chicagotribune--2020-09-07--From death row to model inmate, Renaldo Hudson set free after 37 years. ‘I was preparing to die. I w

From death row to model inmate, Renaldo Hudson set free after 37 years. ‘I was preparing to die. I wasn’t preparing for this moment.’

“ When my transformation started , you have to understand , I was preparing to die , ” Hudson said @ @ @ @ @ after he arrived at the Chicago ministry where he will begin his new life .
@ @ @ @ @ preparing for this moment … for a chance to be set free .
And , @ @ @ @ @ for me .
My transformation was that I didn ’ t want to die being @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t want to die knowing that no one cared .
”

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Renaldo Hudson, 56, released from Danville Correctional Center earlier in the day, reaches out to hug his attorney, Jenny Soble, upon arriving at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago on Sept. 2, 2020. He spent 37 years in prison and Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted him clemency. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Nearly four decades ago, 19-year-old Renaldo Hudson talked his way into the South Side apartment of a retired carpenter under the guise of fixing a broken light fixture.
Instead, in a drug-fueled robbery plot, Hudson stabbed the elderly man dozens of times, then set his apartment ablaze to hide what he had done. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to die, a punishment later commuted to life without the possibility of parole.
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As time passed, the violent, angry teenager grew into a model prisoner and mentor to other inmates. A grade school dropout unable to read or write when he entered prison, Hudson created a statewide essay contest that resulted in a book, started a prison newspaper and helped develop other rehabilitative programs. Three years ago, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Christian studies.
Renaldo Hudson stands outside his apartment provided by Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago, after saying goodbye to his friend, Evan Griffith, whom he met while they were on death row. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
His road to redemption began when he still was on death row and culminated last Wednesday when, at 56, he walked out of a medium-security prison in downstate Illinois and became a free man for the first time since 1983. Gov. J.B. Pritzker commuted Hudson’s life sentence to time served in the latest round of executive clemency decisions since the COVID-19 public health crisis began.
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“When my transformation started, you have to understand, I was preparing to die,” Hudson said in a Tribune interview shortly after he arrived at the Chicago ministry where he will begin his new life. “I wasn’t preparing for this moment … for a chance to be set free. And, so, my transformation was for me. My transformation was that I didn’t want to die being good for nothing. I didn’t want to die knowing that no one cared.”
Since March, the governor has commuted the sentences or pardoned about 50 men and women convicted of crimes that date to 1978 and range from cannabis possession to murder, state records show. The Illinois Department of Corrections also has granted the early release of about 2,200 inmates through various means in the past six months.
Pritzker has faced pressure and lawsuits from prison reform advocates urging the release of elderly or ill inmates during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has led to the deaths of 14 inmates. But the governor also has taken heat from Illinois House Republicans, who criticized his administration for releasing some prisoners with violent crimes and for not being more transparent.
Hudson’s attorney with the Illinois Prison Project, Jennifer Soble, cited the pandemic as reason for the emergency clemency request. He has heart disease, high blood pressure, tuberculosis, sciatic nerve damage and vision issues, according to the petition. Soble also argued Hudson’s decades of incarceration and record of achievement merit his release.
Cellmate Santiago Garcia gave this sketch to Renaldo Hudson, 56, the evening before his release from the Danville Correctional Center. (Santiago Garcia )
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not object, her office confirmed. And state prison officials have long lauded Hudson’s accomplishments.
Hudson, who admits his guilt and makes no excuses for his crime, said he wants to continue to support prisoners, build more rehabilitation opportunities and show the public many are not a lost cause.
“It would be shameful for me to forget the fact that there’s a lot of good people in prison without a voice,” he said. “I want to use whatever platform I have to say to people, ‘Give us a chance.’”
Turbulent childhood
Hudson had a troubled upbringing, the details of which “puts even the most hyperbolic Dickensian narrative to shame,” his petition said.
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His mother left when he was about 1. Hudson and his siblings grew up in squalor, often without food or supervision. The children were shuffled between relatives’ overcrowded homes on the city’s South Side and the Kankakee area and suffered abuse, including being beaten with planks of wood, belts and electrical cords, according to the petition and trial testimony.
A twin brother, Ronald, fell to his death down a flight of stairs when Hudson was 7. At 15, an older teen brother wounded Hudson during a shooting rampage in which several family members were shot, two of them fatally. William Hudson Jr., 57, is serving a life sentence for the murders, state records show.
Renaldo Hudson dropped out of school after the sixth grade after attending a half-dozen elementary schools. He could not spell simple words, like “apple,” he said.
“I functioned through memorizing things,” he said. “When I went to the store, I would remember the little girl in yellow with the umbrella (to) identify the kind of salt my father wanted me to buy or the different symbols on the rice box. Those are the types of things I used to navigate through life.”
He was homeless by 16, with frequent run-ins with the law, and used alcohol and drugs like PCP and cocaine. Despite his lot in life, Hudson said there is no explanation for what he did next.
‘A horrible death’
In June 1983, Hudson said he occasionally slept at his father’s studio apartment, where his stepmother and an aunt also lived.
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His father, who did odd jobs in the complex to pay rent, had mentioned an elderly neighbor one floor below whose light fixture needed repair. Hudson, convinced the man had a million dollars stashed in his mattress, said he hatched a plan to rob him.
On the evening of June 6, after finishing half a pint of brandy and smoking marijuana laced with cocaine, the 19-year-old Hudson posed as a repairman and attacked Folke Peterson after the 72-year-old World War II Army veteran let him inside his South Shore apartment.
The retired, immigrant carpenter lived alone, public record show. He suffered some 60 stab wounds, which Hudson inflicted over several hours before igniting a fire and going back to his father’s apartment with a few blood-soaked dollar bills and some old watches, silver and other items, according to court records.
Hudson confessed that morning after his aunt discovered some of the stolen property and alerted authorities. His attorneys raised an insanity defense, citing the effects of childhood traumas, psychotropic drugs and untreated mental health problems.
Hudson’s first trial in 1985 ended in a hung jury. He was convicted and sentenced to death after his second trial. He went to prison in 1990, spending nearly 13 years on death row until 2003, when then-Gov. George Ryan commuted all death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011.
Now, Hudson said he remains awash with regret and remorse when thinking about the pain he inflicted.
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“I will not attempt to make excuses,” Hudson said. “It was a horrible, horrible thing. My intent was to rob him and to run away and be happy in my warped mindset at that time. But I can’t excuse my brokenness for a horrible decision that I made.”
He continued, “That’s a difficult thing to realize that you’re the person completely responsible for the death of someone and then such a horrible death.”
A light bulb moment
Hudson said he started to change his mindset in 1994, about four years after arriving on death row.
He was in solitary confinement after throwing scalding water in a correctional officer’s face that September. A conversation with the warden, who called him out for blaming his violent choices on his past, challenging him to do better, resonated with him.
After getting out of the segregation unit, Hudson said another inmate shared a tape of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who posed questions like, “Who are you good for and are you good for nothing?” and asked if anyone would care if he died, Hudson said.
Renaldo Hudson, right, meets Minister Louis Farrakhan, center, at the Stateville Correctional Center in 2004. (Provided by Renaldo Hudson)
“It was a light bulb going off in my head and almost like a bomb just exploded in my heart,” he recalled. “From that moment to this moment, I’ve been striving to say I want someone to care when I close my eyes for the last time.”
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He began a religious conversion, first practicing the tenets of Islam, and eventually Christianity. He taught himself to read and write and learned to paint.
He long ago was moved from a maximum-security prison to a medium-level facility and has not had a disciplinary ticket in more than 20 years, state records show. His clemency petition packet is filled with diplomas, certificates and proof of the leadership roles he held behind bars, including as a chaplain specialist. Hudson earned a high school equivalency degree in 2006 and a college associate degree in 2008, graduating from a community college program in substance-abuse counseling in 2012 and becoming certified as a literacy tutor.
He was behind a 2003 essay contest that asked prisoners to answer the question, “Who am I and what can I do better?” It was made into a book of essays, proceeds from which were donated to the families of murder victims. He next created “Stateville Speaks,” a quarterly newspaper written and published by inmates. And, in 2018, he co-founded a peer mentorship program called Building Block, now with nearly 500 participants.
Renaldo Hudson gives a peer lesson inside Danville Correctional Center earlier this year. (Provided by Renaldo Hudson)
One year earlier, in May 2017, he received his bachelor’s degree.
This past March, in a speech to graduating cadets becoming correctional officers, IDOC chief of staff Camile Lindsay praised Hudson’s achievements, saying, in part, “He came to IDOC and could not read or write and yet he now has a college degree and has transformed his life and the lives of others.”
Hudson gained a wide circle of supporters, including Bill Ryan, a well-known criminal justice advocate and death penalty abolitionist. In a letter to Pritzker in the clemency petition packet, Ryan said Hudson has served his debt to society and is “a beacon of hope for many.”
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Hudson found an unlikely ally in Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins. She became an outspoken victims’ rights advocate following the 1990 slaying of her pregnant sister and brother-in-law in their Winnetka home. Though she also is anti-death penalty, Bishop-Jenkins often opposes early releases and has never supported a clemency request, until Renaldo Hudson.
Both she and Ryan not only wrote letters of support to the governor, they offered Hudson a place to live inside their homes. It was Bishop-Jenkins who drove him from the downstate prison back home to Chicago on Sept. 2.
Second chances
Hudson is living at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. The nonprofit has a mission focused on restorative justice and helping those affected by violence. He must serve three years of mandatory supervised release.
The Tribune could not locate members of Peterson’s family for comment. None ever objected in Hudson’s appeals and clemency requests, according to court records. Peterson is buried in Iowa, where an older brother lived at the time of the murder. He died in 1997.
Renaldo Hudson reads the different welcome signs after arriving among friends and supporters at Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation in Chicago on Sept. 2, 2020. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Hudson knows he cannot fully atone for his crime. He is thankful to the governor, his supporters and the Illinois Prison Project, which Soble said is responsibility for 16 of the recent clemency and pardon orders. He’s especially grateful to her.
Hudson said he is excited to do what may seem to others simple acts, including voting in the upcoming presidential election. He has kept up with the news, especially the civil unrest of recent months. He hopes to reconnect with family, including the imprisoned brother who shot him in 1979. Hudson said he began writing to him long ago and offered his forgiveness.
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Looking back, Hudson said he initially wanted to change simply to be at peace when he was executed. As the decades passed, he allowed himself to feel hope for a future. Asked if he thinks he is deserving of a second chance, Hudson stopped short of answering, not wanting to disrespect his victim’s memory.
Hudson said he will not squander this opportunity. His goals center around helping other prisoners win release and changing the public’s perception that few are redeemable. He is most proud of the young men he mentored to ensure they don’t repeat the mistakes of his youth, and wants to continue sharing an anti-violence message.
“I don’t think I’m more deserving than anyone else,” he said, “and I’m humbled that I have been chosen.”
cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-08--Daywatch: Hospitals brace for flu and COVID-19 to collide, a look at Kyle Rittenhouse’s self-defense

