids in school this fall. So do I, but not under the current COVID-19 conditions.
A person runs in front of the boarded up Neiman Marcus store on Michigan Ave. on March 23, 2020, in Chicago. (Raquel Zaldivar/Chicago Tribune)
Many of America’s storied retailers already were facing big challenges, but the COVID-19 pandemic has hastened difficult decisions that will mean job losses and empty storefronts in the Chicago area and elsewhere.
Chains with deep roots are filing bankruptcy. Others have sped up plans to close underperforming stores. And unlike in past retail reckonings, the list of tenants that might be interested in filling those spaces likely has shrunk. Here’s how some retailers are dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic.
Meanwhile in the airline industry, United is sending layoff warnings to 36,000 employees — nearly half its U.S. workforce.
A jogger on Columbus Drive at Ida B. Wells Drive in Chicago on a hot and muggy July 8, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Summer in the Chicago area has been warmer than normal, and we could be in for several more weeks of sweltering weather. But as the 25th anniversary of Chicago’s deadliest weather event on record approaches, nothing in the forecast looks as bad as 1995.
As Chicago experiences an extended heat wave, it’s important to watch out for signs of heat stroke and other heat illnesses. Here are some tips.
Joe Podlasek, CEO of the Trickster Cultural Center in Schaumburg, has worked with Blackhawks management for 10 years on a program of cultural education. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The Blackhawks name, logo and imagery have come under increased scrutiny again this month because other sports teams have started reviews into possibly changing their names. Native American advocates, however, don’t all agree about the Blackhawks name, saying their case is more nuanced.


chicagotribune--2020-07-09--Contractor claims city unfairly awarded lucrative fuel deal to company tied to federal corruption in

Contractor claims city unfairly awarded lucrative fuel deal to company tied to federal corruption investigation

The decision was made weeks after Gauri tried to lodge a protest of his own alleging that Petromex was acting @ @ @ @ @ not a fuel deliverer , and therefore did not qualify as minority-owned subcontractor .
The @ @ @ @ @ filing because he was not the main bidder and did not have standing , records @ @

