THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
January 10, 2022
Good morning and welcome to a new week.
The Bears will likely clean house today with most expecting the firing of Head Coach Matt Nagy and even potentially General Manger Ryan Pace and President Ted Phillips. However it shakes out, it will be another reboot for the franchise which hasn’t won a playoff game in about 12 years.
So let’s talk about something more positive and uplifting: Illinois government and politics!
Just a reminder, we’re running a sort of “Welcome to 2022” special on our year-long subscriptions right now, and it’s probably the lowest price you’ll see all year. We’re knocking $22 off the regular $75 price. So you can get a year for just $53…or for $7.99 per month.
I don’t sell advertising to candidates or issue groups, so we’re supported by your subscriptions. Will you join us?
As always, drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com with thoughts, questions, comments, or critiques. I’m thick skinned, I can handle the mean ones.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets)
Social workers’ field safety remains concern after killing (Associated Press)
Illinois officials are seeking answers after the killing last week of a state child welfare worker during a home visit — the second such tragedy to occur in less than five years.
Deidre Silas, an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, was stabbed to death last Tuesday when she responded to a call of possible endangerment of children in a home in the central Illinois town of Thayer.
A man related to one or more of the six children who were at home at the time, 32-year-old Benjamin Reed, is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond on first-degree murder and other charges.
The attack on Silas also marked the 21st time since 2017 that caseworkers were subject to “threats or acts of violence” during 2.5 million home visits in Illinois, agency spokesman Bill McCaffrey said.
Her death has raised questions of why case workers are sent into potentially volatile environments alone, and whether understaffing — a problem that has plagued DCFS for decades despite a federal consent decree regulating it — affects the response of caseworkers in the field.
“DCFS, if you’re sending someone into a situation like this, just send two at a time,” Silas’ father, Roy Graham, said last week. “Whether it’s a male and female or two males or two females, either way, but send two per visit, not just one.”
Related: 'Someone in your corner': Slain DCFS investigator Silas showed her care for children up until the very end (State Journal-Register)
DCFS director held in contempt of court as kids languish in hospital, shelter for months (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: The Illinois legislature needs a new watchdog now (Chicago Sun-Times)
The Illinois Legislative Ethics Commission needs to get its act together and appoint a new inspector general. Right now, the Legislature has no watchdog investigating corruption in its ranks.
That is not a good state of affairs.
Carol Pope, the legislative inspector general since 2019, announced in July she was leaving the job, but the commission has been unable to agree on recommending a replacement. Ordinarily, that might not necessarily raise a red flag, but before Pope, the office was unoccupied for four years. Illinois can’t afford to make a habit of letting such an important office sit empty.
According to news reports, the four Republicans on the eight-person commission want to recommend Joseph Hartzler, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped to prosecute convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. The four Democrats prefer former federal prosecutor David Risley, who has the advantage of having worked as an investigator under Pope. Both Hartzler and Risley worked in the administration of former Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Any recommendation or recommendations by the commission are sent to the Legislature for a final vote.
Reportedly, Democrats on the commission think the Republicans are trying to force through their preferred candidate by ignoring other qualified applicants and forcing the Legislature to take the GOP choice. Republicans say the Democrats are trying to add their own candidate to the list of recommendations because they know the Democratic majorities in the Legislature will have the final say.
It’s unfortunate the recommendation process has not been completed in a transparent and bipartisan fashion.
I’m scheduled to talk with Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy), the Chair of the Legislative Ethics Commission, on the topic today. Also working on finding a Democrat on the committee willing to talk about it. So stay tuned.
Needless to say, this job needs to be filled.
The higher the vaccination rate, the lower the death rate: How Illinois is proving it (Daily Herald)
As of Thursday, 64.5% of Illinois residents were fully vaccinated, CDC records show.
Public health officials and medical experts note that vaccinations alone are not the only factor in determining a state's COVID-19 mortality rate. Health care access plays a significant role in medical outcomes as well. Geography plays a large role, too. That's why the per capita death rates and vaccinations don't sync up exactly, they explained.
