The latest
Madigan’s office outlines rules for state legislators’ return to Springfield
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
The Illinois House will reconvene next week at the Bank of Springfield Center to take up the state’s budget and other pressing issues during the pandemic.
House Democrats were told many of the details during a virtual caucus Wednesday morning, a day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he wants legislators back to both approve a budget and try to work on a state plan to help businesses and unemployed people.
Legislators will return May 20, according to a source. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s chief of staff Jessica Basham outlined some rules attached to the unusual call to session, including that legislators must travel individually and also stay in individual hotel rooms.
No companions are allowed and there will be minimum number of staffers allowed on the floor of the convention center. The public will be allowed in the mezzanine only, and there will be a separate entrance for staffers, the source said.
Legislators will also have to wear face coverings at all times, and “cloth-based face masks” will be provided to those who don’t have one. Illinois State Police will serve as security for the session, the source said.
Read the full story by Tina Sfondeles here.
News
1:42 p.m. Preckwinkle offers plan to delay fees on late property tax bills
Homeowners would get a two-month waiver of fees on late property tax bills, under a plan unveiled Wednesday by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
“These are incredibly difficult times for our residents and this measure creates much-needed breathing room for Cook County property owners,” Preckwinkle said in a statement. “With residents and businesses facing so many challenges and difficulties because of the coronavirus, waiving late fees on property taxes is the right thing to do right now. This can keep residents in their homes and allow businesses much needed time to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Second installment of property taxes are due Aug. 3, but under the plan, homeowners could wait to pay until Oct. 1, without fear of fees. Typically, homeowners are charged a fee of 1.5% of the total taxes owed for every month the taxes are late arriving at the Cook County treasurer’s office.
Read the full report here.
11:11 a.m. Mysterious inflammatory syndrome striking kids in NY may be related to COVID-19
Amber Dean had recovered from a mild bout of the coronavirus and her family of five had just ended their home quarantine when her oldest son, 9-year-old Bobby, fell ill.
“At first it was nothing major, it seemed like a tummy bug, like he ate something that didn’t agree with him,” said Dean, who lives with her husband and three young children in the western New York town of Hornell. “But by the next day, he couldn’t keep anything down and his belly hurt so bad he couldn’t sit up.”
At the local hospital emergency room, doctors suspected an appendix infection and sent him home with instructions to see his pediatrician.
It was only later, after Bobby’s condition took an alarming turn for the worse, that doctors realized he was among the small but growing number of children with a mysterious inflammatory syndrome thought to be related to the virus.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that New York is now investigating about 100 cases of the syndrome, which affects blood vessels and organs and has symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock. Three children in the state have died and Cuomo advised all hospitals to prioritize COVID-19 testing for children presenting with symptoms.
In New York City, which has reported at least 52 children sick with the syndrome, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday urged parents to call their pediatricians promptly if their children show symptoms including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting.
Read the full report here.
10:13 a.m. Paul Manafort released from prison due to virus concerns
Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s onetime presidential campaign chairman who was convicted as part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has been released from federal prison to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement due to concerns about the coronavirus, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Manafort, 71, was released Wednesday morning from FCI Loretto, a low-security prison in Pennsylvania, according to his attorney, Todd Blanche. Manafort had been serving more than seven years in prison following his conviction.
His lawyers had asked the Bureau of Prisons to release him to home confinement, arguing that he was at high risk for coronavirus because of his age and preexisting medical conditions. Manafort was hospitalized in December with a heart-related condition, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press at the time.
Read the full story here.
9:18 a.m. Status of Summer: What Chicago festivals, events are canceled, postponed
The coronavirus pandemic and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s shelter-in-place order have dramatically altered everyone’s summer plans. Summer festivals, a staple of Chicago neighborhoods, have been forced to cancel or move their event to later in the year.
We’re tracking the status of the city’s festival and major events throughout the area as new cancellations and postponements roll in. We’ll be updating this list each time a new schedule change is announced.
Follow our live tracker here.
7:40 a.m. Chinese Americans in Chicago donate 1 million surgical masks to city’s first-responders
A group of Chinese American businessmen has donated 1 million surgical masks to first-responders and others in Chicago, saying Chicagoans did the same thing for China when the coronavirus emerged there at the beginning of the year.
“We are grateful to the frontline responders who are risking their well-being to protect Chicago neighborhoods,” said Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao, who organized the donation with his wife Cherry Chen.
The effort follows months of President Donald Trump blaming China for the pandemic.
