chicagotribune--2020-10-11--State police release dashcam video in fatal struggle over gun during Harvey stop

The trooper on the passenger side quickly gets to his feet and moves around to the driver ’ s side @ @ @ @ @ there , the sound of a gunshot can be heard and the women and child @ @ @ @ @ of the police vehicle and out of view .
The trooper who had just made @ @ @ @ @ s side then stands back and draws his weapon , seemingly unsure whether the man @ @ @ @ @ his partner .

Days after a man was killed during a traffic stop in Harvey that authorities say happened as the man and a trooper struggled for control of a gun, Illinois State Police released dashcam video of the traffic stop.
Darren Green, a 30-year-old man from Harvey died as the result of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Green had been in the passenger seat early Wednesday when the SUV he was riding in was pulled over by state police about 12:30 a.m. near 147th Street and Halsted Avenue, according to the state police. Green was taken to an area hospital with a gunshot wound to his head and he was pronounced dead about 4:30 a.m.
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Officials previously said that a 21-year-old Chicago woman had been driving without her headlights on and a few minutes into the stop the trooper asked her to step out of the vehicle. After she exited, a man in the front passenger seat began to move over into the driver’s seat, at which time the trooper stationed by the driver’s side noticed a weapon in his waistband, authorities said.
The video, which was released on Sunday, does not show what happened inside the vehicle, as it is stationary dashcam video from the troopers' vehicle, parked behind the SUV. But shortly after the driver is asked to step out of the SUV, the trooper on the driver’s side asks a second trooper on the passenger side to ask the man in front to also step out of the SUV.
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“Hey, gun, gun,” the first trooper yells. Both troopers yell, “Don’t move.” The trooper on the driver’s side checks the woman, who is standing behind him, seemingly to ensure she isn’t a threat, as the driver’s side door closes. That trooper then reopens the door.
At first, the trooper on the passenger side reaches in through the window, then he gets the door open. One of the troopers calls for “emergency assistance.” The vehicle’s brake lights come on as though it has been put in gear.
While the three men are struggling in the front of the vehicle, a 29-year-old Dolton woman in the back seat opens the rear driver’s side door to exit, then reaches back into the vehicle and quickly grabs an 8-year-old girl, pulling her out, according to the video and a statement that state police issued Thursday.
The child is just barely visible as she says what sounds like, “I’m scared, Mommy.” In the second it takes for the woman to pull her into view, the vehicle lunges forward, moving before the child’s feet even touch the ground.
The trooper on the passenger side, who has been with the agency for 11 months, appears to be partially dragged and partially pulled while hanging onto the open passenger door for a distance that appears to be no more than 20 feet or so, when the SUV slams into a bus shelter and comes to a stop.
From the time the troopers first said “gun,” only 20 seconds had elapsed before the vehicle crashes. The two women and the child are still standing in the street looking toward the SUV, now up on the curb.
The trooper on the passenger side quickly gets to his feet and moves around to the driver’s side. Before he makes it there, the sound of a gunshot can be heard and the women and child run to the passenger side of the police vehicle and out of view. The trooper who had just made it to the driver’s side then stands back and draws his weapon, seemingly unsure whether the man in the vehicle fired at his partner.
Only about five seconds elapsed between the time the child is pulled from the SUV and when the gunshot is heard.
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State police previously explained that the gun went off while a trooper was struggling with the man for control of the weapon. Neither trooper fired his service weapon, officials said.
The trooper who had been on the driver’s side throughout the stop has been with state police for 11 years, according to the police statement. He did not appear injured, but the statement said he also was dragged by the moving vehicle.
“Shots fired, shots fired, shots fired,” one trooper yells. He requested an ambulance and additional units from surrounding areas before checking on the trooper who seemed to collide with the bus shelter in the crash.
He asks the second trooper again later if he is OK, to which the man responds, “Yeah, I’m — I don’t know.” Much later he says he hurt his shoulder and is bleeding from his head.
The first trooper stays with Green until an ambulance arrives, telling him repeatedly to keep breathing.
“Stay with us, stay with us,” a third law enforcement officer says once backup arrives.
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The shooting remains under investigation by special agents with the Division of Internal Investigation, state police said. It is not known whether additional video was taken and if so, whether it will be released.
The agency said Green did not have a valid firearm owner’s identification or a concealed carry license.
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-10-11--Police: Woman riding in car shot in head on Lake Shore Drive

Police did not say what sparked the afternoon shooting , but said the gunman ’ s car pulled up alongside @ @ @ @ @ exchanged between people in both vehicles .
A person in the rear seat then fired @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t immediately release a description of the gunman ’ s vehicle .

A young woman was shot and critically wounded Sunday afternoon while riding on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago police said.
The 19-year-old victim was struck in the head as the white Dodge she was a passenger in drove north near Jackson Boulevard around 1:20 p.m., police said, citing preliminary information.
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The Dodge’s driver continued north to the area of Navy Pier, where the driver alerted private security, police said. Arriving police officers quickly treated the woman’s head wound with an officer’s first-aid kit until she was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, police said.
Police did not say what sparked the afternoon shooting, but said the gunman’s car pulled up alongside the Dodge and words were exchanged between people in both vehicles. A person in the rear seat then fired into the Dodge. Police didn’t immediately release a description of the gunman’s vehicle.


chicagotribune--2020-10-11--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,727 new known COVID-19 cases and 9 additional deaths reported Sun

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,727 new known COVID-19 cases and 9 additional deaths reported Sunday

But sensitive lab tests — like the PCR test cited in the doctor ’ s statements — detect virus in @ @ @ @ @ nose and throat .
Some medical experts had been skeptical that Trump could be declared @ @ @ @ @ transmitting the virus so early in the course of his illness .
Just 10 days @ @ @ @ @ infection , there was no way to know for certain that someone was no longer @ @ @ @ @

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)
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Sunday reported 2,727 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus, as well as 9 more confirmed fatalities.
The total number of known infections now stands at 319,150 and the death toll at 8,984 statewide since the pandemic began. Officials also reported 64,047 new tests in the last 24 hours.
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Meanwhile, after more than a month under tighter restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, the Metro East region has been allowed to return to phase four rules that allow indoor dining and bar service and gatherings of up to 50 people, state officials said Friday.
The region outside St. Louis was the first in Illinois to see a scaled back reopening in August after it passed a state-set threshold of an 8% positivity rate for three consecutive days.
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Additionally, Lake County has been added to the list of counties under warning for a potential resurgence of the coronavirus, state health officials said Friday. The weekly list from the IDPH includes 26 counties, down from 28 a week earlier.
Here’s what’s happening this weekend with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
Sunday
‘I feel like I have dementia’: Brain fog plagues COVID-19 survivors
After contracting the coronavirus in March, Michael Reagan lost all memory of his 12-day vacation in Paris, even though the trip was just a few weeks earlier.
Several weeks after Erica Taylor recovered from her COVID-19 symptoms of nausea and cough, she became confused and forgetful, failing to even recognize her own car, the only Toyota Prius in her apartment complex’s parking lot.
Lisa Mizelle, a veteran nurse practitioner at an urgent care clinic who fell ill with the virus in July, finds herself forgetting routine treatments and lab tests and has to ask colleagues about terminology she used to know automatically.
“I leave the room, and I can’t remember what the patient just said,” she said, adding that if she hadn’t exhausted her medical leave she’d take more time off.
“It scares me to think I’m working,” Mizelle, 53, said. “I feel like I have dementia.”
It’s becoming known as COVID brain fog: troubling cognitive symptoms that can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty focusing, dizziness and grasping for everyday words. Increasingly, COVID survivors say brain fog is impairing their ability to work and function normally.
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Read more here. —The New York Times
‘Running is not canceled.’ But the Chicago Marathon is smaller, quieter and virtual because of the pandemic
After concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic canceled a series of marathons around the world, Chicago runners reimagined the traditional 26.2 mile route this weekend with groups across the city embarking on “virtual” and socially distanced runs.
Greg Hipp, executive director of the Chicago Area Runners Association, said that virtual marathons emerged after it became clear that mass gatherings would be canceled because of the pandemic.
“Virtual marathons let people run from anywhere,” he said. “It allows you to run and still reach your goals even though the marathons have been canceled.”
Virtual marathons track runners through phone apps and allow them to complete the race within 24 hours, he added. Runners may choose their paths individually or in small groups. In Chicago, many chose to run the lakefront path, and some began the race on Saturday.
Read more here. —Jessica Villagomez
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Trump says he’s now ‘immune’ from the coronavirus – a claim that’s impossible to prove – and ready to return to the campaign trail
President Donald Trump on Sunday declared he was healthy enough to return to the campaign trail, a day after the White House doctor said he was no longer at risk of transmitting the coronavirus but did not say explicitly whether Trump had tested negative for it.
Trump, who was poised Monday to host his first rally after his COVID-19 diagnosis, declared he was now “immune” from the virus, a claim that was impossible to prove and comes amid a series of outstanding questions about the president’s health.
“I’m immune,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News. “The president is in very good shape to fight the battles.”
In a memo released Saturday night by the White House, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said Trump met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by “currently recognized standards” he was no longer considered a transmission risk. The memo did not declare Trump had tested negative for the virus.
But sensitive lab tests — like the PCR test cited in the doctor’s statements — detect virus in swab samples taken from the nose and throat. Some medical experts had been skeptical that Trump could be declared free of the risk of transmitting the virus so early in the course of his illness. Just 10 days since an initial diagnosis of infection, there was no way to know for certain that someone was no longer contagious, they said.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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Saturday
2,905 new known COVID-19 cases and 31 additional deaths reported
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Saturday reported 2,905 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus, as well as 31 more confirmed fatalities.
The total number of known infections now stands at 316,423 and the death toll to 8,975 statewide since the pandemic began. Officials also reported 66,256 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 4%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
Nancy Pelosi dismisses latest White House COVID-19 relief offer
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday dismissed the latest White House offer in COVID-19 aid talks as “one step forward, two steps back,” but said she is still hopeful that progress can be made toward a deal.
The White House had boosted its offer before Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Pelosi spoke on Friday afternoon. President Donald Trump is eager for an agreement before Election Day, even as his most powerful GOP ally in the Senate said Congress is unlikely to deliver relief by then.
“Covid Relief Negotiations are moving along. Go Big!” Trump said Friday on Twitter, just a few days after unceremoniously breaking off talks in a tweet thread, citing the high cost.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
White House blocked CDC from requiring masks on public transportation, sources say
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials.
The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 Americans a day. The officials said that it was drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex Azar, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it.
The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the order would have required face coverings on airplanes, trains, buses and subways, and in transit hubs such as airports, train stations and bus depots.
Read more here. —The New York Times


