The Spin: Bill Daley says he tipped wife to Osama bin Laden raid | Todd Stroger lands a new gig in Robbins | Gov. J.B. Pritzker says COVID-19 restrictions could loosen more next week

With the number of COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations falling, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this morning that the state could hit the “bridge” phase of reopening the economy that would allow a wide range of business to welcome more customers as soon as next week. It would mark a precursor to fully lifting the state’s pandemic restrictions.

And after a year off, plans are underway to resume Illinois’ two state fairs — in Springfield and Du Quoin, the governor said.

The good news is tempered by a New York Times report about how the United States may not reach herd immunity. A confluence of variants gaining steam and vaccine hesitancy means the U.S. won’t get to the 80% inoculation threshold.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, a holdover from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration, is leaving her post in June, she confirmed today in a joint news conference with Mayor Lori Lightfoot. With Jackson and two of her top deputies now exiting CPS, the nation’s third-largest public school district, it’s a chance for the rookie mayor to hire a new leader for a system that saw the pandemic collide with ongoing labor disputes.

Still, the mayor has struggled at time filling key positions; all eyes will be on how quickly she fills the post.

All of this is unfolding, too, as the General Assembly weighs whether to create an elected school board or create a hybrid appointment-elected system that allows the mayor to control the school. The mayor is behind the latter.

Here’s a blast from the past: Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger tells The Spin he’s returning to government and politics, though on a much smaller platform than last time. He says Robbins Mayor-elect Darren E. Bryant is hiring him to be the south suburb’s village administrator.

And this past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of that Navy SEALs team capturing and executing Osama bin Laden. To mark the occasion, Politico published an oral history of the key political players beyond President Barack Obama — who offer insight into the timing of the top secret operation.

Chicago’s own Bill Daley, then Obama’s chief of staff, reveals he couldn’t quite keep his mouth shut. Grilled by his spouse about his strange behavior, he says he told her.

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Gov. Pritzker says state could loosen more COVID-19 restrictions next week

The Tribune’s Jenny Whidden writes: “Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday said coronavirus restrictions in Illinois are on track to be loosened next week as COVID-19 hospital admissions have started to come down from a recent surge.” Full story here.

“It looks to me, if you look at all the hospital admissions data, like we’re in decent shape and moving exactly as I would hope we would for the bridge phase,” Pritzker said at an appearance in Chicago. “I believe it may be next week.”

Reaching herd immunity in U.S. may not be likely: As the state looks to open up a bit more, The New York Times reports that public health experts do not believe, at least for now, that the U.S. will see 80% of the population vaccinated, the point at which we’d have herd immunity. Now, more than half the adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable — at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever.

Apoorva Mandavilli with the Times writes: “Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s top adviser on COVID-19, said: “People were getting confused and thinking you’re never going to get the infections down until you reach this mystical level of herd immunity, whatever that number is,” he said. “That’s why we stopped using herd immunity in the classic sense,” he added. “I’m saying: Forget that for a second. You vaccinate enough people, the infections are going to go down.”

Related: Laundromat vaccines? Chicago officials are trying to figure out how to find people who still need the shots, the Tribune’s John Byrne reports.

It’s official: the Thompson Center is up for sale

The Tribune’s Ryan Ori writes, “After years of talk, the James R. Thompson Center is officially up for sale.

“The state began soliciting bids for the 17-story, state-owned Loop building Monday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Central Management Services announced.”

While Pritzker and previous governors have argued it’s a drain on state finances because it’s inefficient to operate and repairs costs are in the hundreds of millions, preservationists have argued the glassy, Helmut Jahn-designed building, or at least its towering atrium, should be kept as part of any redevelopment, Ori reminds.

Ori adds, “At least one thing may remain: The request for proposals indicates at least a portion of the property’s redevelopment would be required to be named in honor of the Thompson Center’s namesake, the Illinois governor from 1977 to 1991. The Republican known as “Big Jim” died last year at age 84.” Full story here.

Durbin, Duckworth ask federal VA to ensure state veterans homes have proper disease planning, protocols after stinging report on LaSalle home

The Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes: “Democratic U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth on Monday asked for federal assistance to ensure Illinois veterans homes have proper infectious disease planning and protocols in place following the release of a stinging report detailing large-scale mismanagement at the LaSalle Veterans Home, where 36 residents died of COVID-19.”

“In a letter to U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, the two Illinois senators noted the federal VA was part of on-site inspections with state public health officials at the LaSalle Home that occurred more than 10 days after the outbreak was discovered on Nov. 1 and detailed a full-time staffer to provide technical assistance to the state.” Full story here.

Deep dive: A slew of ex-state lawmakers face criminal charges, but critics question whether proposed reforms will make a difference

The Tribune’s Dan Petrella and Jenny Whidden write, “The bipartisan push (in the Illinois General Assembly) to pass an ethics overhaul before the legislature’s scheduled May 31 adjournment fits a pattern that has played out over and over again in Springfield: a scandal arises and lawmakers promise to address the problems that are exposed, then in most cases stop short of the most robust recommendations for rooting out wrongdoing.”

