Citizen Suburban Times Weekly 8-28-2019

Citizen Week of Aug. 28, 2019

| Vol. 3 | No. 3 | www.thechicagocitizen.com

SUBURBAN TIMES WEEKLY

The Village of Lynwood recently celebrated their 60th Anniversary with a community festival. Photo Credit: Provided by the Office of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller

SOUTH SUBURBAN VILLAGE CELEBRATES ITS 60TH ANNIVERSARY

The Village of Lynwood recently celebrated its 60th anniversary with games, food, live music, and fireworks at Lynwood Fest in Liberty Memorial Park, 3107 Glenwood Dyer Rd.. SEE PAGE 2

POLITISCOPE

NEWS

NEWS

Shouldn’t there be a law against reckless opioid sales?

Turns out, there is PAGE 2

Employers no longer can ask for past salary information PAGE 4

South Suburban Communities Receive Public Safety Grants From Local Entry Supplier PAGE 3

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COMMUNITY

South Suburban Village Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary Continued from page 1

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

The Village of Lynwood recently celebrated its 60th anniversary with games, food, live music, and fireworks at Lynwood Fest in Liberty Memorial Park, 3107 Glenwood Dyer Rd. The Mayor of the Village of Lynwood, Eugene Williams, was joined by community members, elected officials, community stakeholders holders, and local first responders who all came together to celebrate the village’s milestone.

The Village of Lynwood was first incorporated in 1959 with 180 residents living in the community. Traditionally, the village has largely been comprised of farmland and served as a

viable community for commuters who live in the suburb and travel to a nearby city for work during the week, according to information provided by the Village of Lynwood.

Located within Cook County, approximately 26 miles south of the City of Chicago, The Village of Lynwood is represented by Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller along with several other elected officials at the local and state levels.

“I live in Lynwood, so not only do I represent that area, I also live there. As a resident of Lynwood for almost 15 years, it was a community I decided to live in because we were looking for a place to raise our children and both of my boys have now been raised there.

We moved to Lynwood when they were babies

and it’s been a very good experience as far as living there and being part of this great community where I always feel safe,” said Cook.

The Village of Lynwood is located almost as close as it can be to the Indiana state line and is bordered by the neighboring south suburban communities of Lansing, Glenwood, Ford Heights, and Sauk Village.

“Lynwood is on the border of Indiana and from a business and economic development standpoint, we wish we had other opportunities in the area and that’s one of the things that I’m focused on in my position as a County Commissioner,” said Miller. “I think I give people the best example of why it’s important just because this is where I actually live.

Lynwood is five minutes from Indiana and people who don’t know much about the South Suburban area can’t really imagine what that means but we feel it and live it every day.”

Relatively speaking, the Village of Lynwood is a young community and Miller said that she often hears stories from families who have been living in the community since it was first incorporated and even earlier than that.

“The celebration was important just because there are generations of families who actually have lived in Lynwood. It looks like a newer community but I’ve met people who have two and three generations of their family that are from Lynwood which I think talks to the stability of the neighborhood,” said Miller.

POLITISCOPE

Shouldn’t there be a law against reckless opioid sales? Turns out, there is that pass though their hands using the government’s Automated Reports and Consolidated Orders System, or ARCOS. These reports generate data that track the numbers of drugs shipped or sold and their destinations, at county and pharmacy levels.

A DEA rule issued back in 1971 also requires all registrants to design systems for reporting “suspicious orders” – meaning, among other things, purchases and deliveries that are unusually big or frequent.

BY NICOLAS PAUL TERRY

The massive scale of prescription opioid shipments as the ongoing overdose epidemic unfolded has started to come into focus.

Drug companies shipped 76 billion opioid pain pills to U.S. health care professionals, hospitals and pharmacies between 2006 and 2012, according to data The Washington Post and the Charleston Gazette-Mail’s owner acquired by suing the government.

Hundreds of pills per person were delivered to rural areas like Wise County, Kentucky, and the town of Norton, Virginia. Meanwhile, the number of fatal overdoses involving all kinds of prescription opioids soared across all of Appalachia and other hotspots as the national death toll climbed from 3,442 in 1999 to 17,029 in 2017.