chicagotribune--2020-10-11--‘Running is not canceled.’ But the Chicago Marathon is smaller, quieter and virtual because of the p

‘Running is not canceled.’ But the Chicago Marathon is smaller, quieter and virtual because of the pandemic.

“ I missed the crowds and excitement of race day , ” she said .
“ Marathon Sunday is one @ @ @ @ @ the year in Chicago .
If I ’ m not running , I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ friends on .
I usually go to different spots along the course , ones that @ @ @ @ @ get through , and make sure I ’ m there to cheer on the runners @ @ @ @ @ need .
”

After concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic canceled marathons around the world, Chicago runners re-imagined the traditional 26.2-mile route this weekend, with groups across the city embarking on “virtual” and socially distanced runs.
Greg Hipp, executive director of the Chicago Area Runners Association, said virtual marathons emerged after it became clear that mass gatherings would be canceled because of the pandemic.
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“Virtual marathons let people run from anywhere,” he said. “It allows you to run and still reach your goals even though the marathons have been canceled.”
Virtual marathons track runners through phone apps and allow them to complete the race within 24 hours, he added. Runners may choose their paths individually or in small groups. In the virtual version of the Chicago Marathon, many chose to run the lakefront path, and some began the race on Saturday.
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On Saturday, more than 400 runners across the city and suburbs embarked on the marathon through the running association. Hipp said the organization typically helps train more than 2,000 people, but many runners chose not to race this year, even virtually.
“A virtual race definitely has that lack of experience and excitement you get when you run with thousands of people, but people relied on friends and families to keep them motivated," he said.
Tyrand Williams said he has been running ever since he lost a bet and had to run the marathon in 2018. Williams ran the virtual Chicago marathon Saturday, making it his third completed race.
“It was really nice, there was some good crowd support,” Williams, who ran on the lakefront, said. “It was still a nice tour of the city and great to see the city come together and make the best of a bad situation.”
Though running the full course without all the fanfare proved to be different, Williams said running has been therapeutic for him during the pandemic, and his running group, Chicago Endurance Sports, encourages those training to remember that “running is not canceled.”
“When everything was getting shut down in March, running was the thing that kept a lot of people sane,” he said. “Knowing that if you can get through the marathon this year means that you can get through it any year. It gave me perspective to keep pushing through.”
Training for the virtual race was also different, according to Hipp. Running is an isolating activity, and groups, now limited in size, create a sense of community. Runners who trained with groups met in smaller groups and wore face masks when they were unable to stay 6 feet apart. Excess space among runners also became common practice, he added.
This year, Becky Yaworski decided not to run the virtual Chicago Marathon.
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Yaworski, who has been a runner since 2008, has run six marathons and has completed the Chicago course five times. But after the New York Marathon was canceled due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to defer her entries for both Chicago and New York marathons, opting instead to run London’s virtual marathon last week.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 55 The Chicago Marathon first started on Sept. 25, 1977. Here, the first runners cross the Outer Drive Bridge shortly after the start of the Mayor Daley Marathon in 1977. (Karen Engstrom / Chicago Tribune)
“London offered a very cheap entry to their virtual and I ran that with a charity, so I wanted to keep with that one. I didn’t want to run Chicago the weekend after London,” she said.
Yaworski said she enjoyed having 24 hours to complete her own course in her own time.
“I had scaled back my training with the news of all the races being canceled. This way I was able to break it into two more comfortable runs and not have to worry about the risk of injury,” she said.
But like most crowd-heavy experiences canceled or postponed by the pandemic, the experience, often marked with loud music and encouraging crowds along the way, is not the same.
“I missed the crowds and excitement of race day,” she said. “Marathon Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year in Chicago. If I’m not running, I’m out on the course cheering friends on. I usually go to different spots along the course, ones that I know are tough to get through, and make sure I’m there to cheer on the runners and bring them whatever they need.”
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Last year, 45,000 runners participated in the 42nd Bank of America Chicago Marathon with thousands of onlookers cheering on participants as they ran throughout numerous Chicago neighborhoods.
“I don’t train with a team or running buddy, so I’m used to running the lakefront alone,” Yaworski said. “But that excitement and buzz of the city was definitely missing when I ran (last week), and it’s a little sad today knowing that I was supposed to be out there running the streets of Chicago with 50,000 other runners.”
jvillagomez@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @JessicaVillag


chicagotribune--2020-10-11--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 9 new deaths, 2,727 new confirmed cases and 64,047 new test resul

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 9 new deaths, 2,727 new confirmed cases and 64,047 new test results

Illinois announced 2,727 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Sunday for a total of 319,150 .
The state also announced 9 @ @ @ @ @ of 8,984 and 64,047 new test results for a total of 6.31 million .

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine tracked coronavirus cases, deaths and test totals from Jan. 22, 2020 through March 10, 2023, but is no longer providing this data. These charts will no longer be updated.
Check the Illinois Department of Public Health for the most up-to-date data for Illinois.
[ Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus ]
Can’t see these charts? Go here.


chicagotribune--2020-10-11--Aurora couple charged with child labor trafficking

Choc Laj allegedly accompanied the teenager to the U.S. from Guatemala and gave false identification to U.S. immigration authorities , @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. , Choc Laj took the teen to a house in Aurora and forced @ @ @ @ @ and services from February 2019 until Feb. 4 , 2020 , according to court records @

A couple from Aurora have been charged with child labor trafficking for allegedly forcing an undocumented Guatemalan teenager to work and keeping her earnings, federal authorities said.
Santos Teodoro Ac-Salazar, 23, and Olga Choc Laj, 30, have been charged in federal court with forcing labor through force, threats of force and the threatened abuse of the legal and law process, officials said.
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Choc Laj allegedly accompanied the teenager to the U.S. from Guatemala and gave false identification to U.S. immigration authorities, prosecutors said. Once in the U.S., Choc Laj took the teen to a house in Aurora and forced the teen to provide labor and services from February 2019 until Feb. 4, 2020, according to court records.
Ac-Salazar later joined Choc Laj in the Aurora house and participated in labor trafficking by forcing the teen to perform household chores and take care of the defendants' infant child, prosecutors said.
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The Aurora Police Department and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services assisted with the investigation.
The couple is in custody and have made appearances in federal court in Chicago. They are due for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 15.
mejones@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Daywatch: Lightfoot’s funding for anti-violence effort falls short, Chicago Marathon goes virtual an

Daywatch: Lightfoot’s funding for anti-violence effort falls short, Chicago Marathon goes virtual and a fall getaway on Maine’s Mount Desert Island

For much of the year , Cadillac Mountain is the first place that sunlight hits in the United States each @ @ @ @ @ early October afternoon last year , what was hitting the peak was a shower of @ @ @ @ @ by a wind so powerful it made walking precarious .
Even in these conditions , @ @ @ @ @ Ocean , studded with forest-covered islands , made an exceptional treat , writes the Tribune @ @ @ @ @

