Gov. J.B. Pritzker was forced to send in state troopers to assist Chicago police as hundreds of looters destroyed storefronts along the city’s Magnificent Mile and in other Chicago neighborhoods.
Police Superintendent David Brown called the violence “an assault on our city.”
Looters sacked high-end retail stores along the Magnificent Mile, in the River North area, and the Gold Coast neighborhood, clashing multiple times with the Chicago Police Department. The Chicago Tribune reported the violence resulted in more than 100 arrests. Thirteen officers were wounded.
Pritzker owns a mansion in a residential area in the Gold Coast neighborhood, away from where the looting was reported.
In a late-morning news conference, Pritzker says Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had contacted him about the violence.
“Last night, we did provide state police for the closure of on-ramps, off-ramps, where necessary for the city of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “We’ll continue to offer state police. We want to do everything we can to support the city as we did back in May and June when the mayhem and looting was occurring back then.”
The latest instance of mass-looting comes in response to an officer-involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood. Police said a 20-year-old man ran from police while shooting behind him. Officers returned fire and incapacitated him. Police said the man is hospitalized and recovering.
A short while later, Brown said messages began appearing on social media, telling protesters to head downtown. WFLD-TV Chicago reported people could be seen loading merchandise into rental trucks and other large vehicles.
In a morning news conference, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx and county judges that they can no longer let the looters off without consequences.
“We have made the case,” she said. “We have the video. We have the officer testimony. These people need to be held accountable and not cycled through the system. Judges that are holding cases; you need to step up and be responsible. We can’t continue to allow this to happen and for people to believe that there is no accountability through our criminal justice system.”
Lightfoot again said the city would refuse federal assistance in quelling the violence, suggesting President Donald Trump focus on gun control measures.
Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin released a statement criticizing Lightfoot and Pritzker for their resistance to using the National Guard.
“Once again, Illinois government has failed to protect its residents and businesses," Durkin said. "It is time to bring in the National Guard and accept any and all federal assistance to stop the chaos that is destroying our state. No more excuses. No more failures.”
In one of the bloodier summers in recent years, Chicago reported 40 more people were shot, including 4 fatally, over the weekend.
DOC Still Not Accepting All Inmates From County Jails
Now that the state of Illinois has lost two court rulings, forcing the Illinois Department of Corrections to accept prisoners, county sheriffs will once again attempt to transport felons to state facilities.
Even after a Logan County judge ruled in the sheriffs' favor, and before a judge denied the state’s attempt for a stay of the order on Friday, inmates were being turned away from prison.
McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage brought 36 inmates to a prison last week, but 33 were sent back to the county jail.
“Gov. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Corrections are creating a safety issue,” Sandage said. “They’re promising that they’ll take our inmates, we get them on the road, we get them up there, and then they’re not.”
Sandage said he was told by prison authorities that inmates would be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis.
At the center of the lawsuit filed by Illinois sheriffs is whether the governor and the state have the statutory authority to delay transfers into IDOC facilities.
Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Sheriffs' Association, said sheriffs have been able to deliver a limited number of inmates to state facilities, although the Illinois Department of Corrections has said at least two intake facilities have reached capacity. One reason is that inmates who are transferred are held in isolation for 14 days in single cells as a quarantine measure.
“In January 2015, there were over 48,000 inmates in the Department of Corrections,” Kaitschuk said. “Today, by his own admission, there are less than 32,000. Now that’s a 33 percent reduction."
The Illinois Department of Corrections said it is working to ensure the safety of inmates.
"Enhanced procedures for county jail intakes and intra-agency transfers were established in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Public Health to keep everyone safe during these uncertain times," the statement said. "Today, the Department resumed intra-agency transfers which will open space in our reception centers to allow for county jail intakes to be appropriately quarantined or isolated. All county jail transfer requests are being carefully reviewed and will be scheduled."
Concern Raised About "COVID-19 Fees"
Illinois consumers have been contacting the Better Business Bureau about new COVID-
19 fees showing up on some bills.
“They’re seeing surcharges but they don't see it until they get home, or they look at it a
few days later,” said Steve Bernas, CEO with the BBB of Chicago and Northern Illinois.
“Most of the consumers going to BBB want to know if this is a legal charge or there's
something they can do about it.”
The BBB said that the surcharges largely come about as businesses try to recoup
some of their costs associated with protective equipment measures needed to re-open
during the pandemic.