Daywatch: Hospitals brace for flu and COVID-19 to collide, a look at Kyle Rittenhouse’s self-defense claim and Chicago has a new taco obsession

However , the success or failure of a potential courtroom self-defense claim could hinge on questions about the Antioch teen @ @ @ @ @ fired and details that have yet to emerge , defense lawyers in Wisconsin said .
@ @ @ @ @ the law in Wisconsin allows people to use guns to defend themselves against serious threats @ @ @ @ @ to that right .

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Good morning, Chicago.
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As the summer of COVID-19 drew to a close, Illinois surpassed more than 250,000 total confirmed infections on Monday. The U.S. had about 1.6 million confirmed cases around Memorial Day, but it now has more than 6.2 million cases.
Meanwhile, with Labor Day behind us, the 2020 presidential race is entering its final phase. If you’re planning to vote by mail, use our map to find a location to securely drop off your ballot in the Chicago area.
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Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
Family nurse practitioner Arti Patel prepares to bandage Vicky Olson, 57, after she received her flu shot Aug. 27, 2020, at the MinuteClinic in a CVS in Rolling Meadows. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
With a new flu season approaching, Chicago-area hospitals are bracing for a possible onslaught of both flu and COVID-19 patients.
If cases of the flu and COVID-19 rise simultaneously, there are worries that resources at area hospitals could be squeezed. At the height of COVID-19 earlier this year, many Illinois hospitals ran low on intensive care unit beds — and that was after the flu season had subsided.
COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area
Kyle Rittenhouse, left, with backward cap, walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, with another armed civilian. (Adam Rogan/The Journal Times)
Lawyers for 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse have argued that he clearly acted in self-defense when he shot three people — two fatally — at a protest in Kenosha late last month.
However, the success or failure of a potential courtroom self-defense claim could hinge on questions about the Antioch teen’s actions before he fired and details that have yet to emerge, defense lawyers in Wisconsin said. As in other states, the law in Wisconsin allows people to use guns to defend themselves against serious threats, but there are exceptions to that right.
Police work the scene where a 8-year-old girl was killed and two adults were shot when someone shot into a car near the intersection of 47th street and Union Avenue during the Labor Day weekend Monday Sep. 7, 2020 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
An 8-year-old girl was killed and three adults were seriously injured when someone shot into a car Monday evening in the Canaryville neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said. So far this year, at least 175 children ages 16 or younger have been shot in Chicago, with at least 21 of them dying, according to Tribune data.
Lori Lightfoot, then a member of the Police Accountability Task Force, listens to Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson in 2016. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office interviewed Mayor Lori Lightfoot as part of his investigation into the incident where then-police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found asleep at the wheel, but the city continues to withhold his full report on the incident.
Emails obtained by the Tribune show Ferguson’s office scheduled separate hour-and-a-half-long interviews with Lightfoot and her chief of staff a couple of weeks before she fired Johnson. It’s unknown what investigators asked Lightfoot, who publicly acknowledged last fall that she would be a witness in the investigation.
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Quesabirra taco at Flo's Kitchen Food Truck (Nick Kindelsperger / Chicago Tribune)
A few months ago, Tribune food writer Nick Kindelsperger watched as his Instagram feed became inundated with a taco he’d never tried before called quesabirria. It is, without a doubt, the taco Chicago needs to get through 2020.


chicagotribune--2020-09-08--Could Kyle Rittenhouse show he was acting in self-defense in Kenosha shooting? Lawyers say question

Could Kyle Rittenhouse show he was acting in self-defense in Kenosha shooting? Lawyers say question of provocation, other evidence could sway case.

One potential key issue : Could prosecutors show that Rittenhouse , 17 , of Antioch , committed an unlawful act @ @ @ @ @ ?
If so , the law holds that he would have to show he exhausted @ @ @ @ @ otherwise avoid being harmed before shooting , attorneys said .
And whomever was the aggressor @ @ @ @ @ show he reasonably believed he had to shoot to prevent his death or serious injury @

