Office of Rep. Dan Lipinski
Eight-term Illinois Congressman Daniel Lipinski, who lost his seat in this year’s primary, gave more than $17,000 in campaign money to Catholic schools and churches over the past four years.
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Carle Foundation Hospital is routinely treating people in beds in the hallways of the emergency room at its Urbana facility on University Avenue, although the practice has come under criticism by health experts. The practice is generally done because a hospital is at overcapacity and does not have room for patients and is known as “boarding.” Boarding has been criticized because negative effects can include death, preventable disability, prolonged hospital stays and general discomfort.
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Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Democratic congressman of Illinois 4th congressional district, significantly decreased his re-election campaign spending from $1 million in 2017-2018 to only about half million so far in the 2019-2020 election cycle. Andrew Mayersohn, committee researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that analyzes political spending, said Garcia is spending less since he doesn’t face any “serious threats” in this campaign cycle. His opponent Jesus Solorio has only raised $755.
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Congressional candidate Brad Schneider (D-IL 10th District) has sharply increased his donations to other groups from nearly $2 million in campaign funds as he seeks reelection in November. According to analysis of FEC records, Schneider gave $53,825.48 to charities and medical workers, and $400,110.3 to the Democratic Congressional Committee, which uses those funds to support other Democratic candidates.
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Last year, 233 criminal incidents occurred on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus according to the 2019 annual security and fire report, mandated by the federal crime reporting law for colleges known as the Clery Act. But the university’s daily crime log routinely reports many more incidents. Some law enforcement officials said the Clery Act guidelines can be confusing and unclear for crime reporting and can lead to ‘unintended harms’, especially in the wake of COVID-19, which may make campuses appear less safe than reality.
Previously confidential statewide data tracking coronavirus cases across Illinois shows that there have been at least 50 different outbreaks in Champaign County traced to restaurants, stores, churches, nursing homes, hospitals and in a county office. The internal database kept by the Illinois Department of Public Health has tracked case counts for nearly 2,600 separate outbreaks across Illinois. In Champaign County, the number of cases in individual outbreaks ranges from two at the Carle Clinic in Mahomet to 97 at Rantoul Foods in Rantoul, which CU-CitizenAccess has previously reported. The database also listed cases at Cunningham Children’s Home (8) , Plastipak (14) and the Champaign County Jail in Urbana (4). The data also includes the ‘unofficial prom party’ in Champaign County where there were 17 confirmed Covid-19 cases. That prom party has been reported as being in Mahomet.
Photo: Christine Herman/Illinois Newsroom
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s saliva-based COVID-19 test has never operated under emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, despite prior claims that it did, an FDA spokesperson tells Illinois Newsroom. So far, campus officials say the U of I has been contacted by 35 organizations, including other universities, expressing interest in adopting the campus’ Shield program, which involves testing, contact tracing and other mitigation measures.
State health officials may re-impose tighter Covid-19 restrictions on Champaign County because other counties in the region are reporting higher rates of the virus. On Wednesday, health officials said the number of saliva tests conducted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has skewed the 7-day positivity rate in a 21 county region. The state uses the positivity rate to impose restrictions or lift mitigation efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. The number of University tests makes up 20% of all tests given in the state and officials said when its numbers are factored in, the region’s positivity rate is at 2%. Without including the university’s numbers, the positivity rate is 7.2% for other 20 counties in central Illinois area known as Region 6. An 8% rate would trigger additional state restrictions. Seven counties in Region 6 already are above the 8% positivity rate.
The former owners of the News-Gazette have sold the building at 15 East Main Street in Champaign for nearly $1.2 million to local businesswoman Laura Kalman, according to documents filed in U.S Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
The News-Gazette’s owners are shutting down the Rantoul Press - while the Commercial News, based in Danville, has announced reduced days of publication. The Rantoul Press has been in operation since the early 1900s and is published weekly on Wednesday. It was formerly owned by Glenn Hansen, who died in 2008. The newspaper was sold to the News-Gazette in 2004. “It’s sad because it’s been our little newspaper,” said Kaye Heath, secretary and treasurer of the Rantoul Historical Society and Museum. Heath, 75, is a lifelong resident of Rantoul and said that in addition to retaining a copy of the full paper, the historical society often clips articles from the newspaper, such as fires and other happenings, for their files. “We’re going to miss it,” she said.