In addition, a federal court in Cleveland has released scores of previously sealed documents. The corporate memos and legal depositions suggest that drug company executives, pharmacists and others involved at every level of the prescription opioid trade failed to heed troubling signs that the industry was facilitating drug abuse.

As a health law professor who studies the relationship between the U.S. health care system and opioid overdoses, I have researched the epidemic’s causes. In particular, I have researched the likely liability of drugmakers and pharmaceutical distributors in the multiple pending and resolved federal and state lawsuits filed against all of the industry’s key players.

One thing that I’ve often wondered about is why no law on the books could slow what now appears to have been the reckless oversupply of opioids by companies in the health care business.

A duty to report Well, there is, as it turns out.

The Controlled Substances Act creates what

Nicolas Paul Terry

experts call a “closed system.” That is, the federal government has designed a way to track every controlled substance – medications with the potential for abuse or dependence, including opioids – from factory to pharmacy counter and hospital bed. Manufacturers, distribution companies, health care professionals, pharmacies, hospitals and others who buy, sell and dispense these drugs must be registered with the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The roughly 1.73 million people and companies registered with the DEA must maintain precise records and report their interactions with all controlled substances.

The Controlled Substances Act categorizes drugs into different “schedules” that determine the degree of regulatory oversight and the responsibilities required of anyone handling them. The government has designated opioids such as Oxycodone and hydrocodone as “Schedule II” drugs, the most dangerous category that can be prescribed.

Manufacturers and distributors of Schedule II drugs must file reports about the opioids

Inadequate oversight The federal government gave the court in Cleveland reams of ARCOS data in February 2018. However, U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster, who is presiding over the landmark opioid litigation that pools some 2,000 separate lawsuits, refused to let the press and the public see that information until an appeals court ordered its release.

The unsealed documents and data reveal the DEA possessed massive amounts of information about the oversupply of prescription opioids while the overdose epidemic was mushrooming. The newly released court exhibits also suggest that some opioid manufacturers and distributors repeatedly failed to report suspicious orders as required by law.

Congress had already suspected that corporate oversight was lacking.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, for example, issued a report in 2018 that was highly critical of the DEA’s oversight of opioid distribution in West Virginia. The DEA, according to the report, was aware of wide-scale diversion and suspicious shipments as early as 2005 and even began an initiative to educate distributors about their obligations regarding suspicious orders.

In 2011, then-DEA administrator Michele Leonhart testified before a Senate judiciary subcommittee that the agency was increasing

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its investigations of doctors and pharmacists who illegally diverted controlled substances.

What I believe the DEA missed was that the manufacturers and distributors of opioids had gone rogue.

In a recent filing in the consolidated Cleveland case, local governments like Coos County, New Hampshire, and the city of Chicago allege that the corporate defendants’ “failure to identify suspicious orders was their business model.”

The unsealed documents suggest a pattern.

Manufacturers and distributors either had deficient systems for monitoring of suspicious orders, simply ignored them or went out of their way to call them something else. For example, rather than acknowledging that enormous or extraordinarily frequent orders were “suspicious,” employees and executives would describe these transactions as “peculiar” or “unusual.”

The newly available documents indicate that when DEA investigators did find evidence that distributors were not reporting suspicious shipments, the authorities reached settlements instead of moving forward with prosecutions. As a result, distributors paid civil penalties rather than facing more serious criminal charges. Therefore, with few exceptions, distributors who had failed to report suspicious shipments were able to stay in business.

And although the number of shipments continued to rise beyond 2012 – the end of the period covered by the newly available data and documents – the number of enforcement actions actually fell in 2013.

