chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Summer camp files for bankruptcy as parents clamor for refunds: ‘I think it’s going to be like getti

Summer camp files for bankruptcy as parents clamor for refunds: ‘I think it’s going to be like getting blood from a stone’

“ By filing for Chapter 11 Galileo will be able to remain in business , fairly address the claims of @ @ @ @ @ the unexpected impacts of the pandemic so we can continue to serve camper families , @ @ @ @ @ said in a statement .
`` While we had very much hoped to avoid turning @ @ @ @ @ severity of the pandemic economic crisis and the complete cancellation of our 2020 in-person camp @ @ @ @ @ usual impossible .
”

In late March when Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the state’s stay-at-home order, Jennifer McDonnell called Camp Galileo to ask whether they still planned to host their Chicago-area summer camp her children were signed up to attend.
A camp representative assured McDonnell that their camps were still on, she said. The company’s policy allowed her to cancel up to 30 days before camp and receive a refund. So the Chicago mother decided to wait it out.
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About two weeks later, she received an email notifying her that camp was canceled for the summer, and no refunds were available.
Galileo Learning, a California-based company that operates at 11 sites in Chicago and the suburbs, was among the first area camps to pull the plug on the summer in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have offered credits for virtual programs and future camps instead of refunds, a decision that elicited criticism and a federal lawsuit.
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Now, the embattled company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, hoping to stay in business in the long term while addressing claims from creditors.
Jennifer McDonnell stands with her two children, Juan Lopez, 11, and Emma Lopez, 9, outside their home on May 13, 2020, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Still, parents of campers, some with uncertain financial circumstances due to the virus’s impact on the economy, are left frustrated by the refund policy.
“I feel like they took everybody’s money and ran,” McDonnell said.
In the federal class action lawsuit, families allege Galileo Learning breached its contract with them by going back on its cancellation policy. The company is also the subject of at least six complaints about refunds filed with the Illinois attorney general’s office. A spokeswoman said the office is working with customers and the company to mediate the complaints.
But Galileo Learning says the pandemic has ravaged its financial situation, too, leaving it without enough cash on hand to refund everyone who requested their money back. The Chapter 11 claim, filed last week in federal court in California, allows it to reorganize while staying in business.
“By filing for Chapter 11 Galileo will be able to remain in business, fairly address the claims of its creditors, and survive the unexpected impacts of the pandemic so we can continue to serve camper families," company spokesperson Jessica Berg said in a statement. "While we had very much hoped to avoid turning to the courts, the severity of the pandemic economic crisis and the complete cancellation of our 2020 in-person camp season has made business as usual impossible.”
According to a bankruptcy declaration from Galileo Learning’s founder and CEO Glen Tripp, the camp in September began preparing for an estimated enrollment of 45,000 children at 70 sites in three states, including Illinois. In April, they notified families that summer programming would be canceled.
At that point, more than 10,500 families had paid more than $11.6 million tuition, accounting for about a third of the expected revenue for 2020, the declaration said.
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At the time of cancellation, the camp had already spent a “large percentage” of the tuition on wages for 140 employees, rent for two offices and a warehouse, and supplies and equipment, according to the declaration.
“The payment of even large-percentage, partial refunds ... would have driven Galileo out of business,” the declaration said.
Galileo currently holds a little more than $6.2 million, including about $2.5 million received through a Paycheck Protection Plan loan, according to the declaration. The company is using the PPP funds for payroll expenses, per the restrictions on the loan, according to a spokesperson.
Families can choose to participate in virtual camps this summer, receive credits for future programs, including an option for discounted programs, or wait for the Chapter 11 process to unfold.
“I think it’s going to be like getting blood from a stone,” said Michelle Martin-Krohn, an Evanston mom who had paid just under $1,000 for camp for one child.
Martin-Krohn’s child is too young for the virtual camps, and she isn’t interested in future summers at Camp Galileo, she said.
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McDonnell said that when she checked on the status of the camp, she was asked if she wanted to sign up for additional sessions, an offer she declined.
She had paid about $2,000 for camp for her two children, and she worries about how they will handle child care if she and her husband have to go back into their offices in July.
“Hopefully we’re able to continue working from home, but if we’re forced to go back to the office, we won’t be able to put them in camp,” McDonnell said. “That was our camp money that we budgeted for.
“That’s a significant amount of money for middle-class families.”
mabuckley@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Many cities around the globe saw cleaner air after being shut down for COVID-19. But not Chicago.

When Norfolk Southern planned a massive expansion of its intermodal yard in the Englewood neighborhood six years ago , an @ @ @ @ @ Law and Policy Center suggested the project would substantially increase pollution in an area plagued @ @ @ @ @ .
Using an EPA computer model , the group estimated that worrisome levels of soot @ @ @ @ @ the site unless the railroad took more aggressive steps to clean up its diesel equipment @

A freight train hauling containers heads toward Chicago, at the busy rail intermodal BNSF yard in Cicero on May 6, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Weeks of clear skies over Los Angeles, New Delhi, Wuhan and other smoggy, soot-choked cities are signs of how the coronavirus lockdown improved air quality around the planet.
Animated satellite maps and daily reports from monitoring networks back what people see with their own eyes. In city after city, levels of lung-damaging, life-shortening pollution dropped abruptly as COVID-19 restricted daily commuting and grounded national economies to a halt.
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But for reasons that have yet to be fully explained, people in Chicago and its suburbs aren’t breathing dramatically cleaner air during the pandemic.
Average daily soot concentrations in the region declined by only 1% last month compared with April 2019, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of federal and state monitoring data.
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Last month on average was dirtier than both April 2018 and 2017, the analysis found.
Freight train activity is shown May 6, 2020, at the busy rail intermodal BNSF yard in Cicero. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
By contrast, soot levels in New York City dropped 28% last month compared with the same period a year ago. Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles and St. Louis each saw a 16% decline in the tiny particles of pollution during the first full month of shelter-in-place orders.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency noted in a statement that soot levels fluctuate hour to hour, day to day and year to year based in part on weather conditions. Researchers eventually will be able to identify last month’s sources of soot pollution in Chicago by analyzing the chemical composition of particles collected inside filter-based monitoring equipment.
Likely culprits include buildings, factories and diesel engines that burn coal, oil or natural gas. Diesel emissions in particular remain a chronic problem in Chicago, a racially segregated freight hub where rail yards, warehouses and intermodal facilities are concentrated in low-income, predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods.
Fewer gasoline-fueled cars might be on expressways and streets these days, but diesel truck and train traffic appears to have remained fairly constant. Modular containers are still exchanged daily between rail cars and semitrailers at more than a dozen intermodal facilities in the city and suburbs.
“We already have roughly double the amount of heavy-duty traffic than other major cities in the country,” said Zac Adelman, executive director of the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, a group of state officials from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“Demand for toilet paper and food and other goods hasn’t dropped off during the shutdown, and in some cases probably has increased,” Adelman said. “We need to dig deeper into the data, but the steady movement of goods could be a reason why Chicago hasn’t seen the air quality improvements other cities have.”
Previous studies support what for now can only be speculated.
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During the past decade, scientists at the U.S. EPA have discovered daily spikes of soot pollution near intermodal facilities in Chicago and other cities that far exceed average urban concentrations.
When Norfolk Southern planned a massive expansion of its intermodal yard in the Englewood neighborhood six years ago, an analysis by the nonprofit Environmental Law and Policy Center suggested the project would substantially increase pollution in an area plagued by high rates of asthma. Using an EPA computer model, the group estimated that worrisome levels of soot could spread several blocks beyond the site unless the railroad took more aggressive steps to clean up its diesel equipment.
After several aldermen raised questions, Norfolk Southern upgraded switcher locomotives in the Chicago area and committed to replacing most of its diesel-powered equipment with cleaner models.
New evidence potentially comes from a network of sensors deployed around the city by data scientists at the University of Chicago.
A sensor that measures soot is located in the Ashburn neighborhood on the Southwest Side, less than a mile from one of the region’s busiest intermodal facilities — a sprawling CSX complex in suburban Bedford Park.
Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order took effect March 21, average daily soot concentrations recorded by the sensor are 29% higher than levels of pollution detected during the previous two months, the data scientists found.
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The U. of C. team plans to install more of the pollution sensors around the city, giving residents more information about what they are breathing close to home rather than the regionwide pollution tracked by the EPA.
Soot pollution already is an environmental justice problem in Chicago. Community groups have been pushing the city for years to consider the health dangers when evaluating plans for new freight operations.
A 2014 Tribune analysis found that nearly 340,000 people, including 38,000 children younger than 7, live within a half-mile of one of the region’s intermodal terminals. More than 80% are Latino or African American.
Trucks enter a busy rail intermodal yard May 6, 2020, in Cicero. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
Diesel locomotives and trucks are regulated differently than steel mills, factories and power plants. New or refurbished engines must be cleaner, but older, dirtier diesel equipment can legally keep operating.
As a result, certain neighborhoods remain pollution hot spots even when air quality in the broader metropolitan area is considered relatively clean.
In Little Village, residents are fighting a proposed warehouse that would bring scores of additional diesel trucks into the working class, predominantly Latino neighborhood.
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Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, noted the trucks would maneuver and idle on the site of a former coal-fired power plant that for decades was one of the city’s largest industrial emitters of soot.
“There are something like 45 warehouses now within 2 miles of us,” Wasserman said this week. “The city keeps approving new ones without any regard for what they are doing to air quality in our neighborhood and others.”
Unlike the vivid dust cloud created by the recent implosion of a smokestack at the former coal plant, a type of soot known as PM2.5 is so small thousands of particles could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.
A growing body of research shows the fine particles can lodge deeply in the lungs and penetrate the bloodstream. Breathing the pollution can trigger asthma attacks and cause heart problems.
Last year public health experts at the U.S. EPA reaffirmed that PM2.5 pollution is responsible for thousands of premature deaths annually. Requiring more rigorous control of industrial emissions could save thousands of lives, the EPA scientists concluded.
There also is an emerging scientific link between soot and COVID-19 death rates.
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New research from a team of Harvard data scientists found that a person living for decades in a county with high levels of soot is 8% more likely to die from the coronavirus than someone in an area with one microgram less of the pollution per cubic meter of air.
“When you think about how fine particulate matter kills you and how COVID-19 kills you, you realize that more soot in the air is like throwing gasoline on a fire,” said the study’s principal investigator, Francesca Dominici, a Harvard biostatistics professor who spent the past two decades perfecting a database of long-term soot concentrations across the nation.
As part of a mandatory five-year review, EPA scientists determined that tightening federal soot standards — from 12 to 9 micrograms of PM2.5 pollution per cubic meter of air — would lower annual deaths by 27%, or 12,150 people a year.
But despite the findings from the agency’s career staff, the Trump administration last month scuttled a proposed tightening of federal standards for industrial emissions.
The administration ended up siding with industry groups that for decades have attacked scientific conclusions about soot, including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Mining Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“We believe the current standard is protective of public health,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told reporters during an April 14 conference call.“Through the five-year review process we’ve identified a lot of uncertainties. Through those uncertainties we’ve identified that the current standard does not need to be changed.”


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Column: Maybe African American youths would listen to Mayor Lightfoot if she listened to them

The pandemic has shuttered every place that disadvantaged youths have to go , not only for fun but also for @ @ @ @ @ community-based programs that served as safety nets from abuse and violence and oftentimes provided food @ @ @ @ @ away from home are closed and often there ’ s nowhere else to go .

Mayor Lori Lightfoot wears a mask as she prepares to speak about the coronavirus economic recovery plan April 23. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is on a mission to force young Chicagoans to stay home. More so than any other mayor, she has come to symbolize the doggedness it takes to get youths to follow the rules.
Lightfoot is determined to stop the spread of COVID-19 in her city. She owes no one an apology for that.
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But some Chicagoans are starting to wonder whether she is taking her tough mothering role too far. Some African Americans, in particular, think she’s much tougher on black kids than white kids who are breaking the stay-at-home order as well.
A couple of weeks ago, the mayor and the new police superintendent, David Brown, held a news conference on a street corner on the West Side, where she vowed that police would arrest those who hold house parties.
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“Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and you refuse to do what is necessary to save lives in this city in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail, period,” she said.
Afterward, she crossed the street with her entourage and confronted a group of adolescent boys playing basketball on the playground of a shuttered school and told them to go home.
“This playground is closed,” she said in a stern voice. “Move on.”
Most of the children turned and walked off the court without saying a word. But one young man took issue with the mayor and talked back.
“Y’all need to find a cure, you’re talking about go home. You go home,” he said as the mayor walked away. Then he turned and softly uttered some disrespectful words.
Some young people want to know why the mayor didn’t use the opportunity to have a real conversation with these young people. They question why white anti-shutdown protesters were allowed to gather downtown without following social distancing rules without being threatened with arrest.
They accuse her of being condescending to African Americans and failing to show concern about the underlying issues that could make it difficult for them to stay at home, even if they wanted to.
Rather than threatening black youths with punitive measures, they argue, she should be using her platform to promote restorative justice — measures that would keep young blacks out of jail rather than locking more of them up.
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Frankly, some think she’s acting more like a bully these days than a concerned mayor.
In a virtual Q&A with Black Lives Matter activist Ja’Mal Green on Saturday, Lightfoot acknowledged that the criticism is generational. Younger people have more problems with her methods than those over the age of 40 do, she said.
The bottom line, though, is that she has no plans to stop doing what she’s doing.
“I’m not going to apologize for caring about black Chicago,” Lightfoot said.
As the city grapples with more than 33,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,400 deaths — with the numbers still rising — Lightfoot has been forced to take extraordinary measures to try to bend the curve.
She was absolutely right to shut down that basketball game. But it would have been nice if she had hung around a little longer to ask a few questions and listen.
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When she told those youths to move on, the questions that should immediately have come to mind were: Move on to where? Move on to what?
The pandemic has shuttered every place that disadvantaged youths have to go, not only for fun but also for support. Gone are the community-based programs that served as safety nets from abuse and violence and oftentimes provided food and shelter. Their homes away from home are closed and often there’s nowhere else to go.
In crowded homes where people live packed on top of one another, everyone needs a break. For many young males, a pickup game of basketball is the closest thing to freedom.
Many of those boys were wearing masks that afternoon on the playground. That was an indication that they intended no harm.
Rather than shooing them off or chastising them about infecting their mama, a few minutes of listening to their reasons for being on that court might have been more effective.
As summer comes and areas outside the city begin to loosen their rules, it will become increasingly difficult for Lightfoot to enforce strict stay-at-home requirements in Chicago.
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There simply won’t be enough police officers to patrol every inch of the city to make sure no one is holding an illegal party, shooting hoops on a playground or hanging on a street corner drinking beer.
She can’t win this battle unless she figures out how to get young people on her side.
Unfortunately, Lightfoot hasn’t been around long enough for young people to know her well. A newcomer to politics, next week marks her first full year in office. They’re not sure whether she’s a friend or a foe.
Young people, African Americans in particular, tend not to trust politicians to begin with. Given that most of the previous mayors weren’t invested in them, their natural instinct is to look at Lightfoot as just another adversary they have to deal with.
That’s too bad. This mayor seems to have a vested interest in improving the futures of Chicago’s black youths. She didn’t have a chance to prove it before COVID-19 forced her to put her plans for them on hold.
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Her four-point plan to end poverty in a generation, announced in February, promised affordable housing, quality jobs, expanding minimum wage to $15 an hour and closing the gap in health disparities.
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All of these would drastically improve the quality of life for young African Americans, particularly young black men in Chicago, who suffer from chronic unemployment more than any other group. The pandemic will make it even harder for them to break even, much less get ahead.
Rather than threatening jail, Lightfoot should have tried harder to make young people understand that getting out of this pandemic safely is as much in their best interest as anyone else’s.
“Your actions are going to make a difference between whether or not we get out sooner or later, whether or not we have a summer or we do not,” she said at that same news conference.
What she has to do now is convince them that something worthwhile is waiting for them on the other side.
dglanton@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @dahleeng


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are not Cook County.’ Pritzker’s geographical grouping in  COVID-19 fight

‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are not Cook County.’ Pritzker’s geographical grouping in  COVID-19 fight rankles many officials.

Last week , when asked about grouping Grundy , Kankakee and Kendall counties with Cook , Pritzker said , “ @ @ @ @ @ people in outlying counties around Cook County around the collar counties travel in and out @ @ @ @ @ to those locations , and so that that is one of the reasons why those @ @ @ @ @ .
It has in part to do with the radius from , you know , @ @ @ @ @ which have significant numbers of cases .
”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during the daily news briefing regarding the coronavirus pandemic on May 3, 2020, at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
Opposition to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s coronavirus shutdown has intensified across parts of the suburbs and beyond, as elected officials try to sever their fates from that of Chicago and Cook County.
Officials in some towns and counties have asked to be considered separately from the big city, arguing that they have many fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19, and deserve to reopen businesses and gatherings sooner.
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Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley went a step further, saying he was refusing to enforce the governor’s executive order. He said he had neither the authority nor the desire to cite or arrest people for holding weddings or graduation parties.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are not Cook County,” Briley wrote on the sheriff’s Facebook page. “We are a rural community who believes in freedom, the rule of law, and (we) support the Constitution.”
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In an interview, Briley said residents were following social distancing guidelines, but had legitimate concerns when or whether their businesses would reopen.
Briley also cited what he said was a written opinion from David Robinson of the Illinois appellate prosecutor’s office stating the governor’s authority to close businesses and church gatherings “does not appear to meet strict scrutiny.”
To try to minimize spread of the virus, Pritzker has ordered most businesses to remain shut down and has restricted most gatherings until at least May 30. His Restore Illinois plan divides the state into four regions and sets five steps to reopen each region, based on meeting benchmarks such as lower infection rates and hospitalizations.
Under Restore Illinois, Cook County is in the state’s Northeast Health Region with DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
Pritzker has said the virus does not recognize geographic boundaries. The Illinois attorney general’s office is also fighting lawsuits challenging the governor’s authority to enforce the executive order.
During his daily coronavirus update Wednesday, Pritzker warned, “There will be consequences” for breaching his orders, stating that licensing authorities may take action.
Illinois State Police will take action, and counties that reopen “in defiance” may not be reimbursed with federal funds for damages they cause.
The governor warned that more people would die without following expert advice, adding, “To the elected officials out there who are playing to the crowd that ignores science and carries symbols of hate, step up and lead.”
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On Tuesday, the Grundy County board passed a resolution asking to be reclassified from the Northeast region into the North-Central Health Region, which covers more rural northwest Illinois.
Board Chairman Chris Balkema noted the county had only 62 cases and one death, and was unfairly judged together with Cook County, at more than 23,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.
In the same vein, all 25 mayors and village presidents in McHenry County, and Democratic county board Chairman Jack Franks asked that the county be removed from the Northeast region. Instead, they recommended making the county its own region, or reclassifying it into the North-Central region. Franks said it “didn’t make any sense” to hold back the county if it meets the governor’s guidelines for a phased reopening.
They cited epidemiological data, hospital capacity and other statistics to argue their case. For example, they reported that the infection rate of the total population in McHenry was less than one-third of Cook County’s infection rate.
Previously, DuPage County mayors and managers asked the governor to allow businesses there to reopen before the end of the month. State Sen. Patrick Joyce also called on the governor to separate Kankakee County from Cook County’s region.
Similarly, Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk said that on Friday he will present a plan to the governor, devised with the local chamber of commerce, on how to reopen some businesses. He and his fellow suburban mayors believe they are being unfairly “tied with what’s happening in Chicago,” he said.
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He said the governor’s orders regarding social distancing and face masks should be adhered to, but that some restaurants and other businesses can operate safely in outdoor settings.
While calling for separating other areas from Cook County, suburban officials said they would continue to take steps to promote social distancing and other precautions.
O’Dekirk said one of the most lucrative sources of local revenue — Joliet’s two casinos — should remain shut down for the time being.
“We’re losing $300,000 a week in revenue with the casinos being closed, but I understand why they are,” he said. “It’s an indoor setting, lots of people crowded together and a clientele that includes a lot of seniors. I think opening casinos right now would be a mistake.”
Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley sent Pritzker a letter Monday asking for “a more surgical approach” toward allowing businesses to reopen, arguing that his DuPage County town of 46,000 shouldn’t be lumped together with dense urban areas like Chicago.
He said small retailers in particular should be allowed to open, contending they can serve customers as safely as large stores like Costco and Target that have continued to operate during the pandemic.
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In an interview Wednesday, Morley said he has yet to receive a response from Pritzker or his staff. He said he and other suburban mayors are looking for a dialogue that would fine-tune the governor’s Restore Illinois plan, especially as it concerns restaurants.
The plan allows restaurants to resume sit-down service with capacity limits only when a health region’s rate of positive COVID-19 tests is at or below 20% over a 14-day period — DuPage has been hovering right around that mark since late April — and other benchmarks have been met.
Morley said Elmhurst’s plethora of restaurants have made the city an entertainment destination over the last 10 years, and that delivery and curbside pickup are not enough to sustain them.
“I want to be able to offer options for bars and restaurants in Elmhurst sooner rather than later,” he said. “ … In the absence of an actual vaccine, I don’t think it’s realistic to close down our economy for a year or 18 months, so we have to find a way to open back up in a safe manner, and I think we can do that.”
Last week, when asked about grouping Grundy, Kankakee and Kendall counties with Cook, Pritzker said, “Remember that many of the people in outlying counties around Cook County around the collar counties travel in and out frequently sometimes for their job to those locations, and so that that is one of the reasons why those counties are where they are. It has in part to do with the radius from, you know, from the collar counties, which have significant numbers of cases.”
Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird took a position similar to the Grundy sheriff Briley, saying he was not encouraging anyone to break the governor’s orders, but that his office would not fine or arrest anyone for violating them.
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Officials hundreds of miles away from Cook County also have taken action against the plan. Madison County’s Board of Health voted Tuesday to allow businesses and churches to begin reopening Wednesday.
“We want to balance the goals of public health, our economy and jobs and our constitutional rights,” Chairman Kurt Prenzler said.
Downstate television station WGEM also reported the Adams County board and city of Quincy officials passed resolutions asking the governor to modify his orders to let them open businesses.


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Chicago man accused of Bronx, N.Y., homicide

Authorities suspect Khphruan Campbell in the death of Becky Crown , 38 , who was found in a garbage can @ @ @ @ @ apartment building in the 4400 block of Park Avenue in the New York City borough @ @ @ @ @ New York City police detective said .

A West Rogers Park neighborhood man is accused of strangling a New York City woman, leaving her body in a garbage bin last month in the Bronx.
Authorities suspect Khphruan Campbell in the death of Becky Crown, 38, who was found in a garbage can in an alley behind an apartment building in the 4400 block of Park Avenue in the New York City borough of the Bronx, a New York City police detective said.
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Campbell, 37, was arrested in Chicago on an out-of-state warrant at his home in the 6600 block of North Campbell Avenue about 8:40 am. on Monday.
On Tuesday, during an internet-broadcast bail hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge John Lyke Jr. ordered Campbell held without bail, and Campbell waived extradition to New York City, Cook County records show.
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The attack happened April 20 about 8:30 a.m.
“Police responded to a 911 call of an unresponsive female,’’ the detective said. Crown, who lived about 7 miles away in the 300 block of West 94th Street in Manhattan, was pronounced dead on the scene by emergency responders, the detective said.
The cause of Crown’s death was ruled compression of the neck and chest, and it was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner’s office, the detective said.
No other arrests have been made, and a motive was not clear.
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Wisconsin now without COVID-19 restrictions after state Supreme Court strikes down Gov. Tony Evers’

Wisconsin now without COVID-19 restrictions after state Supreme Court strikes down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order

Along with Illinois and Michigan , Wisconsin has been one of the most cautious states in the Midwest when it @ @ @ @ @ .
All three states are run by Democratic governors .
By contrast , Iowa , @ @ @ @ @ Midwestern states controlled by Republicans have more urgently opened up sectors of their economies even @ @ @ @ @ cases in some of those states have continued to increase .

Jack Montemagni, 88, laughs with a fellow bar patron after the two shared a hug at Papa's Blue Spruce Resort pub, May 14, 2020 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ monthslong stay-at-home order on Wednesday, leaving the state with no public health restrictions in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 4-3 decision marked the first time a state’s high court has overturned a governor’s stay-at-home order amid the COVID-19 crisis, as a majority of Wisconsin’s justices sided with Republican legislative leaders who argued the governor’s administration had overstepped its legal authority.
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The court rejected the lawmakers’ request for a six-day stay to allow the GOP lawmakers and the governor to work out new rules, saying the two parties had two weeks since it took up the case to work "in good faith to establish a lawful rule that addresses COVID-19 and its devastating effects on Wisconsin.”
But as of late Wednesday night, neither Evers nor legislative leaders had offered an order or rules to serve as a replacement. That leaves Wisconsin as the only state in the nation without a single protective measure in place to combat the coronavirus, the governor’s office said.
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In an interview, Evers said he would work with Republicans to write new rules, but said the “arcane process” could take weeks, and by the time anything is agreed upon, “the ship may have sailed” in containing the contagious virus.
“Republican legislators convinced four members of the Supreme Court to throw the state into chaos," Evers told the Tribune. “They have no plan. People are going to get sick, and those Republicans own this chaos.”
[ Wisconsin GOP lawmakers urge Washington to reject any ‘bailout’ money for Illinois: ‘Our neighbors to the south have spent decades spending and borrowing recklessly’ ]
The top Republican lawmakers who brought the suit, state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, issued a statement applauding the decision. They also noted that Evers had declined two weeks ago to start negotiating new COVID-19 rules and instead wanted to wait for the court decision.
“We are confident Wisconsin citizens are up to the task of fighting the virus as we enter a new phase,” the lawmakers said. “This ruling allows people to once again gather with their loved ones or visit their places of worship without the fear of violating a state order.”
In the lawsuit, Republicans contended that Evers and Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm could not continue to extend stay-at-home orders indefinitely without seeking approval from the state legislature. The legislative leaders took the matter straight to the state Supreme Court after Evers’ “safer-at-home” order was extended until May 26.
Attorneys for Evers contended that the governor and the state’s top health official acted under clear emergency powers allowed for under state law.
After the justices heard arguments in the case during an online video conference last week, they ruled against the governor, a decision that effectively places any COVID-19 public health restrictions in the purview of a rule-making legislative committee controlled by Republicans that would hold veto power over directives issued by Evers and his administration.
In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Patience Roggensack did not weigh in on whether Evers and his administration’s actions overstepped his constitutional authority. Instead, the court ruled more narrowly that Palm’s order “confining all people to their homes, forbidding travel and closing businesses exceeded the statutory authority” granted by law to the state’s health director during an emergency. Roggensack was joined by fellow conservative Justices Annette Ziegler, Rebecca Bradley and Daniel Kelly.
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Bradley and Kelly wrote separate concurring opinions that went a step further, contending Evers’ health director had overstepped constitutional boundaries.
“Where in the constitution did the people of Wisconsin confer authority on a single, unelected Cabinet secretary to compel almost 6 million people to stay at home and close their businesses and face imprisonment if they don’t comply, with no input from the legislature, without the consent of the people?” Bradley asked during oral arguments last week. “Isn’t it the very definition of tyranny for one person to order people for being imprisoned for going to work, among other ordinarily lawful activities?”
However, fellow conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote in his own dissenting opinion that “the people have not empowered this court to step in and impose our wisdom on proper governance during this pandemic; they left that to the legislative and executive branches.”
“We are a court of law," Hagedorn warned. “We are not here to do freewheeling constitutional theory. We are not here to step in and referee every intractable political stalemate.”
Hagedorn was joined in dissent by liberal Justices Rebecca Dallet and Ann Bradley, who slammed the court’s decision not to issue a stay to give lawmakers and the governor time to hash out rules to replace the overturned stay-at-home order.
“The lack of a stay would be particularly breathtaking given the testimony yesterday before Congress by one of our nation’s top infectious disease experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci,” Ann Bradley wrote. “He warned against lifting too quickly stay-at-home orders.”
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Emphasizing the immediacy of the decision, the Tavern League of Wisconsin on Wednesday night encouraged its members to reopen under guidelines from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Those include leaving two empty stools in between parties, limiting tables to six guests, spacing tables 6 feet apart and requiring employees to wear face masks.
Social media posts and media reports Wednesday night showed Wisconsinites packing into some bars with little regard to social distancing and the other state health guidelines.
45 minutes after the bars open in Wisconsin.... pic.twitter.com/xqaDlS6ajP — Nick's bar (@nicksonsec) May 14, 2020
“The Tavern League of Wisconsin emailed all their members tonight saying, ‘Open up guys, it’s time to party,’” Evers said, saying his state had become the “wild, wild West” when it comes to containing the virus.
Vos and Fitzgerald, however, insisted businesses following the state safety recommendations is the right approach.
“We urge our fellow small business owners to utilize the suggestions as a safe and effective way to open up our state,” they said. “Wisconsin now joins multiple states that don’t have extensive stay at home orders but can continue to follow good practices of social distancing, hand washing, hand sanitizer usage and telecommuting. This order does not promote people to act in a way that they believe endangers their health.”
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Vos and Fitzgerald repeatedly contended that Evers’ order went too far, but have not offered any legislation or plan of their own on how the state should balance reopening the state’s economy and keeping Wisconsinites safe.
In their statement Wednesday night, the lawmakers said they would start working with Evers on rules “in case COVID-19 reoccurs in a more aggressive way,” implying that no such rules might be instituted right away to replace the stay-at-home order.
In the wake of the court ruling, both the Republican leaders and the governor pointed to a new Marquette University Law poll to bolster their positions.
Vos and Fitzgerald noted that the poll found that 77% of Wisconsin voters said they would feel comfortable visiting a friend or family member’s home. Evers pointed to the fact that 64% of voters approved of his handling of the virus.
That approval rating for the governor’s handling of the pandemic, however, was down from 76% in March. But like many governors, public support for Evers far outpaces the approval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic. The poll, released Tuesday, found 44% of Wisconsin voters approved of Trump’s response to COVID-19, down from 51% in March.
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The new poll found that 53% of Wisconsin voters said they trusted Evers more to properly respond to the pandemic compared to 33% who said they trusted the state legislature more.
[ Wisconsin’s opening of nonessential stores prompts mixed reactions in Lake County border towns ]
Motorists make their way around the Wisconsin State Capitol during a rally against Gov. Tony Evers' extended stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., on April 24, 2020. (Amber Arnold/Wisconsin State Journal /AP)
The legal battle is the latest episode in a long-running and bitter political divide between the Republicans and Democrats in a crucial swing state in the fall presidential election. Trump narrowly won Wisconsin four years ago.
Fitzgerald and Vos won a similar decision before the state Supreme Court earlier this year that overturned Evers’ effort to delay the April 13 election and mail all voters a ballot amid the coronavirus pandemic. The ruling required in-person voting to be held as planned, despite a massive shortage of poll workers and a dramatic reduction in the number of voting locations.
Evers issued his initial stay-at-home order on March 18, which closed schools and shuttered nonessential businesses. On April 16, the governor extended the order until May 26, but he allowed for elective surgeries to resume, and state parks and golf courses to open.
Gov. Tony Evers declares a public health emergency in response to a growing number of cases of COVID-19 in Wisconsin on March 12, 2020. (Steve Apps/Wisconsin State Journal )
At the time the Republican lawmakers sued, Wisconsin’s COVID-19 cases were still on the rise, though they now have started to decrease. All told, 10,611 people have been sickened by the virus in the state and 418 have died.
As conditions have improved in recent days, Evers also has begun to loosen restrictions under his “Badger Bounce Back Plan” to gradually reopen the state’s economy. That included an announcement this week that retail stores could reopen with a limit of five customers at a time.
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The Marquette poll found that 69% of voters thought Evers’ stay-at-home order to close businesses and schools was appropriate compared with 26% who said they were an overreaction. That marked a drop in support since March, when 86% said the governor’s actions were appropriate and only 10% said they were an overreaction.
Statewide, the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin, or positivity rate, has dropped to less than 4%. By contrast, the most recent positivity rate released for Illinois is 17% overall and 20.7% in northeast Illinois.
Asked whether he was worried about Illinois residents from Chicago and the suburbs flocking over the state line to patronize Wisconsin businesses, Evers could hardly contain his disgust.
“I guess the Tavern League would like that. They’d like as many damn people in their bars as possible,” he said. “It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand that if you bring a lot of people together in a small place, somebody’s going to get sick.”
Along with Illinois and Michigan, Wisconsin has been one of the most cautious states in the Midwest when it comes to reopening its economy. All three states are run by Democratic governors. By contrast, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and other Midwestern states controlled by Republicans have more urgently opened up sectors of their economies even as the number of COVID-19 cases in some of those states have continued to increase.
But none of those states have the situation Wisconsin now has — no statewide restrictions whatsoever on businesses or individuals.
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The state’s 72 counties could still issue their own individual directives while Milwaukee and Madison still have their own stay-at-home orders in place. Asked if he took any solace in those backstops, Evers gruffly responded, “No, I’m the governor of the entire state."
“The idea we’ll have 72 interpretations of what the hell is going on in the state isn’t going to help anybody,” the governor said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have more sick people.”
bruthhart@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BillRuthhart


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Does Mayor Lori Lightfoot want to add a 5th red star to Chicago’s iconic flag? She’s brought it up t

Does Mayor Lori Lightfoot want to add a 5th red star to Chicago’s iconic flag? She’s brought it up twice in a week

“ As Mayor Lightfoot stated in her remarks today , Chicago aims to be a model for how American cities @ @ @ @ @ crisis , '' a Lightfoot spokeswoman said .
`` She also believes the city ’ @ @ @ @ @ recover from the COVID-19 pandemic will be worthy of the kind of significance associated with @ @ @ @ @ on the Chicago flag .
”

A large Chicago flag mask on one of the lions at the Art Institute lion in Chicago on April 30, 2020. (Jos M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Twice in the past week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has raised the possibility of Chicago possibly adding a fifth red star to its iconic flag marking the city’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
It’s led many to wonder: Is she for real?
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While unveiling her five-phase plan for reopening the city last Friday, Lightfoot said, “I want nothing less than for our efforts over the coming months to truly warrant a fifth star on our flag.”
She made the same point on Wednesday before the Economic Club of Chicago. While announcing that the lakefront will remain closed, but several industries are on track to expand services or reopen when the city reaches the next phase of her reopening plan.
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Much of the social media response to the idea has been lighthearted. One Twitter user opined that a fifth star should honor the 90s Chicago Bulls, or else there should be a riot. Another joked: “The fifth star will commemorate Lightfoot memes.”
Others have commented that the idea would amount to a small economic stimulus package for Chicago tattoo parlors.
But some have taken the idea and criticized it in earnest. Socialist Chicago Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, tweeted that the coronavirus crisis would be out of place on the city’s flag.
“Adding a 5th COVID-19 related star doesn’t make any sense,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “Each of the 4 current stars represent a place/event that is unique to Chicago: Ft. Dearborn, Great Fire, 1893 Columbian Exposition, 1933 World’s Fair. Is Chicago the only city facing COVID-19? Is our response unique?”
It’s unclear just how serious Lightfoot is about the idea.
“As Mayor Lightfoot stated in her remarks today, Chicago aims to be a model for how American cities can recover from the COVID-19 crisis," a Lightfoot spokeswoman said. "She also believes the city’s efforts to overcome and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic will be worthy of the kind of significance associated with the other historic moments represented on the Chicago flag.”
gpratt@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Downstate legislator cites 2001 letter from then-AG Jim Ryan in amended lawsuit contesting Pritzker’

Downstate legislator cites 2001 letter from then-AG Jim Ryan in amended lawsuit contesting Pritzker’s stay-at-home order

The act “ clearly authorizes the governor to exercise emergency powers for up to 30 days , ” Ryan wrote @ @ @ @ @ in the lawsuit .
“ A construction of its provisions to allow the governor to @ @ @ @ @ render the limitation clause meaningless .
A more reasonable construction , taking into consideration the @ @ @ @ @ , is that the governor would be required to seek legislative approval for the exercise @ @ @ @ @ 30 days .
”

Republican state Rep. Darren Bailey has filed an amended lawsuit in a downstate court challenging Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, contending that a 2001 Illinois attorney general document contradicts the state’s position on why the order could be extended beyond the initial 30 days.
The 2001 letter from then-Attorney General Jim Ryan to the state Emergency Management Agency director appears to respond to questions about foot-and-mouth disease and whether the governor could “exercise emergency powers in excess of 30 days after the declaration of a disaster.”
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According to the letter, which is among the documents filed with Bailey’s lawsuit, Ryan wrote that he would “comment informally upon the questions you have raised.”
[ Wisconsin now without COVID-19 restrictions after state Supreme Court strikes down Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order ]
State Rep. Darren Bailey stands in front of the Clay County Courthouse on April 29, 2020, in Louisville, Ill. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
The act “clearly authorizes the governor to exercise emergency powers for up to 30 days,” Ryan wrote in the 2001 letter cited in the lawsuit. “A construction of its provisions to allow the governor to extend the 30-day period would render the limitation clause meaningless. A more reasonable construction, taking into consideration the other provisions of the act, is that the governor would be required to seek legislative approval for the exercise of extraordinary measures extending beyond 30 days.”
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Bailey, of Xenia, is arguing that Pritzker has exceeded his authority by “issuing disaster proclamations which fail to meet the definition of a disaster” under the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act, and that the act does not give the governor the authority “to restrict the movement or activities or business closures.”
Bailey filed an initial lawsuit last month, and a downstate judge in Clay County issued a temporary restraining order exempting him from the stay-at-home order. That ruling applied only to Bailey. Pritzker has forcefully defended his stay-at-home order and has said his actions to date are within the powers given to the governor by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act.
In defending that initial lawsuit, the Illinois attorney general’s office countered that it relies on an erroneous reading of the act and ignores the governor’s independent authority under the Illinois Constitution.
Bailey later asked an appeals court to withdraw the order so he could refile his lawsuit with new information.
jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Volo Auto Museum co-founder dies at 77

Volo Auto Museum co-founder dies at 77

Grams was part of a family that put Volo on the map and in the national spotlight , with crowds @ @ @ @ @ the 35-acre attraction annually to see hundreds of collector vehicles for sale and on display @ @ @ @ @ movies , like the Batmobile , and iconic TV shows , as well as muscle @ @

Bill Grams, co-founder of the Volo Auto Museum, died Tuesday at age 77.
The longtime Volo resident died of a heart attack at Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington after battling cancer, according to a news release.
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Grams was part of a family that put Volo on the map and in the national spotlight, with crowds from near and far visiting the 35-acre attraction annually to see hundreds of collector vehicles for sale and on display, including original cars from movies, like the Batmobile, and iconic TV shows, as well as muscle cars.
In 2017, the History Channel began to air the “Volo House of Cars” TV show, which focused on the Grams family’s tales of rare-vehicle finds.
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The Volo Museum idea was a seed planted when Grams and his brother Greg began to work on old cars as a hobby and then sold one for $25,000.
Bill Gram’s father, William, purchased the property on Routes 12 and 120 in 1960 and opened a junk and antique resale shop that later included the auto museum — now a staple in the classic car community.
The Volo Auto Museum is still a family-run business with three generations involved, including its co-founder Greg Grams, Greg’s wife, Myra, and their sons, Brian and Jay Grams.
Bill Gram’s wife, Carolyn, and their daughter Lisa Santiago, manage the Antique Malls side of the family business.
“The car industry is a little less full without him,” Brian Grams said. “He was very well-known and liked by the car community, very much a staple in the collector car world.”
Bill Grams was married for 56 years to his wife, Carolyn, according to the release.
Volo Auto Museum co-founder Bill Grams in recent years enjoyed modifying old Fords into whimsical eye-catchers. - Original Credit: News-Sun (Volo Auto Museum / HANDOUT)
In recent decades, Bill Grams ran the Antique Malls side of the business, as well as shepherding the pre-war car collection, including Fords, Croswells, Packards and more, from the 1920s and ’30s.
“Something will be missing without him,” Jay Grams said. “We’ll try really hard to make him proud.”
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Among Bill Grams’ more recent passions was modifying old Fords, Jay Grams said in the release. “I’m sure we’ll keep one of those on display at the museum as a dedication to him.”
The Volo Auto Museum has been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the museum website, there is a reopening planned for June 1.
Along with Bill Grams’ brother, Greg, daughter, Lisa, and nephews, Brian (Lesa) Grams and Jay (Kandie) Grams, he is survived by his wife, Carolyn, his son-in-law, Keith Santiago, a sister-in-law, Marilyn Miller, and granddaughter, Mila.
Arrangements are being handled by Hamsher Lakeside Funerals and Cremations in Fox Lake. Services and burial will be private, with a memorial reception planned for a later date.
An earlier version of this story contained a couple of errors that have since been corrected.


chicagotribune--2020-05-13--Kendall County sheriff won’t bust gatherings, businesses for not following governor’s COVID-19 order

Kendall County sheriff won’t bust gatherings, businesses for not following governor’s COVID-19 orders

If someone chooses to host an event , the sheriff ’ s office will not come and stop the festivities @ @ @ @ @ cautioned businesses licensed through the state or a municipality to consult with an attorney before @ @ @ @ @ an insurance company to ask if opening a business or hosting a party at one @ @ @ @ @ in liability , Baird said .

The Kendall County sheriff announced Wednesday that his deputies will not fine or arrest people for gathering in large groups nor will they target small businesses that violate the governor’s orders regarding social distancing.
Sheriff Dwight Baird said he has received many inquires in recent weeks regarding the enforcement of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive orders regarding COVID-19 and businesses that are classified as non-essential.
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Kendall County was recently linked to Cook County in the state’s northeast region under the governor’s five-phase reopening plan. Baird said he hopes Pritzker will reconsider the decision and move Kendall County into another region “more fitting to the community we are.”
Baird said since the benchmarks were released, calls have increased from residents asking about enforcement at church services, weddings, parties or graduation celebrations. Deputies will not fine or arrest anyone for solely violating the governor’s orders, Baird said in a statement.
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“I was elected and took an oath as your sheriff to enforce the laws and protect your constitutional rights,” Baird said. “The governor’s executive order is not a law.”
Baird backs his views with an opinion made in an internal memo by David Robinson, deputy director of the state’s attorneys appellate prosecutor’s office, who said the order has constitutional challenges and he wasn’t sure if courts would uphold Pritzker’s limitations. Baird noted that Kendall County does not have an ordinance that supports a fine for violating the governor’s orders.
Baird said he consulted with the Kendall County state’s attorney. Immediate attempts to reach State’s Attorney Eric Weis were unsuccessful.
If someone chooses to host an event, the sheriff’s office will not come and stop the festivities, Baird said. He cautioned businesses licensed through the state or a municipality to consult with an attorney before reopening. Residents should contact an insurance company to ask if opening a business or hosting a party at one’s house puts them in liability, Baird said.
Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder sent a letter to Pritzker on Monday urging him to allow small businesses to reopen. The letter was sent on behalf of the county board and the county's mayors and village presidents.
He said small businesses are the backbone of the county and owners are willing to follow safety guidelines, including social distancing.
Ultimately, Baird said he is not instructing residents to defy the governor, but he intends to explain how the sheriff’s office will provide service.
“You need to do what is right and safe for you and your family,” Baird said.
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The Grundy County Sheriff also released a similar statement Wednesday and will not fine or arrest people for holding or attending large gatherings.
“Kids are graduating from school, leaving for military service, and parents and family members want to celebrate those graduations and have family gatherings before their sons or daughters go off to serve our country," Sheriff Ken Briley said. "Needless to say, people want to live, not just exist.”
If circumstances change drastically, Baird said the sheriff’s office might change its stance and will keep residents up to date with any changes.
mejones@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-15--COVID-19 arrives at Illinois veterans homes, including more than 50 cases and 1 death at Manteno fac

COVID-19 arrives at Illinois veterans homes, including more than 50 cases and 1 death at Manteno facility

Little was said about the veterans homes during the pandemic before Gov .
J.B. Pritzker discussed them at his daily @ @ @ @ @ had been testing residents and workers who showed symptoms , but more cases emerged after @ @ @ @ @ for everyone last week , said Linda Chapa LaVia , director of the Department of @ @ @ @ @ operates the homes .

COVID-19 has emerged at three of the four state-run homes for veterans, including a significant outbreak in a home outside Kankakee where testing has found 53 cases in residents and workers, with two fatalities, Illinois officials said Friday.
At the hardest-hit facility — the Manteno Veterans’ Home, about 50 miles southwest of Chicago — 34 residents and 19 staff members had tested positive as of Friday, according to Evan Fazio, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Those numbers include two residents who died after testing positive, including one who had been in hospice care since 2019.
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Fazio said one resident had tested positive at the veterans home in LaSalle, an hour and a half west of Manteno, and five residents were found to be infected at a home in Anna in southern Illinois. There were no confirmed cases at the facility in Quincy along the border with Missouri.
The four veterans homes were funded to care for more than 800 veterans and their spouses and widows in the 2019 fiscal year, according to the last annual report from the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs. First priority for spots at the homes goes to wartime veterans.
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All residents and staff members had been tested and all results were in as of Friday, Fazio said.
Little was said about the veterans homes during the pandemic before Gov. J.B. Pritzker discussed them at his daily briefing Wednesday. The homes had been testing residents and workers who showed symptoms, but more cases emerged after the facilities recently obtained enough tests for everyone, said Linda Chapa LaVia, director of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which operates the homes.
There have been vastly worse outbreaks at private nursing homes and, she said, “We’ve been blessed to stay ahead of the storm.”
Indeed, dozens of private long-term care facilities around the state had reported 50 or more cases each as of May 8. At that point, the facilities accounted for some 1,500 deaths of residents and workers, nearly half of fatalities statewide.
The state’s handling of a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the Quincy home drew controversy in 2015. Following reporting by WBEZ-FM on the response by the administration of then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, the issue played a role in the 2018 governor’s race and a state audit found that officials had downplayed the seriousness of the problem. The disease killed a more than a dozen people at the facility.
In his comments Wednesday, Pritzker touted the measures taken to keep the state-run homes safe from a virus that preys aggressively on the elderly. Even before the virus took hold in Illinois’ nursing homes, Pritzker said, the state had mandated screening for employees and visitors at the veterans facilities and canceled most off-site activities, among other measures.
Unionized workers at private nursing homes have complained of what they describe as inadequate efforts to keep them safe. But officials from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 praised the measures taken at the state-run homes, which employ hundreds of the union’s members as nursing assistants and in other roles.
Leaders from the union — which has had a relatively harmonious relationship with the Pritzker administration — said broader testing earlier would have been better but they were told test kits were not available.
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“You don’t ever want to be Pollyanna but we feel very good about where we’re at now,” said AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall.
Union member Dave Pedersen, a volunteer coordinator at the Manteno home who identified himself as an Army veteran, said the home’s residents benefit from the support of veterans groups and donations that residents of some private homes might not see. He praised the response from the home and its staff but added: “I think the anxiety level for most staff is definitely higher than normal.”
"It’s not a job for somebody who isn’t brave,” he said.
dhinkel@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Students sue DePaul University for tuition refunds, claim move to online classes due to coronavirus

Students sue DePaul University for tuition refunds, claim move to online classes due to coronavirus has ‘decreased value’ of their education

“ We think universities are like any other business .
And if businesses are not able to deliver what ’ @ @ @ @ @ to only ask their customers to pay for what was actually provided , ” said @ @ @ @ @ firm is also representing students in tuition lawsuits against other colleges .
“ Sitting in @ @ @ @ @ a computer screen is very different than the in-person , college educational experience that these @ @ @ @ @ a lot of money for . ''

A pair of students dissatisfied with DePaul University’s transition to online courses this spring have filed a lawsuit against the school, seeking prorated tuition refunds since classes can’t be held in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, argues that students should get some money back because the quality of courses has decreased after the Chicago school closed much of its campus in late March and shifted solely to online instruction.
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“The remote learning, online classes are a shadow of the classes that had been offered to DePaul University students prior to the campus closures,” the lawsuit says. “This is particularly true for disciplines and courses of instruction such as the arts and laboratory-based sciences, where hands-on, in-person instruction is the norm — and, in reality, a necessity.”
Emma Sheikh, 22, a first-year graduate student at DePaul University, is a plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit seeking a tuition refund for spring quarter classes that are offered online. (Megan Magensky photo)
DePaul is the latest college, but the first in the Chicago area, to be hit with legal action over its response to the coronavirus outbreak. Similar lawsuits have been instigated by students and parents at Michigan State University, George Washington University and the University of Southern California. All the lawsuits contend students are entitled to refunds because they can’t take advantage of the full campus experiences for which they paid.
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For its part, DePaul says it has accommodated students while also holding its courses to a high academic standard. Before the lawsuit was filed, DePaul canceled a planned tuition increase for next year, refunded dining and meal costs for students who left campus and waived fees for services, such as athletics, that students could no longer utilize, according to spokeswoman Carol Hughes.
“This purported class-action lawsuit attempts to take advantage of difficult decisions DePaul University made to save lives and presents an erroneous view of how the university has responded to the COVID-19 crisis,” Hughes said in an emailed statement.
Even with most of campus closed, DePaul is still allowing students to use computer labs if they need, she added.
Though Hughes said the value of DePaul’s education has not been diminished due to the unforeseen changes, that message hasn’t resonated with at least the two students who are named in the lawsuit. Additionally, about 5,700 people have signed an online petition asking DePaul to lower tuition because “the educational services offered are not equal to services rendered.”
One of the plaintiffs, Emma Sheikh, a graduate student in DePaul’s College of Education, declined to comment. The other, identified in the suit as senior psychology student Enrique Chavez, could not be reached Thursday.
Both students took out students loans and are using personal funds to pay tuition, according to the lawsuit. Tuition at DePaul varies by academic department, the lawsuit said, but the undergraduate paid $13,160 and the graduate paid $8,515 for the spring term.
The lawsuit accuses DePaul of breaching its contract because it’s still requiring students to pay the full cost of tuition even though the campus experiences it advertises — including its recreational sports, proximity to Chicago and hands-on learning — can no longer be accessed by everyone. As a result of the abrupt shift to online learning, students have experienced a “decreased value of the education,” the lawsuit said.
Michelle Drake, an attorney representing the students, said the lawsuit asks DePaul to refund the difference between the value of online courses and the value of in-person ones. As the case progresses, economists will likely need to weigh in to help determine an exact dollar amount, she said.
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“We think universities are like any other business. And if businesses are not able to deliver what’s promised, they need to only ask their customers to pay for what was actually provided,” said Drake, whose Philadelphia-based law firm is also representing students in tuition lawsuits against other colleges. “Sitting in your house watching someone on a computer screen is very different than the in-person, college educational experience that these students and their families paid a lot of money for."
Hughes countered that DePaul has been preparing faculty to conduct online learning through professional development programs for more than a decade. Most recently, the school hosted a series of webinars to help professors, with more than 1,000 participants, adapt during the pandemic.
“With these foundations, and the amount of resources the university has invested for years in preparations for remote learning, the value of a DePaul education is as strong in Spring 2020 with all classes online or remote as it has been when the majority of classes were conducted in person,” Hughes said.
The first hearing in the case is set for July 27.
echerney@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--University of Illinois emergency ventilator project finds a manufacturer

“ Carle was planning for a worst-case scenario , where there would be hundreds , or even thousands , of @ @ @ @ @ needed a ventilator and one would not be available to them , ” King said @ @ @ @ @ this situation has not transpired , very fortunately for us .
But around this time @ @ @ @ @ around the country and around the world that were grappling with the exponential increase in @ @ @ @ @ that some hospitals would be overwhelmed .
”

Less than two months after they started to design a low-cost ventilator for emergency use, engineers and doctors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have cleared the biggest hurdle they faced — finding a company to build the machines.
Of all the efforts to build portable, lower-cost ventilators to help treat COVID-19 patients who are unable to breathe on their own, the U. of I. model is among the simplest, and the cheapest. The ventilator runs off of oxygen pressure — without electricity — and the manufacturer says it will cost less than $200.
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The university reached an agreement this month with Belkin, a maker of cellphone chargers and other accessories, to manufacture 10,000 ventilators a month at a factory in Rhode Island, according to the company.
U. of I. engineers spent about three weeks designing and testing prototypes, including using them on pigs. The result was an emergency ventilator small and cheap enough to be stockpiled by the thousands, said William King, a professor of mechanical engineering.
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“It’s a relatively simple device,” King said. “The one we designed is less than half a pound. It’s smaller than a loaf of bread, and it has around 20 mechanical components.”
The project was launched in mid-March when doctors at Carle Health, the university-affiliated hospital system in Champaign-Urbana, reached out to the engineering faculty and expressed concern about the possibility of ventilator shortages if central Illinois was overrun with COVID-19 cases.
Stefan Elbel tests RapidVent prototypes using test lungs at Creative Thermal Solutions in Urbana. (Heather Coit/University of Illinois)
“Carle was planning for a worst-case scenario, where there would be hundreds, or even thousands, of patients in our community that needed a ventilator and one would not be available to them,” King said. “Of course, this situation has not transpired, very fortunately for us. But around this time, there were many communities around the country and around the world that were grappling with the exponential increase in COVID cases and the potential that some hospitals would be overwhelmed.”
The university decided to make the design available as a free license to anybody interested. More than 60 companies, across 15 countries, have become licensees. But Belkin will be the first to actually make the machines.
California-based Belkin is owned by Foxconn Interconnect Technologies, a subsidiary of the massive Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn Internet Technologies and U. of I. have an existing relationship, as the company announced a $50 million gift last year to fund a partnership with the university to build a new technology development center for the Grainger College of Engineering. The company also has an office in the university’s research park in Champaign.
“We’ve been having extensive conversations with them about all kinds of things, and this was something we were working on that they were interested in, as well,” King said. Foxconn sent the design to Belkin to be built.
Belkin has applied for emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which the company hopes will be awarded by the end of May, a spokeswoman said.
Given the unpredictable demands of the pandemic, company officials say they won’t know what the demand for the devices is until they clear FDA approval and get into the market.
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“There is concern the virus will come back in the summer and fall and that it would be prudent to prepare for potential surges,” said Belkin spokeswoman Jen Warren. “In an earlier, more critical stage of the pandemic, it was clear there was a critical need for ventilators and not just for the short term.”
dheinzmann@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--The Spin: Blago to launch podcast | Chicago region on pace to enter next phase of reopening | Kinzin

The Spin: Blago to launch podcast | Chicago region on pace to enter next phase of reopening | Kinzinger a ‘no’ vote on Dem. bailout package

Pritzker warned this week that “ There will be consequences ” for breaching his orders , McCoppin and Keilman note @ @ @ @ @ was asked about grouping Grundy , Kankakee and Kendall counties with Cook , and said @ @ @ @ @ of the people in outlying counties around Cook County around the collar counties travel in @ @ @ @ @ their job to those locations , and so that is one of the reasons why @ @ @ @ @ are .
It has in part to do with the radius from , you know @ @ @ @ @ , which have significant numbers of cases .
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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaks to the media outside his home in Chicago on Feb. 19, 2020, after President Trump commuted his sentence the day before. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) (Jose Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced this afternoon that the Chicago region is now on track with the rest of the state to advance to the next phase of his Illinois reopening plan by month’s end.
Now that the northeast region in Pritzker's plan seems to be marching at the same pace toward reopening, we'll see if that douses some simmering tensions. Across parts of the suburbs and beyond, elected officials have been trying to sever their fates from that of Chicago and Cook County, my Tribune colleagues Robert McCoppin and John Keilman are reporting. “Officials in some towns and counties asked to be considered separately from the big city, arguing that they have many fewer cases and deaths from COVID-19, and deserve to reopen businesses and gatherings sooner," they write.
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And just in time for the next month of Illinois’ stay-at-home order, disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is getting a new platform.
Blagojevich, who exited federal prison earlier this year with the wave of a White House clemency wand and declared himself a Trumpocrat, will launch “The Lightning Rod” politics podcast on WLS-AM 890 next Wednesday. That’s the same day the Illinois General Assembly reconvenes in Springfield after a pandemic hiatus.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker arrives in a mask to speak Sunday, April 19, 2020 at the Thompson Center during the coronavirus pandemic. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
From the Tribune’s Dan Petrella: "Pritzker said Thursday that the Chicago region has joined the three others in the state in being on track to move to the next phase of his regional reopening plan on May 29.
"The northeast region, which includes Cook County, the collar counties and a few others, now has a positivity rate of less than 20% on screenings for the new coronavirus. A positivity rate of less than 20% that doesn’t increase by more than 10 percentage points over 14 days is one of the key criteria for reopening portions of the economy under Pritzker’s ‘Restore Illinois’ plan.
“If regions do move to the next phase of the plan later this month, a much wider range of businesses and activities could reopen, under certain restrictions, and gatherings of 10 or fewer people for any reason could resume.”
Petralla also notes: “Pritzker has faced a backlash since unveiling his five-phase reopening plan earlier this month. Earlier Thursday, Illinois Senate Republican leader Bill Brady of Bloomington called for public hearings on the plan.”
Pritzker hopes to return to Springfield next week: The governor’s been self-isolating at his Gold Coast home after a senior staffer, among those reporting to work at the downtown Thompson Center state office building amid the pandemic, tested positive for COVID-19. With the Illinois General Assembly going back to work next Wednesday, the governor today said he hopes to be there, too.
“I’d like to return to Springfield, probably mid (to) late next week for the opportunity to be there during session,” he told reporters today during a videoconference briefing, explaining that he first needs to get clearance from public health officials.
Preckwinkle unveils COVID-19 recovery plan for Cook County focusing on racial equity: The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the details here.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker arrives in a mask to speak April 19, 2020, at the Thompson Center during the coronavirus pandemic. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Under the “Restore Illinois” plan, the governor is calling for a phased-in regional approach to lifting his stay-at-home order that has closed most businesses and curbed most gatherings until month’s end. The state’s Northeast Health Region includes Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.
But officials in some of the communities under that umbrella say it’s unfair to be lumped in with hard-hit and densely populated Cook County. They’re concerned that because they’ll be judged as a region, certain benchmarks may not be reached to continue lifting restrictions, even as the number of cases and deaths dwindle in smaller communities, my Tribune colleagues Robert McCoppin and John Keilman write. Read their full story here.
On Tuesday, the Grundy County board passed a resolution asking to be reclassified from the Northeast region into the North-Central Health Region, which covers more rural northwest Illinois. In the same vein, all 25 mayors and village presidents in McHenry County and Democratic County Board Chairman Jack Franks asked that the county be removed from the Northeast region. And some county sheriffs are refusing to enforce the order.
During his daily briefing with reporters today, the governor offered a stern, “elected leaders - do your job. Lead. Be the person they elected who is supposed to be protecting your community. Don’t fall prey to the rhetoric that’s out there that says ‘oh let’s just open up, this virus doesn’t affect anyone like me.’ You’re wrong.”
Pritzker warned this week that “There will be consequences” for breaching his orders, McCoppin and Keilman note. And last week he was asked about grouping Grundy, Kankakee and Kendall counties with Cook, and said, “Remember that many of the people in outlying counties around Cook County around the collar counties travel in and out frequently sometimes for their job to those locations, and so that is one of the reasons why those counties are where they are. It has in part to do with the radius from, you know, from the collar counties, which have significant numbers of cases.”
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Two Will County Republican officials, small business sue Pritzker over stay-at-home order: The federal lawsuit alleges the order is, in essence, an unconstitutional seizure of property, the Tribune’s Jason Meisner writes in a dispatch.
Meisner notes: “George Pearson, the chairman of the Will County Republican Committee, and Republican county board member Steve Balich filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court seeking compensation for residents who have been forced to close businesses and lay off workers because of the governor’s ongoing stay-at-home order. Also listed as plaintiffs in the suit are the owners of a hair salon, an automotive shop and a pet grooming business in Will County.”
Kane County sheriff joins nearby counties and will not enforce governor’s COVID-19 orders for businesses and residents — From the Beacon-News’ Megan Jones: "The Kane County sheriff’s office said Thursday it will not take any enforcement actions against a person or business for violating the governor’s stay-at-home and social distancing orders.
Sheriff Ron Hain’s announcement comes one day after the Kendall and Grundy county sheriffs released similar sentiments, stating they will not fine or arrest people for gathering in large groups nor will they target small businesses."
Illinois Tollway collections down $52 million in April due to pandemic: That hasn’t halted projects, and the agency says it’s seeing an uptick in drivers during these first few weeks of May, the Tribune’s Mary Wisniewski reports. Read more here.
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, center, stops to talk to reporters as leaves his Chicago home on Feb. 19, 2020. Blagojevich was released from federal prison a day earlier, after his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
The former governor’s forthcoming podcast was announced in a news release from WLS parent company Cumulus Media, and Marv Nyren, vice president/market manager of Cumulus Chicago, issued a statement that stopped short of calling it a publicity stunt.
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“It will be messy, it will be raw and it will be Rod as you have never heard him before,” Nyren said.
In a prepared statement, Blagojevich also said: “After a long exile, I made it home. It’s a brand new day. I’m finally free and fired up to speak my mind, provide insights from the inside, and share what I’ve learned from the school of hard knocks.”
According to the news release, the show will “feature analysis about politics, government, trending stories and global issues, and will feature conversations with politicians, political experts, policymakers, celebrities and influencers about what’s worked, what hasn’t and who can make it better.” This isn’t the first time Blagojevich has worked with WLS. Read the rest of my story here.
I reached out to Cumulus about whether this is a paid gig and am waiting on an answer.
A freight train heads east toward Chicago at the busy rail intermodal BNSF yard in Cicero on May 6, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
My Tribune colleague Michael Hawthorne writes that while “weeks of clear skies over Los Angeles, New Delhi, Wuhan and other smoggy, soot-choked cities are signs of how the coronavirus lockdown improved air quality around the planet," the Chicago area hasn’t registered the same dropoff levels of lung-damaging, life-shortening pollution.
Hawthorne writes: "Average daily soot concentrations in the Chicago region declined by only 1% last month compared with April 2019, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of federal and state monitoring data.
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“By contrast, soot levels in New York City dropped 28% last month compared with the same period a year ago. Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles and St. Louis each saw a 16% decline in the tiny particles of pollution during the first full month of shelter-in-place orders.”
Culprit: “Diesel emissions in particular remain a chronic problem in Chicago, a racially segregated freight hub where rail yards, warehouses and intermodal facilities are concentrated in low-income, predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods,” Hawthorne writes. Click here to read the full story, which details how aldermen and residents in recent years are working at a local level to expand transportation services in their communities as a result.
Other Chicago news: $2.25 million settlement proposed in Chicago police shooting of unarmed teen with developmental disabilities - My colleague John Byrne has the details here.
Fact-check: Altered video shared online falsely suggests Mayor Lightfoot supports ‘New World Order’ conspiracy - The Associated Press looked into the claim that video shows proof of Lightfoot supporting a conspiracy theory built on the idea that the world’s most wealthy and powerful are plotting to overthrow democracy and install a single, global authoritarian government. Their assessment? That the claim is false, and that the video was edited to take her words out of context. Read the full story here.
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger speaks during a gun violence hearing on Oct. 3, 2019, at Kennedy King College. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Channahon Republican, said today he’ll vote against the House Democrats’ proposed $3 trillion bailout package – the latest in a series as the economy suffers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kinzinger echoed the concerns of his fellow Republicans who say the price tag is too hefty and that lawmakers should take a measured approach that ensures those who didn’t see money before get it the next time.
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While the Democrat-led House is expected to pass the funding bill tomorrow, it’s expected to stall in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
Kinzinger, the only Chicago-area Republican in Illinois' congressional delegation, said the next bailout package should be crafted by both parties.
“This was created with no Republican input. (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi knows that it’s not going anywhere and she’s doing it just so that her base can vote for it and then can run in November on it,” he said.
When asked what he's hearing from constituents, Kinzinger said, “They’re pissed." Kinzinger's 16th Illinois Congressional District stretches from Watseka, near the Indiana border, west to Dixon and north to Rockford and the Wisconsin border. He’s concerned that Pritzker’s reopening plan has shifted from bending the curve — and watching closely to ensure there are hospital beds to treat the sick — to eradicating the virus altogether.
“For some reason it’s turned into, in essence, the virus is gone. And while that may make sense for densely populated areas – Watseka Illinois is socially distanced already.”
Nearly 3 million more seek U.S. jobless aid; coronavirus layoff toll now 36 million: In Illinois, 72,993 people filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, compared with 74,476 for the week that ended May 2. The increase brings the state closer to the 1 million mark for residents who had sought financial assistance since mid-March. Adding to that number next week will be the self-employed in Illinois, who on Monday were allowed to begin seeking unemployment insurance benefits. Read the full Associated Press story here.
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Rush hospital system, Adler Planetarium announce staff cuts amid COVID-19 crisis: The Tribune’s Lisa Schencker has the details about Rush here, and my colleague Steve Johnson writes about the 120 staffers laid off at Adler here.
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--2020-05-14--COVID-19 in Illinois, the U.S. and the world: Timeline of the outbreak

Starting at a live fish market in Wuhan , China , outbreaks have hit across Europe , the Mideast and @ @ @ @ @ , Gov .
J.B. Pritzker has directed a response that closed schools and nonessential workplaces @ @ @ @ @ and public spaces have been closed .

Six months have passed since the hectic weeks when most of life as it was before COVID-19 shut down. Spring gave way to summer and work, school, sports and entertainment all radically transformed as the pandemic became the driving force behind nearly everything. Of course, before Gov. J.B. Pritzker shut down the state, instituted a reopening plan and shut some things down again; before case counts, positivity rates, N-95s, nasal swabs and other new words entered the public vocabulary, coronavirus was already spreading around the globe with a devastating impact.
The virus exacted a frightening toll with more than 29 million cases 900,000 deaths worldwide as of Sept. 14, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins. In Illinois, 8,314 have lost their lives and 262,744 have been confirmed with the virus.
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Starting at a live fish market in Wuhan, China, outbreaks hit across Europe, the Mideast and the U.S. Countries shut down, opened up and shut down again.
[ Subscribe here to the Chicago Tribune ]
Here are key points in the outbreak of COVID-19 in Illinois, the U.S. and the world, in politics, education, business and sports.
2019
January 2020
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September


chicagotribune--2020-05-14--Chicago-area transit may look different this summer, with social distancing and the end of rush hour

`` The way people commute and the way people use public transit is going to have to dramatically change , @ @ @ @ @ said .
`` Employers are really going to have to rethink how they want employees @ @ @ @ @ when they want employees to come to work , and how flexible they ’ re @ @ @ @ @ .
”

A person rides the Metra Electric District line, May 11, 2021, in Chicago. With some coronavirus pandemic restrictions lifted, some people may be returning to public transit. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The packed rush hour train and bus were until recently common features of urban life.
But the daily ritual of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, silently grousing about backpacks while looking down at your phone and waiting for your stop, may not be repeated until the new coronavirus has been eradicated.
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Ridership has dropped precipitously on Metra, CTA and Pace, as it has on public transportation systems around the country. Just at the CTA, ridership is down 80%. When riders do return — and that process is expected to take much longer than how fast they fled — the experience is likely to be different.
"The way people commute and the way people use public transit is going to have to dramatically change,” CTA President Dorval Carter said. "Employers are really going to have to rethink how they want employees to come to work, when they want employees to come to work, and how flexible they’re going to have to be.”
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A CTA passenger wearing a face mask and exits a train at the Roosevelt station, May 14, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Among the possibilities: transit agencies altering schedules to avoid crowded trains, buses running frequently throughout the day instead of being concentrated at rush hour, and employers staggering work hours to ease crowding on public transportation, transit experts say.
It also could mean, at least temporarily, more cars on the roads, and more people using bikes or scooters to get to work. Former commuters may be afraid of getting back on trains and buses, so transit agencies will have to demonstrate the systems are clean and safe, according to transit experts and officials.
The CTA, for instance, is looking at new technologies like ultraviolet light to augment its current cleaning processes.
Posters on the CTAremind riders to stay six feet apart. The state also mandates wearing face masks in crowded areas, like public transit. But during Wednesday’s CTA board meeting, Carter said the agency “can’t police common sense.” Riders are responsible for their own safety, he said, and should not board a bus or rail car if it’s too crowded.
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Ridership hasn’t declined in the same way everywhere. Metra, which relies heavily on commuters, has seen ridership drop 97%, compared with CTA’s 80% and 67% at Pace.
Even within the CTA, ridership patterns differ, reflecting demographic differences within Chicago, with many Loop-bound "L" commuters staying home while many essential and lower-income workers still ride transit to work.
CTA officials noted that ridership is down 90% on the Brown Line, and at Loop "L" stations, but hasn’t dropped as much on South Side "L" routes or on buses, particularly major routes coming from the South and West sides. Crowding still happens on buses, and though the CTA has added buses to create more capacity, it isn’t easy to predict when and where it’s going to happen, Carter said.
The CTA is boarding bus passengers from the rear doors in order to protect bus drivers, and Carter sees that continuing “in the foreseeable future.”
One way to encourage riders to use transit outside of rush hour is to charge lower fares during off-peak periods, said Audrey Wennink, transportation director for the Metropolitan Planning Council, a research group.
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While transit agencies have not publicly discussed lowering fares for off-peak weekday hours, CTA is not charging fares on buses that lack Ventra card readers at the rear door. Most buses don’t have them, so most bus trips are free.
Wennink said cities need to encourage biking. A new public scooter program, still being planned by the city, also could play a role, she said.
“We don’t want this to be a turning point of more driving, and going backwards in terms of equity and safety and sustainability,” Wennink said.
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Transit agencies and governments also need to make it an easy choice for riders to wear masks, said Ben Fried, communications director for TransitCenter, a New York-based research and advocacy foundation. In Seoul, South Korea, for example, where there has been only a 30-40% drop in transit ridership, buses contain hand sanitizer and mask dispensers.
“When the pandemic response is strong and transmission rates are low, the ridership effect is not as severe as we’ve seen in the U.S.,” Fried said.
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Transit agencies need to make sure they communicate with riders about service changes and how they’re keeping the system clean, and get input from riders about what they need, said Kyle Whitehead, spokesman for the Active Transportation Alliance, which advocates for transit riders, bicyclists and pedestrians.
While agencies grapple with a path forward, they are dealing with the severe economic consequences of lost ridership. The CTA, Metra and Pace could see almost $1 billion in revenue losses this year, according to the Regional Transportation Authority, the agency that oversees transit budgets.
The $2.2 trillion federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act is providing $1.4 billion to the RTA, but that may not be enough to cover revenue losses, which transit officials believe will extend into 2021.
The American Public Transportation Association sent a letter to Congress last week requesting another $23.8 billion in COVID-19 transit funding to address additional cost and revenue shortfalls.
Stephen Schlickman, a transportation funding and finance consultant, said there are two variables for transit going forward — a fear of COVID-19, which could keep people off transit, and a lack of financial resources to sustain existing levels of transit.
He said the CARES Act funding will “barely" get transit through the year unless agencies start to reduce service levels.
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“If they don’t do that, then existing levels for service, with some haircuts, should continue through the summer, but there will be a cliff that they will fall off toward the end of year or early next year," Schlickman said.
mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com


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· An op-ed column by Jonah Goldberg in Wednesday’s newspaper incorrectly characterized Attorney General William Barr’s actions concerning former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The column should have stated that Barr submitted a motion to dismiss all charges against Flynn.
The Tribune regrets the error.
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