chicagotribune--2020-11-19--‘They knew exactly who they were shooting at’: 1 dead, 3 critically wounded in Lawndale neighborhood

The victims were standing on the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road and Whipple Street , near a liquor store , @ @ @ @ @ westbound silver car pulled up , “ stopped right in front ” of them , @ @ @ @ @ exited and started firing , Area Four Deputy Chief Ernest Cato told reporters at the @ @

Evidence markers are placed next to bullet casings at the scene of a multiple shooting at a convenience store in the 3000 block of West Roosevelt Road on Nov. 18, 2020, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
A woman has died and three men, including one of the assailants, were critically wounded Wednesday evening in separate shootings a half-hour apart on the city’s West Side.
Earlier, police said the people shot were considered “victims’' who were shot in a single “targeted” attack in the 3000 block of West Roosevelt Road.
Advertisement
About 4 p.m. in the 400 block South Hamlin Avenue, 21-year-old Catrice Ware and a 29-year-old man were in a vehicle traveling south on Independence Boulevard when a dark-colored car pulled up and somebody inside shot them both, Chicago police said.
Ware, who was shot in the abdomen and leg, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital at 4:45 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office, while the 29-year-old man, shot in the right leg, was also taken to Mount Sinai, where his condition had stabilized.
Advertisement
About a half an hour later, another 29-year-old man was standing with a group of people on the northwest corner of Roosevelt Road and Whipple Street, outside a liquor store, when a westbound silver car pulled up, “stopped right in front” of them, and three gunmen exited and started firing — hitting the 29-year-old in the abdomen, police said.
Two of the gunmen then ran into the liquor store and continued shooting — one of them accidentally shooting his 32-year-old accomplice — police said. The other shooter dragged him from the liquor store and helped get him back into the silver car and they fled to Mount Sinai, where they dropped off the 32-year-old man, police said.
“It appears to be targeted,” Area 4 Deputy Chief Ernest Cato told reporters at the scene of the Roosevelt Road attack. “They knew exactly who they were shooting at.”
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-19--As grades and attendance slip, CPS places hopes on schools reopening, citing risk of ‘losing an enti

As grades and attendance slip, CPS places hopes on schools reopening, citing risk of ‘losing an entire generation of students’

Fewer passing grades , particularly B ’ s and C ’ s , were given in core subjects .
Among @ @ @ @ @ of math grades and 5 % of reading grades were F ’ s , compared @ @ @ @ @ % last fall .
D ’ s also increased , accounting for 8.6 % of @ @ @ @ @ reading grades .
Another 23.1 % of math and 24 % of reading grades were @ @ @ @ @ % of math and 26.9 % of reading grades were B ’ s , and @ @ @ @ @ 34 % of reading grades were A ’ s , according to CPS data .

With hard return dates for elementary school students contingent upon the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Public Schools officials are challenged by how to improve on poor attendance rates they saw during the remote fall quarter.
“The consequences here are not theoretical,” said Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade. “Research tells us that if we do not act with urgency, we will be in danger of losing an entire generation of students. It is often said that access to health care should be a fundamental right of all people. Well, the same holds true for a high-quality education.”
Advertisement
During Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting, McDade presented data on attendance and grades for fall quarter, which ended the first week of November.
The drop in attendance was most notable among African American students, whose attendance rate decreased by 5 percentage points from last fall, McDade said.
Advertisement
Overall, this fall’s attendance rate was 91.3%, down from 94.2% last fall. For Black students, the rate was 88.1%; for Latino students, 91.9%; for white students, 96.2%; for Asian students, 96.9%; and for multiracial students, 95.1%.
Attendance also varied among the district’s priority groups, at 81.9% for students in temporary living situations, 87% for students with individualized education plans, 90.2% for economically disadvantaged students and 92.3% for students learning English.
While attendance rates were lower than last fall for all grades, the gap was the biggest for high school students, and seniors had the lowest rate of 84.9%, according to data provided by CPS.
First-quarter grades showed disparities similar to attendance.
Fewer passing grades, particularly B’s and C’s, were given in core subjects. Among elementary students, 5.1% of math grades and 5% of reading grades were F’s, compared with 2.1% and 1.9% last fall. D’s also increased, accounting for 8.6% of math and 8.8% of reading grades. Another 23.1% of math and 24% of reading grades were C’s, 26.6% of math and 26.9% of reading grades were B’s, and 35.3% of math and 34% of reading grades were A’s, according to CPS data.
Among high school students, 13% of math grades and 11.9% of reading grades were F’s, 11.4% of math and 10.1% of reading grades were D’s; 15.9% of math and 14.4% of reading grades were C’s; 23.7% of math and 21.8% of reading grades were B’s; and 36% of math and 41.8% of reading grades were A’s.
“Overall we are seeing that students were assigned more A’s, but also more F’s relative to last year,” McDade said.
Last year, for example, 9.5% of high school math grades were F’s and 29.2% were A’s.
Advertisement
While the trend holds true for all students, African American and Latino students, the most likely to live in neighborhoods that have dealt with the city’s highest COVID-19 rates, had the largest increases in failing marks for reading and math, according to data provided by the district.
Students experiencing homelessness were assigned the lowest proportion of passing grades across core subjects.
“What is clear ... is that we continue to struggle with the issue of equity,” McDade said. “Our African American, Latinx and students in priority groups have not been served well enough by remote learning to experience success. While there is room for improvements of remote learning, we must also push hard to open our classrooms so we can ensure greater access.”
Many students need supports and services beyond academics that can’t be provided in a remote environment, she said. McDade said the district will conduct a “root cause analysis” to identify barriers to student success.
In the meantime, CPS is expanding its “learning hub” child supervision sites and planning for potential reopening starting in January. The plan would have students in prekindergarten and special education clusters return Jan. 11, to be joined by other elementary grades Feb. 1. Opt-in forms are due Nov. 23, and remote learning will continue to be an option.
The district will “evaluate opportunities” to bring back high school students later in 2021, McDade said.
Advertisement
“We will reopen schools safely and responsibly, and only if our public health officials deem it’s safe to do so, but we have a moral responsibility to do everything possible to bring our children back into the classroom,” McDade said. “Our students are hurting right now, especially our most vulnerable students.”
District staff on Wednesday provided more details about the testing plans they’re still developing, which include attempting to measure prevalence among asymptomatic school-based staff.
CPS and the Chicago Department of Public Health are working on a COVID-19 testing plan that they say will be ready by the time in-person learning resumes. The outline includes regular “surveillance testing” of staff using a rapid testing system developed by Abbott called BinaxNOW.
BinaxNOW, in use at many other schools and universities nationwide, involves a nasal swab that can be inserted into a test card, which provides results within 15 minutes. It’s designed to be linked with an app that gives temporary digital passes to people who test negative.
Marielle Fricchione, a pediatrics and infectious disease specialist with city health department, said the testing options are changing daily, but the current plan involves the BinaxNOW cards that will be provided through the federal government.
The district expects to receive 30,000 COVID-19 test cards by early December, which CDPH believes will be enough for the rest of the school year, according to a presentation to the school board.
Advertisement
In order to proceed with its phased-in reopening plan, CPS has set a case doubling time of 18 days as the metric to watch. Currently, the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Chicago is doubling every 12 days, and the Chicago Department of Public Health and CPS believe a 50% improvement would allow for safe reopening.
Fricchione said health officials looked at local data from the first wave of the pandemic along with data from other countries that have already experienced more than one wave. Doubling time seems to be a good indicator of community spread stabilizing and the curve flattening, she said.
“The essential point there is that teachers aren’t walking in the door sick ... and the fewer people that are walking in the door sick, the less contact tracing needs to happen,” Fricchione said.
The current staffing and resources necessary to trace thousands of cases a day is not sustainable, she said.
“When you look at some of these schools that are open, they are pausing or stopping because they can’t sustain the mitigation strategies, not because there’s transmission in schools,” Fricchione said. “And so we want to get to that point where the curve is flattening.”
Noting that different metrics such as percent positivity had been cited in earlier reopening conversations, Board of Education President Miguel del Valle asked if any other factors will be used besides doubling time. Fricchione indicated additional facts would be considered but didn’t have a definitive answer on what those may be.
Advertisement
“We talk nearly every day about the trajectory of this outbreak, and new data comes out every single day and we review it and try to make sense of it,” Fricchione said. “... It absolutely may change, and I think communicating that we are committed to reviewing all data as it comes in may be more important than sort of sticking to one metric.”
But if the doubling time hasn’t improved from what it is today, schools cannot reopen, she said.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 8,922 new COVID-19 cases and 140 more fatalities reported as state

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 8,922 new COVID-19 cases and 140 more fatalities reported as state passes grim milestone of 11,000 deaths; Lightfoot to launch new testing site at Midway

