THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All
August 30, 2021
Happy Monday.
I’m going to make this quick. I’m just a guy running an upstart business here. For the month of August, we’ve knocked $10 off a yearly subscription to our subscriber only newsletters and updates and that deal expires tomorrow.
We’re asking for about $65 per year. That’s about $1.25 per week and about 63 cents per subscriber only newsletter. And it becomes less when you throw in breaking news updates and preview we send to subscribers.
I hope you’ll join us. We’re trying to grow. We’re trying to build something new that gives a different and fresh perspective on Illinois politics and government. But we need your help to succeed.
I’m not a party hack for anyone. In fact, I probably get more Republicans mad at me than Democrats some weeks. I’m on the side of the truth.
Otherwise, I may just start singing in the Statehouse rotunda tomorrow with an open guitar case. Or to become the Illinois version of this guy.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
(note: we’re not responsible for paywalls and restrictions from other news outlets)
The redistricting charade
House and Senate Democrats held a stack of hearings over the weekend on the legislative map edits we expect to get a vote tomorrow.
But we haven’t seen new maps. We haven’t seen how Democrats will apply new data. We haven’t seen if Democrats will take the hours of testimony from good government and minority advocacy groups asking for more time into consideration. We haven’t even gotten Democrats to confirm who is actually drawing the updated map, or if they’re already done.
Republicans continually pegged Democrats with questions about the maps, questioned their constitutionality, and persisted with a belief the maps should now be redrawn by an independent commission.
Most Democrats just said they didn’t know the answers to GOP questions or repeated their “we want maps that represent the diversity of Illinois” talking point that doesn’t actually mean anything. Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) did push back on Republican claims at times, pointing out that the GOP still hasn’t offered a version of a legislative map, even after census data was released a couple of weeks ago.
The bottom line here is that this is a done deal. The votes will happen minutes apart on the House and Senate floor tomorrow and everything will be left up to the courts.
Democrats are going through the motions. We know it. They know it. They’re acting like it. So why don’t they admit this is all for show for the upcoming court case?
Some parents brace for chaotic first day as school bus driver shortage leaves 2,100 CPS students without rides (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Public Schools parent Eric DeChant said he and others in his Northwest Side community were scrambling for car pools and other ways of getting their children to school for the first day of class Monday after a mass resignation of school bus drivers led to the cancellation of bus service for more than 2,000 students.
The driver shortage affecting CPS and suburban districts is part of a larger national trend expected to affect school districts across the country as summer break ends.
CPS officials said the district had created a plan to pick up students 15 to 30 minutes earlier than usual, with stipends for students who couldn’t meet the new pickup time. But last week, about 90 drivers resigned — including 73 who resigned on Friday alone — leaving the district short about 500 drivers.
Locally, the shortage means that about 2,100 CPS students, mostly selective enrollment or magnet school students like DeChant’s daughter, won’t have bus transportation on Monday, but the district has offered affected students a $1,000 stipend for the first two weeks, with $500 per month after that. About 990 special education students will also be without a ride for the first day, officials said.
The Chicago Transit Authority said it will offer free rides Monday to all CPS students from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Related: Q&A on the opening of CPS schools (Chicago Tribune)
The Lost Year: As students return to classrooms, the emphasis is on the harder-to-quantify gains during the pandemic shutdown rather than the usual academic scorekeeping. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Add on the Chicago Teachers Union claim the district isn’t ready for the first day because of stalled safety protocols and it’s likely to be a wild first day at Chicago Public Schools.
State’s daily COVID-19 caseload soars the highest since early winter, ICUs 84% full (Chicago Sun-Times)
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 4,942 new infections on Friday, topping last Friday’s 4,904, which had been the highest since Jan. 23.
Overall, the state saw 25,636 new cases of coronavirus infections over the past seven days, a daily average of 3,662, and 174 deaths over the past week, a daily average of nearly 25.
The somber statistics on Friday came one day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered everyone 2 and older to resume wearing masks indoors and instituted a vaccine requirement for educators and some health care workers.
As of Thursday night, 16% of the state’s 3,152 hospital beds in intensive care units were available. Altogether, 2,240 Illinoisans were hospitalized with COVID-19, 500 of them in ICUs and 253 on ventilators.
The weekly case totals are up slightly from the 24,682 reported last Friday, but deaths are up significantly from last week, when the state reported a weekly tally of 126 deaths.
Related: Judge rules Pilsen mom can’t see her son because she’s not vaccinated against COVID-19 (Chicago Sun-Times)
Divorce attorneys brace for exes battling over kids getting COVID-19 vaccine (Chicago Sun-Times)
Throwing a party? As delta surges, many ask for vaccine status with RSVP (Daily Herald)
100 of 123 COVID hospitalizations at downstate OSF hospitals are unvaccinated, all patients on ventilators unvaccinated (Peoria Journal Star)
DuPage County anticipating the need for mass COVID-19 vaccine sites again when booster shots become available (Naperville Sun)
Editorial: We’re running out of chances (Bloomington Pantagraph/Decatur Herald & Review)
COVID-19 is a long haul for some (Champaign News-Gazette)
Editorial: Vermilion County must do better (Danville Commercial-News)
Probably not the best use of your COVID-19 relief funds (The Southern)
State eviction moratorium stands despite U.S. Supreme Court throwing out federal order (Capitol News Illinois)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority in issuing the federal moratorium, and a future extension of the moratorium would have to come from Congress. But the order does not affect a state’s ability to initiate such a moratorium, which is what Illinois has done.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed that extension Friday, Aug. 20, when he issued his latest 30-day disaster declaration, a practice he has done monthly since March 2020. The moratorium cannot exceed the length of the 30-day declaration, so it is possible it gets extended again when it comes time for the governor to issue another 30-day declaration in September.
As it stands now, law enforcement agencies “are instructed to cease enforcement of orders of eviction for residential premises entered against a Covered Person, unless that person has been found to pose a direct threat to the health and safety of other tenants or an immediate and severe risk to property,” per the order.
By the way, it’s not a shock that the CDC overstepped its bounds here. Had the President issued an Executive Order, we likely wouldn’t have had all this confusion. Especially when the programs are confusing enough for people.
JOIN US