Get the latest news from around Illinois.
Crain's Chicago Business: Illinois faces $76 billion hit to economic output
As initial job losses lead to reduced consumer and business spending and trigger more worker cuts, Illinois citizens and businesses will collectively lose more than $28.5 billion in income, the report also predicts. The biggest impacts are expected in the industries directly affected by state shutdowns, including the restaurant and hospitality businesses, but the report says that the construction, transportation and utility industries, among others, as well as the government sector, will also bear outsized pain
The Center Square: In Springfield, officials trade cease-and-desist letters over reopening plans
The fight businesses are having in opening back up amid COVID-19 concerns isn’t just with Gov. J.B. Pritzker. In the capital city, it’s starting to become a dispute between local authorities.
The attorney for several Springfield businesses is ordering the mayor and police chief to stop contacting his clients who are open for business and said a federal lawsuit would be “unfortunately necessary” if they don’t stop.
The Center Square: Pritzker says nursing home visitor restrictions could remain in place for some time
Illinois surpassed 5,000 deaths related to COVID-19, state officials reported Wednesday.
The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 160 additional deaths, with 14 occurring downstate. That brings the statewide total to 5,083.
WBEZ: Illinois has holes in its COVID-19 data. Will that hinder planning for future outbreaks?
As Illinois’ economy inches open, public health officials across the state are anxiously monitoring the continued spread of COVID-19, hoping there isn’t a resurgence in cases as people start to venture out for a haircut or a meal on a restaurant patio.
But they’re strategizing somewhat in the dark.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago restaurants test COVID-19 surcharges as costs mount, but customer backlash forces one to retreat
The painful arithmetic of making up lost revenue for Chicago-area restaurants will not abate in June — even if reopening plans move forward in the coming month — but some makeshift solutions are drawing ire from already shrunken customer bases.
Lettuce Entertain You, the city’s largest restaurant group with 85 restaurants across Chicagoland, recently added a 4% surcharge to delivery and carryout orders. Its dozens of eateries range from the high-end RPM Steak and French bistro Mon Ami Gabi to casual joints like Bub City and Wow Bao.
Capitol News Illinois: Edgar and Scott counties continue to be Ground Zero, with no confirmed COVID-19 cases
In the early weeks and months of COVID-19’s presence in Illinois, state health leaders have cautioned people, especially those downstate, that the novel coronavirus is likely in their community even if their rural county had yet to report a case.
But now that testing has surpassed 800,000 – more than 6 percent of the state’s population – it remains a mystery why two counties, which have run hundreds of tests between the two of them, have yet to report a single COVID-19 case.
Crain's Chicago Business: A casino won't save Chicago
Hope that the Trump Administration signs onto an additional $3 trillion in federal borrowing so that the Federal government not only covers all pandemic-related city and state expenditures but also all lost revenues is not a strategy. Even if successful, that would still leave the city with a structural deficit of $1 billion and the city pension systems in perilous condition.
WTTW: Plans call for 130K Chicago employees to head back to work in early June
With city officials preparing to cautiously reopen Chicago’s economy as the peak of the coronavirus pandemic appears to have passed in Illinois, one-third of the city’s workforce could head back to their jobs in early June.
But Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to restart Chicago’s economy by turning a dimmer switch — rather than flipping a light switch — means Chicagoans will face more restrictions than those who live in other parts of the state.
State Journal-Register: Langfelder, police chief served with cease-and-desist notices by Fox Run lawyer
A day after a Springfield restaurant received a cease-and-desist notice for defying Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, an attorney representing the restaurant and two other local businesses that opened early has returned the favor to Mayor Jim Langfelder and Police Chief Kenny Winslow.
Thomas DeVore, an attorney representing Fox Run Restaurant, Bow and Arrow Salon and FitBodies, said he is “putting the City of Springfield on notice to cease and desist with any further efforts to violate my client’s civil rights” through enforcement of Pritzker’s order.
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago converting some roads into ‘shared streets’ for walking, biking, social distancing
Some streets in Chicago will soon allow more than just cars.
The city’s Department of Transportation is temporarily converting some roads into “shared streets,” which will accommodate walkers, runners, bikers and only local car traffic.
Chicago Sun-Times: Less than 60 percent of CPS students are logging on for online classes most days, new data shows
Newly released and long-awaited data from the nation’s third-largest school system shows what many have suspected: In the best circumstances, remote learning has been an uneven and dubious replacement for in-person instruction; and in the worst, it has left students entirely disconnected from their teachers.
Fewer than 60% of all Chicago Public Schools students are engaging with online remote learning three or more days per week, data unveiled Wednesday shows. Vulnerable populations, such as kids who are homeless and black and Latino students whose families have been disproportionately hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, are logging on at lower rates. Tens of thousands of students aren’t being reached by their schools at all despite computer and internet access having largely been achieved.
Journal Star: Peoria council battles budget stalemate
After almost two months, countless hours of debate and much hand-wringing, the Peoria City Council took another step to closing their budget shortfall.
The panel around the Horseshoe agreed to ask City Manager Patrick Urich to examine how a Voluntary Separation Initiative (VSI) or an Early Retirement Initiative (ERI) would help whittle the workforce down and thus, reduce the number of layoffs.
Shaw Media Illinois: Completed DeKalb TIF audit shows city used $7.9M in TIF money to offset employee salaries
A completed forensic audit of the City of DeKalb’s tax increment finance spending since 2008 shows the city used $7.9 million in TIF funds to offset salary costs, lacks consistent and complete record-keeping for TIF spending, and was including sales tax revenue in the TIF surplus to grow the increment, which auditors say needs clarification as to whether that complies with Illinois’ TIF Act.
Auditors from Chicago-based Ernst and Young, the firm chosen by DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato, have completed their forensic look at the past decade of tax increment finance spending in the City of DeKalb, an audit which was prompted by public outcry which began in the fall of 2018 alleging the city was “misusing” TIF money outside of the realm allowed for in the TIF Act.