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The Spin: Lightfoot does media tour as COVID-19 restrictions lift; Pritzker out of sight | Mayor, top cop denounce extremism as Chicago cop charged in Capitol riot | New lawsuit over Democrat-drawn map

  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joined by Chicago police Superintendent David...

    Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joined by Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, standing behind her, and others to discuss summer safety strategies at the Whitney Young Library in Chicago on May 28, 2021.

  • Residents head up a dirt road called Spring Valley in...

    Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune

    Residents head up a dirt road called Spring Valley in Long Grove on Friday, June 5, 2021. Since the Rte. 53 road extension has been nixed, a task force is being put together to study the viability of making a 12-mile long nature preserve.

  • Gov. J.B. Pritzker is joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley...

    Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

    Gov. J.B. Pritzker is joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley at a news conference regarding safety with voting machines at the Chicago Board of Elections Jan. 27, 2020.

  • Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces a new community investment initiative on...

    Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces a new community investment initiative on her two-year anniversary in office in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood May 20, 2021.

  • Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is seen during a news conference...

    Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune

    Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is seen during a news conference in Dawes Park in Chicago on April 26, 2021. She announced her capital and infrastructure plan called "Chicago Works."

  • The Illinois Capitol building is seen May 20, 2020, in...

    Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune

    The Illinois Capitol building is seen May 20, 2020, in Springfield.

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While Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot did local and national media rounds, Gov. J.B. Pritzker was conspicuously quiet.

It was his COVID-19 restrictions, which in the early days of the pandemic included a statewide shutdown in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, that were lifted Friday — by his order. In the early days of the pandemic, and again when cases surged later last year, Pritzker was a familiar presence through his daily news conferences.

But on Friday, his office said he was taking some time to be with family.

So Lightfoot made the victory laps — including an outdoor news conference downtown to declare: “Our city is back. We are poised to roar back, to provide more business, more opportunity and, importantly, more jobs to Chicagoans.”

A line of city, business and union officials followed her at the lectern, which was adorned with a large picture of the mayor and another of the city’s top public health official, Dr. Allison Arwady — a visual you might only see with presidential and vice presidential candidates on the campaign trail.

On a more somber note, a Chicago police officer was arrested on federal charges tied to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Tribune’s Jason Meisner reports. Dozens of retired and current law enforcement officers, members of the military and government workers from across the country have been arrested in the wake of the attack.

And I checked in with two Illinois congressmen — Mike Quigley of Chicago and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg — who sit on the House Intelligence Committee after that New York Times report about how then-President Donald Trump’s Justice Department seized records of at least two Democrats on the panel. The DOJ was trying to track down who was leaking information to the media about the Russia investigation, sources told the Times. More below.

Welcome to The Spin.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces a new community investment initiative on her two-year anniversary in office in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood May 20, 2021.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces a new community investment initiative on her two-year anniversary in office in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood May 20, 2021.

As Lightfoot publicly marks reopening, Pritzker out of sight as he takes time to be with family

The Tribune’s Gregory Pratt tracked the mayor as she made the rounds on local and national media, cheerleading the city’s reopening nearly 15 months after Pritzker enacted a shutdown.

The mayor said she’s talking with CEOs about getting workers vaccinated, and promoting the safety of public transportation, in order to get workers back to their jobs in the Loop and its environs; pre-pandemic roughly 600,000 people worked downtown.

“I think when people see that the downtown is fully reopened, and I’m seeing it now, there’s an uptick in the number of people taking the trains now, traffic is definitely back up. I think there’s a real hunger to be back together,” Lightfoot said during an appearance on WGN-TV. “Just as we’re seeing people really excited to be in restaurants, music venues, and just outdoors, we’re going to see people wanting to come back downtown to work.”

Pratt writes that “Lightfoot has faced a number of questions about the future for the city, especially its downtown, amid ongoing fallout from the pandemic and 2020’s civil unrest. Many businesses and economic corridors have yet to recover from the damage.” More here.

Where’s the governor? “Pritzker, whose daily briefings were a hallmark of the early months of the pandemic and again during the fall surge, was conspicuously absent on reopening day,” the Tribune’s Dan Petrella writes.

The governor “is taking some time off to be with his family,” spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said. Indeed, he’s largely been out of sight since granting a round of interviews with reporters on June 3.

As state loosens restrictions, the risk of a serious COVID-19 infection may be higher than it was last summer, the Tribune’s Joe Mahr, Dan Petrella and Lisa Schencker report.

As Illinois celebrates the milestone start of phase five, some are uneasy about dropping pandemic protocols, the Tribune’s Angie Leventis Lourgos reports. 

With one of the highest vaccination rates in the state, Naperville residents ready to embrace new “normal,” the Naperville Sun’s Rafael Guerrero reports.

Chicago domestic violence killings, state helpline calls spike in pandemic, even as 911 calls drop. Black and Latino victims were most at risk, according to a new report. My Tribune colleagues Laura Rodríguez Presa and Joe Mahr have the details here.

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joined by Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, standing behind her, and others to discuss summer safety strategies at the Whitney Young Library in Chicago on May 28, 2021.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is joined by Chicago police Superintendent David Brown, standing behind her, and others to discuss summer safety strategies at the Whitney Young Library in Chicago on May 28, 2021.

Lightfoot, top cop say city has zero tolerance for extremism after Chicago cop is charged in connection with US Capitol riot

Mayor Lightfoot and the city’s top cop called a news conference after officials announced Chicago police Officer Karol Chwiesiuk, 29, was charged in a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington with five misdemeanor counts, including entering a restricted building, disrupting government business, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds with intent to impede a congressional proceeding, the Tribune’s Jason Meisner and Gregory Pratt write.

“According to the complaint, Chwiesiuk was captured in photos wearing a CPD hoodie,” Meisner and Pratt note in their story. “Geolocation captured his cellular phone in and around the Capitol, prosecutors said, and included texts from the phone in the paperwork.”

If true, that would mean the officer was amid the throngs of right-wing Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol after the president’s false claims the November election was stolen from him. At the time of the breach, both chambers of Congress were certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.

During the news conference, Lightfoot said the fact that a police officer has been linked to the riot is a “total disgrace to the badge.”

Police Superintendent David Brown added that “If these allegations are true, it breaks my heart,” saying an officer participating in the insurrection is a “betrayal of everything we stand for.”

An officer assigned to the West Side’s Harrison District, Chwiesiuk has been stripped of his police powers and placed on desk duty. He previously worked for the Cook County sheriff’s office.

Lightfoot also took aim at the controversial president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, John Catanzara, a vocal Trump supporter who initially downplayed the storming of the nation’s Capitol but later apologized for his remarks. Read the full story about the officer charged and City Hall’s reaction here.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has hired radio, TV talk show host Roe Conn as a “senior project manager,” media writer Robert Feder reports. It’s quite a pivot, something Conn acknowledges. Dart also has hired Shereen Mohammad, of WBBM-AM and WCFS-FM, to be a spokeswoman for his office, Feder reports.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley at a news conference regarding safety with voting machines at the Chicago Board of Elections Jan. 27, 2020.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley at a news conference regarding safety with voting machines at the Chicago Board of Elections Jan. 27, 2020.

Quigley blasts Trump and his Justice Department after reports prosecutors sought Democrats’ records in hunt for media leaks

The New York Times reported this week that the Trump Justice Department “subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, aides and family members” between 2017 and 2018. By looking at metadata, the DOJ was aiming to track down media leaks. Full story here.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the leading Democrat on the panel at the time who now serves as its chairman, was one of the two congressman whose data was subpoenaed, sources tell the Times. Fellow California U.S. Rep Eric Swalwell of California told the Times he had been notified his data had been subpoenaed.

A clearly ticked off U.S. Rep. Quigley, who has sat on the Intelligence Committee since 2015, sent out a statement blasting the former president and calling the “politicization” of the Justice Department “dangerous to our democracy.”

“From my first days as part of the Russia investigation, I expected that eventually, someone would attempt this — I just wasn’t sure if it would be a hostile government or my own,” Quigley said. “It’s not remotely surprising to learn that it was the Trump Administration. President Trump repeatedly used the Department of Justice for his own political ends.

“His lackey Attorneys General were hand-picked for their willingness to subvert the DOJ and use it as the former president’s legal attack dog,” he said, adding: “The politicization of (the) DOJ was dangerous to our democracy.”

Right now there’s no reason to believe prosecutors went after Quigley’s data. The congressman has not been notified that any of his records were subpoenaed, his office tells me.

A spokesman for Krishnamoorthi reminded me that the time period records were pulled — 2017-18 — was before the Northwest suburban congressman was on the Intelligence Committee. Still, Krishnamoorthi is looking into whether any of his data may have been subpoenaed after that.

The Illinois Capitol building is seen May 20, 2020, in Springfield.
The Illinois Capitol building is seen May 20, 2020, in Springfield.

As lawmakers scramble to avoid threatened nukes shutdown, Pritzker pitches plan that would cost ComEd ratepayers nearly $3 more a month

From the Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Stacy St. Clair: “With lawmakers set to return to Springfield next week to vote on an energy policy overhaul, an outline of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest plan shows customers would pay nearly $3 more per month on their power bills, in part to fund a multimillion-dollar bailout of nuclear plants owned by the parent of scandal-plagued Commonwealth Edison.

“A memo from the governor’s office sent Thursday to a group of lawmakers made clear that no deal has been reached on a proposal that aims to set the state on a path to Pritzker’s goal of 100% carbon-free energy by 2050. In addition, Senate Democrats were drafting their own version to bring to the table.

“Pressure is mounting because ComEd parent Exelon has said it will shut down its Byron and Dresden nuclear plants this year if it doesn’t get more help from the state because it says they can’t compete with cheaper power from carbon-emitting coal and natural gas plants.” Read Petrella and St. Clair’s full story here.

Second lawsuit filed challenging Democratic-drawn legislative maps: “Only days after Republicans went to court challenging new Democratic-drawn Illinois legislative boundaries, a group backed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has filed a federal lawsuit asking to block the state from using the redistricting plan for next year’s election,” the Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes. Full story here.

Residents head up a dirt road called Spring Valley in Long Grove on Friday, June 5, 2021. Since the Rte. 53 road extension has been nixed, a task force is being put together to study the viability of making a 12-mile long nature preserve.
Residents head up a dirt road called Spring Valley in Long Grove on Friday, June 5, 2021. Since the Rte. 53 road extension has been nixed, a task force is being put together to study the viability of making a 12-mile long nature preserve.

Land once proposed for Route 53 extension in Lake County now eyed as greenway

From the Tribune’s Robert McCoppin: “First came the Illinois Prairie Path, one of the first rail-to-trail conversions in the United States. Later, The 606 trail in Chicago attracted crowds of bikers and runners and led to skyrocketing nearby property values. Now, a group of conservationists and elected officials in Lake County are pushing to turn a former proposed tollway corridor into a greenway — a trail through a long, narrow nature preserve.

“Illinois lawmakers recently approved a resolution calling for a task force to study alternate uses for the proposed extension of Illinois Route 53 in the northwest suburbs. The effort picks up where Illinois tollway officials left off in 2019 when they dropped plans for the road.” Read what the cheerleaders and cynics have to say here.

Programming note: The Spin is taking the day off on Monday but returns Tuesday with guest host and ace reporter Alice Yin. I’ll return June 21.

Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.

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