chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Pregnant Cook County probation officer Stacey Jones and her baby boy killed in an ambush attack by t

Pregnant Cook County probation officer Stacey Jones and her baby boy killed in an ambush attack by the child’s father, authorities say

Prior to Deering ’ s arrest , family said they knew there was something different about Jones ' latest love @ @ @ @ @ , her father said , she never revealed the name of her new baby ’ @ @ @ @ @ , aside from telling loved ones she was having another child , her relatives said @ @ @ @ @ much like she was in a relationship .

Megan Crepeau, Jeremy Gorner, Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

Chicago police First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter, left, and Andrew Holmes, right, stand behind Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan, as he gives details of the charges against Corey Deering in the Oct., 13 killing of his girlfriend Stacey Jones on Oct. 23, 2020. Holmes help facilitate the arrest of Deering, 39, without incident, according to police. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune)
In the middle of the night last Tuesday, Stacey Jones, eight months pregnant, peered out onto her front porch. Something caught her attention. Her 9 mm was secure in the waistband of her pajamas. Her two young sons were sleeping.
Right outside, Cook County prosecutors said, was the married father of her unborn child: Corey Deering, her sons' football coach. He had a flashlight, a can of spray paint and a 9 mm pistol of his own.
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Jones opened the door, went outside and saw Deering, authorities said. And as she walked ahead of him, prosecutors said, Deering shot her three times in the back.
She was pronounced dead within an hour. Doctors successfully delivered the baby, who lived only four days.
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Deering fled the scene, authorities said, driven by another woman he had met while coaching her children. She, too, they said, is pregnant with his baby.
But any hope Deering had of dodging suspicion would not last. On Friday the 39-year-old was charged with two counts of first-degree murder — one for the slaying of Jones and one for their child — and a judge ordered him held without bond.
Jones, a 35-year-old Cook County probation officer, had a concealed carry license, her father Tommy Baker told the Tribune last week. But she never had a chance to use it, because “the coward shot her in the back.”
Prior to Deering’s arrest, family said they knew there was something different about Jones' latest love interest. For one thing, her father said, she never revealed the name of her new baby’s father. In fact, aside from telling loved ones she was having another child, her relatives said it didn’t seem much like she was in a relationship.
“She never so much as said his name,” Baker said. “That was unusual.”
Deering had threatened Jones in the past, Chicago police told reporters at a news conference Friday announcing the charges.
“The victim had conveyed to some of her friends that the father told her she would never make it through the pregnancy,” CPD Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said.
And in court Friday, prosecutors said Jones had planned to hire a private investigator to learn Deering’s information so she could legally file for child support from him.
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Records show that five other women have filed child support or paternity cases against Deering in the past seven years.
Deering’s attorney, Andre Grant, said his client was a beacon of the community, a longtime mentor and coach for youths in the Englewood neighborhood who was deeply involved in half a dozen community organizations. Beyond that, he has worked closely with aldermen, he has organized Christmas toy drives, and has put up “Stop the Violence” signs throughout Englewood.
He has been married for more than a decade and has 10 children; he has worked for the Chicago Park District for 15 years, Grant said.
If anyone had a motive to kill Jones, it would have been the driver that night, Grant said — and if she had been a man, instead of a pregnant woman, he surely would have been charged as a co-offender, he speculated.
“Maybe she has the greatest motive to kill who they perceive to be a rival,” he said.
Grant called the case against Deering entirely circumstantial.
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He was questioned and arrested initially on Oct. 13, the same day Jones was shot, “due to several inconsistencies with his original interview,” Deenihan said. But he was released two days later after police didn’t have enough evidence to secure charges.
After that, investigators got a break in the case: They found the driver and she began to cooperate.
Prosecutors said she told authorities she met Deering at his home that night, where he placed her phone in his garage and then asked her to drive to the 2100 block of East 95th Place where Jones lived.
“(She) told police that she did not know why they were there,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.
Once they arrived, Deering left the car and walked down the block, the woman told police. She heard a gunshot, and Deering returned to the vehicle, out of breath. She drove him back to his residence and they did not discuss what happened, according to prosecutors.
The shooting was captured on video, prosecutors said, but the gunman’s face cannot be seen.
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However, Deering was wearing a distinctive black and orange sweatshirt that night, as evidenced by a video he took of himself just an hour and a half before the shooting. The gunman in the video wore an identical sweatshirt.
Racist graffiti was found spray-painted near Jones' front door — which authorities believe was an attempt by Deering to throw authorities off his trail.
Paint cans matching the spray-painted slur were found in Deering’s residence, prosecutors said, and he apparently turned off his phone just before, during and after the shooting. The distinctive sweatshirt he wore has not been found.
Andrew Holmes, a longtime anti-violence activist, was credited by police for helping to secure Deering’s surrender.
“He had nervousness in him,” Holmes said of Deering’s demeanor, “and at the same time, he’s worried about his family, his children.”
So Holmes and another activist, Darryl Smith, went to Deering’s home in the 8500 block of South Damen Avenue, to talk to him about turning himself in. But police were already there, Holmes told the Tribune, waiting to make their own move.
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“I asked the officer, detectives that pulled up that was headed to the house, just to give me 10 minutes,” Holmes said, recalling what happened. The officers agreed.
“When I walked out, he walked out with his hands up in the air,” Holmes said.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
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Stacey Jones. (Family photo)
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Area 2 Detectives currently have a suspect in custody in the connection to the fatal shooting of a 35-year-old female and the subsequent death of her 4-day-old child.
Detectives are working with the Cook County States Attorney’s Office to secure charges. #ChicagoPolice — Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) October 22, 2020
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mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
kdouglas@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Illinois Supreme Court contest shatters money record as Speaker Madigan’s shadow hangs over high-sta

Illinois Supreme Court contest shatters money record as Speaker Madigan’s shadow hangs over high-stakes campaign

One scenario Republicans are mulling is that the six justices ― three from each party ― would deadlock on a @ @ @ @ @ the court evenly balanced .
That could come in handy if a politically charged issue @ @ @ @ @ boundaries , comes before the high court during the next two years .
The final @ @ @ @ @ of taking control of the court would be to win the Kilbride seat outright against @ @ @ @ @ .

Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride’s bid to retain his seat this fall has emerged as a high-stakes, record-setting expensive campaign that Republicans are trying to make a referendum on embattled House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Billionaire conservatives, state GOP leaders and a dark money group are blanketing voters’ mailboxes with full-color attack ads that portray the justice as a Madigan puppet, citing the speaker’s large campaign contributions to Kilbride’s election efforts dating back to 2000.
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One mailer describes the justice as “Mike Madigan’s captain on the Illinois Supreme Court” and depicts the speaker wearing a baseball shirt that says “coach” with a whistle around his neck. Another features the two as tuxedo-clad James Bond-style secret agents, with Kilbride holding a bag festooned with a dollar sign representing Madigan’s money. There’s even a four-page faux newspaper that attempts to taint Kilbride with 14th Ward Ald. Edward Burke’s corruption scandal.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride appears at the opening of the new Will County Courthouse in Joliet on Oct. 9, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
It’s not a good time to be tied to Madigan, whose political and government operation is under intense federal scrutiny as part of an investigation that’s already resulted in ComEd admitting it sought to influence legislation by giving Madigan allies jobs and contracts.
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Kilbride, a 67-year-old onetime labor lawyer from Rock Island, said the millions of dollars in campaign funds he received from the Madigan-controlled Illinois Democratic Party have played no role in his past judicial rulings.
“Just a bunch of crap,” said Kilbride, who dismissed the Republican-backed hit pieces as out-of-order “mudslinging.”
In an interview, Kilbride said he wants voters to judge him “thoughtfully and fairly” and not based on negative flyers with “misrepresentations of the truth.”
The outcome of the contest is critical to both parties: Democrats want Kilbride to succeed in his retention effort so they can preserve a 4-3 majority on the high court. Republicans see defeating Kilbride as their best hope to eventually try to be in charge of the state’s high court for the first time in more than half a century and break the Democrats’ grip on all three branches of state government.
An attack ad mailer depicts Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride with House Speaker Michael Madigan wearing a baseball shirt that says “coach” with a whistle around his neck. (Citizens for Judicial Fairness campaign)
An attack ad mailer depicts Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride with House Speaker Michael Madigan as James Bond-style secret agents. (Citizens for Judicial Fairness campaign)
Kilbride needs the approval of 60% voters to win retention to a third 10-year term. No opponent runs in a retention contest.
While the 3rd Judicial District contest has statewide implications, it will be decided by voters in 21 counties that stretch from Will and Kankakee to Peoria and Rock Island. It’s a swath of Illinois that backed Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and favored then-Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018.
“It won’t be easy, but it’s a district that, if Republicans got out and voted ‘no’ against Kilbride, against his retention, I think we could knock him out of the box,” said former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, a Peoria Republican who served as Democratic President Barack Obama’s transportation secretary.
On the ground, Republicans are pitching the Kilbride race as a chance to vote against Madigan, who at election time answers only to voters in his heavily Democratic Southwest Side House district every two years since 1970.
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James Nowlan, a former GOP lawmaker who chairs the anti-Kilbride committee Citizens for Judicial Fairness, asks political audiences in towns such as Carthage, Monmouth and Utica if they ever wished they could vote against Madigan.
“They almost come out of their chairs with applause," he said. “And I say, ‘This year you can (vote against Madigan). You can vote against Tom Kilbride.'”
The war continues
The Kilbride retention fight is a continuation of Madigan and Democratic special interests battling wealthy Republicans who backed Rauner’s anti-union, pro-business agenda.
The biggest anti-Kilbride money has come from billionaire Citadel hedge fund owner Ken Griffin, who has given $4.5 million, including $2.5 million reported Thursday night; and packing materials mogul Richard Uihlein, who added $1 million, including $500,000 reported Friday night. Both were key Rauner donors, though Uihlein later broke with the governor.
Griffin and Uihlein also oppose Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s push for a graduated-rate income tax amendment — another political crosswind that Kilbride foes think will bring out voters who will oppose both the amendment and the justice.
A $200,000 donation from a dark-money group called the Judicial Fairness Project gave the anti-Kilbride forces a jump-start. The group’s registered agent is attorney John Fogarty, the Chicago-based general counsel for the Illinois Republican Party. Fogarty declined to identify the donors.
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Paperwork filed with the secretary of state showed the group’s board of directors includes two members of the Republican state central committee and the former head of the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association. Listed as the incorporator was Nick Klitzing, a former state GOP executive director.
Two years ago, Democrats decried Klitzing for the political dirty trick of impersonating a college newspaper reporter on a press phone call with Democratic congressional candidate Betsy Dirksen Londrigan. Klitzing could not be reached for comment on his anti-Kilbride efforts.
The Judicial Fairness Project does not fall under laws that require prompt disclosure of specific individuals who gave to the group, and the lack of transparency leads to public cynicism, said campaign finance expert Kent Redfield.
“It does nothing to build faith in judicial institutions and the public sense that the political system works in a fair way,” said Redfield, a professor emeritus based at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride at the opening of the new Will County Courthouse in Joliet on Oct. 9, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Another $75,000 sent to Nowlan’s group comes from the Republican State Leadership Committee’s Illinois political action committee, which is affiliated with a Washington-based group that’s received contributions over the years from ADM, Boeing, FMC Corp. and Koch Industries.
In addition to the flood of flyers, anti-Kilbride forces aired a TV ad telling voters to “defeat Mike Madigan’s favorite judge.”
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Kilbride recently countered with an ad in which he looks into the camera and says he has been “attacked harshly, repeatedly and falsely. I’m here to tell you flat out: These attacks are lies and distortions.”
A narrator then says Kilbride is under attack by out-of-state dark money because he refuses to let greedy corporations and predatory insurance companies own our courts."
Madigan’s help
Madigan doubles as state Democratic chairman, and one of his most farsighted successes was pouring nearly $700,000 in state Democratic Party funds late in a 2000 race to help Kilbride defeat a Republican opponent and flip the seat to the Democratic column.
Ten years later, Kilbride was up for retention and Madigan infused nearly $1.5 million in Democratic Party funds into the justice’s campaign. Kilbride received under 66% of the vote, a low enough level of support that anti-Kilbride forces believe he is vulnerable now.
On Tuesday, Madigan poured $550,000 into Kilbride’s retention, putting his total support to Kilbride over the years to $2.6 million in party funds alone.
That contribution came after Kilbride had indicated he wouldn’t take Madigan’s money. “We’re not going to accept one penny — and I say this respectfully — (from) Speaker Madigan or any of his entities,” Kilbride said on Oct. 2, WBEZ reported.
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Asked by the Tribune before the latest contribution if he anticipated support from Madigan or the Democratic Party, Kilbride said, “As far as I’m concerned, we’re not coordinating.”
Kilbride said he would make himself available for follow-up questions, but he did not on Wednesday. Instead, a spokesman issued a statement to questions about Madigan’s contribution.
“To further maintain his impartiality, (Kilbride) has no role in fundraising — all such decisions are made by his treasurer — and no knowledge of the donors to his retention committee nor of those to the opposition committee,” spokesman Ryan McLaughlin said. “Justice Kilbride is proud to have support from Republicans, Democrats and Independents, and to have been endorsed by a bipartisan group of law enforcement leaders and police officers from across the district.”
One factor that’s different this time around for Kilbride is that Madigan has been under a harsh spotlight since federal prosecutors implicated him over the summer in the ComEd jobs-for-favors bribery scandal. The power company admitted it sought to influence legislation by giving Madigan allies jobs and contracts. Madigan repeatedly has denied wrongdoing.
Kilbride also has received millions of dollars from the speaker’s allies in big labor, teacher unions and the trial lawyer community. A growing number of groups have made six-figure contributions after Kilbride lent his campaign $110,000 on Sept. 11, a move that removed campaign contribution limits in the contest.
Of the first eight law firms that gave Kilbride $100,000, seven of them previously gave to Madigan-controlled funds. To date, Kilbride has received more than $300,000 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association, two of at least seven major unions that have given Kilbride $100,000 or more for his current retention bid.
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All told, the pro- and anti-Kilbride sides have put in nearly $10.7 million through Friday night. That’s a new contributions record for a state Supreme Court contest in Illinois, breaking the previous high-water mark of $9.38 million in 2004.
“It’s a stunning amount,” said Redfield, the campaign finance expert.
The issues
The makeup of the state Supreme Court is crucial because justices rule on everything from the constitutionality of laws to legislative maps that help decide who controls the General Assembly.
Nowlan, who chairs the anti-Kilbride political committee, is particularly miffed that Kilbride authored a 2016 decision that threw out a proposed amendment that attempted to neutralize the politics when legislative district boundaries are redrawn once a decade.
“I really think he sold his soul to the devil with that opinion,” Nowlan said.
Madigan was opposed to taking away mapmaking from politicians, and Kilbride’s 4-3 Democratic majority opinion drew a searing dissent from then-Republican Justice Robert Thomas, who wrote: “The Illinois Constitution is meant to prevent tyranny, not to enshrine it.”
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Even so, Thomas has endorsed his Democratic colleague for retention, calling Kilbride a “conscientious jurist.” Despite their differences, Thomas said he “never saw” Kilbride make judgments based on Madigan’s influence or on Democratic politics.
In attack brochures, the anti-Kilbride forces also hammered the justice for joining a 4-3 bipartisan opinion that allowed an Illinois Federation of Teachers lobbyist — a former Madigan staffer ― to get a taxpayer-supported teachers pension after substitute teaching at a grade school for only one day.
The lobbyist now gets nearly $80,000 a year from the teacher retirement system — plus almost $35,000 annually more from a separate state pension system for his time on the speaker’s staff.
In another pension case, Kilbride is taking heat for writing the 2015 opinion that a high-profile public retirement system overhaul was unconstitutional because it violated the standard that retiree benefits could not be reduced once they were put in place. Kilbride noted the court agreed unanimously and that Madigan, a chief proponent of the pension law, came out on the losing side.
Republican Ty Fahner, a former Illinois attorney general who fought to uphold the pension law, strongly disagreed with Kilbride’s opinion but still backs him for retention. “I found that (opinion) to be disappointing but certainly not partisan one way or the other,” Fahner said.
If Kilbride wins and serves another term, it would give him 30 years on the high court, a feat no one has achieved since full terms were set at 10 years in the 1960s. He would come close to the state’s longest-tenured justice, Thomas Browne, who served for 30 years and two months ending in 1848, according to historical court records.
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If Kilbride loses his retention bid, the court’s remaining six justices would seek to find an interim appointment until a replacement could be elected in two years.
One scenario Republicans are mulling is that the six justices ― three from each party ― would deadlock on a temporary Kilbride replacement and keep the court evenly balanced. That could come in handy if a politically charged issue, such as redrawing legislative boundaries, comes before the high court during the next two years. The final step in the Republican hope of taking control of the court would be to win the Kilbride seat outright against a Democratic opponent in 2022.
Besides the Kilbride race, there are two other state Supreme Court contests on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The Trump factor may play a role in the open-seat, 5th District race in far southern Illinois territory that has trended increasingly more Republican. The contest pitting Democratic Appellate Justice Judy Cates of Swansea and Republican Appellate Court Justice David Overstreet of Mount Vernon has grown contentious.
Cates even endorsed the idea that she and Overstreet should face off at a turkey shoot campaign event to show who is the better shot. Overstreet’s campaign chairman dismissed the idea, saying Cates was simply trying to woo conservative Democrats and Republicans in an area where hunting has great appeal.
In Cook County, appointed Democratic Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. is running unopposed for a full term to replace the late Justice Charles Freeman.
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rlong@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @RayLong


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Coronavirus at Illinois long-term care facilities: 33,440 confirmed cases and 5,019 deaths

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois .
The @ @ @ @ @ at 1,005 long-term care facilities in 84 counties .
Of those , 571 facilities have @ @ @ @ @ , defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days .
In all @ @ @ @ @ be tied to long-term care facilities , with 5,019 deaths , as of Oct. 23 @

The Illinois Department of Public Health is releasing information on COVID-19 tied to long-term care facilities in Illinois. The data shows outbreaks have occurred at long-term care facilities in 94 counties. Of those, 1,003 facilities have an “active” outbreak, defined as a positive test result in the past 28 days. In all, 71,103 confirmed cases can be tied to long-term care facilities, with 9,263 deaths, as of Jan. 22.