From left, Matt Muchowski, Vance Wyatt, and Donald Blake hold signs outside the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan on Sept. 25, 2020. Kyle Rittenhouse, accused of killing two protesters days after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wis., faces a hearing to return him to Wisconsin to face trial on homicide charges that could put him in prison for life. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued that he clearly acted in self-defense when he shot three people — two fatally — at a protest in Kenosha late last month.
The success or failure of a potential courtroom self-defense claim, however, could hinge on questions about the teen’s actions before he fired and details that have yet to emerge, defense lawyers in Wisconsin said. As in other states, the law in Wisconsin allows people to use guns to defend themselves against serious threats, but there are exceptions to that right.
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Kasey Morgan, a public information officer for the Lake County Court, walks away from reporters outside the Lake County courthouse following the extradition hearing for Kyle Rittenhouse on Aug. 28, 2020, in Waukegan. (Morry Gash/AP)
One potential key issue: Could prosecutors show that Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, committed an unlawful act that provoked attacks on him? If so, the law holds that he would have to show he exhausted his chances to flee or otherwise avoid being harmed before shooting, attorneys said. And whomever was the aggressor, Rittenhouse would have to show he reasonably believed he had to shoot to prevent his death or serious injury.
Milwaukee defense attorney Craig Mastantuono, who has handled self-defense claims, told the Tribune it could be challenging for Rittenhouse’s lawyers to successfully argue self-defense when neither of the men killed is said to have carried a gun or other clearly lethal weapon. Video shows that one of the men who died had a skateboard, and prosecutors wrote that video indicated that a third man Rittenhouse wounded had a gun.
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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 44 A Trump supporter and Chicago activist Ja'Mal Green face off as they wait for President Donald Trump's motorcade outside Bradford High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sept. 1, 2020. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“Anybody claiming that this is clear-cut self-defense is way premature,” Mastantuono said. “The evidence still has to come in and witnesses still need to be spoken to and the video isn’t the only evidence.”
Attorney John M. Pierce, whose firm has represented associates of President Donald Trump, took Rittenhouse’s case and issued a statement days after the shooting that casts the people shot as attackers and said the teen “exercised his God-given, Constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense.”
When reached by the Tribune, Pierce asked for emailed questions but did not respond to them.
The politically charged conversation around Rittenhouse’s case has centered largely on videos that prosecutors allege show the teenager shooting three men with an AR-15-style rifle Aug. 25 during violent protests over white police Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake a couple of days earlier.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating the shooting, has said Blake admitted to possessing a knife, though not whether he wielded it during the confrontation. Investigators recovered a knife from the floorboard of the SUV that Blake was driving. Blake’s family has said he is paralyzed from the waist down.
Videos show that Rittenhouse was among numerous civilians armed with rifles who interjected themselves into the protests, property destruction and looting that followed Blake’s shooting. Kenosha County prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with murder, first-degree reckless homicide and four other counts.
Some conservatives and gun rights advocates immediately defended Rittenhouse. For example, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Rittenhouse “decided to maintain order when no one else would.” Trump said the teen was “in very big trouble” and “probably would have been killed” during the confrontation.
Liberal commentators have argued that Rittenhouse needlessly killed two people after wading heavily armed into unrest over police violence against African Americans. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote that, “Rittenhouse should not have been there, and we should agree — all of us — that the shooting should not have happened.”
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A man wears a shirt calling for freedom for Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, who is accused of killing two people in Kenosha, during a rally Aug. 28, 2020, for President Donald Trump in Londonderry, New Hampshire. (Joseph Prezioso/Getty-AFP)
The shootings are among several to occur during unrest nationwide in the three months since George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis cop. At least two men identified as gunmen who shot protesters have said they fired in self-defense, according to media reports.
There is extensive video footage from the night of the Kenosha shootings, and it forms both the backbone of prosecutors’ charges and Rittenhouse’s lawyer’s statement in his defense.
Kenosha County prosecutors wrote that video showed the teen running across a parking lot, trailed by Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha. Video showed Rosenbaum appearing to throw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse and missing him, prosecutors wrote. A witness told police that Rosenbaum, who appeared on video to be unarmed, had tried to grab the gun before he was fatally shot, prosecutors wrote.
In his statement, Pierce wrote that Rittenhouse was justified in shooting “an attacker lunging towards him and reaching for his rifle.”
Rittenhouse then ran before someone knocked off his hat, and he tripped and fell, prosecutors wrote. A man carrying a skateboard and later identified as Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, approached Rittenhouse as he was still on his back, prosecutors wrote. Huber tried to grab the gun as the skateboard “(made) contact” with Rittenhouse’s shoulder before the alleged gunman fired one shot, and Huber collapsed and died, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors wrote that Rittenhouse then shot a man who had approached him, Gaige Grosskreutz of West Allis. Grosskreutz appeared to be holding a handgun when he was wounded in the arm, prosecutors wrote.
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Pierce’s statement said that Rittenhouse feared he’d be disarmed and killed and “had no choice but to fire multiple rounds towards his immediate attackers.”
Rittenhouse also is charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, a misdemeanor. Pierce argued on Carlson’s show that the charge is “incorrect as a matter of state law” and that the U.S. Constitution and federal law protect the teen’s right to have the gun, though he did not go into detail on that legal argument.
While the charges contain prosecutors’ early account of events, a full investigation and trial would bring out much more evidence, lawyers noted. For example, the criminal charges only contain comments from one eyewitness to the events at a scene seemingly full of them, and it’s unclear what, if anything, Rittenhouse may have said to authorities after his arrest.
Wisconsin statute allows a person to shoot in self-defense if the person “reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.” In other words, attorneys said, a man can fire to repel a serious threat but can’t kill someone who is throwing pebbles at him, for example.
The law also contains caveats to the right of self-defense.
Several attorneys said the case could come down to whether Rittenhouse provoked attacks. The law states that a person who “engages in unlawful conduct of a type likely to provoke others to attack him or her” can’t make a valid claim of self-defense unless “the person reasonably believes he or she has exhausted every other reasonable means to escape from or otherwise avoid death or great bodily harm.”
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Decisions as to the reasonableness of uses of force or a defendant’s obligation to flee would typically be made by jurors, or a judge in the case of a bench trial, lawyers said. In Rittenhouse’s case, a jury could examine the broader situation that led to the shooting, attorneys said.
Milwaukee attorney Tony Cotton, a past president of the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said Rittenhouse could have “an exceptionally strong self-defense case.” He said that defense lawyers at a possible trial might want to accentuate that video footage has suggested that Rittenhouse told an interviewer he considered it his job to help people, brought a medical kit and tried to surrender after the shooting.
“I think that’s their best shot at winning this case,” Cotton said.
On the other hand, Mastantuono noted that the teenager seems to have voluntarily put himself in a situation fraught with potential for confrontation and armed himself with a gun prosecutors allege he carried illegally.
Rittenhouse’s actions, Mastantuono said, could lead to a prosecutor alleging in court that, “This guy is looking for trouble.”
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-08--Chicago inspector general interviewed Mayor Lori Lightfoot in former police Superintendent Eddie Joh

Chicago inspector general interviewed Mayor Lori Lightfoot in former police Superintendent Eddie Johnson investigation, her office confirms

Ferguson opened an investigation shortly after Johnson was found asleep at the wheel at 34th Place and Aberdeen Street in @ @ @ @ @ night of Oct. 16 .
Johnson publicly blamed the incident on his failure to take @ @ @ @ @ told Lightfoot he had “ a couple of drinks ” with dinner that evening , @ @ @ @ @ interview with the Sun-Times .

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office interviewed Mayor Lori Lightfoot as part of his investigation into the incident where then-police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found asleep at the wheel, but the city continues to withhold his full report on the incident.
Emails obtained by the Tribune show Ferguson’s office scheduled separate hour-and-a-half-long interviews with Lightfoot and her chief of staff, Maurice Classen, a couple of weeks before she fired Johnson. It’s unknown what investigators asked Lightfoot, who publicly acknowledged last fall that she would be a witness in the investigation.
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“Issues regarding the mayor’s interactions with the former superintendent regarding the circumstances that resulted in his termination have been well covered in news accounts previously,” Lightfoot’s office said in a statement acknowledging the interview. “As this matter pertains to a personnel issue, the mayor’s office will have no further comment.”
Lightfoot has refused to release Ferguson’s full report on the matter, despite the mayor’s earlier push to get the City Council to approve a law allowing certain inspector general reports of high public interest to be released.
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The city of Chicago released bodycam footage related to an October incident where former police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found asleep in a car. (Chicago Tribune Handout)
The mayor and her administration have repeatedly said Ferguson’s report on the Johnson case doesn’t meet the legal criteria for release. At a news conference, she publicly mocked reporters who pushed for the report’s full findings to be publicly disclosed, saying: “I know there are going to be people who write articles saying, ‘Oohhhh, the mayor, blah!’ Doesn’t matter.”
Ferguson’s office declined to comment on the Lightfoot interview through a spokeswoman, and he has declined to say whether he believes the report should be released.
Ferguson opened an investigation shortly after Johnson was found asleep at the wheel at 34th Place and Aberdeen Street in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the night of Oct. 16. Johnson publicly blamed the incident on his failure to take blood pressure medication but privately told Lightfoot he had “a couple of drinks” with dinner that evening, which she disclosed in an interview with the Sun-Times.
In November, Johnson announced his intention to retire during an emotional ceremony attended by Lightfoot at police headquarters, the same event where the mayor acknowledged to reporters she would likely be interviewed by the IG’s office. But weeks later, Lightfoot announced she was firing Johnson because he’d lied to her about the incident.
At the time, Ferguson continued to investigate the case and did not give Lightfoot a full report until earlier this year.
An ordinance backed by the mayor last fall would have allowed the city’s corporation counsel to decide whether to release inspector general investigation reports in cases that involve a death or that are “or may be” a felony, and are “of a compelling public interest.”
Kathleen Fieweger, the Law Department’s spokeswoman, defended withholding the report on Johnson, disputing that there was any conduct rising to a felony.
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After Ferguson provided the mayor’s office with a copy of his report, Lightfoot released some body camera footage in June showing that the incident leading to Johnson’s firing started when an unidentified man called 911 to report someone asleep in a vehicle at a stop sign at 34th Place and Aberdeen Street.
The caller told officials that the vehicle’s lights were off but the engine was running and smoke was coming out of the exhaust.
In footage from a responding officer’s bodycam, also released by Lightfoot, Johnson is at the wheel when the officer asks, “You just sitting here or you wanna go home?”
“I’m good,” Johnson replies.
The officer responds, “You good? All right, sir. Have a good night.”
Ferguson released a summary version of his report in July, which offered a fuller picture of that night’s events. The report said Chicago police trailed their boss home as he ran a stop sign and briefly drove in the wrong lane. Ferguson’s quarterly report raised the possibility of discipline for other officers and said Johnson’s driver also drove home in a city vehicle after drinking with the superintendent that night.
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Earlier on the night of Oct. 16, 2019, Johnson and his driver drank at Ceres Cafe in the Loop, according to details previously reported and Ferguson’s summary of events. Ferguson reported that both drank rum at the bar, famous for its generous pours.
Ferguson’s report does not say when they left the bar. But he wrote that Johnson drove, and around 10:30 p.m. he dropped his driver off at police headquarters in the Bronzeville neighborhood. The inspector general reported that she drove away in her city vehicle.
Johnson then drove toward his home. Security footage showed he parked illegally at 34th Place and Aberdeen Street in the Bridgeport neighborhood at 10:39 p.m., Ferguson wrote. He remained there with the SUV running until a member of the public called 911 to report someone asleep in a vehicle and officers arrived at 12:33 a.m, according to the report.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-08--8-year-old girl killed, 3 adults injured when someone shoots into car on South Side

