THE ILLINOIZE: Wednesday Free for All
December 22, 2021
Good morning readers.
This is the last time you’ll be hearing from me in 2021. I just want to say thanks to all of you who have continued to read even though some guy with a goofy name started writing it instead of Patrick. I hope you have a safe, happy and healthy holiday.
Christmas is almost here and Patrick is about to give his son his first present from Santa Claus. Don’t you want to help make a newborn child’s first Christmas special? Subscribe today! It’s just $7.99 per month and $75 per year. Click below to subscribe!
OK, enough business, let’s get to the news.
50% increase in daily Illinois COVID deaths since last week (Chicago Sun Times)
The coronavirus claimed the lives of another 63 people in Illinois Tuesday as the state’s average number of deaths increased 50% in the past week.
The daily number of deaths has exceeded 50 for five of the past seven days, and the average number of deaths per day increased from 34 last Tuesday to 51 this week.
Another 10,264 people in the state tested positive for COVID-19 Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to just shy of 2 million.
The state is averaging more than 10,000 cases daily, a 47% increase from the average daily rate a week ago. The average number of cases has been gradually rising in Illinois the past two months.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot mandates proof of vaccination for patrons of restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues amid surge of COVID-19 omicron cases (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday said the city will require all restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues to check the vaccination status of patrons age 5 and older, the latest move taken by her administration to slow COVID-19 as the omicron variant of the virus sweeps the country.
Workers at those businesses do not need to prove they are fully vaccinated, but must wear masks when dealing with customers and provide proof of a weekly negative COVID-19 test. Customers of businesses covered by the order will need to have received two shots of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The new rules, which do not affect schools and day care facilities, go into effect Jan. 3, so businesses have time to update signage and train workers, Lightfoot said.
Underscoring the severity of the situation facing the city, Lightfoot said she hasn’t been this concerned since the early days of the pandemic in 2020.
Related: Chicago to require proof of vaccination at restaurants, bars, gyms (Chicago Sun Times)
New COVID rules: Lightfoot mandates vax proof for bars, restaurants, gyms (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Opinion: Where is the outrage on crime? (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Where is the outrage? Why are we not demanding change? How can we accept the senseless violence that is plaguing our city?
…There are so many senseless tragedies now that we seem to have become desensitized. The news cycle is a river that passes and never returns, such that each incident quickly fades away, only to be replaced by tomorrow’s news. Except for those families that are forever changed.
…Why our business community is not taking a stand on all of this is just inexplicable. Any CEO who has an office in Chicago should literally be showing up at City Hall with their peers en masse to demand a plan. The mayor's address on Monday was a step in the right direction, but at this point, the city needs more than words—we need action.
Editorial: If there’s no Build Back Better, things will be worse for America, and the planet (Chicago Sun Times)
To get an idea of what is at stake in President Joe Biden’s torpedoed Build Back Better legislation, it’s worth taking a look at a small part of it, the Climate Conservation Corps.
The Climate Conservation Corps, which grew out of an idea in Illinois and is based on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, would both give jobs to people who need them and send them out across the country to do all-important eco-friendly work. It would do its bit to save the planet and improve the lives of working people.
The House version of Build Back Better included $30 billion for the Climate Conservation Corps. So did the drafts of the legislation in the Senate. The reality of today’s Congress is that a bill like the Climate Conservation Corps could never pass as stand-alone legislation, but must be incorporated into something larger.
But now it appears Build Back Better, Biden’s signature legislative initiative, may have been dealt a fatal blow because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., now says he won’t support it. The possible loss of the Climate Conservation Corps, which would have been one piece of the effort to forestall environmental disasters due to climate change, shows how Congress’ apparent failure will impose heavy costs on all Americans in the long run.
The White House and members of Congress who care about the country and the world must figure out how to get the bill back on track.
Illinois is thought to be a blue state. So why is so much of the state so red? (WBEZ)
On any political map, Illinois is a reliable blue state that has elected Democratic governors four of the last five elections and last backed a Republican presidential candidate before Michael Jordan was winning championships in Chicago.
But as that political streak again gets put to the test in the high-stakes 2022 gubernatorial campaign, Democrats are losing a battle for counties across Illinois, surrendering vast sections of the state’s topography to Republicans.
Before Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s successful 2018 campaign, the number of Illinois counties voting Democratic got smaller and smaller during a 20-year period. Democrats went from winning 43 counties in the 1998 governor’s race down to a dismal one county in the 2014 race, in which Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn lost reelection.
That kind of track record can make the state actually look geographically deep red – even though Democrats currently hold every statewide elected office.
New state laws taking effect Jan. 1 (Capitol News Illinois)
Minimum wage workers in Illinois will see a boost in their hourly pay to $12 per hour starting Jan. 1, while tenants in affordable housing units will be allowed to keep pets.
Those are just some of the more than 300 new laws that take effect in the new year.
The minimum wage increase is actually the result of a 2019 law that phases in a state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. This year, it will increase by one dollar to $12 an hour.
The law allowing public housing tenants to keep pets is the result of Senate Bill 154, by Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, and Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego. It provides that tenants of multifamily housing units that are acquired, built or renovated with money from the Illinois Affordable Housing Trust Fund may keep up to two cats or one dog weighing less than 50 pounds.
It applies to residents of housing units that are designated as affordable housing for low- and very-low-income families. The bill passed both chambers in its final form on May 30 and Gov. JB Pritzker signed it into law Aug. 6.
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