Almost A 7 Year Record, Chicago Area’s Home Price Gains No Match For Rest Of Countryon March 30, 2021 at 7:03 pm

Getting Real

Almost A 7 Year Record, Chicago Area’s Home Price Gains No Match For Rest Of Country

Almost A 7 Year Record, Chicago Area’s Home Price Gains No Match For Rest Of Countryon March 30, 2021 at 7:03 pm Read More »

Pritzker’s ‘bridge phase’ put on hold as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise (LIVE UPDATES)on March 30, 2021 at 6:22 pm

Latest

Reopening plans pushed back in Illinois as COVID-19 infections rise and hospital beds fill

Dr. Roy Werner, the medical director in the Department of Emergency Medicine, listens to a patient’s heart beat in the Emergency Department at Roseland Community Hospital in December, when Illinois was in the midst of its second viral surge. The state could be on the verge of yet another resurgence, officials warn.

Reopening plans are being pushed back in Illinois as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rise yet again statewide, public health officials announced Tuesday.

With 70% of seniors vaccinated with at least one dose, the state had been on pace to see some business restrictions lifted this week under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “bridge phase” before a full reopening by May.

Not so anymore, as coronavirus cases mount and more people head to hospitals with the deadly respiratory disease. The governor’s intermediate reopening plan also required hospitalizations to “hold steady or decline over a 28-day monitoring period.”

That count has risen almost daily since hitting a one-year-low of 1,082 beds occupied by COVID-19 patients March 12. A total of 1,396 beds were taken up Monday night — the most since late February.

“As long as new hospital admissions continue to increase, the state will not advance to the Bridge Phase and on to Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois Plan,” officials from the Illinois Department of Public Health said in a statement. “The number of cases of COVID-19 has seen an increasing trend as well. Health officials continue to urge all residents to continue to mask up, socially distance, and avoid crowds to reduce transmission and bring the metrics back in line to transition to the Bridge Phase.”

Read the full story from Mitchell Armentrout here.

News

1:16 p.m. New vaccination site will be dedicated to essential union workers

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday announced a new vaccination site in partnership with the Chicago Federation of Labor that will help get doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of essential union workers.

Lightfoot said the site will be able to handle about 1,200 vaccinations weekly at first and can grow to 6,000 weekly as vaccine supply increases.

The announcement comes as the city expands eligibility requirements to what’s called Phase 1C. That expansion includes residents ages 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions, such as chronic kidney disease or cancer.

It also will allow vaccination for those working in construction, retail, restaurants and all other essential workers who had not previously been eligible.

“You all know this, but it bears repeating. Chicago is 100% a union town,” the mayor said in making the announcement at the vaccination site, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St.

“It’s our union workers who make up the backbone of this city.”

Those wishing to be vaccinated at Local 399 must live or work in Chicago, hold a current union card or be a union retiree, and qualify under the city’s current eligibility criteria.

Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.

12:44 p.m. States struggle to get rent relief to tenants amid pandemic

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last July that New York would spend $100 million in federal coronavirus relief to help cash-strapped tenants pay months of back rent and avert evictions.

By the end of October, the state had doled out only about $40 million, reaching 15,000 of the nearly 100,000 people looking for help. More than 57,000 applicants were denied because of criteria set by lawmakers that many said was difficult to meet.

New York’s experience played out nationwide, with states failing to spend tens of millions of federal dollars aimed at helping renters avoid eviction. Burdensome requirements, poorly administered programs and landlords refusing to cooperate meant tens of thousands of tenants never got assistance. Some states also shifted funding away from rental relief, fearing they’d miss a year-end mandate to spend the money — a deadline that got extended.

The problem, housing advocates said, was that the federal government didn’t specifically earmark any of the coronavirus aid for rental relief, leaving states scrambling to set up programs with no guidance on how the money should be allocated. As much as $3.43 billion in federal aid was spent on rental assistance, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition. But advocates said more should have been done, given tenants faced as much as $34 billion in unpaid rent through January, according to a report released by the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

States’ rental relief programs “were a very mixed success. It was sort of a patchwork of programs,” Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in February. “There was a lot of experimentation — some successful, some not.”