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Pandemic fatigue could make cold-weather COVID spike worse. Want a better 2021? Resist risky holiday

Pandemic fatigue could make cold-weather COVID spike worse. Want a better 2021? Resist risky holiday gatherings.

When it comes to the holidays , people have a tendency to want to look for information that reinforces what @ @ @ @ @ Landon said .
It ’ s called confirmation bias and she ’ s hearing about @ @ @ @ @ patients .
They want someone to say it ’ s OK to celebrate and visit @ @ @ @ @ what we know about how COVID-19 spreads suggests otherwise , she said .

Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Madeline Buckley

Paca Kujtim of Arlington Heights self-administers a COVID-19 test in his car at the Arlington International Racecourse on March 31, 2021 in Arlington Heights. Kujtim was getting testing as a precaution for upcoming travel. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)
When epidemiologist Dr. Emily Landon started researching coronavirus in January, she told herself if Americans embraced a national plan based on the available science, the worst could be over when summer rolled around.
“By April, I realized it wasn’t going to be better in the summer. So you think, ‘OK, fine, you’re just going to give up 2020 and we’re just going to look forward to next year,’” said Landon, head of infection prevention and control at the University of Chicago Medicine. “Now I feel like it’s going to be half of next year.”
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What changed? Landon pointed to a storm of factors that have led to the current spike in cases in Illinois — which has forced four of 11 regions to revert to stricter protocols — and across the country, with an average of 59,000 new cases daily nationwide. Pandemic fatigue and cooler weather sending many indoors where COVID-19 can more easily be passed from one person to another each play a role.
And as people weigh the risks and rewards of getting together with family to celebrate the holidays, experts warn that without significant changes, Chicagoans could be in for a grim winter.
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City residents who flocked outside Thursday afternoon to enjoy a warm, sunny day worried about the coming months and talked of scaled-down holiday dinners and traditions that will likely be impossible to follow this year.
“It just feels really bleak, looking ahead at a whole winter and thinking about the holidays," Landon said. "It just feels really tough, and it is really tough — there’s no way to sugarcoat that.”
Landon and others use the term pandemic fatigue to refer to people tired of hearing and thinking about the dangers of COVID-19 and all the associated changes the virus has thrust on them. Fatigue has reached a point that even experts admit feeling a general malaise after months of hypervigilance.
People aren’t built to operate on such a high-stress, high-stakes level for such an extended period of time — considering each action as a potentially life and death decision, Landon said. Those who have followed all recommended guidance only to face a third wave about eight months into the pandemic may rightfully feel resentment, she said.
“It’s more fatiguing for the rest of us when you have to fight against this refusal to play by the same rules,” Landon said. “I feel like with this pandemic ... the vast majority want to protect others and there’s a vocal minority that argues about where their rights end and everyone else’s begin."
"If you could just count on everyone else to wear a mask, we wouldn’t be furiously paddling in circles, going nowhere,” she said.
Where we are
“Demanding everyone wear a mask all the time in public isn’t too big of an ask when you consider all we collectively do as a nation to contribute to the greater good,” she said.
Chicagoan Anthony Brown, 28, has seen firsthand the losses from COVID-19. One of his close friends lost his father to the coronavirus this summer. And a relative recently contracted the virus, though thankfully she appears to be getting better.
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So Brown, who wore a mask while working outdoors Thursday, is cautious about letting his guard down.
“It’s been a rough year,” Brown said.
Maintenance worker Anthony Brown does some work at a building near Oz Park in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Oct. 22, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
He still uses video chats to visit with family members, particularly those who are older and more vulnerable. Going on eight months, though, he really misses their regular presence.
“I’m really concerned,” he said. “I have a lot of family I’d love to see.”
Dr. Michelle Prickett, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, lamented how long the pandemic has kept people like Brown from their families, saying restrictions were made regionally, piecemeal.
“The issue is here we never really had a national response,” she said. “Nothing was really that consistent.”
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Dr. Michael Lin, an infectious disease specialist and an associate professor at Rush Medical College, echoed Prickett’s concern about the national response to the virus. He said it is “human nature” to grow tired of the restrictions, but that isn’t his primary worry.
“I’m less concerned about fatigue and more about just the scientific disinformation and messaging from the federal government and president,” he said. “I think all of us are on one level or another fatigued, but I’m just concerned that there’s a lot of messaging about how masks don’t work and social distancing is not needed.”
Colder weather pushing people indoors
Ardia Caniquie took the three children she was watching, one of her own and two she babysits, to a playground to take advantage of Thursday’s warmth.
The 43-year-old woman, though, worries about the coming winter.
Ardia Caniquie cares for three children, including one of hers, at Oz Park in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on Oct. 22, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
“It’s terrible,” she said of the increasingly chilly weather. “We used to take walks every day.”
Urban centers, including Chicago, were hardest-hit early on, but as Illinois saw declines in late spring and early summer, cases began to spike in the South.
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Now, with parts of the country allowing in-person school and some areas experiencing colder weather, the majority of states are battling increasing infection rates — the third wave.
The likelihood of becoming infected at an outside gathering is 20 times less likely than becoming infected indoors, Prickett said. So an increase in indoor socializing can easily lead to a spike in cases.
Although Prickett said gatherings should be avoided, when someone outside your immediate family is coming into your home, she recommends giving each other at least 8 feet of space, along with opening windows — even if it means dining in a parka.
“I’m hearing from patients they just got comfortable and relaxed or let their guard down one time,” Prickett said. “They’re not getting it in the grocery store — they’re getting it in their homes.”
Dr. Susan Casey Bleasdale, an infectious disease physician and associate professor at the UIC College of Medicine, warned Chicagoans about becoming complacent about gatherings of friends and family, cautioning that it’s “socialization that is putting people at risk.”
Even when keeping social circles small, people can still face exposure from others who were in contact with their family and close friends, Bleasdale said.
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“That’s kind of exponential,” she said. “That’s how it can spread.”
What could happen during the holidays?
Experts worry that pandemic fatigue will lead to people ignoring recommendations not to travel or spend the holidays indoors with family if it can be avoided.
“The collective sentiment from everyone is just disappointment on some level because we know what’s coming,” said Prickett. “You get comfortable and that’s not a great place to be, but hypervigilance for months on end isn’t either. There is a balance."
Sandor Hizo, 31, usually spends Thanksgiving with family members working at a food pantry on the Northwest Side, but that tradition is up in the air.
“This year, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Hizo said, as he played with a dog in a North Side park Thursday afternoon.
Sandor Hizo talks about getting through the COVID-19 pandemic while playing with a dog named Josephine at Oz Park on Oct. 22, 2020. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
As of now, he thinks they will prepare some holiday food and drive through the city passing it out. But as cases rise and city restrictions tighten, even that plan is uncertain.
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“Right now we’re taking this one step at a time,” he said.
When it comes to the holidays, people have a tendency to want to look for information that reinforces what they want to hear, Landon said. It’s called confirmation bias and she’s hearing about it more and more from patients. They want someone to say it’s OK to celebrate and visit with family, even when what we know about how COVID-19 spreads suggests otherwise, she said.
In situations where people do gather, Bleasdale says it’s best to stay masked and avoid sharing food or utensils.
“The holidays are going to be a challenge,” she said.
Prickett said that when she began treating her first COVID-19 patients early this year, it felt as though she was preparing to go to war. Everyone was focused on wearing protective gear and taking every precaution. But she has seen the attention to detail slip off as the pandemic has marched on.
“Making these decisions about holidays, we’re just running a risk," Prickett said. “And as much as everyone wants to see their family this year, I’d rather make sure we see them all again next year.”
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kdouglas@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @312BreakingNews


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Watch live: Gov. J.B. Pritzker gives a COVID-19 update

Gov .
J.B. Pritzker will give an update on the state ’ s response to the coronavirus in a briefing @ @ @ @ @ the latest updates on COVID-19 in Illinois here .

