chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Chicago rapper G Herbo mocks pending federal fraud charges in bold new video: ‘In my city I’m a god’

But G Herbo ’ s statement was a step beyond Rudyard Kipling — and in his own words .
Set @ @ @ @ @ beat and replete with fancy cars and grainy images of the Los Angeles skyline , @ @ @ @ @ G Herbo , who also goes by Swervo , at one point throwing up hand @ @ @ @ @ nonchalance with which he turned himself in to face the charges .

G Herbo performs to a large crowd on the first day of Lollapalooza at Grant Park on Aug. 2, 2018. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Chicagoans are used to seeing someone facing a federal indictment play it safe in the public arena, usually addressing the charges with a terse no comment or a bland, attorney-vetted statement.
Not G Herbo.
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On Friday, the Chicago-born rapper, whose real name is Herbert Wright III, came out with metaphoric guns blazing, using a new song and video to mock the federal wire fraud conspiracy indictment filed against him in Massachusetts and tout his rise from troubled South Side streets to international acclaim.
“Ask about me, I ain’t never been a fraud,” he said in the two-minute video titled “Statement,” released on social media at midnight. “I worked hard from the start, in my city I’m a god, (expletive).”
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The dropping of the video marked one of the most high-profile nose-thumbings at serious felony charges since then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich held a news conference in the wake of his 2008 arrest on corruption charges and defiantly recited the poem “If.”
But G Herbo’s statement was a step beyond Rudyard Kipling — and in his own words. Set to a driving, throwback beat and replete with fancy cars and grainy images of the Los Angeles skyline, the slickly produced video shows G Herbo, who also goes by Swervo, at one point throwing up hand signs and bragging about the nonchalance with which he turned himself in to face the charges.
“Heard they looking for me, I’m like, ‘Oh I’m on da way,’” he said in the video. “Bond money? No I’m straight. I spent $130k right outta the gate. They like, ‘Swerve, stay safe,’ I’m like, man y’all late.’”
He also seemed to challenge federal prosecutors who brought the case, saying he barely knows some of his co-defendants and that, “Before you put it on my name you gotta show some proof, dumbass.”
“I can’t break like I’m bulletproof,” Herbo rapped. “And I can’t say what I wanna say all I’m gonna say is before fame, (expletive) I been the truth.”
Wright, who grew up in the South Side neighborhood some have dubbed “Terror Town,” was charged in an indictment first reported by the Chicago Tribune with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The charges unsealed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, alleged Wright and five associates used stolen identities to make up to $1.5 million in fraudulent charges for extravagant services, including private jet trips, a personal chef, a vacation at a Jamaican villa and even two “designer puppies” from a business in Michigan.
He faces up to about six years in prison if he’s convicted at trial, though there could be later enhancements given his criminal history, which includes a weapons conviction in Cook County, prosecutors have said.
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Wright, 25, appeared last week for his arraignment via video conference from a home in Los Angeles, where he turned himself in to federal authorities after the charges were made public. He was allowed to remain free on an unsecured $75,000 bond — meaning Wright did not have to post any money himself.
Wright’s attorney, James Lawson, has declined to comment publicly on the case. G Herbo’s management company, Machine Entertainment Group, issued a statement after the charges were unsealed saying he “maintains his innocence and looks forward to establishing his innocence in court.”
Wright was polite and soft-spoken throughout his initial court appearance, even apologizing and asking permission from the judge to get up when someone knocked on his door.
He was back to his gangster-rapper image in his new video, though, saying, “Before Twitter was a trending topic I was on the block with 30 shots and Glocks, had the spot hopping.”
He also invoked the name of his Terror Town crew, No Limit, as well as his own efforts at philanthropy. At one point, G Herbo appears to reference his recently publicized plans to convert the vacant Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville into a youth center for the community.
“We are No Limit so we don’t play by the rules,” G Herbo rapped. “How the (expletive) I catch a case? I bought a school. Don’t be fooled.”
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jmeisner@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Shoppers ditched heels and loafers for slippers and Crocs during the pandemic. Could the shift to ca

Shoppers ditched heels and loafers for slippers and Crocs during the pandemic. Could the shift to casual shoes be here to stay?

They weren ’ t the right look when she worked at an office downtown , testing hardware and software for @ @ @ @ @ wearing flats or heels , or boots in winter .
Now that she ’ s @ @ @ @ @ Crocs are comfortable and easy to slip on and off , said Brito , 28 @ @ @ @ @ She was a little embarrassed to wear them in public at first but quickly got @ @ @ @ @ herself “ a huge fan .
”

Evelyn Brito used to make fun of friends and family members who loved Crocs’ chunky, colorful clogs — until she gave them a try during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
They weren’t the right look when she worked at an office downtown, testing hardware and software for audio equipment. She preferred wearing flats or heels, or boots in winter. Now that she’s working from home, the Crocs are comfortable and easy to slip on and off, said Brito, 28, of Portage Park. She was a little embarrassed to wear them in public at first but quickly got over it and now considers herself “a huge fan.”
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“It’s all turned casual during the pandemic,” she said. “Everything goes.”
With offices closed and parties canceled, consumers like Brito are kicking off high heels in favor of comfort, if they bother to buy shoes at all.
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“One thing we heard over and over is: ‘These are so cute, I just don’t need anything. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to the office, I’m not going to dinner, I’m not going to any weddings. I’m not, I’m not, I’m not,’” said Trudy Robinson, owner of A Pied, a shoe and accessories shop in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood.
Chicago-area shoe stores say sales have suffered as stay-at-home lifestyles gave people fewer reasons to purchase footwear and shifted spending to less expensive casual styles. Retailers say they’re confident business will bounce back as people return to offices, parties and travel, but some think a shift to more casual looks, already underway before the pandemic, is here to stay.
Jolly Campbell checks out a pair of shoes Dec. 10, 2020, at Wesley's Shoes in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Dress shoes already were losing ground to casual and athleisure footwear, but the decline in dress shoe sales during the pandemic has been “really stark,” said Beth Goldstein, a footwear industry analyst at market research firm The NPD Group.
Overall footwear sales were down 20% between March and October compared with the same period last year, but dress shoe sales plunged 60%, according to The NPD Group.
“It’s not going to go away, but it could be a permanently smaller piece of the business,” Goldstein said.
Things were especially tough early in the pandemic, when nonessential stores closed. City Soles in Bucktown saw sales slow despite having an established online store and offering same-day shoe delivery via Uber and Lyft.
Customers “were living in yoga pants at home in front of a laptop, trying to save their jobs,” said owner Scott Starbuck. “Although many things thrived in that environment, the need for specialty footwear was not an essential, for sure.”
There have been bright spots. People spent 70% more on slippers between March and October, 7% more on cold-weather boots and 22% more on mules and clogs, driven by Crocs, Goldstein said. Crocs reported record revenues in the third quarter, up nearly 16% compared with last year.
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Retailers like Wesley’s Shoes, a 50-year-old store in Hyde Park, reported stronger sales of athletic shoes. Wesley’s also started carrying more slippers, including trendier pairs from Birkenstock and Ugg, and has done more business online, said owner Bruce Wesley.
Athletic shoes are on display Dec. 10, 2020, at Wesley's Shoes in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The store has had stronger sales of athletic footwear and slippers. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
That still doesn’t make up for customers who didn’t buy shoes to wear on Easter or to graduation and wedding celebrations, or kids who didn’t get new ballet shoes for dance classes, especially since the items that are selling well tend to be lower priced, Wesley said.
“Even a nice slipper can’t compete with a waterproof Italian leather boot,” said Robinson, of A Pied.
It’s not just small chains. Designer Brands, which operates DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, said sales online and at stores open at least 14 months fell 30.4% between August and October compared with the same period last year.
The company plans to gradually close up to 15% of its 524 U.S. stores and is doubling down on a shift to casual and athletic styles that was already underway before the pandemic, CEO Roger Rawlins said during a call with analysts earlier this month. Even as overall sales slowed, athletic shoe sales grew 5% and kids’ sales were roughly flat, since the pandemic didn’t keep children from outgrowing old shoes.
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Brands, too, have been leaning into casual styles. Men’s footwear company Allen Edmonds introduced sneaker versions of its oxford dress shoes this year. Casual styles made up 40% of the company’s business so far in 2020, up from 32% last year.
While the company expects its casual business to grow, it isn’t abandoning dressier styles.
“We are optimists and believe that classic styles will come back as people start going back to work and to events,” said Keith Duplain, president of the St. Louis Group brand portfolio at Caleres, Allen Edmonds’ parent company.
Trying to figure out when that will happen — and what shoppers will want to buy next year — is trickier.
DSW said it was conservative in buying inventory for the spring but worked with suppliers to make sure it could get more shoes in stores relatively quickly if things returned to normal sooner than expected.
Local stores that scaled back inventory purchased for fall said they are still being cautious with orders for next year and focusing on casual styles. They also had to work with suppliers virtually, instead of attending the usual trade shows where they can meet designers and touch products before buying.
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“We’re playing it safe and staying with suppliers we know,” said Wesley, at Wesley’s Shoes. “We’re not doing a lot with new suppliers.”
At A Pied, Robinson didn’t place as many orders for spring as she usually would. There’s some risk she won’t get everything she wants, but less risk of getting stuck with styles that are out of step with what shoppers want.
“Because we’re smaller, we can chase 12 pairs of this and eight pairs of that once we know what’s going to happen,” she said.
At Jayne Boutique, buyer Katie Cummings thinks the first half of next year will look much like 2020, when shoes that were “comfortable but cute” were popular at Jayne’s stores in Forest Park, La Grange, Glen Ellyn, Oak Park and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, she said. Sales of dressier styles virtually stopped.
Jayne will still likely carry a couple of shoes “heading toward dressy,” but only at some locations, because Cummings doesn’t want to leave customers who do need something fancier empty-handed.
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“I don’t envision weddings and parties and baby showers this spring, but who knows?” Cummings said. “You buy one way and just hope it’s correct.”
lzumbach@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Suspect sought in Elgin apartment shooting in which man was injured, police say