Read the full story here.

9:32 a.m. Mayor’s plan for $1.8 billion in federal relief won’t go to City Council until May or June

Last month, a divided City Council authorized another round of federal coronavirus relief despite the political furor triggered by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to use $281.5 million from earlier funds to cover police payroll costs.

It looks like aldermen must wait a while for Round 2 of what is certain to be a battle royal over the $1.8 billion avalanche of federal money on its way to Chicago.

“I would expect that we probably won’t be taking a package to City Council [until] at the earliest, May, and it may not be ’til June,” the mayor said Monday.

Lightfoot’s timetable did not sit well with downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).

“We need to have more involvement in the preparation of that package. Nobody wants a done deal dropped in our laps at the last minute and then say, ‘Take it or leave it. Vote it up or down,'” Hopkins said.

“All the aldermen I’ve talked to about this have expressed an interest in being involved in the prioritization of it. … There’s gonna be a healthy disagreement among the various caucuses within the City Council about what a top priority should be. But we should be a part of that debate.”

Read the full story from Fran Spielman here.

New Cases & Vaccination Numbers

The Chicago Department of Public Health reported 438 new confirmed cases, 3 deaths and a test positivity rate of 4%.
Another 110,211 shots went into arms on Saturday.
Over 6.2 million vaccine doses have been sent to providers in Illinois and more than 2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated, officials said.

Pritzker’s ‘bridge phase’ put on hold as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise (LIVE UPDATES)on March 30, 2021 at 6:22 pm Read More »

Witness: Officer in Floyd case gave onlookers a ‘cold’ stareon March 30, 2021 at 6:27 pm

MINNEAPOLIS — As onlookers pleaded with Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin to take his knee off George Floyd’s neck, Chauvin just gave them a “cold” and “heartless” stare, the teenager who shot the harrowing video of the arrest testified Tuesday at Chauvin’s murder trial.

In sometimes-tearful testimony, Darnella Frazier, 18, said Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck and fellow officer Tou Thao wouldn’t let onlookers get close, even when one of them identified herself as a firefighter and begged repeatedly to check Floyd’s pulse.

“They definitely put their hands on the Mace, and we all pulled back,” Frazier told the jury.

Frazier said of Chauvin: “He just stared at us, looked at us. He had like this cold look, heartless. He didn’t care. It seemed as if he didn’t care what we were saying.”

Floyd’s death last May, along with the video of the Black man pleading that he couldn’t breathe and onlookers angrily yelling at the white officer to get off him, triggered sometimes-violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality across the U.S.

Frazier testified that she began recording the scene because “it wasn’t right, he was suffering, he was in pain.”

She said she had walked to a convenience store with her 9-year-old cousin when she came upon the officers, and sent the girl inside because she didn’t want her to see “a man terrified, scared, begging for his life.”

Frazier breathed heavily and wept as she viewed pictures of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd and after a prosecutor asked her to describe how the encounter changed her life.

She said she looks at her father and other Black men in her life, and “how that could have been one of them.”

“I stay up at night apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more … not saving his life,” she said, adding of Chauvin: “It’s not what I should have done, it’s what he should have done.”

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson sought repeatedly to show that Chauvin and his fellow officers found themselves in an increasingly tense and distracting situation, with the growing crowd of onlookers becoming agitated and menacing over Floyd’s treatment.

Under cross-examination from Nelson, Frazier said bystanders became increasingly upset by what they were seeing and got louder and louder, “more so as he was becoming more unresponsive.”

But when Frazier was asked by a prosecutor whether she saw violence anywhere on the scene, she replied: “Yes, from the cops. From Chauvin, and from officer Thao.”

Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, accused of killing Floyd by pinning the 46-year-old handcuffed man to the pavement for what prosecutors said was 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd was arrested after being accused of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at the convenience store.

The most serious charge against the now-fired officer carries up to 40 years in prison.

The defense has argued that Chauvin did what his training told him to do and that Floyd’s death was not caused by the officer but by a combination of illegal drug use, heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

When Frazier was asked to identify Chauvin in the pandemic-spaced courtroom, the officer stood up and took off his mask, appearing somber as he looked down and away.

Earlier Tuesday, Donald Williams, another one of the onlookers who shouted at Chauvin, testified that he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder.”

Williams, a professional mixed martial arts fighter who said his training includes chokeholds, returned to the witness stand a day after describing seeing Floyd struggle for air, his eyes roll back in his head, and Floyd “slowly fade away … like a fish in a bag.”

On Tuesday, prosecutors played back Williams’ 911 call, in which a dispatcher offers to switch him to a sergeant. As he is being switched, Williams can he heard yelling at the officers at the scene, “Y’all is murderers, bro!”

During cross-examination, Chauvin’s attorney pointed out that Williams seemed to grow increasingly angry at the police, taunting Chauvin with “tough guy,” “bum” and other names, then calling Chauvin expletives, which the defense lawyer repeated in court.

Williams initially admitted he was getting angrier, but then backtracked and said he was controlled and professional and was pleading for Floyd’s life but wasn’t being heard.

Williams said he was stepping on and off the curb, and at one point, Thao, who was controlling the crowd, put his hand on Williams’ chest. Williams admitted under questioning that he told Thao he would beat the officers if Thao touched him again.

Witness: Officer in Floyd case gave onlookers a ‘cold’ stareon March 30, 2021 at 6:27 pm Read More »

Reopening retreat: State’s move into less restrictive ‘bridge phase’ pushed back as cases rise, hospital beds fillon March 30, 2021 at 6:33 pm

Reopening plans are being pushed back in Illinois as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations rise yet again statewide, public health officials announced Tuesday.

That count has risen almost daily since hitting a one-year-low of 1,082 beds occupied by COVID-19 patients March 12. A total of 1,396 beds were taken up Monday night — the most since late February.

Pritzker’s order to hold steady marks the latest troubling rise in the rollercoaster pandemic, even as its end inches into view thanks to a widening vaccination campaign.

Illinois hadn’t yet reached the peak of its first surge this time last year. That happened in late April, when nightly hospitalizations hovered near 5,000.

Residents helped successfully bend the curve through the spring and summer, when about 1,500 beds were taken up each night — before a devastating fall resurgence shot that figure beyond 6,000 during the worst nights of the pandemic in mid-November.

After the first vaccine shots went into Illinois arms in mid-December, the state’s infection rate sank to an all-time low by the second week of March.

But now, a third surge could be in the offing as Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot have sounded the alarm on rising transmission among young adults paying less heed to basic COVID-19 precautions. In an effort to get more administer more shots as quickly as possible, the governor has given local health departments the go-ahead to make all adults eligible for vaccination immediately in areas where demand for appointments had tapered off.

New COVID-19 cases by day

Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times

Source: Illinois Department of Public Health

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

The state reported 2,404 new cases were diagnosed among 51,579 tests, raising the state’s average testing positivity rate over the past week to 3.4%. Experts use that number to track how rapidly the virus is spreading.

It’s still barely a quarter as high as it was during the peak of the pandemic, but it was at 2.1% on March 12 — a net increase of 62% in just 17 days.

The uptick has been even more dramatic in Chicago, where the regional positivity rate is at 4.2% — an increase of a full percentage point in a week. About 473 residents are testing positive each day, up 34% compared to a week ago, according to the city’s Department of Public Health.

“COVID-19 is still here, it is still killing people in our city every day, so we have got to remain diligent,” Lightfoot said Monday.

The state also reported 17 more deaths, including that of a McHenry County man in his 30s.

The virus has claimed about 23 Illinois lives per day over the last week. The state’s fatality rate has stayed relatively flat this month, but experts say the pandemic follows a predictable pattern of rising cases leading to more serious infections weeks later and ultimately more death.

The state also reported 86,812 vaccine doses were administered Monday. About 105,040 shots are going into arms every day.

More than 2.1 million residents have been fully vaccinated so far, or about 16.6% of the population.

Over the past year, more than 1.2 million residents have contracted the virus, and 21,273 have died.

