chicagotribune--2020-09-24--What will it take to make diners feel safe? Nearly 60% feel uneasy eating inside, so restaurants try

What will it take to make diners feel safe? Nearly 60% feel uneasy eating inside, so restaurants try sterilizing UV wands, tabletop air purifiers as winter looms.

The best way to flush COVID-19 out of the air is to bring in more fresh air through the ventilation @ @ @ @ @ get more difficult as the weather gets cold and it can ’ t heat up @ @ @ @ @ , whose construction consulting firm helps build restaurants and other commercial properties .
Better air @ @ @ @ @ installation can be tricky if restaurants don ’ t own the building , he said @

A portable ionic air purifier is seen Sept. 17, 2020, on a table at Formento's, an Italian restaurant in Chicago's West Town neighborhood. Recently, Formento's installed an array of air filtration and ventilation devices to help diners feel safe eating inside the restaurant. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
The host greeting diners at Formento’s, an Italian restaurant in the West Town neighborhood, now offers guests something new alongside the menu and wine list: a portable air purifier for their table.
The tabletop devices are among a series of air quality upgrades the restaurant introduced this month to assure customers they can breathe easy dining inside.
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Diners can also expect to see bussers using ultraviolet wands to sterilize glassware and utensils, and little air-sucking robots in various corners of the restaurant that use heat to kill microorganisms. Unseen are new air filters installed in the HVAC system meant to trap virus particles.
The changes were costly for a restaurant that continues to lose money due to COVID-19. But Phillip Walters, whose B. Hospitality Co. owns Formento’s as well as its sister sandwich restaurant Nonna’s, and The Bristol in the Bucktown neighborhood, said it’s a necessary investment if the businesses are going to survive.
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“We have to convince people that restaurants are safe,” Walters said.
Restaurants hoping to see the other side of the pandemic are pouring money into air quality upgrades and other safety features even as business remains devastated by COVID-19. As they burn through cash, they are counting on customers taking comfort in the changes and filling seats.
AF3000 "autoclave" filters are placed in the bar and dining room at Formento's in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
It’s a gamble for customers as well as restaurants. Some indoor air quality experts question the effectiveness of products that claim to halt airborne transmission of the coronavirus but haven’t been rigorously tested.
But as winter approaches, and restaurants brace for the loss of patio seating that’s been a lifeline during the warm months, instilling confidence in indoor air quality has become a pressing issue.
“I’m doing anything I can for my customers to feel safe to eat at my restaurants,” said Scott Harris, founder of Francesca’s Restaurant Group, which owns Mia Francesca in Lakeview and 25 other establishments.
Francesca’s is spending about $100,000 to outfit the HVAC units in all of its restaurants with bipolar ionization technology, which kills viruses through a chemical reaction. Menus will have a blurb explaining the technology and servers will be trained to describe it to customers, Harris said.
The added expense comes as revenues remain down 80% in Francesca’s city restaurants and 30% in the suburbs, and overall costs have increased due to masks, hand sanitizer and many boxes of gloves for its 2,700 employees. Management is discussing raising prices a bit, by 50 cents here and there, to help absorb it.
“It’s hitting our bottom line big time,” said Harris, who expects money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program will sustain his restaurants through December. He is contemplating closing his three city restaurants for fear demand, hurt by both the coronavirus and the social unrest, won’t bounce back.
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Lettuce Entertain You, Chicago’s largest restaurant group, expects to make a seven-figure investment to install air purification technologies at all 120-plus restaurants across the country by the end of October, said R.J. Melman, president of the company.
Though Chicago has encouraged creative solutions to keep outdoor dining alive when temperatures plunge, and on Monday released guidelines for erecting and heating tents and geodesic domes, “at the end of the day, for most restaurants in Chicago survival depends on indoor dining,” Melman said.
Convincing people to come inside will be a challenge. Nearly 60% of people say they feel uncomfortable dining indoors, according to a new study from market research firm Mintel.
Melman thinks diners are willing to eat indoors where they feel safe doing so.
“People want to get out,” he said.
For Walters, of Formento’s, the decision to invest in indoor air quality came as he reached a crossroads on how to survive winter.
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He explored installing a system of heated tents, but it was complicated and expensive, with bids suggesting a $50,000 to $100,000 price tag.
So he took a different path, consulting HVAC specialists to devise a five-layered air purification system to make indoor dining more appealing. The cost was about $13,000 for Formento’s, which is 13,000 square feet, and $3,000 at the much smaller Bristol.
High-performance MERV-13 air filters are installed in all HVAC units at Formento's in Chicago's West Town neighborhood. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Walters followed guidance from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to install higher-density filters in all of the HVAC units, opting for MERV-13 filters that are effective at blocking most particles the size of the novel coronavirus.
To convince the public, however, “we had to go above and beyond.”
In addition to the tabletop ionic air purifiers, which are optional for guests, he bought multiple UV-C germicidal sterilizing wands for cleaning between customers, and supplied after-hours cleaning crews with sterilizing foggers. Floor purifiers that suck in air and kill viruses in 400-degree ceramic chambers, before cooling and releasing the air back into the environment, are placed every 500 feet.
Walters is lobbying the city to increase capacity limits from 25% to 50% for restaurants that have taken extensive measures to improve air quality. He is also sharing what he’s learned so other restaurants can adopt similar technologies, which he said don’t have to break the bank.
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He worries that if customer traffic doesn’t improve small operators will close and corporate chains with bigger pockets will be the only ones standing when the smoke clears. Formento’s revenues are down 60% and The Bristol’s are down 70% compared with a year ago.
“This industry will whittle away to nothing. To zero,” he said. “People need to get out and eat.”
Hosts, bussers and others use UV-C sterilizing wands to clean tables, utensils and glassware between uses at Formento's. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
For people debating whether to risk dining out, the central question may be whether the air quality enhancements make a difference in preventing transmission of COVID-19.
The Environmental Protection Agency says “there is growing evidence that the novel coronavirus remains airborne in indoor environments for hours, potentially increasing in concentration over time,” and has recommended increasing building ventilation and air filtration as a part of a larger strategy that includes social distancing, wearing masks, hand-washing and disinfecting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in guidance to office building employers, advises bringing in more outside air, installing better central air filters and using portable high-efficiency particulate air fans to help clean the air. HEPA filters are nearly 100% effective in capturing airborne particles associated with COVID-19.
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But the pandemic has opened the floodgates to a slew of other products and technologies that purport to destroy the novel coronavirus, and some experts are warning it’s buyers beware.
Brent Stephens, professor and chair in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, said inadequate test standards and misleading claims have made for a Wild West of air cleaning technologies.
He worries some ionization systems have not been adequately tested to ensure they don’t unintentionally create byproducts that are harmful to health. Other products may offer a false sense of security.
“There is a lot of theater out there,” he said. “I would not recommend restaurants going in on these exotic technologies.”
The best way to flush COVID-19 out of the air is to bring in more fresh air through the ventilation system, but that will get more difficult as the weather gets cold and it can’t heat up enough, said Roger Peck, whose construction consulting firm helps build restaurants and other commercial properties. Better air filters also help, though installation can be tricky if restaurants don’t own the building, he said.
More worrisome to Peck is the prospect of winter dining in tents with drop-down panels and no air circulation.
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“To me that’s a toxic soup,” he said. “I would choose dining indoors in a heartbeat.”
Some restaurants are forgoing the headache of air quality investments and tent cities altogether and plan to ride out winter by focusing on carryout and delivery, said Doug Roth, president of restaurant consultancy Playground Hospitality.
Still, he applauds businesses that are investing in air quality upgrades to ease patrons' concerns.
“They’re not 100% foolproof, but I think it’s a better option than having nothing at all,” Roth said.
Gibsons Restaurant Group, which owns the iconic Gold Coast steakhouse as well as Hugo’s Frog Bar and other restaurants, is working on a promotional video to highlight the safety steps it is taking, which it plans to push out on social media and send to customers, said Chairman Steve Lombardo III. They include positive air pressure that pushes air out rather than recirculating it, the installation of MERV-11 air filters in the HVAC units and mobile plexiglass barriers that can be rolled around to different tables.
The safety upgrades cost about $10,000 per restaurant, mostly for the plexiglass, plus about $1,500 monthly to change the HVAC filters, he said. It’s a financial pinch given that sales the past three months have on average been down 35% compared with last year, and the restaurants are losing money, but Gibsons, which is well-capitalized and has little debt, can afford it, Lombardo said.
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Businesses that can’t may be at a disadvantage as customers weigh where to eat. But some mom-and-pops are finding ways to make air purification a priority.
Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook this month spent $5,000 to outfit its HVAC units with the Sterile-Aire system, which uses ultraviolet energy to inactivate bacteria and viruses. Chef/co-owner Sarah Stegner said she plans to ask the landlord to pay for half or let her take it out of the rent.
People dine inside at Prairie Grass Cafe on Sept. 22, 2020, in Northbrook. The restaurant invested in ultraviolet air purification technology in its HVAC units for colder months when indoor dining is the only option. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Stegner several years ago installed the system in her home, because her husband and daughter have sports-induced asthma and the family has a cat, and found it reduced their congestion. She can’t guarantee it will be a magic bullet against COVID-19, but she wants to do all she can to offer more protection.
“The priority is keeping my staff safe, keeping the guests safe, working in a positive environment where we have a margin of control,” said Stegner, a former Ritz Carlton chef and founding member of Green City Market who opened Prairie Grass 16 years ago.
The cafe is notifying guests of the air filtration system with flyers on the tables and in carryout bags. The feedback has been “incredibly positive,” Stegner said.
The cafe, which normally has 180 seats, has been operating with 50 plus an outside patio. After a scary month when it was $11,000 in the red, it managed to break even in August even though its revenues are half of what they were last year. Stegner credits a smaller staff, her landlord giving her a break on rent, a grant and a series of small cost savings.
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“We looked at everything,” Stegner said, from the phone system to the energy bill to pricing and portion sizes.
She also has found new ways to generate revenue, selling raw fish direct to consumers once a week and hosting Zoom cooking classes, which are free to view but people can buy a package of prepped ingredients to follow along. Promotions have also helped, including Women’s Restaurant Week and an exchange with another restaurant in which it sold Stegner’s pot pies and she sold its desserts.
Though it’s been challenging, the pandemic has forced a creativity that Stegner hopes continues long-term. It has also instilled a sense of urgency to not sit on any ideas that could help her business stay afloat.
“If you’re going to do something, do it right away,” Stegner said. “Don’t hesitate, because you might not get a second chance.”
aelejalderuiz@chicgotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-24--Column: Chicago church where thousands viewed Emmett Till’s open casket is named to list of nation’s