Officials with both the city of Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office indicate
there is not a problem with a majority of these fees. However, Bernas said unreasonable
price gouging remains illegal and should be reported.
“Another time it would not be legal would be if the businesses is saying this is a tax,”
Bernas said. “That could be considered a deceptive practice by the business and would
not be legal.”
Bernas says we’ve seen previous actions like this, as businesses added “green fees” or
“minimum wage fees” to transactions.
“I've been doing this for almost 32 years and you see a lot of these fees,” Bernas said.
“They tend to go away when they realize that the competition is not charging these fees
or they're using it to their advantage in getting new customers.”
He says businesses should be careful about adding these COVID fees without proper
notice.
“I can tell you from the consumers that the Better Business Bureau talk to, it might come
back to the business in a negative way,” Bernas said. “A lot of the consumers have said
they’re going to take their business elsewhere because of the problems.”
He suggests businesses should be clear about any surcharge and give customers the
opportunity to cancel the transaction, if they wish.
“We suggest that businesses make sure they're full disclosure,” Bernas said. “Let
customers know that they are going to be charged upfront, not after the fact and not
when they get home.”
Henderson Man Arrested after Fleeing from Trooper
Vanderburgh County – Friday night at approximately 11:40, Trooper Trey Stewart stopped the driver of a red Dodge pickup truck on US 41 near Riverside Drive for operating without headlights. As Trooper Stewart was approaching the vehicle the driver accelerated south on US 41 before turning east on Waterworks Road. The vehicle reached speeds of approximately 80 mph. Trooper Stewart lost sight of the vehicle on Waterworks Road near Nugent Drive. Responding Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Deputies located the vehicle on a farm access road and observed the driver flee into a soybean field. Indiana State Police and Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Deputies set up a perimeter while a Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team tracked the suspect through the soybean field, across a creek and through a wooded area before being apprehended. The suspect was identified as Jerry Dewayne Brown, 46, Henderson, KY. Brown was taken to Deaconess Midtown where he was treated and released for a dog bite. Brown is currently being held without bond at the Vanderburgh County Jail.
Arrested and Charges:
Jerry D. Brown, 46, Henderson, KY
Resisting Law Enforcement with a Vehicle, Class 6 Felony
Habitual Traffic Violator, Class 5 Felony
Two outstanding felony warrants out of Warrick County
Arresting Officer: Trooper Trey Stewart, Indiana State Police
Assisting Agency: Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office
Congress Considers Continuation Of Unemployment Supplement
Should Congress renew the $600 per week unemployment supplement? Economists differ on the benefits of the additional federal money.
Friday marked the first workweek that out-of-work Illinoisans did not get an additional $600 in federal money to supplement state-based unemployment benefits.
Congress let the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program end in July and has yet to reach an agreement on whether to extend it or at what dollar amount.
U.S. Sen Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, took to the Senate floor to punch back at Republicans who have said the extra money was keeping people from going back to work.
“It’s not an urban legend, it’s an urban lie,” he said. “This is just not a viable complaint against the unemployment system.”
He cited a Yale study that measured timesheet data from Homebase.
“We find that the workers who experienced larger increases in UI generosity did not experience larger declines in employment when the benefits expansion went into effect,” the authors wrote. “Additionally, we find that workers facing larger expansions in UI benefits have returned to their previous jobs over time at similar rates as others.”
Another study by researchers from the University of Chicago found most workers who received unemployment benefits during the pandemic were paid more to stay home than they were to go back to work.
“We find that 68% of unemployed workers who are eligible for UI will receive benefits which exceed lost earnings. The median replacement rate is 134%, and one out of five eligible unemployed workers will receive benefits at least twice as large as their lost earnings. Thus, the CARES Act actually provides income expansion rather than replacement for most unemployed workers.”
The University of Chicago study authors added that unemployed workers also lose other benefits like health insurance but still predict the replacement wages could hamper recovery efforts.
High replacement rates can also encourage UI take-up and result in positive pecuniary externalities from greater spending,” they wrote. “Weighting these channels strongly would suggest the desirability of unusually high replacement rates. At the same time, very high replacement rates can induce both distributional concerns between ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ workers and labor supply disincentives as the economy recovers.”
A poll by the nonprofit Foundation for Government Accountability found more than half of those asked wanted the federal supplemental payments to end.
“The American people are not in the mood to pay people to stay home,” said Tarren Bragdon, CEO of FGA.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that the $600 payment is too much and unfair to workers deemed essential. Durbin said the benefit is a lifeline to people forced to stay home and the GOP is denying that help.
