f e br uary 7, 2 0 24 • vol . 6 3 i ss u e 15
News from Plainfield • Joliet • Shorewood • Lockport • Crest Hill • Bolingbrook • Romeoville • Downers Grove • Westmont • Woodridge • Lisle • Niles • Morton Grove • Park Ridge & more
Brick exhibit celebrates Black creativity
Richard Dryden with his art.
submitted photo
Awesome Black Creativity, a celebration of Black figures in LEGO® Bricks, is on display in the Good Show! Gallery at DuPage Children’s Museum (DCM) through March. This interactive exhibition of 26 LEGO brick-built figures, an A–Z series, will inspire Museum guests to think about building in new, innovative ways while providing the opportunity to make and display their own creations alongside LEGO Masters. “At DCM we continue to highlight creativity of all kinds! Using a classic childhood medium such as LEGO bricks provides an easy entry point for families to engage,” explained Dustin Thacker, DCM’s Arts & Maker Specialist. “The Awesome Black Creativity exhibition is innovative and informative. Guests will find themselves using LEGOs to express their own creativity in clever styles.” The Good Show! Gallery will be set up with “LEGO galore” for guests to view, explore, wonder, learn, and build. Dave Kaleta and Richard Dryden represented themselves on LEGO Masters FOX in 2021 as a team of
dads who are passionate about environmentalism, social justice, and civic and cultural pride. To continue the work they began on the show, they embarked on a 26-week project. Awesome Black Creativity celebrates contemporary and historical Black creatives across disciplines such as contemporary dance, photography, music, film, culinary arts, activism, and more. Together the team collaborated to select who would be featured; Kaleta designed and built the figures and Dryden conducted the research and wrote the bios. While it was challenging narrowing down the list to 26 individuals, their goal was to reflect a diverse sense of creativity. Most of the builds show the figures in a position doing something with a creative tool, whether it is Serena and Venus Williams playing tennis or Gordon Parks with a camera. The words and the bricks work in tandem with each other. Dryden shared, “The contributions of our Awesome Black Creatives are for everyone. The celebration of them through the medium of LEGO is a
way for kids and adults to see accomplished individuals who look like them in a product that is starting to reflect diversity through a broader spectrum of Black and Brown skin tones.” On March 2, 2024, the creators of Awesome Black Creativity will be at DCM hosting open workshops from 10:00–Noon and 1:00–3:00. Children will have the opportunity to work alongside these LEGO Masters and create their very own self-portraits from LEGO bricks. DCM has something for everyone! Plan your visit today: dupagechildrens.org. Everything the Museum does is framed through the lens of relationships, play, and joyful learning. This program is supported by Ecolab and is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. DCM is able to offer extraordinarily learning experiences through community philanthropic support. To support unique learning opportunities at DuPage Children’s Museum, please visit: dupagechildrens.org/ give/.
pag e 2 | Febra ry 7, 20 24 | bugl enewspape rs .c om
F e brary 7, 2 0 24 | b u gl e n e wspap e rs. c o m | pag e 3
Park Ridge gas station sells a $10.4 million jackpot winning Lotto ticket An Illinois Lottery player hit the jackpot and has become a multi-millionaire overnight. The lucky player won $10.4 million in last night’s Lotto drawing. The winning ticket was purchased at a Shell gas station, located at 2301 West Touhy Ave. in Park Ridge for the February 1, 2024 drawing. “I am so excited for the winner!” exclaimed Mohammed Menoor, owner of the Shell in Park Ridge. “This morning, I told each customer, ‘Someone won big, check your tickets.’ Sure enough, someone came forward, and you should have seen their face – they were clearly shocked.” The lucky player purchased the winning ticket matching all six numbers in Thursday’s Lotto drawing to score the $10.4 million jackpot prize. The winning numbers were: 12-2336-39-41-48. For selling the winning ticket, the Shell gas station in Park Ridge will receive a bonus of $104,000, which is one percent of the prize amount. When asked what he plans to do
with the bonus, Menoor shared, “This could not have happened at a better time. I’m behind on some bills and this bonus will allow me to catch up. This is a big relief.” More than 51,000 winning tickets were purchased for the February 1 Lotto drawing. So far this year, over 670,000 winning Lotto tickets have been sold, with total prizes amounting to more than $13.5 million for Illinois Lottery players. Winners have one year from the date of the winning draw in which to claim their prize. The Illinois Lottery encourages all lucky winners to write their name on the back of their ticket and keep it in a safe place until they’re ready to claim their prize. Lotto is an Illinois-only game that is played three times a week on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. You could be next! Lotto tickets can be purchased in-store, online, or on the Illinois Lottery app. For more information or to buy tickets online, please visit IllinoisLottery.com.
