chicagotribune--2020-09-11--Disinformation scams are becoming more aggressive as Election Day nears. Here’s what Illinois voters

Disinformation scams are becoming more aggressive as Election Day nears. Here’s what Illinois voters should know

“ As we get closer to Election Day , I think we ’ re going to have more and more @ @ @ @ @ Marisel Hernandez , chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections .
“ But we ’ @ @ @ @ @ of the curve and be out there letting voters know what is correct and what @ @ @ @ @

One of the most widespread challenges facing modern elections is false information. In Illinois, officials say misinformation and disinformation schemes are getting more aggressive.
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“As we get closer to Election Day, I think we’re going to have more and more misinformation schemes,” said Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections. “But we’re determined to be ahead of the curve and be out there letting voters know what is correct and what isn’t.”
The Tribune has fact-checked reported scams circulating in Illinois. Here are facts to know leading up to Nov. 3:
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Voting more than once in an election is illegal.
President Donald Trump has told voters to cast a ballot by mail and then vote in person to test the integrity of the elections system. But voting twice is illegal.
In Illinois, knowingly voting more than once or attempting to do so is a class 3 felony. People who attempt to commit this type of voter fraud will run into numerous safeguards.
Election judges will have records to verify whether or not you’ve received or cast a mail-in ballot. If you tell an election judge at a polling place that you’ve never received a vote-by-mail ballot, and the poll books show otherwise, you have to sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury.
Local officials don’t immediately process mail-in ballots received on Election Day to prevent other attempts at double voting. If someone casts a ballot by mail that is received on Nov. 3, officials won’t review it until later because it wouldn’t have been processed in time to be reflected in the Election Day poll books.
You also can’t sign someone else’s vote-by-mail application, because each one is addressed to a specific person, who has his or her own unique voter ID. Election authorities compare signatures on file with the one sent in from the voter.
“You’re not going to be able to trick the system,” said Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections. And if you try, it’s easy to prove you committed a felony, he added.
There is no such thing as voting online or through text.
Some scammers have tried disseminating information that voters can cast their ballot online or by texting it, which is impossible.
Voters can cast their ballot through mail, by dropping it in a secured drop box or in person at a polling site.
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Nothing in the voter registration system indicates party affiliation.
One false claim shared thousands of times on social media stemmed from a true story about the confiscation of several thousand fake state driver’s licenses at Chicago O’Hare International Airport this year.
The social media post, however, falsely stated that the nearly 20,000 counterfeit driver’s licenses belonged to Democrats and were all registered to vote. In actuality, most were destined for college students in neighboring states, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.
The IDs had no known links to voter fraud.
There is nothing in the Illinois voter registration system that attaches a person’s name to a party affiliation, according to Dietrich. Voters also need more than one form of identification during registration, and a fake driver’s license number that doesn’t match a record at the Illinois secretary of state’s office would be flagged.
Voter information is not being sold or redistributed.
Some Illinois voters have reported robocalls spreading the false claim that residents who vote by mail will have private information leaked to third parties. Their personal details, the robocalls claim, will be shared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, law enforcement and creditors to track people for vaccines, warrants or debt.
The claim is entirely false and primarily meant to discourage voting by mail, state officials said. Other robocalls have claimed ballots won’t be counted if people use the vote-by-mail system, which is also not true.
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Be wary of robocalls sharing questionable information. When in doubt, check with your local election authority’s office.
Illinois upgraded its cyber defenses to prevent hacking and scams.
Russians hacked the Illinois voter registration database in 2016 and viewed the personal information of more than 76,000 voters. Dietrich said the election wasn’t affected, and no identity theft issues were reported, but the attack did prompt significant upgrades to cyber defenses.
One of those is the Cyber Navigator Program, which was launched after the 2016 hacking attack using federal grant money. A few tech specialists now work with election officials to conduct risk assessments and fix potential problems, such as phishing scams.
“The Cyber Navigator Program was designed to make sure that none of the individual election authorities have to go through what we went through four years ago,” Dietrich said.
Every local election authority has the same training and resources for best cybersecurity practices, Dietrich added. State officials now communicate with local election authorities over a secure line; voter files no longer pass over the public internet.
Don’t interact with social media posts from untrusted sources.
Social media is often the facilitator of false information. In 2016, foreign-sponsored digital political ads targeted voters and tried to heighten tensions in America, which should act as a cautionary tale for people perusing social networks this year.
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“Our biggest concern is social media,” Dietrich said, adding that the state has a staff member “always on the lookout for bad information specific to elections over social media” and the general media.
But social media is still the hardest area to watch and regulate for false information, Dietrich said. He recommended voters refrain from sharing or reacting to posts from untrusted sources, especially if the information relates to the election process.
Once you interact with a user spreading unconfirmed information on social media, “you’re going to be targeted more with those types of posts,” Dietrich said.
When coming across an election-related post on social media, voters should investigate the source. If it’s difficult to discern where it’s coming from, do some research before sharing or interacting with it.
“If in doubt, check it out,” Hernandez, of the Chicago Board of Elections, said.
If voters have any questions or hope to verify information, they can visit elections.il.gov or call their local election authority or the state office at 217-782-4141.
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kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-09-11--Two former DCFS staff members in AJ Freund case arrested, charged with child endangerment

Besides the suit , former DCFS Inspector General Meryl Paniak had recommended their termination for their handling of the December @ @ @ @ @ inspector general report , which focused on the agency ’ s handling of the December @ @ @ @ @ one from March in which Acosta was not involved , found the employees “ failed @ @ @ @ @ of the troubled history of AJ ’ s family and missed opportunities to intervene .

Police investigators carry evidence-gathering supplies out of a home on Dole Avenue in Crystal Lake, April 19, 2019. Five-year-old Andrew "AJ" Freund, who lived at the house, has been reported missing. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
In an extremely rare development, criminal charges were filed against two former child welfare workers for their handling of a hotline abuse investigation of 5-year-old AJ Freund prior to his tragic death last year in Crystal Lake.
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A McHenry County grand jury on Thursday indicted Carlos Acosta, a county board member, and Andrew Polovin, his former supervisor, accusing them of endangering the life of a child and reckless conduct.
The charges could scare other child welfare workers when deciding how to treat abuse allegations, one expert said, but raise a legitimate question over how to hold people responsible for egregious cases of failing to protect vulnerable children.
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Child welfare workers generally have protections that amount to qualified immunity, said Bruce Boyer, director of the Loyola University Civitas Childlaw Center. The debate over such protections, he said, is similar to the controversy over qualified immunity for police when they shoot and kill someone.
“It’s a huge problem,” he said. “How do you incentivize people to make good judgments without putting them in a position where they’re afraid to make any judgments? If you go too far down that road, you’ll never have people willing to take on the job. You have to provide some protection, but there have to be limits on the protection.”
The grand jury indictment gave few details about the charges, other than to say that on or about Dec. 18, 2018, the defendants, “while not acting in good faith in (their) official capacity … and in a willful and wanton manner,” put AJ in circumstances that endangered his life or health.
Bail was set at $20,000 for each, and both men posted the required $2,000 to get out of jail while awaiting court proceedings, the McHenry County sheriff’s office said.
Carlos J. Acosta (McHenry County Sheriff's Office)
Acosta, 54, of Woodstock, and Polovin, 48, of Island Lake, left the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in December following a lengthy internal disciplinary process. A DCFS spokesman and McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Daniel Wilbrandt both declined to comment on the charges.
But McHenry County board Chairman Jack Franks called for Acosta to resign, saying the board couldn’t force him out and that he is presumed innocent, but the charges make it impossible for him to be an effective elected official.
Attorney Peter Flowers, who filed suit against the two defendants and another former DCFS worker in the case, called the arrests “a long time coming.”
“We know AJ’s death was entirely preventable,” he said in a statement. “These two DCFS employees who were supposed to help him ignored every red flag even ignoring reports of abuse from the local police, medical professionals, and AJ’s neighbors.
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[ AJ Freund saga: The family’s interactions with DCFS and how the tragedy unfolded ]
“There’s a systemic problem at DCFS that really needs to be cleaned up,” he added.
Acosta was the child protection specialist assigned to investigate a Dec. 18, 2018, hotline call from Crystal Lake police regarding a bruise on AJ’s right hip. The child gave various statements about the cause of his injury, including that the family’s dog had pawed him, but he also told an emergency room doctor, “Maybe Mommy didn’t mean to hurt me.”
Andrew R. Polovin (McHenry County Sheriff's Office)
Acosta deemed the allegation of abuse unfounded about two weeks later after consulting Polovin, who also was the supervisor in two earlier hotline investigations involving AJ, records show.
The employees, who both had about 25 years of agency experience, were reassigned to paid desk duty shortly after AJ was reported missing in April 2019. His body was found six days later in a shallow grave about 7 miles from his Crystal Lake home.
His parents, Andrew Freund and JoAnn Cunningham, had a long history with DCFS and had temporarily lost custody of AJ after he was born with heroin in his body. Cunningham, 37, pleaded guilty to the boy’s murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison earlier this summer. Murder charges are still pending against Freund, 61, who is due in court for a status hearing next week. His attorney has said he hopes to work out a plea deal rather than go to trial.
AJ Freund saga: The family’s interactions with DCFS and how the tragedy unfolded »
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The federal lawsuit brought by Flowers was filed on behalf of the slain boy’s estate, which represents his three siblings. The lawsuit alleges that the former state employees showed “an inhumane indifference to AJ’s safety” in their handling of the December 2018 hotline investigation.
The Tribune has reported that Acosta was carrying a caseload above what is allowed under a federal consent decree at the time of his contact with AJ’s family, a systemic problem that has long vexed DCFS and that child welfare advocates say puts vulnerable children at further risk.
Acosta was paid $95,900 in 2019. Polovin was paid $189,000 in 2019, according to the state comptroller’s office database.
Relatives and friends of AJ’s parents said they welcome news of the charges.
“It’s about time,” said JoAnn Gomez, who is a former friend of Cunningham’s dating back to sixth grade but has not accepted her calls since her April 2019 arrest. “I’m happy to see that they’re (the former state workers) being held accountable. Now let’s see if it sticks. Unfortunately, JoAnn got off easy.”
In one other similar case, Los Angeles County prosecutors filed felony charges against social workers who left 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez with his mother and her boyfriend, who were later convicted of his murder. But this year, an appellate court dismissed the charges.
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cmgutowski@chicagotribune.com
rmcoppin@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--In text messages, Eric Trump expressed gratitude for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s call during Chicago unre

In text messages, Eric Trump expressed gratitude for Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s call during Chicago unrest: ‘Mrs. Mayor – know that I have been thinking about you’

“ Mrs .
Mayor – know that I have been thinking about you .
I still appreciate the call you @ @ @ @ @ a class act , ” he wrote .
“ I only imagine how difficult the @ @ @ @ @ are all rooting for Chicago .
.
.
I hope you are well .
Eric @ @ @

In this file photo, Chicago police officers guard the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago on May 30, 2020, to keep protesters from approaching during a rally and march to remember the May 25 killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
As civil unrest surged across the country and Chicago at the end of May, Mayor Lori Lightfoot called President Donald Trump’s son Eric to express her support, according to text messages he sent her. The city said Lightfoot reached out to numerous downtown groups and businesses to update them about public safety plans.
Lightfoot referenced the texts last month, after President Trump made an issue of her decision to raise the downtown bridges following a second round of looting. At a Wisconsin event, Trump said Lightfoot “literally raised up the drawbridges to prevent hordes of rioters from ransacking the city.”
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In response, Lightfoot said, “One of the bridges we put up is near Trump Tower because our protesters and vigilantes would love nothing more than to attack Trump Tower.”
“So those little notes that I get from Eric Trump after every time that we’ve protected that property, if they want us to stop, say the word,” Lightfoot added.
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The Tribune subsequently filed an open records request for any texts or emails between Lightfoot and Eric Trump.
In text messages obtained by the Tribune, Eric Trump expressed gratitude to Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she called the president's son following civil unrest in Chicago.
On June 1, as the city was cleaning up from widespread looting over the weekend, the younger Trump texted Lightfoot.
“Mrs. Mayor, I am thinking about you. I really appreciated your call on Saturday – it was incredibly kind," he wrote. “I have passed along your support to our team and residences. Please know, I and we truly appreciate you.”
The city did not release any records showing whether she replied.
Weeks later, on July 24, Eric Trump texted her again.
“Mrs. Mayor – know that I have been thinking about you. I still appreciate the call you made to me which was a class act,” he wrote. “I only imagine how difficult the situation is but know we are all rooting for Chicago . . . I hope you are well. Eric T.”
Late Friday, the city released a statement saying Lightfoot reached out to numerous downtown groups and businesses on May 30 “during a day of planned protests, demonstrations and unprecedented civil unrest” to update them about the city’s public safety plans. The mayor reached out to Trump as part of that effort, the city said.
News of contacts between Eric Trump and Lightfoot has drawn criticism her way from local progressives. During a City Council meeting, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, last month said Trump has an easier time getting responses from Lightfoot “than people on the South and West Side of Chicago.”
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On Saturday morning, Lightfoot tweeted about the Eric Trump messages and said they were "a very different tune from the barrage of attacks from the White House. It’s no secret that I’m no fan of Donald Trump. But part of my job is to protect residents, regardless of who their landlord is and whether or not I agree with their politics.
Lightfoot has frequently thrown barbs at President Trump, who regularly invokes Chicago to bolster his “law and order” campaign theme.
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Although the mayor has sparred with Trump, she also has made attempts to work him and his family. He called her after she defeated Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle with congratulations.
Before she was sworn in as mayor, Lightfoot went to Washington, D.C., and had a meeting with Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a White House adviser.
But the relationship between Lightfoot and the Trumps has coarsened over time. Lightfoot ripped Ivanka Trump last year for a tweet about Chicago violence.
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Earlier this year, she also blasted Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and fellow White House adviser.
Lightfoot in May responded to Trump tweeting a message that included, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” in reply to rioting in Minneapolis and elsewhere following George Floyd’s death by accusing the president of destabilizing the country and using a thinly veiled profanity.
“He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders, to throw red meat to his base,” Lightfoot said at the time. “His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. We can absolutely not let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with F and it ends with U.”
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--Two ex-DCFS workers charged with endangering life of AJ Freund months prior to boy’s death

His parents , Andrew Freund and JoAnn Cunningham , had a long history with DCFS and had temporarily lost custody @ @ @ @ @ born with heroin in his body .
Cunningham , 37 , pleaded guilty to the @ @ @ @ @ was sentenced to 35 years in prison earlier this summer .
Murder charges are still @ @ @ @ @ , who is due in court for a status hearing next week .
His attorney @ @ @ @ @ work out a plea deal rather than go to trial .


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--At some CPS schools, fewer than half the students logged in the first day of remote learning, but th

At some CPS schools, fewer than half the students logged in the first day of remote learning, but the district aims to close what’s left of the digital divide

On Tuesday , despite the school ’ s efforts , only 66 % of Ellington students attended classes .
The @ @ @ @ @ 150 , and each day a student is absent , they get a phone call @ @ @ @ @ said the running list was down to 72 , and she was optimistic about the @ @ @ @ @ were still picking up Chromebooks .
The school , which had 440 students last year @ @ @ @ @ 400 devices and many hotspots so far .