COVID-19 vaccine doses administered by day

Graphic by Jesse Howe and Caroline Hurley | Sun-Times

Source: Illinois Department of Public Health

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Reopening retreat: State’s move into less restrictive ‘bridge phase’ pushed back as cases rise, hospital beds fillon March 30, 2021 at 6:33 pm Read More »

8 arrested after shots fired at Oak Lawn Hiltonon March 30, 2021 at 6:48 pm

Police in Oak Lawn arrested eight people Tuesday after shots were fired outside a hotel in the southwest suburb.

Officers responded to reports of gunfire just after midnight at the Hilton Hotel, 9333 S. Cicero Ave., and stopped two vehicles that were trying to leave the area, Oak Lawn police said in a statement.

Eight adults were arrested, and two handguns were recovered along with several shell casings, police said.

No injuries were reported in the shooting, which was the result of an altercation between a man and a group of people who were outside the hotel, police said.

Charges were pending. Oak Lawn police were investigating.

8 arrested after shots fired at Oak Lawn Hiltonon March 30, 2021 at 6:48 pm Read More »

Teen who shot Floyd video says he was ‘begging for his life’on March 30, 2021 at 5:01 pm

MINNEAPOLIS — The teenager who shot the harrowing video of George Floyd under the knee of the Minneapolis police officer now charged in his death testified Tuesday that she began recording because “it wasn’t right, he was suffering, he was in pain.”

Darnella Frazier, 18, said she was walking to a convenience store with her younger cousin when she came upon the officers, and sent the girl into the store because she didn’t want her to see “a man terrified, scared, begging for his life.”

Frazier grew emotional at times, breathing heavily and crying as she viewed pictures of officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd last May.

Floyd’s death and the video of Floyd pleading for his life and onlookers angrily yelling at Chauvin to get off him triggered sometimes-violent protests around the world and a reckoning over racism and police brutality in the U.S.

One of the bystanders, who identified herself as a Minneapolis firefighter, pleaded repeatedly with officers to check Floyd’s pulse, but Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck, and he and fellow officer Tou Thao wouldn’t let onlookers get close, Frazier said.

“They definitely put their hands on the Mace and we all pulled back,” she told the jury.

Frazier said of Chauvin: “He just stared at us, looked at us. He had like this cold look, heartless. He didn’t care. It seemed as if he didn’t care what we were saying.”

Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson sought to show that Chauvin and his fellow officers found themselves in an increasingly tense and distracting situation, with the growing crowd of onlookers becoming agitated and menacing over Floyd’s treatment.

But when Frazier was asked by a prosecutor whether she saw violence anywhere on the scene, she replied: “Yes, from the cops. From Chauvin, and from officer Thao.”

When asked to identify the officer, Chauvin stood up in the courtroom and took off his mask, appearing somber as he looked down and away before putting his mask on.

Earlier Tuesday, a man who was among the onlookers shouting at Chauvin to get off Floyd testified that he called 911 after paramedics took Floyd away, “because I believed I witnessed a murder.”

Donald Williams, a former wrestler who said he was trained in mixed martial arts, including chokeholds, returned to the witness stand a day after describing seeing Floyd struggle for air and his eyes roll back into his head. He said he watched Floyd “slowly fade away … like a fish in a bag.”

On Tuesday, prosecutors played back Williams’ 911 call, on which he is heard identifying Chauvin by his badge number and telling the dispatcher that Chauvin had been keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck despite warnings that Floyd’s life was in danger. She offers to switch him to a sergeant.

As he is being switched, Williams can he heard yelling at the officers, “Y’all is murderers, bro!”

During cross-examination, Chauvin attorney Eric Nelson pointed out that Williams seemed to grow increasingly angry at police on the scene, swearing at and taunting Chauvin with “tough guy,” “bum” and other names, then calling Chauvin expletives, which the defense lawyer repeated in court.

Williams initially admitted he was getting angrier, but then backtracked and said he was controlled and professional and was pleading for Floyd’s life but wasn’t being heard.