President Donald Trump’s administration wants to renew the federal supplement, but at an amount less than $600 a week.
Democrats Weighing Options On Whether To Remove House Speaker
Democrats could remove House Speaker Michael Madigan from his leadership positions in the wake of a patronage scandal involving ComEd, but so far, support appears to be lacking for definitive action.
However, some members of his own party have been looking for ways to hold him accountable, even though he hasn't been charged with a crime.
While some Democrats have publicly said they want Madigan to step down from his leadership positions amid a patronage scandal, no action has been taken.
Madigan hasn’t been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing. He was labeled “Public Official A” in an ongoing patronage investigation involving ComEd. The utility entered a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors last month and agreed to pay $200 million in fines for its role in a bribery scheme benefiting Madigan associations in exchange for favorable legislation.
Members of Madigan’s own party he’s the chairman of have released statements that he should step down from leadership. Some say he should resign.
State Rep. Anne Stava Murray, D-Naperville, the only Democrat member of the House that didn’t support Madigan for speaker in 2019, said words can only do so much in the wake of the ComEd scandal.
“I think we need to pursue every available option when it comes to holding Speaker Madigan accountable for his actions,” she said. “It’s important to establish trust not just by speaking out against his actions but taking actions ourselves.”
University of Illinois Springfield politics professor Kent Redfield said there are several avenues the legislature could take to remove Madigan from his position, like getting an investigative committee to recommend expulsion, but there are pitfalls.
“Because all through that set of rules about how this process works are formal actions that have to be taken by the speaker of the House,” Redfield said.
He said there would need to be two-thirds of the House to suspend the rules to provide for an alternative actor such as the House Majority Leader to fill such a role to take certain actions like committee appointments if the Speaker is the one to be investigated by an investigative committee.
“It’s certainly not anything that’s comprehended by the rules of the House,” Redfield said. “You might end up with a lengthy court battle even if you got a special session called and even if you got that resolution agreed to.”
Madigan has crafted the House rules with the support of his Democratic members over many years. He’s been Speaker for all but two years since 1983. He’s been chairman of the Democratic party controlling the party purse since 1998.
State Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, has stated publicly the speaker should step down.
“I think more people can come together and we can have frank conversations about that, we have had conversations and are looking at all options,” Kifowit said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a majority vote. The speaker has stated that he still has the majority vote, so, I don’t know what the outcome is going to be. But I have to sleep at night.”
Kifowit said it’s the right thing to speak up as she and some of her Democratic colleagues have done when leadership undermines the integrity of public services.
Another avenue to have some level of accountability outside of the judicial system is the Legislative Inspector General. Denise Rotheimer, a citizen whose abuse of power complaint several years ago against former state Sen. Ira Silverstein exposed a year’s long vacancy at the post, filed a complaint against Madigan after the reports from the ComEd scandal.
“I hope you are able to investigate this complaint and put this matter to rest because it is getting exhausting hearing from legislators call for Madigan's resignation and using this opportunity to merely appease voters without taking any formal action that could actually support their claim against him,” Rotheimer told the Legislative Inspector General in an email.
Redfield said all of this could take a lot of time.
“If 79 members of the General Assembly want to go through the process of kicking the Speaker out of the legislature and they’d have to follow all of that process, that certainly would get the job done, there’d be a vacant seat in the speaker’s office,” Redfield said. “But this is territory nobody comprehended and it could be handled just by the Legislature, but the governor will have to get involved if you want the Legislature in session before the veto session and it may end up in the courts anyway, so it’s just one more wrinkle in a very strange situation.”
It is possible that Madigan could lose his election to the 22nd House District in November, but he doesn’t have a challenger. His speakership will also be up for consideration by the next House of Representatives when the 102nd Illinois General Assembly is seated in January.
JCAR Meets Tuesday To Decide If Pritzker's Mask Mandate Sticks
(IRN) Gov. J.B. Pritzker is making a last-minute push to get his COVID-19 punishment to stick with up to $2,500 in fines for businesses not complying with his mask mandates. A member of the commission that could block those rules said the governor needs to call a special session of the legislature.
Pritzker brought doctors together Sunday with associations and other groups that support financial penalties for businesses that don’t enforce his face covering rules.
“They’re gonna get warned, they’re gonna have a second opportunity to make sure that they’re getting it right and then, ultimately, if they’re refusing to do it they’re going to get fined,” Pritzker said, echoing an announcement he made Friday.
The emergency rules that the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules could take up on Tuesday were not made available Sunday by the Secretary of State’s Office.
“Once the rule has been filed and reviewed, our staff will email a copy,” an official with the Secretary of State’s office said. “Note, the rule may not be available until Monday.”
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association said the rule lacked common sense and “is a slap in the face of retailers who have sacrificed so much during this pandemic while actively supporting ever-changing health and safety guidelines adopted by the state.
“If the goal is to put public health above politics, the administration will amend the rule to focus enforcement efforts on individuals who are not complying instead of punishing and attempting to demonize innocent businesses,” said IRMA CEO Rob Karr. “State officials have for months complained about improper behavior by individuals at parties, parks, and other public places, yet they are specifically exempting individuals from enforcement.”
Pritzker said while there are some business groups that oppose his mask and social distancing rules, he highlighted support from groups like the Illinois Public Health Association, the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, and the Association of Safety Net Community Hospitals.
“It’s clear that in order to protect the safety and wellness of our communities, something must be done to enforce the needed precautions to help save lives,” he said.
Businesses that don’t mandate masks amid COVID-19 concerns must face penalties, Pritzker added.
“Remember, this is a very simple ask, it really is,” he said.
State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, is on the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules. He said Friday if it’s a simple ask, Pritzker should just call a special session and have a law passed.
“You can’t tell me that the governor doesn’t have enough Democratic votes in the General Assembly to make whatever changes that are necessary to the Illinois Department of Public Health Act and make this something that complies with statute,” Schimpf said. “If he wants people to believe that it’s an emergency and follow his guidance, the best way to do that is to start acting like it’s an emergency and call a special session [of the state Legislature].”
Messages seeking comment from Democratic members of JCAR were not returned.
ISP DISTRICT 12 ANNOUNCES JULY ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY
Effingham, IL – Illinois State Police District 12 Commander, Captain Cory Ristvedt, today announced activity and enforcement figures for the month of July. Troopers in District 12, which includes Clark, Clay, Crawford, Cumberland, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Lawrence, Marion, and Richland Counties, answered 243 calls for service and initiated 743 incidents in the field.
In addition, enforcement figures totaled 285 citations and 294 written warnings, including 162 speeding citations, 5 DUIs, 1 seat belt citations, 1 child restraint citation, 13 distracted driving violations, 103 written warnings for speeding, and 15 criminal arrests. Troopers also assisted 280 motorists, conducted 54 Motor Carrier Inspections, and investigated 78 traffic crashes. There was 1 fatal traffic crash investigated by District 12 in July.
During the month, 178 citations and 122 written warnings were issued for “Fatal Four” violations. These violations are most associated with fatal traffic crashes and include Speeding, DUI, Failure to Wear a Seat Belt, and Distracted Driving.
ISP TO CONDUCT OREP PATROLS IN WAYNE AND WHITE COUNTIES
Carmi – Illinois State Police (ISP) District 19 Commander, Captain Nathan Douglas, announces the ISP will conduct Occupant Restraint Enforcement Patrols (OREP) in Wayne and White Counties during late August and early September. OREPs allow the ISP to focus on safety belt and child safety seat laws. Illinois law requires all vehicle passengers (front and back) to buckle up!
Safety belts are still one of the most effective safety devices in vehicles, estimated to save nearly 14,000 lives each year. Half of vehicle occupants killed in a traffic crash were not properly buckled up. The objective of this program is to increase occupant restraint compliance through education, child seat inspections, and enforcement.
OCC, LTC, & SIC receive funding for critical capital projects
Mattoon, IL-State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) is announcing the release of funding for capital projects at three local community college facilities in the 55th Senate District.
As part of the recently approved Fiscal Year 2020 capital budget, funds will be released from the Illinois Capital Development Board to move forward on construction projects at facility sites for Southeastern Illinois College extension center in Carmi, Illinois and to the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges in Robinson, Illinois and Olney, Illinois.
Illinois Eastern Community College projects include:
· Lincoln Trail College will receive $8,370,000 for the construction of a technology center.
· Olney Central College will receive $2,307,300 for the construction of an applied technology center.
Both projects are on the schedule for the November Capital Development Board meeting to receive architecture and engineering approval.
Southeastern Illinois College project includes:
·Southeastern Illinois College's extension center in Carmi will receive $1,681,000 for the construction of a vocational building.
This project is on the schedule for the December Capital Development Board meeting for architecture and engineering approval.