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chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Chicago-area grocers stock up to ward off shortages as COVID-19 cases rise. ‘We’re always chasing on

Chicago-area grocers stock up to ward off shortages as COVID-19 cases rise. ‘We’re always chasing one thing to the next.’

“ Companies have had to focus on the core parts of their assortment that they can mass-produce to try and @ @ @ @ @ , ” said Steve Craine , a partner at the consulting firm Bain .
“ @ @ @ @ @ revisit the complexity that was in their assortment pre-COVID .
”

Customer Ben Armstrong shops at Potash Market in Chicago on Oct. 22, 2020. Potash Market has had trouble securing some products like cleaning items, foil, paper products and sugar. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
After shelves were emptied of goods like toilet paper, canned food and hand sanitizer at the start of the pandemic, Chicago-area grocery stores and suppliers are stocking up to avert shortages as coronavirus cases rise in Illinois.
On Thursday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a 10 p.m. curfew on all nonessential city businesses and a prohibition on indoor service at bars without food licenses. Gov. J.B. Pritzker also announced stricter rules for some counties, including DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee.
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Grocers and food suppliers are leaning on lessons learned from the spring to make sure they can meet demand from customers who may once again be preparing to hunker down at home.
If the virus doesn’t get under control, the city could see a second stay-at-home order, Lightfoot warned Thursday.
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“I don’t want to sound alarmist, but by all indications, it seems like a second wave might come through and we’re always trying to protect our inventory levels against our customers' demands,” said Richard Saltzman, owner of Banner Wholesale in Chicago, which supplies goods to independent grocery stores and some chains.
Banner Wholesale Grocers employee Marcos Nevarez checks the stock of cleaning supplies like Microban at the company's warehouse in Chicago on Oct. 22, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Saltzman is buying extra pallets of staples like flour, sugar and salt in anticipation of a second coronavirus wave, but has had trouble finding enough toilet paper, paper towels and Lysol products to stockpile.
“When we find those rare supplies, we can usually only get one pallet at a time," he said.
Area stores have been stocking up on hand sanitizer, masks and gloves both for customers and employee use, said Vlad Kryvdyk, owner of Chicago-based supply, food and beverage distributor Mega Distributions.
“Glove products have been really challenging to get, something that would go for $30, whether medical grade or not, is now at a 150% price increase," Kryvdyk said, referring to a 1,000-pack of food-service gloves.
Grocery stores are increasing inventory on other items with recent price increases, such as aluminum takeaway containers, foil and block cheeses, according to Danny Friedman, co-owner of Chicago-based Food and Paper Supply Co.
Pete’s Fresh Market’s Chicago stores have had trouble filling shelves with enough shelf-stable groceries, frozen foods, and dairy. Suppliers are only able to fill between 75% and 80% of what Pete’s orders in those categories, said Joe Kalavo, the company’s chief operating officer. Kalavo said he expects the shortages to last through 2021.
Potash Market, which has three Chicago locations, has had trouble securing cleaning products, foil, paper products and sugar, CEO Art Potash said.
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“We expect the shortages to continue,” Potash said. “If there’s an increase in buying, that’s going to make it even worse.”
Customer Ben Armstrong shops Oct. 22, 2020, at Potash Market in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. Potash Market has had trouble securing some products like cleaning products, foil, paper products and sugar. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)
Even though many essentials are still in high demand, experts say they don’t expect as much panic buying as in the spring, when stay-at-home orders came abruptly and people did not know how long they’d be stuck at home.
"Now there’s much less uncertainty about whether we can keep an economy running during a pandemic,” said Constantine Yannelis, a behavioral economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
In order to temper consumer stockpiling, big-box retailers like Target, Costco and Walmart continue to place limits on the number of items customers can buy at one time of popular goods like toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
Grocers like Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s and Potash Markets also have maintained limits on purchases of high-demand items.
Grocers using alternative supply chains have had better luck keeping some products in stock.
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Banner Wholesale has been sourcing Clorox products from Mexico, according to Saltzman.
“Our American suppliers can’t fulfill orders but Mexican supply chains haven’t been interrupted as much,” Saltzman said.
Green Grocer Chicago, a natural food and wine store in the city’s West Town neighborhood, sources most of its meat and produce from local farmers. Except for flour and yeast, the store was able to keep shelves stocked during the height of the pandemic when its sales more than doubled, according to store manager Dileep Gangolli.
An employee checks a stack of off-brand paper goods in storage at Potash Market on Oct. 22, 2020, in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
While grocery supply chains have mostly recovered from the shortfalls seen in the spring, the industry is still having trouble keeping shelves fully stocked with the full array of products shoppers were accustomed to pre-pandemic.
“They’ll send in 60%, 50% of the order. They’re always out of something, and we’re always chasing one thing to the next,” Saltzman said, referring to his suppliers. “It’s challenging.”
To meet growing demand, food companies have had to focus production on their core products. That means shoppers can expect to find fewer flavors, varieties and sizes of their favorite products if there is another surge in demand this fall.
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“Companies have had to focus on the core parts of their assortment that they can mass-produce to try and keep up with the demand,” said Steve Caine, a partner at the consulting firm Bain. “That has caused them to revisit the complexity that was in their assortment pre-COVID.”
J.M. Smucker Co. temporarily scaled back the production of some jam flavors and Jif peanut butter items like its Reduced Fat, Omega 3 and Simply Jif versions. The company also reduced the production of some Folgers and Dunkin coffee flavors, according to company spokesman Frank Cirillo.
Kraft Heinz, the Chicago-based company whose brands include Oscar Mayer and Jell-O, also has decreased production of certain product varieties, as has Chicago-based Conagra, the company behind Birds Eye, Reddi Whip and Marie Callender’s.
It’s likely these coronavirus-induced changes could last beyond the pandemic, according to Caine, who expects grocery stores may offer 5% to 10% less variety in center-store items like soups, chips and frozen pizza in the future.
“COVID triggered the question: Is it worth it to produce all of these varieties?” Caine said.
Retail models like Costco and Trader Joe’s, where fewer assortments of products are offered, were catching on before the pandemic. The coronavirus prompted retailers and manufacturers to reconsider the economic advantages of that model, Caine said.
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“You can drive tremendous volume in one to two varieties of a product,” he said. “And customers are more comfortable with curated offerings.”
Fewer product varieties also translates well into online shopping models, which have taken off over the last eight months.
“It’s difficult to browse multiple brands of the same product online, especially on a mobile phone,” Caine said.
As the holiday season gets underway, grocers could be facing additional supply challenges. This year, people will travel less, leading to smaller holiday celebrations. A survey conducted by the meat company Butterball found 30% of people say they plan to host only immediate family this year, which is double the amount who traditionally do so.
That means demand for holiday turkeys and other meats will be up, with 3 out of 4 survey respondents indicating they will purchase the same size turkey or a larger turkey than last year.
Nate Rempe, president of Omaha Steaks, said the mail-order meat company began stockpiling inventory months in advance and expects “a substantial holiday season, probably outpacing anything we’ve seen.”
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Earlier this year, coronavirus outbreaks caused meat processing plants in several locations including Monmouth, St. Charles and Rochelle to close, creating a bottleneck for America’s meat supply.
Eight months into the pandemic, workers in slaughterhouses, who typically work side-by-side, remain vulnerable, according to Anna Nagurney, a professor in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts who studies supply chains.
“Those first few months were very hectic,” said Beth Breeding, vice president of communications and marketing at the National Turkey Federation. “The supply chain challenges worked out, but we’ll have to continue to monitor everything. We’re heading into the Super Bowl of the turkey industry with Thanksgiving.”
ksurma@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Las votaciones ya comenzaron, aquí una guía para votar en Illinois

Su juez electoral puede emitirle una boleta provisional por varias razones , incluso si su nombre no aparece como registrado @ @ @ @ @ de votación ha sido cuestionado ; no proporcionó identificación al registrarse por correo y no @ @ @ @ @ en el sitio de votación ; figura como que ya ha votado antes ; una @ @ @ @ @ de votación en su distrito electoral y usted vota durante ese periodo extendido ; o @ @ @ @ @ por correo pero no la trajo para entregarla a un juez electoral .


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital da

COVID-19 in Illinois by the numbers: Here’s a daily update on cases, positivity rate and hospital data in your area

Among the metrics ( see below ) tracked under guidelines set by Gov .
J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of @ @ @ @ @ , the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses , and the capacity of hospitals @ @ @ @ @ state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics @

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
To assess how different parts of Illinois are handling the COVID-19 pandemic, officials look at the state through the 11 regions of Emergency Medical Services. The city of Chicago is one region, for example, and the rest of Cook County is another.
Among the metrics (see below) tracked under guidelines set by Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the percentage of coronavirus tests that return positive, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19-like illnesses, and the capacity of hospitals to take in new patients.The state will decide how much or how little to restrict activities based on these metrics. (Cases, deaths and tests data is as of Dec. 31).
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Remembering the lives of those in Illinois who died from coronavirus.
• Other Chicago, suburbs and Illinois COVID-19 metrics.
• See how the governor’s plan to manage the regions works.
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Created by the Chicago Tribune dataviz team. On Twitter @chitribgraphics


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--COVID-19 cases in Illinois by ZIP code: Search for your neighborhood

Search below by street address , ZIP code or city , then click on the map to see the number @ @ @ @ @ state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer .

Note: With Chicago and Illinois moving into phase 5, the Tribune is no longer updating this data. If the state moves back into bridge phase, the Tribune we reassess. Daily metrics on COVID-19, like cases, deaths and hospitalizations, can be found here. And Daily metrics on the vaccination effort can be found here. More on where the coronavirus stands nationally and around the world can be found here.
Illinois releases the number of positive COVID-19 cases by ZIP code daily. The map below shows the cumulative cases for each area as well as other analysis of the data.
• Check out the Tribune’s coronavirus coverage.
• Tracking daily Illinois coronavirus deaths, cases and tests.
Search below by street address, ZIP code or city, then click on the map to see the number of confirmed and probable cases. The state is not providing data for any ZIP code with five cases or fewer.
Data as of June 10.
The map search tool above works best in Chrome or Firefox and may not perform consistently in Internet Explorer.
Note: Because of a coding error this map was displaying the incorrect rates for new cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people — the issue should now be resolved.. The Tribune adjusted the data shown on the map below to focus on new cases, those the state tracked in the last 7 seven days. The totals for the entire pandemic are still available, but in the pop-up after tapping or clicking on a ZIP.


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Who is Ken Griffin? And how does he spend all that money?

Ken Griffin is founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel and the namesake of the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum @ @ @ @ @ He has been known as the richest person in Illinois since 2013 , when he @ @ @ @ @ Zell on Forbes ’ annual ranking of billionaires .
Forbes calculated his wealth at $ @ @ @ @ @ ranking , making him the 117th-richest person in the world .

Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, at the hedge fund's office in 2014. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
Ken Griffin is founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel and the namesake of the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. He has been known as the richest person in Illinois since 2013, when he passed real estate mogul Sam Zell on Forbes’ annual ranking of billionaires. Forbes calculated his wealth at $11.7 billion in its 2019 ranking, making him the 117th-richest person in the world.
In 2020, Griffin has been one of the main people funding opposition forces against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ballot proposal to shift the state to a graduated income tax.
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How did he make so much money?
Griffin started trading from his dorm room at Harvard University in 1987 at age 19, according to his bio on Citadel’s website. In 1990, he founded Citadel. As of October 2019, the hedge fund said it managed $32 billion in assets. It has offices across the globe, from Chicago to Shanghai.
The financial crisis of 2008 “nearly crippled Citadel,” the Tribune once wrote. The hedge fund barred investors from taking money out of Citadel’s two largest funds from December 2008 through March 2009, according to a Tribune article from the time. But Citadel recovered and set new high-water marks by 2012, according to an interview that year.
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Griffin is also the principal owner of Citadel Securities.
I heard he’s politically active. Who is he backing?
After the financial crisis, Griffin started putting more money into politics and causes, he told the Tribune in that same 2012 interview.
“Government is way too involved in financial markets these days,” he said.
He also argued that America’s richest people need more influence in politics.
"I think (the ultra-wealthy) actually have an insufficient influence," Griffin said. "Those who have enjoyed the benefits of our system more than ever now owe a duty to protect the system that has created the greatest nation on this planet."
He’s mostly donated to Republican candidates and causes — he gave $36 million to Bruce Rauner’s campaigns and $1.7 million to Erika Harold’s run for Illinois attorney general in 2018. He also gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to political funds run by Karl Rove and the Koch brothers, among other causes.
But Griffin has also given locally to Democratic candidates. He’s given nearly $1.29 million to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign funds, and gave $70,000 to Rod Blagojevich.
He threw his cash into the race to replace Emanuel by donating $1 million to Bill Daley’s campaign for mayor in February 2019. Griffin had previously given Bill’s older brother, Mayor Richard M. Daley, more than $162,000.
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In 2020, Griffin has been one of the main people funding opposition forces against billionaire Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ballot proposal to shift the state from a flat-rate income tax to a graduated tax with rates that increase with income.
So far, Griffin has given the Coalition to Stop the Tax Hike Amendment $53.75 million.
Griffin also slammed Pritzker as “a shameless master of personal tax avoidance" in a recent email obtained by the Tribune, which was verified by a company spokesman.
Amid a flurry of expensive TV ads on both sides, Griffin’s email to approximately 1,000 Chicago employees of Citadel represents a personal escalation of the battle of the two billionaires on the front lines of the issue.
Additionally, Griffin has given $4.5 million, including $2.5 million reported Thursday night, to those opposing the reelection bid for Democratic Illinois Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride.
The race has emerged as a record-setting expensive campaign that Republicans are trying to make a referendum on House Speaker Michael Madigan.
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Cutouts of Ken Griffin, Gov. Bruce Rauner, and House Speaker Michael Madigan are held up as marchers and activists from diverse communities throughout Illinois begin a two week, 200 mile march from Chicago to Springfield as they rally for a state budget on May 15, 2017. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)
What else does he spend his money on?
Griffin has also donated to plenty of nonpolitical causes.
He donated $125 million to the Museum of Science and Industry in October 2019. In exchange, the museum was renamed the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
In June 2020, Griffin purchased the massive, much admired Jean-Michel Basquiat canvas “Boy and Dog in Johnnnypump” for more than $100 million.
The painting is now hanging in the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He gave $12 million to rehab and expand Chicago’s Lakefront Trail for runners and bikers. He donated $10 million for technology to help the Chicago Police Department in high-crime areas. He gave $3 million to build mini-soccer-fields across Chicago. He’s given $19 million to the Art Institute of Chicago, $16 million to Children’s Memorial Hospital and $10 million to a childhood center in Chicago Heights, among other gifts.
Griffin also recently gave $7.5 million to help support “Chicago Connected," an initiative to provide free high-speed internet to more than 100,000 Chicago students and their families.
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So, uh, where does he live?
That’s more complicated than you’d think! Griffin is considered by most people to be a resident of Chicago, but he’s extremely active in the global real estate market.
In November 2017, he bought the top four floors at 9 W. Walton St. for an estimated $58.75 million, considered at the time to be Chicago’s priciest home sale ever.
In January 2019, he also bought a penthouse apartment in New York City for an eye-popping $238 million. He owns other property in New York, as well as Aspen, Colorado; Palm Beach, Florida; and Hawaii.
That sounds nice. Is he married?
Not any more. In 2015, he settled a divorce with his wife of 12 years, Anne Dias Griffin, just before a high-profile trial on the case began. At issue was a prenuptial agreement, as well as custody of their three kids.
She allegedly found Chicago “unsophisticated” and wanted to raise their children in either San Francisco or New York, according to one court filing. They agreed to shared custody in the settlement.


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 31 new deaths, 3,874 new confirmed cases and 82,256 new test resu

Daily Illinois coronavirus graphs: 31 new deaths, 3,874 new confirmed cases and 82,256 new test results

Illinois announced 3,874 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Friday for a total of 364,033 .
The state also announced 31 @ @ @ @ @ of 9,418 and 82,256 new test results for a total of 7.11 million .

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


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--After a successful summer, virtual internships are helping Chicago companies expand their recruiting

After a successful summer, virtual internships are helping Chicago companies expand their recruiting reach

“ The interns didn ’ t have the social side of going to work with everyone because everyone was under @ @ @ @ @ .
“ But the work was actually as good , if not maybe better , @ @ @ @ @ this virtual world , you can be a bit more inclusive in meetings .
”