submitted photo
Mohammed Menoor, owner of the Shell in Park Ridge, sold a $10.4 million winning Lotto jackpot ticket for the Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024 drawing.
pag e 4 | Febra ry 7, 20 24 | buglenewspap e rs .c om
Expected program expenditures have declined by $60 million since August By jerry nowicki Capitol News Illinois
Cost estimates for a pair of state-funded health care programs serving certain low-income noncitizens have declined by tens of millions of dollars in recent months as the state rolled out new copay and co-insurance requirements this week. The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults and Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors programs provide state-funded Medicaidlike benefits to individuals aged 42 and over who would otherwise be eligible for the federal low-income health care program if not for their immigration status. That includes those in the U.S. without legal permission and those who have obtained a green card but not yet completed a fiveyear waiting period to earn federal benefits. Individuals who have applied for asylum or sanctuary in the U.S. – which includes many of the more than 34,000 migrants bused to Illinois from Texas in the last year-and-a-half – more likely qualify for other preexisting state or federal benefits. Advocates for the programs contend they are not only lifesaving but also cost-saving in the long-run as they give individuals access to preventative care rather than making them reliant upon expensive emergency room visits to treat conditions that worsen due to lack of care. Opponents of the programs, namely Republican lawmakers, have criticized them as an expensive enticement for people illegally residing in the U.S. to relocate to Illinois. The programs, originally launched for those aged 65 and older in 2020 then expanded in waves, became a sticking point in state budget negotiations last year
when Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration projected their single-year costs to exceed $1 billion. But current estimates now project the programs will cost $773 million in the current fiscal year. Those estimates, however, have declined by $60 million since August, the month following the Pritzker administration’s initial announcement of certain cost-saving measures. Read more: Pritzker quickly wields expanded authority to freeze noncitizen health care enrollment Cost-saving measures Ultimately, the contentious budget negotiations ended last year with lawmakers allocating $500 million in funding to the program from the state’s General Revenue Fund and giving the Pritzker administration authority to limit pro-
gram enrollment and costs. The administration in turn paused enrollment in HBIA as of July 1 and in HBIS as of Nov. 6. The two programs now collectively serve about 69,000 people aged 42 and older, and enrollment remains paused. In January, the administration also began moving enrollees to the state’s Medicaid managed care program, which connects individuals with private insurers who contract with the state to oversee routine and follow-up health care. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which administers the programs, expects the managed care transition to be complete in April. After months of delays, the department announced that copays and co-insurance for certain services went live Thursday.
“Most services covered by the HBIA and HBIS programs … will continue to be free for customers, including primary care visits, prescription medications and vaccinations at a pharmacy or doctor’s office,” the department said in a news release. “The new copays and co-insurance will apply to the use of non-emergency hospital or surgical center services, like nonemergent elective surgeries, physical therapy and lab work.” Enrollees may see a $250 copay per nonemergency inpatient hospitalization and a 10 percent charge for nonemergency outpatient services or care received from ambulatory surgical treatment centers. It’s a major difference from the federally funded Medicaid program, which does not require copays. Whether individuals are subject
to those copays and co-insurance requirements will depend on if they have already been enrolled in managed care and which managed care organization is serving them, according to the department. The state reimburses managed care organizations at a specified rate, giving the MCOs authority to charge copays or co-insurance without requiring them to do so. CountyCare in Cook County, where most program enrollees are located, is waiving all copays and coinsurance requirements, per the department. The department announced it no longer plans to issue a copay for emergency room visits. The Healthy Illinois Campaign, a statewide coalition of immigrant and health care advocates, has
see ‘state’ page 5
F e brary 7, 2 0 24 | b u gl e n e wspap e rs. c o m | pag e 5 ‘state’ from page 4 pushed for an expansion of the program and fought any efforts to limit it or install costsharing. The group’s director, Tovia Siegel, praised the administration’s decision not to charge a copay for emergency room care but said the other copays “place a significant burden on both providers and patients, limiting access to healthcare for Illinois’ immigrant community.” The copays, advocates noted, are charged to medical providers by MCOs, but the providers are required to collect them from patients, creating an administrative burden. As well, they warned that individuals may choose to defer certain “elective” procedures, such as a colonoscopy, due to the copay requirement, potentially undermining the program’s preventative care goals. “We urge the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and Managed Care Organizations to reconsider implementing these charges, which will generate a relatively small amount of money but can be the difference between life and death for low-income Illinoisans,” Siegel said in a statement. Costs declining The programs’ cost estimates, meanwhile, have been on the decline amid the administration’s savings measures. In September, an HFS analysis estimated the programs’ 12-month cost to be $832 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30. But the department’s latest estimate, published Jan. 9, now projects the programs will cost $773 million.