No information was released on what provoked the shooting , if the victim was shot more than once or if @ @ @ @ @ each other .

Police are investigating an early morning shooting in which a man was shot in an Elgin apartment and his alleged attacker fled.
The incident occurred about 3:10 a.m. Thursday in the 1800 block of Gleneagle Circle, a post on the Elgin Police Department Facebook page said.
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Officers responded to a call about a shooting and found a man who had a non-life-threatening gunshot injury, the post said. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
The suspect fled in a vehicle and is being sought, the post said.
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No information was released on what provoked the shooting, if the victim was shot more than once or if the suspect and victim knew each other.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Special Investigations Group at 847-289-2600. Tips can be texted to 847411 and should include ElginPD at the start of the message.


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Here’s what you need to know about COVID-19 vaccines in Illinois

Suburban Cook County expects 20,000 doses this week , which will go to workers at 15 hospitals .
Next , @ @ @ @ @ care facilities will be vaccinated by Walgreens and CVS Health workers .
Other health care @ @ @ @ @ workers , will then likely get the vaccine , followed by essential workers , including @ @ @ @ @ , education , transportation , food and agricultural workers , said Dr. Kiran Joshi , @ @ @ @ @ Department of Public Health , during a news conference Monday .

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chicagotribune--2020-12-18--With no shows in nearly 10 months, performing musicians have been searching and waiting for income a

With no shows in nearly 10 months, performing musicians have been searching and waiting for income and answers — here’s how some are getting on

“ The best investment ( I could have made ) was Forever Legend Studios .
This was the best thing @ @ @ @ @ because it makes money every day , ” he said .
“ When the shows @ @ @ @ @ no way for you to make money , because when you ’ re an artist @ @ @ @ @ keep you eating , especially if you ’ re not selling a million records .
@

