Afternoon Edition: Aug. 14, 2020

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

SHARE Afternoon Edition: Aug. 14, 2020
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Construction workers and Illinois National Guardsmen construct medical rooms at McCormick Place’s Hall A in April. McCormick Place’s Hall A is being transformed into a 500 bed alternative care facility to combat the coronavirus pandemic in Chicago.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

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Afternoon Edition


Chicago’s most important news of the day, delivered every weekday afternoon. Plus, a bonus issue on Saturdays that dives into the city’s storied history.

Happy Friday! It’ll be a sunny afternoon, with a high near 88 degrees. Tonight’s low will be around 70. Tomorrow, more sunshine, with a high near 87 degrees and a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Things should clear up Sunday, which will see a high near 85 degrees.

Top story

McCormick Place hospital’s cost to taxpayers? $1.7 million per patient. How the deal happened.

Taxpayers spent nearly $66 million fashioning McCormick Place into an emergency coronavirus hospital with 2,750 beds this past spring amid fears that COVID-19 patients would overwhelm hospitals in the Chicago area.

Those fears turned out to be unfounded. Just 38 patients were transferred to the sprawling convention center — meaning taxpayers’ cost for the makeshift hospital turned out to be more than $1.7 million per patient, on average.

But top aides to Mayor Lori Lightfoot say her decision to initiate the project with the federal government and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority was an important “insurance policy” at a time of “immense emergency.”

“It’s something I’m incredibly proud of,” said Samir Mayekar, Lightfoot’s deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development, who said the money was “not spent in vain.” He said the medical equipment is being stored and can be redeployed if needed.

To complete the McCormick Place project, the authority — a city-state governmental body known as McPier that runs the convention center and owns Navy Pier — tapped Walsh Construction, a politically connected Chicago company that’s built everything from highways to high-rises.

That followed a selection process so frenzied that McPier hired Walsh just hours after receiving proposals from three construction companies, according to interviews and records we obtained that show:

  • McPier solicited proposals from three giants in construction: Walsh, Pepper Construction and Power Construction Company. And it hired Walsh even though Power said it either would forgo any fees or donate them to pandemic relief because it didn’t want to profit from the pandemic. Walsh charged $65.9 million, including more than $5.1 million in fees, records show.
  • An official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which hired McPier to build the facility, for which the federal government is covering at least 75 percent of the costs — said in internal emails that Power or Pepper was the best choice. But that decision was left to McPier, which picked Walsh, saying its rates were not “significantly different” than the others and that it “had the most experience … working with the [Army Corps] and working on emergency projects.”

A day before the selection, Marilyn Kelly Gardner, the chief executive officer of Navy Pier Inc. — the private company overseeing the tourist attraction that’s run by political allies of former Mayor Richard M. Daley — emailed Larita Clark, McPier’s chief executive officer, to put in a word for Walsh. Under Daley, whose daughter is a Navy Pier Inc. board member, Walsh got huge city contracts, and members of the Walsh family gave heavily to campaign funds associated with Daley.

Besides McPier’s contract with Walsh to put together the coronavirus hospital at McCormick Place, City Hall gave three contracts for medical supplies and medications for the hospital to a company called Vizient that has billed the city $1.3 million.

Those involved in creating the McCormick Place hospital said this was an incredibly unusual situation and that officials acted rapidly to try to fend off disaster.

Read the full story from watchdogs Tim Novak and Robert Herguth.