Williams was among the first witnesses as Chauvin, 45, went on trial on charges of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

Prosecutors led off their case by playing part of the bystander video of Floyd’s arrest. Chauvin and three other officers were fired soon after the footage became public.

Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell showed the jurors the video after telling them that the number to remember was 9 minutes, 29 seconds — the amount of time Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement “until the very life was squeezed out of him.”

Nelson countered by arguing: “Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over his 19-year career.”

The defense attorney also disputed that Chauvin was to blame for Floyd’s death, as prosecutors contend.

Floyd, 46, had none of the telltale signs of asphyxiation and had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, Nelson said. He said Floyd’s drug use, combined with his heart disease, high blood pressure and the adrenaline flowing through his body, caused a heart rhythm disturbance that killed him.

Teen who shot Floyd video says he was ‘begging for his life’on March 30, 2021 at 5:01 pm Read More »

Leaking gas line prompts evacuation of block in Wrightwoodon March 30, 2021 at 5:03 pm

A leaking natural gas line prompted a residential block to be evacuated Tuesday morning in the Wrightwood neighborhood.

The leaking gas was noticed after a crew improperly reconnected a gas main after replacing a water main, according to Department of Water Management spokeswoman Megan Vidis.

A hazardous materials incident was called at 7:20 a.m. in the 2800 block of West 81st Street, according to Chicago police. The entire block was evacuated, police said.

The incident was later “secured” without injuries, Chicago fire department spokesman Larry Langford said.

A spokesperson for Peoples Gas didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Leaking gas line prompts evacuation of block in Wrightwoodon March 30, 2021 at 5:03 pm Read More »

In memoir, Sharon Stone talks her true life, from working at McDonald’s to the price of fame and ‘Basic Instinct’on March 30, 2021 at 5:24 pm

“The whole world has made up a story about me,” confides Sharon Stone. “The whole world makes up stories about famous people. They just come out of a regular life like everybody else.”

The Oscar-nominated actress, 63, takes the chance to write her own story with her new memoir, “The Beauty of Living Twice,” out Tuesday (Knopf), which she began writing after a near-fatal stroke in 2001.

Stone describes her coal-town Pennsylvania childhood where she started work as a McDonald’s fry cooker, covers her superstar breakout in 1992’s “Basic Instinct”– while saying director Paul Verhoeven misled her over that infamous interrogation scene.

In an excerpt from the book released to Vanity Fair, Stone uncovers how while filming the scene in which her character Catherine Tramell uncrosses her legs revealing up her dress, she was directed to remove her underwear. However, she was also told her private area would not be seen.

“‘We can’t see anything — I just need you to remove your panties, as the white is reflecting the light, so we know you have panties on’,” Stone said. The Oscar-nominated actress said she was called in to watch the final cut with a “room full of agents and lawyers,” and after it was over she said things got physical with director Paul Verhoeven. “Now, here is the issue. It didn’t matter anymore. It was me and my parts up there. I had decisions to make. I went to the projection booth, slapped Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer, Marty Singer,” she said. While she said she was initially offended, Stone insisted she still had choices and chose to allow the scene.

Sharon Stone in the famous interrogation scene from “Basic Instinct.”

Stone says she hopes her memoir is conversational.

“I want it to feel like it’s that kind of talk with your friend where maybe you’ve had a couple glasses of wine,” Stone says. “So you’re comfortable to say the things you only say to your closest friends.”

Here’s how Stone’s Zoom memoir conversation with USA TODAY went down:

Q. First of all, you had to postpone our talk due to the side effects of your COVID-19 vaccine. How are you feeling?

A. It wasn’t awful, just really fatiguing. I just couldn’t drag myself out of the bed mostly and I needed a day. I got it with the first shot. I think because I’ve had this brain issue and I’m on brain medication, it just depends on each individual response. My real concern now is trying to get this vaccine released free for the world, to be free and available in third world countries. Or we’re never all going to get better.