The COVID-19 pandemic hit “pause” on the entire Chicago music scene, and performing musicians have spent the last 9 months wondering when they’ll be able to starting playing again.
Music has not come to a stop, however. Artists have still been creating — even performing in new ways — throughout the year, in spite of the pandemic. That’s the reality of being a creative — especially when being a creative is how you collect a paycheck.
With live performances on hiatus, this year has forced performing musicians to mine their creativity for both inspiration *and* income streams. The types of gatherings that often hosted live music have now become cruel intersections of pandemic-related risk: whether it’s a birthday party, a bar, or Lollapalooza, all of the usual venues for live music now seem to double as potential super-spreader events.
In the meantime, musicians have contorted their creative energies to make ends meet and, hopefully, sustain their music through the pandemic, until they can make a living once again as a performer. Their adjustments showcase the toll that the lingering pandemic and restrictions have had on the city’s entire music culture and remind us of how music fills up some of the most intimate moments of our lives.
Ric Wilson, singer, rapper and producer
Ric Wilson stands outside his favorite performance venue, Lincoln Hall, on Dec. 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Like most of us, Ric Wilson had a much better summer last year. The Chicago funk-R&B-hip-hop maestro spent his 2019 summer on stages, rocking them for thousands of fans. This year, he spent his summer at home.
That wasn’t the plan, of course: Wilson had actually been in the middle of a spring tour when a pit stop at home in Chicago turned into an extended stay.
“We played a sold-out show at The Crocodile in Seattle, and then we came home. We had tour dates (into May),” Wilson said. “We were in the pub, and all of a sudden we looked at the screen, and we saw that the NBA got canceled. We were like ‘Oh, s---.’”
With that, large gatherings like live performances screeched to a stop. Wilson and his band canceled the rest of the tour and put an indefinite hold on the rest of their gigs. Wilson said he had signed up to play at least one summer festival in Chicago and was hoping for more.
The onset of warm weather is normally a ripe time for performing musicians, but this year, those chances are rare.
“Performing musicians make a lot of our money off touring,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t really making any money. I did a fundraiser, and the fundraiser gave me a couple hundred dollars.”
“Everyone was just kind of waiting and seeing, praying to God and crossing their fingers that it would slow up by May, which it did not, obviously.”
Ric Wilson stands outside his favorite performance venue, Lincoln Hall, on Dec. 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Royalty payments from syncs or placements sustained him during those months, he said, but those checks are inconsistent and don’t stand up next to tour revenue. Eventually, he moved in with his family, in part as a way to save money.
“Thank God I moved out of my apartment and I moved in with my family. I don’t know how other artists have made it.”
At about the same time, police in Minnesota murdered George Floyd, and Wilson — who has background as an organizer — stepped into that world once again, protesting alongside other activists and using his growing online platform to speak on social justice. HIs most notable piece of music this year, “Fight Like Ida B & Marsha P,” was created to be both a protest anthem and a celebration of Black women activists.
As the pandemic continued to prevent live performances, however, Wilson eventually had to conjure up some income.
“I helped raise a lot of money for a lot of people this year, and I didn’t really make jack s---. So as this season’s coming around, you know, I need to do that. and it’s not just me. There are family members that need help with the bills, you know what I mean?”
The summer “uprising,” as Wilson calls it, inspired his new line of merch, which don’t feature his name anywhere, but rather liberatory declarations: “ABOLISH IT ALL” on tote-bags, and “Trash The Hate, Bring The Footwork” on shirts.
In a year of so much change, Wilson said he has been lucky to have some constants: his family and his home recording setup, plus some royalty checks, a savings account and his accountant.
“Thank God I had a good accountant. I was able to write off a bunch of (stuff). People don’t realize that artists are technically independent contractors,” he said.
Sadly, many performing musicians are not in the same position.
“Luckily, I’ve done tours, I’ve done the festival circuit, so I have at least a little bit of savings and I was able to go live with my family. I can’t imagine if this was like a year or two ago, and I was just starting and hadn’t had all those gigs,” Wilson said. “I would have missed out on a bunch of chances that really, really changed my life.”
Little Miss Ann, children’s musician
Ann Torralba, aka Little Miss Ann, performs from home during a live virtual music class for the Chicago Public Library on Dec. 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Before her transition to being a children’s musician full-time, Ann Torralba, aka Little Miss Ann, was a teacher in Chicago Public Schools. While that background has always been part of her musical success, it has helped create new opportunities for her since the pandemic began.
“I’m definitely not working as much, but the things that I’ve been doing predominantly since COVID have been a lot of online virtual concerts, mostly for libraries,” Torralba said. “The educational aspect of my career has really allowed me to keep doing music post-pandemic.”
Libraries have long been among Torralba’s best outlets. During a normal summer, she would play as many as three shows per day at different libraries throughout Chicagoland. Despite the shift to digital performances, many libraries continued to offer children’s programming this year.
“I have to give it up for librarians. They’ve been advocates for continuing this kind of programming in their communities,” she said.
As pandemic conditions have lingered into the fall and winter seasons, however, she has pulled back on those shows.
“Kids, especially, are Zoom-ed out with school,” she said.
Digital performances are still part of her schedule, typically short performances — either live or pre-recorded — or instructional videos. Torralba teaches through the Old Town School of Folk Music and, during the summer, transitioned some of those classes online .
Torralba will deliver a presentation about the value of music in children’s education and classrooms at a large upcoming teacher’s conference, and she has continued to collect some income from placements, either for educational use, Sirius XM payouts and others.
Ann Torralba, aka Little Miss Ann, performs from home during a live virtual music class for the Chicago Public Library on Dec. 4, 2020, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
She’s currently working on her sixth album, something she’s able to do without leaving the house or being in a crowd. She said that COVID-related relief grants for artists — including one from the Old Town School — have allowed her the time and energy necessary to create a new album. She also applied for and received grants from the Grammys’ MusiCares and Illinois 3Arts funds.
“I have another in the household, so that definitely helps, but I also have the responsibilities: a car, a kid in college, a mortgage,” Torralba said. “I’m very lucky. I’ve been very fortunate. but I know that there are a lot of musicians and music venues and people connected to music who have had it very rough.”
“Most musicians get the money and want to continue doing that, but we just like to play music, you know? We just want to play music.”
For better or worse, a musician’s job description has always been more complicated than that, and the pandemic has only increased the difficulty of those professional gymnastics.
Enrique Leon, mariachi singer and guitarist
Enrique Leon sings during the funeral service for his friend and fellow musician, Florentino Chavez, at Martinez Funeral Home on Dec. 6, 2020, in Chicago. Leon is the founder of Mariachi Mexico Vivo. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
For 30 years, mariachi player Enrique Leon has shared in people’s lives with his music. The changes to his work this year offer a unique way to measure of the pandemic’s human effects: Leon has played more “serenatas” for couples getting engaged; played fewer shows at nursing and group homes for senior citizens; and played at “a lot more” funerals — for both strangers and friends.
“People always want to serenade their loved ones (who have passed), but that’s definitely been one of the main revenues this year,” Leon said through his daughter Areli, who translated for him during the interview. “It’s dark.”
Leon heads up Mariachi Mexico Vivo, his mariachi group based in Pilsen. Prior to the pandemic, his schedule would consist of select shows during the week and weekly performances at bars and restaurants on the weekends. Those promptly vanished, and for the first few months of the pandemic shutdown, the band “basically stopped playing,” Leon said.