Paramedics rushed the yellow stretcher to the girl .
Her short braids moved as the paramedics lifted her onto the @ @ @ @ @ back to the ambulance .
A paramedic had cut her shirt open and was doing @ @ @ @ @ been standing near her jogged along with the stretcher , even if not working .

Police work the scene where an 8-year-old girl was killed and three adults were injured when someone shot into a car Sept. 7, 2020, near the intersection of 47th Street and Union Avenue. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Three firefighters knelt next to the 8-year-old girl where she lay on Union Avenue with a gunshot wound to the back, checking her injuries and measuring signs of life while a chaotic scene spread around them.
Every few seconds, more people arrived: more cops, more paramedics, more neighbors, more people stopping their cars on 47th Street to see what this commotion was about.
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But in the minutes before the first ambulance arrived, before police tied tape to light poles and fences, everyone focused on those trying to save the girl, fighting what would be a losing battle.
The girl did not move. Her eyes were closed. She wore black flip-flops.
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An officer stood nearby with his back to the girl, checking on her and those trying to save her but also watching for the ambulance.
When the first ambulance arrived, a sergeant yelled to officers in a beat car parked on 47th Street.
“Follow the ambo, give it a lead wherever it’s going,” he said.
Other officers walked out onto 47th Street and stopped traffic.
Paramedics rushed the yellow stretcher to the girl. Her short braids moved as the paramedics lifted her onto the stretcher. They rushed her back to the ambulance. A paramedic had cut her shirt open and was doing CPR. Those who had been standing near her jogged along with the stretcher, even if not working.
One woman standing, watching, repeated the same profanity over and over. Another cried.
“They’re going to Comer’s,” a Fire Department chief said to a paramedic. “Follow the beat car.”
Three other ambulances arrived, and the first departed with a Police Department escort. Three adults were in the car, and a 31-year-old man who likely was the target was shot but expected to survive. A woman, 30, was shot and the girl’s mother, 30, was injured, possibly by broken glass, when the car crashed.
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“I stand before you, saddened and angered that another child has lost their life in senseless gun violence in the city of Chicago,” Brian McDermott, chief of operations for the Police Department, told reporters at the scene Monday night.
[ Devastating toll of Chicago’s violence: Number of shooting victims younger than 10 years old three times higher than last year ]
A woman kneels on the ground outside the University of Chicago Medicine's Comer Children's Hospital where an 8-year-old girl was taken after being shot on Sep. 7, 2020. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Before the shooting, the car that the girl was in was stopped at a red light at 47th Street facing north, with another vehicle, a black Dodge Charger, behind it, McDermott said. When the light turned green, someone in the Charger opened fire, he said.
The car the girl was in kept going north and crashed into a tree, and the Charger turned around and headed south on Union, McDermott said.
At Comer Children’s Hospital, a group of women came outside before 8:30 p.m., crying. Two helped hold up one as they walked to a car.
One man slammed the doors of the hospital while crying out. He ran down the street, then ran back and shook a pole while talking on the phone.
By the time the girl had been shot, Labor Day weekend had seen at least 44 people shot, six of them fatally. So far this year, at least 175 children ages 16 or younger have been shot in Chicago, with at least 21 of them dying, according to Tribune data. Of those, at least 45 children age 13 or younger have been shot, five of them fatally. In total, more than 2,850 people have been shot in the city this year, at least 464 of them fatally.
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Chicago Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-09-09--Back to school, from home: CPS begins a new school year with a return to remote learning, successes

Back to school, from home: CPS begins a new school year with a return to remote learning, successes and frustrations

One woman said she had to talk to four people over the course of five days in order to pick @ @ @ @ @ grandchild .
And after an email last week from Simeon High School informed families it @ @ @ @ @ inventory of computers , families were told on Friday more computers had arrived but were @ @ @ @ @ come , first serve ” basis , according to emails provided to the Tribune .

