MORNING NEWS CLIPS – 8.18.20

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT

MLL SPEAKS AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

FOX32 News at 9PM: MLL speaks at Democratic National Convention

*MLL: really it is about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

NBC5 News at 10PM: MLL Speaks at Democratic National Convention

ANCHOR: Biden appeared in a recorded segment on racial justice that included Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose national profile continues to grow as protest problems persist at home.

NBC5 News at 10PM: MLL speaks at Democratic National Convention

ANCHOR: Mayor Lori Lightfoot used her appearance at the Democratic National Convention to accuse President Trump of driving the postal service to its knees. Mayor Lightfoot said budget cuts are threatening people’s ability to vote by mail, undermining the integrity of the November election. the postal service warned it may not be able to deliver last minute ballot requests in Illinois fast enough to be counted.

CBS2 News at 10PM: MLL speaks at Democratic National Convention

*MLL: really it is about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

ANCHOR: the democratic national convention kicked off tonight in unconventional fashion: all virtual. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot played a role in the first night with a conversation on race.

At virtual Democratic convention, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Trump is mounting a ‘full-out assault’ on Postal Service, election and democracy

TRIBUNE//Bill Ruthhart and Rick Pearson

Mayor Lori Lightfoot cast President Donald Trump and Republicans as “enemies of democracy” who are mounting a “full-out assault” on the integrity of the November election by undermining the U.S. Postal Service and making it more difficult for people to vote by mail amid a pandemic. Lightfoot made the comments Monday morning during a virtual roundtable discussion at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee focused on protecting the right to vote this fall.

Lightfoot accuses Trump of starving Postal Service to drive down mail-in votes

SUN TIMES//Fran Spielman

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday accused President Donald Trump of “mounting a full-out assault on every pillar of democracy,” by starving the U.S. Postal Service to drive down mail-in votes and making people afraid to vote by mail. “This is real, folks. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not a conspiracy theory,” the mayor said during a virtual roundtable on election integrity that helped kick off the Democratic National Convention.

SUPERINTENDENT BROWN ADDRESSES WEEKEND PROTESTS

FOX32 News at 9PM: Superintendent Brown addresses weekend protests

ANCHOR: Chicago's top cop is defending the actions of his officers.

BROWN: what happened this weekend with the protest that turned violent, is not normal.

ANCHJOR: this after a protest that turned violent downtown Saturday evening. But some aldermen are questioning the tactics police used to control the protest, saying officers acted aggressively. we have the story.

WGN News at 9PM: Superintendent Brown addresses weekend protests

NBC5 News at 10PM: Superintendent Brown speaks out about weekend protests

ANCHOR: police released new information on the confrontation as both sides pointed a finger at the other to what happened.

MARAGOS: while the protests have calmed down for now, the war of words has not. the latest clash between police and protesters brought fresh accusations from both sides. Today, Police Superintendent Brown reiterated his stance on demonstrations.

CHICAGO FIRE ACADEMY FACILITY SHUTS DOWN DUE TO COVID-19

ABC7 News at 10PM: Chicago Fire Academy facility shuts down due to COVID-19

CBS2 News at 10PM: Chicago Fire Academy facility shuts down due to COVID-19

ANCHOR: all training is on hold for Chicago Fire recruits as an outbreak shut down the academy. we are live tonight and the fire union says if the fire is held to the academy for too long, it could lead to bigger problems for Chicago residents.

TERRY: they are hitting the reset button here at the training academy. this covid-19 outbreak is forcing those recruits to turn to textbooks and that will be done remotely.

CFD academy suspends operations after multiple COVID-19 cases reported

SUN TIMES//Carly Behm

The Chicago Fire Department is suspending training at the Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy after multiple people tested positive for COVID-19. Current recruits will continue training online as the facility is cleaned and disinfected, fire officials said in a statement. Fire officials didn’t say how many people tested positive, but none of the cases required hospitalization. Everyone who has tested positive is self-isolating at home.

KIM FOXX UNDER FIRE FOR HANDLING OF JUSSIE SMOLLETT INVESTIGATION

FOX32 News at 9PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

ANCHOR: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is under fire for handling of the Jussie Smollett investigation. A new report by the Special Prosecutor said Kim Foxx mishandled the case. we are live now with that update.

MATTHEWS: according to the Special Prosecutor's investigation, they did not find any criminal conduct by Kim Foxx or anyone in her office but found numerous ethics violations

WGN News at 9PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

ANCHOR: harsh criticism for Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case as Dan Webb wraps up his yearlong investigation. WGN's Patrick Elwood is here with details and reaction on that.

ELWOOD: he told police he was targeted in a racist and homophobic attack, but according to police that story soon began unraveling.

NBC5 News at 10PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

ANCHOR: Kim Foxx facing new fallout tonight from the Jussie Smollett controversy. Tonight, her opponent in the fall election is calling for her resignation. It comes as a Special Prosecutor criticizes what he calls “abuses of discretion” in the way Foxx’s office handled the Smollett case.

FAZIO: Kim Foxx responded in a statement saying she's taking time off to be with her husband who has prostate cancer. But her opponent in November’s election is calling for her to step down and another Republican says Foxx may be forced to resign.

ABC7 News at 10PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

ANCHOR: there is new reaction from Jussie Smollett’s attorney. the year-long investigation finding abuses of discretion by Kim Foxx and her office but not criminal wrongdoing. we take a closer look at the report tonight.

Report finds ‘abuses of discretion’ but no criminal wrongdoing in Kim Foxx handling of Jussie Smollett case

TRIBUNE//Megan Crepeau and Jason Meisner

Cook County prosecutors gave actor Jussie Smollett an inexplicable and unprecedented deal — and then misled the public about it — when they dropped disorderly conduct charges against him last year, but there was no evidence that they were swayed by outside clout or committed any crimes, a team of special prosecutors has concluded. A news release Monday summarizing an investigation led by special prosecutor Dan Webb indicated that while no criminal charges were warranted against anyone in State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office, his team would be reporting potential violations of legal ethics over the handling of the Smollett investigation to Illinois’ attorney disciplinary board.

OTHER MLL NEWS

FOX32 News at 9PM: Chicago lifts overnight restrictions on downtown area

ANCHOR: getting downtown is easier this evening. the city’s overnight restrictions have officially been lifted. those restrictions were in place all of last week and into this weekend following looting. emergency officials now say all bridges and streets are back open and public transportation is available.

City budget, transportation officials to face City Council grilling on infrastructure spending

DAILY LINE//Alex Nitkin

Agencies responsible for maintaining Chicago’s streets, pipes and other public assets are set to face scrutiny from aldermen on Tuesday over the way the city sets its infrastructure spending priorities. Leaders of the city’s Office of Budget and Management; Department of Assets, Information and Services; Department of Transportation and Department of Water Management are scheduled to take part in a virtual subject matter hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday by the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital Technology Development.

4 Chicago Restaurants, Nightclub Shut Down for Violating COVID-19 Restrictions

WTTW//Heather Cherone

City officials shut down four restaurants and a nightclub for violating rules designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Monday. Officials shut down Barba Yianni Greek Tavern, 4761 N. Lincoln Ave., after issuing two citations for having more than 80 people inside the Lincoln Square restaurant, operating after midnight, social distancing violations and no face coverings, according to a statement from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Chicago closes 5 more restaurants and bars for COVID-19 guideline violations

TRIBUNE//Grace Wong

Five businesses were closed down over the weekend after investigators from the city of Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection found them to be in violation of reopening requirements. Barba Yianni (4761 N. Lincoln Ave.) was closed and issued two citations for having more than 80 people inside, operating after midnight, and violating social distancing and face covering guidelines;

After push to change the name of Douglas Park, Chicago Park District considers new rules and new names for 3 other parks

TRIBUNE//Morgan Greene

The process to rename three Chicago parks kicked off last week, along with changes to renaming rules that follow the unprecedented step to change the title of Douglas Park. The Chicago Park District voted Wednesday to begin the process of updating its park naming procedures. Under the new rules, renaming would be split into two parts, with a name removal period and then a separate period to choose a new name.

Chicago cops are retiring at ‘unheard of’ twice the usual rate

SUN TIMES//Frank Main and Fran Spielman

Chicago police officers have been retiring at double the normal rate recently, raising concerns that the number of new hires won’t keep pace with the number leaving. Michael Lappe, vice president of the board of trustees for the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, said 59 police officers are retiring in August, with another 51 retirements set for next month. “That’s unheard of,” Lappe said. “We’re seeing double the average number of retirees each month. The average is about 24 a month.”

What is ‘kettling’? It’s a controversial tactic to contain crowds, and Chicago police are accused of using it during downtown protests.

TRIBUNE//Katherine Rosenberg Douglas

After violent clashes between police and protesters in downtown Chicago over the weekend, it seemed everyone from lawmakers and civil rights advocates to activists were accusing officers of “kettling,” a controversial practice for controlling crowds. The tactic usually involves lines of police officers corralling a group of people, who are either contained in a small area or are allowed to leave through an exit controlled by police. Some call it “trap and detain.” Others say it is dangerous and unconstitutional and should be outlawed.

Officials Question Police Tactics Following Clash Between Cops and Protesters

WTTW//Amanda Vinicky

Confrontations between police and protesters Saturday in downtown Chicago weren’t the most extreme fits of violence the city saw in recent days. Chicago police Superintendent David Brown says 51 people were shot over the weekend. But the clash has spurred a fresh round of criticism from local officials about police leadership tactics, even as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday is set to take part in a national conversation on justice as part of the Democratic National Convention.

Columbia College student charged with striking cop with skateboard at protest

SUN TIMES//David Struett and Madeline Kenney

A Columbia College student was ordered held on $20,000 bail Monday for allegedly hitting a Chicago police officer over the head with a skateboard while another protester appeared in court for resisting arrest during Saturday’s protest in the Loop. Cook County Judge John Lyke Jr. said he didn’t think Jeremey Johnson should be released on his own recognizance due to the “violent nature” of the allegations and said the officer was lucky he only suffered scratches to his arm because he was wearing his helmet.

Accused looters and protesters appear in court following consecutive weekends of trouble

TRIBUNE//William Lee

During one long court call Monday, one Central Bond Court judge saw defendants from two weekends of mayhem, involving last week’s widespread looting and this weekend’s violent clash between protesters and Chicago police. During the afternoon call at the Leighton Criminal Court Building broadcast on Youtube, Judge John F. Lyke Jr. saw nine defendants.

21 shot, 2 killed Monday in Chicago

SUN TIMES//Staff

Twenty-one people were shot, two of them fatally, Monday in Chicago — the second straight day that more than 20 people were shot across the city. The day’s latest fatal attack left one 18-year-old man dead and another injured in Austin on the West Side. The men were outside about 11:45 p.m. in the 1700 block of North Luna Avenue when multiple people got out of a white sedan and fired shots at them, Chicago police said.

