“Our best guess is something like 60% of the employment reduction is going to be temporary, and 40% is going to be permanent.”

“The COVID recession does not look like a normal recession. t’s part natural disaster and it’s part war. So the other good analogy is Pearl Harbor….”

“I’ve said that we’re all in this together, but at the same time, it doesn’t make sense for McHenry County to be held back if we’ve met all the requirements until the other counties in our region catch up to us,” McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks, D-Marengo, said. “Our families and businesses are suffering, and every passing day prolongs that suffering. More jobs are forever lost, more businesses shuttered, and more people losing hope.”

According to the guidelines set forth by Pritzker’s administration, a region must have a positivity rate of lower than 20 percent for a period of 14 days, and must not rise more than 10 percent during that time. Grundy County, with a positivity rate of 7.1 percent, and Kankakee County, at 13.9 percent both meet that threshold.

But House Speaker Mike Madigan, dubbed “the Velvet Hammer” for his tight control over his chamber, didn’t sound in any great hurry to call his members into session. Spokesman Steve Brown said he didn’t know when legislators would return — and he said the safety plan to do so was a “work in progress.”

Comment: Note in particular the last column in their about the ratio of pay-go rate to current contributions. That means how much more would have to be paid to honor pensions if the pension runs out of money, which is when the government becomes directly liable for pensions. Chicago’s teacher pension, for example, would have to pay out about 1.5 times more than is currently being put into the pension each year.

Its aim is to return skilled laborers to work on road improvements, building upgrades and other ventures that can begin quickly at a time when communities are facing COVID-19-related economic struggles.

“These people do not follow science or data. They’re just listening to partisan rhetoric perhaps, and following their own instincts, but no science,” Pritzker said.

“And Illinois’ indebtedness is shocking; if a business was this far in hock it no longer would exist.”

West Central Illinois does not have high coronavirus rates as reported in the Chicago area. That’s why Mayor Moore proposes following federal guidelines by cutting the phasing time in half, to 14 days.

Plainfield Rep. Mark Batinick argues that the current regulation doesn’t promote safety but rather creates, “a situation where large corporate giants are cannibalizing smaller retailers.”

Federal Reserve officials warned the virus outbreak and a partial shutdown of the U.S. economy would result in a decline in the current quarter of historic proportions and risk the potential of massive bankruptcies that could create a lasting scar.

“You will get business failures on a grand scale and you will be taking risks that you would go into depression” if shutdowns persist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said.

University officials said Bradley’s location in Peoria, with its population of about 111,000, and the school’s student population of about 5,000 gives administrators confidence regular operations can resume in a safe environment.

If the governor doesn’t amend his order by Thursday to help fund the purchase of masks, Wilson said he would sue in federal court “to compel you to include provisions for the indigent and vulnerable.”

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, has put out a three-phase plan that allows counties to decide when to open up for business based on health department criteria, similar to what is happening in some neighboring states.

Monday was the first day gig workers and independent contractors could file for unemployment, but people say all they get is a busy tone when they call the IDES help line — and many say they have been hearing it now for weeks.

As of Monday, there were 4,319 people across the state hospitalized with the disease, including 1,248 people in intensive care and 738 on ventilators, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Among the hospitals to receive the drug were SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

In both states the progress came despite pockets of vocal opposition to wind energy. And in both states rural landowners, elected officials and other residents say they are increasingly seeing the benefits of wind, with payments to cash-strapped farmers, infrastructure improvements and tax revenue for schools.

“In principle, the accuracy of COVID-19 death tallies is an empirical question, albeit one that may never be conclusively answered. But like virtually every other pandemic puzzle, it is also a political question.”

Private swim schools may also have an easier time adapting to social distancing guidelines. The CDC has been working directly with swim schools, according to one business owner, to ensure they are teaching swim in a way that does not put the student or instructor at risk.

At least 11,469 cases have been reported at Illinois nursing homes, state officials said.

“This does signal success,” Pritzker said. “A pushing out of our estimated ‘peak’ is a natural consequence of flattening the curve.”

“Judging by his words, the governor is taking the position that he and his policies are all that stand between life and utter destruction. That’s an excessively pessimistic view not supported by the facts, and it guarantees public pushback.”

Said Republican state Representative Mike Murphy of Springfield, “I’m glad he has a plan, a regional plan. I think we need to tweak it…I think having everything from, you know, Adams County all the way across to Vermillion County in the same region, I don’t think that works well. I think we need to look at it a little bit more of a micro-regional consideration.”