The Dingers crew is joined by the Director of Morale, DOM Frederic. We talk Cubs spring training, outlook on the season, and how to be a loyal fan.
The post Dingers Podcast Episode 32 – Morale is a State of Cub with Special Guest Frederic, the Director of Morale first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More
COVID-19 cases are ticking back upward across Chicago and the rest of Illinois even as vaccine supply improves, the top doctors from the city and state warned Tuesday.
Infections have increased about 23% in Chicago over the past week, mostly among people age 18 to 40, according to city Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
That’s the same trend Arwady’s team saw in October, before a record-breaking resurgence that saw Chicago suffer its worst days of the pandemic.
“We are worried about this,” Arwady said during an online Q&A. “We’ll be in good shape this summer, but I am really worried about this next four to eight weeks. … We are not at a point where we can assume that most people have started to get some protection from the vaccine.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,832 new cases of the disease were diagnosed statewide among 49,739 tests.
Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Graph not displaying properly? Click here.
That lowered the average statewide positivity a notch down to 2.5% compared to a day earlier. But that key indicator of transmission had been at a record low of 2.1% on March 13 — a net increase of 19% over a span of just 10 days.
COVID-19 hospital admissions have crept upward, too, with 1,270 beds occupied Monday night.
The rising metrics come weeks after public health officials identified three more infectious strains of COVID-19 in the state — and weeks before more business restrictions are set to be loosened by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Officials also reported 13 more coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, including two Cook County women in their 60s. Daily death rates have fallen by about half over the past month, but experts agree an increase in cases results in an increase in hospitalizations and deaths weeks later.
“Even as we’re getting more and more vaccine doses, we cannot let our guard down, especially with these virulent new strains circulating,” Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in a statement. “We’ve come so far and are so close to a more normal time, but we’re already seeing some concerning plateaus and even increases in hospitalizations and cases.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19856326/CV_PRITZKER_032420_6.jpg)
“We’re not out of the woods yet so continue to wear your masks, avoid large crowds, and keep six feet of distance,” Ezike said.
Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times
Source: Illinois Department of Public Health
Graph not displaying properly? Click here.
A total of 70,252 COVID-19 shots were went into arms statewide Monday, a third straight disappointing daily total that lowered Illinois’ average number of vaccinations per day to 91,000 — its lowest point since March 4.
Ezike’s agency said that number could be underreported, though, due to “discrepancies” with the federal government “in some of the vaccine administration data.”
More than 4.8 million doses have been administered in all across the state, with nearly 1.8 million residents fully vaccinated — about 14% of the population. Only about 11% of Chicago residents have been fully immunized, Arwady said.
Over the past year, more than 1.2 million Illinoisans have tested positive for the virus, and 21,116 have died.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22392174/CPSPROGRESS_012721_34.jpg)
COVID-19 cases are ticking back upward across Chicago and the rest of Illinois even as vaccine supply improves, the top doctors from the city and state warned Tuesday.
Infections have increased about 23% in Chicago over the past week, mostly among people age 18 to 40, according to city Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
That’s the same trend Arwady’s team saw in October, before a record-breaking resurgence that saw Chicago suffer its worst days of the pandemic.
“We are worried about this,” Arwady said during an online Q&A. “We’ll be in good shape this summer, but I am really worried about this next four to eight weeks. … We are not at a point where we can assume that most people have started to get some protection from the vaccine.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,832 new cases of the disease were diagnosed statewide among 49,739 tests.
Keep reading Mitchell Armentrout’s story here.
Chicago public health officials said they have no plans to open a vaccination site that would be open 24 hours a day — as some other cities have done.
At a press conference on the city’s vaccination efforts, officials were asked about the possibility of opening an around-the-clock center to speed up vaccines and increase accessibility for essential workers. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the main focus right now is increasing vaccine supply.
“At this point, there’s not plans for a 24-hour situation,” Arwady said “We’ll see what the demand looks like and we’ll see what the vaccine supply looks like.”
Chicago is set to expand vaccine eligibility next Monday to additional essential workers like those in food service and hospitality, as well as those over 16 years old with underlying health conditions. Since the start of the vaccine rollout, the city has prioritized healthcare and the first group of essential workers, according to Arwady.
“We’re always interested in new ideas, but we’ve been very focused here,” Arwady said “So, we’ll keep prioritizing those workers and we’ll see if they are more creative things we need to do to reach them.”
Read the full story from Sophie Sherry here.
DoorDash has started offering its Chicago users same-day delivery on at-home COVID-19 test kits with quick turnaround times for results.
Through a partnership with Vault Health and Everlywell, two digital health companies, DoorDash users will be able to get a saliva or nasal swab test kit delivered to their doorstep and mail in their kit directly to a lab, receiving results in 24-48 hours, DoorDash said.
The Vault Health saliva test kit is $109 and the Everlywell nasal swab test kit is $119. Both may be reimbursed through insurance, according to the company. Both versions have been approved by the FDA for emergency use.
Read Grace Asiegbu’s full story here.
State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford has resigned from the board of trustees at Loretto Hospital over how it handled revelations of improperly providing vaccinations to people not yet eligible for the shots.
“I am very disappointed with the recent developments at The Loretto Hospital regarding its use of coronavirus vaccine entrusted to the hospital,” Ford said in a statement issued Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday, I submitted my resignation to The Loretto Hospital’s Board Chairman Edward Hogan because I strongly disagreed with how the reprimand of the hospital leadership was handled. As the state representative for the hospital and as a resident in its service area, I will continue to fight for resources for The Loretto Hospital, a safety-net hospital in the Austin community.”
The hospital’s CEO George Miller and COO Dr. Anosh Ahmed have come under fire in recent days after revelations the hospital improperly provided vaccinations to workers at Trump Tower, where Ahmed lives; at a suburban church that Miller is a member of; and a luxury watch shop on the Gold Coast where Ahmed shops.
Read the full story from Mitch Dudek here.
It’s no surprise the state’s latest jobs figures show the leisure and hospitality industry took quite a wallop last year, given the clamp that COVID-19 restrictions and quarantines put on the entire economy.
Still, the raw numbers released this month by the Illinois Department of Employment Security are nonetheless sobering: The number of jobs in the industry statewide plummeted from 628,000 in January 2020 to 412,000 now.
The plunge took 216,000 jobs with it. No other employment sector in the state suffered as much.
But we’re hoping three developments this month can provide a lifeline to the struggling industry: federal aid to restaurants and bars as part of the latest $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package; Illinois’ expansion of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to include food and beverage workers; and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to gradually reopen the state’s economy, beginning next month, as more people are vaccinated.
“Our industry has been decimated,” Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia told us. “But we’re starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.”
COVID-19 cases ticking back up across Chicago (LIVE UPDATES)on March 23, 2021 at 6:44 pm Read More »
Chicago Cubs manager David Ross began to piece together his starting rotation on Tuesday as he announced that starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks will be the team’s Opening Day starter on April1 when the team opens the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates. For Hendricks, this only solidifies that he is the ace of the Cubs starting rotation. After spending past seasons with veterans Jon Lester and Yu Darvish in the starting rotation, Hendricks never appeared to be firmly cemented as the team’s ace.
No longer with the team are Darvish and Lester and that means that Hendricks is the anchor of the Cubs’ starting rotation. Hendricks was the 2020 opening day starting pitcher for the Cubs as well. During the 2020 season, Hendricks posted a 2.88 ERA/3.55 FIP/0.996 WHIP in 81.1 innings pitched.
Chicago Cubs News: Kyle Hendricks named opening day starteron March 23, 2021 at 6:08 pm Read More »
Larry Lucas, Robert Wiggins, Leonard Olson and Robert Walsh.
Those names probably mean nothing to you, and why should they? It was almost 48 years ago — April 11, 1973 — that the four employees of Westinghouse’s elevator division were putting finishing touches on an elevator shaft at the nearly-topped-out Sears Tower, using turpentine to scrub away oil the foundry put on the steel rails to keep them from rusting.
They were on a platform on the 42nd floor, in a “blind shaft” — two entrances, one 20 feet above their heads and another 100 feet below — when a spark ignited the turpentine. Other workers heard their screams and tried to break into the shaft to get to them, hammering at the concrete walls. But of course it was too late.
We seldom consider workers who lose their lives. They don’t even get the little gratuitous nod we give first responders, thought it might be argued that they do one better than saving the city: they built it in the first place, and keep it running.
I thought of these four lost workers Monday morning because of an email with the enigmatic subject line: “BLS Midwest News Update: March 22-26, 2021.” You’d never open that, right? I did. The “BLS” is Bureau of Labor Statistics — part of the same federal government that took the lead in developing vaccines; I sure hope their medical judgment is better than their ability to craft catchy subject lines, or we’re all in trouble.
The email inside is clear, and the message isn’t good: 5,333 fatal work injuries in the United States in 2019, up 2% from the year before and the highest toll in a dozen years. Of those deaths, 158 were in Illinois.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22391582/merlin_36799909.jpg)
The most dangerous job you can do is … any guesses? No, not prepping elevator shafts. Or being a police officer or firefighter.
