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HB 1459, sponsored by Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, would help ease the strain caused by the nurse shortage in Illinois, which is felt especially in rural communities. The nurse workforce is aging, with 25 percent to 30 percent set to retire in the next five years.
Court clerks at a Southwest suburban courthouse walked off the job Friday, the culmination of a week of complaints about whether their boss, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, was doing enough to protect them and the public from the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are four confirmed cases now within the department and a spokesperson told reporters pretty soon they will stop counting.
“Yes, Illinois and Chicago have been known for corruption, but we also are known for some of the nation’s great reforms. This is a moment for all of us to follow in the footsteps of the idealistic reformers.”
Chicago officials are exploring the availability of other facilities that could be used temporarily to get homeless people off the street or out of crowded shelters. Though no homeless person is known to have tested positive for the coronavirus in Chicago, officials want to identify potential isolation facilities where those individuals could be housed.
Here’s the governor’s list of essential activities allowed.
Ald. Ray Lopez (15th), one of Lightfoot’s most outspoken City Council critics, said the pandemic requires the mayor, city clerk, treasurer and 50 aldermen to “lead by example.”
Chicago chefs and restaurateurs have organized a “Chefs Call To Action” campaign to push legislators to include restaurants and industry workers in any federal stimulus packages intended to help the economy.
The order is expected to begin at 5 p.m. Saturday and continue until the end of April 7. Schools will also remain closed in the state until that date, Pritzker said. “We know this will be hard and we’re looking for every tool we have to get through this crisis.”
Few states face a crisis as deep as Illinois, which has more than $7 billion in unpaid bills, about $137 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and only $1.2 million in reserves. Just over a week into the pandemic, initial jobless claims in Illinois jumped more than 10-fold compared with the same period last year.
Chicago, Illinois’s biggest city and the nation’s third largest, is also in a tough spot. It already faced deficits and its pension contributions were to jump this year to $1.7 billion from $1.3 billion
As Illinois hospitals put out a desperate plea for donations of protective equipment, federal regulators have asked the governor of Georgia to allow a shuttered medical device sterilization plant to reopen, saying it would help governments and hospitals across the country get gear they need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The request comes months after two similar facilities in Illinois also went dark, amid state action and lawsuits over emissions of the chemical known as ethylene oxide.
As companies switch to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they need more tech support. Delivery companies that are resupplying grocery stores need more workers, too.
The firm’s latest effort is in partnership with Chicago Public Schools and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
It will remain open to essential personnel and aldermen in order to help maintain the continuity of government and essential city services, Lightfoot said in a written statement. Working journalists also will have access to the building.
“COVID-19 has gotten a lot of attention for its dangers to public health, but we have to take the dangers to the economy just as seriously. This is a wake-up call.”
“I expect this to be incredibly noisy, negative and expensive,” said Chris Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Is anybody even home at the office of the Chicago Treasurer?
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