Get the latest news from around Illinois.
The Center Square: Illinois businesses worry about uncertainty in navigating Pritzker’s reopening plan
Illinois businesses can expect new guidance from the state laying out what to expect from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s five-phase plan to reopen the state, but there could be changes.
With the governor’s plan to reopen Illinois, some businesses raised concerns because they don’t have definitive timelines on when they can reopen and that breeds what businesses fear the most: Uncertainty.
State Journal-Register: Illinois marks COVID-19 testing milestone
Illinois marked a milestone in COVID-19 testing on Friday as public officials announced that more than 20,000 tests had been conducted statewide in a 24-hour period for the first time.
The state reported that 2,887 people had tested positive for the disease, representing a 14% rate of positive results among the 20,671 tests conducted.
The Center Square: Some Illinois counties draft their own reopening plans
Some local elected officials want local businesses to open safely far sooner than Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reopening plan would allow.
“Everybody’s got a different plan,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday. “The truth is, this is why you need leadership. This is why you need to make sure that we’ve got a plan that works for the regions, that allows regions to move forward or backward if they’re meeting or not meeting the requirements for health.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Here’s how Mayor Lori Lightfoot hopes to reopen Chicago
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday unveiled a framework to gradually re-open the Chicago economy and talked about the possibility of re-opening portions of the lakefront and allowing shaggy-haired Chicagoans to return to barbershops and hair salons.
With Chicago now stuck in Phase 2, Lightfoot was asked what Phase 3 might look like when the city meets the strict epidemiological markers she has established to move on to that next step.
State Journal-Register: How the city of Springfield proposes to spend federal COVID-19 relief funds
When the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law in late March, more than $5 billion of the more than $2 trillion stimulus package was set aside as additional Community Development Block Grant funds.
Local governments can use the funds to address COVID-19-related needs in their communities.
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago mayor determined to open CPS schools this fall; Pritzker has ‘great hope and desire’ to do so
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday she is determined to reopen Chicago Public Schools on time this fall, but do it safely, perhaps by using a system that limits the numbers of students and teachers in schools at one time.
Declaring “students need their teachers,” Lightfoot recalled how moved she was to see video during the pandemic of an elementary school teacher who “literally drove to her student’s house, sat in the driveway” to maintain social distance and read the young girl a book.