A Florida fuel distributor that lost a recent bid for a $43 million contract to provide diesel to the city of Chicago has filed an official protest, saying the process was skewed to take care of a clout-heavy local company linked to an ongoing federal political corruption probe.
The protest filed with the city May 22 by Miami-based World Fuel Services alleged its proposal, which was the lowest of three submitted to the city, was rejected in favor of the second-lowest bidder that used Black Dog Petroleum as its minority-owned subcontractor.
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Black Dog, located in Lyons, and its owner, Amit Gauri, were named in search warrants and subpoenas filed last fall by federal prosecutors in a sweeping political corruption probe of former state Sen. Martin Sandoval and a number of suburban mayors and industry heavyweights, including Illinois’ so-called Asphalt King, Michael Vondra.
World Fuel’s bid protest included a sworn affidavit from a former company vice president who said he was pressured by a city deputy commissioner in 2018 to use Black Dog as a minority-owned subcontractor, but he refused, according to paperwork released to the Chicago Tribune through an open records request.
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Black Dog Petroleum in suburban Lyons on Dec. 12, 2019. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The now-retired executive, Tim Crowe, also alleged the city official name-dropped a Chicago alderman who had been asking “why bidders like (World Fuel Services) were not using Black Dog Petroleum as part of their bids,” the protest stated.
The pressure kept up last year, when Gauri allegedly called Crowe and offered to tout World Fuel to Mayor Lori Lightfoot at an upcoming gala, Crowe’s affidavit stated.
“I understood Mr. Gauri to be implying that he could influence the city and that (World Fuel) would not be found to be a qualified bidder unless it agreed to use Black Dog Petroleum in its bid,” the affidavit stated.
Two sources told the Tribune last week that the claims have been referred to city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson for review and possible further investigation.
The city’s Department of Procurement Services wrote to World Fuel that its bid was rejected because its minority-owned subcontractor, Petromex, does not own its own trucks and therefore would not be performing a “commercially useful function,” as required by city ordinance.
The decision was made weeks after Gauri tried to lodge a protest of his own alleging that Petromex was acting only as a broker and not a fuel deliverer, and therefore did not qualify as minority-owned subcontractor. The city rejected Gauri’s filing because he was not the main bidder and did not have standing, records show.
In its dispute with the city, World Fuel countered that Petromex, which is based in south suburban Midlothian, has been a certified minority-owned enterprise for the city for years, receiving millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded payments to provide fuel in dozens of city contracts.
A spokeswoman for the Procurement Services department declined to say more about why Petromex was suddenly determined to be an unsuitable subcontractor, saying in an emailed response to the Tribune that the evaluation was ongoing and a final decision should be made by July 20.
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“As with all low-bid contracts, the city is required to award to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder,” the response stated. “If circumstances arise after award that would make any company or its owners ineligible to do business with the city, the city is authorized to terminate the contract and to exercise all remedies available to it.”
In a written statement, Gauri said he was confident the contract was fairly awarded after being vetted by the city’s rigorous procurement process.”
“Any allegation to the contrary is simply not true,” Gauri said. “We are eager to get to work.”
The bid dispute marks the latest controversy for Black Dog, founded a decade ago by Gauri as a food distributor that has since expanded into fuel delivery and asphalt refining.
Last year, the Tribune reported on Gauri’s rise in the city’s business scene, from the hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash he’s showered on local politicians to the relationships he’s forged with several key players in the sprawling federal investigation.
In September, Gauri and Black Dog Petroleum were among those named in an FBI search warrant served on the Village Hall in west suburban Lyons as part of the ongoing probe targeting a string of politicians and well-connected operatives.
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To add to his troubles, within days of his name first being publicly thrust into the corruption probe, Gauri’s umbrella corporation, Black Dog Chicago LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid a legal fight with one of its former fuel suppliers over millions of dollars in allegedly unpaid bills, court records show. The bankruptcy case is pending.
Gauri testified under oath at a bankruptcy proceeding late last year that he’d met with Sandoval and former state Rep. Luis Arroyo — who also has been charged in federal court with corruption — to discuss issues related to minority-owned business contracts.
Gauri also said he leased — and later purchased — his trucks directly from Vondra, a longtime player in state construction whose Bartlett offices were also visited by federal investigators last fall.
Despite all the controversy, though, Black Dog‘s various entities have continued to land lucrative government contracts, including the subcontract now in dispute, which could be worth up to $12 million for Gauri’s petroleum delivery operation.
Late last year, Gauri was awarded a separate $7.6 million fuel contract with the Chicago Department of Water Management, and his $250,000 deal to supply dairy products and other food to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center was renewed by the County Board in December, records show.
Black Dog Petroleum was also given a loan in April of up to $350,000 through the federal Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping small businesses stay afloat amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to U.S. Treasury Department data released this week.
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A Tribune analysis of the data showed that Black Dog reported 22 jobs would be saved by the loan, which was issued by First Midwest Bank.
The contract sought by World Fuel Services was put out for bid in March to supply “ultra-low sulfur diesel and bio-diesel fuel” for the city of Chicago. Records show World Fuel entered a bid price of $42.3 million, about $1.4 million less than the next lowest bidder, Colonial Oil Industries Inc.
In a rejection letter dated May 8, Shannon Andrews, the city’s chief procurement officer, said World Fuel’s bid was “rejected as nonresponsive” because it did not demonstrate a good-faith effort meet minority-owned business requirements.
The city had determined that Petromex “cannot perform a commercially useful function and therefore cannot be used to meet the contract specific goals,” the letter stated.
By ordinance, World Fuel had 10 business days to file a protest. The city, however, awarded the contract to Colonial on May 21, before that window was up. World Fuel filed its protest the next day, records show.
The Procurement Services spokeswoman said the city is not obligated to delay the award of a contract until after the 10-day period.
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According to the protest, the city should have rejected Colonial’s bid because it relies on Black Dog Petroleum, which “is a financially unsuitable company that has engaged in serious misconduct warranting debarment.”
The affidavit from Crowe, the former World Fuel vice president, said the pressure to use Black Dog began in 2018 with an unsolicited call from Robert Skipwith, who at the time was deputy commissioner of the Energy Procurement and Management bureau, which oversees the purchase of electricity and fuel for the city.
Crowe said Skipwith talked about a Chicago alderman who was touting Black Dog. The affidavit does not name the alderman, but two sources told the Tribune it was 36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas.
State election records show Gauri, his wife and Black Dog have donated $5,500 to Villegas’ campaign fund over the past five years.
Reached by telephone last week, Villegas said he does not know anything about World Fuel Services’ claims. While he’s a vocal supporter of the city’s minority- and women-owned business program, Villegas said he never pushes for any particular company to be hired.
“I don’t advocate for any companies, I advocate for the program and make sure that it’s meeting its goals,” Villegas said.
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Skipwith, who left the city for a private investment firm last year, said in an email to the Tribune that he did not work on the bid currently in dispute and declined further comment.
City records show World Fuel has been paid more than $174 million since 2008 through a massive contract to provide ethanol fuel to the Department of Fleet and Facility Management. Petromex is listed as one of its subcontractors on that contract, records show.
Meanwhile, Petromex has been paid at least $7 million by the city over the past 13 years through a variety of other subcontracts, mostly to supply diesel fuel.
Petromex did not return calls seeking comment, and the lawyer representing World Fuel Services in the bid protest said he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
In its bid protest, World Fuel said it rejected using Black Dog as a subcontractor in part because of the ongoing bankruptcy case. The protest cited a recent bankruptcy filing by the creditor, Parent Petroleum, alleging Black Dog’s umbrella company has made unauthorized distributions to Gauri and others without court approval.
Black Dog affiliates have also paid for luxury personal vehicles for Gauri and his wife, including a Range Rover and a Tesla, Parent Petroleum alleged in the court filing. The company vehemently denied the allegations about the vehicles and any improper disbursements in its response to the court.
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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-09--Chicago summer already setting records as 25th anniversary of 1995 killer heat wave looms

“ I fear that the combination of COVID-19 , climate change and concentrated poverty in Chicago will put enormous numbers @ @ @ @ @ ” Klinenberg said .
“ My view is that Chicago has been very lucky because @ @ @ @ @ matter of chance that the city hasn ’ t gotten the kind of heat wave @ @ @ @ @ ”