Column: Chicago church where thousands viewed Emmett Till’s open casket is named to list of nation’s most endangered places

Built in 1923 , and later remodeled , the Roberts Temple is not in danger of demolition because the City @ @ @ @ @ Chicago landmark in 2006 .
Trust officials said it is threatened instead by structural problems @ @ @ @ @ two years ago and have gotten progressively worse .
The extent of the those problems @ @ @

The Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ Building is seen Sept. 23, 2020, in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. The church has been placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago church where Emmett Till’s badly beaten body was displayed in an open casket, helping to ignite the civil rights movement, was named Thursday to a list of the nation’s most endangered historic places.
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The Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ Building, in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood at 4021 S. State St., has “severe structural issues,” is little used by its congregation and badly needs funding for rehabilitation, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group annually releases a list of America’s 11 most threatened historic sites.
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The crowd files past the open casket of Emmett Till inside Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago to pay their respects at Emmett Louis Till's funeral on Sept. 3, 1955. (Phil Mascione / Chicago Tribune)
The trust’s decision to put the church on that list, which seeks to direct public attention and funding to threatened properties, is the latest sign of the racial reckoning that has roiled the nation after the killing of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Earlier this month, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks granted preliminary landmark status to the red-brick two-flat in where Till lived with his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who insisted on the open casket at her son’s funeral.
While the trust previously has placed buildings associated with the history of African American and other minority groups on the list, this year’s roster marks perhaps the organization’s most dramatic departure from traditional preservation efforts to save buildings noted for their aesthetic qualities or associations with white men.
“We do believe that preservation can and must be a tool for racial justice and equity and reconciliation,” said Katherine Malone-France, the trust’s chief preservation officer.
Till, who lived on Chicago’s South Side, was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted and tortured after allegedly whistling at a white woman. Thousands of mourners filed past the Black teenager’s casket during his funeral and visitation in early September 1955.
[ Remembering slain teen Emmett Till in his hometown of Chicago via civil rights tourism and a mobile app ]
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 46 Clergy watch the unveiling of of temporary signage for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument site at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ at 4021 S. State St., Aug. 1, 2023, in Chicago. It was the location of the 1955 funeral of 14-year-old Emmett Till. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Photographs in African American publications like Jet magazine showed millions more his badly mutilated face and helped create a groundswell that — along with the bus boycott sparked by Rosa Park’s refusal later in 1955 to give up her bus seat to a white man — ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Built in 1923, and later remodeled, the Roberts Temple is not in danger of demolition because the City Council designated it an official Chicago landmark in 2006. Trust officials said it is threatened instead by structural problems that came to their attention two years ago and have gotten progressively worse. The extent of the those problems is unclear.
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An architect and engineer who examined the church two years ago, Ed Gerns of Northbrook-based Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, said Tuesday that in inspecting one of the beams that supports the church’s sanctuary, he noticed “a fairly noticeable deflection,” or movement of the beam from its original spot.
Gerns looked at the building pro bono for Landmarks Illinois, a Chicago-based statewide advocacy group.
“There was enough (of a problem) that I said further evaluation was necessary,” Gerns said. “I didn’t really go as far as to say that there were major structural concerns, I just didn’t have enough information.”
Tiffany Tolbert, a Chicago-based senior field officer for the trust, acknowledged that the church still needs to be fully evaluated by a structural engineer.
Church leaders declined to comment in advance of Thursday’s announcement. However, the leaders granted a Tribune reporter permission to see the church’s sanctuary Tuesday. It was spotless; it had no visible signs of structural weakness.
The Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ Building sanctuary is seen Sept. 22, 2020. (Blair Kamin/Chicago Tribune)
A spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Buildings said the building, which sits five blocks south of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, has not had any code violations.
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There are several vacant lots nearby but a few blocks to the north there are handsomely restored sites of African American history, like the Art Deco Chicago Bee Building, now a Chicago Public Library branch, at 3647 S. State St..
Elsewhere around the nation, most buildings that have been placed on the trust’s endangered list have been saved and rehabilitated. But in recent years, the trust has had mixed success with the Chicago buildings it has championed.
Last year, the trust named the Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center, which it called a prime example of postmodernism, to the list. Yet that has not prevented the state of Illinois from moving ahead with plans to sell the building to a developer who could demolish it.
The trust had better luck with the Chicago Athletic Association, an 11-story, Venetian Gothic Revival building at 12 S. Michigan Ave. that is part of the so-called Michigan Avenue Streetwall, a row of historic buildings along Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park.
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In 2008, after the Chicago Athletic Club had closed because of dwindling membership, the trust criticized developers' plans to save only the front third of the building when it named the entire streetwall to the list.
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Eventually, the plan fell through and another team of developers preserved the club and converted it into a popular hotel and gathering place.
Other buildings on this year’s list include the Terrace Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati.
The hotel — completed in 1948 and now mostly vacant, according to the trust — is an early work of modernism in the U.S. and was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago. A pioneering female architect, Natalie de Blois, played a major role in the hotel’s design.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
bkamin@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BlairKamin


chicagotribune--2020-09-23--CPS plans for reopening schools still uncertain as parents share remote learning woes: ‘It’s just no

CPS plans for reopening schools still uncertain as parents share remote learning woes: ‘It’s just not working'

“ There has been progress , and the teachers , the parents are doing all that they can with what @ @ @ @ @ , but I echo some of the concerns that were shared about meeting the students @ @ @ @ @ Sotelo said .
He added that “ can be traumatic to some of the students @ @ @ @ @ as conducive to learning .
... Those are points we certainly need to continue to @ @ @

Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting offered little clarity for everyone who wants to know if students will be back in classrooms when the second quarter begins in November.
Allison Gorsuch, who has a child in kindergarten at Pulaski International School of Chicago, called on the board to be transparent and “release criteria for reopening as soon as possible,” including firm case numbers and positivity rates.
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“Remote learning is not developmentally appropriate for kindergartners,” she said. “... I’ve watched my student and his teacher work really hard at remote learning, but he’s 5, and it’s just not working."
Gorsuch said she would push for reopening as soon as it was safe to do so.
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“I’m not asking for schools to reopen before it’s safe, but I’m asking for this not to be a lost year for our youngest students,” she said.
She also asked for district leaders to advocate for students to have access to rapid testing for COVID-19. “I believe this is the way forward, and the sooner those tests are available to our students, the sooner we can get back in person,” she said.
As parents spoke about their experiences so far with remote learning, many praised their children’s teachers but still had concerns about some of the rules, such as screen time. Though some schools have been relaxed about camera usage, others are requiring students to keep their cameras on during class in order to get credit for participating, parents said.
A district plan that would bring some students back into buildings for special education services has met opposition from the Chicago Teachers Union, which earlier this week called the proposal “unworkable and dangerous.”
Mary Hughes, special education parent liaison with Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, said many schools are treating the latest guidance from the district’s Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services as “gospel," but it doesn’t work for everyone.
“It is unrealistic to think that this almost 70-page document is usable for parents who are not teachers, non-English speakers or simply overwhelmed with the task of trying to facilitate remote special education for their disabled children,” Hughes said.
Hughes, who has four children in Chicago Public Schools, said the district needs to clarify that it’s OK to make accommodations and modifications around screen time and length of school day for students with individualized education plans, and that parents should have input about their child’s remote learning plan.
“Communication between ODLSS and special education stakeholders needs to be expanded and sharpened,” Hughes said. “... Remote special education cannot work without parent, teacher and school administration support, input and collaboration.”
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Angela Habr-Paranjape, executive director of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, said the club’s learning pods, with nearly 50 students representing many CPS schools, offer a unique window into the challenging and inconsistent expectations placed on students of a similar age. So much time is spent on tech support and constantly redirecting children to screens, there has been little time for enrichment or outdoor activities, she said.
Board of Education member Lucino Sotelo said one theme he took away from public comments was the differing opinions of remote learning.
“There has been progress, and the teachers, the parents are doing all that they can with what we have to work with, but I echo some of the concerns that were shared about meeting the students where they are,” Sotelo said. He added that “can be traumatic to some of the students because their rooms are not as conducive to learning. ... Those are points we certainly need to continue to consider.”
CPS also presented more complete attendance data for the first week of school than what had already been released.
The updated numbers indicate that 86% of students districtwide logged on for the first day of school, though previously released data shows that number slipped below 40% at some schools. White students were the most likely to log in, a continuing inequity from remote learning in the spring. About 96% of white students attended the first day of school, compared with 88% of Hispanic or Latino students and 78% of Black students, according to CPS.
Attendance was lowest among students in temporary living situations, at 77%, while 79% of students with special education plans and 84% of English-learning students attended the first day. Average attendance improved over the week, during which attendance rates rose to 89% for all students, 96% for white students, 91% for Hispanic or Latino students, 84% for Black students, and 95% for students of other races.
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Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said CPS extended its “did not arrive" policy to two weeks. On the first day, there would have been 49,000 students marked as having not arrived and potentially dropped from classes, but with the extended window, that number was down to 6,900, she said.
“How are we going to connect with the 6,900?” asked Board President Miguel del Valle.
The number is lower now, and some of those students transferred to charter schools or out of the district, so once that’s sorted out the district will have a clearer picture of who’s missing, McDade said.
The district is continuing to call those students and find out how to support them, especially focusing on kindergarten and ninth grade, McDade said. More than 1,300 security officers have been trained in de-escalation and home visit protocols, and all will participate in an “ambassador” program for students who can’t be reached through emails and multiple phone calls, prioritizing 100 schools with low attendance, she said.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson said the district is also expanding the “learning hubs” that initially opened at six schools, staffed by community organizations providing child supervision. While the sites were first limited to children of essential workers from low-income or underrepresented families, they are now opening more broadly to qualified families, she said.
“We will continue to expand as the need arises,” Jackson said, adding that on Tuesday, CPS sent 2,500 invitations. Plans include opening three more sites next week in Englewood, North Lawndale and Rogers Park.
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CPS has committed to remote learning through the first quarter, which ends Nov. 5. The next Board of Education meeting is Oct. 28.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Daywatch: Officials warn of income tax spike, how flu shots will be different this year and why enda