Javier Lopez, 8, a Chicago Public Schools student at Skinner North Classical Elementary School, raises his hand to answer a question on the first day of remote learning at his Chicago home on Sept. 8, 2020. (José M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)
Attendance for the first day of Chicago Public Schools' remote fall quarter varied from a low below 40% to a high of 100% at each of more than 500 district-run schools.
Citywide, 84.2% of students at district schools attended a remote learning class on Tuesday, increasing to 88.5% on Wednesday and 90.2% on Thursday, according to data released Friday.
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The day-one numbers are 10 percentage points lower than the first day of school last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the move to remote learning and 94.2% of students were marked in attendance. Between the three prior school years, first-day attendance ranged from 93.9% to 94.7%.
While the school-by-school numbers indicate the digital divide has not been closed, CPS officials credited months of work and outreach to families for getting the rates to where they are.
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“While our first day attendance rate is lower than in-person school comparisons due to challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I am encouraged by our outreach efforts, which will remain ongoing as we work to ensure families have what they need to participate in remote learning,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson said in a news release.
It’s unclear how many students factored into those rates. The district’s communications office would not release preliminary enrollment numbers, saying as usual they will release 20th-day numbers. The data also does not include more than 100 charter and contract schools.
Two principals who are also CPS alumni and grew up near their schools say their ties to the communities have helped them this fall but haven’t wholly eliminated the challenges of starting a new school year remotely.
At Haines Elementary in Chinatown, where 97% of students participated Tuesday, many staff members are fluent in languages including Mandarin and Cantonese, commonly used among families of the 600 students. When an English-speaking teacher needs help communicating with a Chinese-speaking parent, there’s always someone to translate, Principal Amy Moy Davis said.
Amy Moy Davis, principal of Haines Elementary in Chinatown, admitted that remote learning has made her feel like she's "all over the place." (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
In August, the staff started calling homes, updating the school’s website to be more user-friendly, ordering school supplies for some students and distributing Chromebooks.
Many students who didn’t log in to class Tuesday either didn’t have a device or were at a day care with insufficient internet, she said. Parents are still picking up Chromebooks, and Moy Davis said hotspots for nearly 100 eligible students arrived Friday.
Younger students had the most difficulty logging in, in part because many new parents were using CPS accounts for the first time, she said. Of 19 student absences Tuesday, the grade with the most was kindergarten. On Friday, only five students total did not log in, she said.
But even when things are going right, it’s difficult to balance all of the responsibilities.
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“Remote learning for me, I feel like I’m all over the place … I have to find this Google classroom, I’ve got a parent that’s coming in, I’ve got to pass out forms, I feel like I haven’t gotten into the whole instructional leadership," Moy Davis said. "I visited every classroom so far and they’ve been doing a great job, but I also don’t want to overwhelm the teachers by coming into their classrooms all the time.”
She was once a teacher there, and some of her former students are now Haines parents.
In Shirley Scott’s 17 years as principal of Ellington Elementary in South Austin, she has also seen students grow into parents with their own children at the school and said she is “learning new things, even still, about this community.”
Before fall quarter started, school staff sent emails and letters home, called parents and invited them to a back-to-school virtual event. Personal calls seem to be the best way of connecting with parents, Scott said. But there have also been dead ends at disconnected numbers or old addresses.
“We wanted to make sure that every parent understood what’s happening and why,” Scott said.
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On Tuesday, despite the school’s efforts, only 66% of Ellington students attended classes. The list of absent students surpassed 150, and each day a student is absent, they get a phone call. By Friday, Scott said the running list was down to 72, and she was optimistic about the next week, given families were still picking up Chromebooks. The school, which had 440 students last year, has given out nearly 400 devices and many hotspots so far.
“I love the support that we are actually receiving as far as (parents) passing on the word and sharing with their other neighbors,” Scott said. And though she knows her students would rather be in the building, she has been impressed by their acceptance and understanding of the circumstances, along with their drive.
Next week, some schools will start an “at-home learning ambassador” program for students who haven’t been reached. School principals will assign security officers, who have all been trained, how to do home visits, according to CPS. The officers have relationships with students and “are well suited to serve in this role,” according to the district.
Over the summer, district employees called about 21,000 of the district’s “highest-needs” students, such as those experiencing homelessness, transitioning into high school or involved in the criminal justice system, according to CPS. The effort involved more than 150 central office employees in addition to 800 staff members at schools. In the final week before school started, bus aides and Safe Passage workers helped by making calls and handing out thousands of informational flyers.
A district hotline took an average of 600 calls a day during August, and more than 6,800 parents or families attended training sessions through CPS and Google Education, with more scheduled, according to CPS.
In the spring, CPS distributed 128,000 laptops and tablets, some of which students turned in. The district said it has given out another 32,000 for fall quarter. And since the June announcement of a $50 million plan to provide free high-speed internet to more than 100,000 Chicago students, 30,000 had signed up as of Thursday, according to CPS.
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hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--Column: Anna Douglass may soon get her name on a Chicago park. Who was she, in addition to being Fre

Column: Anna Douglass may soon get her name on a Chicago park. Who was she, in addition to being Frederick Douglass’ wife?

They began married life as partners “ trying to imagine this new world , ” Blight said .
Soon , @ @ @ @ @ first child , and within a decade they had five children .
While Anna stayed @ @ @ @ @ the kids , for a while augmenting the family income with work that included shoe @ @ @ @ @ and traveled the world .
He was in Britain when their young daughter Annie died @

Cynthia Shelton stands near a Douglas Park sign with an extra "S" painted on it on July 22, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Raniya Thomas, who is 13, devoted hours of her summer vacation this year to changing the name of Stephen A. Douglas Park on Chicago’s West Side.
Four years ago, students at Thomas’ school, Village Leadership Academy, began a campaign to rename the park for Frederick Douglass, who rose from enslavement in the 19th-century South to become a legendary orator and writer. Stephen Douglas, in contrast, was a powerful 19th-century politician whose wife owned a Mississippi slave plantation.
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“Add an ‘S,’ it’s for the best!” was an early slogan of the fifth grade campaigners.
Through the years, the campaign has waxed and waned, but this summer it revved up again, and this time with a difference. Thomas and her fellow campaigners wanted the park named after Douglass' wife, Anna, too.
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So in the midst of the pandemic, buoyed by the nationwide protests for racial justice, she joined her classmates and teachers to pass out flyers on trains and in the park. She attended Park District meetings. She talked to community activists and journalists.
And, finally, on Wednesday, the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners voted to officially remove Stephen Douglas' name from the park. Over the next 45 days, the public can comment on the proposal to rename it for Anna and Frederick Douglass.
It was a double victory for Raniya Thomas and her fellow campaigners.
“Men are acknowledged more than women are, and usually women are behind the scenes, doing most of the work,” she said Friday. “Anna Douglass was behind the scenes when Frederick Douglass escaped slavery.”
But who is Anna Murray Douglass, besides “the wife of”? For the short version, I called David W. Blight, whose biography “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom” won a 2019 Pulitzer Prize.
“Anna’s a difficult subject to discuss,” he promptly said.
Anna Douglass didn’t read or write and so wasn’t able to document her life. Her husband, the most famous African American of his time, wrote 1,200 pages of autobiography, but mentioned her only once, and only as “my wife.” When she died, the obituaries focused on him, not her.
“It’s a classic example of the basically invisible woman throughout history,” Blight said.
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But Anna Douglass plays a big role in Blight’s biography.
“I went in search of her in every way I could,” he said.
He relied on reminiscences by three of the couple’s five children, along with references made by other abolitionists in their correspondence with her husband.
“Here’s what we can say,” he said. “She was a very strong woman, talented, like so many 19th-century women, as a domestic woman. Her life was at home, in her garden and her orchards and raising five kids and creating a home for him, a place of refuge, and all that goes with the meaning of that.”
Anna and Frederick were born only a couple of miles apart near the Tuckahoe River in Maryland. He was born enslaved. She was born free. When they met, she was a servant in a white family’s home.
When Frederick resolved to head to the relative freedom of the North, Anna helped him plan his escape, and eventually joined him.
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“Anna followed him out of slavery with the same bravery he had demonstrated,” Blight said. “She took the same route and steamboat and trains as he did. They started life together. Without her, he could not have done it.”
They began married life as partners “trying to imagine this new world,” Blight said. Soon, she was pregnant with their first child, and within a decade they had five children. While Anna stayed home and took care of the kids, for a while augmenting the family income with work that included shoe binding, Frederick grew famous and traveled the world. He was in Britain when their young daughter Annie died.
Anna Douglass was strict, loyal, uncomfortable in a drawing room socializing with intellectuals and abolitionists. But when fugitive slaves arrived at the family house in Rochester, New York, she fed them and found places for them to sleep.
“It was a very long, complicated, important marriage and relationship,” Blight said. “People have loved to wonder why did Douglass stay with her, why would she stay with him, when he may have had two affairs? Because of the home, the family, the children.”
Frederick and Anna were married for 44 years, through pain and loss and upheaval. In her later years, she was often ill. But she was his refuge.
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“When she died in 1882,” Blight said, “he had a falling apart emotionally.”
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In his book, Blight writes that Anna Douglass was “a good deal more than what we think we know.” He also writes: “The heart of her story, though, is not only that she was crucial in his liberation from slavery, but that she too, perhaps even more than he, understood the meaning of holding together and protecting a black family in racist, hostile America.”
If Anna Douglass' name winds up on a park sign in Chicago, that’s part of the story the sign will tell. It will also tell the story of the young people who made the name change happen.
I asked Raniya Thomas how she felt knowing that it probably would.
“I feel accomplished as a person,” she said. “All the what if’s, what if they don’t say yes, all of that being lifted off my shoulders, and just pride and joy. And my sister — she’s 10 — thinks I’m a hero. It’s awesome.”
mschmich@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MarySchmich


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--With deadline looming, Chicago is badly lagging in census response, especially in communities of col

With deadline looming, Chicago is badly lagging in census response, especially in communities of color

The census data will be used to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid each year for the @ @ @ @ @ the lowest rates in Chicago are in areas that have struggled with poverty and a @ @ @ @ @ of the Yards , West Englewood , Little Village and North Lawndale .