Summer in the Chicago area has been warmer than normal, and we could be in for several more weeks of sweltering weather.
Chicago usually sees high temperatures in the low to mid-80s this time of year, but July temperatures are ranging in the 90s, after June tied for the sixth warmest on record here, 5 degrees above average.
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But as the 25th anniversary of Chicago’s deadliest weather event on record approaches, nothing in the forecast looks as bad as 1995.
Starting July 12, 1995, more than 700 people died in Chicago over five sweltering days as temperatures soared past 100 degrees, reaching as high as 20 degrees above normal. According to the heat index, which measures how it feels when humidity and temperature are combined, the weather felt more like 126 degrees.
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City leaders, including Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, downplayed the danger of the heat, with his human services commissioner saying that “We are talking about people that die because they neglected themselves.” No City Council meetings were called on the issue, which disproportionately affected poor, elderly and minority populations.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 17 The most notorious heat wave in Chicago was the deadly July 1995 stretch that killed more than 700 area residents. On July 13, 1995, Chicago's high temperature for the day reached 104 degrees. A 101-year-old woman gets help after being overcome by the heat Aug. 13, 1995, after an electrical fire knocked out power in her apartment building. (Walter Kale, Chicago Tribune)
“That was a major killer heat wave,” said Brett Borchardt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We’re not quite to that level. But it is a little unusual to be this warm, this long, this early in the year.”
In contrast, Chicago’s temperatures this year have been about 5 to 10 degrees above normal recently, according to Borchardt.
The weather service’s Climate Prediction Center forecast at least a 50% chance of above-average temperatures in Chicago for the next two weeks. It’s expected to remain above normal through the next month, Borchardt said.
“Above average by itself may not be indicative of dangerous weather,” Borchardt said. “But any time you’re above average, say in the middle of summer when you’re already typically hot, is when you can run into problems.”
Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications expanded cooling resources Tuesday as temperatures rose. The city has six cooling centers, as well as 50 cooling buses and various splash pads available for residents, according to a department news release.
The city has limited the capacity of cooling centers, reconfiguring them to accommodate physical distancing because of COVID-19, and put deep cleaning and disinfecting protocols in place, according to Rich Guidice, the agency’s executive director.
“We’re keeping a close eye on everybody who’s coming into the facility,” Guidice said. “We’re taking extra measures on deep cleaning and disinfecting the locations. Certainly if we do come across something that appears to be worrisome, we’ll take the necessary actions needed to keep everyone safe.”
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As has been done since the 1995 heat wave, wellness checks and outreach were being planned should temperatures reach the warning level determined by the NWS for Chicago’s vulnerable populations, such as homeless people, seniors and people with disabilities, Guidice said.
Climate models predict that weather like the 1995 Chicago heat wave will be more frequent 50 years from now, according to Eric Klinenberg, a sociology professor at New York University and author of the book “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago,” about the 1995 disaster.
“I fear that the combination of COVID-19, climate change and concentrated poverty in Chicago will put enormous numbers of people at risk,” Klinenberg said. “My view is that Chicago has been very lucky because it’s just a matter of chance that the city hasn’t gotten the kind of heat wave it got in 1995.”
While Klinenberg said Chicago has gotten better at dealing with heat crises since 1995, he pointed to racial inequality, segregation, poverty and isolation as unsolved problems that exacerbate heat-related illnesses and death.
“You can’t treat heat waves only as acute emergencies,” Klinenberg said. “If you really want to reduce the risk, you have to improve the conditions in people’s lives every day.”
The heat index is a key component in heat-related illnesses, according to Borchardt. It’s during periods of prolonged heat — such as the 1995 heat wave — that people can suffer heat illnesses.
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“A common mistake is just not realizing the impact it has on you,” Borchardt said. “Being outdoors and not realizing that you may be developing heat stroke or may be feeling effects of heat until it’s too late.”
To prevent heat-related illnesses, Chicagoans should limit exposure to direct sunlight outdoors, hydrate often, visit the a cooling center and only exercise outside when it’s not hot, such as early in the morning or after sunset, he said. To help others avoid heat, people should keep cars running when people are inside them and check on their neighbors, Borchardt said.
“Even if you think you’re doing OK, even if you’re exercising and you’re used to the heat, you still gotta check up on yourself,” Borchardt said.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-09--Police: Baseball bat used to fatally bludgeon man in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood; murder char

Police: Baseball bat used to fatally bludgeon man in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood; murder charges filed

Philip Noffz , 28 , was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:43 a.m. after being hit with a baseball @ @ @ @ @ head and face inside a residence in the 4800 block of North Central Park Avenue @ @ @ @ @ a police media notification and the Cook County medical examiner ’ s office .

A 23-year-old man has been charged with murder after police said he pummeled another man’s head with a baseball bat Tuesday on the Northwest Side.
Carl Noffz, 23, was charged with murder in the death of Philip Noffz, 28, said Officer Steve Rusanov, a Chicago police spokesman. Rusanov declined to confirm any relationship the men had.
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Philip Noffz, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:43 a.m. after being hit with a baseball bat multiple times in the head and face inside a residence in the 4800 block of North Central Park Avenue on Tuesday, according to a police media notification and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police responded to an emergency medical call and found the elder Noffz unresponsive and suffering from head injuries, according to police. The attack was domestic, police said, without elaborating.
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Carl Noffz, 23, was charged with murder after using a baseball bat to bludgeon a 28-year-old man to death in the 4800 block of North Central Park Avenue on July 7, 2020, Chicago police said. (Chicago Police Department)
Noffz, who lived on the same block where he was killed, died of head injuries from a beating and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office, which performed an autopsy Wednesday.
Carl Noffz, who also lived in the 4800 block of North Central Park Avenue, was scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursday for a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Detectives were investigating the death as a homicide.


chicagotribune--2020-07-10--Man, 29, shot while driving later crashes near 79th Street on Dan Ryan Expressway, police say

He suffered wounds to the right thigh , right arm and right upper back .
He was taken to the @ @ @ @ @ where his condition was stabilized , police said .

