Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“In the days before the Kane County Health Department ordered Smithfield Foods’ St. Charles meat processing plant to close due to concerns about COVID-19, and before the health department confirmed an employee had died, a call came in to police,” the Tribune-owned Aurora Beacon-News reports.

The caller had concerns about Smithfield, a police transcript of the call shows, and told dispatchers their mom was a COVID-19 patient and an employee.
The 911 call is among several complaints raised about Smithfield’s St. Charles plant, a dry sausage-making facility that employs about 325 people, before the county health department ordered it to close April 24, police reports and documents obtained by the Beacon-News through an open records request show.
The health department received at least two reports, and the 911-caller contacted police twice, once days before the closure and once days afterward. Kane County sheriff’s deputies visited the plant twice before the closure at the request of the health department, following up on complaints, police reports and a spokesman indicated.
The documents paint a picture of mounting concern at the facility in the days before it was ordered closed, as meat processing plants across the country faced pressure over social distancing, protective equipment and COVID-19 safety practices. Workers at some plants nationwide became sick and some facilities temporarily closed, including other locations of Smithfield, which bills itself as the world’s largest pork processor.

And one of the world’s largest purveyors of bullshit.
“In response to specific Beacon-News questions about the St. Charles plant, Smithfield officials issued a statement emphasizing safety precautions the company has taken across the board and highlighting the company’s role in the country’s food system.”


Go read the rest and then throw out all your Smithfield products and never buy any again.
–
New on the Beachwood today . . .
Protestant White Supremacy
It’s all entwined, people.
*
Launching College Football
“People in charge of making life-and-death decisions about athletes are speaking with more clarity and wisdom about perilous decisions than anyone demanding a cattle call return to schools,” our very own David Rutter writes.
*
Pent-Up America Is Swinging
Pandemic threesomes all the rage.
*
Carnival People
Freaks, pimps, tramps, miners, an insult dunk clown, masked gunmen and the King of the Sideshows.
*
A Chicago-Inflected Concert For Cuba
Tom Morello, Dionne Warwick, Michael McDonald, Reginald Robinson and many more brought to you by HotHouse.
–
ChicagoReddit

since the extra $600/week unemployment is ending in a couple of weeks, what will happen if Chicago goes back 1 or 2 phases and people can’t work?(regular unemployment payments probably not survivable in Chicago) from r/chicago


–
ChicagoGram


–
ChicagoTube
Sydney’s Quarantine Policy Made Our Move From Chicago Easy

–
TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


*


*


*
Maybe they hired McKinsey.


*


*


–
At Beachwood, line tips you.

Permalink

Posted on July 16, 2020