Guadalupe Laguna and her four children check out free items at a 2020 census community giveaway day hosted by Metropolitan Family Services on Chicago's Northwest Side on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
With the census deadline looming, responses in the city of Chicago are still substantially behind the rest of the state, particularly in communities of color that stand to be hit the hardest by the consequences of an undercount.
While the state’s response rate stands at 70%, slightly higher than the national average, the city’s rate remains just under 59%, with some neighborhoods around 30%.
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The census data will be used to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid each year for the next decade. Some of the lowest rates in Chicago are in areas that have struggled with poverty and a lack of resources: Back of the Yards, West Englewood, Little Village and North Lawndale.
“The potential negative impact is just really widening some of those inequities across the region,” warned Erin Aleman, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which recently completed a study of response rates.
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Census response representative Peggy Bibbs collects responses from citizens at a 2020 census community giveaway day hosted by Metropolitan Family Services on Chicago's Northwest Side on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
“The disparities that currently exist have the potential to worsen if there are less resources available based on undercounts,” she said.
Across the region, CMAP found that Hispanic communities are registering the biggest drop in participation from 2010, with average declines of more than seven percentage points.
Aleman cited the CARES Act, which provides COVID-19 relief, as a prime example of what a census undercount could mean. CMAP’s study estimated Illinois would have lost $235.5 million in COVID-19 aid if its population had been just 5% lower.
She noted that communities with low response rates have been some of the hardest hit by the pandemic.
When it released its study, CMAP also circulated a “social media tool kit” to help organizations boost the count in their communities in the final weeks.
The usual deadline for the census is in July, but it was initially extended to Oct. 31 because of the pandemic. That was later changed to Sept. 30, but a coalition of civil rights organizations and local governments is suing the Census Bureau, demanding an extension.
Last Saturday, a federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order preventing the agency from winding down operations until a hearing on Sept. 17.
Ellisa Johnson, deputy regional director for the Census Bureau in Chicago, said her office is “pulling out all the stops,” making sure workers are deployed to areas of high foot traffic and into communities with low response rates.
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Johnson said the bureau will be primarily focused on its “mobile questionnaire assistance” program, which places census workers outside common areas like grocery stores or CTA platforms where people can fill out the census on the spot.
“It’s a once in every 10-year opportunity for your voice to be heard... and once that window closes … the opportunity to be counted is over,” Johnson said. “It is simply not too late.”
Community organizations, meanwhile, are making their own plans for a final push but say their efforts are being complicated by fear and distrust.
Jesus Martinez, the census organizer for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, said he has been conducting outreach work in the community for months and found existing barriers have only been exasperated by the pandemic.
“We are working within communities that have been neglected,” Martinez said. “These are communities that have been traditionally undercounted, and it is a result of having a federal government that terrorizes them, that makes the immigrant community feel that they’re not welcome here.”
Given the economic conditions, the census is an afterthought for many families that are preoccupied with survival right now, he said.
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Over the summer, Martinez worked with other community organizations to ensure census workers were present at events like neighborhood food distributions. And this month, Martinez and the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council are planning community events across the South and West side to draw people out and educate them on the census.
Although there is no citizenship question on the census forms, initial efforts to include one have had long-lasting effects on outreach efforts. Martinez said much of his work has centered around combating misinformation and reassuring people the census is safe.
Maria Fitzsimmons, census director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, echoed Martinez’s concerns that the federal government has made immigrant communities “hard to count.”
“It’s a manufactured crisis of confidence in this really important part of the constitution,” Fitzsimmons said. "In the middle of a pandemic and economic uncertainty, people have fears about evictions, people have fears about sending their kids to school.
“The federal government is supposed to be a source of stability in our lives, it’s not supposed to add to the chaos,” she added. “And that’s what it’s doing, either out of incompetence or as a strategy to influence representation and resource sharing.”
In addition to federal funding, the census also is used to determine congressional representation. Illinois is already expected to lose at least one seat due to population loss. An undercount could potentially add to that.
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If the September deadline holds, both Martinez and Fitzsimmons said it will be a challenge to connect with all the households who have yet to respond.
“At the end of the day, every single person in Illinois, no matter their status and no matter how they feel about immigration … we’re going to end up with fewer people advocating for the needs of people in Illinois in Congress.”


chicagotribune--2020-09-12--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,145 new known COVID-19 cases and 32 additional deaths reported as

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,145 new known COVID-19 cases and 32 additional deaths reported as DuPage among 30 counties on state’s latest warning list

DuPage County is on Illinois ' latest list of counties that have reached a “ warning level ” for a resurgence of COVID-19 .
The ever-changing weekly list this week covered 30 counties the state said had reached two or more bench marks that indicate the virus is spreading there .
The warning list came as the state announced 2,145 newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus and 32 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 on Friday , bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 257,788 and the statewide death toll to 8,273 since the start of the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day of Chicago Public Schools ' remote fall quarter this week varied from a low below 42 % to a high of 100 % at each of more than 500 district-run schools .
Citywide , 84.2 % of students at district schools attended a remote learning class on Tuesday , increasing to 88.5 % on Wednesday and 90.2 % on Thursday , according to data released Friday .
And in the suburbs , the Oak Park Department of Public Health has reported at least 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Sept. 9 .
In a letter released Thursday , superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said she had “ deep concern ” about the report , saying a number of the cases can be traced to a recent large social gathering .
7:05 p.m. : The first COVID-19 patients in Illinois faced stigma , bigotry .
But experts say their contributions to science taught the US much about the virus .
The Chicago woman in her 60s had traveled on Christmas Day to Wuhan , China , where she cared for her elderly father who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ undiagnosed respiratory sickness .
After returning to Chicago in mid-January , her own symptoms emerged : fever , cough and fatigue , followed by nausea and dizziness .
While hospitalized for pneumonia , she became the first patient in Illinois and the second in the nation to test positive for the novel coronavirus , a new and little-understood illness that would soon burgeon into an international pandemic , sickening millions and altering all aspects of daily life across the globe .
Her husband , who had not gone to China , also tested @ @ @ @ @ @ @ documented case of person-to-person transmission in the United States .
What medical experts learned from that local couple — through lengthy interviews , rigorous coronavirus testing and analysis of so many of their specimens — helped shape much of the nation ’ s earliest knowledge of the virus , which would later be called COVID-19 .
5:20 p.m. : Cook County health department announces plans to spend up to $ 5.4M fighting COVID-19 in most-affected areas The Cook County Department of Public Health announced Friday it is planning to spend up to $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tracing , provide services to quarantined and isolated suburban county residents and facilitate setting up more COVID-19 testing sites .
The department is issuing a request for proposals to community-based organizations to do that work in areas most affected by COVID-19 .
Proposals submitted will be scored by the non-profit Hektoen Institute of Medicine , a health service and research organization that administers grant awards for underserved people .
Contact tracing , which Gov .
J.B. Pritzker repeatedly has said is crucial to reopening the economy , involves reaching out to people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isolate and provide the names of people with whom they had close , prolonged encounters in previous days .
They then reach out to the contacts and urge them to get tested and go into quarantine , so they can ’ t spread the disease .
The main aim of the proposed county program is to “ develop trust in these communities so they will pick up the phone when we call , ” said Dr. Rachel Rubin , one of the department ’ s two chiefs .
She said folks contacted should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them and their families and their communities.
” 4:25 p.m. : Dr. Anthony Fauci says life won ’ t return to normal until deep into 2021 Dr. Anthony Fauci , the government ’ s top infectious disease expert , said Friday that normal times won ’ t replace America ’ s long coronavirus nightmare until deep into 2021 , explaining that it will take months to widely administer a vaccine .
The 79-year-old immunologist said he continues to expect a vaccine to be available by the beginning of 2021 .
“ But by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vaccine and get a majority or more of the population vaccinated and protected , that ’ s likely not going to happen until the end of 2021 , ” Fauci told MSNBC .
“ If you ’ re talking about getting back to a degree of normality prior to COVID , it ’ s going to be well into 2021 , maybe even towards the end of 2021.
” The ever-changing weekly list this week covered 30 counties the state said had reached two or more bench marks that indicate the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came as the state announced 2,145 newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus and 32 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 on Friday .
Speaking Friday morning at an unrelated news conference in Chicago , Gov .
J.B. Pritzker noted that the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks comes as Illinois and the U.S. are grappling with “ yet another tragedy ” — a pandemic that has killed more than 190,000 Americans , including 8,273 in Illinois .
Nearly 3,000 died in the 9/11 attacks .
“ I believe the lessons of community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States in the aftermath of 9/11 ought to guide us today as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic , ” Pritzker said .
12:12 p.m. : CPS first-day attendance down from last year as remote learning begins ; some schools see fewer than 50 % of students participate Attendance for the first day of Chicago Public Schools ' remote fall quarter varied from a low below 42 % to a high of 100 % at each of more than 500 district-run schools .
Citywide , 84.2 % of students at district schools attended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increasing to 88.5 % on Wednesday and 90.2 % on Thursday , according to data released Friday .
The day-one numbers are 10 percentage points lower than the first day of school last year , before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the move to remote learning and 94.2 % of students were marked in attendance .
Between the three prior school years , first-day attendance ranged from 93.9 % to 94.7 % .
12:07 p.m. : 2,145 new known cases and 32 more deaths reported Illinois health officials Friday announced 2,145 new known cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 257,788 and the statewide death toll to 8,273 since the start of the pandemic .
11:04 a.m. : Coronavirus updates : Daily US deaths decline , but trend may reverse in fall The number of daily U.S. deaths from the coronavirus is declining again after peaking in early August , but scientists warn that a new bout with the disease this fall could claim more lives .
The arrival of cooler weather and the likelihood of more indoor gatherings will add to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say .
“ We have to change the way we live until we have a vaccine , ” said Ali Mokdad , professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle .
In other words : Wear a mask .
Stay home .
Wash your hands .
The U.S. has seen two distinct peaks in daily deaths .
The nation ’ s summertime surge crested at about half the size of the first deadly wave in April .
10:58 a.m. : They ’ re still working .
They ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still scared .
What the past six months have been like for essential workers .
They were the drivers , grocery clerks , janitors and others who braved the early unease of the pandemic to show up for work , exempt from the state ’ s stay-at-home order because they were deemed too important .
The Tribune profiled five essential workers in March just as the state ’ s shutdown set in .
Six months later , all remain at their jobs , with perspectives to share about experiencing the pandemic outside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Schools that are mostly Black , Latino favor starting online , according to new study Districts where the vast majority of students are white are more than three times as likely as school districts that enroll mostly students of color to be open for some in-person learning , according to an analysis conducted by The Associated Press and Chalkbeat .
While that stark divide often reflects the preferences of parents , it ’ s one that could further exacerbate inequities in education .
In every state , the AP and Chalkbeat surveyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four categories set by the National Center for Education Statistics : urban , suburban , town and rural .
8:59 a.m. : 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students test positive for COVID-19 , officials say The Oak Park Department of Public Health has reported at least 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 15 and Sept. 9 .
In a letter released Thursday , superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said she had “ deep concern ” about the report , saying a number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent large social gathering .
“ We have received information from both parents and students that a large indoor gathering of students recently was held at a local home , where mask-wearing and social-distancing were not observed , ” Pruitt-Adams said .
“ A significant number of positive cases are believed to have resulted from the event.
” 8:58 a.m. : Will airlines get more aid ?
Time is running out , unions warn .
40,000 workers face furloughs or layoffs .
A couple of hundred flight attendants and pilots rallied this week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , asking them for $ 25 billion in additional federal funds to prevent airline furloughs next month .
More than half of Congress is on record as supporting the request by airlines and their unions , and President Donald Trump says he wants to help an industry that has been devastated by the pandemic .
Any chance that Washington will give airlines more money soon hinges on Congress and the White House approving a comprehensive coronavirus relief package — there won ’ t be a plan that only helps airlines .
8:44 a.m. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to get restaurant restrictions eased Despite efforts by area chambers of commerce , restaurants and bars in Will County will remain under restrictions barring any indoor service until the area ’ s COVID-19 positivity rates improve .
Gov .
J.B. Pritzker noted Thursday the region ’ s positivity rates appear to be on a downward trend .
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health ’ s website , the latest information recorded shows Region 7 with a positivity rate of 7.5 % on Monday .
On Sept. 1 , the recorded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the public health website .
6 a.m. : Disinformation scams are becoming more aggressive as Election Day nears One of the most widespread challenges facing modern elections is false information .
In Illinois , officials say misinformation and disinformation schemes are getting more aggressive .
“ As we get closer to Election Day , I think we ’ re going to have more and more misinformation schemes , ” said Marisel Hernandez , chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections .
“ But we ’ re determined to be ahead of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know what is correct and what isn ’ t. ” With many more people planning to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic , the Tribune has fact-checked reported scams circulating in Illinois .
5 a.m. : Chicago-area renters are still being pushed out of their homes with threats of lockouts and notices on doors , despite COVID-19 eviction moratorium Before the pandemic , Jaime Espinoza , 28 , was making ends meet with DJ and security jobs .
Working under the moniker DJ WrcksIt for eight years , the Hillside resident @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2019 to , this year , hosting $ 5 open mic showcases in Melrose Park to cover his $ 850 monthly rent , car payment and groceries .
After informing his landlord that he would have trouble paying rent in April , Espinoza started receiving notices on his door saying he had days to come current .
When the landlord told him they would change the locks , he asked his family for money to keep him afloat .
But he still owes thousands of dollars in back rent .
Changing the locks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s moratorium on evictions means Espinoza can ’ t be forced from his home until the crisis spurred by the coronavirus has passed .
But his experience is all too familiar for some Illinois renters , who find themselves in housing limbo as they struggle to pay rent due to the financial constraints brought on by COVID-19 .
And despite Gov .
J.B. Pritzker ’ s latest extension on the statewide eviction moratorium ( currently set to expire Sept. 19 ) and a federal halt on some evictions through 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of evictions that can seem like the real thing .
Read more here .
—Darcel Rockett and Hannah Herrera Greenspan Here are five stories from Wednesday related to COVID-19 :