Javier Lopez, 8, a Chicago Public Schools student at Skinner North Classical Elementary School, raises his hand to answer a question on the first day of remote learning at his Chicago home on Sept. 8, 2020. (José M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)
Surrounded by four computer monitors, Nightingale Elementary teacher Lauren Kullman joked that she felt like she was producing the Emmys. But it was just the first day of school.
As Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday began fall quarter with remote learning, most educators were teaching from their homes, though some streamed lessons from their school classrooms. Families around the city reported a range of successes and frustrations as the watershed day came to a close.
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Kullman is married to a special education teacher, and the couple has a 5-year-old in kindergarten along with a younger child.
“Our house is embracing the chaos,” she said Tuesday. “... We are just so grateful that we are remote. The challenges we will face are nothing compared to what we could have faced in an unsafe environment.”
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[ Column: Welcome to the strangest 1st day of school ever. It’s OK to feel utterly, completely lost. ]
But she said not all school employees were spared from that. At more than 100 CPS buildings, clerks, technology coordinators and clinicians have reported unsafe conditions or lax enforcement of safety protocols, according to the Chicago Teachers Union.
While Kullman was speaking at a CTU news conference, she got a Google notification from a fifth-grade student, telling her good morning.
“They’re excited,” Kullman said of her students. “I’m excited. The thing I’m most nervous about is, not seeing some of them for the past six months, and really checking in with them.”
The Gage Park area near Nightingale was hit hard by the coronavirus, Kullman said.
“I don’t know if people lost people; I don’t know where they are with food insecurity,” she said, adding that she plans to start the year off focusing on her students’ social and emotional needs, and making sure they know she is there for them.
It was a subdued start to high school for Unia Davis, 14, a freshman at Butler College Prep in Pullman.
This year, Unia said she hopes to learn how to cook and drive. Since her school is starting live instruction Wednesday, she’s also still waiting to see how many familiar faces she recognizes from Pullman Elementary, and has been staying connected to friends through TikTok and Instagram. Based on emails and introductory videos, she said her teachers seem nice.
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“I’m kind of hoping we go back to school, so we can do activities,” she said. “... I do want to see my friends.”
[ From wake-up calls to wellness checks, how CPS is trying to make sure no child is left disconnected as remote learning resumes ]
Roosevelt High School junior Alejandro Gomez, 16, said he was also excited for a culinary class he’s taking, but isn’t sure how it will work. The teacher told the class they may wait to start cooking until it’s safe to go back to school, but also might send ingredients to students' homes, he said.
Alejandro said it seemed like three or four students were absent from each of his classes. He initially considered transferring out of zoology because he thought it would be boring, but the teacher made it sound so interesting that he told his counselor he wanted to stay in the class.
School isn’t the same without playing for the soccer team, Alejandro said. “It hurts,” he said. “It’s just sad that we might not have the season.”
In Belmont Gardens, Ramiro Lopez and his wife put up partitions at opposite ends of the dining room table for their sons in seventh and third grades at Skinner North Elementary. Lopez said he appreciates the increased structure compared with the spring.
“With that comes the good and the bad, because it is asking a lot of parents, managing the schedules," Lopez said. “Despite some of the headaches and some of the issues, I do appreciate the fact that it’s an effort to get back to as real or as close to school as you can get.”
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Both boys were excited to see their friends onscreen Tuesday morning, and the seventh graders had a chatroom where all of the students could mingle outside of class, Lopez said.
Jaleyah Walker begins the new school year by teaching remotely to her middle school students from her classroom at King Elementary. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
It was a rougher morning for Deidra Kenar and her husband in Norwood Park, where keeping their three high-needs children on task was exhausting.
“We felt like we worked a week when it was just an hour,” said Kenar, who took the week off from work. “We’re not sure how it’s going to go once I return to work next week.”
Though teachers, administrators and social workers at their school have been immensely helpful, Kenar said she’s still waiting to learn how each child’s special education plan will be implemented, and meanwhile, the twin with a fluency disorder hasn’t had speech services since March.
It was traumatic for that twin to be on camera in the spring, but having the same class with his brother this year seems to be helping him feel more comfortable, she said.
The third grader, who is autistic, usually has a full-time aide in school. Even though the paraprofessionals are online, it’s difficult for them to effectively redirect students, Kenar said: "There’s only so much you can do through a screen.”
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Westinghouse College Prep teacher Nina Hike said she was particularly excited about students ”being able to connect the chemistry in their homes that they see on a regular basis and in their neighborhoods, and also to talk with their families about chemistry.”
As for whether her students all have the tools they needed to participate, Hike said, “I think today is the day that we find out.”
After her last class, Karen Van Zytveld, who teaches at Galileo Math and Science Academy in Little Italy, said of her 123 students, 117 logged in, far better than she’d anticipated.
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At Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Humboldt Park, about 95% of Mueze Bawany’s 137 students attended, he said. He heard from one student who didn’t realize she could log into class from her phone. He let her know that she could, but also asked if she needed a laptop, and was waiting to hear back.
Bawany said he did 40 minutes of live teaching for each 50-minute class, mostly community-building discussions like a “20 questions” game about the school’s history.
By seventh period, many students sounded tired or said they’d been looking at the screen too much. One asked him if it would be like this every day. The most common question he got was when class could be in person again.
“This does seem like it’s going to take a toll on students,” Bawany said.
Even as CPS is trying to get every student a laptop or tablet — distributing more than 128,000 starting in the spring and another 18,000 in recent weeks — some parents spent the holiday weekend figuring out how to get one after their school ran out.
One woman said she had to talk to four people over the course of five days in order to pick up a hotspot for her grandchild. And after an email last week from Simeon High School informed families it had “exhausted” its inventory of computers, families were told on Friday more computers had arrived but were available on a “first come, first serve” basis, according to emails provided to the Tribune.
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Since Mayor Lori Lightfoot in June announced a $50 million plan to provide free high-speed internet to more than 100,000 Chicago students, just about 25,000 have been signed up, according to CPS. District staff said they tried to contact eligible families over the summer by email and regular mail, robocalls and text messages. But some families in need of internet have reported finding out they weren’t eligible.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot interacts with middle school students during their remote learning lesson on the first day of school at King Elementary School on Tuesday. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Tuesday morning, Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson visited King Elementary School in Englewood and spoke at a news conference in the library.
“We’ve published that criteria and we have said if there are additional slots, we will make them available, but we have to exhaust the list of eligible families," Jackson said. "... Many of the internet service providers have offered really affordable packages for families. If there is any family that isn’t eligible but in need, I would encourage them to contact their school principal. We can help them figure this out.”
By removing technological barriers to participation, the district is hoping more students will engage with virtual classes this time around.
During spring remote learning, on average contact was reported with 85% of students each week — meaning 15% were not contacted that week, according to CPS. Districtwide, only 13% of students logged in at least three days per week for 10 or more weeks of the remote learning period.
During the most engaged week, 53% of African American students logged into Google at least three days, compared with 61% of Latino students, 69% of multiracial students, 70% of students of other races, and 75% of both white and Asian students. Those rates were 41% for students in temporary living situations, 50% for students with special education plans and 57% for English learners.
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Students who have technology problems won’t be counted absent, and Jackson confirmed they’ll be asked to keep their cameras on during live instruction.
“The whole purpose of us asking for cameras to be on is really to engage,” Jackson said. “We were just talking to teachers upstairs who talked about the fact that they have high expectations for their students. It’s really hard to engage students without being able to see them.”
With the cameras off, it’s harder to tell if a student has a question or if the message isn’t reaching them, Jackson said. “I don’t think this is going to be an issue,” she said.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-09--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,392 new known cases of COVID-19 and 7 additional deaths reported

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 1,392 new known cases of COVID-19 and 7 additional deaths reported on Tuesday

Our fall arts preview typically offers readers advice on what not to miss .
This year , with so much @ @ @ @ @ the novel coronavirus , we wanted to know what you , the audience , are @ @ @ @ @ take to make you feel safe in a theater again ?
And does it matter @ @ @ @ @ a center for culture ?

