chicagotribune--2020-07-22--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 955 new COVID-19 cases reported as CPS joins suit against Betsy DeV

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 955 new COVID-19 cases reported as CPS joins suit against Betsy DeVos over relief funds and Kansas added to Chicago’s travel quarantine list

The initiative was launched in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic , as a way to “ recognize the heroic work @ @ @ @ @ and women who bravely continue to show up at work every day and save lives @ @ @ @ @ according to a statement from Metra executive director Jim Derwinski , who added , “ @ @ @ @ @ show our gratitude .
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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials on Tuesday announced 955 new known cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 163,703 and the statewide death toll to 7,324 since the start of the pandemic. The state also announced the results of 29,745 new test results.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools is now part of a federal lawsuit in which several cities and states are seeking to prevent private schools from getting a share of CARES Act funding they say would be harmful to public school districts. CPS estimates it could lose about $10 million to private schools of the $205 million it’s expecting from the federal coronavirus stimulus package.
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Earlier on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that people traveling from Kansas to Chicago will need to quarantine for 14 days, effective Friday. Kansas became the latest state added to the city’s Emergency Travel Order. The city also continues to monitor a surge of COVID-19 in neighboring Wisconsin, where the case rate is approaching cut off for quarantine, according to a statement from the mayor.
[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Schools reopening tracker: What suburban Chicago districts are planning for the fall ]
[ 20 questions about assessing your COVID-19 risk at restaurants, gyms and more ]
Here’s what’s happening Tuesday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
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9:35 p.m.: GOP splits as virus aid package could swell past $1 trillion
The price tag for the next COVID-19 aid package could quickly swell above $1 trillion as White House officials negotiate with Congress over money to reopen schools, prop up small businesses, boost virus testing and keep cash flowing to Americans while the virus crisis deepens in the U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday promised a new round of direct payments to earners below a certain income level, similar to the $1,200 checks sent in the spring. President Donald Trump insists on a payroll tax holiday for workers. And Democrats want billions to outfit schools and shore up local governments.
“Regretfully, this is not over,” McConnell said after a raucous private GOP lunch, urging Americans to learn to live with the new virus by wearing masks and practicing social distancing until a vaccine can be found.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting chief of staff Mark Meadows spent the day on Capitol Hill, meeting separately with McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others trying to broker a compromise between the GOP's emerging $1 trillion proposal with the House's more sweeping $3 trillion bill.
The lunch session grew heated as key Republican senators complained about big spending, vowing to stall the relief bill’s passage.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
5:17 p.m.: Trump concedes pandemic in US will get worse before it gets better
President Donald Trump sought to paint a rosier picture of the coronavirus for the nation Tuesday but conceded the pandemic is likely to get worse for a time as he revived his daily briefings with an eye to halting a campaign-season erosion of support as new cases spike across the country.
The early evening show at the White House came as the next stage of the federal government’s response to the pandemic was being crafted on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers and White House officials were opening negotiations on a trillion-dollar-or-more “phase four” rescue package.
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Read more here. —The Associated Press
4:16 p.m.: Chicago joins suit against Betsy DeVos over CARES Act relief funds
Chicago Public Schools is now part of a federal lawsuit in which several cities and states are seeking to prevent private schools from getting a share of CARES Act funding they say would be harmful to public school districts.
The lawsuit seeks to overturn federal guidance and a rule announced in June that gave local districts a choice: Provide pandemic relief funds to all public schools but give a bigger portion than is customary to private institutions, or limit the public schools receiving funds to Title I public schools with poverty rates of at least 40%.
CPS estimates it could lose about $10 million to private schools of the $205 million it’s expecting from the federal coronavirus stimulus package. That’s part of the $570 million total allotted for Illinois schools and $16 billion for schools nationwide.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
3:21 p.m.: Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie welcomes back visitors after coronavirus closure
When Dori Mages’s mother asked her to tag along for the July 15 reopening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center in Skokie, Mages said she felt compelled to go.
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“I’ve been losing a lot of sleep lately,” said Mages, who lives in Northbrook. “There’s been a lot of anti-Semitic comments being made in public. I’ve done advocacy about that lately. I just thought it was a good time to revisit that and get more of a sense of history and information.”
Like museums, businesses and schools throughout the state, the Illinois Holocaust Museum closed temporarily several months ago as a public health precaution in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Although the center continued to offer online services during the closure, Susan L. Abrams, chief executive officer of the center, said she has been anticipating the reopening for months.
“We’ve been driving toward reopening since the day we closed,” she said. “This looms large after the three plus months that we’ve been closed to the public. We’re thrilled to be able to offer the in-person experience.”
She also said center staff have been preparing for a safe reopening, and that newly implemented safety precautions include the mandatory wearing of masks, limiting attendance to 25% of normal capacity, social distancing, plastic partitions and hand sanitizing stations. Reservations are also recommended.
Read more here. —Brian L. Cox
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2:47 p.m.: 955 new known COVID-19 cases and 23 more deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Tuesday announced 955 new known cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 163,703 and the statewide death toll to 7,324 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 29,745 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 3.1%.
2:15 p.m.: DuPage County health department’s COVID-19 test site closes early Tuesday as cases rise
As COVID-19 cases rise in DuPage County, the local health department’s testing site closed early Tuesday after two hours of testing.
The testing site, open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, is located on the east side of the DuPage County complex on County Farm Road in Wheaton. People who want to get tested can drive up, roll down their windows and conduct nasal swab tests on themselves with provided instructions.
But some residents were left without the option to get tested Tuesday. Health department spokesperson Don Bolger said the county is capped at 400 tests per day because of state lab capacity.
“I think the county has been doing the best that they possibly can,” said Ashley Nuzzo, 33, who lives in Bloomingdale and commented on the health department’s Facebook post about the closing. “I think anybody can only do as much as their resources can allow.”
Read more here. —Sydney Czyzon
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1:32 p.m.: IHSA to meet with state officials Friday for ‘guidance’ on proceeding with fall sports
The Illinois High School Association, which has left the question of when high school sports can return to state officials, will convene with those officials Friday in a meeting expected to “provide important guidance on how the IHSA will proceed with fall sports,” the group announced on Twitter.
The IHSA had announced July 3 that athletes could return to summer practice and competition if schools followed a detailed plan of social distancing and sanitizing meant to combat the spread of COVID-19. But less than a week later, following an outbreak among sports camp participants at Lake Zurich High School, it announced drastic changes it said the Pritzker administration had required, including an end to scrimmages in sports that feature physical contact.
That led to a still-pending lawsuit, filed by the parent of two rising seniors at a downstate high school, claiming the new rules were “the illegal product of collusion” between the IHSA and state agencies. The IHSA subsequently announced it would defer to the state regarding any new rules about returning to play.
The association said on Twitter it would postpone its board meeting, set for Wednesday, by a week in order to meet Friday with officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education.
Some states have already announced they will delay fall sports for several weeks. Others, including California and New Mexico, have pushed the start date for some fall sports into 2021.
—John Keilman
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1 p.m.: Lightfoot joins Chicago sports teams to encourage young people to wear masks
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined representatives of the city’s sports teams to encourage young people to wear masks amid a recent jump in coronavirus cases.
The campaign, called “We Are All One Home Team,” comes a day after Lightfoot said the city this weekend would be shutting down indoor bars without food licenses in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
”The ‘We Are All One Home Team’ campaign means that we all have a role to play in keeping each other safe, especially our youngest residents who must continue to follow our public health guidelines,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “We cannot afford to let our guard down. It’s time to team up with your masks up.”
The initiative will include billboards and social media to “reiterate the importance of the latest public health guidelines in our city.”
As part of the campaign, Lightfoot’s office said the city would send out “street teams of young adults to hot spot areas across Chicago such as bars, restaurants, parks and more to educate and remind their peers about safe COVID-19 practices.”
They’ll be distributing face masks, hand sanitizer, buttons and flyers, the city said.
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—Gregory Pratt
12:10 p.m.: Taste of Orland Park, summer concerts to move forward despite financial questions over attendance limits
The Taste of Orland Park is still a go for next weekend, albeit with modifications to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, while two concerts slated for late summer at Centennial Park West are being adapted to offer a drive-in option.
But a few village trustees raised questions Monday regarding the financial impact these events could have if ill-attended, as Orland Park is on the line for roughly $200,000 in expenses for the taste and budgeted to lose about $300,000 on the concerts, pending ticket sales.
Ray Piattoni, director of recreation and parks, said protocols for Taste of Orland, scheduled to run July 31-Aug. 2, will include a suggested event capacity of 2,000 to 2,400 people based on the square footage of an expanded footprint at the Village Center, 14700 Ravinia Ave.
The board voted 4-3 to approve a drive-in option for ticketed concerts on Aug. 22 and Sept. 12 at Centennial Park West.
Read more here. —Bill Jones
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11:10 a.m.: Kansas added to Chicago’s travel quarantine list
People traveling from Kansas to Chicago will need to quarantine for 14 days, effective Friday, according to a new announcement from Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Tuesday, Kansas became the latest state added to the city’s Emergency Travel Order, joining Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
The city also continues to monitor a surge of COVID-19 in neighboring Wisconsin, where the case rate is approaching cut off for quarantine, according to a statement from the mayor.
The city’s travel order requires anyone entering Chicago from one of state on the list to quarantine for 14 days. The updated list of states covered under the order is being announced every Tuesday and takes effect on Fridays.
The Chicago Department of Public Health also urged residents to simply avoid nonessential travel to any states experiencing an increase in cases, as a precautionary measure.
—Sophie Sherry
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11 a.m.: Trump’s team works Capitol Hill as coronavirus aid talks deepen
President Donald Trump’s negotiators fanned out on Capitol Hill Tuesday over a new COVID-19 aid package as divisions between the White House and Senate Republicans pushed talks into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office to deal with the mounting crisis.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting chief of staff Mark Meadows were conferring with GOP senators before pivoting in the afternoon to Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, trying to meld the GOP’s emerging $1 trillion proposal with the House’s more sweeping $3 trillion bill.
Read more here. —The Associated Press
9:45 a.m.: Guthrie’s Tavern, a Lakeview mainstay for 34 years, closing permanently due to new coronavirus bar restrictions
Guthrie’s Tavern, one of Chicago’s oldest and most popular neighborhood bars, announced it would be closing permanently this week, and cited new city regulations banning indoor alcohol sales for bars that don’t serve food as a primary cause. Guthrie’s has occupied the corner of Addison and Lakewood for 34 years.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closing of Guthrie’s Tavern. With the new restrictions set today for bars and the ongoing COVID restrictions, we don’t see a way we can survive,” read a Facebook post on Guthrie’s page.
Read more here. —Adam Lukach
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8:40 a.m.: Hundreds of food service workers at Northwestern University lose their jobs; company cites ongoing coronavirus impact on campus
A food service vendor for Northwestern University has announced it plans to permanently lay off about 230 employees.
The decision by food service giant Compass Group comes in anticipation of reduced traffic and social distancing at Northwestern this fall due to COVID-19, said Jennifer Byrdsong, vice president of Compass’ Northwestern operations.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
7:45 a.m.: Gary, Merrillville, Lake County mandate masks to reduce spread of COVID-19
The City of Gary, Town of Merrillville, and Lake County joined a growing number of businesses and communities in requiring the use of masks to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Read more here. —Carrie Napoleon and Karen Caffarini
6:38 a.m.: Hurricane Harbor opens in Gurnee with coronavirus measures in place
Hurricane Harbor, the water park connected to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, opened Monday to members and 2020 season pass-holders for a one-week preview for season pass holders.
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Hurricane Harbor opens for everyone else on July 27, and remains that way through Labor Day weekend.
Due to COVID-19, guests must use the park’s new online reservation system at sixflags.com/reserve and select the date and time they wish to visit.
Read more here. —Karie Angell Luc
6:34 a.m.: Arlington Heights-based District 214 to start new academic year with option of in-person classes or remote learning
Arlington Heights-based Township High School District 214 has come up with a plan for starting the new school year that includes special scheduling, addressing technology issues and offering parents a choice to have their children attend in-person or remotely.
In a news release school district officials issued, SD214 will implement a block schedule and technology solutions “that allow for flexibility and parental choice” to have students attend classes in-person or remotely each day.
“Based on feedback from numerous stakeholders, the District prioritized the need to resume consistent in-person instruction while also ensuring student and staff safety and providing parental choice. The fall plan accomplishes that,” officials said in the July 16 news release.
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The new school year is scheduled to start Aug. 12 for the more than 12,000 students enrolled in the districts six schools, including Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove High School. Freshman orientation – which usually occurs before the start of the school year – will be held the Aug. 16, the first Friday of the school year, officials announced in the release.
Read more here. —Pioneer Press staff
6:15 a.m.: Metra extends free rides for medical workers
Doctors, nurses, paramedics and other front line medical workers again will ride free on Metra trains through August, the agency announced Monday.
August will be the fifth consecutive month Metra allows such medical workers to ride for free, according to a statement from the rail line. To ride free, medical workers should show a work ID that shows they work at a hospital, doctor’s office, medical facility, or local fire department.
The initiative was launched in April amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as a way to “recognize the heroic work being performed by these men and women who bravely continue to show up at work every day and save lives during this crisis,” according to a statement from Metra executive director Jim Derwinski, who added, “this was our way to show our gratitude.”
There are no plans to extend the free rides past August.
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—Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Monday related to COVID-19.
Chicago bars that don’t sell food will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol indoors starting this Friday, the city said.
Chicago is asking residential buildings to limit guests to five per unit, hoping to avoid indoor gatherings and parties.
The sharp increases in deaths in Southern and Western states have added to growing unease about a surge in Illinois.
COVID-19 patients could be at risk for chronic fatigue syndrome.
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The Illinois Federation of Teachers called on school districts Monday to return to remote learning for the beginning of the school year unless in-person teaching is safe and possible.


chicagotribune--2020-07-22--Mayor Lori Lightfoot reaches deal on affordable housing in Woodlawn amid concerns over gentrificatio

Mayor Lori Lightfoot reaches deal on affordable housing in Woodlawn amid concerns over gentrification around Obama Presidential Center

“ One reflection I would share is that we ’ ve all heard the danger of a single story , @ @ @ @ @ And there ’ s no single story in any community , certainly not in Woodlawn @ @ @ @ @ work because there are multiple ideas of what Woodlawn is and multiple visions of what @ @ @ @ @

Jeanette Taylor joins other people in a rally to support an Obama Foundation Community Benefits Agreement for the new Obama Presidential Library in 2017. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
The city of Chicago would require new apartment developments in Woodlawn near the proposed Obama Presidential Center to include more affordable housing units for low-income residents as part of a compromise reached between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a group of community activists supported by freshman Ald. Jeanette Taylor.
Lightfoot’s proposed ordinance, which still needs City Council approval, would cap a long, contentious debate between the mayor and community critics who have pushed her administration to protect longtime residents and lower-income community members from being displaced by former President Barack Obama’s ambitious center.
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Chicago Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara highlighted some additions and tweaks to the ordinance in a Tuesday call with reporters.
“One reflection I would share is that we’ve all heard the danger of a single story,” Novara said. “And there’s no single story in any community, certainly not in Woodlawn. And this is hard work because there are multiple ideas of what Woodlawn is and multiple visions of what Woodlawn should become.”
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The proposed ordinance would set affordable housing requirements for future developments on about 50 of the 208 city-owned vacant residential lots in Woodlawn, Novara said. It also would include a home improvement grant program for long-term homeowners, among other provisions.
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“We see the importance of this community in the future of Chicago and we want to make sure that we are being a partner to this community and shaping what happens here going forward,” Novara said.
The Obama Presidential Center is expected to be a sprawling campus that will house the Obama Foundation offices and include spaces for large gatherings, an athletic center and a public library branch. In addition, the campus will have outdoor recreation areas including a sledding hill and walking paths.
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Despite the deal, Taylor, 20th, said there’s still work to be done.
“It’s a step in the right direction and it’s not enough,” she said about the ordinance.
Taylor said she would like to eventually see right to return specifications, affordable housing for all incomes and additional safeguards for those who live in the community in the future.
“I thank the community for their willingness to come to the table and to have these conversations,” she said.
mgreene@chicagotribune.com
gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-07-22--Multiple people shot at funeral in Gresham on the South Side

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chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Calling Chicago ‘a disaster,’ Trump announces surge of federal agents will be sent to deal with viol

Calling Chicago ‘a disaster,’ Trump announces surge of federal agents will be sent to deal with violence spike

“ We know the ATF , FBI , DEA are coming to and are in Chicago engaged in activities to @ @ @ @ @ that seems like legitimate activity to go after criminal enterprise , ” Pritzker said .
@ @ @ @ @ this other thing that ’ s going on where people are wearing camouflage uniforms with @ @ @ @ @ are , claiming to be protecting federal buildings … that is not something that is @ @ @ @ @ Illinois or city of Chicago .
”

Jeremy Gorner, Stacy St. Clair, Gregory Pratt, Lisa Donovan

President Donald Trump speaks about Operation Legend on July 22, 2020, in the East Room of the White House. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
President Donald Trump, who once insisted Chicago’s crime problem could be solved within a week, announced plans Wednesday to send a “surge of federal law enforcement” to the city to address ongoing violence.
Though agents also will be sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and could eventually be seen in New York, Philadelphia and other locations, Trump singled out Chicago as being in the most critical need of additional resources.
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“Perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of Chicago, a city I know very well,” Trump said.
Attorney General William Barr said hundreds of federal agents could take part in the surge in the city, where they will be engaged in “classic crime-fighting” such as investigating homicides, gangs, gun crime and drug trafficking organizations. The new agents will include members of the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, among others.
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The president called Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after his news conference to reiterate his plan. Lightfoot described the call as “brief and straightforward” in a statement, despite the rancor that has defined their social media exchanges in recent months.
The mayor offered a measured response to the announcement, expressing both cautious optimism about the additional resources and skepticism about Trump’s motives. She has repeatedly said the kind of force captured on camera on the streets of Portland, Oregon, is not welcome in Chicago.
“If those agents are here to actually work in partnership and support of gun violence and violent cases, plugging into existing infrastructure of federal agents, not trying to play police in our streets, then that’s something different,” Lightfoot said, “but the proof is going to be in the pudding.”
President Donald Trump walks into the East Room to speak about Operation Legend at the White House on July 22, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty)
Officials were quick to point out the difference between the Chicago surge and the situation in Portland, where unidentified agents have been arresting protesters who allegedly were vandalizing a federal building and taking them away in unmarked cars. The Chicago effort will focus more on helping police deal with the increase in neighborhood violence, they said.
“In Chicago, we see an unprecedented rise in crime against fellow citizens,” said Chad Wolf, acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. “The DHS mission in Portland is to protect federal property and our law enforcement officers. In Chicago, the mission is to protect the public from violent crime on the streets.”
For Lightfoot, the prospect of increased federal assistance for anti-crime efforts is a thorny proposition. More federal agents could help with the city’s skyrocketing violence, but the unfolding controversy in Portland and Trump’s repeated harsh rhetoric toward Chicago has led to high public mistrust in the federal government, which both she and Gov. J.B. Pritzker acknowledged.
“We know the ATF, FBI, DEA are coming to and are in Chicago engaged in activities to help local law enforcement … that seems like legitimate activity to go after criminal enterprise,” Pritzker said. “But it’s this other thing that’s going on where people are wearing camouflage uniforms with no identification about who they are, claiming to be protecting federal buildings … that is not something that is acceptable in the state of Illinois or city of Chicago.”
The Trump announcement comes a day after a mass shooting outside a South Side funeral home in which 15 people were injured. The city has experienced one of its most violent years in recent memory, with 414 homicides through Sunday this year compared with 275 at the same time last year, official CPD statistics show, a 51% increase.
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Among the homicide victims discussed by Trump at the news conference was 14-year-old Vernado Jones Jr., who was one of four people killed in a shooting in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood on July 4. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest of the people involved in his killing.
Vernado’s mother attended Trump’s announcement in the East Room of the White House.
“Please know that all Americans mourn by your side. We will carry your son’s memory. He will not be forgotten,” Trump told her.
Known as Operation Legend in honor of a slain 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro of Kansas City, Missouri, the Chicago mission will be overseen by John Lausch Jr., U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Lightfoot repeatedly has made clear that most of her reassurance about Trump’s plan stems from Lausch, her friend and former colleague, being in charge at the local level.
Lightfoot initially threatened to sue if Trump tried to send federal agents into Chicago without her permission.
She changed her tone after talking with Lausch, who assured her an influx of law enforcement would be working “collaboratively” with Chicago cops against violent crime, and not confronting protesters.
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The U.S. Marshals Service as part of the new plan will direct violent fugitive apprehension operations within Chicago to identify wanted gang members, violent criminals and firearms violators. The Department of Homeland Security is also committing at least 100 agents, already stationed in Chicago, to investigate narcotics and firearm traffickers.
The federal government also will earmark $3.5 million to reimburse the Chicago Police Department and city of Chicago for the work of local law enforcement on the effort.
“A top priority as federal prosecutors is to reduce violent crime, particularly in a large urban area like Chicago,” Lausch said in a statement. “We will use these new resources and every other available federal law enforcement tool to reduce the unacceptable level of violent crime in Chicago.”
Chicago police and other big-city departments across the country regularly work with federal agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF and the U.S. attorney’s office on investigations into drug- and gun-trafficking and myriad other crimes tied to violence. In Chicago, such investigations are often based in certain neighborhoods on the South and West sides, where much of the violence in the city occurs.
Such partnerships over the years have been through federal programs such as Project Exile, aimed at shifting more gun prosecutions to federal judges so they can hand down stiffer penalties, and Project Safe Neighborhoods, designed to better coordinate federal resources and local intelligence on crime.
The effectiveness of a law enforcement surge is far from guaranteed, particularly in Chicago where increased police staffing has done little to stem the violent tide in recent years. Barr blamed the most recent uptick on the “extreme reaction” to George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police, while Trump pointed the finger at his political adversaries.
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Trump, at one point, said there’s been a “radical movement” calling for U.S. cities to abolish and defund police departments. No Chicago mayor in the past 30 years has ever made such a proposal and, in fact, many have launched their own surges in an effort to beat back crime.
“For decades, politicians running many of our major cities have put the interests of criminals above the rights of abiding citizens,” Trump said. “These same politicians have embraced the far-left movement to break up our police departments, causing violent crime to spiral — and I mean, spiral — seriously out of control.”
The verbal jabs continued later in the afternoon, when Trump was asked about Lightfoot’s comments during a COVID-19 briefing. After insisting his administration has done “some amazing things” during the pandemic, Trump said he was targeting cities with “radical left” mayors and specifically called out Lightfoot, who sent the president a letter raising concerns about federal officers being sent to Chicago and directing him to use his authority to enact gun control measures.
“Chicago is a disaster. The mayor is saying, ‘don’t come in,’” Trump said, before adding: “I assume she’s saying that for political reasons. She’s a Democrat ... she’s making a big mistake. People are dying.”
Lightfoot shrugged off Trump’s criticism, calling his announcement alongside victims’ families “a political stunt.” Citing Trump’s penchant for attacking female mayors, she accused him of trying to divert attention away from his handling of the pandemic.
“If he cared about cities, if he cared about Chicago, there are meaningful ways that the president could actually help,” Lightfoot said. “Instead, it’s denigrate, divide and disparage. That’s not leadership.”


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--Pritzker on rising COVID numbers: ‘It remains a serious threat’

“ If there had been a federal mandate perhaps things would be different , we can ’ t rely on @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ A rise is still a rise and it is on all of @ @ @ @ @ down … you can go from 3 % positivity to Arizona ’ s 23 % @ @ @ @ @ an eye .
”

Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
As COVID-19 cases rise in neighboring states, Illinois has expanded testing across the state and on Wednesday announced the highest number of new cases in the month of July with 1,598. There were 23 deaths reported.
“Let me start with the unfortunate truth, COVID-19 has not gone away and it remains a serious threat,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
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Though Illinois has a positivity rate half that of neighboring states, Pritzker said COVID-19 has “no boundaries” and it would not take long to reverse the state’s progress.
“If there had been a federal mandate perhaps things would be different, we can’t rely on that possibility,” he said. “A rise is still a rise and it is on all of us to bring these numbers down … you can go from 3% positivity to Arizona’s 23% positivity in a blink of an eye.”
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Pritzker also addressed virus deniers and encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public settings.
“This virus is not a blue state virus or a red state virus … going out without a mask is not a political statement,” he said.
There are more than 280 testing sites around the state and about 1,600 contact tracers to address coronavirus spread.
The eviction moratorium will extend through Aug. 22, Pritzker added.
jvillagomez@chicagotribune.com
[ Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here's what's happening Wednesday ]


chicagotribune--2020-07-23--The Spin: Trump phones Lightfoot after announcing federal law enforcement ‘surge’ in Chicago | Shoul

The Spin: Trump phones Lightfoot after announcing federal law enforcement ‘surge’ in Chicago | Should Christopher Columbus exit Grant Park? | Pritzker renews COVID-19 warnings

Trump called Lightfoot today : In a new statement , the mayor ’ s office offered its take on the @ @ @ @ @ reached out to Mayor Lightfoot this evening to confirm that he plans to send federal @ @ @ @ @ ongoing federal investigations pertaining to violent crime .
The conversation was brief and straightforward .
@ @ @ @ @ resources will be investigatory in nature and be coordinated through the U.S. Attorney ’ s @ @ @ @ @ made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced , we @ @ @ @ @ options to protect Chicagoans .
”

President Donald Trump during an event on "Operation Legend: Combatting Violent Crime in American Cities," at the White House on July 22, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP)
A day after a horrific gunbattle erupted outside a South Side funeral home, leaving 15 wounded, President Donald Trump confirmed today what my Tribune colleagues have been reporting for days: The federal government is sending law enforcement officers to Chicago to bolster local crime-fighting efforts.
The Republican president has been hammering on a law-and-order message as his reelection campaign ramps up, repeatedly blaming Democratic mayors of some of the nation’s largest cities such as Chicago and New York for violent crime spikes. He doubled down on that message in a late afternoon news conference when he mentioned the mass shooting and described the city as “out of control.”
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Just the same, the president called Mayor Lori Lightfoot to alert her today about the initiative, according to the mayor’s office.
Earlier in the day a grim-faced Lightfoot, who has tepidly embraced the potential influx of federal law enforcement help but also threatened to sue if it turns out more like what’s happened in Portland, Oregon — addressed last night’s mass shooting in Gresham as well as the unrelated shooting of a 3-year-old girl in South Shore.
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Standing next to the mayor at a morning news conference, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown was questioned about whether there should have been a more robust police presence at the funeral home where a wake was being held for a man killed days earlier in a drive-by shooting.
Brown said there were two squads cars at the funeral home and a “tag team” of officers in the area, a standard response in such cases
Welcome to The Spin.
Donald Trump in 2007. i (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
It’s official, President Trump, who once bragged he could solve Chicago’s crime problem within a week, announced plans a short time ago that he would flood American cities with a “surge of federal law enforcement” to address ongoing violence, beginning with Chicago, the Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner, Stacy St. Clair and Gregory Pratt report.
The president singled out Chicago as facing the most critical need for help driving down violence.
“Perhaps no citizens have suffered more from the menace of violent crime than the wonderful people of Chicago, a city I know very well,” Trump said. Read the full Tribune story here.
At an unrelated White House news conference hours later, the president was asked about Mayor Lightfoot’s reservations, over the program and said: “I think in their own way they want us to go in and there’ll be a time when they’re going to want us to go in full blast,” Trump said, noting that for now his administration is calling for beefed up federal law enforcement here.
Trump called Lightfoot today: In a new statement, the mayor’s office offered its take on the chat, “The President reached out to Mayor Lightfoot this evening to confirm that he plans to send federal resources to Chicago to supplement ongoing federal investigations pertaining to violent crime. The conversation was brief and straightforward. Mayor Lightfoot maintains that all resources will be investigatory in nature and be coordinated through the U.S. Attorney’s office. The Mayor has made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect Chicagoans.”
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The president’s announcement comes less than 24 hours after the city saw one of its worst mass shootings: What reportedly began with a drive-by shooter firing into a crowd escalated into a gunbattle leaving 15 wounded.
Lightfoot addressed the public about the mass shooting: “This is a difficult time to stand here because of the pain that we’re all feeling,” Lightfoot said. “We all had restless nights last night, me included. But I woke up this morning even more resolved to do everything that we can to stop this violence,” Lighfoot said.
Chicago crime: Just a month ago, my Tribune colleague Jeremy Gorner reported that, year over year, homicides and shootings are up. But experts tell him year-to-year comparisons don’t tell the full story. Read his piece here.
Gov. J.B Pritzker said today he told the head of the FBI’s Chicago office that he welcomed extra law enforcement to curb crime. But, Pritzker echoed the mayor’s sentiments that additional arrests alone won’t solve the problem: “Let’s be clear. (Curbing crime) also means we must invest in our schools and our physical and mental health services in workforce development programs that build up opportunity where years of disinvestment have hollowed it out. If you want to fix a problem. You start with the roots of the problem. "
Opinion: Donald Trump doesn’t care about Chicago’s violence. Sending the feds is Barack Obama payback — Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton weighs in here.
Related: Chicago City Council approves changes to police supervisor contracts allowing anonymous misconduct complaints — The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt and Dan Hinkel have the details here.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and public health officials at the Thompson Center, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
As Trump announced at the White House today, the federal government is dispatching agents to Chicago to help combat the city’s violence.
As my colleagues report: “Attorney General William Barr said more than 100 federal agents would be sent to Chicago, where they will engaged in ‘classic crime fighting’ such as investigating murders, gangs, gun crime and drug trafficking organizations. The new agents will include members of the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the DEA and the Department of Homeland Security, among others.”
“The U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Task Force, which included more than 100 agents, will direct violent fugitive apprehension operations within Chicago to identify wanted gang members, violent criminals and firearms violators. The Department of Homeland Security is also committing at least 100 agents, already stationed in Chicago, to investigate narcotics and firearm traffickers.”
“The federal government also will earmark $3.5 million to reimburse the Chicago Police Department and city of Chicago for the work of local law enforcement on the effort.”
But concerns remain that agents with the Department of Homeland Security, which also is part of the newly announced operation, might descend on the city as they did in Portland, Oregon. Agents arrived there without announcement, hit the streets in fatigues with no law enforcement ID and started arresting protesters.
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At a series of news conferences this week, local elected officials have echoed that concern:
Gov. Pritzker, as mentioned above, said he spoke with the head of the FBI’s Chicago office today “to convey my long-standing position I welcome legitimate resources from the federal government to reduce violence and help our residents stay safe. That can mean getting illegal guns off the street or getting criminal enterprises, and I welcome the support for our local and safe efforts to reduce crime.”
The governor also reiterated today that he tried to reach acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf but has yet to get a return call.
Mayor Lightfoot said yesterday “I’ve personally had a number of conversations with” John Lausch, who as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois who has a supervisory role over the local arms of the federal law enforcement agencies. Lightfoot, who at one time worked as a federal prosecutor said she has known knows Lausch for 20 years.
She said she’s also been on the phone with Gov. Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “We’re all on the same page. While we all understand that having additional federal resources can be a value add, they’re not a value add if there are nameless agents riding around ... pulling people off the street, depriving them of constitutional rights. That is not what a democracy looks like.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul echoed those comments in a statement, “I have been in continual communications with Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot, and we share the goal of preventing any improper and unconstitutional use of federal law enforcement in Chicago.”
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Raoul also is talking with his counterpart in Oregon who filed a civil liberties lawsuit over federal agents parachuting into Portland unannounced and arresting people. “I have ... conferred with Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to ensure I understand how her office and the city of Portland developed a response to the deployment of federal agents in Portland,” Raoul stated, stressing he remains concerned about what’s unfolded there. As the state’s top prosecutor, Raoul said he wants “to prevent actions that would lead to the violation of the constitutional rights of residents of Chicago and Illinois.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker duriing a coronavirus pandemic briefing at the Illinois State Capitol on May 20, 2020, in Springfield. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois sees its highest number of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases this month, with 1,598 new cases announced today, Pritzker warned that “COVID-19 hasn’t gone away and it remains a serious threat.” The state’s top Democrat also pointedly said dealing with the virus isn’t a blue vs. red — Democrat vs. Republican — issue but something residents must do as a united front.
He lauded residents for following guidelines that led to falling numbers of newly diagnosed cases, fatalities and the all-important positivity rates — a figure roughly calculated by tallying up overall testing numbers and figuring out the percent of results that come back “positive” — that serves as an indicator of the virus’ magnitude in a community. But he cautioned that spiking numbers in some states serve as a cautionary tale.
One region in Illinois is “dangerously close” to seeing a rollback in openings. Metro East, a part of the state that borders St. Louis, has seen its seven-day rolling positivity rate climb to 7.1% while the rest of the state averages right around 3%. My Tribune colleague Jessica Villagomez goes into more detail here.
Without calling him out by name, Pritzker once again put some of the blame for increase at Trump’s feet, saying: “If there had been one national strategy employed by our federal government, like a national mask mandate, perhaps things would be different. But that hasn’t happened. And we can’t rely on that possibility.”
Pritzker and other Democrats along with health experts have criticized the president for not regularly wearing a mask in public as he’s tried to strike an upbeat tone about the national response to COVID-19.
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Addressing those who refuse to wear masks or otherwise deny the reach of COVID-19, Pritzker said: “Choosing to go out without a mask isn’t a political statement,” he said, adding at one point: ”It puts your friends and family at risk, there’s nothing political about that.”
An artist's rendering of the proposed Obama Presidential Center. (Obama Foundation/HANDOUT)
From the Tribune’s Morgan Greene and Gregory Pratt: “The city of Chicago would require new apartment developments in Woodlawn near the proposed Obama Presidential Center to include more affordable housing units for low-income residents as part of a compromise reached between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a group of community activists supported by freshman Ald. Jeanette Taylor.
“Lightfoot’s proposed ordinance, which still needs City Council approval, would cap a long, contentious debate between the mayor and community critics who have pushed her administration to protect longtime residents and lower-income community members from being displaced by former President Barack Obama’s ambitious center.” Read the full story here.
Election mode: Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his onetime boss, former President Barack Obama, sat down for a socially distanced conversation that will be streamed tomorrow via their social media accounts. The Biden campaign released a sneak peek here.
Chicago police surround the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park as protesters call for the removal of racist monuments in Chicago in 2017. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The Tribune’s architecture critic Blair Kamin mines the questions surrounding protesters attempting to take down the controversial Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park.
Kamin writes: “To his defenders, including many in Chicago’s Italian American community, Columbus is accurately portrayed as a brave, trailblazing explorer who opened the door to prosperity and progress in both America and Europe. Yet recent historical accounts depict him as a ruthless colonizer and exploiter of Indigenous people. To some historians, he is both.”
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He goes on to note: “Statues and public monuments invariably tell a story: Who is important? What people, values and struggles do we honor? Who should be taken off the pedestal? Aren’t there other ways to celebrate our heroes than to keep putting them up on pedestals?
“There is no easy formula for answering such questions. But with Lightfoot’s clearheaded, evenhanded response to last week’s fracas — she also called reports of excessive force by police unacceptable — Chicago is taking a first step toward confronting the issue through deliberate analysis rather than facile groupthink and an ill-considered rush into destruction.”
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-07-22--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Pritzker says COVID-19 ‘remains a serious threat’ as state announce

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Pritzker says COVID-19 ‘remains a serious threat’ as state announces highest number of new cases in July with 1,598

His parents , an attorney and social worker who live in southern China , experienced a series of miscarriages before @ @ @ @ @ seek out a surrogate — a woman who agrees to carry someone else ’ s @ @ @ @ @ illegal in China , but seeking out surrogates in the handful of nations that openly @ @ @ @ @ , so Zane ’ s parents turned to an agency halfway across the world , @ @ @ @ @ surrogate got pregnant via in vitro fertilization , and on May 29 the couple became @ @ @ @ @ boy .

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois health officials on Wednesday announced 1,598 new known cases of COVID-19, the highest number in the month of July so far.
Though Illinois has a positivity rate half that of neighboring states, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at an news conference COVID-19 has “no boundaries” and it would not take long to reverse the state’s progress. Pritzker also addressed virus deniers and encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public settings.
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“This virus is not a blue state virus or a red state virus … going out without a mask is not a political statement,” he said.
A day earlier, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that people traveling from Kansas to Chicago will need to quarantine for 14 days, effective Friday. Kansas became the latest state added to the city’s Emergency Travel Order. The city also continues to monitor a surge of COVID-19 in neighboring Wisconsin.
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[ Illinois’ new COVID-19 plan: How the state will manage any outbreaks in 3 charts ]
[ COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood ]
[ Schools reopening tracker: What suburban Chicago districts are planning for the fall ]
[ 20 questions about assessing your COVID-19 risk at restaurants, gyms and more ]
Here’s what’s happening Wednesday regarding COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
6:58 p.m. (update): CPS students will get the option to continue remote learning in the fall, schools chief says
CPS CEO Janice Jackson on Wednesday said parents will be asked to choose hybrid or remote when registering students for the upcoming school year, though if a family starts out participating in the hybrid program and decides later that they don’t feel comfortable, they can pull out and switch to at-home learning.
“If you have preexisting health conditions or you’re uncomfortable with returning to a school setting, you can opt into the fully remote option,” Jackson said. “Similarly we heard from a lot of parents who want to see their children in school and so they will have that hybrid model.”
If a student opts for remote-only, they will have to commit to that for at least 10 weeks, the length of a quarter, to allow schools adequate planning time and to make sure they’re not breaking up the pod system, Jackson said.
“There will be a very strict process for opting back in ... making sure people are quarantining,” Jackson said.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
5:22 p.m.: Chicago tightens restrictions on workout class sizes, even as gyms say members aren’t rushing back
Gym-goers have been cautiously but steadily returning to health clubs and fitness studios in the 3½ weeks since those businesses were allowed to let members back in for more than personal training.
But gym operators worry a new 10-person cap on the size of indoor fitness classes, which takes effect Friday, will hamper their efforts to rebuild business after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close temporarily. More stringent rules for bars that also take effect Friday have prompted some to call it quits for good.
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Some fitness clubs and studios were surprised by the more stringent regulations. They’ve already taken precautions like temperature checks and more aggressive cleaning, and in Chicago, members must wear masks during exercise in addition to practicing social distancing.
“We definitely didn’t think we’d be the subject of being pulled back given all the vigilant measures we’re taking,” said David Blitz, CEO of Chicago-based Studio Three.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
4:10 p.m.: Seniors hope new ordinance will protect them during COVID-19: ‘Like living a horror movie’
It was a cold January day when 67-year-old Jackie Reynolds gathered about 60 tenants from two senior buildings.
She called a meeting after one of the residents in her Evergreen Tower building died. A foul smell alerted neighbors to the death. Reynolds organized a team of tenants who were willing to conduct wellness checks on one another.
Soon after, while doing her own checks, Reynolds noticed a neighbor wouldn’t answer the door. A custodian entered the unit and found the woman dead.
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A new ordinance passed Wednesday by the City Council aims to prevent seniors from having to conduct wellness checks themselves. It requires building managers to check on residents at least twice a week, unless residents choose not to be checked on. If a wellness call is not answered by a resident, managers must follow up with a home visit. The ordinance will take effect Aug. 1.
Read more here. —Sydney Czyzon
4:04 p.m.: Chicago banks, stores ask for spare change as they deal with national coin shortage
First, it was the face masks and hand sanitizer. Then, it was toilet paper. Canned foods. Meat products. Flour. Now, the latest scarcity brought on by the pandemic: coins.
Convenience stores, grocers and national retailers like Walgreens and Walmart are asking customers to pay with a debit or credit card or with the exact amount due as they grapple with a national shortage of coins. Some businesses are offering free drinks or buy-back programs to entice people to bring in their spare change.
In June, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers the flow of coins through the economy “kind of stopped” as states enacted stay-at-home orders. Coin deposits from banks to the Fed have declined significantly. Also, production has slowed at the U.S. Mint as it implemented coronavirus safety measures to protect workers and inventory orders from banks picked up.
The Fed, which manages coin inventory and distributes it to banks, announced last month it would ration coins to banks beginning June 15.
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The shortage primarily will affect older people who rely on cash and those who don’t have bank accounts, said Ted Rossman, industry analyst at CreditCards.com.
“Cash is still a big deal. It’s more private. Some people like the privacy aspect of it,” he said.
The Fed announced in late June it would create the U.S. Coin Task Force, comprised of trade organizations, business leaders and government officials, to address the problem. The group hopes to have a set of recommendations by August.
In the meantime, Chicago-area banks and businesses are taking different approaches as they ask customers for assistance.
Read more here. —Abdel Jimenez
2:35 p.m.: United expands mask requirement as spike in COVID-19 cases stalls travel rebound
United Airlines is broadening requirements for where passengers must wear masks as a surge in COVID-19 cases stalls slowly recovering interest in air travel.
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Travelers over age 2 must wear face coverings in gate and baggage claim areas, airline lounges and customer service counters and kiosks, in addition to on board. Those who refuse can be banned from flying United while masks are required, and possibly longer. Travelers who believe “extraordinary circumstances” warrant exception can contact the airline, United said.
Like other major airlines, United already required passengers wear a mask while flying and pledged to crack down last month after travelers complained not everyone followed the rules. Masks are already required in the terminals at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport, according to the airports’ websites.
The move comes as U.S. air travel, which plummeted in mid-April to just 5% of typical traffic a year ago, had started to bounce back, until recent spikes led to new quarantine requirements for travelers from hard-hit states in cities including Chicago.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
2:08 p.m.: Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb imposing statewide face mask order to slow the coronavirus spread
Indiana will have a statewide face mask mandate starting next week, joining many other states in the attempt to slow the coronavirus spread, Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday.
The order will apply to anyone ages 8 and older in any indoor public or business areas and at outdoor public spaces when sufficient distancing can’t be maintained. The order will take effect Monday.
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Holcomb said his order will also require masks in schools for grades 3 and above by students, teachers and other employees.
Read more here. —Associated Press
1:55 p.m.: Laid-off workers brace for expiration of the extra $600 in unemployment benefits helping them get by. ‘It’s a slap in the face.’
The extra $600 weekly in federal unemployment benefits that people have been receiving during the pandemic is set to expire this weekend. After that, the jobless will be eligible only for regular state unemployment aid, which in Illinois pays 47% of a person’s regular wages, up to a maximum of $484 a week.
For the millions who remain out work, including many in industries that were decimated by stay-at-home mandates and won’t get back to normal for some time, the scenario is devastating. Economists warn that letting the supplement expire could make it difficult for people to buy food and pay bills, dealing a blow to the overall economy.
Lawmakers are debating the future of such supplements as the economic impact of the pandemic drags on. While the unemployment rate has declined from its April peak, in June it was still at 11.1% nationally and 14.6% in Illinois, where more than 946,000 people were out of work. Last week, an additional 38,000 people in Illinois applied for jobless benefits.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
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1:31 p.m.: Teachers, parents continue to push back against CPS proposal to reopen schools after Labor Day
Both outside and during a Chicago Board of Education meeting Wednesday, members of the teachers union and other detractors shared their dismay about the tentative plan to reopen schools this fall with a hybrid of in-person and virtual classes.
”Reopening school is not the safest option,” said Yvette McCaskill, who teaches at Morrill Math and Science Elementary. She appeared in a video from a car caravan organized by the teachers union.Marilyn Piggee, a first-grade teacher assistant at Murray Language Academy, said paraprofessionals like herself are the “first responders” within schools, yet may are over the age of 50 and at a higher risk for complications if they get the coronavirus.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson said schools will open reopen if it’s safe.
”It’s important for people to know that the plan we are putting in place is just that. Our goal is to ensure that we can cautiously reopen schools, and we will only do that if it is a safe and responsible thing to do,” she said.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
12:55 p.m.: Pritzker on rising COVID-19 numbers: ‘It remains a serious threat’
As COVID-19 cases rise in neighboring states, Illinois has expanded testing across the state and on Wednesday announced the highest number of new cases in the month of July with 1,598. There were 23 deaths reported.
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“Let me start with the unfortunate truth, COVID-19 has not gone away and it remains a serious threat,” said Gov. J.B. Pritzker at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Though Illinois has a positivity rate half that of neighboring states, Pritzker said COVID-19 has “no boundaries” and it would not take long to reverse the state’s progress.
“If there had been a federal mandate perhaps things would be different, we can’t rely on that possibility,” he said. “A rise is still a rise and it is on all of us to bring these numbers down … you can go from 3% positivity to Arizona’s 23% positivity in a blink of an eye.”
Pritzker also addressed virus deniers and encouraged residents to wear face coverings in public settings.
“This virus is not a blue state virus or a red state virus … going out without a mask is not a political statement,” he said.
There are now more than 280 testing sites around the state and about 1,600 contact tracers to address coronavirus spread.
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The eviction moratorium will extend through Aug. 22, he added.
—Jessica Villagomez
12:07 p.m.: 1,598 new known COVID-19 cases, 23 additional deaths
Illinois health officials on Wednesday announced 1,598 new known cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known cases to 165,301 and the statewide death toll to 7,347 since the start of the pandemic. The state also announced the results of 39,633 new test results.
—Chicago Tribune staff
11:38 a.m.: Calumet Fisheries ‘ambassador’ Carlos Rosas dies at 41 of COVID-19
If fish shacks had maitre d’s, then that was Carlos Rosas at Calumet Fisheries, the James Beard award winning smoke stand on the Far South Side of Chicago.
Rosas was more than a store manager, though that was the title he proudly claimed. He was the storyteller at the site first made famous by “The Blues Brothers” car jump at the bridge next door. He was the history keeper on a visit by Anthony Bourdain immortalized on the late chef’s food and travel television series “No Reservations.”
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Rosas was the heart, soul and beacon to the red-roofed store to generations of Black, white, Asian and Mexican families like his own, who came for fish, and left imprinted by his larger than life hospitality.
Rosas died on Monday from complications related to COVID-19. He was 41 years old.
Read more here. —Louisa Chu
10:58 a.m.: Chinese infants born to Chicago-area surrogates are stranded in the U.S. without their parents, due to COVID-19
Seven weeks old, with a thoughtful expression and a full head of silky black hair, Zane is a much-wanted baby.
His parents, an attorney and social worker who live in southern China, experienced a series of miscarriages before a doctor advised them to seek out a surrogate — a woman who agrees to carry someone else’s biological child. Surrogacy is illegal in China, but seeking out surrogates in the handful of nations that openly allow such arrangements is permitted, so Zane’s parents turned to an agency halfway across the world, in Illinois. Their U.S. surrogate got pregnant via in vitro fertilization, and on May 29 the couple became the proud parents of a boy.
There’s only one problem: Zane’s parents can’t hold him, feed him or even see him in person.
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From 8,000 miles away, they watch him via a Wi-Fi baby monitor.
Due to travel and visa issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Zane is stuck in North Aurora, where a former employee from his parents’ Chicago surrogacy agency, Vicky Li, has agreed to take care of him and another stranded Chinese infant, Ryder.
The boys are among an estimated 200 to 400 international babies born to American surrogates who have been stranded in the U.S. in recent months due to COVID-19, unable to go home to their biological parents in countries such as France, Britain, Israel and China, according to Robin Pope, a Portland lawyer who represents international parents seeking surrogacy in the U.S.
Read more here. —Nara Schoenberg
10:35 a.m.: 19 cases of COVID-19 reported at juvenile justice center in St. Charles
Nineteen cases of COVID-19 were reported at the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice’s Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles, officials said.
The cases include 16 staff members and three juveniles at the center, officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health said in a news release. The facility houses approximately 80 youth per day and has 140 employees, according to its website.
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All youth and staff have been tested for the virus and the facility is now implementing programming to reduce further spread, officials said.
The Kane County Jail has no cases of coronavirus at its St. Charles facility, sheriff Ron Hain said.
—Aurora Beacon-News staff
9:10 a.m.: Naperville to add signs, PSAs urging people to wear face coverings
The city of Naperville will increase signage and develop public service announcements urging people to wear face coverings to quell the spread of COVID-19 as many have observed groups of people walking downtown without masks.
Some Naperville residents have avoided the city’s busy downtown area amid the coronavirus pandemic even as businesses and restaurants reopen because many people are not wearing masks or face coverings while walking the central business district sidewalks.
Jim Hill, co-chair of Naperville Senior Task Force, said he and his wife generally love going downtown to shop and dine, but as individuals over 65 with underlying conditions, they now avoid the area because they are at a higher risk for developing severe symptoms if they contract COVID-19.
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The last time they went downtown, the pair found themselves on a crowded sidewalk with unmasked people, Hill said. And they’re not shopping as often because they’ve observed people not wearing face coverings in parking lots, but rather putting them on right before entering a store.
“We’re sort of trapped in our home because people aren’t wearing masks in public,” Hill said.
Read more here. —Erin Hegarty
7:03 a.m.: CTU holds car caravan to protest CPS plan to hold mixed in-person, online classes in fall
The Chicago Teachers Union will hold a car caravan Wednesday to protest the Chicago Public Schools’ hybrid school plan, saying it “falls short on safety.”
The caravan will assemble at 9 a.m. with the intention of circling Chicago Public Schools headquarters during the Board of Education’s regular meeting, according to a news release from the union.
The protest was planned as a way to tell the district that its teachers, clinicians and support staff “reject the mayor’s strategy.” They contend the board “is seeking to force students, faculty and staff into buildings for a full school day without allocating more resources for safety or specifying how they will keep them safe.”
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The union further said it wants to see the mayor reverse course and move to a remote learning plan, such as those being implemented in cities such as Atlanta and Los Angeles.
—Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
6 a.m.: An estimated 4,400 Chicago-area businesses have closed during the pandemic. 2,400 say they’ll never reopen.
Chicagoans have watched for months as “For Sale” and “For Rent” signs popped up in windows of their favorite coffee joints and neighborhood bars, and they’ve wondered whether treasured restaurants will ever reopen.
A tally is in: The coronavirus pandemic has forced an estimated 4,400 businesses in the Chicago area to close, including 2,400 that say they won’t reopen. The data, released Wednesday, comes from crowd-sourced business review platform Yelp.
Nationally, more than 132,500 businesses have permanently or temporarily closed since March, according to Yelp. Temporary business closures are decreasing nationally as some states reopen, but permanent closures are rising, accounting for 55% of all closed businesses.
The Chicago area has suffered the fourth-highest number of closures among the nation’s metro areas, behind Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. Restaurants and retail were the hardest-hit sectors in the Chicago area.
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Read more here. —Ally Marotti
6 a.m.: Students push back against in-person bar and medical college exams amid coronavirus fears
Designed to measure fitness, character and competence, the bar exam is a grueling 12-hour test typically administered over a two-day period to thousands of recent law school graduates.
But with coronavirus cases still surging in many parts of the nation, some law school graduates view this communal experience not as a shared rite of passage but as a potentially life-threatening risk.
One person worried about the uncertainties of the in-person bar exam is aspiring child protection lawyer Mollie McGuire of Chicago.
McGuire, along with Dalton Hughes and Steven Tinetti, formally filed a legal petition with the Illinois Supreme Court, asking the state’s highest court to grant 2020 law school graduates diploma privilege, meaning they could practice law without sitting for the bar exam. Nearly 1,400 law school graduates, faculty members, lawyers and health care workers signed on to support the effort.
In its response, the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar, which administers the state’s bar exam, reiterated the necessity of the in-person exam, citing the board’s “duty to protect the public from dishonesty and incompetency.”
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Read more here. —Claire Hao
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
Here are five things that happened Tuesday related to COVID-19.


chicagotribune--2020-07-22--Chicago mass shooting: With 15 people shot outside Gresham funeral home, ‘An eye for an eye makes us

Chicago mass shooting: With 15 people shot outside Gresham funeral home, ‘An eye for an eye makes us both blind,’ top cop says

“ I woke up this morning even more resolved to do everything that we can to stop this violence .
@ @ @ @ @ before , violence is a symptom , ” she said .
“ A symptom of @ @ @ @ @ .
Young men who don ’ t believe that they have a future other than @ @ @ @ @ these gangs or factions or cliques .
… And we will not abandon our support @ @ @ @ @ turn around their future and to end the pipeline that leads to these gangs to @ @ @ @ @ ”

Peter Nickeas, Jeremy Gorner, Paige Fry, Megan Crepeau

Constance Weathersby sat in her wheelchair outside Rhodes Funeral Services on Tuesday night, too grief-stricken to go back in and see her nephew’s body.
A black car drove down 79th Street. A young man pointed a pistol out its window and opened fire. And she dove from her wheelchair, terrified.
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Round after round seemed to ricochet off the sidewalk.
“I knew it was about my nephew,” Weathersby said Wednesday morning, recalling the ordeal. “He died violently.”
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She scraped both knees trying to shield her daughter from the gunfire, Weathersby said, and saw the shooter aim toward the street and continue firing. One bullet grazed her, cutting a trench along her side that she felt with her fingers before realizing she was shot.
By the time the gunfire stopped, her nephew’s funeral had become the site of Chicago’s worst mass shooting in memory. Weathersby and at least 14 others were wounded in the attack.
Police on Wednesday blamed the Gresham neighborhood shooting on an ongoing gang rivalry. Weathersby’s nephew, Donnie, had been fatally shot in Englewood the week before — a slaying that itself was related to a prior shooting, police said.
“The cycle of violence in Chicago, someone gets shot, which prompts someone else to pick up a gun. This same cycle repeats itself over and over and over again. This cycle is fueled by street gangs, guns and drugs,” Chicago police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference at City Hall early Wednesday.
“There is no comfort in revenge. None,” Brown said. “Put your guns down. We can’t keep meting out violence with violence. An eye for an eye makes us both blind.”
Attacks on funerals are common enough that police routinely maintain a presence near certain memorial services. And a cycle of retaliatory shootings has driven Chicago violence for years.
So Tuesday’s shooting stood out in this summer’s massive wave of violence not for its circumstances, but for its sheer scale. Even in a city that has drawn national attention for its struggles, a shooting with so many casualties remains rare.
Last year, 13 people were wounded, four of them critically, in a shooting inside a memorial gathering in the Englewood neighborhood. And in September 2013, 13 people were shot in Cornell Square Park in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, an incident that saw a 3-year-old boy wounded.
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“To the cowards behind these shootings, and ‘cowards’ I think is the right word here, we have to ask you to find your humanity,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a news conference Wednesday.
Lightfoot noted that city residents experiencing trauma or grief can call 311 for city resources.
“I woke up this morning even more resolved to do everything that we can to stop this violence. You heard me say this before, violence is a symptom,” she said. “A symptom of communities that are crying out. Young men who don’t believe that they have a future other than being part of one of these gangs or factions or cliques. … And we will not abandon our support and our continued determination to turn around their future and to end the pipeline that leads to these gangs to claim another young man.”
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said police believe three people in the car were involved, two of whom were shooters.
Some attendees at the funeral returned fire, police said, taking aim at the car that then turned north on Carpenter Street as the shooters continued sending a hail of bullets toward the funeral home. Funeral attendees could hear shots being fired toward them before the vehicle crashed midway down the block, according to police.
Those inside the vehicle fled. Deenihan said the car had been stolen.
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There were 60 fired cartridge casings left at the scene, police said, and one person was brought in for questioning.
Constance Weathersby knows at least three of the people who were shot, saying she believed some were from a second visitation in the same funeral home. One of her relatives suffered a severed artery, another a shattered bone. One still has a bullet in her leg.
Weathersby spent the night changing a bandage on her side. Blood soaked through her skirt and dried.
But she declined to go to the hospital, saying she didn’t want to take the chance of contracting COVID-19.
The shooting produced such chaos, even getting an initial count of the wounded proved difficult. After initially saying there were at least 14 wounded, Chicago police gave an update early Wednesday that there were at least 15 people shot. Another man at the scene said he had been grazed by a bullet but had not sought medical attention.
Tuesday night at the scene of the attack, he stood near the crime scene tape with a fresh wound in his right knee.
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He said he was waiting in line to go inside the funeral home when the shooting started. As he ran, he realized he was grazed by a bullet, he said.
He said he didn’t tell police or paramedics he was hit because it was a minor injury, so he would not have been included in a victim count.
That official count included 10 women, police said, ranging in age from 21 to 65. Five men also were wounded, ranging in age from 22 to 38. Of the 15 victims, one was said to be in extremely critical condition and a second one was in critical condition, according to police.
Brown in his remarks pushed back on criticism from at least one activist that there should have been a more robust police presence at the funeral. He said the department was prepared for the potential of danger based on intelligence police received before the mass shooting that there was a “gang connection” involved.
“We had two police squad cars there and we had a full (tactical) team in the area. And we treat all of our funerals that have any gang rivalry or gang connection in similar ways,” he said.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the longtime pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, which is only a few blocks from the site of the mass shooting, said Wednesday the parish plans to offer a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of suspects in the case.
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He pointed to gang problems, unemployment and poverty in communities like Gresham that only exacerbate the violence problem in the area. Pfleger also pointed to a fractured relationship between Chicago police and some residents in the area, making the community uneasy about approaching officers with information about violent incidents.
“Why are we surprised people’s anger is exploding like this?” Pfleger said. “I think we’ve got to look at the perfect storm that’s created in communities like this.”
Even before Tuesday’s shooting, Chicago was reeling from a spike in shootings that has once again brought unwanted national attention. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was sending in a “surge” of federal agents to assist in quelling the violence.
So far in 2020, Chicago has experienced one of the most violent years in decades. Through Sunday, homicides in Chicago were up 51% with 414, compared with 275 at the same time last year, official CPD statistics show. Shootings were also up by nearly half.
During a 28-day period through Sunday, at least 116 people were slain in Chicago, up from 40 during the same period in 2019.
Wednesday morning, the crime scene in Gresham had been cleared such that a passerby might not know so many people had been shot the night before — except for a small ribbon of red police tape tangled in weeds next to a light pole on Carpenter. Residents swept up the sidewalk. A TV station filmed an interview on the corner.
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Four marked police SUVs drove slowly down Carpenter with their lights on, and turned west onto 79th Street. Some residents wondered if the violence will ever stop, and what police can do to make it happen.
Kenneth Parker, vice president of a community advocacy group, watched the police cars pass.
“It’s not effective at all,” Parker said. “I’m just saying, to put their lights on, what does that serve? It puts no fear in no one. The guys doing this stuff aren’t out here. Who are they doing it for?”


chicagotribune--2020-07-22--CPS students will get the option to continue remote learning in the fall, schools chief says as pres

CPS students will get the option to continue remote learning in the fall, schools chief says as pressure mounts on district to forgo a partial reopening

“ We know that there are a variety of things going on and we know that there are communities that @ @ @ @ @ she said .
“ These are also the same communities that are still reeling from @ @ @ @ @ and others and also dealing with the racial injustice and violence .
And so when @ @ @ @ @ things and try to put a plan together , it becomes extremely complex and complicated @ @ @ @ @ to working through that .
”

Ray Elementary School teacher Gabriel Sheridan gives a thumbs-up during a Chicago Teachers Union caravan rally to Chicago Public Schools headquarters Wednesday. The union is protesting plans for a partial school reopening this fall. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Outside the Chicago Board of Education’s Loop office Wednesday, teachers taped poster boards to the backs of chairs to represent what they worry classrooms could look like if schools open in the fall.
One imaginary student had a coronavirus infection in the spring. Another didn’t have health insurance. A classmate was an asymptomatic carrier who had passed the temperature check.
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“We’ve got a student here who lost a family member to COVID,” narrated Gustav Roman, an English teacher at Kelly College Prep. “We’ve got ... a student in a temporary living situation, who we’re supposed to be supporting.”
The mock school, shared in a livestreamed panel on the Chicago Teachers Union Facebook page, was one of several actions designed to draw attention to two central issues as the board convened its monthly meeting Wednesday: Schools reopening in the fall and police on campus.
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Though votes were not scheduled on either matter, many people saw the meeting as a chance to make their voices heard by decision makers.
Teacher Andrew Van Herik protests plans to reopen Chicago Public Schools outside CPS headquarters Wednesday. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Last week, Chicago Public Schools released a draft plan for fall instruction — a hybrid learning model that would assign most students to “pods” that would return to campus for two consecutive days of in-person learning on a rotating basis, pending public health guidance. On Wednesdays, in between pod rotations, schools would get deep cleaning.
CPS has created a survey and scheduled five virtual meetings next week seeking feedback before finalizing a plan. CEO Janice Jackson on Wednesday stressed the importance of community input over the next 10 days.
So far, student respondents have reported feeling a lack of connection and desire for more live interaction with their teachers and classmates, she said. Families want more rigorous health protocols in schools and more transparency from CPS, and parents want to see kids back in school but are concerned with health and safety.
The district aims to release a revised plan in early August.
“We need all of our stakeholders to help us decide how we safely reenter schools in the fall,” she said. “It’s important for people to know that the plan we are putting in place is just that. Our goal is to ensure that we can cautiously reopen schools, and we will only do that if it is a safe and responsible thing to do.”
However, even with an optimistic outlook about a vaccine or treatment, Jackson doesn’t see schools returning fully to in-person instruction for the remainder of the year. And the district is prepared to switch back to remote learning if there’s a spike in cases.
“If we magically had a vaccine in the next week or so, we’re still, this entire year will be a year where we will either be in a hybrid model or an all remote model. I am certain of that,” Jackson said.
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But teachers who spoke during events hosted by the CTU said in addition to the concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19 within schools, they risked endangering their own families.
“Reopening school is not the safest option,” said Yvette McCaskill, who teaches at Morrill Math and Science Elementary. She appeared in a video from a car caravan organized by the teachers union.
Marilyn Piggee, a first-grade teacher assistant at Murray Language Academy, said paraprofessionals like herself are the “first responders” within schools, yet many are over the age of 50 and at a higher risk for complications if they get the coronavirus.
“We are the first to get to work and the last to leave work. We interact with all the students,” she said. With school starting just after Labor Day, she said staff also have concerns about children returning from family vacations having not quarantined for 14 days.
“How would we know where co-workers or students have been?” she asked. “If nobody can have more than six people in their house ... or bar, how can we have 16 in a classroom?”
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During a morning news conference, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates brought up the challenges faced by immunocompromised students and teachers. “How can you say with a straight face that this plan works for them?”
Jackson said all families should have an option that works for them. Parents will be asked to choose hybrid or remote when registering students for the upcoming school year, though if a family starts out participating in the hybrid program and decides later that they don’t feel comfortable, they can pull out and switch to at-home learning. The draft plan also has most 11th and 12th graders continuing school at home, and preschoolers entirely in-person, with Kindergarten through 10th graders in the hybrid attendance model.
“If you have preexisting health conditions or you’re uncomfortable with returning to a school setting, you can opt into the fully remote option,” Jackson said. “Similarly we heard from a lot of parents who want to see their children in school and so they will have that hybrid model.”
If a student opts for remote-only, they will have to commit to that for at least 10 weeks, the length of a quarter, to allow schools adequate planning time and to make sure they’re not breaking up the pod system, Jackson said.
“There will be a very strict process for opting back in ... making sure people are quarantining,” Jackson said.
Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said lessons from spring remote learning are guiding the district in fall changes, including moving all schools to one platform to capture student participation; having more live virtual instruction; providing clearer expectations for educator engagement during remote learning; and increasing monitoring by principals and district leaders.
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In the upcoming month, schools will have trainings on strategies for rebuilding a sense of community, whether in school or virtual classrooms. CPS is also expanding mental health interventions and supports, including grief curriculum, classroom activities for managing stress and anxiety, and more partnerships with community agencies, McDade said.
While summer sports programming is underway with COVID-19 restrictions, district leaders have not yet made a decision about prep sports.
“While we haven’t made a decision about high school sports in the fall, we know athletics are important to many of our students and we are committed to supporting their talents,” McDade said.
Separately, the Board of Education also needs to vote next month on a new contract with the Chicago Police Department for school-based officers.
During the CTU panel, Darla Wynn, an elementary teacher at Casals School of Excellence, said she’s working on the push for police-free schools because CPS is paying $33 million for the contract with Chicago police while other needs go unmet, such as full-time nurses at all schools.
“That sends a very powerful message,” she said.
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As the meeting began with the board honoring Golden Apple award winners, some recipients used their platform to draw attention to similar issues.
Jenine Wehbeh, a Murphy Elementary teacher honored for excellence in teaching, recognized “the Chicago students who are leading our community and demanding justice,” particularly Miracle Boyd, a 2020 graduate who had teeth knocked out by Chicago police officers at a weekend protest “for standing up for what she believes in.” Wehbeh said as an educator, it’s unacceptable to her that CPS is sending $33 million to CPD, protecting “white supremacy instead of Black and brown youth.”
Jackson said the district is trying to meet the evolving needs stemming from COVID-19 and racial injustice in the city.
“We know that there are a variety of things going on and we know that there are communities that are disproportionately impacted,” she said. “These are also the same communities that are still reeling from the murders of George Floyd and others and also dealing with the racial injustice and violence. And so when you compound all of these things and try to put a plan together, it becomes extremely complex and complicated. But we remain committed to working through that.”
After recent virtual meetings, Wednesday’s was hybrid, with two members calling in and five in the board room, including board President Miguel del Valle and Vice President Sendhil Revuluri, along with Jackson, McDade and minimal board staff. All present sat with extra spacing and wore masks
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Del Valle noted it was the first meeting since Illinois moved into phase four of its reopening plan, and CPS will announce at a later date if the August meeting will be in person or virtual. Citing technological limitations, he said public comment Wednesday remained capped at 15, but CPS is “planning to adopt systems” to increase the number of public participants for future meetings with the intention of one day getting back to the customary 60.
hleone@chicagotribune.com