THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
February 7, 2022
Good morning and happy Monday.
Thanks for all of your response to our Saturday news update on the latest with the school mask issue. Rest assured, this story isn’t going away and we’ll stay on it.
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Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order on School Mask Mandate; Pritzker Vows Appeal (The Illinoize)
When kids go back to school Monday, it will be up to the school district whether or not masks are required.
A late Friday ruling from Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow has put a hold on Governor JB Pritzker’s mask order in schools.
From her Temporary Restraining Order ruling:
“The plaintiffs have due process rights under the law which provide them a meaningful opportunity to object to any such mitigations being levied against them, and it is these due process rights which are being continually violated. Under Illinois law, a citizen who refuses to mask or submit to vaccinations or testing is only potentially subjecting themselves to an isolation or quarantine order. The Defendant School Districts have specifically adopted policies…that have held children will be excluded from school in the event they do not wear a mask on school premises in violation of the Executive Orders, further preventing them from receiving an in-person education. Some schools do not even have remote learning established, thus, further denying students from an education.
Governor JB Pritzker issued a statement Friday night that his administration has requested an expedited appeal from the Fourth District Appellate Court.
Related: Masks will stay on in CPS classrooms despite downstate judge’s ruling against mandates (Chicago Sun-Times)
Suburban schools split on whether masks will be required Monday (Daily Herald)
Masks, COVID-19 testing still required Monday in school? Yes, say DeKalb, Sycamore district officials (DeKalb Daily Chronicle)
Dixon Public Schools will not enforce mask wearing, except on buses (Shaw Local)
Geneva School District 304 cancels Monday classes to work on COVID-19 mitigation plan (Kane County Chronicle)
These three southwest IL school districts will not enforce mask, COVID vaccine mandates (Belleville News-Democrat)
DeVore: School districts like Springfield 'on notice,' don't have authority to enforce masks (State Journal-Register)
There is certainly no problem with a school district enforcing its own policy. DeVore is trying to bully school districts, and that isn’t acceptable at all.
I’ve e-mailed a bunch of superintendents this weekend to see how they’re handling the TRO. I’ll have more on that in the morning.
Critics say Pritzker’s gas tax freeze would save motorists only pennies and hinder efforts to repair deteriorating roads, bridges (Chicago Tribune)
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reelection-year pitch to freeze the state gas tax he doubled in 2019 is being met with wide-ranging opposition from critics who contend it would save drivers a pittance at the pump while impairing the state’s ability to repair crumbling roads and bridges.
Seeking a second term as gas prices have jumped more than $1 per gallon in the past year and overall inflation hits levels not seen in nearly 40 years, Pritzker said he is pitching the gas tax freeze as part of a larger relief effort “to do right by the working families of our state.”
In addition to forgoing an inflation-based increase in the gas tax, slated to kick in July 1 and estimated at 2.2 cents per gallon, Pritzker’s proposal would pause the 1% sales tax on groceries for a year and give a one-time property tax rebate to homeowners. The governor’s office says in total this would save Illinois taxpayers nearly $1 billion.
“It’s certainly not the best policy,” David Merriman, an expert on state finances at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said of Pritzker’s overall tax relief proposal. “It appears from the governor’s speech … that what he wants to do is ease the tax burden on lower- and middle-income households. … I think that there are better options for doing that than the three options that he picked.”
Among those against the plan is Kevin Burke, executive vice president of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association and co-chair of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition, who said freezing the gas tax, even for one year, would set a bad precedent for tough economic times in the future and sacrifice money for road repairs that the state may never get back.
“It’s $135 million this year,” Burke said. “That $135 million will never be brought back, so every year after this, that’s $135 million that’s not there to fund transportation.”
Even with the additional revenue from the 2019 gas tax increase and money flowing to Illinois from President Joe Biden’s federal infrastructure plan, the state still doesn’t have enough revenue to keep all its roads in acceptable condition, he said.
Related: What legislators, political candidates, lobbyists say about Illinois Gov. Pritzker's budget (State Journal-Register)
As COVID-19 cases drop 51% in a week, Pritzker hopes to lift mask mandate ‘as soon as we possibly can’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois’ dramatic turnaround from the Omicron surge saw new COVID-19 cases drop more than 50% in a single week, leaving Gov. J.B. Pritzker “hopeful” about possibly loosening his indoor masking mandate — but stopping short of any firm commitment.
The state Department of Public Health on Friday reported 60,389 coronavirus cases for the past week, or an average of 8,627 per day. That’s the smallest weekly caseload since the latest highly contagious variant emerged in Illinois, a 51% nosedive compared to the previous week — and a 71% free fall from the peak of the Omicron surge shortly after New Year’s Day.
COVID hospitalizations have also seen a sharp drop, with the 3,135 beds occupied as of Thursday night marking a 31% decline from last week and a 57% decline from the all-time records set in mid-January.
“I’m very pleased that we were able to weather this Omicron COVID storm that came through,” Pritzker said at an unrelated Chicago news conference. “I believe that we should remove masks as soon as we possibly can. I am constantly listening to the doctors and scientists and encouraging them. … I’m very hopeful we’ll be able to make some announcements about that.”
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady hinted Thursday that the city’s vaccination requirement for bar and restaurant patrons could soon be lifted if the numbers keep improving. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths among Chicagoans have all dipped more than 37% over the past week.
“When might we be able to take off masks? When might we be able to lift the vaccine requirement? Not next week, I will tell you that. But if we continue to see the drops like we’ve been dropping, it would not be that long from now,” Arwady said during an online Q&A.
While numbers have improved statewide, hospitals are still being stretched alarmingly thin in southern Illinois, where intensive care units are still at 95% capacity.
Related: Lightfoot to restaurant crowd: Vax requirement could drop within weeks (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Lombard couple stricken with COVID-19 able to share last day together (Daily Herald)
In Champaign County, about 1,000 cases in kids under 5 since Jan. 1 (Champaign News-Gazette)
Opinion: RNC censure of Kinzinger, Cheney could backfire for Illinois Republicans (Chicago Sun-Times)
The Republican National Committee censure of Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney — supported by the two Illinois members of the RNC — has the potential to cause far more political problems for GOP candidates in Illinois than for the Republicans the party punished for their membership on the Jan. 6 committee.
What happened: On Friday, the RNC on a voice vote approved a resolution to censure Kinzinger, of Illinois, and Cheney, of Wyoming, and “no longer support them as members of the Republican party.”
Backfire: The censure resolution has backfire potential for Republicans because it said that Kinzinger and Cheney, the only two Republicans on the Jan. 6 panel, are participating in “a Democratic-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.”
The problem: This “ordinary citizens” statement. Obviously, the Democrats can exploit this — the ad writes itself about violent rioters being “ordinary citizens.” On the other side of the coin — Republicans in primaries trying to out-Trump their competition — and make heroes out of the Jan. 6 mob — got a gift.
Who are the RNC’s “ordinary citizens?” Since the RNC wording is vague on that, a reasonable takeaway is that it is a reference to the mob attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6 to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
Details matter.
I’ve talked to more than a few Republicans/conservatives this weekend who have told me they can’t remain members of the GOP with the way a proven conservative like Kinzinger have been treated by the RNC and the Republican party establishment in the past year.
I’d rather have 200 Adam Kinzingers than the clown show Republicans in DC.
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