Gov. Pritzker announces bridge to Phase Five

Gov. Pritzker made the announcements on Thursday. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – If everything goes as planned, Gov. JB Pritzker can look at Thursday as a big, big step forward.

“We are at 58 percent of our 65-and-older population that has been vaccinated,” Pritzker said at a Chicago news conference. “When we get to seventy percent, we will be able to move to the bridge phase, which increases capacity, allows businesses to have more customers, getting our economy really moving. Then during the 28 days following that, hoping to get half of our adult population vaccinated. Then we would move to be fully open in the state, and people would just be required to wear masks.”

The bridge phase expands standing-room capacity at restaurants and allows theatres to open to sixty percent.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…