Daywatch: DuPage County, sheriff agree to $11M payout for jail death
DuPage County and county Sheriff James Mendrick have reached an $11 million settlement with the estate of Reneyda Aguilar-Hurtado, a 50-year-old mother who died in June 2023 after being held in the county jail for 85 days while awaiting transfer to a state-run mental health center.
The settlement caps a federal lawsuit brought by Aguilar-Hurtado's daughter, Cristal Moreno Aguilar, accusing the county, Mendrick and 11 jail medical staff members or corrections officers of repeatedly failing to act as her mother's health rapidly deteriorated.
A county pathologist determined her death was due, in part, to 'medical neglect.'
Mendrick, who recently announced his intent to forgo a third term as sheriff and instead seek the Republican nomination for Illinois governor in 2026, declined to comment through his spokesperson. So, too, did County Board Chair Deborah Conroy.
'Reneyda's tragic death never should have happened,' said Michael Mead, an attorney for the family, in a statement. 'It was preventable and the loss that her family experienced cannot be made whole. We hope that the settlement provides justice and some closure for her family.'
Read the full story from the Tribune's Jonathan Bullington.
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As the Department of Government Efficiency continues to make cuts, one Northwest Indiana agency is affected.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Griffith lease will be terminated, according to DOGE's website. The Griffith location's annual lease is $85,467, according to the agency, and the cancellation will lead to $370,357 in total savings.
Top US health agency makes $25,000 buyout offer to most of its employees
Scholars stranded in America and abroad amid funding freeze of state department programs
As the five-year anniversary of the pandemic approaches, the threat of the virus has been drastically reduced, with low rates of transmission and hospitalization across much of the nation.
Yet local medical experts and scientists caution against letting down the nation's guard against the ever-evolving virus as well as other health epidemics — and even another potential pandemic — that might emerge in the future.
Across the Chicago area — and, indeed, the country — thousands of people are ramping up their political activity in response to the whirlwind early days of the second Trump administration. Some members of Congress are feeling the public outrage in the sheer volume of people calling their offices, attending virtual gatherings and appearing at rallies and public events.
Information from hundreds of thousands of current and former Chicago Public School students has been exposed following a data breach, according to district officials. In a letter to parents Friday, they said there was no evidence suggesting any information had been misused.
Gray wolves represent a success story for conservationists after the species almost went extinct in the lower 48 states by the mid-20th century due to rampant hunting and trapping. They are also an example of how the Endangered Species Act of 1973 has become a political football.
Last week, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Committee on Natural Resources argued at an oversight meeting that the Endangered Species Act was an overreach of federal authority and an ambiguous statute, as part of a broader reexamination of conservation laws.
Unrivaled offers WNBA players plenty of perks — warm weather, shiny new facilities, a lucrative contract without the need to play abroad. But for Angel Reese, the league's most important benefit is the opportunity to develop her game ahead of her second season with the Sky.
Reese is dominating in her comfort zone in Unrivaled, averaging 13.3 points and a league-high 12.1 rebounds. But with only one week left in the Unrivaled season, Reese faces a new question: Can that success translate to the WNBA?
The Chicago Cubs enter 2025 as the consensus favorites to win the National League Central, thanks to the addition of Kyle Tucker and a general lack of offseason spending by their division counterparts.
While it should be a given considering the team's many resources and big-market status, this is a new feeling for some in the organization, writes Paul Sullivan.
Rule 5 draft pick Gage Workman, infielder Vidal Bruján informed they are part of Cubs' Japan roster
Cubs notes from camp: Pete Crow-Armstrong shows off power — and Justin Steele's track for Tokyo start
Grab your banners and get ready for some English football, Chicago.
The Premier League announced it is coming to Soldier Field in July for its Summer Series exhibition tournament, the first time its storied teams will meet head-to-head in Chicago, and the latest high-profile event to put the city on the international sports stage.
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed.
Here's a timeline of events surrounding the couple's deaths.
Long before women could vote, the Chicago Woman's Club was a vocal champion of social reform. In 1904, its president offered a newspaper reporter an assessment of the organization that must have seemed candid, or self-serving, depending on the eye of the beholder.
'While men's clubs spend their time drinking, smoking, telling stories, and perhaps gambling, women are planning in their organizations for the establishment of kindergartens and for caring for their unfortunate sisters,' Ellen Martin Henrotin wrote in the Tribune under the headline, 'Superiority of Women's Clubs.'