A 29-year-old man crashed his vehicle near 79th Street on the Dan Ryan Expressway after he was shot while driving in the first block of East 99th Street, Chicago police said.
The shooting happened about 3 p.m. Thursday in the 100 block of East 99th Street. The man heard shots and felt pain. He then proceeded to enter the expressway and crashed around 79th Street, police said.
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He suffered wounds to the right thigh, right arm and right upper back. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where his condition was stabilized, police said.
Earlier, Chicago police and Illinois State Police said shots were fire, but it was not clear who had jurisdiction.
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Later Thursday, ISP sent out a statement saying the CPD was in charge of the investigation, and announced closures on Interstate 94.
According to a spokesperson, lanes were closed on the northbound 79th Street ramp to northbound 71st Street while officials investigate. On Facebook Thursday, many reported hearing gunfire, similar to an AK 47 in the area.
CTA Red Line trains were bypassing the 79th Street Station due to police activity and shuttle buses were available from Garfield to 95th.


chicagotribune--2020-07-10--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: More than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases reported for first time since ea

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: More than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases reported for first time since early June as state sets single-day testing record and passes 150,000 total infections

Though restaurants in the state have been allowed to reopen for on-premise dining for weeks , some were not ready @ @ @ @ @ But as phase three and now phase four of the reopening from the coronavirus shutdown @ @ @ @ @ the suburbs , more are launching , many of them with new menus , patios @ @ @ @ @ in at least one case , an entirely new concept .