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials Tuesday announced 1,392 new known cases of COVID-19 and seven additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 252,353 and the statewide death toll to 8,186 since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday began the fall quarter with remote learning. Most educators were teaching from their homes, though some streamed lessons from their school classrooms. Families around the city reported a range of successes and frustrations as the watershed day came to a close.
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Many suburban school districts have already resumed classes, with teachers giving lessons remotely from their school classrooms. Some private schools, including the Archdiocese of Chicago’s students, already went back to school in person.
Also Tuesday, the city of Chicago added Kentucky to its mandatory quarantine order and removed California and Puerto Rico, officials announced.
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Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:15 p.m. (update): Back to school, from home: CPS begins a new school year with a return to remote learning, successes and frustrations
Surrounded by four computer monitors, Nightingale Elementary teacher Lauren Kullman joked that she felt like she was producing the Emmys. But it was just the first day of school.
As Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday began fall quarter with remote learning, most educators were teaching from their homes, though some streamed lessons from their school classrooms. Families around the city reported a range of successes and frustrations as the watershed day came to a close.
Kullman is married to a special education teacher, and the couple has a 5-year-old in kindergarten along with a younger child.
“Our house is embracing the chaos,” she said Tuesday. “... We are just so grateful that we are remote. The challenges we will face are nothing compared to what we could have faced in an unsafe environment.”
But she said not all school employees were spared from that. At more than 100 CPS buildings, clerks, technology coordinators and clinicians have reported unsafe conditions or lax enforcement of safety protocols, according to the Chicago Teachers Union.
While Kullman was speaking at a CTU news conference, she got a Google notification from a fifth-grade student, telling her good morning.
“They’re excited,” Kullman said of her students. “I’m excited. The thing I’m most nervous about is, not seeing some of them for the past six months, and really checking in with them.”
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Read more here. —Hannah Leone
8:10 p.m.: Six months into the pandemic, CPS has served more than 21 million free meals and won’t let up anytime soon
When all Illinois schools, including private and charter, were closed March 17 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many wondered how the roughly 355,000 students in Chicago Public Schools would be impacted, especially those who rely on school for their meals.
More than 75% of CPS students are economically disadvantaged, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot verbalized her hesitancy in closing the schools for this reason.
CPS has served more than 21 million meals to children since schools closed, said Crystal Cooper, executive director of nutritional support services for CPS.
Read more here. —Christen A. Johnson
7:10 p.m. (update): AstraZeneca puts COVID-19 vaccine trials on hold after recipient’s ‘potentially unexplained illness’
Late-stage studies of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate are on temporary hold while the company investigates whether a recipient’s “potentially unexplained” illness is a side effect of the shot.
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In a statement issued Tuesday evening, the company said its “standard review process triggered a pause to vaccination to allow review of safety data.”
AstraZeneca didn’t reveal any information about the possible side effect except to call it “a potentially unexplained illness.” The health news site STAT first reported the pause in testing, saying the possible side effect occurred in the United Kingdom.
An AstraZeneca spokesperson confirmed the pause in vaccinations covers studies in the U.S. and other countries. Late last month, AstraZeneca began recruiting 30,000 people in the U.S. for its largest study of the vaccine. It also is testing the vaccine, developed by Oxford University, in thousands of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa.
Two other vaccines are in huge, final-stage tests in the United States, one made by Moderna Inc. and the other by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. Those two vaccines work differently than AstraZeneca’s, and the studies already have recruited about two-thirds of the needed volunteers.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:40 p.m.: Number of active COVID-19 cases in Naperville tops 230, higher than previous peak in May
Naperville saw 235 active cases of COVID-19 Sept. 4, a new case record and a 42% increase in active cases from the city’s previous peak at the end of May.
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The number of active COVID-19 cases in Naperville has steadily increased since June 28 when there were 49 active cases in the city, Naperville’s COVID-19 dashboard shows.
Naperville passed the previous May 24 record of 166 active cases on Aug. 14 when the city had 173 active cases of COVID-19, the most recent data on the city’s coronavirus shows.
The numbers do not yet include data from Labor Day weekend and come as most of the city’s restaurants and bars have been offering indoor service for months. The Will County portion of Naperville is under more stringent restrictions.
Read more here. —Erin Hegarty
5:50 p.m.: As COVID-19 clusters emerge on campus, Bradley University tells all students to quarantine and stop socializing for two weeks
Bradley University in downstate Peoria, is requiring all students to quarantine for two weeks and is temporarily reverting to remote learning due to concerns that clusters of COVID-19 are linked to off-campus gatherings, officials announced Tuesday.
Students are being asked not to gather with anyone except roommates, not to visit bars or restaurants and to stay home, with a few exceptions.
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The school is reporting about 50 COVID-19 cases so far but already has hundreds of students in quarantine because of possible exposure.
Read the full story here. —Elyssa Cherney
5:25 p.m.: Statewide coronavirus relief fund winding down despite ‘tremendous need’
A private fundraising effort started in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to give a boost to nonprofit organizations helping those grappling with the physical and financial consequences of COVID-19 is winding down its work, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday.
While acknowledging that there remains “tremendous need” throughout the state, Pritzker said the intent of the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund when it was set up in March was to provide quick assistance as the federal and state governments were still formulating their responses.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella
2:25 p.m.: Acclaimed Italian-influenced Korean restaurant Passerotto closing, in part due to the coronavirus
When chef Jennifer Kim opened Passerotto in 2018, she described her restaurant as an ode to growing up Korean American and training in Italian kitchens. That love letter resonated with Chicago diners and the culinary world at large, garnering a slew of awards, including a Chicago Tribune Critic’s Choice Dining Award (naming Kim as Rookie of the Year), James Beard Award nominations, Best Neighborhood Restaurant by the Jean Banchet Awards and a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award. It also landed a spot on the Chicago Tribune’s Phil’s 50 list.
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But over the weekend, the Andersonville restaurant announced that it would be closing its doors permanently, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic. The last day is Saturday.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
2:05 p.m.: Target reinstates car seat recycling program with contactless trade-in option
Parents hoping to get rid of their child’s old car seat will soon see the return of a popular, sustainable option.
Target reinstated its car seat recycling program this month despite COVID-19 uncertainty, according to the corporation’s website. From Sept. 13-26, customers enrolled in Target’s loyalty program can bring any of its stores a car seat in exchange for a coupon for 20% off any new car seat, car seat base, stroller or select baby home gear, such as high chairs or rockers.
Target accepts all types of car seats, including infant, convertible, harness and booster seats, car seat bases and expired or damaged ones. The seats will be disassembled and recycled by the retailer’s partner, Waste Management.
The corporation didn’t host its spring car seat trade-in program this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chicago-area parents were struggling to get rid of car seats and other children’s items as resale shops limited donations and retailers stalled trade-in programs out of fear of COVID-19 spread.
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Read more here. —Kelli Smith
12:25 p.m.: Chicago Public Schools begins a new year amid scramble to get all students connected for remote learning
The new school year in CPS began Tuesday with a different sort of test, one that will determine if hundreds of thousands of students all have the computer devices and internet access they need for at least another quarter of remote schooling.
Over the weekend, families were still trying to get computers and internet. Even as CPS is trying to get every student a laptops or tablets, distributing more than 128,000 starting in the spring and another 18,000 in recent weeks, some parents spent the holiday weekend figuring out how to get one after their school ran out.
As for whether her students all have the tools they needed to participate, Westinghouse College Prep teacher Nina Hike said Tuesday: “I think today is the day that we find out.”
Read more here. — Hannah Leone
12:20 p.m.: What will it take to get Chicagoans to go to the show? Here’s what you told us.
Our fall arts preview typically offers readers advice on what not to miss. This year, with so much closed or canceled due to the novel coronavirus, we wanted to know what you, the audience, are missing? What would it take to make you feel safe in a theater again? And does it matter to you whether Chicago remains a center for culture?
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So we asked.
The Tribune posted an online questionnaire on Aug. 20, and 361 of you responded over the next two weeks. We aren’t claiming this is scientific, but it is interesting. Think of it as something akin to 361 person-on-the-street interviews.
So what would bring audiences back to an indoor venue?
About half — 52% — said they wouldn’t return until there’s a vaccine or effective treatment. The rest said they would consider it with some mix of social distancing, sanitation, temperature checks or — for about 21% — rapid COVID-19 testing. Many more added other suggestions; air filtration is high on people’s list of demands. A few called out their fellow citizens for lousy mask-wearing habits.
Read more here. — Jennifer Day
11:50 a.m.: Doctors studying why obesity may be tied to serious COVID-19
In the early days of the pandemic, doctors noticed something about the people severely ill from COVID-19: Many were obese.
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The link became more apparent as coronavirus swept across the globe and data mounted, and researchers are still trying to figure out why.
Excess weight increases the chances of developing a number of health problems, including heart disease and diabetes. And those are among the conditions that can make COVID-19 patients more likely to get very sick.
But there’s some evidence that obesity itself can increase the likelihood of serious complications from a coronavirus infection. One study of more than 5,200 infected people, including 35% who were obese, found that the chances of hospitalization rose for people with higher BMIs, even when taking into account other conditions that could put them at risk.
Read more here. — Associated Press
11:25 a.m.: Michigan grad students strike over in-person instruction during the coronavirus pandemic
Graduate students who teach classes were on strike Tuesday at the University of Michigan over in-person instruction during the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.
The strikers chanted and held umbrellas while marching in the rain. “I do not want my students and colleagues to get a chronic illness because this university decided it was most important to collect tuition,” Surabhi Balachander wrote on Twitter.
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The Graduate Employees’ Organization, which represents more than 1,000 instructors, has called for a four-day strike.
Most classes at the University of Michigan have shifted to online. But the union says the university isn’t doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Read more here. — Associated Press
11:05 a.m.: 6 state legislature leaders — Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — send letter to Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren
Leaders of six state legislatures in the Big Ten footprint have sent a letter to Commissioner Kevin Warren asking the conference to reconsider its decision to cancel the fall football season.
The letter is written on the letterhead of Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield and also signed by statehouse leaders from Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“Recent actions taken by other conferences around the country to start football and other fall sports have placed the Big Ten, its members and students at a disadvantage,” the letter said. “These athletes are losing a vital part of student life and are becoming less marketable to future employers with each passing week. Additionally, our local universities stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars that support vital student scholarships.
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“This is even more frustrating when we think of how our Big Ten athletic programs are leading the way by providing outstanding health and safety protocols. All of that unprecedented planning and teamwork was an unmitigated success, and yet somehow the conference has decided to cast it aside anyway.”
The Big Ten, and Warren in particular, have received strong pushback since the conference announced that university presidents voted to push back football and other fall sports until the second semester because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Read more here. — Associated Press
11 a.m.: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says Senate to vote on ‘targeted’ coronavirus aid package
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, under pressure from GOP senators in tough reelection races, said Tuesday the Senate would vote on a trimmed-down Republican coronavirus relief package, though it has a slim chance of passage in the face of Democrats’ insistence for more sweeping aid.
The GOP leader acknowledged the package he will be putting forward “does not contain every idea our party likes.” And he said it was far less than what Democrats are seeking.
The move comes as lawmakers straggle back to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, as hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else
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Read more here. — Associated Press
10:40 a.m.: Chicago adds Kentucky to city’s travel quarantine order; removes California, Puerto Rico
The city of Chicago added Kentucky to its mandatory quarantine order and removed California and Puerto Rico, officials announced Tuesday.
The new addition will be effective Friday, when the list will cover 21 states, according to a Chicago Department of Public Health press release. The removal of the two states applies immediately.
The city adds a state to its quarantine list if the state averages more than 15 new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period. People who have spent more than 24 hours in the high-risk states are required to self-quarantine for 14 days after entering Chicago.
In addition, five states on the list have dipped below the 15 cases threshold and will be removed from the list next week if they remain under the requirement. They are Idaho, Nevada, Texas, North Carolina and Hawaii.The states as of Friday will be Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina,North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.
Last week Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner, said Indiana crossed the threshold and could be added soon, but as of Tuesday the neighboring state’s numbers had slid back and it was not on the quarantine list.
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Read more here. — Alice Yin
6:40 a.m.: Lightfoot, Jackson to visit Englewood school to mark start of CPS school year
As Chicago public schools start the school year remotely, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson Mayor Lightfoot will mark the start of the year Tuesday morning by visiting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Academy of Social Justice, 644 W. 71st St.
Lightfoot and Jackson will tour the school and then Lightfoot was scheduled to take questions in a short news conference. — Chicago Tribune staff
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories related to COVID-19 from the weekend.