The summer of the virtual internship may have been short on baseball outings, picnics and water cooler bonding, but it has landed some real jobs for graduating college seniors.
It also has some companies rethinking traditional on-site summer internship programs as a recruiting tool.
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“This is the most significant thing to happen in talent acquisition in 20 years,” said Greg Watkins, who heads up hiring at M. Holland, a Northbrook-based plastics company. “Probably half of our interns going into next year are going to be remote.”
When the pandemic hit in March, the corporate world shifted on the fly to a work-from-home paradigm. Some companies canceled their summer internship programs, while others pivoted to remote solutions, offering future titans of industry a chance to learn the ropes from their parents’ basement.
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There are about 600,000 to 700,000 college internships per year nationwide, with employers hiring about 55% of those interns for full-time jobs, according to Edwin Koc, director of research and public policy for the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
More than 1 in 5 companies canceled their summer 2020 internship programs entirely, while 70% of the companies that brought on interns conducted some or all of the program virtually, Koc said.
Like the corporate world at large, the makeshift virtual internships proved more successful than many expected.
Longtime Accenture executive Lee Moore was promoted to head the consulting firm’s Midwest region March 1 — just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After getting 11,000 employees in 14 states working remotely, he turned his attention to 100 college and graduate students hired to start a 10-week “summer analyst” internship program across the Midwest in June.
“One of the first decisions I had to make was, what are we going to do with these people?” said Moore, a British native based in Chicago.
Moore decided to “push ahead” with the internship program, an important talent pipeline, and go fully virtual. The reinvented program included a virtual homeroom for interns to “hang out” with each other, a self-directed training curriculum and an abundance of online face time with Accenture executives and clients they might not otherwise have met.
“The interns didn’t have the social side of going to work with everyone because everyone was under lockdown," Moore said. “But the work was actually as good, if not maybe better, for the interns because in this virtual world, you can be a bit more inclusive in meetings.”
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Moore said most of the interns were hired in August for full-time analyst jobs upon graduation.
One of those job offers went to Sydney DeHorn, 22, a business major from Glenview, who is finishing her final semester at Michigan State University.
She was part of Accenture’s on-site summer internship program in 2019 and did the virtual program this year from her family’s summer cottage in Michigan. Initially disappointed, DeHorn was surprised to find the virtual version a better experience.
“This summer brought more opportunities to the table because I was able to meet with so many people virtually,” DeHorn said. “But also, I really had the opportunity to spend most of my summer with my family, which I probably wouldn’t have done before.”
DeHorn is set to start working remotely for the Chicago office — likely from her parents' Glenview home — early next year.
While Moore called the success of the virtual office a “revelation,” he expects DeHorn and other employees to log some time in the physical office once the pandemic subsides.
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Accenture announced plans last year to expand its West Loop office at 500 W. Madison St. and consolidate its Chicago workforce at the renamed Accenture Tower. Set to open in 2022, the project is still “full steam ahead,” Moore said, but Accenture is reconfiguring the entire space for collaboration, where employees are not expected to be at the office on a daily basis.
Converting interns to full-time employees may be the most important measure of success for the virtual internship programs, data that won’t be available from the National Association of Colleges and Employers until early next year, Koc said.
But another indicator of how the virtual summer interns may fare is the association’s job outlook survey for 2021, set to be published this month. It projects hiring for all college graduates to be relatively flat as a result of the COVID-19, an outlook that is more optimistic than expected, according to the survey.
Jose Rivera, a senior finance major at DePaul University, works on schoolwork at home on Oct. 7, 2020, in Chicago. Rivera, 23, landed a financial analyst job with BMO Harris after completing a mostly virtual internship with the bank over the summer. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Jose Rivera, 23, a DePaul University senior, landed a job as a financial analyst with BMO Harris after his summer internship with the bank.
The program, which started in late June and was shortened to seven weeks, had 77 interns working for the bank’s Chicago-area offices and was primarily conducted online. While some interns lived locally, others participated from out of state, according to BMO Harris spokeswoman Kathleen Szot.
Three-fourths of the 2020 summer interns who were graduating seniors received job offers in September, consistent with previous years, Szot said.
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Rivera, who grew up in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood and now lives in Lakeview, was one of only a handful of BMO interns to get some on-site experience.
The choice to spend time at BMO’s downtown Chicago office as part of a commercial banking group was entirely Rivera’s, Szot said.
“My primary driver for going into the office was I wanted to really immerse myself in the BMO culture and really experience what it was like to be a BMO employee for the summer,” Rivera said.
BMO is recruiting for the 2021 summer internship program and has yet to determine whether it will be virtual, in-person or a hybrid, Szot said.
Summer interns at BMO, Accenture and M. Holland received full pay, despite working remotely and in some cases from out-of-state.
With many companies planning to continue a work-from-home or hybrid strategy well into next year, internships will likely follow suit, recruiters said. Seeking to evolve their programs, some have turned to Parker Dewey, a 5-year-old Chicago recruitment company which pioneered the “micro-internship,” a remote, project-based work experience linking students and employers.
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Parker Dewey facilitates short-term paid professional projects, where students spend 10 to 40 hours working for a company. Jeffrey Moss, founder and CEO of Parker Dewey, said a number of companies contacted him in the spring for advice on how to transform the summer internship into a virtual experience.
His recommendation was to bundle together a bunch of short-term remote projects over the course of 10 weeks.
The strategy proved successful, and Moss said many of those same companies are looking at a hybrid approach for summer 2021, even if the pandemic is under control. Remote, project-driven internships will also broaden the recruiting reach, he said.
“The big takeaway from this summer is geography is off the table from a recruiting perspective,” Moss said.
Each year, M. Holland, a 70-year-old, family-owned company, offers positions to about a dozen summer interns and was in the interviewing process when the pandemic hit.
The program was abruptly curtailed, with only three slots filled.
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“In March and April, we were thinking there’s no way we can do an internship program if they’re not here," Watkins said. "We just locked it down, we decided not to do any additional offers.”
Watkins said the traditional on-site internships of summers past included philanthropic outreach, community activities and a company picnic. There was also a two-hour lunch with the company’s owner, Ed Holland, whose parents founded the business in 1950.
None of that happened this summer, with two interns working both virtually and at the nearly empty Northbrook office, and one participating remotely. Watkins said it went far better than expected.
“Our tagline as a company is, ‘We take plastics personally,’” Watkins said. “When we have the opportunity to interact again, and it’s safe, we will absolutely have those interactions, but we won’t be constrained by five days a week in the office, we won’t be constrained by having people living in Chicago.”
Watkins said he could see nearly half of the 2021 internships being remote, flying interns in twice during the summer for events and community engagement.
Going fully virtual applies to full-time hires as well, Watkins said.
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“We have actually hired people in the last few months who are in different states,” Watkins said. “We would have required those people to be in Chicago before the pandemic.”
Trevor White, 21, an Elgin native and Iowa State University senior, was one of the company’s three summer interns. Working with the additive manufacturing and 3D printing team, his program included remote and hands-on experience.
He is continuing the internship remotely while finishing up at school, and hopes to land a full-time job with M. Holland upon graduation. White considers himself lucky compared with classmates whose internships were canceled. But upon reflection, he said his internship fell short in one significant way.
“We were in this big office, and no one was there," White said. "I was working at this big company, but I only got to meet four people.”
rchannick@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Memorial constructed for Joel Jenkins who was shot and killed in Rogers Park

A memorial was built for Joel Jenkins , 26 , shot to death at the Red Line ‘ L ’ @ @ @ @ @ , a neighborhood he loved and always came back to , even when it became @ @ @ @

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 6 Cynthia Howard and her granddaughter, Ahniyah Jenkins, 8, arrange a memorial for her son, and Ahniyah's father, Joel Jenkins, at Loyola Park in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Oct. 17, 2020. Jenkins, 26, was fatally shot on Sept. 15 at the nearby Morse Red Line "L" station. Howard arranged the memorial near a basketball court at the park where her son often spent time with friends. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
A memorial was built for Joel Jenkins, 26, shot to death at the Red Line ‘L’ Morse station in Rogers Park, a neighborhood he loved and always came back to, even when it became dangerous for him.


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Cold front drops Chicago-area morning temperatures, bringing rain, brief thunderstorms; snowy mix co

Cold front drops Chicago-area morning temperatures, bringing rain, brief thunderstorms; snowy mix could hit parts of area Sunday

The rain was expected to reach most locations across the Chicago region until about midafternoon Friday , adding to a @ @ @ @ @ for northern Illinois .
But Ogorek said there “ shouldn ’ t be more than @ @ @ @ @ most locations ” Friday and it shouldn ’ t be cause for alarm .