Want Daywatch delivered to your inbox? Sign up here. | Get the top Tribune stories of the day on your smart speaker | Here’s how to get the most out of your Tribune subscription | Got something to say? Join the conversation on our Facebook page
Good morning, Chicago. On Sunday, the Illinois health officials reported 2,727 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus, as well as 9 more confirmed fatalities. If you want to look up the cases in your neighborhood, you can search here by ZIP code.
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Meanwhile, as the pandemic progresses, we’re learning more about what lingering effects COVID-19 has on survivors. Some have reported experiencing a “brain fog,” making everyday activities and work more difficult.
Here’s the coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
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Jamel Fields uses a cellphone to do a virtual cognitive behavior therapy session at READI Chicago on Oct. 1, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has spoken often of her plans to reinvent the city’s approach to combat its stubborn violence problem, using anti-violence outreach groups that she called “fundamentally critical to what we’re doing,” and vowing to make sure they had the resources needed to be successful.
But more than 16 months into her first term in office, that plan has not developed and her administration’s spending on those groups during one of the bloodiest years in recent history is a vanishingly small part of this year’s budget.
Chicago area runners take part in the virtual marathon at 31 St. beach. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
After concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic canceled marathons around the world, Chicago runners re-imagined the traditional 26.2-mile route this weekend, with groups across the city embarking on “virtual” and socially distanced runs.
The Chicago Marathon scenes from across the city were much different in 2020 vs. 2019. Take a look.
Early voters vote their choice at 191 N. Clark St. in Chicago on Oct. 1, 2020. The lines stretched out to the corner and nearly around the block. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
As the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold in Illinois in the days before the March 17 primary, hundreds of poll workers backed out and left local election authorities scrambling to staff polling places. The pandemic is still going strong, but officials say they are in much better shape heading into the general election.
That’s thanks to pay raises for election judges, aggressive outreach campaigns and heightened interest among a new generation of poll workers. But Chicago-area election officials say they aren’t taking anything for granted.
Kindergartener Teja Martin gives her teacher a thumps-up during reading class at St. Malachy school in Chicago's West Town neighborhood on Oct. 7, 2020. For decades, Holy CrossParish in Deerfield has financially supported this West Side Catholic school. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Many of the students in the 108-year-old Catholic school in West Town don’t know that much of their education is funded by parishioners from a suburban Catholic church 25 miles away. The success and longevity of their school — St. Malachy — has been buoyed by a decadeslong partnership with the same parish.
A 3.4 mile trail circles Jordan Pond on Mount Desert Island in Acadia National Park in Maine. (Cyn Sansing Mycoskie)
For much of the year, Cadillac Mountain is the first place that sunlight hits in the United States each morning. But on an early October afternoon last year, what was hitting the peak was a shower of rain and sleet, blown by a wind so powerful it made walking precarious. Even in these conditions, the view of the Atlantic Ocean, studded with forest-covered islands, made an exceptional treat, writes the Tribune’s Steve Chapman.


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--How St. Malachy school beat the odds and thrives as a Catholic school on Chicago’s West Side

The financial support from Holy Cross has not only enabled kids living in some of Chicago ’ s more troubled @ @ @ @ @ education .
The parish ’ s generosity has also enabled St. Malachy to offer parents @ @ @ @ @ , with parents having to pay only about half the cost of the school ’ @ @ @ @ @ tag , which in turn has kept enrollment up and the school doors open .

Kindergartener Teja Martin gives her teacher a thumps-up during reading class at St. Malachy school in Chicago's West Town neighborhood on Oct. 7, 2020. For decades, Holy Cross Parish in Deerfield has financially supported this West Side Catholic school. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
In fifth grade math class, the sun seeped in through the windows. Students sat 6 feet apart and wore face masks. The school hallways were quiet. Half the students were learning from home.
Inside the classroom, the students scribbled notes as the teacher wrote on the digital chalkboard.
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Holy Cross parishioner and volunteer Joanie Rosen, left, talks with Yvonne Corona at St. Malachy school on Oct. 7, 2020. Rosen, who’s been volunteering at St. Malachy for almost 20 years, said, "I learned more from them than they learned from me." (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Many of the students in this 108-year-old Catholic school in West Town don’t know that much of their education is funded by parishioners from a suburban Catholic church 25 miles away. The success and longevity of their school — St. Malachy — has been buoyed by a decadeslong partnership with the same parish.
For more than three decades, Holy Cross Parish in Deerfield has been the quiet backbone for this West Side school — purchasing school supplies, mentoring students, paying half the tuition for nearly all students and, most recently, raising more than $10,000 to provide laptops for students learning from home during the pandemic.
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The financial support from Holy Cross has not only enabled kids living in some of Chicago’s more troubled neighborhoods to get a private education. The parish’s generosity has also enabled St. Malachy to offer parents discounted tuition for 30 years, with parents having to pay only about half the cost of the school’s $4,175 yearly price tag, which in turn has kept enrollment up and the school doors open.
“Without a doubt, we would not have been able to survive those lean days without (Holy Cross) support,” said Bridgid Miller, who served as St. Malachy’s principal for 41 years before retiring last year.
The partnership between Holy Cross and St. Malachy started in the 1980s when Cardinal John Cody began a program to connect more affluent churches with churches in low-income areas, said Miller, who became St. Malachy’s principal in 1978.
For decades, St. Malachy sat in the shadows of the Henry Horner Homes and Rockwell Gardens, two former Chicago public housing complexes. And while many students had ambitious parents who wanted their children to attend a private school, some students couldn’t afford full tuition. Meanwhile, low enrollment jeopardized the future of the school.
“At that time, we were really struggling financially, so I talked to someone at the parish about whether there would be anyone interested in adopting a family and helping to pay the tuition of our families that were really struggling to afford it,” Miller said.
When Miller first made her appeal to Holy Cross in the early 1990s, about a decade after the parishes’ partnership began, she received 75 responses. Over the years, the donor list continued to expand, and now “just about every family” in St. Malachy gets assistance from a family in Deerfield.
“I can’t say enough about what beautiful people they are,” Miller said.
It’s hard to understand just how critical the success of this Catholic school is to parents without understanding the neighborhood it sits in.
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By 1980, the violence and poverty surrounding St. Malachy was so rampant that the parish priest wrote a letter to Mother Teresa asking for help.
“On a whim, I decided to write to her, not only about the great material poverty here but also about the greatest poverty — the poverty of spirit and hopelessness,” the Rev. Stephen Mangan told the Tribune in 1982.
Mother Teresa, who by then was living in India and had received a Nobel Peace Prize, responded to Mangan’s request, “As soon as I can, I will send you four nuns.”
Until their final demolition in the 2000s, Rockwell Gardens and Henry Horner Homes stood within blocks of the school. Rockwell Gardens was once among the most dangerous housing complexes in Chicago.
That’s why Tiffanie Pointer cried when she had to send her now 25-year-old daughter to Grant Elementary, which was in the middle of Rockwell Gardens.
“I just didn’t feel safe and comfortable with her going there,” Pointer said.
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Later, when Pointer received a call from St. Malachy saying her daughter could attend, Pointer was elated.
“It was the best moment ever,” she said, reflecting on that phone call two decades later. And what was even better for the single mom who wasn’t “making much money” at the time was that St. Malachy, with the help of Holy Cross, offered her tuition help.
Students in Jayne Royal's fifth grade class raise hands during math class at St. Malachy school. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
“It’s been history ever since,” said Pointer, who wound up sending all seven of her children to St. Malachy.
While Holy Cross parishioners have donated money and time, the partnership has been equally rewarding for them.
Joanie Rosen, who’s been volunteering at St. Malachy for almost 20 years, said her “eyes were wide-open” when she first visited the school and saw the neighborhood.
Now, after spending nearly two decades visiting the area regularly, Rosen said her experience has been invaluable.
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“I learned more from them than they learned from me,” she said.
“I think the people at Holy Cross benefit from how they think they’re helping these disadvantaged kids. They’re giving them a shot at life.”
Nearly all of St. Malachy’s students go on to attend college preparatory high schools, Miller said. And three-fourths of its 2016 graduates went on to attend college.
Although Deonte Meeks, an eighth grade student at St. Malachy, hasn’t been able to physically meet with his mentor from Holy Cross during the pandemic, he’s still received encouraging emails. Meeks said his mentor is making sure he stays focused on attending a good high school and playing basketball.
“We work really hard with them to plant the seed that they want to go to a good high school, they should go to college and their lives will be better if they get educated,” Rosen said.
When Holy Cross pastor the Rev. Vincent Costello arrived at the parish 10 years ago, he was pleased to see the congregation had a relationship with the West Side school.
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“The partnership with St. Malachy meant that there are people in this community that understand the fact that we have been blessed, and we have an obligation to bless others,” Costello said,
Holy Cross’ dedication to St. Malachy has persisted even after the suburban church’s parish school closed its doors in 2018 after 70 years.
Even during a pandemic, which has financially strained millions of people, Holy Cross’ generosity hasn’t waned. This year, parishioners continued paying tuition, still purchased school supplies and made the five-figure donation to purchase laptops.
“It’s hard to say all the ways they help us,” St. Malachy Principal Patrick Dwyer said. “But there’s no doubt they have been instrumental in our longevity, and it’s a partnership we really count on.”
An earlier version misspelled the Rev. Stephen Mangan’s last name.


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Column: African-Americans can teach white liberals how to cope with their hatred for Donald Trump

The former slaves did not did not stage a rebellion and go after their former slave masters with a vengeance @ @ @ @ @ they did the best they could to work within the system that had been assigned @ @ @ @ @ a period during Reconstruction , they thrived through hard work and determination .