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
DuPage County is on Illinois' latest list of counties that have reached a “warning level” for a resurgence of COVID-19. The ever-changing weekly list this week covered 30 counties the state said had reached two or more bench marks that indicate the virus is spreading there.
The warning list came as the state announced 2,145 newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus and 32 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 257,788 and the statewide death toll to 8,273 since the start of the pandemic.
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Meanwhile, attendance for the first day of Chicago Public Schools' remote fall quarter this week varied from a low below 42% to a high of 100% at each of more than 500 district-run schools.
Citywide, 84.2% of students at district schools attended a remote learning class on Tuesday, increasing to 88.5% on Wednesday and 90.2% on Thursday, according to data released Friday.
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And in the suburbs, the Oak Park Department of Public Health has reported at least 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 15 and Sept. 9.
In a letter released Thursday, superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said she had “deep concern” about the report, saying a number of the cases can be traced to a recent large social gathering.
Here’s what’s happening Friday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:05 p.m.: The first COVID-19 patients in Illinois faced stigma, bigotry. But experts say their contributions to science taught the US much about the virus.
She was known as Patient 1.
The Chicago woman in her 60s had traveled on Christmas Day to Wuhan, China, where she cared for her elderly father who had fallen ill to a mysterious, undiagnosed respiratory sickness.
After returning to Chicago in mid-January, her own symptoms emerged: fever, cough and fatigue, followed by nausea and dizziness.
While hospitalized for pneumonia, she became the first patient in Illinois and the second in the nation to test positive for the novel coronavirus, a new and little-understood illness that would soon burgeon into an international pandemic, sickening millions and altering all aspects of daily life across the globe.
Her husband, who had not gone to China, also tested positive days later, marking the first documented case of person-to-person transmission in the United States.
Advertisement
What medical experts learned from that local couple — through lengthy interviews, rigorous coronavirus testing and analysis of so many of their specimens — helped shape much of the nation’s earliest knowledge of the virus, which would later be called COVID-19.
Read more here. —Angie Leventis Lourgos
5:20 p.m.: Cook County health department announces plans to spend up to $5.4M fighting COVID-19 in most-affected areas
The Cook County Department of Public Health announced Friday it is planning to spend up to $5.4 million to educate people about contact tracing, provide services to quarantined and isolated suburban county residents and facilitate setting up more COVID-19 testing sites.
The department is issuing a request for proposals to community-based organizations to do that work in areas most affected by COVID-19. Proposals submitted will be scored by the non-profit Hektoen Institute of Medicine, a health service and research organization that administers grant awards for underserved people.
Contact tracing, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker repeatedly has said is crucial to reopening the economy, involves reaching out to people who contract the coronavirus and urge them to isolate and provide the names of people with whom they had close, prolonged encounters in previous days. They then reach out to the contacts and urge them to get tested and go into quarantine, so they can’t spread the disease.
The main aim of the proposed county program is to “develop trust in these communities so they will pick up the phone when we call,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, one of the department’s two chiefs. She said folks contacted should know tracers are there “to protect them and their families and their communities.”
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Read more here. —Hal Dardick
4:25 p.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci says life won’t return to normal until deep into 2021
Buckle up for a long ride ahead.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Friday that normal times won’t replace America’s long coronavirus nightmare until deep into 2021, explaining that it will take months to widely administer a vaccine.
The 79-year-old immunologist said he continues to expect a vaccine to be available by the beginning of 2021.
“But by the time you mobilize the distribution of the vaccine and get a majority or more of the population vaccinated and protected, that’s likely not going to happen until the end of 2021,” Fauci told MSNBC. “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality prior to COVID, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021.”
Read more here. —Associated Press
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1:38 p.m.: DuPage among 30 counties on Illinois' latest coronavirus warning list
DuPage County is on Illinois' latest list of counties that have reached a “warning level” for a resurgence of COVID-19.
The ever-changing weekly list this week covered 30 counties the state said had reached two or more bench marks that indicate the virus is spreading there.
The warning list came as the state announced 2,145 newly diagnosed cases of coronavirus and 32 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 on Friday.
Speaking Friday morning at an unrelated news conference in Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker noted that the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks comes as Illinois and the U.S. are grappling with “yet another tragedy” — a pandemic that has killed more than 190,000 Americans, including 8,273 in Illinois. Nearly 3,000 died in the 9/11 attacks.
“I believe the lessons of community and of resilience that echoed through the United States in the aftermath of 9/11 ought to guide us today as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic,” Pritzker said.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks and Dan Petrella
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12:12 p.m.: CPS first-day attendance down from last year as remote learning begins; some schools see fewer than 50% of students participate
Attendance for the first day of Chicago Public Schools' remote fall quarter varied from a low below 42% to a high of 100% at each of more than 500 district-run schools.
Citywide, 84.2% of students at district schools attended a remote learning class on Tuesday, increasing to 88.5% on Wednesday and 90.2% on Thursday, according to data released Friday.
The day-one numbers are 10 percentage points lower than the first day of school last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the move to remote learning and 94.2% of students were marked in attendance. Between the three prior school years, first-day attendance ranged from 93.9% to 94.7%.
Read more here. —Hannah Leone
12:07 p.m.: 2,145 new known cases and 32 more deaths reported
Illinois health officials Friday announced 2,145 new known cases of COVID-19 and 32 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 257,788 and the statewide death toll to 8,273 since the start of the pandemic.
—Chicago Tribune staff
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11:04 a.m.: Coronavirus updates: Daily US deaths decline, but trend may reverse in fall
The number of daily U.S. deaths from the coronavirus is declining again after peaking in early August, but scientists warn that a new bout with the disease this fall could claim more lives.
The arrival of cooler weather and the likelihood of more indoor gatherings will add to the importance of everyday safety precautions, experts say.
“We have to change the way we live until we have a vaccine,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. In other words: Wear a mask. Stay home. Wash your hands.
The U.S. has seen two distinct peaks in daily deaths. The nation’s summertime surge crested at about half the size of the first deadly wave in April.
Read more here. —Associated Press
10:58 a.m.: They’re still working. They’re still healthy. But they’re still scared. What the past six months have been like for essential workers.
When the streets emptied of people six months ago, a new class of heroes emerged.
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They were the drivers, grocery clerks, janitors and others who braved the early unease of the pandemic to show up for work, exempt from the state’s stay-at-home order because they were deemed too important.
The Tribune profiled five essential workers in March just as the state’s shutdown set in. Six months later, all remain at their jobs, with perspectives to share about experiencing the pandemic outside the safety of their homes.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
10:46 a.m.: Schools that are mostly Black, Latino favor starting online, according to new study
Districts where the vast majority of students are white are more than three times as likely as school districts that enroll mostly students of color to be open for some in-person learning, according to an analysis conducted by The Associated Press and Chalkbeat.
While that stark divide often reflects the preferences of parents, it’s one that could further exacerbate inequities in education.
In every state, the AP and Chalkbeat surveyed the largest school districts in each of four categories set by the National Center for Education Statistics: urban, suburban, town and rural.
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Read more here. —Associated Press and Chalkbeat
8:59 a.m.: 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students test positive for COVID-19, officials say
The Oak Park Department of Public Health has reported at least 24 Oak Park and River Forest High School students tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 15 and Sept. 9.
In a letter released Thursday, superintendent Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said she had “deep concern” about the report, saying a number of the cases can be traced to a recent large social gathering.
“We have received information from both parents and students that a large indoor gathering of students recently was held at a local home, where mask-wearing and social-distancing were not observed,” Pruitt-Adams said. “A significant number of positive cases are believed to have resulted from the event.”
Read more here. —Steve Schering
8:58 a.m.: Will airlines get more aid? Time is running out, unions warn. 40,000 workers face furloughs or layoffs.
A couple of hundred flight attendants and pilots rallied this week on Capitol Hill and tweeted at lawmakers, asking them for $25 billion in additional federal funds to prevent airline furloughs next month.
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More than half of Congress is on record as supporting the request by airlines and their unions, and President Donald Trump says he wants to help an industry that has been devastated by the pandemic.
Any chance that Washington will give airlines more money soon hinges on Congress and the White House approving a comprehensive coronavirus relief package — there won’t be a plan that only helps airlines.
Read more here. —Associated Press
8:44 a.m.: Will County chambers try, unsuccessfully, to get restaurant restrictions eased
Despite efforts by area chambers of commerce, restaurants and bars in Will County will remain under restrictions barring any indoor service until the area’s COVID-19 positivity rates improve.
Mitigations for the state’s Region 7, which includes Will and Kankakee counties, were announced Aug. 25 when the region’s positivity rate was 8.4%.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker noted Thursday the region’s positivity rates appear to be on a downward trend. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s website, the latest information recorded shows Region 7 with a positivity rate of 7.5% on Monday. On Sept. 1, the recorded positivity rate was 8.1%, according to the public health website.
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Read more here. —Alicia Fabbre
7 a.m.: Pritzker to announce jobs programs in Chicago
Following up on an announcement made Thursday in Rockford, Illinois Gov. J.B. was scheduled Friday “to join local leaders to announce investments to expand job opportunities in Chicago for those who have become unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a news release.
Pritzker was expected to announce the programs at Cara Chicago on the West Side late Friday morning.
—Chicago Tribune staff
6 a.m.: Disinformation scams are becoming more aggressive as Election Day nears
One of the most widespread challenges facing modern elections is false information. In Illinois, officials say misinformation and disinformation schemes are getting more aggressive.
“As we get closer to Election Day, I think we’re going to have more and more misinformation schemes,” said Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections. “But we’re determined to be ahead of the curve and be out there letting voters know what is correct and what isn’t.”
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With many more people planning to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Tribune has fact-checked reported scams circulating in Illinois.
Read more here. —Kelli Smith
5 a.m.: Chicago-area renters are still being pushed out of their homes with threats of lockouts and notices on doors, despite COVID-19 eviction moratorium
Before the pandemic, Jaime Espinoza, 28, was making ends meet with DJ and security jobs. Working under the moniker DJ WrcksIt for eight years, the Hillside resident went from clearing almost $50,000 in 2019 to, this year, hosting $5 open mic showcases in Melrose Park to cover his $850 monthly rent, car payment and groceries.
After informing his landlord that he would have trouble paying rent in April, Espinoza started receiving notices on his door saying he had days to come current. When the landlord told him they would change the locks, he asked his family for money to keep him afloat. But he still owes thousands of dollars in back rent.
Changing the locks would be an illegal lockout, and the state’s moratorium on evictions means Espinoza can’t be forced from his home until the crisis spurred by the coronavirus has passed.
But his experience is all too familiar for some Illinois renters, who find themselves in housing limbo as they struggle to pay rent due to the financial constraints brought on by COVID-19. And despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest extension on the statewide eviction moratorium (currently set to expire Sept. 19) and a federal halt on some evictions through 2020, some people continue to receive warnings of evictions that can seem like the real thing.
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Read more here. —Darcel Rockett and Hannah Herrera Greenspan
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories from Wednesday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-09-11--The first COVID-19 patients in Illinois faced stigma, bigotry. But experts say their contributions t

The first COVID-19 patients in Illinois faced stigma, bigotry. But experts say their contributions to science taught the US much about the virus.