It wasn’t until 2017 that the DEA seemed to pay serious attention to the role of manufacturers and distributors in the opioid overdose epidemic. That year, it reached a US$35 million settlement with Mallinckrodt, one of the Continued on page 4

CITIZEN | Suburban Times Weekly | Week of Aug. 28, 2019

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NEWS

South Suburban Communities Receive Public Safety Grants From Local Entry Supplier

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus recently partnered with ComEd to award public safety grants to 25 communities in Northern Illinois including the Villages of Dolton, Hazel Crest, Lansing, and University Park and the City of Calumet City.

The grants are meant to help enhance public safety through various projects and improve the quality of life for residents.

The grants, of up to $10,000, were made possible through ComEd’s Powering Safe Communities Program and will fund projects that address critical safety needs in the communities ComEd serves. For this grant program, ComEd provides the funding while the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus identifies the grant recipients.

After receiving the award, grant recipients will match ComEd’s contribution

For a fourth year, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus and ComEd have come together to help fund public safety projects in several suburban communities including the Village of University Park who will use the grant to buy a backup generator of their fire station.

to complete their project.

“ComEd has made it a mission for its employees, as well as all the customers that we serve, to try to keep our communities safe. We pride ourselves on powering lives and so we do like to keep the lights on and make sure that people are cool in the summer and warm in

the winter but we also like to be a great community partner or great corporate citizen,” said Bonita Parker, external affairs manager at ComEd. The Village of Dolton has received a grant that will support the purchase of portable, programmable, and energy-efficient speed display signs for

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multiple locations throughout the village, as well as portable traffic-calming devices to enhance safety in school zones and residential locations.

The signs will be used in conjunction with bright LED blinkers to increase motorists’ awareness of their speed in these critical areas, according to information provided by ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

The Village of University Park will use their grant to purchase a standby generator for the village’s Fire Station 1. The generator will allow the fire department to continue safety services and protection for residents and business owners during power outages, according to information provided by ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

“Through the Powering Safe Communities program, ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayor’s Caucus

are able to promote a culture of safety and wellness in the communities that we serve,” said Parker.

This is the fourth year that ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus have awarded Powering Safe Communities grants and through this partnership, they have awarded $670,000 to fund public safety projects throughout northern Illinois, according to information provided by ComEd and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

“For the past four years, we have been able to leverage over $1.8 million for 95 local public safety projects,” said Joseph Tamburino, mayor of Hillside and chairman of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.

“Our partnership with ComEd has put our shared public safety commitment into action and increased community resiliency. We are grateful for ComEd’s generosity.”

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NEWS

Employers no longer can ask for past salary information Governor JB Pritzker has signed into law an amendment to the Illinois Equal Pay Act that bans employers and employment agencies from asking about applicants’ past wage and compensation histories or using such information to screen candidates for a job. The new law takes effect on September 29, 2019.

The Illinois Department of Labor’s Conciliation and Mediation Division is tasked with enforcing the new law. The idea behind the new prohibition is to help break a cycle where predominantly female and minority workers have received lower pay for performing the same or similar work as male and non-minority workers. Employers are more likely to perpetuate this situation if they base the new employees’ pay on what they had previously earned.

Employers can be penalized for asking the applicant or the applicant’s current or former employers for wage or salary history. “While the statute does stipulate penalties for violating the law, it is our hope to gain compliance through educating employers,” said IDOL Director Michael Kleinik.

“The Department of Labor will be doing various types of outreach and working with employer organizations throughout the state to explain the

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A new law bans employers and employment agencies from asking about applicants’ past wage and compensation histories or using such information to screen candidates for a job.

new law’s impact.”

The prohibition does not apply if a job applicant’s salary history is a matter of public record or if the applicant is a current employee applying with the same employer.

If an applicant voluntarily provides wage or salary history, the employer has not violated the law and would not be penalized. This information, however, is not to be used to make a hiring decision or to determine the applicant’s salary.

Likewise, the new law does not prohibit an employer from asking an

applicant what they desire to make at the new position.

Kleinik added that if they have not yet done so, employers should review their employment applications to make sure they do not ask for salary and wage history. They should also train those involved in hiring on the new law. Department of Labor staff also are available to answer questions from both employers and employees on the new law and can be reached on DOL’s Equal Pay Act Hotline: 866-372-4365.

Illinois Court Appointed Special Advocates (Illinois CASA) receives State Funding for the First Time Illinois CASA has been awarded a $2,885,000.00 in State funding. This is the first time in Illinois CASA’s 26 years of operation that they have received any state funding. CASA stands for court appointed special advocate. A CASA is a trained, community volunteer who advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children who are involved with the child welfare system.

This funding will be split between thirty-one local programs across Illinois to expand their programing so more kids who

have experienced child abuse or neglect can have a specially trained Court Appointed Special Advocate assigned to their case. In addition, there will be money to go into some counties to open new CASA programs to help serve the over 2,000 survivors who do not currently have access to a CASA program.

Executive Director Mari Christopherson stated, “This funding means that more children across Illinois do not have to go through the court process alone. We applaud the Governor in supporting a program that works.”

Preliminary Estimates: Motor Vehicle Deaths Projected to Dip Below 40,000 for First Time Since 2015 Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate the four-year upward trend in motor vehicle deaths that began in 2015 is ebbing, with the number of fatalities in the first six months of 2019 dropping 3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2018.

An estimated 18,580 people died on U.S. roadways between January and June of this year, compared to the Council’s revised estimate of 19,060 during the same period last year.

An additional 2.1 million people are estimated to have sustained serious crash-related injuries during the first six months of 2018 – a 1 percent drop from 2018 six-month projections. NSC defines “serious” injuries as those requiring medical attention.

The estimate caps a three-year period in which roadway deaths topped 40,000 each year for the first time since the mid-2000s. A total of 118,315 people died on the roadways between 2015 and 2017, and an estimated 40,000 additional people perished last year.

The National Safety Council uses data from the National Center for Health Statistics – an arm of the CDC – when calculating its estimates, because these data are the most comprehensive and inclusive

numbers available.

However, drivers still face the same fatality risk this year as they did when fatalities were eclipsing 40,000 annually, because the estimated annual rate of deaths per miles driven has remained stable – NSC estimates 1.2 deaths per every million vehicle miles traveled, unchanged from 2018 rates.

“While the numbers indicate a slight improvement, the rate of deaths remains stagnant, and 18,580 deaths so far this year is unacceptable,” said Lorraine M. Martin, president and chief executive officer of the National Safety Council. “We cannot accept death as the price of mobility. We urge all drivers to slow down, buckle up, pay attention and drive defensively.”

The Council’s early estimates indicate significant progress in some states. In the first half of this year, several states have experienced at least a 10 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths, including Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma and Utah.

A sample of states with increases through the first six months include Kentucky (6 percent), Hawaii (20 percent), Oregon (6 percent) and New Mexico (15 percent).

POLITISCOPE

Shouldn’t there be a law against reckless opioid sales? Turns out, there is Continued from page 2 largest oxycodone manufacturers, for failing to detect and report suspicious orders.

The settlement also obliged Mallinckrodt to monitor downstream distribution, as the DEA said for the first time that the obligation to “know your customer” includes knowing “your customer’s customer.”

Stepping up enforcement I see a new federal law President Donald Trump signed in 2018 as a step in the right direction. It tightens up the definition of “suspicious activity,” clarifies reporting obligations and requires the DEA to establish a centralized database for all reports of suspicious prescription drug orders.

The federal government also seems to be taking a more aggressive stance against opioid distributors. For instance, it filed felony charges against the distributor Rochester Drug Co-Operative and two of its former

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executives in April 2019. The government alleges that the company intentionally failed to report suspicious orders and looked the other way amid signs that opioids were being shipped for illicit purposes.

In July 2019, the government announced charges against Miami-Luken, another distributor, and two of its former executives for allegedly failing to report suspicious orders and conspiring with two pharmacists to illegally distribute millions of prescription opioid painkillers.

It does look like lawmakers have strengthened the Controlled Substances Act and that the government is making strides on enforcement. However, it remains unclear why it took them so long to use the powers they already had to stop reckless shipments.

Nicolas Paul Terry is the Hall Render Professor of Law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

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