He soon began performing livestream shows, then eventually private performances of specific songs for people. He would often pre-record the shows so that he could deliver a festive message to the recipients. Still, Leon misses the in-person connection with his audiences.
Enrique Leon plays and sings during the funeral service for his friend and fellow musician, Florentino Chavez. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“One of the biggest changes that I didn’t really enjoy was that I like feeling the way people feel when they hear live music,” he said. “I miss that connection, and I didn’t like when I was just singing to a screen.”
Specifically, Leon misses being able to bring his music into nursing homes.
“I feel sad that I can’t bring a connection to those people, because I knows how lonely it can be to live as a resident, but also not to be able to see their families,” he said.
This year, for the first time, the oncoming cold weather will have a dramatic effect on Leon’s work. He has already performed a few chilly serenatas for outdoor engagements, and, with the help of an outdoor tent and amplifier setup, he plans to continue for as long as the weather allows.
“It’s harder to physically play, because my hands aren’t moving as well with the cold air. It becomes more of an issue,” Leon said. But he doesn’t want to enter people’s homes, so providing this service would be the safest for everyone.
“Overall, as a musician, it’s been a very sad year. Aside from a lot of people passing, a big part of the performance is that connection with the audience,” Leon said. “I enjoy the energy, I enjoy the good vibes, and that’s why I’ve been a mariachi musician for so long.”
Jeannie Tanner, composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist
Jeannie Tanner, left, and Abigail Riccards perform their 35th consecutive live episode of Desperate Measures Music Series from Tanner's home on Dec. 2, 2020 in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
When the bars closed in March, Jeannie Tanner’s shows went with them. Tanner does a little bit of everything as a musician, but one thing she did a lot of was serenading guests in restaurants and bars.
“We lost all of our gigs on the 15th, and we started livestreaming on the 18th,” Tanner said.
By the end of the same week, Tanner and her performing partner Abigail Riccards had pivoted to livestream performances and launched “Desperate Measures Music Series,” a weekly Wednesday-night performance that is now approaching its 37th week of shows.
Normally, Tanner and Riccards might be behind a piano taking requests, playing the hits, so they decided to apply the same format to their online show. Soon they had a digital audience tuning in locally and internationally, and they were taking requests and cranking out tunes over the internet.
Desperate Measures/Our 37th Show! https://venmo.com/Jeannie-Tanner https://www.paypal.me/JeannieTanner Chase Quickpay with Zelle / use: rjtanner17@gmail.com (my full name is Rebecca J Tanner if you use Zelle 🙂 ) Posted by Jeannie Tanner on Wednesday, December 16, 2020
The swift shift helped her and Riccards to stand out among a sea of livestreaming options early in the pandemic, Tanner said. They were able to establish their show and who would be their audience. The response has sustained the show for more than 9 months.
“I can’t believe we’re in our 37th week,” Tanner said. “But we have a really good audience. People continue to tune in, and are continuing to be very generous in supporting us. and we’re having fun. It’s saving our sanity.”
Tanner, who lives with her partner Susan, is also a recording musician, and royalty payments from placements have also helped her weather the drought of live shows. She has had songs featured on VH1′s “Single Ladies,” TV commercials and Hallmark holiday movies. During this pandemic, she composed music for an original web series called “Bong Zombies.”
Both she and Riccards also perform for private parties or events via livestream. Riccards began offering music lessons to create some income earlier this year, another option Tanner said she might also revisit.
Jeannie Tanner laughs as she and her friend perform. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“I used to run a non-profit music center. People ask me all the time if i’ll give vocal or trumpet lessons, and listen. if this (pandemic) goes on, I may have to do that again,” Tanner said and laughed.
For now, she and Riccards will continue the “Desperate Measures” series every Wednesday, with their next performance due on Dec. 16. Until she can return to her natural performing habitat, Tanner said she will continue to adapt.
“As creators, we just keep going, and reinvent ourselves. I’ve been writing different kinds of music and trying to reach different people,” Tanner said. “You don’t know who you’re touching. You just sort of put this out in the ether, but you honestly don’t know who you’re touching week to week. … If we can spread a little cheer, that’s what we’re here to do.”
Hypno Carlito, rapper and songwriter
Robert Amparan, aka Hypno Carlito, at his recording studio Forever Legend Studios in Oak Park. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Hypno Carlito began 2020 on a good note. Carlito, real name Robert Amparan, got a call from Nick Cannon on Christmas Day 2019 asking him to write an upcoming project, and he soon started the New Year with a decent check.
Cannon has been a big fan of Carlito’s and was actually the one who pitched his music to Spike Lee for “Chi-Raq.” Although Cannon performed it, Carlito was the one who wrote “Pray 4 My City,” the movie’s lead single. By the start of this year, Carlito had finished writing the Cannon project, which would become “The Miseducation of the Negro You Love to Hate” and was released in January.
“I was telling (my friend Moose), I want to invest in something, but I wanted it to be something that I like to do,” Carlito said.
He considered a barbershop or a shoe store, but Moose — aka Kevin Layeni, Carlito’s longtime friend — urged him to open a studio: “He was like, ‘you spend too much money at these other studios.’ Get your own. Fix it up a little bit, and then just keep going from there.”
In a given week, he could spend as much as $1,500 booking studio time. He estimated that he spent more than $60,000 in studio rentals during 2018 and 2019: “That’s what made me be like, (Moose), you right about the studio, bro.”
After finding a secluded location tucked in the back of a labyrinthian industrial area, Carlito got to work creating Forever Legend Studios.
“I woke up every day, and literally, I went to Guitar Center every day. They was like, ‘you again?’”
Just before he was about to open the studio, the COVID-19 restrictions kicked in.
“They had said, ‘nobody come outside’ right when I was finna open. so i was like ‘oh shit, oh no, this can’t happen,’” Carlito said.
Robert Amparan, aka Hypno Carlito, a rapper, singer and songwriter at his recording studio Forever Legend Studios on Dec. 4, 2020, in Oak Park. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
“But we ended up making it happen. We’ve just been on some safe shit. … I haven’t had a problem booking sessions. The only thing, really, has been choosing which people to have in. There have been times that I’ve had to turn people away because they showed up with five or six people in the middle of a pandemic.”
With Forever Legend, not only does Carlito save money when recording his own music, but now other musicians are paying him to use studio time. So far, he’s only needed to use his own social media platforms to promote the sessions, and his manager Scott handles all the bookings.
“The best investment (I could have made) was Forever Legend Studios. This was the best thing I could have did, because it makes money every day,” he said. “When the shows stopped, it was really no way for you to make money, because when you’re an artist, shows are really what keep you eating, especially if you’re not selling a million records.”
The studio has been a silver lining during a difficult year. During the same time Carlito was building Forever Legends, his friend — and inspiration for the project — Moose learned that he would need a heart transplant. He died in March during a failed procedure, just as the recording studio was nearing completion.
Forever Legend, Carlito said, is dedicated to Moose, particularly since he was the one who pushed Carlito toward the idea. And, true to the guidance that Moose had always offered, it has been a major success.
He has continued to support his three children — two sons ages 10 and 5 and a daughter age 7 — and laughed when talking about his daughter learning that “her daddy is a rapper.” When his sister lost her two jobs earlier this year, Carlito stepped in to pay her rent. When he hasn’t been in the studio, he has also hosted food drives for unhoused persons, and he is planning a giveaway drive with hats, socks and gloves Dec. 19.
“The pandemic hit hard, man. If my sister is going through it, then it’s so many people going through it,” he said. “I think that, if I wouldn’t have had the Nick Cannon project, it would’ve been difficult, because then I wouldn’t have had the business. I wouldn’t have had the income. I wouldn’t have had the studio.”


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Man, 27, shot on Kennedy Expressway, Illinois State Police say

About 11:45 p.m. , Chicago police officers alerted troopers to a shooting in the northbound lanes of Interstate 90 near @ @ @ @ @ .
The man , who was driving and the only person in his vehicle , @ @ @ @ @ waited for help .

A 27-year-old man was shot late Thursday while driving on the Kennedy Expressway on the Northwest Side, according to Illinois State Police.
About 11:45 p.m., Chicago police officers alerted troopers to a shooting in the northbound lanes of Interstate 90 near Sayre Avenue, police said. The man, who was driving and the only person in his vehicle, pulled off the expressway and waited for help.
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Initial investigation showed the shots were fired from a vehicle on the outbound Kennedy south of Sayre, police said.
The man was taken to a hospital with injuries that weren’t believed to be life-threatening, police said.
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After 1:15 a.m., the ramp from Nagle Avenue to Interstate 90 was closed and all northbound lanes were closed for investigation, police said. The lanes were reopened around 2 a.m.
pfry@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @paigexfry


Janice Jackson

As the coronavirus began to menace the region in March , most Chicago-area residents took refuge inside their houses to follow the governor ’ s stay-at-home order .
Tribune photographers , as they always do , stayed on the job .
Risking their personal safety and relying upon unparalleled creativity to follow public health guidelines , they documented a year unlike any in a century .
They stepped into intensive care units where COVID-19 patients were taking their last breaths , captured the calls for social justice sparked by police killings of unarmed Black men and conveyed the anxiety over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work showed how these extraordinary events influenced our lives .
We hope the work has been fair , a broad-yet-intimate reflection of the diversity of the Chicago area .
We hope our annual Pictures of Year edition serves as a visual reminder of a rapidly changing year .
When life moves so fast , we often forget , and these images reflect the range of emotions we just lived through .
It also a platform for acknowledging the talent and dedication of Tribune photographers , and all photojournalists , in a year we @ @ @ @ @


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Column: Conservative mystery donor threatens to upend Insult-A-Columnist food drive by matching dona

Column: Conservative mystery donor threatens to upend Insult-A-Columnist food drive by matching donations

Beyond that , I ’ ll sit down with the top five donors from each team via Zoom and have @ @ @ @ @ .
You can yell at me , ask me whatever you want , make fun @ @ @ @ @ just let me regale you with tales of my upbringing in the swamps of central @ @ @ @ @ self-esteem got eaten by a gator .

Volunteers Richard Calhoun, left, and John Lattyak prepare food for distribution at the food pantry at Harmony Community Church in Chicago's Lawndale neighborhood on Dec. 9, 2020. The Greater Chicago Food Depository supplies the food pantry. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The Third Annual Insult-A-Columnist Holiday Food Drive is a little more than halfway done, and I’m shocked and appalled to report that the RexRocks team is trouncing the RexStinks team. It’s not even close.
But that could soon change.
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Someone I’ll refer to only as “an area oligarch” has decided to rally the RexStinks team with an offer I’ll refer to only as “outrageously generous.”
________
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Columns are opinion content that reflect the views of the writers.
________
The person will start by making a $10,000 donation to the Greater Chicago Food Depository under the RexStinks team name. That’s amazing, and will help feed Chicagoans facing food insecurity, but it won’t come close to evening the score. The RexRocks team currently leads the Rex Stinks team by more than $92,000!
(You won’t find a bigger Rex Huppke critic than me and my vast personal collection of insecurities, and I can assure you there is NO WAY I’m $92,000 above stinking. On a good day, I might be, say, $1.50 above stinking. And that’s being generous.)
The second phase of this kind (to everyone except me) one-percenter’s plan is this: He’ll match donations to the RexStinks team up to $50,000. That means if you donate $50 to the Food Depository under the RexStinks team name, this person will put in an additional $50. If people who rightfully loathe me wind up donating a total of $50,000, the oligarch will match that amount, easily pulling the RexStinks team back into contention.
The total raised so far in this year’s drive is more than $104,000, which is outstanding and translates to about 312,000 meals. The Food Depository supplies hundreds of food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens, all of which have seen sharp increases in demand this year as the coronavirus pandemic left many jobless or facing reduced work hours.
Should the aforementioned oligarch’s devious plot to serve me my just desserts prevail, the virtual food drive could raise more than $200,000. And if the RexRocks team can’t muster enough grassroots support, or an oligarch of its own, the RexStinks team might finally prevail.
To that end, let me remind everyone of the stakes in this year’s Insult-A-Columnist Holiday Food Drive.
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There’s the core offer: If the RexStinks team wins, I’ll write a column degrading myself and highlighting my every flaw — a truly brutal, public takedown of my wretchedness.
If the RexRocks team wins, I’ll write a column praising myself in ways that would make President Donald Trump, an unparalleled narcissist, say, “Wow, that seems a bit much.”
Beyond that, I’ll sit down with the top five donors from each team via Zoom and have a 10- or 15-minute chat. You can yell at me, ask me whatever you want, make fun of my stupid face or just let me regale you with tales of my upbringing in the swamps of central Florida and the time my self-esteem got eaten by a gator.
The next five highest donors from each group will receive a video of me saying whatever they want me to say. Maybe you know someone who likes the columns (I realize this is unlikely). I’ll gladly record a video giving that person a shoutout.
If you know someone who despises me, I will recite for that person whatever you want me to recite (as long as it’s trashing me and not others), and as a special bonus, I’ll have a family member splash cold water in my face. My self-degradation and physical discomfort will be HILARIOUS!
Greater Chicago Food Depository officials will reach out to the top 10 donors from each team, so your email information — necessary for setting up a Zoom call or sending a video message — will come to me ONLY if you give the depository permission.
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To all those who take time throughout the year to remind me that I’m an abysmal failure and an embarrassment to my ancestors, this is your moment. One of your own is ready and willing to match your donations and bring an end to my illogical reign of awesomeness.
And for those who enjoy my blathering, this is your chance to stand up and defend my honor, of which I have none.
Donate under RexStinks! Donate under RexRocks! I don’t care, it’s all going to help people who are unquestionably more important than I am.
We’ll run the food drive through Dec. 31. You can donate at this link: http://myfooddrive.org/#InsultRex.
I encourage you to share this column and that link with as many people as possible.
Thank you, and may the best (or worst) oligarch win.
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rhuppke@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-18--Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Tracking Chicago homicide victims

Though there are homicides recorded throughout the city they are most concentrated in the South and West sides .


chicagotribune--2020-12-17--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: Here’s what happened Dec. 17 with COVID-19 in the Chicago area