MICHELLE PACKS A PUNCH — MOSELEY BRAUN TO DELIVER STATE VOTES — ‘FAILURES’ IN SMOLLETT CASE

POLITICO//Shia Kapos

Happy Tuesday, Illinois. There's a different kind of exhaustion from zooming in to the convention. Michelle Obama made her case for Joe Biden in a powerful speech that touched on the presumptive Democratic nominee’s experience and empathy while excoriating the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustices, and the president's own lack of basic decency.

FULL TRANSCRIPTS

FOX32 News at 9PM: MLL speaks at Democratic National Convention

*MLL: really it is about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

ANCHOR: the first ever democratic national convention is happening right now virtually. this is a live look at the event being held virtually. singer-songwriter maggie rogers is performing right now. Mayor Lori Lightfoot spoke moments ago. we are waiting to hear from former first lady, Michelle Obama. we are joined live with more on the DNC.

FLANNERY: the Mayor did speak - she was part of a conversation with vice president Biden about racial and social justice.

BIDEN: as we try to tackle in a way that we have not before, systemic racism in the city.

MLL: really it is about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

FLANNERY: the Mayor's conversation with the former vice president and about to be officially democratic nominee for president this year, was reportedly recorded in advance and then edited down. it was recorded about 10 days ago reportedly. and edited down from more than a half hour original conversation. you can see why some of the politicians may well like these new pandemic-inspired covid-19 rules. they actually had a lot more control of the production. unlike four years ago when the Hillary Clinton forces were faced with disruption by Bernie Sanders backers and even sometimes boos. none of that when everything or a lot of things are prerecorded and rolling on schedule out of a remote location.

ANCHOR: we are waiting on a few people. who still has to speak tonight?

FLANNERY: we heard from new york governor Andrew Cuomo, who defended his at times controversial stewardship over that state’s covid-19 experience. we will also be hearing from Bernie Sanders tonight. and unlike four years ago, when he and Hillary Clinton remained at odds right up until the convention and afterwards, he is apparently going to deliver a call to arms for his supporters to rally around Joe Biden and he and Biden, while they have not seen each other for several months, apparently talk all the time. but the big star, the most popular democrat, in fact, by the public opinion polls, the most popular woman in America, Michelle Obama is undoubtedly the star. she is the reason a lot of people are tuning in tonight.

ANCHOR: no doubt about that.

FOX32 News at 9PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollet investigation

MATTHEWS: according to the Special Prosecutor's investigation, they did not find any criminal conduct by Kim Foxx or anyone in her office but found numerous ethics violations. and tonight some are calling Foxx a liar.

O’BRIEN: you lie about one and you probably lie about 100.

MATTHEWS: it was this retired judge who petitioned for a special prosecutor to investigate the State Attorney’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case.

O’BRIEN: 100% egregious. lying to the people of Cook County and lying about a case.

MATTHEWS: the Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s investigation included 53 interviews and sifting through more than 120,000 pages of documents. all of that to find that the office of Kim Foxx made “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office in prosecuting and resolving the initial Jussie Smollett case. her office suddenly dropped charges against Jussie Smollett that accused him of staging an alleged racist and homophobic attack against himself. this new report finds that decision even surprised some of Foxx’s own staff. the investigation also accuses Foxx of making false or misleading statements. for example, telling the media she had stopped communicating with the sister of Jussie Smollett after learning he was a suspect, not a victim. the report reads: “States Attorney Kim Foxx learned by February 8, 2019 that Mr. Jussie Smollett had become a suspect in CPD’s investigation. Yet she continued communicating with Ms. Smollett through February 13, 2019 including via text messages and phone calls. Kim Foxx responded in a statement and it reads in part: “the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office categorically rejects the Office of the Special Prosecutor's characterizations of its exercises of prosecutorial discretion and private or public statements as abuses of discretion or false statements to the public.”

FOX32 News at 9PM: Chicago lifts overnight restrictions on downtown area

FOX32 News at 9PM: Schools opt for remote learning amid COVID-19 pandemic

ANCHOR: in our area, more suburban school districts are pulling the plug on in person learning. they are opting to start the year remotely. we have more on why the health department is getting the blame.

SCHULZE: the first day of school has a whole new look at queen of the rosary in elk grove village. teachers with thermometers and hand sanitizers welcome students back.

CHICAGOAN: we have been working tirelessly all summer long to prepare for this day.

SCHULZE: but several big districts working for the same thing just did an about-face. schools in Lincoln Way, Lockport, Downers Grove, New Lenox and more switching suddenly to all remote learning. many school leaders blaming the state health department -- a letter to Lamont High School parents today said: “we cannot begin in person learning without knowing the IDPH metrics for safely reopening schools.” we spoke with a family medicine physician at cook county health about helping kids handle the added stress.

RAJAGOPAL: it is a challenge and there has to be regular check-in's with students. how do you feel? do you miss your friends? and explaining to them why this is happening. Because the more they understand, the more they are able to adjust in a healthy manner.

SCHULZE: some of the district leaders have pointed to new regulations from the state about quarantine roles, testing, and close contact procedures, saying it makes it tough for a big district to open in person or even impossible. the Governor's Office said, because no two school districts are the same, the state’s guidance seeks to account for the vast diversity of Illinois’ 852 school districts.”

FOX32 News at 9PM: Superintendent Brown speaks out about weekend protests

ANCHOR: Chicago's top cop is defending the actions of his officers.

BROWN: what happened this weekend with the protest that turned violent, is not normal.

PLACKO: it happened near the corner of Michigan and Wacker as a crowd of about 200 protesters encountered a line of officers blocking their path.

BROWN: i stood shoulder to shoulder on the ground with the men and women in blue witnessing verbal abuse and other bottles and street debris.

PLACKO: police video shows some in the crowd opening umbrellas which have been used to shield officers from seeing people throwing rocks and bottles. police video shows a man beating an officer over the head with a skateboard. 24 people were arrested; four on felony charges.

BROWN: we will do everything we can to protect the rights of peaceful protesters. but we cannot stand by, actually we will not stand by, when people begin breaking the law.

SIGCHO-LOPEZ: i am disappointed because it was completed dismissed. the actions of the Chicago police department.

PLACKO: 25th alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez is among several elected officials who signed a letter criticizing the Police Department's handling of Saturday’s confrontation. they say officers overreacted and attacked a group mostly made up of teenagers.

SIGCHO-LOPEZ: i was very concerned when i saw some of the images in particular some of the images of young people being beat up.

PLACKO: the mood on the street seems to have calmed, but the Superintendent says they are not letting their guard down.

BROWN: we are playing chess not checkers with our criminals. every move we make there seems to be a counter move by criminals. And so we are trying to anticipate as best we can what criminals might do.

WGN News at 9PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

ELWOOD: he told police he was targeted in a racist and homophobic attack, but according to police that story soon began unraveling. it was learned later he hired 2 brothers he had worked out with to help him stage that attack. today these Special Prosecutor Dan Webb stopping short of saying Kim Foxx broke the law, but he did say that she was less than forthcoming with the public.

O’BRIEN: this is a sad day for all of us in cook county. this report tells us that our State's Attorney is incompetent and lacks the integrity to tell the truth. in the vernacular we would say she's a liar.

ELWOOD: retired appellate court judge Sheila O’Brien pushed hard to get Dan Webb appointed as special prosecutor to look into the handling of the case. among the issues Webb investigated whether Kim Foxx properly recused herself. Webb determined she did not, saying her entire office should have been pulled off the case. instead it was turned over to 2 top deputies who are accused of having significantly divergent opinions of how the case was resolved. Webb even found the lead prosecutor on the case, Lisa Lanier, read a statement during the dismissal hearing in a highly unusual move that she drafted in conjunction with Smollett’s attorney. Webb called that in his words atypical. former Cook County Prosecutor Joe Roddy weighing in on the matter today as well.

RODDY: people are going to have questions about how things are done over there and certainly in this case, it's documented that things were not done correctly, and things were not done on the up and up.

ELDWOOD: Webb condemned Foxx and her office for making “at least 6 false and or misleading public statements relating to the nature in reason for the dismissal” of the case on more than one occasion. for her part Foxx's office released a statement that reads in part “this report puts to rest any implications of outside influence or criminal activity on the part of the Cook County State's Attorney's office and the Chicago Police Department.” it goes on to say “the CCSAO has categorically rejects the office of the special prosecutors characterizations of his exercises of prosecutorial discretion and private or public statements as abuses of discretion or false statements to the public.” O’Brien says it's clear to her though and others Kim Foxx was way off script in trying to help the now former empire star.

O’BRIEN: you tell your kids not to lie. lying is basic. so, once you say how egregious is this? 100% egregious. lying to the people of cook county and lying about a case. if you lie about one case how many cases are there that we don't know about?

ELWOOD: a grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Jussie Smollett in february. he has entered a not guilty plea. the city of Chicago as well suing him seeking to recover costs of that investigation.

WGN News at 9PM: Superintendent Brown speaks out about weekend protests

ANCHOR: 2 dozen people have now been charged after clashing with police during a demonstration downtown this weekend. 4 of the 24 people who are arrested are facing felony charges, including that man you just saw there, his name Jeremy Johnson. police say he repeatedly hit an officer in the head with a skateboard; his bond now set at $20,000. 17 officers report being injured in what Police Superintendent David Brown is calling a coordinated attack by “agitators who hijacked a peaceful protest.”

BROWN: what happened this weekend with the protests that turned violent is not normal. most protests happen peacefully. CPD will continue to do everything we can to protect the rights of peaceful protesters, but we cannot stand by - actually we will not stand by - when people began breaking the law.

ANCHOR: well some of the crowd are putting the blame on police saying tensions flared when officers shot him using shields and batons.

NBC5 News at 10PM: MLL Speaks at Democratic National Convention

ANCHOR: Biden appeared in a recorded segment on racial justice that included Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose national profile continues to grow as protest problems persist at home.

NBC5 News at 10PM: MLL accuses President Trump of depriving USPS

NBC5 News at 10PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

MORRISON: I do call for her to resign because as a State's Attorney, you are supposed to be our senior-most prosecutor and you are in charge of law and order.

FAZIO: Cook County Commissioner Shawn Morrison wants Kim Foxx to resign as State's Attorney and so does her Republican opponent, Pat O’Brien.

O’BRIEN: this is so big; I can tell you that it is time for her to design.

FAZIO: Special Prosecutor Dan Webb’s investigation found Foxx and her staff made false or misleading statements about Foxx recusing herself from Smollett’s case. he staged a phony hate crime on himself, but Foxx's office later dropped the charges.

MORRISON: I don't know that anybody that is engaged in the criminal justice system now can have a reasonable expectation that the State’s Attorney of Cook County is going to operate from a fair and just position.

FAZIO: Foxx responded saying this report puts to rest any implications of outside influence or criminal activity on the part of the State’s Attorney’s office – but the special prosecutor says they did develop evidence that may rise to a violation of legal ethics.

MORRISON: in order to be a State’s Attorney, you must be a licensed registered attorney. you are not allowed to lie or intentionally deceive as an attorney ever otherwise you could lose your licensing.

FAZIO: tonight, Smollett’s attorney says the investigation is an attempt to take down a black progressive female prosecutor who does not fit within the white power structure.

NBC5 News at 10PM: Superintendent Brown speaks out about weekend protests

ANCHOR: police released new information on the confrontation as both sides pointed a finger at the other to what happened.

BROWN: CPD will continue to do everything we can to protect the rights of peaceful protesters. But we cannot stand by - actually we will not stand by - when people began breaking the law.

MARAGOS: the evening started with a peaceful protest in Millennium Park. But it moved north and evolved into a two-hour standoff at Michigan and Wacker.

BROWN: there was a concerted effort that I saw to agitate officers, to pull them into more conflict and confrontation.

reporter: that confrontation led to pushing, pepper spray, and 24 arrests. Jeremy Johnson is charged with a felony for hitting an officer repeatedly with a skateboard. Today the group Good Kids Mad City called Johnson a political prisoner, and demands he be free. On Friday before the protest, the group held a rally demanding more police oversight and a cut in funding.

CHICAGOAN: the police department does not care about black and brown people and our lives.

MARAGOS: today Brown was sent a letter from a group of aldermen and state representatives. They criticize the police response and tactics on Saturday.

BROWN: we don't do politics. i want to try to keep it that way.

MARAGOS: now the officer hit with that skateboard is expected to be okay.

ABC7 News at 10PM: Chicago Fire Academy facility shuts down due to COVID-19

ANCHOR: Chicago’s fire academy dealing with more cases tonight and the facility was forced to suddenly shut down. RRP officials have declined to say exactly how many people have tested positive here but we're told none of the cases are severe enough to require hospitalization. at the fire academy preparations for a deep clean cover the buildings, equipment and vehicles. training suspended indefinitely after the discovery of multiple covid-19 cases. officials say all positive cases have been placed in isolation, and for the other recruits instruction will continue remotely.

CHICAGOAN: covid-19 is real.

ANCHOR: just last week the department releasing this public service message urging people to take the virus seriously by wearing masks. since the start of the pandemic there have been 300 cases of covid-19 within the Chicago Fire Department, the virus taking the life of two department veterans in April. the Fire Department said to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in all facilities, the Department continues to work with the Chicago Department of Public Health to ensure social distancing and public health guidelines are strictly enforced and all individuals abide by them.

HORNG: officials say the source of the outbreak is undetermined at this time. exactly how long this building is going to remain closed is also unclear.

ABC7 News at 10PM: Kim Foxx under fire for handling of Jussie Smollett investigation

NAGY: the Jussie Smollett saga over an alleged staged hate crime played out in on-again, off- again, on-again legal dispute warped by finger pointing, dropped charges, and accusations of meddling by State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. the empire star was initially charged with 16 crimes including lying to investigators before State’s Attorney Kim Foxx dropped all the charges and then recused herself from the case. Today a 12-page report from Special Prosecutor Dan Webb spelled out what he calls “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in prosecuting and resolving the case.” And actions by Kim Foxx and other attorneys in her office “may rise to the violation of legal ethics by State’s Attorney Foxx and CCSAO lawyers relating to false and/or misleading public statements.” In a November interview, Foxx said “our office uses alternative prosecution in many cases similar to that case.” Today, Foxx released a statement saying she in part she rejects the OSP’s characterization of its exercises of prosecutorial discretion and private or public statements “as abuses of discretion or false statements to the public.”

NAGY: notably they found no criminal wrongdoing. she was not part of it after recusing herself and said there was no outside influence to drop the charges. tonight Smollett’s attorney is defending his client saying in part “it is a blatant attempt to take down the black progressive female prosecutor who does not fit within the white power structure.” But the retired judge taking a hard line.

O’BRIEN: if a person is in public life and they lie to us, that is pretty hard to say I’m going to make some changes, so I don't lie anymore. that is rather strange. it is time for her perhaps to step aside.

CBS2 News at 10PM: Chicago Fire Academy facility shuts down due to COVID-19

TERRY: they are hitting the reset button here at the training academy. this covid-19 outbreak is forcing those recruits to turn to textbooks and that will be done remotely. but if the training here at the academy, it requires physical hands-on training, and if that training does not continue, so says the fire union president, CFD could truly see a strain on city resources. there is some deep cleaning underway at the Chicago Fire Department’s training academy. all classes are suspended after nearly half of the 100 recruits tested positive for the virus.

TRACY: obviously it is against a lot of what the city does on a regular basis. However, this is the right thing to do.

TERRY: Jim Tracy supports the move, especially after two firefighters died from complications of the virus this year.

TRACY: we over 270 members right now that have been COVID positive.

TERRY: while safety remains a priority for those firefighters on the streets and the recruits, Tracy is adamant the training at the academy must resume for the good of the entire city.

TRACY: it is an economic thing as well as a safety thing.

TERRY: the union says on average, 250 firefighters retire annually. it takes six months to complete the academy. and due to the pandemic, recruits are limited to only a maximum of 100 per class.

TRACY: at the end of the day, they will have to rehire people.

TERRY: while the city has no plans to stop all training at the academy, Tracy says if new firefighters don't place retirees, taxpayers will pay both monetarily and with overworked firefighters responding to calls.

TRACY: it will cost the taxpayers more money by not getting these classes through and unfortunately, this is the first time out of the last four classes that this has happened.

TERRY: out of the nearly 50 recruits who tested positive for the virus, none, according to the city, needed to be hospitalized. no official word as to when the training academy will reopen. reporting live, CBS2 news.

CBS2 News at 10PM: MLL speaks at Democratic National Convention

*MLL: really it is about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

ANCHOR: the democratic national convention kicked off tonight in unconventional fashion: all virtual. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot played a role in the first night with a conversation on race.

MLL: it really about economic empowerment. because if people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way.

ANCHOR: The Mayor joined presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, the president of the NAACP, and other social justice advocates for an event called the path forward. the prime-time DNC program featured speeches from across the political spectrum, from republicans urging fellow GOP voters to switch sides, to former Biden rival Bernie Sanders asking progressives to unite. former first lady, Michelle Obama, called out Donald Trump for a lack of leadership and a lack of empathy.

OBAMA: they see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here. that greed is good and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else.

ANCHOR: this is, Mrs. Obama calls Joe Biden a profoundly decent man who is the right leader for this time.

FULL ARTICLES

Officials Question Police Tactics Following Clash Between Cops and Protesters

WTTW//Amanda Vinicky

But the clash has spurred a fresh round of criticism from local officials about police leadership tactics, even as Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday is set to take part in a national conversation on justice as part of the Democratic National Convention.

“This group showed up at Millennium Park with the purpose of agitating police officers and the crowd. And I want to recognize our officers for maintaining their professionalism and composure despite being pelted and assaulted with projectiles on Saturday night,” Brown said at a press conference Monday morning.

The Chicago Police Department released annotated video of the incident showing crowds and highlighting an individual who appears to use a skateboard to hit an officer.

But protesters have put their own videos on social media, which show officers shoving and hitting the demonstrators.

India Jackson, a 19-year-old member of the organization GoodKids MadCity, said she was too busy trying to run out of the way of police to take her phone out and capture what happened to her.

“We were marching through the downtown area,” she said. “The police closed in on us and then the next thing I know I was being hit with batons, tear gas is being sprayed into the air, they’re punching us, they’ve shoving us, I got knocked over like three times.”

Jackson said she will continue to protest and advocate for defunding and dismantling the CPD.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th Ward, is one of eight local and state elected officials who condemned Lightfoot and Brown for using force against protesters.

“We question the logic of spending police dollars on social media surveillance, pepper spray, and riot gear to beat teenagers while the directives of the federal consent decree go unmet and the murder clearance rate remains abysmally low,” they said in a statement. “We are wholeheartedly with the protestors who have taken to the streets to demand a future free of violence. Many of these young people are themselves anti-violence activists who, like too many other Black and Latinx Chicagoans, have lost friends and family to gun violence. It is their right to protest, and it is our responsibility to listen.”

Asked on Monday for her reaction to that statement, Brown said in professional law enforcement “we don’t do politics and we’ll try to keep it that way.”

Sigcho-Lopez told WTTW News that legislators have an obligation and a responsibility to demand accountability from the police chief.

“So to the chief of police, my response is, it is his duty to provide information to public officials, to provide a full picture and a full detail of what transpired over the weekend,” he said.

The alderman also said it’s inappropriate for the CPD to have released an edited video of the demonstrations, saying that instead of showing snippets the CPD should release all raw footage of Saturday’s events.

While the CPD by Monday appeared to have taken down tweets, Sigcho-Lopez criticized the department for sharing personal information about individuals arrested at the protest, which has led to their getting harassed.

“There is a whole City beyond the Loop that is so desperate to be heard and to feel safe, that they’ve had to resort to protests. Those are the stories that also need to be told and those are the reasons that we in City government need to lead on solutions NOT over-policing,” Sigcho-Lopez wrote on Twitter. “Chicago Police instead is trying to censor those stories by pushing tailored video and tweeting mugshots w/ home addresses. Distributing that information does nothing additional to protect anyone, but is a politically motivated self-serving tactic that compromises safety.”

Activist and former mayoral candidate Ja’Mal Green has not endorsed fully defunding the police, though he said Chicago needs to significantly shift money from the police to neighborhoods on the South and West sides of the city.

But he said Brown needs to step down as head of the police department, whose tactics over the weekend were harsher than those used under former Superintendent Eddie Johnson during larger, high-stakes protests.

“David Brown doesn’t understand the city of Chicago,” Green said. “This city has a lot of problems, and you got to understand the city, you’ve got to understand the landscape of our city, the landscape of protests if you want to be an effective superintendent. But he has such and ego and he is too up his rear to really understand that to be an effective superintendent you’ve got to bridge the divide, you’ve got to listen to people, you can’t just be super pro-police, you’ve got to understand the needs of the community.”

Brown came to Chicago from Dallas in April. He has promised CPD will have “community policing on steroids” and in a July restructuring moved hundreds of officers to community safety and crisis intervention teams.

At virtual Democratic convention, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Trump is mounting a ‘full-out assault’ on Postal Service, election and democracy

TRIBUNE//Bill Ruthhart and Rick Pearson

Lightfoot made the comments Monday morning during a virtual roundtable discussion at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee focused on protecting the right to vote this fall.

“Every day the importance of this fall’s election grows and grows, and every day, unfortunately, we see increasing evidence that this administration is mounting a full-out assault on every pillar of our democracy, including the integrity of our elections,” Lightfoot said. “This is real, folks. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not a conspiracy theory.”

The former federal prosecutor then went on to hammer the Trump administration and Republicans for draconian cuts at the Postal Service that have disrupted the delivery of mail in recent days. Trump has acknowledged opposing funding for the Postal Service as an effort to undercut vote-by-mail efforts, which he has insisted would lead to corruption while offering no evidence and voting by mail himself in Florida.

Lightfoot said since the White House had failed to keep Americans safe from the COVID-19 pandemic, “vote by mail is the lane we need to run in” to avoid having people “risk their health just to cast a vote.”

“That’s why we cannot allow this administration to undermine the Postal Service in a way that is clearly trying to drive the Postal Service to its knees, making mail service unreliable — putting postal workers at risk by changing hours and stretching into the night and failing to give the post office the resources that it needs to fulfill its basic mission,” Lightfoot said. “This assault, of course, is about election integrity.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Lightfoot also slammed Republicans for what she portrayed as additional attacks on the election, including a “thinly veiled poll tax” in some states to ban felons from voting, purging voter rolls in certain areas of the country and closing polling places in targeted neighborhoods. She called on Democrats to push back on those efforts and GOP desires to sow confusion about voting by mail.

“What we need to do in the face of this pandemic is to make sure that Americans understand that it is safe to vote, not dangerous,” Lightfoot said. “They are drumming up a climate of anxiety that is driven by their desperation to hold on to power. You can see the Senate majority eroding and the Oval Office is slipping from their grasp. Their current efforts reflect their desperation and their fear.”

During a speech Monday afternoon in Mankato, Minnesota, Trump repeated previous criticism that Amazon and other companies are taking advantage of the Postal Service, which he contended loses money by having to deliver large volumes of packages. Trump, however, did not address the criticism that the Postal Service changes are aimed at undermining the election.

“The post office has been a disaster for many, many decades,” he said. “We want to strengthen the post office and make it good.”

As he often does, Trump also managed to lob criticism at Chicago in his Minnesota speech, saying that “criminals are terrorizing civilians in Chicago, Portland and now New York City.” He also said that outside of New York and Chicago, crime stats nationally have improved during his time in the White House, blaming Democratic leaders for the problems.

“Do you want the failed policies of (New York) Mayor Bill de Blasio or Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago, or (Minneapolis) Mayor Jacob Frey brought to every city and town in this nation?” Trump asked as the crowd shouted, “No!” back. “If left-wing Democrats can’t run a city, why on earth would you let them run your country?”

At an event later Monday in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Trump again warned that if Democrat Joe Biden is elected, the looting and violent protests seen in Portland, Minneapolis, New York and Chicago would become the norm nationwide.

“In Chicago, they literally raised up the drawbridges to prevent hordes of rioters from ransacking the city. Can you believe it?” Trump said of Lightfoot’s security measures to protect the downtown shopping district from looting. As he has before, Trump compared Chicago’s high level of gun violence with war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This is the future that Joe Biden plans to bring to every city, town and suburb in our nation,” Trump said.

Lightfoot made her comments about Trump during a virtual online roundtable discussion along with Emily Cain, executive director of EMILY’s List; Alex Morgan, executive director of the Progressive Turnout Project political organization; and Rachana Desai Martin from the Biden campaign.

When panelists were asked what keeps them up at night on the subject of protecting people’s ability to vote, Lightfoot said it was the “chaos and uncertainty” over the integrity of mail-in balloting.

“Donald Trump thrives in chaos. He likes creating this, this atmosphere of uncertainty, of danger — is something right, is it not right? What we need to do is make sure that we block out the noise and let people know that their vote is safe, that there’s many ways in which they can do it, and that they’re not going to be prevented from voting,” Lightfoot said. “That is one of the most important things is to break through the noise and the chaos that this administration and his campaign are trying to create that somehow their vote won’t matter, somehow, they won’t be able to vote. Not true.”

Lightfoot also appeared for a little more than 30 seconds during the prime-time two-hour telecast of the convention Monday night, as part of a roundtable with Biden on social justice. When Biden asked what she’s doing to tackle systemic racism, the mayor explained that she’s working to improve the quality of life in all communities and bringing more diverse stakeholders into the decision-making process at City Hall.

Also on Monday, in a preview of the Illinois delegation’s salute to allies in organized labor, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said union postal workers as well as the public were being victimized by a “post office under assault by Donald Trump.”

“America’s message to Donald Trump is very simple: Keep your hands out of our mailboxes,” Durbin said. “We believe the Postal Service does a great job and needs our support. They don’t need to be sabotaged in the name of political victory for Donald Trump.”

At the same event, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García said Trump’s actions involving the Postal Service represent “one of the most flagrant violations of democracy” in the president’s efforts to undermine government institutions.

Trump, he said, was seeking “to advance his own interest, to prevent a fair election by causing destruction, confusion and undermining one of the most important essentials of any democracy and that is a post office.”

García is scheduled to visit the Postal Service’s Chicago headquarters Tuesday morning along with a delegation of other Illinois Democrats in Congress to speak about the controversy.

Chicago cops are retiring at ‘unheard of’ twice the usual rate

SUN TIMES//Frank Main and Fran Spielman

Chicago police officers have been retiring at double the normal rate recently, raising concerns that the number of new hires won’t keep pace with the number leaving.

Michael Lappe, vice president of the board of trustees for the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, said 59 police officers are retiring in August, with another 51 retirements set for next month.

“That’s unheard of,” Lappe said. “We’re seeing double the average number of retirees each month. The average is about 24 a month.”

He said a change in health insurance benefits is a factor, while the police union president blames Mayor Lori Lightfoot for not backing police officers.

Retirements in 2020 are on pace to be higher than in any of the past few years. There were 335 police retirements through the end of July, compared with 475 for all of 2019 and 339 for all of 2018, according to pension records.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), former chairman of the city council’s police committee, said he realized retirements were on the rise when he was at police headquarters for a meeting last week.

“From the time I walked in to police headquarters to the time I left, which was about 35 minutes, there were nine or 10 officers who approached me and said they were leaving,” he said. “Every person who walked past me said, ‘Hey, Beale, I’m out of here.’ ”

John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union, said he sees a wave of retirements leaving the city short of cops.

“I have no doubt that it’s going to continue, and I can clearly see a smaller spike within the upper ranks [of] lieutenants and above,” Catanzara said. “Who wants to stay in this environment? If you have the ability to leave, there is no incentive to stay anymore.

“The mayor doesn’t back us,” he said. “If you have the financial ability to do so, I don’t blame a single soul for leaving.”

For months, Catanzara and Lightfoot have been at odds over police reform and union contract negotiations. Officers are working under a contract that expired in 2017.

Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported the department’s staffing was at a 10-year high, with 13,350 officers. In March, the department’s figures showed a total of about 13,100 officers.

Still, there’s an impression among elected officials that the Chicago Police Department is woefully understaffed.

“We’re way short of officers now, and I’m afraid, as people go to retire, we’re going to be even further short of officers on the street,” Beale said. “We’re working officers double-time, triple-time. It’s only a matter of time before officers are totally burned out.”

A police spokesman said the department continues to add officers, with some cadets finishing training and others entering the police academy next week.

Lappe said his concern is that a large, sustained wave of retirements will harm the pension system’s financial health.

Even now, about 850 more retirees are drawing a pension than the number of officers working on active duty, Lappe said. Two decades ago, those numbers were reversed. with about 3,000 more officers on the job than retirees getting a pension, records show.

Lightfoot accuses Trump of starving Postal Service to drive down mail-in votes

SUN TIMES//Fran Spielman

“This is real, folks. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not a conspiracy theory,” the mayor said during a virtual roundtable on election integrity that helped kick off the Democratic National Convention.

“Vote by mail is the lane we need to run in” to avoid a “repeat of what we saw in primary after primary, where people literally risked their health just to cast a vote,” Lightfoot said.

“Because of the failure of this administration to keep Americans safe from COVID-19, we are wisely encouraging people to vote by mail. ... That’s why we cannot allow this administration to undermine the Postal Service in the way that it’s clearly trying to drive the Postal Service to its knees. Making mail service unreliable. Putting postal workers at risk by changing hours and stretching into the night. And failing to give the post office the resources it needs to fulfill its basic mission,” Lightfoot said.

What Democrats need to do to win the “most consequential election of our lifetime” with the “soul of democracy on the line” is to convince people that it is “safe to vote — not dangerous” because election integrity is “the highest priority,” the mayor said.

“They are drumming up a climate of anxiety that is driven by their desperation to hold onto power. You can see the Senate majority eroding and the Oval Office is slipping through their grasp. Their current efforts reflect their desperation and their fear. To them, this means de-funding the post office. This means closing polling places in neighborhoods, purging voter rolls and re-imposing thinly disguised poll taxes, disenfranchising voters released from incarceration,” she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has threatened to summon the House back to Washington to undo the Postal Service cuts she believes are driven by Trump’s disdain for mail-in voting and his efforts to cast doubts about the integrity of voting by mail.

During an interview Monday on “Fox & Friends,” Trump was asked if he’s “sabotaging” the Postal Service to pull the rug out from under mail-in voting.

“No, I’m just making it good,” he said.

“This has been one of the disasters of the world, the way it’s been run. It’s been run horribly. And we’re going to make it good.”

During Monday’s panel discussion, Lightfoot urged her fellow Democrats to take several steps to “learn the lessons of history.”

They include:

• Using “pressure points at the local level” to oppose postal cuts and support postal workers.

• Convince people their mailed-in votes will be counted.

• Keep polling places open and line up election judges and polls watchers to staff them.

• And get every vote counted as quickly as possible.

“If it’s days later and we still don’t know, that’s chaos that plays into the hands of Trump,” she said.

Asked what keeps her up at night when thinking about the November election, Lightfoot cited the “chaos and uncertainty” being created about “whether mail-in voting has integrity.” She called it a “horrible distraction.”

The mayor said Democrats need to “think creatively” about ways to ease voter fears, in part by making polling places accessible outside downtown. She discussed possibly putting locked boxes in dozens of branch libraries where people can return their ballots if they’re concerned about dropping them in the mail.

And what can rank-and-file Democrats do to guarantee an honest election?

“Be a validator for true information. Spread the word on where and how people can vote. If a groundswell turns around the misinformation campaign sowing concern and fear about the integrity of the election process, it will do a lot to calm peoples’ nerves,” Lightfoot said.

Columbia College student charged with striking cop with skateboard at protest

SUN TIMES//David Struett and Madeline Kenney

Cook County Judge John Lyke Jr. said he didn’t think Jeremey Johnson should be released on his own recognizance due to the “violent nature” of the allegations and said the officer was lucky he only suffered scratches to his arm because he was wearing his helmet.

“Luckily for the officer... he was wearing a protective helmet. It could’ve been very tragic if he was not,” the judge said.

Johnson, 26, was among a group of protesters chanting face-to-face with roughly 15 officers when the crowd “became unruly and several protesters began to tussle with the officers,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.

