Two teenagers were wounded in a shooting Tuesday night in Lawndale on the West Side.
Just after 7 p.m., a 16-year-old boy and 18-year-old man were near an alley in the 4200 block of West Roosevelt Road when a vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said.
The 16-year-old was struck on both sides and the older teen suffered a gunshot wound to the knee, police said.
Both teens were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition, police said.
Adso’s best friend is missing and he suspects some sort of sacrificial killing after seeing the evidence at the crime scene. He refuses to stop until he figures out what happened to her and with the help of his friends he hopes to put an end to the craziness that is going on in Pine Creek.
Carmelo Electronics and Incube8 Games new Gameboy Color game Pine Creek is a mystery adventure game that has you exploring different towns, talking to people, and playing really terrible arcade games. You play as Adso, a young kid with some very interesting friends. Adso is supposed to work on a school project with his friend Judith who is missing. You sneak into her house and see a pentagram and a severed finger – not good! Now you have to figure out what is going on and who you can trust!
And yes you read correctly! Pine Creek is a Gameboy color game! So you can expect those awesome top-down pixelated graphics we all love. You can also look forward to the awesome, and slightly creepy, one note background music. Game play is very simple. You walk around, talk to people, collect items and use to them to do various tasks. There are no real puzzles, just a big mystery to solve, and items are just used when they are needed so no need to try to figure out what to do. The fun of the game is really talking to people and figuring out the clues. As you talk to people and find clues, you get a list of tasks you have to perform to move on in the game. There are also some very (intentionally) bad games you can play at the arcade, that is if you don’t tick off the owner! It’s very easy and there is no way to screw up or get deadlocked.
Pine Creek is very linear and has really only one ending, however the ending varies slightly depending on certain dialogue choices and a couple other things. So there is slight replay value! It is also very short, I would say between 4-6 hours long. There are really only a couple side quests as well that honestly don’t seem to affect anything. I would’ve liked more, it would’ve made the game feel longer and given more depth to the characters.
I must also warn you that Pine Creek is VERY creepy and at times pretty graphic. This is not a kid’s game by any means. It also has its share of humor and pop references. There are also a couple adult themes, such as one of the main places in the game being a sexual fantasy hotel. But don’t worry, you do not see any pixelated sex scenes 😉
My biggest critique of Pine Creek is that though it was fun and had a good story line (with a crazy twist at the end!), overall I felt it was a bit rushed out. There were a couple times when I felt like the creator had intended to do more with some characters and maybe even side events but it didn’t happen. There is a little easter egg character sort of explains the rushed feel of the game. See if you can spot him! Pine Creek was also rather vulgar for a game consisting of mainly kids talking, but I’m just not real big on swearing in general.
So over all Pine Creek is funny, cute, gets right to the point, short but fun, and is downright terrifying. It had a great little mystery to solve, with a crazy twist ending, but I really would’ve liked to see more side quests and other things panned out, but it was still fun I give it 4 outta 5 baby dragons.
Pine Creek will be out in October in cartridge form on Gameboy Color in its own box with instruction manual and other inserts! There will also be a collector’s addition with additional goodies available as well. No price info is given yet for the cart release. Don’t have a GBC or too impatient to wait till October? No problem! A rom is available now for download from the site https://carmelo-electronics.itch.io/pine-creek. So go ahead and check it out, maybe don’t eat dinner first…
Attorney Boulton discusses in detail the major differences in fraud detection and prevention between an election as we had in America for centuries where most of the voting occurred on a single day and …
Our show is very timely in terms of the U. S. Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling (Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee) in a very important voting rights case and the U. S. Department of Justice’s
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Tonight’s Chicago Metro suburban edition of Public Affairs features guest Steve Boulton, Chair, Chicago Republican Party, discussing with show host Jeff Berkowitz how best to insure fair and honest elections in America.
The show airs in 25 Chicago Metro north and northwest suburbs tonight at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable:
–Ch. 19 inBuffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette and on
–Ch. 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
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The show also airs tomorrow in Highland Park on cable Ch 19 at 8:30 pm.
Our show is very timely in terms of the U. S. Supreme Court’s July 1 ruling (Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee) in a very important voting rights case and the U. S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) voting rights lawsuit filed on June 25 against Georgia.