“ It was almost a double-edged sword to have gotten the second case in the United States , because it @ @ @ @ @ agencies , ” said Dr. Kiran Joshi , senior medical officer and co-lead of the @ @ @ @ @ Health .
“ But at the same time , we were forewarned in a way @ @ @ @ @ and I think as a whole reacted much more quickly than perhaps other states .
@

Monica Gomez, a staff nurse at Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, exits a patient's room on Sept. 10, 2020. Gomez is the nurse who treated the first diagnosed coronavirus patients in Illinois, the earliest known person-to-person transmission of the new virus in the U.S. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
She was known as Patient 1.
The Chicago woman in her 60s had traveled on Christmas Day to Wuhan, China, where she cared for her elderly father who had fallen ill to a mysterious, undiagnosed respiratory sickness.
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After returning to Chicago in mid-January, her own symptoms emerged: fever, cough and fatigue, followed by nausea and dizziness.
While hospitalized for pneumonia, she became the first patient in Illinois and the second in the nation to test positive for the novel coronavirus, a new and little-understood illness that would soon burgeon into an international pandemic, sickening millions and altering all aspects of daily life across the globe.
Advertisement
Her husband, who had not gone to China, also tested positive days later, marking the first documented case of person-to-person transmission in the United States.
What medical experts learned from that local couple — through lengthy interviews, rigorous coronavirus testing and analysis of so many of their specimens — helped shape much of the nation’s earliest knowledge of the virus, which would later be called COVID-19.
The wife and husband remained anonymous to the public even after their recovery and discharge to home isolation in early February. Hospital officials said the wife in particular feared ostracism at a time when bigotry and xenophobia stemming from the virus hit a fever-pitch here and around the world.
“Please do not let fear or panic guide your actions,” a leader with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implored the nation in late January. “For example, please do not assume that just because someone is of Asian descent that they have this new coronavirus.”
Rhetoric on many social media platforms had blamed the first Illinois patient for bringing the virus to the Chicago area.
“Send her back,” one local man had posted on Facebook when news broke of the first confirmed case.
“To (sic) many people coming here from other countries bringing in disease,” a woman wrote on the site. “Keep out!”
Scientists now know the highly contagious virus — which has since infected nearly every country, leaving few parts of the world unscathed — was already spreading undetected across the U.S., possibly as early as December. The Chicago couple were simply among the first to be diagnosed.
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Yet their bodies and oral testimony provided early insight into everything from how the virus sheds to the length of time a patient is contagious to how COVID-19 is transmitted. These first cases also helped health officials develop infection control protocols, testing guidelines and best use of personal protective gear for staff, as well as the earliest local coronavirus contact tracing operation.
The wife and husband were treated in isolation at Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, a midsize northwest suburban hospital that suddenly found itself in the epicenter of scientific inquiry and research into a world health epidemic.
Field teams from the CDC quickly converged with state, county and local health leaders, forming a makeshift command post of sorts in the basement of the hospital. To help draft a road map for care, hospital administrators contacted officials at the hospital in Washington state where the first U.S. coronavirus case had been confirmed days earlier.
New information was constant — and constantly changing, recalled Polly Davenport, president of St. Alexius.
“Guidelines, protocols, testing,” she said. “Just a lot of information coming very rapidly. Our team did a great job. But I’ve been through hurricanes, I’ve been through power outages. This was a lot of unfamiliar information coming very quickly.”
The CDC announced on Feb. 25 that the new coronavirus “will almost certainly spread in the United States,” and urged schools, health facilities and businesses to prepare.
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In retrospect, some local medical experts credit the state’s early and aggressive COVID-19 precautions to these first two Illinois patients, who served as a harbinger of what was to come.
“It was almost a double-edged sword to have gotten the second case in the United States, because it was pretty taxing on our agencies,” said Dr. Kiran Joshi, senior medical officer and co-lead of the Cook County Department of Public Health. “But at the same time, we were forewarned in a way of what could happen, and I think as a whole reacted much more quickly than perhaps other states.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive statewide stay-at-home order that began March 21, one of the earlier and more stringent government-mandated policies of its kind at the time. These restrictions were eased starting at the end of May, later than many other parts of the country.
While these measures faced much criticism and multiple legal challenges, the governor pointed to declining COVID-19 positivity rates and deaths as metrics indicating early success. Even as the pandemic reached its peak here in May — and with 30 counties currently at a “warning level” for resurgence — Illinois has never lacked hospital beds or ventilators.
“While we definitely had a surge, there was never a point where our hospitals were overwhelmed,” Joshi said. “We put into place the appropriate public health measures statewide to prevent that.”
A different time
The first Illinois patient tested positive for the coronavirus on Jan. 23, back when the virus still felt thousands of miles away, mainly afflicting China.
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This was before social distancing became standard practice in the U.S. Before in-person school felt like a weighty decision. Before masks were required and routinely worn in most public spaces. Before the World Health Organization on March 11 declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic.
“It feels like it was years and years ago, because the time between then and now has been so full with COVID and the pandemic in the United States,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, senior medical officer and co-lead of the Cook County Department of Public Health.
Joshi recalled meeting Patient 1 the day after she tested positive.
Before entering her negative air pressure room at St. Alexius, he and a colleague from the CDC both donned full personal protective equipment — disposable gloves, gowns, eye protection and N95 masks.
It was a tense moment. So little was known about the new coronavirus, but both health officials had seen news coverage of so many deaths linked to the virus in China.
“We made eye contact in our PPE, and we just shrugged and walked in,” Joshi said. “Like, here we go.”
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On Jan. 30, the first patient’s husband tested positive as well. He already suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, causing a cough and labored breathing, so it wasn’t clear at first that his symptoms stemmed from COVID-19, according to an article published in the medical journal The Lancet in April.
Joshi described both the wife and husband as very forthcoming, giving multiple interviews that lasted hours, rehashing details of what they experienced and any possible contact they might have had with others post-infection.
Health officials from the hospital and various levels of government worked together to quickly develop a contact tracing operation, creating a web of people — including many hospital employees — who might have been exposed to the patients.
“The learning curve was so steep,” Rubin said. “Learning about the virus, but also learning how to do the surveillance and investigations … and how to document this in the best way, knowing this is on a scale that none of us had ever seen before.”
Both physicians recalled being surprised by how little the virus seemed to spread beyond the initial transmission from wife to husband, who had prolonged proximity from eating together, sleeping in the same bed and frequent face-to-face interaction.
“We didn’t see widespread transmission or a large number of secondary cases from this first case,” Joshi said. “I’ve always been sort of struck by that.”
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About 350 contacts of both the husband and wife were actively monitored for symptoms, including 195 health care personnel and 152 contacts in the community, according to The Lancet article. Of the monitored contacts, 43 developed coronavirus-like symptoms within 14 days of exposure and were tested for the virus, along with a sample 32 asymptomatic health care workers who had some level of exposure.
But all 75 had tested negative for COVID-19, according to the article.
“The severity of illness, the extent of viral shedding, and timing of exposures to a symptomatic patient might all have contributed to the limited transmission described here,” said the article in The Lancet. “Infection control measures within the hospital setting and an aggressive public health response might also have prevented further exposures.”
Going home
Nurse Monica Gomez recalled feeling fearful when she learned she’d be caring for the first confirmed coronavirus case in the state.
“I was scared for my life, because this was something unknown, it was a virus we had little research about,” said Gomez, who works in a medical-surgical unit at St. Alexius. “It was shocking to think it was in the United States. It was here, it was real. And I’m actually taking care of a COVID patient.”
Monica Gomez, a nurse at Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates, on Sept. 10, 2020. She treated the first diagnosed coronavirus patients in Illinois, the earliest known person-to-person transmission of the new virus in the U.S. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
To minimize exposure, the hospital had as few staff members as possible enter the room. Gomez recalled often communicating with the patient using an iPad translator, to help overcome a language barrier.
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Under full personal protective equipment, the nurse had to keep visits to under 30 minutes, trying to cluster care as much as possible while balancing the patient’s medical and emotional needs.
Get her vitals. Do an assessment. Give any medication needed. Think of anything the patient might need — ice water, tea, fresh linens — to avoid extra trips, which would increase contact and waste protective equipment.
Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center Hoffman Estates nurse Monica Gomez puts on personal protective equipment before entering a patient's room, Sept. 10, 2020. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“Sometimes on the floor I’d think to myself. 'I can’t even imagine how this patient’s handling this whole situation, lonely, not having their family come to visit them,’” Gomez said. “I think one thing I learned is that even a ‘good morning’ or making them smile can make a difference.”
Jaime Zalewski, infection preventionist, recalled waving to the patient from outside her room.
“You could see that she was scared,” Zalewski said. “If I were in her shoes, I’d be very scared too. They’re doing all these different tests, you’re sitting in a room by yourself. I was worried for her, for her well-being.”
The couple gave urine and stool samples for analysis. Blood was taken for serology testing. The wife and husband were also retested for the coronavirus every few days, back when uncomfortable nasopharyngeal swab tests — often dubbed the brain biopsy — were the only kind available.
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Health officials said results took a while, because the CDC lab was the only facility processing them. The Illinois Department of Public Health became the first state in the nation to begin testing for the coronavirus in February, first at its Chicago lab and later at labs in Carbondale and Springfield.
“I’m sure she probably felt like a guinea pig,” Zalewski said. “And in some ways probably she was, because we just didn’t know. And that information we received has really helped shape not only our protocols, how we’re handling this emerging pathogen, but how our nation is handling the emerging pathogen.”
Condition reports for both patients were good throughout their hospitalization. Zalewski said the wife might not have even been admitted if she’d been infected with COVID-19 now.
The wife and husband were discharged to home isolation in early February, with daily monitoring by public health officials.
“They were happy they were able to go home together, that they were healthy going home,” Zalewski said.
But she described their departure as almost a covert operation. The wife and husband gave hospital staff permission to sanitize the inside of their car and then move it to secret location, to try and protect their privacy and avoid media attention as they left.
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“They were scared to leave the hospital,” she said. “Scared of what could have potentially happened at their house, if people knew when they left. Was there going to be any backlash?”
They were cleared to leave their home in mid-February. Public health officials said they checked in with the couple last month, and both were still in good health.
Gomez and Zalewski said they’ve cared for many more COVID-19 patients as the pandemic continues, often applying what they learned from those first two cases. Illinois has had more than 250,000 positive cases so far, and more than 8,000 deaths, according to state health department statistics.
St. Alexius began celebrating COVID-19 recoveries by planting a flower-patterned pinwheel in front of the hospital for every coronavirus patient discharged.
While the tradition began after the wife and husband went home, Zalewski said staff made sure to include two pinwheels in honor of the first woman and man in Illinois to test positive and beat the virus.
“There’s definitely two flowers for those patients,” she said.
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eleventis@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-09-11--Music store police shooting injures student intern