One officer was pulled forward by someone in the crowd, at which point Johnson intentionally swung the skateboard over the officer’s head, striking him three times, Murphy said.

Officers watching real-time surveillance video of the incident, in the 200 block of South LaSalle Street, relayed Johnson’s movements and description to other officers on the street, who arrested him an hour and a half later, Murphy said. Johnson was allegedly still carrying the skateboard but had changed face masks.

Johnson was taken to a hospital for a headache, but was later released into police custody, Murphy said.

He was charged with aggravated battery of a peace officer.

Johnson, of Lake View, is a full-time employee of Second City and a student at Columbia College, his attorney said in court Monday.

Lyke recommended Johnson, who has no criminal history, be placed on electronic monitoring if he is able to post bond. While he will be able to leave his residence for school and work, Lyke told Johnson he cannot skateboard or have a skateboard in his possession while he awaits trial.

The violent outbreak at Saturday’s protest has been a point of contention between activists and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who blamed “embedded” agitators for sparking the unrest. Protest organizers accused police of responding too forcefully and striking peaceful protesters who were demonstrating to defund the police and abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said officers responded “proportionally” to “protect the peaceful protesters.”

On Sunday, a group of about 50 people waited outside the Wentworth District police station, calling for the release of arrested protesters, including 24-year-old Shaundric Mann who allegedly injured a police officer and a sergeant while trying to get away from officers.

Mann was among a group of protesters trying to break through a line of police officers who set up their bicycles in an attempt to block off access to Marble Place near 121 S. La Salle St. around 7:16 p.m. Saturday, Murphy said. Multiple officers tried to put Mann in custody, but he allegedly broke away on several occasions, hurting the two law enforcement officials in the process.

Mann, a carrier for FedEx, was ordered held on $5,000 bail for two counts of resisting arrest.

Johnson and Mann are expected back in court on Aug 24.

4 Chicago Restaurants, Nightclub Shut Down for Violating COVID-19 Restrictions

WTTW//Heather Cherone

City officials shut down four restaurants and a nightclub for violating rules designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Monday.

Officials shut down Barba Yianni Greek Tavern, 4761 N. Lincoln Ave., after issuing two citations for having more than 80 people inside the Lincoln Square restaurant, operating after midnight, social distancing violations and no face coverings, according to a statement from the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Officials shut down Juanita’s Restaurant #2, 6539-41 W. 63rd St., after issuing two citations for having more than 70 people in the Clearing eatery, operating after midnight, social distancing violations and no face coverings, officials said.

Officials shut down Retro Café, 3246-48 N. Central Ave., after issuing two citations for operating after midnight, social distancing violations and no face coverings, officials said.

Officials shut down Estrella Blanca Nightclub, 3049 N. Cicero Ave., after issuing two citations for allowing patrons to consume alcohol indoors without a retail food license and no face coverings, officials said.

Officials shut down Second Time Around, 8301-03 W. Irving Park after issuing two citations for operating after midnight.

City inspectors conducted 101 investigations and issued 14 citations to seven businesses for violating the city’s rules, officials said.

A task force formed by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection conducted 38 investigations into large gatherings and parties this weekend, including eight at residential locations, officials said.

City officials declined to name the businesses that were cited. Each citation comes with a $10,000 fine, according to city ordinance.

Bars, taverns, breweries and other establishments that don’t have a retail food license permitting them to serve food were blocked on July 24 from serving customers indoors as Mayor Lori Lightfoot and health officials work to stamp out an increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city.

An average of 304 Chicagoans have been diagnosed each day with the coronavirus during the past week, a 3% decrease from the previous week, according to Chicago Department of Public Health data. The city’s average test positivity rate is 5%, according to the data.

City budget, transportation officials to face City Council grilling on infrastructure spending

DAILY LINE//Alex Nitkin

Leaders of the city’s Office of Budget and Management; Department of Assets, Information and Services; Department of Transportation and Department of Water Management are scheduled to take part in a virtual subject matter hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday by the City Council Committee on Economic, Capital Technology Development.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36), who chairs the committee, told The Daily Line earlier this month that he planned the meeting to give aldermen an under-the-hood look into the city’s processes for deciding which projects get tackled first. He said he wants to catalog the city’s most pressing infrastructure needs to develop long-range plans and, when the time comes, send a wish list to appropriators in Springfield and Washington, D.C.

The city’s most recent capital improvement program, approved last year, mapped out $8.5 billion in planned capital spending through 2023. The 178-page document calls to spend $3 billion on sewer and water projects, $1.2 billion on streetscape infrastructure and $2.6 billion on airport projects during the five-year period.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has created a historic budget crunch this year, Chicago’s infrastructure funds do not face the same kind of threat as programs fueled by sales and service taxes, which have plummeted this year.

Almost 45 percent of Chicago’s 2020 infrastructure spending is fueled by water and sewer revenue bonds, which are backed by user fees. Another 16 percent come from general obligation bonds held up by property tax revenue, and 24 percent comes from state and federal grants.

Tax-increment financing (TIF) was budgeted to cover about 13 percent of the city’s capital spending this year. City budgeting officials are likely to face questions Tuesday over the city’s controversial use of TIF districts, which scoop local property tax revenues into special funds set aside for infrastructure spending. The city is on track to rake in a record-shattering $926 million in TIF funds this year, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough announced this month.

Aldermen are also expected to grill transportation officials on their accounting of “menu” funds, the approximately $1.3 million in discretionary annual funds aldermen are given each year to spend on infrastructure projects in their own wards. Menu funds accounted for about 6 percent of the city’s total infrastructure spending budgeted for 2020.

Villegas said he plans to ask why menu allocations have not increased during the past several years to keep up with rising labor and material costs.

“ In the scope of things, [$1.3 million] is really not a lot of money,” Villegas said, adding that the ward-level funding stream is only wide enough to repave a tiny fraction of the streets in his ward each year.

The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony from policy researchers like Audrey Wennink, transportation planning director for the nonprofit Metropolitan Planning Council, calling for a more transparent accounting of how the city’s transportation department prioritizes spending.

“I don't think it's clear how the process works now,” Wennink told The Daily Line Monday. “How do projects…get selected? When they’re making trade-offs, how do we know they’re delivering the largest amount of public benefits?”

Villegas also said he wanted an accounting of the “levers” of state and federal funding sources the city could pull to maximize its infrastructure spending.

Springfield accounts for about 10 percent of the revenue Chicago budgeted to fund infrastructure projects in 2020. State leaders shored up the funding stream last year by passing a $45 billion, six-year capital bill — but that plan relied on fuel tax revenue, which has plummeted this year.

Federal grants provide about 14 percent of the city’s infrastructure funding budgeted for 2020. However, city leaders are hoping to benefit from a gush of federal infrastructure dollars if Democrats control the White House and both houses of Congress next year.

“We need to prepare ourselves locally so if is an infrastructure plan is discussed at the federal level, we can have a list of ideas and plans for what we want to propose to our Congressional delegation,” Villegas said earlier this month.

What is ‘kettling’? It’s a controversial tactic to contain crowds, and Chicago police are accused of using it during downtown protests.

TRIBUNE//Katherine Rosenberg Douglas

The tactic usually involves lines of police officers corralling a group of people, who are either contained in a small area or are allowed to leave through an exit controlled by police. Some call it “trap and detain.” Others say it is dangerous and unconstitutional and should be outlawed.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown denied his officers resorted to the practice as they struggled to control demonstrators during a protest Saturday night that injured at least 17 officers and led to at least two dozen arrests.

“I haven’t heard those allegations that there was kettling going on,” Brown said, a day after organizers specifically used the term to describe police tactics.

Berto Aguayo, 26, executive director for Increase the Peace, said he was at the protest and it was clear what officers were doing. “They were surrounding us and making the circle smaller and smaller and not letting — even though people wanted to leave the protest, they weren’t letting us go home.

“We get to Adams and LaSalle and we’re kettled in,” he said. “There’s no way out and people are having panic attacks because they want to go home.”

Protesters across the country have repeatedly accused police of using the tactic during the marches and demonstrations sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the end of May.

Basically, the tactic involves herding demonstrators into a confined space so they can’t leave. Officers can then make arrests or slowly break up the crowd. If there have been violent clashes, supporters of the tactic say, kettling helps police control a space and detain those causing the trouble.

But critics say the situation can become dangerous if police use force and there is no way for people to escape. “Kettling is potentially dangerous and raises serious constitutional concerns,” said Rebecca Glenberg with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

“For example, during protests against the Iraq War in 2003, police trapped hundreds of protesters on a block of Chicago Avenue east of Michigan Avenue, then arrested them for failing to disperse, even though most of them had not heard the order and could not disperse anyway because they were trapped between police lines,” Glenberg said.

A federal court held that the arrests were unconstitutional, and the city of Chicago settled the case for $6.2 million.

A similar lawsuit was filed last fall in St. Louis on behalf of scores of protesters who said they were forced into a “kettle” during a downtown demonstration.

“It can certainly be just a horrifying experience,” said Noam Ostrander, a professor at DePaul University who has studied violence in Chicago. “In popular culture you could use a ‘Game of Thrones’ example. It is very much a war-type tactic, surrounding your enemy and pushing in.

“It really does create this pressure cooker,” he said. “You have a lot of people that get confined to a small space, you have people charging towards you, batons flying and ramming bikes into people and shields into people.”

Ostrander said the practice is “constitutionally questionable.”

“People are being detained without being told they’re being detained,” he said. “It does sweep up everybody indiscriminately and there’s a concern about violating the First Amendment.”

Kettling can also backfire, according to David Stovall, a professor of Black studies, criminology, law and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“I always see the strategy as problematic,” he said. “It’s based around the preemptive suppression of a violent threat. The belief is, oftentimes, that if you show force then people won’t respond as vehemently, and actually what we’ve seen is that that’s not the case.

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“When law enforcement escalates, there’s a greater chance of escalation,” he said.

On Sunday, United Working Families, a frequent critic of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, posted an open letter to Brown and the mayor, insisting that kettling took place.

“We once again condemn Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown for their use of police force against these demonstrators Saturday night, and for the continued escalation of surveillance, violence and detention of protesters,” the letter said. “Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown stationed thousands of officers downtown, where they kettled, pepper-sprayed, and beat demonstrators.”

The Chicago Police Department declined to comment on the letter or expand on Brown’s denial earlier Monday.

Chicago closes 5 more restaurants and bars for COVID-19 guideline violations

TRIBUNE//Grace Wong

Barba Yianni (4761 N. Lincoln Ave.) was closed and issued two citations for having more than 80 people inside, operating after midnight, and violating social distancing and face covering guidelines;

Juanita’s Restaurant #2 (6539-6541 W. 63rd St.) was closed and issued two citations for having more than 70 people inside, operating after midnight, and violating social distancing and masking guidelines;

Retro Cafe and Restaurant (3246 N. Central Ave.) was closed and issued two citations for operating after midnight and violating social distancing and masking guidelines;

La Estrella Blanca Nightclub (3049 N. Cicero Ave.) was closed and issued two citations for allowing guests to drink alcohol inside without a retail food license and for violating masking guidelines;

And Second Time Around (8303 W. Irving Park Road) was closed and issued two citations for operating after midnight.

All of the businesses were closed for one night.

“While the vast majority of Chicago’s businesses are doing an incredible job following the guidelines and keeping their customers and employees safe, BACP continues to take strong enforcement action when necessary, including to prevent unsafe events, gatherings and parties,” read a BACP news release.

The task force aimed at preventing large, commercial gatherings and conducted 38 investigations over the weekend, including eight at residential locations. The task force was a collaboration between the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department and the Police Department. Overall, BACP conducted 101 investigations and issued 14 citations to seven businesses. Since June 3, BACP has conducted 1,239 investigations and issued 76 citations.

Report finds ‘abuses of discretion’ but no criminal wrongdoing in Kim Foxx handling of Jussie Smollett case

TRIBUNE//Megan Crepeau and Jason Meisner

A news release Monday summarizing an investigation led by special prosecutor Dan Webb indicated that while no criminal charges were warranted against anyone in State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office, his team would be reporting potential violations of legal ethics over the handling of the Smollett investigation to Illinois’ attorney disciplinary board. Some false statements in the Smollett matter were made by Foxx herself, Webb found.

There was little new information in Monday’s statement for anyone paying close attention to Smollett’s twisting legal saga, which drew international scrutiny after he was charged in February 2019 with staging a phony hate crime on himself. The media firestorm only escalated after prosecutors abruptly dropped all 16 felony counts in a last-minute hearing about a month after he was charged.

In fact, despite conducting dozens of interviews and seating a special grand jury to subpoena records and hear evidence, Webb apparently could not shine any light on a question that has gone unanswered for more than a year: How, exactly, did prosecutors reach the deal to drop Smollett’s first case?

Webb’s full report was not made public Monday because it contains grand jury materials that cannot be released without a court order. Webb stated in the news release that his team will be asking Cook County Judge Michael Toomin for permission to release the 60-page final report in full.

Smollett’s lead attorney, celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, blasted the summary as politically motivated and timed to undermine Foxx, who is running for reelection.

“It’s a blatant attempt to take down a Black, progressive, female prosecutor who does not fit within the white power structure,” he wrote, saying Smollett maintains his innocence and is being “used as a pawn.”

According to the summary, Webb’s investigators essentially alleged that in dropping the case, Foxx’s office operated in a gray area — committing “substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” that were compounded by their subsequent false and contradictory public statements.

Even in interviews with his team, Webb noted, Foxx’s prosecutors gave “significantly and meaningfully divergent explanations for how the resolution was reached.” They gave conflicting answers about who negotiated the terms, how the terms were constructed and whether Smollett was offered a chance to participate in a formal deferred prosecution program, according to the report.

Current and former prosecutors — including Foxx herself — uniformly told Webb’s investigators that they were “surprised” or “shocked” by “at least some facet of the dismissal terms,” according to the report.

In a statement Monday, Foxx’s office hailed the Webb report for clearing them of criminal wrongdoing and insider deals, but rejected accusations that they abused their discretion, and said “any implication that statements made by the CCSAO were deliberately inaccurate is untrue.”

While the report stops short of accusing Foxx or her employees of lying, Webb’s team repeatedly stated that she and her office “breached (their) obligations of honesty and transparency.”

Smollett’s charges were dropped in exchange for the forfeiting of his $10,000 bail and the performing of 15 hours of community service “that had no relationship to the charged conduct,” Webb stated in Monday’s news release.

There was no requirement that he plead or admit guilt. And at the hearing, which was scheduled at the last minute without notice to the public, Assistant State’s Attorney Risa Lanier read a statement that had been drafted in conjunction with Smollett’s attorneys, the report notes.

Prosecutors did not learn of any new evidence that would have weakened the case between Smollett’s indictment and their dismissal of charges, according to Webb’s team.

And in the media blitz that followed the dismissal, Webb found, Cook County prosecutors repeatedly misled reporters and gave false statements about the circumstances of the dismissal.

Despite telling the public that thousands of previous cases had ended similarly, all those cases involved formal diversion programs, in which defendants need to meet specific criteria for a period of time before the charges are dropped. Smollett’s case, by contrast, was an outright dismissal. And county prosecutors could not identify any specific similar cases upon questioning from Webb’s team, the report stated.

In addition, Foxx herself made other false statements, according to Webb: that $10,000 was the biggest penalty Smollett could have paid by law, and that he had no criminal background. Smollett has a minor criminal record from California, where in 2007 he was convicted of misdemeanor DUI, making false statements to police and driving without a license.

And after prosecutors told reporters repeatedly that they had a strong case against Smollett, Foxx wrote a Tribune op-ed in which she “falsely represented” that prosecutors thought the likelihood of conviction was uncertain.

The murkiness around Foxx’s recusal from the case opened up more confusion and false statements, according to Webb’s team. She withdrew from overseeing the prosecution in its early stages, revealing she’d had contact with a member of Smollett’s family early in the investigation at the request of Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff.

Webb’s news release identifies the family member as actress Jurnee Smollett, Smollett’s sister.

Foxx previously stated that she stopped communicating with Smollett after it became clear Jussie Smollett was a suspect, and not simply a victim. But according to Webb’s report, she continued texting and calling Smollett’s sister for at least five days after she knew Smollett had become a suspect, according to the report.

And after Foxx withdrew from the case and put First Assistant Joseph Magats in charge, it became clear that the recusal was “legally defective in a major way,” according to the Webb team.

The Tribune has previously reported that the day after Foxx’s recusal was made public, an assistant state’s attorney wrote a legal memo outlining why her actions were against legal precedent, and she could not just name her successor.

But “instead of implementing the proper legal course … the CCSAO and State’s Attorney Foxx made the decision to ignore this major legal defect seemingly because they did not want to admit they had made such a major mistake in judgment,” Webb found.

And Foxx went on to make false statements that she did not know about the legal flaws in her recusal, the report states.

A spokesman for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission would not confirm or deny any investigations, since such proceedings are confidential. Any allegations before the commission would only be made public if ARDC administrators choose to file disciplinary charges when an investigation is complete.

While Webb concluded that significant errors were made, his report absolved Foxx’s office of perhaps the most sensational allegations lobbed in the case: That Foxx had been swayed by conversations with members of Smollett’s family and a politically connected lawyer.

The investigation focused on three figures: Smollett; NAACP Legal Defense President Sherrilyn Ifill; and Tchen.

Foxx said she recused herself after revealing she had contact with Tchen, who requested that she contact Smollett about concerns about leaks in the Smollett investigation.

Webb found no evidence indicating that Foxx’s talks with those three women influenced the way Smollett’s charges were handled; and Foxx did not have any “substantive” communications with them after Smollett was charged, the news release states.

Webb said he also found that while there had been leaks to the media about the police’s initial investigation of the Smollett manner, they could not determine who may have leaked the information and could not find any evidence to support criminal charges or wrongdoing by the Chicago Police Department in their response to the leaks.

Foxx’s recusal was at the center of Webb’s appointment as special prosecutor. Judge Toomin wrote last year that Foxx botched the decision by handing the reins to her top deputy. Because the recusal was invalid, the entire process played out without a real prosecutor at the helm, he wrote. The decision opened the door for a special prosecutor to investigate the conduct of officials who handled the case the first time around, and determine whether Smollett should be prosecuted a second time.

After Webb’s appointment last year, his special Cook County grand jury indicted Smollett in February on six counts of disorderly conduct.

Accused looters and protesters appear in court following consecutive weekends of trouble

TRIBUNE//William Lee

During the afternoon call at the Leighton Criminal Court Building broadcast on Youtube, Judge John F. Lyke Jr. saw nine defendants.

The consecutive weekends of trouble again put Chicago in the national spotlight as the country continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and citizens angry over the police-involved death of George Floyd.

The looting at some of downtown’s most upscale retailers on the Mag Mile last week appeared connected to a social media campaign, though city officials originally speculated that it was connected to a police-involved shooting in Englewood.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters had gathered in Millennium Park in what began as a call to defund Chicago police and divert the money to social service programs aimed at helping the poor and mentally ill. By the end, activists and police both accused the other of dirty tactics.

Two men faced charges connected to the protests, including a 25-year-old who prosecutors said was captured on video hitting a helmeted police officer in the head with his skateboard three times on Saturday afternoon.

An attorney for Jeremey Johnson, of Lakeview, who faces aggravated battery to a police officer charges, said his client was a student at Columbia College who worked full time at Second City.

Lyke called the incident unprovoked and violent but released Johnson on $20,000 bail and electronic monitoring. Lyke also allowed Johnson to work leading up to trial but barred him from having a skateboard during the same period.

Police also charged activist Shaundric Mann, 24, with felony resisting a police officer, saying he was among a group of demonstrators who forced their way past a line of bicycle officers who had set up a perimeter in the Loop. Prosecutors said Johnson then pulled away from officers trying to arrest him and that he struck a sergeant while waving his arms to evade arrest.

Following his arrest, other young activists kept vigil outside the Wentworth police district Sunday, demanding he be released without charges, but police announced felony charges later in the day.

Mann, who is a FedEx carrier, according to his attorney, was released on $5,000 bail and ordered to return to court later this month.

Authorities also charged seven people tied to looting the previous week, including three people accused of looting a River North Walgreens on Aug. 10, but who were initially charged with misdemeanors and released on personal recognizance bails. The felony charges against the trio, Kendra Mosby, 24, Crystal Williams, 33, and Corey Sanders, 28, are the first sign that authorities could go after dozens of people picked up for looting but released without charges or given misdemeanors.

Chicago police have bolstered efforts in tracking down looters who poured into downtown and smashed their way into upscale retailers, creating a looting task force and publicly releasing videos of the thieves.

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One case appeared easy for the task force to solve: They tracked down Taeshia Rochon, 22, who prosecutors said livestreamed her thefts from Nordstrom Michigan Avenue and a designer sunglasses shop, posting both to Facebook and Youtube.

Rochon’s name was given to the looting task force by an anonymous tip, authorities said.

In another case, a 25-year-old food delivery driver tried to sell stolen designer sunglasses on Facebook Marketplace under the name “Legit Hustle,” according to prosecutors.

Police also arrested a couple in their 20s who they said tried to sell looted items, such as a $200 Hermès bracelet and a $1,600 Valentino purse, on a classified advertising website.

After push to change the name of Douglas Park, Chicago Park District considers new rules and new names for 3 other parks

TRIBUNE//Morgan Greene

The process to rename three Chicago parks kicked off last week, along with changes to renaming rules that follow the unprecedented step to change the title of Douglas Park.