In total, the state has spent nearly $330 million collectively on the programs in the first six months of the fiscal year, per the January estimate. The department’s data shows average monthly costs for the programs decreased steadily between August and December, from $72.7 million to $45.3 million. When the state announced its enrollment caps, it noted per-enrollee costs were higher among the HBIA and HBIS populations “due to more prevalent, untreated chronic conditions and higher hospital costs.” With the caps in place, the program is now populated with individuals who’ve been receiving routine care, rather than a steady stream of new enrollees who are more expensive to insure. Thus, the per-patient monthly costs have also declined. In August, per-patient costs reached $1,232 for enrolled individuals aged 65 and older, $1,295 for those aged 55-64, and $844 for those aged 42-54. In December, those numbers declined to $778, $805 and $541, respectively. Advocates pointed to those declines as evidence that the programs are accomplishing their intended goal of replacing costly emergency care with more cost-efficient preventative services. “While there are several potential explanations, cost decreases in the HBIA and HBIS programs can be an indication that enrollees are receiving more preventative care and therefore needing less intensive, expensive care,” Siegel said. “However, the implementation of copays could threaten these gains as enrollees are dissuaded from receiving this cost-saving preventative care.”
pag e 6 | Febra ry 7, 20 24 | buglenewspape rs .c om
real estate TAX DEED NO.: 2024TX000016 FILED: 1/17/2024 TAKE NOTICE County of Will Date Premises Sold: January 10, 2022 Certificate No.: 20-00657 Sold for General Taxes of (Year): 2020 Sold for Special Assessment of (Municipality) and Special Assessment Number: N/A Warrant No.: N/A Installment No.: N/A THIS PROPERTY HAS BEEN SOLD FOR DELINQUENT TAXES Property Located at: 58 Tahoe Lane, Romeoville, IL 60446 Legal Description or Property Index No.: 1104-07-107-021-0000 This notice is to advise you that the above property has been sold for delinquent taxes and that the period of redemption from the sale will expire on July 15, 2024. The amount to redeem is subject to increase at 6 month intervals from the date of sale and may be further increased if the purchaser at the tax sale or his or her assignee pays any subsequently accruing taxes or special assessments to redeem the property from subsequent forfeitures or tax sales. Check with the County Clerk as to the exact amount you owe before redeeming. This notice is also to advise you that a petition has been filed for a tax deed which will transfer title and the right to possession of this property if redemption is not made on or before July 15, 2024. This matter is set for hearing in the Circuit Court of Will County in 100 W. Jefferson St., Joliet, IL 60432, Room 905, on July 29, 2024 at 9:00 AM. You may be present at this hearing, but your right to redeem will already have expired at that time. YOU ARE URGED TO REDEEM IMMEDIATELY TO PREVENT LOSS OF PROPERTY Redemption can be made at any time on or before July 15, 2024 by applying to the County Clerk of Will County, Illinois at the Office of the County Clerk in Joliet, Illinois. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE COUNTY CLERK 302 North Chicago St. Joliet, IL 60432 815-740-4615
Myriad Capital LLC Purchaser or Assignee January 25, 2024 Pamela Clark Occupant Dave J. Clark Jamal Clark State of Illinois Department of Revenue State of Illinois Department of Revenue Attorney General for the State of Illinois Department of Revenue Lauren Staley Ferry, County Clerk of Will County, Illinois Claimants, Judgment Creditors, and Decree Creditors, if any of the above described as “Unknown Owners” “Unknown owners or parties interested in said land or lots” 8146-939309 Published 2/7/24, 2/14/24, 2/21/24
F e brary 7, 2 0 24 | b u gl e n e wspap e rs. c o m | pag e 7
pag e 8 | Febra ry 7, 20 24 | buglenewspape rs .c om