Q. What did you learn as a McDonald’s fry girl or a pie girl at Bob’s Big Boy?

A. Some really good lessons — hard work, showing up, being there on time and paying your dues. And I was doing this in the ’70s. There weren’t job-place rules protecting young girls. I learned a lot about self-defense and how to take care of myself while keeping a job. That has served me well. How to have a really big sense of humor, how to be one of the guys and disarm those situations before they happen.

Q. Discussing 1990’s “Total Recall,” you talk about the quest to kick 6-foot-2 Arnold Schwarzenegger’s head. Why was that such a triumph?

A. If you’re not a dancer, it’s tough kicking someone in the face with your heel straight ahead. Even if I’m pretty limber, still. Also, it was Schwarzenegger. It’s daunting because you’re looking at this giant, muscular guy. You don’t want to look like, this fight is ridiculous. That she is actually pounding him. So I black-and-blued him, pretty much head to toe that day. It was hilarious.

Q. Was there any fallout from missed kicks?

A. Arnold taught me so much, including how to do interviews. He sat in the booth with all the television monitors, watched my interviews, and then advised me. Like, this is how you do this. He’s a master. That’s how he became governor of California.

Q. You talk about realizing how big “Basic Instinct” would be at the Cannes premiere, going to the bathroom to get sick, and your friend explaining the new rules of fame. What were those rules?

A. I was on my knees, dry heaving. And he took me to his room, sat me on the side of the tub, ran some cold water, told me to put my feet in there and gave me a Valium. He handled a lot of big stars in his time and he was like, ‘Look, from now on, life is going to change. You need Sharon-Stone-the-movie-star clothes, and then you need your clothes.’ You need to start separating out your life so that you have a sane existence. He actually told me to pay for anything under a hundred dollars with a check because people won’t cash the check. They’ll want your autograph. Which is something I didn’t do. But it was sound advice.

Q. It’s a long way to go from a McDonald’s fryer.

A. When I was at Elton John’s wedding, someone said to me, ‘Clark Gable didn’t come from Park Avenue, Sharon. We’re all just a bunch of kids from nowhere who had a dream and look where we are.’ We were standing at that crazily beautiful wedding in a room packed with famous people. And we were the most awkward group you’ve ever seen. Because we all came from Nowheresville.

Q. There are many relationships in this book, but do you have the desire to date now?

A. COVID has been a great time for balance, understanding and clarity. This work I’ve done on myself and by writing the book has been very healing. I suspect it will allow me to be a much better partner than I have ever been before. I am actually expecting that I will be able to have a good relationship in the future. But I don’t think COVID is exactly a great time to be looking for romance.

I hope that I do meet someone who has also spent the time becoming their best self and done their own work. But it’s not my vision quest right at the moment.

Read more at usatoday.com

In memoir, Sharon Stone talks her true life, from working at McDonald’s to the price of fame and ‘Basic Instinct’on March 30, 2021 at 5:24 pm Read More »

New vaccination site will handle about 1,200 coronavirus vaccinations every week with potential to expand (LIVE UPDATES)on March 30, 2021 at 5:45 pm

Latest

New vaccination site will be dedicated to essential union workers

Lightfoot said the site will be able to handle about 1,200 vaccinations weekly at first and can grow to 6,000 weekly as vaccine supply increases.

It also will allow vaccination for those working in construction, retail, restaurants and all other essential workers who had not previously been eligible.

“It’s our union workers who make up the backbone of this city.”

Those wishing to be vaccinated at Local 399 must live or work in Chicago, hold a current union card or be a union retiree, and qualify under the city’s current eligibility criteria.

Read the full story from Manny Ramos here.

News

12:44 p.m. States struggle to get rent relief to tenants amid pandemic

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last July that New York would spend $100 million in federal coronavirus relief to help cash-strapped tenants pay months of back rent and avert evictions.

Read the full story here.

9:32 a.m. Mayor’s plan for $1.8 billion in federal relief won’t go to City Council until May or June

It looks like aldermen must wait a while for Round 2 of what is certain to be a battle royal over the $1.8 billion avalanche of federal money on its way to Chicago.

“I would expect that we probably won’t be taking a package to City Council [until] at the earliest, May, and it may not be ’til June,” the mayor said Monday.

Lightfoot’s timetable did not sit well with downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).

Read the full story from Fran Spielman here.

New Cases & Vaccination Numbers

The Chicago Department of Public Health reported 438 new confirmed cases, 3 deaths and a test positivity rate of 4%.
Another 110,211 shots went into arms on Saturday.
Over 6.2 million vaccine doses have been sent to providers in Illinois and more than 2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated, officials said.

New vaccination site will handle about 1,200 coronavirus vaccinations every week with potential to expand (LIVE UPDATES)on March 30, 2021 at 5:45 pm Read More »

5 Chicago Food Bloggers You Must Follow For Amazing Restaurant Recommendationson March 30, 2021 at 4:15 pm

Every major city has guys and gals that are obsessed with food and that love sharing their favorite and not so favorite dishes. We all wish we knew what kinds of food a place serves and if it’s really worth going there. And Chicago has some amazing restaurants with one of a kind meals that are definitely worth sharing. These five Chicago food bloggers go above and beyond to share their favorite dishes, places to eat, as well as what Chicago foodies should avoid.

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Michelle is one of the Chicago food bloggers that is “eating her way through the Midwest!” She has traveled to numerous cities to find the best food. She is notorious on Yelp (in a good way) and bears the title of Yelp Elite for 5 years…and counting. You will find everything from jerk chicken to a classic minestrone soup to marshmallow fluff cookie sandwiches. Although she doesn’t provide guides to her foodie adventures, be sure to check out her stories daily to find out where the best dishes are!

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With over 11,000 followers, @hangry_chicago is a must follow. Run by @baileymcguire1, you will find everything from pancakes to coffee to delicious vodka rigatoni to carne asada tacos. The list goes on and if you’re a fan of food porn, her feed is deliciously beautiful. And just like @lickworthy, Bailey provides her fans with guides to her favorite restaurants and eats and keeps them frequently updated so you never miss a new fave.

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Jessica (@jessicatips) is from Chicago (obviously) and shares her take on a variety of different dishes from across the city. She also provides her followers with guides so you don’t have to search her feed to find the best spots for a Sunday brunch. You can find everything from sushi to wings on her feed and you won’t be disappointed with her selection. Jessica also has recently traveled Florida, so if you’re planning a trip to the coast, be sure to check her posts!

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A post shared by Chicago Food Blogger • 312food (@312food)

Run by Eryn Byrne, @312food has over 100,000 followers! Now that’s impressive! With that many fans, you will not be disappointed in her picks and her extensive feed of food porn. She’s one of the Chicago food bloggers that doesn’t just share her favorite dishes or her favorite places for a midnight snack. She also provides her followers with hidden jems, hacks for if you’re on a waitlist, food trucks and favorites from our beloved airport, O’Hare. You can also find her city guide on her website!

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A post shared by Chele | Chicago Foodie (@chelethefoodsnob)

Deemed as the “food snob,” Chele has a rounded feed. She includes her food favorites, travel, tips, and recipes. And as a notorious foodie, she provides her followers with a guide to eats in Dallas! She travels a lot so if you’re interested in learning more about food from across the country, @chelethefoodsnob is one to follow. Plus, be sure to check out her favorite black owned restaurants and bars in her reels!

Chicago Food Bloggers Featured Image Credit: Medium

5 Chicago Food Bloggers You Must Follow For Amazing Restaurant Recommendationson March 30, 2021 at 4:15 pm Read More »

Almost A 7 Year Record, Chicago Area’s Home Price Gains No Match For Rest Of Country

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Reopening plans pushed back in Illinois as COVID-19 infections rise and hospital beds fill

News

1:16 p.m. New vaccination site will be dedicated to essential union workers

12:44 p.m. States struggle to get rent relief to tenants amid pandemic

9:32 a.m. Mayor’s plan for $1.8 billion in federal relief won’t go to City Council until May or June

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12:44 p.m. States struggle to get rent relief to tenants amid pandemic

9:32 a.m. Mayor’s plan for $1.8 billion in federal relief won’t go to City Council until May or June

New Cases & Vaccination Numbers