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The Fulton Market area of Chicago is no longer the ghost town it was during the depths of the COVID-19 virus pandemic shutdown. As restrictions on restaurants are eased, a worker takes a woman's temperature before she can enter Federales restaurant on Morgan Street on July 1, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois announced 1,018 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the first time the state’s new daily cases topped 1,000 since June 5. The tally brought the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois to 150,450.
The high number of cases came with a record high number of test results released: 36,180.
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Earlier Thursday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s task force on Chicago’s COVID-19 recovery recommended the city accelerate spending on the South and West sides to address inequities deepened by the coronavirus, according to a copy of the group’s final report.
The group notes that COVID-19 has hit Black and Latino communities harder than white counterparts “and laid bare structural disparities in health outcomes, underlying health conditions, access to basic necessities, and safety net support.”
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Also Thursday, district officials announced Chicago Public Schools students could start summer sports programs as soon as Monday. Practices are to prepare for the “potential return” of high school sports come fall, and allow for voluntary no-contact workouts of up to five hours, according to a letter to CPS families.
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Illinois is in phase 4 of its reopening plan. Here’s a guide to what’s allowed. ]
[ How to assess your COVID-19 risk when going out in public: Use this chart ]
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Here’s what’s happening Thursday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:35 p.m.: Coronavirus-inspired dish at Alinea draws backlash. Chef Grant Achatz explains his intent.
The 3D rendering of the novel coronavirus — with its grey exterior and bright red spikes — has inspired incarnations as breads, cakes, burgers, beers and plushies around the world, a reaction that uses grim humor to help us cope with a horrible threat. But the products have received mixed reactions.
Some people find them humorous, a source of levity during a bleak situation, while others have decried the practice, saying the products are tasteless and insensitive, considering the virus has already killed more than half a million people worldwide and 134,000 people in the United States.
Alinea, the renowned Chicago restaurant, found itself among the ranks of food and drink purveyors under fire after a photo of an amuse bouche inspired by the virus surfaced online.
AIR: Alinea In Residence is facing backlash for its coronavirus-lookalike amuse bouche. (The Alinea Group)
Served at the restaurant’s new rooftop pop-up AIR: Alinea in Residence, the dish visually resembles a computer rendering from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the novel coronavirus, complete with a gray viral envelope, colored by coconut ash, and red spike proteins, made from freeze-dried raspberries. Those who saw the dish online criticized it for being insensitive and tone-deaf.
Grant Achatz, chef and co-owner, said while people who dined at the pop-up enjoyed the dish, the public impact didn’t match the intention behind his creation, and he regrets not speaking out about it sooner.
The backlash on Instagram began earlier this week. David Baker posted a screenshot of a tweet on Instagram that included a photo of the dish, calling it “shameful.” (Baker has been in the restaurant industry for 14 years and previously worked at Roister, a sister restaurant to Alinea, for three years before an amicable departure.) The post now has hundreds of likes and comments.
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“Considering the current state of the country and the restaurant industry as a whole, I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to the victims, their families, their diners and the restaurant industry,” Baker wrote in an email. “People are losing their lives, people are losing family members. Restaurants are closing across the country, and this is the so called ‘art’ that they believe we need to experience right now? Unacceptable. This is not an Alinea caliber dish.”
Read more here. —Grace Wong
6:38 p.m.: IHSA to change its new guidelines following increase in COVID-19 cases
Less than a week into phase four of its Return to Play plans, the Illinois High School Association informed member schools on Thursday that the current guidelines will be revised due to an increase in cases of COVID-19 among student-athletes.
The IHSA will “modify” the guidelines in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Public Health, according to a news release. The plan for phase four had been approved by the IDPH on July 3 and went into effect Sunday.
The IHSA indicated in the news release that the upcoming changes will limit physical contact and require a greater usage of masks. Teams will not be allowed to compete against other schools in most sports, including 7-on-7 football.
Read more here. —Daily Southtown staff
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6:25 p.m.: Illinois Municipal League says new state rule could deprive some municipalities of federal coronavirus aid
The Illinois Municipal League is calling on the state to change a new rule governing how federal coronavirus aid money is distributed, arguing it’s burdensome and unnecessary and could result in federal funding being stripped from local governments in Illinois.
The rule, filed last week by the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, is more restrictive than federal guidelines on the relief money and would allow the state to reallocate local funds, which would “strip local governments of much-needed federal dollars,” Municipal League Executive Director Brad Cole said Thursday.
The rule allows local governments to recoup federal dollars for medical expenses, including establishing temporary medical facilities to increase the treatment and testing capacity for COVID-19; public health and payroll expenses; and other coronavirus-related expenses that are “reasonably necessary to the function of government.”
Local governments have until Nov. 1 to submit all reimbursement requests to the department, and any funds that were allotted but not claimed by that date “may be reallocated to other units of local government based on need,” the rule states.
“They will reallocate those dollars, and instead of them going to Peoria or Quincy or Decatur or Springfield or Rockford or Carbondale, they’ll go to another community that is a state priority, versus a local priority within those specific communities,” Cole said at a news conference in Springfield.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