Surveillance video shows the moment a Des Plaines police officer opens fire with an AR-15 rifle inside UpBeat Music and @ @

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chicagotribune--2020-09-11--Nearly a year after police shooting in music school, teen still struggles to play guitar. ‘It’s just

Nearly a year after police shooting in music school, teen still struggles to play guitar. ‘It’s just heartbreaking.’

“ This young man was given a gift , ” said Timothy Cavanagh , the family ’ s attorney who @ @ @ @ @ video images from inside the school on that November day .
“ To have that @ @ @ @ @ s had nothing to do with this — he didn ’ t do anything wrong @ @ @ @ @ own — it ’ s just heartbreaking .
”

Rylan Wilder remembers how to press down on the guitar strings, but the 16-year-old’s left hand can’t keep up.
It’s been nearly a year since a Des Plaines police officer, chasing a bank robbery suspect, fired a rifle round through Rylan’s arm as the teen was running for cover inside a music school.
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“This young man was given a gift,” said Timothy Cavanagh, the family’s attorney who this week released the first video images from inside the school on that November day. “To have that ripped away where he’s had nothing to do with this — he didn’t do anything wrong, no fault of his own — it’s just heartbreaking.”
In the security camera footage, Rylan is seen tidying up a room full of keyboards when flashing police lights fill the windows of UpBeat Music and Arts on the Northwest Side. The suspect bursts through the front door and rushes past Rylan.
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An officer runs through the door and yells, “Drop it,” as Rylan tries to get out of his way. The officer fires a semi-automatic rifle with Rylan still between him and the suspect. Rylan escapes from the room through a side door as the officer keeps firing, killing the suspect, Christopher Willis. The officer fires about a dozen rounds.
An image from surveillance video shows the moment a Des Plaines police officer, left, opens fire with an AR-15 rifle at a robbery suspect, not shown, and strikes 15-year-old Rylan Wilder, right, in the arm and abdomen inside UpBeat Music and Arts, in Chicago on Nov. 19, 2019. (MediaPros 24/7)
Willis and a second man had robbed a Bank of America branch in Des Plaines hours earlier on Nov. 19. Afterward, Willis carjacked a couple and led officers on a high-speed chase on the Kennedy Expressway that ended at the music school in the 4300 block of West Irving Park Road shortly before 7 p.m., Chicago police have said.
Willis shot a Chicago police officer before running into the school, where Rylan was interning. He was a sophomore at Lane Tech College Prep, and lead guitarist and singer for the rock band Monarchy Over Monday.
Since then, Rylan had about 14 surgeries and is still in pain as he works through physical therapy. But the teen remains optimistic.
“He’s a pretty amazing young man,” Cavanagh said. “No doubt he’s had some very, very tough times, but he’s resilient and he’s hopeful. And he’s worked incredibly, incredibly hard.”
In releasing the video, Cavanagh said the family has questions about the actions of the officer.
“They want some answers to why Des Plaines was in the city of Chicago and this pursuit, they want to know why this officer was using an AR-15 — a personal weapon, a weapon of war,” Cavanagh said. “This is not a normal weapon. This ripped his arm apart.”
Rylan Wilder, lead guitarist and singer for the rock band Monarchy Over Monday. (Jared Callaway Photography)
Rylan’s family later filed a lawsuit against Willis' alleged accomplice, Maurice Murphy. In an amended complaint filed in August, the lawsuit names the officer who shot Rylan and the city of Des Plaines.
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Cavanagh said he obtained a copy of Des Plaines police’s pursuit policy that states: “If two units from the other agency are actively involved in the pursuit, the officers will not engage in the pursuit unless directed to do so by a supervisor.”
Cavanagh said his reading of the policy means the suburban police officer should never have entered the school.
Des Plaines police Chief William Kushner did not respond to questions about the pursuit policy or about the officer carrying his own rifle, but said a third-party investigation found the officer complied with the department’s policies.
He did not respond to a question about who conducted the independent review. The Cook County state’s attorney’s office declined to comment Friday, citing an ongoing investigation.
“While it is certainly a tragedy that Mr. Wilder was injured during the commission of this violent crime spree, the DPPD’s officer’s actions were necessary, proper and likely saved lives,” Kushner wrote in a statement. “It is unfortunate that Christopher Willis, an armed bank robber, put Mr. Wilder and several other innocent bystanders in harm’s way.”
Kushner added that his department “empathizes with Mr. Wilder, his family and friends and wishes him a full recovery with the hopes that he and his family can soon put this incident behind them.”
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But Cavanagh said those sentiments are not enough.
“We’ll engage in the discovery in the case and get our own answers,” Cavanagh said. “That’s a self-serving (statement). Of course the police are going to say their actions were warranted. We’ve seen hundreds of situations where they claim their actions were warranted and you dig deep and you find out that’s just not the case.”


chicagotribune--2020-09-11--Cook County health department announces plans to spend up to $5.4M fighting COVID-19 in most-affecte

Cook County health department announces plans to spend up to $5.4M fighting COVID-19 in most-affected areas

Contact tracing , which Gov .
J.B. Pritzker repeatedly has said is crucial to reopening the economy , involves reaching @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus and urge them to isolate and provide the names of people with whom @ @ @ @ @ encounters in previous days .
They then reach out to the contacts and urge them @ @ @ @ @ into quarantine , so they can ’ t spread the disease .

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)
The Cook County Department of Public Health announced Friday it is planning to spend up to $5.4 million to educate people about contact tracing, provide services to quarantined and isolated suburban county residents and facilitate setting up more COVID-19 testing sites.
The department is issuing a request for proposals to community-based organizations to do that work in areas most affected by COVID-19. Proposals submitted will be scored by the nonprofit Hektoen Institute of Medicine, a health service and research organization that administers grant awards for underserved people.
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Contact tracing, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker repeatedly has said is crucial to reopening the economy, involves reaching out to people who contract the coronavirus and urge them to isolate and provide the names of people with whom they had close, prolonged encounters in previous days. They then reach out to the contacts and urge them to get tested and go into quarantine, so they can’t spread the disease.
The main aim of the proposed county program is to “develop trust in these communities so they will pick up the phone when we call,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, one of the department’s two chiefs. She said folks contacted should know tracers are there “to protect them and their families and their communities.”
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Back in June, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a $41 million effort to add about 375 contact tracers to the 25 county employees who already do that work routinely. The $5.4 million program announced Friday is coming out of that pot of the money, provided through an Illinois Department of Public Health grant.
So far, the county has hired 40 additional contact tracers and 10 new supervisors, with the assistance of Hektoen, said Dr. Kiran Joshi, the department’s other chief. The goal is to be fully staffed by late autumn.
hdardick@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ReporterHal