With the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and Chicago River dyeing happening at 10 a.m. Saturday and the actual holiday falling Monday, the Windy City is going to be spending a long weekend celebrating its Irish heritage this year. Bars and restaurants are getting into the spirit by serving traditional food, hosting bashes with spectacular riverfront views and bottomless drinks and bringing in Irish musicians and dancers. Wear something green and celebrate St. Patrick's Day Chirish style at one of these 57 spots.
30 best corned beef sandwiches around Chicago in 2025, featuring That Jerk at The Corned Beef Hideout
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Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Hochul weighs a decision on medical aid in dying
Beat Memo Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing a political tripwire as she weighs the future of a decade-old bill that would allow terminally ill people to obtain life-ending medication. The bill would make New York the 12th state in the country to legalize medical aid in dying. Hochul is already assessing her options. Her office began meeting with key interest groups shortly after the Legislature's end of session last month, signaling the Democratic governor may act sooner rather than later. Advocates who fought for years to pass the measure are hopeful Hochul will sign the bill without demanding changes. Among the most influential voices boosting the bill is the Medical Society of the State of New York, whose decision to back medical aid in dying last year was considered pivotal in getting the Legislature to pass it this year. 'We've learned from other states what's important,' Jane Simpson, the society's vice speaker and a palliative care physician, told POLITICO. That includes a requirement that two doctors sign off on a patient's request and a provision allowing doctors to not participate in the program. The bill is set to land on Hochul's desk as she gears up for a tough reelection contest next year, when she will likely see challengers from the left and the right. One likely opponent, Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, is already wielding the issue as a political brickbat. 'Instead of investing in palliative care, mental health support and life-affirming resources for those facing terminal illness, this legislation offers an immoral shortcut that devalues human life,' Stefanik said in a statement after the bill's passage in the Assembly. But hospice and palliative care providers have denounced arguments that pit the two treatment pathways against each other. 'This is not an independent decision on medical aid in dying — this is about quality of end-of-life care,' Jeanne Chirico, president of the Hospice & Palliative Care Association of New York State, told POLITICO. IN OTHER NEWS: — 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East endorsed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Friday after backing Andrew Cuomo's failed primary bid, POLITICO Pro reported. 'We are proud to endorse Zohran Mamdani who will fight side-by-side with us to ensure New Yorkers get the services they need, build affordable housing, and create safe communities,' union president Yvonne Armstrong said in a statement. 'We need a mayor like Zohran who has a plan to ensure frontline caregivers can continue working and living in our city.' ON THE AGENDA: — Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The state Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board will meet. — Thursday at 10:30 a.m. The state Medicaid Evidence Based Benefit Review Advisory Committee will meet. MAKING ROUNDS: — George Han was appointed director of research for NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. GOT TIPS? Send story ideas and feedback to Maya Kaufman at mkaufman@ and Katelyn Cordero at kcordero@ Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. What you may have missed — Gov. Kathy Hochul is weighing her options for addressing fallout from the federal tax law, which could upend the state's heath care industry and yank health insurance coverage from more than a million New Yorkers, she told reporters Thursday. The Democratic governor noted President Donald Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' will result in a $750 million hit to the state's budget this year, and $3 billion next year, which Hochul said the state is not equipped to fully backfill, POLITICO Pro's Katelyn Cordero reports. 'Those who say, 'Well I'm not on Medicaid, it doesn't affect me,' when perhaps one of the five hospitals in the North Country closes, you and your family will not have anywhere to go either,' Hochul said, arguing that the five House Republicans in New York's delegation will have to answer to constituents for their support of the bill. Odds and Ends NOW WE KNOW — Three things to know about President Trump's vein condition. TODAY'S TIP — Avoid these mistakes when trying to increase your protein intake. STUDY THIS — Via STAT: The Republican tax bill could increase overdose deaths by 1,000 each year, researchers estimate. What We're Reading — Mayor Adams touts cleanup of Bronx drug market, but locals say root problems remain. (Gothamist) — Insurers and customers brace for double whammy to Obamacare premiums (KFF Health News) — A new recall of injected penicillin may put gains against syphilis in peril. (CNN) Around POLITICO — CBO report finds NIH and FDA cuts would slow drug development, Simon J. Levien reports. — Via Giedre Peseckyte: Trump medicines tariff will cause shortages in the U.S., experts warn. MISSED A ROUNDUP? Get caught up on the New York Health Care Newsletter.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
$50B rural health ‘slush fund' faces questions, skepticism