More news you need

  1. Another 2,264 residents have tested positive for COVID-19, Illinois’ largest caseload in almost three months and the third time the state has topped 2,000 daily cases over the last week. Two Chicago area counties — Will and Kane — are now at the state’s “warning level” because of a combination of troubling signs, including ignoring mask requirements.
  2. Authorities in the west and southwest suburbs are searching for a United Airlines executive who has not been seen in over a week. More than 100 people and police dogs searched the forest preserve today where his car was located, but Jake Cefolia hasn’t been found.
  3. The city will continue its nightly restrictions to downtown through the weekend in an effort to prevent further looting after several businesses were targeted early Monday. The restrictions include raised bridges, a partial shutdown of Lake Shore Drive, closed expressway ramps and CTA train service limited to the Red and Blue lines in the downtown area.
  4. Nate Simpson was a Cook County sheriff’s deputy working at the Markham courthouse, but he was also a co-founder of The Rink, a South Side skating haven. He’s being remembered by The Rink’s patrons as providing a place to go have fun and giving many people their first jobs. He died at 75.
  5. The new HBO fantasy drama series “Lovecraft Country” is a “bat-bleep crazy and wildly creative mashup of mid-20th century racial drama and B-movie horror gore,” writes film critic Richard Roeper. Read his full review and watch the trailer for the 10-part series here.
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A bright one

Amid the pandemic, one small business successfully spices up profits

With a cadre of repeat customers, the Spice House has stores in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, suburban Evanston and two in Milwaukee, as well as a warehouse in Skokie. 

But when COVID-19 hit, Charlie Mayer realized he’d have to rethink his spice-selling business, just like experimenting with a new recipe. It was a learning process. Mayer, the chief operating officer, originally figured he’d have to shut down. “We’re not a grocery store,” he thought.

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Charlie Mayer, COO of the Spice House, says his business has developed more online sales as a result of COVID-19. He’s pictured here at the business’ Old Town store.

Max Herman/Sun-Times

Then the rules for “essential businesses” came out, and Mayer saw an opening. He closed to the public March 18, but the rules allowed him to keep his stores operating to handle online orders. 

The Spice House already had an active digital presence, but that business mushroomed that first weekend and his warehouse couldn’t keep up. Mayer had to add people and reconfigure stores to fulfill more internet orders, laying in supplies of shipping boxes and tape and training employees to package goods in customer friendly ways.

The result? After first laying off workers, Mayer had to do a fast turnaround. “We have almost doubled our headcount because of COVID,” he said. The Spice House currently has more than 100 workers. Its stores reopened to the public in late June.

Read David Roeder’s full story here.

From the press box

The ax finally fell on Bulls coach Jim Boylen. “This was a very difficult decision, but it is time for our franchise to take that next step as we move in a new direction and era of Chicago Bulls basketball,” team vice president Arturas Karnisovas said. Joe Cowley has the story.

It’s not clear why the Bulls took so long to dump Boylen, columnist Rick Morrissey writes, but the team made the right decision. 

The Blackhawks, down 2-0 in their playoff series against the Golden Knights, will try to bounce back tomorrow at 7 p.m. on NBC-5.

After an unexpected Friday off, the White Sox will play a doubleheader tomorrow against the Cardinals at 12:10 p.m. and finish the series Sunday at 1:10 p.m. All games are on NBCSCH.

The Cubs face the Brewers tonight and tomorrow at 7:15 p.m. The series concludes Sunday at 1:20 p.m. All games are on Marquee Sports Network.

The Sky play the Connecticut Sun this evening at 6 p.m. and the Atlanta Dream Sunday at 3 p.m. Both games are on WCIU-26.2.

Your daily question ☕

What are you really doing during Zoom meetings for work?

Email us (please include your first name and where you live) and we might include your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked: What’s been the hardest thing about wearing a mask for you? Here’s what some of you said…

“I absolutely freaking hate it! It causes my glasses to fog. Sometimes, I feel I can’t breathe when I’m in a store or the library places like that.” — Jackie Waldhier

“It bothers me because people can’t see my facial expressions, and I can’t see theirs either. Also I lip-read sometimes, and now I can’t tell what people are saying as easily.” — Barbara Meyer

“Nothing. It’s super easy to do and fun to make them myself. When it’s hot, it may be a little uncomfortable, which honestly just encourages me to get back inside much faster.” — Lia Crawford

“My skin conditions flaring up. But I still wear it.” — Andrea Gorman

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition.Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

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