The background: “Two years into a federal corruption investigation that has led to charges against more than half a dozen current and former Democratic state lawmakers and precipitated the downfall of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, legislators are scrambling to strengthen Illinois’ government ethics laws,” Whidden and Petrella write.

Consider: Former Rep. Luis Arroyo, a Chicago Democrat, was arrested in November 2019 and charged with bribing a state senator to support sweepstakes gambling legislation that would have benefited a client Arroyo was lobbying for at City Hall. The alleged bribe is clearly illegal, but Illinois law doesn’t prohibit elected officials from working as lobbyists in other levels of government.

The solution? An ethics package under consideration in the Senate, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ann Gillespie of Arlington Heights, includes a proposal to prohibit lawmakers from lobbying local governments on behalf of people or entities who also lobby the state.

The dilemma: Government reform groups, the legislature’s designated watchdog and some lawmakers say the proposals on the table don’t go far enough to fix the problems. Full story here.

Lightfoot’s CPS boss, a holdover from Emanuel era, to exit

Janice Jackson was appointed interim CPS CEO by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2017 and kept on by Lightfoot when she was elected mayor in 2019.

Now Jackson is leaving when her contract expires in June. Two of her top deputies are exiting, too.

At a news conference this afternoon, Lightfoot praised Jackson and acknowledged this will be a turning point for the school system, the Tribune’s Gregory Pratt, Hannah Leone and Karen Ann Cullotta write. The mayor said it’s a time to “restore, recommit and re-imagine,” speaking of the “painful legacies” of past decisions such as the closure of dozens of schools that occurred under her predecessor. Full story here.

The mayor disputed that there would be a leadership void, saying the district has “very strong leaders across the system.”

“Not one person can make everything work. It takes a massive team, and there is a massive team at all different levels ... who are ready to step up and lead as we make this transition,” Lightfoot said. “... Stability is what we search for. Stability is what we’re going to get.”

As the piece notes: “The Lightfoot administration has at times struggled to fill key positions. The deputy mayor for public safety and chief risk officer left last fall, for instance, and the city has yet to announce new hires despite arguing that those positions are key to violence prevention and reform.”

Former Cook County Public Defender Amy Campanelli has joined neighborhood nonprofit Lawndale Christian Legal Center where she’ll be vice president of restorative justice, the organization announced today. Campanelli, who was Cook County’s chief public defender between 2015 and this year, ran for a second term but did not make the selection committee’s list of finalists.

During her time leading the public defender’s office, she cut a much more public figure than her predecessors, becoming well-known for her energy and fierce advocacy of indigent clients both in and out of the courtroom. The legal aid clinic has received national honors for its Restorative Justice Community Court, which focuses on youth and is the first of its kind in the country, Block Club Chicago reported in March.

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Days before Osama bin Laden’s capture, Bill Daley says he shared the top secret mission with his wife: report

On May 1, 2011 — a Sunday — a Navy SEALs team descended on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where it tracked down Osama bin Laden and killed him. In a Politico magazine piece, journalist and author Garrett M. Graff writes an oral history that offers views from the White House and U.S. intelligence agencies in the months leading up to executing Operation Neptune’s Spear, which Graff calls Obama’s “most momentous decision” of his presidency.

Two days before the top secret operation to capture Osama bin Laden, Bill Daley — then Obama’s chief of staff who’d go on to make a run for Chicago mayor — says his wife started grilling him about his strange behavior, according to Graff’s report in Politico.

Here’s what he had to say: “Friday night, my wife says to me, ‘Something wrong? You seem to be really off. Is there something going on with us — personally or what?’ We had an apartment in D.C., and I took her down to the first-floor bathroom, turned on the faucet, took her in the shower, shut the shower door, and whispered in her ear: ‘We’re going to go after Osama bin Laden.’” Read the full piece here.

Writer Yashar Ali notes on Twitter: “Some top (White House) aides didn’t know about the bin Laden operation until Sun afternoon or just after it happened. Other senior WH aides found out about it on TV. And he told his wife 48 hours before?”

Todd Stroger returning to government, as Robbins village administrator

In Todd Stroger’s low-key way, he says political connections were key to landing the roughly his new $74,000-a-year gig with the village of Robbins. He and incoming Mayor Darren Bryant, who will be sworn in May 11, have some mutual acquaintances.

As village administrator, Stroger will “make sure things are getting done in the village, overseeing public works, keeping an eye on the police department,” he says. Of the 70 village employees, Stroger says, half are part-time police officers.

After losing the county board presidency, he’s dabbled in insurance, mulled a political comeback here and there only to pull back and co-hosted a morning program on WVON-AM before exiting last summer with Maze Jackson.

The son of the late political powerhouse John H. Stroger, Todd Stroger previously was a Chicago alderman and served in the state legislature before going on to serve a single term as county board president, unseated by fellow Democrat Toni Preckwinkle, who remains in the post today.

He says his previous experience in elected office will help as the mayor works to change the struggling village’s fortunes. “The city needs a face-lift, it needs some tender loving care and I think we’ll be able to help facilitate that by working with the county and state by getting some grant money, some organizations and the unions to help build the village up. And it does help to know people.”

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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