The Berkowitz- Boulton discussion was taped two days before the Brnovich ruling was issued- rejecting the DNC’s claims that the Arizona election law that significantly curtails ballot harvesting and requires votes cast outside of a voter’s precinct to be discarded was unconstitutional and violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Attorney Boulton discusses in detail the major differences in fraud detection and prevention between an election as we had in America for centuries where most of the voting occurred on a single day and at relatively few sites and the current system where the great majority of the voting occurs over an “Election season,” of more than ten days (and some as much as 55 days), includes massive mail in voting and occurs at many more voting locations, drop boxes and curbside.
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Tonight’s show discussion should give viewers a helpful perspective to understand and assess the Supreme Court’s opinion in terms of its implications for how the Court is likely to decide similar lawsuits challenging election laws that have been and are likely to be passed in other states.
Election laws have recently been modified in other states, including Georgia and Florida, and as in Arizona, some, including most Democratic Party officials, argue those election laws are designed to discourage minority voting, are discriminatory against minorities and violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Others, including the majorities in the Georgia and Florida legislatures and most other Republican Party officials disagree and argue the new election laws are designed to prevent fraud and insure ballot integrity and security.
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The Biden Administration DOJ (in an apparent attempt to beat the release of the Supreme Court opinion in Brnovich and avoid the ackwardness of filing a lawsuit that it knew to be contradicted by a very recent Supreme Court opinion) filed its lawsuit on June 25, 2021 against Georgia arguing on similar grounds to those argued by the DNC in its 2016 lawsuit involving Arizona that the new Georgia election law violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
DOJ knew the ruling in the Arizona case was imminent and also knew the Supreme Court would likely rule in a manner contrary to DOJ’s legal position.
Georgia will of course argue it’s law was constitutional and not illegal, in part because Georgia has a compelling need to prohibit voter fraud and moreover, the law had neither a racially discriminatory intent nor effect, all of which the Supreme Court found in its decision on July 1 holding the Arizona law constitutional.
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We explore the above and other related issues with attorney Boulton, an expert in voting laws, voting regulations and voting practices, and we provide a foundation for understanding some of the likely benign motivations of the Georgia legislators- even though our show was taped two days before the Supreme Court handed down it’s decision in the Arizona case, in which the Court found most, if not all, of the motivations of the Arizona legislature to be benign, i.e., not motivated by a racially discriminatory intent.
Congrats to Chicago’s First Tee Leadership Summit Participants! First Tee, in partnership with PGA Tour Superstore, has announced the first-of-its-kind First Tee Leadership Summit to be held August 2-13, 2021, at West Creek Ranch in Montana. Brandon Savage (15 years old) and Madison Miller (17 years old), both from First Tee Greater Chicago are two of 40 teens who will take part in this special Summit.
The Summit is designed to strengthen the participants’ character, self-confidence and resilience through dynamic outdoor and team-building activities. The all-encompassing experience includes a robust curriculum that explores relationship building, positive risk taking and character evaluation. There will be workshops offered along with numerous outdoor activities such as fly fishing, yoga, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. Additionally, four of the participants will be selected to receive a $20,000 scholarship to support their continued education and growth.
Sounds like a great experience for Brandon and Madison – congrats and enjoy the Summit.
Hail and Farewell – Duncan Keith
One of the key components of the Chicago Blackhawks’ run of three Stanley Cup championships in six seasons – Duncan Keith, who was drafted by the Blackhawks in the second round of the 2002 NHL Draft, has spent his entire pro career with the team. Career stats include registering 105 goals and dishing out 520 assists in 1,192 career games and he ranks second all-time among Blackhawks players in games played, trailing only Stan Mikita.
In addition to three Stanley Cup championships, Keith is a two-time winner of the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s best defenseman, and won the 2015 Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the most valuable player of the NHL postseason.
Earlier this off-season, Keith reportedly requested a trade from the Blackhawks, seeking to move closer to his family in the Pacific Northwest and his wish has been granted. Hail to thee Duncan Keith – you will always be a Chicago Blackhawk to us. Thanks for all you did to make our Blackhawks dreams come true.