chicagotribune--2020-09-09--The Spin: Chicago police union endorses Trump | Lightfoot, Pritzker say city, state need money from

The Spin: Chicago police union endorses Trump | Lightfoot, Pritzker say city, state need money from Congress | Black lawmakers call on Pritzker to halt pot dispensary licensing lottery

“ We ’ ve seen state and local governments all across the United States take an inventory of where they @ @ @ @ @ is not good .
Whether it ’ s the state of Illinois or the city @ @ @ @ @ s been a dramatic loss of revenue for obvious reason , ” Durbin told reporters @ @ @ @ @ And so governors and mayors are facing some of the most difficult choices , whether @ @ @ @ @ Pritzker or Mayor Lightfoot , they ’ re in a situation where they don ’ @ @ @ @ @ continue the service levels that they have traditionally provided .
What that means is if @ @ @ @ @ act soon , many of them will face cutbacks in critical employees .
We ’ @ @ @ @ @ firefighters , teachers , health care workers , the list goes on and on .
@

President Donald Trump signs an executive order Oct. 28, 2019, at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Annual Conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
The nation’s largest police union, along with its Chicago chapter, has endorsed Republican President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, potentially helping to boost his law-and-order message.
While the endorsement might have been expected, it further illustrates a division between law enforcement and protesters who for months have railed against police brutality and called for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The endorsement isn’t likely to hold much sway for Trump in heavily Democratic Chicago, but John Catanzara, president of the local FOP and an outspoken Trump backer, is happy to antagonize the likes of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who’s endorsed Democrat Joe Biden.
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Lightfoot is still not willing to speculate on the kind of cuts Chicago’s city government might make to close a projected $1.25 billion budget gap. Instead, she called on Congress to get to work on a new bailout package. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said in Chicago this morning that there may be a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel: “I understand that the White House is now dangling the possibility of negotiation reopening.”
Whether that will add up to a new round of funding for state and city governments remains to be seen.
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And Illinois Senate President Don Harmon’s office has been subpoenaed as part of a wide-ranging federal probe that has led to a series of political corruption charges and convictions, my Tribune colleagues Jamie Munks and Hal Dardick write. There’s no indication in the subpoena that Harmon is a target of a federal probe, but the paperwork does name some well-known figures in the investigation.
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Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, speaks in support of Chicago police and President Donald Trump during a rally July 25, 2020, in Grant Park. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago police union’s board of directors has voted unanimously to endorse President Trump’s bid for a second term.
Because board leadership is supposed to be taking the pulse of its membership, Catanzara tells me the board’s endorsement last Wednesday largely reflects the views of its membership, “but there’s definitely people who are not going to be happy about it. There are more Democrats, locally speaking, but there’s even some Democrats who would agree that the current president has been very good for employment and law enforcement these days,” he said referring to the president’s support for police officers and how they carry out their duties.
Like Trump, Catanzara said the problem with protests that turn violent has been the Democratic mayors of the major metropolitan cities where they’ve taken place. Lightfoot has pushed back against that notion, saying the protests have been largely peaceful, while others have underscored that the unrest has taken place with Trump in power.
Catanzara was among those who attended Trump’s speech on the White House lawn where he accepted the GOP’s nomination for a second term and said that he’d gladly stump for him here.
“I will do whatever I can for him — clearly,” Catanzara told The Spin. “I hope he makes a somewhat local appearance — that he doesn’t think Illinois is a lost cause and will just kind of mail it in."
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Largest police union endorses Trump for reelection: The Hill newspaper has the details here.
More election news: Kamala Harris talks to Joe Biden’s former boss, former President Barack Obama — Democratic Presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s running mate says to Obama “tell me about Joe.” CBS News has the details here.
Road to November: Gingrich hosts Ives fundraiser — Former Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a conservative who rose to power just as politics was taking a turn in the mid-1990s (some blame him for the current ugliness), hosted a virtual fundraiser this morning for GOP congressional candidate Jeanne Ives, of Wheaton. She’s running to unseat first-term U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, a Downers Grove Democrat, in the west and north suburban 6th District, once a Republican stronghold. The hourlong event included a question-and-answer session and a roundtable discussion. Tickets ranged from $25 to $250.
Public safety: Chicago violence: 51 shot, 9 fatally, most over Labor Day weekend since 2016 — Police Superintendent David Brown offered some of the same talking points this morning as he has in other weekly news conferences during the especially violent summer of 2020, my Tribune colleagues report. He offered condolences to the family of an 8-year-old girl who was killed, highlighted the number of guns confiscated by his officers over the holiday weekend and lamented what he called a “catch-and-release” justice system that allows arrested suspects back on the streets too quickly. In the past,
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who is running for reelection, took to Twitter a few hours later and addressed “false narratives about the summer’s spike in violence” and noted that “of the 2,614 cases involving a gun called into our office for review between Memorial Day and Labor Day of this year, we approved 91% of them. Facts matter.”
Five police shootings in Chicago in two months, but no video released on any of them. Is it taking too long for the public to see what happened? The Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner and Annie Sweeney have the details here.
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Marchers in Chicago demand justice for Miguel Vega, who was shot, killed by police: The Tribune’s Madeline Buckley has the story here.
Pro-police demonstrators outnumber activists calling for abolishing police at Chicago Ridge rally: Reporter Bill Jones has the details in the Daily Southtown.
Dark clouds and heavy rain sweep over the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 3, 2020. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
As he was preparing to return to the nation’s capital, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said in Chicago today that he’s focused on working with lawmakers to put together a new COVID-19 relief package - an effort that’s been stalled for months amid a partisan standoff.
The domino effect, he says, is that with the expiration of federal paycheck protection and unemployment subsidies, more businesses will close and people simply won’t have the purchasing power to maintain sales and other tax revenues needed to keep governments functioning.
Illinois’ senior senator hinted that there may be at least some movement on the horizon. “I understand that the White House is now dangling the possibility of negotiation reopening,” Durbin said.
He also said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leaders, need to “stop boycotting these negotiation sessions.”
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But a short time after Durbin’s downtown Chicago news conference, McConnell announced what the Washington Post called a slimmed-down COVID-19 bill that does not include help for state and local governments. The story detailing McConnell’s proposal is here. A vote could come as soon as Thursday.
“We’ve seen state and local governments all across the United States take an inventory of where they are today and the news is not good. Whether it’s the state of Illinois or the city of Chicago, there’s been a dramatic loss of revenue for obvious reason,” Durbin told reporters this morning. “... And so governors and mayors are facing some of the most difficult choices, whether it’s Gov. Pritzker or Mayor Lightfoot, they’re in a situation where they don’t have the revenues to continue the service levels that they have traditionally provided. What that means is if Congress does not act and act soon, many of them will face cutbacks in critical employees. We’re talking about police, firefighters, teachers, health care workers, the list goes on and on.”
But two months before an election that most certainly will ride on government’s ongoing response to the pandemic, a deal seems more possible. For members of Congress, it’s all about bringing home some bacon — something tangible — to constituents. Durbin himself is running for a fifth term in office.
During an unrelated news conference, Pritzker echoed concerns about essential public workers being laid off, saying he’s concerned about the hit the state’s social services might take.
“(B)ig corporations all across the nation have received billions and billions and billions of dollars of aid, but now … they’ve decided that they want to tighten the belt and not give any more to help people. It seems illogical to me.”
Pritzker said the state’s budget hole in this fiscal year is $5 billion, and Lightfoot estimates that between this year and next year the city must fill an estimated $2 billion budget gap.
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Asked this morning at a news conference about how many layoffs the city might see without aid from Congress, the mayor said she didn’t want to speculate.
The mayor did say that the city has begun talking with the unions about budget cuts that could be on the horizon. And property tax hikes are on the table too.
“(B)ut we can’t ask individual taxpayers to give us more if we don’t prove to them that we are being good fiduciaries of their tax dollars — and that includes making painful sacrifices. No one wants to see that happen. No one wants to see a reduction in the kind of services that are core to what we do as a city government, but we are looking at a variety of options.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot communicates with middle school students by way of remote learning during the first day of school at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy of Social Justice on Sept. 8, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt: Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired back at President Donald Trump’s weekend threat to cut federal funding for public schools that teach the “1619 Project,” calling it “more hot air.”
“We’re a democracy,” Lightfoot said. “In a democracy, we do not hide or erase our history.”
The New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project” looked at slavery and how it shaped America. Although widely celebrated, the Pulitzer Prize-winning project has drawn criticism from some conservative politicians and scholars. Read the full story here.
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Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded! https://t.co/dHsw6Y6Y3M — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2020
Other Chicago news: Aldermen to consider $3.8M settlement with former Chicago cop who says she was punished for reporting alleged abusive incident — The Tribune’s John Byrne has the details here.
Native American activists call on City Council to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day: While Friday’s discussion was only a subject matter hearing and involved no formal vote, Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, said it was an important step toward advancing the matter before the full council. But during Friday’s Health and Human Services Committee meeting, members of various Italian American groups expressed opposition for the suggested change.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in February that she had no plans to eliminate Columbus Day at the citywide level. Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, said as an Italian American he is “disgusted and consistently disheartened” that his heritage has to be attached to Columbus. Read Tribune reporter Sophie Sherry’s full story here.
From wake-up calls to wellness checks, how CPS is trying to make sure no child is left disconnected as remote learning resumes today: The Tribune’s Hannah Leone has the story here.
Bus contractors, uniform suppliers, trophy makers: Many Chicago-area companies feel the pain as schools begin with remote learning — The Tribune’s Abdel Jimenez has the details here.
Related COVID-19 news: Chicago adds Kentucky to city’s travel quarantine order, removes California and Puerto Rico — The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the details here.
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Supporters optimistic about completing Pullman National Monument work on Chicago’s South Side: The Tribune’s Morgan Greene has the details here.
The Rev. Leon Finney Jr., longtime South Side activist and developer, dies — The Tribune’s Deanese Williams-Harris looks back at his life here.
Also: Vista Tower condo buyer sues to scrap $10 million purchase in Chicago’s third-tallest skyscraper: A lawsuit filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court by Steve Vogel, a recreational boating entrepreneur, seeks to void one of the highest-priced condo sales in the 101-story tower, where the first residents are set to move in later this year.
Vogel’s suit comes just over a month after it was disclosed that Chicago developer Magellan Development Group, which owns 10% of Vista Tower, had an agreement to buy the remaining 90% from Wanda Hotel Development, a unit of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group. Ryan Ori has the full story in the Tribune here.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks to the media June 5, 2019. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s Ally Marotti and Robert McCoppin write: “When Illinois put 75 licenses to operate recreational marijuana dispensaries up for grabs earlier this year, more than 700 groups submitted 4,000 applications,” . “On Thursday, the state said 21 of those groups will proceed to the final phase: a lottery to award the licenses.”
Perspective: “When Illinois put 75 licenses to operate recreational marijuana dispensaries up for grabs earlier this year, more than 700 groups submitted 4,000 applications," the Tribune’s Marotti and Robert McCoppin wrote last week. "On Thursday, the state said 21 of those groups will proceed to the final phase: a lottery to award the licenses.”
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The small pool of finalists is raising questions about diversity, considering the ties some have to those already operating in the marijuana industry, Marotti and McCoppin write. Still others hold sway in Illinois’ business community. Read the full story here.
Among those finalists is Fortunate Son Partners, whose agent is Jeff Rehberger, president of slot machine operator Lucky Lincoln Gaming. The Chicago Sun-Times and Grown In newsletter also report that former Chicago police Superintendent Terry Hillard and well known Chicago restaurateur Phil Stefani also were finalists.
Pritzker’s data points: During a news conference this afternoon, the governor countered that view, saying “in this round of licenses that were awarded, 100% of the finalists — the 21 — are social equity applicants ... 62% of the owners are controlled by people of color — owned and controlled by people of color. Twenty percent of the owners are people who had been arrested or convicted of a crime that’s now eligible for expungement under the law.”
Last week, the Illinois Legislative Black and Latino caucuses called on the Pritzker administration to suspend the lottery until the public can learn more about how and why the 21 groups were selected. But Pritzker said today that’s not legal.
Now this: Lawsuit filed by two unsuccessful applicants who want to delay the weed license lottery, alleging the state picked ‘politically-connected insider companies’ — The Tribune’s Ally Marotti has those details here.
Community leaders, tradesmen on Labor Day decry lack of Black representation in union apprentice programs: ‘We don’t have anything to celebrate’: The Tribune’s Kelli Smith has the details here.
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Illinois Senate President Don Harmon during a session at the Illinois State Capitol on May 20, 2020, in Springfield. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The feds wanted Harmon’s office to turn over all documents and communications tied to a coveted state-owned Chinatown parking lot. The possibility of the state transferring the property to developer See Y. Wong was discussed in a meeting among House Speaker Michael Madigan and former Ald. Danny Solis, 25th, the Sun-Times has reported. Madigan has been subpoenaed in the probe, Solis wore a wire for the feds and Wong has been charged with fraud.
Ex ComEd VP charged, allegedly helped orchestrate scheme to pay political allies of Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan: The Tribune’s Jason Meisner reports that Fidel Marquez, a longtime lobbyist and former senior vice president of governmental affairs at the utility, is “the first person to be charged in the ongoing investigation of an elaborate bribery scheme aimed at influencing legislation in Springfield by making payments to Madigan associates and approved lobbyists, some of whom did little or no actual work for the company.” Read the full story here.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-09-08--Chicago receives more than 350,000 vote-by-mail applications, working to fill 14,000 election judge