In terms of raw numbers, it’s driving a truck. In 2019, exactly a third of Illinois workplace deaths — 53 — were due to transportation accidents, followed by construction worker and miner. Bear in mind, of course, that while there were three times as many fatalities of truck drivers as police officers, there are also about three times as many professional drivers as cops, so in that sense, the jobs are about the same, danger-wise.
News that will be cold comfort to the family of Eric Talley, killed Monday while trying to do his job as a police officer, reacting to the shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colo. And the family of Rikki Olds, a 25-year-old store employee. Add them to the 2021 stats.
Which brings us to the second biggest cause of on-the-job death: “violence and other injuries by persons,” accounting for 31 Illinois deaths in 2019. That includes 18 Illinoisans shot and killed while working and eight who shot themselves, which hints that workplaces are inherently dangerous, since in general more than twice as many people kill themselves as are murdered.
“Falls, slips and trips” are third, bringing us back to the Sears Tower. Those four weren’t the only ones killed in its construction. Just days after they died, Jack DeKlerk was knocked off the 109th floor by a stray cable. He fell 35 feet, to the 106th floor. Not far, but enough.
Maybe when Labor Day comes around this year, we should nudge it more toward the reflective tone of Memorial Day, and remember all those workers who gave their lives to build our towers, dig our coal, and rush toward gunmen trying to protect us. When you look at the skyline, almost every tall building has a casualty or four. Or more.
There is something important to the act of remembering. It’s a form of gratitude, and shows we’re not just skittering around stupidly, like crabs, occupying these magnificent shells that people gave their lives to leave for us.
Three weeks after his death, DeKlerk’s widow, Jo Ann, crashed the Sears Tower topping-out ceremony and boldly signed her husband’s name on the celebratory steel beam, along with the bigwigs who never broke a sweat to build the place. Then she went to the 109th floor and put one foot on the steel beam her husband fell from. It was, she later said, the scariest thing she ever had done in her life.
What is the state’s most dangerous job?on March 23, 2021 at 5:25 pm Read More »
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22391465/CV_UPDATE_021221_01.jpg)
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Chicago public health officials said they have no plans to open a vaccination site that would be open 24 hours a day — as some other cities have done.
At a press conference on the city’s vaccinations efforts, officials were asked about the possibility of opening an around-the-clock center to speed up vaccines and increase accessibility for essential workers. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the main focus right now is increasing vaccine supply.
“At this point, there’s not plans for a 24-hour situation,” Arwady said “We’ll see what the demand looks like and we’ll see what the vaccine supply looks like.”
Chicago is set to expand vaccine eligibility next Monday to additional essential workers like those in food service and hospitality, as well as those over 16 years old with underlying health conditions.
Since the start of the vaccine rollout, the city has prioritized healthcare and the first group of essential workers, according to Arwady.
“We’re always interested in new ideas, but we’ve been very focused here,” Arwady said “So, we’ll keep prioritizing those workers and we’ll see if they are more creative things we need to do to reach them.”
Read the full story from Sophie Sherry here.
DoorDash has started offering its Chicago users same-day delivery on at-home COVID-19 test kits with quick turnaround times for results.
Through a partnership with Vault Health and Everlywell, two digital health companies, DoorDash users will be able to get a saliva or nasal swab test kit delivered to their doorstep and mail in their kit directly to a lab, receiving results in 24-48 hours, DoorDash said.
The Vault Health saliva test kit is $109 and the Everlywell nasal swab test kit is $119. Both may be reimbursed through insurance, according to the company. Both versions have been approved by the FDA for emergency use.
Read Grace Asiegbu’s full story here.
State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford has resigned from the board of trustees at Loretto Hospital over how it handled revelations of improperly providing vaccinations to people not yet eligible for the shots.
“I am very disappointed with the recent developments at The Loretto Hospital regarding its use of coronavirus vaccine entrusted to the hospital,” Ford said in a statement issued Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday, I submitted my resignation to The Loretto Hospital’s Board Chairman Edward Hogan because I strongly disagreed with how the reprimand of the hospital leadership was handled. As the state representative for the hospital and as a resident in its service area, I will continue to fight for resources for The Loretto Hospital, a safety-net hospital in the Austin community.”
The hospital’s CEO George Miller and COO Dr. Anosh Ahmed have come under fire in recent days after revelations the hospital improperly provided vaccinations to workers at Trump Tower, where Ahmed lives; at a suburban church that Miller is a member of; and a luxury watch shop on the Gold Coast where Ahmed shops.