Daywatch: Officials warn of income tax spike, how flu shots will be different this year and why endangered mussels play a crucial role

Getting the flu shot this year is going to look different in Illinois as patients and medical facilities adapt to @ @ @ @ @ changes come as experts stress the importance of getting the flu shot this year , @ @ @ @ @ during the pandemic and to preserve health care resources in case COVID-19 surges again during @ @ @

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Good morning, Chicago. On Thursday, Illinois saw a spike in coronavirus cases, as officials reported 2,257 newly diagnosed cases and 30 additional confirmed deaths.
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Thursday also marked the beginning of early voting for some Illinois counties, which has been encouraged by election authorities because of COVID-19. Voters in Northern Illinois must’ve taken that advice to heart — the Tribune’s Kelli Smith reported that some looking to cast their ballots experienced hourslong wait times.
Meanwhile, the pandemic has led some parents and educators to embrace outdoor preschools. Many of them hope the move will be permanent.
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Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, right, hold a ceremony to sign the state budget and fair tax legislation at the State of Illinois Building in Chicago on June 5, 2019. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton warned Thursday that Illinoisans could face an across-the-board income tax hike of at least 20% if voters reject a proposed constitutional amendment to shift the state from a mandated flat-rate tax to a graduated-rate tax based on income.
For weeks, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s administration has cautioned that severe budget cuts could be on the way if voters don’t approve the proposed amendment to overhaul Illinois' income tax system. But Stratton’s threat that all taxpayers, regardless of income, could face a tax hike unless the amendment passes on Nov. 3 appeared to represent a new shift in strategy for the Pritzker administration.
A woman wearing a mask leaves the Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Willowbrook on March 19, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Six months into the pandemic, the new virus has infected more than 28,000 Illinois long-term care residents and killed more than 4,000. It’s also fueled debate over the Illinois Department of Public Health’s oversight of a mostly for-profit industry. That includes how the agency cut back inspections, at times breaking state law, as the virus raced through facilities.
Adam Hollingsworth, the Dreadhead Cowboy, speaks during a press conference on Sept. 24, 2020, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. Hollingsworth faces a felony aggravated animal cruelty charge, along with misdemeanor counts of trespassing and reckless conduct, after he was arrested for riding one of his horses on the Dan Ryan Expressway during a "Kids Lives Matter" protest. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
If Adam Hollingsworth — the so-called Dreadhead Cowboy — had to do it all over again, he said he would still gladly make the unauthorized gallop on the Dan Ryan Expressway to spotlight violence against children in Chicago this year.
The urban horseman enjoyed local celebrity as an activist and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s census ambassador before being charged with felony animal cruelty following his ride earlier this week. But on Thursday, he pleaded for help from the mayor’s office and Chicago’s pantheon of famous and socially conscious rappers to make the criminal case go away.
Pharmacy manager Valentina Danilovski administers a flu shot to Diane Sindermann, 73, on Sept. 24, 2020, in the parking lot of a Jewel-Osco in Highland Park. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Getting the flu shot this year is going to look different in Illinois as patients and medical facilities adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. The changes come as experts stress the importance of getting the flu shot this year, both to keep people healthy during the pandemic and to preserve health care resources in case COVID-19 surges again during the winter.
Forest Preserve of Cook County team members Carlie Rapp, left, hands wildlife biologist Chuck Rizzo a mussel she found in Poplar Creek on Sept. 23, 2020 in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
On a September afternoon that still felt like summer, a small group in boots and waders drove out to a creek near Elgin, sloshed through cold, bubbling water, knelt down and dug their bare hands into the ground. For hours. For days. And all for a mollusk.


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Column: RBG lies in state. John Lewis is gone. It’s like losing both parents at once. What now?

Lewis passed on first , in July , at the age of 80 .
He was the son of sharecroppers @ @ @ @ @ when the American South was still legally segregated and the country beyond the South had @ @ @ @ @ what we now call racism .
The fact that the word “ racism ” — @ @ @ @ @ government document until 1968 — is now embedded in our speech and consciences is the @ @ @ @ @ his generation of civil rights fighters .

A makeshift memorial for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen near the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington on Sept. 21, 2020. (Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images/AFP via Getty Images)
John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
They were the parents. They led us and taught us and helped to make us who we are. And now they’re both gone.
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For all of us who believe in what these two unique Americans stood for — decency, hope, equality of opportunity — it may be tempting to feel unmoored, unprotected, orphaned by their disappearance within two months of each other this summer.
As long as they were around, they helped us believe that individuals could force change for the good and that our country could continue on the zigzagging road of progress.
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“All the greats are dying,” I heard someone lament after Ginsburg’s death a few days ago, noting that Lewis had recently died too.
I knew what she meant, but it’s not exactly true. Pick a moment, any moment, and people great and small are dying. Death is the one predictable thing in life, a fate that in any era doesn’t discriminate on the basis of sex, race or political creed.
Still, the double whammy of losing Lewis and Ginsburg feels like a turning point. In the precision of the cliché, the two of them opened doors that many of us have walked through. It’s tempting to fear that without them, keeping those doors open will be a lot harder.
Lewis passed on first, in July, at the age of 80. He was the son of sharecroppers, born in 1940, when the American South was still legally segregated and the country beyond the South had barely begun to reckon with what we now call racism. The fact that the word “racism” — not used in a U.S. government document until 1968 — is now embedded in our speech and consciences is the result of the bravery of his generation of civil rights fighters.
Ginsburg, born in Brooklyn in 1933, only a few years after women won the right to vote, died in mid-September at the age of 87. A week after her death, on Friday, she became the first woman ever to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol.
Think about that. Until the summer of 2020, no woman had been deemed sufficiently important for that honor, just as until this summer, when Lewis died, no Black man had been deemed important enough to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda.
The fact that both of them at the end of their lives were still making “firsts” says a lot about what they overcame and helped our country overcome.
In our public life, as well as in our personal lives, we can grow impatient with the elderly. Time to move aside. Make way for ducklings. But we also depend on our elders. Their lives illustrate what change looks like. They’re who made the world possible for us and who, in the case of these two, opened up possibilities that existed only in the realm of imagination when they were born.
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In the lives of Ginsburg and Lewis, we see the limits of what this country has been. We see the work and courage it takes to expand the boundaries.
Each of them, in their own way, endured the indignities of being born who they were — him as a Black man, her as a woman. The limits they pushed against ignited their imaginations, made them dream and fight. The limits taught them the power of endurance.
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And endurance is part of the legacy they leave us. That legacy is also a call to action.
“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time,” Ginsburg once said. She lived long enough to see that the steps are sometimes backward.
Lewis and Ginsburg died at a time when much of the good that they helped create is in danger: The right of women to control their reproductive lives. The right of all Americans who want to vote to be able to do so. The right to affordable health care for all.
But another part of the legacy they leave is showing us that work doesn’t end, and they both worked until the end. From them we inherit these truths:
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Changes requires a fight. The fight is never done. Perseverance is essential. So is faith that the world can get better.
The parents who pushed the doors open are leaving us. It’s up to us now to keep them open, and to push them even wider.
mschmich@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--With the pandemic, parents and educators embrace outdoor preschools. Many hope the move will be perm

With the pandemic, parents and educators embrace outdoor preschools. Many hope the move will be permanent.