“ My view on this is that I think that the best and easiest place for people to get these @ @ @ @ @ the retail pharmacies .
Operation Warp Speed already contracted with 16 different pharmacy chains .
@ @ @ @ @ that once we gear up in the pharmacy , we can give 20 to 25 @ @ @ @ @ ” Dr. Troyen Brennan , chief medical officer for CVS , said during a panel @ @ @ @ @ Chamber of Commerce Foundation on the vaccine rollout .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
Laquitta Boyd, holds her 6-year-old daughter Venisha while receiving her first COVID-19 vaccination at a back-to-school health fair hosted by RUSH University Medical Center at the Salvation Army Freedom Center on July 30, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois ramped up its statewide vaccination effort after the state received its expected full complement of Pfizer vaccines to begin a massive immunization effort that focuses first on frontline health care workers.
On Thursday, the local health departments in Cook, Lake, Madison and St. Clair counties took in another combined 43,000 doses, rounding out the 86,000 state officials were expecting this week, which is separate from the direct shipment Chicago received, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
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Earlier in the day, Illinois health officials announced 8,828 new cases of COVID-19 and 181 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 879,428 and the statewide death toll to 14,835 since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile in Washington, a government advisory panel endorsed a second COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, paving the way for the shot to be added to the U.S. vaccination campaign.
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Here’s what’s happening Thursday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
8:50 p.m. (update): FDA says it will move to quickly authorize 2nd COVID-19 vaccine
The head of the Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday that his agency will move to quickly authorize the second COVID-19 vaccine to fight the pandemic, hours after the shot won the key endorsement of a government advisory panel.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement that regulators have communicated their plans to drugmaker Moderna, which co-developed the vaccine with the National Institutes of Health. The announcement came after a panel of FDA advisers, in a 20-0 vote, ruled that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks for those 18 years old and up.
Once FDA’s emergency use authorization is granted, Moderna will begin shipping millions of doses, earmarked for health workers and nursing home residents, to boost the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history.
Read more here. —Associated Press
5 p.m.: Walgreens, CVS predict COVID-19 vaccines will be available to the general public by appointment at pharmacies by spring
With health care workers the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and residents and staff of longterm care facilities next, Americans are asking when it will be their turn to get a dose.
Walgreens and CVS Health predict the vaccine will be available to the public during the spring, and patients will most likely be able to make appointments to get the shots at pharmacies.
“My view on this is that I think that the best and easiest place for people to get these vaccinations is going to be the retail pharmacies. Operation Warp Speed already contracted with 16 different pharmacy chains. Our point of view is that once we gear up in the pharmacy, we can give 20 to 25 million doses per month,” Dr. Troyen Brennan, chief medical officer for CVS, said during a panel discussion Thursday with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on the vaccine rollout.
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Read more here. —Abdel Jimenez
4:45 p.m.: Illinois ramps up statewide COVID-19 vaccination effort, with entirety of state’s first shipment delivered
Illinois ramped up its statewide vaccination effort on Thursday after the state received its expected full complement of Pfizer vaccines to begin a massive immunization effort that focuses first on front-line health care workers.
On Thursday, the local health departments in Cook, Lake, Madison and St. Clair counties took in another combined 43,000 doses, rounding out the 86,000 state officials were expecting this week, which is separate from the direct shipment Chicago received, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
“All shipments arrived safely and securely at their destinations over the course of the last two days,” Pritzker said at his daily coronavirus briefing in Chicago.
The 43,000 vaccines the state took in at the Illinois Strategic National Stockpile on Monday were distributed to 10 regional hospital centers across the state and directly to DuPage County, and from there to 45 counties and local health departments, and ultimately to 77 hospitals statewide, Pritzker said.
As of Thursday morning, 3,500 vaccinations of the state share that excludes the Chicago vaccines had been administered to health care workers in the state, with more scheduled throughout the day and through the weekend, Pritzker said.
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Questions remained around forthcoming Pfizer vaccine shipments, a day after Pritzker said expected shipments nationwide in the next two weeks have been cut in half, which “will likely cut our state’s projected Pfizer shipments this month roughly by half.”
Read more here. —Jamie Munks, John Keilman and Sarah Freishtat
4:15 p.m.: Second COVID-19 vaccine wins backing from US expert panel, paving way for final FDA decision on emergency use
A second COVID-19 vaccine moved closer to joining the U.S. fight against the pandemic Thursday as government advisers convened for a public review of its safety and effectiveness.
It’s the next-to-last step for the vaccine developed by drugmaker A government advisory panel endorsed a second COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, paving the way for the shot to be added to the U.S. vaccination campaign.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to follow the recommendation for the vaccine from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. The FDA advisers, in a 20-0 vote, agreed the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks for those 18 years old and up.
The FDA’s green light for emergency use is expected quickly. Moderna would then begin shipping millions of doses, earmarked for health workers and nursing home residents, to boost the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
4:03 p.m.: CPS reopening plan a step closer to reality after teachers union injunction is denied
The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Thursday declined to pursue an injunction sought by the Chicago Teachers Union, clearing a hurdle for Chicago Public Schools to move forward with its plans to reopen schools in the new year.
Unwilling to accept defeat, the CTU is escalating its fight for staff and students to return to classrooms only when the union agrees it’s safe.
With unresolved factual disputes between the union and school district, the labor board decided the case fell short of legal requirements for seeking an injunction from the Illinois Attorney General.
In a 2-1 vote, the board agreed with general counsel Ellen Strizak’s recommendation to deny the request. Strizak said the union had not established reasonable cause to believe CPS had violated the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, and that a hearing was needed to resolve factual disputes.
The CTU is now trying to have a hearing with an administrative law judge expedited to take place before CPS staff members are expected to return to schools Jan. 4. A hearing is currently scheduled for later in the month.
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Read more here. —Hannah Leone
3:28 p.m.: Naperville’s Edward Hospital administers first COVID-19 vaccine
The first COVID-19 vaccine was given at Naperville’s Edward Hospital shortly after 2:15 p.m. Thursday, when medical assistant Nikki Carini-Wardecki injected the dose into the arm of Aminderjit Dhanoa, a 37-year-old respiratory therapist from South Elgin.
Dhanoa had COVID-19 in October. He has recovered but said he was excited to receive the first dose of the vaccine because he didn’t want to take any chances.
“I’m still going to take all the precautions and everything,” he said. “But it’s just a peace of mind that I have my vaccine now.”
The room applauded after Carini-Wardecki injected the dose, a sign of the hope the vaccine has brought to the hospital.
“We’re thankful for the scientists who have discovered this vaccine,” said Dr. Sanjeeb Khatua, chief physician executive and COVID-19 incident commander for the Edward-Elmhurst Health System.
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“This is a historic day. And honestly it’s going to take a long time to get not just our healthcare workers vaccinated, but the communities as well. So I think today is about hope.”
—Sarah Freishtat
1:36 p.m.: EEOC guidance: Yes, employers can require the COVID-19 vaccine
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has decided that employers can require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and offered guidance on exceptions.
Employers have been hoping for clarity from the agency as they mull whether to mandate vaccination even as many people remain concerned about the safety of a vaccine developed so quickly and not tested on certain populations.
The guidelines, published Wednesday, mostly confirm what attorneys have been advising clients as vaccines begin to be distributed.
In essence, the EEOC said employers can require that employees get inoculated as a condition of going to work, unless an employee declines because of a disability or a sincerely held religious belief.
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Read more here. —Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
12:18 p.m.: Despite being cash-strapped, restaurants shell out to decorate and bring Chicago some Christmas cheer
Despite the pandemic, restaurants across the city have put extra money into holiday decorations in the hopes of creating a respite from the stress of the pandemic, and restore a sense of joy usually ubiquitous this time of year. And although some pop-ups have had to close because of the indoor dining shutdown, others are finding ways to host guests outdoors.
During Christmases past, it was common to walk into any restaurant or bar across the city and see the place decked out with festive decor. Indeed, holiday pop-ups have become a fierce tinsel-and-twinkly-lights competition with bars vying for revelers’ drink dollars. With indoor service shut down since late October, and likely to stay that way through the holidays, it would surprise few if restaurants went all Scrooge this year. Yet restaurants across the city are showing up for the holidays.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
12:09 p.m.: 8,828 new confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases and 181 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Thursday announced 8,828 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 181 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 879,428 and the statewide death toll to 14,835 since the start of the pandemic.
Officials also reported 92,015 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide rolling positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 8.4% for the period ending Wednesday.
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—Chicago Tribune staff
10:53 a.m.: Congress inches toward $900B COVID-19 economic relief: ‘We made some progress this morning’
Congressional negotiators on the long-delayed $900 billion COVID-19 economic relief package worked through a handful of remaining holdups Thursday as they labored to seal a final agreement for more help to businesses and the unemployed and new stimulus payments to most Americans.
The central elements of the hard-fought compromise appeared in place: More than $300 billion in aid to businesses; a $300-per-week bonus federal jobless benefit and renewal of soon-to-expire state benefits; $600 direct payments to individuals; vaccine distribution funds and money for renters, schools, the Postal Service and people needing food aid.
But hang-ups involving Federal Reserve powers, state and local government matching requirements for disaster grants, and myriad smaller disagreements over non-pandemic add-ons have slowed progress, aides involved in the negotiations said.
A top negotiator warned that the current set of problems could knock the talks off track.
Read more here. —Associated Press
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10:32 a.m.: Hospitals discover a surprise in their vaccine deliveries: Extra doses
As boxes of Pfizer vaccines began arriving around the country this week, hospital pharmacists made a surprising discovery: Some of the glass vials that are supposed to hold five doses contained enough for a sixth — or even a seventh — person.
The news prompted a flurry of excited exchanges on Twitter and pharmacy message boards this week as hospital workers considered the tantalizing possibility that the limited supply of desperately needed vaccine might be stretched to reach more people.
Read more here. —The New York Times
10:19 a.m.: Shipping delays mounting as USPS struggles with ‘historic’ holiday volume
With a week to go before Christmas Eve, anyone who’s still scouring the internet for the perfect gift may want to get in the car and head for a store or start making I.O.U.’s.
Record online sales have led to the crush of packages at shipping companies and the U.S. Postal Service that was predicted a month ago. As a result, merchants of all sizes are issuing warnings and apologies to consumers, who are turning to social media to complain.
Read more here. —Lauren Zumbach
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9:57 a.m.: 9 Chicago businesses cited for COVID-19 violations, including 5 for allowing indoor dining or drinking
Chicago’s Department of Business and Consumer Protection fined nine businesses for COVID-19 violations last weekend. The citations are part of the department’s continued efforts to enforce the city’s ever-changing safety guidelines, which since Oct. 30 have included a shutdown of indoor dining, officials said.
Ten locations in the Wrigleyville entertainment district that were open and operating for outdoor dining were also investigated Saturday night, and all of them were in compliance with safety guidelines. In total, 118 investigations were conducted citywide Dec. 10 to 13.
Read more here. —Grace Wong
9:14 a.m.: Key Iowa COVID-19 vaccine panel holding secret meetings on who should get first vaccinations, circumventing open meetings law, experts say
A panel of experts that will help decide which groups get the coronavirus vaccine first in Iowa has been holding closed meetings, circumventing the state open meetings law.
The Iowa Department of Public Health convened the Infectious Disease Advisory Council this month to develop recommendations on how to use the vaccine when supplies are limited in the coming weeks and months.
In particular, the 25-member panel will recommend which groups of health care workers, essential workers and people at risk for severe COVID-19 illness should be considered higher priorities than others.
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Read more here. —Associated Press
8:28 a.m.: 2nd COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna, NIH gets public review today by FDA
A second COVID-19 vaccine moved closer to joining the U.S. fight against the pandemic Thursday as government advisers convened for a public review of its safety and effectiveness.
It’s the next-to-last step for the vaccine developed by drugmaker Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. The panel of physicians and medical researchers is expected to endorse it, followed by the Food and Drug Administration’s OK within hours or days.
The action would provide a boost to the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history that kicked off this week. More shipments of the first green-lighted vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, were going out Thursday, earmarked for health care workers and nursing home residents around the country.
Watch live here. —Associated Press
5 a.m.: The first five: How a Chicago hospital picked its first vaccination recipients
The 975 coveted doses of the COVID-19 vaccine expected to arrive by police escort as soon as Thursday morning will create a new challenge for Roseland Community Hospital in a year that has been overrun by them.
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Like other medical centers across the country in recent days, Roseland has been tasked with deciding which of its hundreds of employees — for reasons both practical and symbolic — should be the first to get the injection they’ve all needed since the pandemic began.
The Far South Side hospital, which treats patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, has carried a tremendous weight over the past 11 months. As the Roseland neighborhood has suffered a coronavirus death rate 67% greater than the citywide average, the staff opened a 40-bed COVID ward, provided inpatient care to 320 people and conducted more than 25,000 tests in a community that has long suffered from the city’s health care inequities.
It hasn’t always gone smoothly. When a pregnant woman with COVID died after failing to be quickly triaged upon arrival, the state cited the hospital for several issues related to its handling of the virus. The hospital has said it worked address the issues.
The hospital believes it will receive enough doses to vaccinate its 600 employees and contractors, including the estimated 25% who have expressed reluctance about getting the injections. Each vial contains about five shots, so Roseland President and CEO Tim Egan wanted the first five recipients to be a reflection of the many faces who have contributed to the fight.
Read more here. —Stacy St. Clair and Brian Cassella
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 things that happened Wednesday related to COVID-19:


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--‘Don’t underestimate the fear.’ Clergy, doctors and activists tackle COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, acc

‘Don’t underestimate the fear.’ Clergy, doctors and activists tackle COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, access in Black, Latino communities.

“ The virus will continue to decimate Black and brown communities if it goes unchecked , and the vaccine is @ @ @ @ @ stem this tide , ” says Peek , an internist , bioethicist and health disparities @ @ @ @ @ Chicago .
“ The tool that we have to do so is one that people @ @ @ @ @ the years of injustice that these communities , that our communities have had to endure @ @ @ @ @ ”

Angie Leventis Lourgos, Laura Rodríguez Presa, Stacy St. Clair, Alice Yin, Darcel Rockett

The Rev. John Zayas says his congregants at Grace and Peace Church in the North Austin neighborhood have been peppering him with questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine, some expressing unease or indecision about getting the shot once it’s available.
Is it safe? Would I be a lab rat?
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Most importantly, many ask if the church leader intends to get the vaccine, once he’s eligible.
His response is always compassionate but firm: The vaccine is critical to ending the pandemic, which has disproportionately hit predominantly Black and Latino communities like North Austin and other surrounding West Side neighborhoods where the church’s faithful live and work.
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“I would personally take it and be an example for the church,” he says. “As a pastor, you have to show by example.”
The Rev. John Zayas, right, of Grace and Peace Church in Chicago, and other volunteers load a truck at a food drive at the church on Dec. 18, 2020. Zayas and other leaders working to inoculate communities of color are often battling an entrenched mistrust of science and medicine. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Yet Zayas and other leaders working to inoculate communities of color are often battling an entrenched mistrust of science and medicine, the fallout of long-term systemic racial disparities in health care and historical medical abuses of minority patients.
A Black physician and bioethicist on the city’s South Side says she has already had to reassure about a dozen of her patients — all health care workers — that the vaccine is safe and should be taken.
Leaders of a South Side hospital recently expressed alarm after about a quarter of staff members said they don’t intend to get the vaccine.
While distributing hand sanitizer and masks in the Little Village neighborhood, a university researcher talks to street vendors and community members about getting vaccinated against the virus, trying to dispel rumors and myths. But she worries that once mass distribution of vaccines begins, Black and brown communities will be left behind.
Although vaccine hesitancy is reported across races, several recent polls show Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine than other races.
Only 24% of Black respondents and 34% of Hispanics plan to get vaccinated against the new virus, compared with 53% of respondents who are white, according to a report released earlier this month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.
Minority races also expressed greater ambivalence about getting immunized, with 41% of Hispanic Americans and 37% of Black Americans saying they’re not sure about getting the shot, the survey found.
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Broad distrust in government and medicine could contribute to these decisions: Fewer Black and Hispanic adults reported putting their trust in physicians, local hospitals and the health care system than white adults, according to an October survey on race and health by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Undefeated.
The same poll found 70% of Black Americans and 43% of Hispanic Americans reported very often or somewhat often perceiving discrimination in the health care system, compared with 40% of white Americans.
Roughly 1 in 5 Black and Hispanic adults “say they were personally treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity when getting health care for themselves or a family member in the past 12 months,” compared with 5% of white adults, the report said.
Zayas, the clergyman, has been urging state leaders to prioritize the vaccination of communities of color. He wants to hold vaccine drives at his house of worship, a place of comfort for those who might be vaccine wary.
And he would like to get the shot in front of his church members, to ease their concerns and encourage them to get inoculated too.
Even as he clamors for COVID-19 vaccination trust and access, the clergyman says he understands some of the wariness surrounding health care in the United States.
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The pastor’s mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and recounts the dark era of forced sterilizations on the island, from the 1930s to the 1970s. These medical atrocities are still fresh in the psyches of many immigrant families, he said.
“Don’t underestimate the fear, the fear is real,” Zayas says. “Because of the past, what has happened in our communities of color, there’s reservations.”
Yet he notes that those with the greatest skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines are also at greatest risk of contracting — and dying from — the novel coronavirus.
His congregation at Grace and Peace Church is roughly 80% Latino and 10% Black — races that are roughly four times more likely to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 and 2.8 times more likely to die of the new virus than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We are in a Black and brown community that has been hit tremendously,” he says. “We need to make sure this vaccine comes to our communities sooner rather than later. The people that I serve, the people I love, they are my mission. Whatever helps them, I want people to stay healthy and not get sick.”
Are you getting it?
On the city’s South Side, Dr. Monica Peek says about a dozen of her patients — who all work in health care — have been calling and texting the past week, expressing uncertainty about the new COVID-19 vaccine.
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Should I get it? My family’s worried, they don’t want me to get it. Are you getting it?
Even as the physician reassures them of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy — and that she’ll be getting her shot as soon as she can — Peek says she isn’t surprised by their concerns. She points to deep-seated fears of medical abuse in the Black community, stemming from historical horrors like unconsented surgeries on slaves and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a 40-year experiment where rural Black men were misled about the research and forced to suffer from untreated syphilis, despite the availability of penicillin.
“The virus will continue to decimate Black and brown communities if it goes unchecked, and the vaccine is the one way we can stem this tide,” says Peek, an internist, bioethicist and health disparities researcher at the University of Chicago. “The tool that we have to do so is one that people are afraid of because of the years of injustice that these communities, that our communities have had to endure because of structural racism.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed this mistrust recently, while highlighting that one of the scientists at the forefront of the Pfizer vaccine is a Black woman.
“So, the first thing you might want to say to my African American brothers and sisters is that the vaccine that you’re going to be taking was developed by an African American woman,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “And that is just a fact.”
Locally, many Black and Hispanic health care workers were the first to get the vaccine last week, moments that were captured in newspaper photos and television newscasts. Peek says these diverse images could boost confidence in the vaccine for other people of color.
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“I think that is part of the messaging, is to have Black people see themselves in these images and say, ‘I see me in that person,’” she said.
At the same time, even some in the medical field are reportedly declining the vaccine.
Skepticism has been particularly worrisome at Roseland Community Hospital on the city’s South Side, where an estimated 25% of staff members have indicated they don’t intend to get the shots.
Medical workers prepare to administer the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Dec. 17, 2020, at Roseland Community Hospital. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
This includes several nurses who have told supervisors that they intend to wait at least a year before getting vaccinated to see if any complications arise from the early rounds.
The reluctance alarms hospital leaders, who have begun an education campaign inside the hospital to sway doubters. Roseland executives, including CEO Tim Egan, have been passing out flyers about the importance of the vaccine in recent days to bolster confidence.
Beyond wanting to protect his staff, Egan worries about the message it would send to the neighborhood if hospital workers are too scared to be vaccinated. He understands their fears — fueled by both the country’s history of inhumane experiments on Black Americans and distrust in a system that has allowed deadly health care disparities — but he believes the vaccine is the only way to blunt the virus in the community, which is predominantly Black.
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“Many of our employees live in the neighborhood,” he says. “They have seen the decades of divestment and the health care world turn their back on them. There is an embedded mistrust of government. People in our community have been abandoned, and this is just a byproduct.”
Dr. Brandi Jackson, a psychiatrist at Howard Brown Health and co-founding director of the Institute for Antiracism in Medicine, says the medical community has not done much historically to earn the trust of Black patients.
She calls on trusted sources outside of medicine to spread the message of vaccine safety, such as Black churches, nonprofits and community activists. She also urges traditionally powerful institutions within medicine to make “a move of humility.”
“They’re used to being the authority,” Jackson said during a Tribune Facebook live event on Wednesday. “And I think the word ‘authority’ has been turned on its head during this pandemic.”
‘Left behind’
Dolores Castañeda has spent the past few months walking the streets of the Little Village neighborhood on the city’s West Side, talking to street vendors and passersby while distributing hand sanitizer, masks and information on COVID-19 testing.
Dolores Castaneda waves at a friend in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 18, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
She is a research associate at the Center for Healthy Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and much of her study focuses on the health needs of street vendors.
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On a recent weekday, she talks with 74-year-old José Carmen Camacho, who is huddled in brown insulated overalls, a scarf, black gloves and a face mask, as he sells bread baked by his wife.
While he and his wife are hopeful the vaccine will help quell the pandemic, he adds that “we’re not entirely sure that we would get it. Not now at least.”
José Carmen Camacho stands with his bread cart in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Dec. 18, 2020. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
“It scares me a bit; that instead of doing good to me, it makes me more sick,” he says in Spanish. “We have to wait and see what reactions people have to it.”
Castañeda says that most of the skepticism in the Latino community is based on misinformation or lack of attention and messaging from local organizations and the government.
Some people she speaks with have concerns about their immigration status, and need to be reassured that their information won’t be given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Language barriers can also be a challenge; even if information is available in Spanish, many organizations share it on social media or websites, and those without smartphones and computers can be at a disadvantage, Castañeda says.
“We’re looking at the same pattern that we saw when COVID-19 hit,” she said. “Our communities of color were left behind.”
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As the first COVID-19 vaccines in Chicago were administered at Loretto Hospital on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged the process of distributing immunizations would be equitable.
“Equity isn’t part of our COVID-19 strategy, it is our strategy,” she said. “And when it comes to our vaccine rollout, we will be leaving no one behind. … There is an unfortunate trust deficit nationwide when it comes to taking this vaccine, particularly among predominantly African American and Latinx communities. This is a challenge we must meet and we must conquer.”
The city is crafting a marketing plan to spread the message that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, says Chicago Department of Public Health spokesman Andrew Buchanan.
This will include a campaign similar to existing door-knocking efforts to hand out masks and informational flyers on safe practices. As of this week, the city and its partners are on track to reach 1 million phones through phone-banking and texting, and deliver care kits to 400,000 households around the end of January, he says.
The city plans to spread vaccination sites fairly throughout the city, Buchanan says, which includes working with City Colleges of Chicago campuses and community groups in neighborhoods with high positivity rates.
“We are working hard to push messaging and outreach to the areas that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 and who may have a historical distrust of the health care community,” he said.
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Last week, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, sponsored a resolution for permanent COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites in African American and Latino neighborhoods. He argues the measure is critical to ensure Black and Latino communities receive care after being disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
Castañeda, a Little Village resident, said the government has failed to protect Black and brown communities from COVID-19, and that she expects that once full rollout of the vaccine begins, those same neighborhoods will once again be without access.
“Because we are often thrown to the side,” she says.
Abraham Valdez, 67, whose livelihood depends on collecting recyclable aluminum cans, says he is eager to get the vaccine. He says he doesn’t want to get sick and not be able to work.
“Having this vaccine is better than nothing,” he says in Spanish. “I’ll trust God about it. But even if it works, who knows when I’ll be able to get it?”
Chicago Tribune’s Javonte Anderson contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--City of Chicago failed to provide Anjanette Young’s lawyer with all video from wrongful police raid

City of Chicago failed to provide Anjanette Young’s lawyer with all video from wrongful police raid on her home, mayor’s office said

In February 2020 , the city provided Young ’ s attorney with several videos from the February 2019 raid on @ @ @ @ @ mayor ’ s office said the city failed to search all potential locations where video @ @ @ @ @ only 14 of 20 videos were turned over , Lightfoot ’ s office said in @ @ @

The city of Chicago disclosed Friday that it failed to give social worker Anjanette Young’s attorney all of the body camera footage of a wrongful police raid on her home, a new misstep in the handling of the case that has consumed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration for most of the week.
In February 2020, the city provided Young’s attorney with several videos from the February 2019 raid on her home. But the mayor’s office said the city failed to search all potential locations where video could have been found and only 14 of 20 videos were turned over, Lightfoot’s office said in a statement.
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While releasing the video this week in response to a national uproar over the city’s treatment of Young, Lightfoot officials said they found an additional six videos from the errant raid on Young’s home. City officials posted the videos online earlier this week, a process that led to the discrepancy’s revelation.
“While this failure to produce the additional six videotapes was inadvertent and not intentional, nonetheless, it was completely unacceptable,” Lightfoot’s office said in a statement. “The Mayor has directed that all individuals responsible for this discovery failure be identified so they can be held accountable.”
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Lightfoot has pointedly declined to rule out potential firings related to the uproar, which erupted on Monday night after Lightfoot’s Law Department attempted to block WBBM-Ch. 2 from airing body camera footage of Chicago police officers mistakenly raiding Young’s home in February 2019, before the mayor took office.
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City lawyers also filed a request to have Young sanctioned for allegedly violating a confidentiality order on the video, though the city later said it only wanted her lawyer sanctioned, before filing paperwork on Friday seeking to drop the matter altogether.
A federal judge rejected the Lightfoot administration’s unusual request to prevent a television station from airing a news report. The courts long have ruled against efforts to prevent news companies from publishing reports, saying it’s an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
Lightfoot has criticized the Law Department for taking the action and denied knowing about it beforehand.
The Young raid has become a major embarrassment for Lightfoot, who initially said this week that she had only learned of the February 2019 incident after CBS-Ch. 2 aired police body camera footage that showed Young, who was handcuffed naked, repeatedly telling officers who barged into her home that they had the wrong place.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration famously fought to keep secret a video showing white police Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times, but a Cook County judge ordered his administration to release the video. Emanuel has since been dogged by accusations that he covered up the scandal to preserve his 2015 reelection campaign, an allegation he’s denied.
Chicago has since instituted a rule allowing the release of police shooting videos and audio within 60 days. Lightfoot said she will pursue changes to make other video releases easier.
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This isn’t Lightfoot’s first flap involving the Law Department. City corporation counsel Mark Flessner, a longtime Lightfoot friend, agreed last year to repay the state about $2,500 for the Chicago tax break he received on a South Loop condo while living in west suburban Naperville.
That move came amid questions about whether Flessner was still residing in Naperville while working in the Lightfoot administration in violation of city residency rules. Lightfoot denied Flessner had a residency problem.
Emanuel had his share of difficulties involving city lawyers.
After a federal judge cited and rebuked five city attorneys for withholding evidence in two separate police misconduct cases, Emanuel said in early 2016 that it was “not possible” his Law Department was part of the cover-up culture that had tainted the Police Department.
But he then reversed course a few days later and initiated his own third-party review of the Law Department’s Federal Civil Rights Litigation division.
A Tribune investigation found that, of nearly 450 cases alleging police misconduct since Emanuel took office, a federal judge had to order the city to turn over potential evidence in nearly 1 in every 5 cases.
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In several cases, the city’s conduct has been found to be so inappropriate that a federal judge took the unusual step of handing down sanctions.
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @royalpratt