President Donald Trump arrives to speak from the South Portico of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
My heart goes out to my liberal white friends who are struggling to deal with their hatred.
I understand why the intense emotions you feel for Donald Trump seem foreign to you. America was established by your people and for your people, so you have never experienced being victimized by your own government.
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But I have. Every African American has.
Trump is not the first contemptible politician to sit at the helm of government. He is, however, the first to make white people feel personally targeted.
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He is the first to threaten your comfortable way of life. He is the first to jeopardize the civil liberties you have been allowed to take for granted.
Never have you been so disappointed in the nation’s leadership or felt so vulnerable. This is the first time you have ever been this eager to cast your ballot, not necessarily for someone — but against someone.
Never has your blood boiled at the mere mention of a president’s name. Never have you wished him ill health or worse. Never have you been so repulsed by his entire cabinet, the political party that enables him or the supporters who blindly follow him and treat him as though he is a god.
Trump is the first president who has made America seem unrecognizable to you. But if you are wise and empathetic, the past four years have caused you to question whether you ever really knew America at all.
Throughout our 400 years here, Black people have suffered at the hands of hateful politicians. We are still struggling to overcome the egregious acts put upon us.
Though we are angry, most African Americans have chosen not to hate. You can learn coping skills from us.
Trump has not only divided our nation over political ideology, he has done more than any president in nearly a century to escalate racial tensions rather than attempt to calm them.
Still, he pales in comparison with Andrew Johnson, the nation’s 17th president. Imagine how the former slaves must have hated Johnson after he snatched away their 40 acres and a mule.
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Johnson was the most lowdown president America has ever had. To this day, Black people are still trying to get back the reparations he stole from them.
After the Civil War, Union officials decided that resettlement assistance was necessary to help the newly freed Americans become self-sufficient.
So in 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Gen. William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15. It said “each family shall have a plot of not more than 40 acres of tillable ground.” Though the order did not specify it, some also received mules left over from the war.
But as soon as Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson rose from his vice presidency role to become president and rescinded the order. The Confederate property, which had rightfully been seized from Southern landowners, was promptly returned to them.
Though Black people had spent generations sowing the land for free, they were left with nothing.
The former slaves did not stage a rebellion and go after their former slave masters with a vengeance. For a century, they did the best they could to work within the system that had been assigned to them. And for a period during Reconstruction, they thrived through hard work and determination.
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Black people always have known that the power to change a nation could only be obtained at the voting booth. So when the 15th Amendment finally gave Black men the right to vote, they eagerly sought to take advantage of it.
But Johnson again got in the way.
He saw to it that states were granted the right to establish their own governments, which meant Southern lawmakers would have dominance over how most former slaves were treated by the government.
It was no surprise that most state legislatures tried to limit the rights of African Americans. The “Black Codes” they enacted were designed to stifle the advancement of Blacks and keep them in a perpetual state of economic and social despair.
They took our vote away from us and never have entirely given it back. Now Trump is trying to take away yours.
You can understand the hatred African Americans must have felt for the white poll workers, who forced them to submit to complicated and frivolous literacy tests that those administering it could not pass themselves.
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Imagine how Blacks must have hated Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who in his 1963 inaugural speech, proclaimed, “segregation today ... segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.”
Imagine how they abhorred Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox, who once owned a small diner and vowed to close it rather than serve Black people.
But they did not succumb to it. African Americans marched in Birmingham and Montgomery, and they traveled to the deep corners of Mississippi to register people to vote. Many were beaten or killed.
How they must have hated their assailants. But hatred, neither theirs nor their attackers', couldn’t sway them.
Consider Native Americans as well.
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, was responsible for the heinous Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast to make room for newly arriving Black slaves.
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In periods of turmoil, there is no time to hate. Hatred is a diversion that forces you to take your eyes off the mission. It sidelines you with such debilitating pain that you cannot think clearly, much less do the work needed to bring about change.
During the civil rights movement, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was able to force a reluctant government to pass sweeping civil rights legislation designed to secure voting rights and end desegregation.
He could not have accomplished that by harboring hatred. Instead, he advocated anti-hate in the form of nonviolent protests.
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King said, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
Trump’s outlandish dictatorial behavior, compulsive lying and overall deceitfulness have tested the tolerance of Americans of all races. Liberal whites, however, seem more conflicted over their reactions to it.
As the majority in America, white people have the power to change things, with assistance from the rest of us. It’s up to you whether to use it, not just for your own benefit, for everyone’s.
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If you are blinded by hatred, you cannot see the truth. You cannot see the path forward, though it is right in front of you.
If hatred wins, Trump wins.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to reimagine violence response and end sole reliance on police, but outre

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to reimagine violence response and end sole reliance on police, but outreach groups at heart of plan still struggle for funding

Two weeks ago , the mayor committed to leaning more on groups other than the police in a sweeping report @ @ @ @ @ bloodshed .
That ’ s a vision for the future , but the present day @ @ @ @ @ position for a Chicago mayor — mostly using police to try to turn around a @ @ @ @ @ is on pace for more than 750 homicides , which would make it one of @ @ @ @ @ last quarter-century .

Dan Hinkel, Madeline Buckley, Gregory Pratt, Jeremy Gorner

As a candidate and then mayor, Lori Lightfoot has spoken often of her ambition to fully reinvent Chicago’s approach to combating its stubborn violence problem.
Key to those plans are anti-violence organizations, including those that intervene in disputes or toss lifelines to people likely to kill or die. She said last year that those outreach groups were “fundamentally critical to what we’re doing,” as she seeks to treat violence as a public health crisis.
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“We will make sure they have the resources they need to be successful,” she said.
More than 16 months into her term, however, Lightfoot’s plan to fundamentally change Chicago’s approach by relying on those groups has not developed. The administration’s spending on them is a vanishingly small part of this year’s budget, and anti-violence advocates have criticized her relatively modest funding of those initiatives during one of the bloodiest years in recent history.
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The administration has touted its $11.5 million in spending this year on conflict intervention, counseling and employment help for people at risk, as well as services for victims and funding for the city’s public safety office.
City Hall officials have described those initiatives as focusing on the city’s most violent neighborhoods. And Lightfoot has said repeatedly she is turning away from the strategy of past mayors, which she has described as using only the police to stop violence.
But her attempt to shift to a different path has been incremental at best. The city’s spending for these alternate approaches to violence is less than 1% of the city’s share of the Police Department budget this year — which is about $1.7 billion. In June alone, the city spent more than four times as much on police overtime.
Two weeks ago, the mayor committed to leaning more on groups other than the police in a sweeping report on her plans to suppress bloodshed. That’s a vision for the future, but the present day finds Lightfoot in a familiar position for a Chicago mayor — mostly using police to try to turn around a violent year. The city is on pace for more than 750 homicides, which would make it one of the worst years of the last quarter-century.
Pressure has built to change public safety spending, as activists incensed by police brutality have demanded that Lightfoot give less money to cops and more to services that could address the root causes of violence. And leaders of anti-violence groups and some aldermen have called for the city to route more money to nonprofit initiatives. Anti-violence advocates have asked for $50 million a year but said that even that wouldn’t match up to the scope of the problem.
That push for more money is working against stiff fiscal headwinds, as the city faces a $1.2 billion budget gap, brought on by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, even the city’s current funding for the groups has spurred skepticism from some aldermen who worry organizations aren’t held accountable for results, and the anti-violence efforts underway generally remain unproven, without clear evidence they can stop bloodshed in the long term.
Leaders of anti-violence organizations — which have often looked to philanthropy for funding — said the city and other governments will need to step up soon to fund nonprofit efforts if they’re going to have a serious long-term impact.
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“If we as a city committed to doing this, we could be in a very different place, not overnight but in a couple years,” said Arne Duncan, a former U.S. secretary of education who now runs an anti-violence group. “We gotta commit to doing this.”
Asked whether the city is spending enough on the groups, Susan Lee, deputy mayor for public safety, provided no firm answer, pointing to the city’s budgetary predicament and suggesting other potential sources of money. She told the Tribune the price tag of addressing Chicago’s violence is “something that the entire city and the entire region really has to contemplate together.”
“It’s not just the city. It’s also the county, it’s also the state, it’s also philanthropy and corporate sector,” she said.
Plans, but little funding
In a position paper issued during her campaign, Lightfoot criticized Mayor Rahm Emanuel for lacking “a real, comprehensive plan to make a sustainable reduction in the violence.” As mayor, her oft-repeated goal has been to make Chicago the safest big city in the country.
2020 has not gone according to plan. Through Friday, Chicago had suffered 604 homicides, a 51% jump from the same time last year, police statistics show.
Lightfoot — a former chair of the Chicago Police Board — has responded by taking a hands-on tack with her police brass. She has held weekly accountability sessions with police leaders and sometimes sent stinging messages about their performance, leaving no question that she’s paying close attention.
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While policing dominates the conversation about stopping violence, Lightfoot has also promoted her commitment to alternate approaches. Late last month, she put out a 103-page “Comprehensive Plan to Reduce Violence in Chicago." Anti-violence groups figure prominently in the plan, and one of the long-term goals is to “expand investments in violence prevention services.”
City Hall officials have said they put $11.5 million this year into “community-based public safety” efforts focused on Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. More than half that went to Metropolitan Family Services, a nonprofit organization that got $6 million to fund and coordinate the efforts of 11 groups performing street outreach on the South and West Sides.
But not all of the $11.5 million is going to such organizations. The figure also includes $1.1 million budgeted this year to expand the city’s public safety office, which is tasked with coordinating anti-violence efforts.
The city has also put money from state and federal sources toward programs that have some anti-violence role.
The question of what counts as anti-violence funding also is open to interpretation, and budget documents don’t clearly spell out what money is going toward stopping bloodshed. The city, for example, has long funded after-school and jobs programs that could be seen as working against violence, though the Lightfoot administration did not count that outlay as part of the $11.5 million.
Still, City Hall officials have touted the 2020 spending as an increase, particularly for anti-violence street outreach programs. This year, the city spent $7.5 million on those programs, including the $6 million that went to Metropolitan Family Services. Figures compiled by the city show that in 2019 the Emanuel administration put $1.5 million toward similar efforts, which the Lightfoot administration continued.
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The question of how to spend tax dollars on public safety has been front-and-center nationally in the four months since George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, spurring protests nationwide centered on calls to “defund the police.” In Chicago, those calls are rooted in the Police Department’s long history of abuse and misconduct against African Americans.
Lightfoot has rejected calls to substantially reduce police funding. Neither she nor other City Hall officials have said exactly how much money they envision going to anti-violence groups in 2021.
Other cities have made longer-standing commitments to alternate approaches to violence.
For more than a decade, Los Angeles has partnered with community groups involved in its anti-gang program. That city— which has had roughly 350 fewer homicides than Chicago this year — committed $25.9 million in this budget to community organizations, as well as data and research contractors involved in that effort, a city spokeswoman said.
Lee, the deputy mayor who previously did anti-violence work in Los Angeles, objected to comparing the cities' spending, as their initiatives differ in the work they fund. But she acknowledged that Los Angeles and New York City have “been on this path of doing a coordinated citywide comprehensive approach for much longer than Chicago.”
Beyond funding questions, leadership on the issue is in flux. City Hall announced Lee’s resignation earlier this month, two days after Lightfoot’s anti-violence plan came out and after Lee had been on a job a little more than a year. It is unclear who will take her place when she leaves this month, and her resignation emerged the same week as the announced retirement of the deputy police superintendent tasked with leading reforms to the troubled Police Department.
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While Chicago is turning to anti-violence organizations, it is not funding the best-known effort of that kind in the city’s recent history: Cure Violence, formerly known as CeaseFire.
Researchers credited CeaseFire — which used ex-gang members interrupt conflicts — with reducing violence, and the program was the subject of the acclaimed 2011 documentary “The Interrupters.” But police voiced distrust of a program that relied on people with gang ties and criminal pasts, and in 2007 the state auditor criticized its financial practices.