All Hail – Maya Moore
By age 29, she’d already won four WNBA championships and a league MVP award. She was the 2011 WNBA Rookie of the Year. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star and a five-time All-WNBA first-team honoree. She won three consecutive championships with her club in China, Shanxi Flame, as well as a EuroLeague Championship with Russian powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg. She had won two Olympic gold medals with Team USA and at the University of Connecticut, she’d won two national championships and was a four-time consensus All-American and the only player in women’s college basketball history to win the Wade Trophy three times.
Movin’ on – Feb. 5, 2019 Maya Moore made an announcement that would upend the WNBA: She would be sitting out the 2019 season to focus on “the people in my family, as well as on investing my time in some ministry dreams that have been stirring in my heart for many years.”
Moore left the WNBA to continue the fight for criminal justice reform alongside Jonathan Irons, whom she married after helping him win his release from prison after 23 years. Moore and Irons’ story is one for the ages – superstar athlete gives up a hall-of-fame career to seek justice for a man who would eventually be freed thanks in part to her support – woman falls in love with man – wedding bells ring and they now work together in the fight for criminal justice reform. You could not make this story up – it is incredible and heartbreaking, yet heart-warming. Catch the documentary detailing their story on ESPN’s 30 for 30 series called “Breakaway.” It will leave you wanting MOORE.
Born in San Diego – raised in Chicago’s northern burbs. Lifelong Cubs, Bears & Bulls fan – Chicago Sky fan. Member professional golf media since 1996; golf professional; freelance photojournalist. School – UW Madison; former Marketing Director-booking agent for pro athletes for speeches, appearances and promotional work; I love sports of all kinds and work with several groups that provide sporting opportunities for Chicago’s inner city and under-served kids. Played tennis in high school and college – switched to golf for fun and then as a profession. Have been published in many national and regional sports publications – both words and photos. I believe in the power of sports to transform one’s life both personally and professionally.
Caleb Jones and older brother Seth Jones have been training together in Dallas for a month already this summer.
So when Caleb, 24, was acquired Monday by the Blackhawks — the news of which unexpectedly interrupted a friendly NBA 2K game — Seth surely knew immediately.
Seth, 26, also surely knows about the Hawks’ interest in him, being arguably the summer’s biggest trade target as the Blue Jackets try to recoup assets for their departing cornerstone. (With his contract expiring next summer, Seth has reportedly told Jackets management he doesn’t plan to re-sign.)
There’s some speculation Hawks general manager Stan Bowman — when negotiating the trade with Oilers GM Ken Holland — not only had the primary motivation of granting Duncan Keith’s Canadian trade request but also a secondary goal of landing Caleb specifically to lure Seth.
But Caleb, in his introductory Hawks interview Tuesday, kept calm about the Jones family’s interest in a reunion.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ever been a dream,” he said. “We both just wanted to play in the NHL, like a lot of kids growing up. Once we were fortunate enough — both of us — to get there, it [has] popped up a few times. I’ve actually never even played against him, so I’ve been looking for that day to come.
“He’s got his own situation going on over there, so we’ll see what happens throughout the summer with that. But if it ever did happen, it’d be really fun and we’d both enjoy it.”
No matter how the Hawks’ offseason pursuit of an experienced No. 1 defensemen pans out, though, they view Caleb Jones as someone who could improve the retooling defense and improve himself with more ice time.
During his three seasons with the Oilers, Jones particularly excelled along the defensive blue line — an area where the Hawks particularly floundered — at executing zone exits and defending opponents’ zone entries, for example.
Jones’ overall play dipped in 2021, though. With an even-strength scoring chance ratio of 44.4% (down from 54.2% and 47.0% his first two seasons, respectively) and only four points in 33 games, the Oilers began considering him expendable. But he’s young enough that he believes he can learn from it.
“A lot of my struggles came from being inconsistent,” he said. “The biggest thing for me [is] mentally, if I make a mistake, flushing it away and getting back out there and continuing to play the same way I do. That’s a growing process I had to go through last year, but I’ll be better for it in the future.”
During his summer training — this being the fifth or sixth consecutive year during which he’s done it with Seth, he estimated — he’s focusing on keeping his head up more. He hopes that’ll help him better see “what plays I can make [and] what’s going on,” giving him more opportunities to use the other two skills he’s prioritizing this summer: skating and shooting.
Come September training camp, the Hawks will discover where Jones — with or without his brother — fits into their rapidly evolving defense. Jones hopes they’ll like what they find.
“I believe I can be a really good player,” he said. “A fresh start will be good for me, and I believe there’s a good opportunity in Chicago.”
“I want to be the best to ever play this game,” Tim Anderson said.
Oh, is that all?
It’s easy to shake one’s head at some of the things Anderson says. Big, blunt, bold declarations, more like. The White Sox shortstop has neither fear nor filter when it comes to writing checks with his mouth that the average discerning person might doubt Anderson’s baseball ability can cash.
That’s probably why he was here Tuesday for his All-Star debut and the rest of us are, well, us.
The Tuscaloosa, Ala., native sure is on a roll and riding the flowing tide. Just think of what he has pulled off over the last three seasons.
Heading into 2019 — and coming off a terrible 2018 at the plate — Anderson scoffed at spring training when asked about rumors the Sox might be in big on free agent Manny Machado. The Sox’ 2013 first-round pick said the shortstop job belonged to him.
“I’m about to have a career year,” he said.
And then — wouldn’t you know it? — he won a batting title.
At spring training the next year, Anderson scoffed again when asked about debuting on MLB Network’s Top 100 Players list. He was 95th, 13th among shortstops.
“Man, let me tell you — there’s nobody better than me,” he said. “There’s nobody who can stop me. I’m coming for whatever there is.”
He was 27th — up to seventh among shortstops — on the 2021 list.
Now he’s an All-Star, which he likely would have been in 2019 if not for a sprained ankle that derailed him a few weeks before the break. He flipped the switch after that 2018 mess and will be damned if he’s going to let it get un-flipped any time in the foreseeable future.
“I would say the year I won the batting title, the offseason before was definitely one of those offseasons that I wanted to continue to get better and I wanted to take it to the next level,” he said Monday during a mashup with media across the street from Coors Field. “I wanted to be one of the best hitters to play this game. So I just worked, continued to work and now we’re here.”
Anderson’s ascension at 28 must have something to do with how late he started seriously playing baseball. He didn’t play at all until his junior year of high school and didn’t fully embrace the notion of a future in it until junior college.
“Once I actually locked in on baseball,” he said, “I had a chance to be good at it.”
Even then, his fandom was casual and fleeting. He would watch the Home Run Derby but not the All-Star Game. He dug Ken Griffey Jr., backward hat and all.
“He had that swag, man,” he said. “He had that effect on people. When he stepped on the field, you knew who that [was].”
It’s no wonder that, as the seamheads and wonks gathered for this event talked about things like upcoming rules changes, Anderson had the following suggestion for the best way to change the game:
“I’m taking out the unwritten rules first,” he said. “Just allow players to be themselves.”
For Anderson, that means bat flips, chirping on the field, swag, whatever you want to call it. It also means heart.
After clinching the batting title in 2019, he sat in the clubhouse alone and fought back tears. When he learned in a crowded clubhouse that he’d made this All-Star team as a replacement player, he was deeply touched by the reactions of teammates — especially Jose Abreu, who bounded across the room and jumped on him. Pretty nice for a player who has been around the All-Star block but didn’t make it this time.
“Abreu, man, he was there for me,” Anderson said. “He was there from the start. He knows what I’ve been through. He’s seen me work day in, day out. Definitely a guy I look up to that mentored me, man. Just seeing the way he goes about his business and wanting to be out there every day, I get that from him. And the way he plays the game, I get that from him.
“It was such a special moment, though, just to see Abreu, man, give me that much love.”
See? Heart.
Also: lots of talk.
A moment after Anderson spoke of Abreu, a reporter walked up and asked the future “best player ever” if he thought the league-wide crackdown on sticky substances would lead to more hangers over the plate.
“It don’t matter,” Anderson said. “I’ll crush ’em either way.”
For the first time in Chicago, some 911 calls for mental health emergencies won’t be answered by police officers but by mental health professionals paired with paramedics.
In one pilot program starting this fall, a paramedic will be dispatched with a mental health clinician for “behavioral health calls.” In another, a paramedic will work with a “recovery specialist” on calls involving substance abuse.