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Record number of COVID-19 deaths hit Illinois nursing homes

“ Until then and even after that much-anticipated day , nursing homes will continue to implore their neighbors to practice @ @ @ @ @ community because our medically fragile seniors are so susceptible to this horrible disease , ” @ @ @ @ @ “ Nursing home staff will continue to do all they can to protect their residents @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic , but we can not do it alone .
”

A record number of Illinois nursing home residents with COVID-19 died in the past week, as people in long-term care try to hold out until they can get vaccinated against the virus.
An unprecedented 605 resident deaths were attributed to COVID-19 in the past seven days, state figures showed Friday — far more than the previous high of 480 two weeks ago.
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The number of recorded new infections in the state’s long-term care facilities also set a record with 5,063 new cases, surpassing the previous high of 4,536 from two weeks earlier.
This second surge of the virus again exceeds the worst trends of the first wave of cases and deaths in the spring. The toll fell markedly in the summer but has risen again since November, following increases seen in the broader population.
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One encouraging sign is that the numbers of cases and deaths statewide have dropped slightly in recent weeks. Researchers have reported that nursing home deaths generally follow the trends in the wider community, as workers contract the virus and bring it into the homes.
The Health Care Council of Illinois, which represents long-term care facilities, issued a statement looking forward to a “turning point” when vaccinations are scheduled to begin in nursing homes Dec. 28.
“Until then and even after that much-anticipated day, nursing homes will continue to implore their neighbors to practice infection control measures in the community because our medically fragile seniors are so susceptible to this horrible disease,” director Pat Comstock said. “Nursing home staff will continue to do all they can to protect their residents, as they have throughout the pandemic, but we cannot do it alone.”
Officials at AARP remained outraged about the renewed deaths of elderly nursing home residents, who typically die without the company of family or friends because of a state ban on visitors.
“No state is doing a good enough job to protect residents and staff of nursing homes, and the number of tragic deaths in Illinois demonstrates this,” Bob Gallo, AARP Illinois state director, said in a recent statement.
Gallo urged state and federal officials to act immediately to save lives, saying that long-term care officials should be better prepared by now after nine months of the pandemic.
“Nursing homes must also be completely open and transparent with family members and caregivers and should be going out of their way to keep them informed and connect them to their loved ones,” Gallo said. “Those connections with family are lifelines to resident well-being.”
The latest increases came as the state on Friday reported 181 new deaths involving COVID-19 and 7,377 new cases statewide, while the percentage of coronavirus tests with positive results dropped to 8%, the lowest since October.
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Asked previously what the state could do to stop the onslaught in long-term care, Gov. J.B. Pritzker cited the visitor ban, infection control and more testing. For their part, nursing home officials repeatedly have asked for more government help with financial aid, protective equipment and testing.
Nursing home advocates say the deaths are the latest symptom of a systemic problem, with many nursing homes suffering from poor infection control and understaffing, particularly in Illinois.
rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com
jmahr@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--General apologizes for bad information on state vaccine shipments: ‘I failed. I’m adjusting.’

Perna ’ s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID-19 , which @ @ @ @ @ people in the U.S. Governors in more than a dozen states have said the federal @ @ @ @ @ next week ’ s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected @

The Army general in charge of getting COVID-19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for “miscommunication” with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.
“I failed. I’m adjusting. I am fixing and we will move forward from there,” Gen. Gustave Perna told reporters in a telephone briefing.
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Perna’s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID-19, which has killed more than 312,000 people in the U.S. Governors in more than a dozen states have said the federal government has told them that next week’s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.
Perna acknowledged the criticism and accepted blame.
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“I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” he said. “I know that’s not done much these days. But I am responsible. ... This is a Herculean effort and we are not perfect.”
The general said he made mistakes by citing numbers of doses that he believed would be ready.
“I am the one who approved forecast sheets. I’m the one who approved allocations,” Perna said. “There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine.”
There’s a distinction between manufactured vaccine and doses that are ready to be released. The finished product must undergo “rigorous quality control and sterility tests,” which can take up to a month, the Department of Health and Human Services said.
The Food and Drug Administration then must receive a certificate of analysis 48 hours before the manufacturer ships a batch, the government said.
Army Gen. Gustave Perna, who is leading Operation Warp Speed, speaks at an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 13, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Perna said the government now is on track to get approximately 20 million doses to states by the first week of January, a combination of the newly approved Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Perna said 2.9 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses have been delivered to states so far.
In Michigan, where the Pfizer vaccine is produced, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday accused the White House of “slow-walking the process.” Michigan is due 60,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in its second allotment, down from an anticipated 84,825.
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“We have Michigan hospitals and nursing homes ready to administer this vaccine,” she said.


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Here’s what you need to know about COVID-19 vaccines in Illinois


chicagotribune--2020-12-19--Libertyville hospital to resume vaccinations after temporarily pausing ‘out of an abundance of cauti

Libertyville hospital to resume vaccinations after temporarily pausing ‘out of an abundance of caution’ when 4 staff members had reactions

Citronberg said they were initially concerned about the possibility of a problem with the batch of vaccine sent to Condell @ @ @ @ @ , but officials determined that vaccine doses from the same batch , distributed by the @ @ @ @ @ were sent to other hospitals with no reported reactions .

A Libertyville hospital will resume vaccinations for the COVID-19 virus on Sunday following a temporary pause of the program after four staff members had reactions after receiving the shot, hospital officials say.
The decision to resume vaccinations was made after an internal review, and a doctor on Saturday assured the public of the vaccine’s safety.
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“We expect there to be some occasional safety concerns with the vaccine, but on balance, this is a miracle that we have this vaccine,” said Dr. Robert Citronberg, executive medical director of infectious disease and prevention at Advocate Aurora Health.
Since Thursday, four people who received vaccines at Advocate Condell Medical Center experienced symptoms, including tingling and elevated heart rate, according to a statement sent by a spokesperson for the Advocate Aurora health system.
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Three of the people had mild reactions, and were treated and sent home in good condition, Citronberg said. One person had a “more severe” anaphylaxis reaction, he said.
That person was monitored overnight, but was discharged on Saturday and is doing well, officials said.
Officials made the decision to pause vaccinations on Friday night “out of an abundance of caution” to allow time to “better understand what may have caused these reactions,” according to the statement.
Citronberg said they were initially concerned about the possibility of a problem with the batch of vaccine sent to Condell due to the apparent cluster, but officials determined that vaccine doses from the same batch, distributed by the Lake County Health Department, were sent to other hospitals with no reported reactions.
After reviewing Condell’s processes and consulting with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Lake County Health Department, the hospital decided to resume its vaccination program.
“We expect that there will be some reactions to the vaccine along the way. We’re prepared for them, and on balance, the benefit of vaccination of the population far outweighs the risk,” Citronberg said.
He added that all vaccination sites have nurses on hand with first aid equipment to handle any reactions.
Vaccines continued to be administered without interruption at the health system’s other sites in Illinois and Wisconsin. Advocate Aurora hospitals have now vaccinated more than 6,000 staff members, including Citronberg himself, who said that besides some mild soreness in his arm, he felt no side effects.
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The hospital has 120 hours to use any vaccine doses that have been thawed, so the program’s pause did not impact the hospital’s available doses, Citronberg said.
“With successful vaccination of the population, we can end this pandemic in the next several months,” he said. “Without a vaccine, the pandemic could go on easily for two years, three years or longer.”
Hospitals across Illinois began vaccinating staff members this week after the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use. A vaccine developed by Moderna was also authorized by the FDA for emergency use, and is expected to begin shipping to states soon.
mabuckley@chicagotribune.com