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May 3, 2021
The outbreak of COVID-19 at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home last year led to the deaths of 36 veterans and positive tests from 200 residents and staff at the nursing home.
Alpha Representative Dan Swanson, whose district includes the northern half of Galesburg, lays the blame for what happened at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home on the feet of Governor JB Pritzker who was critical of former-Governor Bruce Rauner following an outbreak of Legionella at the Quincy Veterans’ Home.
“Governor, when you made a political issue out of our veterans’ deaths at Quincy, I gave you the benefit of doubt it was about protecting our heroes and not scoring political points on dead veterans. Your failures are your own. You own them. You failed to protect our heroes despite knowing the life and death implications of failing to respond.”
An inspector general’s report on the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs LaSalle Veterans’ Home is a maddening story of incompetence and chaos at every level.
The IG report, released Friday, tells the story of an allegedly AWOL agency director; an in-over-his-head chief of staff; a crucial failure to fill an important upper management position; an unconscionably delayed IDVA management response at all levels to a clearly and rapidly deteriorating situation both in the surrounding communities outside the home and when the virus inevitably spread inside the facility; an unprepared and woefully uninformed management on multiple issues, including basics about personal protection equipment; an abject failure to properly train and equip staff; multiple failures to ask for outside help and accept it when offered; and staff infighting and managerial timidity.
UpdatedWed, Feb 24, 2021 at 8:57 am CT
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Bettina Taylor won $50,000 from the Illinois Lottery, and bought herself a new car with the cash. (Illinois Lottery)
MARKHAM, IL A Markham woman is celebrating after she won $50,000 from an Illinois Lottery crossword scratch ticket, according to a news release from the Illinois Lottery.
When Bettina Taylor finished working for the day, she stopped at a Mobil gas station located at 1401 Torrence Ave., in Calumet City, to pick up a few instant lottery tickets before heading home, the release states. I had just finished work and was still in my uniform, when I got home I scratched the ticket and I couldn t believe it. I thought I was seeing stuff and that maybe I was sleepy! said Taylor, an essential medical worker.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Santa Steve has arrived a few days early to hand out his Christmas gifts to all the good little fellas and ladies in the Quincy area. Hereâs what he plans on giving some of the regionâs familiar personalities:
⢠Roy Webb, superintendent of Quincy Public Schools: Some time to simply sit back and chill at the end of the semester. Webb has done a marvelous job guiding Quincy schools through these uncharted COVID-19 waters.
⢠Kyle Moore, mayor of Quincy: Another world championship for his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers.
⢠The Rev. Bob Cowman, Columbus Road Church: Another successful year of dirt-track racing across the tri-state area. While Cowman is familiar to many for his Sunday morning words of wisdom, on Friday evenings during the warm-weather months heâs wheeling and dealing his high-powered modified around the regionâs leading dirt-track venues. The multi-talented Cowman is also a soccer coach at John Wood Community College, plus a d