Still, in 2012 the Emanuel administration responded to a surge in violence by forging a one-year $1 million contractwith the group. But the deal was not renewed. The program has only one site in Chicago, on the South Side, which is supported by philanthropy, said CEO Dr. Gary Slutkin. Though it is headquartered in Chicago, the program operates more extensively in other cities.
While the group has a limited presence on Chicago’s streets, some people once connected with the organization now work with other local anti-violence initiatives.
Getting started anyway
Even with limited government funding — and amid a pandemic that has forced some in-person activities online — the work goes on.
Late last month, job coach Christian Cambray sat before a webcam in a classroom and led a cognitive behavior therapy session for about half a dozen men enrolled in Rapid Employment and Development Initiative, or READI. The program, supported by philanthropy, combines therapy with job training and placement. Cambray was trying to help the men regulate their emotions — to calm down when angry or find peace amid a traumatic flashback.
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Christian Cambray, a job coach with Rapid Employment and Development Initiative, or READI, does a virtual cognitive behavioral therapy session with some of his clients. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Cambray demonstrated, breathing deeply and suggesting the men count backward. He asked one participant to call forth “pleasant imagery and visualization.” The man said he saw himself in Mexico at his father’s ranch, hearing roosters and smelling tortillas.
The participant said, “I feel calm, relaxed.”
READI, like other programs, serves men with troubled pasts and criminal records who might struggle to finish school or find work. Participant Jamel Fields, for example, said he was expelled from school in eighth grade for bringing a gun, and he’s done prison time for armed robbery. He spent six months in isolation, he said. Counseling has helped him deal with the trauma, he said.
“I still have nightmares from prison,” he said.
Jamel Fields poses for a portrait before he goes to a cognitive behavioral therapy session at READI Chicago. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Fields is currently working on a GED diploma, and hopes to find a job in welding or construction.
Researchers are still studying the program’s effectiveness but a preliminary evaluation over 20 months showed that men who participated in some part of the program were nearly 40% less likely to be shot or killed than men at similarly high risk for violence, according to the group.
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READI, whose main operations are not city-funded, is one program supported by donors who met in 2016 to discuss their options as shootings spiked. As a result, about 50 donors and private foundations in the past four years has raised about $90 million to study and fund violence prevention, some of those involved said. The idea was to get the initiatives off the ground, study their impact and hand off promising programs to the city to fund and coordinate.
The heads of major foundations told the Tribune they know the budget crunch means they can’t hand off their efforts this year. John Palfrey, president of the MacArthur Foundation, said the city was “radically underfunded in this aspect of public safety compared to other cities when the mayor took over” and would likely need more time to build up enough funding.
“The work shows promise but it’s not where it needs to be and also given the financial situation of the city, the municipal support isn’t there yet for this work,” he said. “So we’re hanging in there.”
There is promise in nonprofit groups taking on street violence, academics told the Tribune. However, there is little quality research on the long-term impact of specific efforts because they have rarely been sustained over time and evaluated rigorously, those researchers said.
Still, some evidence supports nonprofit solutions to violence. For example, a 2017 study in the journal American Sociological Review found that every 10 additional organizations “focusing on crime and community life” in cities of more than 100,000 people across the country led to a 9% reduction in the murder rate from 1990 to 2013.
Robert Sampson, a Harvard University social sciences professor who has studied crime in Chicago, called for city governments to “trust the residents more." He noted news reports that the founder of South Side anti-violence group Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings had warned police in advance of potential violence at a funeral in July. The department posted cops nearby but 15 people were shot anyway.
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“The residents in communities are very sharp and know what’s going on,” Sampson said.
The future of anti-violence groups
Some aldermen have called for more funding for anti-violence groups — along with scrutiny of city spending in that area.
Three aldermen last year introduced an ordinance that would create a city department to prevent gun violence. It would receive at least $50 million yearly and work with groups in the most violent neighborhoods.
That ordinance has not gone anywhere at the council thus far.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, a former police officer and Lightfoot ally who co-sponsored the ordinance, said he hopes the city can find savings in other areas and give more money to well-chosen anti-violence groups.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro speaks at a news conference at City Hall in Chicago on July 24, 2019. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
“Unless we commit more funding to it, I don’t think it’s gonna be as effective as it should be,” he said. “I think putting the responsibility completely on our police department is not going to get us very far.”
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Even so, Taliaferro has also introduced a resolution that would call for hearings before the public safety committee he chairs on the money the city has handed out for violence prevention. Taliaferro said he is concerned the groups that have taken in the money are not being held accountable for results.
Leaders of anti-violence groups, meanwhile, continue to press the city. Some also have called for an annual pledge of $50 million. Eddie Bocanegra, executive director of READI and a former gang member who served time in prison for murder, said even that amount “barely scratches the surface” of the deep need.
He asked how the Lightfoot administration plans to change its approach.
“I think people are curious to know what is the strategy in the mayor’s office beyond putting more police officers on the ground?” Bocanegra said.
It is unclear how Lightfoot might try to simultaneously address two of the city’s most daunting problems: violence and a fiscal shortfall. The scope of her ambition for public safety in Chicago is clear.
“Violence has touched so many of our communities, and when any one of them is unsafe, our entire city is unsafe,” Lightfoot wrote in the introduction to her plan to reduce violence. “Since my first day in office, I have been determined to change that reality.”
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She has yet to show whether she can build the political momentum needed to enact and fund that vision in the years to come.


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--4 displaced after Humboldt Park fire

4 displaced after Humboldt Park fire

The fire was put out before 12:30 a.m. , Velez said .
A firefighter was taken to a hospital for @ @ @ @ @ were no other injuries .

Four people were displaced after a fire destroyed a Humboldt Park home at 820 N. Lawndale Ave. on Oct. 12, 2020. (Chicago Fire Department)
Four people were displaced after an extra-alarm fire destroyed a Humboldt Park home Sunday night, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
Firefighters arrived after 11:30 p.m. to the fire at 820 N. Lawndale Ave. on the Northwest Side, department spokesman Chief Frank Velez said. The two-and-a-half story building collapsed because of the fire.
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Update for the Still and Box at 820 N Lawndale- has been upgraded to a 2-11 Alarm. pic.twitter.com/XK6UC3VnON — Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) October 12, 2020
The fire was put out before 12:30 a.m., Velez said. A firefighter was taken to a hospital for a minor injury. There were no other injuries.
The cause of the fire was under investigation, Velez said. It’s unclear where the fire began.
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pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 2,727 new known COVID-19 cases and 9 additional deaths reported Sun


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--The Spin: Durbin cites Tinley Park family’s medical bills during Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hear

The Spin: Durbin cites Tinley Park family’s medical bills during Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearing | About Lightfoot’s ‘fly’ comment in Biden-Harris ad | Trump to attend fundraiser in Janesville this weekend

“ I think what Democrats are hoping is that they can show from their perspective the dangers posed by the @ @ @ @ @ , and maybe enough people will call their senators — especially some of the senators @ @ @ @ @ that maybe that will get them to change their votes , ” Macias said , @ @ @ @ @ “ On the other hand , some of these senators that are vulnerable , do @ @ @ @ @ sacrifice their seats for this ” nomination .