Mental health clinicians will be on hand at the 911 center to monitor situations, but questions remain how well these new responders will be able to de-escalate violence that can erupt during such calls.
The “alternative response” programs are being launched amid continuing debate over the role of police after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last spring.
Floyd had battled addiction and had previously reported suffering from depression and hearing voices. An officer placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes to restrain him, making it impossible for him to breathe.
Across the country, towns and cities have begun rolling out programs to better respond to mental health crises. Some use specially trained cops, others pair them with mental health professionals and a few localities have removed police from such calls altogether.
Public health approach
Chicago began incorporating crisis intervention training several years ago after the highly publicized cases of teenagers Laquan McDonald and Quintonio LeGrier, who were both apparently experiencing mental episodes when they were shot and killed by officers responding to 911 calls.
The pilot programs go further by emphasizing a “public health approach” to responding to 911 calls, city officials say.
“We’re super excited,” said Alex Heaton, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s policy advisor for public safety. “This is a brand new workforce for the city, and it’s an exciting opportunity to use a public health approach for people likely to come in contact with the first responder system.”
Before the pilots begin, however, the city will staff two ambulances each with a police officer trained in crisis intervention, a paramedic and a mental health clinician.
Alex Heaton, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s policy advisor for public safety.Linkedin
A team based on the North Side and another on the South Side will respond around the clock in 13 neighborhoods with a historically high number of mental health calls: Uptown, North Center, Lakeview, Humboldt Park, West and East Garfield Park, West Englewood, West Elsdon, Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, Gage Park, Auburn Gresham and Chatham.
The teams will start responding to calls in August.
Heaton unveiled the $3.5 million plan — called Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement — in a June 29 meeting of the mayor’s Violence Prevention Planning Committee. Heaton said he hopes the program will get people the help they need instead of just having them spend time in police custody.
“Are we reducing calls from an individual? Is it cost-effective? And are we able to connect folks with places that can address their medical concerns?” Heaton said. “Are we able to engage these organizations to make 911 not be the go-to place?”
Other aspects of the plan include mental health clinicians staffing the 911 center to respond to some calls by phone, eliminating the need for police to respond, Heaton said. That program should begin in October.
Also, police and paramedics will direct people with behavioral health problems to three drop-off centers on each side of the city.
“The only options now are the ER or the lockup,” Heaton said. “But in this pilot … they’ll bring you [to the center], help stabilize you and connect you with follow-up resources.”
The Roseland Community Triage Center, at 200 E. 115th St., will serve as an “alternative drop-off” for police and paramedics in a new pilot program meant to divert mental health patients from hospitals and jail.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
The city already operates one alternative drop-off in Roseland, called the Community Triage Center at 200 E. 115th St. Two other sites will be opened later on the North and West sides, Heaton said.
The centers will be open around the clock and serve as walk-in locations for people as an alternative to calling 911.
Mixed results across the country
The pilot programs will test how much police can be relieved of mental health calls, which can sometimes be dangerous.
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown has said officers responded to 41,000 such calls in 2019 — cops “who would have otherwise spent their time responding to these calls would be free to reallocate their time to other issues, such as proactive crime prevention,” he wrote in the letter to Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd).
While expectations are high, the programs have had mixed results across the country.
In Denver, officials have touted a pilot program launched last June that replaced police officers with health care workers. Over the first six months, crews responded to nearly 750 calls, none of which warranted police assistance or resulted in an arrest.
In Rochester, N.Y., however, Daniel Prude — a Black man from Chicago — was suffocated last March after officers placed a “spit hood” over his head as he experienced a mental breakdown. The police department was among the first in the state to establish a crisis intervention team, but a crisis unit didn’t respond to the call that resulted in Prude’s death.
The father of Quintonio LeGrier, Antonio LeGrier, right, speaks during his son’s funeral at New Mount Pilgrim Church on Jan. 9, 2016. LeGrier, a 19-year-old engineering student, was killed after he confronted officers with a baseball bat as they responded to calls of a domestic disturbance the morning after Christmas 2015. Sun-Times Media
In Chicago, the programs will be measured against the cases of Laquan McDonald and Quintonio LeGrier.
