THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All
January 20, 2022
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Omicron surge appears to have peaked in Illinois, but officials urge continued caution as hospitals remain stressed (Chicago Tribune)
Researchers and health officials don’t rely solely on case counts to gauge the direction of the pandemic because the figures depend in part on people voluntarily testing, while the results of at-home tests that have proliferated during the latest wave aren’t reported to the state.
With omicron generally causing milder illness than previous strains, particularly among the vaccinated, officials during the latest surge were more focused on the number of patients with COVID-19 filling hospital beds across the state.
That number also has declined. As of Tuesday night, the state was averaging 6,920 COVID-19 patients in hospitals per day, after setting records for hospitalizations less than a week earlier when the average number of patients per day peaked at 7,245 for the seven days ending Jan. 13. Before the latest surge, the record was 6,119 per day, set during the fall 2020 surge.
“You can’t hide a hospitalization,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director the Illinois Department of Public Health said Wednesday. “And so as we look at those hospitalizations and understand where those numbers are going, that is definitely a clear signal of the direction we’re moving in.”
Another promising sign has been a drop in the average daily rates of people admitted to the hospital with COVID-19-like symptoms.
It’s true the number of cases has dropped over the past week, but don’t expect flowery language from Dr. Ezike or the Governor until hospitalizations, especially with ICU’s and ventilators tapped out in parts of the state.
Related: Southwest IL hospital has highest COVID-related admissions since pandemic began (Belleville News-Democrat)
COVID-19 vaccination facility to reopen in Des Plaines (Daily Herald)
Company behind Peoria COVID testing 'fraudulently reported negative test results,' complaint says (Peoria Journal Star)
Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) recovering from COVID-19. (WJBC Radio)
3 more Illinois men charged in U.S. Capitol breach (Chicago Sun-Times)
Federal authorities have charged three additional Illinois men for wrongly entering the U.S. Capitol during the breach Jan. 6, 2021, that interrupted the Electoral College vote count.
But unlike in many cases, where the feds say someone tipped them off to a person’s presence there, a charging document made public Wednesday said the feds tracked down the men after identifying their mobile devices as being present that day.
Brothers Anthony Carollo, 23, and Jeremiah Carollo, 45, and their cousin, Cody Vollan, 31, are each charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Anthony Carollo and Cody Vollan live in Lockport, and Jeremiah Carollo lives in Glen Carbon, federal court records show.
Democrat DuPage County Board Chair field clearing for Rep. Deb Conroy (Daily Herald)
Almost a decade ago, Democrats first made significant gains in Republican-dominated DuPage County with the election of two women.
State Rep. Deb Conroy and county board member Liz Chaplin won their seats in 2012.
Conroy is now running for the highest office in DuPage, and Chaplin has dropped out of the race. The state lawmaker from Villa Park has picked up Chaplin's endorsement in her bid to become the first county board chairwoman in DuPage history.
"I want to see a good Democrat in that seat, not any Democrat, but a good Democrat in that seat, and I think Deb is the one," Chaplin said.
Chaplin's departure leaves Conroy in a Democratic primary contest against county board member Lynn LaPlante of Glen Ellyn.
WBEZ buys Chicago Sun-Times (Sun-Times)
The board that controls public radio station WBEZ on Tuesday approved the acquisition of the Chicago Sun-Times, taking a major step forward in a deal to create one of the largest nonprofit news organizations in the country.
The noncash transfer will not be final until contracts are approved, but both media organizations said they hope for a closing on or about Jan. 31. Under the deal, the Sun-Times would become an independent operation of WBEZ’s owner, Chicago Public Media, and convert from for-profit to nonprofit status.
Both groups said they share a mission of investing in local journalism. While the news operations would remain separate, the combination will allow content to be shared on different platforms and gain a larger audience, the principal executives said.
Sun-Times executives said the paper has narrowed its financial losses in recent years, making it an attractive partner for WBEZ. Since 2017, the Sun-Times has been owned by private investors, unions and the Chicago Federation of Labor, which have continued the daily print publication while spending to achieve more digital revenue. The paper added to its editorial staff, ending years of cuts under prior owners.
It says something about the 2022 media landscape when a “public radio station” buys a daily newspaper in the third largest market in the country.
Related: Editorial: We welcome the WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times merger. But nonprofit ownership is no panacea. (Chicago Tribune)
Pritzker takes thinly veiled shot at Irvin’s campaign (The Illinoize)
In his first public appearance since Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin entered the Governor’s race with the backing of billionaire Republican Ken Griffin, Governor JB Pritzker Wednesday shot some arrows in the direction of his GOP opponents.
Pritzker, on his 57th birthday, was asked about the GOP primary and Irvin’s entrance in the race, charactering the contest as a “messy primary,” but acting as if he didn’t want to engage.
Moments later, Pritzker aimed a shot at Irvin, who is being backed by frequent Pritzker critic Ken Griffin, the richest person in Illinois.
“One thing I will say to you is if you want to have the job of being Governor, you should have to take questions from members of the media, just like I do,” Pritzker said. “I would hope that any candidate that is running and announced that they’re gonna run is gonna take questions and not wait weeks after announcing to do so.”
When Irvin announced his campaign Monday, he did so with a video and press release and refused to take questions from a reporter at a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event in Aurora.
Related: Column: Pondering Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s not-so-surprise announcement of a run for governor (Aurora Beacon-News)
Edgar 'impressed' with Irvin, but initially 'thought he was a Democrat' (Decatur Herald & Review)
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