A cold front rolling through the Chicago area was expected to cool Friday’s temperatures throughout the day as it brought another round of rain and thunderstorms heading into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Friday morning started with warmer temperatures hovering in the upper 60s before the cold front and a brief line of showers and isolated thunderstorms moved into the region, according to Rafal Ogorek, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Chicago-area office. Temperatures in some areas dropped more than 10 degrees from night into morning.
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“This morning it was pretty warm if you stepped outside,” Ogorek said. “But behind the front it’s going to become a lot cooler.”
Temperatures at Northerly Island dropped from 68 degrees at 7 a.m. to 52 degrees by 9 a.m., while O’Hare International Airport saw a drop from 68 at 7 a.m. to 51 at 10 a.m., according to the weather service.
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Friday’s storms were expected to end before afternoon, but the cooler temperatures should stick around, dropping into the mid-40s in the afternoon and the 30s later in the evening, Ogorek said.
The rain was expected to reach most locations across the Chicago region until about midafternoon Friday, adding to a particularly wet and rainy week for northern Illinois. But Ogorek said there “shouldn’t be more than an inch of rain in most locations” Friday and it shouldn’t be cause for alarm.
“We’ve kind of had the jet stream sitting over us and that’s allowed for multiple systems to come through the area and bring precipitation,” Ogorek said. “It can happen during the fall, especially if you have a pattern that persists over several days.”
Heading into the weekend, the cold front should move out, with Saturday temperatures reaching the mid- to upper-40s. The forecast also doesn’t show a chance for rain on Saturday, which “will actually probably be our first quiet day we’ve had here in a while,” Ogorek said.
However, another system could roll through Chicago on Sunday, bringing some rain and the possibility for “a bit of a rain, snow mix in some parts of northern Illinois” by evening.
“A rain and snow mix is possible,” Ogorek said. “Not necessarily for the entire Chicago, area but there could be parts that see that.”
Ogorek advised people to be cautious driving on the road later this weekend, particularly with the possibility of the rain and snow mixture Sunday evening.
For more weather information visit the Tribune’s weather page.
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kelsmith@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @KelliSmithNews


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--‘So happy to bring my son home’: 10-year-old boy survives Kawasaki-like illness associated with COVI

‘So happy to bring my son home’: 10-year-old boy survives Kawasaki-like illness associated with COVID-19

“ Because there ’ s still so much we don ’ t know about this condition from the long-term perspective @ @ @ @ @ “ Though Joshua ’ s heart function and artery blood vessel enlargement all went back @ @ @ @ @ left the hospital — which is unbelievable and demonstrates how resilient these kids are — @ @ @ @ @ cautious because we don ’ t have experience , we don ’ t have data @ @ @ @ @ a year they ’ re going to be just fine .
Or in six months @ @ @ @ @ be just fine .
We just don ’ t know that .
”

Joshua Smith, 10, tries to concentrate in front of his computer at home in South Holland on Oct. 12, 2020. Joshua Smith caught COVID-19 in April and then developed a severe Kawasaki-like illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
First the otherwise healthy 10-year-old boy complained of a headache and no appetite, followed by a high fever that wouldn’t subside with pain relievers.
A few days later, the whites of his eyes turned an eerie shade of red and he became so weak he could no longer walk on his own.
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About 2 a.m. April 28, an ambulance rushed Joshua Smith to University of Chicago Medicine’s Comer Children’s Hospital, where he would be diagnosed with a Kawasaki-like illness — an uncommon disease marked by a high fever and swelled blood vessels — that had recently surfaced in kids residing in COVID-19 hot spots in Europe and New York.
Joshua’s mother recalled praying for her son as she drove behind the ambulance, its flashing red and blue lights intermittently filling the darkness beyond her windshield. No clinician could immediately explain what had made Joshua grow so ill so quickly.
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“I was scared,” said Lagwena Smith, 41, of south suburban South Holland. “I didn’t know what was going on, what he was going through. It was definitely scary.”
The condition now known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is believed to be a rare but severe complication following a COVID-19 infection that shares some similarities with Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome.
The cause of MIS-C is unknown, but the syndrome is thought to be an excessive immune response following a known COVID-19 infection or likely exposure. Patients often have a high fever, and their organs — including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal system — can become inflamed and fail. Symptoms can include fever, rashes, rapid breathing, fatigue, red eyes, fast heartbeat as well as redness in hands, feet, lips or tongue.
A few cases of a similar inflammatory syndrome have been recently reported in adults as well.
Nationwide, more than a thousand cases have been confirmed in children and 20 deaths have been attributed to the syndrome since May, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Four MIS-C patients ranging from 2 to 19 have died in Louisiana, two with existing health conditions and two with no known previous health problems. The deaths of two children younger than 12 in New York were also attributed to the syndrome, which seems to disproportionately hit Black and Hispanic patients.
Illinois has reported 30 cases of MIS-C to the CDC since May, most from Cook County and the collar counties. All patients had tested positive for the virus or antibodies to COVID-19, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
So far, all children who had MIS-C in Illinois have survived, state health authorities said.
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After two weeks in the hospital, Joshua was discharged in mid-May. His mother says he’s “back to his usual self,” though cardiologists have restricted his physical activity as he continues to heal.
“I feel great,” he said. “I feel the same. I want to run and do sports.”
Joshua Smith, 10, right, plays video games with his twin brother, Jeremiah, at home in South Holland on Oct. 12, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
The fifth grader said he misses playing basketball and jumping on trampolines. He longs to ride bikes again with his fraternal twin brother, Jeremiah, who never exhibited any COVID-19 symptoms and didn’t get MIS-C.
“The bottom line is we still don’t understand why MIS-C affects some and doesn’t affect others,” said Dr. Julia Rosebush, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Comer, one of the physicians who treated Joshua. “We’re still trying to figure out what it is that predisposes someone to developing it.”
So many questions linger about the mysterious disorder, as scientists and physicians work to better understand the new coronavirus as well as this peculiar complication.
“That’s where I think a lot of the research is headed now, trying to determine who gets this,” Rosebush said. “Who do we have to keep a special eye out for? Who do we need to watch carefully? Those are the things the research questions are trying to answer now.”
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A medical puzzle
As one of the earliest cases of MIS-C diagnosed in the United States, Joshua’s condition was initially a bit of a puzzle for physicians.
His mom had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on March 24, likely contracted from her job at a local hospital. Lagwena Smith, a mother of four sons, said she tried her best to stay in her room and self-isolate from the rest of her family.
But a month later, Joshua became sick. Lagwena Smith took him for a COVID-19 test at a nearby hospital in northwest Indiana, but as they approached the outdoor testing tent, the boy could barely stay upright and leaned on his mother for support.
“I couldn’t even feel my legs,” he said. “It was a weird feeling.”
He was transferred to Comer via ambulance, a ride he doesn’t much remember because he was so fatigued that he fell asleep.
His condition bore some similarities to Kawasaki disease.
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Joshua’s blood pressure was dangerously low. An echocardiogram revealed that one of the arteries leading to his heart was bigger than normal.
“That in the presence of fever is very concerning for Kawasaki disease,” Rosebush said.
But he also presented in ways that aren’t very common with Kawasaki disease: His heart was not pumping as effectively as it should have been, she said. And the illness is normally seen in much younger children.
“That, accompanied with the bigger artery, made it very confusing for us,” she said. “Things were not adding up. So we tried to entertain a whole host of diagnoses.”
At the same time, news reports from Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom cropped up expressing alarm over a new condition emerging in children in COVID-19 hot spots. Then Britain’s Paediatric Intensive Care Society issued an alert to its physicians warning of an increase in children hospitalized with “a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care.”
“As we started to piece the story together, we felt that COVID had to be related somehow to this,” Rosebush said.
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Joshua tested negative for COVID-19 on two different swab tests. But then a blood sample sent to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for antibody testing came back positive, indicating a previous COVID-19 infection.
Since then, the CDC has found that the age range for most cases was 1 to 14, with an average age of 8 years. About 75% of patients have been Black or Hispanic; 98% tested positive for the virus and the other 2% were around someone with a COVID-19 infection.
Joshua was the first MIS-C case at Comer, but two more children would be admitted with the condition that same week, Rosebush said. She estimates the hospital has cared for eight to 10 children with the condition so far.
Joshua’s case helped physicians develop MIS-C guidelines for the hospital and state, establishing protocols for future patients.
“We have a heightened sense of awareness, now that we have experienced this,” Rosebush said. “And we’re ready to see more cases in the future. Because now we understand, we know and we’re continuing to learn as we go. There’s a lot more we have to learn about the condition at this point.”
The school dilemma
Joshua’s condition improved almost immediately after he was hospitalized.
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“It almost seemed as if once he transferred to Comer, things settled down for a period,” Rosebush said, recalling that his biggest concern a few days later was getting off a liquid diet and eating some real food.
Joshua Smith, 10, is trying to concentrate in front of his computer at home in South Holland on Oct. 12, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
He spent one week in the intensive care unit and another on the main floor, treated with corticosteroids to decrease inflammation and blood thinners to prevent blood clots, among other medications.
Following his May 16 discharge, his mother and brothers threw him a homecoming party, serving sausage pizza and a vanilla-and-chocolate marble cake with “Congratulations!” written atop in blue icing.
“I was happy to bring my son home; I’ll take that over anything in the world,” Lagwena Smith said. “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody, on no parent.”
Even though Joshua’s feeling healthy, his physicians are cautious.
“Because there’s still so much we don’t know about this condition from the long-term perspective,” Rosebush said. “Though Joshua’s heart function and artery blood vessel enlargement all went back to normal before he even left the hospital — which is unbelievable and demonstrates how resilient these kids are — we want to be extra cautious because we don’t have experience, we don’t have data that tells us … in a year they’re going to be just fine. Or in six months they’re going to be just fine. We just don’t know that.”
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An August article exploring MIS-C cases worldwide published in the medical journal The Lancet echoes this sense of uncertainty.
“Much remains unknown regarding the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical spectrum, and long-term outcomes of MIS-C,” the article said.
As her son recuperates, Lagwena Smith said it can be difficult to hear from people who refuse to wear masks or still insist the virus — which has killed more than 1.1 million and infected more than 41 million worldwide — is a hoax.
Although her symptoms began months ago, she said she still has fatigue and other long-haul medical issues. Occasionally she’ll hear folks repeat the myth that children can’t get COVID-19 or that there’s no risk for youths.
“And I say that kids can catch the virus too,” she said. “I say my son had it and he almost died.”
Joshua is attending school virtually. As some parents are clamoring for more in-person instruction, Lagwena Smith said she’s glad his classes are entirely online, because she believes it’s safer.
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“You don’t know what the other people are doing or where the kids are going,” she said. “Not just the time that they’re with their classmates, it’s the time that they see others, or their grandparents or their parents. I’m happy that they’re doing the home-school.”
Rosebush also dispelled the notion that children can’t contract or transmit the virus.
“I think it’s important that we don’t continue this narrative that has been put out there that kids don’t get COVID,” she said. “That’s absolutely untrue.”
Yet she stressed that the condition is extremely uncommon.
“MISC-C is exceedingly rare,” she said. “And that shouldn’t be a primary reason to keep your child out of school. There are so many other reasons that people are making the decision to keep their child at home or move to a hybrid format at this point.”
Many local schools have recently shifted to hybrid systems — a mix of in-person education and virtual learning — with some students attending in-person school for the first time in months. Success has been spotty, with some districts reverting back to online formats in a matter of days or weeks due to virus outbreaks or climbing local positivity rates.
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Rosebush, though, believes in-person education is possible with strict COVID-19 precautions.
“What we do know is that masking, hand-washing, physical distancing, we know that works to curb the spread,” she said. “And I think if teachers and administrators can be good enforcers of those particular rules, kids can attend school safely and they’ll get that much-needed social and emotional development that they need, that they are not going to be able to do successfully at home. It’s a really hard balance to strike.”
eleventis@chicagotribune.com