McDonald, a 17-year-old who had learning disabilities and complex mental health diagnoses, was holding a knife and walking away from police when he was shot 16 times by an officer in October 2014.
The shooting prompted a federal consent decree that mandates sweeping police reforms. And the officer who fired the fatal shots, Jason Van Dyke was sentenced to nearly 7 years in state prison in 2019.
LeGrier, a 19-year-old engineering student, called police saying “someone’s threatening my life” the morning after Christmas 2015. Dispatchers hung up on him initially; he called three times in total before police were sent — and then he was killed after he confronted officers with a baseball bat. In the wake of the shooting, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the police department needs to make changes “to how officers respond to mental health crises.”
The officer who shot him, Robert Rialmo, was later fired. Two 911 call takers were suspended.
Stuart Butler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute who has written about crisis intervention, said the question remains how mental health workers can “de-escalate” dangerous calls.
Stuart Butler
“People are not sure quite how to structure these teams and they’re not sure how much responsibility the mental health professionals should have to de-escalate a potentially violent situation, how much backup they need,” Butler said.
A 2019 article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law found that roughly a quarter of the 1,000 people killed by police officers in the United States the previous year had some form of mental illness. And a study published in 2015 by the Treatment Advocacy Center noted “the risk of being killed during a police incident is 16 times greater for individuals with untreated mental illness.”
Butler believes Chicago is taking a prudent approach by launching separate pilots and then analyzing the results. But he said the city should first ensure that cops and mental health providers “are absolutely on the same wavelength in terms of what they believe the response should be to certain categories of cases.”
Ron Bruno, a law enforcement veteran and executive director of CIT International, believes there’s “a misconception that responding to crisis situations is dangerous,” pointing to an influential program launched in Eugene, Oregon.
Ron Bruno
For over 30 years, Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets, or CAHOOTS, has been sending two-person teams consisting of a medic and a crisis worker to respond to mental health calls. None have been killed or seriously injured, Bruno said.
“If they feel they are unsafe, we teach them how to disengage, get out of there and then that they can call law enforcement to come and assist them or to take over the call,” he said.”
Still, Butler said there’s “nervousness among people in the mental health world about being expected to handle violent situations.” Determining who shows up first is especially important and should be assessed on a case-by-case basis, he said.
“It’s really important to have a city like Chicago have a period of really engaging and having a conversation and kind of brainstorming,” he said. “And then they can kind of sift through what are the requirements, what are the conditions that have to be created for this to be successful and not dangerous to the mental health workers.”
When Rosa Escareno agreed to stay on as Chicago’s commissioner of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection under Mayor Lori Lightfoot, it was only supposed to be for one year.
Little did she know the shutdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, and then two rounds of looting, would take such a devastating toll on the business community she was charged with regulating that it would force Escareno to put her retirement plan on hold.
Now that Chicago is on the road to economic recovery, Escareno is finally free to leave City Hall, ending a remarkable 30-plus-year career that began straight out of high school, as an administrative assistant in the Office of Budget and Management. She will be replaced, at least temporarily, by her five-year veteran first deputy Ken Meyer.
Escareno’s July 31 departure will mark yet another turn of Lightfoot’s revolving door, but that’s not why she’s calling it quits long before the mayor’s kitchen sink of a pandemic relief package can be implemented.
The woman whose widowed mother of six brought her to Chicago from Mexico at age 8 is simply ready for the next chapter in her life after an emotional roller-coaster that, at times, reduced her to tears.
“I was getting calls … saying, ‘My business is failing. I’m out of cash.’ I knew that the businesses were on their last straw and holding on for dear life. And then, the first looting happened just when businesses were about to open. And then, the second looting happened and it was so, so hurtful,” Escareno said.
“I remember going out to the community, helping stores clean up. Going into these places that were completely looted. These were no longer business owners. They were human beings that were hurt. … Thinking about peoples’ lives just being completely devastated is really emotional and it’s personal because I know the business owners. I know their families.”
During a wide-ranging interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Escareno denied her notoriously demanding and sometimes abusive boss had anything to do with the timing of her exit.
“She was hit with a pandemic. So we all worked together to see our city through. And people are just now doing what they would normally do like myself. I’ve been here 30 years. It’s the right time,” Escareno said.