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Susan Walsh / AP)
With Chicago on pace for homicide numbers it hasn’t seen in a quarter century, my Tribune colleagues take a closer look at Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vow to reinvent crime-fighting in the city. Key to that effort, Lightfoot said as far back as her campaign days, are anti-violence organizations and other outreach groups. She reinforced that she wanted to lean on those groups in a new initiative she announced a few weeks ago.
Roughly 1½ years into Lightfoot’s tenure and with Chicago on pace to see more than 750 homicides, city expenditures are relatively small. That’s drawn criticism from different corners: nonprofits in the business of interceding before escalating gang disputes turn deadly and some aldermen who’ve raised concerns about taxpayer money in any amount going toward unproven crime-fighting methods.
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The Lake County Democratic Party appointed Adriane Johnson, a Chamber of Commerce and Park District leader, to the Illinois Senate seat formerly held by Terry Link, who resigned last month shortly before pleading guilty to federal income tax evasion, the Tribune’s Jamie Munks reports.
Confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett opened today, putting on display the deep political divide in the U.S. Senate that reverberates around the country.
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Democrats including Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin made a futile attempt to pump the brakes on the process. Durbin joined with other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is holding the hearings, in sharing hometown stories and photos of patients whose health care is tied to the Affordable Care Act. Durbin highlighted a family from Tinley Park.
The ACA’s fate will be taken up by the nation’s highest court days after the Nov. 3 election.
And, Trump plans visit to Janesville, Wisconsin, on Saturday
Welcome to The Spin.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (KEVIN DIETSCH/AP)
As Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing gets underway, Durbin says ‘Obamacare’ helped Tinley Park family facing expensive medical care: Read the Tribune story here.
Side note — Durbin, who is up for reelection, released a new ad today calling Trump a “big bully”: The four-term senator leaves it up to a narrator to call the president the B-word. But the four-term lawmaker laid out his ongoing efforts to stymie the president’s efforts to dump Obamacare and worked to throw up roadblocks as the president shifted money — including some that Durbin said was meant for medical research — to build a wall at the U.S-Mexico border. You can watch the ad, airing on cable and broadcast networks, here. It is airing on cable and broadcast networks, the campaign said.
An expert’s take: With the public paying attention, senators speak to their constituents — not each other — during politicized SCOTUS nomination hearings
With 20 days left before the election and a president who’s bound and determined to make news on the hour, the public’s likely never been more tuned in to Senate confirmation hearings than with Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Coney Barrett, said Steven Macias, the associate dean of the law school at Southern Illinois University.
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“They’re already hyper focused on the news — on what President Donald Trump is saying, not just around the issue of the Supreme Court nomination but in general,” Macias said. “Because she’s his personal pick for the Supreme Court, I think it really will focus people’s attention on this in a way that, again, they may not focus on ordinary Supreme Court nominations.”
That is all to say that this week’s hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a precursor to a full Senate vote, is a political exercise no matter how much Republicans and Democrats clench their fists and say it shouldn’t be. Although, Macias points out, Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham’s opening comments about how the near-unanimous votes to confirm the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and conservative Antonin Scalia underscore that “in the not so distant past there was a time when these Supreme Court nominations were apolitical or nonpolitical,” Macias said.
Senate Republicans — including Graham — are feeling the heat amid criticism (and some polling) they’re shoving the nomination through after putting a brick on President Barack Obama’s nominee months before the 2016 election.
“Republicans are also in an awkward position in the sense that they’re trying to rush through the nomination. … They’re legitimately concerned about what their position will be after Election Day. And it would certainly look inappropriate or undemocratic for them to confirm a (nominee) put forth by a president who was defeated — perhaps confirmed by the votes of senators who were themselves defeated. So I think that more people than usual probably recognize the political nature of this particular nomination.”
And with a captive audience tuning in to the confirmation hearings, expect senators on the panel to ask questions of Barrett that are more about courting voters in the TV audience than sussing out the nominee’s experience and views.
“I think a lot of what we will see this week will be directed at the American people,” Macias said.
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“Republicans and the nominee herself I think we’ll be speaking to the people trying to sell the story that Amy Coney Barrett is a well-respected lawyer and now judge who certainly has personal political, social and religious views, but that those have nothing to do with her work while wearing a robe and her work while on the court and that she simply applies the law as written.”
“I think what Democrats are hoping is that they can show from their perspective the dangers posed by the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, and maybe enough people will call their senators — especially some of the senators that are clearly vulnerable — that maybe that will get them to change their votes,” Macias said, adding a big caveat: “On the other hand, some of these senators that are vulnerable, do seem to be willing to sacrifice their seats for this” nomination.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits Camp Doordash at the 39th Annual Taste of Chicago at Grant Park in Chicago on July 10, 2019. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
President Trump plans to travel to Janesville on Saturday, two weeks after he canceled a rally there and in Green Bay following his positive coronavirus test, The Associated Press is reporting.
Trump’s campaign today announced a fundraiser on Saturday, with donations starting at $1,000, the AP notes. No details on public events.
Lightfoot among African American mayors in new Biden-Harris ad: As I wrote over the weekend, Mayor Lightfoot is among roughly a dozen African American mayors from around the country featured in a series of new campaign spots for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris reminding Black voters about the power of their voting bloc.
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Biden and Democratic officials are looking to boost Black voter turnout this year in key battleground states, such as Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, following a decline four years ago that helped sway the race from Hillary Clinton to President Donald Trump.
In a 30-second spot, Lightfoot along with a handful of African American women running some of the largest cities in America link activism to participating in the political process. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms opens the ad, saying, “Black women have always been on the front lines of social justice” from making phone calls and organizing to running for office.
For her part, Lightfoot punctuates those contributions with a chuckle-worthy, even timely, one-liner: “All while being fly.” The Biden camp scripted that remark and her spot was filmed in September, which feels like two pandemics ago in campaign years — but obviously before the vice presidential debate between Pence and Harris where a pest landed in his snow-white hair long enough to set social media on fire. Read the rest of my story here.
With tongue firmly in check, Gov. J.B. Pritzker tells President Trump where to go … see what Illinois has to offer: It came after Trump this morning rapped Illinois and two other states with Democratic governors and urged voters to give him a second term.
In rapid fire succession, the Republican president sent out three tweets starting with “California is going to hell” then “New York has gone to hell” and finally “Illinois has nowhere to go.” All three were punctuated with the phrase “Vote Trump!”
Pritzker fired back, tweeting from his political account: “While I’m surprised to see someone who slapped his name on a Chicago skyscraper say ‘Illinois has no place to go,’ I want to offer @realDonaldTrump five exciting places to go in the great state of Illinois.”
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The governor starts with Chicago’s The Wiener’s Circle – whose sign regularly flings insults at the president. He then draws Republican Abraham Lincoln into it “Looking for what real presidential leadership looks like? Visit our capital city of Springfield to see Honest Abe’s home, an adjective that will never be used to describe you.” And ends with “In all seriousness to voters across America (President Trump) has failed us and continues to embarrass our nation with his petulant tweets. Make a plant vote ….” You can read the president’s tweet here and the governor’s Twitter thread here.
Illinois has no place to go. Sad, isn’t it? Vote Trump! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2020
While I’m surprised to see someone who slapped his name on a Chicago skyscraper say ‘Illinois has no place to go,’ I want to offer @realDonaldTrump five exciting places to go in the great state of Illinois. https://t.co/VvC53OwDPt — JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) October 12, 2020
Speaking of hotdogs and politics, Democratic state House candidate took to Twitter to say he wanted to set the record straight after the Republican lawmaker he’s challenging sent out a mailer suggesting he wanted to do away with a Chicago institution that could end even the best of political careers. “I don’t want to take your hot dogs away ... nothing could be further from the truth,” Ken Mejia-Beal declared on Twitter. Mejia-Beal, of Lisle, is challenging first-term Republican Amy Grant, of Wheaton, for the 42nd District House seat.
Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda among headliners at upcoming Personal PAC virtual awards luncheon: The former secretary of state and first lady, along with actor and activist Fonda, former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx are the “special guests” at the Oct. 21 luncheon hosted by the powerful political action committee, dedicated to helping elect pro-abortion-rights candidates. Toi Hutchinson, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s top adviser on cannabis control and a former state senator, will be honored at the event. Ticket prices range from $100 to $50,000. More here. H/T Alice Yin.
Julian Castro to be keynote speaker at Cook County Democrats' fundraiser Thursday — The former Democratic presidential candidate and Obama-era U.S. housing secretary will be part of the hourlong virtual event hosted by Cook County Democratic Party Chair Toni Preckwinkle and honorary co-chair Mayor Lightfoot. More details here.
ICYMI — Opinion: Push to unseat Judge Michael Toomin is nothing but an unsupported hit led by Preckwinkle’s Dem party: The Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown touts Toomin’s 40 years on the bench, writing: “They are doing so primarily in retaliation for Toomin embarrassing State’s Attorney Kim Foxx by appointing a special prosecutor to reopen the botched Jussie Smollett investigation. The special prosecutor, former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, further embarrassed Foxx by re-indicting Smollett and issuing a report that, surprise, said Foxx and her office botched the investigation." That’s Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown’s take. He writes: Using misinformation, half-truths and outright whoppers, the Cook County Democratic Party and a hit team of “advocates” are teaming up in an effort to remove Toomin from the bench.” Read the full column here.
Will County coroner race focuses on new morgue, COVID-19 counting method: Alicia Fabbre has the details in this Daily Southtown piece.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot wears a face mask while addressing police supervisors in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on April 24, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Dan Hinkel, Madeline Buckley, Gregory Pratt and Jeremy Gorner: "Two weeks ago, the mayor committed to leaning more on groups other than the police in a sweeping report on her plans to suppress bloodshed.
“That’s a vision for the future, but the present day finds Lightfoot in a familiar position for a Chicago mayor — mostly using police to try to turn around a violent year.”
“Pressure has built to change public safety spending, as activists incensed by police brutality have demanded that Lightfoot give less money to cops and more to services that could address the root causes of violence,” my colleagues write. But with a $1.2 billion budget gap brought on by COVID-19, it’s not clear there’s additional money out there.
Leadership, too, is in flux: A top mayoral aide on public safety, just on the job a year, announced her resignation earlier this month, days after the mayor announced a new crime-fighting initiative.
Arne Duncan, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO and later education secretary in President Barack Obama’s administration, is now running an anti-violence group and says it will take a few years to see results but that the city must commit to this effort.
Other Chicago news: National Museum of Mexican Art wins $3.5 million grant for being a ‘cultural treasure’ — My Tribune colleague Steve Johnson has the details here.
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Rachel Ilesanmi, a family practitioner with Christian Community Health Center, administers a free COVID-19 test to Janet Gogins outside Apostolic Faith Church on South Indiana Avenue Aug. 26, 2020. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The seven-day average for new known cases reached 2,643 today, up nearly 35% from a week earlier, the Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Jamie Munks report. That’s a new high. The previous high was 2,565, set on May 4 and tied on May 7. At that time, however, statewide testing for COVID-19 was significantly lower than it is now.
Petrella and Munks note: "State health officials announced 2,742 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the sixth day in a row with more than 2,600 cases. There have now been 321,892 known cases statewide since the pandemic began. Officials also announced 13 more fatalities, bringing the statewide death toll to 8,997.
“The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results has been increasing in recent days. The average statewide positivity rate was 4.3% for the week ending Sunday, up from 3.4% a week earlier.” Read the rest of the story here.
CDC: Teen gave COVID-19 to 11 relatives across 4 states, including Illinois, during a family vacation. My Tribune colleague Angie Leventis Lourgos notes the case is a cautionary tale as holidays approach, experts say. Read the full story here.
Yesterday, “Gov. Pritzker came out of self-isolation, his staff said. It had been 14 days since Pritzker last had contact with a staff member who later tested positive for COVID-19, according to the governor’s office,” Petrella and Munks note.
Also: Trump’s doctor says the president has received a negative COVID-19 test as he returns to the campaign trail: - Read the Associated Press story here.
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Wisconsin judge upholds Gov. Tony Evers' order requiring masks to be worn in enclosed spaces: Read The Associated Press story here.
Former Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell is seen in a 1961 file photo. Powell made headlines for the $800,000 in cash stuffed in shoeboxes found when he died. John Rendleman II, found the money, which totaled $800,000 in cash, most of it in a hotel room. Rendleman II was a friend of Powell's who was executor of the $4.6 million estate. Powell died 50 years ago, Oct. 10, 1970. (AP)
The AP’s John O’Connor takes us back half a century, when then-Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell unexpectedly died and days later $750,000 was discovered among his personal belongings — including a Marshall Field & Co. Christmas box — in what would become the “Shoebox Scandal,” the most notorious, unsolved political corruption mystery in Illinois history.
Money was found in a hotel and in Powell’s Capitol office. “Subsequent investigations led to the eventual imprisonment of a former governor and some of the state’s first campaign-finance disclosure laws,” O’Connor writes. Read the full story here.
Good one: “When Powell died, Adlai Stevenson III, who was the Democratic state treasurer and three weeks from being elected to the U.S. Senate, told a reporter: ‘His shoeboxes will be hard to fill.’”
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases sets new high, topping numb