Read the full story from Mitch Dudek here.
It’s no surprise the state’s latest jobs figures show the leisure and hospitality industry took quite a wallop last year, given the clamp that COVID-19 restrictions and quarantines put on the entire economy.
Still, the raw numbers released this month by the Illinois Department of Employment Security are nonetheless sobering: The number of jobs in the industry statewide plummeted from 628,000 in January 2020 to 412,000 now.
The plunge took 216,000 jobs with it. No other employment sector in the state suffered as much.
But we’re hoping three developments this month can provide a lifeline to the struggling industry: federal aid to restaurants and bars as part of the latest $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package; Illinois’ expansion of COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to include food and beverage workers; and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to gradually reopen the state’s economy, beginning next month, as more people are vaccinated.
“Our industry has been decimated,” Illinois Restaurant Association President Sam Toia told us. “But we’re starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.”
BOULDER, Colo. — The suspect in the Boulder supermarket shootings bought the assault rifle six days before the shooting where 10 people were killed, including a police officer, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday. The documents did not detail where the gun was purchased.
The affidavit also said employees of the supermarket told investigators that the suspect identified by police as Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 21, shot an elderly man multiple times outside the store before going inside.
Another person was found shot and in a vehicle next to a car registered to suspect’s brother, the affidavit said.
Multiple 911 calls paint a picture of a chaotic, terrifying scene, according to the affidavit.
One said the suspect had opened fire out the window of his vehicle. Others called to say they were hiding inside the grocery store as the suspect opened fire on customers.
There were reports of “parties down” and that a male suspect had shot at police. Witnesses called to describe the shooter as having a black AR-15 style gun and blue jeans and reported he might be wearing body armor.
By the time he was in custody, Alissa had been struck by a bullet that passed through his leg, the affidavit said.
He had removed all of his clothing and and was dressed only in shorts. Blood ran down his leg and 10 people were dead, including a police officer shot to death at the scene, police said.
Gun in supermarket shooting bought 6 days earlier: officialson March 23, 2021 at 5:44 pm Read More »
An 11-year-old girl has died weeks after she struck by a stray bullet at a gas station in the West Pullman neighborhood.
Ny’Andrea Dyer was in the back seat of a car at a gas pump on March 1 when two people outside fired shots at each other, authorities have said.
Struck in her head, Dyer was hospitalized in critical condition at Comer Children’s Hospital until she died Monday night, Chicago police said.
Dyer lived in Richton Park, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
No charges have been filed against the person wanted to firing the bullet that struck the girl, police spokeswoman Karie James said Tueseday.
Police said someone fired shots at an 18-year-old man as he left the store of a gas station in the 100 block of West 127th Street about 10:50 p.m. that day. The man was shot in his groin area and returned fire but didn’t hit anyone, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Police said the man was charged with unauthorized use of a weapon.
11-year-old girl dies weeks after West Pullman shootingon March 23, 2021 at 5:42 pm Read More »
There was never any question about who was going to be the Cubs’ ace this season and manager David Ross made it clear Tuesday, naming right-hander Kyle Hendricks his Opening Day starter.
Hendricks, who will be making his second consecutive Opening Day start, stepped into the No. 1 starter role this spring after the trade of Yu Darvish, but has quietly pitched like an ace for some time.
Ross often referred to Hendricks as a “co-ace” with Darvish during the shortened 2020 season. Hendricks was 6-5 with a 2.88 ERA in 12 starts for the Cubs last season.
While being “The Guy” hasn’t always been something Hendricks has been asked to do or been comfortable with, but he’s stepped into the role this spring and his teammates, both new and old, have taken notice.
“He’s dedicated to not only his craft, but being the best he can be,” Jake Arrieta told the Sun-Times. “For his teammates, the organization, the city of Chicago, the entire state of Illinois, and his fans all across the country. People don’t get to see behind the scenes how dedicated he really is.
“I know this for a fact, and this is just the kind of guy he is, he can look himself in the mirror at the end of each day and say I did everything in my power to be better than I was yesterday. And if you can do that, you can sleep well at night. … I know the fans appreciate him, but I just wish that more people could see everything that goes into his routine in between starts, because it’s very special.”
Kyle Hendricks named Cubs’ Opening Day starteron March 23, 2021 at 5:36 pm Read More »
The Chicago Bulls front office is listening to trade offers for Lauri Markkanen, 23, amidst the final two days before the NBA trade deadline.
Markkenen, the supposed number two scoring option to all-star Zach LaVine, has had an awkward season of undetermined future with the Bulls.
