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“But even as there may be some glimmers of hope, I say that physical distancing has to, must continue to be the way that we reduce the spread of this virus. Please stay home,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Small businesses of all types are eligible for relief through loan programs passed by Congress and at the state and local level. Here is a guide.
The Chicago Police Department currently has 134 members who have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those, 128 are sworn officers and six are civilian members.
During a five-hour span on Wednesday, another 9 people were shot — one reported as accidental — and two people were killed, including a 15-year-old boy.
“Do the social distancing right now. Studies showed in the Spanish Flu epidemic, cities that did the best job of preventing the spread actually had the strongest economic rebound,” said Professor Carl Campbell, Chair of NIU Economics Department.
The Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund, organized by Gov. J.B. Pritzker three weeks ago and chaired by his sister, Penny Pritzker, has collected just under $29 million and will make another disbursement in the coming days. More than 30 nonprofit agencies across the state received funds in this first wave.
Said a spokesman for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, “There are 11 coalitions throughout the state covering every area of the state, including southern and central Illinois, where all the health care providers in that region get together in terms of emergency planning, pandemic planning, emergency exercises.”
In Springfield, Mayor Jim Langfelder issued an executive order late Wednesday that gives police the ability to issue fines not to exceed $500 for not abiding by the governor’s order.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that Fed and Treasury officials would soon unveil a program to backstop financing for states. The devil will be in the details, and those designs—along with other announced plans for lending to small and midsize businesses—could be unveiled as soon as Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Comment: Fairly summarized, this article says spending cuts wouldn’t matter because Chicago is so broke, it needs spending stimulus and Chicago can look to Washington for a bailout of at least $1 billion. We expect Congress, especially the Senate, will say cut spending, make reforms or drop dead, Chicago.
The CTA’s average daily operating expenses are about $4.3 million, so the line of credit would only fund operations for about 10 days. Under Illinois law, the CTA can’t borrow more than $40 million in so-called “working cash notes.”
Cook County likely will resort to short-term borrowing to make ends meet, through a line of credit county commissioners recently activated, Preckwinkle said.
The mayor invoked the Passover story of God sending the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians in making her case that FOIA deadlines should be suspended.
So far, the city has issued 21 citations among eight businesses, including a gym that stayed open, a grocery store that didn’t take steps to enforce social distancing, and a bar that continued to serve patrons in-house.
“Like our closure of the lakefront two weeks ago, this is not punitive. It’s protective,” the mayor said. “… Far too many have been congregating at stores that sell alcohol, especially in the evening hour.”
According to Pritzker, new laboratory automation machines that originally promised to process a “multi-thousand daily unit increase” of tests are not giving technicians the output they anticipated. “More importantly, these tests are not producing valid results in a way that meets our exacting standards,” Pritzker added.
“While no could have predicted this particular pandemic would hit Illinois in 2020, credit-rating agencies and financial watchdogs have been telling the state’s elected officials for decades that Illinois needed to get its finances in order, build up a rainy day fund and properly fund essential services. Illinois lawmakers didn’t listen”
Ariadna Ramon Baro, a J-1 Visa holder from Barcelona and a visiting teacher at Waukegan High School sued the Lake County Federation of Teachers Local 504, IFT-AFT/AFLCIO and the Waukegan Community Unit School District #60.
Earlier this week, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike urged religious leaders not to bring their congregations together under the same roof. A constitutional attorney said not allowing congregations to gather for worship crosses the line.
At the moment, these discussions over the pros and cons of a tax interest rate and late penalty delay are just that: discussions. Any action authorizing a delay of those rates and penalties would have to be passed by the state legislature, and it is not known when the legislature will next convene.
Illinois state comptroller Susana Mendoza described to Anderson Cooper her state’s race to get medical supplies during the coronavirus pandemic, comparing it to the “wild-wild west.”
Now with the coronavirus gaining a foothold in the Cook County Jail and the state prison system, prisoners who may have been wrongfully accused or convicted could remain stuck behind bars and in harm’s way, just like the guilty.
Her action, and her subsequent shameless defense of her high-handedness, spotlights an administrative state that operates according to its own rules. In the case of the mayor of Chicago, it’s “social distancing for thee, but not for me.”
The two states are among the first to disburse the $600 payments—which are in addition to regular weekly unemployment checks—included in a $2 trillion federal stimulus package signed into law on March 27.
Clearly, some U.S. regions are far behind others in their outbreak trajectory. Do we need to wait until months after Mississippi peaks to allow Chicago’s convention center business to rev back up?
Preckwinkle said she has no signs or symptoms of the coronavirus, but will self-isolate until the end of April 10 “in an abundance of caution, and to follow public health guidance.”
Senate President Don Harmon and Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady assigned Senators to working groups this week to continue discussions on pending legislation.
Mendoza’s staff has hopped on I-55 on two separate occasions, each time armed with checks for $3.5 million. After the successful drop at a McDonald’s parking lot in Dwight, days later more N95 respirator masks and eye shields were purchased from a vendor at a Road Ranger parking lot in Minooka.
While we don’t know when the pandemic will end, we do know what comes next: Illinois’ grinding fiscal crisis will become catastrophic. Once the virus is under control, political leaders must turn their focus to a single mission: cutting Illinois’ $430 billion in government retirement liabilities and tens of billions in state and local bonded debt.
Illinois had just $4 million of rainy day funds before the Coronavirus hit. That was enough to cover just one hour’s worth of the state’s $40 billion operating budget.
The 12,000 figure would far exceed most death projections for Illinois from COVID-19. But so far, Pritzker has not shared the data the state is using to make its own projections for possible fatalities from the deadly virus.
The district estimates 115,000 students need devices, and CPS doesn’t yet have enough.
So, what needs to happen to ensure we are never caught off guard like this again? It’s simple: Flatten the bureaucracy.
In the north suburbs, 16.7% of 150 total ICU beds were reported to be available Tuesday; in the southwest suburbs, 20.7% of 372 total ICU beds were available. The figures on available ICU beds, by region, that were released Tuesday reflect only available ICU beds, not additional ones that hospitals may set up in coming weeks.
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