“ Studies have shown that even if you are in a classroom that has a window to the outdoor world @ @ @ @ @ space that a child can look out on also benefits their academic performances at school @ @ @ @ @ “ Even something as simple as a window changes them .
So can you imagine @ @ @ @ @ for a child if their studies were outside ?
”

Preschoolers sit along the poetry path and listen to their teacher read to them at the Chicago Botanic Garden Nature Preschool. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
On a hazy September afternoon near a willow tree, a boy with a bright red backpack spotted something slimy on the ground.
“Hello, all the mushrooms,” he said, gently tapping the fungus, trying not to crush any as his small feet moved through the grass.
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A teacher asked why they might be growing in that spot. The boy thought for a moment. “Because it’s shady and wet!”
That was just one lesson for the group of kids at the Chicago Botanic Garden Nature Preschool, a program that’s part of the growing field of nature-based early childhood education.
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Nature preschools were increasing before the pandemic, more than doubling in the last three years, according to a report from the Natural Start Alliance, a project of the North American Association for Environmental Education. The report estimates 585 schools across the country have nature-based education at their core, meaning a significant amount of time is spent outside. Illinois is among the states with the most programs — topping 20. California and Washington, with about 50 programs each, lead the list.
Maddie prunes marigolds in the Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sept. 14, 2020 in Glencoe. She is one of several dozen children who attend a variety of programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden Nature Preschool. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Aerosol transmission of the coronavirus has raised concerns over safety of walled-off spaces, and some parents are wondering if one solution during the pandemic is as simple as stepping outside.
Ann Halley, director of the Botanic Garden school and a member of the Northern Illinois Nature Preschool Association, said enrollment has increased by more than 60% in the last year alone, and many families are new.
Some programs in the Chicago area have indoor spaces but are scheduled to be largely outside through early summer, even when frigid weather arrives. The programs may use the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wind chill chart as a guide for when to head inside, or pick up cues from the kids on their comfort level. But the winter weather ethos, generally, is bundle up.
With the widening field, teachers and parents are searching for ways to make programs more accessible. Child care center licensing standards, unique to each state, are primarily designed for indoor settings. In Illinois, outdoor programs can operate under exemptions. Supporters have proposed a bill modeled after one in Washington, which last year became the first state to officially license outdoor preschools.
There are a few pandemic-related tweaks this year at the Botanic Garden, which is a licensed program, like hand-washing and mask-wearing. There are no family-style snack options. Watering plants is allowed, but other water play is nixed.
The chance to follow the ups and downs of the natural world’s cycles — trees losing their leaves, buds returning — is still there.
Earlier in the day, a visit to the garden’s exhibit sparked a theme. “I see one. I see one!” said one girl, looking toward a black- and yellow-striped zebra longwing resting on some violet verbena. The class counted the flutters, one by one, the splashes of primary colors matching backpacks and headbands and masks. Later they stopped for a short story on some tree stumps: “My, Oh My — A Butterfly!”
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At a quiet spot between two lakes, the kids transformed into the insects, flapping around. One boy in a dino mask put on some bat wings and ran off. A girl with pink wings asked what butterflies eat, then started her flower search.
Halley said that curiosity comes with the outdoors.
“Taking the children down to the cove area and just sitting and looking at the geese as they’re landing, just that sense of wonder and awe — those are things that can only be supplied when you’re outside,” Halley said. “They cannot be found inside a classroom. And these are the things that inspire lifelong learners.”
A ready-made classroom
This summer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, encouraged outdoor schooling. “Get as much outdoors as you can,” he said. “If you look at the superspreader events that have occurred, they’re almost always inside.” New York City announced a plan to use yards and nearby parks for outdoor learning. In Chicago, heading outside isn’t unprecedented; a tuberculosis outbreak in 1909 led to “open air schools.”
Outdoor preschools, more widespread and a cultural norm in some European countries, are good for kids’ cognitive development, cost-effective and a safer option during a pandemic, supporters say. Additionally, nature fosters resilience, sets kids up for greater academic success down the road and provides a ready-made classroom with lessons in science, math and even empathy. Local leaders in the field point to years of studies showing benefits ranging from sunlight’s positive effect on eyesight to stress reduction from green spaces.
Preschool teacher Sarah Sheldon celebrates how well her class cleaned-up in the Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sept. 14, 2020 in Glencoe. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
When Megan Gessler learned about nature-based early childhood education at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool in Wisconsin more than a decade ago, there were few comparable examples in Illinois. Gessler continued her studies and was among those who created the Northern Illinois Nature Preschool Association, which started small in 2013 and now has more than 200 members.
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This summer, Gessler, the early childhood program coordinator at the Morton Arboretum, created a position statement with national leaders in the field on “nature-based early education for all.” The group hopes it will be useful to those looking for guidance, as well as a call to action.
“We believe that right now, the pandemic has created an imperative to fundamentally change not just the look and feel of early learning but its very structure in a permanent manner,” Gessler said.
At the arboretum, there’s always a loose curriculum planned but space for kids’ particular interests. Every year, there’s a surprise. Like storm drains.
“I don’t have a curriculum written up for storm drains,” Gessler said. “I didn’t foresee that coming.”
But the kids spotted a drain outside the classroom and grew fond of stuffing it with sticks and leaves.
“And your first inclination is, ‘Would you please just stop putting those down there?’” Gessler said. “But then you have to take note and say, ‘OK, there is a lot of natural curiosity here. How can I run with this?’”
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The next day Gessler brought ice cubes, some spouts from Menards, boxes, bungee cords. Suddenly the kids were learning about physics, gravity, engineering and the water cycle. They even gathered maps of every storm drain at the arboretum, picking up some mapping skills.
The next time the kids saw sticks on top of a storm drain after a heavy rain, they understood its purpose and cleared the sticks out.
This year, the program will be spending as much time as possible outside, Gessler said, September through May. They don’t anticipate canceling classes for weather but have an outdoor shelter with a fireplace, and an indoor classroom if the kids’ comfort level dips. Heading inside depends on a mix of factors: wind chill, temperature, sun, appropriate gear, exposed skin. The Botanic Garden program, also part time, similarly follows the NOAA wind chill chart and stays inside if it’s not safe to be outside for longer than 10 minutes.
“Studies have shown that even if you are in a classroom that has a window to the outdoor world, just having that green space that a child can look out on also benefits their academic performances at school,” Gessler said. “Even something as simple as a window changes them. So can you imagine how much it could change for a child if their studies were outside?”
Preschoolers watch the geese at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sept. 14, 2020 in Glencoe. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
A sprawling 1,700-acre space like the arboretum isn’t required to connect with nature, Gessler said.
“Nature exists in air, the clouds, the sky, the plants that grow up between the sidewalks,” she said. “It can look like something in downtown Chicago.”
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Changing business as usual
In Kendall County, one school district is creating a learning space in a courtyard that could have Plexiglas instead of a chalkboard and maybe some handmade benches built by local families.
Andrea Bockewitz, a former English teacher, talked to parents and educators in Yorkville months ago about returning to school in the fall and remote learning’s challenges. Bockewitz, whose children attended a nature preschool at a forest preserve, connected with an early childhood teacher and floated outdoor learning at her child’s elementary school.
Now, in addition to the courtyard space, that school is adding a project that will be closer to a nature preschool, complete with a mud kitchen and hill.
Bockewitz said she hopes that the solutions won’t be temporary, and that larger districts follow Yorkville’s lead. She’s now working with another district in Sandwich.
“As an educator, I have been seeing this as an opportunity to change business as usual. I’m hoping that this is going to stick, that we are going to get kids outside more,” Bockewitz said. “It doesn’t cost a lot of money to do it. It just takes will and determination.”
Other parents have generally been supportive, Bockewitz said. There’s fear with change, but more than anything, the sticking point is the cold: What happens in November or December when the city freezes over? But, Bockewitz said, there’s always the possibility of bundling up and families donating extra snow pants from their closets so that kids can be around their peers.
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One of the mantras Bockewitz gleaned from outdoor schooling is that “failure is part of the process.”
Sharon Danks, CEO of the national advocacy group Green Schoolyards America, said the group is among partner organizations working on a learning initiative that includes a how-to manual for schools going outside and a series of FAQ responses. About 140 schools and districts have asked for help with outdoor learning design plans.
“And thinking about how they can shift what they consider to be Plan A, the default plan.” Danks said. “Instead of it being automatically to go online or inside, what if outside was your Plan A?”
Illinois push
Teresa Weed, who used to run an outdoor program partnered with the Chicago Park District, is hoping legislation will be passed to formally outline an early childhood education model that will help outdoor preschools become accredited programs in the state.
Weed said she was fascinated by the idea that “the forest is the curriculum.” She ended up leading the Forest Playschool at Walking Stick Woods, which closed last year after complaints from some neighbors and a report from the Park District’s inspector general.
After seeing the growth from students at Forest, Weed said she would like to see the model made available to any interested families. Weed said she went to a forest school training in Scotland last spring, and when she explained why she was visiting, even the taxi driver knew about forest schools.
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“You can teach anything outdoors, I think, with creativity,” Weed said. “There’s this sense of adventure and joy. It’s really enlivening, outdoor education. And it just seems like children who have been in isolation really need that. Children learn so much from other children.”
Marlowe paints on a transparent piece of acrylic in the Grunsfeld Children's Growing Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sept. 14, 2020 in Glencoe. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Weed has the support of some state representatives and is hoping for a meeting with the governor’s office to talk about next steps. She plans to cover how outdoor preschools can help make up for the emotional and physical learning lost during quarantine and online learning.
“(The Department of Children and Family Services) is still reviewing the proposed legislation,” agency spokesman Bill McCaffrey said in a statement, “however there are already exemptions in place related to outdoor daycare which allow for collaboration with the owner of an open space to ensure basic safety measures are met.”
The proposed bill is modeled after the one passed in Washington state. “And there’s some question of, we need to adapt it for our climate,” Weed said. “But they have the worst weather. … Give me a nice, crisp 28 degrees with fresh snow and sunshine any day over 40 and rain.”
State Sen. Ram Villivalam of Chicago, a sponsor of the bill, said in a statement he supports the proposal.
“I strongly believe this discussion is especially timely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary stay-at-home orders as well as social distancing guidelines,” Villivalam said. “We have known yet have certainly learned more about the need for everyone, including children, to be outdoors for educational, recreational and mental health purposes.”
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Lifesavers for parents
Disparities in nature schooling mirror those found in education at large, according to research from the Natural Start Alliance. White children are overrepresented in nature preschools and children with disabilities are underrepresented. Many programs are only part time.
Marilyn Brink, who works with Mary Crane Center, which offers Head Start programs for families in Chicago, said the center is asking how to transform some playgrounds into outdoor learning environments. The center is working on a site in the Austin neighborhood.
Nature play spaces can be more welcoming than traditional playgrounds, Brink said. “It’s more of an equalizer in terms of the opportunities that kids can find in nature play spaces,” she said. “Every child will find something that’s really magical.”
And, Brink said, “If they don’t have safe spaces in their neighborhood, these can be safe spaces for them.”
The Park District has nine nature play spaces, with five more in the works. Like playgrounds, they are technically closed due to the coronavirus.
But some parents have been meeting up at parks for early childhood nature play groups — lifesavers for parents after months inside and the closest to pre-pandemic socialization the kids are likely to find.
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Preschoolers stroll through the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sept. 14, 2020 in Glencoe. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
On a hot day at West Ridge Nature Preserve, in a spot tucked behind some black-eyed Susans as bright as the sky, a little voice behind a violet unicorn mask cried out above the thrum of cicadas: “Look!”
The little girl unfurled her fingers to reveal flecks of dirt and a slimy, puffy, writhing worm.
“What I love about forest school is people are interacting with the earth, they are not constricted, they can explore," said Audrey Todd, an organizer of the group and a member of the Northern Illinois Nature Preschool Association. “Kids become creative and resilient.”
Later in the day, the kids made their way toward a small hill to scale. Some made it to the top. “Mosquitoes, get away from me,” one flustered boy said. “I am not getting one INCH dirtier.”
A few hovered near the bottom, watching their fellow masked playmates, calculating where they’d need to place each hand to make it to the top.
Nature offers “calm challenges,” Todd said.
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Some of the kids said they were scared. But they kept going.
“And that’s so important — to feel scared and then move through it” Todd said. “If that’s not life, what is?”


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Column: Trump’s upcoming coup: A formal invitation from a cowardly president who knows he might lose

It ’ s pathetic , of course , but it also can ’ t be ignored .
Because this particular @ @ @ @ @ every member of his political party marching in goose-step behind him , a remarkable feat @ @ @ @ @ spines .
Those Republicans with their limp torsos and occasionally furrowed brows are helping Trump @ @ @ @ @ justice into place weeks before an election , rendering the word “ hypocrisy ” meaningless @ @ @ @ @ s ideal outcome of an election decided by “ his ” judges .

This will be remembered as the week President Donald Trump formally announced his plans to stage a coup.
Coups, as a general rule, don’t receive much advance publicity. But Trump needs attention the way normal humans need oxygen, so he went ahead and let the American people know what’s coming after the Nov. 3 election.
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Asked Wednesday if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power, the leader of our soon-to-be-former democracy said: “We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”
Half of that is true. Trump has been complaining, endlessly, about the fact that in the face of a wildly contagious virus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans on his watch, voters will be voting by mail in higher-than-ever-before numbers.
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The other half, however, is nonsense. The ballots aren’t a disaster. The ballots are controlled by the states, both Democratic- and Republican-led, and there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest voter fraud is even a remotely serious issue in any state in this country.
Trump continued: “Get rid of the ballots, you’ll have a very transfer — you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There’ll be a continuation.”
You see, it’s simple. There are certain votes the president doesn’t want counted, and as long as we “get rid of” those votes, the transfer of power will be peaceful because he’ll win and we can all rest easy knowing our benevolent orange-hued dictator has his best interests at heart.
(Moments after Trump made those statements, the word “democracy” began to fade from every dictionary in the country.)
But hold on, you say, aren’t you being a bit extreme calling this a “coup”?
Thanks so much for asking! No, I’m not.
Along with Trump’s refusal to promise a peaceful transition of power and his obvious desire to “get rid of” ballots — your ballots, the ballots of people exercising their right to vote — the president has done everything he can to preemptively paint the coming election as inherently fraudulent. He has made clear there will be litigation, a suggestion he’ll rely on judges he has placed to help him win.
He said Wednesday that a new Supreme Court justice should fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat before the election because “I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling — it’s a scam — the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court.”
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There’s no scam. There’s only an election, one this cowardly little president is clearly frightened he’s going to lose.
So he’s telegraphing a coup, because he’s too clumsy and erratic to hide anything. He’s making it abundantly clear that a Joe Biden victory in the election cannot and will not be legitimate, and that he, the paper-tiger president of the United States, will do everything in his power to scare voters, sow distrust in the electoral system and angle to disenfranchise as many potential Biden voters as possible.
To Trump and his supporters, this is a president showing toughness. To everyone else, it’s a scared little man puffing out his chest to intimidate people and looking like the feckless, aspirational dictator that he is.
It’s pathetic, of course, but it also can’t be ignored. Because this particular feckless, aspirational dictator has every member of his political party marching in goose-step behind him, a remarkable feat given none of them have spines. Those Republicans with their limp torsos and occasionally furrowed brows are helping Trump zip a new Supreme Court justice into place weeks before an election, rendering the word “hypocrisy” meaningless and facilitating the president’s ideal outcome of an election decided by “his” judges.
So make no mistake, this is a president who knows he’s losing — confident people don’t behave this way. And this is a president who will do everything in his power, up to and including staging a coup, to maintain power and not suffer the disgrace of losing to the man he mocks as Sleepy Joe.
By effectively inviting Americans to his coup — Make Coups Great Again! — Trump has one goal: Cast doubt on the results of our election and, ideally, make people believe he’ll win no matter what, thus depressing turnout.
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So here’s what Americans who don’t appreciate such behavior from their leaders can do: Be not afraid.
Trump could absolutely win this election outright. No question.
And he could absolutely leverage his power to disqualify mail-in ballots or halt counting. He could declare victory on election night well before all ballots are counted and then litigate the results all the way to the Supreme Court.
But he is counting on you to accept such things as a fait accompli. Don’t. Be not afraid. Vote, encourage others to vote and do everything you can to make sure people understand that this frightened man-child is, almost unbelievably, a real threat to our democracy.
Vote. Vote so hard it dents the ballot box.
The coup Trump would gladly stage is more complicated a thing to pull off than his simple mind can imagine. But if enough people vote against his undemocratic leadership, it becomes wholly impossible.
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And Trump becomes the very thing he fears most: irrelevant.
rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--They’re not otters, but endangered mussels in Illinois play a crucial role as environmental sentinel

They’re not otters, but endangered mussels in Illinois play a crucial role as environmental sentinels. ‘They all have a story to tell.’

In the ’ 90s , Anchor studied mussels at Poplar .
He wanted to know how far they ranged and @ @ @ @ @ .
About 100 were marked , and he followed them for three years .
One @ @ @ @ @ to check on them , and a river otter , another endangered species at the @ @ @ @ @ 70 or so of the mussels .
He called another biologist for an explanation of @ @ @ @ @ met with a comment about being lower on the food chain .
“ He was @ @ @ @ @ at all , ” Anchor said , laughing .

Forest Preserve of Cook County team members Carlie Rapp, left, hands wildlife biologist Chuck Rizzo a mussel she found in Poplar Creek on Sept. 23, 2020, in Elgin. According to Shedd researchers, "some of Illinois' most rare mussel species can only be found in this particular creek in Cook County, including the ellipse, which is a mussel species of greatest conservation concern in Illinois." (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
On a September afternoon that still felt like summer, a small group in boots and waders drove out to a creek near Elgin, sloshed through cold, bubbling water, knelt down and dug their bare hands into the ground. For hours. For days. And all for a mollusk.
Workers from the Shedd Aquarium and Cook County Forest Preserve District spent a few days this week searching Poplar Creek and tagging more than 100 freshwater mussels, a group researchers say is among the most endangered in the world.
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But little is known about the unassuming creatures, some of which can live 100 years. So Kentaro Inoue, a Shedd research biologist who has studied mussels for years, is trying to figure out what kind of mussels are in the Chicago area, where they are, how they’re doing and ways they might be protected.
One reason for their obscurity, Inoue said, is a lack of charisma, especially compared with some other aquatic creatures: “A lot of people overlook mussels.”
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Kentaro Inoue, a research biologist with Shedd Aquarium, empties out a bag of mussels collected from Poplar Creek on Sept. 23, 2020 in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Chris Anchor, wildlife biologist with the Forest Preserves District, had a similar take: “Without a doubt, they are a much maligned species.”
The Shedd conservation program will help track individuals and survival rates over time at three locations. Inoue will be back next summer at the same spots to do the same thing. He’ll see which mussels make it and how many are new.
Inoue plans to publish the findings and hopes to learn how survival and reproduction are connected to environmental factors. He previously studied mussels in New Mexico and found survival correlated to low water flow. As water levels dropped and sediment entered rivers, populations declined.
Of about 300 species of freshwater mussels in North America, about 10% are already extinct, Inoue said. The majority of what’s left are either threatened or endangered — and state or federally protected. Of the native species found in Illinois, the majority fall into a range from threatened to extinct, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
In Illinois, the shells of freshwater mussels were once used to make buttons, before plastic took over. They were also harvested to produce cultured pearls.
What else is known about freshwater mussels: they’re filter feeders, meaning their food is what’s in the water — bacteria, algae, floating particles. One mussel could filter 5 to 10 gallons per day, Inoue said.
When zebra and quagga mussels invaded Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, they in part helped the lakes surpass Lake Superior in clarity, according to a 2017 study by the Michigan Tech Research Institute.
“People call them livers of the river,” Inoue said. “They are deep-cleaning the water. We don’t really see it, but they’re doing it.”
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Kentaro Inoue, a research biologist with Shedd Aquarium, left, collects mussels from Samantha Plencner, a lab tech with the Forest Preserve of Cook County, in Poplar Creek on Sept. 23, 2020 in Elgin. According to Shedd researchers, "some of Illinois’ most rare mussel species can only be found in this particular creek in Cook County, including Ellipse which is a mussel species of greatest conservation concern in Illinois." (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
They’re also a natural counter to erosion, burrowing in the sediment and stabilizing river bottoms. And they’re a part of the larger ecosystem. Like researchers, raccoons and river otters dig mussels up. But unlike researchers, they eat them. Even in death, mussel shells can provide shelter or protection to living creatures.
The smallest mussel can be less than an inch, the larger ones topping 4½ inches. Some, like a hefty plain pocketbook mussel, could weigh as much as a small melon. Their age can be roughly determined by rings on their shells, like trees.
On Wednesday afternoon at Poplar Creek, within the bounds of pink mapping string, clouds of sediment smoked out of the glassy water when a hand or foot hit the creek’s rusty colored bottom.
If you were quick, after plucking a mussel from the creek, you could get a peek at a bloblike entity retreating back into its shell. The work was mostly quiet, aside from a splash, the beep from a scanner detecting a tagged mussel or the recognition of a hard-won catch.
“I found two,” one worker said. “You found two?!” Another find after an ongoing search for a well-hidden mussel garnered an, “Ope! There it is.”
One worker asked Inoue how far mussels can travel. They have a single foot that allows them to move. But, he said, “Some mussels just stay there forever.”
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Later in the day, as Inoue tagged the mussels, he showed one with a black tinge on her gill — a sign of pregnancy.
The life cycle of a freshwater mussel is complex, and to proliferate, they rely on fish. Mussel larvae — “little Pac-Man” — must attach to a fish fin or gill to grow, Inoue said. Depending on species, after a few weeks or months, they strike out on their own at the bottom of a river. Some mussel species are particular in their choice of fish, while others are more open to their surrogates.
That dependence contributes to their vulnerability, Inoue said. “If water quality is good for mussels, but not fish, they cannot survive, because they cannot reproduce.”
By the end of the day, 134 mussels had been identified, including 27 new individuals, adding to the more than 600 already marked between locations.
Now, Inoue will head back to the lab and look at the ellipse, the most common of the four species found in Poplar Creek this week and a species of greatest conservation concern in Illinois. He’ll try to understand its genetic structure and examine how populations are related.
Populations of the ellipse are declining across the state, Inoue said. The species need pristine water to thrive, and they are generally found in small to medium-size streams — habitats hard to find in the Chicago area.
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Poplar Creek is special, Inoue said, because of its active springs — a rarity in Cook County. He wonders what would happen if the springs, which bring cool water year-round to the creek at a constant temperature, stops.
“I think that’s why the ellipse mussels are pretty abundant in Poplar Creek,” Inoue said — water quality and habitat.
Kentaro Inoue inspects, sorts and tags mussels from Poplar Creek on Sept. 23, 2020 in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
A mussel from Poplar Creek is tagged on Sept. 23, 2020 in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Those two factors may have led to the overwhelming freshwater mussel decline, Inoue said. Mussels are sensitive to environmental change over their sometimes long lifetimes, a tough spot to be in during climate change. It’s difficult to establish new populations once habitat is gone. Pollution and siltation are also detrimental to mussels, as well as nutrient competition from invasive species like Asian clams, found in Poplar Creek as of recent years, and zebra mussels.
In Cook County, there’s also runoff from roads and parking lots to contend with, Anchor said. Few streams are rock- and rubble-bottomed anymore because of human activity.
In the past, 10 to 15 species have been detected in Poplar Creek, Anchor said.
In the ’90s, Anchor studied mussels at Poplar. He wanted to know how far they ranged and more about their host fish. About 100 were marked, and he followed them for three years. One day, he went out to check on them, and a river otter, another endangered species at the time, had consumed about 70 or so of the mussels. He called another biologist for an explanation of what had happened and was met with a comment about being lower on the food chain. “He was not sympathetic for the clam at all,” Anchor said, laughing.
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Anchor found that the mussels were “real homebodies.” But a subset did “some rather impressive movement.”
“You don’t think of a clam being able to move around a whole lot,” Anchor said. "They can move several hundred meters if they need to, which I had not expected at all. Most of the clams lived in an area the size of a bedroom and never left it that I could detect. And others, for whatever reason, there wasn’t a sex difference, there didn’t seem to be an age difference, they decided that they wanted to move. And they went both upstream and downstream.”
It might be tricky to identify direct action to save a mussel in the northwest suburbs, but researchers say everyday actions can contribute to healthier habitats, and healthier mussels. The Shedd is asking Congress to protect about a third of land, sea and freshwater habitat by 2030, part of a global effort.
“If something catastrophic were to happen — a horrible drought or a pack of ferocious otters — it can wipe them out,” Anchor said. “They make a fabulous sentinel to tell us what the condition of the habitat is and ultimately what the condition of our environment is.
“To me, the mussels are just as interesting as the otters,” he added. "And most people would say I’m crazy. But they all have a story to tell.”


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Trump vs. Biden: Track the race for president in key battleground states

Of those , 218 electoral votes are in states rated as likely or solidly Democrat and expected to vote for @ @ @ @ @ electoral votes are tied to states rated as likely or solidly Republican and expected to @ @ @ @

Bill Ruthhart, Chad Yoder, Jonathon Berlin

Going into Tuesday’s voting, the list of battleground states that President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden were fighting for was a long 13. By the end of the night, that list had shrunk to a half-dozen.
By Wednesday morning, all eyes were on three familiar battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Propelled by the late counting of votes from Democratic strongholds, Biden had taken a lead in Michigan and Wisconsin by late morning Wednesday, while Trump remained in front in Pennsylvania with hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding.
Regardless of where those states land, the margin in the race to 270 Electoral College votes promises to be thin. Here is a look at results in hand so far from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as some of the other battlegrounds that have been projected already or are closer to projection.
Also included here are final FiveThirtyEight polling averages for those states — polling that, as in 2016, proved to underestimate Trump’s sway with voters.
Those polls had Biden up 8.2 points nationally, for example. In key Midwest states, Biden led Minnesota by 9.3, Wisconsin by 8.2 and Michigan by 8 points. Trump won states where he was leading — Iowa, Texas and Ohio.
State by state


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Painful search continues for missing mail carrier Kierra Coles as loved ones gather for her 28th bir

Painful search continues for missing mail carrier Kierra Coles as loved ones gather for her 28th birthday

Kierra Coles was three months pregnant with her first child when she went missing on Oct. 2 , 2018 , @ @ @ @ @ Street and Vernon Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood .
Her father said authorities are “ @ @ @ @ @ find her and begged neighbors to “ speak up , ” offering a nearly $ @ @ @ @ @ leads to her whereabouts .

Joseph Coles speaks at a news conference on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, on the birthday of his daughter, postal carrier Kierra Coles, who has been missing for nearly two years. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Almost two years since the pregnant mail carrier, Kierra Coles, went missing, her family and friends celebrated her 28th birthday Thursday, as they pleaded for the public to continue searching for her.
“Every day is a struggle for me,” said her father, Joseph Coles, who cut a cake on behalf of his missing daughter and grandchild Thursday evening. “If she hears me, I’m out 24 hours a day, walking the streets, knocking on doors still looking for her.”
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Kierra Coles was three months pregnant with her first child when she went missing on Oct. 2, 2018, near her apartment at 81st Street and Vernon Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood. Her father said authorities are “not doing enough” to find her and begged neighbors to “speak up,” offering a nearly $50,000 reward to anyone who leads to her whereabouts.
Though there were initial reports that Chicago police had suspended the investigation in July, saying they’d exhausted their leads, in an emailed statement to the Chicago Tribune, police clarified that they are working jointly with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the FBI to continue the search.
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Chicago police added that the case remains a high-risk missing person investigation with potential foul play suspected.
“At this point, anybody with knowledge of her last whereabouts is asked to contact police as we are seeking any information in an attempt to locate her and we won’t stop until we do,” the statement said.
A doubtful Joseph Coles said he has received little to no information from police and added that he often goes to the 5th District police station, 727 E. 111th St., to learn about updates regarding the search of his daughter.
On Thursday night, he was surrounded by leaders of different organizations that have been supporting him and his family in the search for Kierra Coles since the start. They all sang happy birthday to Kierra Coles at a small rendezvous in front of Alulu Brewery and Pub, 2011 S. Laflin St.
Joseph Coles cuts a cake on the birthday of his daughter, postal carrier Kierra Coles, who has been missing for nearly two years. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Many wore black T-shirts with photos of Kierra Cole on them.
Mack Julion, president of the local chapter of the National Association of Letter Carriers, attended the celebration to offer his support for the family.
“We have not forgotten, not given up on our sister,” Julion said.
Kierra Coles had worked as a mail carrier for about three years before she went missing. Her mother, Karen Philips, reported her missing on Oct. 4, 2018, after she had not heard from her for two days, and calls to her cellphone went straight to voicemail.
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“I talk to her every day,” Phillips told Tribune a few days after Kierra Coles disappeared in 2018. “I knew something was wrong. It’s just not like her.”
Vera Giles-Norris, a member of Kats Out Foundation, echoed Joseph Coles' plea on Thursday, days before the second anniversary since Kierra Coles went missing. She said that many times cases of missing people are ignored rather than solved.
“We’re still hoping that and still praying that Kierra Cole is somewhere and she’s ready to come back home,” said Giles-Norris, whose organization helps to bring awareness to cases of missing people.
For the second year in a row, George “Ben” Ivey, founder of the group Stop the Violence, helped put Kierra Coles' birthday celebration together to raise awareness of her case.
Kierra Coles is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds. She is Black, with brown eyes, black hair and a medium brown complexion. She also has a tattoo of a heart on her right hand and a tattoo that says “Lucky Libra” on her back.
Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to contact the family, call 911 or call Area South detectives at 312-747-8274.
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lorodriguez@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Man who spent 13 years in prison in case connected to Guevara claims hidden relationship between the

Man who spent 13 years in prison in case connected to Guevara claims hidden relationship between the notorious former detective and a key witness’ mother

The claim surfaced as Daniel Rodriguez , who spent 13 years behind bars in the case , is attempting to @ @ @ @ @ .
Lawyers for Rodriguez contend the same witness was under even more pressure to lie @ @ @ @ @ uncharged co-conspirator in a different homicide , the filing alleges .

Daniel Rodriguez is pictured at his home in the southwest suburbs on Sept. 24, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara was in a relationship with the mother of a key prosecution witness who testified in a 1991 murder case Guevara investigated, according to a filing this week in Cook County court.
The claim surfaced as Daniel Rodriguez, who spent 13 years behind bars in the case, is attempting to have his conviction thrown out. Lawyers for Rodriguez contend the same witness was under even more pressure to lie, since he was an uncharged co-conspirator in a different homicide, the filing alleges.
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Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the city and the now-retired Guevara, who has been accused by more than 40 defendants of manipulating witnesses, fabricating evidence and framing suspects over the course of his career.
And criminal convictions tainted by the allegations against Guevara have been tossed out in the cases of a dozen men in Cook County since mid-2016. The former detective has repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked under oath about the accusations.
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Rodriguez, who said Guevara and a partner beat him into confessing to the crime, was convicted of fatally shooting Jose Hernandez Jr., known as “Junito,” about 1:15 a.m. March 17, 1991, in the 4100 block of West North Avenue while Hernandez was inside his own car.
Rodriguez served his full prison term in the case but is now seeking to have his conviction vacated. The new filing’s allegations center on a prosecution witness in Rodriguez’s trial, Jason Rivera.
Rivera was an uncharged co-conspirator and the key witness in a separate, double slaying of two brothers that was also investigated by Guevara and his partner at the time he implicated Rodriguez, according to the court filing and his attorney, Joshua Tepfer of the Exoneration Project.
Tepfer also alleged Rivera was paid to relocate by the state’s attorney’s office shortly after his testimony.
Neither fact was given to Rodriguez at the time. Even with an alibi, he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
“Had these facts not been fraudulently concealed from Rodriguez, he would never have been convicted of this crime,” the filing read, asking for a new evidentiary hearing on the allegations.
Rodriguez was reached by phone Wednesday while on a break from his job at a trucking company.
“Finally, light is coming out. Finally,” Rodriguez, now 50, told the Tribune. “Twenty-nine long years that I suffered, so it’s long enough.”
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Tepfer has been involved in several homicide conviction cases involving Guevara that have been overturned.
“He wants belated justice. He wants justice,” Tepfer said of Rodriguez.
Two witnesses have sworn to the relationship between the mother of the case’s key witness and Guevara, according to the filing. The woman died this year of coronavirus complications, according to the filing.
While in prison, Rodriguez said he dealt with his rage by trying, every day, to make himself a better person.
“I lived inside the penitentiary, but my mind was in the real world,” Rodriguez said.
After being sentenced to 25 years in 1993, and spending 13 of those years in prison, Rodriguez has for the last dozen or so years worked for the trucking company, the same place that hired him two weeks after his release from jail. “My boss told me not to worry,” Rodriguez said, they trusted him.
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Rodriguez, who is married to the same woman who was his girlfriend and alibi at that time, lives in the suburbs and has two grown daughters, 30 and 28, and a couple of grandchildren.
“My family is very happy,” Rodriguez said, his voice failing. “They feel it’s long overdue also for them too; they suffered a lot. It’s been a long time, so finally something is happening and the truth is coming out.
“Tears and emotions have been building for years. … Now they are coming out.”
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-25--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,257 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional deaths re

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,257 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional deaths reported

Swenson recently joined in a wave of parent rallies across the suburbs , calling for kids to get back in @ @ @ @ @ in Algonquin , Barrington , Libertyville , Naperville , Orland Park , Villa Park and @ @ @ @ @ .
They say online learning is not working , noting that some districts are operating @ @ @ @ @ showing it can be done safely despite the coronavirus .
In response , some boards @ @ @ @ @ schools , many through a hybrid plan of remote and in-person learning .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials reported Thursday they had logged 2,257 newly diagnosed cases and 30 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 281,371 known cases and 8,538 deaths.
The new numbers come a day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned the region of northwest Illinois that includes Rockford and Northern Illinois University and borders Wisconsin and Iowa could soon see stricter rules aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
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Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:45 p.m.: As early voting begins, some voters experience hourslong wait times in northern Illinois counties
Voters in some Illinois counties experienced hourslong wait times Thursday while trying to cast their ballots in the general election on Illinois' first day of early voting.
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A limited number of polling places in counties surrounding Chicago opened Thursday, including in DuPage, Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will. Suburban Cook County and Chicago won’t begin in-person early voting until October, though election boards began to send mail-in ballots to some of the more than 1.7 million voters who applied for one and were approved.
Many Illinois election authorities had encouraged early voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but some county officials said they hadn’t anticipated the level of turnout that occurred on Thursday, with lines that in some cases stretched hundreds of people long.
Lorraine Leiser, 73, of Glendale Heights, said she waited with her son at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton for about three hours to vote. She said she felt safest voting in person with a paper ballot given recent speculation about possible delays using the U.S. Postal Service.
Leiser said she had voted early in past elections but had never seen such lines as she did on Thursday.
“My son actually mentioned, ‘You know, Mom we haven’t seen anybody leave the line,’” Leiser said. “Everybody was determined to vote today.”
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
6:50 p.m.: Cubs cut 60 jobs in their business department — and plan for potential limited seating at Wrigley Field next season — because of COVID-19, source says
The Chicago Cubs on Thursday laid off about 60 members of their business department because of declining revenue amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a source told the Tribune.
In addition, the team is bracing for limited seating capacity for games at Wrigley Field in 2021 in the event fans are allowed to attend games without a vaccine for the coronavirus, the source said. Should fans be allowed to return in limited capacity, the Cubs would prioritize season ticket holders for admission.
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Read more here. —Mark Gonzales
5:10 p.m.: Drive-thru flu shots? Vaccine vouchers? How getting the flu shot in Illinois will be different this year
Getting the flu shot this year is going to look different in Illinois as patients and medical facilities adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some Chicago area doctors and pharmacies are offering drive-thru flu shots for kids and adults, to help with social distancing. And some companies that normally offer vaccines in the office are giving vouchers to employees working from home that they can redeem at pharmacies.
Meanwhile, children as young as 3 years old can now receive flu shots from pharmacists, a controversial change made by the federal government last month to help as many as possible get vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The changes come as experts stress the importance of getting the flu shot this year, both to keep people healthy during the pandemic and to preserve health care resources in case COVID-19 surges again during the winter.
Read more here. —Lisa Schencker
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4 p.m.: United Airlines becomes first US carrier to offer coronavirus testing for passengers
United Airlines will become the first U.S. carrier to offer rapid coronavirus testing to some of its passengers — if they’re willing to pay a little extra, the company announced Thursday.
The tests will be available to customers traveling from San Francisco International Airport to Hawaii starting Oct. 15. Passengers would either take a quick test at the airport that delivers results in 15 minutes or request a mail-in, self-collected test ahead of their trip, according to United.
Read more here. —New York Daily News
3:40 p.m.: Peoria Republican LaHood introduces plan for federal loans to state and local governments but exempts Illinois from getting loan forgiveness
Republican U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood introduced legislation on Thursday backed by the GOP-aligned Illinois Policy Institute that would create a loan program for state and local governments — but it would effectively prevent Illinois from receiving any loan forgiveness because of its massive public employee pension debt.
The legislation has little chance of passage in a Democratic-controlled House and it comes amid continued dispute over federal assistance to state and local governments between the House and GOP-controlled Senate.
But it did allow LaHood to continue teeing off on Illinois' financial woes.
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“This pandemic did not create Illinois' financial mess; however, it emphasized the long-term challenges that Illinois and other states face for failing to implement sound budget policy,” LaHood, of Peoria, said in a statement.
“For decades, politicians in Springfield have kicked the can down the road on addressing Illinois' fiscal crisis, exploding the state’s $140 billion in unfunded pension liability and piling up these problems on the backs of hardworking taxpayers. Illinois shouldn’t get a blank check to bail out decades of failing to do what most responsible adults can: spend less than you earn and save for a rainy day,” he said.
Read more here. —Rick Pearson
3:35 p.m.: Democrats to redraft coronavirus relief bill in bid to jump-start negotiations
House Democrats are going back to the drawing board on a huge COVID-19 relief bill, paring back the measure in an attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Trump administration.
The Democratic-controlled chamber could also pass the $2 trillion-plus measure next week if talks fall through to demonstrate that the party isn’t giving up on passing virus relief before the election.
The chamber passed a $3.4 trillion rescue measure in May but Republicans dismissed the measure as bloated and unrealistic. Even as Democrats cut their ambitions to $2.2 trillion or so, Senate Republicans have focused on a much smaller rescue package in the $650 billion to $1 trillion range.
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An aide familiar with the leadership discussions and authorized to characterize them said the new bill would total about $2.4 trillion and is likely to contain additional relief for the airline and restaurant sectors, which have been especially slammed by slumps in business from the virus. The aide requested anonymity to characterize the closed-door talks.
Read more here. —Associated Press
3 p.m.: Fourth grader, middle school worker in North Shore District 112 test positive for COVID-19
A fourth-grade student at Oak Terrace Elementary School and an adult working at Edgewood Middle School tested positive this week for COVID-19, North Shore School District 112 officials said Wednesday.
“While we have been successful so far with being open for four weeks, today COVID-19 has hit us,” said Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld. “The best thing we can do is remind everyone that even in a successful restart of schools, which we have had, we are still in a global pandemic.”
The superintendent said district officials are working closely with the Lake County Health Department on contact tracing. The health department will contact staff and Oak Terrace students who have been identified as “close contacts” with the ones who tested positive and will provide guidance, he said.
The fourth grader last attended school Friday and will be quarantined for the next few weeks, Lubelfeld said.
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“We know exactly what the child’s movements were,” Lubelfeld said. “We were able to confirm there was an adherence to 6-foot physical distancing and all safety protocols. We believe that no further action, other than communication, is warranted at this time. Obviously, we will do an electrostatic deep cleaning out of caution.”
Read more here. —Gloria Casas
12:30 p.m.: How COVID-19 decimated Illinois nursing homes, exposed government flaws and left families in frustrating limbo
At a two-story nursing home in Willowbrook, close to the front entrance, is a resident’s room where crystal ornaments of birds and butterflies adorn the window.
It’s where 93-year-old Joan Keith nearly died gasping for air — and later tested positive for COVID-19.
It’s where she watched ambulances evacuate dying neighbors from Chateau Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
And it’s where the former beautician has been largely confined since then, feeling a mix of emotions: missing her family, grateful to be alive, yet leery of venturing beyond her door frame.
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“If I go in the hall, there’s people — they have the mask on and everything — but I don’t know if they’re carrying anything,” she said, “and I don’t want to be ill again.”
That uneasiness is felt in long-term care facilities across the state, places where COVID-19 has taken a particularly staggering toll with no clear end in sight.
Six months into the pandemic, the new virus has infected more than 28,000 Illinois long-term care residents and killed more than 4,000. It’s also fueled debate over the Illinois Department of Public Health’s oversight of a mostly for-profit industry. That includes how the agency cut back inspections, at times breaking state law, as the virus raced through facilities.
Read more here. —Joe Mahr and Robert McCoppin
12:15 p.m.: 2,257 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 additional deaths reported
Illinois public health officials reported Thursday they had logged 2,257 newly diagnosed cases and 30 additional confirmed deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the statewide tally to 281,371 known cases and 8,538 deaths.
11:25 a.m.: Historic Chicago dive bar Old Town Ale House reopens despite tavern restrictions — by selling frozen pizza
Old Town Ale House, the historic dive bar that the late film critic Roger Ebert once called “the best bar in the world that I know about,” quietly reopened Wednesday night on the North Side of Chicago.
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“GOOD NEWS! THE OLD TOWN ALE HOUSE IS PLANNING ON REOPENING TONIGHT!!!!” wrote artist and self-described mascot-in-residence Bruce Elliott publicly on his personal Facebook page Wednesday morning. Elliott painted the infamous political wall art behind the bar. The series debuted with a naked Sarah Palin holding an assault rifle, progressed to a portrait of Mitt Romney wearing what the artist calls “Magic Mormon Underwear,” as well as a work entitled “Cavity Search” featuring convicted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
Open since 1958, the bar has been closed since July 24 at 12:01 a.m., when city COVID-19 orders went into effect shuttering all taverns without outdoor seating. By Chicago licensing rules, taverns sell drinks, but no prepared food. Packaged foods, including chips and other staple dive bar sustenance, did not count. So how could Old Town Ale House open? Thank frozen pizza.
The bar obtained a retail food license from the city, which allowed it to sell the pizza.
“My boss drove down to the City Clerk (office) and got a copy that they said we could post and be legal,” said Tim Polk, bartender and manager of 20 or so years. Tobin Mitchell owns the bar, and is Elliott’s ex-wife. “We just found out we could open at noon,” said Polk.
Read more here. —Louisa Chu
11 a.m.: Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, here’s how the virus has changed our lives
For six months, the world has changed in ways few of us could have imagined at the start of 2020.
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As COVID-19 took hold on so many facets of our lives, from our health to our livelihoods, our schools and our cultural institutions, the Chicago Tribune has sought to follow each development with insight into how the pandemic impacts us all.
Now, six months after the World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus' spread had become a pandemic, we reflect on how the pandemic is shaping our world — and how we’re getting through it together.
Read more here. —Chicago Tribune staff
7:55 a.m.: Jobless claims rise to 870,000 as fraud and backlogs cloud data
The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid rose slightly last week to 870,000, a historically high figure that shows that the viral pandemic is still squeezing restaurants, airlines, hotels and many other businesses six months after it first erupted.
The figure coincides with evidence that some newly laid-off Americans are facing delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state agencies intensify efforts to combat fraudulent applications and clear their pipelines of a backlog of jobless claims.
California has said it will stop processing new applications for two weeks as it seeks to reduce backlogs and prevent fraudulent claims. Pennsylvania has found that up to 10,000 inmates are improperly receiving aid.
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In Illinois, 23,113 people filed initial claims for jobless benefits during the week that ended Sept. 19, compared with 27,384 a week earlier.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:43 a.m.: Sign tallying COVID-19 deaths that was marred with spray paint will stay up in Northbrook after some called for its removal
On the corner of Shermer Road and Walters Avenue in what many refer to as Triangle Park, a large sign displaying the number of national COVID-19 deaths stood Tuesday night, freshly covered with black spray paint.
At the exact same time, Northbrook officials were discussing whether the sign should be allowed to remain standing. Regardless of any personal views, trustees concluded at the meeting that they legally have no right to order the sign taken down.
The sign, which was unveiled Friday, says “We’re #1,” along with an updated tally of the number of national COVID-19 deaths — now displaying a grim 200,000. At the bottom of the sign reads “U.S.A. Donald J. Trump, President.”
Read more here. — Kaitlin Edquist
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6 a.m.: Want to vote early in Illinois' general election? Here’s what you need to know.
Balloting for the Nov. 3 general election kicks off Thursday with the opening of some early-voting polling sites while election officials across the state begin to mail out ballots to some of the more than 1.7 million applicants and brace for an unprecedented surge in both types of voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though election officials will begin sending mail-in ballots to all Illinois residents, only some polling places will open Thursday, including a few sites in DuPage, Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties.
Chicago’s in-person early voting operation doesn’t start until Oct. 1 at the Loop Super Site at 191 N. Clark St., before expanding Oct. 14 to locations in each of the city’s 50 wards.
In suburban Cook County, in-person early voting starts Oct. 7 and will expand Oct. 19 to more than 50 sites.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
6 a.m.: ‘This is not good enough.’ Chicago-area parents rally to get kids back in school, and some districts are making it happen.
Her three children had always been good students, but since being relegated to online learning in Downers Grove, Carrie Swenson has had to guard against sleeping during class, poor grades and the temptation to cheat.
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At random times, with all three in band but no group practice, they take turns playing a trumpet, saxophone or percussion, while their golden retriever howls. Swenson’s son is dejected and no longer in the Advanced Placement classes at which he excelled.
“This is not good enough,” Swenson said of remote learning. “It’s like they’re watching TV. I’ve heard of more and more students disengaging. Overwhelmingly, parents are saying this isn’t enough, we cannot do this.”
Swenson recently joined in a wave of parent rallies across the suburbs, calling for kids to get back in the classroom and into athletics in Algonquin, Barrington, Libertyville, Naperville, Orland Park, Villa Park and Wheaton, among other towns. They say online learning is not working, noting that some districts are operating with children in class, showing it can be done safely despite the coronavirus. In response, some boards are taking steps to reopen schools, many through a hybrid plan of remote and in-person learning.
Read more here. —Robert McCoppin and Karen Ann Cullotta
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In case you missed it
Here are five stories related to COVID-19 from Wednesday: