chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Murder suspect who escaped while on electronic monitoring is captured in Ohio days after allegedly p

Murder suspect who escaped while on electronic monitoring is captured in Ohio days after allegedly pointing gun at police

The Madison County , Ohio , sheriff ’ s department confirmed Wednesday night that Juan Torkelson , 28 , had @ @ @ @ @ other details .
It was unclear whether Torkelson will face criminal charges in Ohio and @ @ @ @ @ return to Illinois .

Chicago murder suspect Juan Torkelson was on the run for barely a day when he found himself on the side of a road in Ohio and two police officers approaching his green Honda SUV.
Inside his car was a 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol, a knife, a box of ammo, around $2,000 in $20 bills, $58 in gold coins and 10 silver dollars, according to a police report.
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“What the (obscenity) do you want?” he yelled out the window, then grabbed the pistol, aimed it at the officers and pulled the trigger, the report says. There was a click but no shot.
Torkelson revved the engine and sped off, the officers in pursuit. He crashed into a ditch not far away, got out, looked at the officers, then ran through a yard and into a field, the report states. Authorities wouldn’t catch up to him for about a week, when federal marshals arrested him Tuesday after he jumped out a second-floor apartment window near Oak Hill, West Virginia, about 240 miles down U.S. Route 35.
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Juan Torkelson, 28, was arrested in West Virigina after fleeing to Ohio and having a confrontation with sheriff's deputies there while on electronic monitoring in a Chicago murder case. (Chicago Police Department)
He had a large knife but no injuries were reported. He remained in custody in West Virginia on Wednesday, with no word when he would be brought back to Chicago to face charges in a stabbing last year that killed Chicago graffiti artist Reinaldo Sanchez and injured three others in Portage Park.
Torkelson, 28, was charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder after he was arrested for the attack. On June 25 he was released on electronic monitoring after posting $10,000 bail.
The Cook County sheriff’s office, which oversees the electronic monitoring program, said it was notified on Oct. 27 of a “possible unauthorized leave” for Torkelson. Local authorities were unable to locate him.
The next day, Torkelson was pulled over near Columbus, Ohio, after an officer said he saw his Honda following another car too closely. The officer said he remained in his police car while waiting for another officer to arrive, in the meantime running the license plate of the Honda.
Torkelson kept looking out the window of his car and yelled to the officer, “Can I help you,” according to the police report. The second officer soon arrived and that’s when Torkelson pulled the gun and sped off. The officers chased the Honda, reaching speeds of 70 to 80 mph before Torkelson lost control and crashed into the ditch, the report says.
Police used dogs to find him but could not, authorities said.
On Tuesday, deputy U.S. marshals learned he might be at an apartment complex in the Oak Hill area, according to Mark Gregoline, deputy commander of the Marshals Service’s Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Gregoline would not say how the deputy marshals found Torkelson, but said their investigation led them to the area. When they arrived, Torkelson leapt through a second-floor glass window and ran off, Gregoline said. After a brief foot chase, the deputy marshals arrested Torkelson.
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Gregoline did not know why Torkelson was at the apartment complex.
While he’s being held in jail in West Virginia, authorities in Madison County say they are weighing felony charges against him for pulling a gun and allegedly trying to shoot the officers.


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Still out of power, Illinois Republicans ride voter dissatisfaction with state government to deal Pr

Still out of power, Illinois Republicans ride voter dissatisfaction with state government to deal Pritzker, Madigan defeats

“ When I was elected leader , I said that I would not pursue any other elected office during my @ @ @ @ @ While my decision to not seek reelection as Senate Republican leader may close this chapter @ @ @ @ @ is the final word on my desire to serve our state and tackle those challenges @ @ @ @ @

Heading into Tuesday, some Illinois Republicans privately feared Democrats would wipe them out as the state’s voters repudiated four years of President Donald Trump.
Instead, voters delivered a repudiation of Illinois government, spurred by amped-up Trump supporters, a billionaire benefactor, concern over high taxes, a House speaker caught up in a federal investigation and recently reinstituted pandemic restrictions due to renewed cases of COVID-19.
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It was a confluence of factors and timing that may serve as a warning shot as Democratic efforts to grow into an even bigger political force in Illinois stalled out. Sure, Democrats still control Springfield, but a state GOP that’s known mostly failure for nearly 20 years was able to deal Gov. J.B. Pritzker and House Speaker Michael Madigan stinging defeats.
“I think it’s a jump-start for a party that I think most people thought was on the edge,” said Pat Brady of St. Charles, a former Republican state chairman who saw his election expectations exceeded. “We’ve got some momentum now, proving that we can win in a real tough environment on the issues that will carry the day.”
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Key to the success was a Republican focus on two contests where only a minority of votes could carry the day: Pritzker’s proposed graduated income-tax constitutional amendment and the retention of Madigan-backed Democratic Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a daily news conference regarding the coronavirus pandemic and other issues on Nov. 4, 2020, at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Both the tax amendment and Kilbride needed support from 60% of voters for approval. The proposed amendment got 45% support according to unofficial results, while Kilbride got 56% backing in becoming the first state Supreme Court justice to lose retention.
Republican successes stretched further to include a few U.S. House and Statehouse races.
Republican state Sen. Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove, the dairy magnate who had become viewed as an almost perennial candidate, claimed victory in a too-close-to-call contest with first-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville, who contends the votes to reelect her are still to be counted. Oberweis self-funded his 14th Congressional District campaign, received virtually no national party help and was vastly outraised by the incumbent.
Republicans also had anticipated a close contest in the 13th Congressional District rematch pitting four-term GOP U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville against Democrat Betsy Londrigan Dirksen of Springfield. Davis won by fewer than 2,100 votes in 2018, but this time won by 10 percentage points — helped in large part by Trump’s name on the ballot and support for the president in rural Downstate.
The party came up short in a pair of other congressional contests, but former state Rep. Jeanne Ives finished closer than anticipated against freshman Democratic U.S. Rep Sean Casten of Downers Grove, and Republican Esther Joy King of East Moline threw a scare into Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos, the chair of the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee.
In the Statehouse, veteran Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan was unable to extend his 74-44 advantage over Republicans, who may have picked up a couple of seats. Madigan needs 71 votes to maintain his veto-proof edge. Again, GOP pickups came largely Downstate on Trump’s coattails as the party battled despite Madigan’s ability to outraise and outspend them.
As expected, former Vice President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Illinois. Unofficial returns show Biden matching 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton’s 55% support, while Trump increased his backing here by 5 percentage points from four years ago.
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Trump has always been a difficult issue for Illinois Republicans to navigate. The president is unpopular in the suburbs, particularly among the key demographic of moderate suburban women. But there’s a deep well of support for the president in much of Downstate.
“I would say the issue we’ve always had to concern ourselves with is how do we penetrate to the battleground areas up here in the suburbs and collar counties to counter the dissatisfaction many people up here have with the president,” said state Rep. Jim Durkin of Western Springs, the House Republican leader.
“So, focusing on being Illinois-centric on the issues about the speaker, the (graduated) tax and, I would say, the governor’s management of the COVID virus — all that, I believe, one way or the other, contributed to our success,” Durkin said.
For years, Republicans have sought to use Madigan, his power and longevity, to drag down Democratic candidates, with little success. But in July, ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine and cooperate with federal prosecutors after they alleged a near-decadelong bribery and influence scheme aimed at winning favor with Madigan by giving his allies jobs and contracts.
The Southwest Side Democrat, who has served as House speaker since 1983 with the exception of two years in the mid-1990s, has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
This year, Republicans again sought to tie Madigan to Democratic candidates but went beyond the legislature, criticizing Kilbride in his retention bid for taking Madigan-directed campaign funds, and against Londrigan in her bid for Congress.
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“All across our state — and the advertising told the story — we paid a heavy price for the speaker’s chairmanship of the Democratic Party,” Sen. Dick Durbin, reelected to a fifth term with 52% of the vote, told WTTW Ch. 11 on Wednesday. Madigan also holds the role of state Democratic chairman.
The controversy over Madigan reached voters in other ways, playing into the theme of opponents of Pritzker’s graduated tax amendment by asking voters whether they trusted Springfield with their tax dollars. The lack of trust issue also dovetailed into Trump campaign pledges to “drain the swamp” and his outsider theme of questioning trust in government.
“I think there is a significant lack of trust in government in general, and I think there are things that we need to do,” Pritzker acknowledged Wednesday after the defeat of his proposed amendment.
The issue of trust went even further when, as Trump worked to rally his base in the closing weeks of the campaign, Illinois saw cases of COVID-19 spike dramatically, prompting a region-by-region return of pandemic restrictions, most notably a ban on indoor dining and bars. Law enforcement and officials in several communities said they would not enforce the renewed restrictions.
“I think the latest round of the mitigation within the last month, particularly with restaurants and the hospitality industry who were basically saying, ‘we have not caused this. We have played by the rules,’” were an election factor, Durkin said.
Christopher Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the election results showed Pritzker was not “a dominating figure” despite pouring $58 million of his personal wealth into the pro-amendment campaign.
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“He wasn’t able to use the power — an equal amount of millions — to push through the tax issue. If he then becomes the boogeyman on COVID, which he’s kind of set up to be as the executive officer, then this is not going to help him Downstate,” Mooney said.
Pritzker, now offering “painful” budget cuts, a tax hike or both to make up for revenue lost due to the graduated tax defeat, immediately sought to pin blame on Republicans.
“Whatever happens here, the pain that is endured by the people of Illinois, by the working families of Illinois, is on the Republicans and the special interests and the billionaires that backed the Republicans. They’ve got to step forward and help,” the Democratic governor said.
But prospects of any kind of general tax increase in the near term are politically questionable after voters defeated the graduated income tax amendment. Some Democrats already fear their support for the amendment will be used against them in 2022.
This election season also brought forth a new Republican benefactor after Bruce Rauner, the wealthy former governor, left the scene following his decisive 2018 loss to Pritzker. Rauner had helped bankroll Republican candidates and causes.
Now it’s a Rauner ally, Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund and investment group, who has started to pick up the mantle.
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Griffin, worth an estimated $15 billion, gave the anti-amendment forces $53.75 million to run its TV advertising blitz against the Pritzker-backed pro-amendment Vote Yes for Fairness campaign. He also pumped $4.5 million into the effort to defeat Kilbride’s retention bid. He also spread another $1.5 million in the fall campaign to a variety of GOP candidates.
But Griffin has given no indication he wants to wade directly into politics as a governor candidate in two years to challenge Pritzker, worth an estimated $3.4 billion as an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune.
There may be one Republican considering a Pritzker challenge — state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, who ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary in 2006 and won the nomination but lost narrowly to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in 2010.
On Wednesday, facing a challenge to his status as Senate Republican leader, Brady announced he would step down from the leadership post but not step away from politics.
“When I was elected leader, I said that I would not pursue any other elected office during my leadership of the caucus. While my decision to not seek reelection as Senate Republican leader may close this chapter, it by no means is the final word on my desire to serve our state and tackle those challenges,” Brady said.


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--As Republicans mount legal challenges to presidential results, hundreds march through the Loop deman

As Republicans mount legal challenges to presidential results, hundreds march through the Loop demanding all votes be counted

“ Too many homeless .
Too many , you know , young women out here and their kids , they @ @ @ @ @ child support , ” Howell said .
“ Too many juveniles locked up .
And @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s really the problem .
We ’ ve got young kids in jail @ @ @ @ @ transmitted it ) to the jail .
”

Stacy St. Clair, Elyssa Cherney, Jeremy Gorner

Brittany Bysina passes through the crowd gathered for a rally Nov. 4, 2020, to defend the election, with the American flag wrapped around her shoulders at Daley Plaza in Chicago. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
As the nation awaited the final results of the presidential election, Englewood resident Shasta Jones stood among hundreds of people in Daley Plaza Wednesday night and held up a sign protesting Republican efforts to stop the vote count.
“It’s the whole reason I’m here,” said Jones, standing with other face-masked protesters on an unseasonably warm November night in the Loop. "I’m a mother, and this situation weighs heavy on me. And at the same time, it also drives me.
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“I want my children to be safe. I want them to be healthy. I want a future for them that’s fair,” she said.
Speakers addressed many of the issues that defined the presidential campaign, including systemic racism, police brutality and President Donald Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stakes, they said, were too high to allow Trump to halt the counting of legally cast ballots in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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“We won’t stop until every vote is counted,” said Erica Bland-Durosinmi, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare.
Adrian Madison, 35, and her friend, a first-time voter, said they came to the demonstration from the South Side to show their support for the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, and to be with others as the votes were tallied into the night.
“This is history,” Madison said. “We are citizens. We have a right to protest to make our voices heard.”
Sammy Lines, 72, a volunteer with the group RefuseFascism, said she’s been waiting four years for a new president. She sighed when asked about the number of voters who turned out to support Trump’s reelection bid.
“He needs to lose” she said. “He needs to be out of office. He needs to be out of the White House.”
She hoped there would be clearer results nearly 24 hours after polls closed, but understood that ballots cast early or by mail take time to be counted.
Just before she spoke, several rows of demonstrators marched into the plaza, banging on drums and chanting, “Trump, Pence out now!”
After listening to the speakers, the diverse crowded stepped off from Daley Plaza to the sound of cowbells and the Doobie Brothers' “Takin’ it to the Streets," and circled the Loop as dozens of Chicago police officers stood along boarded-up shops on Michigan Avenue.
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Along the way they chanted, “HEY HEY! HO HO! DONALD TRUMP HAS GOT TO GO!”
Wednesday’s rally was a far cry from the one that took place the day after the 2016 election, when thousands of angry protesters converged on Trump Tower, shouting, “Not my president.” The protests would continue for months in Chicago and across the country.
Wednesday night, Deborah Howell said she showed up to promote wage equality for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. But she believes this is the time to make progress on other causes.
“Too many homeless. Too many, you know, young women out here and their kids, they’re fighting to get child support,” Howell said. “Too many juveniles locked up. And then with this virus, that’s really the problem. We’ve got young kids in jail getting it because somebody (transmitted it) to the jail.”
Like many Americans, Howell was anxious about the final results, a full day since most polls closed. “It’s taking too long!” she said. “I’m waiting!”
Asked whether she supports one candidate over the other, she replied, "Not Trump. No, I can’t do it. How did that man become president the way he talks to people? We are not idiots.”
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sstclair@chicagotribune.com
echerney@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @StacyStClair
Twitter @ElyssaCherney
Twitter @JeremyGorner


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Even as fall term ends, Chicago Public Schools is still mum on a reopening date. Despite rumors, it

Even as fall term ends, Chicago Public Schools is still mum on a reopening date. Despite rumors, it won’t happen Monday, teachers union says.

All four of the schools with the most cases this quarter were declared acceptable for re-occupancy in the district ’ @ @ @ @ @ though not every space in each building was cleared .
Nightingale had 94 rooms declared @ @ @ @ @ were not ready , with mechanical ventilation in 18 rooms needing repair or nonexistent .
@ @ @ @ @ and 11 not ready , with mechanical ventilation in 13 rooms needing repair or nonexistent @ @ @ @ @ ready and 19 not , with mechanical ventilation in 19 rooms needing repair or nonexistent @ @ @ @ @ ready and nine not , with mechanical ventilation in 35 rooms needing repair or nonexistent @

Thursday marked the final day of student attendance for the virtual fall quarter, and Chicago Public Schools has yet to publicly announce a date for a return to classrooms, beyond its plan to offer in-person learning to students in prekindergarten and special education clusters sometime before 2020 is over.
CPS also has not publicly released the outcome of intent-to-return surveys submitted by parents of eligible students.
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Regardless of rumors circulating, they won’t be going back on Monday, the first day of the second quarter, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in an update to members Wednesday.
“Although some principals continue to tell staff otherwise, Chicago Public Schools officials told us during bargaining today that they do not plan to reopen school buildings to returning students and staff on Monday,” Sharkey wrote.
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CPS officials confirmed they aren’t bringing staff back Monday and all students will still begin the quarter remotely, but did not say when they will announce more details.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday revealed no new details but reiterated that any decision about schools will be based in public health guidance.
“That’s still very much a work in progress. I don’t want to put a specific date on it,” Lightfoot said during a news conference. “... We’re not going to do anything that puts kids in harms way, but we’ve got to start thinking about a path that gets those kids who are falling behind back into school and that’s precisely what’s happening.”
Asked what happened to the metrics CPS cited over the summer as thresholds for keeping schools closed, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said since then, there has been a lot of new information about COVID-19 and schools.
“What we have seen broadly is that around the country, even around the world... school transmission has not been the major source of spread that we honestly expected that it would be,” Arwady said.
Though CPS hasn’t provided information on the parent surveys, last saying on Friday they were “currently being analyzed,” Sharkey said the union has information indicating that most parents said no.
“We’ve heard from school after school that parents surveyed by CPS overwhelmingly responded that they were not comfortable with their children returning for in-person learning,” Sharkey wrote. “Because CPS and the mayor know that buildings aren’t ready to be reopened, despite their claims in the press.”
Earlier Wednesday, the district released an assessment of ventilation and air quality showing 94% of school spaces and 99% of classrooms are cleared for students to return. A state-licensed industrial hygienist conducted an independent air quality assessment, while CPS did its own ventilation assessment. District leaders also said they will spend $8.5 million to buy air purifiers for classrooms used by students and staff spaces that don’t have mechanical ventilation.
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With the city’s seven-day rolling average for daily COVID-19 cases up to 1,395 and positivity rate at 10.9%, Sharkey called the air quality news “a red herring,” serving to distract from the rising cases, a labor arbitration dispute and “the mayor and CPS continuing to keep the results of the district’s parent survey a secret.”
“We suspect this last point is because the results are similar to the results from the summer, when CPS parents — Black and brown parents especially — refused in large numbers to send their children into unsafe school buildings,” Sharkey wrote.
He asked members to let their field representatives know if their administrators told them to report to work Monday.
While local public health officials and researchers in other cities have said transmission is rare in day cares and schools if proper precautions are taken, the district last week reported by far the greatest number of COVID-19 cases tied to its buildings in any week since the pandemic closed them in March, despite remote learning.
All 47 confirmed cases for the week ending Oct. 31 were adults, who were in a school building while likely contagious, according to CPS. The second-highest case total was reported the week before, with 29 adults testing positive.
Though students and most staff have been learning or working from home, a limited number of employees have been reporting to buildings, such as clerks, security officers, technology coordinators, cafeteria workers, custodians and administrators. Some schools have also hosted standardized testing or opened as regional “learning hubs” for a limited number of children to be supervised by CPS or a community-based organization during the remote school day.
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Of the 185 cases reported this quarter, most have been isolated, with 41 schools reporting two or more cases, and two cases among administrative staff members.
Four elementary schools — Edwards, Pulaski, Nightingale and Christopher — have each reported four cases. Eight schools — Brunson, Greeley, Hammond, Ogden and Yates elementaries and Hubbard High School, Lake View High School and Northside Prep — have each reported three cases, according to CPS data. Of the nine elementary school “learning hubs” listed by the district, Nightingale has reported four cases, Wadsworth has had two cases, Schubert and Jamieson have each had one case and the other five have reported no cases this quarter. Three additional learning hubs are at community sites.
All four of the schools with the most cases this quarter were declared acceptable for re-occupancy in the district’s air quality assessment, though not every space in each building was cleared. Nightingale had 94 rooms declared ready and 11 rooms that were not ready, with mechanical ventilation in 18 rooms needing repair or nonexistent. Edwards had 240 rooms ready and 11 not ready, with mechanical ventilation in 13 rooms needing repair or nonexistent. Pulaski had 71 rooms ready and 19 not, with mechanical ventilation in 19 rooms needing repair or nonexistent. And Christopher had 59 ready and nine not, with mechanical ventilation in 35 rooms needing repair or nonexistent.
Students will only return to rooms that have been cleared, according to CPS.
hleone@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Illinois election live updates: Pritzker warns of ‘painful’ cuts after income tax proposal fails; cr

Illinois election live updates: Pritzker warns of ‘painful’ cuts after income tax proposal fails; crowd marches through Loop to demand every vote be counted

“ As we anxiously await the outcome of the presidential and other races , I am heartened that our city @ @ @ @ @ This election has generated a lot of emotions on all sides .
There will be @ @ @ @ @ the election results are verified , but it is crucial for us as a city @ @ @ @ @ to be sure , but also calm and peaceful , ” Lightfoot said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ emotions into a productive expression of our First Amendment rights .
No matter the outcome @ @ @ @ @ this by remaining together , as neighbors who need each other and love our great @ @ @ @ @

Dozens of voters line up outside as they wait to cast their ballots at the Election Day super site polling place set up inside the United Center in Chicago, Nov. 3, 2020. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
As the country waited to hear who won the vote in the presidential election in key states, Illinois and Chicago-area voters had few surprises Tuesday night and into Wednesday, though some races and ballot measures are still undecided.
Fresh off spending $58 million of his fortune in a losing effort to pass a graduated-rate income tax, a frustrated Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday said “painful” budget cuts are coming and suggested an attempt to raise taxes could come as soon as two weeks.
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Meanwhile, Republican Jim Oberweis claimed victory in the 14th Congressional District campaign against first-term Rep. Lauren Underwood. But with an undetermined number of mail-in votes still to be counted, the incumbent Democrat said it is premature for anyone to declare victory.
Also on Wednesday, freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten declared victory over Republican challenger Jeanne Ives in a west and northwest suburban congressional race. Ives conceded defeat.
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Here’s where key races in Illinois stand Wednesday evening:
Here are the latest election updates from across the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:50 p.m.: Tense moments in the Loop when some protesters walk down State Street
As a rally and march ended in the Loop, a small group of about a hundred people remained at Daley Plaza and got into a tense argument with police officers when they tried to walk down the middle of State Street.
Several protesters yelled at the police while screaming obscenities about President Trump and Vice President Pence.
Dozens of officers on bicycles surrounded the group, and the demonstrators were allowed to gather on the sidewalk near Macy’s. No arrests were reported as of 7:45 p.m.
—Annie Sweeney
Cops in riot gear coming out. Medics putting on gas masks. Cops shout, “give me one line with the bikes.” #Chicago pic.twitter.com/fIZA6prTie — Elyssa Cherney (@ElyssaCherney) November 5, 2020
7:25 p.m.: Still out of power, Illinois GOP rides voter dissatisfaction with state government to deal Pritzker, Madigan defeats
Heading into Tuesday, some Illinois Republicans privately feared Democrats would wipe them out as the state’s voters repudiated four years of President Donald Trump.
Instead, voters delivered a repudiation of Illinois government, spurred by amped-up Trump supporters, a billionaire benefactor, concern over high taxes, a House speaker caught up in a federal investigation and recently reinstituted pandemic restrictions due to renewed cases of COVID-19.
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It was a confluence of factors and timing that may serve as a warning shot as Democratic efforts to grow into an even bigger political force in Illinois stalled out. Sure, Democrats still control Springfield, but a state GOP that’s known mostly failure for nearly 20 years was able to deal Gov. J.B. Pritzker and House Speaker Michael Madigan stinging defeats.
Read more here. —Rick Pearson
7 p.m.: Voters in suburbs show support at polls for recreational marijuana sales.
The area they live in was once a bastion of conservatism, but nearly two-thirds of voters in northwest suburban Mount Prospect on Tuesday supported allowing marijuana sales in the village.
The village was one of six suburbs — along with Batavia, Glen Ellyn, Elk Grove Village, Park Ridge and Wilmette — where advisory referendums showed majority support for allowing sales. The one exception was west suburban Western Springs, where 60% of voters rejected the idea.
Read more here. —Robert McCoppin
6:45 p.m.: On their way from Daley Plaza to Grant Park, protesters chant, “HEY HEY! HO HO! DONALD TRUMP HAS GO TO GO!”
Hundreds of protesters chanted and played music as they marched through the Loop Wednesday night, opposed to Republican efforts to stop the counting of votes in the presidential election.
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“HEY HEY! HO HO! DONALD TRUMP HAS GO TO GO!” marchers chanted.
Two women on a float overlooking Daley Plaza shouted, “HEY HEY! HO HO! TRUMP AND PENCE HAS GOT TO GO!”Other chants included, “WHOSE GOT THE POWER?! WE’VE GOT THE POWER!”
The march began east from the Daley Center along Washington Street to Michigan Avenue, then headed north on Michigan to Wacker Drive. From there, the marchers walked west to LaSalle Street, south along LaSalle to Jackson Boulevard, then east along Jackson to Grant Park.
Chicago police officers on foot, bicycles and in cars monitored the march as it moved slowly through the Loop.
At Daley Plaza, Deborah Howell was promoting wage equality for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. But she acknowledged the rally during an historic week like this was a great opportunity to fight for other causes.
“Too many homeless. Too many, you know, young women out here and their kids, they’re fighting to get child support,” said Howell. “Too many juveniles locked up. And then with this virus, that’s really the problem. We’ve got young kids in jail getting it because somebody (transmitted it) to the jail.”
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Like many Americans, Howell was anxious about the final results, a full day since most polls closed.
“It’s taking too long!” she said with a chuckle. “I’m waiting!”
Asked whether she supports one candidate over the other, she replied, "Not Trump. No, I can’t do it. “How did that man become president the way he talks to people. We are not idiots.”
—Jeremy Gorner
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 27 Brittany Bysina passes through the crowd gathered for a rally Nov. 4, 2020, to defend the election, with the American flag wrapped around her shoulders at Daley Plaza in Chicago. (Youngrae Kim / Chicago Tribune)
6:40 p .m.: Loop march: Cowbells, the Doobie Brothers and the need to witness history
To the sound of cowbells and the Doobie Brothers' “Taking it to the Streets,” a diverse crowd of more than 200 protesters stepped off from Daley Plaza and circled the Loop Wednesday night before ending the march in Grant Park, as Chicago police officers stood along boarded up shops on Michigan Avenue.
Speakers at the peaceful event addressed many the issues that defined the presidential campaign, including systemic racism, police brutality and President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stakes, they said, were too high to allow Trump to halt the counting of legally cast ballots, as his campaign has done in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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“We won’t stop until every vote is counted,” said Erica Bland-Durosinmi, executive vice-president of SEIU healthcare.
Adrian Madison, 35, and her friend, a first-time voter, said they came to the demonstration from the South Side to show their support for Democratic challenger Joe Biden and to be with others as the votes are tallied into the night.
“This is history,” Madison said. “We are citizens. We have a right to protest to make our voices heard.”
Sammy Lines, 72, a volunteer with the group RefuseFacism said she’s been waiting four years for a new president. She sighed when asked about the number of voters who turned out to support Trump’s re-election bid.
“He needs to lose” she said. “He needs to be out of office. He needs to be out in of the White House.”
She hoped there would be clearer results nearly 24 hours after polls closed, but understood that ballots cast early or by mail take time to be counted.
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Just before she spoke, several rows of demonstrators marched into the plaza, banging on drums and chanting “Trump, Pence out now!”
Wednesday’s rally was a far cry from one that took place the day after 2016′s election, when thousands of protesters converged on Trump Tower, shouting “Not my president.”
—Stacy St. Clair, Elyssa Cherney, Jeremy Gorner
6:25 p.m.: A peaceful crowd marches through the Loop to demand every vote be counted
As the nation awaited the final results of the presidential election, Englewood resident Shasta Jones stood among a few hundred people in Daley Plaza Wednesday night, holding up a protest sign against Republican efforts to stop the vote count before Democratic challenger can clinch a win.
“It’s the whole reason I’m here,” said Jones, standing with hundreds of face masked protesters on an unseasonably warm November night in the Loop. "I’m a mother and this situation weighs heavy on me. And at the same time, it also drives me.
“I want my children to be safe. I want them to be healthy. I want a future for them that’s fair,” she said.
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—Stacy St. Clair
Protesters in Chicago’s Daley Plaza hold phones aloft to shine symbolic light on efforts to stop vote counts. pic.twitter.com/865dM4KUMS — Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) November 4, 2020
Protest heading past Trump Tower, as demonstrators chant “Count every vote” pic.twitter.com/S871apzlff — Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) November 5, 2020
6:05 p.m.: Pritzker warns ‘there will be cuts, and they will be painful’ after graduated-rate income tax proposal fails at the ballot box
Fresh off spending $58 million of his fortune in a losing effort to pass a graduated-rate income tax, a frustrated Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday said “painful” budget cuts are coming and suggested an attempt to raise taxes could come as soon as two weeks.
Pritzker lashed out at Republicans, business groups and Ken Griffin, Illinois' richest man, accusing opponents of distorting the truth about what the amendment would have done.
“There will be cuts, and they will be painful,” Pritzker said Wednesday at his daily coronavirus briefing. “And the worst thing is, the same billionaires who lied to you about the ‘fair tax’ are more than happy to hurt our public schools, shake the foundations of our cities, and diminish our state. Maybe because they think it won’t hurt them.”
Now Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir who made a graduated income tax the centerpiece of his campaign for governor, and lawmakers are left with a limited menu of politically perilous options to stabilize the state’s chronically precarious finances. Their main choices: raise taxes on everyone, regardless of income; make significant cuts to spending on programs like education and social services; or both.
Read more here. —Dan Petrella and Jamie Munks
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5:32 p.m.: Oberweis claims victory, but Underwood says ‘thousands’ of votes remain uncounted in razor-thin 14th District race
With a razor-thin lead, Republican Jim Oberweis claimed victory Wednesday in the 14th Congressional District campaign against first-term Rep. Lauren Underwood.
But with an undetermined number of mail-in votes still to be counted, the incumbent Democrat said it is premature for anyone to declare victory. The two candidates are separated by a mere 895 votes after the tallies of the votes received and counted so far, according to unofficial results.
Read more here. —Patrick M. O’Connell
4:11 p.m.: Graduated income tax amendment voted down across the state
In order to become law, J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated income tax amendment needed either 60% support among those voting directly on the question or more than 50% support of those voting in the election.
Unofficial voting totals show it falling short on both measures.
Voters across Illinois voted down the amendment, according to Associated Press data, with the exception of Cook County which was 62.3% for. Champaign County was a tie.
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—Jonathon Berlin and Jemal R. Brinson
1:16 p.m.: After winning second term, Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx thanks supporters and promises to continue reform efforts
Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Wednesday thanked supporters for delivering her a second term and promised to continue criminal justice reform efforts aimed at keeping communities safe.
Foxx took a reelection victory lap on Wednesday, with a handful of media interviews, after withstanding a challenge from Republican former Cook County Judge Pat O’Brien.
She dismissed criticism over this year’s rising violent crime and her office’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case, saying in an interview with WGN-TV that while her office could have better handled the former “Empire” actor’s case, voters trusted her to deliver a criminal justice system that serves “the everyday citizen” and not just celebrities. She defended her office’s backing of sweeping bail reforms by pointing out violent crime went down during the first three years of her term.
“No question 2020 has presented a number of challenges, but we can’t be overly simplistic and try to find a singular source when we know that this is a complicated issue,” Foxx said.
Read more here. —Alice Yin
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11:01 a.m.: DuPage still has 30,000 mail-in ballots outstanding, but in-person votes counted
DuPage County has about 2,500 provisional ballots that are being processed Wednesday, Nov. 4, while all early voting and ballots cast on Election Day have been counted, unless there was a question and the ballot became provisional.
There might be “a small number” of absentee ballots, but most people who did not want to vote in person used a mail-in ballot, as opposed to absentee this year.
Patrick Bond, special counsel to the DuPage County election division, said those ballots should be included in vote totals by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
However, the county has until Nov. 14 to process all the provisional ballots.
Ballots mailed in must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by the county by Nov. 10.
There are nearly 30,000 mail-in ballots that have not been returned yet.
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—Kimberly Fornek
10:21 a.m.: Chicago-area voters' Wednesday morning mood: From optimism to nerves to 'grim forebearance’
The poll numbers didn’t look great for President Donald Trump as Election Day approached, but a different metric gave Frank Adams hope: Every weekend, the pro-Trump car rallies he helped to organize in the Chicago suburbs grew larger.
So with the presidential election still undecided Wednesday morning, Adams, a retired businessman who lives in Warrenville, said he’s “optimistic and praying” that Trump will prevail.
“I feel, and a lot of my friends do, too, that the Republicans are the party for the American people,” he said. “They put America first. And I think Americans are tired of the politicians who have been in the system for life and gotten rich off our tax dollars.”
Meanwhile, Mawuli Agbefe, a debate coach at Evanston Township High School, is cautiously confident Joe Biden will edge out Trump when all the votes are counted.
“I think Biden will actually win, but it is surprising that so many people are supporting Trump” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. “For people to say, ‘Yeah, this is the guy who should be leading the country for another four years,’ is a little alarming.”
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Read more here. —John Keilman and Steve Johnson
9:34 a.m.: Pritzker-funded group concedes defeat on Illinois graduated income tax amendment, throwing future of state finances in doubt
The group backed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker to pitch his proposal to enact a graduates state income tax in Illinois acknowledged the constitutional amendment’s defeat Wednesday and warned of a financial morass as a result of the rejection of the proposed constitutional amendment.
“We are undoubtedly disappointed with this result but are proud of the millions of Illinoisans who cast their ballots in support of tax fairness in this election,” said Quentin Fulks, chair of the Pritzker-funded Vote Yes for Fairness group.
“Now lawmakers must address a multi-billion dollar budget gap without the ability to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share. Fair Tax opponents must answer for whatever comes next,” Fulks said, pointing the finger at “Republican legislators and their billionaire allies” who opposed it.
Read more here. —Rick Pearson
9:15 a.m.: Lightfoot ‘heartened’ by Chicago’s reaction while waiting for outcome of presidential race
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who deployed extra police officers and city trucks around Chicago in case of riots and looting, released a statement mid-morning praising the city for remaining peaceful as presidential election votes come in.
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“As we anxiously await the outcome of the presidential and other races, I am heartened that our city remains calm and peaceful. This election has generated a lot of emotions on all sides. There will be a lot of chatter until the election results are verified, but it is crucial for us as a city to be focused and diligent to be sure, but also calm and peaceful,” Lightfoot said. “Let’s channel our emotions into a productive expression of our First Amendment rights. No matter the outcome, we will get through this by remaining together, as neighbors who need each other and love our great city and country.”
Lightfoot also praised Chicago’s Board of Elections and voters for a “near-historic” turnout.
“We have much to be proud of as a city,” she said.
—Gregory Pratt


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 7,538 new known COVID-19 cases and 55 additional deaths reported We

Coronavirus in Illinois updates: 7,538 new known COVID-19 cases and 55 additional deaths reported Wednesday; officials warn of potential hospital bed shortage

The primary issue with hospital capacity is in the six regions of the state , as defined by Gov .
@ @ @ @ @ plan , outside Chicago and the collar counties .
In the Chicago area , overall @ @ @ @ @ density allow “ a lot of room for moving patients around within the northeast ” @ @ @ @ @ Ezike said .

We have lifted the paywall on this story. To support essential reporting, please consider becoming a subscriber .
CTU workers direct vehicles lined up for COVID-19 testing outside of the Chicago Teachers Union on Dec. 30, 2021, in Chicago. CPS starts back to school on Monday following their holiday break. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Illinois public health officials Wednesday reported 7,538 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19. There were also 55 additional deaths reported.
The statewide positivity rate for cases as a percent of total test for the past 7 days is 8.5%. There were 71,857 tests reported in the prior 24 hours. The state has now reported 437,556 cases since the pandemic began, and 9,933 fatalities.
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Meanwhile, the state’s top public health official warned there is a potential hospital bed shortage developing in some parts of the state.
“We have had calls for assistance from the state for medical staff. We know of some hospitals that have already slowed down elective surgeries to have beds,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said at a coronavirus briefing in Chicago on Wednesday.
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Here’s what’s happening Wednesday with COVID-19 in the Chicago area and Illinois:
7:35 p.m.: Chicago Teachers Union says schools won’t reopen Monday despite what ‘some principals’ say. No word from CPS.
Although Chicago Public Schools not yet set a date for students to begin returning to classrooms, the teachers union said it was compelled Wednesday to shoot down a rumor that schools will reopen on Monday.
Monday is the first day of the second quarter, and while CPS has said it hopes to begin bringing preschool and some special education students back into classrooms for in-person learning sometime during the second quarter, it has not specified when.
Yet the Chicago Teachers Union issues a statement Wednesday claiming “some principals continue to tell staff” that schools will reopen Monday. The union says CPS officials have denied this during bargaining sessions with the union.
Confused? Read the full story here. —Hannah Leone
7 p.m.: As daily case COVID-19 count again tops 7,500 in Illinois, public health officials warn of potential hospital bed shortage
As Illinois recorded its second-highest daily number of newly diagnosed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the state’s top public health official warned there is a potential hospital bed shortage developing in some parts of the state.
“We have had calls for assistance from the state for medical staff. We know of some hospitals that have already slowed down elective surgeries to have beds,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said at a coronavirus briefing in Chicago on Wednesday.
“So there is a bed issue that’s brewing that’s only going to grow. We had 7,500 new cases, and that means that we have future hospitalizations, future needs for ICU beds, in a situation where some hospitals are already cramped,” she said. “So, yes, we have a significant problem.”
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The primary issue with hospital capacity is in the six regions of the state, as defined by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan, outside Chicago and the collar counties. In the Chicago area, overall hospital capacity and the population density allow “a lot of room for moving patients around within the northeast” region of the state, Ezike said.
As of Tuesday night, 3,761 people in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 776 were in intensive care units, and 327 were on ventilators.
Read more here. —Jamie Munks
1:01 p.m.: No Chicago travel quarantine order update this week
Chicago will not add or remove states from its travel quarantine order this week, the city announced, following an indication last week that Michigan could be added soon.
The city’s public health department tweeted the lack of change Wednesday afternoon after a spokesman on Tuesday said an announcement was delayed because of the election. Residents should “expect a full update early next week” as the current list covers 31 states as well as Puerto Rico.
Last week, the city added Florida to its travel order and warned Michigan could be next as coronavirus cases continued to rise, public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady had said. Should that happen, it would join Illinois' Great Lakes neighbors Indiana and Wisconsin as the Midwest grapples with a recent surge of outbreaks.
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Read more here. —Alice Yin
12:11 p.m.: 7,538 new known COVID-19 cases and 55 additional deaths reported
Illinois health officials on Wednesday announced 7,538 new known cases of COVID-19 and 55 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 437,556 and the statewide death toll to 9,933 since the start of the pandemic. Officials also reported 71,857 new tests in the last 24 hours. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 8.5%.
—Chicago Tribune staff
10:55 a.m.: CPS will spend $8.5 million on classroom air purifiers as it eyes reopening schools
Nearly all classrooms in Chicago Public Schools are “prepared for safe occupancy,” according to an assessment of ventilation and air qualify released by the district as it contemplates the reopening of schools.
At the same time, the state’s largest school system announced it will spend $8.5 million to purchase 20,000 HEPA air purifiers for classrooms.
The announcement was part of CPS' effort to assess school buildings in anticipation of an eventual return to in-person instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Read more here. —Alison Bowen
10:15 a.m.: State driver facilities in West Chicago, Aurora to reopen Thursday after closing because of coronavirus case
Two driver services facilities will reopen Thursday in West Chicago and Aurora after COVID-19 reached the buildings and forced two-week closures.
The West Chicago Commercial Driver’s License at 1280 Powis Road and the Aurora Driver Services facility at 339 East Indian Trail closed in late October after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Employees at both buildings were quarantined for 14 days and the facilities have since been “thoroughly cleaned and disinfected,” according to a press release from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.
State officials encouraged people to go online to www.cyberdriveillinois.com for services such as renewing license plate stickers, obtaining replacement driver’s licenses/ID cards and safe driver renewals. Expiration dates for driver’s licenses and identification cards were extended until Feb. 1 because of the pandemic.
—Kelli Smith
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9 a.m.: Pritzker, state officials expected to give Wednesday afternoon update on COVID-19 in Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state health officials were expected to give a regular update Wednesday afternoon on the state of the coronavirus pandemic and government officials' response.
Pritzker, after abandoning daily updates in June when cases declined from the earlier height of the pandemic, has been holding daily briefings again in recent weeks as case numbers spike in Illinois and across the country.
You will be able to watch the briefing here.
—Chicago Tribune staff
Breaking coronavirus news Stay up to date with the latest information on coronavirus with our breaking news alerts.
In case you missed it
Here are five stories from Tuesday related to COVID-19.


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--A 63-year-old. An Iranian refugee. Teenagers. Mexican immigrants. All voted in their first president

A 63-year-old. An Iranian refugee. Teenagers. Mexican immigrants. All voted in their first presidential election. Here’s what they had to say.

Just 1 % of Illinois voters said the 2020 election marked their first time casting a ballot , according to @ @ @ @ @ poll surveys .
The Tribune spoke with a dozen first-time voters about why they thought @ @ @ @ @ their ballots and how they are feeling a day later with results still pending .
@ @ @ @ @ eligible , including newly naturalized U.S. citizens ; others felt more strongly than they had @ @ @ @ @ issues and the candidates .
Here ’ s what they had to say .

Alison Bowen, Laura Rodríguez Presa, Nara Schoenberg, Christen A. Johnson, Shannon Ryan

Ali Tarokh, a former Iranian refugee-turned-citizen, voted for president for the first time on Election Day. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
Just 1% of Illinois voters said the 2020 election marked their first time casting a ballot, according to The Associated Press and exit poll surveys. The Tribune spoke with a dozen first-time voters about why they thought it was important to cast their ballots and how they are feeling. Some voted because they became eligible, including newly naturalized U.S. citizens; others felt more strongly than they had in the past about the issues and the candidates. Here’s what they had to say.
Ali Tarokh, 35
Ali Sharifi Tarokh, an Iranian refugee who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, voted for the first time Tuesday. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
As a refugee who came to Chicago in 2012 from Iran, Ali Sharifi Tarokh, 35, was excited to be able to cast his ballot for the first time. He became a citizen in 2019 and said America has given him so much: his master’s degree, his career, his marriage, his citizenship.
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“When I came to this country, I didn’t have anything but hope. But when I was in Iran, I had everything but hope,” he said. Voting for president, he added, was “amazing.”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment since I got my citizenship,” he said. “It’s important because our voice matters.”
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The Andersonville resident said he thinks the president is not representing American values, taking action like closing the borders to people who might be fleeing their homeland, like him. “This city gave me a second chance to build my life again,” Tarokh said. He went to his local polling station to vote. “It was very exciting,” he said. “I was so proud.”
Like many Americans, he said, “I couldn’t sleep last night at all.”
Jaden Merritt, 18
Jaden Merritt, 18, voted for the first time on Election Day out of responsibility to the African Americans who came before him, he said.
“I live in a very educated Black household and I know my roots, so I’ve learned what my ancestors had to go through to allow me to vote — to allow me to have this right — and I felt like it was my duty to them to vote,” he said.
A freshman at Howard University, Merritt, who lives in Hyde Park while his college classes are remote, only waited about 5 minutes to cast his vote, he said. Afterward, he felt great.
“I felt like I contributed to my country as a citizen,” he said. “I felt like I made my ancestors proud, so it felt good.”
Keegan Brown, 18
Keegan Brown, 18, of Forest Park, voted in his first presidential election on Tuesday. (Keegan Brown)
Keegan Brown woke up at 6 a.m. Tuesday to vote in his first presidential election. The 18-year-old Forest Park resident took the train home from DePaul University, where he’s a freshman, and got in line so early that there was no line at his LaGrange polling place.
“It felt really good to just vote for the first time,” he said. “It’s such an influential election; I’m watching the results come in now, and it’s so close. It feels like every vote counts.” Brown said he voted for Joe Biden, although he disagrees with him on many issues: “In most everything, I like him better than (Donald) Trump.”
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Rosa Figueroa, 57, and Erika Castillo, 27
Erika Garcia, 27, right, and her mother, Rosa Figueroa, 57, vote at the polling place at Daisy's Hair Studio in Chicago on Tuesday. They both got citizenship three years ago and were voting in a presidential election for the first time. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Rosa Figueroa, 57, and her daughter Erika Castillo, 27, voted for president for the first time Tuesday. The two became naturalized citizens two years ago, and said they have been involved in local and state elections. Castillo, who translated for her mother, said that they support each other and encourage one another to participate in the country’s democracy because they believe in it.
“I’m voting for all of those in my community and in my family who give so much to this country but cannot vote because they are undocumented,” Figueroa added in Spanish. “Those of us who can vote should do it.”
The Durango, Mexico, natives immigrated to the U.S. about nine years ago and live in Brighton Park. Castillo is the owner of El Tata, a small restaurant at 2942 W. 63rd St. She said she has experienced racism and promised herself she would exercise her right to vote because that’s the only way she can provoke change.
Colleen Nee, 36
At the age of 36, Colleen Nee voted in her first presidential election last week.
“I think what really made a difference was the pandemic and the whole race-war thing,” she said. “I raise a Black son, and it’s really scary as a parent to see this going on and affecting the kids.
“I don’t want my son growing up in a world where he’s treated differently because he’s Black,” said Nee, who is white and voted for Biden.
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As a single mom with an autoimmune disease, she said she also wants to see more support for people affected by COVID-19. Nee, who lives in Forest Park and worked as a restaurant manager before the pandemic, said the election has even entered her dreams. After voting early last week in Maywood, she had an anxiety dream in which she made a mistake on her ballot.
Rafael Camarillo, 19
Rafael Camarillo, 19, who is voting for the first time, cast his ballot with the help of election judge Valery Trigsted, 18, at a polling place at Spry School in Chicago on Tuesday. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Rafael Camarillo, 19, went to vote with his sister Jessica Camarillo. Both siblings, who live in Little Village, are originally from Guerrero, Mexico. He said that he wasn’t too sure about voting, because he thought it wouldn’t make a difference, but a conversation with his mother changed his mind.
“I realized how much her life depends on this,” he said about his mother, who is in the process of becoming a permanent U.S. resident, a process that Jessica Camarillo, 24, said has been long and difficult. “This is the least I can do, come here to make her voice be heard.”
Amaka Akuba, 23
Amaka Akuba, 23, right, with her sister, Ugo Akuba, 25. (Amaka Akuba)
Amaka Akuba, 23, voted for the first time at the United Center with her older sister, Ugo Akuba, 25. The sisters live on the Near West Side.
Amaka Akuba said she was inspired to vote after watching the past four years.
“My first time, I need to make my voice heard and (vote for) someone representative of what my core values align with,” she said. To her, the way the coronavirus has been handled was “enough to come out and vote.”
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Matthew Pinna, 20
Matthew Pinna was among first-time voters in the 2020 presidential election. (Matthew Pinna)
Matthew Pinna, 20, is a chairperson of the Illinois College Republican Federation. He lives in Woodlawn and voted for president for the first time.
“I felt it was important to vote in this election, because whoever wins will be leading the country out of the coronavirus recession,” he said. “Millions of Americans and small-business owners continue to suffer — they desperately need effective economic solutions from a capable leader.”
Linda Cooke, 63
Linda Cooke, 63, voted for the first time in the 2020 presidential election. (Linda Cooke)
After 11 presidential elections since she’s been of voting age, 63-year-old Linda Cooke voted for the first time this year via mail-in ballot. In years past, the Wheeling resident said she felt “so disconnected from the government,” and really didn’t care much about politics at all.
“It just wasn’t important to me,” said Cooke, mentioning she has gotten “so much flak” over the years from friends and family for not exercising her right. But this year was different. She wanted to make a difference and see a new face in office the next four years, she said.
Shareef Robinson, 19
Shareef Robinson, 19, never considered voting until lately. He showed up to the United Center on Tuesday morning after a change of heart — and mind.
“I was under the impression voting didn’t matter,” he said. “I initially wasn’t planning on it. But I saw a lot of things, people encouraging voting. My mom was on me a lot about it.
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“(I started) learning about things, fixing my ignorance. I did some more research and learned more,” he said. “I think mainly, in my opinion, both of them aren’t the best candidates,” he said. “But Joe Biden has an edge because he puts more interest in the people, in regular people.”
Davida Marthenze, 25
Davida Marthenze was among first-time voters who cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election. (Davida Marthenze)
Davida Marthenze, 25, did not vote in the last election.
“I feel terrible about how things turned out. I lived in Wisconsin then, where my vote would have counted a lot more, like we’re seeing now with Wisconsin being one of those frustrating states,” said the Belmont Gardens resident. “But I’m still happy to have done my part as an Illinois resident this time around. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic as more mail-in ballots are being counted and things are beginning to shift.”


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Chicago rally to defend the election

Chicago rally to defend the election

A midcentury modern ranch home designed by Don Erickson , a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright , has generated a @ @ @ @ @ least one solid offer .
Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com® .

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chicagotribune--2020-11-05--As daily case COVID-19 count again tops 7,500 in Illinois, public health officials warn of potential

As daily case COVID-19 count again tops 7,500 in Illinois, public health officials warn of potential hospital bed shortage

Dr. Ngozi Ezike of the Illinois Department of Health speaks Nov. 4, 2020, during a daily news conference about the coronavirus pandemic at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois recorded its second-highest daily number of newly diagnosed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the state’s top public health official warned there is a potential hospital bed shortage developing in some parts of the state.
“We have had calls for assistance from the state for medical staff. We know of some hospitals that have already slowed down elective surgeries to have beds,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said at a coronavirus briefing in Chicago on Wednesday.
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“So there is a bed issue that’s brewing that’s only going to grow. We had 7,500 new cases, and that means that we have future hospitalizations, future needs for ICU beds, in a situation where some hospitals are already cramped,” she said. “So, yes, we have a significant problem.”
The primary issue with hospital capacity is in the six regions of the state, as defined by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan, outside Chicago and the collar counties. In the Chicago area, overall hospital capacity and the population density allow “a lot of room for moving patients around within the northeast” region of the state, Ezike said.
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As of Tuesday night, 3,761 people in Illinois were hospitalized with COVID-19. Of those, 776 were in intensive care units, and 327 were on ventilators.
The state on Wednesday reported 7,538 newly diagnosed cases, resulting from a batch of 71,857 tests conducted over a 24-hour period. The statewide positivity rate for new cases as a share of total tests conducted was 8.5%, up more than 2 percentage points from a week earlier, when it was 6.4%.
State officials reported 55 additional deaths of people with COVID-19 on Wednesday, raising the statewide death toll to 9,933. The state has reported 437,556 known cases throughout the course of the pandemic.
As COVID-19 continues its resurgence across Illinois, Pritzker said there’s a “potentially long effort ahead to get the virus under control in this state.”
As the state nears a death toll of 10,000, the seven-day average number of deaths is 45, up from 23 as of Oct. 1. And the number of people in the state in the hospital with COVID-19 has more than doubled over the past month, Pritzker said.
“Make no mistake, this pandemic isn’t over, not by a long shot,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “And it’s not just enough for us to know more. We have to act differently.”
Ezike urged anyone who participated in protests or other gatherings where there was a risk of exposure to seek a COVID-19 test roughly a week after the potential exposure, and to otherwise quarantine.
“The virus is spreading rapidly,” Ezike said. “We are fully into the second wave, or second surge, and the cases are increasing exponentially.”
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jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Stray bullet shatters window, hits 70-year-old woman on West Side

Paramedics were called to the 1700 block of North Monitor Avenue about 6:20 p.m. and found the woman had been @ @ @ @ @ that came through a front window , said Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Walter @ @ @ @

A 70-year-old woman was shot and critically wounded while inside a home in the North Austin neighborhood Wednesday night.
Paramedics were called to the 1700 block of North Monitor Avenue about 6:20 p.m. and found the woman had been shot once by a bullet that came through a front window, said Chicago Fire Department Deputy District Chief Walter Schroeder and police.
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Chicago police investigate the scene where a 70-year-old woman was shot in the chest in the 1700 block of North Monitor in Chicago's North Austin neighborhood on Nov. 4, 2020. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
She was shot in the chest and taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood in critical condition, Schroeder said.
Chicago police said no arrests have been made.
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Check back for details.
rsobol@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--‘The horse is out of the barn.’ Voters in suburbs show support at polls for recreational marijuana s

‘The horse is out of the barn.’ Voters in suburbs show support at polls for recreational marijuana sales.

In Mount Prospect , which already has a medical cannabis dispensary , the village board last year rejected a zoning @ @ @ @ @ there .
But trustees wanted to hear from residents on the issue , so they @ @ @ @ @ ballot .
Mayor Arlene Juracek said she wasn ’ t surprised by the result , @ @ @ @ @ marijuana in a Cook County advisory referendum in March 2018 .

The area they live in was once a bastion of conservatism, but nearly two-thirds of voters in northwest suburban Mount Prospect on Tuesday supported allowing marijuana sales in the village.
The village was one of six suburbs — along with Batavia, Glen Ellyn, Elk Grove Village, Park Ridge and Wilmette — where advisory referendums showed majority support for allowing sales. The one exception was west suburban Western Springs, where 60% of voters rejected the idea.
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Employees Jenna Annabel and Mark Munns check a customer in at New Age Care dispensary in Mount Prospect on Nov. 4, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
New Age Care dispensary in Mount Prospect on Nov. 4, 2020. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
Marijuana advocates say the votes are part of a nationwide wave of growing acceptance of cannabis. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota chose Tuesday to legalize marijuana in their states. Despite the ongoing federal prohibition on the drug, that makes 15 states that have approved legalization.
Once Illinois lawmakers legalized the sale of recreational cannabis this year, local governments couldn’t prevent people from possessing pot but could ban its sale. Now, government leaders in the towns where voters Tuesday supported allowing sales will consider taking the legal steps to do so.
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In Mount Prospect, which already has a medical cannabis dispensary, the village board last year rejected a zoning ordinance to allow recreational sales there. But trustees wanted to hear from residents on the issue, so they put the question on the ballot. Mayor Arlene Juracek said she wasn’t surprised by the result, considering residents also supported legalizing marijuana in a Cook County advisory referendum in March 2018.
Juracek, who supports allowing sales, hopes to hold a public hearing to reconsider the issue before the end of the year.
“Once it became legal statewide, the horse is out of the barn,” she said.
As for the change in residents' attitudes, she said, “It’s different generations of voters. The northwest suburbs grew after World War II. Now, it’s baby boomers who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, and younger. It’s just a basic social evolution.”
While Western Springs has undergone some of the same changes, Village President Alice Gallagher said, it remained traditionally more conservative on the issue. Village trustees had raised concerns about where to put such a business and the potential damage caused by addiction. The village board held off on a decision until it could get residents' input.
Unlike in other suburbs, where organized Opt Out groups fought retail sales last year, there was no organized effort to sway the vote either way in Western Springs, Gallagher said. She expected the board would likely follow the will of the people and ban sales soon.
“This wasn’t close,” she said. “It seems pretty clear what the residents want.”
Resident chose to go in the other direction in Wilmette. The North Shore village previously had imposed a moratorium on pot retail stores, but 55% of voters supported allowing sales.
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If the village board does so, it would have to decide on zoning issues such as in what part of the village to allow such a business, how many to allow, hours of operation and other factors.
If approved, the tax revenues could help the village make up some of the projected $1.5 million shortfall in revenue projected due to COVID-19.
Despite the referendum results, some local officials still had not committed one way or the other on the issue. In Elk Grove Village, 63% of voters supported allowing sales. But longtime Mayor Craig Johnson, who helped create the Elk Grove Village Cares addiction treatment program, was noncommittal, having seen the damage addiction can do to local youths.
Johnson noted that neighboring towns with retail pot stores have not had any noticeable problems.
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“That sends a loud message to us,” he said of the residents' vote. “We’ve got to take their views into consideration. It’s a changed world.”
One big motivation, he said, is money. Statewide cannabis sales reached $68 million in September and generated more than $100 million in tax revenue.
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Other bellwether suburbs previously changed their tune on the issue. Arlington Heights and Naperville initially banned recreational sales, but their elected officials this year decided to allow it after all. In Naperville, the change came after 53% of voters supported the idea in the March primary.
Legalization opponent Smart Approaches to Marijuana noted that many more proposals to legalize marijuana have failed than have passed over the years. The organization warned that as is the case with Big Tobacco, large marijuana companies will promote use of the drug that leads to greater addiction and negative outcomes.
But Dustin Shroyer, the chief operating officer of Revolution Global, said approval for the measure was part of growing acceptance of the plant. The company will work with the village, he said, to be an economic engine for years to come.
“Last night’s vote in Mount Prospect showed the community is ready to embrace our industry," he said, “and understands the short- and long-term benefits adult-use cannabis will create.”
Pioneer Press reporter Karen Ann Cullotta contributed.


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania report new vote counts as battegrounds narrow

Regardless of where those states land , the margin in the race to 270 Electoral College votes promises to be @ @ @ @ @ look at results in hand so far from Michigan , Wisconsin and Pennsylvania , as @ @ @ @ @ other battlegrounds that have been projected already or are closer to projection .

Bill Ruthhart, Chad Yoder, Jonathon Berlin

Going into Tuesday’s voting, the list of battleground states that President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden were fighting for was a long 13. By the end of the night, that list had shrunk to a half-dozen.
By Wednesday morning, all eyes were on three familiar battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Propelled by the late counting of votes from Democratic strongholds, Biden had taken a lead in Michigan and Wisconsin by late morning Wednesday, while Trump remained in front in Pennsylvania with hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding.
Regardless of where those states land, the margin in the race to 270 Electoral College votes promises to be thin. Here is a look at results in hand so far from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, as well as some of the other battlegrounds that have been projected already or are closer to projection.
Also included here are final FiveThirtyEight polling averages for those states — polling that, as in 2016, proved to underestimate Trump’s sway with voters.
Those polls had Biden up 8.2 points nationally, for example. In key Midwest states, Biden led Minnesota by 9.3, Wisconsin by 8.2 and Michigan by 8 points. Trump won states where he was leading — Iowa, Texas and Ohio.
State by state


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Pritzker warns ‘there will be cuts, and they will be painful’ after graduated-rate income tax propos

Pritzker warns ‘there will be cuts, and they will be painful’ after graduated-rate income tax proposal fails at the ballot box

“ The governor needs to go back to what he did earlier in the year , where he stated that @ @ @ @ @ % cuts in the agencies ’ spending across the board , ” Durkin said .
@ @ @ @ @ little bit more than $ 1 billion , we could start there .
Cuts are @ @ @ @ @ but when you spend and continue to spend above and beyond the revenue that we @ @ @ @ @ what ’ s going to happen .
”

Fresh off spending $58 million of his fortune in a losing effort to pass a graduated-rate income tax, a frustrated Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday said “painful” budget cuts are coming and suggested an attempt to raise taxes could come as soon as two weeks.
Pritzker lashed out at Republicans, business groups and Ken Griffin, Illinois’ richest man, accusing opponents of distorting the truth about what the amendment would have done.
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“There will be cuts, and they will be painful,” Pritzker said Wednesday at his daily coronavirus briefing. “And the worst thing is, the same billionaires who lied to you about the ‘fair tax’ are more than happy to hurt our public schools, shake the foundations of our cities, and diminish our state. Maybe because they think it won’t hurt them.”
Now Pritzker, the billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir who made a graduated income tax the centerpiece of his campaign for governor, and lawmakers are left with a limited menu of politically perilous options to stabilize the state’s chronically precarious finances. Their main choices: raise taxes on everyone, regardless of income; make significant cuts to spending on programs like education and social services; or both.
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Signs against and for the graduated-rate income tax amendment are posted near an early voting site Nov. 2, 2020, in Palatine. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
Pritzker was clear from the start that he believed the only choices if the measure failed would be a 15% across-the-board cut to discretionary spending, a 1 percentage point increase in the state’s flat-rate income tax rate of 4.95%, or some combination.
While not directly calling for an increase to the flat income tax rate, Pritzker said he would try to minimize the effect of budget cuts on working families.
“But there is a point at which, there’s no doubt, that without revenue, some of those cuts will start to hit things that do affect working families,” Pritzker said. “And I don’t know that anyone wants that. Do we really want to cut education funding in the state? I don’t think so.”
Asked whether lawmakers should take up these issues before the new General Assembly is seated in January, Pritzker said, “We have to move expeditiously, there’s no doubt.”
The governor maintained that Republicans and their supporters will bear much of the responsibility for the difficult choices ahead.
“Whatever happens here, the pain that is endured by the people of Illinois, by the working families of Illinois, is on the Republicans and the special interests and the billionaires that back the Republicans,” Pritzker said. “They’ve got to step forward and help.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic blew a hole in the state budget, Illinois struggled for decades to align its revenues and expenses, often passing spending plans that relied on gimmicks to appear balanced on paper.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during his daily news conference on Nov. 4, 2020, at the Thompson Center in Chicago. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The state went nearly two years without a budget as then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner clashed with the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. The results of those years of fiscal mismanagement and political impasse: more than $8 billion in unpaid bills, $137 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, and a current budget of $43 billion budget that relies on borrowing from the Federal Reserve and federal coronavirus relief that may never materialize.
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In September, the governor’s budget office projected the state would lose a combined $6.5 billion in revenue this year and next year, and Pritzker asked agency heads to propose cuts of 5% this year and 10% next year.
Republicans in Springfield were unified in opposition to the graduated-rate income tax, which makes it highly unlikely any would support a flat tax increase. And while the minority party frequently calls for cutting spending to bring the budget into balance, they haven’t presented a detailed plan for accomplishing that, even when Rauner held the governor’s office.
One popular Republican proposal is to cut pension benefits for state workers, a move that likely also would require a change to the state constitution. After the Illinois Supreme Court struck down previous attempts, the issue has become a nonstarter for Democrats.
Other long-discussed options that have never gained traction in the legislature include expanding the sales tax to apply to more services.
It remains to be seen whether Democrats would be willing to pass a tax increase on their own or if they can reach an agreement with Republicans on a package of cuts. Traditionally, House Speaker Michael Madigan has been averse to passing any kind of tax increase without some GOP support.
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While many General Assembly races were still too close to call on Wednesday with scores of mail-in ballots uncounted, it appeared the balance of power would remain largely unchanged. According to unofficial results compiled by The Associated Press, Democrats were poised to maintain or possibly add to their 40-19 majority in the Senate while potentially seeing a net loss of two seats in the House. Those results would preserve the party’s supermajority.
“At the end of the day, middle-class and working-class families in Illinois are going to pay,” said state Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Downstate Bunker Hill and a lead budget negotiator. "They’re either going to pay more in taxes, which I think is a very, very difficult sell in front of the General Assembly, or they’re going to pay by cuts in schools, cuts in health care, cuts in social services at a moment in time when those families can least afford to take on those things.
“So, who doesn’t pay in this scenario? The wealthy. The wealthy win again.”
If the legislature were to approve cuts to education spending, for example, that would likely result in property tax increases to make up the difference for school districts at the local level, Manar said.
“We have serious, serious budget challenges, and the best option was taken off the table,” he said.
The legislature is scheduled to meet for six days over two weeks in late November and early December for its fall veto session, but the current COVID-19 surge across the state has cast some doubt on that calendar.
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House Majority Leader Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat, said it’s too soon to say whether lawmakers will take up budget-related issues before the new General Assembly takes office in January.
“There will be … a full review of every option that’s available,” Harris said.
In addition to raising the income tax or cutting spending, he said, “there are a lot of corporate tax loopholes that I think we should look carefully at that potentially we cannot afford any longer.”
With the outcome of the presidential election and the balance of power in the U.S. Senate also still up in the air, significant questions remain about whether Washington will be able to reach an agreement on sending aid to struggling state and local governments.
House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs called passing a state budget in hopes of getting “bailed out by the federal government ... irresponsible and the wrong thing to do.”
Durkin said the outcome of the graduated income tax vote translated to voters saying “the finances of the state are a mess and the Democrats are not up to the challenge of fixing it.”
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“The governor needs to go back to what he did earlier in the year, where he stated that we need to have 6.5% cuts in the agencies’ spending across the board,” Durkin said. “There’s a little bit more than $1 billion, we could start there. Cuts are not easy to do, but when you spend and continue to spend above and beyond the revenue that we bring in, this is what’s going to happen.”
The Pritzker administration estimated the rates that would have gone into effect Jan. 1 if voters approved the graduated tax would have generated $1.2 billion in the budget year that ends June 30 and $3.4 billion in future years.
Professor David Merriman, an expert on state finances at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said if the state were to ultimately implement a 20% across-the-board income tax increase, as Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton warned in September would be needed if voters didn’t approve the graduated-rate income tax, it would bring in more revenue for the state, at least over the short term, than Pritzker’s graduated-rate tax plan.
The state could again borrow from the Federal Reserve in order to get through the budget year “without making draconian cuts, or cuts where the implications are bad for the economy,” Merriman said.
To reduce enough nonpension and nondebt spending to close the budget gap, the state would need to “impose across-the-board reductions of almost 11%,” credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service concluded in a note issued Wednesday about the graduated income tax vote’s failure.
“This degree of austerity would have significant implications for the delivery of core education, health care, corrections and other services,” Moody’s said.
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The amendment’s failure will also make a reliance on deficit financing more likely, Moody’s said.
But Moody’s concluded that raising the flat-rate income tax from 4.95% to 5.65% would generate roughly $3 billion in additional revenue, roughly the same amount of revenue the graduated-rate income tax was projected to bring in during its first full year.
If the General Assembly were to raise the flat income tax or take action to open other revenue streams during the fall veto session, it could “preclude the need for the $1.27 billion of deficit bonds," Moody’s said.
Raising the flat-rate income tax could be done in combination with other changes to the state’s revenue system, such as increasing the personal deduction and expanding the sales tax base to cover services, Merriman said.
“There are other things that could be done to work within the flat-rate tax to make it more progressive, but whether any of it is politically feasible, I don’t know,” Merriman said. “I mean, legislators have just seen how taxpayers feel about the graduated rate amendment. It may be very hard to convince them to vote for a tax increase.”
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
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jmunks@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-11-05--Aldermen question special downtown taxing district for Mag Mile area that suffered looting

“ What was very frustrating to me was that almost all of the work was done with your office and @ @ @ @ @ guidance or direct input , and then presented to me as a package , and @ @ @ @ @ or leave it , and by the way , we ’ re in a hurry @ @ @ @ @ .
“ That put me at a tremendous disadvantage with the community association that was @ @ @ @ @ there are fundamental aspects of it that just don ’ t work for me and @ @ @ @ @ community here .
”

A city-sponsored special downtown business tax to help pay for security for businesses that got hit by summer looting ran into turbulence Wednesday from aldermen who said Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s planning director doesn’t work with them enough on projects in their wards.
Planning Commissioner Maurice Cox has aggravated aldermen who say he hasn’t communicated enough with them since he came on the job last year, which is perhaps inevitable for the man tasked with being the face of Lightfoot’s more centralized Planning Department.
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Cox’s lack of collaboration drew several rebukes Wednesday at his annual City Council budget hearing from council members who complained he doesn’t seek their feedback on the best way to proceed at the ward level.
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Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said he was irritated the city came to him with plans already put together for the proposed emergency special tax on properties along a stretch of North Michigan Avenue, where stores were hit with widespread looting on two occasions during unrest this summer.
“What was very frustrating to me was that almost all of the work was done with your office and the policy team without my guidance or direct input, and then presented to me as a package, and kind of ‘Take it or leave it, and by the way, we’re in a hurry,’ ” Reilly said. “That put me at a tremendous disadvantage with the community association that was applying for this, and there are fundamental aspects of it that just don’t work for me and for big chunks of the community here.”
Reilly also said “a lot of the stakeholders don’t like” the plan for the three-year extra tax, and said he’s doubtful it will get approved quickly.
Later in the meeting, Far South Side Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, expressed frustration to Cox that when she tries to get a Special Service Area taxing district in her ward, it’s a lengthy process, but the downtown proposal is moving forward quickly.
“It takes some of us forever to get an SSA done,” Austin said.
“That was a response to the downtown desire to have an SSA almost as an emergency effort to stop the bleeding that we’ve seen in the commercial corridor of downtown,” Cox said. “So it was expedited to allow that to happen.”
“Oh, I have some more questions behind that," Austin replied.
jebyrne@chicagotribune.com
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chicagotribune--2020-11-04--Republican Jim Oberweis claims victory, but Rep. Lauren Underwood says ‘thousands’ of votes remain u

Republican Jim Oberweis claims victory, but Rep. Lauren Underwood says ‘thousands’ of votes remain uncounted in close 14th District race

“ Today , after contacting every county clerk across the 14th District , I am pleased to say that , @ @ @ @ @ outstanding ballots , it appears that I have won a tough-fought campaign against Lauren Underwood @ @ @ @ @ a video posted to his Facebook page .
“ This race has been an uphill @ @ @ @ @ .
Lauren Underwood has enjoyed a tremendous financial advantage having outspent me 4-1 .
But @ @ @ @ @ she spent , we prevailed .
”

With a razor-thin lead, Republican Jim Oberweis claimed victory Wednesday in the 14th Congressional District campaign against first-term Rep. Lauren Underwood.
But with an undetermined number of mail-in votes still to be counted, the incumbent Democrat said it is premature for anyone to declare victory. The candidates are separated by a mere 895 votes after the tallies of the votes received and counted so far, according to unofficial results.
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“Jim Oberweis doesn’t get to call this election: the voters do,” the Underwood campaign said in an statement late Wednesday afternoon. “There are thousands of votes that have yet to be counted. We appreciate every voter who made their voice heard, and our county clerks and election officials must count every ballot in as expeditious and transparent a manner as is possible.”
Oberweis said that even without outstanding votes remaining, he was going to be the victor.
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“Today, after contacting every county clerk across the 14th District, I am pleased to say that, with only a handful of outstanding ballots, it appears that I have won a tough-fought campaign against Lauren Underwood,” Oberweis said in a video posted to his Facebook page. “This race has been an uphill battle to say the least. Lauren Underwood has enjoyed a tremendous financial advantage having outspent me 4-1. But despite all of the money she spent, we prevailed.”
Underwood’s campaign had the opposite take.
"Based on publicly available data, we remain confident that once ballots are counted, this race will reflect that the voters have reelected congresswoman Lauren Underwood.”
The Associated Press had not declared a winner in the race as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Oberweis, a state senator and dairy magnate from Sugar Grove, is attempting to return the district to Republican hands two years after Underwood flipped the traditionally Republican territory for Democrats, helping them take control of the U.S. House in 2018. Underwood, of Naperville, became the youngest Black women ever elected to Congress.
It remains unclear how many remaining vote-by-mail ballots are left to be counted across the district’s seven counties. Underwood had a significant advantage in the already counted mail-in ballots, doubling or tripling the votes cast for Oberweis among those mailed or delivered into drop boxes across the county, according to unofficial counts reported by the county clerks and election offices. In Lake County, for example, Underwood received 6,031 mail-in votes so far compared with 2,414 for Oberweis.
The tallies for in-person early voting and votes on Election Day were mixed. In DuPage County, for example, only 8 votes separated the candidates in Election Day voting, while Underwood edged Oberweis 1,431 to 1,208 in early voting. Oberweis had more in-person Election Day votes in DuPage, Lake, Will and Kendall, with breakdowns not immediately available in the other counties.
In-person early voting was also close between with Oberweis appearing to have a slight advantage.
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The district’s seven counties were split between the candidates, according to Wednesday’s unofficial tallies.
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Oberweis had more votes in DeKalb, Kendall, Lake and McHenry counties. Underwood has more votes in DuPage, Kane and Will. In Kendall, the candidates were separated by 74 votes. In DeKalb, they were separated by only a few hundred votes.
As of Wednesday morning, Oberweis had 22,927 votes in Lake County and Underwood had 20,915, according to unofficial tallies posted on the clerk’s website.
The Lake County clerk’s office said on its website that provisional and late-arriving vote-by-mail ballots were not yet included in its count. “Additional vote-by-mail ballots will be added by Nov. 10,” the notice said, and late arriving vote-by-mail ballots and validated provisional ballots will be added a week later, on Nov. 17.
The office said all ballots had been counted except those put into drop boxes on Election Day; received in the mail in Election Day; or those ballots that have yet to come but are postmarked no later than Nov. 3. The office had no estimate on how many ballots may be outstanding.
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Will County, where Underwood was holding a lead of several thousand votes as of Wednesday morning, also indicated that vote-by-mail ballots that had arrived on Election Day and certified provisional ballots also may not be included in the count.
poconnell@chicagotribune.com