Pub owner Tim Timoney will have another tough meeting with his staff this weekend. “What do we tell our staff, when we’ve got an order from the state of Illinois that we have to shut down? That’s why I’m mad as hell because for one of the first times in my life, I don’t know what to do.”

As early as next week, the entire state could be facing Pritzker’s controversial “mitigations” that are packing the latest wallop to the state’s decimated bar and restaurant industry. East-Central Illinois was the latest of 10 of the state’s 11 regions to be hit with indoor dining restrictions.

State employees were expecting some push-back over the letters. An email to department directors outlined the proper response: “Please refer any callers about this letter to their state legislator who put this mailing into law.”

Owner Karla Blades She calls the state’s action confusing by allowing customers to play slot machines in her bar but not have food or drink while gambling. “I’m a single parent. This is my only income. Pritzker changes everything from one day to the next and I think it’s ridiculous. I think he’s overstepping his power.”

Fast Eddie’s Bon Air in Alton and Uncle Linny’s Family Restaurant in Pontoon Beach were awarded $10,000 and $15,000 grants, respectively, in a second round of the $636 million Business Interruption Grant program. “The state has the ability to do that if they’re not fulfilling their obligation under the grant agreement,” Pritzker said. “ … We want people to follow the rules.”

The final unmitigated region – Region 2 which includes Peoria and several surrounding counties – shot up to an 8.5 percent positivity rate from 7.9 percent the day prior, meaning two more days at the same pace of virus spread will trigger the mitigations there as well.

“The governor is not going to stop the election from taking place,” his spokeswoman stated Oct. 30. “We have given instructions to locals on how best to conduct elections in this environment and polling places are not subject to the mitigation.”

Justice Thomas Kilbride is embroiled in the most expensive Supreme Court election in Illinois history — and he doesn’t even have an opponent.

Brad Weisenstein, editor for the Illinois Policy Institute: “The idea that the corruption and political ills of Illinois all emanate from The Chicago Machine lets the rest of us comfortably disavow responsibility for it and doubt our ability to fix it. But the cogs are spread across Illinois, and a unified effort to remove them could halt The Machine. Division is a potent political device, especially when it is manufactured.”

Said Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease expert at University of Chicago Medicine, “First of all, inconsistent recommendations are not evidence of a conspiracy, nor are inconsistent data. They’re evidence of a changing knowledge and epidemiology.”

“This is information that other states have deemed good for people to have in the public interest,” said Sky Chadde, the Midwest Center’s Gannett Agricultural Data Fellow. “[It’s] not a privacy threat to any individual person.”

“Pritzker is a one-way street, with no hint that he’s willing to compromise or understand that restaurants can stay open safely with reasonable precautions. He’s doubled down. And Lightfoot meekly follows.”

It took almost a month for the callback system to handle as many calls as call-takers were before it debuted. And while call-takers were added over the summer, those numbers dipped this month, with fewer call-takers working in October than September.