How is this possible ?
Are Eleanor and her friends hitting the road ?
No .
What McGowan Tracy has @ @ @ @ @ filmed version of last year ’ s show — recorded at the Greenhouse Theater Center @ @ @ @ @ package to sell this year .
The idea is that product-starved arts centers can then @ @ @ @ @ attraction as , in essence , one of their own creations .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ Tracy gets to sell her show all across the country , the pandemic-stricken arts centers @ @ @ @ @ box office without incurring many expenses , and the actors and crew get paid all @ @ @ @ @ need the cash .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
For the latest updates, click here for Thursday’s live blog.
Illinois’ COVID-19 death toll topped 11,000 on Wednesday, already meeting a projection the state’s top public health official recently gave for the entire year.
Advertisement
Officials reported 140 additional deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the state-reported death toll to 11,014 over the course of the pandemic.
Officials also reported 8,922 newly diagnosed and probable coronavirus cases, the first time the daily statewide case tally has dipped below 10,000 since Nov. 5. That sent the statewide known and probable case count past 600,000, with 606,771 cases reported throughout the course of the pandemic.
Advertisement
On Tuesday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced he is imposing new restrictions in Illinois, limiting capacity at retail shops and shutting down casinos, museums and other indoor entertainment venues.
The targeted restrictions are part of the state’s latest effort to slow the surging coronavirus.
Just ahead of the busiest shopping season of the year, retailers will be under a 25% capacity limit, down from the current 50%. A 50% capacity limit will remain for grocery stores, but big-box chains such as Walmart and Target that include groceries will be subject to the lower limit.
[ New coronavirus restrictions: What will be open, closed, different in Illinois starting Friday ]
In addition to putting restrictions on a variety of industries, Pritzker is pleading with the public to avoid unnecessary gatherings, particularly next week for Thanksgiving.
“This is not a stay-at-home order,” he said. “But the best way for us to avoid a stay-at-home order is to stay home.”
The new measures do not affect schools, and decisions will continue to be left up to local districts. Chicago Public Schools Tuesday announced that it will continue to provide classes through remote learning until after the winter break, but then plans to begin bringing students back on Jan. 11.
Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:54 p.m.: As grades and attendance slip, CPS places hopes on schools reopening, citing risk of ‘losing an entire generation of students’
With hard return dates for elementary school students contingent upon the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Public Schools officials are challenged by how to improve on poor attendance rates they saw during the remote fall quarter.
Advertisement
“The consequences here are not theoretical,” said Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade. “Research tells us that if we do not act with urgency, we will be in danger of losing an entire generation of students. It is often said that access to health care should be a fundamental right of all people. Well, the same holds true for a high-quality education.”
During Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting, McDade presented data on attendance and grades for fall quarter, which ended the first week of November. Read more here. — Hannah Leone
5:51 p.m.: COVID-19 now third leading cause of death in Illinois, officials say, as toll surpasses 11,000
Illinois’ COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began topped 11,000 on Wednesday, and the disease is now the third-leading cause of death in the state, behind heart disease and cancer, according to state public health officials.
The 140 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 reported Wednesday pushed the total to 11,014, already meeting a projection state public health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike gave in late October when she said the state was “on a path to see more than 11,000 COVID deaths in Illinois this year.” Read more here. — Jamie Munks and Dan Petrella
4:36 p.m.: A surge in COVID-19 cases has Chicago retailers facing new restrictions, just as holiday shopping season hits
Retailers were starting to see shoppers return to stores this fall. Now, a surge in COVID-19 cases has brought new restrictions, just as Chicago-area stores were gearing up for the busiest shopping season of the year.
Starting Friday, Illinois retailers and malls will be limited to 25% of their usual capacity, down from 50%. Grocery stores and pharmacies will be able to operate at half capacity, but big box chains selling some grocery and pharmacy items will also face the tighter limits.
Advertisement
The changes follow stay-at-home advisories announced last week in Chicago and Cook County urging residents to voluntarily remain home as much as possible, which some small business owners worry could become mandatory. Read more here. — Lauren Zumbach and Robert Channick
4:30 p.m.: Warren Township High School District officials skeptical in-person classes will resume Jan. 5; ‘We want to follow the data as it is’
With COVID-19 cases on the rise throughout Illinois, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker announcing the state will be moving back to its Tier 3 mitigation plan, Warren Township High School District 121 still tentatively plans to welcome students back for in-person classes for the second semester on Jan. 5.
However, Superintendent John Ahlgrim and members of the Board of Education suggested this week that chances of that happening are highly unlikely.
”There’s a lot of districts that have already announced that they’re not even going to attempt the two weeks after winter break, just with traveling and then having to quarantine upon return,” board member Tony DeMonte said at the virtually held regular board meeting on Tuesday. “Is (Jan. 5) even realistic? Or is it two weeks from there that’s the more realistic date?”
The meeting was held the same day that Pritzker announced the new mitigation plan, which limits the amount of people that can be in retail spaces, health and fitness centers, offices, bars and restaurants. Read the full story. — Erin Yarnall, Lake County News-Sun
4:27 p.m.: Aurora surpasses 10,000 COVID-19 cases, 150 deaths
Aurora this week surpassed 10,000 cases of COVID-19 and 150 related deaths since the pandemic started, new city data shows.
Advertisement
In the wake of those rising numbers, Mayor Richard Irvin made an emotional plea Tuesday night for residents to take the virus seriously. Read more here. — Steve Lord and Sarah Freishtat, Aurora Beacon-News
3:18 p.m.: Overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, hospitals start converting chapels, cafeterias, parking garages: ‘We’re in trouble’
Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers.
Conditions inside the nation’s hospitals are deteriorating by the day as the coronavirus rages across the U.S. at an unrelenting pace.
“We are depressed, disheartened and tired to the bone,” said Alison Johnson, director of critical care at Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, adding that she drives to and from work some days in tears.
The number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 in the U.S. has doubled in the past month and set new records every day this week. As of Tuesday, more than 76,000 were hospitalized with the virus.
Read more here. —Associated Press
Advertisement
1:30 p.m.: Mental health issues more likely to affect communities of color during the holidays: ‘This is the time where people can bottom out’
Public stressors created by the pandemic often worsen for people in the communities most impacted, said Dr. Aderonke Bamgbose Pederson, instructor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Data has shown that people of color for example are more likely to get the coronavirus.
“When we look at this year, racial trauma is a compound stressor,” she said. “You have multiple different stressors in terms of the pandemic that disproportionately affects these communities already at greater risk.”
Multigenerational family households are also more common in Black and Hispanic communities, she said. The pandemic adds pressure in families with members at high risk, creating different levels of burden.
Read more here. —Darcel Rockett and Jessica Villagomez
1:15 p.m.: Mayor Lori Lightfoot to launch new COVID-19 testing site at Midway Airport
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will launch a new COVID-19 testing site at Midway Airport as part of the city’s effort to fight the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases.
The city also will be moving a testing site at Dr. Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy on the Northwest Side to Charles A. Prosser Career Academy. Lightfoot also will work with Curative, a testing company, to provide materials to make it easier to do testing during cold weather.
Advertisement
The city’s current 7-day rolling average is 2,351, up from 1,853 a week ago. The number of tests administered has gone up to 16,259 from a 7-day rolling average of 14,795.
The city has awarded $14 million in grants to community groups to expand testing and contact tracing, and the city has provided 40,000 rapid tests to community health centers, officials said.
Lightfoot’s testing site at Midway will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 6 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., officials said. Other testing sites will remain open at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Gately Park.
“Chicago is setting new testing records every day and it is our highest priority to ensure that testing remains equitably accessible and available to Chicago’s most vulnerable residents,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “We will continue to work with partners and direct resources to the communities who have been hit the hardest by this pandemic.”
—Gregory Pratt
1:13 p.m.: Illinois surpasses 11,000 COVID-19 deaths as officials report another 140 fatalities and 8,922 newly confirmed and probable cases
Illinois' COVID-19 death toll topped 11,000 on Wednesday, already meeting a projection the state’s top public health official recently gave for the entire year.
Advertisement
Officials reported 140 additional deaths of people with COVID-19, raising the state-reported death toll to 11,014 over the course of the pandemic.
On Oct. 26, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the state was “on a path to see more than 11,000 COVID deaths in Illinois this year.”
Officials also reported 8,922 newly diagnosed and probable coronavirus cases, the first time the daily statewide case tally has dipped below 10,000 since Nov. 5. That sent the statewide known and probable case count past 600,000, with 606,771 cases reported throughout the course of the pandemic.
The new and probable cases reported Wednesday come from a batch of 103,569 tests. The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 11.9% for the period ending Tuesday, a slight decline from a day earlier.
The state public health department reported a 12.5% positivity rate on both Monday and Tuesday. The rate surpassed 13% late week after climbing steadily for weeks. A month ago, the statewide positivity rate for cases was 5.3%, and it was 8% as of Nov. 1.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to rise. As of Tuesday night, 5,953 people across the state were in the hospital with the illness, with 1,146 in intensive care units and 547 on ventilators.
Advertisement
—Jamie Munks
11:17 a.m.: Naperville council tells city staff to draft rules making face masks mandatory
A citywide face mask mandate could be in the hands of the Naperville City Council for review as soon as Dec. 1.
Mayor Steve Chirico on Tuesday asked the council if they would consider requiring masks as a means of tamping down the rising number of coronavirus cases.
Council members directed City Attorney Michael DiSanto to gather documentation to be presented at the Dec. 1 meeting on regulations that could be drafted requiring all residents and visitors in Naperville to wear a mask in public.
Chirico said local COVID-19 numbers are staggering, and if face-covering regulations will help reduce it, he’s all for it.
Read more here. —Suzanne Baker
Advertisement
8:33 a.m.: Not again: Toilet paper limits, empty shelves return as COVID-19 surges
Looking for toilet paper? Good luck.
A surge of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is sending people back to stores to stockpile again, leaving shelves bare and forcing retailers to put limits on purchases.
Walmart said Tuesday it’s having trouble keeping up with demand for cleaning supplies in some stores. Supermarket chains Kroger and Publix are limiting how much toilet paper and paper towels shoppers can buy after demand spiked recently. And Amazon is sold out of most disinfectant wipes and paper towels.
Read more here. —Associated Press
6:54 a.m.: Chicago holds online classes to remind businesses, workers about job protections for those with COVID-19
Chicago’s Office of Labor Standards was set to hold online classes Wednesday and Thursday about job protections for people who stay home from work because of having COVID-19, according to the mayor’s office.
The city’s Anti-Retaliation Ordinance and coronavirus-related public health orders, city residents are required to stay home from work if they have COVID-19 or symptoms of the disease, according to a news release. Employers are barred from “firing, demoting or retaliating in any way against” a worker for being absent from work because of having the coronavirus.
Advertisement
Wednesday and Thursday’s online classes will explain employers' responsibilities and workers' rights under the city’s regulations. The classes are being offered in Spanish and English, and are set for 10 a.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Thursday.
To sign up for the classes or learn more, check the city’s website: chicago.gov/laborstandards
—Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine 95% effective, will seek approval for emergency use from FDA
Pfizer says that more interim results from its ongoing coronavirus vaccine study suggest the shots are 95% effective and that the vaccine protects older people most at risk of dying from COVID-19.
The announcement, just a week after Pfizer first revealed promising preliminary results, comes as the company is preparing within days to formally ask U.S. regulators to allow emergency use of the vaccine.
Pfizer initially had estimated its vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, was more than 90% effective after 94 infections had been counted. With Wednesday’s announcement, the company now has accumulated 170 infections in the study — and said only eight of them occurred in volunteers who got the actual vaccine rather than a dummy shot. One of those eight developed severe disease, the company said.
Advertisement
The company has not yet released detailed data on its study, and results have not been analyzed by independent experts.
Read more here. —Associated Press
5:30 a.m.: The same holiday show will stream in Chicago, Kansas and Montana — a pandemic-era lesson from Trader Joe’s?
In 2019, a Chicago producer and live-event specialist named Denise McGowan Tracy staged a self-authored holiday show at the Greenhouse Theater Center. The kid-centered production, “Eleanor’s Merry Christmas Wish — The Musical,” played in a theater seating 175 people. It struggled to compete with many other long-established holiday shows in Chicago. The holiday season traditionally is very lucrative but it’s also highly competitive.
For this year, “Eleanor” has returned and expanded her reach. Big time.
She is also on the 2020 holiday docket at the McCain Auditorium in Manhattan, Kan., the Mother Lode Theatre in Butte, Mont., the Appell Center in York, Penn., the Weill Center in Sheboygan, Wisc., and many other locales from Texas to Maine.
How is this possible? Are Eleanor and her friends hitting the road? No. What McGowan Tracy has done is to take a filmed version of last year’s show — recorded at the Greenhouse Theater Center — and created an online package to sell this year. The idea is that product-starved arts centers can then offer their subscribers this holiday attraction as, in essence, one of their own creations. It’s a win-win-win in that McGowan Tracy gets to sell her show all across the country, the pandemic-stricken arts centers get a cut of the box office without incurring many expenses, and the actors and crew get paid all over again just when they need the cash.
Advertisement
Read more here. — Chris Jones
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are some recent stories related to COVID-19.


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--COVID-19 now third-leading cause of death in Illinois, officials say, as toll surpasses 11,000

“ It means we ’ re in bad shape , and that is part of the reason we had to @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve taken , because if we ’ ve exceeded all of our projections by @ @ @ @ @ the numbers for the end of the year would just be untenable , ” Ezike @ @ @ @ @ daily coronavirus briefing in Chicago .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois’ COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began topped 11,000 on Wednesday, and the disease is now the third-leading cause of death in the state, behind heart disease and cancer, according to state public health officials.
The 140 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 reported Wednesday pushed the total to 11,014, already meeting a projection state public health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike gave in late October when she said the state was “on a path to see more than 11,000 COVID deaths in Illinois this year.”
Advertisement
“It means we’re in bad shape, and that is part of the reason we had to take the steps that we’ve taken, because if we’ve exceeded all of our projections by more than six weeks, the numbers for the end of the year would just be untenable,” Ezike said at Wednesday’s daily coronavirus briefing in Chicago.
The state is seeing an average of 83 COVID-19 deaths per day. The average number of deaths of people with the illness was 20 on Sept. 18. During the initial coronavirus surge in the spring, the average number of deaths per day in Illinois reached 118.
Advertisement
Unlike in the spring surge, a higher share of the deaths are in less populated parts of the state. Rural and small town counties are seeing per capita death rates twice those in the most populated counties in the state, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday.
A day after he announced the state was clamping down on a wide array of businesses and activities starting Friday in an attempt to contain the powerful fall resurgence, Pritzker again highlighted projections indicating that without interventions the state before March 1 could see deaths rise to four or five times the level of the spring surge.
Separately on Wednesday, state Sen. Tom Cullerton, a Villa Park Democrat, announced that the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee would convene next week for a virtual hearing on the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at the state-run veterans home in LaSalle.
The outbreak has spread rapidly since residents, families and staff were first notified on Nov. 1 that two residents and two staff members had tested positive for COVID-19. As of Wednesday, 98 residents and 93 staff members had tested positive since the start of the pandemic, with all but a handful of cases part of the current outbreak. Twenty-three veterans have died.
Cullerton led similar hearings on a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Quincy Veterans Home during Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s single term.
Ezike last week said behaviors such as “getting together with co-workers on breaks for lunch, not maintaining distance, going out for lunch breaks outside without distance, without masks … led to a recent outbreak at a long-term care facility.” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh confirmed Ezike was referring to the LaSalle Veterans Home.
The coronavirus spread rapidly through long-term care facilities this spring, but Ezike said Wednesday that the infection rates in those facilities are comparatively low.
“For the people over 60, one-third of them are from long-term care but two-thirds of them are not in long-term care, which means they’re from the community and got it from regular community spread. So I think we’re continuing to do a good job with keeping those numbers, so far, down,” Ezike said. “They were unfortunately ravaged in the spring.”
Advertisement
Officials on Wednesday also reported 8,922 newly diagnosed and probable coronavirus cases, the first time the daily statewide case tally has dipped below 10,000 since Nov. 5. That sent the statewide known and probable case count past 600,000, with 606,771 cases reported throughout the course of the pandemic.
The new and probable cases reported Wednesday come from a batch of 103,569 tests. The seven-day statewide positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 11.9% for the period ending Tuesday, a slight decline from a day earlier. The state public health department reported a 12.5% positivity rate on both Monday and Tuesday. The rate surpassed 13% last week after climbing steadily for weeks.
A month ago, the statewide positivity rate for cases was 5.3%, and it was 8% as of Nov. 1.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to rise. As of Tuesday night, 5,953 people across the state were in the hospital with the illness, with 1,146 in intensive care units and 547 on ventilators.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Early Christmas boost for 2020

Early Christmas boost for 2020

The holiday season is n't canceled !
COVID-19 can not stop us from getting gifts for all of our loved @ @ @ @ @ grandparents , single friends and even self-lovers .
Let our 2020 Gift Guide make your @ @ @ @ @ Our editorial staff compiled this report independently .
Tribune Publishing may earn a commission if @ @ @ @ @ one of the affiliate links .

This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. By remaining on this website, you indicate your consent.


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--The Spin: U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger says GOP ‘waiting’ for Trump to accept results | Mayor Lori Light

The Spin: U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger says GOP ‘waiting’ for Trump to accept results | Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she will spend Thanksgiving apart from her mother | Dr. Scott Atlas’ Chicago roots

“ ( W ) e ’ re asking families to keep it close , just in your household , which @ @ @ @ @ recognize that , ” Lightfoot told reporters at a news conference .
“ I would @ @ @ @ @ mother who , you know , when you ’ re that age , you don @ @ @ @ @ days in front as you do behind .
And it ’ s going to be @ @ @ @ @ be celebrating a holiday without her .
But we ’ ve talked , and she @ @ @ @ @ , ‘ It ’ s not safe .
I ’ m going to stay home @ @ @

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the sole Chicago-area Republican in the Illinois congressional delegation, said he has congratulated Democrat Joe Biden on his victory over President Donald Trump. Many of his GOP colleagues are slow to join him, he tells CNN, because “I think it’s just a matter of a lot of people waiting out until, you know, the president comes to terms with this.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposal to hike property taxes is facing strong headwinds from aldermen whose constituents have lost jobs as the pandemic tanked the economy. But today the measure cleared a key hurdle with the City Council Finance Committee OK’ing it by a 21-12 vote.
Advertisement
Whether the mayor has the 26 votes to get her larger budget proposal, which includes the $94 million property tax hike, approved in the coming days will be a test of whether she’s built the bridges necessary to ink the deal while making good on a vow to improve the communities and fortunes of those living in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
And a little trivia: Long before he dismissed the effectiveness of mask wearing, discounted lockdown orders to curb COVID-19′s spread and became President Donald Trump’s pick to join the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Scott Atlas was a Chicago guy. He was born here, went on to be a celebrated University of Illinois alum and earned his M.D. at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
Advertisement
In recent days he’s come under fire for suggesting people “rise up” after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — already the target of an alleged violent kidnapping plot that was foiled this fall — announced a new round of coronavirus restrictions there.
Welcome to The Spin.
Ann Lightfoot, mother of Lori Lightfoot, in Massillon, Ohio, in 2019. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois’ COVID-19 death toll topped 11,000 on Wednesday, already meeting a projection the state’s top public health official recently gave for the entire year, the Tribune’s Jamie Munks writes.
And the virus is the third largest cause of death at this rate — behind heart disease and cancer, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced today. The state reported nearly 9,000 new or probable cases were diagnosed in the last 24 hours and 140 more deaths.
Lightfoot on her own Thanksgiving plans: As Gov. Pritzker shared yesterday, his immediate family will be in different states on Thanksgiving, in part, because he doesn’t feel he can leave Illinois with COVID-19 surging. Today, Mayor Lightfoot shared that her beloved mother Ann Lightfoot won’t be traveling from Ohio to Chicago for the holiday, in keeping with experts’ guidance that people from separate households avoid spending the holidays under a single roof to curb the spread of the virus.
“(W)e’re asking families to keep it close, just in your household, which is really hard and I recognize that,” Lightfoot told reporters at a news conference. “I would normally be welcoming my 92-year-old mother who, you know, when you’re that age, you don’t have as many days in front as you do behind. And it’s going to be very, very difficult to be celebrating a holiday without her. But we’ve talked, and she understands and really told me, ‘It’s not safe. I’m going to stay home.’ ”
Pritzker among bipartisan group of seven governors to pen Washington Post Op-Ed, headlined “Americans need to stay home this Thanksgiving.” Read it here.
Mayor Lightfoot to launch new COVID-19 testing site at Midway Airport: The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt has the story here.
Advertisement
Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine 95% effective, will seek approval for emergency use from FDA, The Associated Press reports.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot at The Terminal project site in Chicago on Nov. 9, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s John Byrne: Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $94 million property tax increase — part of a larger budget plan aimed at closing a $1.2 billion gap — cleared a key City Council hurdle Wednesday, setting up a vote in the full council next week.
While the mayor has been struggling to get the 26 votes needed to pass the spending plan, today’s vote may signal she’s making headway, the Chicago Sun-Times Fran Spielman reports.
The pushback on the property tax was evident at the Finance Committee hearing with even Southwest Side Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, who largely has been quiet in council meetings since his 2019 indictment on federal bribery counts, panned it. His presentation recalled decades of prosecutorial performances in committee meetings with a close questioning of the Lightfoot budget team’s reasoning.
During an unrelated news conference today, the mayor wouldn’t speculate on whether she had the 26 votes — “I take nothing for granted” — or if she might have to cast a rare tiebreaking vote if the 50-member council is evenly divided between “yes” and “no” votes.
Lightfoot’s $3.7 billion, 5-year roads and bridges proposal, out today, could sweeten the pot, Gregory Pratt reports.
Advertisement
Short-term, long-term political benefits: “Lightfoot officials said they would work with aldermen on projects, an olive branch of sorts to the City Council at a time when the mayor is struggling to lock in 26 votes for her 2021 budget plan,” Pratt writes. “The move also gives her a signature spending plan to point to if she runs for reelection and a way to create jobs for residents.”
Read more here about the plan, which will require the city to borrow money for projects and mandate on most projects that at least half of the staff live in Chicago, officials said.
Other news: Chicago considers changes to emergency mental-health response as recent police cases highlight the issue — My Tribune colleagues Annie Sweeney and Jeremy Gorner have the deep dive here.
Cook County’s Vital Records Division in Chicago is on the move. Residents needing copies of birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, assumed business names and notary services will no longer have to travel to the depths of the Daley Center. Now it will be in the Cook County Building, which is adjacent to City Hall, at 118 N. Clark St. in Room 120.
The relocation comes as the Cook County Clerk’s Office and the county’s Register of Deeds officially become a single office, as approved by voters in a 2016 referendum. The Clerk’s Office will officially assume the duties of the Recorder of Deeds Office on December 7. The Clerk’s Vital Records Satellite locations remain open in suburban Cook County at the five suburban courthouse locations in Markham, Bridgeview, Maywood, Rolling Meadows and Skokie or some records can be ordered online at cookcountyclerk.com/VitalRecords.
FAA approves Boeing 737 Max to fly again, a milestone for the Chicago-based company, The Associated Press reports.
Advertisement
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
State Sen. Daniel Biss, at the Capitol in 2013, has taken to Twitter to promote his version of a Democratic alternative to fix state government's money woes. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)
Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss is throwing his hat in the ring to run for Evanston mayor.
Genevieve Bookwalter reported in September that he planned to mount a bid for the office. Incumbent Mayor Steve Hagerty is not running for reelection, he announced in recent weeks.
Biss, a resident of Evanston since 2006, ran in the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary where he finished second to eventual winner J.B. Pritzker.
Today, he announced he’s running, on Twitter, stating in part: “As we cope with a pandemic and its ensuing economic downturn and devastating human costs, while beginning a long-overdue reckoning with the racial injustice, municipal policies are more critical than ever. I’m running for mayor because a progressive community like Evanston should be at the forefront, leading the nation into a more equitable era.”
THREAD: I’ve made a big decision: I’m running for mayor of Evanston! — Daniel Biss (@DanielBiss) November 18, 2020
Gov. Mancow Muller? Shock jock mulls politics, among other things, as he exits WLS-AM gig: Polarizing shock jock Mancow Muller announced yesterday he’s leaving his radio home at Chicago’s WLS-AM 890, my Tribune colleague Rick Kogan reports.
Advertisement
What’s next? “I have been approached by a number of people willing to bankroll a political run as a Republican,” he told Kogan. “Some people would like me to run for governor, but don’t all of our governors wind up in jail? Willie Wilson and his people would like to see me jump into politics,” he said with a reference to businessman Wilson, who just lost a U.S. Senate bid to Democrat incumbent Dick Durbin. Read the full story here.
Kim Brooks’ months-old and amazing profile of Wilson, who’s becoming a fixture in the also-ran world of Illinois politics, in Chicago Magazine makes mention of Muller. He showed up at Sunday service, pre-pandemic, in a Roseland church where Wilson had made a stop.
A Wilson aide said Muller has “been the target of some controversy. But he’s a deeply religious person. He comes to church every week.”
Brooks writes: “I was going to ask Muller how he became a Wilson acolyte, but I thought better of it when I realized he was crying — evidently moved by the music and, presumably, by Wilson himself when he stood up to preach ...”
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks during a gun violence hearing on Oct. 3, 2019, at Kennedy King College. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
U.S. Rep. Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran and Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard, is blasting the president’s decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq by late January.
“For President Trump to announce his plan to remove troops from Afghanistan goes against the recommendations of Pentagon officials, and contradicts what he said in 2016 about fighting terrorism. This is what then-President Obama did in Iraq and it was also a grave mistake,” Kinzinger, who hails from Channahon, wrote in a statement on Twitter.
Advertisement
Kinzinger also discussed it in his CNN interview, saying at this point it should be left up to Biden to decide how to handle Afghanistan. Read the CNN story here.
Removing U.S. troops from #Afghanistan without conditions is a mistake. It was a mistake when Obama did it in Iraq in 2011 (which led to our return to fight ISIS) and it’s a mistake now, @POTUS.
My full statement here: pic.twitter.com/D1O0tsyH2R — Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) November 17, 2020
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas speaks as President Donald Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany listen during a news conference at the White House on Sept. 16, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Dr. Scott Atlas was a regular on Fox News before President Trump tapped him in August to serve on the task force guiding the nation’s COVID-19, the AP reports.
He drew harsh criticism after his Sunday night tweet urging people to “rise up” in response to the Michigan governor’s newly announced restrictions. The comment drew backlash from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the target of an alleged kidnapping plot that resulted in charges against more than a dozen men.
Atlas is on a leave of absence from Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution, where he is a senior fellow. A recent curriculum vitae lists his birthplace as Chicago. His Stanford biography also shows he has more Illinois ties, having earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He even received the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award — and he has his doctor of medicine from the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
Atlas did not respond to an email seeking comment, and a White House spokesman did not return a call.
But Stanford University issued a statement this week after Atlas’ “rise up” tweet. It reads in part: “Dr. Atlas has expressed views that are inconsistent with the university’s approach in response to the pandemic. Dr. Atlas’s statements reflect his personal views, not those of the Hoover Institution or the university.”
Advertisement
The University of Chicago didn’t mention him by name, but issued a statement after I asked about his views and connections to the school: “The University of Chicago has focused throughout the pandemic on supporting the health of our campus and surrounding communities and limiting the spread of the virus, informed by infectious disease experts and in accordance with federal, state and local guidelines. For example, everyone on campus must agree to uphold the ‘UChicago Health Pact’ including wearing a face covering, practicing social distancing, and adhering to other public health requirements.”
Programming note: I’ll be off the next two days but The Spin will be in the able hands of my colleagues. See you Monday.
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


Corrections and clarifications

Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune ’ s news responsibility and a value @ @ @ @ @ .
Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards .
Everyone in @ @ @ @ @ live up to this code of conduct .
Download the file .

· Some parts of a food story about rustic spinach pie were inadvertently cut off in some early Wednesday editions of the Health & Family section.
The Tribune regrets the error.
Advertisement
Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
To report an error, fill out this form.


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--After years of student activism, Park District officially makes name change to Douglass Park

“ I look forward to having that name prominently displayed in and around the community , ” Scott added .
@ @ @ @ @ community meeting the other day and people were talking about , when is this going @ @ @ @ @ this going to happen ?
And today is that day .
”

Douglass Park finally has its extra “s.”
The Chicago Park District voted Wednesday to officially change the name of the West Side park to honor the renowned abolitionists Anna and Frederick Douglass.
Advertisement
The unprecedented renaming follows a yearslong effort from students at Village Leadership Academy to name the park after Frederick Douglass, rather than Stephen A. Douglas — a U.S. senator from Illinois who in the mid-1800s advocated that voters should decide the legality of slavery rather than abolish it and also profited from his wife’s ownership of a Mississippi slave plantation.
The effort, started in 2017, expanded this year to name the park not only after Frederick Douglass but also his wife, Anna Murray Douglass, who organizers said “was an abolitionist in her own right.”
Advertisement
An extra "s" has been painted on a sign for Douglas Park on July 22, 2020, in Chicago. The park, named after U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, has now been renamed after abolitionists Anna and Frederick Douglass. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Over the years, students canvassed in North Lawndale, collected petition signatures, presented in CTA stations and spoke out at Park District meetings. Two “vandals” recently told WBEZ about their contribution to the effort — adding an extra “s” to the park’s signs before the Park District took action.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Village Leadership Academy students appeared on video to speak about finally seeing their campaign accomplished.
“For those tuning in today, maybe for the first time, please know you are about to witness history,” said Jazzmin Johnson, one of the student organizers.
“We are excited to see our hard work and dedication inspire others to show that you can be part of something that will make a difference,” she said. “Adults often say children are the future. But take notice of what we’re accomplishing right now.”
Raniya Thomas also spoke of firsts.
“For the first time since the park was founded in 1869, it will reflect a legacy rooted in resilience, liberation and freedom,” Thomas said. “The park will no longer bear the name of a slaveholder or white supremacist. Now, Black boys and girls like me can walk around the park knowing that it’s named after freedom fighters like Anna and Frederick Douglass.”
Student Zahir Mbengue spoke about the effort’s evolution to include Anna Douglass and her role in helping Frederick Douglass escape from slavery.
“Too often, all over the world, women’s work and historic contributions aren’t acknowledged as much as men’s,” he said. “We know this is especially true of Black women, who have been the foundation or backbone and engine of many social and political movements.”
Advertisement
Ald. Michael Scott, 24th, called into the meeting and thanked the Park District and the students at Village Leadership Academy for their persistence.
Scott, once a supervisor at Douglas Park, said he always hoped to see the naming corrected. “But as you know in the process that we’ve gone through, it is not as easy to change the name of a park,” Scott said.
“I look forward to having that name prominently displayed in and around the community,” Scott added. “I was in a community meeting the other day and people were talking about, when is this going to happen, when is this going to happen? And today is that day.”
Park District President Avis LaVelle said the board was “responding to the will of the community.”
“It took a while for us to hear it, it took a while for us to act on it, but the voices were persistent and the work got done,” she said.
Advertisement
After the meeting, the students said they were feeling “great,” “amazing” and “happy.”
“It just shows that our work paid off and you can do anything you set your mind to,” Mbengue said.
Thomas said her greatest challenge over the years was hearing “no” as an answer. “You’re trying to do something right and people really don’t want to make time to help,” she said. “It takes a long time to do things like this.”
Bianca Jones, who launched the project with her fifth grade class in the spring of 2017, said this group of student organizers was “just so willing to go for it.”
“They are not afraid of rejection. They never felt overwhelmed or intimidated by the Park District or any of the bureaucracy," Jones said. "And they really got this done.”
Advertisement
Jennifer Pagán, who also helped guide the students in the campaign, credited the change finally moving forward to this summer — “a historic moment of global uprising.”
Parks with numbers or trees as names had previously had their titles changed, and the Park District has faced pushback over some proposed changes, but there was no precedent for stripping and replacing a historical figure’s name from a park.
In August, the district began the process of updating its naming procedures. The new rules split the process into two parts — a period for name removal and then one for choosing a new name.
Dayo Harris, principal of Village Leadership Academy, said the students’ accomplishment is an example of the importance of liberatory education. “For us, it’s really important that our young people understand now that they have agency, that there’s power in their voice and activism,” Harris said. “And that, as Zahir said earlier, they can do anything that they put their minds to.”
mgreene@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--A surge in COVID-19 cases has Chicago retailers facing new restrictions, just as holiday shopping se

A surge in COVID-19 cases has Chicago retailers facing new restrictions, just as holiday shopping season hits

Bigger businesses have been investing in technology that makes waiting less of a pain .
Brookfield Properties malls , including @ @ @ @ @ Center , let customers join a virtual line at some stores so they can shop @ @ @ @ @ their turn to enter .
So do Target and Lululemon , and Best Buy uses @ @ @ @ @ keep lines from forming in stores while customers wait to get help from an employee @ @ @ @ @ .

James Cavicchia, right, with his son Joseph, 12, checks out Christmas gifts he bought at Toys et Cetera store in Hyde Park in Chicago on Nov. 18, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Retailers were starting to see shoppers return to stores this fall. Now a surge in COVID-19 cases has brought new restrictions, just as Chicago-area stores were gearing up for the busiest shopping season of the year.
Starting Friday, Illinois retailers and malls will be limited to 25% of their usual capacity, down from 50%. Grocery stores and pharmacies will be able to operate at half capacity, but big box chains selling some grocery and pharmacy items will also face the tighter limits.
Advertisement
The changes follow stay-at-home advisories announced last week in Chicago and Cook County urging residents to voluntarily remain home as much as possible, which some small-business owners worry could become mandatory.
At Bronzeville Boutique, a 30-year-old women’s fashion store on Chicago’s South Side, manager Imani Kutti is concerned the new capacity restrictions will scare away the dwindling ranks of in-store shoppers. The few shoppers who do come in often call ahead to make sure there’s room to navigate and try on clothes, and hours can go by without a single customer.
Advertisement
“Even though we are a small store, it still makes a difference,” Kutti said. “People are being told there can’t be that many customers inside, so they just assume they won’t be able to come here.”
Imani Kutti, 25, store manager of the Bronzeville Boutique in Chicago on Nov. 18, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
It’s one more challenge for retailers trying to recover sales lost when nonessential stores were forced to close their doors in an attempt to control the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers say they are more prepared, with upgraded websites and smoother curbside pickup. Many have started Black Friday deals earlier in November, to spread out crowds over a longer period.
Some say they are already voluntarily operating below the state’s 25% capacity limit. Walmart imposed a 20% cap, or about five customers per 1,000 square feet, in April. Foot traffic rarely reached that level, but the retailer has resumed counting the number of people entering and leaving stores “out of an abundance of caution,” spokesman Casey Staheli said.
J.C. Penney has closed some entrances and exits so employees can keep track of the number of people entering and leaving. Chicago-area stores are fairly large, so social distancing isn’t difficult, spokeswoman Kristen Bennett said in an email
Smaller shops said they haven’t been crowded, but Nancy Stanek, owner of Toys Et Cetera in Hyde Park, said the 25% limit could be an issue during busier days in December. Though she has seen lines of shoppers outside other stores, she isn’t sure her customers would be so patient, especially during a frigid Chicago winter.
She is encouraging people to shop early and “hoping and praying” to avoid another shutdown.
“I have to remain optimistic,” she said. “They’ve taken every other holiday from the kids, they can’t take Christmas away.”
Nancy Stanek, owner of Toys et Cetera store in Hyde Park in Chicago on Nov. 18, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Bigger businesses have been investing in technology that makes waiting less of a pain. Brookfield Properties malls, including Water Tower Place and Oakbrook Center, let customers join a virtual line at some stores so they can shop elsewhere until it’s their turn to enter. So do Target and Lululemon, and Best Buy uses a similar digital queue to keep lines from forming in stores while customers wait to get help from an employee, spokesman Matthew Smith said.
Advertisement
At Maya Papaya & Tony Macarony, a kids' clothing and gifts store in Evanston, owner Simone Oettinger was less concerned about capacity limits, since her store rarely gets more than a handful of shoppers at a time.
“I think people are scared enough they’re staying away,” she said.
The prospect of another full shutdown was far more troubling than the new capacity limits, particularly for smaller businesses worried big-box chains would be able to remain open as essential businesses.
“If you’re going to Target to buy toilet paper and you see a toy, you might as well buy it. … Each sale Target does off a nonessential item is a sale a small retailer is losing,” Oettinger said. “It’s very unfair.”
Others questioned a stay-at-home advisory and capacity restrictions that seemed to encourage stores to remain open while advising their customers to stay away.
“It seems like a cop-out,” said Claire Tibbs, who owns home goods store Humboldt House and kids’ shop Peach Fuzz in Humboldt Park.
Advertisement
If the stay-at-home advisory remains voluntary, rather than mandatory, she thinks small businesses will have a harder time getting financial assistance or convincing landlords to give them a break on rent. Her stores, and others in the community, were already voluntarily operating below half capacity.
Tibbs thinks another mandatory stay-at-home order is likely. But while she expects customers will move to her online store, as they did this spring, being forced to close during the holidays would require tougher decisions about her employees.
The shutdown in March hit during a slow period, when she typically only has one store manager. Going into the holidays, she has five employees, some working part-time.
If retailers have an advantage this time, it’s having gone through the first stay-at-home order this spring. Stores that were blindsided by the sudden loss of in-store traffic have since launched or streamlined low-contact services like curbside pickup and speedier home delivery.
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s have partnered with DoorDash to offer same-day home delivery from 500 stores and Best Buy has a similar partnership with Instacart. Target has made more items available for same-day home delivery and doubled the number of curbside pickup spots.
Smaller retailers upgraded online stores, including Bronzeville Boutique, which kept itself afloat during the pandemic by selling high-fashion masks online and get-out-the-vote T-shirts at Chicago protest rallies. It also began offering free same-day delivery.
Advertisement
At Timeless Toys in Lincoln Square, Scott Friedland added more of his store’s toys to his online shop and has been doing more giveaways and toy demos on social media. Online orders have accounted for about 25% of his sales this year, and he thinks they could hit 50% over the holidays, up from less than 2% during that period last year.
But it’s no replacement for in-store sales, he said.
“As a small toy store, we really rely on customer service, which is lost when you come online,” Friedland said.
Oettinger, at Maya Papaya & Toni Macaroni, plans to launch an easier-to-shop online store by Thanksgiving. “If I don’t, I’m dead,” she said.
Customers are also more prepared and know local shops may have online stores and other services like curbside pickup and in-person or virtual private shopping appointments, said Nancy Cummings, executive director of the La Grange Business Association.
Store owners and local business groups are encouraging shoppers to support neighborhood retailers this season, even if events like Black Friday and Small Business Saturday look different from usual.
Advertisement
The Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce is selling gift cards that can be redeemed at a range of local shops and restaurants, and the La Grange Business Association created a digital catalog featuring some of the top gifts from La Grange. There will be flash sales on Small Business Saturday, but customers can choose whether they want to shop in person or place an order for curbside pickup, Cummings said.
Anderson’s Bookshop, with stores in Naperville and Downers Grove, won’t hold its usual Small Business Saturday parties with treats and author events, but it will still encourage people to shop local. The new 25% capacity limit means shoppers may need to wait in line during busier periods, but event coordinator Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter thinks people who enjoy browsing in person will be willing to wait.
“If those are the rules, those are the rules,” she said. “I think people are used to the concept nowadays.”
lzumbach@chicagotribune.com
rchannick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Onetime observatory manager at the former John Hancock Center who offered ‘perv play’ tours for fath

Onetime observatory manager at the former John Hancock Center who offered ‘perv play’ tours for fathers and sons gets 15 years in child porn case

Forced out of the job after the publicity and with charges looming in Chicago , Colon moved to Oregon and @ @ @ @ @ a front-desk position with the Portland branch of the Ronald McDonald House , a charitable @ @ @ @ @ families of pediatric medical patients , prosecutors said .
He ’ d even been sent @ @ @ @ @ job , though he hadn ’ t actually started work .

A convicted sex offender who was fired from his job at the former John Hancock Center’s observatory after the Chicago Tribune revealed he was under federal investigation was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for possessing child pornography.
Christopher Colon, 40, pleaded guilty last year to one count of receiving images of child pornography. He was given the mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years during a hearing held via video link before U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland.
Advertisement
Rowland also ordered him to serve 30 years of court supervision once he’s released from custody.
“His behavior demonstrates the lengths and risks Colon is willing to take in pursuit of his predatory desire and aligns with the degree of danger posed to any community with children,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Malgorzata Kozaka wrote in a recent court filing.
Advertisement
Colon, who previously served time for a child pornography conviction in state court, was working as a tour manager at the observatory when the Tribune revealed in July 2018 that he was under federal investigation for new allegations involving child-sex fantasies.
Christopher Colon is shown in his 2017 photo on the Illinois State Police Sex Offender Registry. (Illinois State Police)
Forced out of the job after the publicity and with charges looming in Chicago, Colon moved to Oregon and applied in October 2018 for a front-desk position with the Portland branch of the Ronald McDonald House, a charitable organization that provides housing for families of pediatric medical patients, prosecutors said. He’d even been sent a letter offering him a job, though he hadn’t actually started work.
While in Portland, Colon had also registered as a babysitter on an online site called SitterCity.com, which connects parents with local sitters offering “in-home care,” according to prosecutors.
According to Colon’s 17-page plea agreement, he and an acquaintance shared files on an online messaging service depicting young boys and girls in various lewd poses. In September 2017, Colon met the acquaintance, identified only as Individual A, at a Walmart parking lot in Skokie, and the two watched child pornography together, according to the plea agreement.
In July 2018, the Tribune reported that an FBI search warrant affidavit unsealed in U.S. District Court revealed Colon, while organizing tours at the Hancock observatory, had been trying to connect online with other men who were into child pornography and “perv play.”
According to the affidavit, Colon had placed an ad on a popular travel website offering a free, private tour of the observatory at 875 North Michigan Avenue — as the Magnificent Mile skyscraper is now known — tailored especially for fathers and sons.
When a federal agent posing as a father of a 10-year-old boy reached out in December 2017, Colon said a private bathroom and office would be available during the Hancock tour “if you would like some special private time,” the affidavit said.
At the time, Colon was a registered sex offender because of his 2015 felony conviction in Cook County for possessing child pornography, records show.
Advertisement
A Tribune reporter who visited the observatory at the time found Colon still working as a manager while dozens of children waited in line to take the elevator ride to the 94th floor.
The observatory’s owner, 360 Chicago, immediately fired Colon after the Tribune asked questions about his employment.
Meanwhile, Jessica Jarratt Miller, chief executive officer of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Oregon, told the newspaper in 2019 she was mortified when she learned that Colon had been sent an initial job offer for a front-desk position.
As human resources managers scrambled to fast-track a background check, Miller Googled Colon’s name on her phone and the Tribune’s story popped up.
“I actually cried when I saw it,” Miller said. “This was extraordinarily scary for us, that someone like this would target us to try to work around children.”
Miller was confident, though, that Colon never would have been cleared to start work because a background check was pending that she said would have pulled up his status as a registered sex offender.
Advertisement
In asking for leniency, Colon’s attorney, Thomas Brandstrader, wrote in a court filing that Colon grew up in poverty and was sexually abused by a family member when he was young.
Colon himself wrote a letter to the court saying he’d “failed in a terrible way,” but was deep down “a good person who has put a lot of good in the world.”
“I am deeply flawed as is every human being,” Colon wrote. “But when I consider my life and the horrible conditions that I came from, I think I can claim a small amount of success.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Dad hopeful after 5-year-old son shot while sitting in living room: ‘He’s able to move his hands a l

Dad hopeful after 5-year-old son shot while sitting in living room: ‘He’s able to move his hands a little.’

Clareon was going to begin kindergarten this year but had to pause because of the pandemic .
On Monday night @ @ @ @ @ to his father on the couch , watching while Williams was on an iPad .

A bullet hole is seen in the front window of a house in the 200 block of West 115th Street on Nov. 17, 2020, in Chicago's West Roseland neighborhood where a 5-year-old boy was shot. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Clarence Williams sat at his son’s bedside in Comer Children’s Hospital Wednesday evening, holding on to a few encouraging signs that his 5-year-old son will be OK after a bullet smashed through their living room window and hit the boy in the head.
Doctors have told Williams that the boy’s brain was “grazed” and they were able to stop the bleeding. Clareon has been mostly sleeping but has been able to squeeze his dad’s hand.
Advertisement
“They want his brain to rest,” said Williams, 40. “Once the swelling goes down, there’s a little hope. … He’s doing better. He’s hanging on.”
Clareon was going to begin kindergarten this year but had to pause because of the pandemic. On Monday night, he was sitting next to his father on the couch, watching while Williams was on an iPad.
Advertisement
“We were sitting on the couch. I was on my iPad. He loves iPads too. Someone fired through the window,” Williams said.
A neighbor told police she heard half a dozen shots, then loud screams as she ran out of her apartment and tried to open the door across the hall. But it was locked.
Frantic, she said she kicked in the door and saw the boy’s mother holding the 5-year-old as he lay on the floor, bleeding from his head.
Clareon was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he underwent surgery to relieve pressure to his brain. “It grazed the side of his brain.
“They stopped the bleeding, they got the bullet out,’' Williams said. “He’s able to move his hands a little, but doctors don’t want him to get too piped up.”
It may be a week or more until the boy is able to do much, Williams said.
He said relatives have been bringing all his favorite toys to his hospital room to cheer him up: Superman, Spiderman and Captain America.
“He likes all types of super men,” Williams said. “He’s my baby. His smile. His smile is so beautiful. That boy is so happy. He loves to smile. I’m just praying to God that he pulls through.’'
Advertisement
The shooting happened about 7:25 p.m. Monday when a gunman opened fire from an SUV driving by the yellow brick four-flat where Williams said his family has been living for five years.
It was unclear who the target was, but video released by police shows the SUV circling the block several times before a gunman in dark clothes crawls out of the front passenger window and opens fire across the roof.
The gunman starts to get back in, but leans out again and fires some more, according to the video.
Immediate family members were the only ones home at the time, police said, and there were no gatherings nearby when the gunman opened fire.
No arrests have been reported. “We’re attempting to locate any witnesses that may be able to assist as well as reviewing security camera video,” said department spokesman Tom Ahern.
Williams said he has no idea who would do this. “I’m not in a gang. I have no enemies. I’m 40 years old. I have five grandchildren.”
Advertisement
He said other children were in the home, including his 20-year-old daughter’s newborn. “All of us were in the house. Imagine if it was the baby.’'
Anyone with information was urged to contact Area 2 detectives at 312-747-8271.
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Four Park Ridge teens face charges after a video allegedly showed them beating, bullying a 14-year-o

Four Park Ridge teens face charges after a video allegedly showed them beating, bullying a 14-year-old boy

Three 14-year-old boys and one 16-year-old boy have been petitioned to Cook County Juvenile Court on charges of mob action @ @ @ @ @ one of the 14-year-old boys are also facing battery charges in connection with the alleged @ @ @ @ @ on video , police said .

Four teenagers from Park Ridge are facing criminal charges after a video showing teens hitting a boy surfaced on social media earlier in November, Niles police said.
Three 14-year-old boys and one 16-year-old boy have been petitioned to Cook County Juvenile Court on charges of mob action, while the 16-year-old and one of the 14-year-old boys are also facing battery charges in connection with the alleged attack, which was recorded on video, police said.
Advertisement
After the video appeared on social media, the principal of Maine South High School in Park Ridge emailed parents saying that if the alleged perpetrators were determined to be students, the school would take disciplinary action.
Maine Township High School District 207 Spokesman Brett Clark said the school and district had no comment on the arrests.
Advertisement
The four teens were taken into custody on Nov. 17 and later released to a parent or guardian, according to police.
The identities of the teens have not been released by authorities because they are juveniles.
The teens are accused of taking part in a physical attack on a 14-year-old boy on the night of Nov. 7 in the area of the former Niles Elementary School building at 6935 W. Touhy Ave., about one block east of Milwaukee Avenue, police said.
According to police, the 14-year-old victim was punched by one of the teens and kicked by another after being ordered by the suspects to repeat a series of words.
Niles Police Department Bureau Chief Nick Zakula said investigators determined the teens met up using the social media app Snapchat. Whether the meeting stemmed from ongoing bullying was unclear.
Advertisement
The arrests are connected to the incident that was referenced in a Nov. 9 email to Maine South High School parents by Principal Ben Collins. Collins wrote that school officials had learned of a video circulating on social media that showed “high school aged children using an inappropriate sexual phrase directed at another high school aged child and physical violence towards that child.”
The purported video, shared with Pioneer Press and the Chicago Tribune, shows a boy repeating words to a camera before he is punched in the back of the head by another individual.
The video helped investigators identify the four suspects, Zakula said.
The charges facing the teens were filed in consultation with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, police said.
jjohnson@chicagotribune.com
Advertisement
Twitter: @Jen_Tribune


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed Chicago property tax hike plan clears City Council hurdle

“ We ’ ve done a lot of work over these past couple weeks in particular of working hard , @ @ @ @ @ City Council , listening to our partners in organized labor , and the changes that @ @ @ @ @ budget over time really reflect that listening , that learning , and that partnership so @ @ @ @ @ who stepped up today and voted , ” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference @

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $94 million property tax increase easily cleared a key City Council hurdle Wednesday, a good sign for the mayor as she tries to line up 26 votes to get her 2021 budget package through the full council next week.
Members of the Finance Committee pushed back against Lightfoot’s tax hike plan to balance the budget, calling on her administration to find other ways to close a projected $1.2 billion deficit. But it still passed the committee by a 21-12 vote.
Advertisement
The City Council could vote on Lightfoot’s overall budget as soon as Tuesday. If Wednesday’s tallies hold, the mayor needs to find five more yes votes to get to a majority of the 50-member body to back her spending plan.
Property tax hikes have traditionally been the most politically difficult way for Chicago mayors to raise money. And there has been plenty of griping from aldermen in recent weeks that they shouldn’t be called on to vote to pull more from their coronavirus pandemic-battered constituents’ wallets.
Advertisement
Lightfoot also has had to fight her own reluctance to play politics with aldermen by making concessions in the spending plan or offering carrots in specific wards to increase the support.
Asked Wednesday whether the council might deadlock at 25 votes for and against the budget next week, forcing her to break the tie, Lightfoot declined to speculate. Instead, she praised the aldermen who voted yes on the property tax increase and alluded to recent compromises her administration has made to boost support
“We’ve done a lot of work over these past couple weeks in particular of working hard, listening to our colleagues in City Council, listening to our partners in organized labor, and the changes that have been made to the budget over time really reflect that listening, that learning, and that partnership so I am grateful for those who stepped up today and voted,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference.
Days after several African American aldermen said the mayor told members of the council Black Caucus “Don’t come to me for s--- for the next three years” if they didn’t support her budget, 13 aldermen on the Finance Committee voted in favor of Lightfoot’s proposed tax increase. Just one Black alderman voted against it in the committee.
With Chief Financial Officer Jennie Huang Bennett and Budget Director Susie Park again defending the administration’s budget decisions Wednesday, aldermen urged them to close out a thousand vacant positions, revise their tax collection projections or wait to see how much aid federal officials send to Chicago rather than hitting struggling homeowners with an increase while COVID-19 throttles the economy.
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
Southwest Side Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, who has largely been quiet in council meetings since his 2019 indictment on federal bribery counts, gave a performance that recalled his decades of prosecutorial questioning in committees during an examination of the Lightfoot budget team’s reasoning.
When Park said the city estimates a $42.5 million shortfall in property tax collections next year, Burke replied “this is, of course, an art you’re engaged in, not a science, correct?”
Advertisement
Park acknowledged it’s “a mixture of both art and science, yes.”
“It’s more art than science, I would suggest, and obviously you’ve put a lot of work into this,” Burke replied. “But I do, as I’ve said before, hope that you’ll be a hero and figure out, going back to some of these estimates, how this property tax can be avoided.”
Still, Lightfoot’s plan advanced with votes to spare following a week in which she drew attention for sometimes contentious behind-the-scenes negotiations with aldermen on the budget that highlighted the hard-line stance she has taken toward the City Council since she took office.
The Budget Committee will meet Thursday to consider the mayor’s annual appropriation ordinance, another important step before a full council vote. But the property tax increase is the most contentious part of the budget, which also calls for property taxes to be raised annually in future years by an amount tied to the consumer price index.
In addition, the mayor proposes raising the motor fuel tax and a tax on cloud-based computer leases.
Lightfoot has said she doesn’t care about earning overwhelming City Council majorities for her proposals the way her predecessor, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, did.
Advertisement
In 2015, Emanuel got 35 aldermen to vote in favor of a budget package for the next year that was larded with $755 million in new taxes and fees, including a record $543 million property tax increase to pay for police and fire pensions, an additional $45 million property tax hike for school construction and more than $62 million in new garbage pickup fees.
Lightfoot doesn’t seem likely to approach 35 yes votes for this package. She would happily settle for a majority.
Unlike the political wheeler-dealer who last occupied the fifth floor at City Hall, Lightfoot has said she wouldn’t horse trade for votes. But she has made changes to the budget plan in recent days, such as eliminating hundreds of proposed layoffs and increasing anti-violence funding, that could help her get the backing she needs.
Lightfoot’s proposed five-year, $3.7 billion capital plan also should get her help from trade unions in convincing aldermen. Several labor leaders and representatives of contractors associations spoke in favor of the infrastructure proposal and the budget at the start of Wednesday’s committee meeting.
Mayoral ally Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, applauded the capital plan before the vote on the property tax hike.
“The capital improvement thing wasn’t even there at first, and the mayor and the administration brought that up to satisfy us, to allow us to be able to bring something back to our community and make some improvements, and hopefully be able to bring up property values in our community with infrastructure in those communities,” Burnett said.
Advertisement
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Parolee held on $500K bail, charged with Bridgeview minivan theft, kidnapping that led to Amber Aler

Parolee held on $500K bail, charged with Bridgeview minivan theft, kidnapping that led to Amber Alert

Gutierrez was identified as a person of interest based on eyewitness accounts and because he was known to frequent the @ @ @ @ @ Matuszak said the father left his wallet in the minivan and one of his credit @ @ @ @ @ nearby gas station .
Authorities moved their mobile command center to that gas station , @ @ @ @ @ and were able to identify the man who used the stolen credit card and was @ @ @ @

Rudy Gutierrez, 28, is charged with kidnapping and other crimes in the Nov. 16, 2020, theft of a minivan with a 4-year-old boy inside from a Bridgeview 7-Eleven. (Illinois Department of Corrections)
A parolee was ordered held on $500,000 bail during a Wednesday court hearing where he faced charges in the theft of a car with a 4-year-old boy inside from a Bridgeview convenience store that triggered an Amber Alert this week.
An alert was issued when the boy, who had been left briefly in his father’s car outside a 7-Eleven on Roberts Road at 5:30 p.m. Monday, disappeared along with the vehicle. His father had gone inside to get his son pizza but none was available, police said. The man returned to the parking lot only to discover his vehicle and son were missing, according to police spokesman Ray Hanania.
Advertisement
The child was separated from his family for about four hours, and left alone on a cold November night for a portion of that time, Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathan Huff said. The boy, Liam Barbarasa, was inside the dark blue 2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette minivan when a man stole it, Bridgeview Cmdr. Dave Case said.
“At some point in time he became aware that Liam was in the car with him,” Case said.
Advertisement
The man abandoned the child and the minivan in Chicago, where it was located by a Chicago police officer called to the area for a parking violation of a different car, Case said. That officer recognized the importance of the vehicle from the alert and was eventually able to reunite the boy with his family.
“We’re really happy that Liam got home to his family and is safe and healthy,” Case said. “The family is happy at this point in time. I know they were bereft and anxious come Monday night, and I imagine that they were on pins and needles until such time as Liam was found.”
Bridgeview police had immediately requested help from numerous area agencies to help launch a search for the minivan, officials said. A grid search was conducted and Chicago police at one point noted the vehicle’s license plate was seen on Pulaski Road, said Detective Dan Matuszak.
The response was voluntary and Case said federal partners were of particular usefulness. Concern was heightened because of the missing child.
“Our experience is when a car is stolen with a child in it, most times the offender will, once he realizes he has a child on board, he will abandon the car and the child and walk away. So it was really important that we jump on it and start looking for this car knowing Liam, the 4-year-old boy, was inside.”
Through help from the FBI and several local police agencies, authorities arrested Rudy Gutierrez, 28, of Lyons. He was charged with aggravated kidnapping, possession of a stolen vehicle, vehicular invasion and unlawful use of a credit card, police said.
Gutierrez was identified as a person of interest based on eyewitness accounts and because he was known to frequent the area, Hanania said. Matuszak said the father left his wallet in the minivan and one of his credit cards was used at a nearby gas station. Authorities moved their mobile command center to that gas station, where they reviewed security footage and were able to identify the man who used the stolen credit card and was driving the minivan.
Bridgeview police said a Joliet police officer who was working the case later recognized Gutierrez’s “distinctive clothing.” He also recognized his facial tattoos, which Huff noted were one way he was positively identified.
Advertisement
“His being observant like that is what good police work’s all about and we were very fortunate that he was in the right place at the right time with the right knowledge and the right attitude,” Matuszak said.
Gutierrez apparently had asked someone for directions to the gas station where he used the boy’s father’s credit card and that witness later identified Gutierrez in a photo lineup, Huff said.
Gutierrez was arrested in Summit about five minutes into Tuesday. Officials learned that after leaving the child alone in the minivan’s front seat, Gutierrez took the Blue Line back toward Bridgeview for some reason, police said.
Cook County Judge Margaret Ogarek during Gutierrez’s bond hearing also noted it was a combination of luck and smart police work that allowed the child to be reunited with his family, unharmed.
Gutierrez, who is on parole in a 2020 retail theft case, also was the subject of a parole violation warrant from the state and there also was a warrant for his arrest out of Grundy County, Huff said. According to prosecutors, Gutierrez has a lengthy history of retail theft arrests.
Ogarek said the fact that Gutierrez is on parole and probation and had multiple bond forfeitures and failures to appear in court worked against him.
Advertisement
“This court is not convinced that this defendant either is willing or is capable of following court orders. The defendant has demonstrated a history of noncompliance,” Ogarek said. “Seven bond forfeitures do not inspire certainty he will come back to court.”
Gutierrez is due back in court with his court-appointed attorney, Deirdre McGuire, on Dec. 11.
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Man shot while driving in Bronzeville, blocks from police headquarters

Shortly before noon , the man was traveling in the 3900 block of South Michigan Avenue when he was shot @ @ @ @ @ was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in serious @ @ @ @ @

A 26-year-old man was shot while he was driving late Wednesday morning, about four blocks away from Chicago Police Department headquarters in the Bronzeville neighborhood, authorities said.
Shortly before noon, the man was traveling in the 3900 block of South Michigan Avenue when he was shot in the back. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in serious condition, police said.
Advertisement
No one was in custody and detectives were investigating.
dawilliams@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Missing Steger man’s body discovered at Portage marina

Portage Police Chief Michael Candiano said officers with his department first went to the marina last week , on the @ @ @ @ @ assist the Steger police , as Muehring went to fish there regularly and recovered his @ @ @ @ @ as conducted an extensive search of the area that day .

The body of a Steger, Illinois, man reported missing earlier this month was found in a Portage marina Wednesday morning, officials said, adding foul play is not suspected.
The Porter County Coroner’s Office was called at 9:34 a.m. Wednesday to Westerman Marina, 1330 Crisman Road after the body of a deceased male was located in the dock area of the marina.
Advertisement
The man was identified as Keith Muehring, 46, who was last heard from Nov. 8 and was reported missing to the Steger Police Department on Nov. 9, according to the coroner’s office.
Portage police responded to the marina at 8:36 a.m. Wednesday for a report of a body floating in the water, police said, and the Portage Fire Department assisted in the recovery.
Advertisement
Portage Police Chief Michael Candiano said officers with his department first went to the marina last week, on the Burns Ditch Waterway, to assist the Steger police, as Muehring went to fish there regularly and recovered his missing vehicle, as well as conducted an extensive search of the area that day.
A representative from Westerman Marina reported the body to police, Candiano said, confirming that foul play is not suspected.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is leading the investigation.
On Saturday, a Portage man drowned in Dombey Lake after officials said he might have fallen from a kayak. Carlo Ernandes, 42, of Portage, was found unresponsive and transported to Northwest Hospital Portage Campus, where he died in the emergency room.
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Nando’s restaurant, Naperville lawyers reach nearly $1.8 million settlement for restaurant employees

Nando’s restaurant, Naperville lawyers reach nearly $1.8 million settlement for restaurant employees over fingerprint data lawsuit

In-state and out-of-state companies like Mariano ’ s , Facebook , and Macy ’ s have been hit over the @ @ @ @ @ potential violations of the state law .
Illinois was the first state to pass such @ @ @ @ @ biometric information from fingerprints , retina scans , face recognition , and more ; the @ @ @ @ @ of the strictest of its kind .

A Nando's chicken restaurant is pictured in central London on September 11, 2019. More than 1,400 current and former employees of Nando’s Illinois stores will receive a combined $1.787 million after a federal judge approved a settlement agreement between the South Africa-based restaurant chain and the Naperville attorneys representing the employees in a case regarding fingerprint data (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP) (TOLGA AKMEN/Getty)
More than 1,400 current and former employees of Nando’s Illinois stores will receive a combined $1.787 million after a federal judge approved a settlement agreement between the South Africa-based restaurant chain and the Naperville attorneys representing the employees in a case over fingerprint data.
U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis authorized the nearly $1.8 million agreement in late October, months after settlement talks regarding the class-action lawsuit began. David Fish, attorney who represented the original plaintiff and other class members, said those employees should receive their first payment toward the end of the year.
Advertisement
The gross payment amounts to about $1,000 per class member, but Fish said payments will actually be about $652 when discounting legal and administrative fees. The majority of the payment will come in the first check, followed by another about 18 months later.
“A lot of restaurant workers are unemployed right now by COVID-19. We think it’ll be nice to get them some money right now. We wanted to make sure they got it soon,” said Fish, attorney for Naperville-based Fish Law Firm.
Advertisement
The lawsuit filed in 2019 alleged Nando’s violated Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act by requiring its Illinois employees to clock in and out of their shifts using a fingertip scanning feature. This collection, storage and transfer of biometric data allegedly violated the state law by not properly notifying employees or getting consent, according to court documents.
In-state and out-of-state companies like Mariano’s, Facebook, and Macy’s have been hit over the years with class-action lawsuits involving potential violations of the state law. Illinois was the first state to pass such a law about companies gathering biometric information from fingerprints, retina scans, face recognition, and more; the state law is considered one of the strictest of its kind.
Fish said employers in Illinois can collect biometric data like fingerprints but must give proper notice to employees under the law as to what the data will be used for. Like other sensitive information, biometric data is at risk from hackers, he added.
"Unlike a password which you can change, you can’t change your fingerprint,” Fish said.
The approximately 1,400 people eligible for these payments worked at one of Nando’s Illinois stores between May 20, 2015, to October 1, 2019, according to court documents. Nando’s - a Portuguese-African chain known for its flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken - has more than 1,000 locations worldwide. Nando’s operates 12 restaurants in Illinois, including one in Naperville.
Attorneys at Littler Mendelson, P.C. - the Chicago and St. Louis-based firm representing Nando’s in the case - declined to comment. According to court documents, Nando’s denied any liability or wrongdoing; because of the settlement agreement, judges never reached a verdict on whether the chain violated the state’s biometric privacy law.
raguerrero@tribpub.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Mayor Lori Lightfoot to launch new COVID-19 testing site at Midway Airport

Announcing the move , Lightfoot encouraged residents with health insurance to go to non-city sites and said the city ’ @ @ @ @ @ be for the most vulnerable residents .
The Midway Airport site will be located in @ @ @ @ @ meant for residents , not travelers .

CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will launch a new COVID-19 testing site at Midway Airport as part of the city’s effort to fight the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases.
The city also will be moving a testing site at Prieto Math and Science Academy on the Northwest Side to Prosser Career Academy. Lightfoot also will work with Curative, a testing company, to provide materials to make it easier to do testing during cold weather.
Advertisement
Lightfoot’s moves come as the city’s current seven-day rolling average is 2,351, up from 1,853 a week ago. The number of tests administered has gone up to 16,259 from a seven-day rolling average of 14,795.
The city has awarded $14 million in grants to community groups to expand testing and contact tracing, and the city has provided 40,000 rapid tests to community health centers, officials said.
Advertisement
Lightfoot’s testing site at Midway will be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 6 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., officials said. Other testing sites will remain open at Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Gately Park.
Announcing the move, Lightfoot encouraged residents with health insurance to go to non-city sites and said the city’s locations are meant to be for the most vulnerable residents. The Midway Airport site will be located in a parking lot but is meant for residents, not travelers.
“We listened to the community that wanted more reliable options on the Southwest Side and wanted weekend availability for the first time,” Lightfoot said.
Public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady praised the testing locations but warned that people need to continue wearing masks and social distancing.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--Watch live: Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update

Illinois Gov .
J.B. Pritzker will give an update on the state ’ s response to the coronavirus in a @ @ @ @ @ Get the latest updates on COVID-19 here .


chicagotribune--2020-11-18--When are deadlines to certify election results? Track progress in key battleground states

Each state has laws that set the deadline and process for the results to be certified .
This process takes @ @ @ @ @ the state level .
Those deadlines in key battleground states are underway .

The battle over the results of the 2020 election has brought new attention to an important but often-overlooked part of the U.S. election process: certification of the results.
Each state has laws that set the deadline and process for the results to be certified. This process takes place locally and eventually at the state level. Those deadlines in key battleground states are underway.
Here is where the race stands in the battleground states — and the deadlines for certification. This also lists whether a state has a law to prevent electors casting electoral votes for a party other than the one that nominated them.
How the Electoral College process unfolds
Nov. 3: Election Day
Dec. 8: Deadline for states to resolve any issues over appointing electors
Dec. 14: Electors vote in their states
Dec. 23: Electoral votes and other documentation is received by president of the Senate
Jan. 6: Congress counts the votes in a joint session
Jan. 20: New president is inaugurated
More on the politics and the process
• Love it or hate it, here’s how the Electoral College came to be
• Here’s what will happen between Election Day and Inauguration Day
• ‘We are going to reclaim the United States’: President Trump, his lawyers and allies take frantic steps to overturn Joe Biden’s victory
• What if a state can’t agree which presidential candidate won? It’s happened before, and voters don’t necessarily get the final word.