"But it stands to reason that the more people that are vaccinated, the fewer infections there will be, and with fewer infections there will be fewer hospitalizations, which then means fewer deaths," said Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infection control and prevention at Edward Hospital in Naperville.
Related: Amid lack of staff and record COVID cases, Peoria hospitals confront care crisis (Peoria Journal Star)
Here's why CPS didn't take Pritzker's COVID test offer (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Chicago Public Schools is responding to criticism that they didn’t take Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s offer to use SHIELD saliva tests to test children and staff returning to school.
The issue became central to the union’s messaging on the fourth day of a standoff—and third day of canceled classes—across the district. Testing has been a central issue to the work stoppage: the union wants mandatory weekly testing for all staff and weekly testing for students unless parents opt out, rather than testing students who have opted in.
In a late Friday statement, CPS said it had considered the saliva test developed at the University of Illinois—which involve spitting into tubes—but felt nasal swabs were more appropriate for students, including the youngest and those with developmental challenges. Saliva tests also require children do not eat, drink or have anything in their mouths for an hour before the test is completed to get a valid result—including toothpaste, gum, mouthwash, or the free breakfasts that many CPS students begin their day with at the district.
City officials say they, too, are dissatisfied with the amount of testing at the district—which has averaged around 35,000 to 40,000 per week—but that there is also a national shortage of tests.
A SHIELD spokesperson told the Sun-Times they have available lab capacity and supplies and have kept up with demand at 1,600 schools across the state, but they declined to say how much it would cost CPS to buy their tests on top of what they're paying Thermo Fisher.
Personally, I’m annoyed by both CPS and CTU in all of this. CPS continues to lose credibility by the day and CTU looks like a giant group of people who don’t want to go to work to “own” a Mayor they don’t like.
Go teach the kids.
Will Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin run for governor? (Chicago Sun-Times)
The hottest political candidate of 2022 has not yet declared — Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin.
For weeks, the political classes have been buzzing that billionaire Ken Griffin will back Irvin to run for Illinois governor.
Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel and Illinois’ richest man, is gunning for a fellow billionaire, Gov. J.B. Pritzker. He has been tearing into Pritzker for months and may put up a small chunk of his fortune to take the first-time governor out.
He has criticized Pritzker for everything from his handling of the state’s economy to Chicago’s explosive crime problem. Griffin also wants a Republican governor to help keep his tax bill as low as possible.
According to some news reports (Editor’s note: us), Griffin is prepared to plunk down as much as $300 million to back a Pritzker challenger, and Irvin tops his list.
Griffin’s people have denied the rumors. Irvin isn’t talking. A decision is expected very soon.
In 2017, Irvin was elected mayor of Aurora, becoming the first African American to lead the second-largest city in Illinois. Now in his second term, Irvin, 51, has pushed small business growth and economic and community development in his hometown.
And while Pritzker has keenly courted Black voters, Irvin might tempt them to abandon the Democrats and cross over to help make Irvin Illinois’ first Black governor, or so goes the rationale.
Crazy?
Maybe, but Illinois Democrats are taking Irvin seriously. No one will go on the record, but many privately argue Irvin is a Democrat in the GOP’s clothing. As the Sun-Times reported last month, Irvin pulled ballots in Democratic primaries in 2014, 2016 and 2020.
Irvin would be Griffin’s bought-and-paid-for patsy, they say.
“Does Irvin, who has a potentially very bright political career in front of him, want to be a Griffin pawn in a race that could end up killing his political future?” a top Pritzker ally wrote me last week. “It would be very difficult for him to win the Republican primary even with Griffin money given where Republicans are today (sadly) even in IL.”
Millions in a primary doesn’t mean everything, just ask Andy McKenna in 2010.
SOME TOP LINKS FROM LAST WEEK
Despite Attempted GOP Walkout, Democrats Create Numerous Judicial Seats for Democrats
Why a Former U.S. Attorney is Running for Secretary of State
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