On Monday, when a Chinese American reporter asked the president why he sees testing for the coronavirus as a “global competition,” he responded, “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China.” On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all.”
Zhao and more than a dozen other Chinese American businessmen bought the masks and asked the University of Chicago Crime Lab to help distribute them.
Read the full story from Frank Main here.
6:36 a.m. Potbelly considers shutting 100 sandwich shops amid coronavirus pandemic
Potbelly, the Chicago-based chain of sandwich shops, said Tuesday it is considering whether to close 100 locations, or about 23% of its total, as it scrambles to cut costs because of the pandemic.
CEO Alan Johnson discussed the potential closings in his report of the company’s first-quarter earnings. Potbelly said it saw a dramatic downturn in its results once the coronavirus, which has forced closure of restaurant dining rooms, spread widely in the U.S. during March.
Johnson said its same-stores sales for January and February were up from the year before but then took a 68% dive during March. The company quickly furloughed a third of its corporate staff and cut corporate salaries, including those of top executives, by 25%.
Read the full report here.
6:10 a.m. Chinese Americans in Chicago donate 1 million surgical masks to city’s first-responders
A group of Chinese American businessmen has donated 1 million surgical masks to first-responders and others in Chicago, saying Chicagoans did the same thing for China when the coronavirus emerged there at the beginning of the year.
“We are grateful to the frontline responders who are risking their well-being to protect Chicago neighborhoods,” said Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao, who organized the donation with his wife Cherry Chen.
The effort follows months of President Donald Trump blaming China for the pandemic.
On Monday, when a Chinese American reporter asked the president why he sees testing for the coronavirus as a “global competition,” he responded, “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China.” On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “Asian Americans are VERY angry at what China has done to our Country, and the World. Chinese Americans are the most angry of all.”
Zhao and more than a dozen other Chinese American businessmen bought the masks and asked the University of Chicago Crime Lab to help distribute them.
Read the full story from Frank Main here.
New cases
Analysis & Commentary
1:20 p.m. Future COVID-19 vaccine will be effective only if we insist on its widespread use
Charles Berg, a Hyde Park resident, wrote this letter to the Sun-Times editors:
In Wednesday’s Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Lynn Sweet wrote about the future availability of a vaccine and an editorial discussed the concept of “herd immunity,” in which vaccination would play a significant role. Both pieces failed to mention one significant — and troubling — point: the strength of the anti-vaccination movement in the US.
“Vaccine hesitancy” has many bases. Among them are religious and ethical concerns, anti-scientific and anti-medical biases and conspiracy theories. Some individuals complaining that social-distancing measures are a plot against our civil liberties also are active in the anti-vaccination movement.
Despite concerns, vaccination has provided significant protection in the past several centuries against many diseases that used to devastate human populations. Polio, smallpox and measles are examples of diseases driven almost to extinction by vaccination programs. Yet there have been recent resurgences; for example, worldwide measles cases increased by 30% in 2019. Such outbreaks can cost lives and millions of dollars to combat. I encourage readers to consult the data in articles online.
The bottom line is that a failure to use an available vaccine can result in outbreaks of disease and deaths that could have been prevented. To not vaccinate is to threaten the health of others. That is why proof of polio vaccination is normally required of children entering school.
Once a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, we may be faced with mandating its use.
Read this and more letters to the editor here.
6:18 a.m. Can we agree — when COVID-19 vaccines arrive, they need to be free?
Everybody agrees we need a COVID-19 vaccine. Multiple potential vaccines to save us from the coronavirus infections are in development. Can we agree on something else — when vaccines arrive, they need to be free?
Don’t be sidetracked because it was Sen. Bernie Sanders who pressed this point at a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Sanders, the Vermont Independent, made universal health insurance a centerpiece of his Democratic presidential bid.
This is not about Sanders. This is not about overhauling our health coverage system. Don’t get distracted.
A vaccine works if almost everybody gets it. That’s why schools have immunization requirements. You can’t enroll a kid in a Chicago Public School without a polio vaccine.
The Hispanic community in Chicago is particularly hard hit. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., who has been scrambling for solutions, told me, “Access to a future coronavirus vaccine, once it’s developed, must be readily available to all segments of society, including immigrants, regardless of their ability to pay.”
If everybody has insurance, a preventative vaccine would likely be covered. If everybody has extra cash, paying for a vaccine may not be a big deal.
But everybody doesn’t have insurance or cash.
Read the full column from Lynn Sweet here.