A last-minute scramble to add a $50 billion rural health program to President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending law has left hospital and clinic leaders nationwide hopeful but perplexed. The Rural Health Transformation Program calls for federal regulators to hand states $10 billion a year for five years starting in fiscal year 2026. But the "devil's in the details in terms of implementing," said Sarah Hohman, director of government affairs at the National Association of Rural Health Clinics. "An investment of this amount and this style into rural - hopefully it goes to rural - is the type of investment that we and other advocates have been working on for a long time," said Hohman, whose organization represents 5,600 rural health clinics. People who live in the nation's rural expanses have more chronic diseases, die younger, and make less money. Those compounding factors have financially pummeled rural health infrastructure, triggering hospital closures and widespread discontinuation of critical health services like obstetrics and mental health care. Nearly 1 in 4 people in rural America use Medicaid, the state and federal program for low-income and disabled people. So, as Senate Republicans heatedly debated Medicaid spending reductions, lawmakers added the $50 billion program to quell opposition. But health advocates and researchers doubt it will be enough to offset expected cuts in federal funding. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, which has one of the largest percentages of rural residents in the nation, led the push to pass the budget bill. His website touts support for strengthening access to care in rural areas. But his office declined to respond on the record to questions about the rural health program included in the bill. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who introduced an initial amendment to add the rural program, also did not respond to a request for comment. On July 15, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, introduced a bill to reverse future cuts to Medicaid and add to the rural program. Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., said the money was set aside because of politics and not necessarily for rural patients. "As long as it's a government slush fund where politics decides where the money goes, then there's going to be a mismatch between where those funds go and what it is consumers need," Cannon said. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates federal Medicaid spending will be reduced by about $1 trillion over the next decade. "These dollar amounts translate to actual people," said Fredric Blavin, a senior fellow and researcher at the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank that focuses on social and economic research. Most states expanded their Medicaid programs to cover more low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. That has lowered medical debt, improved health, and even reduced death rates, Blavin said. By 2034, about 11.8 million people are expected to lose their health insurance from this bill, said Alice Burns, an associate director for KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. And she said the Medicaid rollback may have an outsize impact on rural areas. In rural areas, federal Medicaid spending is expected to decline by $155 billion over 10 years, according to an analysis by KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. If the goal of the rural program was to transform rural health care, as its name suggests, it will fall short, Burns said. The $50 billion rural program distributed over five years won't offset the losses expected over a decade of Medicaid reductions, she said. In Kansas, Holton Community Hospital Chief Executive Carrie Lutz said she doesn't "feel that the sky is falling right now." Lutz, whose 14-bed hospital is on the northern plains of the state, said she is bracing for the potential loss of Medicaid-covered patients and limits to provider taxes, which nearly all states use to get extra federal Medicaid money. The reduction in provider taxes has been delayed until fiscal year 2028, Lutz said, but she still wants her state's leaders to apply for a portion of the rural program funding, which is expected to be distributed sooner. "Every little penny helps when you've got very negative margins to begin with," Lutz said. The program's $50 billion will be spread over five years and may not be limited to bolstering rural areas or their hospitals. Half of the money will be distributed "equally" among states that apply to and win approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The law's current language "raises the possibility" that a small state like Vermont could receive the same amount as a large state like Texas, Burns said. States are required to submit a "detailed rural health transformation plan" by the end of this year, according to the law. The law says states should use the funds to pursue goals including improving access to hospitals and other providers, improving health outcomes, enhancing economic opportunity for health care workers, and prioritizing the use of emerging technologies. Mehmet Oz, a Trump appointee leading Medicare and Medicaid, will determine how to distribute the other half, or $25 billion, using a formula based on states' rural population and need. The law says the money is to be used for such things as increasing use of robotics, upgrading cybersecurity, and helping rural communities "to right size their health care delivery systems." Spokespeople for CMS did not respond to a list of questions. Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of public policy at the American Telemedicine Association, said there is "a pretty significant degree of discretion" for the White House and the Medicare and Medicaid administrator in approving state plans. "We will urge states to include robust telehealth and virtual care options within their proposals going up to the federal government," Zebley said. Alexa McKinley Abel, government affairs and policy director for the National Rural Health Association, said that while the law calls for states to create and submit plans, it's unclear what state agencies will perform the task, McKinley Abel said. "There are a lot of gaps around application and implementation," she said, noting that an earlier version of the bill called for state plans to be developed in consultation with federally funded state offices of rural health. But those offices are proposed to be eliminated in Trump's federal budget, which will face congressional approval in the fall. McKinley Abel said her organization supports state offices of rural health helping develop the plans and working with states to disburse the money, "since they intimately know the rural health community." Hohman, with the rural health clinic association, said she is not sure money from the transformation program will even reach her members. About 27% of the patients treated at rural health clinics are enrolled in Medicaid, she said. "There's just some confusion about who actually gets this money at the end of the day," Hohman said. "What is it actually going to be used for?" ____ KFF Health News senior correspondent Phil Galewitz contributed to this report. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Fact check: Are 5 million nondisabled Medicaid recipients watching TV all day? That's unsupported
"Almost 5 million able-bodied Medicaid recipients 'simply choose not to work' and 'spend six hours a day socializing and watching television.'" Scott Jennings on "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip" on July 1 ____ Republicans defended the GOP megabill's Medicaid changes as targeting a group of people they believe shouldn't qualify: people who can work but instead choose to stay home and chill. Several Republican politicians and pundits, including CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, pegged that group's size at about 5 million people. "There are like almost 5 million able-bodied people on Medicaid who simply choose not to work," Jennings said July 1 on "CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip." "They spend six hours a day socializing and watching television. And if you can't get off grandma's couch and work, I don't want to pay for your welfare." Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz picked up on some of these points during a July 14 appearance on Fox News. "When the program was created 60 years ago, it never dawned on anyone that you would take able-bodied individuals who could work and put them on Medicaid. Today the average able-bodied person on Medicaid who doesn't work, they watch 6.1 hours of television or just hang out," Oz said. Medicaid is a federal-state health insurance program that covers medical care for lower-income people. Jennings cited two pieces of data: an estimate of how many fewer people would have coverage because of the work requirement and an analysis of how nonworking Medicaid recipients spend their time. But he made assumptions that the data doesn't support. Jennings Misrepresents CBO Estimate The 4.8 million figure stems from a June 24 Congressional Budget Office analysis of a preliminary House version of the massive tax and spending package. The office, Congress' nonpartisan research arm, projected that provisions of the bill would cause 7.8 million fewer people to have health coverage by 2034. They would include 4.8 million people previously eligible for Medicaid described as "able-bodied" adults 19 to 64 years old who have no dependents and who "do not meet the community engagement requirement" of doing "work-related activities" at least 80 hours a month. Apart from working, doing community service and attending school also fulfill the community engagement requirement. Jennings paired that statistic with a separate analysis of how nondisabled adult Medicaid recipients without dependent children spend their time. But the CBO estimate was a projection - it doesn't represent the current number of nondisabled Medicaid recipients, nor does it say 4.8 million people in this group "choose not to work." The figure represented how many fewer people would have coverage because of the bill's community engagement requirement. "The challenge with Jennings' comments - and they've been echoed elsewhere by elected Republicans - is that CBO never said that 4.8 million people were out of compliance with the proposed work requirements; they said that 4.8 million people would lose coverage because of the work requirements," said Adrianna McIntyre, an assistant professor of health policy and politics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Among the Medicaid expansion population, the law requires most adults without dependent children and parents of children older than 13 to work or participate in other qualifying activities 80 hours every month. States will need to verify that applicants met the work requirement for one to three months before they applied. States will also be required to verify that existing enrollees met the work requirement for at least a month between eligibility determinations, which will be required at least twice a year. Research into Medicaid work requirements imposed at the state level has shown that people found it difficult to fulfill them and submit documentation, contributing to coverage losses. In Arkansas, which added a work requirement to Medicaid in 2018, a study based on nearly 6,000 respondents found that about 95% of the target population were already working or qualified for an exemption, but a third of them did not hear about the work requirements. As a result, nearly 17,000 Medicaid recipients subject to work requirements lost coverage. KFF found that adults ages 50 to 64 are more at risk of losing Medicaid coverage because of the new work requirements. More than 1 in 10 in that age group said they had retired, and among them, 28% reported being disabled, said KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Benjamin Sommers, a health care economics professor at the Harvard Chan school, said many of the 4.8 million "able-bodied" people in the CBO estimate "will actually be engaged in the activities they are supposed to be doing, and lose coverage because they are not able to navigate the reporting requirements with the state and lose coverage from red tape." When Recipients Don't Work, It's Rarely From Lack of Interest There is no universal definition for "able-bodied"; disability can be assessed in different ways. But other studies offer much smaller estimates than 4.8 million Medicaid recipients without dependents who can work but choose not to. Millions of working-age, nondisabled adults joined the Medicaid ranks in states that expanded eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. There were about 34 million working-age nondisabled Medicaid enrollees in 2024, according to the CBO, 15 million of whom enrolled through the ACA. A KFF analysis found a smaller figure of 26 million Medicaid-covered adults, ages 19 to 64, who don't receive Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, or Medicare benefits. Among this group, KFF estimated, 64% were working either full time or part time. The reasons the rest were not working included caregiving (12%); illness or disability (10%); retirement, inability to find work, or other reason (8%); and school attendance (7%). Few people cited lack of interest in working as the reason for their unemployment. An Urban Institute study found 2% of Medicaid expansion enrollees without dependents who neither worked nor attended school - or 300,000 people out of a projected 15 million subject to work requirements - cited a lack of interest in working as the reason they were unemployed. This was consistent with the Brookings Institution's June 5 analysis that found that, of 4.3 million adult enrollees who worked fewer than 80 hours a month and did not have any activity limitations or illnesses, about 300,000 reported that they "did not work because they did not want to." Mostly Women, Mostly With a High School Degree or Less When Republicanshave described nondisabled adult Medicaid recipients, they have often portrayed them as men in their 30s "playing video games" in their parents' basement or who "smoke weed all day." Research paints a different picture. Jane Tavares and Marc Cohen, of the University of Massachusetts-Boston Gerontology Department, researched Medicaid recipients who are not disabled or working, have no dependent children under 18, and are not in school. They cited 2023 census data from the American Community Survey. They found: --The average age of this population is 41, and 26% are older than 50. --Almost 80% are female. --Most, 80%, have a high school education or less. --Their median individual income is $0, and their median household income is $44,800. --About 56% worked in the past five years, and 23% worked in the prior year. About 30% are looking or available for work. "They are not healthy young adults just hanging out," the authors, along with health law experts Sara Rosenbaum and Alison Barkoff, wrote April 30. "It's clear based on their prior work history and family size/income that they are exceptionally poor and have likely left the workforce to care for adult children or older adults," Tavares told PolitiFact. "Even if these individuals could work, they would have very few job opportunities and it would come at the cost of the people they are providing care for." AEI Study Not Definitively Linked to CBO Estimate On the social platform X, Jennings posted the CBO letter and a May 29 analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, about "how nondisabled Medicaid recipients without children spend their time." PolitiFact contacted CNN to reach Jennings but did not receive a reply. The author of that study, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Kevin Corinth, analyzed survey data and found that Medicaid recipients who do not report working spend on average 6.1 hours a day "on all socializing, relaxing and leisure activities (including television and video games)." But it's uncertain whether the people in the survey population he analyzed overlap with the people included in the CBO analysis, said Jennifer Tolbert, deputy director of KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Corinth told PolitiFact "it is difficult to say" how the population he analyzed differs from the CBO's. Tavares, Cohen, Rosenbaum, and Barkoff said Corinth's dataset defined disability narrowly, leading to a "serious underestimation of disability" among the population of Medicaid recipients he looked into. It focused on Medicaid recipients who receive Supplemental Security Income or have a health condition that prevents them from working. The researchers said this approach is too narrow because the SSI program accounts for only those "most deeply impoverished adults with severe disabilities." The group gave a hypothetical example of a 54-year-old woman with a serious heart condition who can work only a few hours a week. She may not be considered disabled under the SSI program, but she may be limited in the work she can do and may need time to rest. "Using her 'leisure time' to justify a work requirement grossly misrepresents her reality," the group wrote. Corinth's analysis also shows that nonworking Medicaid recipients spend less time socializing, relaxing, or engaged in leisure activities than nonworking people who aren't covered by Medicaid. Nonworking Medicaid recipients also spend more time looking for work and doing housework and errands, it found. Our Ruling Jennings said almost 5 million nondisabled Medicaid recipients "simply choose not to work" and "spend six hours a day socializing and watching television." The 5 million figure stems from a CBO projection that 4.8 million people would go without coverage by 2034 as a result of not fulfilling the community engagement requirements. It is not descriptive of current enrollees and does not specify that these people choose not to work. Jennings cited an American Enterprise Institute analysis on how nondisabled Medicaid recipients with no dependents spend their time, but it is uncertain if the population in that analysis overlaps with that in the CBO estimate. Current snapshots of the population Jennings described produce a smaller number. A survey by the Urban Institute found that 2% of Medicaid expansion enrollees without dependents who were neither working nor attending school - about 300,000 people - cited a lack of interest in working. Other research has found reasons this group doesn't work include caregiving, illness or disability, retirement, and inability to find work. Studies of nonworking Medicaid recipients have found the majority are women and have a high school education or less. Their average age is 41, and more than half have a work history in the past five years. We rate Jennings' statement False. ____ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