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Cops seek driver of borrowed BMW who hit motorcycle on Lake Shore Drive, critically injuring 2

The woman who had been driving the car ran off following the collision , police said .
Soon after , @ @ @ @ @ owner of the car arrived at the scene of the crash and told police the @ @ @ @ @ .

Chicago police Friday morning were looking for a woman who ran off after the borrowed BMW she was driving hit a motorcycle late Thursday on Lake Shore Drive downtown, critically injuring a man and woman.
The man, 41, was heading north near 700 S. Lake Shore Drive about 8:05 p.m. with a 30-year-old woman as a passenger on his motorcycle when the 2008 BMW hit the motorcycle, throwing the man and woman from the bike, police said.
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The motorcyclists and his passenger were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition, according to a police media notification.
The woman who had been driving the car ran off following the collision, police said. Soon after, a man identified as the owner of the car arrived at the scene of the crash and told police the woman had borrowed his car.
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chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Friend tries to explain why man hung from the side of Trump Tower for more than 13 hours: ‘He’s neve

Friend tries to explain why man hung from the side of Trump Tower for more than 13 hours: ‘He’s never done anything like this before’

About 15 to 20 firefighters were assembled on the terrace , patiently waiting as temperatures dipped .
They were close @ @ @ @ @ and assess about how much he weighed and what they would need .
Sullivan said @ @ @ @ @ dealing with an amateur when they saw his gear and the knots he tied .

Chicago police SWAT officers leave Trump Tower in Chicago on Oct. 19, 2020. A unidentified man had been dangling off of the 16th floor of Trump Tower for more than 13 hours. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
It’s been three days since a man was lifted to safety after hanging on the side of Trump Tower for 13 hours, but one of his closest friends says he’s still frightened for him.
“He’s never done anything like this before. I don’t know how it will end up,” said Marlen, who didn’t want his last name used so he wouldn’t be harassed on social media. “I’m really scared.”
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Marlen and his friend are both from the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. His friend delivers newspapers for a living, is a purple belt in jujitsu and is an avid reader. “He’s a very intelligent person,” Marlen said. “He is a nerd guy. He likes to dig deep. He’s fond of Noam Chomsky.” The Tribune is not naming the man because he has not been criminally charged.
Marlen said his friend was excited after recently reading a book by Chomsky, a celebrated linguist and philosopher who’s a sharp critic of American policies. He believes that’s why the man rappelled down the side of the downtown high-rise and threatened to cut himself loose if he didn’t get his message out.
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“He was just trying to let people know about the book and share his opinion,” Marlen said. “Now, Noam Chomsky knows about him.”
Marlen said he was home relaxing early Sunday evening when the phone rang. “Do you know who’s up at Trump Tower?” the caller asked. “It’s your friend.”
He hung up and turned on the television, and there was his friend, hanging from the side of Trump Tower and holding a knife. Marlen said he sped downtown, parked and walked up to one of the dozens of emergency responders on the scene. “I’m his friend,” he told them. “I can help you.”
An unidentified man had been dangling off of the 16th floor of Trump Tower for more than 13 hours on Oct. 19, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
He was led to the 16th floor terrace where a police SWAT team, firefighters and a Russian translator were figuring out what to do about his 31-year-old friend, who was hanging from a harness about 8 feet below them and bouncing his feet against the window. Among them was Chicago Fire Chief Jamar Sullivan, head of the technical rescue operation.
“Tough dude. … Whoever that cat was,” Sullivan said.
Since the man was refusing to come back up, Sullivan figured there were at least three other options: Send firefighters down the rope to him, haul him up to the terrace or send divers after him if he plunged into the Chicago River below.
About 15 to 20 firefighters were assembled on the terrace, patiently waiting as temperatures dipped. They were close enough to see him clearly and assess about how much he weighed and what they would need. Sullivan said they realized they were not dealing with an amateur when they saw his gear and the knots he tied.
“He was wearing Class 2 rock climbers, for mountain climbing,” Sullivan said.
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The man had attached a large rope to a pole on the terrace, hooked it to a “real lightweight” harness and shimmied down the side. “This guy knew what he was doing, the knots he tied,” Sullivan said. “He knew.”
As the man hung on the side of the building, he livestreamed himself saying he wanted to speak with the media and with President Donald Trump, but he was never clear exactly what his message was. Waving a knife, he threatened to cut the rope.
Marlen said he told his friend, “Come up. You can face the media here and deliver your message. It’s safer here.”
The man still refused to move, and negotiators reached the man’s brother by phone. “Please come up, everything is going to be fine,” the brother said in Russian as a bullhorn was placed in front of the cellphone. “The whole family here is worried about you.”
But the man remained where he was and kept repeating he wanted to talk to a reporter, mentioning one by name from out of state. He then became “irritated” and “not very responsive,” according to the police translator, Officer Yevgeniy Pisarenko, who talked to the man in Russian.
Everyone backed off and monitored him with cameras to make sure he didn’t start cutting the rope.
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After a while, Pisarenko tried talking to the man again, telling him it wasn’t easy to get the reporter he wanted in the middle of the night. The man said he “wanted to wait until morning.”
“What’s so important about the morning?” Pisarenko asked.
“I want to see the sun one last time,” the man replied.
After dawn, authorities reached the reporter and got a live screenshot of him. “The sun had already come up and they showed it to him,” and then he dropped the knife, Pisarenko said.
The SWAT team plucked him out of the harness, checked him out and escorted him to an ambulance headed for Northwestern Memorial Hospital to be evaluated. “It literally took two or three seconds once they (negotiators) said: ‘Go!’” Sullivan said. “It worked out perfectly.”
Through it all, the man didn’t say a word. “They said nothing to him,” Sullivan said. “And he didn’t verbalize anything to police. He said nothing about why he was there. Nothing.”
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But that was not the end of the ordeal. On Monday evening, the man was being transferred to the Madden Mental Health Center in Maywood when he unbuckled himself from a gurney and fled out the back door of an ambulance. Police say he changed clothes in the vestibule of a store and hailed a cab on State Street. He was arrested eight hours later.
The incident only worried Marlen more. He has not talked to his friend since Sunday evening and has no idea what’s next.


chicagotribune--2020-10-23--Recovering from COVID-19, multi-system inflammatory syndrome

Ten-year-old Joshua Smith caught COVID-19 in April and then developed a severe Kawasaki-like illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children @ @ @ @ @ was treated for two weeks at Comer Children 's Hospital at University of Chicago .
@ @ @ @ @ south suburban South Holland with his mother , twin brother Jeremiah and two older brothers @

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 5 Joshua Smith, 10, tries to concentrate in front of his computer at home in South Holland on Oct. 12, 2020. Joshua Smith caught COVID-19 in April and then developed a severe Kawasaki-like illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
Ten-year-old Joshua Smith caught COVID-19 in April and then developed a severe Kawasaki-like illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). He was treated for two weeks at Comer Children's Hospital at University of Chicago. He is back home in south suburban South Holland with his mother, twin brother Jeremiah and two older brothers.