“My experience with Mayor Lightfoot has been nothing but a wonderful experience. … She has been nothing but gracious. She has been nothing but a champion for all the causes that we have implemented. My experience has been nothing but good. … I’ve seen a strong leader trying to move our city ahead after a historically devastating time.”
Escareno’s rise is a glaring exception in for a city government known for the slogan, “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.”
She earned her bachelor’s degree from Loyola and her master’s in communications from Northwestern while serving under four mayors in jobs that ranged from administrative assistant and deputy press secretary to deputy chief operating officer and director of media relations for the Chicago Fire Department.
The stint at CFD is a memory Escareno will never forget.
That was the tumultuous year that the Chicago Fire Department revamped high-rise training and firefighting techniques to prevent a repeat of mistakes that contributed heavily to six deaths at the Cook County Administration Building at 69 W. Washington St. on Oct. 17, 2003.
There was a 90-minute gap between the time firefighters arrived on the scene and the time the bodies of six victims were found.
A commission chaired by former federal judge Abner Mikva concluded there was a communications breakdown so severe that frantic people in a smoke-filled stairwell — trapped there by doors that locked behind them — were making calls to 911 that went into a “black hole,” while the Fire Department changed commanders every time a more senior officer arrived.
“We had one year to radically change the fire safety code [and rescue protocols]. … Having had the opportunity to help improve the quality of life from a life-and-death perspective is really humbling to me,” Escareno said.
“I call it my dog year because it felt like seven.”
As for the pandemic relief package her successor will now implement, Escareno said it would be a mistake to focus on the City Council defeat Lightfoot suffered after aldermen narrowly blocked that portion of the package that would have ended the requirement for a separate ordinance for every sign over the public way.
“We have to focus on how we championed over 150 pages of legislation with 20 programs. When we talk about one piece of it — to me, it’s missing the point about the benefit that both workers and businesses are going to gain through this really awesome package,” she said.
“When we fight for the things that are gonna benefit businesses, it’s a worthy argument. It’s a worthy fight to say, ‘Yes. We could make the business process better, faster, more efficient. Why? Because, if not now, when?”
Two nearby states found themselves back on Chicago’s travel advisory list Tuesday as the highly transmissible Delta variant coronavirus rapidly spreads across the country.
Unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas are being asked to either get proof of a negative COVID-19 test no more than 72 hours before coming to Chicago or quarantine for 10 days upon arrival.
Missouri’s and Arkansas’ infection rates have surged in recent weeks, with the uptick pushing the two states back past the threshold of 15 cases per day per 100,000 residents the Chicago Department of Public Health set to determine who should be on the city’s travel advisory list.
Illinois is seeing its own spike, driven largely by a rise in cases in downstate counties with lower vaccination rates and proximity to border states with troubling numbers. Some of the bigger increases in Illinois have been seen in regions bordering Missouri, which has one of America’s lowest vaccination rates and has emerged as the nation’s current epicenter of the pandemic.
A person receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in a vaccination site at Chicago Vocational Career Academy in March.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
With other pockets across the country seeing a rise in cases, five other states and the U.S. Virgin Islands are also at risk of joining Missouri and Arkansas. Those in danger of passing Chicago’s metric threshold include Nevada, Louisiana, Utah, Wyoming and Florida, the city health officials said.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commission Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday’s news is a reminder that the pandemic is not over yet.
“This only goes to show that the virus is still very much a threat and that we must all remain vigilant against it,” Arwady said in a statement. “That means getting vaccinated and wearing a mask in public settings if you are not fully vaccinated.”
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady speaks at a news conference last summer.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
Also Tuesday, Illinois state health officials reported 578 new coronavirus cases and an additional 12 deaths. That brings the state’s pandemic totals to 1,397,667 cases and 23,336 deaths.
The state’s test positivity rate checked in at 2.1%.
Last Friday, Illinois reported 2,945 new cases over the previous seven days. That represented a 39% increase in average daily cases over the week before, from 303 per day to 420.
More than 6.3 million Illinoisans, or almost 50% of the state’s population, are fully vaccinated.
Arwady noted that almost all new cases, hospitalization and deaths are among unvaccinated people.
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