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases sets new high, topping numbers from early May as 2,742 infections and 13 more deaths reported Monday

“ If you have a small child , and you don ’ t want to sit in a health center @ @ @ @ @ you may not know , concerned about a pandemic , concerned about the amount of @ @ @ @ @ to be away from home , it might suddenly become more attractive to do a @ @ @ @ @ and then drive back to pick up your medicine and be done , ” said @ @ @ @ @ officer of Carafem , which operates four clinics in three states and D.C. , including @ @ @ @ @ .

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Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
The seven-day average of newly confirmed coronavirus cases in Illinois set a new high on Monday, topping a number recorded as the virus was surging in late April and early May.
The seven-day average for new known cases reached 2,643 on Monday, up nearly 35% from a week earlier. The previous high was 2,565, set on May 4 and tied on May 7, however at that time statewide testing for COVID-19 was significantly lower than it is now.
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State health officials announced 2,742 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the sixth day in a row with more than 2,600 cases. Officials also announced 13 more fatalities, bringing the statewide death toll to 8,997.
The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results has been increasing in recent days. The average statewide positivity rate was 4.3% for the week ending Sunday, up from 3.4% a week earlier.
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Here’s what’s happening Monday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
5:30 p.m.: Old Country Buffet closes last Illinois restaurant
Old Country Buffet, once a strip mall staple, has closed its last restaurant in Illinois as the pandemic threatens the American tradition of communal serving tongs and endless helpings of macaroni and cheese.
VitaNova Brands, owner of several all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant concepts, on Friday permanently closed the Old Country location at 6560 W. Fullerton Ave., in Chicago’s Montclare neighborhood, as well as two Hometown Buffets in California and one Ryan’s in West Virginia.
The locations have been shuttered since March, when governments mandated the closure of dining rooms to contain the coronavirus. They had been suffering declining sales before the pandemic and the company was unable to extend expiring leases under favorable terms, so “we needed to make the tough call to redirect our resources to other locations” operating under a new concept that relies less on the buffet model, Jason Kemp, president of the San Antonio, Texas-based company, said in a news release.
The pandemic has devastated many restaurants, but it is taking a greater toll on buffet concepts that rely on in-person dining and a shared self-service environment. In May, San Diego-based Garden Fresh restaurants, which owns buffet chains Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, announced that all 97 of its restaurants would permanently close.
Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
3:40 p.m.: Remember those PPP loans? Now the paperwork’s coming due for small businesses.
The Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration have released a simplified forgiveness application for Paycheck Protection Program loans under $50,000.
The simplified form, released late Thursday, cuts the application’s size down from five pages to two, and removes most of the questions aimed at ensuring that the loans were used for the program’s intended purposes of supporting payrolls and covering other fixed costs.
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The PPP was established as part of the $2 trillion economic rescue package enacted in March to speed loans to small businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The program relied on banks and other financial institutions to process and fund the loans, using a simplified SBA application form that skipped the usual due diligence lenders perform before lending.
Read more here. —CQ Roll Call
2:53 p.m.: When symptoms of COVID-19 don’t go away: Research is underway to assess the pandemic’s long-term effects
At the start of the pandemic, doctors were necessarily focused on combating the acute effects of COVID-19 and saving lives, but research is now underway to assess its long-term effects and find ways to prevent and treat lasting symptoms. There is increasing concern that the pandemic will result in “a significant surge of people battling lasting illnesses and disabilities,” the journal Nature reported.
In a commentary in The Lancet in September, an international team of infectious disease specialists conceded that “we do not know what to tell our patients when they are asking about the course and prognosis of their ongoing complaints.” Among the many unknowns they cited: “Does acute COVID-19 cause diabetes? Or other metabolic disorders? Will patients develop interstitial lung disease?”
They wondered, too, “which symptoms might be explained by the anxiety caused by a new disease and by the isolation, and which symptoms are secondary to a complicated form of COVID-19.” At present, the unknowns about long-term consequences of this potentially devastating viral infection far outnumber the knowns.
Read more here. —The New York Times
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2:24 p.m.: CDC: Teen gave COVID-19 to 11 relatives across 4 states, including Illinois, during a family vacation. Case is a cautionary tale as holidays approach, experts say.
A COVID-19 outbreak that infected 11 people across four states ― including Illinois ― began with a 13-year-old girl who transmitted the virus during a three-week family vacation over the summer, according to a Centers for Disease Control report.
Several family members involved in the case were from suburban Cook County, local public health officials confirmed, but would not give any more information about the individuals due to privacy concerns. A Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman added that the community is not currently at risk from this particular outbreak, which occurred months ago.
But the case highlights that kids and teens can contract and spread the virus, public health experts say. It also serves as a cautionary tale before the holiday season, a traditional time for many large family get-togethers.
Read more here. —Angie Leventis Lourgos
1:55 p.m.: Illinois' seven-day average of new coronavirus cases sets new high, topping numbers from early May; positivity rate is also rising
The seven-day average of newly confirmed coronavirus cases in Illinois set a new high on Monday, topping a number recorded as the virus was surging in late April and early May.
The seven-day average for new known cases reached 2,643 on Monday, up nearly 35% from a week earlier. The previous high was 2,565, set on May 4 and tied on May 7, however at that time statewide testing for COVID-19 was significantly lower than it is now.
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State health officials announced 2,742 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the sixth day in a row with more than 2,600 cases. There have now been 321,892 known cases statewide since the pandemic began.
Officials also announced 13 more fatalities, bringing the statewide death toll to 8,997.
The percentage of coronavirus tests returning positive results has been increasing in recent days. The average statewide positivity rate was 4.3% for the week ending Sunday, up from 3.4% a week earlier.
Health officials look at the seven-day averages of new cases and positivity rates to smooth out daily fluctuations in the data.
The number of new cases reported over the past week has increased sharply, even as testing has remained relatively stable.
A week ago, the state’s seven-day average for new cases was 1,965. Monday’s number is up 35% from that while the average number of daily tests increased only about 7% during the same period.
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Despite the recent increases in new cases and the statewide positivity rate, the seven-day average for daily deaths is considerably lower now than it was in early May, when the state was averaging around 100 COVID-19-related deaths per day.
The seven-day average for daily fatalities was 28 on Monday, up from 27 a week earlier. But the average had been below 20 deaths per day from mid-July through mid-August and has since been on the rise.
While the state’s positivity rate has been increasing, it remains below the 5% threshold recommended by the World Health Organization. The WHO has recommended that governments consider reopening only when the positivity rate remains below 5% for 14 days.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella and Jamie Munks
12:10 p.m.: 2,742 new known COVID-19 cases and 13 additional deaths reported
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Monday reported 2,742 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus, as well as 13 more confirmed fatalities.
The total number of known infections now stands at 321,892 and the death toll to 8,997 statewide since the pandemic began. Officials also reported 47,579 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 4.3%.
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—Chicago Tribune staff
11:27 a.m.: Wisconsin judge upholds mask order for enclosed spaces challenged by Republican-controlled Legislature
A Wisconsin judge on Monday allowed the state’s mask mandate to stand, rejecting an attempt by the Republican-controlled Legislature and a conservative law firm to overturn it, even as cases are spiking.
The judge noted in his ruling that the Legislature could vote to overturn the order from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers if they wanted to, but they haven’t so far.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which brought the case, will appeal, said the group’s president Rick Esenberg. He did not say if they would attempt to skip the state appeals court by asking the conservative-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case. Esenberg called the issue a “critical constitutional matter.”
Read more here. —Associated Press
10:42 a.m.: Dr. Anthony Fauci, top infectious disease expert, says he was featured in Trump campaign ad without his consent and his words were ‘taken out of context’
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert and one of the nation’s most popular public officials, took issue Sunday with a decision by the Trump campaign to feature him in an advertisement without his consent and said it had misrepresented his comments.
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“I was totally surprised,” Fauci said. “The use of my name and my words by the GOP campaign was done without my permission, and the actual words themselves were taken out of context, based on something that I said months ago regarding the entire effort of the task force.”
Read more here. —The New York Times
7:17 a.m.: Abortion pill now easier for women to get during pandemic, but other states' restrictions have women traveling to Illinois
A recent court ruling temporarily easing restrictions on medication abortions during the pandemic has some Missouri women traveling to Illinois, where they can take advantage of the state’s laws that allow telemedicine for abortion care.
Right now, that means a Missouri woman can, if she wants, cross the state border, find a place to park and have a virtual visit with an Illinois doctor via her smartphone. If approved, she can pick up the package of abortion pills a couple of days later at a designated address in Illinois _ perhaps at a friend’s or acquaintance’s home or a post office box she has rented.
While the number of women crossing state lines to access the option is believed to be small, one abortion provider with a telehealth program outside of Chicago says more women are learning about the court ruling and differing state laws on the use of telemedicine for abortion.
“If you have a small child, and you don’t want to sit in a health center, with a physician that you may not know, concerned about a pandemic, concerned about the amount of time you’re going to be away from home, it might suddenly become more attractive to do a 15-minute consult in your car and then drive back to pick up your medicine and be done,” said Melissa Grant, chief operating officer of Carafem, which operates four clinics in three states and D.C., including one in Skokie, Illinois.
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Read more here. —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
6 a.m.: The Columbus statues are gone, and there’s no parade or CPS holiday this year. But Chicago Italian Americans say Columbus Day will live on.
There will be a lot less fanfare on Columbus Day in Chicago this year.
As criticism of Christopher Columbus' place in history has grown, clashes erupted over the removal of statues in his honor this summer and Chicago schools officially dropped his name from the holiday.
Traditionally, Monday would be marked with a parade that celebrates Columbus' voyage to America and Italian American culture. But this year, for the first time in decades, the parade has been canceled because the city isn’t issuing permits for such large-scale gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, the parade organizers, instead plan a rally and car procession at Arrigo Park, the site of one of the now-removed statues. A small contingent of the group also held the traditional Italian flag-raising at Daley Plaza on Friday.
“It will certainly be a different kind of year, and we’ll be having a toned down celebration,” said Pasquale Gianni, a member of the group’s executive board. He added that “we fully intend to have the parade next year” and blamed this year’s cancellation “solely” on the pandemic.
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Read more here. —Jessica Villagomez and Hannah Leone
6 a.m.: The pandemic left election officials scrambling for judges in March. But extra pay and a law that allows younger workers has them optimistic about Nov. 3.
As the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold in Illinois in the days before the March 17 primary, hundreds of poll workers backed out and left local election authorities scrambling to staff polling places.
The pandemic is still going strong heading into the general election. But officials in the state’s 108 election jurisdictions have had months to prepare and, with Election Day just over three weeks away, several in the Chicago area expect to be in better shape than they were in March.
Pay raises for election judges, aggressive outreach campaigns and heightened interest among a new generation of poll workers all have played a role in filling available slots.
Yet given the unpredictability of the virus and recent indications that efforts to slow its spread in Illinois may be stalling, officials aren’t taking anything for granted.
“Obviously, the big concern is if the virus somehow takes another turn for the worse, will we start losing people like we did back in the spring?” said Adam Johnson, chief deputy clerk in west suburban DuPage County. “But as of right now we’re on a good trajectory.”
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Read more here. —Dan Petrella and Kelli Smith
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 last week related to COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:


Corrections and clarifications

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· A story on Page 1 Monday incorrectly identified a former pastor of St. Malachy Catholic Parish in Chicago. He was the Rev. Stephen Mangan.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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Publishing information quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news responsibility and a value shared in all our publications. Our editorial code of principles governs professional behavior and journalism standards. Everyone in our newsroom must agree to live up to this code of conduct. Download the file.
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chicagotribune--2020-10-12--Campaign trail tracker: Where Trump, Biden and their running mates have traveled in presidential rac

Campaign trail tracker: Where Trump, Biden and their running mates have traveled in presidential race’s final weeks

In the final sprint ahead of the Nov. 3 election , both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden @ @ @ @ @ travel despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic .
Starting in September , Biden abandoned his monthslong @ @ @ @ @ in Delaware while Trump has accelerated his travel and is once again welcoming crowds at @ @ @

In the final sprint ahead of the Nov. 3 election, both President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden have ramped up their campaign travel despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Starting in September, Biden abandoned his monthslong virtual campaign from his basement in Delaware while Trump has accelerated his travel and is once again welcoming crowds at some events.
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Here’s a look at the campaign trail stops made by Trump, Biden and running mates since Sept. 1.
Campaign trail tracker
Tap or click on a dot to see details of the stop.
Don’t see the map? Some mobile browsers disable it. Try this link.


chicagotribune--2020-10-12--No autopsy ruling in suspected homicide-suicide at Chinatown hotel

But autopsies on both victims Monday failed to provide an immediate cause and manner of death for either person , @ @ @ @ @ information on their identities .
A representative of the Cook County medical examiner ’ s @ @ @ @ @ available for details .

Chicago police believe that a young man and a older woman found dead at a boutique Chinatown hotel may have died in a possible homicide-suicide, though an autopsy performed Monday proved inconclusive.
The two people who died, a 24-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman, were discovered inside a room at the Jaslin Hotel in the 200 block of West Cermak Road around 2:35 p.m. Sunday, authorities said. Each suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead, according to police.
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Authorities said the two were related and called their deaths domestic in nature.
But autopsies on both victims Monday failed to provide an immediate cause and manner of death for either person, and officials did not release information on their identities. A representative of the Cook County medical examiner’s office wasn’t immediately available for details.
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A police spokesman said detectives were continuing their homicide investigation, calling the deaths an isolated incident with no threat to the public.