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5:35 p.m.: Who gets a vaccine first? US considers race in COVID-19 plans.
Federal health officials are already trying to decide who will get the first doses of any effective coronavirus vaccines, which could be on the market this winter but could require many additional months to become widely available to Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an advisory committee of outside health experts in April began working on a ranking system for what may be an extended rollout in the United States. According to a preliminary plan, any approved vaccines would be offered to vital medical and national security officials first, and then to other essential workers and those considered at high risk — the elderly instead of children, people with underlying conditions instead of the relatively healthy.
Agency officials and the advisers are also considering what has become a contentious option: putting Black and Latino people, who have disproportionately fallen victim to COVID-19, ahead of others in the population.
In private meetings and a recent public session, the issue has provoked calls for racial justice. But some medical experts are not convinced there is a scientific basis for such an option, foresee court challenges or worry that prioritizing minority groups would erode public trust in vaccines at a time when immunization is seen as crucial to ending the pandemic.
“Giving it to one race initially and not another race, I’m not sure how that would be perceived by the public, how that would affect how vaccines are viewed as a trusted public health measure,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, a group represented on the committee.
Read more here. —The New York Times
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4:12 p.m.: American Writers Museum has reopened on Michigan Avenue — come have all these writers for yourself
The American Writers Museum has reopened to the public. Its second-floor space on Michigan Avenue was back in business July 3, having been closed since mid-March by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, said director of operations Christopher Burrow, the pace of visitors has been slow, with between 10 to 20 through the door on any particular day. But that can work in your favor if you come.
“Right now, it’s almost like the museum is yours while you’re here,” he said Thursday.
The museum, devoted to writing, the written word and those who write them, first opened in 2017 and occupies the full second floor of the building; its 11,00-square-foot space is divided into galleries but there are no separate rooms. Burrow says he misses the school groups that used to come on field trips, and fans of writers with their passions.
For example?
“Well, Edgar Allan Poe fans are legion,” Burrow said. “Or once we had an exhibit up for Philip K. Dick and a science fiction fan was so mad we didn’t have Bradbury.”
Read more here. —Doug George
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3:40 p.m.: Big Ten is moving to conference-only schedule for all fall sports because of COVID-19 concerns
The Big Ten has canceled nonconference competition in all fall sports and will face only conference opponents — if the 2020 seasons are played at all — because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a release Thursday afternoon, the Big Ten said it made the decision based on medical advice and after monthslong conversations among conference presidents and chancellors, athletic directors and medical experts. Details for the sports — football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross-country, field hockey and women’s volleyball — will be released at a later date.
“We are facing uncertain and unprecedented times, and the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes, coaches, game officials, and others associated with our sports programs and campuses remain our number one priority,” the Big Ten statement said. “By limiting competition to other Big Ten institutions, the Conference will have the greatest flexibility to adjust its own operations throughout the season and make quick decisions in real-time based on the most current evolving medical advice and the fluid nature of the pandemic.”
Some of the most significant nonconference football games wiped off the schedule include Michigan at Washington on Sept. 5, Ohio State at Oregon on Sept. 12, Miami at Michigan State on Sept. 26 and Wisconsin against Notre Dame on Oct. 3 at Lambeau Field.
The football scheduling changes affect 28 FBS opponents and eight FCS opponents. The financial ramifications for some programs, which receive payouts for scheduling Big Ten opponents, could be crushing.
Read more here. —Shannon Ryan
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2:38 p.m. (updated 3:15 p.m.): More than 1,000 new known COVID-19 cases reported for first time in more than a month
Illinois announced 1,018 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the first time the state’s new daily cases topped 1,000 since June 5. The tally brought the total number of confirmed cases in Illinois to 150,450.
The high number of cases came with a record high number of test results released: 36,180.
Also announced Thursday were 20 deaths from COVID-19.
—Chicago Tribune staff
2:30 p.m.: Chicago Public Schools student athletes can start summer workouts next week, but with COVID-19 precautions
Chicago Public Schools students could start summer sports programs as soon as Monday, district officials announced Thursday. But there will be no locker room talks or parents mingling around the soccer field.
The practices are to prepare for the “potential return” of high school sports come fall, and allow for voluntary no-contact workouts of up to five hours, according to a letter to CPS families from Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade and Executive Director of Sports Administration David Rosengard.
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Although CPS “continues to plan for potential in-person instruction,” with plans for the fall not yet released, the district is weighing extracurricular activities that could take place following current public health guidelines, according to the letter.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
2:11 p.m.: COVID-19 might spread through the air indoors, according to WHO
The World Health Organization is acknowledging the possibility that COVID-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions — after more than 200 scientists urged the agency to do so.
In an open letter published this week in a journal, two scientists from Australia and the U.S. wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”
The researchers, along with more than 200 others, appealed for national and international authorities, including WHO, to adopt more stringent protective measures.
WHO has long dismissed the possibility that the coronavirus is spread in the air except for certain risky medical procedures, such as when patients are first put on breathing machines.
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In a change to its previous thinking, WHO noted on Thursday that studies evaluating COVID-19 outbreaks in restaurants, choir practices and fitness classes suggested the virus might have been spread in the air.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1:41 p.m.: 17 Chicago restaurant openings and reopenings as industry continues to emerge in coronavirus era
Though restaurants in the state have been allowed to reopen for on-premise dining for weeks, some were not ready to emerge right away. But as phase three and now phase four of the reopening from the coronavirus shutdown have unfolded across Chicago and the suburbs, more are launching, many of them with new menus, patios, redesigned dining rooms and in at least one case, an entirely new concept.
On top of that, restaurateurs are getting more comfortable with the idea of opening in a pandemic-stressed economy, opening new places including Baye’s Little Bakery, The Elm and Uncooked.
Here’s a look at 17 restaurants that have opened, or re-opened, in the last week or so, and a few more that are on the horizon.
Read more here. —Phil Vettel
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11:37 a.m.: Chicago’s Field Museum reopens to public July 24
The Field Museum will reopen to the public later this month, admitting members beginning July 17 and the public on July 24, the museum announced Thursday.
Chicago’s home for dinosaurs, research and natural history has been closed for four months by the COVID-19 pandemic. Already open on the lakefront Museum Campus is the Shedd Aquarium, which opened July 3, and still closed is the Adler Planetarium.
In the announcement, the Field in particular promoted its new “Apsáalooke Women and Warriors” exhibition, which opened a day before the museum’s closure in March. Described as the Field’s first major exhibition curated by a Native scholar, it focuses on “the history, values, and beliefs of the Apsáalooke people of the Northern Plains, also known as the Crow.”
The Field Museum was the third best-attended indoor Chicago museum in 2019, with about 1.5 million visitors, behind the Shedd and the Art Institute, which remains closed. The Chicago History Museum announced Wednesday it will reopen Friday.
Read more here. —Doug George
9 a.m.: Lightfoot’s COVID-19 recovery task force: Boost spending in areas hit hardest by virus to fight poverty, racism
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s task force on Chicago’s COVID-19 recovery recommends the city accelerate spending on the South and West sides to address inequities deepened by the coronavirus, according to a copy of the group’s final report.
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The 104-page document released Thursday, assembled by a task force chaired by Lightfoot and former President George H.W. Bush’s onetime chief of staff, Sam Skinner, recommends the city pursue a series of big goals that have long eluded Chicago leaders.
[ Read: The Chicago Recovery Task Force Advisory Report ]
Chief among them is a series of recommendations aimed at fighting poverty and entrenched racism. The group’s report notes that COVID-19 has hit Black and Latino communities harder than white counterparts “and laid bare structural disparities in health outcomes, underlying health conditions, access to basic necessities, and safety net support.”
Read more here. —Gregory Pratt
6:25 a.m.: Chicago History Museum reopens July 10 with free tickets
The Chicago History Museum will reopen its doors to the public July 10 and will offer free admission through the end of the month, the North Side museum announced Wednesday.
As Chicago’s principal home devoted to the city’s past and stories, its building on the edge of Lincoln Park has been shut by the COVID-19 pandemic since mid-March. It will reopen at reduced capacity, with timed entries and a maximum of 275 visitors at a time, and following the State of Illinois Phase 4 guidelines for museums.
In the announcement, the CHM also highlighted a few special exhibitions on display:”Millions of Moments: The Chicago Sun-Times Photo Collection” is a new debut, with images from the newspaper’s archives that “document monumental events and everyday occurrences of life in Chicago,” according the the announcement. Included are photos of racial relations and strife, Chicago and national politics and sporting events, some that were never published. The exhibit has been set up so viewers can social-distance.
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“Cityscapes” is a new installation that lets visitors experience large-scale panoramic images from the CHM collection chronicling Chicago’s growth from 1858 to 2019. Additionally, “Modern by Design: Chicago Streamlines America” has been extended until Jan. 3, 2021.
Read more here. —Doug George
6 a.m.: As museums and zoos reopen, Chicago’s children’s museums find themselves sidelined
As museums around Chicago begin to reopen, tentatively, they say they’re mindful of the State of Illinois Phase 4 guidelines that spell out conditions specifically for them: Limited to 25% occupancy, must have plans to limit congregations of people. Then there’s this part: Any hands-on or interactive exhibits should be closed or the interactivity shut off.
For children’s museums, that’s the equivalent of telling them to take their ball and go home.
“All we are is interactive,” said Dave Judy, marketing director for Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview.
The three major children’s museums in the area — the Kohl, DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville and Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy Pier — have been closed since mid-March by the COVID-19 pandemic, like all museums and cultural institutions. And like all those institutions, they’ve been feeling the loss both to their sense of mission and to their bottom line.
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When Shedd Aquarium reopened to the public last week at reduced occupancy, museum officials said even though the new ticket revenue would be welcome, the Shedd would still be operating at a daily loss.
Children’s museums don’t have even that limited option. As nonprofits, they’re hoping area philanthropists will take note.
Read more here. —Doug George
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Wednesday related to COVID-19.
Despite President Donald Trump’s push for nation’s schools to reopen this fall, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the decision should be local.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls for national mask mandate and COVID-19 containment strategy in congressional testimony.
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The retail bankruptcies and store closings just keep coming. For some merchants, the pandemic was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Illinois National Guard coronavirus testing mission to wind down, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces.
Cook County to start dividing up ‘much-needed’ $51 million in federal CARES Act funding to suburbs hardest hit by coronavirus pandemic.


chicagotribune--2020-07-10--Coronavirus-inspired dish at Alinea draws backlash. Chef Grant Achatz explains his intent.

Part of the decision to serve a dish that resembled the virus was to remind diners that this threat still @ @ @ @ @ be aware of how their actions can affect others .
Another element behind the dish @ @ @ @ @ battle with Stage 5 squamous cell carcinoma in July 2007 .
He almost got a @ @ @ @ @ during that time to not only reflect and serve as a reminder of his indelible @ @ @ @ @ represent an enemy that he was going to defeat .
He was declared cancer-free in @ @ @ @

AIR: Alinea In Residence is facing backlash for its coronavirus-look-alike amuse bouche. To start the meal, guests eat the spicy, numbing, coronavirus-shaped bite. It's followed by an absinthe cocktail, meant to represent medicine. (The Alinea Group)
The 3D rendering of the novel coronavirus — with its gray exterior and bright red spikes — has inspired incarnations as breads, cakes, burgers, beers and plushies around the world, a reaction that uses grim humor to help us cope with a horrible threat. But the products have received mixed reactions.
Some people find them humorous, a source of levity during a bleak situation, while others have decried the practice, saying the products are tasteless and insensitive, considering the virus has already killed more than half a million people worldwide and 134,000 people in the United States.
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Alinea, the renowned Chicago restaurant, found itself among the ranks of food and drink purveyors under fire after a photo of an amuse-bouche inspired by the virus surfaced online.
Served at the restaurant’s new rooftop pop-up AIR: Alinea in Residence, the dish visually resembles a computer rendering from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the novel coronavirus, complete with a gray viral envelope, colored by coconut ash, and red spike proteins, made from freeze-dried raspberries. Those who saw the dish online criticized it for being insensitive and tone-deaf.
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Grant Achatz, chef and co-owner, said while people who dined at the pop-up enjoyed the dish, the public impact didn’t match the intention behind his creation, and he regrets not speaking out about it sooner.
The backlash on Instagram began earlier this week. David Baker posted a screenshot of a tweet on Instagram that included a photo of the dish, calling it “shameful.” (Baker has been in the restaurant industry for 14 years and previously worked at Roister, a sister restaurant to Alinea, for three years before an amicable departure.) The post now has hundreds of likes and comments.
“Considering the current state of the country and the restaurant industry as a whole, I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to the victims, their families, their diners and the restaurant industry,” Baker wrote in an email. “People are losing their lives, people are losing family members. Restaurants are closing across the country, and this is the so called ‘art’ that they believe we need to experience right now? Unacceptable. This is not an Alinea caliber dish.”
The Instagram post was a screenshot of a July 4 tweet from Tony Mozer, a cardiothoracic surgery fellow at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, who wrote “Tongue-in-cheek-in-mask. #coronavirus Thank you for making art that we love to experience and eat (at a safe distance).”
Nick Kokonas, co-owner of The Alinea Group, which operates AIR, leaped to the defense of the dish. He responded on Instagram to Baker’s post, saying “art is often meant to provoke discomfort, conversation and awareness. This is no different. Everyone on here saying we are somehow oblivious need to think just a single level upwards.” He then explained the safety protocols of The Alinea Group, while criticizing the lax procedures at other establishments.
Baker said he found the response elitist and a “poor defense of such a sensitive subject.”
“Overall, I think the responses are showing that people don’t support this,” Baker wrote in an email about the comments under his post. “Making something that people find disrespectful and offensive, and justifying it as art doesn’t make it less disrespectful or offensive.”
But the real intention behind the dish was the opposite, Achatz said. The bite was the result of a deep dive into the emotions and experiences he has had over the past few months, stemming from his professional and personal life, and meant to set the tone for the overall dining experience.
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Achatz talked about the sadness he felt after furloughing hundreds of employees and the stress from his restaurant business going into “survival mode.” In addition, he explained how he grappled with the anger he felt about the racist attacks — both physically and on social media — against his loved ones, and the fear of death in his own life as a cancer survivor and the lives of family members in poor health. He said he felt a responsibility to reflect these emotions and tell this story through the menu for AIR.
As reports of people refusing to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines increased, he felt increasingly frustrated about the privilege people exhibited, saying that “the neglect for others” really bothered him.
Part of the decision to serve a dish that resembled the virus was to remind diners that this threat still existed and that people should be aware of how their actions can affect others. Another element behind the dish was inspired by his own battle with Stage 5 squamous cell carcinoma in July 2007. He almost got a tattoo of a cancer cell during that time to not only reflect and serve as a reminder of his indelible experience, but also to represent an enemy that he was going to defeat. He was declared cancer-free in December that year.
“I just want people to understand that we take this seriously and (COVID-19) has caused an immense amount of pain, but we’re not giving up,” he said. “To me, it was a symbol of exactly the opposite of what the group that basically said we were taking it lightheartedly and making a joke from it. That could not be further from the direction that we were going.”
He added that the restaurant group’s safety protocols — from hourly mandatory hand-washing, to masks and gloves, to a zero-tolerance protocol — is meant to convey exactly how seriously it is taking the pandemic. However, the vision behind the bite is not communicated to guests by staff.
“It is my fault 1 million percent,” Achatz said about the critical response, saying he should have posted a photo of the amuse-bouche with an explanation of his thought process. “I probably should have taken a photo of it, pry it open, put it on Instagram and wrote a couple paragraphs on (the mindset behind it). But I didn’t have time.
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“We worked 130 hours in a week to get AIR open,” he said. “This was my error. I felt so confident in how we felt and how we were handling it, I didn’t feel the need to. I never even took that extra step to ask, ‘Are people thinking that we made light of this?’ and that was an error.”
The dish itself is an amuse-bouche, served before diners even arrive at their table. Alinea has traditionally executed an experiential dining format, and this pop-up was no different. After having their temperatures taken, diners walk single-file through a dark, ominous 30-foot hallway lined with frosted glass panels and pumped with coconut-scented fog, meant to evoke the feelings of fear, sadness and heaviness that Achatz has felt during the pandemic.
At the end of the hallway, the spicy, numbing, coronavirus-shaped bite is served, followed by an absinthe cocktail, meant to represent medicine. Then, guests board an elevator and are taken up three floors to the dining room that Achatz described as a “sunny, vibrant, happy and energetic” reprieve. When the meal concludes, patrons exit a different way than how they arrived.
But even with this explanation, Mike Satinover, who criticized the dish on Twitter and Instagram, said his biggest issue wasn’t that the amuse-bouche was part of an experience, but that Kokonas’ response showed that he wasn’t listening to the people who probably couldn’t afford to pay $300 for a meal and are probably most at risk for getting the coronavirus in the first place.
“It’s important to listen to the criticism that’s coming from people who aren’t your customer base who would give you the extreme benefit of the doubt,” Satinover said. “(The Alinea Group) is not against doing things that are tacky or corny sometimes, but tacky is less offensive than bordering on prejudice and not thinking about the privilege.”
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Baker said at the very minimum, the intent behind the dish should be conveyed to guests, and he still believes benefiting monetarily from something that has cost many people their livelihoods and lives is morally unconscionable.
“They need to be better, by their own standards that they tout to the rest of the industry,” Baker said.
Satinover said that his experience as a white chef making ramen has taught him that it’s important to be observant, humble and take criticisms seriously, especially when it comes to sensitive issues like privilege.
“I don’t have any ill will toward anybody here. We’re all trying to do the right thing and it’s a difficult time, but maybe making a coronavirus-inspired dish is not the best way to do that and you should listen if people are saying that something is offensive,” Satinover said.
Rosy's Bakery is just one of many food establishments serving a coronavirus-inspired item, this time, a concha. (Eddie Vazquez)
But the coronavirus-inspired bite at AIR isn’t the only such foodstuff in Chicago.
In Little Village, Eddie Vazquez, executive pastry chef and co-owner of Rosy’s Bakery, created two renditions of coronavirus-inspired conchas, a Mexican sweet bread, and called them “ConchaVirus.” Featuring neon green and neon pink polka dots meant to represent the spikes on the virus, the vanilla-flavored pastries debuted mid-March and were created to “turn a negative into a positive” and bring a smile to people’s face, Vazquez said.
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He’s received more positive comments than negative ones, and given the opportunity, he’d do it again. For the sake of avoiding drama online, he’s not posting about it like he did initially. However, people are still coming to him for the ConchaVirus from all over the state, and he said he finds it funny that many of his customers are medical professionals buying them by the dozens for their colleagues.
“I would go ahead and continue to try to make people happy and try to cheer people up,” Vazquez said. “With this ConchaVirus, we are actually consuming it instead of it consuming us.”
Achatz echoed his sentiment, standing by his creation.
“We really have to absorb how the country is feeling and make a decision based on that to counteract the negative emotions and provide opportunities for celebration, joy and happiness because it’s harder and harder to come by,” Achatz said. “And if there’s any important stuff that we want to tell, I’ll make sure I post about it first.”
gwong@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-10--1 dead, 1 critically wounded in separate shootings Thursday on West, Southwest sides, police say

About 3:40 p.m. , a male victim was standing outside a store on the 400 block of South Laramie Avenue @ @ @ @ @ , when someone walked up to him and opened fire , striking him in the @ @ @ @ @ was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead , police said .

A 22-year-old man was left in critical condition Thursday afternoon following a road rage incident, and another person was killed in shootings on the West and Southwest sides, Chicago police said.
About 3:40 p.m., a male victim was standing outside a store on the 400 block of South Laramie Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood, when someone walked up to him and opened fire, striking him in the head and chest. He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
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Police did not immediately have an age on the victim.
About 2:20 p.m., a 22-year-old man was traveling north in the 6300 block of South Kedzie Avenue when he was involved in a road rage incident with another driver who was in the same direction on 63rd Street. The victim at some point stopped at a traffic light, exited his vehicle and approached the other driver, police said.
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The other driver pulled out a weapon and fired shots, striking the victim in the neck. The victim was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Area One detectives were investigating.