A mask mandate is back for visitors, patients and staff at Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora. Executives of the hospital system, with campuses in Aurora, Oak Park and Chicago, cited increased levels of COVID-19 and other illnesses, including flu and respiratory syncytial virus. The mask requirement is in place...
By Grace Kinnicutt The Illinois House amended COVID-19 protocols Tuesday, March 8 to lift face covering requirements following weeks of pushback from Republican Party members who sometimes refused to wear masks and delayed the start of session on several occasions. In a 104-1 vote, the House passed House Resolution 717...
By Jerry Nowicki In the first half-hour of the House of Representatives session Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the State Capitol in Springfield, the leaders of each party made calls for civility, two lawmakers recounted their recollections of a House floor altercation, and three Republicans were removed from the floor for...
By Jerry Nowicki Illinoisans should stay tuned for an announcement on the State’s indoor mask mandate, governor JB Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday, although he declined to say specifically what changes might be coming. “I think I’ve said over the last few press conferences that I really...
By Jerry Nowicki The statewide mask mandate indoors is back, and educators and health care professionals will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, governor JB Pritzker announced last week amid an ongoing surge in the pandemic that first arrived in Illinois in March 2020. Beginning Monday this week, indviduals...
By Peter Hancock A capacity crowd packed into the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)) room Wednesday, Aug. 18 and many more stood outside the building in Springfield to protest the State’s new indoor mask mandate in all public and nonpublic schools. “I’m so tired of hearing how resilient our...
August 13, 2021Dear editor; Thank you Shaw Media’s Shea Lazansky for focusing on the pro-mask attitudes of our high school students during the School District 308 Board meeting August 9 (Ledger, August 12). These students stressed the importance of wearing masks to protect themselves, their friends and family, while many...
By Bela “Bill” SuhaydaSugar Grove After my first microbiology class in college, I realized there were at least a thousand ways I would come into contact with microbes on a daily basis. There is an inevitability to living with germs. They are all around us, on us, and inside of...
After consulting with health authorities and reviewing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) latest masking guidance, the city government of Naperville will reinstate the use of face coverings for all visitors to government buildings which was set to begin Tuesday, Aug. 3. Participants in board and Commission meetings,...
In an effort to curb the resurgent spread of COVID-19, Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness will be a partner with State representative Barbara Hernandez (83rd District) to distribute thousands of free protective facemasks on Thursday, Sept. 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 659 S. River Street, Aurora. The...
By Sam R Fisher Governor JB Pritzker hired a great deal of expert talent to guide his new $5 million “It Only Works if You Wear It” campaign to encourage Illinoisans to wear a mask. But the campaign apparently isn’t spending a dime on print advertising in newspapers. Instead, it’s...
By Peter Hancock A legislative panel that oversees the State’s administrative rulemaking process voted along partisan lines to allow governor JB Pritzker’s emergency rule to enforce mask-wearing and other public health orders to move forward. That decision came from the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, a...
With a market value of $350,000, an order of a half-million face masks is a significant investment. When those masks are donated to a community for free, it’s more than just about the money. It’s about a mission to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The Chicago-based Dr. Willie Wilson...
It’s hard for me to crack the writer’s block this week, because I’m constantly bombarded with the latest Trump idiocy and inanities. Let’s see if I can change the subject slightly. I can focus on face masks. It’s now confirmed by doctors and other science professionals, that wearing a face...
Mike Martinez, president of Boys II Men mentoring group, provides free masks to a driver Saturday at the Aurora Transportation Center in part of the Aurora City government's free distribution which provided 16,750 face masks to occupants of 2,412 cars which filled the parking lot. Dr. Willie Wilson of Chicago donated 100,000 face masks for the drive-thru.
State representative Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, outside Alden Horizon Senior Living Facility holds a donation of masks for residents, recently.
Thomas M. Hartwell, Kane County Circuit clerk along with other political and community leaders are planning to distribute more than 4,000 protective face masks and care packages to those in need this weekend. The free care packages will be available from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 16 at the...