Chicago receives more than 350,000 vote-by-mail applications, working to fill 14,000 election judge spots

The Chicago Board of Elections has received more than 350,000 vote-by-mail applications for the general election , up from about @ @ @ @ @ that number could grow to a third of all city voters by Election Day , @ @ @ @ @ said Tuesday .

Flat mail trays are seen in the parking lot of Chicago's Ravenswood Station U.S. post office on Aug. 13, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Board of Elections has received more than 350,000 vote-by-mail applications for the general election, up from about 250,000 in mid-August, and that number could grow to a third of all city voters by Election Day, the board’s chair said Tuesday.
The new count was discussed Tuesday at the board’s biweekly meeting. Officials also detailed plans for election judge recruitment and selected a new executive director, Charles Holiday, who begins his new position Dec. 1.
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The number of vote-by-mail applications the city has received so far is more than triple the board’s all-time record of 118,000, reached during this year’s primary, according to Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections.
Given the current rate, Hernandez said in an interview later, the city "could easily reach 500,000” vote-by-mail applications out of about 1.52 million registered voters.
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Some voters have been concerned about sending in their ballot through mail, she said. The method has been scrutinized in recent weeks after some federal officials, including President Donald Trump, have cast doubt on it.
Hernandez has been "advising voters that there will be several options in this election” if they don’t feel confident about sending in their ballot by mail, including drop boxes at early voting sites, she said.
The board plans to have early voting and drop box locations finalized by Sept. 24, when mail-in ballots will start being sent out.
The city needs about 14,000 election judges, who will be paid $14 an hour during early voting and a $230 flat rate for Election Day, Hernandez said. Volunteers can apply to be an election judge at chipollworker.com.
“We have received a lot of support from our voters, and we have seen an increase in applications to be judges in elections,” Hernandez said.
As voters continue to apply for mail-in ballots, they should receive emails confirming their applications and can track their ballot through the U.S. Postal Service to ensure it’s received and counted. If applicants don’t receive an email confirmation, they should contact the board at 312-269-7900, Hernandez said.
A common mistake seen in Chicago vote-by-mail applications has been missing signatures on the outside of the return envelope. Officials urged applicants to sign where indicated to prevent any problems.
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kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews