chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Judge denies request to revoke bond for retired Cook County sheriff’s sergeant facing sexual abuse,

Judge denies request to revoke bond for retired Cook County sheriff’s sergeant facing sexual abuse, child pornography charges

While in the car , Pradun showed the girls an explicit photo of himself on his phone , prosecutors said @ @ @ @ @ of the girls , he pulled his car over , locked the door , and @ @ @ @ @ left alone with if he could trust her , and then proceeded to sexually abuse @ @ @ @ @

A judge on Friday denied a request to revoke bond for a retired Cook County sheriff’s office sergeant, but warned the Wilmette man he must stop a teenage resident of his home from inviting friends over.
John P. Pradun, 62, of Wilmette, was charged last month with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, indecent solicitation of a child, grooming, harmful material, possession of child pornography, including images involving children under the age of 10, and possession of a controlled substance, authorities said.
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According to court records, prosecutors allege the female victims, ages 15 and 14, went to Pradun’s Wilmette home frequently for parties, in which alcohol and drugs were made available to minors.
Pradun appeared at the Rolling Meadows courthouse Friday for an emergency bond hearing after prosecutors asked that he be taken into custody. They allege he recently violated the conditions of his bond by allowing a teenage resident of his home to invite a 15-year-old friend into the house.
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“There is absolutely no confusion, and (Pradun) knows what he can and can’t do,” Cook County Asst. State’s Attorney Heather Kent said via Zoom during Friday’s hearing.
The Wilmette Police Department contacted Kent this week after receiving a report that a 15-year-old girl was visiting Pradun’s family member at their Millbrook Lane home on the evening of Aug. 24, which was in violation of a condition of his bond that prohibits him from having contact with minors.
Kent said according to a Wilmette police report, while Pradun did not interact with the 15-year-old girl, he saw her enter and leave the home.
“He is making a mockery of the court, and thinks the rules do not apply to him, saying kids were not in his house, when he let them in his home,” Kent said.
John P. Pradun, 62, a former Cook County Sheriff's department deputy, was charged with seven felony counts of child sex abuse on July 18, 2020. (Wilmette police / Pioneer Press)
The prosecutor also reiterated the graphic details of the Wilmette police investigation that led to the charges against Pradun. Prosecutors allege Pradun groomed girls by frequently hosting underage drinking parties at his North Shore home, and supplying the teens with alcohol and drugs.
But Pradun’s attorney Kevin Bolger said his client was in his bedroom at the time of the recent visit and “did not know a 15-year-old had entered the premises.”
“He’s on electronic monitoring with a GPS, and he will not have a problem like that again,” Bolger said. “He does not think his prior position gives him any special privileges, and respects the court and its system.”
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Judge Steven Goebel said although both he and Pradun were assigned to the Skokie courthouse during portions of their careers, he did not recognize the retired sheriff’s office sergeant.
Goebel said while the allegations are very serious, it does appear the girl was invited to the home by the teenage resident.
“He needs to make sure no other minors are present at his house,” Goebel said. “I agree, it could be a possibly dangerous situation, but he did not have contact with the minor.”
Wilmette police began investigating Pradun in July after receiving a report of a possible sexual abuse involving a minor, Deputy Police Chief Patrick Collins said.
During the investigation, police obtained evidence that Pradun had allegedly committed sex offenses against two minors in July, including showing a nude digital photograph of himself and supplying the teen girls with alcohol and drugs, police said.
Pradun, whose 17-year-old daughter was friends with his alleged victims, was aware of the parties and would offer the girls alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes and Xanax, according to prosecutors.
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The girls who attended the parties were aware that Pradun was a retired law enforcement officer and were urged to call him by the nickname “Po-Po,” according to prosecutors.
After one of the parties in July, Pradun was driving a group of minors to a second location to drop them off for the remainder of the night, according to prosecutors.
While in the car, Pradun showed the girls an explicit photo of himself on his phone, prosecutors said. After dropping off two of the girls, he pulled his car over, locked the door, and asked the girl he was left alone with if he could trust her, and then proceeded to sexually abuse her, prosecutors said.
According to court records, the incident came to the attention of law enforcement when the father of another girl who attended the same high school as the victim overheard his own daughter and her friends discussing the matter.
After Wilmette police launched their investigation, another family with a child at the same high school came forward indicating their own 14-year-old daughter had been assaulted by Pradun at his home, prosecutors said.
On July 17, Wilmette police arrested Pradun at his home after detectives executed search warrants and recovered controlled substances — Xanax and Alprazolam — and evidence of child pornography on an electronic storage device belonging to Pradun, prosecutors said.
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Shortly after Pradun’s arrest in mid-July, police received a 911 call around 10:15 p.m. on July 24 from an anonymous caller who reported seeing juveniles entering the defendant’s home through a side door.
Officers arriving at Pradun’s home did not see or hear anything suspicious, and it did not appear there was any social gathering taking place, Collins said.
The judge’s decision Friday to not bring Pradun into custody was disheartening to family members of his alleged victims, who said they were hopeful that his bond would have been revoked after police confirmed that a 15-year-old was recently in his home.
“We are obviously so disappointed ... I think the judge is a fair person, and trying his best given the COVID reality we’re living in, but we’re really heartbroken (Pradun) was not taken into custody,” said a relative of one of the girls, who asked not be identified to protect the identity of the family member. “These are young victims, and the charges are really serious and horrible.”
Pradun retired in November 2019 as a sergeant for the Cook County sheriff’s office, where he had served since June 1993. He was ordered Friday to surrender to Wilmette police his Firearm Owners Identification card, concealed carry license and any firearms that remain in his home.
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kcullotta@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @kcullotta


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Jacob Blake’s grandmother talks about the family’s history with civil rights, and hopes the tragedy

Jacob Blake’s grandmother talks about the family’s history with civil rights, and hopes the tragedy of her grandson’s shooting will continue the legacy

“ Individually , collectively , no matter what organization or church you belong to , it ’ s very important @ @ @ @ @ .
We don ’ t have enough males anyway , so we can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ one , ” she said .
“ And a man with five children ?
What @ @ @ @ @ them ?
He ’ s never going to be able to work again .
Five @ @ @ @ @ s mind-boggling .
”

The family of Jacob Blake, including sister Megan Belcher, second left, father Jacob Blake Sr., center, mother Julia Jackson, second right, and sister Letetra Wideman, head to a news conference Aug. 25, 2020, in Civic Center Park in Kenosha. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
On the hottest day in August, Patricia Goudeau Blake had a lot to do at her lifelong home in Park Manor after spending nine months in Washington state.
Her beloved garden, particularly her sunbaked black-eyed Susans, desperately needed tending. The spry, active great-grandmother was also supervising a redesign of the home her family has owned for 71 years. She was the very first Black child living on the block.
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But the most difficult thing on Blake’s list was added at the last moment. The matriarch was planning a weekend trip to a Kenosha hospital to see her 29-year-old grandson, Jacob Blake, whose shooting by police has gripped the nation and stoked tensions between police and communities of color.
In this September 2019 selfie photo taken in Evanston, Adria-Joi Watkins poses with her second cousin Jacob Blake. He is recovering from being shot multiple times by Kenosha police on Aug. 23, 2020. (Adria-Joi Watkins)
Blake hopes the shooting, as tragic as it is, will somehow continue her family’s strong legacy in the fight for racial equality. Her husband was a revered pastor known for his work for civil rights, her father helped train the famed Tuskegee Airmen and her in-laws were some of the first Black judges in the Chicago area.
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“I hope (police) messed with the wrong people this time,” she said. “We have a generational family history story, and out of this tragedy things will change — it’s got to change.”
‘Something I can’t believe’
Sitting comfortably on her front porch, cane at her side and dressed in a peach-colored blouse and white slacks, Blake said she would take a break from her many chores to speak with a Tribune reporter and photographer on Thursday.
Blake, the widow of the Rev. Jacob Blake, said she prefers to stay out of the limelight and politely declined to have her photo taken.
But she said she felt compelled to speak after her grandson’s shooting, which has sparked a week of sometimes violent protests in Kenosha, including the fatal shooting of two demonstrators by an alleged vigilante.
Her otherwise busy mood quieted as she discussed the past few days. “It’s been something I can’t believe,” she said.
Blake said her family had initially been stonewalled by Kenosha authorities about her grandson’s condition until his father contacted noted civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.
“He opened up the door where my son and (Jacob Blake’s) mother could see him, and now I’ve requested that they allow me to see him,” she said. “I think I’ll feel better once I see him. I still see him as that curly headed little brownie.”
Jacob Blake, like Patricia Blake’s other grandchildren, spent part of his childhood at the sturdy two-story brick house on Wabash, helping her tend the garden and other chores.
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Blake, who was once the director of a shelter, said her grandson had donated time to senior citizens and helping feed homeless people at a local mosque. “The older people loved him. He was good with the older people. A lot of young people are afraid of older people, but he had a magnetism. He enjoyed them.”
She recalled last speaking with her grandson earlier this month before her return to Chicago. “He says to me, ‘Grandma, I’m gonna make more time to come down to visit and sit with you.’ And I said, ‘I’m gonna hold you to that.’”
Now it’s Blake who will go and see her grandson.
“It bothered me that ... he was in this condition and that he would have no face that he (recognized). That disturbed me. I just want him to see a face ... and know that we’re all pulling for him.”
According to the latest account from authorities, officers were called to a home by a woman who said her boyfriend would not leave. The officers began struggling with Jacob Blake near his SUV and deployed a Taser twice as he walked away from them and started getting into his car.
One of the officers grabbed Blake’s shirt and fired seven times into his back, they said.
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Authorities have not disclosed what initially occurred when officers arrived or what was said by them, Blake and others at the home. They also have not disclosed what happened immediately before Blake walked around the SUV and tried to get in as officers tried to stop him.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 95 Madison Taft and Black Lives Matter activists march through a Kenosha neighborhood Jan. 5, 2021, after news that no charges will be issued against the Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Most of what authorities have released was caught on a cellphone video that has been widely circulated.
“I really don’t care what preceded it, actually, because the tape itself speaks to the lack of protocol, excessive police power,” Blake’s grandmother said.
“Individually, collectively, no matter what organization or church you belong to, it’s very important that we protect our future. We don’t have enough males anyway, so we can’t lose not one. Not one,” she said. “And a man with five children? What’s to become of them? He’s never going to be able to work again. Five little children. It’s mind-boggling.”
Three of Jacob Blake’s young children were in the SUV, according to his family and attorneys, who say the kids have been severely traumatized.
‘We were groundbreakers’
The Blake family story has mirrored that of other African Americans during the years of the Great Migration who had managed to thrive despite the segregation of the time.
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The Rev. Jacob Blake had been a well-paid Gary steelworker when he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he blended ministry with community activism to overcome systemic racism. His Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Evanston spearheaded the construction of low-income and retirement housing in the north suburb, with black labor.
Patricia Blake’s father, L’Ouveture Goudeau, was a longtime union man who worked with pioneering civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph. He was later an Air Force pilot who instructed the Tuskegee Airmen.
Goudeau later became one of the state’s highest-ranking Black officials, supervising three Illinois Department of Labor offices that processed more than 20,000 weekly unemployment claims, according to an April 1960 Tribune profile.
Patricia Blake’s mother, Jean Williamson, who graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, worked as the housekeeping supervisor at the old Illinois State Tuberculosis Hospital.
Goudeau’s sister Bernice married into the Braden family, which included the area’s first Black judges. “Four generations of judges and corporate lawyers,” Patricia Blake said. Among them was retired Associate Cook County Judge Everette Braden.
[ Family of Jacob Blake takes part in March on Washington: ]
When Patricia Blake’s parents moved into the Wabash home, they were the first Black family on the block. “We were groundbreakers in Park Manor. I was 6 years old. I’m 77 now,” she said.
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The Goudeaus had some notable neighbors as successful Blacks fled overcrowded Bronzeville: A black pediatrician lived close by. Olympic Gold medalist Jesse Owens lived a couple of blocks away with his family. Al Capone’s mother still lived in the family building on South Prairie.
Their success, however, came with limitations. “You could only go as far as 71st Street. You couldn’t bypass 71st Street, and it didn’t matter what kind of money you had.”
Patricia Blake said she hopes this tragic incident involving her grandson will be the catalyst to stop unarmed Black men from being fatally shot by police.
“I hope there’s a breakthrough,” she said. “It’s like a genocide. It’s got to change, there is no question. It can’t go on like this. It must stop and only we can stop it.”
wlee@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MidNoirCowboy


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Round Lake Beach police hires firm to investigate ’disturbing’ video of officer punching woman

Video of the incident showed the officer as one of about a half-dozen police and paramedics who responded to the @ @ @ @ @ to be strapped to a gurney with the officer leaning over her when she could @ @ @ @ @ toward the officer ’ s leg .

Round Lake Beach police said Friday they have placed a police officer on leave and hired an outside investigations firm to review an Aug. 22 incident during which the officer allegedly punched a woman, who while strapped to a medical gurney apparently bit him.
Prescient, a Chicago-based company, has been hired to conduct an external examination of the episode, which has been widely viewed over the last week after several bystanders recorded it and posted it on social media.
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“The video of the incident circulated online and raised concerns, as the video was shocking to see,” Round Lake Beach police said in a statement released Friday. “The department placed the officer on administrative leave and immediately committed to an independent investigation to ensure transparency and fairness for all involved.
“Prescient will have full and complete access to the department and any information they require. RLB PD will do everything within the law to cooperate fully with their process.”
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According to a statement released Aug. 22, the department had responded that day to a report of a woman having “a mental health crisis” on the lakeshore of Round Lake.
Video of the incident showed the officer as one of about a half-dozen police and paramedics who responded to the call. The woman appeared to be strapped to a gurney with the officer leaning over her when she could be seen turning her head toward the officer’s leg.
A moment later, the officer could be seen allegedly punching the woman at least three times in the head. People recording the incident immediately begin yelling at the officer, who tells them that the woman bit him.
In an initial press release, Round Lake police conceded that the video was “disturbing,” but said, “striking a person who is actively biting an officer is within policy.”
Both the woman and the officer were treated at a hospital, police said. Authorities have not identified the officer.
The blows rendered the woman unconscious, the Rev. Julie Contreras, pastor of Our Lady of Suyapa Sanctuary in Waukegan, said Friday. Contreras said the woman’s family contacted her because of Contreras’ involvement in the case of a man named Abel Rosiles, who died this summer after he was arrested by Round Lake Beach police.
In last weekend’s incident, the woman had been brought to the lakeshore by her sister and the sister’s boyfriend in attempt to cheer her up, Contreras said, but the sister called 911 when the woman, who has a history of mental health issues, expressed suicidal thoughts.
Contreras said she viewed video and was disturbed by the repeated blows.
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“That’s not appropriate conduct by a police officer,” she said.
“We’re not against the police,” Contreras added. “We respect the police, but they need to held accountable for improper behavior.”


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Gun charge for Chicago man is first federal case from downtown looting this month

Officers who were watching the looting of the CBD Kratom store at 28 E. Randolph St. gave chase and arrested @ @ @ @ @ As he ran , Williams had dropped a semi-automatic handgun , according to police .
@ @ @ @ @ was loaded with seven rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber , authorities @ @

Damaged windows at the Zara store following early morning looting in downtown Chicago on Aug. 10, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Downtown Chicago had been overrun by looters in the early morning of Aug. 10 when police spotted a man allegedly coming out of a Loop retail store with an armload of merchandise.
Officers who were watching the looting of the CBD Kratom store at 28 E. Randolph St. gave chase and arrested Javonte Williams at 5 a.m. As he ran, Williams had dropped a semi-automatic handgun, according to police. The black Ruger 9 mm was loaded with seven rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, authorities said.
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Williams, 27, of the 9900 block of South Parnell Avenue, was charged by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon — a Class 3 felony that carries the possibility of two to five years in prison, court records show.
On Friday, however, Williams was hit with an additional federal charge of possession of a weapon by a felon, which could land him behind bars for up to 10 years.
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The criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court was the first federal case filed stemming from the widespread looting and destruction that occurred in the overnight hours of Aug. 10, after Chicago police shot and wounded a man in the Englewood neighborhood.
Williams’ case was also the latest brought under Operation Legend, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative that has brought addition federal law enforcement officers to Chicago to assist police in fighting violent crime.
U.S. Attorney John Lausch announced last week that since Operation Legend was launched in Chicago on July 22, his office had charged 61 defendants in 49 cases alleging federal felony offenses relating to violent crime. About half of the defendants, like Williams, face a firearms-related charge.
According to the criminal complaint, Williams was prohibited from possessing a gun because of a 2012 conviction in Cook County for possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number, for which he was sentenced to two years of probation.
Williams was arrested Friday and in federal custody after having been free on bond from his initial state charges, according to a spokesman for Lausch.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan ordered Williams to remain in custody pending a detention hearing Tuesday, the spokesman said.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--After fierce wind storm, Graceland Cemetery facing its longest closing and costliest repairs in its

After fierce wind storm, Graceland Cemetery facing its longest closing and costliest repairs in its 160-year history

“ The crews , staff and trustees are working endlessly to get everything back to what it was , ” @ @ @ @ @ remain hopeful that once everything has been returned to ‘ normal ’ and we reopen @ @ @ @ @ the cemetery with native plants and bring some of the more hard-hit areas of the @ @ @ @ @ beauty .
”

A large tree lies on the ground and on some monuments in Graceland Cemetery and Arboretum, shown Aug. 18, 2020, after a derecho hit the cemetery earlier in the month. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Graceland Cemetery, resting place for some of Chicago’s most famous citizens, is facing its longest closing and most expensive repairs in its 160-year existence.
On Aug. 10, a derecho storm with wind gusts as high as 130 mph tore through the landmark’s exterior wall, knocking memorials off their bases and uprooting about 40 trees within minutes.
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No one was injured and no buildings sustained damage, but Graceland anticipates many headstones will need repairs and more than 200 trees will need to be removed from the 119-acre cemetery and arboretum in Uptown.
Staff members say it’s some of the worst damage that has hit the cemetery, and they expect it to stay closed for more than six weeks for repairs that will cost at least $250,000.
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Established in 1860 and known as the “Cemetery of Architects,” Graceland’s pastoral landscape has long been a quiet retreat, particularly during the pandemic, according to staff.
On any given day in recent months, about 200 to 300 people would walk through its curved pathways, taking in the thousands of monuments honoring famed architects, inventors, merchants, and baseball and boxing greats of Chicago’s past.
Before, it was about 40-50 visitors a day.
“I was sad to hear the storm did so much damage at Graceland,” said Kirstin Leiby, 38, an Uptown native who’d walked through the cemetery with her family nearly every day for months. “It was a safe place to walk and still feel connected to others during a pandemic.”
Graceland’s closure has also had an emotional impact on those with loved ones buried there.
Lindsey Gardner, 43, vividly recalls burying his father’s ashes circled by loved ones at Graceland, which he loves for its history and representation of “the city of the past.” He’d planned to visit often to remember his father, who died April 14 due to complications from COVID-19.
“It’s going to be a while until I can at least go in there and visit his grave,” Gardner said. “But Mother Nature is Mother Nature, and that’s nothing I’ll ever be upset about.”
Moments before the storm struck, the three staff members at the cemetery spotted a black cloud overhead and rushed to close the gates. They took shelter in the main office for about 20 minutes as straight-line winds tore through the area and the lights flickered.
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“We knew it was going to be bad, but we didn’t expect that at all,” said Jennifer Cervantes, Graceland’s administrative assistant. “As we stepped out, we realized, ‘Oh crap, all these trees are down and I think this is going to be really bad for us.’”
The destruction reminded the staff of a storm in 2007 that closed the cemetery for six weeks. Tree removal crews told Graceland officials this year’s storm was worse.
Jensen Allen, Graceland’s associate director, said the estimate of damage “does not cover any replanting or reforesting we hope to do in the years to come.”
“It was an incredibly sad sight to see some of the most mature and healthy trees completely uprooted,” Allen said. “Many of the trees were across the cemetery roads. The damage was surely a shocking sight and overwhelming to all staff to say the least.”
Graceland officials have had to tell families it’s not safe to have burials. The staff plans to open the cemetery in phases, with burial services starting first, followed by escorted appointments for families hoping to visit a grave.
“The crews, staff and trustees are working endlessly to get everything back to what it was,” Allen said. “We remain hopeful that once everything has been returned to ‘normal’ and we reopen, that we can re-forest the cemetery with native plants and bring some of the more hard-hit areas of the cemetery back to their original beauty.”
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For families hoping to bury a loved one at Graceland while it’s closed, Cervantes recommended calling staff members so they can evaluate the desired area and determine whether it’s possible. So far, she said people have been “so understanding and willing” to postpone cremations.
Already in the two weeks Graceland has been closed, “quite a few” people have called in to inquire about the cemetery’s reopening and to offer help, she added.
“It feels good that people love this place so much that they’re willing to come in and help,” Cervantes said.
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


Corrections and clarifications

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Everyone in @ @ @ @ @ live up to this code of conduct .
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· A Page 1 secondary headline on Friday incorrectly said Jacob Blake was slain. Blake was shot but not killed.
· A headline in Friday’s Business section about McCormick Place losing additional conventions incorrectly stated that this was the largest convention lost so far. In fact, the story stated the convention was the largest loss so far for 2021.
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The Tribune regrets the errors.
Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
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chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,149 new known COVID-19 cases and 20 additional deaths reported as

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,149 new known COVID-19 cases and 20 additional deaths reported as state adds suburban Cook County to ‘warning level’ status

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said many questions remain about the Postal Service ’ s actions , whether the changes @ @ @ @ @ sorting equipment are being reversed , and whether mail delays will continue .
He noted @ @ @ @ @ just about the timely delivery of mail-in ballots , but also about the delivery of @ @ @ @ @ and other items people depend on .

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)
Cook County is among the 30 counties the Illinois Department of Public Health sounded the alarm about Friday for a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
That’s the largest number of counties that had reached “warning level” since the agency began issuing those weekly reports earlier this summer, and the first time Cook County has been on it. The warning level applies to suburban Cook County and does not apply to the city of Chicago.
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On Friday, state health officials also announced 2,149 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths. Overall, Illinois has reported 229,483 cases, including 7,997 deaths.
However, the official COVID-19 death toll in Illinois may not account for at least 1,000 fatalities — and potentially far more — that could be attributable to the pandemic, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data.
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Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:40 p.m.: Layoffs, South Side clinic consolidations planned as Cook County Health grapples with pandemic, ballooning charity care
Cook County Health plans to lay off more employees and close two South Side outpatient clinics, consolidating their operations elsewhere, before the end of the year in an attempt to cut spending during a pandemic that could inflict a projected $187 million budget deficit next year.
Officials announced the potential changes Friday as the health system, which operates Stroger and Provident hospitals, faces a two-front battle against the coronavirus outbreak and the rising burden of charity care, which is uncompensated medical treatment for patients who cannot pay.
Read more here. —Alice Yin
6:15 p.m.: NU announces it won’t have freshmen and sophomores on campus and will close fraternity and sorority houses because of COVID-19
Northwestern University announced late Friday that it will not have freshmen and sophomore students back on campus for the fall term or in residencies, and will keep sorority and fraternity houses closed.
It’s a sharp departure from plans reiterated just earlier this week by Northwestern officials who spoke during a community town hall meeting reiterated their during a community town hall meeting. They said then that the campus would open but with a reduced residence hall capacity and many employees still working from home.
Read more here. —Elyssa Cherney
4:55 p.m.: Stimulus money Cook County formula meant to aid poorer towns could do more harm than good, some Southland mayors say
Some south suburban mayors say a Cook County formula that was intended to give poorer communities such as theirs a bigger share of federal COVID-19 stimulus money actually hurts more than it helps.
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They say it could result in their towns leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table, money they say could greatly help them make up for revenue lost due to the pandemic.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” said Terry Wells, mayor of Phoenix, as he and other leaders of the Southland Regional Mayoral Black Caucus shared their concerns with the Daily Southtown.
Read more here. —Mike Nolan
3:51 p.m.: After two-week shutdown and drop in new COVID-19 cases, Notre Dame will reopen
The University of Notre Dame’s president announced Friday the school plans to resume in-person classes and activities after tallying fewer daily COVID-19 cases during its temporary shift to remote instruction.
Speaking to the campus community in a video address, the Rev. John Jenkins called the move “a great comeback” and said some in-person classes will start again Wednesday. He cited a dropping positivity rate in testing but also said dozens of disciplinary hearings are scheduled for students who didn’t follow public health protocols.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
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3:47 p.m.: Tensions rise between college towns and universities as outbreaks emerge among students returning to campus
As more and more schools and businesses around the country get the OK to reopen, college towns are moving in the opposite direction because of too much partying and too many COVID-19 infections among students.
With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus and an alarming 44% positivity rate for the surrounding county, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. and close by 10 p.m.
Earlier this week, Iowa’s governor ordered all bars shut down around Iowa University and Iowa State, while the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did the same in the hometown of the state’s flagship university.
“What we’re seeing in our violations is they’re coming late at night,” said Stephanie Browning, head of the health department for Columbia, Missouri. “Big groups gathering. They’re not wearing their masks, they’re not social distancing.”
Read more here. —Associated Press
2 p.m.: Elgin restaurant owner charged with fraudulently obtaining $176,000 PPP loan
The owner of an Elgin restaurant was charged in U.S. District Court with fraudulently obtaining a $176,000 paycheck protection loan meant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic even though she’d abruptly closed the restaurant weeks earlier and terminated all her employees.
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Melissa Turasky, 43, who ran Gifford’s Kitchen and Social restaurant, was charged with bank fraud in a two-count indictment made public Friday.
According to the charges, the popular casual-dining spot in the 2300 block of Bushwood Drive was shuttered in early March — two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the state into lockdown — and Turasky was evicted from the property. By late March, Turasky had terminated all her employees, the indictment said.
Read more here. —Jason Meisner
1:55 p.m.: More Catholic schools delay opening because of COVID-19 cases as teachers at other Chicago-area private schools resist in-person classes
Many Archdiocesan and other private schools have now started their 2020-21 school year, while some teachers and parents continue to raise concerns about the return to in-person classes. In the Chicago area, a much larger proportion of private schools are reopening compared to public schools, which have mostly reverted to remote learning.
A group of parents and teachers, calling themselves Arch Teachers for a Safe Return, continue to demand the Archdiocese move all schools to remote learning, to provide the spread of COVID-19.
“We believe that the archdiocese is putting people in danger,” the Rev. C.J. Hawking, of Arise Chicago, an interfaith workers’ rights group, said in a press conference earlier this month.
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The Archdiocese terminated the contract of a teacher from St. Francis Xavier in Wilmette after she refused to return for in-person classes.
Other non-religious, independent private schools — some with more resources and fewer students than public schools — are also set to reopen for the fall. Some parents with the means to do so are eyeing these schools as an option to send their children back into school buildings, and many parents whose children already attend private school have also said they’re grateful to have the option.
But some educators at those schools area also hoping for an 11th-hour reprieve from in-person classes.
Read more here. —Claire Hao and Sophie Sherry
1:54 p.m.: Illinois exceeds 1.1 million mail-in ballot requests for November election, state may break previous record
More than 1.1 million Illinois voters have requested a mail-in ballot for the Nov. 3 general election following a new state law aimed at enhancing vote-by-mail efforts in response to concerns about COVID-19, state election officials said Friday.
The number of applications indicates the state will break its record for voting by mail set two years ago, when 430,000 votes or 9.3% of the total ballots were cast by mail, State Board of Elections officials said. In 2016, 370,000 votes or 6.5% of all ballots were through the mail.
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The 1.1 million figure cited by state elections officials includes 291,874 applications from Chicago, 188,941 from suburban Cook County, 116,031 from DuPage County, 72,489 from Kane County, 26,656 from Lake County, 37,526 from McHenry County and 82,238 from Will County.
Read more here. —Rick Pearson
1:12 p.m.: State adds suburban Cook County to ‘warning level’ status
Cook County is among the 30 counties the Illinois Department of Public Health sounded the alarm about Friday for a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
That’s the largest number of counties that had reached “warning level” since the agency began issuing those weekly reports earlier this summer, and the first time Cook County has been on it. State public health officials said Friday “general transmission of the virus in the community” was on the rise.
Suburban Cook County’s addition to the state’s weekly warning list was triggered by 112 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people, well above the state-set target of staying under 50 new cases per 100,000 people. An increase in the number of deaths, 25 compared with 15 the prior week, was the other factor. The state’s goal is that the number of deaths declines or remains level from week to week.
County officials said the regulations that are in place now for bars and restaurants, fitness centers and other activities will remain consistent, but warned that if the county continues to see a backslide, additional rules may be imposed.
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“The guidance will remain the same for now,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in a statement. “But we are at a crossroads. We need everyone to wear a mask, watch their distance and wash their hands consistently to slow the spread of COVID-19 so we don’t lose the gains we have made.”
The warning level applies to suburban Cook County and does not apply to the city of Chicago.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
1:03 p.m.: Babysitter bidding wars: As Chicago parents shell out $25 per hour, paid vacation and $1,000 signing bonuses during pandemic, ‘wealthiest families win out’
She expected to pay a nanny about $16-$20 an hour to care for one baby in Chicago’s easily accessible Lakeview neighborhood.
But when Hannah, a lawyer who didn’t want to use her last name to protect her family’s privacy, called a nanny search firm in March, she was told that demand was higher than usual, and that she should offer $18-$20.
Then, when interviews began, several nannies quoted rates as high as $25 an hour.
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“We heard a couple of different (explanations),” Hannah said. “One was the market was more competitive and nannies were having several offers on the table. One of my friends who had a couple nannies turn her down was told, ‘I already have other offers.’”
With day care centers closing due to COVID-19, and parents seeking e-learning assistance for their children, nannies and sitters are in high demand, and now there are indications that pay is on the rise. Qualified sitters are getting minimum starting pay of about $18 an hour, up from $16 before COVID-19, according to Tori Ulrich, president of the child care search firm Chicago Super Sitters.
Read more here. —Nara Schoenberg
12:17 p.m.: COVID-19′s true toll in Illinois is likely higher than reported. A closer look at ‘excess deaths’ in 2020.
The Tribune, in its analysis of CDC data, found unusual rises in deaths labeled as flu/pneumonia in the early stages of the pandemic — as early as two weeks before Illinois logged its first official COVID-19 death. Health officials have said it could be easy to mistake COVID-19 for the flu or pneumonia, particularly when testing was scarce and knowledge of the virus limited.
Other possible contributing factors to the state’s overall higher death toll: larger-than-normal numbers of deaths blamed on heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and stroke. Add to that the more publicized jumps in homicides, suicides and fatal drug overdoses in communities that the virus has also hit hard.
Read more here. —Joe Mahr
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12:13 p.m.: Young NWI residents talk life during pandemic, watch peers continue as normal: ‘Many are unaware they’re infected’
Lisa Tanis said when COVID-19 cases began picking up in Northwest Indiana, her doctor told her, then pregnant, that she needed to be cautious.
So she stayed home — and continued staying home.
“We had groceries delivered, didn’t see our friends, and barely even saw our parents,” Tanis, 26, of Dyer, said. “When we did see our parents, it was always outside at a distance.”
Since Tanis’ had her son, Nolan, on July 22 and the state enacted a mask mandate, she said her and her husband, Aaron, 26, have met up with few family members and friends to let them meet him, though they’ve continued limiting the places they go to.
“The only thing I have regularly done is go for walks, which kept me sane,” Tanis, 26, said. “I haven’t eaten at a restaurant except for takeout since February and I’ve only been to the grocery store a handful of times.”
Even though some, like Tanis, are staying home, cases in the area continue.
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Read more here. —Hannah Reed, Post-Tribune
12:09 p.m.: 2,149 new known COVID-19 cases, 20 additional deaths
The state Department of Public Health announced 2,149 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths. Overall, Illinois has reported 229,483 cases, including 7,997 deaths.
—Chicago Tribune staff
12:06 p.m.: Two public relations experts at FDA ousted after blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 error
Two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration have been ousted from their positions after fumbled communications about a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19. President Donald Trump and the head of the FDA had erroneously boasted on the eve of the Republican National Convention that the treatment sharply lowered mortality from the disease.
On Friday, the FDA commissioner, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, removed Emily Miller, the agency’s chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed Miller, who had previously worked in communications for the reelection campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz and as a journalist for One America News, the conservative cable network, in this post just 11 days ago.
Hahn notified senior leadership at the FDA on Friday that Miller would no longer be the official spokeswoman for the agency, and that he would be appointing someone to replace her in an interim capacity. Miller could not be reached for comment.
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Miller’s removal came one day after the FDA’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of a public relations consultant who had advised Hahn to correct misleading comments about the benefits of blood plasma for COVID-19.
Read more here. —The New York Times
10:15 a.m.: With many struggling to buy food during the pandemic, grassroots efforts have stepped up. ‘It’s my motivation to get up in the morning.’
Food insecurity, when people don’t have enough money to buy the food they need to live a healthy life, is projected to affect a record 54 million in the U.S. this year, up from 37 million pre-pandemic, according to the hunger-relief nonprofit Feeding America and Craig Gundersen, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Some fear the need could increase if government assistance fails to come through for those who continue to be out of work because of COVID-19.
Normally, food insecurity in Cook County is about 10%. As a result of the pandemic it is projected to affect 15% of residents — and 20% of children.
There is vast disparity by race. Among Chicago zip codes, the 10 with the highest rates of food insecurity are in neighborhoods that are more than 90% black, according to Gundersen’s analysis . In zip code 60621, which is in Englewood, researchers project food insecurity this year to reach 41%.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
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6:30 a.m.: Illinois counties rush to finalize early voting sites amid looming election deadlines, COVID-19 concerns
Illinois election authorities are confronting higher levels of pushback from polling sites wary of hosting this year because of concerns and closures related to COVID-19. With early voting scheduled to begin Oct. 19, and the deadline to finalize sites set for early September, election administrators don’t have much time left.
“It’s been difficult,” McHenry County Clerk Joseph Tirio said. “We have received word from a number of locations — and that changes from day to day — that no longer wish to participate.”
Election authorities can order public buildings or schools in their jurisdiction to host early or Election Day voting, according to state law. Privately-owned sites, however, have more say in whether or not to participate in the election — and many are choosing to withdraw from earlier agreements, primarily because of coronavirus-related health concerns, closures or lack of adequate spacing to accommodate social distancing.
“There’s always a lot of effort that goes into acquiring voting locations and so this year it’s just an even more intense process than usual,” said Adam Johnson, chief deputy of the DuPage County clerk’s office.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
6:15 a.m.: Judge orders U.S. Postal Service to turn over records on changes
A federal judge in Washington state is giving the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service 10 days to turn over records and information about service changes that critics say could undermine mail-in voting in the November election.
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More than 20 states filed lawsuits last week over the changes, including 14 states that sued in U.S. District Court in Yakima.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian on Thursday granted the states’ request to speed up discovery in that case. The Justice Department opposed the request, saying that much of the information the states are seeking is already in the public record, including in congressional testimony, and that responding to the states’ requests within 10 days would be burdensome.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said many questions remain about the Postal Service’s actions, whether the changes such as the removal of sorting equipment are being reversed, and whether mail delays will continue. He noted the case isn’t just about the timely delivery of mail-in ballots, but also about the delivery of prescriptions, Social Security benefits and other items people depend on.
Among the information sought by the states is a list of all mail sorting machines identified for decommissioning, including their locations, and whether they will be reinstalled if they have already been decommissioned.
—Associated Press
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 from Thursday about COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--The Spin: Trump, surrogates take law-and-order message to the ’burbs | State exceeds 1 million mark

The Spin: Trump, surrogates take law-and-order message to the ’burbs | State exceeds 1 million mark for mail-in ballots | How Kenosha could shape election

“ It ’ s not confined , the lawlessness , to big cities like Portland , Seattle , Chicago , @ @ @ @ @ in Kenosha , Wisconsin , literally right over the border from Illinois .
And you @ @ @ @ @ ’ s property torched as retribution for what people perceive to be an act that @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said of Jacob Blake , who was shot several times in the @ @ @ @ @ and is now said to be paralyzed .

Donald Trump Jr., from left, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump stand on the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)
During his closing speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night, President Trump not only criticized Chicago, but also went after Kenosha after a police-involved shooting there sparked civil unrest this week.
Illinois GOP Chair Tim Schneider was on the White House’s South Lawn when Trump delivered his speech and said the president’s law-and-order message was timely, given some of the reports of protesters outside following people as they left the event.
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For those of us in the cheap seats (read: watching on TV), it didn’t look like attendees were social distancing, and many weren’t wearing masks despite health officials calling both cardinal rules in the fight to stem COVID-19. Schneider said he wore a mask “most of the time” and that he felt safe.
Welcome to The Spin.
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Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider speaks at the Governor's Day rally on Aug. 16, 2017, at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Calling Trump’s address a “great speech,” Illinois GOP Chair Tim Schneider said he thought the president set the table not only for the important themes in the election’s final stretch, but also his priorities for a second term, should he win.
“He talked about bringing about law and order in our country and our world, and I think this election is going to come down to law and order,” Schneider said.
He also said he encountered protesters while leaving the GOP White House event.
“I witnessed it firsthand at the White House. I wasn’t allowed to leave the entrance I came in, because they (guards) said the protesters had overtaken the gate. Many of my friends left through that gate and were assaulted by protesters — although I don’t know that I would call them protesters. They were criminals, agitators,” he said.
Asked whether he had any concerns about safety inside the event — with people sitting shoulder to shoulder and a lot of folks not wearing masks, he said: “I had a mask on most of the time. I’m not really worried — I see these people protesting, and they’re much closer to each other and some are shouting” in close proximity to others, he said.
President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)
The Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes: “From the White House to the Illinois statehouse, the overriding message from the Republican National Convention was one of law and order in a time of civil unrest spawned by racial injustice, and it’s squarely aimed at once-staunch GOP suburbs of Chicago that have moved steadily toward Democrats.”
He notes: “Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, a former state representative challenging first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove in the west and northwest suburban 6th Congressional District, contended the incidents in Kenosha showed the violence has moved beyond big cities.
“It’s not confined, the lawlessness, to big cities like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta. It’s in Kenosha, Wisconsin, literally right over the border from Illinois. And you know to just see people’s property torched as retribution for what people perceive to be an act that was not fair by policemen,” she said of Jacob Blake, who was shot several times in the back by a police officer and is now said to be paralyzed.
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In Chicago, top cop outlines plans to avoid yet another violent weekend: The Tribune’s Claire Hao has the details here.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden. (AP)
The Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart writes: Tucked in the southeast corner of Wisconsin along Lake Michigan, Kenosha County helped deliver Trump the presidency in 2016 when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the area in 44 years. It was part of a close upset victory Trump scored by fewer than 23,000 votes over Hillary Clinton, who did not campaign in the state.
Four years later, Kenosha County’s status as a bellwether in a key swing state is well-known, but many who live there still did not expect the heated national debate over policing, systemic racism and Trump’s demands to “dominate the streets” in the face of unrest to hit so closely to home.
Massive protests, shattered storefronts, National Guard troops and burning buildings were scenes they had seen on the news in Minneapolis, Chicago or Portland following the police killing of George Floyd earlier this summer. Now, they’ve played out in their small city after Rusten Sheskey, a white Kenosha police officer, shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back as he leaned into his SUV.
The president has offered such unrest as a preview of what cities and towns across America would look like regularly if former Vice President Joe Biden is elected — even though it has occurred during his own presidency.
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For his part, Biden has accused the president of “pouring gasoline on the racial flames that are burning now,” which includes Trump calling the Black Lives Matter movement a “symbol of hate.” Biden also has expressed outrage at the Blake shooting, which his family said was witnessed by his three children inside the SUV. Read the full story here.
Ruthhart notes in his piece that “the Trump campaign has distanced itself from 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, the alleged vigilante who has been charged with killing two protesters and shooting a third in confrontations along a downtown Kenosha street late Tuesday. Rittenhouse who idolized police and made frequent “Blue Lives Matter” posts on social media, sat in the front row at a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa, earlier this year.”
Kenosha chief defends cops’ action in letting Kyle Rittenhouse leave scene of deadly shooting; report says handcuffs taken off Jacob Blake: My Tribune colleagues have the latest here.
Fledgling militia group put out call to arms in Kenosha and 5,000 people responded. Now it’s banned from Facebook after fatal shootings during protests: The Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas has the story here.
Voting tags at St. Augustine College are on display as Chicago voters hit the polls on April 2, 2019. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
The Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes: “More than 1.1 million Illinois voters have requested a mail-in ballot for the Nov. 3 general election following a new state law aimed at enhancing vote-by-mail efforts in response to concerns about COVID-19, state elections officials said Friday.
“The number of applications indicate the state will break its record for voting by mail set two years ago, when 430,000 votes or 9.3% of the total ballots were cast by mail, State Board of Elections officials said. In 2016, 370,000 votes or 6.5% of all ballots were through the mail.
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“The 1.1 million figure cited by state elections officials includes 282,559 applications from Chicago, 188,941 from suburban Cook County, 116,031 from DuPage County, 72,489 from Kane County, 26,656 from Lake County, 37,526 from McHenry County and 82,238 from Will County.” Read the full story here.
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Registered nurse Lupe Duran, of Family Christian Health Center, administers a free COVID-19 test outside Apostolic Faith Church on South Indiana Avenue in Chicago on Aug. 26, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Cook County is among the 30 counties the Illinois Department of Public Health sounded the alarm about Friday for a resurgence in coronavirus.
That’s the largest number of counties that had reached “warning level” since the agency began issuing such weekly reports earlier this summer, and state public health officials said Friday “general transmission of the virus in the community” was on the rise.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 2,149 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 deaths. Overall, Illinois has reported 229,483 cases, including 7,997 deaths.
The official COVID-19 death toll in Illinois may not account for at least 1,000 fatalities — and potentially far more — that could be attributable to the pandemic, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data.
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Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx speaks Aug. 10, 2020, after overnight looting in Chicago's Loop and other neighborhoods. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s Megan Crepeau and Jason Meisner write: “A Cook County judge on Friday rejected a request to release a special prosecutor’s full report on how the state’s attorney’s office and Chicago police handled the Jussie Smollett case. You can read the full story, including the judge’s reason for not releasing the document, here.
Special prosecutor Dan Webb had released a summary of his findings last week, concluding that State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her subordinates abused their discretion and misled the public, but their conduct did not rise to the level of criminal wrongdoing.
Criticism of Foxx’s handling of the case has fueled calls to replace her in the November election with a Republican challenger, a long-shot bid in heavily Democratic Cook County.
The Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Byron, Illinois. in 2012. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Timing: Chicago-based Exelon’s announcement this week that it would shut down two nuclear plants near Chicago comes in the wake of Gov. J.B. Pritzker introducing his vision for moving Illinois toward 100% carbon-free electricity by midcentury, including tougher ethics laws intended to curb ComEd’s influence in Springfield, the Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne notes. Read the full story here.
Refrain: Hawthorne writes, “Exelon has made similar threats before. When the company claimed it was losing money from a nuclear plant near the Quad Cities and another outside downstate Clinton, state legislators and then-Gov. Bruce Rauner responded with a law that charges ratepayers $235 million a year to keep them open.”
Data point: Exelon, the parent company, reported $9.5 billion in earnings last year.
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ComEd scandal hovers: “The 2016 bailout is one of several favors scrutinized by federal prosecutors during their ongoing investigation of influence-peddling in the state,” Hawthorne writes.
Last month, federal prosecutors accused ComEd of orchestrating a “yearslong bribery scheme” involving jobs, contracts and payments to allies of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. The company later agreed to pay a $200 million fine in a deal with the Department of Justice.
Durbin vs. Kinzinger: “The Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants are the latest casualties of the self-serving policies coming from Democrat-led Springfield, and it’s long-past time for a change,” Kinzinger said in a statement posted on Twitter, alluding to the ComEd bribery and influence-peddling scheme implicating Madigan. “To start, I’m calling on Senator Durbin to work with me in Congress to take the Department of Justice fines on ComEd and re-appropriate them to the communities most affected by these plant closures.”
Durbin also took to Twitter, stating: “Unfortunately, Pres. Trump & Congressional Republicans have pursued policies that hurt nuclear energy & the thousands of good paying jobs that they support. The Trump Admin passed rule to nullify IL’s clean energy program that supported nuclear power plants like Byron & Dresden.
“I encourage Rep. Kinzinger & entire IL Congressional Delegation to work w/ me to undo the disastrous policies put into place by the Trump Admin & Congressional Republicans, which have hurt these plants & employees, & work to pass smart legislation that supports clean energy jobs.”
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
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Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--University of Illinois ran 17,000 COVID-19 tests on first day of classes, but results are taking lon

University of Illinois ran 17,000 COVID-19 tests on first day of classes, but results are taking longer and hundreds have been invalid or inconclusive

In a Thursday email to students , faculty and staff , university administrators said they were making adjustments to improve @ @ @ @ @ feedback over the last week .
The administrators said they will stop test reminder emails @ @ @ @ @ led to confusion , and that they were working on a tool to show which @ @ @ @ @ busy and at what times .

A specimen is handed over as COVID-19 saliva testing is conducted on the University of Illinois campus in July. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
On the first day of fall classes, a record number of students, faculty and staff took COVID-19 tests at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, using the school’s pioneering saliva-based technology.
Of the 17,656 tests conducted Monday alone, 97 were positive, according to university data.
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On Tuesday, however, 120 positive results were identified from 15,850 new tests, the highest number found in a single day since the testing program launched in early July. Those results brought the rolling five-day positivity rate to about 0.75% for all tests performed, which is well within public health guidelines.
No additional information had been added by Friday afternoon to the school’s testing dashboard, a public tally of all results.
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The demand for tests as classes began Monday “was a lot higher than we anticipated,” university spokeswoman Robin Kaler said. That’s caused longer wait times for results — up to 48 hours — than the two to six hours officials have previously touted. In some instances, students and faculty have also needed to redo their tests because their saliva samples were “invalid,” restricting their access to university buildings.
On a CNBC appearance Friday morning, University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen said 284 people have tested positive at the school’s downstate campus. He said the testing program was “going really well” and that many of the new cases were among asymptomatic carriers.
“Since we’re testing twice a week, every week, we catch it, catch it, catch it,” Killeen said. “There’s no escape for this virus. We’re going to find you, and when we find you, we are going to make sure you can’t transmit from human to human.”
Those who test positive must go to their residence and self-isolate immediately, the school says.
UIUC had projected a rise in cases, spurred by students moving into residence halls earlier this month, and says it’s taken steps to provide quarantine and isolation spaces to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Other large universities unable to manage the virus have sent students home and reverted to online classes.
But the university’s testing dashboard can be confusing to navigate. The dashboard counts positive tests but does not track people, meaning the data includes individuals who have tested positive multiple times, Kaler said. The school is “working on how to distill the actual number of cases,” she said in an email.
The dashboard has also been slow to update due to the influx of data. Results from tests performed Monday were only published Wednesday morning, and Tuesday’s results were posted about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
“For the first week or so, I expect it’s going to lag a day or two,” Kaler said. The results can’t be posted until all the tests are processed and loaded into the dashboard, she added.
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Tests performed Monday were also taking about a day to turn around, Kaler said. UIUC officials have previously emphasized their saliva tests — which require test tubes but not nasal swabs and reagents — can be analyzed faster, in hours instead of days. The tests received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week.
The school had conducted 121,333 tests overall as of Tuesday.
Moving forward, UIUC will try to spread out testing times, asking students to go during slower periods on Wednesday and during the weekend, Kaler said. While students can drop by any of the campus’ 17 test sites, they are also assigned certain days by which they must complete a twice-weekly testing requirement.
In a Thursday email to students, faculty and staff, university administrators said they were making adjustments to improve the testing process based on feedback over the last week. The administrators said they will stop test reminder emails, since some said they led to confusion, and that they were working on a tool to show which testing locations are the least busy and at what times.
The email also said that “test results may require up to 48 hours.”
Dana Meyerson, a senior studying psychology, said she tried getting tested on campus Sunday, but the site closed earlier due to weekend hours. She said she stood in line for about 30 minutes but was turned away at 3 p.m. while she and others were still in line.
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“That upset me a lot. I wish there were more testing sites open on the weekends,” said Meyerson, 23, of California. “I think it’s kind of silly they have such limited hours on weekends because that’s when people are free a lot.”
Meyerson, who’s living off campus, said she tried again Tuesday and completed her test at a different site. She said she only got her results Thursday — about 49 hours later — and they were “inconclusive” so she needs to go back and do it again.
Results are typically invalid or inconclusive due to the quality of the saliva sample, which could be affected by eating or drinking before the test. During the test, individuals must produce 0.5 ounces of saliva and drop it into a test tube so the contents can be analyzed for COVID-19.
Kaler said about 5% of tests since July 6 have been invalid, though those results do not show up on the public dashboard. UIUC is starting to offer alternative nasal tests to those who repeatedly get invalid results or who cannot produce a usable saliva sample.
Meyerson, a fifth-year senior, said she is “more impressed than I thought I would be” with the testing system, particularly with the ease of giving a saliva sample and the relatively quick turnaround for results. But she said she still worries about student behavior, and has seen parties and crowded scenes at the local bars.
Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider, an associate professor of computer science, said he took a test Monday but lost access to his office and other campus buildings because his results also came back as “invalid/inconclusive,” according to a copy of the notification he provided.
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Anyone trying to enter school buildings must show employees manning the doors that they have a recent negative test result through a smartphone app or with a printed document.
Fagen-Ulmschneider said he refrained from drinking water or eating for about an hour before getting tested but has since been told to try waiting two hours.
His first test on Monday only took about 10 minutes, but Fagen-Ulmschneider needed to go back and do another one. When he did so Wednesday afternoon, an employee told him the results would take one to two days, he said.
“I think there’s a lot of implementation questions that they are going to work through over these first couple of weeks,” he said. “They’ve made the testing so easy, though. Big ups to them. I thought this was going to be way more painful, but it really was just walk up and swipe your (university ID).”
That also presented a slight problem Thursday when the school’s medical web portal experienced technical difficulties for about an hour, Kaler said, making it difficult for people to swipe in at testing centers with their university IDs.
But overall, university leaders and local health officials have presented an optimistic evaluation of the campus data.
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Since the dashboard data does not track individual cases, the campus communities’ true positivity is actually lower than the 0.75% it’s displaying, according to Awais Vaid, an epidemiologist and deputy administrator for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District.
The health department and UIUC scientists used models to predict how many new cases would be identified when students returned, and the estimates of 200 to 300 new cases are holding up so far, Vaid said.
Since early student move-in began Aug. 16, there have been 535 positive tests, according to the dashboard data. That includes tests for faculty and staff, in addition to students, as well as repeated cases.
“We had planned for this. We had prepared for this,” Vaid said Wednesday afternoon. “Anticipating this big bump, we had hired additional contact tracers as well. As of right now, we have multiple shifts ... going from about 8 in the morning to 9 at night, seven days a week, taking care of these positives.”
UIUC is offering a blend of remote and in-person classes this semester, with about a third being delivered face to face. The school anticipated about 30,000 to 35,000 students would return to campus, which is less than usual.
“Our plan was designed for frequent testing and quickly isolating and quarantining those who are/might be infected. We weren’t focused on keeping a daily count of active cases,” Kaler said in an email Thursday.
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echerney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Kenosha chief defends cops’ action in letting Kyle Rittenhouse leave scene of deadly shooting; repor

Kenosha chief defends cops’ action in letting Kyle Rittenhouse leave scene of deadly shooting; report says handcuffs taken off Jacob Blake

“ They ’ re responding to that , they see someone walking toward them with their hands up , ” @ @ @ @ @ , too , isn ’ t out of the ordinary given all the events going @ @ @ @ @ armed individuals out protesting , or counterprotesting , or simply walking around exercising their right @ @ @ @ @ put their hands up .
It might have been abnormal two weeks ago .
It @ @ @ @ @ .
There ’ s nothing to suggest this individual was involved in criminal behavior .
@

Dan Hinkel, John Keilman, Stacy St. Clair

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)
Authorities in Wisconsin on Friday uncuffed a paralyzed Jacob Blake from his hospital bed and attempted to explain how an officer fired seven bullets into the 29-year-old Black man’s back but then days later other police let a white teenager walk past as bystanders shouted that he had shot people.
The developments came as a Lake County judge allowed Kyle Rittenhouse — the 17-year-old from Antioch charged with killing two people and wounding another at violent demonstrations in Kenosha over Blake’s shooting — to remain in Illinois for at least another month as his family arranges legal help.. Meanwhile, he’s getting support in some conservative circles, and a pro-gun organization has announced plans to raise money for a legal defense fund.
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On Friday afternoon, Patrick Cafferty, an attorney for Blake, said the handcuffs that had attached him to the bed were removed, and law enforcement officers left his Wisconsin hospital room after someone posted a $500 bond and warrants against him in a prior case in Kenosha County were vacated. Blake’s family and lawyers have said he is paralyzed from the waist down, and the use of restraints had sparked outrage, including condemnation from Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
Meanwhile, Kenosha police Chief Daniel Miskinis on Friday defended police after they allowed Rittenhouse to leave the scene of Tuesday’s shooting in the city wracked by property destruction and fires, even though video showed the teen was armed with a rifle and had his hands up.
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“There were a lot of people in the area, a lot of people with weapons, and unfortunately, a lot of gunfire,” Miskinis said at a news conference. “What the officers were ... driving into was a shots-fired complaint, not a shooting, not a person-down complaint. We have had many of those over the course of this unfortunate event.
“We have armed individuals out protesting, or counterprotesting, or simply walking around exercising their right, (who) will put their hands up,” Miskinis said. “It might have been abnormal two weeks ago. It’s no longer abnormal. There’s nothing to suggest this individual was involved in criminal behavior.”
Earlier on Friday, Lake County Judge Paul Novak granted a 30-day continuance during a brief online status hearing on Rittenhouse’s potential extradition to Kenosha County. His next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 25.
Kenosha County prosecutors on Thursday evening filed charges accusing Rittenhouse of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and several other counts. If convicted of the first-degree intentional homicide charge as an adult, Rittenhouse could face a life sentence.
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)
Rittenhouse is accused of shooting the three men Tuesday night as numerous civilians armed with rifles inserted themselves into violent demonstrations that raged for three nights in Kenosha. The protests, clashes with police and fires followed the shooting of Blake, who according to a video appeared to have had his back turned to the cop who fired.
Rittenhouse was arrested as a fugitive Wednesday in Lake County, where he is being held without bail. He is charged in Wisconsin as an adult.
Rittenhouse’s case immediately became a popular cause in conservative circles, where pundits began defending the teenager before he had even been charged. At least two defense funds have been launched in his name in recent days, though it’s unclear if the Rittenhouse family supports either of those efforts.
On Friday evening, John M. Pierce, an attorney whose firm has represented associates of President Donald Trump, according to Reuters, said in a news release he would handle Rittenhouse’s case alongside other lawyers. As of Friday night, court records did not appear to show that the teen was formally represented by a private lawyer. Pierce’s statement says Rittenhouse was defending himself when “he exercised his God-given, Constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense.”
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The news release said the legal defense would be funded by a foundation created by Pierce and another lawyer.
Second Amendment organizations also have offered support for Rittenhouse, including one Colorado-based group that has launched another defense fund for him.
National Foundation for Gun Rights Executive Director Dudley Brown told the Tribune the organization has not spoken with Rittenhouse’s family and has not had any direct conversations with his lawyers, but it decided to get involved because it wanted to take a stand against the “chaos” happening in cities across the country. Brown acknowledged Rittenhouse’s case “isn’t perfect,” but he said the defendant has a strong self-defense claim because, he believes, the people Rittenhouse shot pursued him first.
Volunteers, including Kyle Rittenhouse, facing the camera, clean graffiti from a high school following a night of unrest on Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha. Rittenhouse has been charged with shooting and killing two men during violent demonstrations the night this photo was taken. (Scott Olson/Getty)
“I don’t think there are many people in America who wouldn’t have felt threatened if you were in that spot with Kyle there,” Brown said.
[ What we know so far about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of murder after fatal Kenosha protest shootings ]
Numerous video clips posted online appear to show Rittenhouse at the scene Tuesday night, including several that show shootings and their aftermaths. The videos also indicated that he approached police before the shootings despite being out past curfew and a year too young to carry a gun openly in Wisconsin.
Prosecutors wrote that video showed Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, running across a parking lot, trailed by Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha.
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Video showed Rosenbaum, apparently unarmed, seemingly throwing something at Rittenhouse and missing him, and investigators later determined it was a plastic bag, prosecutors wrote. Prosecutors wrote that a witness told police that “as the defendant was walking, Rosenbaum was trying to get closer to the defendant” and Rittenhouse ran.
Several loud bangs were heard as the men were close together and Rosenbaum fell, prosecutors said. The witness told police Rosenbaum had tried to grab the gun, prosecutors wrote.
[ Fledgling militia group put out call to arms in Kenosha and 5,000 people responded. Now it’s banned from Facebook after fatal shootings during protests. ]
Rittenhouse got on his cellphone, called a friend, and audio from one of the videos caught him saying, “I just killed somebody,” the complaint alleges.
The charge of first-degree reckless homicide stems from that shooting.
Video shows that after that shooting, Rittenhouse ran with people in pursuit before someone swung at him, knocking off his hat, and Rittenhouse 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 reached for the gun as the skateboard hit Rittenhouse’s shoulder before the alleged gunman fired one shot, and Huber collapsed, prosecutors alleged.
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Huber’s death is the source of the murder charge.
Prosecutors wrote that Rittenhouse then shot a man who had approached him who was identified as Gaige Grosskreutz of West Allis. Grosskreutz appeared to be holding a handgun when he was shot in the arm, prosecutors wrote. Wisconsin court records do not indicate that Grosskreutz has been charged with any crime. His shooting is the source of the attempted murder charge against Rittenhouse.
The police shooting came about 5 p.m. Sunday as the officers responded to a call from a woman who reported that her boyfriend was present but not supposed to be there, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. At the scene, officers Rusten Sheskey and Vincent Arenas both unsuccessfully used Tasers, state authorities said in news releases. A third officer, Brittany Meronek, was also at the scene, authorities said.
In footage shared online, Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of an SUV to the driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, an officer identified by authorities as Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind and appears to open fire while Blake has his back turned.
The state Justice Department wrote that a knife was found on the driver-side floorboard of the vehicle. The department wrote in a statement that, “Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession.” It was not clear from the statement whether state authorities believed the knife posed any threat to officers or anyone else.
On Friday evening, the Kenosha police union gave the first detailed account of officers’ perspective on Blake’s shooting.
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The Associated Press wrote that an attorney for the Kenosha Professional Police Association, Brendan Matthews, issued a statement alleging that officers were aware that Blake had a warrant from a prior case after they were dispatched for a complaint that he was trying to take the caller’s keys and vehicle. Officers saw he was holding the knife, which he refused to drop, the statement said. Matthews alleged Blake fought with officers and put one in a headlock, the Associated Press reported.
“Based on the inability to gain compliance and control after using verbal, physical and less-lethal means, the officers drew their firearms,” Matthews said. “Mr. Blake continued to ignore the officers’ commands, even with the threat of lethal force now present.”
After two nights of peaceful protest, the mood in Kenosha was hopeful yet somber. In the racially diverse, economically struggling Uptown neighborhood, where the smell of smoke still hung in the air, some said the burden of overcoming the devastation and lack of services would fall on its residents, many of whom are Black.
“I can’t even cash my check because I can’t go into (the bank),” said Orlando Vinson, who has lived in the neighborhood most of his life. “We’re struggling out here. Half of us don’t have cars, half of us have to walk or catch the bus. We’re messed up while (arsonists and looters) are living their lives happily and get to talk about, ‘Oh, we went to Kenosha and burned down their stores.’”
Tribune reporter Robert McCoppin contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Appealing to sense of togetherness, Chicago’s top cop outlines plans to avoid yet another violent we

Appealing to sense of togetherness, Chicago’s top cop outlines plans to avoid yet another violent weekend

As the city braces for what may be another weekend of unrest , Brown stressed that the “ Chicago Police @ @ @ @ @ and protect everyone .
That includes protecting our First Amendment right , our sacred right @ @ @ @ @ means protecting all of us from violence or harm .
We can , and we @ @ @ @ @ ”

Police officers on bicycles block off the 400 block of North Wabash Avenue to prevent a protest march from reaching Trump Tower Aug. 27. Simultaneously, a public safety drill was taking place in the Central Business District. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Flanked by community organizers and children running about, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown appealed to a sense of togetherness Friday as he spoke about the coming weekend and preventing violence on the streets.
“Chicago belongs to all of us, and that means all of us,” Brown said at Humboldt Park.
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As the city braces for what may be another weekend of unrest, Brown stressed that the “Chicago Police Department is sworn to serve and protect everyone. That includes protecting our First Amendment right, our sacred right to protest. That also means protecting all of us from violence or harm. We can, and we will, do both.”
The summer has seen protests that sometimes have erupted into vandalism and looting. Criticism of the department has come both from protesters decrying its tactics and those who blame the department for not doing enough to deter vandalism.
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On Friday, Brown listed several measures aimed at containing any violence in the coming days.
The department will continue to roll out Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s five-point plan, which includes social media monitoring and critical response teams that will be deployed downtown if looting occurs.
He said officers are also conducting exercises in the downtown area, in which officers reenact and prepare for a variety of possible emergencies.
“They have not only been practicing and drilling these types of tactics that will render us all safe when we want to peacefully protest, but also create the riot gear and legal training as well,” Brown said.
“Sequencing, timing, looking at where our weaknesses are, strengthening the structures in our downtown area that are subject to caravanning, that have strategic deployment so we can communicate well with each other across all city departments,” Brown said. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
A concrete block is placed on a corner in the 600 block of North Michigan Avenue, Aug. 27, 2020, in Chicago. A public safety drill took place between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the Central Business District on Thursday. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
He said he wanted to “correct the record” that the department cares more about the downtown area than the neighborhoods. There are about 200 officers on the rapid response teams for downtown areas compared with around 500 officers in the community safety and summer mobile teams for the neighborhoods, he said.
“So we are caring and concerned about the neighborhoods and have committed the resources,” Brown said. “It’s not just talk, because talk is cheap.”
Protesters have accused police of “kettling,” forcing them together in tighter and tighter circles that critics say can heighten tensions and spark confrontations.
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Brown has denied that, and on Friday said the department has created “arrest teams” to go into crowds and “arrest those agitators that are embedded in the crowd, so that we can all be safe when we exercise our First Amendment rights.”
Officers will be outfitted with helmets and shields to protect themselves. Brown said he is “hoping for peaceful protest but we’re preparing for if agitators come in and want to do something different.”
Friday’s news conference was held on the 1000 block of Monticello Avenue, just before a planned event for officers and community members to clean up weeds and debris in the neighborhood.
Patricia Carrillo, president of the 1000 and 1100 North Monticello Block Club, said the neighborhood can “eliminate all the problems that we have” by working together. While speaking, Carrillo was interrupted by her young nephew running up to the podium to laughter from the crowd.
“My family, my friends, we’re working hard … With the cleanups, with meetings, with everybody because (a better neighborhood) is our right,” Carrillo said. “We don’t want people that don’t live here … doing illegal activities.”
The Rev. Martin Coffer, a director of Breakthrough, an East Garfield Park nonprofit, said the cleanup is “an example of how a neighborhood can come together and really overcome fear.”


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Coronavirus at Illinois long-term care facilities: 27,139 confirmed cases and 4,396 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois .
The @ @ @ @ @ at 798 long-term care facilities in 71 counties .
Of those , 517 facilities have @ @ @ @ @ , defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days .
In all @ @ @ @ @ be tied to long-term care facilities , with 4,396 deaths , as of Aug. 28 @

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois. The data shows outbreaks have occurred at long-term care facilities in 94 counties. Of those, 1,003 facilities have an “active” outbreak, defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days. In all, 71,103 confirmed cases can be tied to long-term care facilities, with 9,263 deaths, as of Jan. 22.


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Though there are homicides recorded throughout the city they are most concentrated in the South and West sides .

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chicagotribune--2020-08-28--‘A great comeback’: University of Notre Dame will reopen following two-week pause prompted by COVID-

‘A great comeback’: University of Notre Dame will reopen following two-week pause prompted by COVID-19 spike

“ Although we do not comment on the outcome of hearings , I assure you that we will respond to @ @ @ @ @ deserve , ” he said , adding that his purpose was “ not to cast @ @ @ @ @ social gatherings but to make the community aware of the consequences of its actions .

University of Notre Dame is set to reopen after a two-week shutdown due to a spike in positive coronavirus tests. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The University of Notre Dame’s president announced Friday the school plans to resume in-person classes and activities after tallying fewer daily COVID-19 cases during its temporary shift to remote instruction.
Speaking to the campus community in a video address, the Rev. John Jenkins said some in-person classes will start again Wednesday, concluding the school’s two-week pause. He said the campus’ overall positivity rate was still high at 10.8%, but has been declining, and that random surveillance testing of 1,200 people showed a rate of less than 1%.
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“With these encouraging numbers, we believe we can plan to return to in-person classes and return in stages to the level of activity we had before the pause,” Jenkins said. Notre Dame plans to have all courses back on campus by Sept. 7.
The Catholic university just outside South Bend, Indiana, had moved to virtual instruction Aug. 18 after recording a one-day spike from 58 to 147 confirmed coronavirus cases. Jenkins had asserted he was prepared to halt in-person classes indefinitely, but on Friday he said the “campus responded promptly and well.”
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“In our first two weeks back, the virus hit us harder and more swiftly than we expected and we fell behind,” Jenkins said. “However, through the efforts of many, we have adapted and improved our systems and procedures. We are now in a much stronger position.”
Jenkins said Notre Dame has 87 disciplinary hearings in progress for students who violated health precautions during the first few weeks.
“Although we do not comment on the outcome of hearings, I assure you that we will respond to violations with the seriousness they deserve,” he said, adding that his purpose was “not to cast blame” in pointing out social gatherings but to make the community aware of the consequences of its actions.
The reopening of campus could be a positive sign for other colleges encountering stumbling blocks as they reopen for the fall term. Already, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had to adjust its testing this week after hundreds were found to be invalid or inconclusive, and schools such as Northwestern have noted a prevalence of illicit off-campus parties.
Friday, Notre Dame recorded its smallest increase in daily COVID-19 cases in about two weeks, with 15 testing positive for a total of 537 cases on campus. It began surveillance testing three days after shifting classes online, had closed some common spaces and limited gatherings from 20 to 10 people.
Students previously described an array of challenges related to testing at the school, including difficulty scheduling appointments and unanswered calls to the health center’s hotline. Jenkins said “the virus dealt us a blow and we stumbled — but we steadied ourselves, and now we move on.”
The vast majority of positive COVID-19 cases on campus have been among undergraduates.
As the university moves ahead with in-person instruction, Jenkins called for a commitment to wearing masks, social distancing, daily health checks, surveillance testing and limited gatherings of no more than 10 people.
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“Let us redouble our diligence in observing health protocols and commit to a rich semester of learning and growth,” Jenkins said. “Together, we are writing one of the great comebacks in Notre Dame history.”
kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-08-28--Judge refuses to release full report on handling of Jussie Smollett case by State’s Attorney Kim Fox

Judge refuses to release full report on handling of Jussie Smollett case by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx

“ Would I love to see it ?
Sure .
I want to read it all .
I was getting @ @ @ @ @ this afternoon .
I wanted to see what it is that all this is about @ @ @ @ @ “ But perhaps this is not over .
We ’ ll see .
”

Actor Jussie Smollett leaves the Cook County Jail on March 16, 2022, after he was ordered to be released pending appeal of his conviction and 150-day sentence. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
A Cook County judge on Friday declined to release a special prosecutor’s full report on how the Jussie Smollett case was handled, saying much of the material is similar to what has already been widely published in the heavily scrutinized case.
In making the ruling, Judge Michael Toomin seemed to indicate that special prosecutor Dan Webb could have written a substantively similar report that did not include grand jury material, which must be kept secret unless a judge permits its release.
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“The special prosecutor has had considerable access to other material available from sources other than the grand jury,” Toomin said in court Friday. “Additionally, published news reports and nationwide broadcasts covering the entire run of the special prosecutor’s engagement afforded access to material that the court finds is similar to that appearing in the special prosecutor’s 59-page report.”
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Webb declined to comment after the hearing, as did Ruben Castillo, the former federal judge who is representing the Cook County state’s attorney’s office in the matter.
Former Judge Sheila O’Brien, whose petition for a special prosecutor sparked Webb’s appointment last year, speculated that Webb could choose to rewrite or amend the report and release it on his own.
“He’s still the special prosecutor of this case, so he has discretion to do what he thinks is in the best interest of these cases,” she told reporters after the hearing.
“Would I love to see it? Sure. I want to read it all. I was getting ready to read 60 pages this afternoon. I wanted to see what it is that all this is about,” she said. “But perhaps this is not over. We’ll see.”
Webb had released a summary news release about his findings last week , concluding that State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her subordinates abused their discretion and misled the public, but their conduct did not rise to the level of criminal wrongdoing.
Webb said he needed a judge’s permission to release the full report because it contains confidential grand jury material.
There was very little new information in Webb’s news release, and it shed no light on the question that has remained unanswered for 18 months: Why was Smollett’s case resolved in such an unusual and confusing way?
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Smollett, an actor who was living in Chicago during filming of the television show “Empire,” was accused last year of staging a phony hate crime on himself. The case drew international attention, and the media firestorm only grew after Foxx’s office abruptly dropped all 16 felony counts against him, then gave shifting and misleading explanations as to why.
Castillo did not explicitly argue against the report’s release but wanted the right to review it before it went public, saying there were likely to be inaccuracies that, if released, would damage the reputation of the office.
“Reputations are built little by little, hour by hour, year by year, and they’re damaged in virtual seconds by inaccurate conclusions,” he said in court.
To cite one example, Webb concluded in his news release that no new evidence arose between Smollett’s indictment and the dropping of his case. But Castillo said in court Friday that was not true.
In an interview between the special prosecutor’s office and Assistant State’s Attorney Risa Lanier, who helped handle the Smollett matter, Lanier indicated “there were significant things that came up,” according to Castillo, who did not elaborate.
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That seems to contradict statements from the state’s attorney’s office in the immediate aftermath of the case’s conclusion. Prosecutors initially said their case was strong but just a few days later indicated, without explanation, that the evidence was weaker than they had thought.
Criticism of Foxx’s handling of the case has fueled calls to replace her in the November election with Republican challenger Pat O’Brien, a long-shot bid in heavily Democratic Cook County.
O’Brien, a former judge, said he was disappointed Toomin did not allow access to the Webb report.
“That report was necessary for voters coming up in September, October and November to understand why it is Kim Foxx gave a secret one-of-a-kind deal to somebody who is a political and Hollywood celebrity,” he said at a news conference. “It certainly doesn’t comport with the notion that everyone is equal under the law and no one is above the law.”
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The news release last week summarizing Webb’s investigation indicated that while no criminal charges were warranted against anyone in Foxx’s office, his team would be reporting potential violations of legal ethics over the handling of the Smollett investigation to Illinois’ attorney disciplinary board. Some false statements in the Smollett matter were made by Foxx herself, Webb found.
Webb was appointed special prosecutor last year after Toomin found that Foxx had improperly handled her withdrawal from the case early in the process, rendering the whole case void. Webb charged Smollett again in February with six counts of disorderly conduct. That case is pending before Cook County Judge James Linn.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com