Jim Dey: “Madigan rules through a combination of carrot and stick — cross me and I’ll destroy you, support me and I’ll take care of you. So imagine the thoughts flashing through the minds of Democratic House members when Madigan inquired about their loyalty. Does the image of a shocked and frightened Ralph Kramden — ‘Homina, homina, homina’ — from TV’s ‘The Honeymooners’ come to mind?”

Even after tracers are hired, tracing will be ineffective if test results in many cases continue to take a week or more to come back, said Dr. Ronald Hershow, associate professor of epidemiology at UIC School of Public Health. “Your contact tracing is toast if you have to wait seven days.”

“During his decade as U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald tried to educate Illinoisans on the need to elect more ethical officials. ‘You look to the FBI to do a lot,’ he said after the arrest on corruption charges of one corrupt governor, Rod Blagojevich. ‘You look to law enforcement to do a lot. But the real effort to clean up corruption is going to start with the citizenry.'”

The five congressmen cited data from the U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general showing how much each state received from the federal government and how much was spent as of June 30. The report showed Illinois received more than $3.5 billion and spent only $505 million.

“If state actions to save trees and prohibit alcoholic beverages did not require compensation to impacted businesses, the Governor’s necessary restrictions on business operations to protect the health and lives of Illinois residents from a worldwide pandemic cannot constitute a taking requiring compensation,” the governor and attorney general wrote.

In one scenario, a participant approached a vehicle without license plates; a woman inside reached for her glove compartment while at the same time revealing a gun under her thigh. The system had different outcomes, ranging from the driver shooting the scenario participant to the driver actually being an off-duty police officer. The participant said experiencing such a range of possible outcomes helps in the conversations Black families have to have with their children about their interactions with law enforcement.

“Think about the number of cases where you had big crime bosses that were running things from federal prison,” Fraud and corruption expert David Parker, of Saint Xavier University, said. “Just because he’s out of power doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any power or influence.”