The Chicago Park District voted Wednesday to begin the process of updating its park naming procedures. Under the new rules, renaming would be split into two parts, with a name removal period and then a separate period to choose a new name.

The public will be able to weigh in on the proposed amendment over a 45-day period, and then the board will give final approval.

The action follows an ongoing push to rename Douglas Park after the celebrated abolitionist Frederick Douglass, rather than Stephen A. Douglas — a U.S. senator from Illinois who in the mid-1800s advocated that voters should decide the legality of slavery rather than abolish it and also profited from his wife’s ownership of a Mississippi slave plantation.

The Chicago Park District took the step toward changing the park’s name last month. For years, the Park District has renamed parks that go by numbers or trees, and has faced pushback over some name changes, but there was no precedent for swapping out a historical figure.

The Douglas Park news followed protests at the since-removed Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park and comes at a time when attention is focused on the legacies of those with monuments and symbols named in their honor.

Students at Village Leadership Academy spent years campaigning for the name change of the West Side park. At Wednesday’s meeting, teacher Bianca Jones said after “feeling left out and ignored by the board of commissioners,” the group would like to see the renaming include the name of Anna-Murray Douglass, Frederick’s wife.

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“Adding the name of a Black woman who was an abolitionist in her own right to our city landscape would allow the Park District to be ahead of the curve in this moment of reckoning,” Jones said.

That proposal was formally submitted and is being considered, according to the Park District. Once the public comment period comes to a close, and without any delays, the renaming will go before the board for approval in October.

The other parks likely to be renamed include Park 543, which would be called Printers Row Park, and Park 568, updated to West Ridge Nature Preserve — both changes that reflect the parks’ locations.

Additionally, the Park District voted to initiate the process to rename Catalpa Park in the Archer Heights neighborhood after Chester Frank Kujawa, a former resident of the Southwest Side neighborhood and a decorated World War II veteran. The proposal is backed by Ald. Edward Burke.

Kujawa was born on the South Side on May 15, 1924, Heather Gleason, the Park District’s director of planning and construction, said at last week’s meeting. He was among those who landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945 with the 5th Marine Division, C Company, 2nd Platoon. Kujawa, then 20, was one of four survivors of his company, Gleason said. He fought for 36 days with fellow Marines until the Japanese surrendered.

Kujawa died Dec. 12, 2016, and in September 2019, the City Council passed a resolution to honor him and his division, and requested the Park District rename Catalpa Park as Chester Frank Kujawa Park.

21 shot, 2 killed Monday in Chicago

SUN TIMES//Staff

Twenty-one people were shot, two of them fatally, Monday in Chicago — the second straight day that more than 20 people were shot across the city.

The day’s latest fatal attack left one 18-year-old man dead and another injured in Austin on the West Side.

The men were outside about 11:45 p.m. in the 1700 block of North Luna Avenue when multiple people got out of a white sedan and fired shots at them, Chicago police said.

One of the 18-year-olds was shot in the back and taken to the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died, police said. The other man brought himself to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park with a gunshot wound to the foot. He was in good condition.

Early Monday, a man was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in Little Village on the Southwest Side.

They were on the sidewalk about 12:50 a.m. in the 2400 block of South Trumbull Avenue when someone in a black sedan fired shots, Chicago police said.

Kevin Garcia, 29, was shot in the chest and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

A 20-year-old man was hit in the abdomen and a 27-year-old man was struck in the leg, police said. Both were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition.

Five minors were among those wounded in shootings across the city.

A 13-year-old boy was critically injured after being shot Monday night in Lawndale on the West Side.

He was in a vehicle with two other people about 9 p.m. in the 1500 block of South Kedvale Avenue when shots rang out, Chicago police said. The boy was shot in the chest and dropped off at a nearby fire station, then taken to Stroger Hospital.

Earlier in the evening, two teenagers were shot in Bronzeville on the South Side.

The 14-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl were on the sidewalk about 7:20 p.m. in the 500 block of East 42nd Street when someone in a vehicle fired shots, Chicago police said.

The boy was struck in the head and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said. The girl was hit in the leg and foot, and she was in good condition at Mercy Hospital.

A 9-year-old boy was grazed in a shooting Monday afternoon in Chatham on the South Side.

He was riding in a vehicle about 2:06 p.m. in the first block of West 87th Street when someone fired shots at the vehicle, Chicago police said. The boy was grazed near his ear and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in an unknown condition.

Monday morning, a 15-year-old boy was injured in a shooting in South Shore.

Officers responding to reports of shots fired at 3:14 a.m. in the 7300 block of South South Shore Drive found the 15-year-old on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to his right shoulder, Chicago police said. He was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition.

In other non-fatal attacks, three people were wounded after being shot in East Garfield Park on the West Side.

A 26-year-old man, a 22-year-old woman and an 18-year-old woman were in a vehicle about 1:45 a.m. in the 3900 block of West Ferdinand Street when a gray sedan pulled up, Chicago police said.

Four males got out of the car and unleashed gunfire, police said. The man and 18-year-old woman were each struck in the shoulder. The other woman was hit in the leg.

They were all taken to Stroger Hospital, police said. The man was in critical condition, and the women were in good condition.

The day’s first reported shooting left three more people injured in Homan Square on the West Side.

Two men, both 23, were sitting on the steps of a building at 12:13 a.m. in the 3600 block of West Polk Street when four males approached and opened fire, according to Chicago police.

One man was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. The other was hit in the left ankle and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition.

A 25-year-old woman nearby was also shot in the foot, police said. She went to Mount Sinai Hospital on her own in fair condition.

Five more people were hurt Monday in shootings across Chicago.

The day’s shootings follow a violent weekend in the city in which 64 people were shot, five of them fatally. Twenty-nine of those people were shot on Sunday alone.

CFD academy suspends operations after multiple COVID-19 cases reported

SUN TIMES//Carly Behm

The Chicago Fire Department is suspending training at the Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy after multiple people tested positive for COVID-19.

Current recruits will continue training online as the facility is cleaned and disinfected, fire officials said in a statement.

Fire officials didn’t say how many people tested positive, but none of the cases required hospitalization. Everyone who has tested positive is self-isolating at home.

Cleaning would take about a week, but fire officials didn’t have an exact estimate of how long the facility would be closed.

“The health and safety of Chicago’s firefighters, paramedics and recruits are our utmost priority,” CFD spokesman Larry Langford said in a statement.

MICHELLE PACKS A PUNCH — MOSELEY BRAUN TO DELIVER STATE VOTES — ‘FAILURES’ IN SMOLLETT CASE

POLITICO//Shia Kapos

Happy Tuesday, Illinois. There's a different kind of exhaustion from zooming in to the convention.

Michelle Obama made her case for Joe Biden in a powerful speech that touched on the presumptive Democratic nominee’s experience and empathy while excoriating the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustices, and the president's own lack of basic decency.

“Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” Obama said in her keynote address during the first day of the unconventional Democratic National Convention. CNN has a transcript. And you can find video of the 18-minute speech here.

Wearing a necklace spelling "V-O-T-E,” the former first lady from Chicago's South Side urged Americans to cast a ballot, via mail or in person — "pack a brown bag dinner" if you expect a long line — for Biden “like our lives depend on it.”

Throughout the two-hour convention night, Covid-19 loomed large. The pageantry, cheers, and confetti that buoyed keynoters in conventions past were replaced with controlled speeches from home, one even from the kitchen.

Actress Eva Longoria moderated all the speeches, discussions and music videos that sometimes moved awkwardly from somber and sentimental, to entertaining and uplifting. It included a "in memoriam" tribute with the faces of people who died of the coronavirus and a woman who spoke of her late father saying "his only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump." Then, not too much later, as a string of former presidential contenders made their case for Biden, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar mentioned how Trump once got upset that his cameo in "Home Alone 2" got cut from the Canadian release of the film. "Who does that?!" she said. We're not saying she wasn't funny but this event tried to cover a lot of bases.

What are the odds that next week's Republican convention will put any emphasis the pandemic, a global crisis the president keeps hoping will "go away"?

Delegates and other political players watching from afar expressed some frustration that they couldn’t experience the convention in person.

Anna Caprara, the chief of staff to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, tweeted: “I set up a buffet in my living room with bad appetizers, am sitting in my most uncomfortable chair and told my neighbors when they went out to walk the dog that we can’t accommodate anyone else in the suite just to get the real feel of the convention.”

POLITICO’s Ryan Lizza describes the first hour and forty-five minutes leading up to Obama “like the dry text of a Surgeon General’s warning.” Then she appeared with “a riveting speech the equivalent of scaring you straight with one of those grisly pictures of cancerous lungs decimated by tar and smoke.”

Chicago represents: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined Joe Biden in a pre-taped Q&A. They and four other elected pols and civic leaders talked about how to tackle systemic racism. Lightfoot pressed for the need for economic opportunity in struggling communities, a platform she’s pushed in Chicago. “If people are lifted out of poverty and they are given an opportunity to feel a stake in their own future, that goes a long way,” the mayor said. Earlier Monday, Lightfoot participated in a roundtable discussion, where she took President Donald Trump to task, saying: “Every day the importance of this fall’s election grows and grows, and every day, unfortunately, we see increasing evidence that this administration is mounting a full-out assault on every pillar of our democracy, including the integrity of our elections...This is real, folks. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s not a conspiracy theory.” Tribune has more on that event.

— CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, the nation's first Black female senator, will deliver Illinois' votes in roll call: “Moseley Braun, who was also the first female senator to be elected from Illinois, will cast the Illinois votes during the Tuesday roll call in a pre-recorded segment at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, a source told the Chicago Sun-Times,” by Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet.

— POLITICO's recap of Day 1 at the Democratic Convention

— Yoga pants, Trump wine and Zoom talent shows: “What does a virtual convention look like? We asked delegates to show us,” by POLITICO’s Catherine Kim

— Watch POLITICO Live coverage today:

At 9 a.m. ET Playbook co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman host “Plug in with Playbook,” which includes interviews with DNC Chairman Tom Perez and Joe Solmonese, CEO of the 2020 Democratic Convention. Senior Politics Editor Charlie Mahtesian and Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta will provide deep-dive analysis into Michigan. And Senior Campaign and Elections Editor Steven Shepard and National Political Reporter Elena Schneider interview top Dem pollster John Anzalone.

At 1:30 p.m. ET Jake and Anna interview House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

At 8:30 p.m. ET "Four Square" show host and video journalist Eugene Daniels pre-games the DNC speeches and breaks down the day’s developments with Chief Political Correspondent Tim Alberta, Chief Washington Correspondent Ryan Lizza and National Political Reporter Laura Barrón-López.

THE BUZZ

SMOLLETT FALLOUT: ‘Substantial abuses of discretion’ but no evidence to support criminal charges: “Special Prosecutor Dan Webb Special Prosecutor Dan Webb laid out a series of 'operational failures' — and several false statements by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx — as he announced on Monday the end of his investigation into the handling of hate crime claims by actor Jussie Smollett... But Webb also said he did not find evidence that the case was improperly influenced by third parties such as Tina Tchen, the onetime chief of staff to former first lady Michelle Obama, nor did he find evidence that would support criminal charges,” by Sun-Times’ Jon Seidel.

... Dan Webb’s report ensures Kim Foxx has re-election running mate — Jussie Smollett, writes Sun-Times’ Rachel Hinton

Thank you for subscribing to Illinois Playbook. Your opinions matter. Email skapos@politico.com

HAPPENING TODAY AT 1:30 p.m. EDT – A SPECIAL CONVENTION PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI SPONSORED BY AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS: A global pandemic. An economic crisis. Stalled negotiations on the latest Covid relief package. And a historic election amidst it all. Join POLITICO Playbook Co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman as the 2020 Democratic National Convention kicks off for a virtual interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get a behind-the-scenes look at what is happening on and off the stage. REGISTER HERE.

WHERE'S LORI

No official public events.

WHERE'S J.B.

No official public events.

WHERE'S TONI

On vacation and back to work Aug. 24.

THE LATEST NUMBERS

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 12 additional deaths to the coronavirus on Monday and 1,773 new confirmed cases. That’s a total of 7,756 deaths and 207,854 cases in Illinois. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from Aug. 10 through Aug. 16 is 4.2 percent. Chicago’s positivity rate is 5.0 percent.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

— Illinois did it right. To get people to wear masks, try comparing them to seatbelts and helmets: “A new survey looks at what the government can do to influence mask-wearing. Only one message had any positive effect,” writes Bloomberg.

— 50 lives in 4 ZIP codes: “WBEZ spoke with the relatives of 50 Chicago Covid-19 victims to understand the systemic conditions behind the pandemic’s disproportionate impact,” by WBEZ’s Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, Natalie Moore and María Inés Zamudio.

— Chicago closes 5 more restaurants and bars for Covid-19 guideline violations: “Barba Yianni (4761 N. Lincoln Ave.) was closed and issued two citations for having more than 80 people inside, operating after midnight, and violating social distancing and face covering guidelines,” reports Tribune’s Grace Wong.

— Catholic schools open in the Chicago area amid teacher concerns about Covid-19: “The Archdiocese of Chicago has a lot of incentive to open up their schools. For years, many Catholic schools have closed due to enrollment declines. The Covid-19 crisis is exacerbating the financial challenges,” writes WBEZ’s Adriana Cardona Maguigad.

SPOTLIGHT

— Postal Service warns last-minute Illinois ballot requests may not be turned around fast enough to be counted: “Election authorities said the timing issue is not new and that voters who want a mail-in ballot have always been urged not to wait until the final days before an election to make their request,” by Tribune’s Rick Pearson.

— House to vote on $25B infusion for Postal Service amid Trump attacks, “Democrats are mounting a strong defense of the USPS,” by POLITICO’s Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris and Marianne Levine.

— After attacks on mail-in voting, Trump says he’s pushing to ‘speed up’ Postal Service: “Congressional Democrats have reached new levels of outrage over the president’s treatment of the cash-strapped federal agency,” by POLITICO’s Quint Forgey.

— Voters sue Postal Service and Trump over changes ahead of election: “The four voters claim the agency’s actions undermine the democratic process,” by POLITICO’s Matthew Choi and Daniel Lippman.

— High-profile protest: Sen. Dick Durbin and Reps. Chuy García (IL-04), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Sean Casten (IL-06), Danny Davis (IL-07), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Brad Schneider (IL-10), and Bill Foster (IL-11), are scheduled to visit to the U.S. Postal Service' Chicago headquarters in the Loop this morning to protest President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the agency. Rep. Lauren Underwood (IL-14) is set to hold a similar press conference later in Front of the Aurora Post Office along with Casten and Foster. During a Zoom gathering Monday, Durbin and Garcia joined labor officials to celebrate front-line workers — including those at the U.S. Postal Service. “America’s message to Donald Trump is very simple: Keep your hands out of our mailboxes,” Durbin said. “We believe the Postal Service does a great job and needs our support. They don’t need to be sabotaged in the name of political victory for Donald Trump.”

INTRODUCING POLITICO MINUTES: An unprecedented campaign season demands an unconventional approach to news coverage. POLITICO Minutes is a new, interactive content experience that reveals the top takeaways you need to know in an easy-to-digest, swipeable format delivered straight to your inbox. Get a breakdown of what's been learned so far, why it matters, and what to watch for going forward. Sign up for POLITICO Minutes, launching at the 2020 Conventions.

CHICAGO

— Chicago cops are retiring at ‘unheard of’ rates: “Michael Lappe, vice president of the police pension fund, says 59 officers are retiring in August and 51 next month — ‘double the average number of retirees each month,’” by Sun-Times’ Frank Main and Fran Spielman.

— Police accused of using controversial tactic called ‘kettling:’ “The tactic usually involves lines of police officers corralling a group of people, who are either contained in a small area or are allowed to leave through an exit controlled by police. Some call it “trap and detain.” Others say it is dangerous and unconstitutional and should be outlawed,” by Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas.

— Dangerous swimming conditions expected today at Lake Michigan beaches: “Waves along the lakefront could reach heights of up to six feet, the National Weather Service said. Strong currents could also make swimming in the lake a dangerous prospect,” by Sun-Times’ Sam Kelly.

— Bears announce they currently are not planning to have fans at games at Soldier Field this season: "After discussing a plan with Chicago health officials, the Bears and the city agreed that health data showed it is not safe to host fans at games as of now. The Bears will put a plan in place ‘once it is deemed safe and appropriate,’ according to the statement,” reports Tribune’s Colleen Kane.

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES

Legal move delays ComEd’s first installment of $200M corruption fine: “The delay came after a Chicago lawyer argued ComEd — which is supposed to pay the fine to the U.S. treasury — should instead pay back electricity-delivery customers who were victims of the power company’s long-running Springfield bribery scheme,” by WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopoulos.

TAKING NAMES

SCOOP: Charges have been dropped against state Rep. Curtis Tarver II in an incident last year in which he was charged for having a handgun without a valid concealed carry license. Officers had pulled the South Side Democrat over for a broken headlight and then alleged Tarver didn’t have the proper license on hand. At the time, Tarver said a clerical error had occurred when he renewed his Firearms Owner Identification card. “I am grateful the correct decision was made to dismiss all charges against me,” Tarver told Playbook on Monday. “l look forward to making the full story of my treatment by the Chicago Police Department public.”

COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS

Ex-DuPage sheriff’s deputy wants job back after firing for punching restrained inmate: “Luis Elizarraraz admitted he struck the inmate last summer, but the former deputy maintained it was in self-defense, according to public documents obtained through an open records request,” by Tribune’s Kristy Gutowski.

DAY IN COURT

Judge tosses another Carter Page suit against DNC over dossier: “The dismissal comes despite a watchdog's finding that law enforcement officials did not follow correct procedure in surveilling the former Trump campaign volunteer,” by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein.

THE STATEWIDES

— New Covid-19 health restrictions for the Metro East: “The positivity rate for Region 4 has been rising for more than a week and passed a threshold of 8-percent over a three day span, while the statewide rate is around 4-percent. That triggered Illinois officials to act,” by NPR Illinois’ Sean Crawford.

— Low census response across Southern Illinois puts millions of federal dollars at risk: “As of Monday, only about 46 percent of Carbondale households had responded to the 2020 Census survey. The city estimates it loses about $1,600 for every person, per year that fails to respond — or $16,000 over a decade,” reports Southern Illinoisan’s Molly Parker.

— Schools begin a new year, many with remote learning and a different feel due to impact of coronavirus: “It’s a little awkward to try to get to know your classmates, so freshman year it’s going to be a lot more difficult than if we were in person... People just aren’t very comfortable talking on camera,” by Tribune’s Robert McCoppin, Kelli Smith and Karen Ann Cullotta.

HIGHER-ED

— Covid-19 testing at UIS begins in prep for fall classes: “Last week, 155 people were tested on the first day the saliva screen was available, according to a university spokesman,” by NPR Illinois’ Mary Hansen.

— No parties, roommate contracts and zoom study groups: U. of I. freshmen navigate new Covid-19 challenges: “College freshmen already had a rough end to high school. Many are nervous and uncertain how their first semester of college will unfold,” reports WBEZ’s Kate McGee.

— SIU students who don’t follow Covid-19 rules could face discipline under newly updated student conduct code: “The updates include requirements that students follow state and local mask mandates, social distancing requirements and any directive from a local health department to isolate or quarantine should they contract Covid-19 or be exposed to someone who has,” writes Southern Illinoisan’s Molly Parker and Brian Munoz.

CAMPAIGN MODE

— Blagojevich to stump for GOP state Senate hopeful — and, yes, Republican leaders call it ‘a bad idea’: “The self-declared ‘Trumpocrat’ will headline an Aug. 27 fundraiser in St. Charles, six months after he was freed with a commutation from his former reality television boss,” by Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout.

— Common Defense, a veterans group that opposes President Donald Trump, has endorsed Dani Brzozowski for Congress in the 16th District. Brzozowski, the daughter of a Gulf War veteran, is running to unseat Rep. Adam Kinzinger. In a statement, Brzozowski says she’s signed the Common Defense pledge “to end the forever wars” and to bring troops home from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

— More than a thousand women have come together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — and to show their support for the referendum that would allow a graduated income tax in Illinois. The list includes: Planned Parenthood Illinois President and CEO Jennifer Welch, League of Women Voters-Illinois President Allyson Haut, Women Employed President and CEO Cherita Ellens, Illinois NOW President Laura Welch, Women's March Chicago President Jaquie Algee, and Mujeres Latinas en Accion President and CEO Linda Xochitl Tortolero.

NATION

— How the Supreme Court dropped the ball on the right to protest, by Kia Rahnama for POLITICO Magazine

— Biden says he thought about suicide after 1972 death of his wife, daughter: “The revelation comes in an upcoming CNN documentary on the former vice president’s struggles with familial loss,” by POLITICO’s Max Cohen.

— The Bill Clinton comeback is coming soon, by POLITICO’s John F. Harris

— Trump may hold funeral for brother at the White House, by POLITICO’s Caitlin Oprysko

TRANSITIONS

Roderick Hawkins has been named associate dean of external affairs at Northwestern University’s School of Communication. Hawkins also will serve as chief of staff to E. Patrick Johnson, dean of the school. Hawkins has a long career in Chicago’s civic scene. He most recently was comms director for Advance Illinois, an education nonprofit. Before that he was deputy chief of staff for Public Engagement in former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. And prior to that he was VP of external affairs at the Chicago Urban League.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Green energy consultant Scott Cisek, and University of Chicago prof Austan Goolsbee.